Arkansas, Before the Fall of Everything

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The first time I remember being in Arkansas was the summer of 1974. I was 4 years old. My mother was halfway through her pregnancy with my little brother. My favorite grandparents, her parents, had scooped me up for a month with them in their home 5 miles outside of Pocahontas, Arkansas. I called them Bapa and Sha, my first attempts at pronouncing Grandpa and Grandma locked in that nomenclature forever. They called me My Julie.  I loved them and I loved every part of that summer with them. 

We drove down the blue highways in the Oldsmobile with the teal vinyl seats, singing songs and telling stories and laughing. At their tiny house, I had my own bed but still ended up squeezing into Sha's arms in the middle of the night. We were up with the dawn and in the garden not long after the sun cast its warmth on the vegetables that we harvested. Bapa and I drove to town sometimes and he would always buy me a Dr. Pepper with a single coin from his leather change pouch. Everything was a treat then. 

The air smelled sweeter than any air I had ever smelled. I felt like the morning glory bloomed just for Sha and me. We sat out in the yard in the evenings under the safety light and the moon. Bapa smoked his pipe and talked to Sha about adult things. I would run around the yard with the fireflies, raising my hand under them until I made contact. I delighted in the way they crawled on my arm, sharing their heatless light before they fluttered their wings and returned to the air. 

People my grandparents knew were retired and lived in their little houses in that countryside, growing food and flowers in their fields. Everyone was quiet, content to watch the sun rise and set over those pretty Ozark foothills and listen to the crickets. I was a child of imagination, and I was perfectly content in that environment. Everything felt innocent and joyful in the summer of 1974. The little girl I was could be just herself, and the love she had to give was wanted and returned ten-fold. 

This was the most perfect time of my life.



Me and my Sha and my dog Gidget


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