Memorial Day Event 2023

2023 Memorial Day Commemoration Ceremony

If you are out and about in Fayetteville, Arkansas Memorial Day, consider attending this celebration at the Fayetteville National Cemetery:

Fayetteville National Cemetery will be conducting its annual Memorial Day Ceremony and invite the NWA community to attend.

Building from last year’s theme, “The Year of our Youth”, this year’s theme is “Recognizing Military Diversity” and highlights the many walks of life of our Veterans and their families. We will have a wreath-laying ceremony, special guest speakers, the Singing Men of Arkansas, the Ozark Highlander Pipe Band, and other guests as we honor those who served and the families who supported our Veterans.

The ceremony will be held on Monday, May 29th beginning at 10:00 am.

Please note that the road going south from MLK along Lt. Col Leroy Pond Ave up to National St / Dunn Ave will be blocked off to traffic.

For more information, please contact the cemetery at (479) 442-2566.

 

 

Book Review: Wyvern Of Wessex

Wyvern Of Wessex

Eadwulf is back in the Sea Eagle with Bjorn and his crew in a quest to discover if Eadwulf’s father, King Beorhtwulf of Mercia, is still alive after twenty years as a slave. Bjorn’s great dragonship carries them down to the searing June temperatures and strict laws in the Moorish lands of al-Andalus. But searching for Beorhtwulf proves more difficult than they’d expected, causing them more trouble than they bargained for…

In Wessex, King Aethelred is now dead, leaving his twenty-one-year-old-brother, Alfred, to succeed to the throne. Though his succession was agreed by the witan, Alfred must now prove himself worthy of the kingship or lose it. But Wessex is in turmoil, besieged by Viking Danes intent on subjugating the kingdom – and knowing that the new king is young and inexperienced. Alfred must use all his wiles if he is to outthink and outmaneuver Guthrum, the Dane who nearly becomes his nemesis.

Alfred’s victories and defeats take him on a journey of learning, during which he gains experience and strength. We share his highs and his lows and how he rises from the depths of despair to save his beloved kingdom from total conquest.

And at his side at his greatest time of need, is his new ally and friend, Eadwulf of Mercia.

“Wyvern Of Wessex”, the third book in author Millie Thom’s epic “Sons of Kings” trilogy, is a well-researched historical novel set in the 9th Century. It continues the adventures of the fictional Eadwulf of Mercia intertwined with the historical Christian King Alfred and his epic struggles to unite and solidify a kingdom and battle against the ever-present invasions of the pagan Danes. Though much has been previously written about Alfred and his Danish antagonists, Millie Thom takes a fresh, detailed, and interesting look into the personal lives of the King, his family and friends, and of those who battle against him. This is a historical novel clearly written by an accomplished author who knows and enjoys her subject. I highly recommend.

Links to Millie Thom books and author information:

Amazon US http://amzn.to/2udCDJH

Amazon UK https://amzn.to/2MfSLAy

Amazon Au https://amzn.to/2Kg7WME

WordPress: https://milliethom.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MillieThom

 

Author Millie Thom’s Book 3 Available

Author Millie Thom has a new release:  Wyvern of Wessex, Book 3 of her Sons of Kings series.

WyvernOfWessex

I’ve added it to my library alongside her first two books, each of which I’ve read, enjoyed, and reviewed.

Book 1, Shadow of the Raven, review can be found here.

And Book 2, Pit of Vipers, review here.

You can learn more about this wonderful series at Millie Thom’s blog.

Inspiration From The Past

In “Storytellin’: True And Fictional Short Stories Of Arkansas” I write about a young boy, a midnight train, and the value of friendship in the tale “He A Friend Of Yours?” The title of the story is actually a question posed to the young boy by a train station employee.

Several of my family provided inspiration for the story not the least of which were my grandfather, father, and an uncle who all worked for the Rock Island Railroad in various capacities including railroad bull, brakeman, and conductor. All of their work began and ended with the Rock Island Rail Road train depot in the small town of Booneville, Arkansas. Not coincidentally, the fictional story’s beginning is set in and around a train depot.

In its heyday, the Booneville depot was a busy, thriving place, bustling with activity. I remember trips to the depot to either welcome or say goodbye to family members as they left for work or arrived after a working absence. More than once, I too, rode the railroad to and from Little Rock to visit uncles and aunts.

RI-BoonevilleTrainDepot

This picture of the Booneville train depot was taken in the early 1980s and reflects a mere ghost of itself in comparison to the days when it thrived. Built in 1910 originally as a railroad eating house, the building style is unique compared to the average Rock Island train depot in Arkansas.

