Pine Bluff letters

Little City I Used to Love

Editor, The Commercial:

Born and raised in Pine Bluff during the Great Depression, I dearly loved our beautiful little city and I only moved away because I married and agreed with my wife’s wishes to live in her hometown. That was 61 years ago, and today Pine Bluff is barely recognizable as that once thriving, friendly place that I’ll always remember as home.

Two of the houses my family lived in that are still standing appear to be empty and being left to rot away. Driving down Main Street is heartbreaking. Seeing all of the store buildings with boarded up windows and bars on the doors causes me to wonder why this has been allowed to happen.

It occurred to me that those who once owned and successfully operated the businesses; the Baim family, Marx, Cohen, Rosensweig, Sonnenshein, et al, have all died or grown old, and there have been none even remotely like them to take their places, so Main Street died with them.

A few years ago, a Pine Bluff High School classmate of mine went to the school’s athletic director and asked if she could borrow the trophies of our 1951-‘52 class’ football and basketball championships for a surprise party that a group of classmates was giving for me. He agreed, but she said he had to first find them in some cardboard boxes. I wonder why the trophies and the pictures of our championship teams were removed from the trophy case? Kind of a prelude to taking down Confederate statues maybe?

It’s like our great Zebra teams, and our proud school were buried along with the city of Pine Bluff. I doubt that they will ever be resurrected. Casinos, arenas and hotels sure won’t get it done.

JACK MAYBERRY

SHERIDAN