While thinking about the following article on the effects of the changing times on parts of this area, I couldn't get away from the use of the personal pronoun "I", and I apologize for the personal references which seem necessary to this article.
     More years ago then I like to think about I had occasion to visit in Huntington, Arkansas, a lively city with many businesses. The chief occupation had to do with mining which employed many people before machinery took over.
     It was getting dusk when I first viewed Sugarloaf Mountain from the window of a Rock Island passenger train. I was a little girl coming to Arkansas from Texas; a long way off, and the first pangs of homesickness were beginning to rise inside me. I had lived on the plains and had never seen a real mountain, and Sugar loaf was a formidable sight, much taller than it is today, to a little girl who had never been away from her grandmother and aunt. My father was bringing me for a visit for the very first time. His desire to bring me to Arkansas had caused much speculation at home. The truth was he was bringing me to meet his new wife whom I had not even known about until we were about to de-train at Mansfield. My dad visited me once a year during his vacations, but could not quite make up for all the memories I'd left behind, and the nearer we got to our destination and the nearer to night, the more desolate I felt. One who has never been homesick cannot imagine the empty, miserable, all gone feeling that homesickness can give one.
     I really thought I was going to cry or die, and to cry would make my father whom I called "Zack", fell very bad, and I never knew of one's dying from homesickness.
     With this attitude of mind, it is no wonder I came off the train at Mansfield not carried away with my introduction to Arkansas, but before a week had gone by, I had begun to adjust and make friends. Children are eager to meet others and easy to know, and I soon knew several - some a little younger some a little older but all in the same age group.
     Just as I was beginning to enjoy my new friends, we were called back to Texas to be my grandmother's bedside. My dad had really wanted me to tell the folk he had married, news he had been reluctant to write, and which my grandmother received with relief and pleasure, for he had been alone since my mother's death at my birth in Moberly, Missouri. He promised to bring me back for a longer visit but felt that I should accompany him to Texas at this time. Grandmother died, and coming back to Arkansas helped me to overcome the feeling of great loss I had.
     At this time my dad was office manager for Central Coal and Coke Company, having been transferred from Missouri. The office was at the back of what is now the old rock building that stands deserted there on the highway in Huntington. Few of the old stores are still in use in Huntington today, but I can remember many busy business houses on both sides of the street. There was Motley's Grocery, Moore and Miller Dry Goods, Jefferies' Show - especially do I remember the show, for I saw my first movie there and became enchanted with the action to the sound of the tin pan player piano. I kept up with a war serial entitled "Patria". It seemed to me that Irene Castle was the heroine. There was one starring Grace Kinard and Francis Ford and a very intriguing mystery called, "The Perils of Pauline". I got in for a nickel.
     Other stores were J.E. Finney's Grocery, Lum Williams' Grocery & Market, Haye's Café, Chaddick's Drug Store, where I had a strawberry sundae every afternoon. (We didn't have strawberries in Texas) Central Coal & Coke Company Store, Dolph Miller's Barber Shop, Charlie Patterson's Barber Shop, where I got my ear clipped once while getting my Buster Brown hair trimmed; Mrs. Young's Millinery, Mayer's Dry Goods where Carlos Anderton worked and later returned to Lone Oak to bring back his bride, Miss Patti Griffin, now affectionately known as "Miss Patti Anderton". L.E. Epperson's Grocery, Huntington State Bank, where my future father-in-law, Mr. G. Ray Holbrook, was cashier, Hunter's Jewelry Store, The City Hall and Jail, Vandervoort's Variety Store across the street from the school, Jink Jones' Livery Stable, The Ice House, the Cotton Gin, the Coal District Power Company; However all the homes used gas lights then. G.W. Scow was manager of this company, and Miss Gladys Scaggs was an employee who also taught me piano lessons. There was Jasper's Insurance Agency, The Huntington Enterprise published by Charlie Olds and Dan Hogan. Maybe there were two papers; I've forgotten since my paper reading at that time consisted of "Little Orphan Annie" - yes, she's as old as I am, and "Mutt and Jeff" and the Katzenhamer Kids". There was a big hotel called the Mont Drennen's Hotel. There was another hotel called the Keisman Hotel, Florence Cruger's Dress Making Shop, And Mrs. Martin Cross' Millinery and Hemstitching Shop.
