If you’re looking for a certain article I wrote in a past issue of “This & That” you might find it faster by doing a “search” with your browser. With Netscape just click your mouse at the top at EDIT and then FIND and type in the word or words you’re looking for. If you use Internet Explorer, just click on EDIT and then FIND ON THIS PAGE to do a search.Below is July 7, 2001 to September 29, 2001.
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Saturday September 29, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 232
There was a retirement party this week at the courthouse for Denver Looper in the District Court offices. On Friday afternoon Judge Card’s courtroom was packed and overflowing, standing room only, to honor this lady who’s been a friendly smile on the Third Floor for over 20 years. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/looperd.jpg
Just to tell everyone briefly… I’ve talked to Mrs. Wilson at Wilson Monuments Friday and the monument for the new Air Base Memorial will soon be on order! Thanks to everyone who is making this possible. It couldn’t be done without each and every donation.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/pledgepd.txt
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.htmlThis week we had a special visitor to the American Flyers Memorial Park website. She signed the guest book, and sign-ins like this makes it all worth it:
“I’ve been told my husband’s name is on the memorial. He was one of the many on board the flight that horrific April day 1966. I was a young girl in my early twenties seven months pregnant with my second child at that time and could not believe what I was being told. My husband was so young and strong I believed he could get himself out of any tragic affair. I also believed things like this happen in the newspapers and to other people. I have not seen the memorial yet but would some day soon (with my daughter and son) like to visit it. Thanks to all those who had anything to do with keeping the memories of the victims of that tragic evening alive.” -Gladys Nasuta Seymour, Connecticut
If you haven’t visited the new Airpark Memorial Website that Linda Wagner is building, you are missing out on a work of art. If you stop by, sign the Guest Book! http://www.americanflyersmemorial.org
A friend in the NW part of Ardmore called me this week. She 92 years young and sharp as a tack! We talked about my mother’s family and the things they did when they were growing up in the northeast back in the 20s. My folks lived on 3rd NE and she and her family lived on 5th NE. She said they did not have a car back when she was a wee kid around 1925, and walked to town going over the 5th avenue viaduct (wood back then). Then she said something that really caught my attention. She said sometimes when they got to the 5th avenue viaduct, she and her sisters would ask if they could take the short viaduct? I asked for more about this “short viaduct”. She told me there was a short viaduct over the railroad tracks on 4th NE. This would be a block south of the present viaduct. She went on to tell me the northeast section of Ardmore was the largest part of town, with the most people. And that that part of town was the first part to be settled when Ardmore was just starting out. Anyway, I was really surprised and happy to hear about that 4th avenue viaduct. Boy, the history a 92 year old can tell!
Several wrote telling me the link to Brown Springs did now work. So I reworked it. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/brownspr.html
In fact, any links to my xoom website is no longer working. I’ve copied every photo and file to my fortunecity.com website. Hopefully I’ll get everything up and running on it soon.
I travelled over to Mill Creek, Oklahoma last weekend. Its only 30 miles east of Ardmore. And what I found over there, just a couple miles south of Mill Creek on the west side of the Highway, really caught me off guard. I visited two places, the Meridian Aggregates Corp and the Autumn Rose Granite Company, a subsidary of Rock of Ages, Inc.
At the Meridian site, all I could do is stand there in awe for a little while. I knew there were big pit mines/strip mines in other states. But the “granite pit” at Meridian was overwhelming to me. It was huge. This hole in the ground covered acres and was deep. To give you an idea how large it was, if a pickup truck was down there at the center, and someone standing by it, you might be able to make out it was a pickup truck, but you sure couldn’t see anyone standing beside it. Down in the pit they blow up the Autumn Rose granite, and scoop it up with huge machines costing One Million each. The chunks of granite is then crushed down to a small gravel, and used in building roads and such. Here is a photo I took of their newest scoop, a 2001 model Cat. You will see the tire on this giant is bigger than a house!
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/meriload.jpgHere is the photo I took of the “granite pit” itself. The picture does not do justice, as far as showing how huge this pit is, and the area it covered, and the depth. There is probably not anything like it in Oklahoma. They have been mining granite here for only five years with 75 to 100 railroad cars carrying the gravel like granite out every night. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/meripit.jpg
Then we travelled next door to the Autumn Rose Granite Quarry. And I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see here either. This huge, very deep hole. This was not a really wide hole in the earth, but it was deep. The hole is made by burning/cutting huge 20,000 pound square pieces of granite and lifting them out to the surface. It is from these huge squares of granite, that the smaller granite memorial stones are cut, like the one at the Airpark. This is a photo of the huge squares of granite stacked and ready to ship out by truck. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/autrose7.jpg
And these are photos looking down in to the granite pit/hole.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/autrose4.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/autrose5.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/autrose6.jpgThis is a pic of the entrance at Autumn Rose Granite Company http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/autrose8.jpg
This is the website of the Rock of Ages Granite Company. http://www.rockofages.com/
Last week I showed a photo of a brick made by the Ada Brick Company in Ada, Oklahoma. I found out this week we have a brick collector extraordinaire right here in Ardmore. He’s Harry Dodd and he’s got several hundred old bricks making up this walkway in his backyard. He has bricks from all over the country, with all kinds of names and symbols on them. I was amazed at all the different kinds in one place! Here are some photos I took of his brick walkway.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd2.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd3.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd4.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd5.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd5.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd6.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd7.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd8.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd9.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd10.jpgHere is a pic of Mr. Dodd standing on his brick walk looking at history from around the country! http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dodd11.jpg
There was a brick manufacturing company in Ardmore about 1915 by the name of Lee Cathey Brick Company. It was located just north of the intersection of 7th NE and “D” Street along the railroad tracks. I’ve been told some of the concrete slap and footings, etc., is still visible in the high grass. I’ll try to get some pics.
There was an Ardmore Brick Company during this same period, its offices being located behind the old First National Bank at Main and “A”. They did not manufacture bricks but obtained them from several manufacturing companies else where in the state.
I was out seeing my friends at the Chickasaw Library this week. They had a problem with one of their network cables. As I watched Sharlotte and Mona troubleshoot those RJ45 cables, I could readily see I was in the mist of two of the best networking people in Ardmore! They soon had the problem figured out and a solution! It was decided while I was there we’d give sort of a workshop to Jeremy on how to crimp ends of RJ45 computer cables, letting him make up some extra cables for future use. I snapped a pic of Jeremy learning how to manage those eight little wires, getting each one in the exact place before crimping. He did a great job for his first time! http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/jeremy9.jpg
If anyone wants to learn more about networking and cables here is a good starter. http://www.johnscloset.net/
My cousin in Ft Worth sent me a pic of a bell this week! A good looking bell too, of the Old Bedford, Texas school. Bedford is just outside Ft Worth, Texas.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/bedford9.jpg
Here is an excellent webpage about this old 1915 Texas school.
http://www.txcn.com/dallasnews/424125_oldschool_21me.htmlI told everyone I received a mystery letter in the mail a couple weeks ago. Inside the envelope was a hotel room key (electronic key) to a room at the Kowloon Shangri-La in Hong Kong. Boy, I have no idea who mailed me that key or what do to with it. I can’t even decipher what room number the key goes to. hahahaha I wonder if its the same person he was staying at that hotel in Paris? If it is, they sure get around! http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/kowloon.jpg
That rumor about a birthday party for three employees at the courthouse annex building turned out to be true this week! I had a good turn out at noon Friday. Here’s some pics I took!
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mcrey9.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/partyb9a.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/partyb9b.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/partyb9c.jpgThis website has a calculator for everything. Loans to car payments to saving bonds. http://www.calcpartner.com/
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“I too worked at Reavis Drug Store on corner of Main & B St. when I was a senior in high school-l955-l956. Bernice Veal was my boss. They were very good about working school girls in the fountain. Not many jobs for kids back then. No fast foods. Mr. Reavis should be commended for working so many school kids and Bernice for putting up with us, even tho they are both gone now. I think I broke record for breaking the most coffee pots in fountain and yet Bernice kept working us. Good people helping kids.”
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“Hey Butch, How about sharing the Priddy’s salad dressing recipe with the rest of us?” [email protected]
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“Hi Butch, did I miss something???? Was the Priddy’s salad dressing recipe in T & T??” [email protected]
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“It sounds to me that you have the Priddy’s Salad Dressing recipe…I would love to have it. What do I need to do get a copy?” [email protected]
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“I noticed your Indian name on your sign-off..I have one too, although I am not Shoshone, I was born on the Shoshone Reservation in Duck Valley, Owyhee, Nevada and because my father was the minister at the Presbyterian Church there, my name at baptism was and is: num shun Tate. It means Preacher’s Kid. That was in 1937, so you can figure out that I remember the Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Because we were in Nevada, all those states involved in the creation and testing of the A-bomb were under suspicion of attack. We had air raids and black outs. We went to the cellar when the sirens went off, or under a table. In the evening when President Roosevelt spoke, we had to put black paper over the lighted dial on the radio, and could have no lights, not even candles burning. We gave daily at school to the war bond and stamp program. I really feel empathy for children these weeks. They will always feel vulnerable and know that life is fragile. Maybe that is why, at an early age, I had an invincible faith in God and constant relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you for the pictures of the NYC tragedy. Keep up the good work. Butch. You found your calling!”
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“Attached is a photo of James M. Polk Brewer (on the right) born Sept. 26, 1889 in Jackson County, Alabama. Polk died in October 1966 and is buried at Springer, Oklahoma. He and a friend spent hard cash for this fun posed photo. He is one of ten children of William Henry Brewer: William Henry Jr., Mary Frances, Martha Jane, John Jackson, Benjamin Louis, Sarah Alice, Elijah Jefferson, Nora Ethel, Delpha Pearl, Dewey Hobson and Estil Gordon Brewer. Most are buried at Springer. Does anyone know if Dewey Brewer was a county commissioner in Carter County? A previous article from a Bill Sisk generated responses about the Brewers from Springer.” [email protected]
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brewerja.jpg
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“I grew up in Ada about half a mile from the Brick Plant. My parent’s yard has many Ada bricks lining the flower beds. The Brick Plant is now closed and a new housing addition has been built nearby. Mr. Robertson, the ninth grade science teacher, would have a walking field trip every year. One of the places we went to was the big dug out pit at the Brick Plant. We, if we were daring enough, went into the big pit and looked for fossils. We found plenty of them. Ada has a new walking and bike trail. Concrete was poured where the old railroad tracks were and this trail goes by the old Brick Plant. You can walk up the hill and look down and still see the big pit. I enjoy your This and That.”
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“Hey Butch, Found this site while surfing the net. Your readers might find it interesting. This section caught my eye and immediately thought of you.“”Lake Murray is one of the premier tourist and sporting attractions in the State of Oklahoma, and its history, too, deserves attention. Perhaps one day there will be a monument of Oklahoma red granite at the lake to honor Charles Weldon Tomlinson, Charles Albert Milner, Jr., and W. Morris Guthrey for their dream and for their dedicated efforts to make Lake Murray a reality.””
Do you know if such a monument was ever erected?”
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“Hi Butch, Thanks very much for the CD. I’ve kept every “This and That” that I have received. I’ve been wondering how I was going to save them to disk so I could free up some space on my hard drive. You have solved my problem and I do appreciate it. As I told you in my last e-mail, we are going to be in Healdton thursday to bring my mother – in law home. If I get over to Ardmore I will try and stop by and say “Hi”!”
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“Hey Butch, I was looking through some of your old issues of This and That and saw several references to Coleman Jones. There was mention of him being in the Ardmoreite quite some time back. I remember a picture of him being in the paper at some point and in talking to Sally Gray she mentioned that at the same time there was a short article about him. Would you happen to know the approximate time that was in the paper? I have been to the Chickasaw Library looking through the old Ardmoreites on Microfilm but it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I am thinking it was in the mid-late 70s but am not sure. Any ideas?”
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“Butch: Today I was at a school field trip to the Harn Homestead in Oklahoma City close to the Capitol and saw this bell. It was the school bell for the Stoney Point School in the Rose Hill township near Guthrie.The school was built sometime before 1897. The school building was used until 1946. In 1987 it was moved, lock stock and barrel to the Harn Homestead and reassembled. Everything in the school is original. Even the potbelly stove and the original chalk board made from mud plaster and horsehair. I saw the bell and had to snap a picture for you. The Harn Homestead is located at 313 NE 16th Street. The original Harn Home is there and several other structures and it is a historical site and educational facility. All the kids from my 9 year olds class dressed up in period clothing and they had school there in that one room school house today. It was neat. Also attached is a photo of the school. It is all original except the location.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/stoneypa.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/stoneypb.jpg
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========================================================================I said last week we’d draw out two names from the hopper for my “T&T Photo and History CD.” It has over 2,000 photos, text files, stories, and my website Pages. I’m going to draw 2 names each week til Christmas. You only need to enter the drawings one time. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/ttcda.jpg
Here are the two winners for this week!
[email protected]
[email protected]I been doing some genealogy on my mother’s side of the family lately. I had an aunt, Pearl Vollborn Carmon, who was born in a prairie schooner/Conestoga wagon just outside Wichita, Kansas in 1893. My aunt was so much German, that at the beginning of World War II the government required her to go to the old Ardmore Post Office at North Washington and West Broadway, and register. Here’s a pic of my aunt, Pearl Carmon (my grandfather Carmon’s brother’s wife). http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/pearl2.jpg
Every morning during the weekdays, around 7:15am there are about half a dozen of us guys who are waiting in the lobby of the post office for the postal employees to finishing putting mail in the PO boxes. We kinda have what I call a “bored meeting”, discussing everything from politics, to religion, to current events, to sports. (But when they discuss sports they’ve left me out. haha.) Anyway, one of the men who is always there at that time of the morning told me something this week that stuck in my mind. He said his father, who was born around 1900, used to tell him when he was a kid, “if you don’t know where you came from, how can you know where you’re going”. There is a lot of truth in that statement.
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday September 22, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 231
We all love a surprise from time to time, and someone placed a red brick on my desk last week. This is no ordinary brick, but one produced by The Ada Brick Company in Ada, Oklahoma. They stopped making bricks at the Ada plant in 1981. I saw several hundred of those bricks when I was a teenager, cleaned and stacked back in the early 60s at 1001 3rd NE. It was the old home place for my grandfather and grandmother Carmon. When they tore down that house, my grandfather paid a man 5 cents a brick to clean the mortar away with muriatic acid. Here is a pic of that Ada brick some mystery person left on my desk. Whoever left it, thanks! http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/adabrick2.jpg
Here’s a pic of the old brick home place at 1001 3rd NE. Its gone now, another house is there. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/carmonhh.jpg
Thanks to all of you who have paid their pledge for the airpark memorial, we have gone over $1,600 this week. I am working on the quote and monument order, so soon I’ll give a report on those details. Here is a listing of those who have made it possible. Thanks to each one of you.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/pledgepd.txt
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.htmlThe American Flyers Memorial Website is looking better everyday. Linda is doing a wonderful job building a website to be proud of, and a beautiful tribute to those who died. The website now has a guest book, I hope everyone will go by and sign it. http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
I’ve received dozens of emails bringing to my attention the “devil in the smoke”. I noticed that when it was first shown on TV that day, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I might be seeing things, but now I know a lot of others saw it too. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/911devil.jpg
I thought I had photos of nearly all the bells in Carter county, but this week a Reader sent me a photo of the bell at Mountain Lake (northern Carter county! Here’s the email I received:
“Here’s another bell. My uncle, Bill Sisk, who now lives in Lake Havasu, Arizona, mentioned this bell tower at Mountain Lake above the Woodford, Oklahoma dam a few years ago when he told me that my dad, H.H. (Harry) Whitfield, worked on the dam in the early 1920s. My husband and I were there a couple of weeks ago and took these photos. The bell is still there, although it’s rusty and needs some TLC. It must have been used as a warning system for Mountain Lake. (My husband noted the TV antenna and wire attached to the tower. Perhaps, it still serves as a warning system?)” http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mlakebel.jpg
I had another surprise come in the mail the other day, similar to the key to room 34 in Paris. But this is from a very unusual place. But there was no airline ticket with it either. hahaha. I’ll get it scanned, I share it with everyone next week. Heck, I may become a jetsetter! hahaha
James Lindsey, Maintenance at the courthouse, and I seem to find our way to the offices where they are having a birthday party or other event lots of times. The other day the sheriff of Carter county invited us over at noon for some Red Beans and chocolate cake his wife prepared for the employees. Here’s a pic of Sheriff Burkhart (on left) and Undersheriff Ken Grace (on right) serving up some delicious beans! Maybe next time I can tell everyone in advance, and all of us meet there! Sharon’s red beans reminded me of the way my mother cooked them when I was a teen. Boiled down to a thick juice, some seasoning powder, and simmered with a big piece of salt pork! http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/harvey9.jpg
I’ve heard at the end of this month we’re having a noon lunch prepared by the women in the Annex Building at the Commissioners office for several with birthdays. But then that’s just a rumor right now. A rumor James and I hope turns out to be true! I’m always ready to eat. hahaha
With the stock market’s continual decline, maybe we should look at U.S. Bonds as a place to park our money. It’s an easy, systematically way to save for the future. In WWII people bought U.S. Bonds to show their support for the war effort. And provide a safe haven for their money. http://www.easysaver.gov/
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Hey Butch, It has been a sad day for America. Just like to comment about the gas stations that raised their prices, hope every one remembers them all and quits trading with them, they are just as guilty as the lady they arrested for going around posing as a Red Cross person door to door collecting for her on gain!
http://ardmoreite.com/stories/091201/new_fraud.shtml
it is a lie in both senses and both where looking for their on ill gotten gain. the only difference is that the stations did not get arrested and will go scott free, and the lady will be prosecuted and probably serve time in jail. And I see that they left out the Lasley’s station on the corner of Mayall and S. Commerce, I don’t know who they are listed with Conoco, Total, Independent, or who, but there price at 3:45pm Tuesday evening was $2.99 a gallon when I drove by. I will NEVER trade there again and hope every one else stops their trade with those who also raised their prices.”
