Carl Huson was born in an apartment over what is now Somewhere in Time on Main Street in Heber Springs. At the time, the building was owned by his great-grandfather (McClure). His dad, O.L. Huson, worked at 155 Service Station, which is now McKenzie Realty Group. Huson, 86, is the son of O.L. and Ethel (Dial) Huson.
In his 86 years, Huson lived through a lot of local history. He remembers that everyone walked everywhere, everyone carried guns through town, and that Heber Springs used to be Sugarloaf at one time.
“Across the park used to be a service station and behind that a building that made chips and grape drinks,” Huson said. “Spring Park used to have an entrance with a building that sold gum and candy.”
Huson remembers when the electricity was shut off for the night. “A loud whistle would blow a warning and you had 30 minutes, maybe 15, until the power was cut off,” he said. “It didn’t stay on all night like it does now. The power plant was located behind the cemetery in Heber Springs. The whistle would blow again in the morning when they turned the power back on.”
Huson can remember many things that no longer exist, such as the Busy Bee Café, the hotel by the park that now houses Heber Sew N Vac, Jesse Barnett’s lunch counter, when the county used to be wet, and more.
Huson also remembers the war, being a World War II vet. “My most memorable experience was trying to stay alive,” he said. “It was so cold over there, it just shut down. No one did anything but sit there and freeze.”
Huson’s father worked for O.B. Robbins Ford as well as the service station where he was a mechanic at both places. He went to Searcy and took the civil service test and began working at the post office, which was over by Olmstead Funeral Home at the time. His dad had been the postmaster in Heber Springs for 36 years, making him the longest serving postmaster at the time. “Back in the day if a Republican was in the White House, you had a Republican postmaster, and the postmaster could only remain in office as long as that particular party remained in office,” he said. “But when dad was appointed, there was a Democrat in the office and before his term ended, things were changed due to the war allowing postmasters to be civil service employees like the postal carriers were, allowing dad to stay postmaster until he retired.”
Huson himself served as the postmaster, retiring from there as well. “I started as a mail clerk and was the first city mail carrier in Heber Springs.”
Huson went to California to work, came back home to Heber Springs, went to St. Louis to do work in an air craft factory, came back to Heber Springs, and got drafted. When he got out of the Army in the early 40s, his dad was ready to hire someone to work, but it was only part time work paying 65 cents an hour. “A man with a family couldn’t do it for that,” Huson said, “but I was living in dad’s house rent free and because I was a disabled veteran, when I took the civil service exam I got an extra 10 cents.”
Huson intended to go back to California after he got out of the service but ended up working as a postal clerk while he recuperated. “I worked two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening seven days a week. On Sunday, I would go in during the morning to put mail in post office boxes. Then came in on Sunday evenings to dispatch the mail. “Dad would say to the boys when someone comes to the window to transact postal business, treat them as if they could take their business elsewhere, even when they can’t. He would even come out and help the clerks with customers when needed.”
Before the war, Huson worked in a grocery store that was located by what is now Glenn’s Drugs. “I worked Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Barrett’s Store,” he said. “Home delivery was big then. We were given tickets to fill crates full of merchandise and deliver them. By 10 p.m. the shelves were restocked, the store was dusted and I collected my pay of $1. That dollar could get me and a friend into the movies plus get us two Cokes and a bag of popcorn. Of course, I didn’t have to go to work, but if I didn’t, I didn’t have any money.”
Huson was drafted into World War II 18 days after marrying his wife, Lou Ella.
He was there at the Battle of the Bulge. There was a stall in the fighting and placements were moved back a little way. “We helped them out,” he said. He got wounded while there and spent six months in an Army hospital and three months in Marseille, France.
Major Claiborne, one of the doctors, checked on him every morning. “He never called me by my name, just Arkie,” he said. “It was a big, long narrow room with beds all the way down, every day or two they’d load a guy on a gurney and take him away but I always wanted to know where they were going because I was not interested in going back to where I came from. I finally asked a major where those guys were going and he said they were being taken to the hospital to have their feet and legs amputated. So I asked what was wrong with them and he said same thing that is wrong with you. I got scared then. The doctor said, ‘Arkie, if you’d stayed up there a few more days, we’d have to do the same to you but we got you in time.’ He told me to stop worrying about it and said if anyone comes to get you and cut’s something off, I’d let them cut the same thing on me.”
While in rehab, he had nothing but the pajamas he wore. “One day, I told a buddy to keep watch while I’d look in our files and see what was in there,” he said. “I read mine first and it said no further use, that I was not good over there anymore.”
