Day 6.2: The original Walton five and dime

Virginia and Pat on the main square in Bentonville, Arkansas. Pat is Virginia's Peace Corps/Fiji friend, and later grad student roomate at Cornell in the early 1980s. We visited the Walton visitor center, which was in the original building of the first Walton 5 and 10 cent store. The soda fountain was the same as in 1957, with a tempting banana split on the menu for less than $5. We shared one...but it was big enough for a family of four. But we had a walk through the Compton Gardens...right in downtown Bentonville...to work off the mountain-sized banana split. Later we enjoyed a fish dinner at a very local place, the Flying Fish. Grilled trout with okra on the side, with Blue Moon beer.