This year is fast coming to an end. I hope everyone had a good Christmas Day yesterday. I was kinda depressed Christmas morning as Santa skipped our house and everything I got on Christmas I had to buy myself. lol
Below is a photo of the Wapanucka, Oklahoma bottling company.
I know many of you will remember back when the fountains were all flowing at the Sulphur pavilion where you could taste several types of water coming out of several faucets. I think they all dried up several years ago.
HAM Talk by KC5JVT via Echolink
If you’re a local HAM and can hit the Arbuckle 97 Repeater near Turner Falls, come join us on Sunday night at 8:00pm for out Net.
Where is the biggest Christmas tree in Ardmore? A spruce tree located a Chickasaw Blvd and Cottonwood Northwest.
Note: I’ve been corrected. The above is a Magnolia tree.
From this week’s Mailbag
Merry Christmas from Patti (KC5PHO) and James (KI5DQ)
I have a similar recipe for glazed pecans
1 cup of sugar, ¼ cup orange juice, 2 cups pecan halves. Stir together in glass bowl and microwave on 80 per cent power for 3:00 minutes, take out and stir, return to microwave on 80 percent power for 3.30 minutes and dump quickly onto greased cookie sheet and let cool. Be sure and separate them ( use the handle of a wooden spoon) or they’ll clump together. -R. Helms
Your roasted pecan recipe in T&T #1455 brought back fond memories of
late night domino games outside Madill with my brother Tom and Leo
Landgraf WAY back in the day. Leo’s mother would roast buttered
pecans for all those in attendance. She kept this up into the wee
hours. No wonder we couldn’t lose any weight during those times. Yum
! I can still smell those peecaans ‘a roastin’ in the oven. During
the holidays she would dust with cinnamon and sugar, along with
leftover pie crust pieces dusted with the same !
T&T is always good for bingin’ back old memories. As 1950s B&W tv
used to leave us with: “Thanks For The Memories”…… -Steve Miller
Below is from my newsletter archives dated
December 20, 2007 – Issue 569
On South Commerce next to the railroad tracks (4 blocks south of Stanley Street) is Ray’s Backyard. Ray Dewberry sells all types of concrete products such as bird baths, statues, ornaments, fountains, etc. Jill and I bought a bird bath from him last Spring, and its great quality, built to last a lifetime. Below is the concrete bird bath we bought from Ray last April.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/BirdBath040107.jpg
This is a picture of Ray’s Backyard store on South Commerce and Moore Street
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/RaysBackyardCo.jpg
The other day Ray decided to remove a wall behind a window in his building. When it did, he found inside that wall a couple dozen old artifacts. Some of the things included was a couple Phillips 66 Lapel Pins, business cards, some picture postcards, a couple of booklets they used to record gas and oil purchases that were put on credit and other items. There was even a handwritten letter from a man in California begging Clayton Cude for money, since the man moved to that state in search of a job but it was not turning out as he hoped. Also a great find behind the wall was a photograph of the filling station back in the 1920s. A real piece of Ardmore history.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CudeFillingStation.jpg
This is a pic I took of the wall. Its actually a window which was boarded up and had shelving in front of it. Ray thinks the items may have fallen off the shelving behind and down the wall, and just stayed there all these years.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CudeWindow.jpg
About 50 feet north of Ray’s store is the railroad track. When Clayton Cude was owner, just on the north side of the tracks was Clayton’s Tavern. So Clayton owned both establishments back in those days. Clayton passed the filling station on to his son-in-law, Bob Shirey, and that is who I remember as filling station’s owner around 1970.
