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O.K. Taxi and Cafe. Searcy AR? 1951. Where'd it go?

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Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

O. K. Taxi and Cafe Searcy AR 1951 photo

OK, Searcy Sleuths, here's a new one!  What happened to the O.K. Taxi and Cafe that was operating in Searcy AR in 1951. This photo was in the 1951 Harding Petit Jean and shows a couple beside a cab with the advertisement saying they were enjoying a coke in the friendly atmosphere of the O.K. Cafe.  It seems to be  on the Harding campus but it says the Taxi would take you anywhere in town.

I have looked through lots of yearbooks because I love the ads in the back.  The ads are now historic and remind us of a Searcy AR many years back.  I can understand that in 1951 there were probably lots and lots of students with no transportation and needed rides.  It appears that this was a new business advertisement and the business must not have lasted very long.  So, Sleuths, do you have any interesting info to add to this ad?

Phone 213, so Super Sleuth Anita, see if it is in your old phone book!

Show All Comments
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

Barbara, I would LOVE to look thru my old phone book but, since I have moved, it is packed away somewhere - only to be found when we move into the new house. Mother was director of food service then, it looks as if the cab is in front of Patti Cobb Hall. I have no memory of a taxi service in Searcy, but it was greatly needed.

Nov 16, 2018 08:28 AM
#1
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Anita, you should have kept the old phone book in your purse along with all your "can't do without" items!  LOL

Nov 16, 2018 08:47 AM
Anonymous
Mary Dunn

I do remember a taxi service in Searcy but don't think it was this one. Don't know the driver's name but I can see his clearly.

Nov 16, 2018 09:58 AM
#3
Anonymous
Mary Dunn

That's "see his face" clearly.

Nov 16, 2018 10:00 AM
#4
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

I'll come to Anita's rescue since she let me scan her precious phone book.

There's no O.K. cab listed but there's City Cab which is what Mary probably remembers.

CITY CAB CO 104 S Main           586

Here's a better view of part of the pic.

Nov 16, 2018 10:53 AM
Anonymous
Harold Gene Sullivan

I don't remember a taxi service in Searcy but remember a bus service with a regular route and schedule. That was in the late '40s or maybe early '50s. They had an old school bus. I don't recall it operating very long.

Nov 16, 2018 12:24 PM
#6
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Read more about the Searcy bus lines here and here.

Nov 16, 2018 12:36 PM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, can you draw the face?   LOL

Don, thanks for that improved view.  My home scanner  does not do the best job and I don't know how to lighten the picture.

Harold Gene, I am thinking that perhaps this was just a Harding thing.  And as strict as Harding was, they probably didn't let students go all over town.

Nov 16, 2018 01:59 PM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, thanks for bringing those blogs back.  You are perhaps the Super Sleuth of the whole bunch of Searcy Sleuths.  Don't tell Anita that I said that.......

Nov 16, 2018 02:01 PM
Myrl Jeffcoat
Sacramento, CA
Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

I miss so many of the ways things were once done in smaller towns, Barbara.  My own neighborhood that I grew up in is nowhere near the sweet little community it was.  Today, it's a bustling metropolis in comparison.

Nov 16, 2018 04:27 PM
Myrl Jeffcoat
Sacramento, CA
Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

CONGRATULATIONS Barbara, on having this blog FEATURED in the Old Farts Club group!  

Nov 16, 2018 04:28 PM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Anita and I make a good team.

Nov 16, 2018 05:38 PM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Myrl, thanks for featuring my blog but I can't put in my advertising that the "Old _ _ _ _ S Club" featured me.  LOL

Don, you two do make a good  team.  I adore you both!

Nov 17, 2018 05:23 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Brenda Douglas has good information to share with us.  Here are her facebook replies:

Brenda Douglas I rode in this cab many times to school especially in bad weather. I think it was 50cents. I remember going to the doctor and his office was in Wakenight Hospital.

Brenda Douglas Barbara S Duncan I wish I could but my memory offers very little. I just remember a life with no fear. I was not allowed to talk to the older men playing dominos in the park but I had to cross the park from East Park Avenue. We did not have a car and that is why I rode in the cab. 
The armory was where the Halloween festivities were and I remember Frank Thompson crowned me. I had to make a speech and I wish I could remember that. We had a man stealing panties off everyone clothes line. One day I had to go with my mother to the fire station to claim our panties. There was a big cardboard box loaded with underwear. They caught the panty thief
I am sure you were just waiting anxiously to hear that.

Barbara S Duncan Brenda Douglas Where did you live, Brenda? Close to Harding? And did you attend Harding Academy?
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Brenda Douglas
Brenda Douglas 708 East Park Avenue telephone 592-W I went to Harding in the first grade and Mrs. Knight was my first grade teacher. I started when I was five. Then second grade was Searcy Primary and Mrs. Sam Sullivan. I loved her she was so sweet. When I wen to Harding the tuition was 92.00 and my mother saved and saved and pealed peaches for Yarnell Ice cream to get the money. 
I hope our children appreciate us like we appreciated our loved ones.
Nov 17, 2018 10:57 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

More from Brenda.

Brenda Douglas There were two taxicab companies that operated in Searcy during the postwar period. C.H. Scott ran the O.K. Taxi Co. in connection with a short order restaurant at one hundred seventeen East Center Street. O.G.jones received permission from the City Council to operate the City Cab Company in 1946. Page 349 from Searcy, Arkansas : A Frontier Town Grows Up With America

Nov 17, 2018 11:01 AM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Brenda Douglas does indeed have valuable imformation to share!

I wish she had said if she graduated from SHS and when. I'm thinking she is well into her 90's.

Nov 18, 2018 10:51 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, check your math.  The ad was in 1951.  Assume she was a young girl then, maybe 10 years old?  Couldn't she be much younger?

Nov 18, 2018 02:07 PM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Never mind math, read what she said about post war as if she knew about cab companies.  I remember haloween parties in the armory and I was probably 8.

She must have been older.

Nov 18, 2018 05:24 PM
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