During the last week of April, I headed south to visit family and friends in Memphis and then spend a few days simply driving around in the Arkansas Ozarks. I find expressways boring and stressful (since I can no longer read signs from a distance). Driving in the Ozarks, though, was different. There was little traffic and no rush to get anywhere. Technically the speed limit was 55, but rarely did I go more than a half mile before I reached the next curve and speed limit dropped to 30 or 35. One of the places I visited was Black Rock, Arkansas, a town along the Black River, where my ancestor, Greenberry Chamberlain, lived prior to the Civil War. In the latest census, Black Rock had a population of 662, but most of these people live away from the old commercial and industrial district near the river, which is virtually a ghost town. Black Rock was a thriving railroad town in the late nineteenth century. It was a stop on the Frisco’s line to Birmingham, and hosted trains like The Kansas City Florica Special and The Sunnyland. It had a bank, a newspaper, ten sawmills, a furniture factory, a wagon felloe factory (a felloe is the inner ring of a wagon wheel), a stone quarry, and a factory for making enamel brick and encaustic tiles. All right, I know what enamel brick is, but what are encaustic tiles? They are patterned tiles that do not depend upon glazes for their color but use different kinds of clay to create their patterns. Encaustic tile was popular among the British nobility in the thirteenth century and enjoyed a renaissance in the late nineteenth century during the Gothic Revival period. As one can imagine, they were costly to produce, and for the most part their production ended with the coming of the Great Depression. Still, it is nice to know that out of this small community in North Central Arkansas came tiles that adorned churches, public buildings, and the homes of the rich.

Looping around a curve in the road I came across a small town named Fifty-Six. Surely there had to be a story behind that. What I thought about at the time, though, was how in the early 1960’s when automation and computers were first having an impact on the postal service, and phone service, and on billing, people were panicking that one day we would lose our identity as persons and simply be known by a number. It was when phone numbers went from five digits to nine (depending on where you were calling) and zip codes were required in mailing a letter. Old Timers complained that when mailing a letter locally, you could just write the word “City” under the street address and it would be safely delivered. (Someone who used to send us Christmas cards would just write “City” for the return address, as if that were sufficient to identify the name and address of the sender in a city of 500,000.

Well, sixty years later, we still have names. In fact, one of the questions that is asked of parents at the beginning of a baptism ceremony is, “What name do you give your child?” Although the answer is obvious, the answer serves as a reminder that none of us becomes one of God’s adopted children as part of a herd. Each of us is known and loved by God individually no matter how tiny we are at the time or how meagre our accomplishments. Sometimes as we grow older we begin to think that we are loved because of our accomplishments or because of our virtues; but, no, there is no more or less to God’s infinite love. That also applies to us when we surprise ourselves by doing something awful or have been doing awful things for a long time. God is delighted when we decide to go to confession and resolve to reconnect on a regular basis. Unlike loyalty programs (which always use a jumble of digits and letters to identify us), God’s love does not expire if we have not used it in twelve months.

All right, what is the story behind Fifty-Six, AR? Back in 1918 town leaders petitioned the Postal Service to have their town named “Newcomb”. For some reason, this name was rejected; so the town became known by the number of its state school district, which was 56. Fifty-Six is the birthplace of Billy Don Burns, a country singer and musician. Burns has had a few hit songs, like She Hasn’t Been a Lady Very Long. He was famous enough for Governor Clinton to proclaim March 27, 1983 “Billy Don Burns Day” in Arkansas. Burns operates out of Nashville these days. He has been married six times. That probably would not have been possible if he had stayed in Fifty-Six, since the population is only 158.

Memorial Day weekend is the start of the summer travel season. There are tons of places you can go to find out about Paris, London, and Rome; that is why I am providing vacation information about Black Rock and Fifty-Six.  If you are travelling soon, have a great trip.

                                                                                        Fr. Joe