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“About Reavis Drug – the person who wrote about the drug store being on the NE corner of Main was correct. My very first job was at this drug store. I graduated from school and started to work within a month after graduation. I worked behind the counter serving drinks and sandwiches. I rode to town with my uncle when he brought his load to milk to Colvert’s dairy every morning and my brother would take me home after he got off work at the Big Gulf Station where Bank First is now. Mr. Maynard Reavis would sit upstairs looking out over the drug store and watching everything that went on. I was scared to death of him. He would walk down and get coffee a couple of times a day and I would shake so, I could hardly pour him a cup! Bernice Veal was manager of the soda shop and my boss. I worked there until I was hired at the Health Department the following fall. I do not remember it being anywhere else on main street.”
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“I went to the Sayre Okla. 100 birthday, the cookout was fun. Everyone dress up in early 1900 or late 1800 clothes. we was a ranch near Sayre Okla. free to all. all you had to do was dress up. Their were so many pretty old-time long dresses, green, red, one woman dress up like a saloon girl, a teenage girl dress up like a saloon girl, the preacher had on the old time circuit preacher jackets, like in Doctor Medicine woman, an old time camp meeting was held two days at Sayre park. The parade was fun, I got to be on my Mom church float. I took lots of pictures from riding on it. hadn’t got them out of my camera yet.”
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“Hi Butch, I have built a Macromedia Flash 5 tribute to the events of last week. . It is pretty decent for an ol’ country boy learning Flash for the first time. I originally had it on my copscgi.com server, at least until yesterday when it started overloading the server and exceeding my daily allowed transfer rate. I have built a 3rd computer at home, installed Apache Webserver and set it up to do nothing but host this tribute. The load is incredible, over 3,000 hits in 6 hours and still climbing. Anyway if you go to http://www.copscgi.com it will link to whichever one of the servers I have it on at the moment. It is 2.2 megs so normally it should transfer to 56K modems in 5 minutes or so. It is likely to be longer due to server load though. Bring a few tissues, you will need them.”
http://www.copscgi.com
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“Butch, This page was sent to me and I thought many of the younger folks might not have learned the proper way to display our flag. This page tells it all.” http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html#01
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“As some of you already know, my good friend David M. Scales, with whom i had written over two dozen songs and had performed innumerable times over the past six years, was killed in the attack on the Pentagon. David was an active duty Army Lieutenant Colonel in the Adjutant General Corps. He is survived by a wife Tricia, a 12-year old son Ashton, his two parents, several siblings, nephews and nieces, and lots of friends. He had sent his wife Tricia an email 14 minutes before the fateful attack. He would have turned 45 on September 27th. David will be missed, but the music he created will live on. Several of the songs we wrote together will be on my upcoming singer-songwriter CD recording, which will be dedicated to his memory.”
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“Butch, I meant to write weeks ago but I have been working on the Love’s Valley Reunion which was held Sat. Several weeks ago someone asked about Cowboy Slim Rinehart. He has relatives living in Allen, OK. All of the Allen Rineharts are involved in music and there are a lot of them. Dean Rinehart made a tape of some of Cowboy Slim’s records for my ex-husband. I have access to this tape if anyone would like a copy. Someone else asked about a young serviceman named Raybun who was killed in service. I think I may know his sister. I want to check with her to be sure. How Hell Roaring Creek got it’s name. Some cowboys were camped beside the creek and that night one of them said the creek roared like hell so it became Hell Roaring Creek. I have heard that story since I was a little girl in Marietta. I am now 73. The picture of the falls looks just like Seven Falls the first time I saw them. They still look much the same but the surroundings below have changed some. I was there again a couple of years ago. Mother also worked for Maynard Reavis when his sons were little tykes. They also had good “black cows”, a scoop of ice cream in a glass of chocolate milk but I think the cherry cokes were the best. The girls who waited on the booths had a special language they used to call the orders to the ones working the fountain.I used to know all of them but my memory is fading. America will stand proud and strong and we will heal and all will be drawn closer together because of this national tragedy. I was out of town Sunday but my daughter said our home church was overflowing with people. The little church I attended has only 14 pews but it was almost full and we had a wonderful service. Looking forward to next week.”
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“Butch, I just finished making a batch of the salad dressing and it is out of this world and just like I remember Priddy’s. I added quite a bit of the paprika, mainly for color. Thanks so much for making it possible to have the recipe and thanks for the memories. Yes, it is raining and dreary here this afternoon, but Tulsa really needs the rain. What a horrible week!!!! But with God’s help, “this too shall pass””
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“Butch- Hopefully, we will not have to resort to rationing as we enter our war against terrorism. The attached picture of a WWII Ration Book shows the front and rear covers and one kind of stamp within the book. The stamps depicted planes, artillery pieces and tanks.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/rationb2.jpg
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“my parents lived in sayre, okla. took these last week”
http://community.webshots.com/album/18892811xzPhlkEVrN
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“Hi Butch: I grew up 2 miles south of the Love County line on hwy 76 on a 1,000 acre ranch owned by my dad. The house on the ranch property is exactly on the 2 mile section marker, but the road back to Orr is one mile further down. You turn east on Oswalt road or you can turn west to Orr. Hope this helps to pinpoint the place for your readers of O’Savior School”
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======================================================================We haven’t had a drawing in a while. I been playing around with my CD-Writer and created a CD of the 2,000 photos, text files, stories, and my website Pages. These photos and files goes back to my first issue of T&T in March 1997. Tons of history crammed into a CD. Let’s give two away every Saturday until Christmas. If you want to enter, just send me email! I’ll draw out two names every week and list them in the next issue of T&T. One email, that’s all it takes to get in the hopper.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/ttcda.jpg“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
-Ralph Waldo EmersonSee everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday September 15, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 230
This issue of my T&T will be a short issue. Since Tuesday I have just not had it in me to write and research information for my newsletter. Like so many, I am sad and mad at the same time. I hope justice is served quickly. Since September 11th I’ve been inundated with emails about the NYC attack. Most of them are Forwards of Forwards and I couldn’t even tell who was the originator of the email. I received so many emails with unknown attachments, most I just deleted. I did receive one email in particular written in the first person. I want to share the text of that email now:
“Butch, After reading this weeks T&T, I was amazed at the song, “Some Gave All” as it is TODAY the 12th of Sept, I am in the military and was in a meeting in Mississippi at the time. We were recalled back to our base in Ft. Worth as soon as possible. As it stands September the 11th will forever be in the minds of not only the citizens living now, but ALL citizens forever more.”
I also received emails from a number of T&T friends and some ex-Ardmoreites who live within a few miles from ground zero in NYC. They wanted to tell me they were safe. I thanked God. I have my U.S. Flag flying in front of my house…. a country united more than ever now.
But one injustice was did not happen in NYC, but right here in Ardmore. Within hours of the attack some service stations here in Ardmore raised their gas prices to unbelievable heights. All for no reason except in the name of price gouging. I am grateful the Daily Ardmoreite listed those service stations in their Wednesday, September 12th newspaper. Here is that listing:
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/gas91201.jpgThere is one service station in town I have bought gas from for many years. Why? It’s previous owner, Mr. Ledgerwood, was attacked and beaten in the early 1980s by an individual I will not name here, because he sold his gas “too cheap”. I was called to take Mr. Ledgerwood to the hospital that day for treatment of his injuries. But had this station been one of those who participated in the price gouging last Tuesday, I would cease to purchase gasoline there. After the Governor issued a statement to stop the price gouging, and set up a price gouging hotline, the gas prices dropped down as quickly as they were raised, to around their previous and present price of $1.57 a gallon. I wonder if those who were overcharged can get a refund?
On the drive started last month to raise money to build a memorial at the Airpark to those who died training there during the 40s, I can report we almost have enough money to purchase the Autumn Rose granite stone. The link below is a listing of those who have mailed in their pledges. We still need those of you who made a pledge to mail it in, if you haven’t already done so. With $1,485 in, we have almost reached the needed goal. Thanks to everyone who is making this possible.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/pledgepd.txtHere is the website set up for info on this memorial drive.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.htmlAnd we have a new website being developed for the American Flyers Memorial Park. Oklahoma resident Linda Wagner is creating a site of beauty and honor. Check it out at the following link. Remember, it is still under construction.
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafmSOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Hi Butch I think the picture of the water falls this person found in their mothers picture are of Seven Falls in Colorado Springs.”
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“Hi Butch: This is in response to the person who sent you a photo of a series of waterfalls and asked you if it could be a photo of Turner Falls. I think I can definitely say it is not Turner Falls. I do think it may be Seven Falls in Colorado. I was there in 1937 when I was twelve years old. I think that is an old photo and the photo looks very much like what I remember. It may not look like that at all today.”
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“Hello Butch, Just looked at the photo in vol 5 issue 229 pg.4 that a reader wanted to know if it was Turner Falls. This looks like a real old photo of “Seven Falls” at Colorado Springs, Colo.”
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“Hey Butch, For what it’s worth, I think the picture of the falls that the person thought could be Turner Falls is: The Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, Colo. Look forward to you T&T every (Friday night) in Abilene, Tex.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/whatfall.jpg
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“Hello again Butch, I found my photo of “Seven Falls” at Colorado Springs,Colo. There is no question, The photo in todays T&T is the same. I took this in 1955.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/7fallsco.jpg
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“Last week and this week talking about Reavis Drug Store brought back memories to me. They did indeed make good cherry cokes and we used to stop in after the movies in the afternoon and get a “walking sundae” It was just a scoop of ice cream with the topping but in a paper cup so we could eat it on the way home. It was indeed between Kresses and Anthony’s but that was after it moved. I’m not real sure where it was before but it was much smaller. I stopped in once while I was driving to Oklahoma City from West Texas back in about 1958 or 59 and it was just the same then and the mother of a friend of mine was working there at that time. That was my last time to go to Reavis. Thanks for the memories.”
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“Good morning!! I’ve never heard of Hell Roaring Creek, but I knew exactly where it was the minute I read the description by another reader. After you cross Oswalt Road, Marsden turns into New Hope Road to the south. I don’t know why it’s called Hell Roaring unless, at one time, it was a raging river. Now it is just a trickle through the countryside.”
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“Butch, this may be a little much of a stretch but you have a nice diverse age group for your list and everything and i wanted to make my little plug for a friend’s band. Please pass along. or post freely.The band Puddle Of Mudd, From Kansas City. Feature the Drummer Greg Upchurch from Kingston, Oklahoma. This band is just straight forward Rock and Roll and not Heavy. They are the First New Rock Artist in Soundscan history to debut in the top ten! Puddle of Mudd splashes onto the charts with 116,000 copies of “Come Clean” sold and a record breaking debut! First week of sales from the Aug, 28 Release Date. They Debut with the album at Number 10 on Billboard Top 200 their First week. Some may have seen the video on MTV for the song “Control” or have heard it on the radio. I Would like to invite anyone that is interested in learning more about this band to visit the sites below, or get the Control2.exe which is a Postcard. They leave for Europe in 3 days for 2 weeks of touring over there and then back here. They have only been Touring since mid April and have been on 2 Successful tours with bands that have Number 1 singles out now. Recently toured with Staind/Cold now with Godsmack & Deftones.”
http://www.muddinyoureye.com My Fan site.
http://www.puddleofmudd.com Official Site
http://www.interscope.com/postcards/puddle/control2.exe
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Puddle_Of_Mudd Join the Mailing list.
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“Butch, This a picture of Orr, Oklahoma School 1916.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/orr1916.jpg
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“This is a picture of Wilson School in 1923, I think Southward”.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wilson23b.jpg
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“This reader is not entirely correct on his information regarding the location of Reavis Drug. As others have noted, The Reavis -Frame Drug Store was a partnership arrangement between Mr. Reavis & Mr. Frame. After that partnership dissolved Mr. Reavis did in fact refurbish the old C.R.Anthony store location on the NE corner of Main & B St.& moved his business into it. It was the first super Drug Store in Ardmore – Mr. Reavis did not build any building on the south side of Main & did not move his store to that location where the Kerr Reavis Store is located now. That building was built by Mr. T.A.Gravitt, former owner of the Ardmore Pharmacy, which was located in the Simpson Building [later the Little Bldg. and now the Colston Bldg.) Mr. Gravitt moved his Pharmacy into the building above mentioned and operated it until his death but the business remained ( Gravitt Drug Store) & in operation for several years and was managed by his widow & Ms Daisy Nichols.(sp?). They had to employ a pharmacist to fill prescriptions for them until it was sold to a fine young Pharmacist by the name of Henry Parks. The name of the store then became the Parks Drug Store. Mr. Parks was a very successful business man but became ill & passed away several years ago. The next owner was Lawrence Delay and he retained the name “Parks Drug” but the store burned while he was operating it. He moved away and later passed away also. Bob Kerr & Elaine (Wilson) Kirk then became owners of the Pharmacy but later that partnership dissolved and then pharmacists Bob Kerr & David Reavis became owners & operators of the store. Presently the name of the store remains the Kerr Reavis Drug Store. David Reavis is a son of Mr. Maynard Reavis and it is because of David the name Reavis still is prominent in this town. Maynard Reavis of the old Reavis Drug Company never moved from the corner of Main & B Sts.and the store simply closed. A proper source for more complete information can be acquired from David Reavis.”
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“Hi Butch: A reader asked about old County school records. “Someone” (there goes that Sometimers again) told me that they are stored at the Courthouse Annex building.”
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“Hi Butch, It was great to finely get to meet you, set for a few minutes and talk about some of my memories of Ardmore in the 40’s and 50’s. Several people wrote in this past week about the location of the Reavis Drug store, which brought to mind my best memory of the Reavis Drug store. As someone said, lot’s of Airman hung out at Reavis Drug and my younger sister was going with one of them. Trying to lookout for her I told her to stay away from the Airman and Drug Store. When I found out she had gone to town I knew where she would be. I called my life long friends Don White, Bobby Taylor and James Walker and told them I had a Airman to whip and I needed someone to watch my back. All the way to town I kept telling my friends just how bad I was going to whip this Airman. Well sure enough Cathy was there, I went in ready to go to war, but setting beside her was one of the biggest, most well built young men I had ever saw. Sis saw me and said “Buddy I’d like you to meet Dick Wyse”. Fear had shut my mouth real tight, all I could get out was “Hi Sis!”. Then I turned around and outside I went. My friends still tease me to this day about the Airman I was going to whip at Reavis Drug Store. Dick turned out to be my brother-in-law and was a wonderful man. He was took much to soon in a car accident.”
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“Butch, I just came home on the fifth of Sept from the hospital, on Sunday the first I had a heart attack they did an angiogram and found three blockages, one 90% two 80%. The same day they did angioplasty and put in three stents I feel better now. Keep me in your prayers.” [email protected]
———————————————————————–< br> “Hi Butch, I enjoy receiving your T&T each week. I grew up in Sulphur and I know you have many current and former Sulphurites who read your newsletter each week. This is about some memories of a wonderful black gentleman named Dan Taylor who used to push a red cart from which he sold hot tamales down by the Frisco Depot during the early 40’s…I delivered the Daily Ardmoreite all over Sulphur at the time and Dan was one of my favorite customers. When it was cold, he would invite me into his house to warm up. We would sit by his stove and talk or I would watch him as he made the tamales in his kitchen. Needless to say, I never did collect money for his newspaper. I ate it all in his wonderful tamales. After Dan became too old to push his cart, we used to go to his house and pick up a dozen on a regular basis. If any more of your readers remember this old friend, I would like to hear from them. By the way, my boss with the Ardmoreite was a man named Fred Hicks. I think he later served as mayor of Ardmore. He was also a man I admired very much.”
———————————————————————-ย “Here is a site with tons and tons of pictures of the tragedy in NY.”
http://www.phatmax.net/wtc/index.php
———————————————————————-ย ======================================================================In last week’s issue I quoted only part of the 1992 song “Some Gave All” by Billy Ray Cyrus. Since last Tuesday the song has been played a lot on the radio and TV stations. I want to quote the entire song this week.
