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Message Tree |
The Online Magazine That Celebrates The History
Of The Central Ozarks,
Its People and Places.
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The Sirens Of The Ozarks by Ed Crabtree Since time immemorial, the Ozarks Mountains, like the sirens of ancient mythology, have been quietly singing, calling to the hearts of prodigal sons and daughters. People that left their homeland and now who have grown weary with the life of the outside world, and answered a calling that draws their souls back to the comfortable bosom of these venerable old hills. The region has experienced a boom in population growth in recent years and part of this expansion might be attributed to a reverse process of the exodus of the fifties and sixties when Ozarkers, unable to find gainful employment, departed to seek their fortune in the world beyond the hills, far from the Ozarks. In 1952, an editorial appeared in the “Ozark Mountaineer,” that told of the necessity of the construction of the Table Rock hydroelectric project that would bring affordable power to the hills thereby improving the infrastructure of the Ozarks, expanding the manufacturing base which would provide means for employment for the sons and daughters of the region. Recruiters from the big city factories were luring our young people away with promises of good factory jobs and wages that simply did not exist in the largely undeveloped hill country. For a time the pleas of the Mountaineer went unheard and out of the frustration of not being to find a job that paid a decent wage, many of our Mothers and Fathers left their Ozark Mountain homes in search of these promises and an improved standard of living. Today many of these same folks are retiring and moving back to the land of their roots. Perhaps you are among this number and moved your family elsewhere, or perhaps you were just a child when your folks left the Ozarks behind, and you have now returned to the beloved hills of your childhood memories. I too have left the hills for a time only to hear that calling, urging me to return home. I had managed to land one of those jobs that everyone dreams about, a position with a great firm in St. Louis. At first, I was happy to be working and residing someplace different than that where I had lived most of my life. And you know, for a big city, St. Louis is a great place with a multitude of amenities, especially the diversity of ethnic restaurants, those featureing Italian and German cuisine being among my favorites. While in St. Louis, I quickly developed an addiction to White Castle burgers, those little delicacies of the fast food world. If you’ve never had one, you have no idea what I am referring to, but once you have tried one, you will find yourself loading a cooler in the back of the car before your next trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, or other destination where such restaurants are located, so that you can buy a case of the frozen delights to bring home with you. . But soon the call of the hills reached my ears, my heart, and even my stomach as I actually started missing the variety of Cashew and Sweet and Sour chicken as served at Chinese restaurants back home in the Ozarks. Soon pan fried chicken, buttermilk, corn bread and bombers as some Ozarkers refer to pinto beans, gathering fresh polk greens, picking black berries, and sassafras tea made me long for home and want to return to the hills. Many of these delicacies could be enjoyed in the land beyond the hills, but the taste, that simple ambiance just wasn’t the same as it was back home. But what really made it tough to resist the calling of the hills was that every time I turned on my radio, which I kept tuned to a popular Country and Western music station, it seemed to me as if the song “Ozark Mountain Jubilee,” was always playing. In 1984 The Oak Ridge Boys took this piece by Roger Murrah, to #5 on Billboard Magazine’s charts. Listening to the lyrics of the song tugged at my heart.
I can see the arms outreachin' Other songs on the radio also tugged at my heart, music that earned the ridicule of my big city friends that preferred contemporary and classic Rock-And-Roll to my beloved country tunes. One such ballad, while telling the story of rural life in the South during the dark years of the depression, struck me as emblematic of life until recent years, in much of the rural Ozarks. And even to this day, there are areas of these old hills where many folks still experience such hardships.
Song, Song of the South Not
having lived in rural America, my friends simply did not
recognize the significance of the “Song Of The
South.” by that wonderful group ALABAMA. Not only does
the lyrics of this ballad tell of the rural experience of
the South of the Depression years, but also relates to life
in the rural Ozarks. |
Stone
Creek Crossing
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The Message Tree, the voice of the
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The Message Tree
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