About MyOrphos

MyOrphos started with a straightforward intention to serve as a home for my own writing. Like many well-laid plans, digging out, dusting off, and organizing decades of my own articles has taken a back seat to the momentum of daily life.

In the meantime, the site found a life of its own by giving voice to the people who came before me.

It began with the Memories of Enterprise series, written by my cousins to capture the texture of life and local lore in Mississippi. From there, it expanded to include my father’s memoirs, preserving his personal recollections and firsthand perspective. Most recently, it made room for the scrapbooks of my great-grandfather, E.R. Calhoun, a long-time newspaper proofreader whose ink-stained clippings and handwritten notes record an Alabama that has largely vanished from living memory.

While E.R.’s archives have taken up a fair share of the room lately, MyOrphos isn't solely an archive for him. It is a shared table for multiple voices across multiple generations, and eventually, a place where my own essays and articles will sit alongside them.

What You Will Find Here:

• Memories of Enterprise: A collection of stories and local recollections from my cousins, documenting the heritage, community, and humor of small-town life in Enterprise, Mississippi.
• Memoirs & Family Recollections: Personal histories and reflections from my father and extended family, keeping firsthand experiences alive in their own words.
• The E.R. Calhoun Scrapbooks: Transcriptions, clippings, and historical dispatches drawn from the ledgers of an Alabama newspaperman and proofreader.
• Essays & Original Writing: Observations on family history, the craft of preservation, and the backlog of my own writing as it finds its way out of the archives.

Getting in Touch

If a name, a place, or an old story here catches your eye, or if you have a memory, correction, or connection of your own to add, I would be glad to hear from you.

You can reach me directly at rod [at] myorphos [dot] com.