Blooming in Arkansas
Written by Kyran Pittman of Planting Dandelions, Arkansas Women Bloggers Miss August 2013
I love that August theme for ARBW is “Learning to Bloom Where You are Planted.” As the writer of a book and a blog called “Planting Dandelions,” it would be hard to come up with a more appropriate prompt for a series of guest posts from me.
I am a transplant to Arkansas, and I have certainly bloomed in the seventeen years since I drifted across the border from Canada, by way of a brief, bohemian detour through Mexico. I had no intention of staying long. More to the point, I had every determination not to stay long. I was a free spirit with a passport and the whole, wide world open to me.
Arkansas?
Please.
Fast forward through sixteen years of marriage, two green cards, and the births of three children who are being raised as Arkansans. This free spirit has put down roots.
Arkansas?
Yes, please. And thank you.
Life has arranged too many surprises for me to declare that I am here forever and for good. But Arkansas will always be a enormous part of my history, and I’m proud to think I may have had a little part in telling its story, too.
While I love representing my adopted home state to a national and international readership, it’s fun to get to address an “insider” audience on ARWB. Over the next few posts, I invite you to join me in sharing things we love about life in Arkansas – even a few things we love to hate (Summer humidity, anyone?).
I’ve got a list of topics in mind, but I’d like to hear from you first. So please leave a comment telling me how you came to Arkansas (by birth, design, or accident), and what it is that makes you stay (or stray). And just to make everyone think about this a little harder, I’m going to take “friendly people” off the table. There are nice and not-so-nice folks everywhere, and everyone thinks theirs are the nicest (of course, ours are). So let’s get specific. Tell me what it is about this place that keeps you blooming.
We are here because of the military… so not really by “choice”. I’m a native of Illinois, but my husband is actually from Arkansas. Though we are here because we “have” to be, we do love it. Arkansas is beautiful… it’s truly like no other place I’ve been when it comes to nature. Though I could do without the intense humidity. 😉
Love this! I came because God moved heaven and earth on my behalf. Really He did! My parents retired to Arkansas from Texas in July 1970 (my freshman high school year). My precious husband’s parents retired from West Texas to Arkansas in August of 1971. He was my cousin’s best buddy. We were introduced and the rest is His story (pardon the pun). We have stayed here – are rooted and grounded here. Three children, two inlaw children, 5 grandchildren. Ministry, mountains and motorcycles keep us here. Arkansas is indeed a lovely place to bloom where you’re planted. I love writing in Arkansas as well. God is good!
I was born in Arkansas…but I stay because I can do just about anything I want from right here. I’m close to family, but I have pretty great shopping, cultural experiences, and fun stuff right here at home (or nearby). Plus, Arkansas’ central location means LOTS of fun places around for weekend trips (Kansas City, Tulsa, OKC, Dallas, Memphis, Branson) are all close!
I am an Arkansas gal, born and raised! I suppose I entertained thoughts of leaving in college, but shortly after along came a overall-wearing farmer/rancher guy that I fell head over heels in love with.
One marriage, two baby girls, and 5 years later-my roots are planted deep. Our farm land we live on/around keeps me grounded here for now! Farm livin’ is the life for me, afterall. 🙂
I was born in Connecticut and raised in Vermont. I was pure New England to my core. I came to college in Arkansas (Harding) fully planning to leave after four years. Well four years later I found myself walking down the aisle with a boy whose roots go from Arkansas to Ellis Island to Germany. Arkansas is in his blood. We are the 4th generation to live on the same property! I knew once I fell in love that Arkansas would be my forever home. I couldn’t be happier however because I love EVERYTHING about Arkansas. I love the weather, the landscape and yes, even the people.
I’m so glad you stayed:)
Many of you have read my story already (http://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/2012/12/miss-december-2012-debbie-arnold/) and know that I was born in the central part of the state. Most of my life has been spent in the same geographic area except for short stints in California (ee gad) and NWA. I am here because I have chosen to remain here. I (we) could have pulled up roots several times, but we did not. I am an ardent advocate of our state–its beauty, its uniqueness, its people. I am an adventurer having explored most, but certainly not all, of the byways and quirky little places that give Arkansas it’s character.
