When I was in high school at Walnut Ridge, we had a favorite hangout - it was a drive-in restaurant called the Polar Freeze. You could get just about any flavor or combination of flavors in a drink. Kids would park and hangout on Friday and Saturday nights - it always packed.
The last time I was in Holly Grove, one of the buildings I saw that brought back a strong feeling of nostalgia was the American Legion Hut. I must admit, as I looked at it through my 69 year old eyes it looked small and insignificant. But I also remember looking at it through the eyes of a boy in junior high school and even in high school; in those days, I thought it was the equal of the Grand Ballroom at the Hotel Peabody.
Why was it so important? Because it was where the two major school social events of the year were held - the Football Banquet in the fall and the Junior-Senior Banquet and Dance in the spring. Dances after home football games were also held there .
These were some of the feelings associated with those events that I remember. Being extremely nervous about asking for a date to my first Football Banquet. Buying a corsage for my date and receiving a boutonniere from her. Watching girls dance with eachother because most of the boys couldn?t do the Jitterbug. Admiring the girls in their beautiful evening gowns and seeing the other boys in coats and ties. It was really a special time in all of our lives and it happened at The American Legion Hut.
During my growing up years in HG (60s and early 70s), many a baseball game was organized in the pasture/lot next to Ralph and Rosemary Abramson's house on what we fondly called "The Block." Several of us who had horses (yes, most in our back yards!) would ride through the Walls' pecan orchards at the edge of town and down turn-rows of the adjoining fields. Summer days weren't complete for my best friend Phyllis Calloway and me without a horse race through the soft dirt of the orchard!
What were your favorite hangouts as teenagers? Did you hang out at favorite restaurants or did you spend a lot of time at East Lake or White River? What did you do in your spare time?
