This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 15 Issue 759 Circulation 5,000 August 11, 2011
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
After no rain in Lone Grove in weeks, we finally got nearly an inch and a half of rain today! Halleluiah! But more rain is needed, the farm ponds and lake are still way down. In the last few hours I can see the grass turning back to a shade of green!
On October 15, 2009 we applied at the Lone Grove City Hall for a storm shelter through a FEMA program which would reimburse 75% of the cost of the storm shelter, up to a max of $2,000. Of course when you're waiting it seems like a long time but we finally received our Letter of Approval, and proceeded with the purchase of a storm shelter. We chose a shelter made in Durant, Oklahoma by The Hausner Company. I contacted Casey Morgan with Morgan Dirtworks to do the install of the shelter, and our new shelter was delivered last Tuesday for installation. Total cost was $2,200 so if the FEMA program does as planned, I should end up with an out-of-pocket expense of about $525 after the FEMA rebate. I have created a webpage showing last Tuesday's install of the shelter, from start to finish with plenty of photos.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/stormshelter.html
Russell Martin sent in a photo he took north of Durant. It looks like Amy is sending her husband a message.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/AmysWayDurant.jpg
U.S. drought monitor
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
From This and That newsletter archives of
August 11, 1998:
I had a friend give me some fresh picked corn...... I been eating it raw......
sweet as sugar. If you've never eaten it raw right off the cob, it's really
sweet. But make sure the corn is freshly picked and tender.
""Oklahoma Place Names," by George Shirk, says Hobart, Oklahoma was named for
Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey, vice president of the United States. It was
originally named Hardin, and then Speed, before it was changed to Hobart on July
9, 1909."
I ran into a trojan on a computer last week that SUPERAntispyware did not find and remove. It was my old friend Malwarebytes.org that removed it from their desktop. And their laptop was running the latest version of McAfee 2011 and it showed no viruses or malware. So I ran SUPERAntispyware on that laptop and it found 3 trojans and 60 something pieces of malware and spyware. Like I been saying for years, there is no magic bullet when it comes to removing this stuff. It takes several programs beside your antivirus program. I recommend the following:
Q. What famous woman outlaw is
buried near Porum, Oklahoma?
A. Bell Starr
Q. What are the 4
mountain ranges of Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week's newsletter)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"That old bridge was on the "Route of the Doodlebug" from Lindsay to Shawnee. You can see traces on Hw 19, just east of Peavine creek. It cut thru the woods and is now a fence row. Also, just west of Pauls Valley on Kimberlin Road. (Built up road-bed) In Maysville, OK, it is now a city park. Old timers in Waynette, OK can relate to the fight to save the bridge during a flood of the Canadian River, many years ago." -Seymour Rodke
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/ByersOKbridge073011a.jpg
Nancy Hamon died on July 30, 2011. The paper here said she was going to be buried in Oklahoma, next to her husband, in a private ceremony. I believe he is buried in Rose Hill, in Ardmore. She was a very wealthy philanthropist here in Dallas. She wanted no funeral or memorial service.
The Hamons have an infamous connection to Ardmore. Her husband?s father (he died before they were married) was a very influential oilman (Jake Hamon), working the fields in the western part of the county, and he was murdered, allegedly by a his mistress, in a hotel in Ardmore in the 1920s. I think Butch has a link to the story on his website. I know the elder Hamon is buried in Rose Hill, and I thought I remembered reading that his son was too, after he passed away while on a trip to Amsterdam in 1985 (he was 82).