I was here during the Central High crisis–not a flower on our state’s history for sure, but it is a part of what made me who I am. I was too young then to understand much of what was going on, but I knew I didn’t like what I saw. It made no sense to me that Melba Pattilo Beals could not ride the same merry-go-round or swim in the same pool. I was not raised a bigot nor was anyone in my family–we’ll mostly. Let’s be honest. This was an “almost Southern” state after all.
I’ve spent much of my life and career seeking to overcome and overturn the stigma that was slapped upon all of us by a few.
Arkansas is my home and most likely always will be. I travel to see what I can of our nation and world, but it’s Arkansas to which I return. Like the song says, “Arkansas, you run deep in me.”
I was born in Fort Smith, then two days later was taken home to a little town in Southeastern Oklahoma where I grew up called Heavener. Living on the border, I spent a great deal of time in Arkansas.
I attended college in Oklahoma and worked summers in Fort Smith, where I met this engineering student from Greenwood who attended ATU. After five months of dating, we were engaged and married after another year. Together we have lived in Russellville and Bryant and visited almost every nook and cranny of the state in our spare time then.
We often have the discussion of moving elsewhere for my husband’s work, because he spends a lot of time on the road, doing work for his firm’s offices out of state. Yet, we love where we live. We love our church, our friends, and just the region in general. I love from where I came, but I love where I am now more. We are blessed to be in Arkansas.
My parents were “back to the landers” in the 70s and bought 40 acres of land with my uncle, built an 11 sided log cabin with a stone floor by hand, dug a well for water, went to town once a month, and planted a one acre garden where we got most of our food. We lived without running water (well, I was the running water-a ten year old kid with 2 buckets), without electricity, and without telephone (for a while we had a party line) for 6 years. When it was time to decide where I wanted to live my life as an adult, I was living in Virginia at the time, I knew I wanted to come home to the place where people waved at you when you drove by even though they didn’t know you from Adam, where the neighbors made a quilt for you when you moved in, and where the Buffalo was within reach. Newton county is part of my soul because of those amazing times.
I was actually born in Birmingham, AL, but my parents were both from Arkansas, and all our extended family was here. My parents took the first available opportunity to move back, before I was a year old. I’m still here because there was never any reason for me to leave. 🙂 I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else. Yes, I could do without the summer heat, humidity, and bugs, but other than that, I love the beauty, I love the people, I love the small towns and the larger ones and the backroads and the state parks and the Razorbacks. I’m an Arkansas girl, raising Arkansas kids (with a transplanted New Yorker, of all things! :)) Love this place!
Oh man, I could write a whole blog post just on this topic (heck, I might still!). I tell people I grew up in Wichita, Kansas but BECAME a grown up in Northwest Arkansas.My mom’s side of the family is originally from the Searcy-ish area but I never really felt a connection to it. I also grew up coming to Beaver Lake every summer yet never dreamed I would live 20 minutes from it!
When I was looking for colleges, I had a rule that I wouldn’t go anywhere north of where I lived at the time because of the ice and snow situation and my disability (so much irony in that statement now). I got a brochure from some place called John Brown University that seemed perfect. They had a good journalism program, the campus was GORGEOUS (they got me there in the fall to visit, smart folks). I liked how it was faith based but I didn’t have to claim to believe a certain thing, just to respect their beliefs and follow the community guidelines.
Anywho, JBU was some of the best years of my life but I vowed to not be one of “THOSE” people who ended up staying after graduation so I moved on to a job in Miami, OK. Then I found out about a job in Bentonville and applied. That was in 2001. In case this needs clarifying, I’m still here (well, in NWA).
I simply fell in love with the area. While I miss the Kansas sunsets, NWA is just home. I know we aren’t supposed to mention the friendly people, but the people are a part of it. It’s not so friendly that I feel like everyone is up in my business, but I feel like I’ve found my “tribe” here.
Enter at this point, my husband. He grew up in California and is more of an introvert/not be around people very much kind of a guy. I’m an introvert by nature, but my jobs have always required me to be around people. I also like being around resources like shopping, healthcare, etc.
