An Arkansas Boy
I want to thank the many people who willingly offered their suggestions and contributions to the writing of this book: First and foremost, I wish to thank my mother for her great story telling ability and passing along a small bit of that ability to me. Thank you Mom for the many wonderful stories you told about your childhood growing up an orphan in rural Arkansas. You were the inspiration for this novel. I hope I did justice to your story. I also wish to thank my brother Bob Marvel and sister Betty Sue Marvel DeMeyer who had also heard the same stories I did from our mother and in some cases remembered details I had long forgotten. Mom told so many little stories of her childhood which could not be included in order to stay true to the story line. I wish I could have shared all her stories with the reader.
I wish to thank three people who assisted me with the scenery descriptions. Larry Lingo, my nephew, by marriage, who lives near Mulberry, Arkansas was most helpful with the scenery described in the trip from Cedarville to Hartman. My childhood friends Jane Rofkahr Winsell Paramore and Gerald Bunch both live in Johnson County Arkansas and assisted me with the scenery in that county. Gerald was especially helpful with the scenery around Hartman.
Joyce Mae Martin Koon, a classmate and third cousin, very graciously allowed me to use her description of a Johnson County two room school house she attended. Although I attended a one room school house, her description more closely resembled the school my mother attended when she was a child. My Uncle Kenneth Marvel assisted me in the description of post 1926 Hartman. His father and my grandfather, Martin Luther Marvel, was the Hartman barber described in this novel. I was amazed to find his memory of Hartman had not faded as he recalled the place of his birth and where he grew up more than eighty years ago.
Before I decided to write this novel I had been writing short stories of my own childhood growing up in Johnson County Arkansas and sharing them with folks on a Face Book group site Clarksville Arkansas, Homefolks. There is a wealth of historical information on that site which comes from folks posting pictures and stories of their experiences growing up in rural Johnson County Arkansas. I must admit that it was the encouragement I received from readers on that site which started me thinking that I should write my mother's child hood story. Leona Ricketts who is a regular contributor on that site challenged me to write in one of her comments to me. I owe a special thanks to her for giving me that challenge, without which I most likely would never have attempted to write this novel.
Finally, I wish to thank my wonderful wife, Wendy Begeal Marvel for her support and encouragement while I was struggling with the manuscript. She patiently read and reread the manuscript many times offering suggestions for improvement.
