Joe sees Franklin Roosevelt at a ‘whistle stop’near Hot Springs

There were two events that happened while I was working for Homer that caused some excitement.

On June 15, 1936, Joe Louis beat Max Smelling and became the heavyweight champion of the world.

The other incident was when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was governor of New York from 1924 to 1932, he came annually and took baths in the Hot Springs Spas. He was well known and well liked in the area. About two weeks after the Joe Louis fight, Mr. Roosevelt was to make a campaign tour through this area. He was to make a whistle stop, about half way between Malvern and Hot Springs. The day he was to make his speech, Homer got us all up at 5 in the morning and we had done the chores and were at the whistle stop before 8 a.m. He was to make his speech at 10 a.m.

We settled in what we thought was a good spot and waited. By 10 o’clock there was an estimated crowd of about 10,000 people. As it turned out we were about 30 feet from the caboose of the train when it stopped. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was wheeled out in his wheelchair and made his speech. It amazed me that his voice had a volume so strong that he didn’t need a microphone.

As it was, I was 16 years old when I saw a living president. After we had gotten home from seeing President Roosevelt, Homer told me that he didn’t plant turnips in July and August because the weather was too dry and that he lays the cotton by in midJune, so I wouldn’t have much to do for a while.

I told him it was about time for me to go home and help my mother.

On the next Monday morning I plowed up, picked up and planted six more rows of turnips. That night I packed my duffle bag and was ready to ride with Homer to Hot Springs the next morning. In the meantime, my mother had written me and told me to buy a bus ticket for my ride home. When Homer got to Hot Springs, he asked if I wanted to go to the bus station. I asked him to take me to the west side of Hot Springs, where 270 Highway went to Y City.

I wasn’t beside the road very long before I was picked up by a young man with six Shetland ponies in a truck. He told me that he and his parents had been with a carnival for the last five years. This was their way of trying to beat the Depression. They still owned a farm near Mena where they wintered. They were on their way to Mt. Ida for a three-day stand. He told me that he hired someone to help him during the stand and if I wanted to I could stay with him and work four days.

Since I hadn’t told Mother when I would be home, I decided to be a “Carny” for four days. He said that was what they called them.

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Editor’s note: Joe Pitts was a native of Pea Ridge and regular columnist for the newspaper. He died on Aug. 18, 2008. He was born Jan. 29, 1920, at Sunny Slope Orchard Farm near Pea Ridge, and was the fifth son of Charles (Choc) and Phebe Buttram Pitts. He attended Cross Lanes, Liberty and Garfield schools and graduated from Garfield High School in 1938. He began writing a column for The Times in 2000 initially entitled “Things Happen” by Joe “Pea Patch” Pitts. He started research for the book Nicholas Pitts YK2 in about 1980. The book was published in 2000. This column was first published Oct. 12, 2005, in the Pea Ridge TIMES.