Land in our Hands

Predict the future by creating it

“You can get all the crystal balls and tarot cards you want. But if you want to see the future, just look in children’s eyes. It’s right there.”

David Bailey provides the indispensable community service of Story Time at the Carnegie Library in Eureka Springs, where he can be found telling tales and singing songs. He arrived permanently in Eureka Springs at the end of 1984. Not only does Mr. Bailey love our children, he also loves his five rescue dogs.

The first thing that struck me about David was his ability to hold each child’s attention. He makes sure every child feels included and he always remembers their names, writing them on a piece of paper to make sure he gets it right.

One of his great strengths is being able to encourage children to want to help each other.

David took over Story Time about a year-and-a-half ago. He now has kids in Story Time who are the children of parents he had in pre-school 30 years ago.

I asked David how he got involved with the Carnegie Library. 

“Jean Elderwind had started Story Time. When they asked me if I wanted to do it, I said, ‘Yeah that’s what I do.’

“I’ve always worked with preschool kids. In Little Rock, I worked with them. I babysat and have godchildren, various kids around town. I started a preschool here in town. Clear Spring in 1987. Gayla Wolfinbarger and me.”

David says if parents make sure that the child knows they love the child, the child will have a strong foundation throughout life. The child will always know somebody is with them.

“That’s what I love about living in a small town. We all kind of look out for each other. Even though it’s different than when I came here forty years ago when kids were running up and down the streets, before pocket phones.”

David first came here as a child. 

“My grandparents spent their honeymoon at the Crescent in 1927. My grandmother really loved it. So, I always had an affinity for it. I came as an adult for the first time for a friend’s wedding. I was in town for thirty seconds and decided I wanted to move here. Just visually looking around. About two years later, I moved up here.”

David was living in Little Rock and was getting tired of city living. 

“As soon as it clicked in my head that I could move up here and get away from it, I hit on that and have not looked back since. It was like the best move.”

David credits his being so good with children to his two wonderful grandmothers who were both teachers. He also thanks really great teachers he had in pre-school and nursery schools.  The love that was shown him is the love he now shows in this circle of life. 

David grew up in a military family and spent time during his childhood living in Europe. This had a great impact on that personality that shines forth today. You can pick up on his sense of culture by watching how he meets every kid at their level. 

He lived in both Bavaria and Berlin. His mother took him to many castles and museums, including some of the best in Europe. He had a childhood that was multicultural. His mother also took him to Jewish temple, as well as Catholic and Protestant services.

            “We lived in Berlin for two years. That was less than twenty years after World War II. So they were rebuilding, and Berlin was the hotspot in Europe then. Totally culture on everything, and very accepting at the time.

            “Germans and children, man. Germans make the best toys. Kindergarten is a German word. You know, it means children’s garden. Germans are really into children and education. It was a dream living over there.

“I mean it was a fantasy. They had the best toys. I still have some of my toys I got over there. They made such good, quality toys.

“They were into kids’ imaginations. We lived up in the Alps, so the folklore and everything. There was a castle on every other hill. You lived in fairy land, basically. Then we moved back to Kansas, and it was like ‘Whoa Toto, we’re not in Oz anymore.’

“I got to experience a lot of things and have wonderful memories. I was very fortunate to have wonderful people, my nursery-school teachers. We had nannies who were into reading to us and letting us play. We didn’t have a TV in kindergarten, first or second grade. So we just played and read. And all that. That’s just how I learned to do it.

“It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do. I had all these kinds of ideas. I started doing this. It fit naturally. I did it well.

“And still for several years I kept thinking what am I going to do? What am I going to do? I finally go, you’re doing it.”

He worked at Bubba’s BBQ for 19 years and says that supported his teaching habit, as pre-school teachers are not paid very much.

I asked David what about Eureka Springs made him fall in love with it.

“When I came here as a visitor, it was how friendly, welcoming and accepting who everybody was. Just everybody. And that’s one of the things that brought me here. There weren’t a lot of bigotries and prejudices. If you were a good person, that’s what the town wanted and was happy for. Even people I wouldn’t necessarily agree with on certain things. They respected you.

“They may not politically, religiously or socially agree with you, but they respected you. It’s like, you do your thing, and I’ll do my thing, as long as nobody is getting hurt.”

One of the reasons that David has stayed in Eureka Springs for so long is the large number of tender hearts residing within our community. He said he has witnessed community members who had never spoken to each other come to each other’s aid in times of need.

Eureka Springs has changed a lot during David’s 40 years here. He says he misses how it used to be, but understands progress. He appreciates that the economy is now year around, as this keeps people from having to live elsewhere in the winter. However, he admits that rent and housing prices have skyrocketed since his arrival. He stated that in this current market, he never would have been able to attain his current residence.

According to Mr. Bailey, the best education is travel. Even though he has traveled throughout the world, he considers Eureka Springs his favorite of all places. “Eureka is the best place I have found. When I found out one of the mottos is Where the Misfits fits, I called mama and told her I was home.”

When I told David he’s a superstar he replied, “My target audience is two-to-seven-year-olds and I’m good for an hour out of the week.”

Pre-school Song and Story time is every Wednesday at the Eureka Springs Carnegie Library from 10:30-11:30.