by Daniel Petty

Created on: January 05, 2009

Within a select graduating class from Arkansas were an Eddie Bob, Andy Bob, Lisa Bob, Maynard Bob, Rob Bob and, well, pretty much everyone in that class changed his or her middle name to Bob. Rob Bob was the only one who could actually lay claim to the middle moniker which quickly defines a human as Southern; he was christened James Robert.

These students came from a town of roughly 400 citizens. The school campus contained every grade from kindergarten to the seniors, on about three city blocks. The thriving metropolis also contained a bank, post office, gas station, grocery store, and restaurant, but only one of each. It did; however, sport five churches within three miles.

This community produced a plethora of hunting and fishing prodigy. Regardless of gender, nearly everyone owned and could use a gun, Buck knife, or fishing rod; although licenses were optional. Deer day was the holiest of holidays to these students. The rest of deer season caused gun racks to show off a motley array of rifles and shotguns from the back glass of pickups in the school parking lot. Early morning hunts often ended with the shop teacher releasing a dozen or so students from their routine classes. These students would then properly butcher the animal using the shop tools, and prepare it on a giant grill which had been previously built by the class. The grill was completed when it became welded to the top of a tow trailer.

High School football was the only attraction, even though the squad of nineteen boys usually lost to schools with a roster forty deep. The nearest movie theater was twenty miles away, and if someone lived on the mountain that person could add another twenty miles. Considering this town lay in a dry county, it was remarkable how quickly the teenagers could find alcohol. After football season ended, the only thing left for these students to entertain themselves with was Mac's parking lot.

Mac's Grocery was the converging point for anyone looking for entertainment within the town. Boys who had just rebuilt the motor of some truck would bring it out to show it off. Girls would show up to be seen in these trucks, and to partake of the intoxicants the boy brought with him. Tires would occasionally squeal, but most of the time this was reserved for the street in front of a house with no neighbors, just one mile out of town. Rowdiness of this sort was often chased away by other adolescents in an attempt to keep the police at bay, so they could drink and flirt and fight.

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