History
It is the time of year when we frequently hear words taken from the second chapter of Luke telling of the birth of Jesus, that read, "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius...
During my junior year at Mizzou, my friend Steve and I had two buddies who spent a summer in Europe. They returned with hair growing over their ears, daring and radical in 1967 in the Midwest, and with fabulous tales of their adventures. Paris. Rome. Munich. And Rickey’s Bar in Sitges, Spain. ...
Are we headed for another civil war? Are events today analogous to those one hundred sixty years ago, when a contentious election divided the population and ushered in the worst turmoil we have experienced as a nation? My purpose in this article isn't to render a political opinion or determine...
In many ways, the 1950s lingered another five years beyond its closing date, keeping its hold on the first half of the sixties. Acid hadn’t yet hit rock and roll, and folk music often topped the charts. Still, beatniks and coffeehouse poets preached that the times were changing.
But in...
Following the announcement a month ago of the purchase of the "Tumble Down Main Street Building" (100 East Main) by the Main Street Willow Springs group, I received many inquiries from several persons interested in the building's history. Because of the loss over the years of the earliest Willow...
It recently came to my attention that October 29th was National Cat Day. With the abounding number of odd “national” commemorative days, it isn’t surprising that I missed it. But it caused me to reflect on some of the feline friends I’ve known.
Some folks don’t like cats. Some claim to be...
In July 1925, The West Plains Journal Gazette interviewed Ephraim J. Buford of Mansfield, Arkansas, and wrote a lengthy article that gives us a significant window into the earliest pioneer life of Howell County. The report, used as a source for some of the county's earliest historians, might be...
A new century was little more than a couple of weeks old when word of a heinous crime circulated through our local communities. Forty-seven-year-old Alfred Henry was found dead in a locked cell in the Howell County jail in West Plains. Two prisoners were missing.
The West Plains Daily...
I’ve been absent-minded since birth. As a kid I was forever losing things—combs, watches, ball gloves—you name it. My hands had the ability to operate independently of any cerebral process, as if each had a mind of its own. I still wish I had the wristwatch I left in the dressing room at Smoky...
With politics in the air, I recall that casting my first vote in a U.S. presidential election in 1960 created a dilemma for me. Who should get my vote?” Two-term Vice President Richard M. Nixon or the dashing challenger, John F. Kennedy.
Wait a second . . . he’s not that old, you might be...