Friday, September 1, 2017
thenorphletpaperboy: Why I Sent The Check
thenorphletpaperboy: Why I Sent The Check: ARKANSAS BY Richard Mason Why I Se...
Why I Sent The Check
ARKANSAS
BY
Richard
Mason
Why I Sent the Check
Portland, Texas, (a bedroom
community of Corpus Christi) August 2nd, 1970
7:00 A. M.
“Hey, Vertis, there’s a tropical storm in the Gulf, and they have just
named it Celia…looks like it’s heading this way.”
“How strong is it?”
“Well, it’s getting close to seventy-five miles an hour, which will
make it a hurricane.”
“Do you think we should leave? Maybe drive up to San Antonio?”
“No, I don’t think so. Right now the forecasters are saying it might
even weaken by the time it hits the coast, and be nothing more than a good
rain. I’m going on to work, but I’ll plot up the co-ordinates and let you know
what it looks like at noon.”
Noon, August 2nd
“Well, it looks about the same
as this morning, and the track is still heading our way.”
“Richard, we have two babies to think about. Are you sure we shouldn’t
leave?”
“No, I’m not, but let’s wait until tonight to decide.”
7:00 P. M., August 2nd
“I have some good news and maybe a little bad news.”
“What?”
“The National Hurricane Center says the storm is likely to weaken until
it is barely a hurricane. That’s the good news, and the bad news is that we’re
right in the projected path.”
“Richard, trying to get these babies in the car and go anywhere is next
to impossible. If the storm is just seventy-five mile per hour, it won’t be a
big deal, and we sure could use a little rain.”
“Yeah, I’ve talked with Reinemunds and they’re staying, and everybody
in the Six Hundred Building downtown said they were staying, so let’s just put
the kids to bed and see what happens tomorrow.
9:00 A. M. August 3rd
“Richard, they’re saying Celia may be strengthening in the warm water
near-shore, and the first strong winds are going to start by noon.”
“Gosh, that’s only three hours away. I’m going to put up anything that
could blow around and shut the garage doors. It’s too late to leave now. We’re
just going to ride this one out. Maybe it will weaken by the time it crosses
Padre Island.”
Noon, August 3rd
“Richard! I just saw a swing set blowing down the street! I wonder how
strong the winds are?”
“I don’t know, but let’s get ready to put the kids in the bathroom, if
the wind gets any stronger. I think that room in the most enclosed room in the
house, and the kids can get in the tub. We’ll put some blankets in there with
them Oh yeah, they said to run some water in a big bucket or something in case
we lose water service.”
2:00 P. M. August 3rd
“Richard, I just saw pieces of somebodies roof blowing down the street
and look! There’s a whole roof! Something just hit our roof, and the house is
shaking! Oh, my God! We’re going to lose our roof!”
“Get the kids and let’s get in the bathroom! Hurry! Our roof is about
to go…Damn! Something just hit our roof! Oh, my God! Both of our neighbors roof
are ripping off!”
“Richard, I’m so scared, and I feel so bad that we didn’t take our kids
to San Antonio! What if something happens to them? I’ll never forgive myself!”
“Vertis, the house is shaking and I think our roof is about to go! Get the kids in the bathtub and cover them
with those blankets and then lie down beside the tub! Tell the kids not to
move! I’ll lie down against you…and say a little prayer.”
An hour later:
“Richard, the wind is dying down! Maybe it’s over!”
“Stay, here Vertis, and I’ll take a look out the front door!”
“Come here; you won’t believe this! The radio says the eye of the storm
is over Portland! The wind has completely quit blowing, and I can see blue
sky.”
We’re in the front yard now, and my mouth drops open when I see the devastation
on our street. House after house has been ripped apart, and out two neighbors
on either side of us who had two story house have lost their entire roofs.
“Vertis, I’m going to drive down the street and see about Bill Floyd.
Their house is right on Corpus Christi Bay.”
“My God,” I mutter minutes later, as I view just a few walls that are
still standing including the front door. As I pull up the front door opens and
Bill runs out.
“Richard, I’ve been holding my front door shut to keep it from blowing
off its hinges!”
“Get in the car, Bill. It’s half time and that black wall of clouds out
in the bay is heading for us! Our house is still standing.”
We’re back at my house now, and just minutes later the wind, which was
out of the north during the first part of the storm is back and it’s out of the
south. Bill is exhausted and collapses on the couch as we watch the wind pick
up, and soon it is at full hurricane strength. Vertis is keeping the kids in
the bathroom, but Bill and I are peaking out watching the storm, and we watch
the debris from the first part of the storm is blowing back up the street along
with anything else that wasn’t nailed down.
It has been another hellacious hour, but the wind has now slacked off
to I would estimate less than 50 MPH, and is continuing to drop. Our best
friends, the Reinemunds, live a few blocks up the street and on a street where
the storm winds blew directly straight at their house. It takes a few minutes
to dodge the debris, but when we turned the corner where we could see their
house, our hearts dropped. The house is just a pile of collapsed walls and
rubble. Vertis bursts out crying, and I drop my head thinking the family is
either severely injured or dead. But a minor miracle has occurred---George,
Marilyn, and their two girls just ran out from a neighbor’s house across the
street. In the first part of the storm, as their roof went flying off George
put Marilyn and the girls in the kitchen against the island, and when the wall
fell it left them in a small space uninjured
7:00 P. M. August 3rd.