“Some Gave All” by Billy Ray Cyrus 1992
“I knew a man called him Sandy Kane
Few folks even knew his name
But a hero was he
Left a boy, came back a man
Still many just don’t understand
About the reasons we are freeI can’t forget the look in his eyes
Or the tears he cries
As he said these words to meAll gave some and some gave all
And some stood through for the red, white and blue
And some had to fall
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall
Some gave allNow Sandy Kane is no longer here
But his words are oh so clear
As they echo through out our land
For all his friends who gave us all
Who stood the ground and took the fall
To help their fellow manLove your country and live with pride
And don’t forget those who died America can’t you seeAll gave some and some gave all
And some stood through for the red, white and blue
And some had to fall
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall
Some gave allAnd if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall, yes recall
Some gave all, Some gave all”See everyone next Saturday.
Butch Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday September 7, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 229
The donations for the Memorial stone in honor of those men who died in the 40s and 50s at the airpark during training exercises, are now coming in by snailmail. I have really been humbled by some of the emails I’ve received, after I told last week we needed another $300 to purchase the Autumn Rose granite instead of a gray granite stone. Several of you wrote your checks out for more then you originally pledged. Here is just one email I received…..
“Hi Butch, I will send $35 instead of the $25 pledged. If others will do the same, we can have the Autumn Rose Monument easily.” -Maryland
We now have $975 in the memorial fund. I know we are going to reach our goal of $1,500 if everyone mails in their pledges, and we all work together to make it happen! Here is a Webpage with links to Pledges made the past four weeks, and also donations received to date. If you’ve made a pledge, we really need it now…… to make the $1,500 goal. Thanks. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.html
My next door neighbor has a couple of pecans trees in his back yard. And about half of one of those trees hangs over on my property. I noticed this week that the tree is loaded heavy with pecans. The limbs are drooping with all the weight. I noticed the same scene at the courthouse pecan trees, heavy with pecans. If this is any indication, Carter county should have a good crop of pecans this fall.
I told everyone last week my grandfather, Stanley Carmon, built the old Swift’s Feed Store building, in the southeast corner of Caddo and East Broadway, across the street east from the present Key’s Feed Store. Here is a couple of pics I took of this old building this week.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/swifta.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/swiftb.jpgThe Swift building is made of the same kind of red bricks my grandfather used to build many of the brick buildings and 29 schools he built. The bricks came from the Ada Brick Company in Ada, Oklahoma. The Ada Brick Company started making bricks before statehood (1907) and ceased their brick making at the Ada plant on January 31, 1981. On February 1, 1981 a new owner commenced the operation of the Ada Brick Company, made four “runs” of bricks and then decided to not produce them anymore. The Ada Brick Company still sells bricks, but they are made by nearly a dozen other brick factories around the country. The old Ada Brick Company was located next to the railroad tracks in the far southeast part of Ada at Brick Yard Avenue and Kerr Lab Road. Here’s a map I marked showing the location of this piece of Oklahoma history.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/adabrick.jpgHere is what is reported as the last remnants of the old Brock School. The property owner where it is now located says he’ll be tearing it down soon.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brock9a.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brock9b.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brock9c.jpgThis is the complete legal description from the 1923 Carter County Schools book of where the old Brock school used to be, just a mile or so where the building in the above photos sits:
“Laid Out & Organized – Approved March., 1909 Ardmore, Oklahoma – School Board – C.M. Murphey, Director Maudie Merriott, Clerk H.E.Copeland, Member DESCRIPTIVE BOUNDARY AND OFFICIAL RECORD OF SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 28 BEGINNING at S.W.Cor. Sec. 1, 5 South, And 1 West, Thence South To The East Cen. Line of Sec. 26, Thence East To The West Cen. Line of Sec. 29, Thence North To The S.E. Cor. Sec.19, Thence East To The South Cen. Line Of Sec.20, Thence North To Cen. Of Sec.20. Thence East To Cen. Of Sec.21, Thence North To South Cen. Line Of Sec. 4, Thence West To The S.W. Cor. Of Sec. 1, Point Of Beginning.”
On Tuesday September 4, 2001 The Daily Oklahoman newspaper ran a story on my friend Mr Wikle at Marietta and his Wikle Water Works company. That same day, in the late edition of the Daily Ardmoreite, there was a story too! http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=747459&pic=none&TP=getbusi ness
A Reader sent me a pic of their old buggy they own in Bentley, Oklahoma (Atoka County). http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/bentley2.jpg
Here’s a pic of the old Pioneer Telephone Company in Oklahoma City. Imagine the eavesdropping that must have went on in that building around 1910. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/pioneer9.jpg
This is an old pic of Roosevelt, Oklahoma. It’s in Kiowa County south of Hobart. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/roosvelt.jpg
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“We live just about 2 miles or so north of Hell Roaring creek. Take I-35 south to Oswalt Road and go west. It’s off Oswalt. I can’t remember the name of the road that you turn left on, but the right turn (north) is Marsden Road. If you turn left (south)at the very same intersection just a few hundred yards south you will find Hell Roaring Creek. Oswalt splits the names of the same road, but I can’t remember the name of the south turn.”
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“Dear Butch, Greetings from (not so) sunny California. Re the recent inquiry about the location of Hells Roaring Creek. According to my trusty Street Atlas USA software, Hells Roaring Creek empties into the Washita River, approximately one and a half miles north, north west of Bradley, Oklahoma. Also, highway 19 bisects this river approximately two and a half miles west, north west of Bradley, Oklahoma. The map makers have cleaned the name up a bit. Now it is just plain old Roaring Creek.”
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“It’s strange how so many creeks can come up with the same name. I was born and raised on Hell Roaring Creek, but in Pawnee County.”
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“Hi Butch., If my memory is correct, (most of the time it isn’t) a guy named Jake Good was the owner of the Squeeze in back in the 50’s. Ask around about him and see if anyone can shed any light on this. By the way, this is the first time in months that I have been able to view all the JPG pics on your T&T. Keep up the good work. JAKE’S NAME WAS PRONOUNCED GOODE – BUT NOT SURE OF SPELLING. His Grand-daughter still lives in this area.”
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“Butch, You can contact Pharmacist David Reavis at the Kerr Reavis Drug Store here in Ardmore. I know he can help you, since it was his Dad’s Drug Store. I think the C.R.Anthony store was located in this building before Mr. Reavis moved his business to that location (B & W Main).”
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“Hey Butch. When I was a kid in the 40s/50s, Reavis Drug was not on the corner of Main and B but the second store between what I think might have been and Anthony’s or Penney’s and Hill Shoe Store, next store east would have been Kresses. Anyway, Reavis was opened to the street (ie no doors), on the right going in was a huge (to me) long soda fountain and beyond that were booths. On the left was the cash register,etc. My aunt worked there after high school. All the soldiers from the Ardmore Base used to be in there all the time. I must have been about 10 or 11 and since I only lived a couple of blocks from Main Street, we always stopped into Reavis’s on our way back from Kresses. How’s that for a little nostalgia? I may be a little off on the locations but I don’t believe so. Thanks for your great effort with TnT, I really enjoy it.”
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“Hi Butch: Enjoyed Sept. 1 issue of T & T. You mentioned search engines, I have found one that tops any I have ever seen. It is called Copernic. You can download it at http://www.copernic.com The Copernic 2001Basic is free. It is a great search tool.”
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“Oklahoma Place Names,” by George Shirk, agrees with this. The full entry for Durwood in the book: Formerly Yellow Hills. In Carter County 7 miles east of Ardmore. Post office name changed to Durwood, September 11, 1891. On April 8, 1913, another post office was established a few miles east Marshall County and designated New Durwood. Its name as changed to Durwood on October 11, 1913; in 1926 the post office was moved to Carter County. The name was intended to be Deerwood, but through error the Post Office Department established the post office under the name Durwood. For Yellow Springs, the entry reads: “In Carter County, 7 miles east of Ardmore. Post office established November 25, 1890, and name changed to Durwood, September 11, 1891.”
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“Butch, I am trying to find any information on Luther (Bud) Green who was in Orr, Love Co., I.T. in 1890. He left there in December of 1899. I think he may have worked for Bill Washington. If any of your readers know any information would like to have it. Thanks!” [email protected]
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“Hi Butch~~~I need to inform you of my new email address. I have missed the last 2 installments and I look forward every Fri to reading This and That. I loved the word and pictures on John Small’s bakery. When I as little girl, I used to take piano lessons just around the corner from Small’s bakery and sometimes, my mother would stop and let my sister and I go in and buy a loaf of warm bread, right out of the ovens and we would take it home and eat it with butter and jelly. What a delight!!!!”
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“Hi Butch, I just had to tell you, if you want a great tasting BBQ sauce, try Head Country original flavor. It’s the only kind my family likes. It costs a little more but its worth it. It may be close to what your looking for.”
———————————————————————–< br> “Butch, just wanted to let you know we are still enjoying every Saturday morning by reading your column. All is well and still hot out here in the Southwest. But, then Nevadans are use to that! Just wanted to comment on a couple of thing in your last issue. One is the picture of what is supposed to be Reavis Drugs. I think that is near but not quite the location of the old Reavis Drug. It had been at the one spot for many years and that was between C.R. Anthony and the old Kress store on West Main. Anthony’s was on the corner and Reavis’s Drug was the next store down. They use to have the best Cherry Cokes in town! It was a pure pleasure to go in on Saturdays when we shopped and sit down to a Cherry Coke at their fountain. Mr. Reavis was always friendly and gave a ‘howdy’ to everyone who came in. The other thing I wanted to mention was another Southern Oklahoman who was in Gene Autry’s band. You mentioned Cowboy Slim Reinhardt and I remember him, but I remember Johnny Bond from Marietta even better. I met his parents many years ago and they gave me a songbook of Johnny’s and I still have it. Those were the good old days of simpler times and down to earth pleasures. Thanks for all you do to bring back old photos and memories of times gone by. It does a heart good to go back and recollect sometimes. Keep it up.”
———————————————————————-ย “To the reader of your T & T who was asking about Jake Goode owning the Squeeze Inn in the 1950’s………as a matter of fact, he did. Jake Goode is the person who sold the Squeeze In Cafe to my grandmother, Tressie St.Clair, around 1962 and she sold it back to him in 1972. The place was very small, but the food was very good, and just like home cooking. I know there are many, many people who will never forget eating at the Squeeze In.”
———————————————————————-ย “Hello Butch, I can tell you a little about Reavis Drug Store. In the late 30s, it was Reavis-Frame Drug Store. Mr. Frame sold his interest to the Reavis. Later on in the early 40s Mr. Reavis built a new drug store and closed the store at Main & B. The new drug store was on the south side of W. Main street where west Broadway turned over to W. Main street. Approx. one blocks west of Central Park. This was also US 70 at that time. The Reavis-Frame Drug Store was also one of the first stores to become air conditioned in Ardmore. Before this, most stores only had fans to move the air. The next time I’m in Ardmore, I’ll get some addresses to give to you.”
———————————————————————-ย “I ran (not really) across this picture in my mother’s box of pictures. I have no idea where or what it is. Does it look familiar to you, it would not be an aerial photo of Turner Falls from early years would it? I have been to the top and know the stream goes up the side of the hill for quite a stretch but this looks too tall to be Turner Falls and the trees all look like evergreens. When I first looked at it I thought it might be a mine or something like that but something reminded me of Turner Falls. It is backed with a linen like cloth and it looks like it has been cut down from maybe a bigger picture. Do you think the rocks and ledges look like the ones in the Arbuckles? Strange I have been through her pictures before but never noticed this one before. Wondering if you had ever seen one like it or knew where it was.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/whatfall.jpg
———————————————————————-ย “Anyone have the recipe for Priddy’s salad dressing? I don’t think I have ever found one even similar. Thanks.”
———————————————————————-ย “Hello. Thought you would like to see the shape the Cole Cemetery on north edge of Ardmore is in. I had not been there in years. Walked from the road to the cemetery. It was hot today believe me. But hot was nothing compared to what I found at the end of the road. Someone has stacked the Segler Headstones into a pile. Also others have been knocked over and are just lying there. Who do we contact about this? I took a lot of pictures of the destruction but can’t send them in an e-mail, but here is one for you. You reach a lot of people and could put the word out about this.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/seglerg.jpg
———————————————————————-ย “Butch, I recently met a lady who was in the area looking for genealogy information. She had come to the Ardmore area from SC trying to locate her mother’s & grandmother’s old school records. Apparently, the grandmother, WILLIE CALVIN HITT b. 1915, had attended school at Durwood & at Dickson. I am trying to help this lady and was wondering if any of your readers might know where those records would be located? She said that some of the family is buried in Provence Cem. & the family might have lived close to it…she is not sure. The lady (Rhonda Stewart) said that her grandmother, CARRIE LOU GEORGE b. 1899, talked about riding a horse to school at Durwood. Did Provence also have a school? I told her that I would write to you & see if someone might have any information for her. Here is the family line : WILLIE CALVIN HITT (female), b. 1915, probably Carter Co. – Rhonda’s grandmother. CARRIE LOU GEORGE (great grandmother – Willie’s mom) b. 1899. Carrie Lou’s parents were THOMAS G. & MARY JANE MILLER GEORGE. Mary Jane was b. in the 1850’s & lived in the Provence area. She was a midwife. Buried in Provence Cem. Mary Jane & Thomas George were married in Texas. He died at the age of 82 in 1934. In addition to Carrie Lou, Mary Jane & Thomas had 2 sons : JOHN CALVIN GEORGE, b. 1878, & WM. THOMAS GEORGE, b. 1893. Mary Jane Miller George was the daughter of JOHN & CAROLINE (Foeman or Foreman) MILLER. Caroline may have been Indian. John Miller was born in GA. Caroline died and John then married her sister SALLY FOEMAN (Foreman). Sally’s first husband had been Billy Slater, then she married John Miller. Confused yet, readers? If any one has anything that might be remotely connected, please contact Rhonda Stewart at [email protected] Please let Butch know if you know where old County school records (from the 1920’s & 30’s) might be located. Thanks.”
———————————————————————-ย “Butch, Was just wondering if you knew why the town of Rexroat no longer exists. I have heard stories of how it used to have hotels, groc stores, homes ect, and now there is only a church. Why were all of the building and homes torn down?”
———————————————————————-ย “Hello Butch I know how the game “Go in and out the windows” is played and probably all the words. I was just curious how many people played these games.Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window
Go in and out the window as you have done before.
Go fore and choose your lover
Go fore and choose your lover
Go fore and choose your lover as you have done before
Now kneel and say you love her
Now kneel and say you love her
Now kneel and say you love her as you have done before.This is done by a selected person. When He or She has done what the verse tells him another is chosen and it repeats until everyone has been selected or the bell rings!!!! ha
“Green Gravel” was a game my dad taught us to play.I’m 66 yrs old and my dad was 19 years older than me so suspect it was an old game. It went something like
Green Gravel, Green Gravel the grass is so green all over creation it’s a shame to be seen.
Can’t remember how the rest goes or how it was played but think i found it on the computer somewhere.”
———————————————————————-ย “Hello Butch: I an an avid reader of yours and have your web site in my favorites files. I have a friend in the Lone Grove area who has the original forms for a WPA Toilet.. He has asked me if somewhere on the internet I might find the dimensions to build an exact replica of one of those toilets.. I have searched the internet and have been unable to come up with anything.. Perhaps you can help.. He has no internet access so I am the intermediate in this deal. LOL Sure would appreciate any help at all.” [email protected]
———————————————————————-ย ======================================================================I was in such a hurry last week to hit the SEND button for my T&T, I forgot to tell who sang “Memories Are Made Of This”. It was Dean Martin in 1957.
I think this week’s feature song is appropriate for the Air Park Memorial and the effort of all those who donating money to help purchase the granite stone.
“Love your country and live with pride
And don’t forget those who died America can’t you seeAll gave some and some gave all
And some stood through for the red, white and blue
And some had to fall
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall
Some gave allAnd if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall, yes recall
Some gave all, Some gave all”-Billy Ray Cyrus, 1992
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday September 1, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 228
This week we exceeded the needed pledges to purchase a gray granite memorial for the 53 men who died while training at the Air base in the 40s and 50s. We appreciate those of you who made a pledge to help build this memorial, and now ask for those pledges be mail in. We hope over the next few weeks to bring in another $400 so an Autumn Rose granite memorial can be purchased, instead of the gray granite. Whichever the case turns out, we will be placing the order for the memorial stone, so please mail in your pledge now, if you placed a pledge the past month.
The last few weeks I been searching high and low for the recipe Lieutenant McKerson (1914-1997) used to make his BBQ on East Main. I heard a man in Georgia had it, but that turned out a dead end. So, I’ll keep searching. Also I have been unable to find a photo of McKerson’s BBQ stand (it was tore down about a month ago), maybe someone out there has one to share? Here’s photo of Lieutenant McKerson, he passed away in 1997. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mckerson.jpg
I remember going to McKerson’s BBQ stand in the late 60s. I’d take him a whole chicken from the grocery store, and he’d charge me 25 cents to smoke it. Boy was it good tasting!
