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Recorded Stories

Seeing Bald Eagles

By Jennifer Keith
From Springdale, Arkansas

My name is Jennifer Keith and I’ve lived in Springdale, Arkansas for 20 years. When I think of the Ozarks, Beaver Lake is one of the key aspects that really makes me think of this area.

One of my favorite memories specifically of Beaver Lake was when a few years ago my dad came to town from Wisconsin and we took a boat tour in the winter to see the bald eagles. It was a cold and dreary day but it was so much fun. We learned so much about the eagles and their story of why they come to the Ozarks for the winter.

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Recorded Stories

The First Marshallese Food Truck in Arkansas

By Judy Tatios
From Springdale, Arkansas

My name is Judy Tatios, I was born and raised in California. My parents came from the Marshall Islands in the 1950’s. My mom graduated from Costa Mesa High School in California. My dad went to college in Oklahoma and he travelled to California and met my mother.

I came out to Arkansas first and eventually brought my parents over. I saw an opportunity to fulfill a dream that I have, which is to start a Marshallese food truck. I’ve been dreaming of doing this for a long time. It seemed pretty challenging in California, but I saw a way and a great community here in Arkansas, so I decided to move here to go after my dream. I’ve been working as a chef at the same job for four years now and I’m slowly saving up money and working towards my dream.

Being Marshallese in Northwest Arkansas is pretty tough. There’s a lot of culture changes and in general just trying to fit into the community out here. The customs that we have are a lot different than the American tradition. We are very quiet and keep to ourselves, but at the same time we have the same struggles as everybody else and try our best to live the life that we want and deserve like everybody else.

Imagine coming from a whole different custom and tradition, a way of life, the island, which is a lot slower and a lot more laid back. It’s a lot faster here, and I have a lot of props for people out here making a beat for themselves. All of the warehouse workers at Tyson and George’s, and all of the essential workers, with COVID now happening, it’s just a whole different ballgame. I just give a lot of props to everyone that’s working out there especially the American community trying to help the Marshallese community out.

We appreciate all of the patience that everyone has given to our people. There’s just been a lot of tragedy going on, a lot of people losing their loved ones and the people we respect. This is a good time to give back and that’s exactly what you can feel everyone trying to doing.

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Recorded Stories

“Poured A Little Turpentine On It”

By Bodi Shinn
From Fayetteville, Arkansas

I’ve been in the Ozarks for 15 years. I grew up in Southern Oklahoma. My mother was from this area in a little community called Vaughn in Benton County.

This is a true story my mother and grandmother would tell me when I would try to get out of work.

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Recorded Stories

La Llorona at Tilly Willy Bridge

By Samuel Lopez
From Springdale, Arkansas

I’ve lived in Springdale for 13 years. My family comes from Mexico, to be specific, from the state of Mexico in a town called Bejucos that’s in between these large mountain ranges.

The folklore I want to tell you about is La Llorona, which translates to “the crier”. In Mexico there is a woman that stands by any tributary or body of water and cries at night. She’s crying because her children drowned in the water. We grow up telling the children this story to scare them from going too close to the water and drowning. If you hear any type of crying near water, you’ll know where she’s at.

If you’ve ever been to Tilly Willy, it’s in South Fayetteville. It’s off these back roads where you’ll find this little bridge. It’s beautiful! The thing about Tilly Willy, is that it’s where La Llorona became real. My friend Eduardo saw the back windshield of his car fog up and saw little handprints form on the window. We felt La Llorona at Tilly Willy. Go there at night and see if you can hear the crier.

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Recorded Stories

The Bleeding Cupboard

By Amos Cochran
From Fayetteville, Arkansas

My friend lived in this very, very old house on top of Markham Mountain in Fayetteville, Arkansas near where I grew up. Old houses tend to come with old things. One of the things in the house was this cupboard that was painted all white. When you tried to clean the cupboard, this thick red stuff would drip off of it. So we always referred to it as the cupboard that would bleed.

The more time we spent in this house the more really strange things we found. The cupboard was the strangest thing that happened in that house until we found out about the ghost that lived in the house. The bathroom has mirrors on two sides, so it creates a mirror within a mirror. I did not see this, but I was told that if you looked seven or eight mirrors back at a certain time of the day you would see the ghost standing in one part of the mirror. I assume this is the same ghost that built the bleeding cabinet.

Categorías
Recorded Stories

Playing in the Caverns

By Leslie Walker
From Bella Vista, Arkansas

My family has been in the Ozarks since I was a little girl. They moved from Kansas, they’re Native American. My grandmother grew up in Mountain View, Arkansas and used to play in the caverns with her cousins, before they were open to the public. They would pack lunches in their knapsacks to go play in the caverns.

Also, this little town that she lived in, named Leslie, my mom was born there. That’s why my name’s Leslie, I’m named after Leslie, Arkansas.