At last count there are 23 people in our living room and kitchen to spend
the night with us. We have no electricity, water, or gas. It will be a week
before we have water and gas, and 30 days before the lights go on again.
9:00 A. M. August 4th.
We’ve taken a drive through town and when we turned into the First
Baptist Church parking lot tears streamed down our faces. Two weeks before the
property committee, of which I was a member, had been disbanded and we had
dedicated a new 600 seat auditorium. Celia’s winds had ripped off the huge roof,
which we never saw again, and both side walls had collapsed on the pews. Only
the foyer and baptistery remained.
August 5th, 10:00 A.
M.
We’re back at the church now, and our pastor as just accepted a check
from our insurance company for the full amount of coverage, and our building
committee has been reformed. After helping to salvage a few items from the church,
we’re resting when a large semi-trailer truck pulls up into the parking lot. In
big letters it says, The Baptism Men of Texas Disaster Team. In minutes the
truck’s rear doors are opened and hundreds of cases of water and ice are handed
out to us. It was such an emotional experience that there were few dry eyes as
we hauled away what to us was precious water and ice.
It’s noon now and we join our friends the Reinemunds for lunch. We’re
standing in line to receive it from a Texas National Guard unit, and I will
never forget that moment when a guardsmen handed me my lunch.
That’s why I mailed the check.
Celia’s sustained winds were
clocked at 130 MPH with gust to 180 MPH.
Saturday, August 19, 2017
thenorphletpaperboy: Being Civic Minded
thenorphletpaperboy: Being Civic Minded: ARKANSAS By Richard Mason ...
Being Civic Minded
ARKANSAS
By
Richard Mason
Being
Civic Minded
I think most of us will agree, residents
of a community should be civic minded. That’s a simple statement, but I’ve
found in almost every town I have visited, many residents have a mindset that
being civic minded is primarily the job of community leaders or the Chamber of
Commerce. Well, I’m going to expand the meaning of being civic minded to
include a lot more citizens of a community than just the leadership. My
definition of being civic minded is going to cover every individual in a
community.
Of course, it makes sense to expand being
civic minded to include everyone in the community, because their involvement
obviously improves the community. I think it’s a disgrace to just live in a
town and depend on someone else to do all the dirty work. More involvement by
more citizens always equals a better community. But we all know there will be
those who lead the effort in community improvements, and those who lag behind
and actually do nothing or very little. Every town’s success is ultimately depends
on the number of citizens who are civic minded. The goal of every community is
to have a strong group of civic minded individuals who lead the pack of workers
to lift a town up, and increase the quality of life in that community. But to
really have a quality community every citizen of that town should join in the
effort. However, in every town I have
been in, I see weed covered lots, vacant buildings, and trash along the
streets. I’ve found out that many times a city must literally force these
owners to be civic minded.
The early settlers, who founded
the towns in our nation, were successful because of the wholehearted support of
virtually every person in these new communities. They gave us a great example,
so where do we start?
First, let’s ignore the need for
an army carrying weedeaters, which of course wouldn’t be needed if the city
actually kept city right-of-ways trimmed and cleaned. Let’s focus on the vacant
lots and buildings. Those are the real town killers. Let’s me give you my experience when
considering the problem of vacant lots. In 1974 my wife and I were living in
Corpus Christi, Texas, and we decided to move back home to South Arkansas. We
had plans to build a new house, and we came to El Dorado looking for a suitable
lot. Long story short—we couldn’t find one. Oh yes, there were plenty of lots,
but they weren’t for sale. Actually, we lucked out, and after almost buying a
great house in Columbus, Mississippi, we found an old beer joint attached to 17
acres—the Palace, on Calion Road—bought it, leveled the beer joint, and moved
to El Dorado. Those lots that we tried to buy are still available, but not for
sale. I believe being civic minded is more than just living in a town. There
are responsibilities and contributing to community growth is one of them.
Of course civic responsibility is
everybody’s business. The businessman, attorney, or doctor who lives in the
community and makes his living from the people and business in the community
has a civic obligation and responsibility to support and actively participate
in civic improvements. Not only that, but these individuals have a
responsibility to be active promoters of businesses that they aren’t directly
involved in, and if they have unused land and buildings, and someone wants to
build on or renovate and improve the buildings and land they should sell to
them and not inhibit community growth.
