by Melinda LaFevers

I grew up in Searcy, Arkansas.  I have lived in Searcy for decades.  I have seen Searcy grow from the population of less than 10,000 (13,000 when Harding College was in session) of my youth, to the current population of nearly 23,000 (30,000 during the school year).  It has more than doubled in size since my Junior High years in the early seventies.

There have been a lot of changes in these years.  Gone is my favorite store of my childhood – the Ben Franklin $0.05, $0.10, and $0.25 cent store.  There were thousands – or at least, it seemed that way to a young child – of toys, and few of the toys cost more than a quarter.  Sometimes dad would give me a dime to spend.  I can remember standing in front of my favorite tray of toys and trying to decide – did I want two nickle toys, or one dime toy.  I could get a slingshot for a dime, or two bags of peas and a pea shooter, or a doll, or a coloring book and crayons – the choices seemed endless. 

Then there was Allison’s, at the corner of Holmes and Highway 16. If dad gave me a dime there, I was rich, indeed!  Usually, he just gave me a nickle.  But that was OK.  With one nickle, I could get five pieces of candy.  They had a huge selection of penny candy.  If I chose my candy just right, I could end up with twenty pieces – Kits taffy had four pieces for a penny.  For two cents, I could buy a BB Bat – which was taffy on a stick.  Or I could spend the entire nickle on one big piece of flat taffy – I think it was McGraw’s Country Store brand.  I remember that if you gave the candy a sharp hit before you opened it up, it would shatter into small pieces.  If the candy got a little bit warm, however, it wouldn’t break, it would stretch.  I remember when the penny candy became two cents, and then a nickle, and then a dime.  Nickle taffy cost fifty cents.  Today, that same type of taffy can still be purchased, and if you are lucky, you can find it for a dollar.  Allison’s is still in existence, across the street from the original location, but penny candy is just a memory.

Another favorite place from my childhood was the County Courthouse. 

Construction on the Courthouse started in 1850.  The Civil War intervened, and it was not finished until 1871.  It is the oldest courthouse in Arkansas still used for its original purpose. It is smack dab in the middle of what used to be the main part of town.  I remember brick roads going around the courthouse.  I loved those brick roads.  They have been paved over for years.  I wish they were still there. As of this writing, some of the brick road can be seen, as they have taken a lot of the asphalt off while they are working on the roads in that area. 

One Saturday my whole family went down to the courthouse.  There was some kind of festival going on.  I was little, but I remember that blue grass music was being played on the porch and steps going up to one of the entrances.  Other events were held at the courthouse as well.  Decades before Dinner on the Square was started, the then new local arts council sponsored several plays and musicals.  One of them was Night of January 16, by Ayn Rand.  The play takes place in a courthouse, and  this play was actually held in the courthouse. 

 Across the street from the courthouse is an old movie theater, the Rialto. 

My friends and I would affectionately call it the “rat hole.” There was a show on PBS that was about old classical movies.  The opening scene showed people going in and out of a movie theater, and my dad told me that the theater depicted was our very own Rialto. I remember in the 60s, the theater was segregated.  White people sat in the bottom, and black people, with a few whites, sat in the balcony, which had a separate outside entrance.  My family usually sat in the balcony.  In the late 70s, necking couples would sit in the balcony (don’t ask how I know).  One of the things that I remember from those days gone by was that the Rialto wasn’t just for movies.  I also saw live plays and variety shows at the Rialto. I was so happy when they started work to restore the neon lights. 

Unfortunately, that restoration project never got finished, and the lights that were repaired no longer work. There are very few people who work on neon lights anymore. I do hope the restoration efforts continue – I would love to be able to see a movie from the balcony again.

