Arkansas Tornado

 

This used to be somebody's home.

In the little Arkansas community of Damascus, very close to my own house, the devil came to town in the form of a tornado. It took several lives, destroyed property, and scarred survivors, perhaps forever. If you are not safe in your own home or even in your church, is there safety anywhere? What does it say when the beast jumps over a road-side fruit stand, not disturbing jars of home-made jam and jelly sitting out on a table or even fluttering the well-worn plastic tarp covering them and comes down a few yards away to destroy a brick church and across the street where it demolishes a house and takes the lives of the family that lived there?



Destroyed church

Do we thank God that more lives were not lost? Do the family members of those killed feel the same? I'm just glad the devil missed me and my loved ones this time.


Vehicle that was blown about 75 yards from
the church parking lot.

 

Truck that was full of grain.

Debris

 

Postcard From The Old Mill - Little Rock, Arkansas

In the opening sequence of the movie Gone with the Wind, the narrator eulogizes the passing of the Old South over a montage of quaint, picture-postcard scenes. One scene of pastoral bliss is a brief shot of a nineteenth-century gristmill. Few people realize that the Old Mill, as the building became known, was not old, was not a gristmill, and instead of being located in a quaint, sleepy southern hamlet, is located in a small park a block away from a busy thorough-fare in downtown North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Designed by the architect Frank Carmean and built in the early 1930’s, it is the work done by Dionico Rodriguez that is truly outstanding as he sculpted concrete to look exactly like wood, stone, and iron. Walkways and bridges look as though they were made from trees and driftwood instead of concrete. The intricate details are amazing. Even the planking and an old rain barrel are so realistic that you have to touch them to be sure they really are made of concrete.
 

The grounds are wonderful with a small pond and waterway surrounded by trees and moss covered rocky hillsides. Visitors instinctively speak using their inside voices and treat each other a little nicer. It’s like a time-out spot from the hustle and hurry world that lie just outside the gate of this oasis.

To visit, in North Little Rock, take McCain Boulevard East, turn south onto Fairway Avenue and then take a left onto Lakeshore Drive.