52 Cups of Coffee: 417 Edition - Cup 41/52 - Dr. Brooks Blevins

Here's the weekly boilerplate intro if you've already read anything from past cups of coffee skip ahead to the cup of coffee below the name!

After hearing about the book 52 Cups of Coffee on a Podcast, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity to connect to people in my community. Initially, my plan was to just have coffee once a week with someone I know. I was thinking of friends, family members, or colleagues with whom I could spend some quality time. But the opportunity to engage with my community is always in the back of my mind. So I thought it might be interesting to ask the same set of questions to a diverse cast of influential and interesting people in the 417 area and share them here on my LinkedIn page. At the end of the year, who knows what we'll have... at the very least it's 52 interesting conversations. It's a loose plan. I don't have any real intentions and I think that's the beauty of it. Curiosity. Community. And a chance to learn a little bit from each person. A big thanks to the folks at Travellers House Coffee & Tea for being willing to provide a place to chat and several cups of coffee throughout the year!

**I don't like taking notes while having coffee and conversation so I've trusted Otter to do the transcribing. Any editing issues are my own. I'm not a professional. :) I've included a list of books we discuss throughout the conversation at the bottom.

Dr. Brooks Blevins - 41/52

Dr. Blevins is likely the leading scholar on the Ozarks alive in the world today and I was lucky enough to get to sit down with him for a cup of coffee. I was excited when he said he could make time to meet with me because I felt like he would be an interesting deviation from the normal direction these discussions go. To the degrees that he was a deviation from the norm, he was incredibly interesting. It was also interesting to see the ways in which he was in line with some of the general themes. In his own words "the human experience in total, we share so many commonalities." And that is becoming readily apparent in these discussions. 52 Cups is a piece meant to be a current snapshot about a large section of the Ozarks and Dr. Blevins lends some deeper context around what that means, to be from the Ozarks. You can't know who you are without knowing where you came from. I hope you enjoy this discussion about the Ozarks. It's a cool one!

Rhett Roberson?

What is the CliffsNotes version of the story of you??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Oh, well, I was born and raised in Arkansas. I grew up on a little cattle farm in a community called Violet Hill, Violet like the flower and Hill, in a county that during my growing up days didn't have a stoplight or a franchise fast food place or anything. It was very, very rural, but my parents were educators. My mom was an elementary school teacher, and my dad was a high school basketball coach. We lived on the farm that my dad grew up on and my grandparents lived down the road, so I grew up surrounded by uncles and aunts and great uncles and aunts, in kind of in idyllic childhood life in the 70s and 80s, but I guess that's that would be it.?

Rhett Roberson?

How long were you in that area??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I'm still in that area. Actually, I live in my grandparents’ old house, the house that my dad grew up in, and my mom still lives just up the road from us on the farm. My son and his wife live between us on the farm. He takes care of most of the farm work now and really enjoys it. He's a lot better at it than I am. (Both laugh)?

Rhett Roberson?

What was the progression of your school and academic career? How did you go from that area to what you're doing now??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I went to undergraduate school at a little liberal arts school down in Arkansas. Now it's called Lyon College, back in those days it was called Arkansas College. I got my bachelor's degree there in history, and that's where I first got interested in studying the Ozarks. I'd grown up in the Ozarks, but I didn't really know it and I think a lot of people who don't grow up in the touristy parts of the Ozarks, don't necessarily think of themselves as being in the Ozarks. I knew we were in the hills, but it was only when I got to college that I realized it. I remember it was probably my junior year; I was looking through this book, it was a book called The Ozarks Land and Life (https://a.co/d/6cQhXHU ), which was written by an SMS/MSU geography professor named Milton Rafferty. I remember opening it up and there was this big map in there of the Ozarks. I remember seeing where I was from, and it was in the Ozarks and I remember thinking, "I wonder why didn't know that? I wonder why nobody told me." So, I got interested, and I did my senior thesis on something to do with Ozarks history and then just kept pursuing it. I got my master’s and my PhD at Auburn and in American history. Obviously, they weren't teaching classes on the Ozarks or anything like that down there, but I specialized in southern history, and my dissertation eventually became my first book on the Ozarks, which was called Hill Folks (https://a.co/d/5g0kdtB ). That's kind of where it started.

