Growing up in the Northeast corner of Arkansas and near the mid-Sothern Missouri border, I grew to know some wonderful people who inspired many of my articles and books. Arkansas and Missouri have some beautiful country but growing up poor, we even as youngsters had to work hard to survive. Farm work is hard by any standards, but it makes you tough and helps you learn to cope with whatever life throws at you. I left the farm as soon as I graduated high school in 1965 and never looked back---at least not until I had made a good life for my more...
