Hearty Folk Here in Hardy
Continuing our travels thru the magnificent Ozarks, we literally stumble upon the quiet hamlet of Hardy, AR. Picked this spot only because it was the terminus of a 3 plus hour drive and we were ready to stretch out.
Right next to the shoreline of the Spring River in Hardy sits a City owned park with campground right on the river. Looks cool, let's cruise in...City Public Works employee mowing the grass (man, that's all folks do around these parts is mow grass, they actually have grass mowing competions in their spare time! wild as all get out!) saunters up and asks if we want a site, yep, sure do. That'll be $25 and my husband will be around in awhile to collect...fair enough.
Big time mowing here in the Ozarks. Now that's a man that ain't bothering no one!
What we didn't notice was the BSNF railroad tracks about 100 yards from our site. Let's just say that the trains came thru so often we didn't notice them. Man o man, every hour, 24/7 with horns blasting and rails creaking.
To the left of the picture is the Corner Cafe where I went over at about 7:30 AM the following morning for breakfast. An old building with about 15 - 4 seater booths of which 5 were occupied. I'm listening to a conversation at the booth next to me, not really eavesdroping, but you know, paying attention. Hey, I do it all for you loyal followers so I can spin a good yarn.
According to this conversation, now I'm not sayin it's the truth, I'm just telling you what I heard.
Coupla years back Nina Thornton was the mayor of this burg and apparently used the N word in reference to a City employee and it was captured on tape. The State brings an equal opportunity claim against her and the shit hits the fan. An up and coming councilman named Jason Jackson wants her out and seems like he and Nina have some unsettled history. Nina's out and Jason is the new mayor.
Simultaneously to all of this, the long time police chief had retired and turned the reins over to his son Scott Roberts. Seems ole Scott had a side gig as a rep for a company called Code 3 that supplies equipment to police agencies, things like emergency lighting for police cars, sirens, that sorta thing.
Well, he received $25K from local police forces for material they never received. A State level fraud investigation was initiated and Jason fired Scott and appointed the other cop in town, and her name I didn't pick up, as the interim police chief.
In the final analysis the State did not find any wrongdoing on Scott's part and he was reinstated. The interim Chief was reinstated as Ass't Chief....I am going somewhere with this....
After hearing all of this, I finished my fine repaste, paid my bill, tipped the server and I'm crossing the street into a large parking lot where sits a Hardy City police cruiser talking with two guys. As I pass by, I hear one of the two guys say " hey thanks Scott, appreciate the help". In the passenger seat of the cruiser sat a young woman who I figure was the old Police Chief and now the Ass't Chief.
Small town politics that happen at a much larger scale in major cities across this country all of the time. The difference is in small towns it is front page news and people give a shit.
Whilst in town we hear about this reality TV show filmed in Hardy a few years back called Clashes of the Ozarks. It's ostensibly about two families that have been feuding for over one hundred years and still haven't figured it out. I believe about 90% of these types of shows are total bull shit, scripted with a high production value and little else.
Nice sleuthing diesel! For a second there thought I was reading a Cormac Mccarthy passage.
ReplyDeleteMust be tough to hide that "crossroads deal with the devil" when your town only has one stop sigh, eh?