Mountain View, AR

People in Mountain View stop to play music as readily as kids with a basketball gather around a goal. We had no sooner arrived and set up our paraphernalia than a fellow camper came over to tell us of a jam (pick-up music playing) that would be starting within the hour at the Pickin' Shed. (Pickin' Shed: an air-conditioned building where musicians go to jam; it also serves as a place for covered dish suppers and church services and "singings" when the preacher is not available; found in different locations all over town). Harvey took out his guitar and harmonica and became initiated into the music life in Mountain View.

By the next afternoon, Harvey had gotten his new dulcimer at The Dulcimer Shoppe, and he joined in at the regularly scheduled Slow Jam at Mountain View Music.

These faces remind me of the ones joggers usually wear, but this is one happy group. Really!

The angel in the pink dress is eight years old and she is almost ready to take Stewart Duncan's place. (In this case I am not exaggerating. She is an outstanding fiddle player.) The Music Roots program provides an instrument and mentor to every child in Mountain View who wants to learn to play. How marvelous is that!

The Ozark Folk and Cultural Center was established with the help (and money) of many people.

The herbalist at the Folk Center gave us a tour of the garden and explained the uses of many medicinal plants, including poke sallett. Of course, Tina is standing next to a lavender plant in this picture.

I always have to peek inside school houses. It connects me to my mother who taught in a one-room school.

In the glass case on the wall are actual teacher contracts in use at the turn of the 20th century. Morality guides set the stage for being fired if a teacher violated any of them. At the top of the list was getting married. Hmmmm.

We took a short trip to the caves north of Mountain View. Who'd 'a thunk I would consider going 250 feet below the surface of the earth--not bein' dead yet!

Pictures cannot do justice to the beauty of these sixty foot columns that have been formed over the last millions of years by the steady drop after drop of water.

The ranger explains the way this 90-foot high cavern was formed.

This beautiful spring is one of the entrances to the huge cavern in the pictures above. I don't think I will ever be able to look at these mountainside openings again without wondering what's behind that dark space.