Man who helped thwart terror attack to speak

His efforts helped thwart a would-be act of terrorism on a Paris-bound train in 2015. Now Spencer Stone, one of the subjects and stars of Clint Eastwood's film "The 15:17 to Paris," will tell his story in person to local audiences at 7 p.m. on Oct. 10 at the El Dorado Conference Center. The event is free to attend as part of the annual South Arkansas Community College Lecture Series.
Then-Air Force Staff Sgt. Stone was vacationing in Europe when he boarded the train in Amsterdam with childhood friends Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos. Nearing Paris, a 25-year-old terrorist armed with an automatic rifle left his seat and began firing the weapon, roaming the train cars with the intent of killing passengers. Stone and his two friends were unarmed but physically apprehended the terrorist.
Stone in turn was bestowed the Knights of the Legion of Honor—the French nation’s highest such decoration—as well as an Air Force Airman’s Medal and a Purple Heart.
Just weeks after returning stateside, Stone was in an altercation and became the victim of an attempted murder by an ex-convict who, it was determined, did not know or recognize Stone and was not connected to terrorist activities. Stone recovered after treatment.
The three friends wrote a book about their experiences that became the basis of Eastwood’s film.

Special Thanks for Your Support

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THE 2019 BRADLEY COUNTY FAIR

Johnson’s Hardware E & M Tire & Lube

Rob Reep Studio Cook’s Heating & Air

Milton’s First United Methodist Church

Trucks Heating & Air The Eagle Democrat

Frazer’s Funeral Home L’Aigle Creek Conservation District

You Can Go Back in Time...

If you grew up in Arkansas during the mid-sixty’s and seventies and listened to KAAY radio station you probably heard the sounds of roaring engines advertising local drag strip upcoming events. You might even have heard the name Joe Ralph Thompson racing this weekend.

Joe Ralph Thompson from the Pansy, AR community raced hemi Dodges and Plymouths. He earned local, regional and national awards with his cars. He is a member of the Arkansas Drag Racing Hall of Fame.  Inductees are chosen based upon having advanced and enriched the sport of drag racing by leadership, excellence of performance and outstanding contribution to the sport.

On Saturday October 5, 2019 you have the rare opportunity to go back in time to see the 1964 AWB Plymouth Hemi driven by Joe Ralph Thompson of the Pansy community and later by Derwood Reep of Warren, AR. Richard Eagan of Arkansas has completely restored the car to the Joe Ralph Thompson race era. This historical car can be seen at the Arkansas Drag racing Hall of Fame Reunion Race 2019 at Centerville Arkansas Drag Strip.  It was previously housed at the Don Garlits Museum in Ocala, FL and the Bushmaster Drag Racing Museum in Stafford, MO.  This is the first time for the car has returned to the State of AR in twenty years.

The Arkansas Drag Racing Hall of Fame Reunion Race 2019 often called the “Old Timer Drag Race Reunion” is an opportunity to see and visit with drivers and car owners of the muscle car era. It is an opportunity for younger drivers to not only race but also learn from the older drivers the past history of the sport. Long before the days of computers to assist with the engines performance, it was an era of mechanics. Car manufacturers of that era were trying to beat each other to the market with the fastest car. It has been said that you saw the cars perform at your local dragstrip over the weekend and you were at the local dealerships on Monday to buy one of the cars. It was truly an era of change in the auto industry. The 2019 Arkansas Drag Racing Hall of Fame recipients will be announced. Several of previous recipients of the Arkansas Drag Racing Hall of Fame will be competing in this once a year race. 

Numerous cars have already registered:  Hall of Fame member Jim Hale,  Alan Yielding, “Bad to the Bone”, Gentleman Jim Linn with his “ Maverick”, Foster racing team with driver Wayne Styles,  Jim Metcalf, Scoggins Racing Team with their “Hooker Camaro”, James Hardman with his screaming Cuda. Ray Sullins and Dwight Cox Hall of Fame members plan on driving and bringing lots of memoberial to share, Camaro enthusiast must see Gary Hairston and Steve Haynes from the Speed Shop in Little Rock.  Rob Ayres and the Ayres family will be racing The Grog. Lloyd Wofford is bringing two of his NHRA class cars for a match race. A special match race with Bill Frye and his 12 cylinder 1939 Hot Rod Lincoln and The Gangster Melvin Ivy 1930 Chevy will make a run to entertain the crowd. 


