A Drive To White River and Guion

Eleven and a quarter inches of rain fell At The Farm in less than three days.  The valley was roaring. I did not get pictures.  I haven't checked for water damage away from the house.  I do know where the grass was gone, the top soil is too.  We were lucky.  The water falls almost as quickly as it rises.

That water is finding it's way to White River and on down the line to the Mississippi.  It was some serious rain.  Places not far from us had road closings and I'm sure when the water goes down there will  be damage. The good news I've heard of no one in our immediate area hurt by this monster rain.

Today we drove to the Guion Arkansas where Hubby grew up and where we lived for a while as a young married couple.  The waters are receding but are a long way from be normal.

My heart goes out to those down steam as the tributaries add to the volume along the way.

I will let the pictures tell the story.

May all life be safe down stream.

The Train In Guion

Before my husband and I met he lived and almost died in Guion, Arkansas. Driving in his '66 maroon Mustang with his cousin they crossed these train tracks. Hubby was fiddling with his radio.
The crossing lights did not work that day nor did they work this day. Hubby looked up to see one big light bearing down on him.  Trying to stop, the car spun around and died.  Hubby started the car and by popping the clutch he lost only part of his bumper that day. The cousin had left the car. Hubby stayed to save it. We still have part of that bumper...wish we had the whole car. Hubby said for months afterward his dreams were haunted by the train light.  The engineer had not sounded the horn but he did this day.

At the beginning of my film you see a mine in the bluffs. This is a sand mining town and has been for a very long time.  I imagine one day  the town will disappear into the great void that lies beneath its hills. Once a thriving city with many businesses it is a smaller town now but beginning to grow again. In addition to the Unimin Inc there is Silica Transport and a new tiny grocery store.

We lived here a few years when the girls were young and Hubby worked at the sand mill as a laborer then as an operator washing and drying sand.  Twelve hour shifts were rough on all.  I'm sure the working conditions have improved while the mines still provide jobs for many.

As Hubby grew up he traveled much by train since his father was an employee of Missouri-Pacific Railroad and family could travel free.

The track runs along White River for many miles and is still in use today but only for transporting products not people.

Just another tendril from the vines of life that twine together and make me who I am. Where would I be today if Hubby was not a great driver?

Thursday's Things In A Row...

Stone County and Izard County

With White River in between

I sat on Stone County Side

Just enjoying the scene.

 

Across the bridge is the town of Guion

Whose business is sand mines

Here is where my life began

With my darling Tractor Man.

No bridge then only a ferry

Drive your car on and motor across

If the water was too high or too low

Turn around and find another way to go.

 

This week you have to find my rows

Kinda like hide-n-seek

Go visit Pat

and take a peek. 



The Scenic Route To Torture

Highway Nine, the scenic route,

We all know what that means.

Beautiful vistas, crooked roads, few guard rails and wonderful photo opportunities...on the way to another doctor.  I remember when this road was gravel and I rode in the back of the truck with my sisters going to visit kin in Stone County.

Imagine this with no rail, rolling gravel,

 and meeting a vehicle.

Twenty-two miles of crooked and steep,

takes me to the beauty of White River.

Sylamore creek feeds into White River

with a mansion on the bluff.

I'm sure you're wondering where the torture comes in...We're there...another wonderful doctor.  Shakes my hand, I scream.  He pokes my wrist, I scream.  He leaves the room and returns with a needle, and I scream some more. Tendinitis, he says, as if it were nothing. Just a tiny prick here, he says. (Afterwards, I wondered if he were describing himself)  After hours (it seemed) of probing with a needle as big as my arm (if it had been bigger, I would have said it), pop! goes the needle into the tendon.  He said, well, that tendon was a little tight.  The king of understatement!

I am wrapped elbow to thumb tip so I cannot move my right arm nor my thumb...for  ten days...but he releases me to return to work!  I don't know about y'all but I have to have a thumb to work.  I need two hands.  If thumbs weren't important in working the mail then they could hire armadillos.

THEN they want to charge me $15 to complete the required paperwork!  I asked, do you charge for filing the insurance?  No, that is a customer courtesy...no ca-ca!  That is the money paperwork.

Disheartened, hurting like crazy and embarrassed that I cried more than the eight-year-old with a broken arm, I left to drive my STANDARD home.  I took the less scenic route this time.

Down the mountains and  up the mountains, across White River, through the small town of Guion (which only had twelve miles of  crooked and steep) back home...only to get in the car again to return to my doctor to have her do the paperwork.

That went well, she was appropriately sympathetic and said, I still have the F disease but fixing the arm will help.  I return home and  find out she didn't SIGN the paperwork.  I know, I know, stupid!  I didn't check.  I decided it can wait til Monday. I am officially, legally off until after Christmas and can't do anything!

I must say the day is brighter, the arm pain has lessened, and I am lucky to still own two arms.  How did I write this post???  Very  slowly, one handed...I couldn't leave y'all hangin'...Merry Christmas.

Dark Secrets

Yesterday I talked about the box car gaming and the occasional brawls that broke out among the group of gamers in the small sand town of Guion.

One involved my uncle and Hubby's dad and uncle.  In the early fifties, about, I would guess, the games were still going on.  We had a boot-legger across the river and there was always someone that had some moonshine.

I never heard what started the fight but it ended in the cornfield along the tracks.  My uncle was injured and died later from blood poisoning.  Hubby's relatives were tried for his death...not guilty.

This caused quite the stir when Hubby and I started dating...but they calmed down, eventually.

When I first met Hubby's aunt, I stood partially behind him.  His aunt said, "Get out from behind him, you're acting like the Ledfords!"  I proudly stepped out and informed her my grandmother was a Ledford and I was proud of it...so now, two strikes against me!

Mom tried to tell me we were kin...but we weren't. My dead uncle's wife was Hubby's cousin.  Mother was teasing because we were only related by marriage.  I always teased my girls about them being inbred...I know, I'm awful.

Now that I have reinforced the belief about Arkansas hillbillies, I will add the funniest comment, I think, Mom ever said.  She was talking about two sisters that lived in Guion and said,  "They would go down the river road with anybody that had a mule!"

Any questions?

My Hubby's Town...

Guion, Arkansas was the town where Hubby grew up.  It wasn't the town it used to be but it still had two stores and two sand businesses.  Guion is a sand mining town.

It was quite busy in the early days.  The railroad came through town and it was the only way to travel for many. On the edge of White River, you could drive twelve miles on gravel to reach a main highway. Years later, they had a ferry to cross the river, now they have a bridge.

When the mines opened, payday was on Friday as in most jobs.  Behind the tracks and the depot, many games of craps were played, much liquor drunk and a few brawls broke out every weekend. 

Come Monday morning, for some families, there was nothing left of the paycheck to feed the family.  The wives got together and visited the wife of the owner.  Ms. Mertie, as she was known to every one, solved the problem.  Paydays would now be on Wednesday and since the men had to work on Thursday, there were no drunken games.  This enabled the woman to buy what the family needed before party time behind the box cars.

Payday for the existing mine today is still Wednesday.