Title: Markham Hill’s Hillbilly Hot Tub, by Mike Bewley

Having been kicked out of my girlfriend’s apartment shortly after 9/11 in 2001, I needed a place to live where I could bring my very old German Shepherd.  A friend recommended Markham Hill. I was soon living there. I had some background on the pattern of life on Markham Hill, so it wasn’t a surprise to my system. When I was 6 years old my parents brought me from Los Angeles to rural Arkansas to live with my grandparents. It was quite the shock at the time! Outhouse, woodstove, milking cows, hauling water, working a garden. I moved into the old Ward Pennington house on Markham Hill, on the other side of the big meadow where the woods began on the west side of the property. It had two rooms, one chimney with woods stoves on each side, and no running water. But it did have electricity. James Dill and Pritam Chowdhury lived in old cabins close by. We shared an outhouse. No vehicles were allowed across the horse pasture to get to our cabins, so we wheel barreled in all water.

Soon after moving there, a college kid ran a stop sign and totaled my truck. I then bought a bicycle. For the next two years that was my mode of transportation. James soon wrote a song called "Mike on His Bike" which ended up on a CD of bicycle songs featuring many Fayetteville musicians.

James and I soon got our hands on an old cast iron bathtub and quickly lit a fire under it. We used it for bathing and therapy. This inspired my song "Hillbilly Hot Tub" which was stolen by a national food chain for a commercial. (Long story.) The chorus is:

I don’t want no skeeters
Don’t want no West Nile
Don’t want no Rocky Mountain Fever
No ticks and no chiggers for many a mile
I just want to live until the day I die
In this Hillbilly Hot Tub way outside, way outside

There were many jam sessions with local musicians, which is where I became smitten with a fine lady from Oklahoma. That experience led me to write another song called "Oklahoma's Darlin" which has many Markham Hill references. This song is still in the studio, halfway done, due to covid-19.

The residents used the round horse corral as a community garden which served as a place to meet and talk about our lives. In the spring the morel mushrooms were abundant. Blackberries in the summer.

It eventually came my turn to get a house on the Josh Brown farm. Shortly before I moved there it snowed seven inches. When I went outside there was a silver fox near my door. It made no attempt to run. Beautiful.

Since then I've been to Markham Hill to play music, attend a wedding, cater private functions, and attend the Fayetteville Roots Festival. I always look down the path to the Ward Pennington house with fond memories. To this day, I still have some rustic furniture I made from leftover scraps from the Pratt Place event barn.

Markham Hill 2001-2002. No TV, no smart phone, no computer...just a beautiful natural paradise. May it stay wild and free forever!

(You can find Mike Bewley’s songs on ReverbNation.com.) 

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