This and That Newsletter
Vol 21 Issue 1,080 Circulation 5,000 October 5, 2017
Ardmore, Oklahoma
My permanent email address: butch[email protected]
580-490-6823
September 30, 1907
The Daily Ardmoreite
Ardmore, OklahomaArdmore's Fine Paving Is Attracting Committees From Other Cities
Shawnee is investigating and sending a delegation to Ardmore to obtain a practical observation of the virtue of our asphalt, it's cheapness and durability. Shawnee is deeply interested in the paving system employed at Ardmore. Ever since Honorable Lee Cruce last visited and extolled the virtues of the Ardmore asphalt and it's cheapness, there has been there has been a desire to get an estimate of paving cost used in the Ardmore system, if it is satisfactory. A committee is leaving Shawnee for Ardmore to get to the very bottom of the matter in Ardmore where the asphalt has been laid for a visit to the mines where the asphalt is dug from Mother Earth and shipped.
It is not the sheet asphalt that you get made with 90% sand and to that add a mixture of rosin, pitch and a little asphaltum and put it down as an asphalt pavement. Neither is it the oily rock from Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas put down all over as rock asphalt, but it is nature's own ready-made pavement, composed by bitumen, petroline and silica and goes on the street as it comes out of the ground without adding or taking from it anything.
Robert Hensley sent in some playbills this week from the Ardmore Little Theater from back around 1960. The Boy Friend - 1961, Third Best Sport - 1959, Harvey - 1959, Guys and Dolls - 1960, You Can't Take It With You - 1958,
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17b/ArdmoreLittleTheater1958.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17b/ArdmoreLittleTheater1960.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17b/ArdmoreLittleTheater1959a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17b/ArdmoreLittleTheater1959b.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17b/ArdmoreLittleTheater1961.jpg
Rotary Park was at 5th and L Street SW. Founded by the Rotary Club in 1950 as a summer playground until 1952 when I was taken over by the YMCA.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17b/RotaryParkMarker1951.jpg
August 1989
Carter County has been presented with another claim for damages resulting from an automobile accident which claimants alleges due to lack of warning signs. It is the second suit against the county in less than one month. The first claim was filed by E. J. flowers and his wife of Wilson for $210,000 arising from an accident about crashing into a creek bed on a county road after the bridge was washed a way. Both claims related to District 2.
August 1962
All royalties from Lake Murray State Park are assuring the success of Oklahoma's multimillion dollar lodges. In 1959 the planning and resources board sold oil royalties on a portion of the 21,000 acre park for $969,000. Another chunk of royalties at Lake Murray Park was sold for $732.451 pushing all money derive from the local park over 2.7 million dollars.August 1962
Mrs. Opie Turner wife of Waco Turner and owner-operator of famed Turner Lodge and golf course at Burneyville was shot Saturday night. Mrs. Turner was shot twice in the left side. Love County Sheriff Clyde McGill said it wasn't serious. McGill said the shooting apparently had taken place in a cabin where the Turner's lived near the Lodge at the popular resort. Her husband who has staged tournaments for professional golfers the past two years was not available for comment.
August 1957
Mrs. Al Robinson was postmistress at Lone Grove during the stagecoach days. She rode a hack to Gainesville wearing a buckskin leather money belt and pouch beneath her clothing and deposited the money in the Texas bank. That was before the railroad came to town and travelers had to ferry across the Red River. She ran the "Iron Store" at Lone Grove but refused to sell extract to Indians. She feared they would get liquored up and shoot up the town including her store. Her maiden name was Ella Lake Douglas.
August 1933
It was picturesque, 1.200 men and boys, each shoulder and axe or saw, representing the greatest single project using common labor to start in the entire Southwest. It was estimated 1,200 men with crosscut saws, axes, and adzes felling trees inside the dam site at Lake Murray. It will be months, even years, before the job is done - the job to put common laborers back to work. Meanwhile the workers at the building site say they need some monetary relief. They get $1.25 a day, must furnish their own tools, pay for tool repair, and buy their own drinking water. They would like to take home their little weekly wages instead of paying it out to expenses.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/Q. Where in Oklahoma is the 46 foot tall giant Indian chief, Standing Brave, located?
A. Indian Smoke Shop on Highway 69 at Big Cabin, Oklahoma in far northeast Oklahoma.Q. Where in Oklahoma are 2 very large dog statues?
