Arkansans Give Clintons a Little Space : Presidency: Besides the press, few gawkers horn in on the First Family’s two-day stay at friends’ lakeside house. Time spent reading, phoning, diving.

President Clinton, a man in search of some breathing room, has been getting it from his former northwest Arkansas neighbors, whose greeting could be summed up in a yawn.

When Clinton flew into Springdale Airport Monday night for a two-day vacation at the lakeside cottage of some friends, only about 300 local residents--and no brass band or official delegation--were on hand to greet him. In October, 1992, a Clinton campaign rally turned out 10,000 people at the University of Arkansas in nearby Fayetteville.

There have been no big parties or other events organized to celebrate the state’s most successful politician, even though Clinton’s visit is only the third stop ever by a President to this corner of Arkansas. (The others were George Bush, who visited in 1992, and Richard Nixon, who stopped by in 1969.)

And outside his friends’ Beaver Lake residence, there have been few of the curiosity-seekers who ordinarily gather at presidential barricades in hopes of a fleeting glimpse of the First Family.

This is not from a lack of feeling for Clinton, say friends and others, but rather because during his 12 years as governor, Clinton became a familiar figure in this Ozark Mountain region. The Clintons lived in nearby Fayetteville in the mid-1970s when they taught at the University of Arkansas Law School, so many residents knew him by sight even before Clinton started appearing on television as a politician.

“People are proud of him, I think, but maybe not as awed by it all, since he’s so well known,” said Rudy Moore Jr., who was chief of staff in Clinton’s first gubernatorial term.

In addition, many of the Clintons’ local friends are well aware that the President is in sore need of idleness after the first 200-odd days of his frenetic presidency. Several said Monday that they did not try to arrange to see him on his brief stay, preferring to let him enjoy his privacy.

The Clintons took full advantage, whiling away the day at the home of Jim and Diane Blair, two of their oldest friends.

The President spent much of the day reading a book and calling friends. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea went water-skiing. In late afternoon, Clinton and Chelsea appeared in swimsuits on the dock and dove into the lake.

The only intrusion came in the form of crews of photographers who bobbed by off the Blairs’ private beach on rented pontoon boats. But when they ventured too close to a perimeter of buoys strung several hundred yards from shore, they were shooed back by Secret Service agents aboard motorboats.

Jim Blair is general counsel to Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest poultry processor, and Diane Blair is a professor of political science at the University of Arkansas. The Clintons occasionally spent time at the Blairs’ summer house when Clinton was governor.

Beaver Lake is man-made and has a 478-mile waterfront. Set on a 22-acre site, the Blair home has three bedrooms, a large porch facing the lake, a tennis court and an indoor pool. Three boats are moored outside.

But if the Arkansans have not crowded the Clintons on this visit, they have shown signs of sympathy. When he arrived at the airport, Clinton saw a woman wearing a T-shirt that showed a picture of the Clinton’s cat, Socks, and read: “The Mice in Little Rock Are Nothing Compared to the Rats in D.C.”

En route to the Blairs’ house someone erected a sign that read: “Welcome Hill Billy.”