But let’s go back, way back to 1936. Before Lieutenant McKerson and his BBQ stand. The first person to really introduce BBQ to Ardmore was I.A. Benjamin (1895-1972). He set up his BBQ stand in 1936 in a sheet iron building at 429 East Main, the northwest corner of East Main and “E” Street. It was called Benjamin’s Barbecue Stand and he sold BBQ from there until the early 1940s. (Lieutenant McKerson opened his BBQ stand right after he returned from serving his country in WWII.) I don’t have a photo of I.A. Benjamin yet, but his decendants are looking for one, and maybe by next Saturday I’ll have one!
But there still is a BBQ stand on East Main, its Mama’s BBQ. The owner is Linda Gail Pickens. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mamabbq.jpg
Here’s a photo of my brother, Billy Bridges (1947-1979), standing in the front yard of my grandfather Stanley Carmon’s home at 805 3rd NE. The reason for this photo is you will see in the background the old Small’s Bakery. The bakery before Mr. John R. Small (1890-1966) opened up his second bakery at 204 “H” Street Northeast (the old Priddy’s Salad Dressing). I remember back in the 60s my grandfather being asked to come over and give a tour of the building. They wanted to know some history on the construction of the red brick building. Seems my grandfather liked red, most of the schools and buildings he built were red brick. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/small50.jpg
And is the new bakery my grandfather built for Mr. Small on “H” NE. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/small01.jpg
My grandfather built also built the old Swifts Feed Store building, in the southwest corner of Caddo and East Broadway, across the street east from Key’s Feed Store. I don’t have a pic of it, but will get one next week.
Here’s another red brick building Stanley Carmon built, the old Mac’s Wholesale Building at 126 “A” NE. I helped unload tons of plywood and sheetrock in the far south end of this building (middle of the block) back in the 60s. My grandfather used it for storage. At the top of the building it reads, “BYRNE 1913”. Does anyone know who this Mr. Byrne is? http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/macswhl.jpg
And then there was the red brick C.B Tanner Food Store at 726 3rd NE, later becoming Hunt’s Food Store. I spent many hours after school and saturday’s working for Herman and Alice Hunt, stocking and sacking groceries for customers. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/huntgro.jpg
Has anyone heard of a transit? Here is a photo of a modern transit. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/transit3.jpg
And this is the antique transit or level, an Architects Convertible Wye Level, used by my grandfather Stanley Carmon which he bought around 1924 or 1925. The instrument is made by Keuffel & Esser Co, New York, NY. The serial number on the wooden box that holds it is 45030. In the 60s I used it as a telescope to look at the moon. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/transit2.jpg
Here is some history on the German company Keuffel and Esser and their surveying instruments. http://www.surveyhistory.org/keuffel_&_esser.htm
If anyone knows how to use this old level, and willing to teach me how to use it, I’ll give them a bottle of Wikle Water! Oh, by the way, I don’t have the tripod for the level.
I’ve had special request from a Reader for info on the old Reavis Drug Store. The location of this piece of history is West Main and “B” Street. If you have anything to share about this building, please pass it along to us. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/reavis3.jpg
Here is a photo of a building erected in 1912 on East Main street across the street from Daube’s Department Store. (The old Texhoma Office Supply.) The building is named the Stong Building, 108 East Main, and was owned by the widow of Harry G. Stong (1861-1912), Retta Stong (1873-1937). Mr. Stong began here in Ardmore growing a wine vineyard north of “G” and 5th NE. In 1903 Harry Stong moved his family to their new home at 630 McLish SW, which at that time, he owned the whole block. Mr. Harry Stong died in 1912 of typhoid Fever. His wife, Retta Stong, was a sister to John Small, the bakery man. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/stong.jpg
The past few months I been trying to search out a photo of my Great Grandfather Howard C. “Tuck” Carmon (b. 1847) and his wife Ada Carmon (b. 1852). I have no idea what they look like. They came from Altoona, PA around 1880 and settled in Gainesville, Texas. She died in Gainesville, TX in 1897 and my great grandfather died there a year later in 1898. His father, Alexander Carmon/Carman was born in 1801. Maybe someone out there knows where I can go searching for a photo of these two?
This week I was out visiting Mrs. Wilson (Wilson Monuments) at Lone Grove. She showed me a photo of her parents grocery store at Rexroat, Oklahoma back in the 40s. The photo is from the 1953 Rexroat School criterion. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/rexroats.jpg
And this is a photo in the 1953 Rexroat school annual of the gym. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/rexroatg.jpg
When I drove up at the Wilson’s place, there were some people there placing an order for a monument. I asked the man if he was from Ardmore, he said no, but he was stationed at the Ardmore Airpark in 1951 when the Korean War was going on. He was assigned to the fire department at the air base. We had a good conversation about the air base and he was going to have his children pull up Gary Simmons’s website on the air base history when he got back home in PA. The visitor was Arnold Johnson from Erie, Pennsylvania. Here is the business card he gave me. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/johnsonpa.jpg
I have a friend over by Kingston, Oklahoma who has been receiving my T&T for a long time. I found out recently she had a bell in her yard. She has been holding out on me all this time! She finally admitted it the other day, and said she’d get me a pic. Boy, has she got a beautiful bell! Has anyone else got a bell out there in their yard and not telling me? Now come clean, your coniencious will feel much better if you tell me. hahaha It’s like one Reader told me a year ago, “Butch this is crazy, when I’m out driving I am subconsiouly looking for you any bells”. hahaha http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/tensbell.jpg
Last Saturday was pickup day here in Ardmore of the Share program food distribution. Let’s see, there was lots of goodies for $17.15…. Lemon Pepper Chicken for Kabobs- 14 OZ., Sausage Links- 12 OZ., Breaded Chicken Breast Fillets- 1 LB., Deli Smoked Turkey Breast- 8 OZ., Ground Beef- 1 LB., Potatoes, Celery (sleeved), Baby Carrots- 1 LB., Yellow Onions- 2 LBS., Gala Apples- 4, Oranges- 4, Bartlett Pears- 4, Red Grapes- 1 LB., Aunt Jemima French Toast- 12 OZ., Fudge Brownie Mix- 8 OZ. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/share801.jpg
Remember, if you eat, you qualify for the Share Program. For more info on the Share Program in Ardmore call Carole Ellis at 580-223-5287. http://www.heartlandshare.com Here’s a nice write-up on the Share Program by The Daily Ardmoreite this week. http://ardmoreite.com/stories/083001/liv_share.shtml
The 73 year old Seth Thomas tower clock in the dome of the courthouse is back working again! I got that limit switch repaired this week.
Speaking of the Carter county courthouse, workers have been busy since last Saturday installing the brick pavers around the pavilion. Here’s some photos I snapped.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/pav825.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/pav828.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/pav828b.jpg
And here is the paver project near completion on Friday August 31, 2001 at 5pm. Beautiful.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/pav831.jpgLast week I spoke about what we used to kill ants at the airpark memorial. It was not ampro, but Amdro. I found it at Walmart for a little less then 10 dollars. This is three times higher than the other name brand ant killers, but the other brands didn’t work.
And I had a wee mistake in the directions I gave last week on where to find some Wikle Well Water in Ardmore. The Total Grove Mart is right off I-35 and next door to the Karmike Five Theater. But the exit is Exit 31a and not 32. So, take Exit 31a and find out what good water taste like!
Here’s a neat little website…. if you enter a date, then enter another date, it will tell you how many days between the two dates. Or days, months, years. Might come in handy for genealogist. http://www.acutesoftware.com.au/datecalc.html
I’ve been using a search engine this week that may be better than google.com http://ixquick.com/
Does anyone have a cherry picker? I have a tree limb in my backyard that needs to come down. I think a basket lift is needed to get the limb down safely. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/treelimb.jpg
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Halito Ardmore Oklahoma, The white streak is either the Aurora experimental aircraft (it is hypersonic) or it is what ufo guys call a rod. I do not know which, but would be betting on the aircraft. I have seen films of the thing and it is fast, really fast.”
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“Hi Butch, Thanks for sharing the mail from Lou Harper with us. I have been to the Crazy Horse Memorial, as well as Little Bighorn, so her website was of great interest. Maybe I should bring the pictures I took for you to see.”
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“Butch – the Main Street Authority is working on a number of historical plaques to recognize some of the old buildings in downtown Ardmore. We are looking for a good picture of the California Cafe, which was located on the corner of Main & Mill Streets (current location of Stolfa Bros. Hardware). If anyone has any photos we can copy, please contact me at 580-226-3490. We will return the pictures unharmed.” – Judi Elmore
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“Butch, in regards to the name “Durwood”. I was born there and researched it a little. Seems it should have been Deerwood, but the name did not have the loops in it when it was sent in to be registered and it will be forever Durwood. On such little things are towns named.”
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“Hi Butch., If my memory is correct, (most of the time it isn’t) a guy named Jake Good was the owner of the Squeeze in back in the 50’s. Ask around about him and see if anyone can shed any light on this. By the way, this is the first time in months that I have been able to view all the JPG pics on your T&T. Keep up the good work.”
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“butch, you might want to mention the mp3 site Kazaa.com, it is a great sight. I am using it now and it is just like napster. I coujldn’t get audio galaxy to ever connect for me.”
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“Butch, I was wondering how many of your readers remember a man that played for Gene Autry’s band–they called him Cowboy Slim Reinhart. He had a radio show too that aired from Dallas, I think. Some of his family still live in the Ardmore area and have promotional pictures and other memorabilia from that era–maybe they can share some copies of it on the net or at local museums sometimes soon. Take care and keep on doing what you do.”
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“Hi Butch, I do so enjoy your column. Put me down for a $25 pledge for the airmen’s memorial. Just let me know when and where to send it. Also, I believe the missing word on the poem (In and out the window) is Go forth and choose your partner. I can’t remember the rest of it either. To the lady finding her past relatives – and whether they are rascals, there was the tale of one who was hanged; and entered into the family genealogy as “died when a section of the platform gave away at a public exhibition.”
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“Butch I had a very weird experience about three weeks ago. I am not into the UFO thing, but this was definitely flying, and I couldn’t identify it. I was driving along a country road east of Roff, Ok., on a road that runs btween Roff and Fittstown. My husband, who works in Ardmore, and I are looking for a house with land to buy. My children and I were getting the lay of the land. There were big white puffy clouds floating across the sky to the north as I drove east along this lonely country road. I was admiring the beauty of those clouds against the deep blue sky, when a small jet plane about two feet in length flew between me and the clouds about fifty to sixty feet to the north of my Ford Van. I was traveling about 30 miles per hour and this thing flew up behind me and overtook my van. It was black and looked like a small version of an F-16. The jet seemed to ride along side me a moment, and then flew in front of me and was out of sight within about 10 seconds. It maneuvered just like a jet airplane, and just flew too fast to be a remote controlled toy. There was no fuel trail, and nobody around that I could see to control it. It was very close and I could make out most of the details. It flew just like the Tomcats in Top Gun. I have never seen anything like that in my life. The only purpose I could see for such a thing is recon work. If you or anybody else has seen this strange thing, I would really be interested in hearing about it. This is an awfully long way from a military installation. Very strange!”
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“Butch: Do you know where Hell Roaring Creek is located. It is mentioned in some of the Pioneer Indian Papers as being northwest of the Arbuckle Mountains. Would it have a different name today?”
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“Butch, if any of your readers are interested in reading about the Roman Emperors this is a good link.” http://www.roman-emperors.org
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“Dear Butch, My sister-in-law forwards this to me every time she receives it and I want to tell you how much I enjoy it. I live in Ontario, California and have for the past 40 years but I lived around Madill and I went to high school for 2 of the best years of my life at Ardmore High. I have enjoyed all your editions and didn’t realize there were so many things I missed growing up there. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into this very important project. If you have anything on Madill history or Linn Community, I would appreciate a copy of it and wondered if you would put me on your e-mail list so I can get all of your editions. Thanks again for so much enjoyment.”
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“My husbands Great Grandfather was George Dougherty Stark, who I believe was a resident of Ardmore in the early 1900’s. One of his great grandsons sent me this little snippet about him. I thought you might be interested.”“George D Stark contracted a herd of cattle to go to the rail head in Ardmore in about 1892. He drove the cattle to Ardmore and sold them and took his part and sent for his wife Hattie Rogena and daughter Effie. Hattie was pregnant with Mary Charlotte “Lottie” . and she was born in Indian Terr. 1893. George put in a meat & fish Market On Caddo street in Ardmore. At the back of the store he dug a water well that supplied water to Dobbie department store and his Market .Caddo was the center of trade for the farmers who came to town to peddle their farm grown goods. He carried a whip rolled up on his hip. It is said he was quite proficient with it. It’s been said that none of his sons liked him because they thought he was mean to them .Actually he was a staunch man Stark is a Irish name that means stanch & steadfast and that really describes George D Stark. They tell a story about him and a neighbor got in to a argument over a Barn that was close to the property line. The sheriff was to come out and settle the dispute the next day. That night He and the boys rolled the barn on logs farther on to his property. Any other info or photos of George D Stark or his family I’d really love to see.” -New Zealand [email protected]
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“Mr. Bridges…. I am trying to find the family of a 2nd. Lt. Wayne J. Rabun. He was KIA in Oct. 1950 in the Korean Conflict. Research indicates that he was from Carter Co., Ardmore to be exact. His name is listed among those KIA, in the Carter Co. veterans list. The only listing of a Rabun in Ok. is Clyde in Edmond. Do you know of any existing, distant relatives of Wayne? Or how I may be able to contact them? Any help would be appreciated.” [email protected] Note: the Carter county cemetery records shows him buried at Woodford, Oklahoma
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“Hi Butch…The Ardmore Graduating Class of 1956 is having a reunion on September 7 and 8 and a few of the members have not been located. Just thought someone might be reading this and it might help. We’re having hot dogs at the Chickasaw Lake Club at 5 on Friday night and then going to the football game. Saturday breakfast is at Jim Dolmans and then golf at the Country Club. That evening we are having a production by a local company doing their last rendition of “Patsy Cline.” It will be at the Caddo Cafe.”
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“Hi Butch, I do so enjoy your column. Put me down for a $25 pledge for the airmen’s memorial. Just let me know when and where to send it. Also, I believe the missing word on the poem (In and out the window) is Go forth and choose your partner. I can’t remember the rest of it either. To the lady finding her past relatives – and whether they are rascals, there was the tale of one who was hanged; and entered into the family genealogy as “died when a section of the platform gave away at a public exhibition.”
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“Seeking any info on Clifford Seymour…… NAME: CLIFFORD EUGENE SEYMOUR, WIFE: MALINA C. SEYMOUR, JOB: CHIEF PETTY OFFICER U.S. NAVY RECRUITING — ARDMORE. LAST KNOWN ADDRESS — THEIR OWN HOME AT 1601 MAIN IN ARDMORE OKLAHOMA, ALL OF THIS INFORMATION IS FROM 1949 CITY OF ARDMORE DIRECTORY. ANY AND ALL HELP GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED.” [email protected]
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“Butch, I just did a print of the four carter county maps. I think your northeast map is missed label. When I laid all four maps together, it fits in the northwest corner. You might check it out by printing it off.”
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapeast.jpg (east half of Carter County)
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapcent.jpg (central part of county)
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapsw.jpg (southwest part of county)
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapnw.jpg (northwest part of county)
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“Your most recent move in placing your pictures all on one site is the greatest! I hope others agree- saving much time copying and pasting, and now I can look at all of them at one time in one place and decide if there are some I would like to copy. Thanks so much for giving us something to look forward to each Saturday!!”
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“Butch, We were out at our family graveyard Young cemetery east of the airpark and I thought you might like to see these three Indian burial sites. Or that is what my grandfather always told me that is what they were. As you can see the first one has a tree growing out of it.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/young1a.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/young1b.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/young1c.jpg
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“Greetings, I was given your address by someone who was kind enough to take the time to answer my inquiry about Brown Springs. I am a lead investigator with the Oklahoma City Ghost Club which is a group dedicated to the objective study of the paranormal activity. As such perhaps you would allow me to ask if you know of any maps or directions that would enable us to locate the area in question. Thanks for your time and consideration!” Club Site
http://okcgc.tripod.com/oklahomacityghostclub/
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“Hey Butch, Just getting back to New Orleans and playing catch up with the mail and T&T. Two days after seeing you at the extension office and your telling me you were going to be visiting Mr Wikle, my sisters took me to OKC to see the bombing memorial and museum. At the early part of the tour in the museum, the doyene was explaining about the water board’s taped meeting and how it started off to discuss a man’s petition from Marietta to bottle water. I told my sisters about our conversation and wondered if they were about the same person. Sure enough, they were. The museum is very impressive if you have’t visited it yet. Keep up the good work.” Harold in New Orleans
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“This site has been created for the purpose of returning dog tags found from Vietnam to their respective families. In the near future we expect to have a complete list of all the recovered dog tags.”
http://www.founddogtags.com/
———————————————————————-ย ======================================================================“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday August 25, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 227
This week I received a phone call from a lady in Texas. She was directed to me for information on a plane crash years ago. I asked her when, she said 1966. I told her I was familiar with that crash and had info on the Net. She told me her boy friend was on that flight, and she didnt know a lot about the crash, but has wanted to learn more all these years since 1966. Her email to me was so touching, I wanted to share it with everyone.