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/hamon.html
"I was wondering if any readers remember a place in Ardmore where you could get a milkshake back in the thirties or forties. They were not made like they are today. If I remember correctly the ingredients were Cold milk, vanilla, a little sugar and chopped ice, and put in a container and shaken by hand until mixed and foamy. I believe the price was a dime or fifteen cents. Maybe a reader will remember other ingredients. I think all of you that remember will agree to how good they were." -Elisabeth
"Hello Butch! I enjoy reading your pages on the internet, and the picture of the old Sports Club in downtown Ardmore took me back on memory lane, as do many of your stories. Growing up in Davis, learning to play snooker there, then when older teens, driving to Ardmore, cruising the Dixie Dog, maybe going to the Drive in movie, dragging main, and of course playing snooker at the best place/best tables anywhere near. The picture evoked all those memories including walking into the club with the "Bookie Board" on the left, then playing snooker until we ran out of money. Remember shouting "Rack Boy" after completing a game, for the wracker to come ready the table for the next game. Ah! Those early teenage days of the early 50's," -Tom Hyden
"Butch, The easy remedy for all kinds of stings is household ammonia. Just dab a little on the bite site and quickly the sting will disappear. Most venom is acidic and the ammonia is basic which counteracts the acid. Simple chemistry. You can buy a small box of ammonia poppers at the drug store that you can carry with you. Get stung, break a popper and rub on the bite. Easy." -Monroe Cameron
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070720093447AA713bS
"Butch, The building North (across the alley) of the Sports Club was the Southwestern Bell Exchange. I had an aunt who worked there for a while as an "operator". -Anne Wylie
"I am writing you to let you know that I am an Oklahoma author and have a new book set to be released on September 13. The title is, "Devil's Hideaway," and was inspired by my childhood memories of Devils Den. The book is an adventure story of treasure, mystery, and danger, targeting twelve to eighteen year old emerging adults. I don't know if you put such news in your newsletter but wanted to provide you with the link to the book. The teaser is listed on the link as well and, Of course, I would be more than willing to tell you anything about the story you would like to know." -Mike Taylor, Author
The link to Devil's Hideaway.
http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61346-053-5
"Butch, a couple of newsletters back someone mentioned how when they were growing up each neighborhood had at least one little grocery store for the people in that area to get their groceries, etc. We were lucky on 3rd NE, where you and I lived. We had several family owned & operated stores : Hickman's, Hunts, and for a while at P St. & 3rd Harts Gro., and I believe Sperry's had a little store somewhere on the north side of 3rd. Then there was Pittman's Grocery a few blocks over on 4th. On "I" St. Raymond's Bar B Q stand had the most delicious barbeque sandwiches I have ever eaten. Our little neighborhood community had a variety of churches of different denominations. We had Small's Bakery... could smell the fresh bread baking the two and a half blocks from our house. Sometimes Mama would send me to get a loaf and I'd run all the way back home with it so we could have it for lunch with lots of butter on the slices (you had to slice it yourself). They wrapped it in white butcher paper and put a little piece of tape on it to keep the paper closed. Mr. Pittman made the best chili. In the winter we would call and ask "Is it chili day?". If so, we'd find out when it would be ready and I'd get on my bike which had a front basket and ride to the store, buy a little white container with a wire handle that held the chili, some "rat" cheese, crackers, and if we could afford it on that month's "bill", some bottles of pop. Man, what a life! The swimming pool was just a few blocks away and stayed open until after dark. We were also within walking distance of Washington School and if we needed to go anyplace further than our neighborhood, we could always ride the City Bus, which came by on a regular schedule Monday - Saturday. I think Sunday's schedule might have been a little different. It stopped at certain corners and if you wanted to catch it, you needed to be there on time. We had a schedule thumb tacked by the front door. It stopped one house east of ours on the corner so we could see it coming and run and catch it. Ten cents is all it cost to ride it, and if we needed to go to my grandmother's, who lived in the SW, we would get a transfer pass before exiting the bus downtown and catch the bus that went to MawMaw's part of time... didn't cost anything to do that. Now, when we came back, we did have to pay the dime again, and had to transfer to get back home. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days for just a week to restore and refresh my memories! Almost forgot, we also had a doctor too...Dr. Boyd. He was a homeopathic doctor but boy he has a potion that would clear up poison ivy and poison oak really quick. Also one for chiggers! We lived at a much slower pace and even though we didn't have the material goods as we do today, I enjoyed every bit of my childhood. One of the favorite things I got to do was when Daddy sent me to Carmen's Lumber Company to get him some nails or something. Always loved the smell inside the store. Felt privileged to be able to run an errand for him. Of course, even though I was young, the lumber company was only 2 blocks away and everyone in our neighborhood watched out for all the children, not just theirs. Glad to have been raised on 3rd NE!" -Diane Armstrong
