Line Community

On Line has nothing to do with a computer at all,

It's about a place where I lived when I was small.

This was so many years ago to me, it seems,

That it was more like a place known in my dreams.

But Line was a real place between Ashley and Drew,

Where I was born and started to my first school too.

Now, it's all gone, leaving scarcely a trace,

To show that there was ever such a place.

Arkansas is my state, always has been.

I enjoy living there now, like I did back then.

We had our bad times, along with our good,

But I wouldn't change it, even if I could.

Line was a well-to-do community in its time,

A hub of activity set square on the county line.

Small farms scattered out like the spokes of a wheel.

Now the memories left of that are all that's real.

To have all that we needed gave us great pride,

With the following on the Ashley County side:

A doctor, a grocery store, with a post office included too.

The hardware and general store were on the side of Drew.

We dug worms to fish in Cut Off Creek, a neat little stream,

And toward Seven Devil's Swamp we heard a panther scream.

We had two churches and a one-room school where I started out,

And at that time that's what our place in the sun was all about.

I walked three long miles to school each way,

And Mama knew I was afraid without me having to say.

She'd walk with me to the main road through the wooded part,

And that gave me enough lift to go on with a happy heart.

We had first grade through eighth together, abuzz like bees,

With one lone woman teacher into work up to her knees.

I don't remember now a thing that I learned back then,

What I remember is getting there and getting home again.

Looking back makes me sad and homesick too,

For the things that are gone that I once knew.

When I look back on my long-ago world,