Zero the Hero; or, From Factory Worker to Superhero in Sixty Days By Phillip Howerton The orientation for my new job consisted of the supervisor handing me a hardhat, telling me I was required to wear white, and showing me how to operate the time clock. At 4:30 the next morning, March 4, 1984, I began my first day of work at Mid-America Dairymen in Lebanon, Missouri. … [Read more...] about Zero the Hero; or, From Factory Worker to Superhero in Sixty Days
Queen of the Hillbillies: Writings of May Kennedy McCord. By May Kennedy McCord. Edited by Patti McCord and Kristene Sutliff. (University of Arkansas Press, 2022, Pp. 336) Reviewed by Leigh Adams May Kennedy McCord may never have written her own book, but her granddaughter Patti McCord and Missouri State University emeritus professor Kristene Sutliff have edited a … [Read more...] about Book Review. Queen of the Hillbillies: Writings of May Kennedy McCord
Those Little Brown Cows Once upon a time we milked little brown cows, rather than big black and white ones. When I was a small boy in the early 1950s, docile, doe-eyed Jerseys dominated Ozarks pastures, joined by that other Channel Island breed, Guernseys with their big, white spots on coats of amber brown. Both produced gallons of rich yellow milk that was markedly … [Read more...] about Four Essays by Jim Hamilton
Book Announcement: The Ballad of Johnny Bell by John Mort Tentative Release Date: October 7, 2022 Contact the author for autographed copies: Down along the Piney | Reviews of Ozarks books and museums by John Mort Description It's 1966, Christmas Day, the Missouri Ozarks. Johnny Bell, not quite sixteen, is found in a snowdrift by a poor farm … [Read more...] about Book Announcement: The Ballad of Johnny Bell
Oklahoma Odyssey. By John Mort. (University of Nebraska Press, 2022, Pp. 310) Reviewed by C. D. Albin It is doubtful many participants in the 1893 land run on the Cherokee Outlet—an area constituting a sizeable portion of today’s northern Oklahoma—considered themselves comparable to characters in the epic Greek poem The Odyssey. The pell-mell pace of the event itself, … [Read more...] about Book Review: Oklahoma Odyssey By John Mort