This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 16 Issue 803 Circulation 5,000 June 14, 2012
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
Last weekend we traveled with some Wilson friends to Bowie, Texas to get our first exposure to the 100 year old tradition, the Bowie Trade Days. Its held the weekend before the 2nd Monday of each month. This event is big folks, as in Texas big. Hundreds of vendors of every kind, and a lot of walking if you want to see each one. But I guess I left a little disappointed... I searched all over for a gear driven hand drill and didn't find nary a one. Oh well, maybe next time.
After we left the Trade Days it was about eating time. We drove through Bowie looking for a place to eat, saw a Dairy Queen, it was packed, saw the Long Horn Cafe, it was packed, and several other eating establishments up and down the main highway. We turn off the main drag, and there half a block north was a little place called Sweet Boys Diner. We stopped and there were only 2 booths open, so we grabbed one. I ordered their Sirloin Angus Hamburger, and it just may be the very best burger I've have ever eaten. Onion rings were delicious, their never frozen french fries were great too. And did I mention Green Fried Tomatos? Oh boy, they were to die for! The diner may not look like too much from the outside, but on the inside its a great place to eat. And deep, holds more people then you'd ever think from just looking at the outside. This first pic is from the outside.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/SweetBoysDiner060912a.jpg
Here is a view of the inside.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/SweetBoysDiner060912b.jpg
And here is that absolutely fantastic tasting burger. I like that Texas toothpick stuck in the top of the burger.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/SweetBoysDinerBurger060912a.jpg
After leaving Bowie, Texas we came through Montague, Texas and saw a sign in front of their Old Jail and Museum. I forget the volunteer's name that day, but he was a great guide and full of historical information on the old jail.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/OldJailMontagueTX060912.jpg
One thing that caught my eye inside the old jail was a big painting depicting Indian life at the Spanish Fort, just north of there by the Red River.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/SpanishFortTXpainting.jpg
I've noticed nearly all the courthouses in Texas are so historic and beautiful. Montague County's courthouse is no exception. They even still have the old slide fire escape on the east and west side of the courthouse.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/MontagueCountyTXcourthouse060912.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/MontagueCountyTXcourthouseFireEscape.jpg
Directly across from the courthouse on the north side of the new jail is an attorney's office, in front is a big bell. Wish I had that in my yard.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/BellMontagueTX060912.jpg
A Reader wrote in a couple of weeks ago mentioning the Mud Baths the local Indians had at the Sulphur park and springs. I think the pic below is where these mud baths were taken, just down stream from the artesian well.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/MudBathSulphurOK060812.jpg
We haven't seen the new Artesian Hotel going up in Sulphur, Oklahoma in several months, Wow, what a beauty!
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/ArtesianHotel060812.jpg
The original Artesian Hotel of Sulphur was built in 1906 and burned to the ground in 1962.
The Daily Ardmoreite August 08,
1906--Advertisement
The Artesian Hotel, Sulphur, I.T., A modern hostelry of Pressed Brick and
Granite Trimmings, 150 Guest Rooms, Elevator, Electric Lights, Steam Heat, 40
Private Baths, Rates $2 per day and up J.M. Bayless and C.J. Webster, Owners
Sulphur born Charlene Howe Gilliam researched some history of Sulphur and the famous movie stars who stayed at the Artesian Hotel during the making of "B cowboy movies" back in the 40s and 50s, even John Wayne stay at this famous hotel. Below is a link to an 30 minute telephone interview I did with Charlene back in 2004.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/interviews/CharleneGilliam122204.mp3
When Jill and I went through Wynnewood, Oklahoma it was already way past high noon, and we were hungry. We saw the Trails End BBQ on the west side of Wynnewood (west of RR tracks) and decided to give it a try. We were not disappointed. Absolutely delicious. Tender with gobs of sliced brisket, no frozen fries and their sweet ice tea was great tasting too.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/TrailsEndBBQ060812.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/TrailsEndBBQsign060812.jpg
Saw these interesting pieces of history in a antique store in Davis, Oklahoma. Anyone know what they are? They are marked Coffee Filter Rods.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/CoffeeFilterRodsDavisOK.jpg
Stopped by Turner Falls last weekend and took a pic of the falls. Its always an awesome sight!
