Don,
I spent some time down in Little Rock a few years ago. If my memory serves me right, it was about the time Bill was reelected as Governor. Even then, it seemed the campaign was basically a repentance type of thing. He was voted out earlier and went back and told everyone he saw the wrongness of his ways and was a new and improved Bill Clinton. They bought into it too. I remember watching the live TV coverage of the ball being held at the Excelsior Hotel. People were talking about the possibility of his becoming President then.
I was there working on the computer systems of National Investors Life Insurance. They had over reached themselves and were in what folks called 'rehabilitation.' Which basically meant there wasn't enough money to go around once the shell game was over and it needed to be distributed fair and square to all the policy holders. I was part of the team sent in to generate the communications to the annuity holders describing their options under the plan. Actually, everyone came out of it OK. It could have been a lot worse.
I loved Arkansas. I loved the people and the what can only be described as 'colorful' politics down there. One of the Arkies there took me aside and explained the received wisdom on such characters as Tommy Robinson, former Pulaski County Sheriff who was a strong advocate of the principle of 'hot pursuit' when crossing the bridge over into Little Rock. He wound up being arrested by the Little Rock Police department when he tried to arrest someone in the city. He later became a member of the US House of Representatives where he made a small killing on the postage scandal there.
His solution to a little crime wave of 7-11 holdups was to simply place a deputy, at random, in the backroom of the store with a shotgun. If you were unfortunate enough to attempt a robbery at a store with the deputy present, you would be killed. He got on TV demonstrating what the business end of a Pulaski County Sheriff shotgun looked like. A couple of guys were killed and that was that.
When running for the House, he said he would do the same thing to the Russians if they didn't get out of Afghanistan. History is mute on the Russian feeling about the threat, but the fact is they did get out.
We used to go to a place called Slick Willys for lunch. I always got a chuckle out of that name. Great place to play pool and drink beer. Spent a lot of time down at the Cajun's Wharf.
One of the guys there was an Aggie. And the Razorbacks would torment him unmercifully. He held his own of course. I was viewed with collective mistrust as I was the 'yankee consultant from up north.' I broke the ice though by explaining what would happen if an Arkie moved to Texas. Answer: the average IQ of both states would go up. For awhile at least, they didn't fight with each other, they attacked me.
But I wasn't really a Yankee. My paternal grandmother was born in Arkadelphia in 1893. Does that make me an honorary redneck?
I got to fish the Arkansas River below one of the lock and dams. Caught a real live catfish. I feel a real kinship for that river as I have fished the Brown Canyon up here in Colorado many times. Everytime I look at it up here, it reminds me of the muggy quiet waters slipping by late at night through woods and fields of Arkansas.
I usually stayed at the Camelot or the Excelsior. I stayed there so many times I've told people if only half the stories about Bill are true, it is a mathematical inevitability I slept in a bed slept in, or at least used by, the President of the United States.
Don, you live in a wonderful part of the country. I miss it many times. Your comments brought back a lot of memories. Especially that phrase, Willy's.
Best regards,
Jack Simmons |
