The Shoofly Magazine
  • Home
    • Amtrak Gulf Coast: Latest News
    • 15 Minutes Photo Galleries
    • Arts Alive!
    • Bay Reads
    • Beach to Bayou
    • Big Buzz Blog
    • Coast Cuisine
    • The Eyes Have It
    • Good Neighbor
    • Living Large
    • Nature Notes
    • Noteworthy Women
    • On the Shoofly
    • Partner Spotlight
    • Second Saturday
    • Shared History
    • Sonny's Fishing Report
    • Talk of the Town
    • Town Green
    • Upcoming Events
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Calendar Users Guide
    • Calendar FAQs
  • Communities
    • Bay St. Louis Lifestyle
    • Diamondhead Lifestyle
    • Pass Christian Lifestyle
    • Waveland Lifestyle
  • Readers' Circle
    • Partners
  • Local Living
    • Upcoming Events
    • EAT
    • SHOP
    • PLAY >
      • Community Calendar
    • STAY >
      • Camping & RV Parks
    • TOURS >
      • Instagram Tours >
        • Beach Blvd. Instagram Ops
        • Main Street Instagram Ops
        • Second Street Instagram Ops
        • Depot District Instagram Stars
        • Black History Instagram Tour - Part 1
    • PETS
    • WEDDINGS
    • SERVICES >
      • Automotive
      • Construction
      • Entertainment
      • Financial Services
      • Food & Beverage
      • Health
      • Home & Garden
      • Legal Services
      • Marine & Boating
      • Marketing
      • Media
      • Office
      • Personal Care
      • Pets
      • Real Estate
      • Recreation
      • Transportation
      • Travel/Hospitality
      • Utilities
    • ORGANIZATIONS >
      • Churches
      • Government
      • Education >
        • Art Teachers
      • Hurricane Prep Guide
      • Wildlife Rescue in South Mississippi

Bay Reads - March 2016

3/1/2016

 

The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge: A Memoir in Dog Years
by Rheta Grimsley Johnson

Nationally beloved columnist and author - and Pass Christian resident - Rheta Grimsley Johnson releases a new tell-all book about some of her best friends.
by Carole McKellar
Tweet
More Current Stories!
Picture
It is a special pleasure when this column can introduce you to local authors. This time, no introduction is necessary. Rheta Johnson has written her seventh book - in addition to being a nationally syndicated columnist and contributor to The Fourth Ward Cleaver. We are proud to know her, and, if there is a cry of nepotism for reviewing one of our own, well ... we are about to earn it.
 
Rheta’s new book is “The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge.”  It is the story of a life lived with and enhanced by the companionship of dogs. The story traces the evolution of attitude, told through her family dogs, but referring as well to home, love, loss, grief, and resilience.

Rheta has spent forty years as a journalist and this memoir showcases her skill as a writer. She dared enter the profession when few women did. She is a keen observer of people and able to write of human foibles with both humor and kindness. She is drawn to characters and story. When she expressed sympathy at the eight-year widowhood of a new and elderly neighbor, the woman retorted, “Best eight years of my life.”
 
Implying that Rheta’s life has been all sweetness and light would misrepresent her struggles and successes. Rheta and her first husband’s start-up newspaper failed, her journalism career had a rocky start, and her second husband died of heart failure. Rheta faced these challenges with the determination she exhibited choosing a career in a male-oriented profession. Friends both human and canine grieved with her and helped her retain her wit and exuberance.

Bay Reads
is sponsored by

Picture

Rheta's new book will be officially hitting the shelves on April 1st!  In the meantime, Pass Christian Books (300 East Scenic Drive, Pass Christian) has a limited number of signed copies!

The official book launch party takes place at Pass Books on Tuesday, April 5th, from 6pm - 7:30pm with refreshments and hors d'oeuvres.  If you haven't met Rheta yet, here's your opportunity!



Click here and scroll down for archived Bay Reads columns
Picture
After her divorce and with the memory of her grandparents’ rural and bucolic farm life, Rheta decided to purchase 100 acres and a ramshackle house in Tishomingo County. She described Mississippi hill country as “an unlikely and remote spot.” She struggled to make a home at “Fish Trap Hollow” and to overcome “permanent outsider status” with the reticent hill country locals.  
 
Since childhood, dogs have been a requisite part of Rheta’s life. Dogs are a favored companion because they “never interrupt us, contradict us, scold us. They don’t gossip. They communicate quietly, with their eyes, which is what more humans should do.… They are mysterious and open all at once, a dichotomous blend of need and indifference.”
A family tradition of outdoor dogs survived into Rheta’s adulthood until a beautiful yellow lab named Mabel — pronounced May-Belle — entered the picture. Rheta writes, “Mabel traded on her looks. There’s no other way to say it. She was so beautiful that it never really mattered how much toilet paper she shredded, whose hairbrush she destroyed, what shoes she ate, where she sat or slept. Mabel made it clear that those unfair-seeming statistics about beautiful creatures having it easier in this world were dead on.”
 
The bridge, in the title, refers to a wooden structure spanning the “branch” at Fish Trap Hollow. Mabel was the first dog buried on the other side of the bridge, which further ties Rheta to the land that for so long she thought only a temporary home.
 
