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Soldiers on streets of Searcy Arkansas during World War ll.

Soldiers Searcy AR

These pictures are like a Norman Rockwell painting. Rockwell could have made a great magazine cover. It would show very deserving small-town soldiers visiting home and posing beside the bank. He'd have put in the weeds growing beside the sidewalk, the car in the background, the wrinkles in the uniforms, and even the cracks in the street.

My dad, at my wedding, wore his tie poked into the shirt like these guys. He never wore a tie but when he put one on for the big night, I was quite frankly mortified. Evidently, according to these guys, it was a fashion during WWII, for which my father was drafted. I'd never seen such a fashion.

Rockwell would have made the sign in the back readable. I'll have to depend on Searcy Arkansas historians to tell me what the sign said. They can also name the guys if they know them.

Posted by Barbara S. Duncan ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO Searcy AR on 10/07/2009 08:35 PM

Comments (17)

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17 Comments on Soldiers on streets of Searcy Arkansas during World War ll.

OCT

Barbara-I love all of the photos you have been sharing of your area from the "good old days."

Love the photos. Don't they just look so darn clean cut. My Dad and Mum were in the forces during WW11 I grew up very influenced by those times. Thanks for posting!

Cindy, thanks. I love the old photos too.

Janet, they were probably proud of those uniforms except for the tie that got in their food so they figured out a solution for that. Thanks for comment.

OCT

Barbara - I too LOVE these old school pictures. Really do!

Barbara, my Dad was in WWII. Germany and then assigned to Japan right before the war finally ended. I have all of his medals. Our girls shared them in show and tell much to the amazement of their teachers. I also have his memoirs talking about the war, although it is still hard for him to this day.

Dad brought back a small ceramic hand-out given to Hitler's followers as an incentive to be loyal. What does it say? Of course, the Hitler salute, "Heil Hitler". It gives me the creeps when I think of the hands that held it years ago and what it was intended for.

Dad says they "liberated" the hand-out.

By the way, I'm a Norman Rockwell fan also. Kate

The soldier on the right (or it may be a sailor?) is Charles Yingling. I THINK he worked at the bank before he went into service but I may be wrong about that. Don't know the other guys. I think, too, that they were just friends of his who came home with him...

I ran into the wife of Charle's son, Joe Yingling, at my yard sale Sat. Her name is Mary Jane Wooten Yingling. I told her to be on the lookout for her father-in-law's picture on your blog, Barbara, so hope she sees it today.

The only sign I can be sure of is Dr. J.D. Patterson, Dentist. Can't i.d. the sign above his. It MAY be Avery Blount, Lawyer. There is a story about him: As people often put their last names first, it is said a man reading Blounts' sign said: A Very Blount Lawyer.

Anita Fuller

Kate, my dad was drafted and was just before being sent overseas when the war ended. On the other side, the kid's grandfather, already older than early soldiers, was sent to the front lines of the war. he was in Europe and we still have postcards that he sent home to family.

He also came back, I think, with armband with swastika and a metal sword. He, like your dad, didn't talk about his experiences. They were too horrible for him to recall I guess.

How anyone can deny this awful period of history is more than I can understand.

Thanks, Anita, for identifying one of the guys. I know Mary Jane and hope she sees the picture. The story about the Blount lawyer is funny! Dr. Patterson is still dentisting! I think!

Yes, Dr. Patterson is still dentisting, but the sign belongs to his FATHER, also a dentist. He probably wasn't even born when that picture was made.

I had to laugh at your saying 'poke', as the guys poked their ties into their shirts. I once told a Northern friend of mine to "poke" the elevator button and she didn't know what I was talking about.

Anita Fuller

My father served in the Army Corps of Engineers in France. He helped build runways.

Here he is cutting up on the wood pile.

Alson Virgil Thompson On Wood Pile

I read where if the military men wore their dress uniforms, they let the tie hang down normally, but if they wore khaki, they had to tuck the tye between the 2nd and 3rd button. I think the article said that was put into practice just before WW2.

Anita, they've probably never heard of a "pig in a poke" either. LOL I guess that means a pig in a sack? Notice Ludean has better info about ties. Dr. Patterson's dad was a dentist, too!

That's a great picture too, Don. Entertainment then must have been hard to find. How do you know he wasn't guarding the camp?

Ludean, I had never heard that. So it was regulation? How do we account for the middle guy with his tie hanging down? Was he an officer?

I thought about that when I was writting the other comment. I think his cap is a dress cap, so maybe that is why he is wearing the tie hanging down. My kid's father retired from the Air Force and looks like I would have know a little more about regulations on clothing. He was in field maintenance, so he mostly wore fatigues, except for parades, etc. Maybe someone else knows and will tell us.

Mr Barbara,

That looks like a shot from the Andy Griffith show. You are probably much too young to remember that.

Nutsy

OCT

Ludean, I know what you mean. But as wives of the guys, I don't think we paid attention to the uniforms or the meanings of them.

Nutsy, I'm thinking that you are right. Gomer Pyle may be the one in the center??? Didn't he go on to be a famous soldier?

NOV

My father is a veteran of the Korean War and my brother is a veteran of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict. They are both to be thanked and honored just like the guys in your post.

Robert, I do thank and honor them very much. Thanks for your comment.

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What does the graphic say?