Creative Writing Commons^™

Three Men And A Store, S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

Most accurately, we should probably call this “two men, a boy, and a store.” It features three generations of males from the same family—the father, his only son, and his first-born grandson. The store, Arkadelphia’s first “big box” discount store, Howard Brothers (colloquially known as Howard’s), sat atop the last northward hil l on Tenth Street (aka US Highway 67/AR Highway 7) and looked eastward and northeastward across its parking lot over the Caddo River and Ouachita River floodplains. The occasion arose when the father and his wife drove from Montgomery, Alabama over the course of about a dozen hours …

Deranda And The Pediatrician, S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

The winter after her tenth birthday brought the crisis with it. That crisis compounded a wretched combination of willfulness and unrecognized reality with timing. The compound meant that she might not live to be eleven— however impossible that seemed at the time.

She was a child who loved the outdoors and its beauty, but also loved order, neatness, and cleanliness. Those two loves warred within her, with the best manifestation being a penchant for interrupting her early preoccupation with making mud-pies for frequent trips indoors to wash up before returning to “cooking.” The long walkway from her first childhood home …

The Game Warden's Gun, S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

Growing up in 1950s Evergreen, Alabama, meant more than growing up in a small, South-Alabama county-seat town. It meant growing up in a rural environment where hunting and fishing were never more than a few minutes away. Field and stream activities lured mostly males above the age of eight, and generous game laws did not obviate a brisk business in poaching. Since it was a poor county, Conecuh had its share of those who poached to put meat on the table as well as those who poached because they did not believe that game laws applied to them. Some prime …

A Long Way From Frankville: Stories By Sam Granade (1918-2008), S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Lewis Lavell Cole, S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

Lavell Cole was born and reared near Hodges Gardens, Louisiana and thrived on “making do” in a rural world that centered on the land and its activities and rhythms. He attended Northwestern State University near home, where he prepared to teach high school history and acquired a Masters degree. He taught and worked as an electrician for Brown and Root before getting the 1969 call that brought him to Ouachita Baptist University in his mid-twenties to teach history. He stayed until increasingly poor health invalided him out of the academy in his mid-fifties and then took his life on November …

Two Angels And Walt Whitman: Servant Leadership And The American War Between The States, S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

I must begin with a caveat we’ll call “truth in advertising.” My upbringing branded me on the tongue, and although I lack my father’s drawl, I seriously doubt that anyone mistakes me for a Yankee. In case I’m wrong, I’ve worn the correct color and the tartan I share with John C. Calhoun. I’ll also remind you of my bio and relate a story.

I’m a Southerner born, bred, and educated, never living farther north than Louisville, Kentucky, for any length of time. I’m also just four generations and less than a century removed from what folks still referred to …

Guinea Pig With A Pc: Or, Bcl3 Gap Reports In Ascii And What They Can Mean To You, S. Ray Granade

Creative Works

Everything that follows must be understood in light of three major facets of my experience, training, and assumptions. Without this background, at least some of this article will be less (if not in-) comprehensible, so bear with me.

First, I'm trained as an historian, have taught history for 25 years (still do occasionally), research some, and publish when I can. I try to keep my hand in as an academician, for I identify myself as a member of the academy. My formal training ended as historians were beginning to use machines to engage in cliometrics—the statistical study of history—and none …