PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
Phone: 580-490-6823
An old friend has moved back to Ardmore and living here like he did in the 1930s. I’m talking about the Palacine Indian statue. Ardmore’s collector-of-about-anything-Ardmore, Steven Harris, has looked far and wide for years in search of this statue from Ardmore’s past. He finally got his hands on one and sent in some pics he took of it beside his business, Jerry’s Gun Shop on Grand Avenue. These statues were placed in front of Wirt Franklin gas stations back in the 20s and 30s. Back in those days they were used an advertising gimmick to get people to stop and trade.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/PalacineIndianFriend.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/PalacineStationTurnerFalls.jpg
Thanks Steven for preserving this piece of Ardmore’s history.
Shoe Cobbler: 1. A person whose work is mending shoes or making shoes to order.
In the Great Depression of the 1930s there were over 120,000 shoe cobblers in the United States. How many still practice the trade today I don’t know, but you can be sure its not many. There is probably only a couple dozen still practicing the trade in Oklahoma. In southern Oklahoma? None that I can find on the internet, save one. Its Dudley Boot and Show Repair in Lone Grove, Oklahoma.
I stopped in at Greg Dudley’s Boot Repair last week to have some new heels put on a pair of Jill’s shoes. Jill really liked the shoes, paid over $100 for them a number of years ago, and hated to toss them for lack of new heels. So $15 later she has new heels and the shoes are good as new!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/DudleyBootAndShoeRepair112011.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/DudleyShoeRepairSign112011.jpg
Here is a pic I snapped of Greg working in his shop next door to E-Z Mini Storage.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/GregDudley.jpg
Jill and I had a great experience and fun last Saturday attending the annual Choctaw Pow Wow held at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant, Oklahoma. Unlike me, Jill has zero Indian blood, but she enjoyed the Indian dances, the traditional music, the colorful tribal costumes, and excitement that filled that 60,000 square foot center. Even if your like Jill with no Indian blood running in your veins, and if you get the chance, I would encourage you to attend an Indian Pow Wow and experience Native American.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/ChoctawEventCenter112611.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/DurantOKpowwow2011a.jpg
From This and That newsletter archives of December 5, 1998:
Carter County Clerk Royce Moser is getting a new computer system. The purchase was approved last week. She will be using KellPro out of Duncan, Oklahoma to provide the software needed to keep all those land records in a database. I don’t want to toot our horn, but outside Oklahoma City and Tulsa, we are probably one of the most computerized courthouse in Oklahoma.
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“I well remember the border stations, which came in like local stations. XERF was only one of several. (Incidentally, it’s Villa Acuna, not Via Acuna. “Villa” means “town;” in English it would probably have been named Acunaville or Acunaburg. It’s now named Ciudad Acuna [Acuna City]. For an interesting account of the border stations, which were a part of life for radio listeners (which meant practically everybody then) in the 1930s and 1940s, this is a fascinating book:”
Fowler, Gene, 1950-
Border radio / by Gene Fowler & Bill Crawford.
Austin, Tex. : Texas Monthly Press,
c1987. xi, 282 p. : ill. : 24 cm.
Includes index. Bibliography: p. 261-270.
LCCN: 87-17975
ISBN: 0-87719-066-6
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“The Oklahoma, New Mexico and Pacific Railway Company was opened from Ardmore to Wilson in October 1913 and from Wilson to Ringling in July 1914. From Cobalt Junction to Healdton, six miles, was incorporated in 1916 as the Ringling and Oil Fields Railway Company, and opened in September 1917. They were consolidated as the Healdton and Santa Fe Railway Company in 1925 and were purchased October 16, 1926, by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.”
