Life in LA Today Steve Ford

When it rains in these parts, I often open the Facebook page of a guy that I know is going to post the amount of rainfall he received in West Lamartine. When I heard him called the Mayor of West Lamartine, I was intrigued. But when he repaired my mother's favorite clock, I knew I had to get a microphone on him and learn more about Larry Polk.
Larry and his wife Jean live just about a mile off U.S. 371 in Lamartine.  As befitting a "public servant" in the role of mayor, Larry's Facebook profile and background picture both feature a highway sign bearing the name of his community. Larry and Jean are active members of First Baptist Church in Magnolia, where Larry serves as a deacon. A stack of New Testaments on his workbench attests to his service through the Gideons organization.
Larry has done just about every kind of engineering there is to be done. He cut logs to put himself through college--two years at Southern Arkansas University and two at Louisiana Tech, where he earned his degree in engineering.  Having retired from Albemarle, Larry reflected that he had done everything he had wanted to do in engineering. He had worked with pumping in the brine field, on transformers providing power to the wells and even in drilling operations. 
Larry at the rain gauge  
So it was no wonder that when a friend handed Larry an old clock years ago and asked if he could get it running, he added another skill to his resume. Larry became a clockmaker, a term that is used to describe someone who repairs clocks.
There's much that can go wrong with one of the old clocks. They can get "out of beat", causing them to stop running altogether. He has diagnosed a case of this issue by asking his client to hold his phone up to the clock so he can hear the beat. Another problem may be the wear and tear that comes from the gears continually spinning, sometimes causing the hole in which they sit to become elongated and restricting movement. In the case of my mom's clock, it had been in storage for eight months and some of the gears became rusty. A cleaning put it back in working order and it keeps good time today.
Obviously the title of Mayor of West Lamartine does not indicate an elected position. He earned the moniker when a neighbor on the other side of U.S. 371, Greg Rich, referred to Larry as Mayor of Lamartine. Larry replied that he was only mayor of the western half while Greg was the mayor of the eastern half.
Lamartine is one of the oldest communities in our county. As I spent some time there talking to Larry, I became intrigued with what is labeled by some as the oldest community in our county. It's on its way to becoming a ghost town, save for the modern houses that remain. Once upon a time, a two-story brick plantation house was home to John Dockery and his son Thomas, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General during the Civil War.
 
Dockery named the community after a French poet and politician, Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, whom he admired. Dockery had big plans for the new community, which in 1851 boasted a post office, a few stores and a number of churches. Most of their remains are long gone today.
 

Two events occurred which kept Lamartine from becoming the economic center of Columbia County.  Dockery and local investors began work on a railroad that would connect the Mississippi River with the Red River.  Dockery became president of the first railroad company to be chartered in Arkansas, the Mississippi, Ouachita and Red River Line. But the Panic of 1857, along with the approach of the Civil War, brought the project to a premature end.  Dockery died in 1860 and many of the young men from Lamartine were scattered by the War. When the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railroad was built through Waldo three miles to the south, any hopes for developing Lamartine were dashed.
Today it is little more than a ghost town. A memorial marker on the highway tells the abbreviated history of the commu

Long before those of us who speak our particular version of English inhabited what is now Lower Arkansas, early man inhabited the countryside. Dr. Carl Drexler is research archeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey stationed at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. He is intimately familiar with all periods of cultural development in this region and recently expanded upon them at a talk at the Columbia County Library.
 
Dr. Drexler was born three years before the release of the first movie featuring the exploits of Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. and admits he did not see the series until his teen years. And while he may actually own a fedora, he prefers a different style of hat when he's working in the field. Unlike Indiana Jones, he does not use a bullwhip in his work, but he does have a nickname. You'll just have to listen to the podcast to hear what it is as we wouldn't want to make it to accessible by putting it into print.
 
And like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, there are stolen artifacts that need to be recovered. In 2006--before Dr. Drexler's assignment at SAU began--26 bowls and pottery objects valued at over $100,000 were stolen from the Survey headquarters on the SAU campus. The objects have been listed on the FBI's National Stolen Arts registry and may be viewed on the FBI's website at this link.  And while there have been reported sightings of some of the objects through the intervening years, the reports have not panned out. The mystery continues!
 