In addition to drag racing there will be numerous cars on display for viewing. T-Shirts will also be for sale.   Gates open at 1:30pm.

Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame Seeks Nominations

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame is seeking nominations from the public for its next class. The nomination deadline is Nov. 1.

The Agriculture Hall of Fame recognizes Arkansans who have contributed significantly to the state’s largest industry, while spotlighting their contributions to the state’s economic development. Since its first class was selected in 1987, a total of 170 men and women have been inducted.

From the Warren Library...

Our first Stork Storytime baby, Jackson Cole Dawkins! Congratulations Kristen and Jeffrey! For more information on how you can give your baby a head start with the Stork Storytime program, call 870-226-2536.

Local Bands Entertain Fair Crowd

Backyard Players

Anyone looking to be entertained at the 2019 Bradley County Fair did not go away disappointed.  Two of the bands that provided outstanding entertainment were Fortunate Sons + One and Backyard Players.

Fortunate Sons + One

Bradley County Fair Results

Pastime – The tiny FFA popcorn shack

By Maylon Rice

           Just inside the south gate at old O. O. Axley Field, there is a Pastime memory I can still smell to this day as I step inside any stadium in the South.

The smell (and its sounds of being fresh made) sends me back to a Pastime of  my youth.

No, it is not the very delicious Mary Lou Martin chili dogs – but that simple staple of all Lumberjack football games – the Future Farmers of America Popcorn.

I can still see the tall and lanky Bruce Simpson, the lead vocational technical teacher, standing outside the very small, and I mean very, very small, popcorn shack. He was always offering the blue corduroy jackets wearing Future Farmers of America guy’s advice on popping popcorn.

And Simpson who was possibly one of the most well-educated members of the WHS. faculty – he held a full Master’s degree and worked summers on his Ph.D., and later left Warren, to do just that – get his doctorate -  had the midas touch for communicating with the common man.

He and his wife had legions of friends in Warren and he handled the FFA Boys so well back in the day. She operated a small sandwich outlet called The Lumberjack near the campus. (Another Pastime to write).

But I digress, so back to the white-washed, pine-boarded popcorn shack.

The tiny shack, had a metal barrel-like popper inside, and only about 1 or 2 people could navigate the tiny operation at a time inside the structure.

The front, facing the field, had a small window on which to pass out the popcorn boxes and bags and collect the sale monies.

One FFA volunteer usually made change for the purchases while the other FFA member popped the corn.

Always there were one of two more on the crew, to switch places and help run back to the Vocational Agricultural building, which was just on the other side of the new Lumberjack gymnasium.

The sound of  that rat-a-tat-tat popcorn popping in hot, buttery oil, on a nice, cool fall evening was indeed intoxicating.

So was that oh, so delicious smell.

And that was ALL  the FFA sold at the ballgames - popcorn.

All the Coca-colas, hot dogs, chili dogs, gum, and other items from Warren Wholesale (the Green family) were displayed and sold next door at the Warren Band parents Concession stand, a much larger and open air stand.

The FFA, to my recollection, sold popcorn also on the visitor’s side of O.O. Axley Field, but had no popper over there. All the popcorn, popped into boxes or bags, was simply transported across the south end zone to the smaller, more compact visitor’s concession stand where it was sold along with all the other treats.

The popcorn was mostly in small red-and-white bags, again an item supplied by Warren Wholesale. And there were sometimes red, white and blue popcorn boxes – made of think white cardboard.

Popcorn, I think, was a dime a bag.

But what a hot, salty treat it was.

One time as a joke, I had pre-arranged with some of the FFA boys, upon my pre-payment of a couple of bags in advance, for  the popcorn bags to run out to the band marching into the stadium.

I recall,  the Rev. James Tate, was among my co-conspirers in this prank.

The FFA members stood along the steel cable that separated the end zone and yard markers from the walkway to the stadium seats and handed me and another co-hort (who played the saxophone) each a bag of popcorn as the band marched into Axley Stadium.

The popcorn made it all the way to the bandstand on the Northeast Corner of the field.

But the sharp and ever watching eyes of Curry Martin, caught onto the prank.

Demerits and a sharp scolding went with his confiscation of the popcorn in our midst. Alas, the now-half-empty bag was poured mercifully over the side of the tall bandstand to the ground below.

