News of a mass shooting in Arkansas alarmed me, since I have family in that state. When I learned that this occurred in Fordyce, I was relieved because I don’t have loved ones there, but my heart was heavy because I have been to that city and consider it to be a unique place.
Traveling between my son’s home in Mississippi and my mother’s in Blackfork, Arkansas, one route I’ve taken goes thorough Fordyce. Most recently, I drove through there this spring when I went out to watch the eclipse. On the surface, Fordyce appears to be an ordinary little town, but it has strong sense of civic pride and, most of all, a great sense of humor.
Three years ago, I noticed banners hanging from every lamppost in town. These banners featured—what?—redbugs? Chiggers? Really? Outside of town I saw large Redbugs painted on sheets of plywood, with captions proclaiming “Fordyce High School—2020 State Football Champions!” I spent a little time driving around town and even visited the football stadium. I took lots of pictures, but unfortunately, before I got home, my phone froze up and I lost them.
Schools usually choose mascots with fierce-sounding names like Wildcats, Sharks, or Gators. Why would anyone name a mascot after a miniscule arachnid? Wouldn’t they be laughed off the playing field? This has got to be (It actually is!) the only school in the US with Redbugs as a mascot.
If you are unfamiliar with redbugs, let me educate you. Also called chiggers, they are relatives of ticks, so tiny as to be almost invisible. Their bites are the biggest thing about them. Actually, they don’t just bite. They inject enzymes into the wound they make in your skin. Those enzymes digest your cells. Yuk! They don’t suck blood, they suck up the digested tissue, and the bites ITCH!
Redbugs congregate on vegetation, on the ground, and just about anywhere, waiting for an unsuspecting victim to feed on. Notice I said congregate. They don’t come individually, like ticks, they come en masse. They crawl up your legs and get under your clothes. You may not notice them until you find welts wherever your clothes are constrictive. And they ITCH! The bites don’t just plague you for a few days, they ITCH for a week or more.
I found a treatment for the bites that works for me. My late dog Teddy had skin problems and was very sensitive to flea bites. When I looked for something to relieve his suffering, I found that Echinacea will soothe insect bites. So I made a strong infusion of Echinacea to treat Teddy’s flea bites.
One day, I apparently tangled with a huge nest of chiggers in my yard. They crawled up under my shorts and covered my thighs with bites. I caught them early and reached for the Echinacea tea. Then I thought, why not do a scientific experiment to see how effective it is? I treated one side of my body with Echinacea and left the other side as the control. Overnight, that side of my body stopped itching. Having proved my hypothesis, I treated the other side. It stopped the itching, but not as well as on the first side. I concluded that the sooner you use Echinacea, the more effective it is.
I learned the hard way to take my chigger treatment with me when I travel. Not far from Fordyce is a roadside park at Marks’ Mills Battlefield, the site of a civil war battle that has its own interesting story. I generally stop there to take a break from driving and stretch my legs. In 2019, I took two of my grandchildren to Arkansas with me and we stopped to tour the battlefield.
We tramped through the woods, read signage and monuments, and sat on wooden benches, oblivious that we were in enemy territory. Suddenly, James cried out, “There are spiders all over me!” I looked closely—he was covered with redbugs! I took him into the camper and had him take off his clothes and wash before putting on fresh clothing. I double bagged the infested clothes until I could tend to them. I checked myself and his sister for chiggers, but didn’t see any on us. At the moment. By the time we reached Blackfork, we both were ITCHING, but James was just fine. I rued the fact that I’d left my Echinacea at home. I tried other remedies, but nothing worked as well.
You won’t find a foe fiercer than a Redbug. Throughout history, their ITCH has caused more agony than attacks by Bulldogs, Stingrays, and Panthers. And the Fordyce Redbugs have defeated all those other teams with their ferocious-sounding mascots. The Bugs have won eight football championships between 1930 and 2020. No one laughs them off the playing field.
In many small southern towns, football is almost a religion. Fordyce was the site of Arkansas’s first football program at Clary Training School in 1904. Five years later, Fordyce High School had their own team. I’m sure someone knows what the first mascot was, but I haven’t been able to find out. In the 1920’s, they built a new football field. Workers clearing the land and building the stadium were tormented by redbugs. Perhaps tongue-in-cheek, the local sportswriter suggested making the Redbugs the team’s mascot. He was taken seriously, and the rest is history.
In 1927, the football coach noticed a six-foot-plus eighth grader walking by while the team was practicing. He called him over and asked if he wanted to play football. The boy admitted he didn’t know what a football was. The coach recruited him anyway, and Paul “Bear” Bryant played with the team when they won their first state championship in 1930.
Coach Bryant came from humble beginnings, the eleventh of twelve children. His birthplace, an unassuming cracker house, still stands on Route 8 between Fordyce and Marks Mills Battlefield. He got his nickname after wrestling a carnival bear as a teenager. After he achieved legendary fame, Redbug Field was renamed Paul “Bear” Bryant Stadium. It was listed on the Arkansas Register of Historic Places in 2014.
This spring, I stopped for gas in Fordyce. The next time I pass through, I’ll spend more time and get to know the town better. Sadly, today most of the nation thinks of Fordyce as the scene of yet another tragedy, but there’s so much more to it. Any community with the aplomb to call themselves Redbugs must have what it takes to heal their sorrows and get back in the game.
What a delightfully written interesting post but I must admit to itching a lot just by reading this post! I live in Georgia and have more than our share of annoying, pain causing illness starting insects, like jumping spiders, fire ants, cockroaches and gnats but as of this moment no red bugs though Florida has them but most things don’t stay long in Georgia when they are heading to Florida so we’re good!
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Great story Pat! Sadly….if you would have asked me I could have given you a more effective chiggers “medicine”! Mix cayenne pepper in coconut oil and lather it on the effected area. As your body temp heats it up and your skin burns on fire…..it kills those chiggers fast! So MAYBE…..if a team wants to beat the Fordyce Redbugs…..it might be the Cayenne Peppers!😜
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What a great remedy! Will your remedy work on other pests since at least at the moment red bugs have made a home in Georgia ( now don’t give them red bugs any ideas please)?
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Echinacea also helps tick bites. Cayenne will probably burn the itch out of anything.
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Maybe we should warn them about the Cayenne Peppers.
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