Mallets Aforethought

Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock

The race for mayor of Fayetteville seems to have a full roster although the filing period is Aug. 6-26. A surprise candidate or two would be welcome, especially if they’re capable sorts. All of the announced candidates could be competent. While this is no endorsement — though a pooh-bah I do not do those — there’s nothing wrong with an early evaluation, is there? It’s not a question of wicked or whacky so much as wicket.

Little has been reported on Adam Fire Cat, an activist, and consultant Walt Eilers.* They have not been elected officials or much in the public eye otherwise for information to be readily accessible. What text there is shows both are running just on proposals for the future and critiques of the past.

Lioneld Jordan is an alderman — Ward 4 making him one of my two city reps — and by career a labor union leader affiliated with the University of Arkansas. I have met him several times, and he’s a good guy and seems to be a good councilman although I disagree with him a good third of the time. Jordan is a good listener, and people I respect support him, Yet it is hard to picture him toughly toe-to-toe with property speculators (they like to be called developers) to sort and to protect Fayettevillians’ contradictory interests.

Dan Coody has been mayor for two four-year terms. He has proven he can talk the talk with tycoons, visionaries and everyday sorts. He has a sensitivity to Fayetteville’s activist side, its greeny aspirations, that he backs up with action. e.g. the foot/pedal trail system and improvements on the larger trails favored by motorists. This is what can get him re-elected. But Coody could outstay his reputation, with issues caterwauling out of control by his familiarity, during a third term. That would discolor the previous two. I’d thought he’d run for the U.S. Congress, not this.

Steve Clark is the remaining announced candidate. Likely all of the previous hopefuls have had parking tickets or similar run-ins with the law. Clark, a popular attorney general for the state, was convicted of credit-card fraud, after which he blamed alcohol and renounced both. Though he is rather new to the city, he is a more-than-capable administrator. Brick has given this a brief look.

Fayetteville voters still should be told of Clark’s wicket ways.

Arkansas celebrated its 150th anniversary as a state in summer 1986. The sesquicentennial celebrations centered on a June weekend in Little Rock where various locations hosted different decades.

I organized the other principal members — Randy, C.W. and Sarah** — of the croquet team, Mallets Aforethought, for which I served as pooh-bah, to help work the 1920s field, which was in front of the Supreme Court building in Little Rock. We would play a team of officials.

Mallets Aforethought was the official croquet team — six-wicket/one-stake, U.S. Croquet Association rules — of the Arkansas Democrat in the 1980s and ’90s. Yes, begun before it got the suffix Gazette and even before the hyphen. Talk about the tail wagging the salamander. Or cat or ferret. Meaning the n-dash hyphen.

We pros weren’t quite sure what would happen. We brought the equipment and staked out the area and hammered in the wickets and stake. Would we play a game of doubles in front of them, or just a quick demo for whichever VIPs showed up then chose teams? Steve Clark took charge.

The AG brought with him then-Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher and Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Kay Arnold, both of whom wearing dresses reminiscent of the period. The fourth was Department of Finance and Administration Director Mahlon Martin. I recall Martin, a dignified man who since has passed away, crisply dressed but not especially Roarin’ 20s. Clark came as Jay Gatsby.

I remember Clark’s straw boater hat and a red-and-white striped vest. Assisting my memory was a Democrat (not even a hyphen much less a suffix) article published June 15, 1986. Mallets Aforethought taught them and umpired. The article (not online and with no mention of my crew) said Clark and Fisher played Martin and Arnold but not who won.

I can’t picture Barack Obama and John McCain opting out of a debate to play real croquet, not in this Fayetteville heat, but Coody and Clark, no problem. (Your pooh-bah will be happy to referee.) Both Arkies have the cunning, the dexterity and the haberdashery.

*Earlier, I wrote an incorrect first name for Walt Eilers. Apologies.

** Mallets Aforethought co-founder Bruce had moved out of state at that point. Further research is necessitating a follow-up Brick. Fortunately, I kept virtually all the incriminating documents.