Regular Font words= my words.
I want to share with you a very compact story of one man's early days of life. That man's name is Robert Olen Clark....also known as my Dad. I want this to be a labor of love to him. We asked him to sit down and tell his story, from day one, while we recorded him. As the stories came to his mind he would actually talk for almost a straight 50 minutes. I have heard these stories all the days of my growing up, and that's just what they became....stories. But, once I really stopped and listened and absorbed what I heard....they became much more than just stories. They were life experiences and happenings. They were a small part of what makes my Dad who he is today. Although, we do not allow him to use them as a crutch of any sort today. For God is our Overcomer and Deliverer and HE delivers us from the parts of our past that need overcoming and delivering from. You can trust Him for that for His Words are good and trustworthy!
And now I share with you.....my Dad......
"It was a cold Winter's night. My Daddy went to get the doctor, if we had a doctor. And on the way back they got lost in the snow. But there was a woman there with my Mother and I guess....I was born that night. Seemed like they put me in a shoe-box or something to try and keep me warm."
You can see below a few pictures of the actual homesite and all that is left of it....1 lone tree. A tree that my Dad climbed as a boy. A tree that stood outiside their home. Everything else is gone. House and all the countless many trees surrounding them are now gone. My Dad would tell me, as a child, that they had to go to town just to see daylight because they lived so far up in the hills and woods.
This is my family and I visiting this site 18 years ago. I'm taking picture.
I think this was taken approximately the year before. Nineteen years ago.
As a boy, my Dad remembers being left alone as his mother and one brother would leave to feed the hogs. He remembers looking between the board slats, up the road, awaiting their return. He would hide under the bed as well.
My grandmother's name was Nora and my grandfather's name was Rush. I have one single picture of my grandmother that I can share. I have heard stories of her bravery as she would have to run out into the pitch black woods and sleep there, all alone, with nothing but her and God. She feared for her life and on more than one occassion was beaten by my grandfather as well as beaten by men he asked to do so. OFTEN I have been in the woods and knowing how very dark they get....I have thought of her. Unimaginable.
"I remember her gettin the gun and takin a shot at him, but she missed....dog gone it. She should have hit him."
In my lifetime I have had only 1 grandparent that I actually knew and was around. The others died as I was a baby, I suppose. This 1 grandparent would be my Mother's Mother. But, in all my days of knowing this 1 grandmother it is still the heart of Nora that calls me the most. For I truly believe that her heart calls my heart to the very thing I have loved sincerely......the woods. Maybe the woods were not a place of fear for her as she would flee for her life, but rather they were a place of solace and comfort. For the woods is all she knew. I will tell you that I can remember meeting this dear lady only once in my life and that would be for about 5 minutes. Just 5 minutes to meet, to wonder, to absorb as much of her as I possibly could. But, it would be a meeting of only looking at her and she looking back at me, for she couldn't talk. I rememeber no smile on her face.....only a wistful stare as if she wanted to say something, but could not. And then she was gone. I was within weeks of turning just 5 years old when she died. So even that one memory is very brief and vague that I hold of her.
In the picture below, she is not with my grandfather, but another man that she would marry after leaving my grandfather. I believe this man, Pick Choice Jones, loved my grandmother deeply and hopefully gave her somewhat of a good life that she deserved. Upon Nora's death, it was said he died just 2 months and 12 days later.
Yes, they were the real thing. Country folk to the soul.
Same house...years later.
Our trip 18 years ago.
Have I mentioned I LOVE History and country people?!?
The land surrounding their wonderful home was absolutely gorgeous!!
By the way....I love her too...my Savannah Ann.
The little country church where Nora's funeral was.
It was said that only 1 lonely car followed the hearse that day, winding through the mountains.....ours.
I still love the grandmother I never knew. I believe we most likely had alot in common.
My Mother told me recently that there is a letter Nora had written and in it she is talking about me. I hope to read that special letter soon!
Now back to the story. . . .
"At the age of 9, we moved from the woods to the town of Antoine and lived in a store for probably a year."
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| Antoine today. |
Here is a picture of that store. Alot of memories were made there for my Dad. The store today is gone along with most everything else he ever knew.
"We would move from there down to the train tracks....close to the tressel at the age of 10."
The old train tracks. The place where my Dad would spend countless daring hours of play.
I love this old picture and have had it blown up, framed, and proudly displayed in my home.
