Through Old Ground

Through Old Ground is a collection of stories from the life of Dr. Randy Cross, a small-town Southerner turned English professor and author, most notable for his work with T. S. Stribling's autobiography, The Laughing Stock. Dr. Cross grew up in St. Joseph, Tennessee, where he gained the strong foundation upon which he relied throughout his adventures as a two-time Fulbright Scholar and beyond. With his down-to-earth narrative style, Dr. Cross describes various memories and events in his life, infusing each chapter with his incredible wit and humor. Beginning in his childhood, the book progresses through Dr. Cross's adulthood, reflecting on lessons he has learned and significant people who have been a part of his life. Through Old Ground transports readers into a world full of nostalgia and heart, reminding us that no matter how far away from our roots we may find ourselves, they will always remain with us and call us back home.

About the Author :
Originally from St. Joseph, Tennessee, Dr. Randy Cross lives in Decatur, Alabama, and is a Professor Emeritus of English at Calhoun Community College. Dr. Cross is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, having taught in Portugal and Brazil, and he is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Tennessee Army National Guard. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for finishing T.S. Stribling's last work, Laughing Stock, and has written numerous scholarly articles and reviews in addition to his post-publication introductions to three of Stribling's works. Dr. Cross is also an experienced speaker and appeared on the 2011 History Channel special "You Don't Know Dixie." Frye Gaillard is a writer who has written more than thirty books, ranging across the genres of history, memoir and journalism.Frye Gaillard was born in Mobile, Alabama on December 23, 1946. His parents were lawyer and later judge Walter Frye Gaillard, Sr., and Helen Amante Gaillard. Gaillard attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1968. During the 1960s Gaillard came into proximity with many of the most prominent political personalities of the decade. As a high school student in 1963, Gaillard witnessed the arrest of Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham, Alabama, during King's Birmingham campaign against racial segregation. While at Vanderbilt he came into contact with Stokley Carmichael and Eldridge Cleaver, when the two Black Panthers were engaged to speak. Shortly after, in 1968, he invited Robert F. Kennedy to speak at Vanderbilt, 11 weeks prior to Kennedy's assassination.[1][2]CareerGaillard started his career at the Race Relations Reporter in Nashville as managing editor from 1970 to 1972, then moved to the Charlotte Observer as a writer, editor and columnist, while teaching nonfiction writing at Queens College, both until 1990. While with the Observer he won awards from the North Carolina Press Association for spot news, features and investigative reporting. In 2004 he moved back to Mobile. As an author he won the 1989 Gustavus Myers Award for The Dream Long Deferred, and in 2007 the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Cradle of Freedom.Gaillard's 2018 book A Hard Rain was inspired by David Halberstam's The Fifties, and documents the 1960s in part through Gaillard's experiences of the time. Gailllard has been author-in-residence at the University of South Alabama since 2007. He has written more than 25 books.

Review :
Randy Cross belongs to a species nearly extinct: the storyteller whose voice makes the Old Times dance again. -Howard Bahr, author of The Black Flower "Randy Cross's memoir Through Old Ground, reads like a novel built around a series of events Cross experienced while growing up in St. Joseph, Tennessee, teaching English as a Fulbright Scholar in Rio de Janeiro, and later during his life in North Alabama. He plows through the 'old ground' of his memory to bring delightful incidents to the reader. His is a life built around love, adventure, and family. At no time does Cross lose sight of the importance of family from his childhood days in elementary school through the days in Brazil while teaching English, when his mother, who refuses to miss any happening, insists on seeing a murdered man in the street before she goes shopping. Here are poignant, honest, wise stories that vividly depict a by-gone era. It has beautiful moments, tied together with delightful comparisons. Cross offers some great belly-laugh stories, as well as overall laugh-out-loud stories. Through Old Ground, and its charming stories will stay with the reader long after he has laid the book aside."- Laura Hunter, author of Summer of No Rainand Beloved Mother "Cross offers readers 24 vignettes that blend nostalgia, humor, and Southern charm....The book's folksy style will draw readers into its stories...and they will find humor and meaning in the mundane, from water hoses to Sunday church." - Kirkus Reviews As much as the heartwarming memoir Through Old Ground is about its subject, it is also about those he loves and cares about most. ... In a loud, clear, and often hilarious voice, Randy Cross brings the American South to life in the twenty-four short vignettes that make up his memoir, Through Old Ground. ... --Clarion 3 Stars "Through Old Ground is an absolute treasure, a literary feast of personal stories from a Southern boy who traveled far and wide from his native Tennessee yet always carried the old home place in his heart. In these essays, the memory of growing up in a small town populated with colorful characters and a language of its own is treated every bit as lovingly as the eye-opening travels to exotic lands. This is a book that will make you laugh out loud on one page and blink back tears the next. Thank you, Dr. Randy Cross, for such a delightful read." - Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy