Fayetteville City Housing, End of First Grade, 1954

Dan D and Candy on the steps of City Housing, 1954

Dan D and Billy Schader at
Fayetteville City Housing, 1954

Sometime during or right after the 1st grade, my family moved into city housing for a few months. Our unit was in a building near the intersection of W. South Street and Block Avenue. Archibald Yale Blvd was in our back yard.

Several kids lived in the neighborhood, including Billy Schader, whose family had a place in the city housing and Becky Thrasher, who lived across the street. There were enough kids to have good games of "kick the can" and "capture the flag" on long summer evenings.

At city housing, I got my second job. My first job had been selling my parent's used paperbacks door to door on College Avenue, where we lived during most of the time I was in the 1st grade. The second job, at city housing, was more substantial. I contracted with Randall Castleman, who delivered the Northwest Arkansas Times in the neighborhood, to take newspapers to the city housing units at which renters had subscribed to the paper. I got one cent for each delivery; Randall earned two cents for each delivery, so we split his pay. It seemed fair.

The other things I remember about the short stay in city housing, besides how hot it was inside the units, are (1) having my tonsils removed, pacified by the promise of ice cream afterwards; (2) coming home hoarse several times after preaching prolonged, loud sermons in the style of the preachers I had been hearing on Sunday.

Another City Housing Picture, Pretending to Play the Guitar
(I seem to be missing some front teeth but at least I had a stylish hat)

We moved from city housing to a new house on Highland Avenue in Springdale in time for me to start the second grade at Robert E. Lee Elementary.