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“My grandmother Ada Beck was born in 1892 in Ardmore. Her siblings were Harve, Jess, Lillian, Mary, Ethel, and Annie. The only one I ever knew was my G-Aunt Annie. Lillian married a man by the last name Whiteage and they had a daughter Lizzie. Lizzie married a man named Charlie Evans. Lillian died young and Lizzie came to live with her grandfather Luther Beck. My grandmother Ada was the oldest girl left at home (her mother Emma E. Couch was already deceased) so she raised Lizzie and the rest of her sisters left at home…… You’re free to forward this to anyone who might help.” ikeedawgs@sonetcom.com
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“Could you let me know who sent you the e-mail regarding the 1967 Chevy Ambulance? He said he was in an accident with Dale Deberry. Dale’s brother is just curious. I made a copy of the newsletter to give to Dale, but Tuesday, Dec. 1, Dale suddenly had a heart attack and died at the age of 41. He graduated from Ardmore High in 1975, OU in 1980, and had worked for the Norman (Oklahoma) Police Department for the last 14 years.
Dale’s family thought you might could pass this info on to his many friends out there. Thank you.”
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I received the above email this week. It was only two weeks ago, a friend of Dale DeBerry wrote in, telling of an car accident he and Dale were in when they were teens… 25 years ago. Email is powerful. It can travel halfway around the world in a few seconds. Friendships are powerful. They can last a lifetime. -Butch Bridges
It’s been a long wait since August 9th when our storm shelter was installed, but this week we did received our reimbursement check! The initial cost was $2,100 but now with the reimbursement check, our out of pocket expense is $512 for the shelter. We are so thankful everything turned out as promised and Lone Grove City Hall took care of all the paper work without fail!
https://oklahomahistory.net/stormshelter.html
Q. What is the official state fish of Oklahoma?
A: White Bass or Sand Bass
Q. What were the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week’s newsletter)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
https://oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
Springer Christmas Parade ? Saturday ? December 10 ? 1:00 PM
If you would like to participate in the parade, please meet at the school South parking lot at 12:30 PM. Entry fee is 1 unwrapped toy to be donated. Enjoy the parade then join us for refreshments in the Community Center and see Santa. The parade is open to cars, bikes, ATV, horse groups, floats and walkers. Volunteers are welcome and greatly appreciated. For information please contact: Springer City Hall at 580-653-2500.
The annual Community Chorale Christmas Concert, directed by Dr. David Hobbs, will have two concerts this year. The first is Friday, Dec. 2nd, at 7:30 p.m., and then on Sunday, Dec. 4th, at 2:30 p.m. No Saturday performance because of OU/OSU Bedlam Game. All performances are at NW Baptist Church, 1609 Robison, Ardmore.
“Butch, since you have been receiving a lot of stories about the drive-in theaters in Ardmore, in the 60’s and before, here is a funny story, (maybe not to the people in the ticket booth). Sometime in 1964, my girl-friend, (now my wife), and I, drove up to the ticket booth at the 77 North and no one was in the booth! I yelled, “hello”. No response! I yelled again and a very small voice said, “come up to the booth”. I said, “what”? Again, “Come up to the booth”! I told them no, I was not getting out of the car! Finally two heads just barely peaked over the counter and looked out and said to go get the manager. They had been robbed at gun-point! I gunned my 61 chevy and skidded into the drive-in and to the concession stand and told them the ticket stand had been robbed! Obviously, there was a lot of police excitement in a few minutes! That was the only time I can say, I got into the show free! (never did know if they caught the robbers).” -Jay Cook
“Hello Butch, I told my husband Wednesday night that I was going to say “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!” for that wonderful tip on steaming eggs to make them easier to peel. Oh my goodness, I could hardly believe my eyes when the egg practically peeled itself!! My husband was one happy camper because peeling eggs is his special little job on the holidays. Last year I was totally convinced that the hens that laid the eggs we were so desperately trying to peel were sitting back laughing their little tail feathers off and cackling “Just wait until they start trying to peel these little gems.” It was like the shells were super glued on. I must admit that I was a little skeptical at first so I tried four eggs for a trial run. The shells slid right off! Again, thanks Butch for posting that tip and for your newsletter.” -Cheryl (Cason) Horner in Lakeside City, Texas
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/SteamedEggs091711.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/SteamedEggsPeeledTX102511.jpg
Stainless Steel Steamer Basket
“I just read in the paper in the last week or two that the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge has just closed for two years for renovation and expansion.” -Wes
Springer Christmas Parade ? Saturday ? December 10 ? 1:00 PM
If you would like to participate in the parade, please meet at the school South parking lot at 12:30 PM. Entry fee is 1 unwrapped toy to be donated. Enjoy the parade then join us for refreshments in the Community Center and see Santa. The parade is open to cars, bikes, ATV, horse groups, floats and walkers. Volunteers are welcome and greatly appreciated.