He remembers one time when they handed out the wounded soldiers’ uniforms again and told them to get ready because a ship would be docking soon to take them home. “We were all ready to go when they brought our pajamas back and told us the ship didn’t make it,” he said. “A few days later they came back with our uniforms. This time we made it to the ship. My only duty at this time was to help those missing limbs to get to the lifeboats in case the ship was attacked.”
He made it back stateside to Charleston, S.C. where he stayed three days in the hospital before boarding a hospital train to San Antonio, Texas where he went to Brooks General Hospital. “In the Army, you were never sure of anything until it happened,” he said. “Orders changed like the weather. It took several days for the train to get to Texas and we were in Georgia when Roosevelt died. They stopped the train and an officer came on board to tell us that Roosevelt died and Harry Truman was commander in chief. Now, Harry Truman wasn’t well liked, but I liked him. He didn’t take crap off no one.”
Brooks General Hospital was an old hospital from World War I and he stayed there for three months in rehab. “I was able to get a furlough to come home. There was two or three days left until I had to go back but a friend called and said they were discharging and I needed to get back to get it. So I got back there and we had to walk a mile before they would discharge us. If you could get down there they would let you go so I went back and reported in. I told them that if you have one of them marked, put me down because I was sure I could make it, I may be on my hands and knees but I will make it.”
After being discharged, he headed home.
Huson can remember a lot of history of Heber Springs like the Gem Theater, which used to be by where State Farm is now and a liquor store on Main Street. He remembers photographer Mike Disfarmer had a studio behind what is now Heber Springs State Bank. It was an old stucco building with a sunroof. “If the light wasn’t right, he’d tell people to come back the next day,” Huson said. “He told people that he got to Heber by getting caught in a tornado in Illinois and riding it until it dropped him here.”
Huson also remembers the meals you could get at 155 Service Station and Restaurant. “You could get a good meal at noon for only 35 cents and the rolls were homemade,” he said.
Huson can remember when Main Street was a gravel road. “My Uncle Joe Dial would take a water wagon down Main Street starting by the park,” Huson said. He would load his water tank at the fire hydrant there and work his way up to 155 Station wetting the roads to keep the dust down. At the station he would have to refill his wagon to finish the road. Then he would turn around and do the other side of the street.”
Huson can also remember when farmers would drive their cattle from Sugarloaf to Vinegar Hill getting them to the railroads to hip them to St. Louis. “Sometimes, as the cattle made their way down Main Street, they would look into the store windows making women scream,” Huson said.
At one time there used to be a community storm shelter across from the courthouse so merchants would have a place to go in case of a storm. And Huson remembers one such bad storm. “In 1926 there came a bad storm,” he said. “There was no hospital back then and doctors brought people in and laid them on the floor of the courthouse side by side. It was a mess. They were asking that anyone with extra milk for the babies to please donate it. “My mom had some extra and took it to the courthouse. I was about 3 at the time and went with her. I didn’t know what was going on at the time but I knew something bad had happened.”
Huson remembers when people used to live in the apartments over the businesses on Main Street and when people arrived in town on trains. He also remembers that his grandfather had a livery stable south of the courthouse and rented horses and buggies to go out through the county.
Huson also remembers when Coca Cola came to Heber Springs. “They delivered the sodas in bob trucks and covered the whole county,” he said. “Back then Cokes were a nickel.”
There wasn’t a house in Heber Springs that was locked back then. “When I worked at the grocery store, we would go into people’s homes while they were away and put things in the ice box that needed to be in there and sit the rest on the table,” Huson said. “We rented a four room house on Quitman Street for about $20 a month and never had a key to it. There was a hook inside that you could latch at night. I don’t remember ever having anything missing.”
There have been many changes over the years. Huson’s wife passed away five years ago just two months shy of their 60th wedding anniversary. He has since remarried to another wonderful woman.
Huson spent 80 years never having to go to a civilian hospital until his first heart attack and bypass surgery. His first heart attack took him by surprise. “I was visiting my wife in the hospital,” he said. “I had been moving furniture to the condo and went back to the hospital for a visit. I had trouble catching my breath and a nurse asked me what was wrong. I told her I has having trouble catching my breath and she left then came back in with a wheelchair telling me to get in it. I asked her what for and she said to take you to the emergency room. Well, they got me breathing easier and took me to Little Rock. I could hear a swooshing sound outside and asked what it was, they told me it was a helicopter here to take me to Little Rock. I remember talking to them all the way there and going into the hospital on a gurney. The next thing I knew, I was in a bed in the intensive care unit after bypass surgery.”
Huson had a second heart attack while married to his second wife, and it is she that he gives credit to for his being here today. “I don’t think I would be sitting here talking today if it hadn’t been for her,” he said. I am a blessed man. There ain’t no two ways about it. I’ve been a blessed man all my life.”
