I am not really even sure any more if I have even been to that place. The only "memory" of that place in Arkansas I am reasonably sure of is when I remember being back there in 1999. It was a few months after I had started work at Microsoft and I found out that my maternal grandmother, Betty, or Bettie, Newman Burgess, had passed away and I flew back to my sister's house in Ashdown, AR, for the funeral, which was in Antlers, OK. I have been trying to figure which cemetery she was buried in but I can only vaguley remember the location west of Antlers, somewhere north of Highway 3. But, a couple days ago, I found an obituary listing for her and it was dated May 13, 1999. I don't know if that means she died on 5/13/99 or that her obituary was in the 5/13/99 edition of the Antlers newspaper. One really interesting detail I found the other day is the obituary for her first husband, Coleman Newman, my maternal grandfather. I don't "remember" going to his funeral but I "remember" that my mother, Thedia went out to Amarillo, Texas, for it. The really interesting part is that the obituary indicates he lived in Clarendon, Texas, which is east of Amarillo. I discovered that there is a Clarendon, Virginia, and that it is right next to Arlington National Cemetery, adding some weight to other theories I have, especially that I was "buried" at Arlington in 1986 because my family thought I had been killed-in-action that year. On the map, in between Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington Hall Station is Arlington Heights. In my "memory" of 1986, when I think they thought I was dead in reality, I had a girlfriend who was from a town named Arlington Heights. I met her one night when I was going to a Navy technical school and it had been a very bad day because I had failed a test. I think that is symbolic of being shot down by the Libyans somewhere over Africa. I have been thinking lately about how her name sounds kind of similar to "die-in" which then makes me think of "dying," which is meant to symolize that it was a time when my family thought I was dead and thus she was something like my girlfriend in the after-life.
So anyway, I am not really even sure when I ever even visited that town I "remember" going to high school and where I had that after school job, but I discovered something very interesting about it today. Following the numerical pattern of First Street, Fourth Street, and Fifth Street, that after-school job I had in Wilton, AR, at Mills Store, would have been on 3rd Street, which is labeled as Highway 59. Not sure if that building is still there, although it seems to be on this satellite image, but I looked at another one and it didn't seem to be there. The building was on the west side of Highway 59, and while I don't actually remember the name of that adjoining street, the map indicates it is Texarkana Avenue. As I have written, I think that job at Mills Store, which is listed on the earning history document from the Social Security Administration, actually represents my time as a Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, of which I have no conventional memory of ever attending. There are several elements of my "memory" about working at Mills Store that I believe are symbolic, though, that I did attend that institution. Some of those reasons are because of the "m.s." which reminds me of "Mills Store" and "Midshipman. The "Mills" also makes me think it represents the first syllable of "military." Then there is the documentation which indicates I worked at Mills Store for 4 calendar years, which were 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1984. Adding weight to the symbolism is that after that fourth year, I actually went on active duty with the U.S. Navy, although in my real memory, I was not a commissioned officer. Another symbolic element, I believe, is that Mills Store was a general hardware store and I find some interesting connections, in terms of symbolism, to the U.S.N.A. There is also that element I wrote about where my employer became the mayor of that town during my third year working for him and he put me in charge of a crew to fix potholes in the city streets.
