DIRT ROADS WERE BEST

By: Joe Mayfield

 

When looking back to the 50 and 60’s, we now see how much better times really were. Take Dirt Roads as an example; yes they were dusty in the summer, and muddy in the winter, not to mention the holes that sometimes seemed to be the start of the second Grand Canyon.

 

Now we can see there was no crime, crooks wouldn’t walk five or six miles to break into a home. There’s too much work involved, and crooks don’t believe in work, that’s why they are crooks. What are they going to do, walk six miles, steal a plow, or porch swing, and then walk six miles back dragging the plow? What would they do with the plow? We know they’re not about to become a farmer, farmers don’t steal, they work, that’s why they are the back bone of our nation.

 

What if they used a wagon, did you ever hear a wagon as it rumbled along a hard dirt road? Remember the steel rims on the wheels? They make noise. People could hear a wagon or motor car coming from over a mile away. Dirt roads created character in people, they drove slow so as to keep the dust to a minimum, and although the seat of a wagon had a spring just under each end to help make the ride easier, still it was bumpy and my Grandparents always used a horse blanket to set on, it helped. There was no tailgating, or road rage.

 

Towns also had dirt roads.

 

Dirt roads were narrow, so when two approaching vehicles or wagons met each other, each person always displayed their manners, and offered to stop, giving the other driver the right of way. After giving one another a Howdy Up, they would usually stop to say a few words before continuing their journey. Bridges were also narrow, most were about ten feet wide, without rails on each side. The bridges however, were only placed over the larger bodies of water. If there was only a small creek, the bank was slopped so you could merely drive through the water. (Commonly known as fording the creek.)

There are always some exceptions to crime, even back in the 30’s, when Bonnie and Clyde, public enemy number one at the time, pulled into Griffith Drug Store in Arab, Alabama after robbing a bank in Tarrant City. The roads through Arab were dirt and gravel and Clyde, known for driving fast, sprayed mud and gravel across the front windows of the drug store as he slid to a stop in 1934. Bonnie needed more cigars, (Red Dots) and Griffith’s Drug was the place. (Information courtesy of Cyrus Rice, a worker at Griffith Drugs in 1934, also, Yesterday Memories Magazine)

 

My Grandparents, Ma and Pa Mayfield, lived on the Weeks place on 54 just south of the Hope Well Baptist Church, and the road that went past their house was very good compared to most. As a young'un I’d played near that road and watch for anyone that might go by, sometimes there would be four vehicles in one day. (Including wagons) Today that road is paved, and new houses are everywhere. Someone talked, and our little secret got out, people started moving in from far and wide. They’ve come from the big cities, they’ve even come from up north, now it seems everyone wants to be a Southerner. After all these years, image that. Thing is though, they weren’t here during the early days, they just take for granted that the old Arkadelphia road was always as it is today.

 

Today it is called Highway 91, and during the early 50’s it was a dirt road. This road was about four to five feet higher than the fields on each side of the road. In the summer of 1950 it rained for almost a week, and Mud Creek had flooded the fields, and then covered the narrow road. My dad thought he could drive the gray 1942 Mercury/Ford to my Grandparents, near Fair View West. I recall standing in the seat, and everywhere I looked there was nothing but water and he knew if he were to let up on the gas pedal it would flood out. It did. When he opened the door to get out, the water rushed in and flooded the inside of the car, and we walked back to town leaving the car on the road, wherever it was.

 

I miss the patience dirt roads taught everyone, I miss driving for a mile or two without seeing a house, and I miss the days when we never locked our doors. I feel we treated one another better when we had dirt roads.

U.S. Legacies 2006