The front of the new store sported a sign announcing that "Wood and Huddleston - General Merchandise" was open for business. Mr. Wood was Huddleston's brother-in-law, and he had helped finance the enterprise. By the mid-teens his interests had been bought out, and it became "J.R. Huddleston - General Merchandise".

The Huddleston Store merchandise was available in the store, not just by catalog order. Shoes, clothing, tools, tobacco and candy, sewing supplies, and many patent medicines lined the shelves and filled the tables. Local farmers and their wives brought in eggs, produce, or promised labor to pay for things they needed or had bought on credit. Business grew by leaps and bounds.

The Waters Post Office was the oldest building in the community. Henry M. Waters had established the post office in 1886, and the name remained after he left the area less than two years later. Over the years there were many different postmasters, including Dick Huddleston in the teens and early 1920s, but he was soon to be much too busy.

In 1931, the young talented sons of two of Dick's good friends and business associates in Mena, Arkansas, began a show business career that lasted for over 25 years. They used the two Waters stores as the setting for their radio shows, and included the townspeople as the basis for the characters they portrayed. Chester "Chet" Lauck and Norris "Tuffy" Goff had created Lum and Abner, proprietors of the Jot 'Em Down Store.

The first broadcast, from Hot Springs, Arkansas, was on April 26, 1931. Within a few months, "Lum and Abner" was auditioned in Chicago, center of network radio for the whole Midwest, as a summer replacement program. Radio history was being written. There was no electricity in Waters, and of course, no radio studio. The nationwide radio broadcasts had to come from Chicago, Illinois, but fans thought they came from Pine Ridge, Arkansas. Dick Huddleston and his store quickly became famous, and he was a natural showman too.

The Jot 'Em Down Store was based on the small McKinzie Store. The more prosperous Huddleston Store was across the street on the programs, just as it was in the real town. Tuffy Goff used his normal speaking voice when he was being Dick Huddleston on the programs. Tuffy was also Abner Peabody, Mousey Gray, Squire Skimp, and many other characters. Chet was Lum Eddards, Cedric Wehunt, and Grandpappy Spears. The first Lum and Abner advertising premium was a book featuring photographs and descriptions of the Waters residents.

Tuffy's Dick Huddleston appeared on most of the early programs, solving problems created by the pair every day, but they soon decided they could make each storyline last longer without the quick solutions. They continued to refer to their friend and competitor even when he didn't appear, and did involve him in many stories.

Lum and Abner would send prospective customers to Dick's store when they were too busy with their adventures, and wondered why they never had any money in their cash register. Even during the Great Depression, the real Huddleston Store offered prizes in weekly drawings, and carried Lum and Abner souvenirs. His sign now said "Dick Huddleston of Lum and Abner".

By the mid 1930s, Lum and Abner was one of the most popular programs on the air. However, Chet and Tuffy hadn't used "Waters" as the name of the town on the radio. The name they chose was a more accurate reflection of the pinewoods of western Arkansas - "Pine Ridge". As the programs spread across the country, thousands of fans a year came to visit the original stores and meet the people. "Grandpappy Spears" was often sitting on the front porch.

Tourists were confused when they were directed to Waters, not to Pine Ridge, so Dick Huddleston contacted the U.S. Post Office, and arranged for the name of the post office to be changed. The community has never been incorporated, so its only official name, even now, is the name of the still active U.S. Post Office.

The name change took place on April 26, 1936, on the steps of the Capitol Building in Little Rock. There was still no electricity in Waters, so Chet Lauck and Tuffy Goff came from Chicago, while Dick Huddleston, Lasker Goble (Cedric Wehunt), and Cling Wilhite (Grandpappy Spears) came from Waters to take part in the nationwide radio broadcast. Post Office and Arkansas representatives officiated at the ceremony. Thousands of fans were on hand, and hundreds of thousands listened on the radio as Waters became Pine Ridge.

