An Arkies Musings

Regina Lawry has been chosen to be the Beta Sigma Phi Woman of the Year for 2011. She and her husband, Richard moved from Colorado to Mena in 1981. They have two grown children and three beautiful granddaughters. Regina has been active in Beta Sigma Phi since 1996, serving as President of the Preceptor Alpha Beta chapter for two years. She has owned her own successful business, The Golden Thimble, and for the past ten years has been the manager of the USEM Federal Credit Union. In 2007 Regina’s concern for family and friends who have had cancer led her to become involved with the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Polk County. Since 2008 she has been the chairman of the event. In the five years since 2007 the Polk County Relay For Life has raised more than $245,000.00 in the fight against cancer. Regina has been given the Relay For Life Voluntarism Leadership Award by the American Cancer Society. In 2009 Regina was recognized for outstanding volunteer service to ...

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is O. O is for old photos. Recently we received a mysterious package in the mail. It was addressed to my wife. I asked her, "are you expecting a package." "No", she replied. When we opened it we found a lot of old photographs from the 80's. They were pictures that my father-in-law, Papa Ready, had taken or ones that we had sent him. As much as I love family photos, it was like a treasure chest for me. We often invited Papa Ready to go along with us when we took a family vacation. Here the family is waiting somewhere, I don't remember where. I can tell you that it was taken in 1986. Since last weekend was Easter, I was happy to get this picture of Cynda in her Easter Dress taken sometime in the early 80's I was very excited to see these photos that I hadn't seen in years. There w...

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is N. N is for NASCAR. Recently my cousin Clyde invited me to attend the Samsung Mobile 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. It was my first time to attend a NASCAR race. The day of the race was hot and windy, and I do mean windy. It is hard to explain the experience of NASCAR racing to someone who hasn't attended. I was surprised by the number of people in attendance, 185,000, and especially the noise level. When the 42 engines start the decibel level is tremendous, as much as 115dB. Ear plugs or headphones are needed. I was able to use headphones provided by Clyde. They were tuned in to the channel used by Dale Earnhardt Jr. It was interesting listening in to the conversation between Jr. and his crew. The race was fairly clean with five cautions and 31 lead changes among 13 drivers. Ther...

It was a dark and stormy night. No I'm not starting to write a novel, it was actually a dark and stormy night. Strong thunderstorms swept across Oklahoma and Arkansas. Late last night the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Warning for the Mena area. With the devastating April 2009 tornado still fresh in so many peoples mind it was a scary night. Around 11:00 p.m. the tornado sirens started blowing. I was able to listen to the scanner to try to get any information about the storm. Apparently there was only minor damage at a few locations caused by falling trees. Around midnight the storms seems to be weakening and according to the radar the danger was about over so we left our safe area, the downstairs hallway, and went upstairs to get ready for bed. This morning I heard that the Frito Lay warehouse had been badly damaged. The warehouse is less than half a mile from my parents home. On my way to work I drove by the location and sure enough the warehouse had ext...

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is M. M is for Mena, Arkansas. I have liven in Mena for 30 years now. My wife and I moved to Mena from Colorado in April of 1981 and have made our home here ever since. We drove from Colorado to Mena in this 1967 Toyota Stout Pickup that I had custom painted to show my patriotism. The history of Mena begins in the last decade of the 19th century. In 1895, Arthur Stilwell sent railroad scouts to the Ouachita Mountains. The men were to scout the area and lay out the best path for the soon to be built railroad, which was to run from Kansas City to the Gulf coast. When the surveyors came there was very little cleared land. The area purchased for the future townsite of Mena was a farm owned jointly by Dr. G.G. Baker and R.S. Owens of Old Dallas. The two men sold it to the Townsite company for $5,000. It was Stilwell who decided...

MASONIC LODGE AFTER THE APRIL 9, 2009 TORNADO Two years ago today the face of Mena changed drastically. An F3 tornado damaged a large section of town. 100 houses were destroyed and 600 damaged. Over 10,000 trees were destroyed. Although the community has done an awesome job of rebuilding, it will never look the same. I wrote the following paragraphs a few hours after the tornado hit. Tonight at around 7:30 the tornado sirens sounded here in Mena. Gina and I went to the safe place in our house, the downstairs hallway. About that time our electricity went out. The storm passed without damage here at the house. We were thankful that we were spared. After the storm passed and the stars came out, I decided to drive into town to see if anyone had electricity. When I got to downtown, I started to see storm damage and saw that the authorities were not letting people proceed to the north side of Mena. I drove to my parents house to see if they were OK, and they were fine wi...