grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Happy Birthday Anita!

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Anita and I were best friends from birth. 
One of our favorite weekend activities involved connecting the massive spread of mud puddles between her house and her Daddy’s shop. (She’s a farmer’s daughter too…) With sticks, we dug trenches between water holes, so a leaf would freely float from one end of her property to the other. This took careful planning and hours of dedication. 
When we weren’t redirecting the water on her Daddy’s home place, we sat on the rickety bridge just down the gravel road leading to her house. With our legs dangling over muddy water, we planned Anita’s escape. We were certain she was secretly adopted, and if this was the case, running away seemed logical. The signs were obvious, and the basis for our theory was solid—compared to her older sister Sharon, there were fewer baby pictures of Anita…
We reviewed our carefully crafted plans over and over. She would sneak out during veil of darkness. But…should she wait until after Halloween? All that candy would come in handy. Maybe she should wait til next Summer? 
The details were simple and fail proof. She would hide out and live on the banks of the river, avoiding the area with the scary quicksand. I would somehow sneak food to her. Until the time was right, we returned to our mud puddles.
Happy birthday Anita!
talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life
Musical Pairing:
The Beatles Birthday Song

Rice Field. Mississippi County, Arkansas

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Rice Field Mississippi County Arkansas
Rice Field, Tate Farms, Northeast Arkansas

“Why does no one speak of the cultural advantages of the country? For example, is a well groomed, ecologically kept, sustainably fertile farm any less cultural, any less artful, than paintings of fat angels on church ceilings?” 
― Gene Logsdon

Grace Grits & Gardening

The Sonic – Parking on the Cool Side

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When I was a kid in the 1970s, our Sonic had a cool side and an extraordinarily uncool side. If Momma parked on the uncool side, my sister and I moaned, dunked in the back seat, and laid low until our Frito chili pies arrived. We truly believed our character and reputations could be boosted or ruined during the few minutes it took to wolf down an order of tater tots in a parking spot at the Sonic in Osceola, Arkansas.

When I began driving my own car, the highlight of Saturday night was circling the Sonic until a cool space opened. My best friend and I ordered giant Cokes, emptied them onto the sidewalk and refilled the cups with Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill. Or sometimes Kountry Kwencher. We thought drinking Boone’s Farm was a cool thing too.
Today I am much older. I realize I was far from hip. Even so, I can’t pull into the Osceola Sonic (now bigger, brighter, and new) without wondering if the coolness factor still exists.

And if so, could someone tell me which side is cool?

Grace Grits & Gardening

Musical Pairing:

Foreigner, Feels Like The First Time

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!