Dick Huddleston organized many musical performing groups made up of young people from the local area. In the 1930s, with Dick as emcee and "Arkansas' Ambassador of Goodwill", they traveled the Mid-south to publicize Lum and Abner, Arkansas, the Ouachita Mountains, and especially Pine Ridge. Dick worked without a script, much as Chet and Tuffy preferred to do.

Lum and Abner continued to air throughout the 1940s, with the broadcasts now coming from Hollywood, California, where they made seven movies. During World War II, Lum and Abner set records for War Bond sales, recycling campaigns, etc. They raised millions of dollars for the war effort, and continued to receive millions of fan letters each year. Fans continued to flock to Pine Ridge, Arkansas, and get their pictures taken with Dick Huddleston.

However, by the mid 1950s, television had taken over home entertainment. Chet and Tuffy retired from radio and movies, but since they had been in their twenties when they began their radio careers, they continued in other related pursuits until their deaths in 1978 and 1980.

Changes had taken place in Pine Ridge too. Young men had come home from WWII with automobiles. Electricity had arrived in 1946, bringing lights, refrigerators, and radios. Highway 88, the "Lum and Abner Highway", was paved from Pencil Bluff to Mena in 1956. The forty mile round trip to Mena had evolved from two days by horse and wagon to two hours by family car. Local General Stores were no longer the only source of supplies.

The Huddleston Store remained open and stocked, but when Dick Huddleston died in 1963, his daughter Ethel inherited the store. His wife had died in 1958. Now the doors were opened only when Ethel wanted to visit, and the building was beginning to suffer. The McKinzie Store was no longer active, and had been moved aside when the highway was paved.

Luckily, in 1969, Ralph and Dorothy McClure were visiting relatives near Pine Ridge, and were able to buy the Huddleston Store. They wished to preserve not only the building, but also the history of Pine Ridge and Lum and Abner. In 1970, they also acquired the empty McKinzie Store, and moved it next to the Huddleston store.

The smaller store became the museum, and many Huddleston Store artifacts were put on display there. Chet Lauck, having returned to Arkansas, donated Lum and Abner memorabilia to go on display. Over the years, the storage areas and hallways into the museum were converted into display space as the collection grew to include all aspects of Waters/Pine Ridge history. Gifts and souvenirs were and are sold in the Huddleston Store to support the museum and preserve the buildings. The original cases and tables are still in use, and many pieces of store history are on display above the shelves of collectibles and souvenirs.

In 1979, Dorothy's son Lon Stucker, and his family moved to Pine Ridge. He had retired after 20 years in the US Navy. Ralph McClure had died, and Dorothy struggled to keep the store open the long hours the tourist business requires. Again, the business was passed from one generation to the next. The Post Office moved into the Huddleston Store in 1983, and you may mail a Lum and Abner picture postcard with a Pine Ridge postmark today.

In 2009, nostalgia and old time radio continue to grow in popularity. The Lum and Abner Jot 'Em Down Store and Museum continue to draw fans and tourists from across the country, and even from overseas. The Huddleston Store is 100 years old, and the McKinzie store is 105 years old. They were both placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Visit Pine Ridge, located in western Arkansas on Highway 88 between Mena and Mount Ida, any day this summer to help celebrate this 100th anniversary.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a related web site that you might be interested in visting. It is the home page of the Video Technology and Broadcast Journalism Department of Carthage High School. These classes are taught by our very own NLAS President, Donnie Pitchford. To access their website just click on this link CHS-TV

They produce a weekly radio show called "The Golden Age of Radio" for radio station KZQX FM where they announce vintage music and run an OTR show. Check them out every Sunday at 8:30 p.m. at KZQX-FM

For more information about this award winning group please click on the "Special Announcements" button below:

History of Lum & Abner
History of the NLAS
Meet the Zekative Ossifers here
Information on Joining the NLAS
Special Announcements from the NLAS
NLAS Store
Some More OTR Links