Rhett Roberson?

And so, you developed the curriculum. You are the guy that developed the study of the Ozarks.?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Well, I actually had shoulders to stand on. You know, one of the things that Missouri State, and SMS before it, has been known for was an emphasis on the Ozarks and studying the Ozarks. That really started in an organized way all the way back in the 1970s and that's when the first Ozarks history class was founded. They started an agency in the university called the Center for Ozark Studies, and in the 80s they started OzarksWatch Magazine. That grew gradually over time with a handful of professors at the university like Milton Rafferty, I mentioned earlier in geography, and Bob Flanders in history. He was one of the movers and shakers. There was a guy named Bob Gilmore in the theater department, Russel Gerlach who was also in geography, and then there was a guy who just died last month, named Donald Holliday, who was in the English Department. Those were the main faculty members here at Missouri State who helped put Ozark Studies on the map. They eventually all retired by the end of the 20th century, and it had kind of gone on life support, so to speak, in the early 21st century. That's when they decided to create an endowed professorship in Ozark Studies, and I got the job. They brought me in here in 2008 and it was then that I built the first Ozark Studies minor, and created some new classes and taught some existing classes that were already on the books. So, we're still, now, 16 years later, we're still trying to expand it and keep building on what we've got.?

Rhett Roberson?

That's really cool. Fascinating stuff. What made you decide to go into history from the beginning??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I don't remember a time when I wasn't enthralled by history. I mean, even as a little kid, I just remember being really interested in history. I used to get on adults' nerves, because I always wanted to know when they were born and where they were born, and stuff like that. I just don't remember not being interested in it at least since junior high. I started telling people that I was going to be a history professor, even though I didn't know what that was. I probably heard my parents talk about their professors in college or something, but we didn't know any college faculty members. And so, I guess, if you're born to be anything, that's what I was born to be.?

Rhett Roberson?

I'm going to circle back to that question here in like six or eight questions, but we're going to get back there. What brings you joy??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Almost anything to do with historical research, and especially getting out and seeing places and going to cemeteries and stuff like that. It seems like a weird thing to say for bringing joy. But anything that sort of has the look and feel of history to it, I really enjoy. Besides being with family and my kids and stuff like that. I know it seems like I just remembered that after I'm talking about history. (Laughs) But that's pretty close to the top.?

Rhett Roberson?

(Laughs) I kind of primed you for that, though.?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

They wouldn't be surprised that I would just remember them after talking about history for a while. But, yeah, that and I just love being out in the out in the woods, when the ticks and chiggers aren't out there with us. Just being out in this place that I love. I just love being out in the Ozarks. Can't really beat it.?

Rhett Roberson?

Is there any particularly interesting discovery you've come upon in all your studies that comes to mind when you think back about all of your research??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah. There are moments when you're doing research or you're visiting places that you remember generally, because it's something unexpected. I remember, I was doing research down in Little Rock several years ago, and I came across this collection that had previously been off limits to the public. I managed to get access to it and there were these records that people hadn't seen for decades and decades. They were Civil War era records that were extremely rare and there was a roster from a post-Civil War organization called the Union League. It was former Union soldiers that would band together to protect themselves from former Confederate soldiers after the war. I remember coming across this roster of the Union League in this very rural area in northern Arkansas, not far from where I grew up. I was scanning down this roster, and I thought I recognized this one name on it. When I got home, I looked it up, and sure enough, it was one of my direct ancestors who was on that historical roster. That was quite a fun find, just something that a history nerd would really get super excited about.

Another thing that comes to mind, back in '09 and '10, not long after I came to Missouri State, one of the things I did, because I grew up in Arkansas, and I was new to this area and I didn't know much about the geography of Southern Missouri, about once a month, I would go out and take these long road trips through southern Missouri. One of the things I started doing on these road trips is I would stop at country stores, and I started to catalog these little mom and pop stores out in the country. I remember hearing rumors about this store down in Douglas County that I just had to visit, and it took me a long time to find it, because it was so far off the beaten path. I would ask people, and nobody seemed to know where it was, but a few people had heard rumors that it existed. I got to thinking it was just something that probably closed 40 years ago, but finally, one day I found it! It was this little community called Champion, and it's literally at the end of a blacktop road. It was one of those lettered highways and it's where the blacktop ends. There's this little store that just looked like something out of a movie. It was built in the 1920s and just looked like it's about to fall over. It had a potbellied stove in the middle of it, a hand pump kerosene tank on the porch, and I remember that was quite an experience, because you just felt like you were stepping back in time. It was like Finding Sasquatch or something. Something that you really didn't think existed, but here it is, something that has survived out of the past. About a year after that, the woman who owned it tore it down and built a new building, because it was about to fall in. It was just really bad shape.?

