This and That Newsletter
Vol 12 Issue 589 Circulation 5,000 May 8, 2008
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: [email protected]
Toll Free Number in Oklahoma: 580-215-4333
Doug Williams sent in some photos of work being done on East Main near Caddo Street. The building renovation is taking place next door to the old Stag Bar. It is from this basement one can see the arches where the tunnels ran underground across Main Street. Doug could not get close to where the entrance of the tunnel began because of the mud. But some very interesting pictures indeed!
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Tuesday of this week we got a much needed rain in this county. Places for 100 miles around has been getting more rain that we have lately, but as you can see by our rain gauge, on Tuesday we received over 1 and 1/2 inches.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/RainGauge050608.jpg
And the next day, Wednesday the 7th, another storm came through the Ardmore area doing quite a bit of damage. We received just a little over 1/2 inch rain from that storm, but no damage from the high winds, at least not on our ponderosa here south of Lone Grove. Kerry Tully sent in some photos she took along Stanley street of the damage done by high winds. The first two pics are of the pea sized hail along Stanley street.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/StormOnStanleyStr050708a.jpghttp://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/StormOnStanleyStr050708b.jpg
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Russell Martin also sent in photos he took of the damage done by the straighline winds Wednesday afternoon late on the east side of Ardmore. He was heading home and snapped photos of the damage to the Parkview Storage and Rental on the NE edge of Ardmore. The newspaper reported the winds that came through the Ardmore area were clocked at 69 MPH. That's scary. Thankfully we did not have that high of winds south of Lone Grove, mainly rain. But we did lose our electricity for about 4 hours Tuesday evening.http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/StormParkway050708a.jpg
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With all the good rains, Jill's garden has really be growing. I snapped some pictures this week.........This is 3 rows of corn and that's sunflowers growing along the fence.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/Corn050608.jpg
The larger plants are sunflowers, and the smaller ones, peppers.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/PeppersAndSunFlowers050608.jpg
This is purple cabbage on the left and broccoli on the right.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/CabbageBroccoli050608.jpg
And this is my pride and joy. Its a Little Giant Blueberry. It will be about 2 years before it starts producing, so I hope it makes it until then.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/LittleGiantBlueberry050608.jpg
Jill has a number of other plants growing, so I'll get some pics of them next week.
The crape myrtles growing near the front by the road, they are really greening.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/CrapeMyrtles050608.jpg
And then there's fruit trees, I just snapped pictures of two. The first one is an Alberta Peach (we have two more other kinds of peach trees).
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/AlbertaPeach050608.jpg
And this is a Bartlett Pear tree, its really growing tall with the rain.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/BartlettPear050608.jpg
Oh, and I can't forget about the two apricot trees Chuck Carter gave us a month ago. I imagine it will be several years before we see apricots, but I sure love apricot moon pies, can hardly wait!
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/ApricotTree050608.jpg
Jill has several rose bushes growing around the ponderosa. She is always clipping one and bringing in the house to put in a vase. I like the climbing rose bush we bought last week, its already blooming.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/ClimbingRose050608.jpg
Speaking of trees, Russell Martin was traveling this week about 4 miles east of Stroud, Oklahoma on Highway 66 (old Route 66) and there on the south side is a Shoe Tree growing. Can you imagine that! What will they think of next!
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About a month ago we had a picture of an old parking meeting that is on display at J.A.C.S Trailers at Lake Murray Drive and Springdale Road. I reader wrote in to say this particular meter was not one used by the City of Ardmore. Below is a meter actual used as a parking meter in Ardmore years ago.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/CityOfArdmoreParkingMeter.jpgKaren Volino, Carter County Court Clerk, has seen a lot of technological advances in her office since 1996. When Karen took office that year those big red ledger books were still being used to record court records, just as it had been done since statehood in 1907. Then in January 1997 Karen's office took a giant step forward and became one of the first court clerk offices in the state to begin computerization of the court records using a program by the name of Kellpro headquartered in Duncan, Oklahoma. Its been 11 years since that first record was entered in the computers, and today those court records from 1997 to date are online and available to the public. And just this month Karen Volino announced the online database is now updated on a daily basis. You can find a link to the Carter County Court Clerks data from her website at the URL below.
