The Sentinel-Record - HER - Hot Springs
FROM THE EDITOR:
Summertime slips easily into the resort city, signaling the official beginning of those “lazy, hazy, crazy” days when the living may be easier, but if you reside here, it’s also filled with golden opportunities.
Hot Springs has always been a popular destination for tourists, who can meander through the city’s historic district and also find any number of entertainment venues and amusements that suit their taste and pace.
Homefolks treat friends, family and out-of-town guests to leisurely lunches and dinners out, to scenic boat excursions, a few rounds of golf, some ambitious hiking or biking along circuitous trails, and a plethora of cultural happenings.
For those who might ask, “What’s new under the sun?”, the answer in 2013 is found at Magic Springs Water and Theme Park, where Splash Island stands more than four stories tall and features 10 water slides. This hot new attraction will be the ultimate cool down in the days ahead.
This is the season to bide your time in whatever fashion fits most comfortably, to redo your abode, to read those intriguing novels, to learn a foreign language, or just to clap your hands and tap your feet to the super sounds of the Hot Springs Concert Band during one of its Whittington Park gigs.
Picnic at Gulpha Gorge, look down on the city from Hot Springs Mountain Tower, go antique shopping, check out the dinosaurs at Mid-America Science Museum.
As an only child of two only children, I was quite adept at finding something interesting to do when my chums weren’t up for a softball game or a walk to the nearby record shop to spend some allowance money on old 45s taken off local jukeboxes. But, it was always twice as nice when fun experiences could be shared. One summer, my best friend, Mollie Lollis Muldoon, and I — no doubt influenced by the movie starring Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward — decided to stage our version of “The President’s Lady” in the loft of my parents’ home on Prospect Avenue. And when we could cajole an adult into accompanying us, we went to see every Esther Williams’ swim flick at the Malco Theatre.
Between my sophomore and junior years in high school, a productive summer seemed in order so I began writing a story about a young man diving for black pearls in the South Pacific. My typing skills were still rudimentary and I don’t recall that the entire plot was mentally outlined.
Every day for a few weeks, I added some paragraphs to this unfolding tale, but then the siren call of more social activities came and that creative project came to a close.
It was, after all, summer in Hot Springs and there was so much to see and do.