I feel like we have the best of both worlds here. There’s plenty of nature and quiet to escape to, yet there’s plenty of good activities, too. Somehow, this place just feels like HOME to us and we can’t imagine living anywhere else.
I was born and raised in Northeast Arkansas, the daughter of a cotton farmer, the granddaughter of a cotton farmer. I left the state to attend college in Texas. Married, raised two children and worked my way up the banking ladder in Dallas.
My family still farms in Northeast Arkansas. The land pulls me back – always the land. Cotton, beans, rice, corn. Family vacations are spent at Lake Norfork. Football games are spent calling the hogs. (My husband is a Razorback from Ft. Smith.) Last year we bought a 2nd home in Fayetteville. Our son is a junior at U of A. We spend as much time in Arkansas as we can until we permanent move back. Sooner rather than later!
In the Spring of 1979, my mom found herself in an unthinkable situation. She was 22 years old and living in Alabama. She had a months-old baby girl (me) and a husband who was dying from an inoperable brain tumor. That summer she made the decision to send her baby girl to Arkansas to live with her parents while she cared for her husband.
In October of 1979 my dad passed away. After my mom took care of matters, she joined me and my grandparents in Arkansas. A little while later my mom and I moved all the way across the street! She remarried in 1986, and we stayed in the same town.
So I’m technically and Arkansan by transplant, but I claim it as my only home. I don’t see that I will ever leave!
I was raised in Iowa and feel a strong connection to that. When I was about to get married at the ripe old age of 20, my soon to be husband and I visited Fayetteville. We wanted to stretch our wings and leave the colleges we were at in Iowa to start life over somewhere else, looking for a bit of adventure. We had just heard that the Ozarks were pretty so we took a little road trip to NWA. As we drove up Lafayette Street in spring of 1987 we could see Old Main and were overwhelmed by the beauty of the town. We just looked at each other and knew it was home.
Arkansas has been home for me since 1987. We moved away twice for jobs, once to New Jersey (and then we came back to the UA for graduate school) and then to south Georgia. When we were splitting up I knew needed to be back home and that as much as I loved my family and Iowa, I knew home to me was Arkansas. I have found Arkansas to be my place of growth and all the great things that have happened to me happened here and many of them because I was HERE and not somewhere else.
My first job out of college was in Little Rock for the state historic preservation office. I got to travel all over the state and see what it’s really all about. I love how diverse it is. For a small population and small number of square miles, it is DIVERSE! You can live in any way you choose–uptown city life (sort of), rural, agriculture, academic–you name it, we have it. All of these places also have a lot of character and history.
I don’t care for the summer humidity but I do love the way it makes everything so lush and green. And my goodness, we have great food in Arkansas. And yes, great people. 🙂
Arkansan by birth. We ended up in San Antonio for 7 years and all I could think of was getting back to the Natural State. I needed trees and hills and seasons. I needed lakes and lightning bugs. I needed just a more easy going kind of people. No blowhards, no pretensions. This august I’ve been back for 6 years. I never want to live anywhere else. Scatter my ashes in the Ozarks please.
My family moved to Arkansas when I was five years old. As an adult, I’ve moved away not one, not two, but a total of FOUR times — and everytime being pulled back to this wonderful state I call home. I love Arkansas because it’s like one big small town. Wherever you go, you meet people who know people you know… and you can start up a fun conversation with a complete stranger and in ten minutes you’re fast friends over some common shared experience or friend. I especially love the Little Rock area. The restaurants and cultural opportunities here match many much larger cities — and without all the traffic and road rage (hello, DC Beltway!). So even though I have dreams of a cottage in the hills of Tuscany, I will always call Arkansas home.
I moved to Arkansas at the age of 21 with a boyfriend. We met while he was attending TCU in my home town of Fort Worth, Texas. He returned home to Little Rock with me in tow. A few years later he passed away unexpectedly. I stayed in town, met another man, started a family and moved to the west coast for several years. I returned to Little Rock to work for a well known gardener with a syndicated television show and a few books. I have remained in Arkansas ever since. I love my life in Arkansas. It’s truly strange where this life can take you if you let it.