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?”