This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 14 Issue 697 Circulation 5,000 June 3, 2010
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: [email protected]
580-657-8616
We love road trips, so Jill and I decided to take a short road trip last weekend and departing from our usual direction, we went west. Our first stop was Waurika, Oklahoma where I spotted a bell in front of the 1908 First Baptist Church building (no longer being used as a church).
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Just north of Waurika about 10 miles is Addington, Oklahoma. Not much left of Addington, but there is the Addington Station Antiques store (580-439-5566) on the west side of the highway. They were closed when we drove through, but I had to stop and take some photos of these 2 beautiful red cedar statues. They were wooden Indians and whoever the artist is, he can create a real piece of art work with his chainsaw. This first statue on display is The War Bonnet.
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And here is Indian statue #2 in front of the store. He's the Eagle Dancer. The cedar is so beautiful.
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North on Highway 81 from Addington is the small town of Comanche, Oklahoma. We spotted several murals painted on the old buildings in town, but this one on the side of a pizza place caught my eye.
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Next stop north was Duncan. After eating Chinese food we hit Main Street to see the antiques stores. One in particular really caught our attention. Butterfield's Antiques and Collectibles had several one-of-a-kind antiques and owner Rick Minter gave Jill and I the grand tour. The store is located in the old C R Anthony Company and it has the originally installed Peele Motor Stair (known today as an escalator). I have so many neat antiques to show everyone, I'll need to put some of them in next week's T&T.
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Rick had several display cases with fishing lures in them. What made these lures special is every one of them were made by a man in Duncan starting in the 30s. Rick is compiling a soon-to-be-published book about the Duncan man and his lures. It seems the man in Duncan was a fishing buddy with a man in Gainesville, Texas. The Gainesville man invented the famous Bomber lures and sold from his store, the Bomber Bait Company, in Gainesville. Being a friend and fellow fishing club member, the man in Duncan was granted permission to make the same lures in Duncan and sell to the public. Later there was a parting of ways, and a Cease and Desist order was issue to the Duncan man, so he no longer made the Bomber Lures, but did continue making other types of fishing lures. Here is a just once display case with the Duncan lures in Rick's shop.
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Rick has a lot of neat, still liquid in them, pop bottles on display. This is two that are not for sale, they were bottled right there in Duncan years ago. One is the Tru-Grape soda and the other Hick's Milk. This is a picture of Rick Minter showing the bottles to us.
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These next pics are just some of the soda bottles on display. Many were for sale in the $8 to $12 dollar range.
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Of course I had to take a close-up of this 1955 bottle of Dr Pepper, my favorite soda. If I bought it for the asking price of $80 Rick would have to guarantee it to still have the fizz. lol
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/DrPepper1955.jpg
I have more very interesting, one-of-a-kind items to show everyone (wait until you see the Boy Scout "box") but I'm going to save them for next week to try and keep this issue from being so long. If anyone has questions for Rick on any of the above, here is his business card.
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Of course no antiquing trip would be complete without stopping by to see our friend Judi Elmore at Antiques Etc on East Main right here in Ardmore. If you've not been in there in a while, you're in for a surprise. The building is the old B.L. Owens Furniture store, and its loaded from one end to the other with collectibles. Judi keeps a tight ship and everything is so neat and orderly, everything in its place. I remember a few years ago seeing these old pair of metal roller skates in her store, and I had to have them. I had the same kind when I was a kid and trying to skate on our bumpy side walk on 3rd NE. More times than not, when I came to a gap in the sidewalk, down I went. At $7.50 I couldn't pass them up, and they went with the skate key I already had from my teens.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/RollerSkates.jpg
One thing that caught my eye on our visit to Judi's store last weekend was an old water well bucket. Its also been called a torpedo bucket or bullet bucket. I've used one many a times as a teen at my great grandmother's house at H Street NE and 6th street. Her water was so close to the surface you almost could see it. I remember when Stolfa Hardware closed in 2004 they still had these same well buckets for sale for $14.95 each in the very back of the store. The buckets have a pull lever at the top, and when you pull it from the well full of water, place it over a bucket, pull the trigger, and the water was released.
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Q. How many flags have
flown over Oklahoma?
A.
