The Seed and the Story for January 25, 2012: Visiting with Bud Rector

Bud Rector and J.L. Martin Chickalah, Arkansas, 2012

The Seed and the Story is a bi-weekly column exploring folklife, sustainability, oral history, human rights,and community in Yell County, Arkansas.   The column is published in the Post Dispatch and is syndicated in the Courier.  Please remember to support your local paper and independent media!

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Before I get into this week’s column, I want to thank all those who called or wrote in response to the previous column about the history of Chickalah.  It’s such an honor to hear from readers with memories and stories to share, and I’m thankful to all of you who took the time to tell me about the places you call home.  I learned from Carolyn Garner that back in the 1940s people would gather to watch outdoor movies on the back wall of Neil Cowger’s Chickalah store.  And I had several people tell me about the rural baseball league from the area, including the days when the Dean brothers lived on Chickalah Mountain.  So this week’s column is a continuation of the recent Chickalah research and will highlight just few stories I learned from a man many of you know and love: Bud Rector.

My father and I recently had the opportunity to visit with Bud in his home on Harkey’s Valley road in Chickalah where we were greeted by his friendly dog who got up from her cozy front porch chair to come say hello.  Bud Rector was born in 1914 and has lived in the Harkey’s Valley area all of his life.  He’s hauled logs in the timber woods, raised chickens and cows, worked for the WPA, driven the rural bus route for Dardanelle Schools for decades, and traveled throughout the area singing in a gospel quartet.  He’s also an excellent storyteller and a joy to be around.  I can’t begin to do justice to all his stories in this short column, so I’ll just highlight a few.

For decades the Chickalah area was home to a thriving timber economy, and Bud recalled many of the early logging operations and sawmills that dotted the mountains.  He and my father swapped memories of those days when, as Bud recalled, “everybody was going around with the chopping ax and cross cut saw.”  While my father recalled skidding logs, Bud and his brother Buford found work hauling the lumber to town.  He mentioned his short stint with the WPA where men were given shovels to help dig out the bluff and told of the well known store in Sulpher Springs operated by a man with, quite possibly, one of the best names I’ve ever come across: Bonaparte Rutledge.  Come to find out, my own grandparents were married in front of Mr. Rutledge store.

Thanks your suggestions, I was sure to ask him about the rural baseball leagues that were so popular in the area during the 1930s and 1940s.  He recalled teams from Spring Creek, Chickalah Mountain, Chicklalah Village, Slo Fork, Pisgah, Casa, Sulpher Springs, Ard, and Harkey’s Valley, the team for which he played.  While he never had the chance to play with Dizzy, he did play with Paul and their younger brother, often known as “Poodle.” The teams played at places like the old Gatley ball field near Sulphar Springs and in numerous cow pastures all around the county.  Readers might recall the team’s manager Pete McMullan and some of well-known players like Burt Tucker, Roger Harkey, Grover Martin, John Martin, and Ame Bates.

In the near future I’ll have some of the audio of Bud up online so you can listen to Bud telling these and other stories in his own words.   Do you remember the ball teams, the logging woods, or Bonepart’s store?  I’d love to hear from you!  A very special thank you to Mr. Bud Rector for allowing me to visit and share some of his stories here.

“A Knit Culture,” article in Courier.

Knitters at the Knit Night in Russellville, Arkansas

I’m a bit late in posting this, but here is a link to the story on Knit Night at Knit 2 Together Yarn Shop in Russellville, Arkansas. A radio piece featuring interviews from the evening is in the works and should be done by (crossing fingers) next week. It will be my first foray into radio production in several years, so I am excited about its completion.

For a little behind the scenes information on the store see my previous post, which also includes a few photos.

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Knit Night at Knit 2 Together

Knitting and Visiting

Last week I had the opportunity to visit with the knitters at the weekly Knit Night, a Tuesday evening knitting circle that meets at Knit 2 Together Yarn Shop in downtown Russellville, Arkansas. I heard wonderful stories about how they all learned to knit, discussions of their love for both the tactile and calming elements of the craft, and the importance of their evenings spent together. Continue reading »

Documenting Decoration Days

Beginning with the first weekend in May cemeteries throughout the Yell County area will hold their yearly decoration day, a time for families to decorate and clean their relatives’ graves. Decoration days continue throughout the month.

I grew up watching my family participate in Decoration Days. When my father was young, decoration days served as  a home coming of sorts. There was dinner on the ground, sometimes even a sermon, and a great  deal of visiting. By the time I was a child dinner on the ground had largely disappeared in the  Yell County area, but the visiting still went on, especially at the Harkey’s Valley cemetery in Yell  County.

My mother was the tradition bearer (a phrase we folklorists use for someone who keeps a tradition or craft alive) of decoration days in our family. She  purchased the flowers, knew which graves to decorate (some were unmarked), and kept up with  which weekend we were supposed to decorate which cemetery. My mother passed away in  2008, and last year when decoration day came around I, along with the help of my father, found myself taking on the role of the  tradition bearer, decorating the graves she tended to while also decorating her own. Although I had always been interested in the tradition, it took on a new meaning to me as I decorated my own mother’s grave. I also realized that not too many people in their thirties or younger are carrying on this tradition.

Therefore I decided to start documenting the tradition in our area. I’ll be doing the same thing this year, and I hope to interview more folks who participate in this tradition. I don’t have any specific plans for this research as of yet. My goal at the present time is just to document as much as I can.

Below are a few photos from last year.

If you or someone you know takes part in this tradition or has memories of taking part in this tradition I would love to hear from you! Email me at Meredithmartin_moats at yahoo dot com or leave a comment below.
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My Wonderful Mother: Whose Memory Do You Carry?

I am curious, whose memory do you carry in your life? Whose life and attributes do you think about when you contemplate the folklorist, activist, cultural worker type person you want to be?

Let me explain why I am so curious about this.

Due to the illness and recent loss of my dear and wonderful mother, it’s been over two months since I have really posted any new writing to this blog. Since my mother’s death over a month ago I continue to spend a lot of time thinking about who she was and the legacy of perseverance, hope, courage and love she left for all of those who knew her. My mother was a woman who gave everything to what she believed in, namely that people are sacred and deserving of love and hope. I feel so honored I was able to care for her and spend the last few months of her life listening to and learning from her. As I try to figure out how to move forward, I wonder how I can incorporate her memory and spirit into my daily life.
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The oral history and folklore of Climate Change and an extension of what we mean by PLACE.

In working with a few different oral history programs, I have always been intrigued by how much information these interviews about rural life in North Carolina, Arkansas, or central Kentucky contain about climate change. When men and women in their 80s and 90s discuss their childhoods, they often recall extended winters, greater amounts of snow, creeks running so deep they would flood their banks, and trees so filled with robins that robin soup was a popular dish.
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Participatory Research in Folklore?

Participatory research is typically defined as a form of research which combines three things: research, education, and action. Strongly linked to social action, participatory research is largely becoming the norm in many fields which folklorists sometimes see as competitors in the fight for departments and funding such as Women’s Studies, African American Studies, Pan-African Studies, and American Studies to name a few. Continue reading »