Oil!

However beautiful the sound of a rumbling and gushing oil well might be, whatever the people said about the slick, inky rivers that covered the landscape, tragedy accompanied that ecstasy.

Even in 1956, as James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, et al, starred in GIANT, the oil industry continued to be volatile.

My cousins and I have come to joke about becoming oil barons because the divisions that have occurred over the generations have diminished the mineral return check to far less than the annual taxes.

Pam and I wonder "Where is Rhett? Scarlett will have to visit him in the 'horse jail' in order to pay the taxes." We take turns wearing the green curtains!

The Gordons never came into wealth, however, especially not from oil.

Read about how oil changed south Arkansas and its families forever. Of note would be the families associated with three Camden young  ladies - Margaret Ramsey, Josephine Gaughan, and Anne Brown.

The House on Harrison Street will be available at the Camden Daffodil Festival on Saturday, March 12, 2016. The announcement as to where my booth will be located will be made soon. The cost of the 8 x 10 size paperback of is $20. The 208 page saga contains a full bibliography, end notes by chapter, and an index. A CD to accompany the book will be available. It contains more pictures and documents. Cost of the CD is $10.