If you're interested in learning more about archeology in South Arkansas, check out the website of the Red River chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society at this link.
 
To learn more about the first peoples to call Lower Arkansas home and find out Dr. Drexler's nom de guerre, take a listen to my interview. 

Take it from John Harden: the solar eclipse coming up April 8 is an awe-inspiring event with spiritual impact that you don't want to miss. As a father who took his family to see the last, John has first-hand experience. Back in 2017 they drove from Magnolia to Lebanon, Tennessee to witness the eclipse.
"You've got to get into the region of 100 per cent totality," John told me. "I drove eight hours to see it the last time, that's probably the extent I would have done it in 2017 but knowing what I know now, I would have driven two days for it. It is that much of a must see. It's incredible."
John recommended watching the weather forecast carefully.  Depending on what the regional forecast holds, you might want to get up early to go north or south to be on the line of totality.
"It's a deeply spiritual experience," John told me. "Some Bible passages will never read the same again after you experience this: Psalm 19:1, 'The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse proclaims the works of his hands." And Genesis 1:3, 'Then God said let there be light and there was light.' These passages will never read the same."
John noted that many people are moved to tears by the experience of seeing the eclipse. He compared it to making a trip to the Holy Land. 
"The Holy Land will take you back to the time of Jesus, this (the eclipse) will take you back to the time of Creation," John explained. 
John also recommended getting to your location early, expect traffic delays and be prepared with food and water in the event you are stuck in traffic.
As you prepare to view the 2024 Solar Eclipse, take a moment to listen to my interview with John Harden recorded on March 29.

It’s hard to believe a full decade has passed since the quintessential voice of Lower Arkansas announced not only his retirement but also his departure from Magnolia for eastern Tennessee. After more than 60 years with Magnolia Radio—KVMA and KFMV as they were known—Ken Sibley turned off the mic, hung up the headphones and left the studio. He and Carol moved to Collierville, TN, where three of their five grandchildren lived, of course with their parents. 
Ken had held nearly every leadership position imaginable in church, city and county, in addition to his work in radio. He’s a great bus driver and excellent story teller to boot, which landed him a short tenure as a charter bus driver in the Memphis area. He drove me on my first children’s church camp trip to Siloam Springs and loves to describe the forlorn look on my face when he dropped me and 20 rowdy kids off for the week.
I caught up with Ken through the miracle of modern technology and enjoyed the virtual stroll down memory lane. We reminisced about people we worked with and some of the programs that aired back in the day. Today’s generation can’t appreciate The Friendly Show, The Mary K Show, I Remember When, Hospital Calling. A few folks remember some of the commercials that aired through the years: Bill Bigley's "Throw away your plumber's friend and call your friendly plumber Broadway" was a fixture in the '50s and '60s; the Magnolia Insurance spot that began with "The Fire Alarm has sounded in Magnolia!"
If you've never heard Ken's radio voice, here's your chance to be introduced. If you've been missing that friendly patter, then here's a shot of nostalgia for you. 

