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George Taylor's HeritageWhen I Think of Malvern |
When I Think of Malvern, Arkansas
Altho I moved from my hometown of Malvern, Arkansas in 1957 I still think of it often. We will never live there again but it will always be my hometown.
Here are some of the things that drift through my mind (such as it is!):
Miller�s Drug Store stood on a Main Street corner for many years. Oh for a Coke float or a chocolate malt from that pleasant place! The Miller �boys� really took care of us young folk!
The Bank of Malvern, the oldest chartered bank in Arkansas, was on Main Street. My dad banked there. Wife Betty and I had a checking account there. Paul Bowdle, a friend from church worked there. I once took out a loan there to buy a console type sewing machine for Betty. We still have it and it was still useable when we stored it in the attic!
The Radio Shop on East Page near the Post Office was a store I liked to visit. I had just begun to repair radios and this was an oasis for me to visit. Seeing all of the radios and tubes stacked up was something to see!
Western Auto Store where I, as a �shade tree mechanic�, was a very good customer of the Spence brothers. Sometimes I felt I kept them in business! They had what you needed or they could get it for you. Otherwise you didn�t need it! It was located on the NW corner of the intersection of Highway 67/Page Street and Main Street. First class personal service!
The Dairy Queen on Highway 67 South, on the left just as you were leaving town. Betty and I didn�t have much money to spend for such but we enjoyed many milk shakes and sundaes at this place. We became friends of the owners and they would really pile the toppings on!
The �Working Man�s Caf� was located on the west side of Main Street on the side of the hill near the railroad. You could buy a large plate lunch that would satisfy a working man�s appetite for only forty-five cents!
Pine Bluff Street was, and still is, a very pleasant tree lined street. When I was a kid I sometimes helped my uncle Hilman Taylor sell his fresh vegetables door to door down both sides of that street. The existing Malvern Hospital is built on the farm land he owned back then. When Betty and I married, our first apartment was on this street!
Clem�s Bottle Works on South Main Street. This was a mainstay of Malvern for many years. Remember that cool Clem�s Orange drink? It was my favorite.
First Assembly of God Church on South Main Street where Betty�s family attended, also my family attended there for a period of time when I was a baby. The Reverend O.M. Montgomery, Pastor, married Betty and I in the parsonage on May 20th, 1950.
Kelly Clardy�s �junk store� on South Main Street where you could find most anything, whether you needed it or not! You could pay for the item or barter for it. He was a sharp trader!
The clay pits at the end of East Sullenberger Street was where I sometimes went swimming when I visited my uncle Hilman Taylor. They were near his home.
The train station was at the foot of the hill in town. I loved the hustle and bustle on the station ramp and I liked to watch the steam engine powered trains come and go. It really was a site to sometimes see the passenger train come flying through without stopping, it would �catch the mail bag on the fly�. The mailbag was hung from a post frame and somehow a man on the train would grab it as the train went by! Also this was a good place to go use the men�s room while in town. The only other public places I was aware of were the bus station and the courthouse!
Sitting in my car on Main Street on Saturday night. Sometimes I would be where I could see US Highway 67, the main route from Memphis to Texarkana. I pondered where the travelers may be headed and what they would be doing when they got there. Most of the large trucks were �new car� haulers, the rail roads carried most of the freight. Now things are reversed!
Tillery family then of 210 Edwards Street (renamed South Edwards Street). I became a part of that family when I married their daughter, Betty Sue. Great Christian folk!
George and Helen Reed, our friends. I first met George while working at the Van Veneer Plant in the late 1940s. My wife Betty and I have visited George and Helen over the years. Our friendship lasts still.
The Spring in North Malvern across the street from Clem�s pond. People came from many places to �catch� or dip the water from that spring. It was said there were healthy minerals in it. Also there was a �mineral spring� at the Dyer place a few miles North of town and just east of the Military Road. Saturday and Sunday many people came from town to fill up their jugs here.
The Earl Wallace Garage and Service Station at the intersection of North Main Street and Moline Street in North Malvern held many memories for me. I ran the garage for Earl for a period of time in the �50s. He was a good mechanic and would help me if I ran into something I couldn�t handle. I was paid on commission therefore I worked hard! I learned a lot about a lot of things while in Earl�s employ.
The River Bridge near Rockport, it always intrigued me. I once foolishly drove across it in my old jalopy when the water was so high it was lapping at the top boards! Yes, the water has been that high several times. There were two sets of heavy boards, one set was crosswise the bridge, the other set ran lengthwise across the bridge.