A crunchy, buttery Pastime prank and treat that even today was still worthy of a band man’s rebuke and some points on a demerit sheet.

What is the Real Meaning of the "Dog Days of Summer?"

We often hear about the “dog days” of summer but few know what the expression means. Some say that it signifies hot sultry days “not fit for a dog,” others suggest it’s the weather in which dogs go mad. The Dog Days of Summer describes the most oppressive period of summer, between July 3rd and August 11th each year. But where did the term come from? And what does it have to do with dogs?

Why Are They Called the “Dog Days” of Summer?

The phrase is actually a reference to the fact that, during this time, the Sun occupies the same region of the sky as Sirius, the brightest star visible from any part of Earth and part of the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog. This is why Sirius is sometimes called the Dog Star.

In the summer, Sirius rises and sets with the Sun. On July 23rd, specifically, it is in conjunction with the Sun, and because the star is so bright, the ancient Romans believed it actually gave off heat and added to the Sun’s warmth, accounting for the long stretch of sultry weather. They referred to this time as diēs caniculārēs, or “dog days.”

Thus, the term Dog Days of Summer came to mean the 20 days before and 20 days after this alignment of Sirius with the Sun—July 3 to Aug. 11.

Sun: It’s All About the Tilt

While this period usually is the hottest stretch of summer, the heat is not due to any added radiation from Sirius, regardless of its brightness. The heat of summer is simply a direct result of the Earth’s tilt.

During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the tilt of the Earth causes the Sun’s rays to hit at a more direct angle, and for a longer period of time throughout the day. This means longer, hotter days.

Way to Go, Kameran!

Kameran Burns has completed 100 books in our 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program! Way to go Kameran!

Pastime – The Corral Dressing

 By Maylon Rice
         As is often the case, I equate the intense love of my hometown and its Pastime memories with food.

          This time, sitting at an iconic restaurant in my neighborhood of Northwest Arkansas, a fellow Southeast Arkansan and I were breaking bread on a visit here and talking about good food, fine dining establishments of long ago.

          Our salad course came – this particular restaurant has a following on its salads – oddly my friend, thinking of my home town, remarked to me.

          “I once got a salad out near that restaurant near the Tomato Market years ago. It had the best salad dressing I have ever eaten. Do you remember that?”

          Immediately to my mind was the long sought answer: Dorothy Wisener’s Corral Dressing.

          Ah, the memories of that home-made salad dressing.

          It could go on bowl filled with cold, fresh and crisp iceberg lettuce and those generously quartered sliced Bradley tomatoes, as a salad dressing.

          Or you could slater it on the French fries that accompanied the Corral’s signature “Shrimp Baskets,” back in the day.

Or even squirt a little out of those signature plastic bottles right on the batter fried shrimp. Yum Yum.

I’ve even had it on the tiny packages of crackers – just plain.

The Corral’s “Shrimp Baskets” were back when deep fried shrimp, boiled shrimp or any type of true seafood, was all the rage for those of us not yet old enough to have been the Florida Panhandle’s Coast and its white sugary beaches.

Plus it was at least a decade and a few years to spare before the national chain franchises like Red Lobster or Captain D’s came into view in SEARK.

          The waitresses at the Corral always called it, Ms. Dorothy’s Corral Salad Dressing when they called at your Formica tables include the oddly shaped, chocolate colored building.

It was never called Mr. Kay’s Salad Dressing, always Ms. Dorothy’s Corral Salad Dressing.

          The Corral was famous for its dining room, but also for its curb-service. You would simply drive up, park in the parking lots in front of the large glass window self-service windows and flash your car lights a time or two.

          Curb service, the waitresses would come out to the car, take your order and when it was ready return to you in your automobile.

          But back to the Corral Dressing.

          It was creamy. It was a little tart, but tasty. And it was, oh, so good.

          The recipe has been preserved for posterity in a Bradley County Hospital Auxiliary Cookbook – one of the best cookbooks on record from the area.

          So here it is:

          Dorothy Wisener’s Corral Salad Dressing

          ½ cup of Salad Dressing

          1/3 cup of catsup

          ½ cup of Salad Oil

          1 tablespoon of water

          2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce

          ½ teaspoons of Garlic powder

             *Now salt and pepper it to your taste

          Put these entire ingredients into a jar with a lid and mix them by shaking the jar.

It is a tasty Pastime that will take you back in time when a home-made dressing made the meal.