A community of people who
encourages growth and improves the quality of life in their town will naturally
do many altruistic things. Altruistic means “for the good of others without
gain for themselves”. A town with no altruistic individuals is a sad place to
live because it’s the altruistic people who give towns the spirit of community
and pride. However, before we place all the blame or credit on the professional
people in our community, we would be amiss not to consider the actions of every
resident. When we do that, we will see the quality of life in a community
doesn’t depend upon a few civic minded individuals. Obviously, the more civic
minded people you have in a community, the better the quality of life their town’s
citizens will have. Involvement can be as small as picking up trash in front of
your house, or refraining from tossing a beer can out the window. I guess you
might say “trash litters” and realize that statement has a double meaning, and
of course, the definition of trash needs to be on everybody’s mind. Yes,
cigarette butts are trash, and according to most experts, they are major
contributors to liter. Of course, I could go on and on about how being civic
minded improves a town, but I think you get the point.
Yes, it’s easy to nod in
agreement when someone endorses being civic minded, but becoming active is a
lot harder to do. Just think of what our town could be if we doubled the number
of people who are civic minded?
Sunday, August 13, 2017
thenorphletpaperboy: First Impressions
thenorphletpaperboy: First Impressions: First Impressions Well, the buzz is spreading. Yes, the MAD (Murphy Arts District’s) opening...
First Impressions
First
Impressions
Well, the buzz is spreading. Yes,
the MAD (Murphy Arts District’s) opening week buzz is taking off. Folks are
scrambling to get tickets, and they’re flying off the shelf. We’ve loaded up,
and I can’t wait. The buzz is already spreading through the mid-south, and
after the MAD promotion group’s advertising recent soiree through New York City,
national publications will pick up the story, and we can expect the September
27th grand opening to be eagerly awaited by thousands from all over
the country who will roll into El Dorado. And it will continue week after week,
as top flight entertainment and great food pulls in the crowds.
Of course, as I
have said before, these several hundred thousand guys and gals coming to the
entertainment district will bring a healthy boost to the overall state’s
economy, and a real uptick to South Arkansas. Yes, El Dorado will be the
destination for thousands, and we hope some of those several hundred thousand
festival goers will like El Dorado so much they’ll move here, and up-tic the
economic growth and reverse our population decline. I’m convinced, if we take advantage of this
influx, South Arkansas will see a new boom that will rival the 1920s oil boom.
However, we may have a little problem as we
try to give our visitors a good first impression. Uh, well maybe more than a little problem. So
what about first impressions? Do they matter? I met Vertis, my wife, while
swimming in the Smackover Swimming Pool. Did she make a good first impression?
Well, we’ve been married longer than I can remember, so I would say Vertis in a swimsuit made an excellent
first impression. Now, let’s just do a “what if”. What if Vertis had looked
like North West Avenue in that swimsuit? Well, I would probably have ended up a
confirmed bachelor living in a Greek Monastery. So just for a moment let’s say
Mabelle and Billy Ray Jones from Tulsa arrive to see ZZ Top, and they drive
into El Dorado on North West Avenue. I can hear them now: “Look, Billy Ray, they have a giant, abandoned Wendy’s sign. I wonder
if they have a historical marker, and oh, look; I’ll bet they don’t have to
worry about mowing all those blank parking lots.” “That right Mabelle, and see
all those electrical lines. I’ll just bet all those stores have electricity,
and just check out this turn lane. It’s a turn lane as far as the eye can see.
Wow, this looks like a town we might want to relocate to.” Or maybe they
might say, “My God, Billy Ray, have you ever seen anything so ugly? Speed up and
check this eyesore off our list.”
Okay, now we’ve
seen the good, bad, and the ugly, so how can we turn ugly North West Avenue
into Vertis in her swimsuit? I guess
that requires some action by the Mayor and the City Council. Yes, of course it
does, and that begs the question: If North West Avenue is such an eyesore why
hasn’t the City, and/or the City Council done anything about it? Yes, they will
mumble something like “We don’t have the
money.” But I’ve offered to buy 50 crepe myrtle trees, and all the city has
to do is plant them in the green space along the street. Nope, they won’t take
me up on my offer, and I would just bet, with a little work, I could line up
several hundred trees to be donated. The city owns the right-of-way on both
sides of the street, and nothing can keep the city from planting trees or other
landscaping, which will cover up some of the ugly. But it’s not just the Mayor
and Public Works Director; the City Council can pass a sign ordinance, similar
to the one that disappeared from the books, and they can also take a page from
Fayetteville and pass a landscaping ordinance to green up those blank ugly
parking lots.
Of course,
killing the endless turn lane on North West Avenue is almost just too much to
hope for, but what if the turn lane was landscaped all the way from Hillsboro
to the bypass intersection, with just a few breaks across it? Yes, that’s a big
job, but it’s the right thing to do. If El Dorado Festivals and Events can
spend a hundred million dollars to add 500 jobs and thousands to our population,
it seems the city could at least give us a fighting chance to attract permeant
residents by sprucing up the eyesore
of South Arkansas, North West Avenue. If you agree that North West
Avenue need a face lift, then every time you see the Mayor or a City Council
Person, tell them to get busy and do something about the eyesore of South
Arkansas.
Sunday, August 6, 2017
thenorphletpaperboy: Make Hot Springs Great Again
thenorphletpaperboy: Make Hot Springs Great Again: ARKANSAS By RICHARD MASON ...
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