As a kid growing up in the 1950’s, Arkansas had a lot to offer. The drive from our country farm to the “big city” was about 25 miles down a dirt road and a narrow bridge across the Mulberry River. The hot summer months dried everything; thick dust fogged the road as cars passed by. Roadside bushes and trees would sit covered in fine Arkansas powder until the next hard rain fell.
Dad drove an old pickup with a cattle rack on the back. He would let us kids ride in the back when we went into town. I doubt Mom liked it much but we loved it! We often stepped up on the first rail; hanging on tightly to the top rail, chest and head above the cab of the truck, wind in our faces; hanging on for dear life! Mom didn’t like it when we hit the blacktop highway, where Dad could get up more speed. We didn’t stay up there long at those speeds, either. We couldn’t get our breath! Not only that, but to get hit in the face by a June Bug or a Bee at those speeds wasn’t much fun!
Can you imagine that kind of event happening TODAY?? WOW! Cell phones would be dialing 9-1-1 and reporting irresponsible parents to the Cops in a heartbeat!! CSD would show up and haul off the kids; parents would be cited and put on probation and all kinds of newspapers would write about it!
Sometimes Dad would stop by the old Millsap place on the highway and buy us a Watermelon to take home. We enjoyed stopping there and exploring around while the grownups talked. Mrs. Millsap was a First Grade Teacher at Pleasant View School where we attended. She was very nice. I will never forget her. She was a short, round lady with yellow hair, and most always had a smile on her face. Her and Mrs. Addy were my favorite teachers growing up. Mrs. Addy taught second grade.
I wish I had a picture of 1950’s Mulberry to show you, but I only have one taken in the 1940's, although the only thing that changed were the CARS. The whole town wasn’t 2 blocks long. Towards the end of town there was something in the middle of the street….. I can’t remember exactly what it was. Perhaps a large marker, or a statue…. Whatever it was, it was a natural place to make a U-TURN and head back the other direction to park on the other side of the street. The old stores looked like something out of Western days; General Stores, where you could find most anything you need…..nothing like today, of course! There was a Dime Store that sold stuff for as little as a Penny. Us kids were dirt poor and seldom HAD a Penny! But we liked going in there and looking at stuff. Mom once said that she didn’t mind taking us 4 boys into stores with her because we wouldn’t touch anything…..we just looked. (Have you seen kids in stores doing THAT today??)
Mulberry is where Dad would take us sometimes to get our hair cut by a real barber! We grew up with Burr haircuts so it wasn’t hard for him to give them to us at home. But once in a while he took us into “Gene and Shorty’s Barber Shop” to get us trimmed up proper, I suppose. One day he had Gene and Shorty give us Mohawks! Mom wasn’t too impressed but we kept them all summer long. It made it harder for us boys to play “Cowboys and Indians” because Cowboys don’t HAVE Mohawks! I don’t recall, but I suppose we just played “Indians” that summer!
But one of the coolest things to see in Mulberry…..and we usually ALWAYS saw him ….was the Cowboy! I wish I could recall his name, but I can’t. He was a grown man but with a mind of a 9-year old kid, so they say. He was all dressed up in a cowboy outfit; jeans, shirt, boots, hat and scarf. He looked a lot like the old cowboy pictures of Roy Rogers! Maybe that’s who he was trying to look like! He also wore two big guns in a holster on his hips. The holster was all blinged up with sequins, leather strings and baubles that shined in the sunlight! It was quite impressive to us cowboy-type boys! The two big shiny guns were only Cap Guns, but they looked very cool to us! Jimmie (I’ll call him Jimmie because I don’t remember his real name, and besides, this is my story), would always go around town, in and out of each business to say hello to everybody. Everyone knew him by name and greeted him when he entered and said goodbye when he left. He was like an icon, a fixture in a little one horse town with nothing else going on. Every day, so they say, he would make his rounds, greeting people.
I recall one day that stands out in my mind more so than others. Dad had some banking business to do so we were standing in the Bank when “Jimmie” came through the door; sunlight shining through the big glass door behind him in. He walked in like he owned the place, waving and smiling and greeting everybody he knew; bowlegged and cowboy suit and all. His Spurs jingled as he walked and his cowboy hat was tipped back on his head in a relaxed sort of way. He made his rounds and then headed out the door.
Can you imagine that kind of event happening TODAY?? WOW! Cell phones would be dialing 9-1-1, Swat Cops would be screaming up with guns drawn….and bank employees would be face on the floor praying to live through it all!
Well…..those days could only happen in THOSE days.
Yea, that was a lot of fun. Dad was a pipeline welder and he made the cattle rack out of 2" pipe and mounted it on his ole (new at the time) Apache Chevy pickup truck. We also liked sitting on the tail gate and draging our bare feet in the dirt as dad drove through the Benneroux Bottoms while hanging on real tight so as not to fall off. As I recall the cowboys name was Jack Height. In those days Mulberry was a boom town for strawberry sales.
ReplyDeleteHaving spent nearly every summer from 1957 until 1973 visiting my grandparents in Mulberry, I thoroughly enjoyed your posting.
ReplyDeleteI remember the same things you did - driving down to the paved highway, riding in the back of a truck and standing up with the wind in our faces, the choking clouds of red dust when the cars would pass us as we walked along the dirt roads, and the very small downtown area where we boys would explore while Mom did the laundry at the laundromat and Dad went to the bank and post office. I remember the general store with the corner entrance, where everything was still under glass and you had to order what you wanted from the clerk, who would retrieve it from boxes in the shelves behind him. There was also the group of old men who my father referred to as the "spit and whittle club," in their overalls and straw hats, lounging outside the other general store across from the laundromat and discussing life's vagaries. And the barber! Gene Larramore (I hope I spelled that right), or, as we knew him, "Gene Lawnmower," who gave us those famous burr haircuts (we didn't go in for Mohawks).
We rode those dirt roads on the tailgates of station wagons or pickup trucks, shot the firecrackers we bought at O.B. Hargrove's store, visited the graves of our forebears at the Hight Cemetery near Pleasant View, helped pick up potatoes at our Uncle's farm off US 64 after he'd plowed them up, and spent many a scorching-hot afternoon with a cool plunge at the Bluff Hole.
My father grew up in Mulberry, graduated from Pleasant View in 1950, and went off to the Army. He's lived in Washington State since then, but still returns like clockwork to visit Mulberry.
Thanks for the comment, Bryan! I remember the name "Fisher" at PV. Much water has passed under the Mulberry River bridge since those days! Gene and Shorty.....who can forget them! Yeah, well, we didn't go in too much for Mohawks either. Fact was, we were 6 or 7 years old, then and didn't know going in, what we was coming OUT with! Ha! Course, Mom wasn't too happy with Dad over that! We never had another one since then! Ha! Ha!
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