Rhett Roberson?

You got there just in time!?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I really did. I took pictures of it and it's still one of my favorite experiences in all of the back roading I've done through the Ozarks. To just stumble on it. It was purposely, I was trying to find it, but after giving up ever finding this place, I found it. And it was more than I'd hoped for. Henson's Grocery and Gas in Champion, Missouri.

?Rhett Roberson?

That's cool.?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, it's still there. It's just a new building.?

Rhett Roberson?

What do you do when you need to recharge??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I've been very productive in my career, but people would probably be surprised at how much downtime I do have and how much time I spend not getting anything done. My recharging usually involves some kind of historical research. A lot of times it'll just be what I've done a lot of in the past. I work on these book projects and when I finish a book project, something during that book project has sparked my interest. It won't be a big topic for a new book, but it'll be something interesting. So, before I start work on whatever the next book is, I'll dig into this sometimes strange or unusual little story. That's how I traditionally recharged myself. It sounds like I'm recharging myself by doing the same old stuff I'm always doing, but in between my last two books, I got into this project on the early days of the Grand Ole Opry and the Ozark connections to the Grand Ole Opry. It was just a fun topic. It wasn't really a toss off topic, but I knew it wasn't going to be a book. It was just something to really dig into and have fun with. I wish my answer was fishing, which I used to do more of, but I've done a lot less fishing in the last 10 years. I need to. I need to get back to that where I completely separate myself from what I do all the time. Maybe I'll be able to do that.?

Rhett Roberson?

Now you've put a put a pin in it to remember it going forward.?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, that'll be my next project. And I'll probably end up researching the history of fish. I'll find some way to make work out of it. (Laughs)?

Rhett Roberson

Speaking of work, how do your colleagues describe you??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

That's a good one. Probably as a quiet guy who they don't see around very much because I live in Arkansas, and I'm usually down there. Hopefully that's the worst thing they would say about me. I have a unique position where, technically, I'm only considered a one quarter time member of the history department, because most of what I do is geared toward Ozarks Studies. So, I guess for the last 16 plus years, I've had sort of a sometimes undefined relationship with my own colleagues in the history department. In a lot of ways, I may not come off as the most collegial person, because I'm just not around much, and I tend to keep busy when I am around. But hopefully they'd say nothing more than the quiet guy with the Arkansas accent. Hopefully, that would be the worst thing that anybody would say about me.?

Rhett Roberson?

Can you describe the work that you do??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, as with most university professors, it's kind of a dual thing where I teach and research. Most of what I teach has to do with the Ozarks. I teach graduate history classes and undergraduate history classes and most of them are Ozarks related. Then a very important component of my job is doing research and writing. So, I've published a lot of books over the years, and most of those have also had to do with the history of the Ozarks. Not all of them, but most of them. Those are the two main things that my profession entails. There are obviously the usual service requirements that anybody has, committee work and all that fun stuff that comes along. That stuff can sometimes feel like punishment for getting to do the fun stuff that we do. Not everything can be fun about your job! Teaching and research and writing are the main things, and I love doing all that stuff. What really gets me moving more than anything is the research and writing, but I love being in the classroom and teaching as well.

Rhett Roberson

You talked about it a little bit earlier when you described how the progression happened into what you were doing first, just as a history major, but what made you really turn the corner and make the Ozarks your focus?

