My Arkansas, Then And Now

Nothing like the excitement of prowling around in a big, two-story ancient barn especially if you’re a twelve year old boy free from school on a hot summer’s day—the heat, the smells, the random encounters with spiders, snakes and who-knows-what.

My grandfather Artie had such a barn. Tin roof, faded red paint, big front double doors on the lower floor and a hayloft door front and venting door back on the upper floor. Long before retirement, Artie worked on the railroad in those days for the Rock Island Line but also ran a working farm with over 200 acres. He had the barn built during the Depression for $820 worth of cotton bales from his cotton fields…

One summer, my brother David, our cousin Kenny and I got creative and made life-sized dummies or scarecrows, properly dressed in bandanas, shirts, gloves and hats, faces painted to look as real as possible and even some of our grandfather’s glasses. We named our creations, Clyde, Claude and Clifton and placed them strategically around the barn. It looked like there were three people inside to the casual observer…

Grandfather discovered our scarecrow handiwork peeking out of the various grain and stall niches one evening just as last of the daylight was disappearing for the night and had a roaring good laugh…

“Boys, just for a minute there, I thought ol’ JackOBones had found me and my barn, “He squinted a little and grinned, “You did notice that big old full Moon up there tonight, didn’t you? Not safe to play in old dark barns in Arkansas under a full moon. No telling what you’ll find, or what might find you.”

“JackOBones?” we asked. Sounded creepy, spooky, wonderful even. We’d never heard of the guy but the whole scary full moon and a dark barn thing was cool...

Selected Excerpts of “JackOBones” from the Cotner family book of short stories both true and fictional. Copyright 2009 – 2010 Jack R. Cotner All Rights Reserved