Sadly, today, even the old train tracks are no longer there.
"We must not have lived there very long because we moved again. We moved back up into the woods. You turn left at the old Bobo place and go way up the sandy road. This was at the age of 11 and I decided I had to come back down into town to go to school. I came to live at the old hotel with Opal and her daughter, Rita."
This was begin the days of my Dad living on his own. Picking up odd jobs wherever he could. His Dad told Opal, the boarding house lady, that he would pay her $1 a day for his room and board....something he never once did. Over two years later Opal would kick my Dad out stating that he was 500 days late.
"Did I ever tell ya about being scared to go to sleep alot of nights....I'd get to thinkin that my Mother may be layin under my bed dead. I would have to get up and look and see. I'd look up at the ceiling and think about Daggers falling and hittin me on the chest. One night after gatherin around the store and tell tall tales in the dark of the night - We didn't have no street lights around there and they'd get to talkin about skeletons, meat fallin off their bones, and the skeletons comin after ya and all that. I'd go up there and go to sleep at night and I tell ya...I think I'd hear chickens walkin up and down the hall out there. That was scary. I don't think there was ever chickens up there, but I could hear em. And dearing stormy nights, I could feel that old hotel sway back and forth some."
"They would serve meals (at the hotel) if they could catch me. I'd rather play ball. I'd eat real fast, drink my water fast, and get out there and play. When I would bend over, my supper would pour up. Too much water and food and I was in a hurry. I would just have to wait til the next meal."
"Ole Clint Price gave me an artificial bait that's got fish hooks with barbs on them. Once it sticks down in ya, it won't come back out cuz it's got a barb on it. I hung the bait in my pocket. I was going down to mow Ida Cash's yard. While I was mowing, my hand went by and jerked that fish hook into my hand. I went runnin to ole Doc Burleson. He's a real old guy. He had a little ole office. I don't think he had any anesthesia. He got his knive out and started trying to cut that thing out...and I started cryin. I thought it was a rea dull knive, but it was probably just cuz he didn't have anything to deaden it. I was sittin there while he was cuttin it and he seen ole Kenneth Howl comin down the street. He called him in to hold my hand while he cut on me. I was cryin and ole Kenneth Howl got to cryin. {Laughs} That was terrible, gettin that fish hook cut out. Anyway...it had a hard time healin because I liked to climb trees. That band-aid kept comin off. It finally healed one day. Anyway...I survivied. I guess I climbed a few more trees. I was up a tree one day and one of the Price boys shot a bibi gun and hit me right there (points to forehead) it could have hit me in the eye. Yeah. We liked to go down there in the woods and banks ...had vines that swing across from one side to the other. We get naked and play ...what do you call it?....anyway whoever got caught would get a whoopin if you didn't have some candy to give him. Yup. Down there in the woods.""Got in a fight with one of the Price boys under the floor...under the house. Me and him was fightin...and he got the best of me. Made me mad. When I come out from under the house and went up to the hotel, I picked me a rock and threw at his Daddy as he was goin up the steps. {Laughs} Teach him to raise a boy to whoop me like that. Yeah."
"I had a paper route. I was too young to have it, but they let me have it. You were supposed to be 12, but I was only 11."
18 years ago - the Wingfield grocery store where my Dad would pick up the newspapers he sold as a boy.
He said "I would listen for the truck coming into town and watch for the sun to shine on the right place on the pavement to know when to go and pick them up."
"At the age of 13, I went to live with "Joe the Barber" also known as Joe Hettle. His house was right behind the store (the one previously lived in). I lived at all three places right there....the old red-rock store, across the street - the hotel, and right behind the red-rock store with Joe. All three places short...within feet apart. The school house had burned in Antoine, so I rode 5 miles to Delight, on the bus, to go to school. Eventually Joe had his house moved to Delight and I lived with him there staying in his smoke house."
Today...All that is left of where the store, the hotel, and Joe's place stood.
Here below are pictures of that school he attended in Delight. Pictures are taken from 18 years ago and also today 2013.
Taken at a Highschool Reunion he returned for.
A part of his history that IS still preserved and standing today- 2013!
And YES he really DID go to school with Glen Campbell!! :)
He remembers him playing his guitar in the out-house of all places too!!
Living with Joe the Barber would be a hard life. Many hardships to bear through the years for my Dad. To put it simply...Joe was not a very understanding man. He would later kick him out leaving him in Arkadelphia.