Dr. Brooks Blevins

I remember my junior year; I did the first true research paper I did in college. It was a paper on the history of this rural black community not far from where I grew up, down in Arkansas, in the Ozarks. I remember I did several oral history interviews with elderly people who had grown up there and since moved away. I got really, really passionate about history in general, but specifically doing history that I related to and that meant something to me. It was in my senior year when, of all people, we had this young professor who had degrees from Harvard and Stanford, he was from suburban New York City and had somehow landed in this little town in Arkansas. Now I look back and the guy had to be thinking, "What did I do wrong in my career to end up here?" (Laughs) But I remember, he was the one who planted the seed when I went to a meeting in his office one day during my senior year. We had this conversation about regional identity, stereotypes, and images. Of course, he didn't know any more than I did about the Ozarks, but he knew a lot about history, and I remember leaving his office that day with a pretty strong idea of what I wanted to do. It was those two things that kind of worked in tandem when I was an undergrad that led me, and I really never looked back. I never considered doing anything else except studying the history of my home region after that. Eventually that would expand. My dissertation was just on the Arkansas Ozarks, because I wanted to graduate in a reasonable amount of time and get out and get a job, (Laughs) but eventually I would expand into the entire Ozarks, and hopefully have contributed to our understanding of this region in doing that.?

Rhett Roberson?

Yeah, I think that's what's so interesting about what you and your colleagues do. I told you, Dr. Berkwitz is a friend of mine, and he's worked on translating texts into English that have never been translated into English before. You're telling stories that may never get told if they're not told now. It's such a culturally significant and long-lasting body of work that you guys are both contributing to. Countless other professors here and elsewhere that are making sure that we're not losing any more than we can help. With every generation, we're losing a little bit. I just think that it is so interesting to be able to contribute to that understanding. Our history is such a big part of who we are now. They say you don't really know yourself unless you know where you came from. You can't really understand, at least in context. That's why I'm so excited to dig into some of your work. How many books have you put out now??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

About a dozen. But the ones on the on the Ozarks, probably about half a dozen that I've written, including, I guess most notably, the trilogy called The History of the Ozarks (https://a.co/d/5VwlkA7 ). Not a terribly inventive name there, but that was in part due to my publisher, who wanted a uniform name for the whole trilogy, instead of different names for every book.

Rhett Roberson?

Is that focused on Arkansas, like your dissertation??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

No, it's the entire region, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma. I even mentioned Kansas a couple times. You know, if you look at an Ozarks map, they get a little corner, but 95% of it is Missouri and Arkansas, with a little Oklahoma thrown in there.?

Rhett Roberson?

Can I get a free history lesson from you??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah.?

Rhett Roberson?

Where do we draw the line, and what makes that line up??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, that's quite an ask, because I'm still trying to figure that out after all these years. There are different ways to define a region, and if you look at any of the maps, they're going to be defined by physical characteristics. It's going to be a geographer or geologist who said everything within this border is similar enough to everything else within the border and different enough from everything outside that border that we can call this a region with some physical integrity. But what historians are usually dealing with are people, and it's a whole different ballgame when you start trying to identify a region culturally and historically. A lot of it boils down to what people say. Where do we say the Ozarks is or are? Do we say it's 'is' or 'are'? And how do we associate ourselves with the region or how do we not?

There are plenty of people and plenty of places inside those physical borders where the people are going to say, "We're not in the Ozarks." And what they're basically saying is, we don't really want to be in the Ozarks. Then there are going to be people who are outside of those borders, but pretty close by who will say, "Yeah, we're in the Ozarks." We identify with the Ozarks. So, there's a lot of shifting boundaries, and it just kind of depends on how you're defining the region, who you're talking to, what year it is, because it can change. I always tell my students, it's trickier than you think. It's not as easy as just drawing the right lines on a map and saying, "Okay, this is the place.", because social regions are a movable thing. (Dr. Blevins digs in deeper on The Ozarks Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQOV9DxmAVE )?

Rhett Roberson?

Yeah, that's interesting. And I guess it makes sense from a social perspective. I've just always known that I am from the Ozarks. But I couldn't really define it strictly. So that definition resonates. I guess I'll just have to read the book, you know??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, I'm just beating around the bush here, so you'll have to go out and read it. (Both laugh)

?

(Link to the video above)

Rhett Roberson?