     Some of my friends have gone and some names elude me, but I renewed some friendships since I've been back in Arkansas after many years away. The Jefferies girls had an attic full of "dress up clothes", and we dressed up and played movie stars in the woods across the street from the Mc Laughlan's house. I still see Vera in Fort Smith. We were often joined by others. There was Lois Jasper, Juanita Harwell, Lorene and Vera McLaughlan and others whose names I can't recall. I played dolls with some - one of my favorite doll-playing friends was Natalee Woods. She would wheel her doll buggy up and announce that she could play thirty minutes, and when the time was up, she promptly took her dolls an went home. That as before Dr. Spock, and children minded their parents then. I returned the calls for thirty minutes, and once when I was making my call Dr. G.G. Woods came home, and after a word with Mrs. Woods, took his son Merle, up stairs (The big house still stands) to administer the proper determent for some mischief he had evidently got into. I never knew what it was; he probably got caught smoking corn silk. Another with whom I played dolls was Esther Graham who is a music teacher in Fort Smith now. One very interesting friend was a little red headed boy next door called Howett McBride Jr. He always said his hair was "pank" when asked the color. Then there was little Jimmie Kelley who sold papers; I can see him now with his sack on his back. I guess every town has a Jimmie Kelley.
     My Dad's home was across the street from the Holbrooks'. In fact there were houses all the way up the street on both sides. One hot July afternoon I was invited to a party at the Holbrooks' - I assume it was Woodson's birthday since it is in July. My dignity was so violated by some of the boys, including one who years later became my husband, wetting handkerchiefs in the rain barrel and twisting them so that they would pop and sting when applied with a certain flip to the legs. My half stockinged legs were decorated with red triangles, and I promptly took my leave of the party only to be sent back to wait until the refreshments were served. Boys have always been boys, I guess.
     There were other amusements in the summer. There was the Chautauqua, which took young people and trained them to show off for their parents. I think I got my first dramatic experience there although I had taken "expression" a long time at home. There was a Barnam & Bailey three-ring circus in Fort Smith. We attended with the Jaspers, riding in their limousine with jump seats. In fact there were very few cars. Dr. Woods had the first one, and Woodson's grandfather, Mr. C.C. Woodson, had a Michigan sedan. Others I recall who had cars were the Jaspers and Bruce Beauchamp. I'm sure there were one or two more, but very few.
     The churches were the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian. I was a flower girl that summer in the wedding of Bess Denny and John Jack at the Methodist Church. I attended the Presbyterian Church with my stepmother.
     In those days it took all-day and late into the night to go to Fort Smith and back. The road was rocky, dusty and crooked. We didn't go often, but I remember riding the inter-urban over the Arkansas River to Van Buren, a thrilling new experience for me.
     I saw my first army tank brought to the area. All the boys and girls were on hand to see Pollard Green operate it. Most of the older young men were entering the army.
     In those days the boys fought for God and Country. Our country was attacked and there were few draft dodgers. Everyone was patriotic then. I don't know how many are still around, but I do know one who is still going strong for his age in spite of the fact that he was shell shocked and received a back injury. He is Bob Jack. Bob and his wife, Johnnye live at the foot of Huntington hill in a beautiful country place. Due to the lack of transportation we did not get to Mansfield often, but there was the "Slicker", a train that went to Fort Smith from Mansfield and I rode it some. I remember the big white hotel near the Rock Island Depot where I spent a night awaiting the arrival of a five a.m. Train on which my aunt would be arriving. I didn't sleep for fear I wouldn't awaken when the train came, and I heard trains all night. My dad had left me to meet my aunt.
     My folk moved to Texas, and I made my home there with them later; consequently I did not get back to this area for many years, but when I did, I noted the changes, which made it almost unrecognizable. The mines were no longer producing much coal and gas and electricity had come into extensive use. Most of the businesses were gone from Huntington, and so many homes had disappeared, but I guess it was Providence that brought me back to the ties I had here when one summer, years later, I renewed my acquaintance with the Holbrook's, and good friends of my parents, and subsequently began a correspondence with their eldest son who was in Tulsa, where I later made my home until we came back to this area to go into the bank with Woodson's dad in 1945.
     We cannot go back; old things must pass and give way to change, but it is hard to turn loose of the past.