IT’S A SMALL, SMALL WORLD

Harold Gene Sullivan

First, a little background: I graduated from SHS in 1953.

I have lived in the Seattle area for the past 40+ years and now live in Issaquah, WA, about 20 miles east of Seattle, along I-90 in an area called “Washington’s Alps”.

After using a manual wheelchair for 20+ years, my shoulder joints have worn out. The shoulder joints are just not designed for all that work. Four years ago I had the left one replaced and last August the right one. As part of my recovery, in November-December, I had an Occupational Therapist coming out to the house to work with me a couple of times a week. Of course, we did lots of visiting during the exercises. One day something came up about both my wife, Carolyn Cranford from McRae, and me being from the South. He said, “I was born in Michigan but graduated from high school in a small town in Arkansas named Searcy. Have you ever heard of it?”

After picking my teeth up off the floor, I told him that was my hometown.

His name is Brian Carlson. He said that his family moved to Searcy when he was in the 6th grade. His dad worked for Vickers. He graduated from Searcy High in 1991, almost 40 years later than my 1953 graduation. He also went to the same church I did, the First Methodist Church. He did know several people who were kids or grandkids of people I knew, but we didn’t seem to have any direct acquaintances in common. We had lots of fun talking about things in and around Searcy. He enjoyed the old pictures I had.

Also, around this time there were some postings about the Rialto Theater which he had fond memories of. After graduating from high school, he went to the University of Arkansas where he got his OT degree. Since then he has been what he termed a “traveling therapist”. He is single and likes to travel so he just takes part time OT jobs and moves every two or three years.

It is a small, small world.