Arkansas

My siblings and I grew up hearing a lot about Arkansas, and adventures that my daddy had growing up there. So on a recent trip up to that area, I wanted to detour a little and see some of the places that he talked about.

My last surviving aunt on my father's side (it would have been his sister-in-law), was celebrating her 100th birthday and I drove up to be with her and some of the remaining family. It's about a six hour drive from here, so a fairly easy drive for one day. I have a few cousins in that area and was able to spend a couple of nights with one of them.

The morning of the big birthday celebration, we decided to drive a little further and tour around the little town where my daddy grew up. He told stories about going to town on Saturday afternoons, and while his daddy was getting supplies, he would spend his quarters on hamburgers, sodas, and movies. 

The cousins with me knew the area better, and had more memories of visiting the area. We were able to find a few places still remaining, but there was some dispute about the locations of other places since the old houses were gone, properties were overgrown, landscapes had changed, new buildings built and memories had faded.

One uncle had lived next to a church building which was still there, on a street with his name. So we were able to find his old house fairly easily. It looked derelict and decaying, but at least it was still there.

We did find the cemetery where some of the family are buried. I found it using Find A Grave website. The cemetery was about five miles out of town and had changed names. I thought it was well kept despite being in the middle of farm land. The old church building that would have been next to the cemetery was long gone. We had to walk around awhile until we found the graves since we didn't have a map.