No Quitting Allowed

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – A lady by the name of Doris Haddock (1910-2010) walked all the way across America in her 90^th year. Doris, aka “Granny D” began her walk in Pasadena, California on January 2, 1999, and stood on the steps of the National Capitol on February 29, 2000. She kept a diary, just as I wrote Posts during my Journey Across America. Her book “Walking Across America in My 90^th Year,” written with the assistance of Dennis Burke and a foreword by Bill Moyers, was published by Villard Books, a division of Random House, in 2001. This retired shoe-factory worker from New Hampshire and great-grandmother of twelve walked for a cause: national campaign finance reform. Along the way she gave speeches, collected signatures on petitions, and listened to the world around her. She followed her heart. I am pleased that I was able to hear Granny D speak about her trek, and her beliefs, during the book tour that brought her to Seattle; I met her and have an autographed copy of her book. Go Granny D we all said to this petite lady in the huge hat, standing before us that night. Granny D was a feisty thing, an ordinary citizen who chose to become an outspoken activist. Wikpedia has a page about her, if you care to read more; according to it, she was arrested in the National Capitol in April 2000 for reading aloud from The Declaration of Independence! She entered a plea of “guilty” and made a statement to the court that “I was reading from the Declaration of Independence to make the point that we must declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election campaigns.” She was sentenced to time served, and a $10 fee. Granny D ran for a US Senate seat at the age of 94, and continued lobbying for campaign finance reform all the way to her 100^th year, with praises from President Jimmy Carter and Senator John McCain.

Another “author at 91” that I was fortunate enough to know personally was Virginia Wing Power (1906-1997); her book was “Ginny’s Chairs” (BookTree Press, 1998). This amazing woman was born in historic Bulloch Hall in Roswell, Georgia; the house is now on the National Historic Register, a pre-Civil War home and also the birthplace of Mittie Bulloch, mother of Teddy Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt Sr and Mittie were married in the elegant dining room in 1853; Ginny stood in the same spot for her wedding to George Power in 1928. Bulloch Hall is open to the public today as a museum; “Ginny’s Chairs” is still for sale in the bookstore there; it offers a ringside seat to the changing times of the twentieth century. » read more

E Pluribus Unum

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – Got a US Passport? Look at the front of it. Got a one-dollar bill? Look at the back of it. Fish a dime out of your change bowl and look on the backside of that too. Look for this Latin phrase: E Pluribus Unum. Sometimes you’ll find the words embedded in the banner of the Great Seal, sometimes, due to available space I suppose, just printed straight across or curved around the edges. Do you know the meaning of these words? And how this phrase came to be an everyday, ordinary part of the American scene? First, let’s translate: E Pluribus Unum, in English form, means “out of many, one.” When Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams got together back in 1776 to create an official seal for a brand-new country, they settled on the obvious basics for the design: different people from different places, now together. Their initial sketch had a shield in the middle, composed of many smaller shields; look closely to see six symbols – a rose (England), thistle (Scotland), harp (Ireland), fleur-de-lis (France), lion (Holland), and eagle (Germany), which they described as “the countries from which these states have been peopled.” Now look around the edges of the shield to see the initials of the “thirteen independent states of America.”

They submitted their idea to Congress on August 20, 1776, but it was not approved; in true group-think fashion it took several more committees before a final design was approved in
1782, one with the now-familiar American eagle in the center; the eagle carries a banner in its beak bearing that original phrase, E Pluribus Unum. You’ll notice a lot of thirteens on the seal – 13 stars, 13 stripes, 13 arrows in the eagle’s talon. And did you catch – there are 13 letters in E Pluribus Unum! I doubt Ben and Thom and John were thinking about that when they suggested the phrase; it seems to have been a recurring theme from the time of classic writers and organized systems of government. » read more

Fiddlin’ Through the Ozarks

May 31, 2016 Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – The plan was to drive home from Jefferson City today through Mountain Home and Mountain View, Arkansas; after all, any place with “mountain” in its name has to have charm, right? The flaw in my plan was that I didn’t allow time enough to stay. The roads wind and twist in such a way as to force a leisure pace, on top of that, every turtle that had spring fever was ambling its way across the road. How many times did I swerve? It was already late when I got to the Ozark Folk Center General Store, where I met two of the sweetest (and costumed) ladies ever. We talked, and we talked. Before I knew it, I was headed up the steep hill towards the gift shop, where (they had talked me into this) I would find my own Squirrel Circus, handmade by a genuine Ozark craftsperson. Sure enough, the elaborate whirl-a-gig device was for sale in the Homespun Gift Shop, and sure enough, I bought one. It was clever, I thought, a truly ingenious invention. Now here I am, back home, with a Crafts Village Map in hand, an Ozark Folk Center State Park Calendar of Events, a Visitors Guide to the Stone County area for 2016, and, one new-wood smelling Squirrel Circus. What to do? » read more

This Land Is My Land

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – Napoleon once claimed this land, and sold it to Thomas Jefferson, but guess what, it’s mine now. I’m talking about my little half-acre of the world here in Arkadelphia; take note, I’m a homeowner now. There is a document dated March 31, 2016 recorded in the Clark County courthouse that affirms title to a particular piece of land in my name; ah, land, the bottom-line definition of commitment. For land is our most basic resource; from land comes security. Explorers have roved the world for land, wars have been fought over it, treaties governing its use have been signed, and sometimes, ignored. Surveyors sectioned newly-claimed land into measurable pieces, and realtors make a pretty good living to this day as people trade those pieces, back and forth.

