Columnist John Moore grew up eating at cafeterias. Today, if he wants those dishes, he has to make them himself. Photo: John Moore Luby’s. Bryce’s. Wyatt’s. Piccadilly. All cafeterias. Many gone. If you grew up in the South in the 50s, 60s, or 70s, odds are you had a...
Columnist John Moore no longer has an 8-track in his car, but he hangs on to the technology in his house.Courtesy John Moore When long hair was hot, the measure of male teenage coolness in the 1970s, was the sound system in your ride. Your car could burn...
Columnist John Moore remembers the parlors of the houses of yesterday. Where plastic covered the furniture, fresh flowers adorned the window sills, and you’d better not ever get caught going in there. Courtesy John Moore There was always one room in every Southern...
Columnist John Moore snapped this photo of his back pasture. A place he now calls home, and wishes he'd called home it sooner. Courtesy John Moore I grew up in the far southwest corner of Arkansas. Nature drove the speed of life, and the towns breathed at an unhurried...
Columnist John Moore learned early what his mom meant when she spoke. He's pictured with his mother in 1963.Courtesy John Moore Being a kid in the South required being able to speak Mom. For example: “We’re you raised in a barn?” didn’t actually mean, “We’re you...
Columnist John Moore grew up in Little River County, Arkansas. Where they still say, “y’all.” Courtesy John Moore According to Merriam-Webster, a colloquialism is “a local or regional dialect expression.” Another definition? Language that’s “unacceptably informal.”...
Columnist John Moore recently pulled over to buy fruit from a roadside stand. It reminded him of home. Courtesy John Moore There’s a rhythm to the seasons that you can feel in your bones when you grow up in a place like southwest Arkansas. Long before supermarkets...
Columnist John Moore doesn’t recall ever seeing gloves in a glove box. Courtesy John Moore English is a language full of leftovers. It’s like the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Filled with things we just can’t seem to toss out. The difference of course is that at...
Columnist John Moore loves grits. Real grits, that is. Photo John Moore Folks who aren’t from the South invariably aren’t familiar with grits. When they come for a visit, they often twist their eyebrows into a John Belushi-type look after they spot them on their...