"I can't remember where the Green Frog was although I remember it. The Oasis was a restaurant about where the Chamber of Commerce building is now. Robert Ward (whom we called "Tick" and is a pit boss in Vegas (or was) now. Tick's mom either owned it or worked there. It was a teenagers hangout. I grew up in Ardmore, OK, and I remember everything (mostly) back then!!!! There was a filling station on the corner of E NW and West Main.... coming east was the Oasis. South side of street! I wish I could remember where the Green Frog was but slips my mind now. The old Safeway store was on the corner of Broadway and E NW until the sucker went up in flames one night.... everyone in town was there to watch it burn.... the corner of E NW and West Main (North side of street) was the old Edsel Motors building.... across the street East on same side of street was a filling station where when we used to drag Main St., we turned around there to do it again!!! -danna
"The Green Frog later became the Oasis Restaurant and was located where the Ardmore Chamber of Commerce is today." -Tom Meason, Tulsa, OK
"good afternoon butch, too hot to do much other than surf the net. found this interesting, i am sure you have used google street view, this puts in into motion, no as smooth as i would like but not to bad. -john
http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/streetview/streetview_directions.html
"Oh Butch, I loved the video of the Amusement Parks in last week's T&T. What a nostalgic trip I took! Thanks to whoever sent that to you. I thoroughly enjoyed it and remembering all the 'good ole days'." -Pat
"Hi Butch, I went to school in Fletcher, Oklahoma in the 70's. I was wondering if you ever get any stories from there I miss the old place and the people from there." -Alton Tedford Bigmule@aol.com
"I found the grave marker of Oklahoma's meanest outlaw. It's in the Boot Hill section of the Guthrie cemetery. With a name like that, no wonder he was so mean. The other one is the nation's smallest National Park." -Jim Foreman http://www.jimforeman.com/Stories/small_park.htm
"Butch, I found a large rock that's loaded with crinoids fossils. It has one that is probably the largest I have seen in our area. In the attached photos I used a dime to give some sense of scale to their sizes. The rock is located at Lake Scott King. When our kids were young we used to take them up there to look for fossils for their school science classes. This rock contains the best preserved variety I've ever seen up there. This rock really needs to be in a school science class room or museum. If you know of any educators or museum folks that would like to have it I would be happy to take them to the location and help get it out of there. We would probably need a few people to carry it to the closest parking area for loading. This may need to be cleared with the city of Ardmore since they own the lake property. Here's some info I found on the net about crinoids. I thought they were plants but they were actually animals." -Dwane Stevens
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/crinoid_fossils2011.jpg
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Extension/fossils/crinoid.html
"They are sometimes called sea lilies. But crinoids are not plants. Like their relatives--starfishes, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and brittle stars--crinoids are echinoderms, animals with rough, spiny surfaces and a special kind of radial symmetry based on five or multiples of five. Crinoids have lived in the world's oceans since at least the beginning of the Ordovician Period, roughly 490 million years ago. They may be even older. Some paleontologists think that a fossil called Echmatocrinus, from the famous Burgess Shale fossil site in British Columbia, may be the earliest crinoid. The Burgess Shale fossils date to the Middle Cambrian, well over 500 million years ago. Either way, crinoids have had a long and successful history on earth."
Sad the state of our times is now because I can remember when they did not have bars on their windows. Daddy always got a 5 gallon bucket of pecans from them in the fall. Momma & I spent long hours cracking & hulling the pecan meat saving them up to make pecan pies for the holidays. Needless to say it was a few years before I found out that daddy could have bought the pecans already hulled & ready for baking. But they were more expensive. I get a good laugh now cause he got a lot of free labor out of myself & my mom. :-) -Kathi G
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/KeysGrocery080411.jpg
"Gravitt's drug store also had a soda fountain as well as the Rexall in what was then the Little Building."
"My dad built fallout shelters in the early 60s in the area. One was a big one in Davis. It had really thick walls and ceiling with lots of steel and even a well drilled in it. Am curious if anyone has info on of the fallout shelters built in the Ardmore area in the 60s?" -Randy Day, Noble, OK
Oklahoma!
Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain
Where the waving wheat
Can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltQIR5j9984
See everyone next week!
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
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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