14 flags
Q. Who introduced horses
to Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week's issue)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
Healdtonite / Ardmoreite Rue McClanahan dieshttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_en_tv/us_obit_rue_mcclanahan
"Butch; I saw that the question for next week's newsletter asking how many flags have flown over Oklahoma. I hope that the answer given is not the same 14 flags that is normally given in the history books. Please don't forget all of the tribal flags that are now flying over the various Nations located inside the state's borders. The history books seem to overlook this. I think there are 41 separate tribes and nations currently living within the state. That should bring the official count of flags to 55!!!" -Gerald Whitworth, Glenpool, Oklahoma
Hi, Butch -- My "regular" at the Hamburger Inn was always "an Educated Cheeseburger Basket and a glass of buttermilk..." Chock's "Educated Cheeseburger" was with Mayo instead of mustard -- tomatoes and lettuce. Definitely a different taste. -TOM ELMORE
"Nan Sheets was my art teacher when I was seven years old. I would walk from 709 NE 7th Street in OKC to the Civic Center downtown and go up to the top floor for my art classes. The windows were open so we could be cool in the summertime. She was so great with all of us kids. This was a WPA project here in Oklahoma City. I still LOVE ART." -Joe Hock
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"Butch, you mentioned the grocery stores in Ardmore. One I just learned about which sits on Main and I believe Caddo or the rail road tracks was The Pennington Grocery which reportedly was in business in the late 1800's. Just wondered if you or anyone else may have some info on this for obvious reasons? Thanks." -Mike Pennington
"Hi Butch, T&T mentioned the 'mom & pop' grocery stores that existed in early Ardmore. Within 3 to 4 minutes walk from where I lived and now live were Holmes, Bulard, Martin and Besaw early 1930s and all gone by end of that decade.
Several changes account for it. Old owners go to their rewards, competion by larger retailers and probably more so the changes in food handling, packaging and variety. Holmes store at A street & 11th avenue. NW was pretty typical of them. It was smaller than our double garage, nothing 20th century, no electricity, no phone, refrigeration, etc. He had an ice box with 'sody pop' and very little in stock, nothing perishable, only packaged items, some canned goods and penny candy. He also had a barrel of kerosene, then called 'coal oil'. My grandmother had a gallon can with a fine little spout on it she kept plugged by sticking a potato over it - sent me with a nickel to get it filled now and them. I imagine most business of these little stores was in items of immediate need when the housewife ran out of something - or of people living hand to mouth in the depression with only enough money to buy the basics in the smallest quantities.
Households bought food more in bulk quantities than today, big sack of flour, 50 pounds of potatoes, etc. There were few prepared products but there were Corn Flakes, Shredded Wheat, Post Toasties and Grape Nuts. Today there are scores of breakfast foods. Milk was delivered for eleven cents a quart which was so expensive my Dad bought a cow. My task was to lead her down to the vacant block across from Holmes store and stake her out for the day to graze. After a few months the cow went dry and he traded her to the dairyman for milk to be delivered. Pasteurization of milk was only from Colvert's or Tom Cooper's. My aunt almost died of typhoid which converted us all to Colvert's. Sliced bread arrived early '30s. Before that you had to slice your own. There was a John Small's bakery on Washington, North of Broadway. They sold day-old bread for a nickel - half the price of fresh bread at Safeway.
Food was precious. I recall when the government shot hundreds of cattle to keep the price of beef up, my Dad brought home a lot of fresh beef that my Mother and Grandmother canned and we ate for months. Many people had a garden out back where they raised seasonable veggies and often a chicken yard where they produced eggs and Sunday dinner now and then. Keeping live stock in Ardmore was quite common, cows, horses, goats. chickens.
Safeway opened Ardmore's first 'Supermarket' on SE corner of Broadway and D NW mid 30's. The term supermarket didn't exist then - at least in Ardmore. They had boys who carried your groceries out to your car. I recall my Mother's pained comment that these two bags (as big as paper bags got) cost SIX DOLLARS. That was for a week, four adults and us two kids. It was supplemented somewhat by my grandfather stopping now and then for perishables at Newman-Boucher's, a big grocery store, 3rd ave and Caddo.
