Through Old Ground 

By Randy Cross 

Bluewater Publications, 2024 

Paperback; $24.95 

Genre: Memoir 

Reviewed by Lisa Harrison 

Cover of Through Old Ground. Illustration of a man and boy plowing a field.

In the tradition of Lewis Grizzard and Rick Bragg comes community college English professor Randy Cross, whose collection of essays Through Old Ground holds its own with the best. This memoir takes readers down a lane of reminiscences beginning in Cross’s sleepy, small hometown of St. Joseph, Tennessee, and winding through foreign locales of Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon. Along the way, Cross recounts his journey from Southern “hick” to learned professor, and he introduces an entertaining array of eccentric characters and humorous situations.  

Cross’s childhood was spent in a town so small it didn’t even have a stop sign. His parents were a dynamic couple comprised of a classic Southern force-of-nature-matriarch mother and a wise, easy-going father. “Mama” was perfectly capable of holding her own and prevailing, whether confronting a crooked appliance salesman or demanding to speak on the phone with a sheriff asleep in his bed at 9 pm because “I voted for him and I mean to speak to him right now.”  Scripture-quoting “Daddy” modeled lessons in charity and diplomacy.  Both parents were capable of great kindness when the situation warranted. 

The close-knit town community centered around church activities and school, with the occasional unexpected pleasure such as a Southern snow day. Church provided opportunities for meetings, dinners, and even “dancing” by way of a skating trip. At school, a pair of sisters who were both teachers instilled manners as well as lessons in compassion. Stories about world history told around the globe foreshadowed Crook’s later journey to Portugal. A stint in the Army and a college education helped Cross to understand his place in the wider world as, in the words of one professor, “one of our more provincial students.” 

When a Fulbright scholarship allowed Cross to venture far from his hometown roots, he discovered a much larger world, with experiences he mines for humor and human connections.  His adventures included an Amazon River trip that featured boating in alligator-inhabited waters and sleeping in a tent alongside an unwelcome visitor from the arachnid family. He also found himself doing business with an unofficial money changer and explaining the local pickpockets to his visiting parents. Most importantly, he was able to forge relationships with students, whose interest in American culture and appreciation for the American government proved deeply moving to the professor. Another travel adventure not related to teaching arose when Cross and his wife made a pilgrimage to Wales in search of the grave of Richard Llewellyn, author of How Green Was My Valley. The story of crisscrossing the Welsh countryside for days and consulting various experts on Welsh culture with no answers as to the grave’s location is recounted with characteristic droll descriptions. 

Far from being a “hillbilly elegy,” Through Old Ground is a celebration of Southern working-class values that helped shape a young man’s character even as he traversed the journey of a small-town boy to an admired professor. Cross’s command of storytelling is honed by years of classroom lecturing and easily engages the reader with wry charm and grounded observations.  

Lisa Harrison is an avid reader who spent 15 years in the book publishing industry. When not curled up with a cup of tea, a book, and a rescued cat or two (or more), she enjoys all varieties of needle crafts.