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gurdonarkYesterday afternoon I watched on television as the Arkansas Razorbacks won a victory over LSU to secure a division championship. The fun thing about this game was that LSU was clearly the better team, but two "hail mary"-ish tosses at the very end by a Razorback team with a lot of heart scored the upset. So many times, teams with a lot of heart end up like Rocky in Rocky I, a good bit beat up, if unbowed, and reduced to shouting "Adrienne!" at the top of their lungs. I enjoyed seeing the Razorbacks come from behind and win. They had been slightly favored prior to the game by the pundits, but they had looked so outclassed--until the last two minutes of the game. One sports pundit did point out something nice about Arkansas fans--they never rip down posts, cause public melees, or riot in light of a win. They just pat one another on the back, say "awright!!", and move on. Maybe it's because all that primal stuff gets sublimated in advance when one cheers for a team with the slogan "Woooo, pig soooooiiiiie".
Yesterday afternoon, my wife, my sister, my sister's husband and I took a nice brief brisk walk in my parents' hometown. The homes here are so nice. There's a few antebellum homes, a goodly number of turn of the century homes, and a lot of charmers from the 1920s. The town has been losing population, since the local paper mill was shut down by a corporate giant a few years ago. My father has taken on as a cause the saving of the old 1930s era WPA project football stadium in town, which the new consolidated school district wishes to tear down. While football fields seem like a curious thing for historic preservation, this stadium is so cool. It looks like a miniature of the old Soldier Field or something, with huge walls and an entry way. It's hard to imagine anyone would want to tear it down, but I find over and over again in life that different folks have such different visions about what matters and what does not.
We went last night to the Feed Sack, one of the local catfish houses. In my area, the one "regional delicacy" is fried catfish. Men and women otherwise largely uninterested in the culinary arts can hold forth for long stretches about the crucial questions of the day, like whether to use peanut oil or sunflower seed oil. When I was a kid, fish fries involved huge magic cauldrons. One tested to see if the grease was hot enough by putting an unlit match atop it. If it lit, then the grease was ready. Of course, if the grease was "too ready", the match might have unpleasant side effects, but I never knew any victims of this apocryphal story.
The Feed Sack catfish was not up to the premier Camden place, "Wood's", but the
buffet featured frog legs, shrimp and a variety of other nice dishes.
I then sent a number of e mails for printer quotes to places I found, before settling in to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I'm nearly 3/4 of the way through this book, which is the fourth of the series. I believe they may have to split this one into a number of movies when it comes to filming.
The weather seems to be much milder now than the cold weather when we arrived. We'll spend the day here with my parents, and then drive back tomorrow.
It's very pretty here, amid tall trees and frequent flowers--sometimes I wonder why I ever left Arkansas.
Yesterday afternoon, my wife, my sister, my sister's husband and I took a nice brief brisk walk in my parents' hometown. The homes here are so nice. There's a few antebellum homes, a goodly number of turn of the century homes, and a lot of charmers from the 1920s. The town has been losing population, since the local paper mill was shut down by a corporate giant a few years ago. My father has taken on as a cause the saving of the old 1930s era WPA project football stadium in town, which the new consolidated school district wishes to tear down. While football fields seem like a curious thing for historic preservation, this stadium is so cool. It looks like a miniature of the old Soldier Field or something, with huge walls and an entry way. It's hard to imagine anyone would want to tear it down, but I find over and over again in life that different folks have such different visions about what matters and what does not.
We went last night to the Feed Sack, one of the local catfish houses. In my area, the one "regional delicacy" is fried catfish. Men and women otherwise largely uninterested in the culinary arts can hold forth for long stretches about the crucial questions of the day, like whether to use peanut oil or sunflower seed oil. When I was a kid, fish fries involved huge magic cauldrons. One tested to see if the grease was hot enough by putting an unlit match atop it. If it lit, then the grease was ready. Of course, if the grease was "too ready", the match might have unpleasant side effects, but I never knew any victims of this apocryphal story.
The Feed Sack catfish was not up to the premier Camden place, "Wood's", but the
buffet featured frog legs, shrimp and a variety of other nice dishes.
I then sent a number of e mails for printer quotes to places I found, before settling in to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I'm nearly 3/4 of the way through this book, which is the fourth of the series. I believe they may have to split this one into a number of movies when it comes to filming.
The weather seems to be much milder now than the cold weather when we arrived. We'll spend the day here with my parents, and then drive back tomorrow.
It's very pretty here, amid tall trees and frequent flowers--sometimes I wonder why I ever left Arkansas.
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no subject
Date: 2002-11-30 01:43 pm (UTC)You left for the same reason we all left: economic opportunity. There are so many derelict homes around there, it is downright creepy. Appalatia has nothing on southern Arkansas for poverty.
Strange isn't it that we two have such diametrically opposing viewpoints on our childhood homes? Stranger still is how I often dream of owning a "place" somewhere around here that would look pretty much like a southern Arkansas place only it's in Oklahoma. Sometimes I am truly strange.
no subject
Date: 2002-11-30 04:36 pm (UTC)It is funny that you dislike your home town so much, since it made such a deep imprint on who you are, but it's probably not unusual to feel this way.