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/TurnerFalls060812.jpg
Went to the Ardmore Waste Management Center at the NE edge of Ardmore and picked up another free load of Okie Dirt. Its good stuff, if you are trying to grow things, and get grass started in some bare areas of the yard, as I am.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/OkieDirt060812.jpg
Ardmore as a new fried pie place, after being without one for many years. Its Yo Mamma's Fried Pies in Tiffany Plaza. I stopped in their first day of being open and tried an appricot pie, delicious.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/YoMammaFriedPies061212a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/YoMammaFriedPies061212b.jpg
Just yesterday I got my hands of a copy of Ardmoreite James Clark's new book, Reflections on a Time - Growing Up In Southeast Oklahoma. Just by glancing at it, I can tell this book is going to be a good one, especially to Oklahomans! It is not quite ready for distribution, but the Chickasaw Regional Library System and Ardmore Public Library does have the book for checkout. More in the weeks to come on this interesting piece of SE Oklahoma history!
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/ReflectionsFrontCover.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/ReflectionsBackCover.jpg
From This and That newsletter archives of June 12, 1999:
An old photo of the Ardmore Ice Company
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/JoyceFranks/ArdmoreIcePlant.jpg
---------------------------------------------------
A view of Springer,
Oklahoma many years ago
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/JoyceFranks/SpringerOklahoma.JPG
---------------------------------------------------
A real photo of the
Newkirk, Oklahoma public school in 1910
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/nwkirk10.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
Old pic of the east Alva, Oklahoma
public school
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/alvaeast.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
A 1914 pic of the Anadarko, Oklahoma
High School
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/anadar14.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
On East Main in Marietta, Oklahoma in
the southeast corner of Second and E. Main is the Mahota Memorial Presbyterian
Church. It has stood in that corner since 1905. They held their last church
service there on May 30, 1999. Here is the handout a friend gave me from that
service. It tells the history of this Marietta landmark. Story is in 2 files.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/mahota1.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos9a/mahota2.jpg
----------------------------------------------------
Butch, it is obvious that Dwane Stevens
may be the champion "train nut' for our present day, but I once knew a young
man, back in the 30's, that I observed, and declared to be "The Card-carrying,
Goldplated, Dyed-in-the-wool, Certified, Registered & Practicing, Rail Road Nut"
of that day. I don't know what ever happened to my friend Maureice Allen but I
can assure you, I personally know, that he met every train that came through
Ardmore, Oklahoma when it was physically possible for him to be at the train
station. Maureice had a good newspaper route that he turned over to me, because,
I think, he reasoned the time spent carrying the paper route could be better
spent meetings the trains that came through. If you are still out there
somewhere Maureice, I'll meet you at the Ardmore Depot. (I hope I spelled his
name right)"
----------------------------------------------------
Seems like the past week I've seen so
many deaths in the newspaper. Friends of mine. In 1969 I stopped by the
ambulance service and a man named Robert "Bob' Vernon was on duty. He had an air
conditioner for me to look at. To make a long story short, Bob asked me if I
wanted to go to the Friday night football game in the ambulance with Troy Loard.
I said yes. And that was the start of my 14 years with the ambulance service
here in Ardmore. Bob Vernon passed away this past week. Bob lived at the SW of
Davis, Oklahoma. He was a dairy owner. -Butch Bridges
----------------------------------------------------
Q. Which Spanish conquistador traveled through the
Oklahoma panhandle in the 16th-century while searching for the mythical ?Seven
Cities of Gold??
A. Coronado
Q. Who was the first Republican to be elected governor of
Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week's T&T)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....