"While I was living with Joe I wanted to go see my Daddy...for what reason I don't know. Joe loaded my stuff up and took me to see my Daddy and said 'You can stay with him - if you wanna go see him - just stay with him.' But, I didn't wanna stay in Arkadelphia where he was, so I hitchhiked back to Antoine. I asked Opal Morris if I could live at the hotel again and she said, 'No.'. So, I went across the street and asked Joe Hettle could I live with him again. While I was over there, Opal sent a boy and says 'Come on back, you can live with us.'. So, I started to live at the hotel again and paid a $1 a day - paid my own way."
"You wanna know the jobs I had? I was church janitor for $2.50 a week. Had the paper route that I made .50 cents a day on. On the paper route, I would feed a guy's cows for $5 a month. I picked berries for .50 cents a gallon. I sold scrap iron, all I could find, for a penny a pound. We would dig along the railroad track - they would have mounds of it buried under the dirt - and we would find those and haul them up to town (Antoine) to sell them. I typed for P.L. Smith for $2 a week. I guess that pretty well covers the jobs. I was 16 or 17 years old, the best I could say, when I had all those jobs. Yeah, I was already saved and a member of Antoine Baptist Church. I was 15 when I got saved. So, it had to be about 16 in there.
I went to Indiana in 1953 and picked tomatoes. I think I made $240 while I was up there. I rode with Molly Hair, in the back of his truck, and a bunch of us from Antoine at the hotel. There was about 15 us that stayed in the same house. We picked tomatoes in the field right there close by. Got .11 cents a hamper. They would hold back .2 cents a hamper til the crop was over to make sure we stayed. We would have tomato soup for supper and I would go out in the patch and get me a couple tomatoes to go with that soup. As you know I like ketchup."
Church where my Dad was saved at the age of 15.
18 years ago - 1995.
Today, 2013.
One more part of his history still standing today - 2013.
The old out house, behind the church, amazingly still standing....sorda!
I will tell you....I would have almost been better off using this all but dilapted out house instead of the bathroom I did use!! It was in that store up there where he picked up his newspapers as a boy. No words to describe it!!
And yes....that store would be one of the few things left still a part of this world today.
Sharing with you also the place where my Dad was baptized after he was saved at the age of 15. It would also be one of the swimming holes he would play at as a kid.
"I once cut my foot there in that river and I was told I got 'Toe-main posionin'. They told me the only cure was to chew alot of tobacco and eat alot of ice- cream. And I guess I did."
"Joe sent me down to Houston to live with a boy and his parents. Course, I stayed down there 3 months and they got tired of me. They told me I couldn't stay with them anymore. Well, I wanted to go back home and I asked the college could I and they said I could. They wrote a letter, wished I still had that letter, about how good I was doing in college and I could take a week or two off. I went back (Delight) and Joe didn't think I could cut hair, but he decided I could after I showed him when I went back. I was gonna stay (in Delight), but J.C. Quinn wanted me to c'mon back. I think I went back with the intention of gathering up what I had left there for some reason. And J.C. said 'I'll get you a place to stay if you'll stay’. He got me a place and I stayed the other 3 months. I finished up and went to San Antonio to take the state board, with some Mexican guys. They talked Spanish all the way, and ever once in awhile they would say in English Robert or Bobby or whatever they called me, 'How come you”re not talking?'. I finished up the State Board and come back. Course, when I got back I had to take the Arkansas State Board. So, I went to Little Rock and took the State Board and passed it. I come back and barbered with Joe a year and a half. I was 19 and 20 years old."
Today, 2013, place where my Dad cut hair with "Joe the Barber" at 19 and 20 years of age.