For information please contact: Springer City Hall at 580-653-2500
“Hi Butch! Several weeks ago, we finally located the old Dougherty Depot after a couple of misses. I had directions to get to it from Dougherty, but apparently made a couple of wrong turns and when we finally did get to the intersection of the Davis to Sulphur road we were ready to head back to Goldsby, Oklahoma. So, we missed it on that trip but then did find it on the next outing. I am intrigued with the building for several reasons. First, the size of it and the complexity of getting it moved to it?s present location must have been some type of feat considering the distance and the winding roads that exist between Dougherty and it?s present location. It appears to have survived the trip in extremely good condition. Secondly, again the size of the depot but this time as a reflection of how busy and enterprising that the Santa Fe Railroad must have considered Dougherty to be or grow to. Generally, the size of the Depot is an indication of the amount of rail business that is produced by a given location. Dougherty must have been a very busy and industrious place to justify a depot of that magnitude. Even today, it is a very curious place with lots of streets and house locations, but not that many actual structures. On that first day that we were out scouting photographic locations, I met Tukla and we had an interesting discussion about Dougherty.
I think the place could really grow on you. I wondered if most of the residents were weekenders but Tukla assured me that actually there were very few of that type and most were permanent round the year residents.
Now, back to the Depot building. Over in my home state area of Mississippi, there is a Illinois Central Railroad Depot in Terry MS that was moved out of town for a number of years and now, the local town folks formed a committee, bought the building and moved it back to within a 100 feet of where it once stood. Now it has been converted into a meeting and training center for use of the town people. It is approximately the size of the Dougherty Depot and very similar in design. I have concluded that there must have been some type of standard Depot designs, perhaps available in book form that all railroads used in constructing their depots. So interesting given the bitter competition between railroads of years past. You would think there would be absolutely no cooperation or similarity of construction from one to the other at all. Not so! Railroad depots are basically the same across the country.
I worked for the Illinois Central as a telegrapher in the late 50?s and early 60?s and I have found that the telegraph instruments and equipment and the layout of the telegraph offices were essentially identical across the various lines. On the Dougherty Depot, the little extended place along the building side was where the telegraph operator sat so that he had a view up and down the track in both directions. This side of the building facing the road was the rail side and the other side was the town side and actually had the front entrance of the depot. Of course, the rail side is much more interesting in appearance and function. There would have been from 1 up to about 4 employees working at the Depot. These would have been the Agent/Operator, a clerk who also served as the ticket seller, a warehouseman and possibly a Telegrapher. The Agent/Operator was also a telegrapher, hence the ?Operator? designation. In the photograph, the larger light colored door at the far end of the building was the warehouse door and that is where all of the Railway Express and LCL (less than car-load) freight was handled. The warehouseman conducted his operations at that end of the building. There would have actually been another track that was right up against the building on the street side and it was commonly referred to as the ?house track?. It allowed box cars to be loaded and unloaded directly into the Depot building from the warehouse section. If there was a separate Telegrapher, he doubled as clerk and helped bill out cars and handle freight requests in addition to his duties as telegrapher. His primary concern was communication with the train dispatchers and getting messages and Train Orders handed up to trains passing through.