“Good evening Butch! It was a privilege and an honor talking with you today. My heart has been made light by finding your site today. For thirty five years I’ve cried myself to sleep remembering my John’s (John Odom) eyes. He had such a soulful look and was such a wonderful person that even today I can hear his voice and remember his smile. He was an athlete much greater than any Michael Jordan or Walter Patten. He went into the military to help his mother and was a grand young man, a baby more gentle than any lamb. He was kind and shy and I feel blessed just to have known him. There are so many memories. Thank you for all that you have done for young men who were not even related to you. I want to do more than just say words but I must get through the next few days of memories now. I have cried today and will cry more. John was my heart and I’ve missed him terribly. Please know that you are loved for what you are doing and I plan on staying in touch. I honor you sir for who you are. I hope you will write again. Much love and respect to you and all that you do.” -Texas
When I get phone calls and emails like that, it makes the effort all worth it. I”m just proud to be a part of the American Flyers Memorial Park at Ardmore Airpark, Gene Autry, Oklahoma.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/crash66.htmlI want to follow with this: We are still trying to raise enough money to purchase a granite stone for the more then 50 Army personnel who died during the years the Airpark was used as a training base. We now have over $900, but its going to take $1,500 to purchase a Autumn Rose stone to match the stone already out there. We still need help to get the word out, to meet this goal.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.htmlThis year two or three huge mounds of big red ants started colonizing near the memorial site. The first stuff Paul Mitchell bought to kill the red ants didn’t work. Then he bought some stuff called Amdro. There is not one live red ant any in of the mounds. Amdro is a granular type stuff, the ants carried down into the den, where it kills even the queen ant.
Here’s a pic I took of the Memorial Park this week…. it looks beautiful.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/afapark8.jpgHere’s a pic of the water treatment plant on the far north side of the Airpark.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/water8a.jpg
And here is the booster pump station.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/water8b.jpgWhen I was out north of Lone Grove I spotted sitting in a yard an old mail wagon. I remember the one very distinctly that sat in front of the mail depot in Ardmore in the early 60s. Mr. Avery L. Senter (1893-1973) lived behind us at 316 “H” Street NE.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/senter.jpgSometimes Mr. Senter take me with him to pick up the mail from the train at 4:00pm, then on to the old post office with it. Sometimes he’d use a mail wagon just like in the pic below to get the mail bags from the train to his truck.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mailwag8.jpgWhat I remember about the Senters is Mrs Senter told me around 1960 that you never leave blood that is on the ground, uncovered, to always cover it with dirt. She would use an ax and cut off a chicken’s head. Then she would take a hoe and cover every drop of blood with dirt.
This old buckboard (called a pickup today) was about a mile north of Highway 70 where Meridian intersects (Lone Grove).
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/buckbrd8.jpgLooks like the kids are using old Highway 77 north of Ardmore as a drag strip. These two pics were taken just north of the Caddo Creek Bridge
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/hwy77no.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/hwy77nob.jpgI stopped in Lone Grove and talked with Mrs. Wilson (Wilson Monuments). She showed me a copy of a book containing births dating back to 1918. The book holds the birth information on infant deliveries by Graham, Oklahoma physician J.T Barnwell (1866-1934). There were two of these books in the possession of Graham, Oklahoma resident Mary Kilcrease (she’s 92 years young!) Mary Kilcrease is the expert on the Graham Cemetery, she knows where everyone is buried. Some time ago someone borrowed one of the two old books, and never returned it. Maybe they’ll repent.
I said months ago if Napster was closed down, someone somewhere would come up with another site to download music. Well, audiogalaxy has done just that, only bigger and better. Audiogalaxy has millions of people sharing music files. Over 20 Million have downloaded their program.
http://www.audiogalaxy.com/I received a letter this week with photos of a bell on the Mississippi Queen! Kenneth Eck and his wife of Healdton had been on a little vacation and snapped these photos for me. Kenneth said the City of Cincinatti, Ohio gave the bell in 1976 to mount on the riverboat thinking it would be headquartered there. Some people who will do anything to get their hands on a bell! hahaha
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mqueen8.jpgI’m saving the worst for last. Or maybe its the best, depending on how you look at it. After this article, some of you are going to say I’ve completely lost it….. headed for the funny farm. J.L. Self, the 911 coordinator for the county, bought herself a Bushnell Laser RangeFinder this week. I was looking it over and took it outside to look up at the dome of the courthouse. I wanted to see what it said the distance is from the ground to the dome. I was standing on the east side of the courthouse, looking up through the viewfinder. There is a bottom on the top that shoots the laser to the object, reflects, and then gives you the distance.
http://hardinoptical.com/busyarprocom.htmlAs I looked through the viewfinder I saw, for a second or two, something gray flash in the background from the southwest to the northeast. It reminded me of a jet vapor trail, but this only lasted for a couple of seconds, then vanished. I took the instrument away, and look with my eyes, and couldn’t find anything. I looked through the RangeFinder again, nothing, and continued switching back in forth to no avail.
So, what did I see? Boy, you got me. But it was fast. Very fast. I already had a pic of the courthouse, do I tried to draw an example of the “flash” as I saw in the RangeFinder. Maybe someone out there has an idea what this could be? My example is much whiter then what I saw in the sky behind the dome Tuesday at noon.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/domenew8.jpgEver wonder how to save your emails to a floppy disk for archiving? Here’s an easy way.
http://www.steve.maurer.net/tutorials/email_tutorials/saving_email.htmย Here is another way to save those emails to floppy
http://www.wavzbak.com/hlp7.htmlI’ve talked about the importance of have a virus scanner on your computer the past few weeks. The free scanner http://housecall.antivirus.com continues to perform this task very nicely. I’ve learned something else this week, if you find about 4 files on your hard drive that look like this, “ffastun” with a goofy extension behind it, in your root directly, delete them. You can click START and FIND, then FILES AND FOLDERS to do a search on the hard drive. These files may allow hackers to have a backdoor to your hard drive.
http://www.sfol.com/sfol/santafe/realdeal/news.htmlJ.L. Self, Carter County 911 coordinator, is putting up a website for her office.
http://www.geocities.com/cartercountye911/I’ve scanned a map of Carter county that shows all the county roads and their names. You can find it on the Carter County Government website or each one of these links is a part of the map. http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapeast.jpg (east half of Carter County)
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapcent.jpg (central part of county)
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapsw.jpg (southwest part of county)
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/photos/cmapnw.jpg (northwest part of county)Another piece of history is coming down, the Corinth Baptist Church. The church is (was) located at 10th and “N” Northeast. Crews started tearing it down this week.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/corinthc.jpgThis is how the church looked sometime after 1974.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/corinthb.jpgAnd here is how the old church looked before remodeling was performed around 1974
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/corintha.jpgAnd here is another Ardmore church, built in 1930, that is gone. It was the Church of the Living God at 901 “A” Street Northeast (9th & “A”). This photo was taken around 1995.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/choflg95.jpgSpeaking of churches, several people have been arrested this week in connection with the fire that destroyed the Milo Baptist Church and the grave markers being vandalized here.
The bell mechanism of Seth Thomas tower clock in the dome of the courthouse has quit working. I went up there the other day and found the problem. It is almost the same identical problem that kept it from working for 12 years before Saturday October 5, 1996. That was the Saturday I restarted the clock after 12 years of silence. The problem this time, as before, is an electrical limit switch that controls the raising of the huge weights. Here’s a pic of the switch with a red arrow pointing to the problem. I promise to get it fixed in a couple of days.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/limit1a.jpgTo learn more about this magnificent 1928 timepiece, go to this link
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/clock.htmlI talked this week to Mr Wikle at Wikle Water Works at his little bottling company south of Marietta, Oklahoma. In last week’s issue I had pics of Mr. Wikle and his company.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle5.jpgIf you live in or near Ardmore and want to try some of his well water, you can pick it up by the gallon at The Grove Mart 580-223-9321 (Total Station next to Carmike Five Theater I-35 and Exit 31a) at Rockford Road and West Broadway. (This is the same place a Reader reported several weeks ago a person can buy Grapette.) A gallon of Wikle water is $1.15 plus another 9 cents for tax = $1.24 total. When I was there a couple days ago, the store didnt have a whole lot in stock, so you may want to call ahead if you’re driving any distance to pick some up. I know this, Wikle well water sure taste better than the water coming out of my kitchen facet! This is a link to the Wikle Water Works website. http://www.wikleswater.com/
Here’s an interesting footnote to the Wikle story: At 9:02am on April 19, 1995 Mr. Wikle and his family were across the street from the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma Water Resources Board office applying for his license to sell his well water. It is only by a miracle Mr. Wikle and his family were not killed by the bomb. But then that’s another story and I’ll tell you more in next week’s T&T.
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Wisdom of Solomon!! You’ve come up with a great “compromise” on the pictures with short-term easy-to-open storage on the T&T site and long-term in your Oklahoma History album. They’re too valuable to let drift away in cyberspace! Fortune City just wouldn’t work for me, and for others as well, it seems.” Bob Peterson, Durant
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“Hi Butch, You can count me in on a $25.00 donation in memory of my Father-in-law, Allen R. Byrd, who was an Airplane Mechanic at the Air Force Base in Ardmore. He passed away 12 years ago.” Claude Roberts – Juneau, Alaska
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“Butch, Have you found anyone with the receipe for McKerson’s BBQ sauce? Several folks I know would love to have it, too! Please add us to the list for a pledge of $20 to the Airpark Memorial. My husband was stationed there and ended up staying here.” Frank and Betty Ritter, Ardmore
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“I was wondering if you could ask folks that knew my grandpa, Harold Gene Robinson (courthouse maintenance), to send me any memories, stories, or information they recall about him. I would sure appreciate it.” [email protected]
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“Hey Butch, Good job as usual. I have one comment about the marker coming into Oklahoma. To me, that’s what it looks like, a marker, you know, a tombstone. Wish someone had been a little more creative, and made it into the shape of oklahoma, or a totem pole, or maybe even a combo oil derrick/totem pole on the face of an outline of the state. Just one persons opinion.”
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“Hi Butch, I would like for you to take a look at my latest web page. I’m attempting poetry about Oklahoma and Indians. There is one poem, “Crazy-Horse” an Oglala Sioux Chieftain, I wrote just because I loved the story about him. If you enjoy it, please feel free to pass it along to your readers.” http://luharper.homestead.com/shadowland.html
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“Butch, someone wrote in and asked if anyone remembered playing the children’s game “Go In & Out the Window”. I remember that well. When I was a student at the Washington Elem. on 5th Ave. NE we used to play that often. The words went something like this “Go in & out the window…go in & out the window…go in & out the window for we have came to stay.” (I think this next line is correct but am not positive) “Go forth and choose your (?)_____, go forth & choose your ___, go forth & choose your ___ for we have came to stay.” I know there have to be more words but it’s too early in the a.m. for my old brain to remember them (haha). I also remember that at recess some of my friends & I (from grades 1 to 3 when we had to play on the playground on the east side of the school), we would play “jump rope”. Sometimes we would take those big jump ropes & fold them in half. Someone would place their hands on the center of the rope & hold on to it. Children would line up (spaced about a foot apart) behind that person & hold on to the rope – one part on their left side & the other part of the rope on their right. We would add children until we had enough to fill the line with “horses”…then a “wagon master” would grab the 2 ends of the rope and yell “Giddyap” & we would take off running. You had to keep up or get trampled in the stampede. Many skinned knees & elbows resulted in those who tripped & fell…but it was fun anyway. When we went to 4th grade we got to play on the playground west of the school. It was a nice little park and still had the old wadding pool there (empty during school times). We would play dodge ball in the pool. I can still see Mr. Conley & the teachers out there sitting on those rock benches drinking their coffee and keeping an eye on us. We must have been pretty good kids because I don’t ever remember any fights or scuffles. We just played. We would play kick ball, jump rope, swing, play on the merry-go-round and the monkey bars. One cold day I was on top of the monkey bars (the very top bar that went straight across), and was laying over it on my stomach. We would do that & holding on to that bar, flip our bodies over it. Well, that day since it was so cold, I had on wool gloves and my hands slipped & I went crashing to the ground. I think I hit my head on every bar on the way down. Guess that’s what’s wrong with my brain now days! haha. I had a large knot and some bruising, but they just put a wet paper towel on my head and told me to lay my head down on my desk until I felt better. When I went home my mother took a look at my injuries and said that I should’ve had better sense than to do such a “dumb” thing…flipping over with my gloves on. This day and time, the teachers and the school would be sued for “traumatic” damages. My mom was right, though. I should’ve had better sense. Live & learn – I never did it again. I came across some old pictures in my mom’s picture box recently of some of the kids I went to school with there. Brought back many memories.”
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“Butch, in your recent T&T you mentioned Pres. Harry Truman coming thru Ardmore in the 1940’s. My sister, Sonya, was born in 1943 and she says that she can remember our dad taking her to see him. She sat on Daddy’s shoulders so she could get a glimpse of him above the crowd that was gathered. Little did she know at that time, but we are related to Truman, thru his maternal grandmother, Harriet Gregg. Our gg grandfather, Samuel Gregg, & Harriett were first cousins. Samuel & Harriett lived in MO not far from one another. After the birth of my great grandmother (Martha Victoria Gregg Armstrong) in 1870, the family moved to Jack Co TX. Anyway, I think it’s interesting to find out all the neat connections our family has. Some are not so “neat”. I do lots of genealogy research and someone asked me one time “What will you do if you find a connection to someone you don’t want to claim kin to”. I replied, “I’ll just DELETE them. (Haha).”
———————————————————————–< br> “Butch, I was in Boerne, Texas last week in their beautiful courthouse (forgot my camera)……… Anyway, they have a large framed whatever with pictures of courthouses from most if not all the counties in Texas. The pics are about an inch and a half and the “poster” was made by a company in Dallas. I copied their address and if you want it, just let me know. This is really a neat idea…in fact, if the price is right, I may just have to have one. I personally think it’s really great……..Just thought I’d tell you. I too have had trouble bringing up the pics especially the Truman and Matt Alexander one……Great stories about old Matt that I cannot tell…….not bad just funny. When we were teenagers in 1950s, we were really ornery…..that’s when Matt walked the beat in downtown and we used to drag Main all night EVERY night!!!”
———————————————————————-ย “Dear Butch, I was appalled to hear that Rose Hill Cemetery was vandalized. I have about 30 relatives buried there. Please keep us posted through T&T on any news about this crime and if they catch the vandals.”
———————————————————————-ย “Hi Butch Oh were my cheeks tingling this morning, when I read the newsletter, I couldnt believe people responded to my nursery rhyme, I did have to laugh !!! I thought it was only a British known nursery rhyme, one of the letters describing the game, was very close, but we never used a password ? but never mind… Afraid I cant comment on the other rhymes, Green gravel and the other never heard of them. hahaha”
———————————————————————-ย “Butch Simon School (Simon, Oklahoma) wasn’t in carter county but thought you might be interested anyway. Some of the names may be wrong or spelled wrong they were hard to read.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/simon16.jpg
———————————————————————-ย “Squeeze Inn Cafe at 119 East Main in Ardmore, 1963”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/squee63a.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/squee63b.jpg“Attached is picture of the Squeeze Inn cafe. Nell Stinson is working at the counter. Blackie, the Barber is sitting at the counter with Tressie St. Clair. Picture made 1968 Ardmore.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/squee68a.jpg“picture is the New Dixie Cafe and I think the picture was made possible during the years 1944 or 1945. The man is George McKee. The address of the New Dixie Cafe was 13 N. Washington St. in Ardmore.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/ndixiec.jpg“Tressie St. Clair and Evie Sadler worked at Dixie Cafe together and one owner was Butch Carson in 1950. Evie Sadler is the little woman, first lady on the right. I have put a small X to show which one is Evie. The middle lady with the X is Tressie St. Clair.” http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/dixiegrp.jpg
———————————————————————-ย Zita School (in Carter county): “The following is the entire description: DESCRIPTIVE BOUNDARY AND OFFICIAL RECORD OF SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 68 “Beginning at S.W.cor. of sec.31, thence east one mile, thence north one-half mile, thence east one mile, north three miles,thence west two miles and thence south to point of beginning.”. Approved October, 1917″
———————————————————————-ย “Check this out.. it may be something Carter County needs on their phone system. *grin* A friend of mine sent this to me. Stop and pick up your phone and try this. It only takes 20 seconds and no matter how hard a day you may be having, if nothing else, it will bring a smile to your face.”
