Upon graduation from Mississippi State University in 1976, Ken Martin teamed up with his father Rupert Martin and brother-in-law Bo Calendar to establish a logging job as a means of diversifying the family’s cattle business. Rupert’s father had had the foresight to plant pine trees back in the ’60s and those stands were ready to be thinned about the time Martin completed his degree. He is now the sole owner of Mar-Cal Inc., a name derived from the original partners’ last names.

“Everybody says times are bad. I can’t say they are.” That was the observation of Ricky Leonard, 51, owner of Leonard Logging, when Southern Loggin’ Times visited in December. “We get rid of everything we can cut.” That was then. This is now.

Southern “company towns” began with Jamestown, Va., in 1607, so the sawmill communities of east Texas followed in a long tradition. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textile mills, mining companies, cotton plantations, sawmills and other large enterprises all found it expedient to create and operate proprietary communities to house, support, and control their employees.

Southerners, at home or transplanted, are well known for seasoning their dialect with colorful expressions or “sayins,” some of which may be difficult for others to comprehend. Here’s a generous sampling of some often used and some used not so often:

There was a time when a man’s word meant something. I have always been proud of the fact that I try to be a man of my word, even if it takes a lot of effort to back it up. My wife even says that sometimes, to a fault, I keep my word; sacrificing my family time to do something I said I would do even though I really didn’t have the free time to do it.