Grandpa Thomas Shepherd (We called him Sweet Daddy) was a farmer and lived in the Ouachita Mountains of Central Arkansas..  In the early 1950’s he moved the family out of the mountains and bought a farm in the small river town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 

 

 He had an old 1949 pickup that he used to haul wood, feed sacks and such.  He was always up to something ( A real entrepreneur).  He decided he would open a Wrecking Yard on the highway frontage.  He outfitted the old pickup with a wrecker hoist and began collecting old vehicles.  He then decided to build a small oval dirt race track behind the wrecking yard. 

 

Every Saturday night in the summer drivers would bring their 40’s vintage vehicles and roar around the track, dust flying everywhere.  As I was 7 years old, I had to sit in the wooden stands he had built. Sweet Daddy would tell me it was too dangerous for me to be with him in the center of the oval track where the race pits were.  

 

One Saturday night as the old vehicles were roaring around the track, Sweet Daddy was dashing from the grassy center to the stand where my Dad and I were sitting.  He thought he could run between the race cars………he did not make it.  He was brushed by one of the old jalopies, just as he was almost across the track.  He was not hurt bad thank goodness.  He got up, dusted his self off and limped over to us in the stands, grinning ear to ear (so as not to scare me).  The crowed yelled "PO PAPA".

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In memory and in honor of Sweet Daddy and his entrepreneurial spirit, we named our business Po Papa’s Nuts. The old pickup truck is our logo.

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ENJOY!!!

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Bill Shepherd and Family

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