1. Call Deutsche Bank / National Discount Brokers at 1-800-888-3999
2. Listen to ALL of the options (it only takes a moment)
3. After hearing the 7th option, press 7 and listen
EVERY company should have an Option 7
———————————————————————-ย “Hi Butch. Someone was asking about a Clawfoot bathtub. I dont know if this is the same thing or not, but this add came out in an Odessa TX trade paper. “Antique Cast Iron Lions Paw bath tub. Excellent shape. $500.00 915-367-1818 Or 915-553-0039.”
———————————————————————-ย “My cousin mailed me this postcard of Turner Falls, and I figured you would love to see it….don’t yet know how to edit out the other photos, but am sure you will be able to do this. I think there’s a date on the postcard.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/tfallstx.jpg
———————————————————————-ย “When you had the newsletter that had the stuff about the Durwood Baptist church I had talked to you about the name Durwood. I believe you told me that the name meaning was “the gate keeper” I thought that was cool since that’s what I do so could you tell me if that’s right. I’ve looked through the internet and can’t find anything.” [email protected]
———————————————————————-ย ======================================================================“A firey horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty “Hi Yo Silver!” The Lone Ranger. “Hi Yo Silver, away!” With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains, led the fight for law and order in the early west. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!” -September 15, 1949
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
Saturday August 18, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 226
I was off work Friday, so I decided to take a little trip south, to Gainesville, Texas among other places. But on the way I ran across a little sign with an arrow pointing east. The sign was located 5 miles south of Marietta, Oklahoma on old Highway 77 and read, “Wikle’s Water Works.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle8.jpgCuriosity got the best of me, so I staged left and headed down a narrow Love county road, that y’d off to the south about a half mile down the road. I finally arrived at a brick house with a building behind it that read “Wikle Water Works and Ice”.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle7.jpgI went inside to a little office, and found Mr. Roy Wikle, talking on the phone.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle4.jpgMr. Wikle and I talked for a while, he said he and his wife, Evaline, opened the water bottling business in 1995, but they had lived there since 1974. The water comes from 4 wells on his property and pumped into the building. He went on to tell me that lately, the “big boys” were trying to put him out of business but he wasn’t budging. This wirey little man may not be a big boy, but I bet he is like a wild tiger if pushed into a corner.
Here’s a close-up pic I took of Mr. Wikle standing in front of his bottling machine.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle5.jpgAs I left I took a picture of his water vending machine at the front of the building. It cost 25 cents for a gallon of his well water, and you supply your own jug.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle6.jpgOf course he has water already bottled in jugs and 20oz bottles that he sends out all over the country. If you or anyone you know wants some good tasting south central Oklahoma well water, contact Mr. Wikle at 580-276-2913. Let’s see what we can do to help Mr. Wikle keep his family owned business up and running. His mailing address is Route 2 Box 170, Marietta, OK 73448. Tell him I sent you!
Here is Roy Wikle’s business card
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle3.jpgAnd here’s a look at the label he puts on his bottled water…. a beautiful Indian maiden.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/wikle2.jpgHere’s a photo of the Indian statue in front of Reva McKinney’s Style Shop in Marietta, Oklahoma. The statue was carved out of a tree by a guy in Lebanon, Oklahoma using a chain saw.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/revawood.jpgAnd I can’t drive by Thackerville, Oklahoma without pulling off the Interstate at Mile Marker One and checking out Brown Springs. Its green and beautiful right now.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brnspg8a.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brnspg8b.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/brnspg8c.jpgTwo guys came by while I was at the springs and told me they found another springs bubbling up out of the ground just a mile or so on east down the dirt road in a pecan grove. The springs is just off the road south and has a fence around it. Guess I’ll check it out next time I’m down there in Love Valley.
And now we come to the “sign” that greets every traveler entering Oklahoma from Texas.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/oktxsign.jpgThe pledges for the new Ardmore Army Air Field memorial are coming in nicely. In one week over $800 has come in from 21 pledges. A gray granite monument big enough to hold the 50 plus names, will cost nearly $1,000. To place a Autumn Rose granite monument like the one already out there, will cost about $1,500. If you or anyone you know can help us reach our goal, please pass this plea on to them. We’ve done it before, and I know working together, we can do it again.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.htmlSpeaking of Gene Autry, Oklahoma, when I went up there last weekend to check on the Memorial Park, I stopped in town, next to the Gene Autry Mueseum and ate breakfast at the Tumbleweed Cafe. I’ve heard the girls make a pretty good hamburger too. Guess I’ll eat one next time I’m up there.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/tumble8.jpgAnd you know I want to give credit where credit is due. Paul Mitchell lives just a few 100 feet north of the Airpark Memorial Park. He’s became a committee of one to see the grounds is kept clean, mowed, and beautiful. He checks on it constantly, and his efforts have taken some load off of me, having to go up there so much. And I will say the memorial site is beautiful right now!! We’ve had a very dry summer, but Paul has kept everything green and growing. Thanks Paul.
Since changing to fortunecity.com to store my photos, I am receiving emails from people who used to could view the photos at xoom.com’s website, but now others say they can’t pull up fortunecity.com photos. So I’ve decide to put the photos from each issue temporarily on my brightnet website. I won’t be able to store them there for the long term, because I don’t have enough webspace available. So in 4 or 5 weeks, I’ll delete the older photos, to make room for new ones. Plus everyone can still see all the photos each week in an Album at webshots.com website.
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistoryLast weekend another piece of Carter county history was lost. Fire completely destroyed the Milo Baptist Church at Milo, Oklahoma. Law enforcement is looking for an arsonist, since several other fires were set in the same area, including a house 1/4 mile west of the church, just the evening before.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/milobca.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/milobcb.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/milobcc.jpg
Here’s the article from the Daily Ardmoreite
http://www.ardmoreite.com/stories/081501/new_blaze_milo.shtmlI may have taken the last photo of the Milo Baptist Church before the fire. I took the pic just 7 days before it burned.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/milobap8.jpgWith the skyrocketing prices of electricity, natural gas, and heating oil, we may have to go to burning corn like they did long ago. Corn is an excellent heat source, and burns clean. Shelled corn can be bought cheaply, $30 or $40 worth is enough to heat a house for a month. And for you environmentalist, corn is a renewable energy source. I know the Oklahoma corn growers could use the business too. A good corn burner will cost about $2,000. Some of you, especially the heating oil users, know it doesn’t take long to spend $2,000 heating a home in those bitter cold winters up north. So take that coffee can, scoop up some corn, and throw it in the burner!
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a89cb0f7555.htmI may have solved the mystery of where the Mannsville, Oklahoma school bell disappeared to years ago. The past couple years several Readers told me their school bell disappeared a long time ago. Then last May, a Reader sent me email telling in 1961 he and two friends, went to a school east of Ardmore. They stole a bell so they’d have one to ring a Tishomingo college football games. The last he and his friends saw the bell, it was behind the ROTC building at the campus in Tish. Maybe??????
Speaking of Mannsville, here is a 1932 photo of the old Mannsville school (and the Class of 1932) that no longer exists. Of course the first thing I noticed is the belfry!!
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/mann1932.jpgLast week there was a sad and terrible story of animal cruelty on the news here in Ardmore. A man from Russia brought with him from his country three years ago, three brown Siberian bears. He kept them in a hot truck without food and water, for what he said was to perform circus acts. Purcell, Oklahoma law enforcement arrested the man. The three bears were a couple of hundred pounds under weight. They looked so pitiful on the newscasts.
The three bears were taken to the GW Exotic Animal Foundation at Wynnewood, Oklahoma (about 40 miles north of Ardmore). I’ve personally been to the animal refuge and they really do a wonderful job at helping sick, hurt and abandoned animals. The foundation has a “wish list” of things they could use in taking care of the animals. We are not just talking about new stuff either, but even used items are welcome! Write them at [email protected] and their phone/fax number is 405-665-5197 You can learn more about this animal sanctuary at the following link.
http://www.gwpark.orgSpeaking of bears, a friend of mine at the courthouse told me this week she was looking for one of those old bear claw bath tubs. I took many a bath in one of those critters the first 21 years of my life. I think when my uncle, Pratt Carmon, moved into the house, he remodeled and had that old bear claw tub removed. If you know of a bear claw tub for sale, let me know. Here is a couple of pics of bear claw tubs… the second photo is a “double end tub”.
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/clawtub.jpg
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/clawtub2.jpgSpeaking of the courthouse, after my article last week of me finding that key in my office to room 34 at the Richepanse Hotel in Paris, a couple of employees have been carrying me high. When they see me now, they just say, “oui oui” (wewe). hahahaha
This week I received a nice surprise in the mail…. a wood toothpick holder and key chain from a Reader in Hawaii!!! Another Reader in OKC was visiting there on vacation, and the two of them got me these two little gifts, to make me suffer and wish I was in Hawaii too! hahaha
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/hawaii8.jpgSpeaking of the mail, I received a surprise letter in the mail this week, an article about a man who collects bells in Boone, Iowa. His name is Neil Goeppinger and he has over 50 bells in his backyard! The article is featured in the August 1, 2001 issue of the Antique Trader.
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Tom would almost KILL for that recipe. We used to go there a LOT for that delicious Bar-B-Que & sauce. Mr. McKerson would send extra sauce home with us in empty pop bottles or some jar he had….any container at all. We didn’t mind…..it was DELICIOUS. I used to have a different Bar-B-Que sauce recipe that my Grandma used….she got it from Cotton Bridges. He made GREAT Bar-B-Que sauce too. I am still looking for it in my old things, & if I ever find it, I will try it for Tom. My Grandma owned & ran the Squeeze Inn Cafe between 1962-1972. Any relation to Cotton Bridges??? He sure could make great, long lasting knives!!!!”
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“Butch: I tried to e-mail Jonathan Gaddy, but apparently I got the address wrong, Would you send it to me. I know my boys would enjoy something that tastes a little like Lt’s. It would be impossible to duplicate it exactly without his touch and the atmosphere. Do you know what happened to the table he sat at with the circle groove worn in it from his drinking glass? Our whole family enjoyed eating there and of course carrying out pounds of meat and jars of sauce. I used to save glass jars to take to him. I believe I met Jonathan several years ago.”
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“Hi Butch: Enjoyed T&T this week. What gives with Fortune City? When you look at the source code, it looks like Greek? No resemblance of any coding I have ever seen. ;o) If the Court Clerks are genuinely concerned about their records, they have only to contact the Oklahoma Historical Society and they will get the gentleman that is in McAlester with the LDS to film their books. They can be microfilmed up to 1928. I sent a picture of the records, stored in the “rat infested” Janitor’s room at the Atoka County Court House, to the OK paper and the Ok. Hist. Society. It was only a matter of weeks before those ledgers were being microfilmed.”
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“Can you share any information that you might have of a grocery store at Rexroat….between 1926-31? My Dad (Charles Edgar Yingling) and Uncle (Charley Wilkins) operated this store. Would you have any pictures? Thank you.” [email protected]
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“Butch, Was it during the depression years Rex Jelly was made? I don’t ever remember hearing of it. Thanks”.
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“Hello Butch and Gary, I think your idea of a memorial is a good one. I wasn’t stationed at the Ardmore Air Base but I was in the Army Air Corps in WW11 and while stationed in Colorado Springs,Colo. in 1944 I flew in to The Ardmore Army Air Base in a B-25 Bomber to attend the funeral of my Grand Father, (James F. Garnand). The personnel at the base was very helpful in getting me to my home in Ardmore. I would like to make a donation to the memorial of $100. Thank you very much for all the things that you two are doing for my home town “Ardmore.””
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“The Ardmore High School class of ’62 is planning a 40th class reunion for sometime in 2002. If you’re interested, or know of someone who might be, please contact Scott Jared.” [email protected]
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“I have tried twice to e-mail Jonathan Gaddy in Dalton, Georgia who has the recipe or information on how to obtain the recipe for Lt McKerson’s BBQ sauce.”
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“Finally got the opportunity to open and view all the attachments to your last T&T. I noticed in Gary’s list of those who died at the Ardmore Air Force Base that none were from the state of Oklahoma itself. Strange coincidence don’t you think that we Oklahomans are making an all out effort to recognize not only those who gave their lives for their country but in a place that none called home.”
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“I enjoyed the bit about Woodford last week. My dad, Dow Meek, was born and raised there. Every summer my mother’s family had a reunion at Lake Murray at the old CCC camp SP 11.We would always stop at Woodford to see my great-uncle Phillip Hill,who lived in the rock house northwest of the store, on the way home to Rush Springs. Dad always had to bring home a water can of that awful smelling water. I could never get past the smell to even taste it.”
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“I was hoping to see if you might help find my Grandfather A. A. Myers. He was born sometime in 1861 or about and died in 1938 in Jasper co.Tx. He married A lillie Viola? that came on the trail of tears. I found him on “M”Page of Lawmen and outlaws-oklahoma and indian territory (tpd) Page 85 I think that is him he was living with Indians and when he married Lillie’s Father gave them a piece of land out side of the village.Please if you can help me I sure would appreciate it. my email is [email protected] Thanks”
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“Butch. Here are the words to London Bridge..London Bridge is falling down, falling down falling down
London Bridge is falling down.
My fair lady/laddie.Take the key and lock her up lock her up lock her up
Take the key and lock her up,
My fair lady/laddie!“Directions: Two kids form the bridge. They each choose a “password.” A line of the other children in the class pass through the bridge. When the words “my fair lady/laddie” are sung the last time, they lower their arms and “trap” the child between their arms. As they sing “take the key and lock her/him up”, they sway her back and forth. When the final My fair lady/laddie is sung, the child is released and chooses a password. (They do not know who’s word is who’s to make the game fair.) The child who was captured then goes and stands behind the child who’s word they chose. At the end of the game, the child with the most kids behind him/her wins. I taught preschool and kindergarten 9 years, so I guess I qualify as your resident expert. ROFL.. I have no clue how to tell you the tune of it.”
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“BUTCH, IN YOUR LETTERS SOMEONE WANTED THE WORDS AND TUNE TO LONDON BRIDGES. HERE ARE THE WORDS. I COULD SING THE TUNE FOR THEM IF I WAS THERE.”LONDON BRIDGES
london bridges falling down, falling down
london bridges falling down
my fair ladeee oh.
build it up with sticks and stones
sticks and stones, sticks and stones
build it up with sticks and stones
my fair ladee oh.
build it up with iron bars
iron bars, iron bars
build it up with iron bars
my fair ladee oh.
iron bars will bend and break
bend and break, bend and break
build it up with iron bars
my fair ladee oh
gold and silver, i have none
i have none i have none
gold and silver i have none
my fair ladee oh.
build it up with wood and clay
wood and clay, wood and clay
build it up with wood and clay
my fair ladee oh.
wood and clay will wash away
wash away, wash away
wood and clay will wash away
my fair ladee oh.
take a key and lock her up
lock her up, lock her up
take a key and lock her up
my fair ladee oh.NOW I WANT TO KNOW IF ANY OF YOU PLAYED “GO IN AND OUT THE WINDOWS” OR “GREEN GRAVEL” ————————————————————– “THE WPA: In the CCC Camps where lived, I drove around the lake bed that day was how I learned about the CCC. With loads to pick up and deliveries too, I knew what the WPA had to do. In the camp kitchen, the menu was posted that day, but before the cooks could begin many things were canceled out and substitution put in through they struck for better food. Nothing changed it would be better for a few days, then back to the same thing.”
“The boys who had been hungry at home didn’t think it so bad, for there was always plenty of what ever we had. You could go to school if you wanted to, but you had to wait until the night after all the days work was through. As we went to work each day, we saw rick after rick of wood that was cut by the WPA. With all the threatening signs that were posted, if you were caught hauling wood, you knew where you would go, to the Federal Pen without parole. Their people in town for gas couldn’t pay cooked on a wood fire in the yard every day. Not one stick of wood was allowed to pass to the people who needed it and couldn’t buy gas. They made sure it did no one any good. Men were sent over the lake bed to burn all the wood. The cattle were slaughtered throughout the land. They reason there was no market for meat people didn’t have money to buy what they wanted to eat. To save the cost of a shell the calves were knocked in the head. No one was allowed any of meat that was left in the woods for buzzards to eat. Though many mistakes was made in the effort to increase employment and help the poor. There were people in Washington now trying and that wasn’t before. When the WPA workers got their work orders, they would pair off in two’s and camp out to gather until the work period was through. With pots and pans to cook in and two quilts for a bed. They boarded a truck for Lake Murray at 25 cents a head. They would sleep on the ground, and hope that the weather would hold good or they would have to seek shelter wherever they could.”
