A teacher’s husband found their pet dog dead and skinned like a deer hanging from their gate. A shop teacher pulled out a nail gun to “eliminate” a trapped raccoon in front of some students, a couple of which apparently were apparently traumatized by the act. The owner of the local hotel located just a couple of blocks from the high school decided to raise the Confederate flag in protest of Barrack Obama upon his election at U.S. President.
The aforementioned were just some of the things that happened during the eight years I spent running the weekly newspaper.
And now… the latest saga in the county seat of Huntsville in rural Madison County has to do with riding lawnmowers. Nine Huntsville High School senior boys decided for a lighthearted senior prank that they would meet about a half-mile from the school one morning, unload their lawnmowers, then ride together to school in a pack.
Before you jump to conclusions, you have to put yourself in small town America and erase the thoughts of lawnmowers riding down Markham Street or University Avenue in 8 a.m. traffic. In Huntsville, traffic is bad if you have to wait on more than three cars to pass before entering the main drag, Parrott Street. Chances are, city police in Huntsville, Ark., got as big a chuckle out of the boys as most everyone else.
Most everyone else did not include the Huntsville Schools’ brass, which decided to suspend the boys for two days, prompting an outcry from parents and friends of the students. Facebook posts were posted by noon that day in support of the boys. By late afternoon, T-shirts were already in the planning stage. The front of the shirt reads: I SUPPORT THE LAWNMOWER BOYS (with the letters just above freshly cut grass).
All proceeds from the T-shirt sales are going to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Even Fayetteville radio stations have jumped onto the ever-expanding bandwagon. Johnna Cornett, owner of the local business A Reflection of Beauty, said sales would easily surpass the $5,000 goal and that the Lawnmower Boys had even planned to mow lawns of senior citizens on the weekend in hopes of raising more donations for ACH.
What these students did was harmless, and certainly far less than what we’ve seen some students do over the years. However, the superintendent is a good fellow that was put in a difficult situation (where have we heard that recently?), albeit to a much lesser degree than that of Jeff Long. He did what he felt like he had to do with the suspensions, citing disruption of school, safety concern, and violation of parking privileges as reasons for cause. He said he didn’t want to have other students try to “one-up” the lawnmower boys.
The event even made it on Headline News, something that is of no surprise to me. I’d venture to bet that this little town manages to make national news as much as any place in the nation with a population of less than 2,500.
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I wrote recently about my encounters with Ronnie Hawkins, the man responsible for taking Levon Helm out of Arkansas and eventually into national prominence as one of the legends of rock and roll.
Helm died last week after a long bout with cancer. He was 71.
When I first moved to Arkansas in 1978, I had a friend that could record 8-tracks. I’d give him a list of songs I wanted from different groups; Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, etc. I’d punch the new tape into the 8-track and drive around Fayetteville listening to those songs, and discover without exception a song I had not requested, one from The Band.
Soon, I was requesting tapes of nothing but songs from The Band. I cannot come up with a better description of Helm’s voice than the one someone used: If God spoke to you, it would be in a voice like Levon’s.
I was able to meet Helm on a few occasions thanks to his sisters and childhood friend who lived in Northwest Arkansas. I became a huge fan, even naming a chocolate lab “Levon.” Bruce Springsteen told a writer once, “We get so used to hearing versions of the thing. Levon is the thing.”
The Band’s music was so moving that Eric Clapton admitted that he wanted nothing more than to be part of it after hearing Music from Big Pink, The Band’s first album on their own. I don’t know if you can wear out CDs, but if it is possible, I’ll have to replace Helm’s recent solo albums “Dirt Farmer” and “Electric Dirt” soon. He may have passed, but his voice will continue riding shotgun with me.