Below is the front of Clayton Cude’s business card touting 36 brands of motor oil.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CudeBusinessCard1.jpg
Mr. Cude had a saying, actually 4 of them, written on the back of his business card.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CudeBusinessCard2.jpg
One of the items Ray found tucked away in the wall was a 1989 Program for the Ardmore Raceway north of Ardmore. The next two scans will bring back many memories when you read the names listed in the Program.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRacewayNames1989a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRacewayNames1989b.jpg
The following are pics I took of the Ardmore Racetrack Program. I think most of them are readable. Lots and lots of names (and ads) in there, memories galore.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989b.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989c.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989d.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989e.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989f.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989g.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989h.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreRaceway1989i.jpg
Radium, Oklahoma. In Caddo county, five miles northeast of Gracemont. A post office from April 23, 1904 to August 14, 1905. No longer in existence. Named in honor of the then discovery of radium by Pierre and Marie Curie. -from Oklahoma Place Names
Diane Hall works at the Election Board and brought some very tasty and different Christmas candy to the Commissioners Office this week to share. I had never eaten anything quite like it. Its just popcorn that’s been coated with Almond Bark (white chocolate). Diane just heated the almond bark a couple of minutes in the microware, then slowly dribbled it over the popcorn as she stirred it. You talk about a great tasting Christmas treat!
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ChristmasPopcorn7a.jpg
Ardmoreite Bob Kerr stopped by my office last week to share an old photograph. It is a wide angle photo of downtown Healdton from back in the 20s it looks like. I see Massads, Drake’s Jewelry, Schayes Hardware store, Harry Ables Shoes, W.H. Dixon Hardware and Furniture, the old Healdton OG&E building, and more in this old Healdton picture. What this photo shows, is how thriving Healdton was right after oil was discovered, and the boom of people that followed.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/SchayesHardware.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/DrakesHealdton.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/OklahomaGasAndElectric.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/DowntownHealdton.jpg
Ardmoreite Steve Hamm programmed a new webserver and installed it this week for Carter county assessor Kim Cain. Steve built the old webserver in 2000 and its technology was so slow, a new one was needed to handle all people who log in each day to search property records, sometimes several dozen people at one time. With the old webserver, if a person searched for all the Jones who owned property in this county, about 300 of them, the computer would time out searching through the 30,000 plus records, and never complete the listing on screen. With this new webserver, I did a search for Jones and it displays all 300 of them in about 2 seconds or less. Now that is fast! Steve has really done a service for the people of this county who needs fast, free access to property records. The Assessor’s webserver is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
https://www.cartercountyassessor.org/
Last week we had a stopped up drain under the kitchen sink, and I messed with that thing for two or three hours trying to get it unstopped. So I decided to try a gadget called DrainKing. It attaches to a water hose, and it balloons out, wedging itself in the pipe, then seconds later forces water out to flush whatever is stopping it up, on down the pipe. Within 10 seconds I had the drain unstopped. Here’s pic of one like I bought for under $15 at D&J Hardware at Lone Grove.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/DrainKing.jpg
The Wilson News submitted by Mindy Taylor
August, 4, 1915
Performs First Ceremony – Judge Dillard For First Time Speaks Magic Words Which Change A Twain To One
Simon Louis, the Man Made Happy by Wilson’s Kindly Judge Dillard has performed his first marriage ceremony, and the judge is feeling rather chesty over the success of his efforts.
Last Friday, Simon Louis, a full blood, came into the judge’s private office and after showing him the legal papers needed, stated that he desired the judge’s assistance in welding his heart and the heart of his inamorata into one piece of palpitating furniture.
Like Barkis, the judge was willin’ so he hiked himself, in company with the bridegroom, to the home of the bride-elect, whose name we have failed to learn, and in the name of the law, etc., etc., spake unto them the magic words which decree that man may not live alone.
Whether or not the judge was scared our deponent sayeth not, but he avers that he is now ready to practice on all the young, the middle aged and the old, who wish to swap single harness for double.
The Daily Ardmoreite 12-20-1918
Should Investigate Court HouseDuring the session of district court yesterday, a piece of plaster, several feet in diameter, fell from the ceiling of the court room. No person was sitting where the plaster fell, but as it struck the empty benches it caused a great noise, interrupting the court proceedings for a time. Plaster has fallen from other portions of the building and it was suggested that the breaking of the plaster is probably the result of the shock of the explosion which wrecked so many buildings in Ardmore over three years ago.
A big THANK YOU to all who sent Christmas cards and wishes. There were so many I could not answer them all individually but it was all appreciated.
“Friends Make Life Worth Living”
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823