“The rock crusher was a man killer. They had to shovel out the rock to keep from being covered up. There was no time to stop and when their turn had come to an end they would stagger out and two more would go in. The wheelbarrows were filled up at the crusher, it was down hill to the end of the fill, then up hill and over the hump at the top of the hill where the wheelbarrows were dumped. I saw a small man who couldn’t make it up the hill. The wheelbarrow turned over and there was a spill and about that time the boss man came along and gave him a good cussing, and said if you can’t take it go home. I don’t know what happened to that man that day my truck was loaded and I had to pull it our of the way. The hardest work I ever saw done to this day was done at Lake Murray by the WPA. There was some heavy equipment but most of the work was done but not all with a shovel and wheelbarrow, ax, hammer and saw. Some of the working conditions that were endured by the WPA would be considered criminal by the standards of today. The governor of the state was heard to say no man was worth more than a dollar a day. The power shovels were old models and with no hydraulic cable operated back haul hoist and crowded the dump truck was gravity dump with out any cabs. The rock quarry where they got the rock for the cabins and bridges. And they drilled the pattern rocks to there be always plenty of hard work to do. As I drove across the lake dam spillway, on opening day, I saw people lining the banks along the way. Waiting for opening time standing there ready to throw in their lines. Not many people can remember how things was back then, it has been so long. There is a few of them living, but most of them are gone. So when you visit Lake Murray and enjoying your stay, think of who built it and the WPA. The WPA that I remember. “W. C. ‘Bill’ Alexander, Ardmore
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“Butch- The chimes at the First Presbyterian Church in Ardmore story is found Nov. 27, 1955. Another one that most of your readers will remember is a story about Policeman Matt Alexander, September 4, 1955.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/1stpresby.jpg
April 1999 T&T: “Sometimes back in the forties Ardmore was visited by President Harry S. Truman. He made a speech from the steps of the First Methodist Church on Main Street and “E”. Here is a pic of President Truman at the Ardmore railway. Next to Truman is Ardmore policeman Matt Alexander, on the horse is Clyde Wyatt.”
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/ttphotos/truman.jpg
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“While working at NASA, Chris took on a new project. It’s a marketing survey for a friend of his who is launching a new business. Chris has asked me to send this URL out and ask you to fill out the form. I have looked at the marketing results data form myself and if you do not fill out the name/e-mail address portion of the form, there is record of you. You can be anonymous or not, it’s your choice. If you have a few minutes please take the time to complete his market survey. Thank you, Robin.” http://www.eztrail.com/market/
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“Hi Butch, I just read in the Ardmoreite that 75 headstones were vandalized at Rose Hill. Suggest you take Jr along if you check, because he knows where all pertinent ones are located.” http://www.ardmoreite.com/stories/081701/new_vandals.shtml
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========================================================================A home in the 1500s: The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying, “dirt poor”. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh on the floor to keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entry way, hence, a “threshold”.
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Ardmore, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday August 11, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 225
Last November I told about fellow Ardmoreite Gary Simmons creating a website dedicated to the Ardmore Army Air Field (1942-1945). The air field was located at the airpark at Gene Autry, Oklahoma (18 miles NE of Ardmore). The base was re-activated as the Ardmore Air Force Base from 1953 to 1958. Gary Simmons has stockpiled on that website a wealth of information and history of the air base during the years it was an active military air base. During those years over 50 men and women died while on duty at the air base in training accidents. After extensive researching, Gary has been able to gather the names of those who died at the base. They came from all over the United States to train at the Gene Autry air base. This is Gary’s listing of those who died.
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons/memorial2.htmSeveral times the past year Gary and I have talked about the possibility of erecting a granite monument in honor of those 50+ men and women who died. We know it will take several hundred dollars to purchase a nice rose granite marker and have it set, probably somewhere just east of the present American Flyers monument at the airpark. On that piece of granite will be listed the names and hometowns, if known, of those who died.
So, we’ve setup a Webpage asking for pledges to purchase the memorial. We only want to ask for pledges at this time, to see how much interest there is to erecting this monument. (We’ll ask for the pledge money if and when we have enough to make the purchase.) In the weeks to come we will keep a listing on a webpage the names of those who pledge, how much they pledge and their city and state. I personally will pledge $25 toward the purchase of the memorial stone. I want to make this pledge in memory of my uncle, Paul Bridges, who died fighting in France during WWII so I could be born in a land of freedom, free from the communism that almost took over this world. Thank you Paul. Here is a photo of my uncle Paul Bridges in his uniform, just before leaving for Europe, holding his two boys.
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/paulbrid.jpgIf you or anyone you know would like to join us in this effort, please send us email. Just let us know how much you pledge. No pledge is to small. If you want to remain anonymous, just tell us. When we’ve raised enough money to purchase the monument, we’ll contact those who pledged to send in their donation. Send your email to….. mailto:[email protected]
Here is a link to the webpage which lists pledges received. We will update it each time a pledge comes in so everyone can be kept updated. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/airbase.html
Don’t you just love a mystery? This week I walked into my office, and there was a hotel key laying in the seat of my chair. Now this is no ordinary room key, one like Tom Bodet might have in his pocket. This key is from a 4 star hotel in Paris, France, you know, where everyone has an accent. So how did this key end up in Ardmore, Oklahoma? That is the mystery. Boy, I have no idea who left it in my office or who’s in room 34 for that matter. But I will bet you one night’s lodging the key is stolen. hahaha
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/hotelfr.jpgI did have a unexpected Reader of my T&T from Utah stop by the day before. She and her daughter were visiting her sister in Fox, Oklahoma and decided to drop by and say Hello. She told me she was born at the Hardy Sanitarium in 1947. That’s just across the street from the courthouse where the post office stands now. I told her I haven’t got very far in life…. I was born across the street too, and now working just a couple hundred feet to the east. hahaha. But I’m sure she didnt leave that hotel key.
I traveled to Woodford in far northern Carter county last Saturday. A few years ago I told about the wishing well that is 1/2 mile north of Woodford, on the road to Mountain Lake and have some photos of it on my website. This trip up there I noticed the wishing well has been “remodeled”. Its been cleaned up, the wood housing painted and a historical marker placed next to the sulphur springs. While I was looking down at the springs I noticed someone had dropped a couple of pennies along the ring of the well. So I followed suit and drop one too. I wished the water was drinkable, but I wouldn’t advise it. On July 16, 1997 I had the water tested by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and it tested positive for one or more coliform organisms.
This is a picture I took of the Woodford wishing well in June 1996.
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/woodfrd1.jpgAnd here are several photos I took of this artesian well just last weekend.
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/woodspr5.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/woodspr6.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/woodspr7.jpgOne thing I did notice while up at Woodward and the Arbuckle Mountains north of Ardmore was how dry it is up there. But then its dry all over south central Oklahoma right now, hardly any rain the past two months. But those mountains were so drab looking, they were brown, only a little green from the scattered trees and shrubs was visible. But I guess there might be a plus side to the drought. It must be good for the cantelope growers. My friend Ted Spurgeon has a little farm up near those mountains, and he gave me a cantelope this week he grew on his acreage. It was the best tasting cantelope I’ve eaten this summer!
A Reader wrote me the past week saying he had the recipe for Lt McKerson’s BBQ sauce, but didn’t want it distributed via email. But he did suggest anyone who might be interested in more info on the recipe send email to Jonathan Gaddy in Georgia at: [email protected]
For those of you who can’t pull up my pictures on fortuneciy.com website, you can go to my photo Albums on webshots.
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistorySOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Butch, In answer to question about Overbrook school, I have several pictures. I too graduated from Overbrook in 1952 and still live in Overbrook. I was one that wrote last week my father taught school here in early l930’s,and other Love county schools.” They can e-mail me at [email protected]
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“Butch. In issue 224, someone asked if anyone remembers Rex Imitation Jelly. I do. My mom was a country girl raised with everything homemade – including jelly. She still will not buy jelly. Makes her own at 87 years of age. Anyhow, in the early 40’s when she didn’t have enough money to use her sugar ration stamps, someone gave her some Rex jelly. In fact, we had it several times until her sister finally actually gave her some sugar to make her own. Even today, Mom gags when Rex jelly is mentioned.”
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“Rex jelly was indeed a product of the worst kind of imitation. The stuff was available in the late 30’s I remember, and must have been made mostly from gelatin with a flavor added. Not much flavor at that.”
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“I noticed that someone sent you mail asking about Rex Jelly. I did a short search online, and while I didn’t run across any place that had it for sale, I did run across a recipe for jelly that is said to be an exact match for the taste.
Go to http://www.chitterlings.com/messages/1482.html and check it out.”
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“Butch – reading about Lt. McKerson’s great BBQ made me think of other things like the chocolate chiffon pies you could once buy at the Hamburger Inn. As I recall, they said Mrs. Brown made them fresh each morning. She sprinkled crushed pecans on the tops of them. I never ate any other chocolate pies like them, and they were outstanding. Do the current operators of the Inn make pies from that same recipe? By the way, as you know, my family lived in the house built by the Fraleys at 214 G NE from 1959 to 1976. What a great neighborhood it was!”
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“Hi Butch, Just finishing todays edition of T&T. Great as usual. Since you are interested in old lumber yards, my late husband, Hurmon Anthony, made miniature buildings. One of his first was a reproduction of the old Chickasaw Lumber Co. After his death I donated the building to the Greater Southwest Museum. You may see it there. I still have the picture he used for details. I wonder if the Lake Southeast of Ardmore that you referred to is Kincaid Lake? A lot of people used to go there. Hurmon played there as a child and it was one of his favorite places.”
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“hello Butch do you send This and That outside the US have a friend in Australia that would like to have you send it to him I have been doing it now for over a year if not I will continue to send it thanks.”
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“I received the business card holder — very nice! Thanks a lot … sure wish you would ~move~ South and West a little with your news and tell us all about Lone Wolf, OK — NOT Lone Grove, But Lone Wolf!”
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“Butch… check this story out on county clerks. It’s in today’s Oklahoman.” — Jerry Dodds
http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=730135&pic=none&TP=geta rticle
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“Butch, just read your Aug 4 T&T and someone wrote in about the Engine 1108 which was moved out besides the H. Murphy Col. My dad, Clarence Patrick, was working for the Santa Fe Railroad at that time (retired from there in 1973) and he helped lay the rails down the middle of the street so the engine could be driven to its destination. I can remember him coming home and telling us about laying the track, right up to where the engine was finally placed. Good memories.”
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“Butch, just re-read your T&T from July 27 and wanted to mention that Mary Jones Wilson (of the monument company in Lone Grove) is a distant cousin of mine. All of my childhood I had been told that the only relations (on my mom’s side) that we had in the area we her siblings & their offspring, etc. What we didn’t know was that there were many, many relatives connected with my great grandfather Robert Lincoln “Linc” Armstrong in the area, as well. Linc’s family had moved into Texas (Wise/Jack Cos) in the mid- 1850’s & many of them came to OK, I.T., 20 years later when the Texas drought conditions made it nearly impossible to raise cattle & crops. Anyway, back to Mary J. Wilson. She is a descendant of one of the Armstrong clan, John R. Armstrong, thru his dau. Mary Ann Armstrong Perkins Montgomery. Mary Ann’s first husband, Preston Perkins, was killed by Indians and she later married a Mr. Montgomery. Anyway, they all grew up around the Healdton/Rexroat area, I think, so we didn’t even know they existed. Another branch of the Armstrong family was in the Springer area (John Andrew “Jack” Armstrong) with some of his descendants later living in Ardmore…his son James “Jim” Armstrong, & his wife Cassie. Ironically, Jim & Cassie later lived across the street from one of my maternal uncles, Eddie Pittman & his wife, Betty, on “I” St. NW. Eddie was talking to them one day and mentioned that his mother (Nona Pittman) was an Armstrong by birth and discovered that he and Jim were related. It was still years later that we connected with Mary Wilson & I met her for the first time last summer. She is a wonderful person and, like you, I hope that when I get to be her age I can be as sharp and active as she is. The internet genealogy sites have helped so many searchers since one can now “go” to a county and search the records and find data that might have been unreachable to them before. The online cemeteries have helped me immensely. I discovered 3 little Armstrong “cousins” who died in 1890 and are buried in the Lone Grove Cemetery. There little markers are hard to read now…time has eroded the etchings, but I was able to locate them and want to get Mary to restore the inscriptions so that they will be readable. This is a very long note, Butch, and I’m sure you’ll need to condense it but I just wanted to encourage anyone searching for family to “not give up”…they might be right under foot all the time. Keep up the good work on T&T.”
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“In my early years we would travel from NM to OK for a family reunion at Lake Murray. We always had Lt McKerson’s BBQ, it was absolutely the best. I remember as a young adult going to pick up the BBQ myself. Lt. McKerson was a great cook, and kept a clean friendly restaurant. I too would love to have his recipe! If he is still living, you might suggest to him that he could make a few extra bucks selling it!! I’d sure pay.”
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“We live at 705 C St. N.W. Ardmore. This house was the old Westheimer home built around the turn of the century and was turned into apartments in about 1940. I would like any pictures or information about any one ever living here. I know Judge J H Dillard owned it in 1920. Zona Wilcoxon, Leatha Allen, Patricia Thomason Ruggs, McClure Apartments, Charles and Kathleen McClure, Stanley and Wendy Armstrong are some of the names listed on the abstract. I was told it was once a dance studio and also that soldiers stayed here from the air base with the wives before shipping out.. I would like to complete a history of the people and activities in this home. It seems as if hundreds of people lived in the apartments. Any help would be appreciated.” Steve and Sharon Messenger…. [email protected]
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“When I lived in Ardmore back about 63 or 64 there used to be a men’s clothing store and a camera store down town where I made several purchases while working with American Flyers. I can’t remember the owners names but wonder if those stores have since disappeared?”
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“Hi Butch old friend. I always enjoy reading your T & T. each week,. It usually contains an article or a mention of something to stir up old memories. As a child in Davis , Ok. I remember my folks buying a can, in reality it was a small tin bucket with a tin lid, of jelly with the trade name of “REX” This “jelly” was very red and professed to be Strawberry flavored. I don’t remember just what the ingredients were but they definitely had no kinship to any real fruit. When I was a kid, I was like Mikey , the little boy in the television commercial. Mikey and I would eat anything. well almost anything, I don’t know about Mikey but I sure couldn’t eat that Jelly. I enjoy the references to “Grapette” It was. and still is, my favorite soft drink. I can rarely find it and when I do, I pig out….. Thanks for the memories……….keep on keeping on.”
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“Hi Butch Really enjoyed your T&T this morning, one of the letters you received mentioned London bridge, reminded me of my childhood, when I was in Infant school, we would sing and play a game to the tune of London bridge is falling down. The game was played by a group of children, two of which would outstretch there arms and form a bridge while the rest of the children walked in turn underneath the bridge, singing the nursery rhyme, as the rhyme came to an end the bridge came down on whichever child was underneath, then it was their turn to be the bridge, oh to be so innocent…… Do you know the words or tune ?”
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“If it helps with the detective work at all, fortunecity links also show only the FC logo on my Apple. They’re still available from your thumbnail history site, although switching back and forth can be annoying (but I do it!). I’m talking about
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory “
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“Hey Butch, I remember the spraying for mosquitoes too. I also remember about that same time- I think the summers we had drought and extreme heat were 55-56, or 56-57- big tanker trucks filled with water from lake murray would drive down the streets late at night, and spray some water on the lawns to keep them from completely dying. I was just a little kid and we lived on Davis street, and I can remember laying in bed and listening to the deep rumbling pulsating sound those tankers would make as they parked outside and pumped water to the yards. It’s one of those warm, fuzzy memories.”
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“Hi Butch, all the talk about grapette reminded me of the homemade ice cream we use to make out of grapette and eagle brand milk. This was our summer favorite when growing up. Do you or any of the readers remember eating this wonderful ice cream?? Guess, I am going to see if I can find some grapette and make a freezer of ice cream, sure sounds good and brings back fond memories. Always enjoy reading the newsletter!!”
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“This is just the best site on the web. I have it set as my home page. I love it, cause it just has so much to see and do. Thought you might like it.” http://www.refdesk.com/
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“In going through an old trunk of my great grandmother’s I found several l927 feed bills and a flyer with the picture of Rube Chambers presenting the Famous Temperance Lecture John Barleycorn. There is not date and a blank line that was to be filled in with where it was to be held. It says, “A man who knows the Liquor Question. He’s been there. He’s funny. He will tell you a joke or two. But he is going to tell you some facts about this liquor business that you doan’t want to miss. Hear Him. Meet Him. You Will Like Him. There was an admission charge. I wondered if any of your readers remembers anything about this or when it was.”
