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Potpourri- a collection of unrelated dried flower petals used for decoration or scent. Also, a category on the game show, Jeopardy. In addition, fodder for a Saturday late night comedy show. more

Forty years ago I might have been planning another trip to the West about now. more

Labor Day has come and gone, signaling the unofficial end of summer. It’s funny how this holiday, once eagerly anticipated, now seems to slip by with little fanfare. As a kid, Labor Day was a big deal. It was the first day off of the new school year, a three-day weekend that felt like a reward for making it through those first couple of weeks back in the classroom. For me, Labor Day weekend was synonymous with the lake. We’d pack up the truck and head out for a few days of camping, swimming, and boating. The days were filled with sunshine, laughter, and the kind of pure, unfiltered joy that only seems to exist in childhood. more

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A mere 60 years ago I was a 16-year-old boy about to start my senior year of high school. more

If you could look back in time, do you think your family surname would be what it is now? Is your last name an inheritance from one of your ancestors’ trades? Names like Fisher, Cooper, and Taylor originally identified specific professions. Or perhaps it reflects a lineage, such as Johnson (son of John) or other names ending in -son, like Anderson, Jefferson, or Harrison. It could describe a physical characteristic—Little, Strong, Redmon, or Young—or be derived from a place name like Hill, Marsh, or Bridges. more

Personal growth as an adult is like trying to navigate through a maze with no clear map, only to realize that the walls keep shifting as you move forward. It's not the straightforward, linear path we were promised as kids. Remember the days when you’d get a gold star on your homework and know you were on the right track? Adulting doesn’t come with gold stars. Instead, it's full of those "two steps forward, one step back" moments. But here's the thing: personal growth isn’t about perfect progress—it's about messy, stumbling, and sometimes downright frustrating progress. more

When I was a boy almost all of my heroes were clean-shaven. more

Did you know that according to legend the Ozark mountains owe their very existence to razorback hogs of long ago? (This was, I suppose, at the time when the razorbacks roamed the earth with the dinosaurs.) At the time, the Ozarks land was very flat, covered with huge oak trees. The hogs that fed off the giant acorns grew so large they became gargantuan and fierce. One year the acorn crop, or mast, failed to produce, and the enormous beasts grew so hungry that they went raging up and down the land in search of food. They dug and rooted so deep in the ground that gravel and rock scattered "ever which a-way." This ripping and tearing turned the once flat land into nothing but deep hollers and high hills that we know as the Ozark Mountains.  more

Hey, West Plains! It’s that time of year again when the air starts to get a little crisper, the leaves begin to change, and the whole town comes together for one of the most anticipated events of the season—the 3rd annual Downtown Fall Block Party on Court Square! If you haven’t marked your calendar yet, you’re going to want to circle the date because this year’s block party is shaping up to be bigger and better than ever before. more

Dear Readers, more

After working more than 32 years for Texas County Library, I’m taking the first week of my very first vacation this week. Oh, I’ve utilized my regular days off over the years to visit Branson, Memphis, and Eureka Springs several times, and even Central Illinois for a 50th high school reunion, but I’ve always been back on the job on Monday morning. more

It’s approaching bedtime as I jot down notes for this column, while watching a mystery on television and fighting to stay awake long enough to see it solved. more

How does a family last for hundreds of years? Not just to live but to continue and prosper for generations. My Ozarks family has mostly been rural, non-city dwelling, independent farmers who maintained a subsistence lifestyle. Occasionally, a generation would experience a brief time of prosperity only to be brought down by the next disaster. Therefore, none of my lineage is known as the area’s bankers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and other “names” that are bandied about as founders or upper-class folk who have much written about them. more

There’s something special about holding a camera in your hands, hearing the satisfying click of the shutter, and knowing that the image you just captured is more than just pixels on a screen. It’s a moment in time, preserved on a strip of film, with all its imperfections, nuances, and beauty intact. In a world that’s increasingly digital, where instant gratification is the name of the game, I find myself clinging to the warmth, the feel, and the authenticity of film photography. And while digital photography has its place—no doubt about it—it’s film that will always have my heart. more

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I’ve no way to know as I write this who were the winners in the August primary elections. more

When I started writing about my Martin ancestors, I thought when I came to my Great- Grandma Katie that it would be very easy capture her character. She has been the stuff family legends are made of- scary and kind of bizarre. However, I found that she was much more multi- dimensional than I thought. When I started this column about my great-grandmother, I think I had a very skewed view of her. Somewhat based in fact, but not quite the whole picture. more

There's a magic in revisiting an old, beloved book, a magic that transforms the familiar into the astonishingly new. I'm currently re-reading John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," a novel that, to my surprise, still holds untapped depths of wisdom and beauty. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve immersed myself in its pages, but each time I do, I find myself uncovering fresh perspectives, discovering layers of meaning that previously eluded me. more