It has been hotter than Hades here in south central Oklahoma this week. With all the rain the past few weeks the humidity has gone through the roof. I've been sandblasting quite a few pavers this week and in my shop building there is only a box fan. About 3 or 4 hours is all I can take in one day... not a dry thread on me by then. Reminds me when I was about 18 years old and working for Landrum Refrigeration Service. We had spent the day at the Healdton Nursing Home installing a central A/C unit on one of the wings and guess where the boss had me working? Yep, in the attic and I know it was over 160 degrees. When we finished about 5pm I told them I was finished. I never went back to work for Mr. Landrum.
I guess the heat does not bother the Roadrunner that's been hanging around our place. He's out and about nearly every day the past few years. He's kinda comical to watch. And just last week I heard him make his sound. He was right up next to our kitchen window, he lowered his head, and let out this low pitched noise. If he's calling a female, he's not doing a very good job. We have never seen two Roadrunners in our yard.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/RoadRunner061616.jpg
A Reader sent in a picture of the Atwood Pecan Cracker that operated in Ardmore around 1922 to probably 1940 or so. Mr. Atwood operated his business in several place downtown, the last one across the street north from First Methodist Church at 521 West Broadway. That building was last used as McPherson Feed and Seed store but is now owned by the church.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/AtwoodPecanCrackerArdmore1.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/AtwoodPecanCrackerArdmore2.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/VelmaMitchellBldg.jpg
May 1932
Mystery continues to surround the shooting of Nelson Huff, 19, of Prairie Valley, Saturday night. Huff, with a .22 caliber steel jacketed pistol bullet lodged in his left lung, is believed to be out of danger. However, he is as mystified about the shooting as are the police who are without clues in the case. Huff had locked up and was traveling to his place of work, when a man approached his car and demanded to be taken to the country. As Huff turned to look at the intruder, he was shot. The bullet barely missed his heart and is still lodged in his left lung.
May 1963
Apparently there is no integration at Lone Grove schools next fall. School Board president, Elvin Proctor said six negro children who could have gone to Lone Grove schools next year have opted to apply for transfers to the Ardmore school district.
Downtown Healdton street scene 1919.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/HealdtonStreetScene1919a.jpg
This next photo sure brings back memories. A business card for KVSO-TV in Ardmore back in 1957. Gordon Lack with the news and Del Goodin the weatherman.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/KVSO_TVcard1957.jpg
Since Tuesday Carter and Love counties SOWC water customers have been told to boil their water because of E Coli in the system. The problem developed from a SOWC well on North Newport Road, north of Lone Grove. We are on SOWC water, hope the problem is rectified quickly.
A few pavers I sandblasted the past few days.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bricks/TannerDog.jpg
I'm now using the CCleaner optimizer program almost daily to get junk off my PC computer and cell phone. They both run smoother when I do, than when I let it go a week or so. I don't even run the analyze part of the program, I just click the Clean button in the lower right hand corner.
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
You can find current gas prices for a particular Oklahoma town by entering the name or zip code in the GasBuddy search box.
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/
Temps have sure went up the past few days. And you know what that means, A/C running and higher electric bills. 60% or more of your electric bill can be attributed to the air conditioner running day and night to keep your house cool. The Okie Power Saver is a great way to reduce that electric bill and save money year round. Plus it's a full house surge protector and with Spring storms here, it's important to do every thing you can to protect your electrical equipment.
Q. There is no chapel in the
world like one built in 1936 in Oklahoma. Where is this unique chapel located?
A. The Holy City Chapel
in the Wichita Mountains north of Lawton.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/HolyCityChapelWichitaMts.jpg
Q. Where in Oklahoma is a 24
hour prayer Teepee?
A. (answer in next week's T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of June 15, 2002:
Friday June 14th was Flag Day and the
Carter County Courthouse celebrated that grand old flag in a fitting way by
having lunch on the lawn. Long time Carter county resident D. Allen Wint was on
hand to serve up some delicious grilled burgers with all the trimmings to those
in attendance. There was live music, and area speakers who told of a country
stronger then ever, a people more united now than ever before. We had not had a
Flag Day celebration on the lawn since June 1997 and this year's event was
enjoyed by everyone, young and old alike!
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/flagd6a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/flagd6b.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/flagd6c.jpg
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Back in the early sixties my great
grandmother, Ida Miller (1874-1965), was already nearly 90 years old, and lived
right across the street east from Washington School on "H" Street Northeast.
Granny Miller dipped Garrett's Sweet Snuff. She'd buy the snuff in the glass
containers mostly, but sometimes bought the tin containers too. Since she dipped
snuff, we always had a supply of empty snuff glasses in the kitchen for drinking
water or milk or orange juice. I still have one of her glass containers of snuff
and one small tin of snuff, also never been opened that belong to my great
grandmother. The Seal's are unbroken. But I also have about six glass snuff
glasses, and I still use them for drinking liquids! Here is a pic of the snuff
glasses along with the Garrett's Snuff too! One other thing I remember her
doing, she'd get a slippery elm twig, strip the bark off, and use the bigger end
as a toothbrush!
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/snufglas.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
I took at pic of the old McCulloh Motors
at 300 West Broadway this week. It is across the street west from the old Civic
Auditorium. Or north of the old Lincoln Bank, which was the old Ardmore Hotel in
bygone years. Before McCulloh Motors was in the building, Ken Milburn Ford was
there... around 1965 and before. I heard they are going to tear the building
down and build a multi story parking garage in its place. The present tenants
have already moved out.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/300wbdwy.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
I was talking this week to some "old"
friends from 3rd NE and the name Mr. Wood came up. Emory Wood (1891-1972) was a
professional wallpaper hanger who lived at 1010 3rd NE when I was a teen in the
60s. Mr. Wood bought all his wallpaper from my grandfather's lumber yard at 801
3rd NE. He had a charge account with my grandfather Carmon and paid on the 10th
of the following month for the previous's months charges. Back in the 60s people
like Mr. Wood and my grandfather only needed a handshake between them, and that
was good enough. In those days, business people like them had an honor to
uphold.... you paid by the 10th of the month come hell or high water. Mr. Wood
didn't even need to sign the charge ticket. His word was his bond.
