About Searcy's Old Searcy Arkansas

I had someone loan this photo that is actually pretty fascinating. It is the interior of an old sign shop in Searcy AR with people that some of you from Searcy may recognize. If so, tell me who they are. I can see one Poll Parrot Shoes sign, a Charles Lovell Contractor sign, Wakenight General Electric and a Tower Court Cabins sign plus others. Several are neon which must have been pretty high-class back then.

Searcy Arkansas is located in White County with a population of approximately 20,000.

Some folks think that Halloween is a great time to have a party. There are no gifts expected, no crass commercialism (at least there used to be none....times may be changing) and no big meals to prepare. All one has to do is welcome little kids at the door and give them a piece of candy. You can also get yourself an outfit and pretend for one day that you are someone else; costume parties are great fun!

If you live in the subdivisions where parents drop the kids out, that candy thing can be a big expense. I live where the houses are so far apart that parents have to drive the kids so I always buy candy that is something we like because we have leftovers! : )

But the point of this blog is just to show you this fantastic picture of Searcy Arkansas kids in costume on what looks like a float. It would date back to the 40's! Searcy readers, if you are on this float, tell me which one you are. And who on earth was the boy in the background who was fascinated by all these girls?

This old church was in Searcy Arkansas right across the street from the First Methodist Church facing Main Street at the corner of Main and Market. I'm a fairly new resident of Searcy, having been here only 40 or so years but this one was still standing while I've lived here. It's there no longer, however.

It was torn down a few years ago and First Methodist owns the land and has built a new building where this one was. I believe the congregation has a newer church now on the edge of town.

The building appears to have had a basement, rare in our area now. Perhaps some of the earlier basements made people realize they didn't work so well.

Monthy I receive the neatest newsletter that is put out by the White County Historical Society. Yearly near Christmas time, they put out a "book" that is a real keeper. The dues to belong to this group are $16 per year. I sent off my dues for 2009 today and was glad to do so. The front of this month's newsletter is shown above and is a picture of Beebe Arkansas around 1920.

They hold meetings monthly with a featured speaker and they have walking history tours of areas in the county.

The Society has a Pioneer Village that they take care of. They are restoring a church and a railcar. They also have a web page www.whitecounty.us that is full of interesting information.

I don't know whether any of the members read this blog but if they do, I'd like to say that I really appreciate the work they do in White County Arkansas. They have told me it is fine to use their pictures from their webpage for this blog and I have used some of them.

And I encourage any of you who are not already members of this great group to join! The newsletters alone are worth the dues!!

These small license plates hang on the wall in my kitchen along with lots of other collectibles (junk) and I have one friend in particular who covets them. So I called him and asked what the deal was with these little license plates. They measure 10"x3" so they are much smaller than regular license plates.

He said that if you lived in the city limits of Searcy Arkansas, White County, you had to buy a license plate for your vehicle. They cost $5 and his dad griped a lot about having to buy one just because he was in city limits and his uncle who lived outside city limits wasn't required to purchase one. He assumes that the gripes grew louder and stronger as the years went by and they must have finally quit requiring the city slickers to buy them. $5 back then would have been quite a bit of money!

My son collected license plates along with lots of other things so I've had these things for many years. The dates are from 1937 to 1958 with numbers ranging from 158 to 958.

It would be interesting to know whether those numbers were for ones who lived in city limits with cars and indicate that Searcy grew from 158 to 958 from the year 1937 to 1958.

And it would also be interesting to know whether other towns had these required license plates.