A. Answer in next week's newsletterBelow is from This and That newsletter archives of October 6, 2005
Here is a sign someone put out where the Dalton shooting took place near Pooleville, Oklahoma but when we were there on October 1, 2005 it was gone. I don't know when this picture was taken, but I believe within the last year.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/DaltonMarker5b.jpg
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"Here is the picture of the Church Bell at Lighthouse United Methodist located at Alberta Creek Rd and Texoma Hills Rd, SE of Kingston.. The congregation was formerly at the Woodville UMC, New Woodville, OK. (the town of Woodville was relocated from the Red River area when the Lake Texoma was constructed during WWII)."
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bellphotos/LighthouseUMCbell.jpgThis is a map Dale Wise sent in and shows were Woodville was located. But the interesting thing I noticed on this map is the road that goes straight NE from Gainesville, Texas all the way to Madill, Oklahoma. Of course there is no such road today.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/WoodvilleMapIT.jpg
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Here is very nice bell located way up in NE Oklahoma. The inscription reads 1855 MeNeely, Troy, NY. Reportedly came from a church in Montreal, Canada. The bell is located between Owasso and Claremore just off of Hiway 20 and hangs in the foyer of a large residence. The bell is 80% copper, 20% tin.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/bellphotos/ClaremoreBell5a.jpg
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"Early photo of the Palacine station at Turner Falls with the "A Friend " statue in front. When it became a Skelly station the statue was moved to the rear. Both stations were known as "The little place on the hill".
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/PalacineStation5a.jpghttp://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/IndianFriend5a.jpg
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"Hey Butch, Was over in Durant a couple weeks ago and saw this pretty amazing sight. This helicopter was lifting air conditioning units to the top of the new Lowe's store they are building over there." -David Cathey
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/DurantHelicopter5a.jpghttp://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos5a/DurantHelicopter5b.jpg
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-----------------------------------------------Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"Butch, the short article at the first of your newsletter about the squatters made me sad. Those were hard times and a lot a families had problems that were not of their own making. Those poor folk were shunned and shooed from one place to another, when a good Christian should have done all they could to help them. Perhaps they could have helped them work on that piece of unused land to make it usable for them to stay on for a while. I wonder how different the Depression would have been, had those who were fortunate enough to have, had worked together to help those who didn't have?"
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KEEPING CLEAN Etc. in the 1930sTough as depression times were, we were better off than a lot of people. My father had been area Filling Station Manager for Okla City for Wirt Franklin Oil Co. but lost his job as the company failed. I was in the second grade in 1931 when we moved back to Ardmore, in with my grandparents where I was born and the same address I live today. They had gas for cooking, electricity, water and sewage. Pretty well off, had some property, owned his insurance agency, had a Model T Ford, but lived much the same as they had since the 1890s but for the utilities.
Wash day was a big thing. My grandmother would build a fire under her big black iron pot in the back yard and heat water. She and my mother washed clothes by hand on a 'wash board'. Washboards had an area a foot or so square mounted in a wood frame with legs to stand in the water in the wash tub. With soap and warm water they rubbed the dirty collars and such against the corrugated surface of the wash board to get clean. Then rinsed and wrung out the water by twisting each by hand, then hung on the clothes line. There was such a thing as a wringer with two rollers that was cranked by hand but we didn't have one. Every fall my grandmother fired up the old washpot and made lye soap - which she did till she passed in 1950.
A washing machine relieved the labor about 1932. Got a water heater also. Our new washer was the latest and greatest with the wringer 'safety release'. The rollers were powered and could be a source of injury. By hitting a bar on top the rollers separated and stopped. The common saying of getting a 'finger in the wringer' was no joke, worse if some other body part got caught.
The water heater was bare galvanized iron about a foot in diameter and five feet tall. You lit the burner below and set the flame for the water being used. With no safety devices heaters could explode if one got hot enough to make steam. Water heaters did explode - but not ours. Water usually was heated for several baths. You would put about inch and a half water in the old bathtub (standing on legs), do your bath and drain it for the next. Small children were bathed more than one at a time. We heard of grownups batheing together but didn't know anybody who would do such a bizarre thing. Probably half the houses in Ardmore didn't have a bathtub then. I recall that our house and the house next door had the bathroom added to the basic house, probably when Ardmore installed sewage, before my time.
Electric refrigerator came about 1932. Before that the ice man came each day in his horse wagon. An ice card in the window had numbers on it if, say 25 pounds, was up he put 25 in our ice box on the back porch. Horse wagon delivery also used for milk and other frequent stops. I recall person delivery, Tamale man from his pushcart sold hot tamales wrapped in corn shucks. We all ate wild game then, rabbit, squirrel, etc. These were rabbit tamales. The story went around that he was accused of using horse meat. Questioned, he admitted part horse. How much?? 50-50 - one rabbit, one horse. Such was life in back in memory lane. -Robert McCroy
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
"Friends Make Life Worth Living"
PO Box 2
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
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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