Searcy AR football team 1939 - 1942This great old picture was loaned to me by Ginger Pickens Brookshire and husband Frank.  Frank was a member of another football team in approximately 1970 sponsored by Duncan's Chrysler Plymouth car dealership and still loves football. https://activerain.com/droplet/57KH This picture is so interesting because it names the folks in the picture.  You will probably remember (note I did not say recognize) several of them.  #99, Gerald Pickens, owns the picture and was another one who loaned it to me.  He bragged about their record for the years and it is written at the bottom.Thanks for another great Searcy history photograph! 07/17/2020

Searcy ladies campaigning for Ed Bethune.Ed Bethune, who lived in Searcy AR in 1978, has a new book called "The Thinking Spot. A Sequel to A Pearl for Kizzy" so it might be timely to recall this old picture from the Searcy Daily Citizen.  His books are quite enjoyable and educational.  Seems as if he was running for Congress and had lots of support from Searcy.  Reading under the picture tells where they were going but not who they were.  The lady on the right was Louise VanHook who was co-owner of the Van-Atkins store in our town.  The VanHook estate sale that was just held is where this old picture was found.Notice the style....bell bottom trousers, waist high, dragging the ground.Searcy Sleuths, who were the other ladies?  And were you perhaps part of the campaign?  And all of you ch... 06/29/2020

How about Christmas in July?These two little folks are singing their hearts out.  Picture them singing a Christmas song in the window of the Van-Atkins store on North Spring Street in Searcy AR.  That was their job for many years.  They were plugged in to electricity, had movements and recorded songs to sing.  When kids went by they had to love these guys. When the store was closed they went to the home of the VanHooks (owners of the Van-Atkins store) and were tucked away until the recent VanHook estate sale.  Looking at them again, they seem to be pleading.....no one bought them at the sale because no one knew who they were.  That hurt!I meant to have this blog up before the sale and I am not sure that they can still be sold (check with V Smith Estate Sales) but their story needs to be... 06/26/2020

Yarnell's Ice Cream....Turkey Hill Ice CreamWe have read that our hometown ice cream factory is going to start making Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream.  We are not sure when or how or wheather Yarnell's will have a new name.We are just sure that as the old saying goes, "Till the cows come home," applies here and we will definitely love Yarnell's till the cows come home.  AND!!  LOOK!!  Has a giant cow arrived to stay?  Or is she just passing through?"  She has been parked at Yarnell's for several days so I snapped a picture.  I am in love with her already so I hope she stays! 06/18/2020

Searcy Sleuths, who were they?An estate sale is being held this weekend, June 19-21, and so much Searcy history has been uncovered.  It is called the VanHook estate sale and Alvin VanHook and his two sons are in the picture.  Ricky VanHook is first on the left in row one and Ron VanHook is third from the left in middle row.  Perhaps some of you can name the others in the picture.The team must have been sponsored by a Veteran's Administration.  (No, I have been corrected.  The VA stands for Van-Atkins, who sponsored the team.) Give us information about it, too, if you have any. Definitely go to https://www.estatesales.net/AR/Searcy/72143/2549679?force-reload=true for about 150 pictures of things in the sale.  I assume the young lad beside Ricky VanHook was too young to be a part of the t... 06/15/2020

Miss Arkansas parade in Searcy AR 1978This great picture of a parade in downtown Searcy AR shows a Searcy lady, Naylene Vuurens, in a convertible driven by Ron VanHook in 1978.  She won the Miss Arkansas pageant and went to the Miss America pageant representing Arkansas. She was beautiful and the driver is rather handsome also.  A Searcy Sleuth will have to tell us who the little girl was.  Notice Searcy businesses and Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the background.Searcy Sleuth, please also tell me the name of the business that started with SIN......And if you were there and see yourself in the crowd, tell us!The picture was taken by Baker - Walker Photography. Mystery solved!!!!  The little girl in the picture was Jennifer Nier, daughter of Wendell and Gail Nier!!  Thank you for  te... 06/11/2020

  Searcy AR ledgers from Robbins-Sanford included in estate sale.Over 100 years old!!Take a look at the dates on these old ledgers.  These are just a few of the treasures to be found at the VanHook Estate Sale on June 19-21 in Searcy AR.  The VanHook family opened Van-Atkins when Robbins-Sanford was closed in approximately 1954.  A family member reports that the upstairs room in the building had a lot of these and these may be the last ones to be found.  They are beautiful with hand-written names and amounts owed or paid.  They are the history of Searcy Arkansas and if you are from Searcy you can probably find your great grandpa's name in them somewhere!Lots of pictures are here. https://www.estatesales.net/AR/Searcy/72143/2549679 06/11/2020