One more sale! Who's the best boss or leader you've had the opportunity to work with, and what made them so good??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

You know, really, I haven't had that many, and most of them I would consider pretty good bosses. I really like the department head that I've been working for the last 14 years, or so. Kathleen Kennedy is her name, and I've spent over half my career working for her. She's a very good department head, and I think a good leader and a levelheaded person. I really liked Clifton M. Smart . I thought he did some great things for us here. And my old dean, who was my dean for so many years, Victor Matthews was his name. I really liked working for all those people. In the academic world you have a different relationship with your supervisors, or department heads because we tend to be a little more like free agents. We do our classes the way we want them. We're doing our research on what we want to do. We have a lot more autonomy than a lot of people out in the regular working world would have. But it's important to have bosses or department chairs or deans or presidents who are willing to respect that part of the academic world and give you the freedom to do what you've been trained to do, and what you feel like you're kind of born to do. That's a very valuable thing and I've found that to be the case ever since I've been here at Missouri State. I really value that.?

Rhett Roberson?

I really enjoy that answer. I'm trying to get a wide range of human beings to participate in this thing. I do get a lot of people from just a general corporate background, but I think your answer really overlaps, and I think we're getting to the point where you can see that it's more of a human being answer than an industry-by-industry answer. People want the autonomy, the freedom and the autonomy to do what they're good at. That really resonates with people. Just to be respected and to be given the space to do it. In your case, you've spent your whole life being the guy to do it. I mean, how many Ozarks Studies professors are there??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Probably one. (Both Laugh) One that I know of!?

Rhett Roberson?

That was going to be my guess. So, you said you kind of always felt like you wanted to be a history professor, was there anything else as a child, prior to knowing a history professor existed, that you wanted to be when you grew up??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Oh yeah. I'm sure I had Major League Baseball in my sights at some point, and I loved sports. My dad was a basketball and baseball coach, so we kind of lived and breathed sports. My brother and I did when we were growing up. So, I'm sure I went through that phase, until at some point in my teens I realized I'm probably better at other things. I'm pretty good at baseball, but there's something else out there that I'll be better at. But really, I'd say since my teenage years, I never even considered anything else. I've been really fortunate and blessed that I've been able to have that kind of one-track mind and been able to get into the career positions and track that I've been in. It's worked out much better than I could have ever imagined when I first got into this job. The humanities are a tough area to be in in academics, as far as finding a job, and especially a tenure track job. At the beginning of my career, it took me six years to get my first tenure track job, and I went through a succession of some jobs that weren't as good as what I have now. I've been very fortunate to have an endowed position that gives me the time to both teach and do research and write. I couldn't imagine anything better than that for me.?

Rhett Roberson?

I love that idea that you always knew the direction and that's where you ended up. Not many people are that laser-focused from that age.?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, and I'm not sure how much of it was just kind of naivety or dumb luck. Sometimes you've just got to be thankful and go on and enjoy it.?

Rhett Roberson?

What book has had the most significant impact on your life??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

When you're in the book business that can be a tough one. I guess, it's not because it's the best book that I've ever seen, but going back to that book, The Ozarks Land and Life by Milt Rafferty that I came across in that little college library. What's it been, 33 or 34 years ago? That first introduced me to the idea that you could actually study the Ozarks, and that there was somebody out there at a university devoting his time to writing about and researching the Ozarks. That was a very important moment for me, even though I've spent part of my time revising some of his ideas over the years. I guess if I had to pick one, it would be that one, just for the impact that it had on me at that moment in my in my career.?

Rhett Roberson?

Is that book still available somewhere??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

It is, it's still in print. I was very fortunate that I actually got to know him after I came here. He died close to 10 years ago, but he was still around when I first came here in 2008, and I got to know him. Just a few years before that, he had published a revised edition of that book, and for several years I used it in one of my classes. When I got to meet him, he was just as nice and gentlemanly and scholarly as you would hope from someone that had influenced you from afar. I wasn't disappointed. He was really a top-notch guy.?

Rhett Roberson?

What's the most important lesson you've learned so far in life??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I think it's a lesson that I was supposed to have learned from a very early age, it's just the golden rule. Treat people like you would want to be treated. I think that is a universal thing. It applies to everything and in everything we do, because everything we do is about human relations. Whether it's community, or job, or church, whatever it is. You have to remember to treat people that way and it all starts with humility and not thinking you're better than somebody else. That's how I was raised, and I don't think you can get any better than that.?

Rhett Roberson?