That's how my disconnected memory recalls it. Memory lane isn't an improved road - especially mine." -Bob McCrory
"Danny Hull: If you have never had a rubber gun war you haven’t lived. Having a top-notch gun was the key to success. First, let me describe how you build a rubber gun: You take a 1” x 4” board of lumber, or if you can find a l” x 6” it works better. You then draw an outline of the desired rubber gun on the board. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a town large enough to have a butcher shop, take the board there and ask for the good meat saw. If the butcher agrees to let you use it, you’ll find that this saw cuts out the rubber gun the quickest and best. If no board can be found you simply pull one off the nearest barn, keeping an eye out for the barn’s owner. (When we pulled boards off Daddy Reese Smith’s barn, he’d get real irritated, since he’d have to go to the lumber yard at Wilson and get a new board to replace the ones that we tore off.) After you get the gun’s outline just as you want it, you find the nearest clothes line and take the newest and best clothes pin you can find. (Once again keep an eye out for the owner of the clothes line.) Next you get one of Daddy Reese’s truck or car inner tubes (You know what an inner tube is; it goes on the inside of a car or truck tire). Tip: Look for a truck tube because they stretch the best. You’ll then need to cut the inner tube into long strips with your grandmother’s best scissors because they cut the best. Try to wind up with strips that are a foot to a foot and half long. You then tie the clothes pins onto the handle of the gun with feed sack string or binder twine. If no string or twine is found you simply use a strip of rubber to tie the clothes pin to the rubber gun. The rubber strips are usually about one to one-and half inches wide. After getting all this stuff together, you take the rubber strips you have cut out and you then put the ends of the strips in the mouth of the clothes pin and stretch the rubber over the end of the gun. If the rubber is loose on the gun you simply tie a knot in the rubber strip to make it tight on the rubber gun. Personal note: This is a treasured formula that I have guarded for ages. I had fist fights as a kid when I refused to reveal my rubber gun making formula. I’m older now and don’t have a need for the formula, so I’m donating it to the world as a gift to mankind. Trust me, it was one of the most important parts of my formative years. My secret, tried and true formula produces the finest rubber strip weapons in the world, and you can whack some kid up side the head from 30 feet or so and that’s out of most rubber gun’s range. In fact, I’ve put many a welt on my enemies’ heads from out of the range of their weapons and that was extremely satisfying to me as a lad. Trust me, when a kid raises up behind a mound of dirt and fires his strip at you, which falls short, then you pop him a good one right on the forehead, you’ve never heard yelling in your life like that. I loved every minute of it.
Now after all the kids have rubber guns, sometimes it takes one to two hours to get ready depending on how many rubber guns you have to make. There’s a lot of planning involved. To start the war, you simply choose up sides and if you get hit with a rubber strip from the other team you are out of action. I’ve been hit with rubber strips that would leave a red mark on me for an hour or two. One day we were playing rubber gun war with my Uncle Jarvis Smith, Eddie Spears, and me on one team and Garth Smith and two of his surly friends on the other. During the action, Jarvis was going over a gate in the cow lot and Garth ran up and shot Jarvis off of the top of the gate with his rubber band gun. Jarvis fell about four or five feet and broke his arm. Nobody told his mom how Jarvis broke his arm."
-from the book Growing Up in Rural Oklahoma by Danny Hull
"Hi Butch, I have a story for you about a rubber band. You probably won't believe this. My husband was in the military so we spent five years in Germany. We ordered a new Mercedes Benz and had it about two years before we came back state side. We went to California for a few years then he had to go to Viet Nam. We moved back to Madill for me and the boys to stay while he was gone. One day I started to town with my boys and two nephews and at the first stop sign (out in the country) I lost my gears. That is a silly feeling. The stick shift on the steering column was like a spoon in a cup of coffee. It fell down into the lower position. It was in second gear so I slowly got it moved across the highway to a place where we could park. My nephew got out and under the hood where the gears were we found they had slipped apart. He got it back together and it held together with a hair pin and a rubber band. We drove that car while John was gone and then all the way to California again without a hitch. We went to Fort Ord and they had a dealer there. Now I won't say it was a little rubber band, but a small piece of elastic. LOL" -Hazel Letterman
"Butch: Don't know if I have ever told you, but I worked for a guy whose name was Gene Feliciano back in the early to middle '60s. He was a bricklayer, and a jack of all trades. He built the first motor hotel in Sulphur after the old original one burned back in the early '60s.
