 Forty years ago now in California with the Polack Show in 1967, I am visited by Jimmy (now an Airlines pilot) and Duane Bowman who I grew up with in Hot Springs, Ark. Duane and I tore up the playing fields with the Hot Springs Trojans but in our private lives were quite shy.  |
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Life long friends #3
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4 comments:
Loved your story about you and your friend from Hot Springs.
Recently geographer Warren Bland named Hot Springs the No. 1 place in America to retire.
I gotta admit, Hot Springs is a pretty cool place to live, even for those of us who aren't yet retired.
Rebecca McCormick,
Feature and Copy writer, Hot Springs Life & Home plus cellist and wedding officiant!
Shy? They're still talking in Hot Springs about the damsels whose reputations were forever tarnished by being seen with you and Jimmy in the Sheik-mobile.
I spent a weekend digging for diamonds in Murfreesboro, and returned empty-handed and discouraged by way of Hot Springs. Every other business downtown featured a hot mineral bath, and two hours in one of those cheered me immensely.
My saddest memoory of Arkansas, aside from Bill & Hillary, is the closing of the Split Hickory Company, in Hope. Who remembers what circus folks bought from them? For bonus points, name the guy who ran the outfit.
OK, since everyone didn't jump up at once, I'll tell you. The catalog listed them as "6-foot round, tapered, wild animal sorting prods." We called them sticks. They came in bundles of 50, and Mr. Beatty bought two bundles per season. Photos will show them in the cross-braces of his two center pedestals, in the safety cage, in the hands of outside assistants, and around the ring.
Mabel Stark had me shellac hers, and I have her last one.
Elephant men favored the special canes that came from Hope, made like no others, and luckily I have one of those, too.
The Split Hickory Company, late of Hope, Arkansas, was managed by Brack Shenck.
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