The closer end of the building had a couple of doors that opened facing the track side. These doors gave access to the Passenger waiting rooms. There were two because in those days, they were segregated by race. The depots were a very busy and essential part of town life back in the 20?s through the early 50?s. Folks congregated at the depot to ?meet? the passenger trains so they could meet and greet the new arrivals and of course the kissers and wavers who were seeing friends and family off on the departing train. Generally, the Depot was also the Western Union Telegraph Office and the telegrapher was the one that copied or sent messages by telegraph. A local town boy with a good bicycle was employed to deliver the telegrams to town people.
Wouldn?t it be interesting if there could be some type of movement to return the Dougherty Depot back to it?s home location!!!” -Bob Finley bobf38@valornet.com
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/DoughertyDepotVignetted.jpg
Q. “Butch, I have fond memories of our custodian at Jefferson in the first half of the 1960s. I think his name was Mr. Alford but I am not sure. I would like to know his name and if anyone knows anything about his history or any stories that would like to share with us about him at Jefferson.” -Randy Day
A. Jess Alford
“Butch, Have read about the ownership of the Skyview Drive In at Ardmore. Jimmy and Rose Gaskins was part owners but the other owners were my aunt and uncle Kathleen and Elvin Anderson of Norman. The Anderson’s also owned theaters in Pauls Valley and Norman.” -John Cathey
“In 1946 I first heard this song in a small cafe in Anson, Texas. I was 15 years old. For lunch I had a large T-Bone Steak, French Fries, Bowl of Pinto Beans, Cornbread and a large Coke all for 45 Cents. My Brother A. J. Hock was working for Halliburton as a Logger and Perforating Wells. The Juke Box was loud and this song was played over and over. That song has been in my head ever since. This was one of the greatest meals I had ever eaten. I can still see how the T-Bone Steak was larger than the Blue Plate it was on.” -Joe Hock
Those Oklahoma Hills by T. Texas Tyler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76s_vr-9j2w&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Franz Patrick’s Little Rascals Film Archive
http://franzpatrick.com/2010/07/08/the-little-rascals/
“Butch, Here are some images of Coit?s here in OKC. They are selling out after being in business since 1954. The menu is a bit glared out from the plastic cover, but I think that you can read it. Have a good day.” -Cecil Elliott
Link to slideshow (click on each picture, for full screen viewing)
1960 or 1961
A quail tale.
Vonnie and I were living in Skellytown, Texas. and I was still working for Phillips. Two of my buddies wanted to go quail hunting and one of them had a relative who owned land near Quail, Texas. The two friends were A. W. Tindall, Jr. and Harold Childers. Anyway they came by and picked me up and we drove to his Uncle’s? place. They both had 12 or 16 gauge shotguns. All I had was a single shot 20 gauge my Dad had given me for Christmas years ago. We jumped up a many covey of birds and I got a few shots in, but they having the larger guns, killed several birds. We hunted nearly all day. We finally left and came back thru Pampa, Tx. All of us being beer drinkers decided to stop in a bar. Which we did. It was on a Sunday and there was no one in the bar other than two Mexican girls. who were the bartenders. After we ordered our first round, the girls mooched a quarter out of one of us to play the jukebox. And the song that they chose was Marty Robbins, “El Paso”. I had never heard it before, but it was quite a story he tells while singing it. We danced with the two girls song after song. After several rounds and playing “El Paso” over and over, we finally got out of there late, late. (broke)
I don’t remember getting home. I only remember them leaving the quail with me. And I think Vonnie cooked them for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn3JB51NH_M
Deck of Cards by T. Texas Tyler 1948
During the North African Campaign,
a bunch of soldier boys had been on a long hike,
and they arrived in a little town called Casino.
The next morning, being Sunday, several of the boys went to church.
A Sergeant commanded the boys in church,
and after the chaplain had read the prayer,
the text was taken up next.
Those of the boys who had a prayer books took them out,
but, this one boy had only a deck of cards,
and so he spread them out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OXLcUbkgFg
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
https://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
https://oklahomahistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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