This and That Newsletter
Vol 13 Issue 648 Circulation 5,000 June 25, 2009
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: [email protected]
580-657-8616 (not a toll free number)
This week I have been able to add Volume 5 of Betty Carroll's "Once Upon A Time" audios. Several of the 14 radio spots mentions Bud Ballew, Buck Garrett, Healdton, Wirt Franklin, and Bloody Caddo, to just name a few.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bettycarroll.html
T&T Reader Larry Guthrie who lives between Sulphur and Davis wrote in this week to tell about his mom having a birthday in May. She was 98 last month and like Annie Conway's 98 years, it always makes me proud when I hear stories about local people like those two. Thanks Larry for writing in.
I been needing a workbench for working outside, a level table, so last weekend I made one from pallets. I used 32 inch 4X4s for the legs, held to the pallets with 5/16 inch bolts. Being hardwood, this thing is strong. Jill put a coat of Thompson's we had stored away in the shed. These pallets are coming in really handy around the property.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/PalletWorkbench062209.jpg
Does anyone know where I can get about 500 or 1,000 red worms locally and not through the Internet? I want to start a worm bed, and feed those chickens something special. I guess I could try worm grunting, but with my luck, I'd only get sore knees. I know years ago you could buy worms at several places around Ardmore, but those businesses seem to have all closed down. Send me an email if you know where I can get some worms, only red worms, please.
The chickens are doing fine. Someone sent me an email last week asking about any smell the chicken house might accumulate. We really haven't seen much of a problem with smell. I attribute the reason to cleaning the chicken coop everyday, and to our use of Diatomaceous Earth. About 3 months ago I bought a hand cranked blower and sprayed Diatomaceous Earth twice inside the coop since moving the chickens in. Diatomaceous Earth, called DE, is an organic bug killer, among other things, that can be used for dozens of things around the house and property. We buy it in 50 lb bags from a place in Nebraska.
Jill placed cement blocks around the inside parameter of the chicken run the other day. Hopefully this will keep the critters from digging under the fence.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/coop062109.jpg
Ten cheapest places to buy gas in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Q. What tribe was once the richest people in the world?
A. The Osage NationQ. What kind of bones has been found in Caney and Tushka?
A. (answer in next week's T&T)Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"We went to the Lazy S Ranch in the Arbuckle Mountains on Saturday and looked around. I would love to explore that ranch and go to the Cedar Falls swimming hole and the caves up there. Did you know that with Google earth you can see the sign on the side of the mountain." -Doug Williams
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/LazySRanch062309a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/LaZySRanch062309b.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/LazySRanch062309c.jpg
Perry, Oklahoma: SINGSPIRATION began as an all-night gospel and patriotic 'sing-along' session to honor our troops in the 'Gulf War' back in 1994, and was a brain-child of our (then) postmaster, Darryl Bullock. It brought together soloists and singing groups from all over Oklahoma to perform at the grandstand in the park that surrounds the Noble County Courthouse. The newspaper article in the Perry Daily Journal reads:
Singspiration Coming To Perry Square Friday Evening
Don't miss the 15th annual Singspiration at the bandstand on the Perry square Friday (June 26th) evening. The event will begin at 6 p.m. and will be a free evening of patriotic and gospel music featuring performers from around the state of Oklahoma.
This year's event will be launched by the Oklahoma Christian University's 9-member contemporary choir, "New reign" who will be performing in Perry before going to another engagement. Also on the agenda are a Southern gospel group, "Power of Praise" from Oklahoma City, a Stillwater quartet, "Redeemed", an Elvis impersonator, Darin "Elvis" Thrasher of Yukon, a duo from El Reno, "Kindred Spirits", and from Perry, soloist Lenita Kennedy and a Perry quartet, "Potter's Clay", which includes Bill Bullock, Maria Lemons, Elaine Vardeman and Patti Bloom.
Beverages and snack concessions will be available and door prizes will be given out during the program. The event is FREE and sponsored by Darryl Bullock of Victory Ministries, assisted by his son, Bill Bullock.
