About Searcy's Old Searcy Arkansas

Summer is on its way out! Or gone!

I remember summers being so hot that all girls wore short shorts! It was the only way to stay cool. Houses didn't have air conditioned spots to sit and watch TV all day!

Boys must have loved all the short shorts!

This picture from Searcy Arkansas showing four Searcy cuties is worth analyzing. Notice the cat-eye glasses. Cool! One has a camera around her neck and look at the shadow of the picture taker! They all have their blouses tucked in their shorts and their shoes all seem similar.

Plaid was IN! So were possibly baseball caps?

And there's one in every group! Look at the outgoing one on the right! Demanding special attention and looking like a soldier at attention!

Thanks, Anita (on the right) for sharing this picture.

In 1915 Searcy evidently had a basketball team for girls. Here's a magnificent picture showing them with possibly their coaches. The basketball is marked 1915. In the background is the old school.

I believe that sometime after this the male leaders decided that sports were bad for girls and eliminated all of them. Girls were ignored until 1972 when Title IX was passed which said basically:

""No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

I had a daughter at that time who had nothing to do but get in trouble. When this law was passed I was jubilant. The schools had to start offering sports for girls. She became a tennis star on the school team. A basketball team for girls was formed again. And girls have steadily gained more and more access to team sports. They are still not spending as much on girls as on boys but it has improved.

I LOVE TITLE IX! And I have since 1972!!!

One of our most historic homes has become our Searcy Art Gallery. The Black House as it is called is just two blocks from the court square at 300 E. Race Street and is leased to the city by one of our prominent retired surgeons.

Today as I was headed toward home, I steered into it to see the latest display.

There was a display of lovely hats and shoes and memorabilia from the days when we wore hats. The display is provided by Irene Crouch and is titled "For the Love of Hats." The display was impressively laid out in several rooms of the house. There was even a Christmas tree decorated with hats and a small tree decorated with buttons.

If you're in Searcy Arkansas, stop by and visit the lovely old 1800's house.

Searcy, Arkansas had its share of dime stores. At least that's what I heard them called as I was growing up. Snowdens was one of the dime stores in Searcy.

"Mama, can we go to the dime store?"

When Mama said yes we were happy kids.

Snowdens was still in Searcy AR when I arrived in about 1967. It was located on the South side of the court square. The Snowdens lived on Arch Street and evidently they never threw anything away but built a building behind their house to hold all the stuff.

Arch Street wasn't far from where I lived and I had to drive by there all the time. Once the store had closed and the Snowdens had died their heirs were cleaning the place up and throwing things away. The pile of old stuff beside the road was enticing. I stopped by and started rifling through the trash and throwing a few things in my car.

One of the heirs came out and INVITED ME TO LEAVE! What a grouch and a waste of all that beautiful junk that was to be picked up by the trash man. The items that I salvaged were 1940's order books for items that they carried in the store. You can see what they cost per item or per dozen. Junk? Yes. Shoulda been thrown away in the 40's? Yes.

But that's what makes an item collectible. Almost all of them were throw away!

Old pictures of your home town are so much fun! We drive through the four lane new highways and love the convenience but it is still heart warming to look back in time to "how it used to be."

Here's an old service station picture. Looks like there's the White County Courthouse in the background. If so, this station must have been on what is now Main Street of Searcy Arkansas. Searcy old timers speak up and tell us about this old station.