Bald Knob, Arkansas, located about 12 miles from Searcy Arkansas, used to be the strawberry capital of the world!  Now it is still a pretty busy little town but the strawberries are mostly pick-your-own.  Ebay had this card showing the Americana Motel located at Highways 64- 167 & 67 in Bald Knob.  Phone number was Parkview 4-3204.  It boasted electric year around air-conditioning, wall-to-wall carpets, tile baths and showers, TV, phones, and swimming pool. I took a close look and felt as if I knew those people beside the swimming pool.  That woman in white looks just like my mother used to look when she was younger and alive.  She is sitting like my mother did.  AND, that girl in the yellow dress looks just like my sister who was tall and sat just like my mother!  Now I could say that ... 09/23/2009

My old friend called me today.  She said it just as she always did.  "This is Lill [pause] Williams."                                                For the hard of hearing, the slow to catch on, the busy person....it was definite who was calling.  There was never a quick, hard to understand, "ThisisLill," with the person on the receiving end of the call wondering who the devil this was. [Don't we get annoyed when someone calls and says, "This is John."  Well, John who???] Lill was my mentor when I started in real estate.  We were on the phone each night comparing the day's events.  She was a top-producer.  She was smart. She was educated and motivated. She loved people.  She made changes of importance in our Board of Realtors.  She served as President of the Board.  She helped start ou... 09/21/2009

Look what I found in this latest foreclosure that I'm having to work up. I thought that it was so neat!  The house was built in 1969.  So perhaps this was part of construction in those days.  However, I've been in a lot of 1969 houses and I've never ever seen one of these. I thought it might just be something hanging on the wall like a picture.  However, when I started to take it down there were wires and things behind it.  It didn't intend to come down easily. So I'm handing this puzzle to activerainers.  Home inspectors, what would you have said about this device? 09/20/2009

Ker-plunk!! Ooops!  Something fell out of the bed.  Groggy me tries to comprehend what the item might be.  Couldn't be me 'cause I'm still in bed!  A quick feel indicates hubby is still a lump on the other side. OH!!  YEAH!!  It musta been the soap!  The soap has to go to bed with us.  One bar of soap which we have when leg cramps start.  Quickly sliding that soap bar to the legs will eliminate that cramp. Hubby even came down with a case of tennis elbow, except he doesn't play tennis so it would be golf elbow.  Romancing that soap around the elbow has certainly improved it.  (The elbow, not the soap.) Sometimes we even fight over who has the soap.  WHERE'S THE  BEEF  SOAP! Being a forward thinker, I decided that the soap bar should romance my neck.  So I snuggle up and put the soap bar... 09/19/2009

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Monday there was a parade down the main streets of Searcy Arkansas to begin the White County Fair.  Bands, floats, horses, queens, politicians, and a-lot-more strutted along the streets as cheering throngs waved to them from the sidelines. Weather is pretty nasty this week but hopefully it will clear up before the week is out.  During this Fair Mania a friend brought this picture to my husband saying he'd found it in an old fair tabloid from 1964!!  Look at what they were giving away.  Looks like two cars and a boat to me.  That's my husband in the foreground even though I didn't know him at the time.  Second guy was a popular car dealer named Audley Bolton.  Somewhere back through the years the big give-aways ended and the fair certainly is not the same without them. 09/16/2009

Here's a historic view of West Arch Street in Searcy Arkansas.  Notice the building on the right was under construction. Notice the streets look like mud!  Looks like a wagon with passengers heading West.  On the South side you can see a Drug Store sign and that must have been Stotts which is still in existence. And look at all those poles!  Telephone poles, light poles, poles to hold up awnings!  This picture should make us appreciate how thing have changed.  When we feel like griping about a pothole, remember this picture.  Also look at our lovely areas where the utilities are all underground. A second view shows the street in the 50's. 09/15/2009

A couple of days ago I put the hospital news from March 18 1980 in my blog. It was a regular part of the Searcy Daily News and highly read. ************* Today I think it's fun to put up another feature. This one is the society news column that was written by Helen Bauer for many years. Lots of people laughed even then about how it was totally unimportant if a person went shopping in Little Rock or a kid came home from college to visit. Reading through this brings back smiles and memories.  I still know a lot of these people and we all considered them part of high-society if they were in this column. Read back and enjoy old memories, Searcy folks!  I was a little taken back by the mention of a Sherry party.  I assume they meant Sherry Wine???  09/10/2009