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/courtclerk.html
Mannsville just takes up a little spot on Highway 199 just east of Ardmore over into Johnston county. But there is a new eating place there and their hamburger has got to be one of the best for miles around. Jill and I stopped in there last week and were we in for a surprise. Ain't much to look at from the outside, and when you first walk into the building where the Friday evening's auctions take place and smell the food cooking, you know you're almost there. And in one more minute, you walk through that door to Sweet Mama's..... and smell that grill cooking up all kids of good things to eat, it's then you know your in the right place! Jill and I both agree, Sweet Mama AKA Leatrice Perry cooks up one of the best burgers we've ate in these parts. Jill is pretty discriminating when it comes to a burger and she rated Sweet Mama's a 5 Star!
Outside Sign Outside View Inside View 1 Inside View 2
Sweet Mama at the grill Sweet Mama's Delux Burger!
Below is a class photograph taken at Berwyn School 1948-1949 (now Gene Autry).
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/1948-1949BerwynSchool.jpgThe Daily Ardmoreite, January 16, 1919- Four shade trees will be planted on the high school grounds in memory of the four high school boys who made the supreme sacrifice in the world war, Lieut. George Anderson, Lieut. Walter Drew, Sergts. Earl Hignight and Earl Speake, by the High School Mother's Club. This action was decided upon at a meeting held yesterday afternoon in the high school building. A committee comprising Bert Herman, Mrs Perry Maxwell and Mrs C. H. Everett was appointed for the purpose of carrying out the plans.
Visit the Oklahoma History Boards, start a topic if you want too!
http://oklahomaroots.proboards83.com/
Q. Who was Oklahoma's first native born governor?
A. Robert S. KerrQ. Name the son of Daniel Boone who traveled through Oklahoma.
A. (answer in next week's T&T)I received in the mail this week a flyer from the genealogy society at Madill on their upcoming Grand Opening of Museum of Southern Oklahoma. The event takes place on Saturday May 10, 2008 from 10am to 4pm. The guest speaker will be Towana Spivey, director/curator of the Ft Sill National Historic Landmark and Museum at Lawton. Mr. Spivey will speak at 2pm that Saturday.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/MarshallCoOpenHouse.jpg
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"I remember a couple of stories my dad, Ossian Cameron, told me concerning the airport in Ardmore. According to him, the airport was located just west of Choctaw Street and I remember him telling me it ran north and south. Choctaw dead-ends into Locust. My dad told me that Wiley Post stopping in Ardmore one Sunday on a barnstorming trip. It cost my dad the tie he was wearing and a meal downtown for a ride in Wiley's plane. One of my dad's friends got married in Ardmore and they put a white cross on the top of the car before the ceremony. Nobody was supposed to know where the couple was going to honeymoon. When the newly married couple left the ceremony, my dad and a friend who had a plane raced to the airport, jumped in the plane and began looking for the happy couple on 77. When they finally found them between Springer and the mountains, they began bombing them with flour filled sacks. I guess you'd get in trouble if you tried something like that today. It seems like both of these incidents took place in the mid to late 1920's but I can't be certain any longer and I've forgotten the identity of the pilot." -Monroe Cameron
"Here's a little music video I made of my Granddaughter Skye and myself on an expedition through Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. It's really a beautiful place and probably one New Mexico's best kept secrets as I don't think it's very widely known." -Dwane Stevens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BzaOd0r_lQ
"Hi Butch, my name is Steve Norton and I like to metal detect as my main hobby. Was looking at a building site today in Ardmore and found this neat old Rotary watch fob from 1923....dont know if you enjoy seeing stuff like this but here it is...I really enjoy your website...keep up the good work!" -Stevehttp://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos8a/RotaryWatchFOB1923.jpg
"I was just curious if there are any old fogies still around who remember paying taxes with mills. For the young whippersnappers, a mill was worth 100th of one cent. If memory serves me right, they were made of aluminum or tin, and I last saw one in about 1939." -Donald Bridges in California