Rheta said it best when she wrote:
 
            On the days when yet another newspaper closes its doors forever, when the
            branch floods, floors rot, human friends feud, and bills come due, a dog or two
            have been here to commiserate, to put paw to thigh in a gesture more protective
            and loving than perhaps any other. While I cherish my human friendships, I believe
            I’ve learned the most about life, how to lead a good one, from the dogs that have             populated mine. Or maybe there’s no longer any way of separating the human
            and canine lives in my world, and the lessons overlap.

 
It is a wonderful journey told well.    
 
Also by Rheta Grimsley Johnson:
            “Hank Hung the Moon and Warmed Our Cold, Cold Hearts”
            “Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming”
            “Poor Man’s Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana”
            “Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz”
            “America’s Faces”
            “Georgia”
(with Craig M. Tanner)
 


Comments are closed.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    15 Minutes
    Across The Bridge
    Antiques
    Architecture
    Art
    Arts Alive
    At Home In The Bay
    Bay Bride
    Bay Business
    Bay Reads
    Beach To Bayou
    Beach-to-bayou
    Beautiful Things
    Benefit
    Big Buzz
    Boats
    Body+Mind+Spirit
    Books
    BSL Council Updates
    BSL P&Z
    Business
    Business Buzz
    Casting My Net
    Civics
    Coast Cuisine
    Coast Lines Column
    Day Tripping
    Design
    DIY
    Editors Notes
    Education
    Environment
    Events
    Fashion
    Food
    Friends Of The Animal Shelter
    Good Neighbor
    Grape Minds
    Growing Up Downtown
    Harbor Highlights
    Health
    History
    Honor Roll
    House And Garden
    Legends And Legacies
    Local Focal
    Lodging
    Mardi Gras
    Mind+Body+Spirit
    Mother Of Pearl
    Murphy's Musical Notes
    Music
    Nature
    Nature Notes
    New Orleans
    News
    Noteworthy Women
    Old Town Merchants
    On The Shoofly
    Parenting
    Partner Spotlight
    Pass Christian
    Public Safety
    Puppy-dog-tales
    Rheta-grimsley-johnson
    Science
    Second Saturday
    Shared History
    Shared-history
    Shelter-stars
    Shoofly
    Shore Thing Fishing Report
    Sponsor Spotlight
    Station-house-bsl
    Talk Of The Town
    The Eyes Have It
    Tourism
    Town Green
    Town-green
    Travel
    Tying-the-knot
    Video
    Vintage-vignette
    Vintage-vignette
    Waveland
    Weddings
    Wellness
    Window-shopping
    Wines-and-dining

    Archives

    December 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

Shoofly Magazine Partners

​Our Shoofly Partners are local businesses and organizations who share our mission to enrich community life in Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Diamondhead and Pass Christian. These are limited in number to maximize visibility.  Email us now to become a Shoofly Partner!
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum

Bay Town Inn

Bay-tique Boutique

The Bay Bum

The Shops of Century Hall

Chiniche Engineering

Creole Creamery

The Cultured Oak

The French Potager

Hancock County Historical Society

HL Raymond Properties

Kenny Dental

Lagarde's Fine Wine & Spirits

The Loft
The Mane Salon

Magnolia Antiques

Ms. Mary's Old Town Snoballs

Mystic Ghost Tours

PJ's Coffee

Salty Soul Outfitters

Theatre in the Pass

VSPA at Hancock Women's Center

The Wedding Collection ​

John & Ning Wiebmer


The Shoofly Magazine  is published by MAC Media, LLC.   Unless otherwise attributed, all written content and photography copyright MAC Media, LLC

Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
  • Home
    • Amtrak Gulf Coast: Latest News
    • 15 Minutes Photo Galleries
    • Arts Alive!
    • Bay Reads
    • Beach to Bayou
    • Big Buzz Blog
    • Coast Cuisine
    • The Eyes Have It
    • Good Neighbor
    • Living Large
    • Nature Notes
    • Noteworthy Women
    • On the Shoofly
    • Partner Spotlight
    • Second Saturday
    • Shared History
    • Sonny's Fishing Report
    • Talk of the Town
    • Town Green
    • Upcoming Events
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Calendar Users Guide
    • Calendar FAQs
  • Communities
    • Bay St. Louis Lifestyle
    • Diamondhead Lifestyle
    • Pass Christian Lifestyle
    • Waveland Lifestyle
  • Readers' Circle
    • Partners
  • Local Living
    • Upcoming Events
    • EAT
    • SHOP
    • PLAY >
      • Community Calendar
    • STAY >
      • Camping & RV Parks
    • TOURS >
      • Instagram Tours >
        • Beach Blvd. Instagram Ops
        • Main Street Instagram Ops
        • Second Street Instagram Ops
        • Depot District Instagram Stars
        • Black History Instagram Tour - Part 1
    • PETS
    • WEDDINGS
    • SERVICES >
      • Automotive
      • Construction
      • Entertainment
      • Financial Services
      • Food & Beverage
      • Health
      • Home & Garden
      • Legal Services
      • Marine & Boating
      • Marketing
      • Media
      • Office
      • Personal Care
      • Pets
      • Real Estate
      • Recreation
      • Transportation
      • Travel/Hospitality
      • Utilities
    • ORGANIZATIONS >
      • Churches
      • Government
      • Education >
        • Art Teachers
      • Hurricane Prep Guide
      • Wildlife Rescue in South Mississippi