The sun is rising. We look outside.  There is something in the trap!  Another possom? Get up close.  What's that faint "Meoww?"  We laughed and the "Meoww" get louder and more plaintive and more insistent. So this is what she shouted. I'M SORRY THAT I SAT ON THE TOP OF THIS TRAP AND GLOATED! I'M SORRY THAT I LAUGHED AT THE OTHER ANIMALS CAUGHT IN THIS TRAP!! I'M SORRY THAT I'VE BEEN CATCHING AND EATING BIRDS!!! I'M SORRY THAT I WAS GREEDY AND TRIED TO GRAB THAT PUTRID SAUSAGE BEFORE THE POSSOM CAME AROUND!!!! I'M SORRY THAT I LAID OUT ALL NIGHT AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHERE I WAS!!!!! I'M SORRY THAT I TURNED UP MY NOSE AND WOULDN'T EAT THAT CHEAP DOLLAR STORE FOOD THAT YOU TRIED TO FEED ME!!!!!! ************************* OKAY! OKAY! OKAY!   I'M SORRY THAT I KILLED AND ATE THAT SORRY RAVEN T... 09/09/2009

  Privacy is such a big deal now and I have no real problems with it unless you have a relative in the hospital and the hospital denies that they have the patient because of "privacy" issues.  My child or my parent (if they were still alive) could be hospitalized in another state and I'd be unable to get information about them unless the patient gave permission.  If comatose, it's kinda hard to give permission. ***************** But let's go back a few years.  Here in Searcy Arkansas there was a different rule.  If you were in the hospital, the newspaper printed it!  They also printed it when you were released.  If you didn't want it printed, you had to request that they NOT print it. I, being a forward thinker, never liked this.  For one thing, if a friend was reported in the hospital,... 09/07/2009

When you feel adventurous now and dig into old drawers or cubby-holes you have a new goal!  Blog fodder!! Goodness!!  Look what I found!!  I gotta show this to my Activerain friends.  So look what I found! This old sheet out of a note pad was probably a give-away in 1948!!  And look at the picture.  The priority at that time may have been baseball instead of today's passion sport of football! Of importance to me, however, is this.  There is no 8th Street in Searcy Arkansas.  It has somehow and somewhere been changed to some other name.  There is definitely no Ramsey Printing and there is no phone number in the entire world now that would be Phone 170!!   09/06/2009

Some cards come in the mail and they're so pretty and on such high quality paper that we just can't help but look at them and admire. Here's one.  Searcy Arkansas has a newly built nursing home.  It is located at 2500 East Moore.  For all you Searcy history lovers it is located on the old golf course and right at the Llama Drive entry into River Oaks Subdivision.  The open house is Thursday, Sept 10 from 2-6 pm.  Here's the architectural rendering that is on the card.  A drive-by indicates it is just this fine looking! OMG!  I'll bet they only sent these to Seniors.  They're looking for business.  OMG!! 09/04/2009

    I love this painting!  I bought it at an auction and it is life-sized.  It made me think of the old Virginia Slims posters that said, "We've come a long way, Baby!" She now hangs on my wall in the bedroom. She is so big there's no room for anything else on the wall. On the back there is a signature and a gift note saying something like To My Dear Friend________. I was surprised to find that this person was famous, a big star! Out of curiosity, however, I'd like to know if the masses, meaning some of you in Activerain, would remember who this is.   It reminded me that we need to get rid of our Elvis items at premium prices now before no one remembers who Elvis was.      09/03/2009

My daughter called tonight at just about dinner time.  I think she knew it was dinner time and was calling to interrupt in order to make a complaint. "How come you didn't call me this weekend!?" "Well, was I supposed to call you this weekend?" You ALWAYS call me on the weekend, usually on Sunday!"  was her tart replay.  She followed with, "You always used to call on the weekend because it was cheaper, don't you remember?" Oh, yes!!  I remember!  Rates were cheaper on weekends, nights and holidays.  They were so much cheaper that everyone made the family calls at that time.  If you received a family member's call during the week you had this feeling of dread.   Somebody died!      Somebody got hurt!       It has to be bad news! The landline was the only phone and it was connected to a so... 09/02/2009

