My first exposure to traditional rhythm bones was at the Arkansas Folk Festival in 2005. The fellow playing them showed me how to hold them, and I was able to play a little, to my astonishment. When I got home I made a pair from an old bois d’arc fence post and began playing them. Soon I had Della, my wife, playing a pair that I made for her. Playing bones is infectious. In 2008 I joined the National Rhythm Bones Society based in Tennessee, and in 2009 Della and I attended their annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. Surprisingly, I learned that the sticks that I had developed were unlike traditional bones in every way.