When I started to school in 1946, probably the largest building on the school campus was the gym, which stood at the northwest corner of the school grounds. At that time, the main school building was still as it was built in 1930, a rectangular shape without the four wings, which were added later. To me as a first-grader, the gym was huge, and the auditorium on the high school side of the school building was really large. The auditorium accommodated the crowds very well then for class plays and public gatherings. However, by the time I entered high school, the auditorium seemed small.
Class plays were moved to the gym. That’s when we high school boys, on occasion, got out of class to carry lunchroom chairs to the gym for class plays or pep rallies. Even today I still kind of enjoy carrying and setting up chairs.
Later, playing basketball, I began realizing that our gym was not huge at all.
In fact, the walls were so close to the ends of the court that we had to have a heavy wall pad to keep players from crashing the wall as they shot lay-ups.
The boundary line was one foot from the walls, maybe a little more along the west side by the bleachers. I remember the first time that our junior high team went to Rogers for a scrimmage.
I felt like a dwarf in a huge cave. The basket was wayfar from my forward position, and the backboard was out in the middle of nowhere, with no wall to help gauge our shots. I made one basket from the side; I’m not sure how.
At Pea Ridge in the 1950s, we always seemed to have great basketball crowds, but the gym had bleachers only along one side, so I’m guessing that our big crowds were only about 250 or so. Max Walker was probably the clearest, loudest voice in town, and you could always hear Max cheering us on. He was one of our most loyal Blackhawk-rooters.
It has seemed to me that as time has passed, big buildings have become smaller, and long distances have become shorter.
When I was a senior, our coach was Phillip Ward.
Mr. Ward had little experience with basketball. His sports experience was as a high school football player. He was not great at teaching us to run prescribed plays, but one thing he was really good at was conditioning. I remember the first day he had us all spread out on the gym floor. He got out in front and started leading us in jumping jacks, knee bends, toe touches and othermore radical exercises. For the most outlandish exercise, he had us lie down with our faces to the floor, bend our knees, reach back with both hands to grasp both ankles, and pull so our tummies made a bow under us. Then we were to rock on our tummies like a rocking chair. Before it was over we were all about to die.
Then Mr. Ward told us that we were to run out south of town to the Pea Ridge Mill, sign a notebook to prove that we had been there, and run back to town to the gym. It was a long way out to the mill in 1956. The Pea Ridge Mill was located on the corner where the EZ Mart is now, but back in the mid-’50s that was “way out of town south.” Through the years, I have often told about coach Ward and his roadwork for us basketball players, describing it as two miles out to the mill, and two miles back. I guess it just seemed that much to me. On returning to Pea Ridge, I discovered that it is one mile, not two. So it wasn’t quite as big a deal as I always made it out to be. But I do remember that we often won basketball games because we were better conditioned.
When I was growing up, we farm families usually went to town on Saturdays. Going to town often meant Bentonville AND Rogers AND Pea Ridge - a full day. For us, everythingwas worked in around morning milking and evening milking. Back in the 1940s, it was a long way to Bentonville and Rogers.
That was partly because all roads were gravel, and we drove 30 miles per hour rather than 60. And, the distance actually was greater, because the roads went straight south, then straight west, and south again, with many sharp corners. When the highways were paved about 1950, the road was straightened, angling across fields and shortening distances.
The road between Pea Ridge and Brush Creek was relocated then. Today’s Ryan Road used to be the highway to Rogers, and rather than the incline we now take out of Sugar Creek Valley, we followed a creek bed path at the bottom of the valley, then made a steep climb to the Tuck’s Chapel intersection. Nobody’s car could pull that hill in high gear.
All this travel seems shorter, quicker and smoother today. Indeed roads are shorter and smoother, and cars are quicker, smoother and shorter as well.
◊◊◊
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 [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Community, Pages 5 on 02/01/2012