The days of riding the rails from Booneville to Little Rock are gone forever now, as are my family members who worked on the line. Sadly, just a few years after this picture was taken the Booneville depot burned down and its stories mostly lost to history.

A Little Too Much Water

My previous post found humor in two canoes being pulled behind a plumbing and repair van. However, after more than a week of storms bringing massive rains to the area leaving roads, bridges, bike and hiking trails either under water, damaged, and/or washed away, having a boat might have been a good idea.

As an example, this is a picture of the beautiful War Eagle Mill now flooded from the heavy rains. The mill was originally built in 1832.

War Eagle Mill April 2017 Flood

Photo by Clayton-Taylor FayettevilleFlyer.com

 

Book Review: 1177 B.C .

1177BC

1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline

I enjoy history and found this book a fascinating and educational read. The work is a quest to identify the forces responsible for the demise of the Bronze Age ‘civilizations’ of Egypt and its immediate neighbors. It is written in an easy to understand style with relevant footnotes, an extensive bibliography, chapter notes with comments, and a reference called “Dramatis Personae” listing the chronology of the major rulers and related personnel of the region beginning with Adad-nirari I (ruled 1307-1275 B.C.) to Zimri-Lim (ruled 1776-1758 B.C.).

Cline’s presentation is scholarly and focused exclusively on the blending of literary and archaeological evidence of eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, and Middle-Eastern (or Near East) regions of the Late Bronze Age, most notably the interactions and conflicts between Egyptian and Hittite empires, the Mycenaean civilization, and the elusive and hard to define Sea Peoples.

Inscriptions and regional letters from individuals, rulers, and emissaries presented in this work were a fascinating read providing insight into the thinking of the time and, for me, reinforce the common notion that ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.’ It also stretches the definitions of what I would call ‘civilization’ and ‘civilized behavior.’ For instance, take this inscription from the pharaoh Kamose (17th Dynasty of Egypt) writing in 1550 BC about his victory over the Hyksos whom he calls “Asiatics:”

“I sailed north in my might to repel the Asiatics…with my brave army before me like a flame of fire and the…archers atop our fighting-tops to destroy their places…I passed the night in my ship, my heart happy; and when day dawned I was upon him as if it were a hawk. When breakfast time came, I overthrew him having destroyed his walls and slaughtered his people, and made his wife descend to the riverbank. My army acted like lions with their spoil…chattles, cattle, fat, honey…dividing their things, their hearts joyful.”

Cline’s thoughts on what, exactly, brought about the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations in his region of interest are based on facts gathered from the many scientific and literary research disciplines studying the region examining many factors including but not limited to earthquakes, droughts, disease, fire, warfare against invading Sea People, local insurrections, and changing economic considerations. He writes: “In my opinion, none of these individual factors would have been cataclysmic enough on their own to bring down even one of these civilizations, let alone all of them. However, they could have combined to produce a scenario in which the repercussions of each factor were magnified, in what some scholars have called a ‘multiplier effect.’ … The ensuing ‘systems collapse’ could have led to the disintegration of one society after another, in part because of the fragmentation of the global economy and the breakdown of the interconnections upon which each civilization was dependent.”

The presentation of the ‘multiplier effect’ and ‘systems collapse’ is a compelling argument for the eventual end of the Late Bronze Age in this region but one issue stands out for me as wrong. Though the work is a highly detailed, fascinating historical presentation, I find Cline’s assertion that the destruction of the regional civilizations covered in this work was somehow the result of the collapse of a ‘globalized’ society and ‘globalized’ markets that over a period time marked the end of the Late Bronze Age a bit off the mark. I would not normally quibble over such an issue but this incorrect terminology appears to be used solely to manufacture a direct correlation of those Late Bronze Age circumstances with today’s world; and, in doing so, somehow serve as an apocalyptic warning to our current, truly globalized market and intertwined global society. But Cline’s presentation focuses solely on a specific region. Therefore, Cline’s ‘globalization’ is actually ‘regionalization.’

In reality, the only consistent common denominator I could find between the collapse of ‘civilization’ in Cline’s Bronze Age stories and the drama of the world we live in today is they have humans serving as both the protagonist and antagonist in the drama that is human history, Bronze Age or otherwise.

I suppose Cline can be forgiven for attempting to draw parallels between then and now in an optimistic belief that somehow we can save ourselves from the same forces of destruction that ended the Late Bronze Age. Sadly, the most relevant similarity between the collapse of those “civilizations” and our current world is both were/are populated by humans and we do not have a good track record when it comes to learning from history.

Nevertheless, I found this book an intriguing read and a welcome addition to my library.