"My granddaughter, Mae, has been after me to write about the traffic light at Carter St. S.E. and Lake Murray Dr. I did not have a child in Jefferson school at the time but I knew that my two youngest would be going there soon. The older boys were in Middle School and HS. There was a lot of traffic on Lake Murray Dr. especially on Friday afternoons when people were going to the lake. There were several parents who made calls to different people and gov. depts. to try to get a traffic light. We finally got a meeting at the courthouse with officials from several different gov agencies. Some judge from OKC was there. What it boiled down to was the city did not want to slow down the fishermen going to the lake on weekends. Now that made some blood boil. I had some heated words with the judge and we eventually got our light. I couldn't believe that they put the convenience of the fishermen above the safety of our children. Later they had a counter across Lake Murray Dr. I called Jim Castle who was a councilman at the time and asked if it had anything to do with getting the light. He said "no." If he had, I was going to call everyone I knew and tell them to drive across it as many times as they could. I did it anyway. The traffic light saved a lot of parents having to pick up their children as we were afraid for them to cross LMD. Is there anyone else out there that remembers any of this? If so, you are telling your age." -Frances Long Anthony Dunlap
"I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of Country Tavern in Ardmore?"
"Butch, Thought you might find this interesting. Geokinetics Company has been doing seismograph testing at our house and on our ranch. Helicopters deliver the transmitters, cables and ground transducers to specific locations. Ground crew then comes in and connects everything and sets up the transmitters. After the vibe trucks are finished and the readings are good the ground crew repackages everything into the orange bags and sets up the retrieving connector. Later the helicopter comes back and snags the bags with no help from the ground crew and delivers them to another location. The helicopter set one right in front of our house and after the tests were finished a different helicopter came back to snag it. They set up three systems over at the ranch." -Dwane Stevens, Lone Grove, OK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXmQ7jx9NvM
"Butch--you may have already read this but, Frances was the one who introduced me to your wonderful Newsletter--thought you would want to know this. I will type in her explanation of the honor since I cant seem to get it to send--- I am not a tried and true computer nerd!!
Frances Dunlap wrote:"I don't think I told you about the award that the Jefferson Elementary Allumni created in my honor. It is the Frances Anthony Dunlap Award and will be presented each year to the outstanding person in PTO. It was PTA in my day. Can you believe after all these years? I haven't been in PTA for at least 30 years or more. It even made the front page of the Ardmoreite. I still dont have a copy of it but I did see part of it on the computer. Three of my children and two grandchildren were there and Melody (daughter) presented me with red roses. I am surprised they were able to keep it from me. It was the first time in my life that I was speechless but it didn't last long. If I have already told you all of this then just remember the source." -Frances Dunlap
Butch, Frances and I were in school together in Marietta many years ago---she keeps track of ALL the class and is careful, each year just before Christmas to send me a list with addresses. She also is an ACTIVE friend of all of us and sends appropriate notes to everyone if they have any family events that should be recognized. She is what a REAL FRIEND is--and makes all her help and thoughtfulness seem easy. --hope you can, perhaps mention this in the Newsletter (if you haven't already, I suffered from a few weeks of no computer and missed an issue) or drop her a note. Anyway, just wanted to let you know some good news---we seem to have plenty of bad news these days and a bit of good news just cheers me up amazingly! Your devoted reader." -Sammie Binkley
"Here's a photo of a Braum's Milk bottle located near St Anthony's Hospital in OKC. -Doug Williams
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos12a/BraumsMilkBottleOKC.jpg
Q. "Do anyone know what is being built south of Ardmore's Flying J?" -Ruby
A. "Peterbilt Motors is relocating out there." -Janet Phillips Lindsey, Hazen, AR
"Speaking of Drive-In theaters, Arkansas only has 3 and one of them is right here in NW Arkansas in Fayetteville just across from the Sam's Club. Here is a link to a local newscast about the 112 Drive-In in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Prices are much higher than they were when my dad used to take us to see movies at the Skyview & 77 North in Ardmore. I'm thinking I might just take my grandkids one Friday before they move next month to Princeton, New Jersey. It might be the last time they get to go to a Drive-In." -Kathi G.
http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=338772
"The Bo Diddley article brought back some fond memories as he also did a concert at the Student Union at OU in the late 50's. We (some friends of mine and me) tried to get in to see him (we were attempting to pass ourselves off as college students). But could never get in. In the mid-90's when visiting Family (before our falling out), I was honored to meet Bo at the MGM Grand where he was playing slots. I have the cash receipt somewhere here in the house that he signed to give me an autograph and he told me that if I ever wanted to take in a live show all I had to do was show the folks at the door the receipt and he would tell them to let me in." -Poss
THE DAVIS NEWS - 100 YEARS AGO: The Ideal Picture Show in Davis, Oklahoma put on a good show every night. It hosted an amateur night every Friday and invited those wishing to compete to make application with I.W. Saunders at the ticket office.
