One of the most beautiful gifts my father has given me is a family that works together for the greater good. Several years ago as my grandparents’ health deteriorated, he and his siblings did a beautiful work of caring for their mother and father and preserving the dignity they so justly deserved. My father’s brother, Uncle Wendell, is one of the finest men I know. When I was a child, time spent with him and his wife and children were precious days of youthful adventure. It must be a family thing, but he writes too and shared a story from days gone by, in the innocence of wonder years. While he was learning the ways of the world he also found God’s almighty love and power and he grew to be a man of great integrity, faith and love.
His story, published with his permission, and all others named, is rather lengthy, so I am going to spread it out for a few Sunday Stories. It’s a fun read! I hope it reminds you of the simple things that bring you peace.
The Childhood Friendship of
Billy Rex Jobe and Wendell Jones
Part I
Billy Rex and I became friends in the fall of 1944 when my parents, Loy and Blanche Jones, moved from the pastorate of the Beebe Nazarene Church to pastor the Batesville Nazarene Church. At that time I was eight years old and Billy Rex was seven. My family lived in Batesville for four years until September of 1948. We lived in the Nazarene parsonage at 1611 East Harrison Street and Billy lived south about 2 – 3 blocks from me at 1159 Sidney Street, just a hop, skip and jump in those ancient days. Billy’s mother, Inez, was a faithful member of the church so Billy and I were in Sunday School and church together every week for four years.
We arrived in Batesville after school started and I enrolled in East Batesville Elementary in third grade with Mrs. Ford as my teacher. Billy also attended East Batesville and he was in second grade. Every child walked to school in those days. Billy came by my house on the way and every day we walked through a vacant field for a short cut to and from school which was 3 – 4 blocks.
Since WWII was still going on hot and heavy with the Nazi’s in Europe and with Japan in the Pacific at that time most everything that was made of steel went to the war effort. So, very few kids had bikes to ride. Also, very few were driven to school in vehicles. Attending church and walking to and from school together were the beginning of our life time friendship. Soon it became our priority to be together as often as our parents would permit. Our range of childhood activities was only a few blocks from either of our homes. There was little for parents to fear in those days when their children were out of their sight. People in the neighborhood were to be trusted, so within few limits elementary age children were pretty much free to play their neighborhood.
Everything was exciting at Billy Rex’s house. He had a paint Shetland pony whose name was Trixie. Trixie was Bill’s favorite pet. We had lots of fun on that beautiful Shetland and Billy Rex would ride her every way imaginable. His dad, Wes, always had hunting hounds. Their deep bellowing barks were always a familiar and a welcomed greeting at the Jobe home.
There were usually plenty of kids in the neighborhood to include when needed in any game or spontaneous activity. One of the best things about Billy’s house was its location. It backed up to the Independence County fairgrounds which offered a myriad of possibilities for adventure, not the least was the fairgrounds branch which ran along the backside of the fairgrounds. More will be said about that beautiful little spring fed stream later.
Through the year there were many exciting activities that took place on the fair grounds. There was an old frame building that was used as an exhibit hall during the county fair and used occasionally for variety shows. Billy and I got to see Ernest Tubb of Grand Old Opry fame in person there. When the emcee introduced Tubb to the audience the country and western star entered from behind the make-shift stage when the announcer said in a deep bravado voice, “And now welcome that Texas Troubadour, Ernest Tubb!!!” As Tubb jumped up on the old make-shift stage he struck his forehead on a 2 x 4 exposed beam that was part of the improvised stage construction. He fell back temporarily and started rubbing his head. He took a minute to regain his composure and then went on with the show with his popular renditions of “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Walking the Floor Over You,” “Yellow Rose of Texas,” and “Waltz Across Texas.” It was quite a performance for two young boys from the hills of Arkansas to be in the presence of a star of the Grand Old Opry from Nashville which we tuned into on the old A.M. radio every Saturday night.
The fairgrounds included a baseball field with old wooden bleachers that saw many a sandlot game played, mainly by a bunch of neighborhood kids of all ages and sizes. Teams were determined by a process of choosing up sides. First a captain was chosen for each side. Then each captain would start and choose one at a time from all the kids standing around waiting to be chosen with the littlest and least apt coming on the tail end. This method of choosing sides was used for a lot of different types of games. It was a typical and necessary procedure when kids gathered on school grounds and vacant lots for any kind of competition. It probably gave kids their first experience and insight into rough and tumble politics.
The county fair always included a traveling carnival that set up just a short distance from Billy’s home which backed up to the fair grounds. Carnivals always had a lot of exciting breath taking rides. The Ferris Wheel and tilt-whirl were always favorites. And there were many kiosks where you could test your physical and mental skills against those of the sly carnival vendors. You could spend your money or chance your luck on all kinds of prizes and trinkets imaginable. There were a lot of sleazy characters that travelled with the carnivals in those days. There were always those that were identified as gypsies with the reputation that “They will pick your pockets.” In those days the term “carn–evil,” as it was many times referred to, expressed the questionable character and fascination of the traveling carnival.
Circuses were a big thing when they came to Batesville. They always set up on the fair grounds. When the Clyde Beatty Circus came it had its own circus train that parked at the rail station down town. They unloaded the train with most of the animals in caged carts and made a procession from down town out East Harrison Street to the fairgrounds. All the large tame animals such as the elephants and horses were pulling something for the circus setup. A person was riding on each elephant’s head and as one elephant followed another they held on to the tail of the elephant in from of them if they weren’t assigned to pull a wagon. This exciting menagerie passed right in front of our house at 1611 East Harrison, so Bill and I and my brother, James Bryan, had front row seats for this exciting procession. The elephants were used to erect the huge circus tents and other heavy lifting necessary to set up for the circus.
The circus was a spectacular event for us young fellows. Our expectations were high and we were not disappointed. My brother, James Bryan, who is four and a half years younger than I was too small to take part in a lot of mine and Bill’s adventures, but I was glad our parents permitted him to go to the circus with us. When he would get too tired to walk I would carry him on my back.
I can’t tell you the extent to which we were completely enthralled when the performance got under way with the lion tamers, the high wire acts, and all kinds of stunts on horses with monkeys sometimes included in the stunts. The pretty girls riding standing up on the backs of horses really got our attention. Some of the time they would have one foot on a horse and their second foot on another horse. Wow!! What a sight with that blend of horse flesh moving so fast and carrying a human with unbelievable balance and agility!! The circus had three rings and a different act was taking place simultaneously in each of the three rings. And there were the comically grotesque clowns with all their amusing antics who were continually performing and spouting their funny lines. So exciting!!
On Saturday night after the last performance the circus had to be dismantled. So, another procession of animals again went past the parsonage in the opposite direction to go back down town and load the animals back on the circus train. Billy Rex, Bryan and I again had our last look at these large and fierce animal specimens that we had only seen and read about in books. We had witnessed a most captivating event for young boys in a small Ozark Mountains town in those days.
Don’t miss the adventures of two small boys in a wonderful world made especially for them.
Happy Father’s Day
Gretchen