 Clare
B. Richardson1 ,
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| In the morning I went to the Garland County
Historical Society and met Bobbie Jones McLane. They had no pictures of that Dairy
Queen on file. So she was pleased to see these beautiful photographs and to hear
the story of my adventure so far. She called the Sentinel-Record newspaper who
initially, all but yawned, when she said someone has some older pictures of the
Dairy Queen in town. They told her to have me write a story and submit it and
if they were interested they would consider it. I told her that since I was from
so far away that I'd go in person for them to see the pictures. Once I got to
the newspaper office, no reporter was available and I was turned away and told
to come back later. But then someone ran out to my car and said one just arrived
and to come back in. I was introduced to John Lovett, a young bright journalist
that at least took time to hear my story as my computer warmed up. Once the old,
high-quality pictures that Dairy Queen provided me came up John yelled "quick
get a photographer over here!" and excitement took over as several people came
to gaze at my computer. My story, written by John, was on the front page of the
next Sunday paper, October 12, 2003 one week to the day after I arrived in Hot
Springs. I became labeled the official "Dairy Queen Detective." I had spent my
first week meeting several people and relaying information to John for that article.
Of primary importance that week was meeting George Bennett whose parents owned
the house at the right of the Dairy Queen in the mural. George had a supply of
pictures from his childhood that provided other views of that same Dairy Queen
from his house. He did not believe the 1953 date I came up with because he never
remembered the house in the picture as shown. His parents had removed the pitched
roof and made it a box like building to attach to another adjacent property they
owned to eventually create the Bennett Apartments. He reasoned that if that picture
was 1953, he would have remembered the house so therefore it must have been the
1948 Grand Opening when that store was built (according to the city directories).
After awhile I was convinced he was right but questioned how the license plates
could say "Land Of Opportunity" when before 1950 they said "Opportunity Land."
I thought the pictures being black and white could provide a clue based on how
the 1948 plate photographed compared to the 1953 plate in black and white. I agreed
to refer to my James K. Fox book, which I had failed to bring with me for the
answers. George also became important because his older brother, Wayne, owns and
operates the Kwik Print at 508 W. Grand and offered their services to me free
of charge to run many copies of article for public distribution of my work. I'm
very grateful. One of the pictures in George's collection was Wayne and his wife
with President Clinton and Hillary at the White House. Wayne was in the Hot Springs
class of '64 with Bill Clinton so for their 30 year class reunion, President Clinton
hosted it at the White House back in 1994. What a great class reunion that had
to be! |
| During my week long visit
I met Fire Chief Arval Sanders who started his career at that fire station, Company
No. 4, next to the Dairy Queen. He told me stories of the crew sitting out in
front of the station in chairs eating Dairy Queen ice cream and delicious food
or how for years the fire trucks had to drive on the wrong side of the street
eastbound down Grand until they reached a break in the median to get to the opposite
side of the street. That changed once the fire truck collided with a westbound
car around that sharp blind curve and there were injuries. After that accident,
a section of the median where the people were standing in the mural picture, was
torn out and paved for direct left turn access out of the fire department. They
also told me that the small attached edition to the west side of the fire station,
which still stands today and is visible in the mural, was where they had to add
the electronics for radio communications once that technology was implemented.
That fire station was built somewhere around 1918 and designed for horse-drawn
water pump wagons. No thought was ever given to any new technology and where to
put it so the attachment later became necessary. According to the city directory
the fire station was abandoned by 1969. The Chief's Assistant, Ed Davis, found
several class pictures from a popular 2nd grade teacher named Mamie Ruth Abernathy
who took her class to this firestation every year and had a class picture taken
in front of it every year. Boys were even allowed to slide down the fireman's
pole. I recently had the pleasure to meet this wonderful lady who had taught for
over 40 years in Hot Springs. She showed me a nearby home where President Clinton
once lived that had recently caught fire and suffered extensive damage and is
unoccupied because of it. Upon leaving Chief Sanders told me my detective work
was good enough to be on his staff if he ever needed an arson investigator. Ed
Davis nodded in agreement. We all laughed. |
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