Northeast Arkansas - grace grits and gardening

Rice Field. Mississippi County, Arkansas

September 10, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

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

September 9, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

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

Wildwood Antiques

July 27, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

If you’re an antique buff and find yourself in Northeast Arkansas, take a drive over to Wildwood Antiques in Etowah.

Surrounded by cotton fields on the Wildy’s one-hundred-year-old home place, Wildwood Antiques is like a mirage in the Mississippi Delta, only it’s no mirage. The rambling farmhouse is filled to the rafters with silver and china and linens meticulously collected by proprietor Katherine Wildy.

On my hands and knees I searched through stacks of well-loved, hardback books written by Twain and Poe. I discovered an egg dish I couldn’t pass up (of course!)…

This beautiful little watercolor now fills the blank space in my tiny Dallas powder room.

Her property is shaded by towering trees the same era as many of the vintage treasures inside. If you plan in advance, you can enjoy lunch in this bucolic setting. Wildwood Antiques is well worth the drive from Little Rock or Memphis or St. Louis. Its well worth a detour off Interstate 55 no matter where you’re headed.