The Old Try

Found by a Southern ex-pat, The Old Try creates nostalgic letterpressed prints of various Southern and American phrases and images.
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Old Try: Paddle Buffalo Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: The Man In The Arena Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: General Manners No. 1 Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Say What You Will Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: If There is No Wind Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Bourbon + Horses Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Work Speaks Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
$55.00
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Old Try: Victory Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: From Thy Shelter Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: Watermelon Print - 13x20
$42.00
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Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Sugar (13x20)
$42.00
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Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Puppy Dog Tails (13x20)
$42.00
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20
Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20

Old Try: Mother of Mothers Print - 13x20

$42.00

My momma used to bring us back Razorback souvenirs. Whenever she would drive home (Trumann, Ark.) for a weekend, she’d stop at a truck-stop in West Memphis and buy a piggybank or a small sized t-shirt with a Hog on it. As a young fellow, I didn’t really know what they were or who they were but I did know that pig looked fierce.

So when I drove over in college the first time, to watch my Rebels take on the Razorbacks, mom was on my mind. And I saw that Mother was on the lips of 70,000 Arkansas fans as they pointed towards Old Main.

Quote reads, "Mother of mothers we sing unto you"

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20

Old Try: Root Hog Print - 13x20

$42.00

My momma’s family is from Arkansas. And I’ve never met a sweeter, harder-nosed bunch of folks. 

So when I heard the phrase ‘Root Hog, Or Die’ and found out that it was an old idiom for self-reliance, I was sold. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that there’s a bunch of Hogs up in the Ozarks who the state pulls for every Saturday. But I’m going to stick with my story about a bunch of good, practical folks in the Arkansas Territory. Cause I mean it.
-Old Try
Quote reads, "Root hog or die"
Dimensions: 13x20 inches
Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20
Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20
Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20
Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20
Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20
Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20

Old Try: Welcome Home Print - 13x20

$42.00

Hope.

That’s what my wife’s family, immigrants from Greece who were fleeing the Nazis, malnutrition, and despair, were in search of. First, hope came via soldiers who saved her grandmother from her village. Then it came in the form of a ship, loaded with Greeks who were seeking the same. Then, finally, it came as a cloaked, bronzed lady, holding her flame high for all the world to see.

Quote reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, 
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: 
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” - Emma Lazarus, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: General Manners No. 1 Print - 13x20
Old Try: General Manners No. 1 Print - 13x20

Old Try: General Manners No. 1 Print - 13x20

$42.00

The other day, a big paper in New York City decried the disappearance of manners. 

And not just folks’ manners north of the line, but Southerners. Well, Momma didn’t raise heathens, and we thought this would be the right time to remind us all of what she and Daddy taught us. Manners might be going out of fashion up here, but they aren’t going to disappear from the South. Not on our watch, they’re not. No ma’am. 

Dimensions: 13" x 20"

 

Old Try: Say What You Will Print - 13x20
Old Try: Say What You Will Print - 13x20

Old Try: Say What You Will Print - 13x20

$42.00

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Quote reads, "Say what you will about the South, but nobody retires and moves up North."

Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20
Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20

Old Try: Be Who You Needed Print - 13x20

$42.00

Quote reads, "Be who you needed when you were younger."

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

 
Old Try: If There is No Wind Print - 13x20
Old Try: If There is No Wind Print - 13x20
Old Try: If There is No Wind Print - 13x20
Old Try: If There is No Wind Print - 13x20

Old Try: If There is No Wind Print - 13x20

$42.00

Quote reads, "If there is no wind, row"

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: Bourbon + Horses Print - 13x20
Old Try: Bourbon + Horses Print - 13x20
Old Try: Bourbon + Horses Print - 13x20
Old Try: Bourbon + Horses Print - 13x20

Old Try: Bourbon + Horses Print - 13x20

$42.00

Old-timers in the Bluegrass State will tell you the truth. 

That Kentucky has been racing horses for at least a hundred and thirty years and making bourbon for a century before that. Which means you ain’t gonna beat them on the track, in the rick house, or in the Wikipedia history article. So you might as well just place your bet, grab a pour, and toast to two fine American pastimes that have been distilled to perfection in the South. 

Quote reads, "Drink good bourbon and ride fast horses."

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20
Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20
Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20
Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20
Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20
Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20

Old Try: GingHam Print - 13x20

$42.00

I love pigs, plaid and puns. So I offer you this. 

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20
Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20

Old Try: We Rise Print - 13x20

$42.00

Quote reads, "We rise by lifting others"

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20
Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20

Old Try: See America First Print - 13x20

$42.00

13x20

The railroads got ’em West and the West never left 'em. 

Southerners heard about the beauty of the American West. About the newly created parks. The Indians. The intrigue got to a lot of them, as they took off from Kentucky or North Carolina for the summer. Which turned into a year. Longer. You might still see some old ghost type on a building around the South telling you to See America First. And I wish you would, as long as you See Dixie Last.
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20
Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20

Old Try: Whole Hog Print - 13x20

$42.00

I know there is debate and discussion about what barbecue (or BBQ) in the United States is the best. I think we’re going about it all wrong. We should think about ourselves as Voltron. Stronger together. 

