This is my mother when she was a little girl riding her horse Czar. Notice the barn behind her?
Well, that barn is gone now. It burned down Sunday, May 27, 2012 according to this news clipping that my Mom’s long time friend Jo Gwen Phillips sent her. My mother received it in the mail today and came over to my house crying.
This is John T. Parks.
He built the barn, and lived there on the property. My grandparents Bill (William J.) and Mary Parks, and my mother also lived there with him. Granddad Parks sold the place to Arch W. Smith when my mother started first grade so they could move into town and she wouldn’t have to ride the school bus. They moved downtown to 406 Walnut St. That house is still standing and in fact my mother and I were able to take a tour of it thanks to the nice lawyers that currently own it.
Reading this article highly upset my mother. You see, my mother has Alzheimer’s and there aren’t a lot of things she remembers. However, anything involving her grandfather J.T. Parks, she remembers vividly.
As a double whammy to her, when we were in Texarkana back in February for my Aunt Jane’s funeral we tried to find the old farm where the barn was, and sadly she couldn’t remember where it was. Now it’s gone and so is the opportunity for her to visit it one last time.
This is Granddad Parks riding at the farm. Notice the people at the fence? I guess it was a gathering place!
Here’s another photo that shows quite a few people hanging around the fence.
This photo shows the inside of the barn.
I’m not sure who the man in this photo is, but you can see some of the barn.
I don’t have a good picture of the barn, but I think I’ll look up Lynn Smith and see what he has. I’m thankful he wrote this article and that we came across it. I’m just sorry my Mom is taking it so hard, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to see the barn standing. I bet it was really something to see!
Susie
