MOUNTAIN HOME LIONS CLUB MEETING PLACES

Once upon a time there was this little town of less than 2,000
people. Most of the streets were not paved. And some of the buildings
on the square had sheet iron fronts on them.
This was about 1947, and someone decided Mountain Home needed a Lions Club.

The Organizational meeting was held at the Legion Hut.  The only
two charter members that are still living are, Bud Bodenhammer and
Phil Jones.   Quimby Smith who just recently passed away was also
a charter member.

Since one of our members lost our file cabinet with the original
Charter's in it, I have very little factual information of that time.   

There was a lady, Mrs. Perry, who ran a family style restaurant on
College Street. Where Blackburn's Reality is today.  This is most likely
 where the Lions Club first meant.  Mrs. Perry moved her
restaurant two or three times and the Lions Club went with her. 

Later the Redwood Lodge was opened on Hwy. 5 N. about 3 miles outside
of town.  The Lion's Club moved there for several years.

Bob Pratt joined the Club 38 years ago and at that time they had 8
members.  At one time, I was told they almost lost their charter.

When I joined 29 years ago, they were meeting at the Kettle, better
known as the Black Pot, which is now the Back Forty.  The town
was still a backwoods town of 2,200 people.

At the meetings it was not at all unusual to get hit in the back
of the head with a roll.  You did not dare get up from your table
without taking your food and drink with you.  If you did, someone
would salt you coffee, tea or dessert.  The members were not
even civilized then; they still knew how to have a little fun.

We went from there to the Methodist Church, which was located on
Main Street.  The Methodist women prepared the meals for us as a
Moneymaking project.  We were either too rowdy or they were not
making any money, because they told us we would have to find
some place else to meet.

We next met at Green's Cafe, which was where Pete's Cleaners is
now.  I don't remember staying there too long.  They served us
rotten chicken two weeks in a row. That is when the decision 
was made to move again.

Next was the Willow Court Restaurant. It was where the Jewel
Chest is now. The food was great, and we stayed there for
several years.  One of our new members was Palmer Foley.  If you
know Palmer, you know that if he sees you 10 times a day he will
shake hands with you ever time he meets you.  Well, one day Dr.
Ed Riley made the announcement that he was not going to shake
hands with Palmer.

Dr. Riley barricaded himself in a corner with tables and
chairs.   Palmer came in and went right for Doc pushing the table
and chairs to one side and stuck out this hand to Doc.  Dr. Riley
stood with his hand behind his back for it seem like 2 minutes.
Finally he gave in and shook Palmer's hand.

One time we stuffed the kitty box with Palmer Foley's name on all of them.  After
Palmer won the kitty two weeks in a roll, someone called for a
audit of the pillbox.  When all the names in the box were
Palmer's name, we all booed and hissed.  Shortly after that
Palmer quit the club. I don't know if that was the real reason or not.

They finally started serving us cold food and off we went again.  This
time to the Holiday Inn.

While we were at the Holiday Inn, it was brought to our attention
that the Jr. High needed a bicycle rack.  Lion Dean Hudson, who
was the Superintendent of Schools, was made Chairman of that committee.
For two years, the President would ask for a report from the
Bicycle Committee and for two years it was still being studied.
No action was ever taken.

We next went to the Cedar Grill.  They had just added on two new
dining rooms and could take us.  We stayed there until it burned.

Our next move was to the Carriage Inn Restaurant.  We stayed
there quite a few years.  They had several managers and sometimes
the food was good and sometimes bad.  When we voted to leave
there, the vote was so close, I thought it might split our club.  I
think we did loose several members.

Next was the Western Sizzler.  The food wasn't too bad, but they
changed owners and they made monetary demands that we didn't feel
were necessary.

We went back to the Carriage Inn for a short time.  Ray Pennington 
was the Manager,  and the food was good.  When Ray left, we moved to the
Bonanza.  We stayed there quite awhile.  One day the Bonanza manager called our
President and told him we weren't welcome there any more and we would
find our property outside the back door.
We moved to Nettie's Cafeteria and had to change our meeting days from
Thursday's to Wednesday's. 

We weren't there long before Bonanza offered us all kind of deals
to come back, including personally free meal for us and or wives. 
Needless to say, we didn't accept them. 

Nettie's finally went under and we had to move again.  The only place 
left in town for clubs to meet was The Country Kitchen. The Rotary Club beat
us out on getting Wednesday or Thursday by about 10 minutes. We had to take Monday.
The Rotary left and went to the Holiday Inn and we could have our Thursday's 
back.  We tried it, but we would have lost to many members, including
Rev. Ken Lampie. We couldn't loose him. We went back to Monday's and 
are still meeting on Monday's at the Country Kitchen. 

If you are a Lion Member and are in Mountain Home, AR on Monday's, we would love to
have you as a guest.