----------------------------------------------------
Mr. Emory Wood was a carpenter in the 40s
like my grandfather. He rented the old Carmon home place at 1001 3rd NE around
1960, but sometime around 1970 he moved into a house he bought at 1010 3rd NE.
Here's a pic of the old Carmon house at 1001 3rd NE, rented by Mr. Wood before
1960.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/carmonhh.jpg
So he didn't move very far in all those
years. But Mr. Wood didn't stay a carpenter, he ventured off into the wallpaper
hanging business. Good wallpaper hangers were hard to find. And when you did
find one, if he was good at his work, his work did not come cheap. Mr. Wood
charged $100 a day in the 60s and people needing their rooms wallpapered had to
wait in line for him. Sometimes the wait was 3 or 4 months. Mr Wood catered a
lot of the more affluent people in Ardmore, wallpapering their homes. Sometimes
we go over to a house where he was working, and he'd have those saw horses out
inside a room, with those long extra wide boards laid side by side, making a
table. He'd have each run of wallpaper already cut to fit the wall, laying on
the boards, ready to apply the paste too, which he applied using a large paint
brush. But there was another step before you could put the wallpaper on the
wall. They prepared the walls with wallpaper canvas, using a special wallpaper
tack hammer with a magnetic head to hold those darn little wallpaper tacks.
You'd put a handful of wallpaper tacks in your mouth, and push them out one by
one attaching them to that magnet part of the hammer, and tack them to the wall
to hold the canvas. This was a time consuming job, more time consuming then
actually putting the wallpaper on. It would take Mr. Wood all day to wallpaper
one average size room. Here's pic of my small tack hammer from the 60s I used at
the lumber yard. The magnetized end is as strong now as it was back then!
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos/tackstan.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
Something a lot of people today doesn't
realize, but in the very beginnings of Ardmore, the northeast and southeast part
of town was developed first and that's where nearly everyone lived. Most of the
southwest and northwest was just open pasture land back around 1890s to 1910s.
Even the Daube's lived in the northeast where the "big swimming pool" is now.
Sam Daube lived at 201 "F" Street Northeast around 1940 and before. After he
moved to the southwest around 1940, Paul Sutton lived in the house. The house is
gone now, and the Community Swimming Pool is located on that block.
----------------------------------------------------
I remember about 1959 when they started
earthmoving to build the swimming pool. I'd ride my bicycle the two blocks west
on 3rd and watch that bulldozer create what looked to me at the age of 10 years
old the biggest hole in the world! Mr. George Holloway was the manager of the
pool. I'd watch him carry is little box of bottles and chemicals out to the pool
to test the water for whatever he tested it for..... he looked like a scientist
at work to me.
----------------------------------------------------
"Butch you mentioned the picture of Dr.
Hobson Veazey. This isn't about the picture or the painter but a little bit of
"you never know who you'll see or will see you". I moved with my family to
Denver, Colorado in 1948 and about the summer of 1950 my brother and his wife
and my mom and dad went to Colorado Springs for some outdoor show. There was a
huge crowd and we had to wait in the car for a while to get out and a man walked
past . I told my dad that man was Dr. Hobson Veazey, of course he was very sure
it couldn't be but in a few minutes here came the man again and I called
attention to him. He had been our family doctor after his brother Dr. Lymon
Veazey left town. Dad got out of the car and spoke to him and he knew all of us
of course. But you never know when you'll see someone you know when you go
someplace." -evelyn
----------------------------------------------------
"I was in City Produce (Farmers Mkt.)
there in Ardmore this week and went in to their office. Lo and behold there were
old newspapers hanging on the wall. One was of the Arbuckle crash."
----------------------------------------------------
Benedictine monks first arrived in what is today the state of Oklahoma in
October 1875. Fr. Isidore Robot, O.S.B., and Br. Dominic Lambert, O.S.B., monks
of the French monastery of Notre Dame de la Pierre-qui-Vire, entered the Indian
Territory at the suggestion of the Bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas. Spending
their first few months in Atoka, the pioneer monks eventually settled with the
Citizen Band Pottawatomi Indians. In 1876, they established Sacred Heart Abbey,
near what is present-day Konawa, Oklahoma. Along with communal monastic
observance, the pioneer monks also established a school for the children of
Native Americans and white settlers of the region. The monastery at Sacred Heart
was known for its strict observance, its generous hospitality, its model farm,
and its beautiful formal gardens.----- "the above article continues with a fire
in 1901 and a rebuilding thereafter, this might be the oldest catholic church in
Oklahoma?""
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
The Dougherty, Oklahoma, Homecoming and School Reunion will be held Saturday, July 2, 2016 at the Dougherty School. Visitation will begin at 5:30. Alumni membership fee and meal is $15.00. Guest meal is $10.00. We welcome Dougherty graduates, former students and teachers, former residents, anyone who has attended church in Dougherty, and friends.
Okie Noodling in Chickasaw Country!
Make your way to Wacker Park in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma for the popular and exciting Okie Noodling Tournament June 18th!
http://chickasawcountry.com/events/okie-noodling-tournament
It's so hot, the chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs.
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Bells of Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Carter County Courthouse Paver Project
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/pavers
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells:
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm's Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
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
Government Website
http://cartercountyOK.us/
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