Editor Fay Crossett was advocating fixing the wagon road to Turner Falls. ?If we try, we can popularize this beautiful place as an outing place and summer resort and bring lots of people to Davis. They will buy their provisions here and leave considerable money in our midst. Then, too, we will have a pretty place for townspeople to go for a breath of pure air and delightful mountain scenery. We believe the people of Davis will subscribe liberally for a fund to fix this road and all that is needed is for someone to take the lead and get it up. One hundred dollars or even $50 rightfully spent would produce wonders on this road which is now almost impassable. A pike road is not necessary. Simply remove some of the big rocks and fill up the chug holes. All of us will contribute. Who will take the lead??
Mr. Batiste caught a catfish weighing 82 pounds out of the Washita River. It was the biggest one of the season. School board president S.H. Davis had an architect draw up plans for a new school auditorium to seat 1,000 people. ?It will take probably $8,000 or $10,000 to erect this annex, and it may be that when times are better the people will be given an opportunity to vote bonds for same,? Crossett wrote.
The Supreme Court ruled that eastern Oklahoma will remain a liquorless region until 1928. In 1897, a law was passed forbidding the introduction of liquor into the so called ?Indian country? for a period of 21 years. The effect of the decision, if the law was rigidly enforced, would be to wipe out bootlegging, which, according to some Oklahoma Congressmen, would cost the distilleries and breweries $100,000 a month loss of business. On the other hand, it was contended, a rigid enforcement of the law would again boom the dispensary business, which was said to have suffered materially through the bootlegging industry.A Remembrance of my Father.
My Daddy's Mother died three weeks after He was born.
Daddy was born in Flat Rock, Illinois in the year 1897. When his mother died, Grandpa gave Daddy, who was a baby, and Uncle Roy (three years old at the time) to their Aunt Rosa Bible to raise.
This starts another long story that Daddy has told to me. The one I am about to relate is really hard for me to believe. But Daddy and Uncle Roy, his brother, both told it to me several times so I have to Believe!
FLAT ROCK, ILL. 1897
After Grandpa gave Daddy and Uncle Roy to Aunt Rosa to raise, he took Uncle Emory, their brother who was 6 years old at the time, and left for Arkansas to start a new business. He started up a saw mill in South Arkansas. He and Emory lived in a tent in the woods.
After six years, Grandpa wrote Aunt Rosie and asked her to send Daddy, and Uncle Roy to Arkansas. Daddy was six years old and Uncle Roy was nine.
He sent her enough money to buy a horse and buggy, supplies, etc. He also sent along a map and told her to send them. I don't know how far it is from Flat Rock, Ill. to South Arkansas, but it has to be several hundred miles.
Daddy could barely recall the trip, but he said they would travel all day. Stop build a fire and cook what they could kill to eat. (They had a rifle). Next morning they would start again. He couldn't remember how long it took, but somehow they made it.
Grandpa worked them in his saw mill and they lived in a tent. They survived on coffee, beans, and flour pancakes.
-Ken @ WilsonFlag Day - June 14
"You're a Grand Old Flag" was written by George M. Cohan for his 1906 stage musical George Washington, Jr. The song was introduced to the public in the play's first act on opening night, February 6, 1906, in New York's Herald Square Theater. It was the first song from a musical to sell over a million copies of sheet music. This rendition is sung by James Cagney in Cohan's 1942 film biography, Yankee Doodle Dandy.
You're a Grand Old Flag
by George M. Cohan
1906
You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love,
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toX5cEKg5I8
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
All previous issues of This & That can be found on my Website.
Feel free to forward this free newsletter. Mailouts: over 1,600.
To be removed from my T&T mailings, just send me an email.
I do not sell, trade or give my mailing list to anyone for any reason.