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This is Arkansas. It is a good picture of country enjoyment.

I used to drive my kids to a place called Slippery Rock Ford and they'd wade in the water on the slippery rocks. This little bridge was a favorite. It gets underwater at times but evidently it holds up pretty darned good. In fact, the water looks a bit high for wading at the time of this picture.

A friend sent me these pictures of his little Volks at the bridge. He and his wife had gone for a drive and ended up here. They are great pictures showing some of the beauty of our state. The Volks, however, shows a little reluctance to get on that bridge!

Ya'all come!

Arkansas countryside

Slippery Rock Ford

Posted by Barbara S. Duncan ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO Searcy AR on 10/20/2009 08:12 AM

Comments (17)

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17 Comments on This is Arkansas. It is a good picture of country enjoyment.

OCT

Godmother,

That is a place I want you to take me when I visit.

Nutsy

I can picture Nutsy swimming under that bridge now:)

Ah, those wonderful VWs. This picture was taken in July of 1962 in Searcy while I was visiting relatives.

Bought for $1200 in Germany in 1957 and sold for $1500 13 years later.

Don & 1957 VW

It had a sunroof and the outline of the old Mox Nix, wig-wag turn signals behind the front doors.

Mox Nix is G. I. slang for macht nichts in German which means makes no difference.

Nutsy, you are as good as there already!

Charles, don't be jealous of my godson. By-the-way, did you do a visual inspection of that bridge?

Don, that was a great investment. What did it cost to ship it home from Germany though? And what was a Mox Nix, wig-wag turn signal? I guess I never had the pleasure of playing in a Volkswagen. My sister-in-law, also named Barbara, bought one when she graduated from college and toured Europe. Her daddy had one bought for her and waiting for her to pick up when she got there. She toured for several months, I think, shipped it home and drove it for years.

G.I.s got special rates on shipping. I think cost was about $200.

You like that Mox Nix Wig Wag turn signal, eh?

VW 1953 lighted semaphore Turn Signal

The official name is semaphore turn signal. Pretty cute, eh?

Those Germans were pretty clever.

Where is Slippery Rock Ford? I don't recognize it.

I don't know about Slippery Rock, either!

In 1963 I bought my VW for $2,000. No more and no less. Gas was no more than 25 cents a gallon. I could fill it up for less than $5.00 and drive forever.

Anita Fuller

Don, that was a fancy, hand-operated? turn signal. I guess it saved getting your arm wet?

Harold Gene, it is up around Letona. Actually you go through Letona and turn on some Church Rd, travel around the country road for a good distance and then you are at this place. Sorry description, I know, but it has been years since I went up there.

Anita, was that before or after that big long convertible that we blogged about earlier? Perhaps you have heard of Bluff Hole which was, I believe, at Letona. You dived off the cliffs, swam and had a great time at the swimming hole. Right?

Bluff Hole I do remember. It was the best place to swim that we knew about. I just sort of remember how to get there but I recall that out of Letona on had to drive through a farm pasture. I think it belonged to Fred West. What memories!!

Was Slippery Rock Ford on the same creek as Bluff Hole? I don't remeber the creek name.

Harold Gene, Slippery Rock was on the same creek. My awful experience was this. I taught school and some of my high school students were telling about what fun they'd had floating canoes down from Slippery Rock to Bluff Hole. I knew my boys would enjoy that. So I took them up with their innertubes to float down the creek. I dropped them off and told them I'd pick them up at 5:00 at Bluff Hole.

Sometime during the day one of the boys's uncles who knew the area said that it would take all night to float down that creek. They had no blankets, clothes and it was getting dark. They were not at Bluff Hole at 5:00. One crying, upset mother, Me, was absolutely frantic. What could I do? I bawled and squawled and thought I'd been the worst mom in the whole world.

Later on, before I was completely done in the phone rang and it was the boys. They'd had the foresight to walk out, find a farmhouse and get warmed and nourished. This was before cell phones, of course. We hustled up there and picked them up and I gave a lot of thankful prayers.

OCT

Great story, Barbara...esp. as it had a happy ending. I can't imagine the agony you went through until you heard from the boys. Today that would have made the local "Eyewitness News"....

My grandmother lived in Letona and yes I know Bluff Hole, as she would take some of us swimming there in the afternoon. Many is the time when we girls arrived to swim, skinny-dipping boys had to get out of the water fast. I still don't know Slippery Rock but will look for it next time I go up to Mt. Pisgah Cemetery: I was there Monday but didn't know to be looking for Slippery Rock.

Anita Fuller

The reference to Bluff Hole confirms my thought about the directions. My grandmother Sarah Wootten Graham was born in Letona. Here's a map to the creek and Slippery Rock/Bluff Hole. The church road you mentioned, Barbara, is Picken's Chapel Rd or HWY 310. One goes through the town and takes Bluff Hole Rd. See you there! The stream is Brier Creek. Read about it here.

Bluff Hole Rd.

BTW,Barbara, the Mox Nix signal was electrically operated from a lever on the steering column like regular lights. It was also lighted.

Barbara - I must be getting old when a place called slippery rock sounds more dangerous than fun. Perhaps I would go just for a look or to skip stones but you wouldn't find me walking on slippery rocks or driving across that bridge.

Anita, it was a pretty scary afternoon.

Don, I need to get on googlemaps now and see just how far that creek was from one point to the other. We can be much more careful in our planning now. Can you even imagine a mother doing that now. In fact a mother wouldn't even drive that far without a cell phone and wouldn't drop kids off without a cell phone each! We've become a bunch of wimps, haven't we?

Carol, join the rest of us wimps as I just commented above. BTW, that girl who is on the ads on featured blogs looks a lot like you. It is not you, is it?

OCT

I would be more than a little reluctant to drive across that bridge. It does look like a beautiful spot.

James, the Bug probably is safe. It's when the big semi trucks with heavy loads approach that you get worried....bad worried.

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