This and That Newsletter
Vol 13 Issue 675 Circulation 5,000 December 31, 2009
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
Last week we had pics of the farm pond not too far from our house where we walk to occasionally. Jill and I went back to the pond this last week to take pictures of the pond with snow, and a very thin layer of ice.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/TranquilPond122609a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/TranquilPond122609b.jpg
Jill decided to make a snow angel in our front yard. Almost a work of art.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/SnowAngel2009a.jpg
Our neighbors to the south, the Barricks, made a snowman. He kinda looks mean. lol
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/BarrickSnowman2009.jpg
Newman Walker at Healdton sent me a photo of a rocking chair he made for Christmas. The way my right knee has been hurting off and on the past couple weeks, I may need one sooner than I think.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/WalkerChair122509.jpg
Ardmoreite Steve Hamm has been regularly adding Ardmore criterions online. I doubt if there is a website anywhere in Oklahoma, maybe even the U.S., where you will find years of Criterions online. Steve has 7 criterions digitized and growing. Plus the 17 page Centennial History of Ardmore by Mac MacGalliard (1987). A big Thank You goes to Steve from me and the T&T Readers.
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
I am going to go way back in my files and share an aerial taken in 1975 of Ardmore in the vicinity of 3rd and A Street NE. A reader shared this photo nearly 10 years ago plus many more that I'll share in future newsletters. Now let's see, I see the "big swimming pool" at the far top of the photo and next door on the right Dr. Boyd's (the sugar pill doctor) office and homeplace, I see the old Hudson Houston Lumber company, the old Ardmore Plumbing before it moved to where it is today, Ardmore Fiber Reduction (across the street on the north side of 3rd was where a bicycle shop stood when I was a wee teen. I have taken the liberty to mark a few places for reference points. I even placed a red X where I parked my 305cc Honda Super Hawk back in the mid 60s behind Otis Ivey's filling station. Otis would let me park my cycle there during school hours and I'd walk to the high school, then return after 3pm to ride it home to 805 3rd NE. I'm sure some of you can point out some more landmarks in the aerial, let me know.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/3rdNE_Aerial.jpg
As I sit here and type I know in a few hours 2009 will come to an end and 2010 will be here. As I look back I am thankful for all the friendships this newsletter has brought and the re-newed friendships between many of my 1,000s of weekly Readers. Thirteen years has come and gone since I started this newsletter, and some did not finish 2009 with us here. But I will never forget them, the history they shared, the private emails to me of the good (and the rough times), and letting me visit every week. I am going to believe with all of you for a better 2010 and look forward to the history that unfolds here, and a real Happy New Year.
We bought 100 gallons of propane this week, and boy has it gone up in price. 4 weeks ago propane was $1.60 a gallon, this week $2.10 per gallon. Ouch!
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Q. Oklahoma was at one
time divided into what two territories?
A. Indian Territory
and Oklahoma Territory
Q.
Douglas Bomber Assembly Plant was used during what war?
A.
(answer in next week's issue)
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"Medicine Park graphic designer, author and historian David Lott has been
promoting the revitalization and restoration of the historic resort community
for almost twenty years. In 2007, he designed and published a limited edition
Medicine Park Centennial Cookbook chocked full of tasty recipes from local
residents and local history intended to celebrate the community's 100th birthday
of July 4th, 2008. The cookbook quickly sold out.
Now, he's done it again. He's designed a new 2010 Medicine Park Vintage Photo
wall calendar. The colorful calendar features twelve historic sepia toned
photographs and tid-bits of the resort community's past. The photographs range
in date from 1909 to 1950. Each month's photograph is sponsored by a local
business and overlaid with colorful postcards and artifacts intended to produce
graphic photo-montages which reflect the town's colorful history.
The limited edition 2010 Medicine Park Vintage Photo wall calendars are
available for just $10 each and that includes postage and handling. You can
order calendars by writing Lott and sending a check to: David Lott * 2010
Calendars * PO Box 343 * Medicine Park,
Oklahoma 73557"
"Howdy, Butch? You've probably already heard about this. I first read about it on a computer-related site ( http://www.theregister.co.uk ) out of Great Britain!
From your local TV station KXII. The blimp apparently launched an attack on Decatur, Texas on it's own initiative (must have some of that same technology used in our military's unmanned drone aircraft):
http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/45270502.html
As reported at The Register, a UK-based website:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/23/airship_prang_oklahoma/
Another website with photos of Mr. Polzein's blimp (very nice-looking rig, by the way...almost as nice as my homemade rafts!):
http://www.swaviator.com/html/issueJF04/blimp.html
Now, you Okies hold up until I can get down to WalMart and get me some more tennis balls for my anti-blimp gun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVTcP995Yz0
Once single-handedly repelled a water balloon attack from Arkansas with minimal casualties."
