I’m realizing even before I write that I won’t be able to do a snapshot of Pea Ridge in any certain year, so this will range from about 1944 to 1948. In 1944, during World War II, many of our men from Pea Ridge were serving in the military services. It was not uncommon back then to see soldiers in uniform on the streets or gathered at the gas station.

For the longest time, the little rock gas station at the main intersection was a center attraction in old downtown Pea Ridge. The rock building was built by Clyde “Pea Ridge” Day back in 1930. Pea Ridge Day was a well-known professional baseball player in the 1920s and early 1930s, playing for such teams as the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and several strong minor league teams such as the Kansas City Blues.

He was a colorful pitcher, especially known for his hog call yells. As I first remember the station, the operator was Floyd Hall. It was an Esso station then. About a year ago I was given a picture of the tall Esso sign, taken from in front of the station, looking eastward toward the schoolhouse. The picture shows the schoolhousein its original configuration, without the corner wings, so I am pretty sure the picture was made in about 1948.

I remember that Floyd never had one of the hydraulic car lifts that many garages were installing, he had a rack on the east side of the station onto which your car or truck was driven by a ramp. But it was a full service station, of the sort that was common in those days. In other words, it was not self service like our stations of today. A station attendant was there to fill your tank, check your oil, wipe your windshield, check your tires, air them up if needed, check your windshield wipers at no extra charge. Much of the time, Floyd Hall himself was your attendant. Sometimes it would be Lawson Latty orsomeone else. Floyd repaired tires, replaced wipers, did lube jobs, changed oil and filters, sold batteries and all kinds of automotive fluids. I especially remember his battery charging rack in the back. Many ofus used a car battery to power our home radio. We would rotate the batteries. When one “went down” we would switch to the backup, and take the discharged battery to Floyd for a slow charge.

As I recall, back in the mid-1940s, our main street east and west was paved, but nothing else about town or country was paved. The street going south past the funeral home may have been paved, too. I have trouble remembering for sure. The funeral home was Miller Funeral Home back then. Ralph Miller was our funeral director. He served as mayor of Pea Ridge in the late ’40s. The funeral home, now Sisco Funeral Home, has been in the same location for a long time.

In the 1940s, we were beginning to have school buses.

Before that, sometimes kids rode to school in someone’s truck, hitched a ride in a car, or walked to school. Back then, you froze on the way to school, then they thawed yourself out in front of the coal heating stove and brought you back to life for the school day. All the kids who lived in town had to walk to school; otherwise their families had to arrange the transportation. The buses onlypicked up school kids who lived at least two miles from the school. Early on, the drivers purchased their own buses, and contracted with the school district to carry kids to school.

I think it was in 1948 that the school began to buying buses and hiring the drivers.

My first school bus driver was O.R. Morrison, whose farm is now our Pea Ridge City Park.

In later years, we became accustomed to having the buses load and unload behind the schoolhouse, but early on, before the corner wings were added to the school, the buses entered the front drive from the main street, across from Webb’s Feed and Seed, and made a turn-a-round in front of the school. After the wings were added, that drive was replaced with a set of wide, grand sidewalks.

One of the special business places for me as a little boy was the Drug Store, next door to the old Bank of Pea Ridge (today’s Community Library).

But I never quite understood why they called it a drug store. We almost never bought any medicine in those days. To me, the Pea Ridge Drug Store was an ice cream parlor and soda fountain. Didn’t they at one time have chairs with metallegs and round seats, sitting around little tables? I think I remember Ralph Miller owned it, Pauline Foster worked at the soda fountain, then Beulah Laughlin (now Beulah Prophet), and later in the ’50s, Clytice Ross.

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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at joe369@ centurytel.net, or call 621-1621.

Community, Pages 5 on 09/14/2011