PHOTOGRAPHIC ODDS ‘N’ ENDS

In recent days, we’ve mentioned a few things that, really, deserve pictures so, before this morning’s cold hit (it’s 35 degrees out as I write this), I went out and got the pictures.

A couple of days ago, Ernie mentioned a photo taken of those members of the Class of ’57 who’d entered the Searcy Schools in the first grade and who had spent the next 12 years together. As Ernie so accurately described it, it was taken on the stage lip and floor at the Rialto, along with K.K. “Deac” King.

Why the Rialto and Deac? Why, because the photo was in the Rialto’s ad in the back of the Lion: they paid for the privilege:

Ernie wrote: The twelve listed are Jo Ann Roth, Marlene Evans, Nancy Garrison, Sue Haney, Larry Maness, Nina Aunspaugh, Marvin Allen, Verna Cox, Camelia Chambless, Coy Benton, Ernest Simpson, and Frank Thompson. However, I note seventeen in the photo, and I think I recognize Roger Duncan, and Bobby Latimer. Someone help me with this, memory fades, and the picture isn’t too good anyway. The photo is in the 1957 Lion.

I was interested to see Nina Aunspaugh’s photo in there, because I’d first met her in 1946. She, her dad, Leo, and the rest of her family were living in the house that, in 1953, became “home” for my last three years in high school, after my own parents got moved down here from yankee-land (prior to that, my sis and I were living with my grandparents).

NOW …

The other thing begging for a picture was my note to Ernie last week about the “combination car” of the old Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad. The car was set up for freight in one half, passengers in the other.

This car is lodged on Oak Street, just north of Beebe-Capps, and right behind the concrete block plant. Oak is the first street east of Main.

Despite the sad look of the place, the young man serving as caretaker says that, except for a little minor water damage, the inside of the car is in pretty good shape.

Negotiations between the owner and the White County Historical Society are ongoing.


NOTE TO ERNIE: At the year’s concluding meeting of the WCHS last night, I was looking through some photos, and came across one of a “self-powered” car that that M&NA used to own. This was a single unit with a lot of glass in it, and the engineer, engine, and passengers were all in the one unit. Does this strike a familiar note? I’d always thought the “Blue Goose” was an engine/combination car paired up, but I wasn’t here then. You, however, have ridden the Blue Goose, so you tell me.

Have a good day, all of you …. And, out of curiosity, do I have any members of the Class of ’56 who read this thing? Just curious.