"I was about 6 years old when Roy & Dale were married. My grandparents lived in Davis & often took me to Turner Falls. One day we went to the overlook at the top of the mountain to look through the telescopes. On this day, a man was using the telescope. I waited & waited &, being the spoiled child, I finally asked him to hurry up so I could look. When he turned around, it was Roy. My grandparents were mortified & apologized profusely. Roy was very nice & visited with us for a while, telling us about the movie he & Dale were making in the area. (I used to know the name of the movie, but have forgotten it now.) Some of this information was filled in by my mother since I was only 6. My mother is now 95 & remembers many stories about the Davis area. My grandparents owned Francis Brothers Dry Goods. My great grandfather was David Frazier Ellis, Sr." -Susan Francis Whitten, Baton Rouge
"Hi Butch and Jill, So glad you two are able to enjoy the country life --- nothing can compare! Saw where you recommended grisoft.com for the free antivirus program and guess you were referring to AVG. I received notice today they are discontinuing the free edition --- if you download to the new 8.0 edition it will cost over $50. a year! This disappoints me, I have been very pleased with AVG for several years now. Today I downloaded Avast but don't know if I will like it or not. Have a good weekend and keep those newsletters rolling. We all enjoy them and appreciate your work." -Peg
ARDMORE DRAGWAY
3rd annual Hot Rod Reunion August 30, 2008. Celebrating 53 years of Drag Racing in Ardmore Oklahoma. This year's event includes:
Bobby Langley's Scorpion 1 and V AA/dragasters
Ezra Boggs Moby Dick AA/funny car
Old time Smoke and Nitro. Racing Competition featuring. Blown front engine
dragsters. Racing class's include, Jr. Fuel. Gassers. Super Stock. Nostalgia
Comp. PLUS A Street Rod and Muscle Car show & shine with awards.
Honoring the Slow Poke Car club that started it all in 1955.
Smell the Nitro and Feel the Thunder at Ardmore Dragway
Gates open at 9:00am for the Slow Poke reunion and Vintage
Racer and Race Car gathering. Racing starts at 12:30.
For more information: www.ardmoredragway.comor contact. Rob Ragland at 580-504-4697 after 5:00pm
email [email protected]
"On the morning of April 19, with some time to kill before the Dundee alumni banquet that evening, I went out to Lone Grove to try to locate the graves of five of my Ward relatives, which I had failed to find two years ago after walking the Lone Grove cemetery back and forth for over an hour. Knowing I needed to find some "old-timer" of the area (you don't find any of those along the highway, and the Senior Center was closed on Saturday), I decided to just drive back to the cemetery to look some more, and perhaps stop to ask anyone who looked like an old-timer. block or two north of the highway, I saw an old (I thought, "probably out-of- date by now") sign reading "Wilson Monuments," with a phone number. I thought, "Oh, well, since it is/was a monument company, and the sign seems somehow associated with this house, it's worth a call." (As it turned out, the company is her son's and is still in existence at SH70 and Brock Road.) So I got on my cell and called the number, and was disappointed to get only voice mail; but right at the end was a statement that they "might be out back," so I decided to go around to see if anyone was behind the house where I (and the sign) was.
Not wanting to encounter dogs, police, or something else I WASN'T looking for, I first went to the front door and knocked and, to my surprise this little elderly lady came to the door, so I started to state what I was looking for. The first thing I found out was that she was extremely hearing impaired, so I managed to get the gist of my message to her by shouting. When she realized I was asking a historical/genealogical question in which she obviously had an interest, her face lit up and she invited me in. Being of the old careful school of not going into a lady's house alone, I tried to decline, but she was so insistent, and all my senses telling me there was no danger of scandal in this situation, I relented and went in.I noted immediately as I walked thru that the walls were lined with stacks of books of all kinds, many of them rather new hard-backs. After she put in her hearing aid, I could communicate with her in a mild shout, and she told me proudly she was eighty-something years old. By then, after noting a computer and a copying machine, I began to get the feeling I was not in the home of an ordinary eighty-ish deaf lady. She scrambled thru the many cemetery record books she had, found the one for Lone Grove cemetery, and made me copies of the page with the Ward names and their location, plus a page with a map of the cemetery.
