Lure Cafe Searcy AR and other old Searcy business places and people.

Love the pics...the old cars and the full length coats.  Wish we saw more full length coast worn like that today...I think they are neat looking. 

Does anyone know what year these pictures were taken?

Debbie, I'm sure some of the car experts out there can pinpoint the exact year.....but I'm thinking anywhere from l956 to l959.  I'm going by the cars AND the majorette uniforms.  In my day, l954..and I THINK l955, the majorettes wore long white trousers.  Wait a minute...Mr. Laas, our band director who insisted on the trousers, left in l954 so now I'm saying anywhere between l955 and l959.

Barbara, these are pictures of what this silly old sentimental fool would call "Searcy as I wish it still were"!!!  The days of the Lure Cafe, Morris and Son, Ideal Shop, Robbins-Sanford, Mayfair Hotel, etc. were absolutely grand days indeed.  The first three majorettes in the picture are Laura Beth Thompson, Susan Jones Rand, and Rebecca Smith Kersh.....three former girlfriends of mine, I might add...LOL!!  They were about three or four years older than I.  What a wonderful time to have grown up in Searcy.  I'm quite thankful to have those memories!!

Amen to Billy's comments.

Thank you for the vote of confidence, Mary....I CAN i.d. several men in the group, after getting out my trusty magnifying glass:  of course it is Truman Baker standing next to Gov. Faubus - and it looks like he's either picking his teeth or talking behind his hand!  I see Elmer Yancey and maybe Doyne Hunnicut - and it probably is Doyne as he was an exec. with the Truman Baker Chevrolet and would be there. Can't i.d. any more.  Don:  blow up the picture so we can maybe i.d. some more faces.

And if I could go back in time, and eat at anywhere I could in Searcy.....it would be a toss-up between the Lure Cafe and Roberson's Rendezvous.  Then after that, I'd go to Jim's Dining Car, then to Bill's for a barbeque and fried chicken. Oh, can't forget Peck's for a footlong hotdog and a TruAde Orange.   A chocolate soda and ham salad sandwich (toasted bread) at Headlee's wouldn't be bad, either.

Thanks for the date confirmations...Willard, my husband said he saw a 1957 Ford in one of the pics so I would guess that 57-59 is pretty close for dating a picture...I have heard lots about the Cafe' since we came to town...and Truman Baker I even knew about when I was younger and I wasn't even from Searcy...I guess this is the next best thing to being able to open a door and step back into a moment in the past...to coin a phrase...Thanks for the Memories....(singing).  We are all enjoying them.

My guess for the date is 1957. I see a 57 Ford, with a 55 Chevy in front of it, and a 57 Chevy behind it. Barbara, look in Rodger's 1957 annual at the Majorettes and see if they are the same ones who are in this picture. I think they are, but can't say for sure.

Morris and Son was a western wear store, and the only place in town that I know of where you could buy Lee and Levis in those days. I liked to go in there and browse around, but I bought my jeans across the street at Penney's. Levis in those days were $3.75 a pair, while Penney's Foremost with plain pockets were $2.50, and apart from the stitching on the back pockets, the Levis tag, and button up fly which all Levis had in those days, they were about the same. Levis also would shrink when washed, so you'd buy a size or two too big. Levis were too high to spend hard earned cotton picking money on.     

Robbins-Sanford's store was the coldest store I ever went into in the winter time, with it's high ceilings and wide open spaces.

Don came through this afternoon and send me an enlarged picture of the group of men.  I could only identify two more:  Ray Yarnell right in the middle, and Ewing Pyeatt in the group.

The Lure Cafe was long gone before you arrived on the Searcy scene, Barbara.

Barbara, I had not read Billy Fuller's intry when I wrote mine. The Majoretts in the 1957 annual are: Rebecca Smith, Susan Jones, Laura Beth Thompon, Rebecca Cox, Ann Shannon, and Elois Bleidt. 

I still don't know to this day WHERE that picture of my dad and all those guys was taken.  I would like to think it was at The Lure Cafe...but the cook/owner in the pic. is Bob Barlow and I always thought his cafe was Barlow's Cafe.   Bob and Billy Fuller both remember delivering groceries (from Krogers) to The Lure and both swear they served......get ready for this:  BEER!

Yes, the Lure Cafe did serve beer and Bob Barlow's was west of the courthouse.  I don't remember if Bob Barlow served beer or not.  There were two pool halls in town, one on the same block as Bob Barlow's Cafe and one in the same block as the Lure Cafe, as I remember.  Mostly the alcohol was on Market St.  No hard liquor legally sold, thus the bootleggers stayed busy.

In the late 50s there was an election for White County to be declared "wet"....My mother spoke on the radio AGAINST.....and she sent me an absentee ballot at college, with instructions to vote DRY.  I'm sure I did, being an obedient daughter and all.