Pine Bluff, Arkansas revisited

Now we can discuss PB without imposing on someone, after she was nice enough not to send the thread police on us. I recall a place we used to drive, maybe on the way to the park, where we came to a T in the road, and there was a small business sort of like a curb market on the left, where you could buy Mexican produce, all sorts of things that would be at a flea market now, and they had snow cones or something like that. My kids always clamored to stop there. It wasn't a lot of coins, but it was a strain on my meager resources. I was trying to pay for a divorce, and my lawyer later became a judge there. Gene somebody. He walked with a limp.

OK, Main street is nowhere near cherry St.
Main Street is where the downtown shopping
is or mainly where it used to be. There
was places like Baims dept, store. The
court house is at the end of main street
and across from it is lake pine bluff
and futher back from that the arkansas
river. Cherry and main street both were
brick at one time. Cherry at the railroad
tracts you are talking about is 3rd.street.
The brick store you are talking about is
on the corner of 2nd and cherry and is still
in business. After going across the railroad
tracts at 3rd and cherry,during Christmas
there was a christmas tree lot. Ring a bell?
At 6th and popular the next street over
was a sears store on the corner. On the
corner of 2nd and cherry there was a
huge two story white house,built back
in the 1800's civil war era. It had and
still does have pecan trees all around.
It took up the whole block just about.
That was my great great grandmothers
house and i lived there in the 60's.
Seems we were all neighbors,just about.
Small world! The house was known for
having a cannon ball from the war
lodged in the side of the house and
it's still there. It had wrap around
porches and a widows walk upstairs.
Does the house sound familar? I
used to go to that store on the
corner and buy cokes and candy bars.
I remember taking the city bus and
going downtown with my gg grandmother
and going shopping and going to
the movies taking my two coke
bottles on saturday,which was
the price for getting in.
There was an elderly man
who came by all the time
selling produce in a horse
and cart. He would stop
at that store all the time.
I always had to pet the horse.
There was a man who sold
icecream bars,ect who
had his freezer set up
on a bike. Oakland park
also had a swimming pool
at one time during the
60's. It also had an old
train engine you could climb
all over. There is a T in the
road at oakland park entrance
and in the curve there was
stores and i think a Mad
butcher grocery store. There
was other stores too. My
great great grandmother
is of Choctaw indian
heritage and went to
that store on the corner
many times,she had black
hair down to her behind.
There was not many who
talked with us on account
of that,(being choctaw).
We were mainly like
hermits in that big old
house. Oh boy,the good
ole days. Playing games,
red light,green light,
freeze tag,mother may i,
chinese jump rope,catching
lightning bugs in a jar.
Trapeze performers on
the old wood and chain
swings. Times were
simple looking back
and childhood memories
capture simplicity and
hold it there for a
lifetime! Bitty
Oh ,kids were afraid to come
to our house on halloween.
They thought it was way to
dark and scary.lol. I
used to hide in the bushes
for what few that had nerve
to come to the door and scare
the daylights out of em.lol.
Shame on me!

Wow! You just opened the floodgates. My lawyer was Gene Baim. The park was the one with the old train, and I have Polaroid B&W pictures of my kids on the train. Mad Butcher was on our way somewhere we went often, can't remember exactly where, but we stopped there for drinks, so maybe it was on our way to the park. I also have a picture of myself sitting on the low stump of a huge pecan tree that was cut down behind my apartment house while I lived there. I think the people who owned the building might have sent me to the lawyer since I knew no one there, and might have been kin to him. I don't remember the building with the cannon ball, wish I had seen it and taken pictures of it. I was only there in the summer, couldn't find a job after the one I was promised didn't work out, so I returned to La. So I never saw the Christmas tree lot. Now I want to return and see it all again. That seems like a whole lifetime ago, almost like I'm talking about someone I observed, not me.

Yes you did open the floodgates, Bitty!! You just described my walk to school......and the Wednesday Mattinee at the old Singer Theater where we did get in for 2 Coke bottles, and I always got one of those huge pickles for a nickel.........where I first saw Elvis in "Love Me Tender"!!
Don't know why I was confusing Main with Second, except that was many, many moons ago!! Bitty, you and I must have gone to school together as well probably....What was your maiden name in 1957, and how old were you then, what grade??

"eyes"

Eyes, I was a tad bit younger in
1957, i am 45. I did go to Gabe
Meyer school at one time and
Dial junior high and Pine Bluff
High school. I was 10 or 11
when i lived in that big old house
on 2nd. and cherry,that was in the
60's. Do you remember the house
i am talking about. It is a
beautiful house now and completely
restored. I wish i had a way to
post pictures. Maybe i could mail
some and someome could post them
for me sometime. There was a malco
theater too. I remember the pickles
at the show. They sure were good
then. I can remember seeing a Beatles
movie at the show. I also remember
when all the kids would paint flowers
and such on their skin back then. Kind
of like flower power thing, Do you
remember that?

I remember those things Bitty, but I left Pine Bluff in 1959 and moved to California for 5 years. Flower child that I was, I do remember that!!! Ask me about Woodstock, and Jimmy Hendrix, I recall much more about them!! Yes I remember that house on Cherry & Second. I'm glad someone bought it and restored it. Does it still have the Oval beveled lead glass door?? I also lived right across the street from Pine Bluff High School in the 3rd grade, and attended Turner Elementary. That was a two story house, with a sunken yard and two ponds. It was totally surrounded by high hedges. Was supposed to belong to one of the original doctors in town. I remember it being a brown stucco/brick. Do you know what happened to that old place. It would make a nice restoration job too....and think......if the two stone ponds are still intact, how awesome would that be. I remember Jonquils, and Pecans, and a twisted old tree in the back......