‘Long good-bye’ to a hometown
By Roy Ockert Jr.
For the first time in the 71-plus years of my life, I don’t have either a first or second home in Hot Springs. That’s where I was born and raised and where my mother spent all but a few of her nearly 91 years.
She died last Dec. 29 after several years of declining health. That was coincidentally the day my last regular newspaper column was published. I was tempted to write just one more — about her — but it’s probably just as well I didn’t. There was a eulogy to write, a service to plan, two more trips to Hot Springs that week.
Since then much of my time has been occupied with wrapping up her affairs, settling her small estate, finding a home for her possessions.
The most important of those, the house she had owned since the 1970s and in which she died, as she wished, was sold last week. The house had been empty for six months after my nephew and his wife, who had been her primary caregivers for four years, moved out. They had made many improvements during their time in the house, but much more needed to be done to get it ready for sale.
As you know, Hot Springs is a tourist town, one that has always thrived on its ability to attract people to the thermal baths, mountains, lakes, horse races, conventions and, yes, gambling has always been available.
The city has a national reputation, though its leaders have had to work harder to attract tourists in recent years. Once the thermal baths were so popular that sometimes, as a rookie reporter for the Hot Springs daily newspapers, I was assigned to write a story about some visitor’s arthritis that was magically cured by taking the hot baths.
One summer my daily assignment was to cover whatever convention was going on, almost always up Central Avenue at the magnificent old Arlington Hotel. While just 19 years old I got to cover a speech by two-time presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson II and follow him on a tour of one of the bathhouses. He gave me the only copy of his speech, which had penciled notes in the margins, and foolishly I didn’t keep it. Less than a month later he was dead from a heart attack.
Hot Springs also had an unsavory reputation as a haunt for mobsters and open but illegal casino gambling. In fact, my grandfather was assistant manager of the Pine Supper Club, which not only had a fine restaurant with good entertainment but also a large back room for gamblers. My grandmother took me to the club for dinner on occasion, but I was only allowed to peek into the back room. Yes, I was in a night club before I was in a schoolroom. Unfortunately, my grandfather died not long after escorting me to the first grade, and the Pines burned down a few years later.
I finished high school at Hot Springs, a year ahead of our more famous graduate, Bill Clinton, and came to Jonesboro as a college student. Since then I’ve lived longer in both Jonesboro and Batesville than in my hometown.
The illegal gambling was shut down while I was in college, and the city struggled for a few years to compete for tourists. Now there is legal gambling at Oaklawn year-round; in fact, you see plenty of vehicles in the parking lots at all hours of the day and night, almost any time of the day or night. However, there are so many gambling “meccas” around the country, including just across the borders of our sister states, that the competition is even greater.
I’ve gone back regularly, not only for family but also for press meetings and conventions, reunions, athletic events and the horse races. I’ve always had a free place to stay, and Mom always expected us to stay “at home.”
It wasn’t until I was almost 50 that I stayed in a Hot Springs hotel — for an anniversary — and a few years later I stayed in the Arlington for a high school reunion.
Holidays at Mom’s house, especially Thanksgiving, remained a family tradition until her health failed, and she moved in with my nephew and his wife for a time. The house remained vacant for a while, and I would stay there during my visits. But finances soon required renting it, and I became much more familiar with the hotels of the city.
After she died, the house soon was vacant again, and I stayed there occasionally while sorting through the clothes, appliances, furniture and other stuff she had left behind. It was time-consuming, but sometimes I would come across a precious picture from my childhood, a meaningful letter or a card from a grandchild that she had considered too important to throw away.
On the other hand, we donated much of what still had value to local charities and hauled some things to the landfill. Of course, I brought some stuff back for further review.
That may not be exactly what is meant by a “long good-bye,” but for me it has softened some of the difficult times of her last years.
I will still go back to Hot Springs from time to time; only now it will be as a visitor.
Roy Ockert is retired editor of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.