By Tom Poland, A Southern Writer Another Shady Grove cemetery that transports me to Alabama in July 1936. On a sultry August Sunday I drove up on Shady Grove Methodist Church. Seeing it resurrected James Agee’s “Shady Grove, Alabama, July 1936,” his description of a cemetery in Let Us Now PraiseContinue Reading
Seems a cowboy could hitch his horse and get a shot of whiskey here. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Interstate Act. Nigh 70 years later a grid of steel, cement, and asphalt makes it impossible to see little of interest. DespairContinue Reading
Tree bark’s “tattoos” age more gracefully than human tattoos. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Young with her whole life in front of her, her complexion was flawless. On her left shoulder in forever flight was the blue outline of a butterfly. Ought to be a story there I thought. “TellContinue Reading
Before the dejection set in. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net May 2011. Jennifer’s email cut to the chase “We want you to write a play for Georgia’s Official Folk Life Play, Swamp Gravy.” “Me, write a play,” I replied. “I don’t even go to plays.” “That’s okay. We loveContinue Reading
By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Besides the solitary confinement of writing, I cut myself off from the world in two places. Hard-to-reach wilderness areas and forgotten churches where a haunting takes over when I see pews, a pulpit, and the occasional piano. A hymnal now and then too. MyContinue Reading
The Maker’s Mark I can’t remember who I signed the first book for but I’ll hazard a guess it was a woman. Not many men turn out for book signings. For sure I remember where I was. At Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. Thus began signings for thirty-six yearsContinue Reading
By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net A blade-like katydid poses by a bison cuff of bronze. Nature blessed my boyhood summers with music. Cicadas’ rising-falling singsong gave days rhythm. Katydids chimed in evenings with a nightshift song backed by cricket twitter. The call of a whip-poor-will drifted through the night.Continue Reading
By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net There was a time carriers arrived like clockwork, were friendly, and lost mail was never a problem. Today’s USPS is unionized, bloated, arrogant, and inefficient. It even steals your checks. U.S. law, specifically the Private Express Statutes, grants the USPS a legal monopoly overContinue Reading
By Tom Poland: A Southern WriterTomPoland.net My June 15 post, The Kerosene Lamp, received reader comments that deserve sharing. Who in this era of ultra-dark-defying lighting would take the time to comment on the old kerosene lamp? Well, several did. Their responses made me glad I chose such an obscureContinue Reading
By Tom PolandTomPoland.net I inherited an old Bible, so old I can’t determine its age. I see my ancestors reading that Bible by the light of a my kerosene lamp. The kerosene lamp, legendary for the destruction it caused. No cowboy scuffle was complete without a knocked over kerosene lamp.Continue Reading
Rows of nails, a security measure of old. Photo by B. Newman Bancroft By Tom PolandTomPoland.net Old doors rife with nails. Rows and rows of nails. Studs. Like handsome lads, all in a row. All in precise order. I’ve come across two such doors. Brenda N. Bancroft, historian and co-founderContinue Reading