Leaving a Trail

I'm Joe Miles, a small town Arkansas 'kid' and a 1970 graduate of Newport High School. My daughters fashioned this blog site as a forum for my scribbled thoughts about Newport and its people, then and now. Newport is located in northeastern Arkansas on the White River. Many of Newport's young folk move to other locales after their high school experience. My writings were initiated in early 2000 in efforts to encourage my classmates to return to Newport for our 30th high school reunion that year with no intention of continuing them after that event. However, others' encouraging me to keep on writing reminiscent stories of youthful experience drives me to spill my thoughts out onto a blank page allowing those thoughts to talk back to me. This exercise is therapeutic for me. One of my former classmates dubbed these stories the Miles' Files. For the past ten years I have been sending the Miles' Files to a growing list of family and friends on an irregular time frame. My daughters have posted my remembrances of Newport and its townspeople along with some writings related to my work in Arkansas banking to this site to create the Miles from Newport blog. I am hopeful all readers will see reflections of their own 'coming of age' stories in my writings. The mascot of Newport High School is the Greyhound. I often refer to my classmates as my 'littermates.' Followers of the Miles from Newport blog are recognized as the 'Pack and Pups.' If you have left paw prints in Newport, Arkansas or if you have befriended a 'stray pup' from Newport on your life's journey, I invite you to join the pack and follow along. If you are a fellow blogger with Newport ties or a blogger who has adopted a Newport 'pup,' please leave your blog address behind so that I may follow your trail as you make your way to and from the kennel. I appreciate the friendship that we share.