"I was a pretty restless young feller....I wanted to date the girls and go downtown at night. I would tell him, 'Joe...you know I don't wanna sit here in the dark and talk about how well the chickens are laying eggs and stuff like that.' I said, 'I like to go downtown at night.' Joe said, 'Well, go downtown boy!! Flap your wings and be FREE, BOY BE FREE, BE FREE...GO DOWNTOWN!!' I would say, 'Well, I need the car, Joe.' and he would say, 'O NO that's loafing...you ain't gonna do that!' I actually got to where he would leave me in the shop and he'd go home. Those long days, 12 hours a day, 15 on Saturday....get $3 a week....couldn't spend it how I wanted to. It got to where it would be dark at night when I go home, and I got to hopin I would find him dead. Never did. For entertainment I would walk all the way down to the paved highway, sit there and watch the cars pass in the dark. Finally go back....and he still wasn't dead yet." {Laughs}"
"You know, ole me and William Rather decided we were gonna get in the Military. We went to the first place and I don't know if both of us failed or not....I know he failed. I wanted to have a buddy to go, so I guess I said 'I won't go get in there.' Me and him went and tried the Air Force. He failed the Air Force and I passed. {Laughs} So, the recruiter came through Delight and picked me up one day and took me through Antoine. There Charlene Pennington sat on her front porch reading a book. It was kindly sad leaving Antoine, I waved to her. Charlene would be the only one for me to tell 'Bye' to that day, but she didn't know what I was telling her bye for. She just waved back without knowing. A sad way to leave your hometown. One lone person to wave to and she unknowingly waves back I took off to Arkadelphia and onto Hot Springs onto Little Rock. Took my physical. Sent me onto San Antonio to take Basic Training."
"I probably went back to Antoine after Basic Training was over, before I went to Biloxi, Mississippi for Radar School. Biloxi, Miss. was probably the hottest most humid place I thought I ever seen. One day they had me and the ole boys out there scrubbin the floor out in the back of the mess hall. One guy decided – ‘you know there ain't nobody watchin us...let's crawl up under this porch here and go to sleep.’ Well, they caught us under there and theys pretty quiet about it. You know when they get quiet about it, you worry. But they had us really scrubbin that thing after that."
My Dad had 2 brothers. Charles Fey, being the oldest, and Dallas, being the middle boy. Not alot of memories there being as though my Dad would live on his own at the age of 11.
A picture of the school bus he lived in many years ago.
Dallas Clark
My Dad and his brother Dallas, in 1993.
There was 8 years difference between the two.
My parent's car...not his. :)
I guess this house would've been quite the "step-up" from previous bus.
Had to share a funny picture taken while we were on our vacation trip to Branson. While in town, it would seem my Dad came upon his brother!
Asked about feelings of defense for his Mother.... "I was always on her side...yeah. Always. I was only 85 lbs. {Laughs} I always got aggravated at my oldest brother, Charles Fey. I felt like he was old enough to whoop my Daddy, you know. And he never took care of the situation there. Course, like I say, he left when I was about 4 years old, but he'd come back. He was around Antoine now and then. He spent 8 years in the military - 4 years in the Army (maybe) and 4 years in the Navy. He was the one that was supposed to been sending the allotment check home for me to live at the hotel. But, I don't know that anything was ever sent home and if it was my Daddy didn't pay Opal Morris I don't think."
"He (my Daddy) didn't beat Dallas that I know of. That time he beat Charles Fey over the .50 cents is the only time I know of. I can rememeber me and Dallas walking out through the field when I was 6 or 7 years old trying to figure out how we could kill my Daddy. You know. But we never did come up with a way. We weren't too edg-u-ma-cated." {Laughs}
"My Mother did alot of canning. My Daddy never contributed to the welfare of the family. Just my Mother raising a garden and sellin vegetables in town and cannin at home. You know. I don't know, we might have had a pig killed now and then. Might have had that. We had chickens. Had a horse or 2 to ride through the woods. We'd go to the ole camp meeting and it'd be real dark comin back through the woods. Country people are real suspicous and we was afraid those Prices up the road would tie a rope across the road. They never done it to us, we were just afraid they would. I would ride along behind my Mother and she would ride with her hand up in front of her trying to feel for something stretched across the road...dark...to drag us off the horses."
"I was in the military service for 4 1/2 years. I only made Airman Second Class because I was too immature to handle responsibility. They tried to teach me the dice position, but I was making all the money I needed by cutting hair in the shop. I would get the little Barber Shop on base because it would be off up in the mountains and they didn't have a Barber. But they had a shop, so I would get the job. And I would get to keep all the money I made, plus my service pay. That was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my life, business wise you see. In Radar, they would do my job for me and let me stay in the shop (Barber)....I didn't have to go to Radar, we'll say. My mistake was - my crew - I would charge them for a haircut too, while they was doing my job for me. Finally, I took a 30 day vacation and went back to Arkansas for a month. When I came back they said 'You're comin back on to Radar.' Yeah. I was still Barbering, but I had to do that after I done my 8 hours a day at the Radar. But Anyway...I was makin enough money off the service pay and the Barber shop that I didn't care about learnin more and make more stripes,ya know. I could have got out in 3 1/2 years instead of 4, but they says 'You gonna have to get out now or extend 6 months. So, I extended 6 months and made it 4 1/2. I didn't know what to do if I'd got out anyway. I was almost 25 years old. It would be Dec. 12, 1960."