-Tony King, Weatherford, Texas (in a clearly marked no-blimp zone)
"Hi Butch, Here are a couple of pictures that I took of some cards from the WW I era that and airman sent home. They appear to be linen and are not faded at all. I thought of these pictures after seeing the WW I pictures in the newsletter on Thursday. -Cecil Elliott, OKC
Royal Flying Corp 1914 -1918 World War I
World War I Royal Flying Corp 1914 -1918 England
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/RoyalFlyingCorpWWIa.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/RoyalFlyingCorpWWIb.jpg
"Sorry to report that my house burned down yesterday A.M. I have lost all my history from Ardmore related to my family. Perhaps some of your readers can assist me in replacing the info and photos of Von Keller family, the Sullivans especially my grandfather, Arden, his brother Bloomer, and all others including Bretch, Arkie Clay, Lily Cutlip Davidson, Fredrick Von Keller, Helen Von Keller (Sullivan), including the mysterious suicide, Arden Sullivan's payoff, etc. Von Keller Hospital. My mother, Fredericka has several brothers and sisters (half), none of them known to each other. Glenn Keller has been helpful, as well as Susan Nance, June, Kate, and many others. Everything lost in fire. Shalom. " -Gretchen-Hart vonKeller, CA grethart111@msn.com
"Each week I print out your "This and That Newsletter" for my father, Henry Womack, who is a bright and shiny 98 years young. He read your first paragraph and told me about a 1929 snow storm.
In December, 1929 it started snowing and they did not see the ground until February of 1930.
His dad had a place just west of Marietta, raising cattle, hay, etc. They also had about a 2 acre pond that froze over 8 inches. He would drive his dad's Model T out on the ice and slide to the other side. He would cut a hole in the ice after he fed them corn on the cob, and cottonseed cake. The cattle would come to him at the pond because they knew they could drink water after they ate."
Merry Christmas
Gene Womack
"I WAS A FRESHMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL IN 1949. IT STARTED RAINING AND FREEZING AND RAINING AND FREEZING MORE. THEN IT SNOWED AND FROZE. I FORGET EXACTLY WHEN IT STARTED BUT IN MARCH OF 1949 WE HAD JUST MOVED FROM CALIFORNIA. MY GRANDAD GOT SICK. WE WERE LIVING IN DEVOL, COTTON CO. OKLAHOMA. WE MOVED TO GRANDFIELD, OK TILLMAN CO. THAT MONTH TO BE CLOSER TO HELP MY GRANDMOTHER. SHE STILL HAD 4 KIDS AT HOME AT THAT TIME. SO NEEDED HELP SO SHE COULD BE WITH GRANDPA. THE SNOW AND ICE WAS AT LEAST 10-12 INCHES DEEP. YOU COULD DRIVE ANYWHERE. ON THE ROADS OR FIELDS IF NO FENCES. YOU COULD HARDLY TELL WHICH WAS WHICH. UNTIL THIS YEAR I DO NOT REMEMBER ANY YEAR WHEN IT'S BEEN THAT BAD UNTIL THIS YEAR. DO ANY OF YOUR READERS REMEMBER THAT YEAR?" -MINNIE LOU WHITTINGTON, GRANDFIELD, OK
Hello Butch, re: the following story on the 1949 plane crash near Mannsville:
"I remember my dad coming in the house and saying he just saw a plane go down and I remember going over to the crash site a little later, it was just west of Mannsville in those chalk hills very near the highway. I was only about 5 yrs old at the time but I still remember the horrific sight. There were men in the hole where the plane exploded gathering small pieces of debris and placing them on a tarp or something on the edge of the crater, I remember small pieces of metal and a piece of a wrist watch and also a piece of a boot with skin still burned to it. I know this is very graphic but I can still see that very vividly. It was extremely cold and I remember seeing grown men with tears in their eyes, I don't know it it was from the cold or the extremely sad circumstances or both, but it really left an impression on me." -Roy Barnes
"Butch, The last white Christmas I can remember in Ardmore was around 82 or 83. I was 4 or 5 and went outside to see if I could see Santa's tracks on our roof." -Jack2, Service Plumbing Co., Inc.
"Butch, I have a photo of Bud Ballew with two young Indian girls that my great grandmother had hanging on her wall all my life, I'm 54. Ma said Bud Ballew was her cousin, anyhow I have not seen this picture any where else. I have just started this research. Thanks." -Billy Jolly jollybuffalo@yahoo.com
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/Ballew2Indians.jpg
"I was looking up some information in an old T&T and ran across a discussion about the Ardmore Cycle Shop. When I was growing up at Lake Admire, Charles Williams and his wife owned the dark log cabin on the left just as you came up the hill after driving around the neck of the lake that the boat house is on. At that time, they were the only people besides us that lived at the lake full time. The time period was the late 1940's.
There was another family that lived for some time in the house at the end of the road that ran along the north side of that neck of the lake. I think their name was Johnson and they had a daughter my age named Tika(?). She was the only playmate my sister and I had while living at Lake Ardmore.
I think the father was a geologist who had been working in Venezuela. That house had a screened in front porch and a large tree growing up through the roof. Happy New Year everyone." -Monroe Cameron
Jill and I appreciate all the Happy New Year wishes so many of you have emailed us. The following is just an example of so many we've received. Thank you all. And our Happy New Year wishes go right back to everyone.
"Dear Butch and Jill - Sending you all best wishes and aloha from Hawai'i for a wonderful flourishing New Year full of discoveries, great projects, and good health. Thanks for all the newsletters and all the good spirit you create between people who love good stories and love Oklahoma. Glad to see the Sooners win their bowl game today. Best wishes!" -Nancy in Hawaii
"Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river."
See everyone next year!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Save 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/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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