He came from California and was married to an aunt at that time of mine. We hauled many, many old used bricks from Sulphur that came from that old Artesian Hotel to a few acres just east of Davis. Gene paid anyone a penny a brick to clean them with a hatchet and stack them, and a thousand bricks a day was fairly easy to complete, thus 10.00 a day.
He also contracted to buy all of the old brick out of the Ardmore Sanitarium after it was torn down. I loaded many a brick into the back of a bob-tail truck one summer that we picked up there at that old site in Ardmore. We had another brick yard located a few miles out at the end of main street, if I remember correctly. Me and some guy hauled those bricks to people who were building new homes back then. Many of the old Ardmore Sanitarium bricks are actually in the makeup of several homes in the Ardmore area.
Back then Gene would pay a penny a brick to clean and stack, and then sell those used brick to home builders for six to ten cents a brick. Back then used brick was worth or cost more than new brick. Remembering Olden Times." -Scott Bumgarner, Sherman, TX
"Butch, The Pauls Valley Chapter will have their Annual Fly-in June 4th and 5th. There will be planes from several states and yes, many from Ardmore. Try to get by on Saturday for fellowship and a look at the Old and new." -Tom
"Hi Butch, Here is an image of the "Original" round barn at Arcadia,OK. It was built in 1898 by a man named William Harrison Odor. It collapsed in 1998. It was rebuilt at the present site." -Cecil Elliott
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/RoundBarnArcadiaOK.jpg
"Hey Butch I wanted to let you know we added some more ole time radio such as Westerns, History & comedy. I thought you all would enjoy." Thanks." -Big Al
http://www.BigAlWeekley.com/
"As this Memorial Day comes peacefully to an end I want to share something with you. This is my Great-Great grandfather Thomas Jefferson Garner's tombstone. We found it in a tick infested cow pasture in Dardanelle, Arkansas. He served in the Civil War in Union, South Carolina, after the war he migrated to Arkansas with 5 kids on a covered wagon." -Doug Williams
Garner, Thomas Jefferson Civil War CSA 1861-65 Co. H 5th SC Inf. s/o Charles & Nellie (White) h/o Lucinda (Page) f/o Catherine (Garner) Moore 1830 1883 CPF
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/JeffGarnerMarker.jpg
Q. "Hi, Butch, I figured if you didn't know what kind of bug this was, your Readers would. Found this guy attached to the outside of my new house on Friday and have no idea what it is. Kinda scary looking." -Kathi G., Fayetteville, AR
A. Camel Cricket. Though it looks frightening, the Camel Cricket is perfectly harmless. Camel Crickets are also called Cave Crickets, and they like damp, dark places like basements where they will feed on a variety of things, including cloth and newspaper.
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The Daily Ardmoreite May 27, 1919
Zela May Davis of Marietta has the distinction of being the first girl to have flown over Ardmore. The aeroplane in which she was a passenger Saturday, made the trip from Marietta in 15 minutes coming and 11 minutes on the return. It was planned that Miss Davis should accompany the aviator yesterday on a flight to Madill.
The Daily Ardmoreite June 3, 1919
Stephen A. Douglas, Who With His Father Founded Ardmore, Laid To Rest This Afternoon
Stephen A. Douglas died at 2:30 o'clock this afternoon at his home 825 Douglas boulevard, after an illness of several weeks. Funeral services were scheduled to be held at 4 o'clock this afternoon, conducted by the Rev. C. C. Weith, pastor of First Presbyterian church, with burial in Rose Hill cemetery. Mr. Douglas was born in Jefferson City Mo., Oct. 31, 1862. With his father, George B. Douglas, he went to Texas in 1876. In 1884 they came to what was then the Indian Territory, establishing a ranch on what is now South Washington street in Ardmore. They erected a double log cabin on the site just below the present Ardmore Oil and Milling company. The Douglas home was the first home built in this locality. Shortly after they had established themselves here, surveyors for the Santa Fe Railway Company passed the survey directly through the dwelling, necessitating its removal. They moved the house about 200 yards east of its original location. Within a short time, the railway station was built at its present location, and named Ardmore. While the survey was being made and roadbeds laid, the railroad men procured their water supply from a well which Mr. Douglas and his father had dug, and Mr. Douglas who had been a blacksmith, shod all the horses for them.
