I have lived in Arkansas all my life, except for a brief time as a child when I lived in Alabama.
I was inspired by an article in this month’s issue of Arkansas Life magazine, which in case you didn’t know, this newspaper publishes. I got the magazine out of my mailbox, saw it was the annual Reasons to Love Arkansas issue and sat down to read it without taking off my coat.
For some reason, this one got to me. It quoted 10 Arkansans in a fill-in-the-blank format in their own handwriting, answering questions about Arkansas. It asked readers to do a fun little exercise and post a picture of their answers to Twitter, Instagram or the magazine’s Facebook page.
It made me think. I don’t know if I’ve ever considered in my whole life the reasons I love Arkansas — and I do.
I was born in Piggott, where the biggest claims to fame are that A Face in the Crowd was filmed there (and my mom and uncle were extras), and Ernest Hemingway lived there and wrote some chapters of A Farewell to Arms and other works. I have toured the Hemingway museum with my mother, who grew up in the town. My alma mater, Arkansas State University, owns the museum, and it is a revelation to anyone who loves literature or a juicy story, regardless if you’ve ever read a Hemingway book in your life.
When I finished the article, I sat there and started thinking about all the different places in Arkansas that I’ve been — from growing up in Harrisburg with rice and bean fields to living in the rolling hills of Clarksville in the Ozarks for a year, then in Jonesboro with the backdrop of Crowley’s Ridge.
I curled up in my comfortable chair and just thought about all the places in Arkansas I’ve been to and enjoyed. I learned to water ski on Greers Ferry Lake with my high school friends, and a song on the radio can send me back there in a heartbeat. I cheered in tiny small-town gyms, marched in the band and twirled a baton on football fields under the bright lights on Friday nights.
There was my honeymoon in Eureka Springs. For 25 years, my husband and I have lived in Conway and raised our boys. I love being in central Arkansas, so close to so many wonderful places. We’ve experienced Toad Suck Daze, hiked Petit Jean Mountain, taken pictures of our boys when they were small with the beautiful daffodil blooms on Wye Mountain. We’ve spent a weekend at Mount Magazine, where we couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces for being in a cloud the whole time, but we walked to the tallest point in the state. We’ve strolled in downtown Hot Springs; I’ve experienced a hot bath and massage on Bathhouse Row. I’ve seen The Old Mill in North Little Rock that was used in Gone With the Wind.
We’ve been through Lake Village dozens of times on the way to Florida, and I remark, every time, how pretty it is as we pass through.
My mother took me to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville for my birthday one year; I’ve been back one other time. People from all over the world come to our little old state to see that gorgeous building and the treasures inside. I could go again and again, and I hope to.
Still, there are many places I haven’t been. I have never dug for diamonds at Murfreesboro, but my mother and I are planning a trip. I’ve never been to nearby Mount Nebo or listened to music on the square in Mountain View.
The fill-in-the-blank questionnaire in the magazine asked for an adjective, “In one word, Arkansas is simply” what?
I can’t narrow it down, because Arkansas is like one of those beautiful, well-worn quilts that our grandmothers made — each part tells a story. All together, it feels like home.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.