Conway Teen Town Revisited 
by Bill Nutter

Editor's Note: This account was written by Bill Nutter for the December 1, 1996 issue of Antique 
Wampus Cat, published by individuals who attended Conway High School in the 1940s. 

More than 40 years have passed since the sound of laughter and juke box music could be heard drifting down from above Greeson's Corner on Saturday nights. 
  
Teen Town was born in the fall of 1943 when the Conway High School Parent Teacher Association president, Mrs. Joe Gibbons, sent a committee to Little Rock to observe a new youth center there. 
  
Impressed with the Little Rock center, the PTA decided to use the band room on the upper floor of the Vocational Building on the CHS campus for a similar teenage center. To help govern the new program, the PTA appointed a student recreational council. Those selected were Pat Henry, chairman, and Patsy Camp, secretary, with Bob Adkisson, Murphy Ford, Clara Frances Haydon, Elizabeth Kamp, Mary Jane Martin, Frank Robins III and Don Vogan as council members. 
  
The council of students, along with three parents, Mrs. E. O. Christopher, Mrs. Jim Doty, and Mrs. George Dickerson, made the center a success. However, the band room proved to be too small and keeping it clean became a problem. A search began for a new home by the end of 1943. 
  
In February, 1944, through the efforts of PTA president Mrs. E. W. Packard and the Conway Rotary Club, Teen Town was moved to the National Guard Armory [on the southwest corner of Prince and Locust streets]. Money was raised through talent shows and plays conducted by Mrs. Gibbons, Mrs. Doty, and Mrs. Dickerson to buy a juke box, stove, and fan. Ping-pong tables were constructed by CHS shop students and a large tub filled with ice served as a drink box. The juke box was purchased from A. N. Deeter, who kept it in repair free of charge. The center proved to be very popular, drawing approximately 125 students every Saturday night. The youths ranged in age from twelve to twenty. 
  
By the spring of 1946 the National Guard needed their building so the search for another home began. Following a visit from Mrs. Christopher and Mrs. Dickerson, Ernest Halter, administrator for the Halter estate, offered a room on the third floor of the Halter Building [on the southeast corner of Prince and Front streets]. After some renovation Teen Town had found a new home, and perhaps it was providence that would place it just above Greeson's Corner, the heartbeat of Conway in those days. 
  
The great Saturday night experience of dancing, ping pong, socializing, and just growing up in Conway required only two things: a nickel to get in and the "do right" rule to stay. The nickels paid for new records, ping pong balls, light bulbs, and a token rent of $10 per month. The "do right" rule covered everything, and according to Mrs. Christopher was very seldom challenged. 
  
For reasons unknown, perhaps because Mrs. Dickerson moved away and Mrs. Doty and Mrs. Christopher tired of the routine, Teen Town faded from the scene sometime in 1953. A decade of wonderful Saturday nights had come to a close. 
  
More than one attempt was made to resurrect Teen Town over the next few years, but those efforts had the same result as most of the traditions we enjoyed as Conway's youth; they cannot be duplicated or replaced - only remembered. 
  
Also, see Arkansas Gazette (Dec. 23, 1951) for article by Ann Faris on four-lane bowling alley. 
  
Conway Teen Town Revisited  
Bill Nutter 
Faulkner Facts and Fiddlings, Fall & Winter, 1998, pages 79-80