Once Owned the Ardmoreite
In 1885 Mr. Douglas married Miss Maude Carnel of Gainesville, Texas. He remained
there a short while, engaging in architectural work. Returning to Ardmore, he
continued in this line of work temporarily. He purchased the Ardmoreite in 1894
from its founders, having charge of the paper about a year and a half. He sold
it to Col. Sidney Suggs, who owned and operated it for 20 years.
Mr. Douglas organized the first political club ever formed in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The organization was called the Lincoln Club of Ardmore, and from it was perfected the republican party in old Indian Territory and later in the state. Through its organization his associates found political preferment. C. M. Campbell was appointed United States court clerk, with Mr. Douglas as his deputy. W. B. Johnson was appointed United States attorney. Capt. J. S. Hammer was made postmaster, and later United States marshal. Judge John Hinkle became United States commissioner. Mr. Douglas later was appointed postmaster by President Roosevelt shortly after the latter succeeded President McKinley. Upon the election of Mr. Roosevelt as president, Mr. Douglas was re-appointed postmaster, serving nine years consecutively.
Helped Build State Capitol
While serving as postmaster, Mr. Douglas was elected by the legislature as the
republican member of the state capitol commission. By executive order of
Governor Williams, Mr. Douglas was placed in active charge of the construction
of the capitol. He devoted his entire time to the construction work. After the
completion of the building, the members of the commission met at intervals. Mr.
Douglas' name is enrolled on the large marble tablet in the rotunda of the
capitol, and it is said that he remarked: "This will be my monument." Tribute
From His Brother Col. Clarence B. Douglas, general secretary of the Tulsa
Chamber of Commerce, who came to Ardmore to be at the deathbed of his brother,
paid Stephen A. Douglas this morning the following tribute, in an interview with
an Ardmoreite reporter:
"He lived an ideal life, and died, as a man would want to die, an ideal death. He was at home with all his relatives and friends, surrounding him, and he went to sleep as a child. He lived to see his dreams come true, a splendid city built where he and his family pioneered and were the first settlers. He lived to see a great commonwealth created out of the Indian country, and in the construction of the state capitol of which he was in active charge, he built an enduring monument to his memory. You cannot write the history of his city, the history of the post office department in his territory a, a history of the judiciary of this state or territory, nor can you write the official history of the state which he helped to create, without giving to his name an important chapter. He served the department of justice; the post office department and the state for more than 20 years in important official capacities and with credit to his name."
Rests in Pioneer Cemetery
His body will rest in the cemetery that was selected by him and his father when
the first death occurred in Ardmore. It is at the foot of the street named for
him, Douglas boulevard. The active pallbearers are Joe M. London, G. J. Sandlin,
Louis H. Boyd, Mike Gorman, J. B. Boone, and A. C. Young. Honorary pallbearers
are W. B. Johnson, W. I., Cruce, William Green, Judge Hinkle, Charles Durie and
Charles Anderson. Mr. Douglas in survived by his widow, three brothers, Clarence
B. Douglas of Tulsa, Frank Douglas of Tecumseh, and Ashley Douglas, Ardmore, and
a sister, Mrs. C. F. McDonald of El Reno, all of whom were with him at the time
of his death. With them are Mrs. Clarence B. Douglas and two sons, Knight and
Damon, Mrs. Frank Douglas, Mr. McDonald, Mrs. Ashley Douglas and Robert Carnel
of Gainesville, brother of Mrs. Douglas. A number of out-of-town friends also
came to attend the funeral. Many telegrams of sympathy and condolence have been
received, among them being one to Mrs. Douglas, from A. N. Leecraft, state
treasurer as follows: "Beg to extend deepest sympathy in the passing of your
splendid husband. The state has sustained the loss of a sincere public servant,
whose labors on the state capitol commission will endure as a monument to his
honest and faithfulness."
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and the heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Rain in Summer
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Nashobish Ikana
PO Box 11
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
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Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
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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