Searcy wasn’t always the name of my hometown.  It used to be called White Sulphur Springs.  What many people do not know is that at one time, White Sulphur Springs rivaled Hot Springs for its springs and spas and by 1834 the area had many people coming to “take the waters” for its therapeutic healing. A number of hotels were built around what is now Spring Park. The town was officially renamed in 1838, after Richard Searcy, a prominent legislature who had passed away in 1832.  As a kid, I remember a special water fountain at Spring Park.  The water tasted really odd to me, and it had spigots where people could fill up jugs of water.

My favorite place and memory from my past hometown, however, is of Searcy Pioneer Village.

On the grounds of the White County Fairgrounds was a special section.  That area was fenced off, and wasn’t usually open.  But during fair week, it was open, and sometimes it was open for other special events or occasions.   There was a dogtrot cabin, a one room school house, a black smith’s shop, a woodworker’s shop, a pole barn, a jail, a covered bridge, a general store, an old moonshine still, and lots of fascinating things to look at and talk about.  There were carriages and tools, and sometimes people demonstrating old traditional crafts.  I loved that place as a child, and I loved it as an adult.  It was a pioneer hometown within my hometown.  All of the buildings had come from White County.  I still have a ten volume set of “The Best 100 stories in the World, printed in 1927.  My boyfriend at the time bought for me at one of their special fundraiser events.

Pioneer Village is no longer at the fairgrounds.  A parking lot sits where once people cooked over an open fire, or gave a lesson to students in a one room schoolhouse.  A lot of people have told me that they miss Pioneer Village.  What they had not known, and what many still do not know, is that it is not gone, it has only moved.  When the Fair board decided they wanted the space for something else, they went to the White County Historical Society and asked them if they wanted to move the buildings.  The Historical Society decided that they wanted to maintain the village, and the city of Searcy found a spot that the buildings could be moved to.  Pioneer Village now sits at 1200 Higginson Street, just north of the Searcy Soccer and Ball fields.  It still has the dog trot cabin, one room schoolhouse, and the original Pangburn jail. 

There are a lot of stories about the buildings.  The sheriff of Pangburn supposedly said that he wanted to build a jail so uncomfortable that no one would want to spend more than one night in it.  The Gordons were friends with the James boys, and on the wall of the jail a pair of chaps are displayed that are supposedly from Jessie James.  Not all of the building could be moved, so a new pole barn with blacksmith shop has been built, and a new woodworker’s area has been built. There is also a new gazebo for musicians that was finished just last year, a trapper’s cabin furnished from a description from the early 1800s, and a train depot that was donated to the village after its move to its current location.  Master Gardeners keeps up the grounds, and they do a wonderful job.

Open house is traditionally held on the first weekends of May and November, with crafters selling their hand made items and historical demonstrators in period clothing.  There is also a one day Christmas event in December, weather permitting, and for the last couple of years the village has been open for tours on Saturdays during the summer.

There is so much more that I could say about my hometown, both past and present.  I could talk about the industries, the factories, farmer’s market, Harding College and its transition to a University.  I could talk about integration in Searcy.  I could talk about the Cobbite cult of the 1870s, and the civil war ghosts that are supposed to haunt houses on Park street, and the ghosts at Harding.  I could talk about the churches, the people, the schools, concerts and plays – I enjoyed living in southern California for fifteen years, but I missed Searcy.  I’m glad to be back in my hometown.  I hope, where-ever you live, that you have good memories of your home town – but come on over and visit mine!  I think you’d like it here.

Melinda LaFevers is a creative, imaginative, renaissance woman with a wide variety of interests. She is a substitute teacher, an Arkansas A+ Fellow, and a writer. She is also on the Arkansas Arts in Education residency artist roster with two programs, Life in a Castle?and Life in a Log Cabin,that she presents in schools around the state. She has speculative fiction stories in several anthologies, writes a column on traditional and modern herbal use for The Renaissance Magazine.  Her first non-fiction book, Meditations of a Hoarder, was released last June. She likes to imagine the day that her house is completely organized. More of her writings may be read at https://melindalafevers.wordpress.com/ and https://hoardinglife.wordpress.com/