Through Old Ground

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. ...

--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