Oh sure... some of the high-falootin' in the towns of Ozarka and Mountain Springs have a TV... but stuck deep in the Ozarks there ain't much to watch an' what is there to watch is awful grainy looking. It's said 'ya need to be closer to one of the larger cities so's they can pick up a better signal on the "rabbit ears". Lots of folk do have radios though. Shucks... some of the folk that come to the little country church we go to still have to draw water from their well!
Note: If I'm spinning a yarn "in character" about the Ozarks concerning the state of towns, common folk (and they were essentially all "common folk" in 1964, very few transplants from other states and for sure other countries back then), then I try to hold true to history in view of life in the Ozarks in the early-mid 1960s as I know of it through yearly sojourns to the Ozark region as well as history books. My parents were at least third generation Ozark. I am the only one in my immediate family (mom, dad, older sis) that wasn't born in (mom/dad) or near (sis) the Ozark region. My folks moved to KC in the late 1940s, I believe. I was born in KCKS in '52. Though I was born and reared in KCKS/MO until 16 years of age, after moving to Arkansas in Jan of '69, it merely confirmed I'm Ozark to the core. (To wit: While in KC, long before I was driving, I used to hunt squirrels and rabbits with my pellet rifle in a nearby wooded city park when I lived in North KC! Done right, fried squirrel/rabbit is mighty good eatin'! I'd skin 'em and prep 'em, and mom would fry them up for us for supper!)
Real world:
M&A: Love the North Arkansas Line. If there was ever a 300+ mile line that had little reason to exist, it was the North Arkansas! Yet, it survived in some form for over 50 years!
Midland Valley: I've lived in near the MV's territory for the better part of the past 42 years. (Save 2 years in western OK '84-86 and 3 1/2 years in Huntsville, AR late '86 to May 1990.) Every time I drive to Fort Smith, I cross the old roadbed of the mainline of the MV into/from the "coal belt" region I'm among.
Layout:
Now that I've had it up and running for the past 1 1/2, have hosted several multi-operator operating sessions, I'm getting ready to make some changes to the layout, some of the changes will be signficant. I'm giving up on the dual era concept. Instead, I will be focusing on its primary era and I'll figure something out for my "other" era of interest.
All fer now!
Andre
