"Wall Street" Paragould style

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Pencil in 5.5x8.5" sketchbook. Small town humor; "Wall Street" is what we used to call 2nd Ave., because in Paragould's heyday as a railroad town, the depot was right in back of buildings like the one pictured above, and that whole block was warehouses and such, chocked full of freight and it was what put us on the map. So, take 'at New York City! 😉

I don't remember if the depot had been torn down yet, the day I made this sketch, but it was long in disuse either way. At one time, in my youth, I think this building housed a retail outlet for some brand of bread and snack cakes. Something is still there, but it doesn't look like this.

And for some reason, I guess I was thinking hard on it that day, I associate this drawing with a trip I made 6 days later, to the picture frame factory outlet store in Pocahontas, during which I spotted the subject of the sketch below. It was around 11 am, she and two young men came into the motel coffee shop I was in, looking like they just made it out of the room in time for check-out, after a night of ... revelry. A disheveled lot they were, but she caught my eye and I sat in the car afterwards and tried to sketch her from memory. I think I got the haggard look, at least.

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