Critters come to our yard.  We've caught lots of them in the trap and we give them a free one-way trip ticket to the big woods outside of town. We've had a troublesome visitor lately that has done nasty things to our back porch.  So the trap is set.  Now we may know why we haven't caught anything lately. My godson Nutsy would be able to perhaps help me with this problem.  Is the cat guarding the trap to keep a friend out?  Is the cat waiting to laugh if some possum gets trapped?  Is the cat showing that she's too smart to go in the trap?  Help me, Nutsy!! 08/31/2009

Nurses demanded respect when they wore those white dresses, white shoes, white stockings, and a perky little white cap on their heads. Look at these nurses at Hawkins Hospital/Clinic in Searcy Arkansas.  I just wrote a blog about the Hawkins Clinic and these pictures were sent to me to further illustrate the clinic.  My friend Anita sent them. She says this first one was taken at the emergency entrance to the hospital.   She may have sent them to also show off how cool she looked with her convertible that was as long as the street!  Kids of today would have called her a "hottie" with that car! Looks as if some envious soul is looking out through the window of the back door. Here she is again with a friend who is also a friend of mine.  Betty Robbins still lives in Searcy and is still lo... 08/28/2009

This picture was loaned to me by my friend Ludean. It brings back old memories.  Let's count a few. Note the house foundation.  I remember as a kid crawling under those houses with piers but no underpinning.  It was cool and fun.  Now it gives me the shivers to think of going under there with all the spiders and other things that might be there. Note the bobbie sox with the dress shoes.  I can't tell whether the shoes were high heels or not but the toe was definitely open and the strap showed fashion flair. The hem length was a definite each year.  If the style changed the mother had to work on the hem.  Let it out or take it up.  Fashion absolutely dictated year after year what the length would be.  During war years the skirts were shorter, possibly to save money on material?? The big... 08/27/2009

This great old picture showed up on ebay and I splurged and bought it to share with Searcy readers.  It is the best photograph that I've seen of the clinic. The clinic, as I understand, was actually a hospital.  My husband says that his children were born there and he may have had a surgery or two himself at this hospital. This shows it in 1940 and there is no need to go take a picture of the parking lot that is there now.  A parking lot is a parking lot is a parking lot.  Right?  It's location was right in the middle, almost, of what is now Harding University in Searcy Arkansas. Now here's a picture of the house that was on the other end of the block.  I loved this house and I regret that they ever tore it down for a parking lot!!  I believe it was called the Sears House. 08/24/2009

Diapers?  Lots of them and they had to be hung out to dry.  Freezing weather?  Hot as hades weather?  No matter.....the wash goes on. I'm afraid I lived through some of this and saw my mother live through a lot more of it.  I found this old basket the other day that is full of memories. At  first it looked like a fantastic old basket that was in great shape.  Turned upside down, however, condition was truly exposed.  It had been used and used so much that a newspaper in the bottom was holding the clothes pins in.  Of course I took the paper out to see what it read.  It was a 1963 newspaper!  This old basket was fresh on my mind while I was browsing ebay and came across this old picture.  I borrowed it just to illustrate this blog.  It shows that clothes pins had more than one duty. 08/23/2009

I wrote the blog below on Feb 25, 2009.  We've had more and more animals come to our house looking for food and perhaps ending up being relocated.  Here's a picture of the gatehouse and entrance to the new subdivision.  Lots are selling and I believe the lowest priced was $56,350 and the highest $74,880, according to our MLS stats.  Two houses are under construction with one of them under contract.   Great little cart-paths snake through the area and lead to the golf course at Searcy Country Club.  Landscape artists have been working for months.  It has been good to see so many people employed at The Dominion. The subdivision is almost finished! ************* Less than six months ago, the area in front of Searcy Country Club was wooded, filled with soaring pines and deer and skunks and ... 08/22/2009