Steven Allen

[Red 56 Binder]

I was reading Kindergarten and see you are from Blue Eye. I spent the winter of 1976 -77 down there on my uncles property a mile north with a bunch of cattle I remember the locals Milton Skaggs feed store ,Lee Carmichale, Dick Pope lived in Arkansas Had Charlais cattle,And Edell Huskee spent a lot of time at the coffee shop .

 

[Steven Allen]

Hi!
Alas! By '76, our family had moved to St. Louis because of my grandfather's health. He just couldn't be that far away from care that the facilities and Branson--and even Springfield, at that time--couldn't provide. They had had a nifty little house right on the lake at Baxter, and riding the bus on Highway H was (and, I suppose still is) quite an adventure, even when the weather is good.

You bring up other memories. Our bus driver's name was Guy. He was a kindly old man who obviously had worked hard all his life, as was typical for the hill folk of the time. On the last day of every school year, he stopped at the dairy shop in Lampe and bought all the kids on the bus an ice cream cone.

Among his other odd jobs, he maintained the laundromat in Lampe. For whatever reason--lost to the years--my mother and I had to go there to do laundry one day, and something went wrong with one of the machines someone else was using: it overflowed, and filled the floor with suds--like out of an I Love Lucy episode. To little guy like me, it seemed as it the suds were half as high as I was (and they may have been). She hastily called his number posted on the wall, and he arrived to begin the clean up. I don;t remember whether we got our clothes done or not.

As for Blue Eye, I have fond memories of the school, but the south end of town struck me even then as being a little sad. We went to an auction one day on the Arkansas side, and things looked kinda beat up. Over the last couple decades, I have taken my family to the area and stayed for a day or three. When we can, we drive down to Blue Eye. The school is still there, of course, and the fence on the south side of the playground is still the state line. The Arkansas side has gone from sad to despair. "Run down" doesn't begin to describe it. That portion of the lake area has not benefited from the Branson boom. And, except for the straights in which the folks still in the town live, I don't mind. I prefer the backwater parts of the lake over the glitz of the shows and attractions. Significant parts of my childhood are still there, and I can still see others in my mind's eye unobstructed by modern encroachment.

How old were you in '76?

 

[Red 56 Binder]

I had quit school and was only 16 years old .The old farm i was on is now something to do with a church camp or something.I havent been down there for 40 ? years

 

[Steven Allen]

I once had dreams of retiring down there, but I don't see that happening, now. That area says "home" to me in ways that no other does despite not having lived there for over 50 years.