As a young man, David Rankin had never given any thought to becoming a college professor, let alone an administrator of higher education. His mother had moved back to Arkansas from Tennessee--first to Hot Springs, then to Junction City--after his father had died in World War II and he had just begun college. After a stint at factory work, he decided he preferred higher education and was attending Louisiana Tech University.
"David, have you ever thought about being a college professor," asked E. Carl Jones, professor where David was then currently enrolled. "It never crossed my mind the first time," David replied. "Colleges of business are growing like wildfire and they need young instructors to come out and help," Jones told him.  He had just successfully completed a presentation the previous week in class and decided to give it a try. He was accepted to Middle  Tennessee State University and decided he liked the field, so he later began a doctorate program at the University of Mississippi, where he met another student from South Arkansas. That was Louis Blanchard of Magnolia, who went on to become a long-time professor of accounting at SAU.
Rankin told Blanchard if they ever had an opening in finance at then-Southern State College to let him know. After David and wife Toni had talked it over, he decided to submit a resume.
One day the phone hanging on the wall in their married student apparent rang and David answered it. On the other end was the president of Southern State!
"I answered the phone and he said, 'Mr. Rankin, this is Imon Bruce at Southern State College, and we want to offer you a job as assistant professor of business at'—and I had told Toni, if they will offer me at least $8,000 I’ll  go to SSC. He said, "We’ll offer you as assistant professor of business for eight thousand and forty dollars.' I said, 'Dr. Bruce, sign me up, I’ll be there.'" He began his career here in 1968.
David had married the attractive redhead--literally the girl next door in Junction  City--and the two have three adult children, all of whom live near the family home. John and Curt are involved in the family timber business and Beth Anne Rankin Baker recently completed her doctorate from Vanderbilt University.
David has a gift for making the complicated simple and interesting. The "dismal science" as economics has been called is something David is passionate about. Witness his latest book, The Economics of Freedom written by Dr. Rankin with the assistance of daughter Beth Anne. The two have been promoting the book locally and a copy is available in our local library or for sale in the SAU bookstore on the square in Magnolia, Arkansas.
The book is also available through his website, RankinEconomics.com, where you can read his blog posts or watch the two-minute videos on a variety of topics. It's even possible to see money growing on a tree as you take in topics like inflation, government regulation, and debt monetization, each in about two minutes!
He currently serves as the chairman of the Governor's Council of Economic Advisors, now under his fourth governor. When the current SAU president resigned to go to Henderson, the Board of Trustees asked Rankin to return as interim president while a search is underway for his successor. He will serve in that position until June and becomes what I assume is one of few to be former president, president emeritus and interim president of an institution of higher education.
Having read up on all of his accomplishments, I must admit to being somewhat awe-struck at the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Rankin, and not the least because I know next to nothing about economics. But David's ability to make a complicated topic clear and his unfeigned humility made the interview really fly by.
As a long-time student of leadership, I asked him what he thought were traits of an effective leader.
"First," he replied, "I think you have to do everything you can to get rid of the ego. Pride

For Dr. Mimo Lemdja and her family, adapting to life in L.A. has been a breeze--a warm, summer breeze that is. Originally from Cameroun in Central Africa, she moved to Canada where she completed high school, then moved to Minnesota.  She finds the climate in South Arkansas much preferable to either of those locations!
Her medical studies took her from Minnesota to New York where she met her future husband. She and  Mathias Groghue, have three children. David, Kelly and Matt attend Magnolia Public Schools and together the family has made South Arkansas their home. Mathias is originally from the Ivory  Coast but the two met and fell in love in New York and she might have been content to practice medicine there as the need was great, but life had other plans. They moved to Fayetteville to complete her medical studies and while there she heard about an opportunity to practice in Camden. From there it was a short step to Magnolia where she serves as medical director for UAMS.
It was a welcome change for Dr. Lemdja! About the time she gave birth to her last child, she was still delivering babies and keeping very busy. The pace was getting to her and the opportunity to move further south let her and her family come to Magnolia. It's a different  pace of life here, she said. She didn't know how to react at first when her patients would bring her vegetables from their garden. It was a lifestyle she quickly grew to appreciate!
The medical needs are different here than in her home country. Fortunately we're not plagued with malaria, yellow fever or other tropical diseases. One of the biggest health issues she faces with her patients is diabetes, which is often complicated by diet.
But a growing issue that caught her by surprise while practicing in  Camden was opioid addiction.  She has worked with many patients struggling with the problem and has come up with a two-step approach to help them break the addiction. The program involves medication and counseling and thanks to a grant she has received, it is accessible to anyone suffering from opioid misuse.
Opioid addiction can begin easily enough, perhaps with treatment for a back injury, child birth or any other pain issue. As the patient continues taking the medication, the relief decreases and they may ask their doctor to increase the dosage. She saw some patients taking up to 180 opioids per month when she first came to South Arkansas. If the patient can't get the amount they want, they may go to the street for cheaper alternatives, such as methamphetamine.  From there the problem grows as the patient spirals downward in addiction.
Because she wasn't prepared to deal with such a problem, Dr. Lemdja began to study opioid addiction with a view to finding an appropriate treatment. Her studies and investigation led her to a grant which offers a viable treatment. The treatment involves a different medication to help taper off the dependency. It also involves psychotherapy with a counselor specializing in the problem. The therapy is provided by "telemedicine" so the patient doesn't have to go out of town for a visit.
If you or someone you know needs treatment for opioid misuse, they can request an appointment with Dr. Lemdja by calling 870-786-2033, the number for her private clinic.