Our barbecue is the best in the world, and every now and then you need a little something from a different part of the country to see that even if we don’t smoke it alike, we do it right.

Dimensions 13x20

Old Try: Work Speaks Print - 13x20
Old Try: Work Speaks Print - 13x20
Old Try: Work Speaks Print - 13x20
Old Try: Work Speaks Print - 13x20

Old Try: Work Speaks Print - 13x20

$42.00

One night I was reading a peace by Wright Thompson.

He said his dad had a small print hanging in the workshop that read “When Your Work Speaks For Itself, Don’t Interrupt.” I sat there dwelling on that saying for a few minutes. It has power and humility and simplicity and relevance. And I thought a lot more folks could use it hanging in their workshops.

Thank you, Wright.  

Quote reads, "When your work speaks for itself don't interupt."

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20
Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20
Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20
Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20
Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20
Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20

Old Try: Brag Little Print - 13x20

$42.00

Quote reads, "Brag little lose well crow gently if in luck pay up own up shut up if beaten."

Dimensions: 13x20

Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36
Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36

Old Try: Act Like Somebody Print - 20x36

$55.00

Do a good day's work and act like somebody. - Andy Griffith, to Opie

We weren’t allowed to watch much television growing up. Momma said there was nothing good to learn on that thing.

But we had a little black and white T.V. with a radio dial, and sometimes in the afternoons we’d come in and watch the folks of Mayberry (themselves black and white) relate to one another. We’d see them speak truth into one another and share that truth with their viewing audience. And I have to say each week I did learn something. 

Dimensions: 20" x 26"

Old Try: Victory Print - 13x20
Old Try: Victory Print - 13x20

Old Try: Victory Print - 13x20

$42.00

We pull for losers.

But isn’t that the reality? Our team – college if we’re southern, pro if we’re not – can’t always be the victor. Some years they might be. Some decades they might be. But far more times than not, they ain’t. But if we Believe, we believe that we won. That the one victory that matters was already claimed. And that’s bigger than any trophy that our boys might hoist.

Though for real, I wish my boys in Oxford would hoist one already. 

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: From Thy Shelter Print - 13x20
Old Try: From Thy Shelter Print - 13x20
Old Try: From Thy Shelter Print - 13x20
Old Try: From Thy Shelter Print - 13x20

Old Try: From Thy Shelter Print - 13x20

$42.00

Arkansas Traveler, 1840.

That was the state song. She was a fiddle tune and a fine fiddle tune at that. But the state thought they had a PR problem. Wanted to change it up. Thought the rambling man was too much of a ‘hillbilly’ and not real good for their image. Fine, so be it. That’s what Eva Barnett thought a hundred years ago. When she wrote a new state song. With a great line in it. That line, of course, is on this print. It was a line that put the Traveler to rest.

Quote reads, "From thy shelter, no more I'll roam."

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: Watermelon Print - 13x20
Old Try: Watermelon Print - 13x20

Old Try: Watermelon Print - 13x20

$42.00
Dimensions 13x20 inches
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Sugar (13x20)
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Sugar (13x20)
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Sugar (13x20)
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Sugar (13x20)

Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Sugar (13x20)

$42.00

I’m not going to even pretend: this rhyme isn’t Southern. 

Heck, it isn’t even American. She dates way back to 1820 in England, but that doesn’t  mean that my momma didn’t read it to us most nights when we were young. You see, she had four boys who were always getting into snakes or dogs (or snips, if we could even figure out what those were) or poison ivy, and while she loved the stuffing out of us, I know she was hoping that one day maybe she would have a child of the fairer sex. Well, I don’t know if it was the reading or the praying or whatever else, but after having only boys for eleven years, my mom finally had a little girl.

One made of everything nice.

Dimensions: 13x20 inches

Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Puppy Dog Tails (13x20)
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Puppy Dog Tails (13x20)
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Puppy Dog Tails (13x20)
Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Puppy Dog Tails (13x20)

Old Try: What Folks Are Made Of - Puppy Dog Tails (13x20)

$42.00

I’m not going to even pretend: this rhyme isn’t Southern. 

Heck, it isn’t even American. She dates way back to 1820 in England, but that doesn’t  mean that my momma didn’t read it to us most nights when we were young. You see, she had four boys who were always getting into snakes or dogs (or snips, if we could even figure out what those were) or poison ivy, and while she loved the stuffing out of us, I know she was hoping that one day maybe she would have a child of the fairer sex. Well, I don’t know if it was the reading or the praying or whatever else, but after having only boys for eleven years, my mom finally had a little girl.

One made of everything nice.

Dimensions: 13x20 inches