The home place lies in a valley in Newton County, a deep hollow between two hills that encircle it like a mother’s arms. Time paused here long enough to leave an aged farmhouse, the remnants of the barn and other outbuildings, and a well preserved outhouse. Over the holiday break, my family hiked through the Ozark winter woods to see this place before it, like too many other old home places, falls into dust.
I’ve been there before and taken a few photographs. My writer’s imagination and historian’s heart are captivated by the old place, once the center of someone’s family life. Although the house seems still sturdy I wouldn’t dare enter the empty rooms or walk across the dust covered floors for safety concerns and for respect for those who once made this a home.
But I can – and did – stand in that valley and ponder the life that these folks once lived. The surrounding hills offered some protection from the unpredictable Ozark weather and the flat fields that slope down to a nearby river provided a place to plant, both the cash crops that earned a living and the foodstuffs that fed a family.
After many decades, the small trails that led to the now collapsed smoke house and root cellar have eroded away and I can just guess where they may have been. The old barn, too, has fallen in and nothing but a pile of weathered lumber marks the spot.
Even the current owners of the property don’t know much about the history of the old house or the family who once lived here so it’s open for speculation. I like to think that perhaps those who settled here were among the county’s earliest settlers and that perhaps a log cabin stood before the weathered farmhouse that came later.
I know that life in those long ago years was far from easy. Farming remains an occupation open to destruction from natural forces like flood and drought or crop failure. Life so far from town required self-reliance even in times of trouble or sickness but there would have been neighbors to lend a helping hand.
Unlike my all-electric home that is disabled without power, the folks who lived within this old house could be warm, have light, and draw water without electricity. No blizzard or spring storm could interrupt their power and their lives as weather can mine.
Our society has gained much since the era when this home place must have been built and changed since the last decades when someone lived within these walls. But as I stood and pondered the self-reliant life they must have lived here, I had to wonder how much more that we have lost and if it is more than we have gained.
I wonder. As a new year begins in the 21st century, I reflect back toward the centuries before and wonder. Although I wouldn’t want to give up electricity and other conveniences or exchange my bathrooms for an outhouse, something about that way of life appeals to me. It may be the simplicity or simply the sense of peace that lingers around this old home place in the Ozark hills.
