Is this a cool town or what?

As the lilting sounds of violins, cello and violas playing the music of Mozart and Beethoven wafted outside the building, the sounds of men at work in heavy construction provided quite a contrast to those within ear shot of both.

Was this the Arkansas Symphony playing at home in Robinson Auditorium while men were working to widen and improve Markham Avenue? Actually, it was a recent concert by the Arkansas Symphony’s Quapaw string quartet. The foursome, playing musicals instruments dating back to the early 1700s, entertained Pea Ridge Intermediate School students in the old gym while workers were busied outside building what will soon be the new Intermediate School.

Talking to the members of the group, they remarked that they had never traveled so far up into the northwest section of Arkansas before. They also said that not a lot of schools would welcome their kind of music and talents and that they were quite pleased with not only the warm reception they received from the local students, they were also please with the students conduct and polite questioning during the Q & A time.

So here we are in Pea Ridge, an old frontier town mostly known for a Civil War battle and an ongoing yearly Mule Jump contest.

One visitor to the concert said: “Wow, championship mule jumping one day and sophisticated entertainment on another. What a town!”

One of the things about Pea Ridge are the contrasts that you can see just about anywhere you look. While the Mozart/Beethoven concert was going on, for instance, just across the street in Webb’s feed store, you could watch chickens laying eggs right there in the store with the resulting product for sale, making the eggs there about as fresh as you could ever get them. Does Little Rock’s Robinson Auditorium even come close to that kind of quality and convenience in their neighborhood? I don’t think so.

In terms of athletics, it is sadly true that the local schools football stadium is most likely one of the worst ones in the state. It was probably top notch when it was built way back when, but there hasn’t been the push or, more importantly, the wherewithal to do anything about it until just recently. On the other hand, the school’s new indoor football facility is undoubtedly the finest and most impressive one on any 4A campus in the state. In fact, it is probably the finest one anywhere until you start looking at some on the 7A school campuses such as the one in Bentonville.

A few years ago, we were probably OK academically for a small school with small aspirations. If anyone has noticed, however, the past few years has seen the local schools’ academic scores take a near meteoric rise as they are now better overall than most of the schools in the area and state, and that includes the big schools. This past year, a Pea Ridge student earned a National Merit Scholarship, a seeming unattainable feat for small school students.

At the new Primary School, some of the most modern academic improvements are in play every day, with one of the nicest buildings being built these days. Though the school is located in the city, not 50 yards from the front of the Primary School can be seen (and sometimes smelled) a herd of cows grazing and doing what cows do on a farm in front of and adjacent to the school. It’s so totally “citified” in some respects but still a rural community in many others.

Unlike so many other small communities, Pea Ridge has a local newspaper. While kids in elementary schools in bigger areas exist in a kind of media anonymity, kids here get their names in the newspaper for academics, various activities and athletics.

Athletic kids in bigger towns have to join YMCA or Boys Club teams that play before small to smaller crowds with teammates they may have never met before. In Pea Ridge, kids in grade school sports play with kids they go to school with and they have parents who often know each other from earlier times together.

Just recently, a new museum opened in Bentonville, Crystal Bridges.

Having already been twice, I can’t tell folks enough about how wonderful that place is. It deserves to be known as one of the best ones in the world. Its location in northeast Bentonville places it in close proximity of our school here in Pea Ridge. In reality, the Pea Ridge School actually is closer to the museum than some of the Bentonville elementary schools.

The ability to view great art, hear great musical performances, see the world’s highest jumping mules and visit the nation’s largest Civil War battlefield are some of the things that make Pea Ridge a cool town. The people that live and work here make it a great town.