Chester and Joyce Hitchcock LIVING ESTATE SALE (not a auction), June 26 and 27, 2009 at 5393 Gene Autry Road, Ardmore, Oklahoma. Watch for signs. Everything must go.http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/HitchcockSale062609.jpg
"Butch here is a new sign on Highway 79 between Wichita Falls and Waurika. I guess we are going to start calling it a Kiowa, Comanche, Apache reservation again." -Doughttp://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/KiowaSign062409.jpg
"This book mentions a lot of people I could ID by sight that were still around in the '30s plus many more often mentioned at home.
I just finished the book "Bud Ballew, Legendary Oklahoma Lawman", who was deputy to Sheriff Buck Garrett. That started me down memory lane. Some family history of the 1910-30 period is interesting.
My father Arthur (A.K.) McCrory came to Ardmore around 1918. His brothers had been here some years and were in the oil business, lease broking, etc. Brother Bob (R.F.) was 20 years older than my father who worked for Bob. The brothers had supported the Buck Garrett regime that ran Carter county but had fallen out with them - not a healthy thing. New in Ardmore, his job was driver and bodyguard. On country roads Bob would shoot at fence posts with his pistol as they drove along. On the street he would walk a few steps behind Bob with a hand in his pocket.
The book talks about the ouster of Buck Garrett and the unproven alleged corruption of his administration. Brother Bob had bought a new Buick that was promptly stolen. My father saw it for sale the next week in the used cars of the Buick dealer. He confirmed it checking out the car and found a place on the seat where he had sewed up a place with store string. Bob told him to lay off, insurance would pay for the car and it was too hot to challenge.
I mentioned unhealthy, two attempts were made on Bob. In the heat of summer he left his pistol and jacket as he went downstairs to get something at the soda fount in Frame's Drugstore below. (NE corner Bst and Main). On the landing he was attacked by two with brass knuckles. Not completely unprepared, Bob shot one of them in the leg which ended the fracas. He fired his double barrel derringer thru his pants pocket. The one shot was Raymond Garrett, son of the sheriff. The other attack was more serious.
Years later my father and I were driving down F St NE that then turned West on to 11th avenue and crossed the railroad track. Just before that turn he stopped and said this is where Bob got shot. He was driving, as we were and a car came across the tracks and sideswiped him. They both stopped and he found the other driver drunk as a skunk and jerked him out and was pushing up him into the back of his own car to take him to jail. The 'drunk' not drunk at all, then turned and fired into his belly and again sidewise as he fell. Not uncommon at the time for relatives to be in the operating room, he saw Doc Hardy take out Bobs 'entrails' wash them in a purple stuff, sew them up individually and sewed him up. He recovered and lived until 1950. I saw an old Ardmoreite write up about this that gave the location of this as on Caddo, probably in error.
Years later yet, maybe 1950s I was here visiting when my father said he could hardly believe who came to see him recently - Raymond Garrett. Back in the time, they would have reached for their pistols on sight. Now, he and Raymond about the same age, visited for a couple hours talking about old times and how time changes things." -Bob McCrory
"I have something to put before the readers please. My little peach tree performed beautifully this year. It was so loaded with peaches that I actually thinned them so as not to break the limbs. They grew to a nice size, were all red and pretty but not yet soft when all of a sudden they all started to mold and rot!! I didn't get any peaches to eat. Anyone ever know of this kind of thing? Is this a disease of some sort? Thanks." -Nellie [email protected]
"Butch... I have a lady looking for Chaggar Cemetery in Carter County. She printed a map from the internet and based on what it said... they could not find the cemetery. Can any of your Readers give me directions to it? Thanks for any help." -Jo
"Butch, Since you have such a great newsletter that relates to history I wonder if any of your readers would have stories about 4-H. We are celebrating our Centennial in Oklahoma and I am looking for information specifically about 4-H in Carter County. Thank you so much for the fair information you gave me.
The very first mention of 4-H in Carter County is in 1910 when Floyd Gayer of Ardmore won an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. The trip was offered by Senator Thomas P. Gore to the Oklahoma Boy who produced the largest yield of Corn. Floyd had a yield of more than ninety-five bushels per acre.
I would welcome more information about Mr. Gayer if anyone knows anything about this family.
