Sunday, October 18, 2009

Thursday, October 15, 2009-- A Fair day in Arkansas

We actually saw the sun for a brief time today! Then it returned to overcast and cool, but we have hopes that the weather is improving, plus we are heading further South!

Chris has been a great sport on this vacation and has assisted Kathy in satisfying some of her genealogical questions. This morning we headed for the Arkansas Vital Statistics office in Little Rock in search of Ted Perdew's death certificate.

After a wait of over an hour, we are now in possession of the certificate! We already knew his birth and death dates and his parent's names, so the new information included the fact that he died of a heart attack (infarction of myocardium) at the VA Hospital. But the best part was discovering that he had been living in Hot Springs, Arkansas before his hospitalization! Ah, other avenues to pursue!

Another fact on the certificate was the name of the funeral director. After checking the phone book, we discovered that the company (Ruebel) was still in business in Little Rock. A quick phone call and Justin assured us that he would copy what information they had and it would be ready when we arrived. And he was true to his word! While verifying much of the same information as the death certificate, we also learned that the next of kin listed was a sister, Mrs. Henry Solberg. There are two known sisters that were living at this time, we believe, but there is no way yet to determine which this is (the married names Kathy has are different from this one). It appears she may have been living at the same address in Hot Springs that was reported for Ted. (Or she simply listed his address)

On that successful note, we decided to head out of town. However, sometimes we are easily distracted and decided to check out the Arkansas State Fair! The day was cool and dreary so the crowd was pretty small. We checked out the Hall of Industry that had the vendors and enjoyed some of the displays. We toured one building in which they were asking Spam trivia questions (Kathy shudders). We, of course, ate a few fair-type goodies like funnel cake and roasted corn.


The most fascinating foods were offered, though (by fascinating I might mean fried things that we never have imagined). Some of the offerings included
  • Hot beef sundae
  • Fried Coke
  • Chocolate covered bacon
  • Fried Oreos
  • Fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
  • Fried dough
There was one booth advertising both Kettle Korn and Fried Pork Rinds! The picture below shows one of the offerings that reminded us of Megan and her time spent working at Waxy's! This concoction is actually roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, cheese, and a cherry tomato...

We were actually surprised this Fair seemed much smaller than the Kansas State Fair. This is not comparing the number of attendees (it was a gloomy Thursday afternoon), but rather the number of exhibits and buildings. One of Kathy's favorite activities at the Kansas State Fair is touring through the RVs, camping trailers, and modular homes. There did not seem to be any equivalent activity in Arkansas. For us, it was a disappointment. But the midway did seem to have some new rides we were not familiar with and we are sure the grandsons would have enjoyed them immensely.

We finally headed south and decided to stay the night at Cane Creek State Park, south of Pine Bluff. This State Park is situated along the Arkansas River, so we feel right at home. (And we still pronounce it "Ar-kansas" like at home!) It is a nice campground with good separation between all of the spots. But the month of October brings quite a new glamour to the campground! Most of the spots were already reserved and/or occupied. Some of those spots have been reserved for nearly a year!

The reason for the “rush” in October is that many of the same families return each year and they all decorate their sites for Halloween. And we don't mean just decorate, we definitely mean DECORATE! There are lights everywhere and all types of wonderful displays: partially buried skeletons, ghosts dancing in rings or flying from trees, horse drawn hearses, many inflatable pumpkins and other spooky paraphernalia, and lots and lots of jack-o-lanterns of all types. It is a veritable Halloween wonderland! Our site looks very boring compared to all the glitter of the other sites.

We talked to one gentleman that actually lives only three miles away, but his family stays at the campground each October so that they can participate in the Halloween decoration extravaganza. They make their reservations a year ahead for twelve sites.


It was a busy day. We hope to continue on toward the Mississippi River. Kathy gets one more bit of genealogy searching. Her great-great-grandfather, Samuel Woods Reid, was an Irish riverboatman. He is found on the 1860 census in Napoleon, Arkansas, and later served with a Confederate unit called the Napoleon Grays (made up of mostly Irish riverboat men according to one source).

Napoleon, situated at the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, no longer exists. The rivers have done their work and the town has supposedly disappeared.

