Through Old Ground

“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 homeplace 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 on the next. Thank you, Dr. Randy Cross, for such a delightful read.”

Cassandra King, author of the award-winning memoir, Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy

“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 Rain and 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. Written as a series of anecdotes shared in chronological order, Cross’s memoir tracks his life from childhood through his time with the National Guard, into academia and beyond. Each anecdote is spotted with old-fashioned wisdom and platitudes passed down from his kinsfolk. And while at times its rants against changing cultural norms and shifts in language are wearying, the book is more often flush with goodwill and a positive outlook.

Cross, a small-town Tennessee native born into a supportive but cantankerous family and raised to love language, traveled far and wide with the National Guard and as a Fulbright scholar. Family remained central to his life, and these stories hold a special place for his no-nonsense mother, who is seen haranguing a salesman about a faulty microwave and trailing Cross to the scene of a murder in Brazil. His father and brother make cameo appearances, too, while his wife, Kim, is preserved for actions like urging Cross to try skydiving and helping him to track down the grave of a famous author.

Cross, meanwhile, is vivified by his snide sense of humor, his love of teaching language, and his affection for his hometown. His is a story of a quiet life—one led without much adversity and filled with the privileges of support and success. He recalls its events with the flavor of a storyteller regaling listeners on a porch, reminiscing on his more adventurous past—and sometimes going on tangents when it comes to the perceived failures of the generations that followed his own.

Cross’s opinions and mannerisms are declared without much introspection, though, somewhat flattening the text and limiting its appeal. Subjects including philosophy, society, and politics are treated with much the same light hand. Further, one chapter is less an anecdote than an essay; it rants against the use of polysyllabic words when terse language could cover the same ground and comments on Cross’s struggles with gender-inclusive language. It’s a surface-level discussion in an otherwise charming book of more memorable personal anecdotes.

Capturing formative moments, the memoir Through Old Ground delights in recalling warm and bizarre situations for the entertainment of others.

— Foreword Clarion Reviews

“When I glanced at the title of the book, and the author’s impressive credentials, I had no idea what to expect. It didn’t take long for me to figure it out. In fact, I soon felt as if Dr. Cross had reached into my past, took hold of my memories, mixed them with his own recollections, and then fashioned them into these funny, inspiring, emotional tales. One of my favorites was ‘Angels Unawares.’ The description of the lightning storm immediately evoked one of my own best-loved childhood memories. Many of the stories affected me that way. I swan, it was like going home to Mama’s House—front porch to be exact— one of the best places in the world. One of the best times. Thank you for the trip, Dr. Cross.”

—Ann Swann, author of Stutter Creek

“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 homeplace 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 on the next. Thank you, Dr. Randy Cross, for such a delightful read.”

Cassandra King, author of the award-winning memoir, Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy

“Twice a Fulbright Scholar, Ph.D. in English, Pulitzer Prize Nominee, College Professor, Musician, Author, World Traveler. All of these describe the remarkable Randy Cross. And there’s at least one more: Actor. He performs to perfection the role of a lawyer in a small Southern town as depicted in The Store, a novel for which its author, T.S. Stribling, won the Pulitzer in 1933. Through all of his accomplishments and accolades, Randy Cross credits his childhood and growing-up years on the old ground that nurtured him in the little town of St. Joseph, Tennessee. This book, Through Old Ground, chronicles perfectly that part of Randy’s fascinating autobiography.”

--Billy Warren, City Historian

Florence, Alabama