As for me, I just wanted to hunker down in peace and quiet, to paint-up fix-up as I please; even the vagabond in me needs a place to call home. But who, I wanted to know, lived here before me? Our Clark County Historical Museum has fragments of Caddo Indian pottery on display from earlier times; the path to the Ouachita River bluff has interpretive markers that tell of Caddoan life here a long, long time ago. Before, well, you know, before they had to leave. » read more

Hit The Trail

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – Sacagawea was the original backpacker. She just slapped that little baby Pomp onto her back and struck out across the hills. The only female in the (likely) crude and smelly crew of Men on a Mission for the President, she trekked westward with skill and patience, all the while nursing a baby and nurturing them all. Reckon she ever thought she’d be famous? With a statue of herself and her baby in Statuary Hall in our national capitol? And that she and Pomp would be portrayed on a US Treasury gold dollar? (The only baby featured on a coin, by the way.) I love the story of this woman, who has more schools and creeks and monuments named to her honor than any other woman in the United States. That’s why I am particularly honored myself to have my picture of her statue featured on a US National Park poster. No fooling! Ryan Cooper, a geographer for the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, asked my permission to use a photo from my August 27, 2012 blog, He Called Her Janey, written while I was in Bismarck, North Dakota. “I want to use it on a poster celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016,” he explained. I was pleased to grant him that permission. And I am pleased to share with you the poster he created. Isn’t it great?

Ryan’s 2016 Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail campaign is available for you to follow on Facebook and other social media. And to learn more about this 3,700-mile trail that passes through 11 states and includes more than 100 sites, go to the NPS website, https://www.nps.gov/lecl/planyourvisit/directions.htm How close is the site nearest you? » read more

What Did Tennessee

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – What did Tennessee, boys, what did Tennessee? Remember that old Scout song? Entertainment around the campfire, roast a weinie, toast a marshmallow, sing nonsense till you pass out in your tent. What did Delaware? What does Iowa? Where has Oregon? These and other intellectual questions (What does Mississip?) kept me smiling as I sang my way across Mississippi into Tennessee and then back to Arkansas this month (she saw what Arkansas.) My turnaround point for a little vacation was Chattanooga, where I lived when my children were growing up, and again later when I became “Ms Chattanooga,” a spokeperson for a beautiful city; so precious to me I wrote a guidebook about it (Chattanooga Great Places) and a second guidebook about the surrounding area (SE Great Trips). And then (it follows) a weekly travel column for the Chattanooga Times entitled “Here or There” which focused on things to experience in and around that lovely town. (Me, left, with books and illustrator Betty Harrelson, Books A Million in Chattanooga, 1996.)

Those were very happy days, living in a place I loved and then pointing out to everyone how wonderful it was! That’s what we all should do, I believe. Just think, if every single person in the US of A really cared about their homeplace, and bragged about it, and worked to make it the absolute finest place in their part of the world, then – well gee! No urban blight, no rural downtrod, no crumbling infrastructures; you get the idea. So here’s my message, wherever you are. TODAY, do these three things: » read more

Food Insecurity and the CCEFP

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – A round-about skew of circumstances brought me back to grant writing a few months ago. Yes, the writing of grant proposals in order to raise money for a cause. In this particular case, a very good cause, right here in Clark County, Arkansas. How much do you know about HUNGER in America? The politically correct term is “food insecurity” which is defined as being uncertain where your next meal is coming from. Riding across the vast wheat fields of Montana and corn fields of Nebraska, it seems like a fairy tale gone bad to think enough food isn’t getting to enough people. How could that be?

Consider the seafood along our coasts and rivers – Gulf shrimp, northwest salmon, northeast cod, and those famous Mississippi catfish. Consider the beef cattle in Texas, the pork raised in Iowa. Consider the milk and cheeses of Wisconsin, the potatoes of Idaho, the Florida oranges, the California grapes. Consider that Arkansas is the top rice-growing state in the country, producing nearly 9 billion pounds annually. Yet Arkansas ranks as the 2nd most food insecure state in the nation, with 19.9% of its people not having enough to eat. That is 1 out of every 5! In Arkadelphia’s Clark County, where that rate is even higher, a group of people, chins set and purposeful, decided to step up and do something about it. An idea is where everything begins, and that idea stretched out over the how’s and who’s until finally, incorporated with by-laws and a few donations in hand, the Clark County Ecumenical Food Pantry (CCEFP) was born. Exactly who are they, and what have they done since their beginnings in August 2014?

During its first year of operation, 456 families representing 1,022 Clark County food-insecure residents enrolled in the CCEFP program. Working with a first-year budget of $7,000, approximately 43,500 pounds of food with an estimated retail value of $101,400 were distributed to those families. How in blazes was that possible? » read more

Pioneers and Pilgrimages

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – I bought two figures at Hobby Lobby a few months back. One is a dark-skinned woman with plaited hair, her black braids draped over her shoulders atop a fringed shawl; the other a fair-skinned woman with slightly reddish hair, cut shoulder length, the hood of her shawl softly framing her face. Native American? Scotch-Irish? Wearing finely tanned animal skins and finely stitched linen? Both are carrying baskets filled with food – pumpkins, squash, apples, grapes. Both are beautiful, and serene. “The spirit of Thanksgiving,” I thought when I spotted them. “My heritage, and just right for the November dining table.” I added gourds from the grocery; odd-shaped greens and yellows; plus several round ones tinged with orange. Brother was coming for most of Thanksgiving week; coming to this place we’d found together by an accident of fate. Have I told you this before? The Journal? The Search? The Arkansas tragedy?

It’s a story of our country really; our own personal connection to thousands of stories of the great westward migration, stories of pioneers, of courage, and change. Ours centers on a little girl named Martha Jane, who rolled through Clark County, Arkansas in November 1849 at the tender age of four. What an adventure! » read more

October Dazzle

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – As if October weren’t already my favorite month, this October dazzled. Early in the month was Garden Club, just the regular monthly meeting, but held at the Speights home where every room was decked for autumn, especially the dining room with a table centerpiece even prettier than the food. I was on the refreshment committee so got to hang out in the sunny kitchen which overlooks a stone patio complete with fountain, all tucked into the edge of the woods, trees just beginning to turn. The program was “Landscape Design,” ART in nature’s purest form. And then there was a three-day event, the “9th Annual Round About Artist Studio Tour,” where people come from all over the country to visit working artists’ studios, learn a little about technique, and load up the car with treasures for home. Sponsored by the Caddo River Art Guild, this year it featured 21 artists spread over the Caddo River area from Burrow Road to Whispering Ridge, with a large group showing at the Art Center downtown. ART in every form from fiber to fused glass to watercolor to wood carving.

Then, last week, three events in a row, dot, dot, dot: “Dressing Henrietta” at the Clark County History Museum featured two enterprising and historically savvy DAR ladies who “dressed” a mannequin (Henrietta) in a humorous but educational presentation about clothing in the 1700s. Next was the opening reception for “Quilting Treasure: A Batik World,” at the Art Center downtown, with 42 incredible quilts from the Clark County Quilter’s Guild displayed wall to wall to wall, remaining on exhibit through November 21. The topper was “125 Years of Hats,” over at Proctor Hall on the Henderson University campus, a charming and informative display of millinery history. Research was done by the Fashion Merchandising students; the hats are part of the collection of 600+ that have been donated to the University, from cloche to veiled and fur to flowered. All three events illustrated the progression of need (clothing and quilts and hats for warmth) to creativity (it can be beautiful and is fun to do). ART with needle and thread. My brain is filled with new insights and historical perspective. “But how do those events fit with capital cities, and the development of our country?” you might ask. I’ll tell you. » read more

The Tortoise And The Bug

Linda Burton posting from Arkadelphia, Arkansas – A blurb in the weekly newsletter from the Chamber caught my attention: Develop an Online Boost for Your Business. When I read the words Google and Search Engine Optimization, I knew this was for me. Right downtown too. It was sponsored by the Small Business and Technology Development Center, a part of Henderson State University School of Business, and operates under the Arkansas SBTDC, www.asbtdc.org – go to their site for other events and locations all over the state. My friend Rita Earles joined me there; she is a visual artist who does magnificent portraits and exquisite miniatures, www.ritaearlesart.com and I write about our 50 amazing capital cities, www.capitalcitiesusa.org, but we both wanted to beef up the functionality of our sites and learn what we can do to increase traffic and present ourselves in the most beneficial light.

Chelsea Goza, the Training Coordinator for HSU’s ASBTDC, hosted the well-attended workshop, beginning with a “thinking” exercise that needed two volunteers. You know me. Of course I volunteered. No doubt the oldest one there, I found myself pitted against what surely was the youngest person sitting at the table and YIKES, we had to assemble the pieces of a puzzle in three minutes flat. Rita stood behind me and cheered me on, but it was a tortoise against a hare. The nimble-fingered young person accustomed to texting zipped her puzzle together well before the buzzer sounded. I still had two pieces missing when the program began, but hey, what does a tortoise do? Right. I never quit. I finished the puzzle, confident that I’d carefully considered each piece and thought about its value to the whole. Which is what I do as I write about each capital city. But I digress. Chelsea’s part on the program focused on getting more attention locally; next was a segment about growing our business with Google (the reigning god of the internet), and finally that SEO bit, or, “how to get picked first.” (Does that remind you of grammar school?) I eagerly went straight home to follow through on Lessons Learned, and what happened next was the scariest thing I’ve experienced since I tried to rollerskate down Killer Hill. » read more