"My Mother is buried in Alpine Cemetery and my Daddy is buried in Weir Cemetery in Okalona. Dallas is buried at Antoine Baptist Cemetery.
I had one lady left, when I would go back to Antoine, that I was kin too and still livin. She died just two weeks before we got to Antoine this July 3, 2013." She was an Aunt by a second marriage. His Mother (Nora) sister, Cora, married Jim VanCamp. She passed away at a very early age in a car wreck. Jim would later marry Irene....thus becoming to my Dad as Aunt Irene. She would be the one and only person left, but now gone too, with any ties to Bobby Clark. My Dad did have two first cousins by Cora and Jim. But, they too are gone and their burials are unknown.
"Aunt" Irene and her brother J.B. visiting with us in 1985.
Tellin stories about little Bobby Clark....back in 1985.
My parents would SOON be engaged and married within a span of 6 weeks! Wedding date: April 10, 1964. On May 1, 1966, I would join their unity of love. My Mother would miscarriage a full term baby girl in 1972. And on July 30, 1973, my brother Dan would join us. My Dad was a letter carrier for as long as I could remember, and retired in the early 90's. Today, he and my Mother stay very active through volunteer work at the hospital and are active dancers.....square dancing that is.
As in my previous Blog, I shared that we had went to Arkansas as a suprise visit for my Dad. While we were there in the cemetery searching for all he knew, along came a little lady. It turns out we were standing at her father's grave marker and she was inquisitve to who we might be. As soon as she heard who my Dad was she exclaims happily, "I knew you, Bobby!!" He had no rememberance of her....possibly because she was 20 years younger than him. I suppose she knew him from return visits home that he would make. She did in fact know his brother, Dallas, quite well though. She would tell us how that when Dallas would come to town and eat in the diner everyone would clear out from around him. You see he sorda didn't smell the nicest. My Dad joked with Wanda (the little lady in cemetery) that Dallas thought you washed your clothes by jumping in the creek with them on. He explained how that all the tags did say "Wash and wear" did they not? :) Turns out wanda was also the town historian for this wee little town. She knew it all and then some. When my Dad inquired saying "Well what about _____?" She would just stick her arm out and point in the direction their grave marker was. She was so excited to see us! She wanted to go back home and get her camera as well as a book she was working on to put all the history together. To ensure us staying there and not leaving....she talks my Mother into going with her. Actually it took only twice of her asking and off they went! That's my Mother! They were back in no time and she sat down to share all that she knew and could remember. So it was indeed a true BLESSING, I believe, for my Dad to have this connection. For it would turn out that we were just 2 weeks shy of being at his "Aunt" Irene's funeral....the very last person left in town to have any connection with him.
This cemetery is where his brother, Dallas, is buried as well as much of all the town. The cemetery connects with the Antoine Baptist church above in pictures.
Wanda, the town historian, and my Dad.
Wanda sharing all the history she knew of Antoine and the people that made it a town.
So in the closing scene of this very long story - - I bring to you a man who stands in a town that time has past by. Buildings are long gone, memories unreachable, people all past. He stands alone in a cemetery. The only next of kin, who herself was not true kin, passing just two weeks prior. He would soon find out that each and every person he inquired about had passed. Though it would seem a man all alone, in the little town that almost was no more - he was not. For through all of time traveled, remembered, and shared....and all seemingly forgotten and gone - there stood with him - LOVE. The love of a family - someone who wanted the unwanted. Family = a little tow headed boy's true destiny. To be loved, although not always lovable. To be needed, although not always knowing how to give. To be accepted as he is, although not always knowing how to be acceptable. But...isn't that what makes up a real family? Loving the unlovable, needing others, helping others by giving or showing them how to give when it's the hardest? Accepting each other, just as they truly are, quirks and all? I believe that was this little boy's destiny.
There once was a little boy. Seemingly all alone and nobody wanted. God, in His goodness, would bring him to his true destiny - a place of love, hope, and acceptance. A place called Family. A place called home.
I love you, Daddy.
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