We have some information from the 30’s and 40’s with no information in the 50’s. We have a large scrap book that has information from the 60”s and early 70’s.
Anyone who would like to share please e-mail me at [email protected] or call the Extension Office 580-223-6570. If I am not in I will return calls." -Gerri Ballard
"Butch, Addressing the problem of blossom end rot on tomatoes, I was having that problem one summer and I called my local county extension agents, and they told me what it was and if you worked some bone meal in the dirt around the plant it would take care of that…and it worked for me. This summer I have tried gardening again, and am growing plants in 3 plastic wading pools I have filled with some straw, and covered with a mixture of topsoil, garden soil and peat moss. The plants are doing great, and the tomatoes are starting to bloom now. I started it kind of late."
-Janet in Faeytteville, AR
"Let me try and answer some of the questions about the Shug West Grocery east of Ardmore. The original sheet iron store was built in 1945 after the war. I would think in the Summer or Fall. It was had a single room with an attached feed/oil room attached on the eastside. The feed/oil room had its own entry from the north side. The store had a double screen door entrance on the north. There was a back door in the southwest corner. The store was moved about 1956-57 when the "new" store was completed. As far as I know it was moved to its present location at that time. I do not remember who moved it. I have numerous pictures of the "old" store when it was still a grocery store. I sent you a number of pictures as it appears today. I have one showing the Viceroy advertisement. Mom and Dad kept a kerosene container and pump under the driveway "porch". There was, also, a soda pop box which required that we go to Ardmore to buy ice to cool the pops. At night Dad would use a large chain and boom to lock it. After the "old" store was moved that floor served as our driveway. In the early 1960s, the current highway was built. Some of the concrete taken from old highway 70 was hauled to the south and southwest areas of my folks' property to fill gullies. With the replacement of the highway in the early 1960s, the ground in front of the "new" store was lowered about 2.5-3.0 feet. What was our front porch of the "new" store originally just about 4 inches about the ground. After removal of the earth, it required about 3-4 steps down to the new ground level. Thanks for remembering the old place. I, too, remember the man who used to rise early and whistle in front of the other store just west of ours." -Mike P. West
"Here is a sauce, called Pickapeppa, that I heard about on the Bill Mack show on the radio, if anybody knows where it can be bought locally please tell me." [email protected] http://www.pickapeppa.com/
Museum Memories
Contributed by Melinda Taylor
The Lone Grove Ledger
"From the Archives"
85 years ago
Nov. 4, 1998
~ The way of the transgressor is hard and especially when the Pinkertons get after him. R. E. Clayton, formerly of Ohio, was placed in jail here after being charged with a crime in Ohio. The Pinkertons were given the assignment to track him down and found Clayton in just 16 days. He has been working in the oilfields and was arrested by Charley Jones, the Hewitt constable.
~ The preliminary steps toward the organization of a Chamber of Commerce for Wilson have been taken. The men who are now building Wilson will be behind the chamber of commerce movement, including F. L. Letch, formerly of Lawton, State Senator Jack Langston, late of Guthrie, L. L. Dunlap, G. J. Leeper, W. H. Bradford, Dr. Darling, T. F. Maloney, H. L. Carmichael, J. T. Martin, James White, and W. W. Means. Two banks have been organized and a cotton gin and grain elevator are in the works. Wilson is in the center of one of the biggest cotton-growing districts in the south.
~ The pleasant weather of last week had dried the roads so they were in condition for traveling. Now Saturday's rain has put them out of commission again. The weather and road conditions make it hard on freighters and movers. Dr. Tidmore's office is now half way between Hewitt and Wilson and from all indications, it will stay there for some time. The railroad has become a public necessity, as the wagon roads are absolutely impassable if it were not for the railroad we would be without food and material necessary to carry on the work in the oil fields. If ever we did need good road building it is now...
We have a new scavenger hunt for the kids! Wilson Museum Hours: Tues., Thurs., Fri., Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
A place for everything, and everything in its place. -Benjamin Franklin
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net
Nashobish Ikana
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Oklahoma Bells: http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
American Flyers Memorial Fund - Administration Webpage
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/crash66.html
Official American Flyers Memorial Website
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Base Website
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons
Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
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