Fishing in gravel pits near the river was enjoyable. Also we would seine for fish and cook them there on the gravel bank. I also enjoyed fishing and swimming in the creeks around the Cooper community where I lived.
Cooks Flooring Mill was located on US Highway 67 South, just past �Dead Man�s Curve�. I worked there for several years, my father-in-law Walter Scott Tillery worked there many years. He lost a few fingers there! Want me to tell you how oak flooring is made? Or how church pew ends were glued together using scrap hard wood pieces? Or how to operate a �cut off� saw without cutting off your fingers? Or how cutters sound cutting into that very hard kiln dried oak lumber?
Textile mill comes to mind quite often as Betty and I worked there several years prior to moving to Alabama. We both worked in the weave room, later I worked in the cloth room. It was a Division of the International Shoe Company. The building now (or did?) houses the local Technical College.
The Van Veneer Plant where, as a youngster, I worked several years. It was located in town just North of the railroad tracks. I could tell you how the hot, steamed logs are made into veneer! I well remember the sweet �n sour smell of the plant and of my clothes after I got home!
The Brick Yards were something to behold. For many years I saw trucks on the highways hauling bricks from Malvern, the �Brick Capital of the World�, to all over the country. In years past people lived in mud homes, if you live in a brick home then you live in a mud home also because bricks are made from a special �mud�.
The Malvern High School reminds me of some classmates and also some of my teachers there: Mr. Quin Baber, Mr. Brooks, Mz. Goza, Mz Pauline Goodman. I rode the (first route) bus to school early each morning from my home near Cooper. In the evening I would arrive home late (last route), but always in time to do some farm chores!
The Cooper School, that one room school house that usually had twenty to twenty-five students in five grades. Oh if only our children today could have a basic education (reading, writing and arithmetic) as I received there! It was my school for three and one-half happy years under the tutorage of one wonderful lady Mrs. Eudor Fields. There now are nice homes where we kids once played ball.
The Cooper Church holds many memories for me as my dad, George Evans Taylor, helped organize it and we both helped build it. At the age of fifteen I wired that little white building for electricity, about 1946, when electricity came to that part of the County. Many years later it was replaced with a brick building. Dad served that Cooper Church in many positions such as Deacon, Sunday School teacher or Superintendent, until his death in 1994. May that church building be a memorial for dad and the other charter members!
The graveyards: Cooper Cemetery (North of Malvern) where my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephews and many friends and neighbors are buried. Mount Pleasant Cemetery (South of Malvern) where my wife�s parents, brother, sisters and grandparents are buried. Every year or two we visit those lonely places, places of solitude. We very much appreciate the local folk keeping the cemeteries cared for.
My parents, George Evans and Gladys Aline Taylor, the farm and old home place on the Military Road near the Cooper turn-off. My growing up there is another three part story which was published in the 1997, 1998, and 1999 issues of The Heritage. I was in Malvern in April of 2002 to attend the funeral of my sister Dorothy Hobbs and while there I drove out to the rocky hill where our old house once stood. Boy, nothing can change much when it is a bed of rocks! The memories flooded my mind with thoughts of mom and dad and the nine years of my life spent there on that hill. My eyes filled with tears.
Squirrel hunting was one of my enjoyments and it also put food on the table. I grew up with guns and dad let me hunt by myself at age twelve. Boy, that would not be a safe thing to do now but I grew up there on the farm and that was part of our way of life. One of dad�s favorite dishes was squirrel with dumplings. He liked to crack the head with a knife handle and retrieve the brains, he really liked to eat them. I liked my squirrel fried. Mom made it both ways; young squirrels were fried and old ones were made more tender when prepared with dumplings!
The little house Betty and I built, when we first married, out on the old Military Road just past the Butterfield cut-off road. It stands today, altho larger, as straight and rigid as when we built it. Our parents drove many nails in that house, that was hard work because it is built of kiln dried oak lumber! At the time I worked at a hardwood flooring plant in Butterfield, they sold me the lumber because it was too thin to be made into flooring.
Our house at 905 Lowden Street in North Malvern where we were living when we moved to Alabama. I spent many happy morning hours in my backyard shop servicing radios, TVs, appliances and anything else that was brought to me. This was during the time we both worked the evening shift at the textile mill.
I hope your memories of Malvern are as sweet as mine.
Written on 1-12-2003 by:
George Evans Taylor, Jr.
209 Lakeshore Drive
Muscle Shoals, Al 35661-1029
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