14 Ways Arkansas Is America's Black Sheep... And We Love It That Way
By J.B. VanDyke|Published December 29, 2016
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J.B. VanDyke
Author
J.B. Weisenfels has lived in rural Arkansas for three decades. She is a writer, a mom, and a graduate student. She is also an avid collector of tacky fish whatnots, slightly chipped teapots, and other old things. In her spare time she enjoys driving to the nearest creek to sit a while. If you were to visit her, she'd try to feed you cornbread.
The United States is such a diverse country that you can find all sorts of people in all sorts of places. In Arkansas we’re lucky, because Arkansas is one of the more interesting places around. We’ve got all kinds here, and we’re proud to be a place where interesting groups can come together to make a vibrant state. But Arkansas is also a little weird, and we’ve kind of developed a reputation for it. We might not completely fit in with the other states, and that’s just fine by us. Black sheep? Well bah bah bah, fellow Americans, we love our oddities. They’re part of what makes Arkansas so incredibly awesome.
I never realized this one was odd until a friend from one of the coasts told me my backyard garden is the same size as her parents’ entire property—house and all.
The spinach capital (Alma), the watermelon capital (Hope), the quartz crystal capital (Mount Ida), the rice and duck capital (Stuttgart), the tomato capital (Green Forest), the peach capital (Nashville), and of course, the folk music capital (Mountain View).
I’m talking to you, Oklahoma. The Sooner State? What now? I'm looking at the rest of the states, too. The Buckeye State? The Hoosier State? C'mon, other states, tell us something about yourselves. New Jersey, I don't even know what you're doing with that Garden State label.
10. People think we all live in trailers and eat dirt, but really we’ve got poor folks, rich folks, and a middle class, just like everywhere else.
