 Clare
B. Richardson1 ,
2 , 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8,
9, 10,
11, 12,
13, 14,
15, 16,
17, 18
| The March 2004 issue of their franchise
magazine World of DQ came out with a two-page story about my discovery of the
location of that picture. Despite the numerous errors in this article, it was
the first to show the original famous picture along side the present day picture
I had taken and mentioned a lot of Hot Springs people I had contact with. I made
sure everyone involved got copies of that issue for their own thanks to Dairy
Queen supplying me 10 copies to distribute. |
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A few days later I got my second e-mail from an Arvada, Colorado resident and
license plate expert named George Sammeth. It was forwarded to me by Dairy Queen
headquarters disputing the 1953 date with a very sound logical basis. He proved
the year was not 1953 but rather 1951. For a period of time in the early 1950's
every other year the Arkansas license plates tended to alternate background colors
to assist law enforcement officials in being sure all licenses were up-to-date.
Hence 1953 is but one iteration away from 1951 meaning they both have the same
background color. He noticed the dies that shaped the numbers for both years were
different for all numbers but is most obvious because the 1951 dies were more
narrow, the number 4 had a pedestal at it's base on which it rested in 1951 where
the 1953 plates had "4's that were uniform thickness the entire vertical length
of the number. Lastly the number "7" had a different steep diagonal slope in 1951
which matched the mural and by coincidence each car plate in the mural had a "7."
It didn't take even a few microseconds for me to realize he was right once I knew
what to look for. My six digit observation of three numbers on each side separated
by a dash was just an example in the book and that condition did exist in 1951
also, even though the book showed a 5 digit example with two digits, then three
digits separated by a dash. I was told collectors prefer lower numbers so that
is why the book displayed the lower format as it is what was available from a
collector to photograph for the picture. His work was running parallel to my efforts
without any knowledge of it, nor did he know Dairy Queen was even looking for
the location of that mural. |
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George's story began two or three years ago when he and his wife met a fellow
license plate expert and his wife at the Westminster, Colorado Dairy Queen which
is in the suburbs of Denver. This particular Dairy Queen also has that now-famous
mural. Being license plate experts, both pondered at the picture and George's
friend said "Arkansas" and George replied "yep" but didn't focus in on the year
at that time. He later did some checking and reported it to the owner who he thought
would be interested in knowing. Nothing became of it and then ownership changed.
George had made friends with the new owner whose name is Kobi Jones. He told her
in one of their conversations and she took a real interest. Because many customers
often asked, she thought it would be important to know and relayed a letter to
Dairy Queen headquarters that George had drafted telling the exact year and even
speculating that the picture was in the Hot Springs area. George had reasoned
and speculated license plate numbers in the 170 thousands were Garland County.
The three cars in the picture had plate numbers of 172, 174, and 177 thousand.
His letter must have made it through the right channels because he got a direct
handwritten reply from Mr. Chuck Mooty, the president and CEO of Dairy Queen International,
along with some token gift certificates for ice cream treats in sincere appreciation
of the information he was able to provide. |
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A few months later Kobi saw the March, 2004 World of DQ article and felt bad for
George that someone had beat him to recognition with a published story. She showed
George who immediately noticed that the article was in error because the year
I had provided Dairy Queen was not 1953 but actually 1951. Being a stickler for
accuracy, he immediately contacted Dairy Queen a second time, but this time he
wrote directly to Dairy Queen by e-mail and detailed the logic and provided proof
with pictures of the two license plate years from his collection. Dairy Queen
forwarded his e-mail to me and thus put us in touch with each other. I immediately
called George in Colorado who was readily prepared to defend his finding only
to find me agreeing with him 100%. George and I later found out that Arkansas
license plates from 1950-1954 except 1953 were made by S.G. Adams Company in St.
Louis but for some odd reason (probably the lowest bidder) the 1953 plates were
contracted out to another license plate manufacturing company that usually did
states like Oregon and Alaska. It was called Irwin Hodson and they were located
in Portland, Oregon. Because they are different companies with different dies,
the plates appear different. George told me had it not been for this fact, he
could not have told me the exact year of the mural and at best could have narrowed
it to 1951 or 1953. It's questionable if he would have contacted me thinking someone
else must have determined 1953 so would not have objected. But with the dies being
different he could determine I was wrong and that helped solve the mystery or
it may never have been solved. |
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