As we cam thru Wilson, still with some time to kill, I decided to stop briefly at the museum for my first visit. And within five minutes, I found a rack containing eight or ten loose-leaf-published local historical works (some over an inch thick), compiled by---guess who!---one MARY WILSON. Then I realized the identity and nature of the gem I had accidentally met in Lone Grove!
During our discussion, which became more and more interesting, I mentioned to her that the late Dr. Hathaway, long since retired in his nineties there in Lone Grove, had delivered me in Milo in 1936, and later my sister in ----well, I better not tell you that year! Anyway, upon the mention of Dr. Hathaway's name, she brightened up and told me that her house was where he lived for all or many of his years in Long Grove---small world, huh?
By then I would like to have stayed and talked to her all day---or at least until I got hoarse from shouting; but realized by the time I got by the cemetery and back to Ardmore my wife and stuff would be kicked out of the motel; so I forced a little payment on her for the copies, despite her objection, and took my leave, realizing that I had stumbled onto a jewel of some kind in a most unlikely spot.
Sorry this turned out so long, but hopefully it will interest some of your readers enough to bog thru it. Mary gave me her email address, and I wrote it on a scrap of paper I had in my wallet, but can't lay my hands on it right now---I just bet you have it and can forward this to her with my additional thanks. I did find the graves I was looking for and got pictures of the stones." -R. Keith Ward, Oklahoma City, [email protected]
"Butch: An article I sent in a week or two ago about life and times of Calvin Foster, he told of some really hard times! I rember those days well. There were weeks we did not get to go to town, money was very tight! if there was any. We did however gather at someone's house and have a country dance which was the highlight of the week or month. All we needed was a guitar and a fiddle, and put the word out and they would come. You had to have all your work caught up or you did not get to go! We also got to listen to Bob Wells during lunch when we came in from the fields, that was a real treat! Here is a Youtube clip that depicts that era very well." -Hoot Gilbert
"My home town of Moore, Oklahoma was originally named Verbeck."Verbeck, Oklahoma. Original railroad name for Moore, Oklahoma, Cleveland county. The name was coined from the telegraphic call "VK". -Oklahoma Place Names
Springer Volunteer Fire Department Annual Bar-B-Que Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 6:00 PM at the Springer Community/Storm Shelter. Dance to follow so bring a chair, sit back and enjoy.
The Wilson News 1-20-1916
A NEW METHOD
Well! Well! So we are to say good-bye to the telephone bill collector. The Pioneer Telephone Company announces that in the future collection will be made by mail. Well, with all due respect to the pleasant collectors who have graced our office each month bearing to us a calm request for the "necessary wherewithal," we are glad to see the new system installed. The old system of collecting by sending people around to offices and homes had its disagreeable side, the disappearance of which will be marked with pleasure by the subscribers. For there wasn't any fun in having some one drop into your office to present a bill to you when you were busy at something else. And maybe you couldn't bother with paying the bill at just that minute. this is true of housekeepers, who forgetful of the coming bill would often be without the money to pay. Then they would ask the collector to call again. Under the new system you get the bill through the mail, you know when to expect it, and then you are given ten days in which to send a check through the mail or to call at the telephone office and pay there. At any time during that period set by the Company, a long enough period too, we may pay that bill. We shall miss the regular visit of the collector, but we are glad that the Pioneer Telephone Company has started this new system.We now have some Cornish, OK newspapers from the early 1900s on display. The public is welcome to come look through them at the Wilson Historical Museum. Hours - Tues., Thurs., Fri., Sat: 10:00 - 4:00 p.m.
'A Thing Called Love' - Johnny Cash 1972
You can't see it with your eyes,
hold it in your hands
But like the wind that covers our land
Strong enough to rule the heart of every man,
this thing called love
It can lift you up, never let you down
Take your world and turn it all around
Ever since time nothing's ever been found stronger than lovehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL6EqM4kPGk
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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