Those of you that read this regular series know that I am from Hackett, Arkansas, just a mile or so from the Oklahoma border, and just about 10 miles south of the Arkansas River. It was a rural sort of place that did not particularly appreciate education, and just zoom onto my previous posts to understand a bit about it.
I started the eighth grade at Saint Anne’s High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas when I was 13 years old. I sort of skipped the seventh grade, and the sisters at Saint Anne’s thought that I was OK to go directly to the eighth grade from the sixth.
I flourished there, and still have several of my friends there in contact. My very best male friend was from there, and we converse almost every night. We love each other as brothers do, and he is actually more of a brother to me than my own brother is in some respects.