Late 40's: The Creek

Hank Haven: I grew up in the old family house at 626 N. Grant. It had been in our family for many years prior to mom and dad living there after WW II. My Great Grandfather had built the house. I lived there for about 9 years until 1952 when dad completed the home where he lives now. I can remember the old mule drawn ice wagon being driven down Division Street to the Delta Ice Plant. We didn’t have refrigerators. We had ice boxes and needed the ice to keep our food cool. I can also remember the Hot Tamale man hawking his hot tamales as he walked north up Division. Mom would buy some when she wanted to have something special for supper that night.

Forrest City had only about 6,000 people in it in the late 40’s. Everybody watched out for all the other children that lived in the neighborhood. Donald Isbell, my third cousin, lived at the other end of the block from where I lived. Everyday when the weather got warm enough, I would sneak out of my bedroom window at dawn and go play down at his house. Keep in mind I was only 4 years old. At that age I was climbing into and out of everything. Mom and dad got to sleep late on those days.

When we were about 7-10 years old, we were all over the neighborhood. There was a creek that ran through the north end of the school grounds at Graham Elementary School. I can remember Donald and me wading in the creek and hunting for crawdads or trying to find what junk had been left after a rain storm. We went under the road bridges and traveled as far as we could down the creek until we came to an impassable culvert. We stayed away from the creek during and after heavy rain storms because the water was too swift. John, my brother, told me that the ditch was closed to playing and the city had put up a chain linked fence seven years later when he was going to school next to the creek.