A rack full of double knit leisure suits from the disco age!I think the double knit stage in the 70's was so much fun and the estate sale coming up has several suits.  The Van-Atkins owner apparently had lots of them from his store, was a snappy dresser, and had a wife who saved things.  So out from some closet comes a box full of wonderful leisure suits.  Go on-line and check out the disco dancers wearing these suits while performing spectacular moves.  The first one above seemed more casual. (I know it needs a little ironing.  But hold it!  The wonderful thing about double-knit was no ironing, no wrinkles, no binding, just comfort!  So these just need to hang up for a while.  Living in a box for perhaps 50 years is even hard on the perfect fabric.)  The one below is probably for dress... 06/09/2020

A Stein CollectionA very important estate sale is going to be conducted in Searcy AR in a few days.  V Smith Estate Sales is going to be conducting it and the selections are wonderfully varied.  I get a preview because V Smith Estate Sales is owned by my daughter, Valerie Canepa.The way these steins were displayed as a group caught my eye.  Steins, used a lot for beer but mostly just collectible, are not things that I have collected but they are always so attractive and complex in their construction.....or so it seems.  The VanHook family, who owned and operated Van-Atkins in Searcy, has an amazing amount of things to sell.I hope to see you there.  Go here to see other items being offered.   https://www.estatesales.net/AR/Searcy/72143/2549679 06/07/2020

Grand Opening!  Van-Atkins Searcy ARSearcy folks loved Van-Atkins, a store that had everything.  Women's and Men's clothing and shoes and a drug-type store for a while.  But I'll bet that if a Searcy citizen was asked what year it opened, we'd not remember.  Searcy lost Van-Atkins a few years back.  The family home has this huge framed advertisement for the grand opening hanging on a wall in the garage.  Examine the fine print and you will find this.  The date was 1954, March 17!The family is planning an estate sale to be held later this month and the sale has so many wonderful memories of Searcy and Van-Atkins.  Watch for details and more pictures from my daughter, Valerie Canepa, at Estatesales.net, and on her facebook VSmith Estate Sales.  Just don't miss it.Here's a question for Sea... 06/07/2020

And this treasure could be yours!While listing a house at 2405 Brittany Lane in Searcy AR I noticed this georgous lamp post in the front yard.  I said, "Surely that is not one of the historic street lamp posts from Searcy!"  The owner replied that it is.  He bought it when Searcy had removed them.  He is the type who can do anything so he put it in his front yard with underground wiring that turns it on at dusk and off at dawn!    And he has kept it in perfect condition throughout the years.  He wishes he could take it with him when he has to move but perhaps we can persuade him to leave it with the house.  If you are in the market for a house, this one at 2405 Brittany may be it.  Here is a picture of it with the lamp post looking lovely in the front yard.    05/30/2020

210 E Vine....REALTORS'S home for 13 years.Changes are coming to Searcy AR.  Big changes.  The newspaper reported demolition permits were given for 6 addresses near downtown Searcy.  First Security Bank seems to be planning a new complex and has bought many properties that are very close to the court square.  The above picture shows the Searcy Board of  REALTORS home for the past 13 or 14 years.  It was one of the purchases.  While moving we found a sign for Ed Bethune's law office.  He had his office here when he lived in Searcy. 511 N. Main......a charming older cottage.This property has always been a charming home with a lovely front chimney.  It will be going down.  Others listed to be taken down right now are 504 N Spring, 500 N Spring, 104 E Vine, 106 E Vine.  Several of these are... 05/10/2020

Fence  vs. Tree?Chain link fences are wonderful because they don't have to be painted, don't rot, don't have termites and seem to last forever.  But this one seems to have found a formidable foe.  I found this site at a listing today and thought it very interesting because of the time it has had to take to get to this stage.The tree was probably pretty big when the fence was put in because no one would plan a problem like this.  So the tree kept growing, the fence stayed solid.......until......this situation.  It's a tough battle but I think I am betting on the tree's winning.  If I live that long!  05/06/2020