I like the next question for people in your particular shoes, because you deal with young people that are getting ready to enter the workforce all the time. What advice would you offer young professionals entering the workforce today??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

That's a tough one too. I probably have offered this advice audibly to some of my students when we talk about it. It is just to define what you're passionate about and build your life and your career around that as much as you possibly can. Because that's what gets us up in the morning, and that's what keeps us going. As I've said, I've been very fortunate to be able to do what I'm most passionate about as a job. I realize not everybody gets to do that, but as much as that is possible in whatever your situation is, if you can somehow build your life around that thing that you just can't wait to do, you really are going to feel like you're not working or that you've somehow pulled the wool over somebody's eyes. (Laughs) "What? They're paying me to do this? What's happening?" I would hope that ideally, we can all find that. I know not everybody does and not everybody's going to, but I think that is a goal that I would recommend.?

Rhett Roberson?

What are you most proud of??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Probably my kids. They're grown now, my daughter is in college and my son is in his mid-20s now. They're just good people. I don't know how much of that is due to my influence. I think a lot of that is just due to an extended family network and a good community that they were raised in. I hope they stay on that path. But, you know, at some point you realize that you're on the downslope, and you've been on Earth for far longer?already than you're going to be here. I'm going to leave behind books and stuff like that, but hopefully what I leave behind in the human community is more valuable. It's more valuable to me, and hopefully that'll be a reflection of something that I was a part of.?

Rhett Roberson?

I think you beat me to the punch on the last question, which is how do you hope the world's better for having you??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Yeah, well, I do hope that the Ozark region is, if nothing else, we understand ourselves and our past a little better for having me around for a few years. Even though I know at some point somebody's going to come along and say, "Well, that's not really how it happened. This Blevins guy didn't know what he was talking about. We're going to revise it this way." (Laughs) But as someone who has very deep roots in a very specific place on Earth, ultimately, it's the people that you influence. If you're fortunate enough to leave family behind,? when you go home, I think that's the ultimate mark.?

Rhett Roberson?

To what degree, if at all, do you feel that your studies have influenced your perspective on what you leave behind you??

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

I think they have. This is probably a roundabout way of answering that question. When I first started doing this as an undergraduate, when I first kind of dug into the Ozarks history and started studying, I remember thinking at that time, "This is a really unique place, and I'm going to go in here and describe how unique and special it is." But as I really delved deeper and deeper into the history, and as I studied other places and studied American history in general, I finally came to the conclusion that the Ozarks has more in common with other places than it differs with them. We're really just a slight variation on some sort of national melody,

We're really just a slight variation on some sort of national melody.

and to me that was very important because it reinforced ideas I had of valuing people and finding commonality with other people who seem to be very different from me and came from different backgrounds from me. It is about finding what linked us together and not what divides us from one another. I would hope that part of my legacy would be that message that comes out in a lot of my books, that we're all more alike than we sometimes think. We can get caught up in zeroing in on these little differences that we have, but the human experience in total, we share so many commonalities. We share so many common experiences. I just think it's important not to forget that and not to concentrate so much on how I'm different from somebody. I hope that that's part of what I leave behind, at least in my academic work.?

Rhett Roberson?

That was one of my favorite things anyone has said to me all year doing this, "we're all just a slight variation of a national melody." That is a beautiful and poetic way to put that. You should write a book! (Laughs)?

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

That'll be in the next one! Yeah, there's probably some version of that in one already.?

Rhett Roberson?

Well, that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you making time. This was really interesting to me.

Dr. Brooks Blevins?

Well, good, yeah. I'm fascinated that you're doing this. When you contacted me, I didn't know your background, and I did take the time to look up your employment and stuff like that. So, this is just something you're..? You're just doing this...

Rhett Roberson

On the side, purely unaffiliated with anything. I don't know what it is, ultimately. (Laughs)?

Dr. Brooks Blevins

That's pretty impressive that you're taking on a task like that. And I'm glad that we can call you one of ours. You're doing something that's really going above and beyond and thinking on a different level.

Rhett Roberson?

I hope the end product is worth all of that fine praise you just gave me there. Thank you.

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Books:

The Ozarks Land and Life – Milton Rafferty (https://a.co/d/6cQhXHU )

Hill Folks – Dr. Brooks Blevins (https://a.co/d/5g0kdtB )

The History of the Ozarks - Dr. Brooks Blevins (https://a.co/d/5VwlkA7 )