We hope to go to the Desha County courthouse at Arkansas City, Arkansas, to see if there is any other information about the Napoleon Grays or Sam's time in Napoleon. Then Kathy plans to let Chris rest from genealogy for the rest of the trip!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009-- Hail to the Chief, and all that jazz

We didn't get to use the Internet last night. The campground we stayed at advertised “Wifi”. However, when you log on you get a message that tells you that you have 30 minutes of “free” Internet, then you have to go to the office for more time (one imagines that means “for a fee”). Even if we wanted to, we arrived after the office closed so had no option! It seems like this is definitely a “bait and switch”-type situation. Advertising wifi and then only giving a short time, while other places sincerely have free wifi with no strings did not set well with us.

Ah, well, enough gritching... back to vacation!

We headed for Little Rock, capital of Arkansas. Chris did not know anything about his maternal grandfather, Edward E. Perdew (Ted), because his grandparents were divorced in the early 1930s and Ted left Kansas City. In the last year, Kathy discovered a listing at the FindaGrave website for an Edward Perdew with approximately the correct birthdate. Now we had a death date (12 October 1952), but we didn't know where he had lived in the ensuing years. After requesting that one of the volunteers post a picture of the stone, the results showed that it must be the correct Ted Perdew! The military headstone (think all of the white markers lined up perfectly) states that he was from Nebraska! Bingo!

So we headed to the National Cemetery in Little Rock. This is a U.S. military cemetery. We hoped that the Cemetery officials would be able to tell us his address and/or next of kin information. Well, due to regulations, they will not provide that information without a formal request from an heir, even if the deathdate was 57 years ago! The kind staff person at the Cemetery told me how to make a request and where to send it.

There is a computer at the cemetery that will print out a page with your loved one's burial location and a map. We discovered that Ted was buried quite close to the office. It appears that the stones were placed about six feet apart during the 1950s and then later there were newer stones placed between each of the older ones. So, even though we didn't really discover too much that was new, it was interesting to actually be there at the Cemetery.

And where better to go after the Military cemetery? Well, to another U.S. agency, the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum! Our tour of the museum's displays was very interesting. We opted for the audio tour, which means we had audio players to listen to at designated sites President Clinton explained things in more detail. There was also an introductory film that we watched. This was narrated by President Clinton and provided a good basis for viewing the displays.

It was interesting to learn more about the Clinton presidency after nearly ten years have passed. Even though the “spin” is, of course, favorable to President Clinton, it still served as a good reminder of all the good things that he either accomplished or attempted during his two terms.

One of my favorite parts of the film was where he told that he was the youngest governor in the country when first elected. Unfortunately, he was defeated in the next election and then became the “youngest EX-governor in the country”! He later decided to run again and served at least four more terms as governor before moving on in his political career.

After leaving the Museum, we drove down the street to the Clinton Museum Store. It has an eclectic inventory. Kathy purchased a top that was on sale, simply because it was sooooo soft! The top is actually made out of bamboo! (renewable energy source) Another favorite for Kathy was a woven basket in many bright colors. The basket was created by women in Africa from telephone wires! It was really nice, but Kathy wasn't willing to spend the $90+ that it cost.

We decided to camp for the night at the North Little Rock KOA. We really liked out site because it was isolated in it's own little triangle of land, but was right near the restrooms. The spot was too small for many of the bigger RVs, so they were probably happy to see us. There was even a little “stream” right behind our site.

After eating supper at the campground, we returned to Little Rock and went to the Public Library to see if we could look through some Little Rock city directories to find Ted Perdew. We were directed to an adjacent building that houses the Arkansas Studies Institute. We searched their run of city directories from the 1930s to the early 1950s. But no Ted Perdew! Perhaps he lived elsewhere in the region. We had time to browse some of the other materials in the collection before closing.

From a librarian's viewpoint, the reading room in this building was a real surprise. The central part of the room had many of the lights off and so was extremely dim. It was actually difficult to read the reference items! The stack areas had better lighting, but it is still a mystery why they have such poor lighting in the other areas.

Tomorrow the search for Ted Perdew continues...