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SOME OF THE BEST
PINE BLUFF MEMORIES |
Saturday Morning
Movies at the Saenger, Matinees at the Malco, Strand, Alamo
or Community. Swimming lessons at the Boys Club for
Tadpoles, Goldfish, Beginners, Swordfish and Sailfish,
Sneaking in Eden Park to swim at night, Holding your breath
while passing the cemetery, Cotillion dances, Little League
Ball Games at Eighth and Oak, Flat top haircuts for boys,
ponytail hairdos for girls, fear of Mrs. Poindexter, The
Truant Officer, marshmallow and weenie roasts at Oakland
Park, The very fowl smelling and very large alligator at
Oakland Park, miniature golf and train ride at Oakland Park,
Drive-in Movies at the Pine Bluff Drive-In, Zebra Drive-In
and Pines Drive-In, Looking at Trains at the train depot,
drinking an ice cold AAA Root beer in July on Main Street or
Roosevelt Road, working up courage to talk to teen age
girls, learning how to kiss a girl and breathe through your
nose simultaneously, going steady, carving your name in a
wooden booth at Teen Town, taking dance lessons from Mrs.
May or Mrs. Hart, trying to make your hands quit sweating
while talking to girls, watching slow trains go through
downtown Pine Bluff, sliding down the levee on a cardboard
box sitting on wax paper, excitement or disappointment in
making, or not making, a Little League Ball team and the All
Star Team, Friday night football games at Jordan Stadium
with family and friends, Watching the AIC Basketball
Championship Tournaments held at McFadden Field House,
drinking coffee or a coke at the Coffee Cup on Main Street,
swimming and boating at Atkins Lake, getting your first
family car, television and air conditioned home, walking a
lot wherever you went without parents and sometimes with
them, drive-in waitresses at the Rendevous on Main, a steak
from Tommy’s on Poplar Street, your first taste of pizza
wherever, jumbo hamburgers, circling the Chicken Basket on
Blake Street, getting a paper route and buying a scooter or
motor bike then meeting at Buddy’s Cycle Shop to enjoy the
smell of gasoline while looking at other bikes, going to
Matthews Hardware to look at Christmas toys, going to a
dentist in the National or Simmons Buildings, leaving your
house unlocked, walking in groups in your neighborhood
(unsupervised) when trick-or-treating, lunch burgers at the
Zebra Stall, Walgreen’s on Cherry , Snack N’ Sack on 28th
and Atkinson’s Café on Main, the aroma of two paper mills on
an overcast day, pointing a finger at someone when first
smelling the paper mill, saying “pull my finger”, girls
watching boys and boys watching girls in senior high study
hall, athletic and band trips on a bus, blue jeans and white
tee shirts, poodle skirts, Twerp Season, sitting on the
Confederate statute before the morning or afternoon bell
rang, getting up the nerve to ask someone for a date, going
to John Noah’s Restaurant or the Wonderland Café for pie and
coffee after church on Wednesday evenings, daring someone,
double daring someone, dying of fright in speech class,
buying school clothes at Baim’s, Penny’s, Cohen’s and shoes
at Rosenweigs (while watching the basket overhead deliver
your receipt for payment) enjoying watching the stationary
Indian Head signal on television when nothing else was on,
listening to KCLA, KOTN and KPBA radio stations, remember
seeing Sixth Avenue when it was a brick street, recalling
the Community Chest instead of the United Way, dragging Main
and later dragging Cherry Street, reading Classic Comic
books instead of the lengthy novel and then writing a book
report, getting a book of blank prescriptions while at the
doctor’s office to later write your own sick excuses, trying
to teach Coach Marcus Kaufman that there was a difference
between pain and injury such as a broken bone, surviving
football two-a-day practices after taking salt tablets and
being denied water for several hours, getting your name off
the SICK, LAME AND LAZY BOARD in football, wondering what
the girls will think when they first see your legs on the
basketball court ….As the Statler Brothers keep singing; “
Do You Remember Those?”
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