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What was it like 80 or 90 years ago in Searcy AR.....and how did families have fun?

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

What did folks do when they had free time many, many years ago?

What was a yard like when there were no tools to manicure it?

What was popular when there was no TV?  No computers?  Not very many motorized vehicles?

Here are three pictures that show what some folks did to have fun.  The pictures are inspirational and fun.

Scene one of baseball game

The yard as shown here has a happy family gathering posing for pictures.  Look at the garden and shrubs!

A family game

Someone probably suggested a game of baseball.  Grab a stick for the bat!

Family baseball

Oops!  What is going on here is questionable.  Clowning?  Losing pants?  Hit by the ball that was hit by the boy that was swinging that bat?

What a contrast to the lives we live today in Searcy Arkansas!  I love the pictures!!

Show All Comments
Sonja Patterson
Keller Williams - BV - College Station, TX
Texas Monthly 5-Star Realtor Recipient for the Hou

Barbara, these are great pictures!  Yes, without TV, video games, etc. one has to be more creative!!

Jul 20, 2011 10:30 AM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Taking photographs was certainly one of the pastimes during that time and today as well.

I have a photograph of my father and his family taken when he was a teen. I have always liked this picture for the posing out in the yard.

That's my father upper left. Not everyone's attention was on the camera. Both my father and his sister lived to age 93.

 

Thompson Family

 Left to right, bottom to top, Loy, John, Marvin, Lelia, Virgil, and Rupert Thompson

 

Jul 20, 2011 12:27 PM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Sonja, thanks!!

Don, that is a great picture.  Look how similar the yard looks.  With no lawn mowers, the more dirt you had the less weeds you had and that was a good thing, except for the chicken droppings which seemed to ooze between the toes in an unpleasant manner.  Your dad was a good looking guy and so were the other family members.  Who are the other people?

 

Jul 20, 2011 12:39 PM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Mary, you have a good eye. Guilty as charged. The 4 males is one photo and the daughter and mother are

from different photos. I call this a "could have been" photo. The time period is approximately the same for all photos and was probably 1931. I couldn't stand not having a whole family photograph.

I believe the men's photo was taken by my aunt Loy with my father's camera and my father took the other two photos.

Next time I'll have grass growing up between the toes.=-))

Jul 21, 2011 06:19 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, you caught him!  None of the rest of us even suspected that it was a melded photo!  Shame on him!  That is why, and I believe Don himself said this, they don't use photographs as evidence!!

Don, you sneak!  The picture of you guffawing is very appropriate with this one!!  I loved the picture anyhow and should have thought it strange that the girl was all dressed up out in the wild yard!!  Why don't you stick yourself in the picture?

Jul 21, 2011 06:30 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary!  Goodness!  That sounds like an important job.  What does DHUD stand for?

Jul 21, 2011 08:22 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, you need to write a book!  You have lots of experience.   Living in DC must be very challenging.  I have visited only once and all that concrete was amazing.  I think you'd need to live there to really learn DC and experience it....as you have.  I am now trying to market HUD houses in this area and seeing what they are vs. what they had sold for is shocking. 

Jul 21, 2011 02:35 PM
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I love the old photos Ms. Barbara...you have a way of really making the past seem to be a blast...I couldn't help noticing how small the house was...no wonder they played outside so much...I like my air-conditioning WAY too much...

I also loved Mr. Don's photo...or should I say...photo's?...I can't wait to see the ones with the grass between the toes...hehehe...

Ms. Mary...you brought back some of my fondest memories...my husband and I met in Washinton D.C....so with all of the whatever it has these days or even those days...I'm still rather fond of the city...went all that way to find an Arky to match up with...Oh, and I would love to read the book!

Jul 21, 2011 04:45 PM
#8
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

I feel I have to give equal time to my mother's side of the family. Here's a picture of the Humble family taken in 1905.

Humble Family 1905

My great grandmother is Mary Elizabeth Humble Wootten and my grandmother ( age 7) is Sarah Ellen Wootten.The head of the family is Addison Whitfield Humble at lower right.

Each year in October, the decendents of this family meet for a Humble cousin's reunion in Quitman at the homstead  of one of the decendants, Larry Carter, who keeps the house for that purpose. He and his wife live on the 20 acre property in a separate house.

Jul 22, 2011 06:46 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Debbie, we think alike.  I liked Don's picture collage also.  Mary has all sorts of "inside dope" on DC affairs.  The book should come out!!

Don, that's a great picture too and I don't think you cooked it up.  Looks authentic to me.  Look at the barefoot kids.  Kids today suffer with those thong things.  Rodger's great granddaughter tripped on the fool things the other night and screamed her head off because she skinned her knee.  Barefoot?  It wouldn't have happened.  I like the way your family stays in touch.

Jul 22, 2011 12:06 PM
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

Godmother,

I thinks it is very good that you are recording your memories of those days gone by. If you did not writes them down, then your memories would be forgotten. I think it is very important to record the memories for posterior.

Godson

Jul 24, 2011 11:23 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Candidate Nutsy,  I'm doing a book on squirrels and may even do a chapter on inspecter squerlls and feature Mr. C with you as his helpmaker.

Jul 24, 2011 02:24 PM
Anonymous
Ramona "Babe" Riddle

Barbara, this is how the school buildings were during my school years in Searcy. Just East of the old gym which is now the maintence building on Moore was the L building. White building that was classrooms for the first and second grades. Across the street to the south was the Agri building and just above it was the two story building with the tube fire escapes that I went to 3rd and 4th grades in. Then on the corner behind the Agri building was the rock building (still there today) that I went to 5th grade in. Just above that was the band room and then the 6th grade building then a playground and the high school. Then by that time the two story building was the jr. high. Then over to the high school where the Jr. High is now. The supertindents office was a small building between the two story building and the Grammer school (6th) it think it was called. That too much info for you!!!!!

Aug 15, 2011 03:02 PM
#13
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

You got me, Babe.  I lost you at the first turn!  But I do remember some of those old buildings.  I taught my first year at the old Junior High which burned down.  That would have been around 1972 or 1973, I think.

 

Aug 16, 2011 01:19 AM
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