Barstool to Pulpit

Confessions of an Ozarks Preacher

Mysterious myths still abound on the ridges and in the hollows of the Ozarks Mountains of Missouri. The area was once the setting for The Shepherd of the Hills. The Old Trail still exists, the one made by moccasined feet, and has been there for how long no one knows. When the citizens of tiny Crane hear that dark-haired Oklahoma strangers are moving into their mountains, old timers insist that they are Indians, returning to reclaim what was once theirs, though few have ever seen an Indian.

When the strangers start buying milk cows, even before their truck is unloaded, oldsters Low as how theys redskins from oil rich injun cuntry, come hyar ta buy back thar land. Young mountaineers see their elders as wrong. Theyre peaceable, and good traders, they insist. Even though their men are dark, with black hair, and one of them called Spook. The why of that is unknown. Is he their medicine man? If their wish is to draw attention to him, set him apart, why not a name like Sue, of whom Arkansas neighbor Johnny Cash sings?

But when their young enroll in school, and the family joins the Elsie Baptist Church, the natives cast their doubts aside and give the strangers and unqualified Ozarks welcome. Even more so when Spook later proclaims his intent to become a Baptist Minister, and be ordained.