Think back, Searcy folks.....Several years ago, and I can't remember how many, the streets of downtown Searcy AR had lots of these great big planters filled with flowers.  I had the good fortune a few days ago to become the owner of four of them that were once used by a prominent downtown merchant.  The business was large enough to need four to put in front of the store.  They needed a little power washing and now they look beautiful.They are obviously made of some tough plastic to still be in good shape.  An inscription says Valley View Specialties, Crestwood ILL.Now I am curious about the beautification project that was obviously being pushed by Searcy downtown merchants.  Searcy Sleuths, do you have any memories about that period of time? 05/01/2020

Here's a challenge, Searcy Sleuths!While we are spending most of our time at home looking for things to do, we perhaps look back through old memory books or files saved.  I was doing just that when this lovely photograph fell out of the book.  I thought I knew exactly where it was.  Folks from Searcy will probably remember the old root beer restaurant which was behind a filling station on East Race.  I remembered a big white house on the same block and just knew this station was beside the house.So I drove by to prove I was right.  WRONG!  From where the filling station was to where the white house is was quite a distance with an apartment complex in between.  Dang!  So let me give you a chance, Searcy Sleuths, to tell me where it was!  It might brighten our quarantine hours to have a c... 04/04/2020

My daugher, Valerie Canepa, and I, a team, were fortunate to be listing country properties on the same day.  We went in different directions and put the listings on MLS on the same day.  My listing is great with 5 acres at 260 Oak Forrest Road in Searcy AR.  (Check it out on the internet.  MLS #20009479. Nice house, shop, fenced, and a scenic old barn that even has a chicken pen.)  Here's the picture of my scenic barn!!!What was her barn like?  See the first picture again.  Her barn is part of her listing at Pangburn AR at 379 Highway 124 and it has 30 plus acres with a barn that is on the Registry of Historic buildings.  It is a Louden Barn with so much beauty and class. Barns like the one on her listing were built around the 1930's.  (Just google it!) The MLS listing number is 2000950... 03/21/2020

While looking through old saved clippings, I came across this one.  And it is a good example of irresponsible clipping and record keeping by me.  I failed to put the date of the clipping.  It does say that the house was 78 years old and this was to be very close to the end of the lovely P. A. Robertson home at either 311 West Center or 309 West Center.  The newspaper put two different addresses for the home  It described the home as one of the finest and best preserved examples of Queen Anne Victorian architecture in the state and it was on the Registry of Historic Homes.Searcy lost another beauty with the elimination of this home but I am glad that we had photography to keep it in our memories. 03/18/2020

Ouch!  Darlin', that hurt!  Are you mad at me?  I guess there is a touch of humor in the accident that happened a day or so ago in Searcy AR.  Searcy, as you may know, was the winner in the Small Business Revolution in 2019.  Searcy has been doing murals downtown and trying to make a highly desirable small town to visit.  The building that has been injured here has Quattlebaum Music inside. Click here    https://activerain.com/droplet/5mvg    to see the front of the building and more about its history.It was built in 1860!   And the next picture shows us what a REAL brick wall is!  We REALTORS are always saying that a house has brick walls.  They really have brick veneer walls!  THIS is a brick wall.  How fortunate you are to see this view before it was covered up for security purposes.... 03/05/2020

I started reviewing some of my old blogs today.  I started blogging in 2007 and there are over 1700 blogs floating up in the cloud.  Some of those blogs are definitely worth seeing again.  I was impressed with this short blog that gives you the link to the rap tune, S E A R C Y, done my Harding students.  They filmed in different areas of Searcy and one spot looks like Art Alley before it was Art Alley.  If you have seen it, review it, and if you have not seen it, you'll find it interesting and fun.Here's the blog, dated 9/25/07. I'm not a big fan of rap mainly because I can't understand so many of the words that they are saying.  But I'm a big fan of my hometown Searcy AR and my Alma Mater Harding University in Searcy.  There's a really fun rap tune on youtube that I saw today.  Four t... 02/22/2020

Coke revisited in Searcy ARI ate a beautiful cookie and felt guilty as I did because it was SO pretty.  They were being given to guests who visited the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Open House in downtown Searcy AR on 2/11/2020.  In years past the building (owned now by Sowell's Furniture) was an official Coke bottling Company and located at 210 W. Arch.  Here's another picture.  It was called The Syrup Room.  What's a syrup room?  Searcy Sleuths needed.The old company has been remodeled and made into offices for rentals but lots of the old building is still highly visible.  The stairs are probably still the same.  See them next.Now here's an interesting one.  Old tar.  The old building had a tar ceiling which had a tendency to leak through and now it is, if there is such a thing, petrified ta... 02/12/2020