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“Yes, webtv can pull up the pcs from fortunecity. With XOOM, all I would ever get is a logo that would rotate every few seconds. Do you know if the book by Kate Galt Zanies is available for purchase? My dad went to Mary Niblack school for a brief period. He said they would pull the bell rope and try to tip the bell upside down. They would get a spanking and then have to climb the ladder to turn the bell over. The object seemed to be able to climb the ladder. He also attended Legate, Hoxbar, Springdale, Prairie Valley, Dickson and graduated from Ardmore HS 1945”
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“My Father Ray Perkins build this house in 1958. A log cabin use to set on this property. We lived in the log cabin until dad got two rooms of this house built than we moved in and the log cabin was torn down. 2nd house This house is by the Black cemetery . I do not remember what street it is on. It is out by the old 70 Highway and about 3 or four blocks from P ST NE going out toward Dickson. I remember my Dad worked for the City of Ardmore and would come home after he had worked all day then work most of the night on this house. This house is a short distance from the Boys Food store. There was a small store across the Highway called Mary and Albert’s, where I could get a soda for six cents. If you know the address of this house. Please contact Peggy Perkins at [email protected] ““I am sending you two pictures, one is of my Grandmother Sarah Watkins and the log cabin that was across the street from ours. Sarah sister Dellar and her husband Ben Jackson lived in the house beside Sarah. My web site is doing great thanks to your paper, I have about 60 pages now and still adding. http://peggysue5.homestead.com/index.html Thanks Peggy”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/watkins2.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/watkins3.jpg
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“Mr. Bridges, When my grandfather passed away, he had in his possessions what looks to be a military I.D. tag. The inscription reads : Robert N. Jones, Prague Oklahoma, 1906. Would you have any idea about this person or his descendants? I know nothing about Oklahoma, and assume it must have been a friend he met in the military. I ran across your website, and just thought I’d ask. Thanks.” [email protected]
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“Hey Butch, I can finally see the pics on fortunecity. Thanks a lot. I have been enjoying the newsletter without the pcs but now it is lagniappe (a little something extra). Keep up the great work. Harold in New Orleans”
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Butch here is a pic I took of some Mill in Durant. I wonder if they still use it and what they made there.
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/durantm.jpg
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“Saw a recent episode of Cops World’s Greatest Police Chases and they showed a spot with one of Carter County’s finest in pursuit of a man and woman in a pick-up to what appeared to be on old ’77. The policeman pulled over the pick-up and while talking with the driver, the woman moved over behind the wheel and the chase was on again. It was nice to see that some of Oklahoma’s finest and especially a hometown policeman was recognized for the extremely dangerous work that the police force does on a day to day basis. Kudos to the policeman who did his job on the segment that aired here in Korea.”
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“Hi Butch Really enjoyed your T&T this morning, one of the letters you received mentioned London bridge, reminded me of my childhood, when I was in Infant school, we would sing and play a game to the tune of London bridge is falling down. The game was played by a group of children, two of which would outstretch there arms and form a bridge while the rest of the children walked in turn underneath the bridge, singing the nursery rhyme, as the rhyme came to an end the bridge came down on whichever child was underneath, then it was their turn to be the bridge, oh to be so innocent…… Do you know the words or tune ?”
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“What a great group of readers you have- they are great and so helpful! We mentioned one word-“grapette” and got all kinds of “leads” and then even saw an e-mail to you from the company itself!! We had so many suggestions- hard to know where to start but made just one stop, and they had just gotten a case of 24 20oz bottles in- so we took it! And then they were out of stock again! But we got some and “smuggled ” it back to Ohio and while we will share a few with relatives, we are being very “conservative” -got to make it last you know! Thanks again for such great response. Oh yes, so far am unable to bring up pics on Fortune City but will keep looking. Webshots is working just great!”
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========================================================================Well, pretty soon I’ll be on easy street. I received a letter this week from a lady psychic named Mary Galante of New York City. She predicted a huge sum of money from a lottery is in my immediate future. Boy, that sounds good to me. But she told me more: said in 1998 or 1999 I faced a challenge in my life, and from 1997 to 1999 someone close to me was ill, and between 1974 and 1976 there was a major change in my life, and between 1988 and 1994 something important happened in my life. Yes! Its all true!! And that’s not all…. in 8 weeks I’ll receive an important phone call, in five months I’ll meet a mysterious person, and a long standing wish becomes a reality in the next 10 weeks! Oh boy! I can hardly wait! She asked me to send her $20. But I’m going wait until her prophecies come true, I’ll give her half, and we’ll both be happy. hahaha
“A fool and his money are soon parted.” -Thomas Tusser 1524-1580
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday August 4, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 224
I was talking to a guy this week, and we discussed how pitiful the interest rates are these days on savings accounts. The banks pay nothing anymore. I reminded him of something I learned 20 years ago from a man in California. The story goes like this…..
People have always used gold and silver as a hedge against inflation. It has been that way since the beginning of time. In 1920 a man could take a $20 Dollar gold piece (the face value was $20 as it was legal tender) and buy a good tailor made suit. If you had that same $20 Dollar gold piece in a desk drawer today, you could still use it to buy a nice tailor made suit. This is because gold has keeps up with inflation. But if you had a $20 bill in that desk drawer all those years, that $20 bill would not even but the left pocket of a tailor made suit at today’s prices. And because of inflation, that $20 would be far less goods today then it did in 1920.
Several of you wrote last week saying you could not see the photos through fortunecity.com just like at the nbci/xoom website. I too have the same problem. When I click on the photo link, the only thing I see is the fortunecity.com logo. Strange. Maybe someone will figure what is wrong with the settings in Windows????
A friend in Lone Grove told me they had reliable information that the old Wirt, Oklahoma Baptist Church was slated to be torn down or moved. Wirt is in far western Carter county. Here’s a pic of that old church. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/wirtchu.jpg
This past week Newman Walker sent me two photos of him as a child when he attended Wheeler School back in 1939 and 1940. I am sharing them in the two links below, and the two photos have also been uploaded to Carter County Schools Vol 3 on the webshots.com website. If you have some old school pics to share with others, let me know and we’ll put them in the webshots Albums.
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/wheel39.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/wheel40.jpg
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistoryA Reader from Texas was wondering where the old Fraley Lumber Yard used to be in Ardmore. In its heyday, it was located at 400 “A” NE. Bob Fraley was the proprietor and he started out in the lumber business as the bookkeeper for Hudson-Houston Lumber Company about 1910. When he left Hudson-Houston around 1947 he had worked up to General Manager. About 1949 he opened up Bob Fraley Lumber Company at 400 “A” NE.
Bob and Mary Fraley lived at 704 3rd NE back in 1930, but by 1932 they lived at 214 “G” NE. My Grandfather’s lumber yard was not listed until 1939 at 803 3rd NE. The street that ran along the east side of Bob and Mary Fraley’s home is named Fraley NE. In 1916 both my Grandfather Stanley Carmon and Bob Fraley were listed as General Contractors and lived just three blocks apart on 3rd NE. Here is a photo of Bob Fraley, far right, sent to me by a Reader. Also pictured in the 1920 photo is the soon to be Court Clerk, Ancel Graham and his wife Eddy. Some of you will remember the old wading pool to the west of Washington Grade School. For many years, during the summer months when it was open, Eddy managed the pool. I remember her opening up that little white building in the back and taking a coffee can, scooping up a bunch of powdered chlorine, and pouring it into the gushing stream of water that was filling up the pool. The lady in the center of the photo is Thelma Boyd Roberts, she was my First Grade teacher at Washington Grade School. And next to Bob Fraley is Alice Frazier who married Herman Hunt, Sr. Herman was once an Ardmore Mayor and owner of Hunts Food Store on 3rd NE. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/fraley5.jpg
Now what’s so interesting about this old “fraley” photo is that it was taken east of Ardmore at a lake at a picnic. The lake was used by many people back around 1920 as a spot to take the family. I’m not sure exactly where the lake was located, but I was told it was south of 3rd NE, and east of Mary Niblack Road. From looking at a map of the area on http://www.mapquest.com, the only large body of water in that area is at the east end of Evergreen Lane. Evergreen Lane is a short road that starts at Mary Niblack Road, and goes east. I see on the map that the lake spills out at the south end, creating East Anadarche Creek. This creek travels south, emptying into Lake Murray just SE of the Lindsey Road curve. Could this be the “lake” where people went on picnics in the ’20s? Hopefully this mapquest link will take you to the map. http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/ia_find?link=btwn/twn-map_results&zoom_l evel=8&uid=u1n003t3h6x8z7zd:zah6t2hz8&aphoto=0&SNVData=3mad3-h.fy%28arnd fz_%29ft2gat%3bah7-%3d%3aV%18IEQ%18J%3aQZ%3dzb5uu%28%11E%3ab59zys%3d%3d1 a9w72%3d0,htb5m%28lsr7dc%3bwh%7c2%24hgv%28l3iedgv%245l1t%3b8&pcat=&zlgif .x=1
In later years, Bob and Mary Fraley built a new house at 402 “A” NW which brings us to another story of more current times.
At 4th and “A” NW another piece of Ardmore history was torn down this week. Just across the street south from the Fraley home was the old Church of Christ. The church was built around 1928 at #30 4th NW and continued to meet there until about 1951 at which time the Church of Christ congregation built a new church at 607 McLish. In the years following the old church was used for the Ardmore Barber and Beauty Supply for many years. Demolition on the old church at #30 4th NW began on Thursday August 2, 2001. Here’s a pic of them tearing it down. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/coc4thnw.jpg
I did a little research on lumber yards since my grandfather Stanley Carmon owned one for many years at 803 3rd NE. Back in 1928 the Frensley Brothers Lumber yard was at 101 South Washington (across from sheriffs office) owned by Thomas and Cortez Frensley. But before that their lumber yard was located at 401 West Main in 1916. Across the street in 1916 at 402 West Main ws the Chickasaw Lumber Company.
My grandfather’s lumber yard was listed in 1939 but not in 1937, so I assume it was within those two years he opened for business the Carmon Lumber Company. In my research I did discover my grandfather and grandmother Carmon moved from 1001 3rd NE to 805 3rd NE about 1925. So the house I spent the first 21 years of my life in, is older then I thought. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/805home.jpg
About 20 more churches has been added to the webshots.com Albums with 425 visits this week. I know a number of visitors to the webshots.com Albums have been sending a photo special to them as a Post Card to a friend (with music!). http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Ardmore theaters in 1916:
Dreamland Theater 425 East Main
Majestic Theater 108 West Main
Theatorium Theater 114 West Main
Palace Theater 209 West Main
Robinson Opera House 226 1/2 West MainSOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“In reading about O’Savior school, my father, R.O. Stubbs taught there in 1915-1917. I am hoping I can find pictures. He also taught school in several rural Love county schools, Pike, Jimtown, Leon, Overbrook, Shady Dale. My mother was from Orr, Ok and his family lived at Simon in Love County. I know I have one of O’Savior school if I can just locate it will send copy.Enjoy your newsletter.”
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“Hello Butch, I am still enjoying reading your weekly news letter. I have a question, does anyone remember Rex Jelly? It was a red, artificial fruit jelly with a very unique taste. I haven’t seen any of it since back in the ’60’s. Its probably long since gone out of business. If anyone knows I would like for them to contact me.”
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“I was so far out from the central office that the heat stopped my DSL from working and I was had to go back to my dial-up account. I don’t want to miss any issues of T&T. Thanks!”
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“Hi Butch Sure enjoy your T&T every Saturday, in this weeks there is a reader looking for info for Sunset Golf Course, he can call a guy here in town his name is Philmore Von not sure if that’s how you spell it, but he will know and probably worked there at one time, he build what is now Lake View which is owned by the City of Ardmore now, and has worked at Dornick Hills, and another one just north of Lake View I forget the name of that one.”
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“Dear Butch, Just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for the commemorative card holder I just received from you. What a nice thing to keep for a collectors item and I am sure my son and Grandchildren will do so after I am gone. Thanks again. I was surprised to find a couple of familiar names in this weeks column. There was a man named Sisk who wrote you about his sisters and the school at Springer, where he was born. He is a distant cousin of mine and I had lost track of that side of the family since I left Okie country. I hope he will reply to my message, especially since we are out in the same part of the country. Another person was [email protected], who is a cousin of my husband. Talk about a small world. Just read Butch Bridges T&T and find all your long lost relatives! Seriously, we love your paper and if you ever decide to charge for it, we’ll gladly pay. Thanks for your dedication to Ardmore, Carter County and all of Southern Oklahoma’s memories, and for keeping this alive for posterity. What the world needs is more people like you. I mean it sincerely.”
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“Hey Butch, Thanks so much for This & That! You are a great assett to this community and state. I was also disappointed when they shut down Lt McKerson’s BBQ . I wander if anyone out their has the recipe to that BBQ gravy you could get before your meal was brought out. If so please share!!! Thanks again.”
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“Am I out of line to ask if anyone has photos of Overbrook school? I finished the eighth grade there with one other student. Lot of memories from that old school.”
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“Like you I have never seen the like of viruses that we have seen in the last few months. I believe there are several reasons why.First and foremost there has been an exponitial increase in the number of people that are online. Gone are the days that the only people that swapped disks, used FidoNet and exchanged BBS mail were the ‘geeks’ that usually would intercept, crush and kill viruses quickly. Now you have literally millions of users that are interconnected and things spread so fast it makes it difficult to stop.
Next reason, I believe, is because virus writers have taken to attaching to e-mail address books, usually Outlook Express, which is probably the most commonly used e-mail program out there being used by end consumers. Since nearly everyone uses the same e-mail program it makes it relatively easy to formulate an attack using the persons address book. This causes the virus to be sent to a multitude of people, each of which gets it from someone they know therefore they trust the attachment and run it and the process starts over.
Next is because viruses are just plain easy to write using scripting languages like VBS (Lovebug). When our office was infected, thanks to our computer programmers in Oklahoma City, every machine was hit instantly. One definite drawback to a full-time constantly connected online system. I took apart the Lovebug to see what it changed where and the scariest thing to me was that it was so simple. I wrote a patch in about an hour and ran it on our machines in the office. Had the Lovebug creator decided to make it destructive he (she) could have done so easily by simply changing the .jpg extension to .dll or .exe.
“Although I got several copies of the Lovebug on my machines at home I was safe because I refuse to run any form of Outlook. I am still using, and will continue to use Eudora 3.0 (that reads ancient) because it is a clean, fast and efficient e-mail program that is so old that no one even bothers to write viruses for it anymore.”
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“I saw your note to Butch where you asked him where you can buy Grapette in Ardmore. I bought a bottle of it at the recently remodeled Filling Station which is located on the corner of old HW 70 (now 199) and P street N.E. – This corner is where HW 142 (Truck Bypass) comes into HW 199 (HW 70 east). The grapette is in a 12 oz. bottle and is produced in Malvern, Arkansas under authority of Grapette International, Inc.” http://www.grapette.com
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“Butch, One of your readers wrote this past week about where to find Grapette. Well…, I found several a couple of weeks ago – in various 7-11 stores here in Oklahoma City. They were in 20 ounce bottles – and every bit as delicious as I remembered them as a child.”
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“Hi Butch~~~ I remember very well when Safeway burned in Ardmore in the early 50s. It was 4 alarm fire and I can remember the sirens blowing to call all the firemen in to fight the fire. My daddy had Crews and Lamb grocery store, but he was a fireman during the war up at the Airbase, so he went down. The fire burned all night and I remember all the school kids going the next day to see it and it was such a mess. I am not sure exactly where it was located, but seems it was on Broadway fairly close to the lst Methodist Church, facing North. I also remember when the Viaduct caught on fire in 1964. You could see the black smoke for miles and also when the old BL Owens furniture store burned, that was another big fire. I love your publication as I have had a love affair with Ardmore for 61 years now.”
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“We sure enjoy T & T. About 1108, it was moved to the fairgrounds in 1955 (the best I can remember). A buddy and I watched the crew lay down track, move it a little ways, pick up track, move to front of engine and start over. One of the hard working crew that day was Waco Turner and he was working as hard as any other crew member. I vaguely recollect that Waco furnished the crew to make the move. A visit to the Greater Southwest History Museum revealed they have a picture of 1108 on Lake Murray Drive as it is being moved. Also at the museum are some bells that I do not remember being mentioned. Ardmore’s first fire engine that was pulled by three horses has a foot operated bell on the front. They also have the fire house alarm system that has a bell on the front. In the NW corner of the museum is a train bell donated by the Shrine Club. The museum is really an interesting place to spend a few hours recalling the past. As a bonus, it is very cool in there. Yep, they even have a truck older than yours—a T model. Keep up the good work. By the way, admission is really reasonable——–IT IS FREE.”
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“Here’s another bell for you. This is located at the First United Methodist Church in Caddo, Oklahoma. I know nothing of its history.” http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/caddoumc.jpg
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“I got the same sircam virus in my computer a couple of day ago. Went to your referenced location to get the fix – – – http://www.grisoft.com/html/news/sircam.cfm run it and cleaned up the virus. Computer now working fine. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”
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“This Clock in Concord, New Hampshire has a huge bell that chimes on the hour, it is really something. Thought you might like to see it.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/nhbell2.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/nhbell3.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/nhbell4.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Zaneis Consolidated School – approved in 1921 – located west of the towns of Wilson & south of Healdton. Township 5 South – Range 3 West & 2 West. school district student census 306 – valuation $4,367, 247 – The school was named in honor of Mrs. Kate Zaneis, county Superintendent. One of the youngest schools in the county yet it is strictly a rural school with all the offerings and advantages of any city school in the state. The abandoned School in Zaneis Consolidated District are: “Ingram Lane”, “Oak Grove” & “Joiner” http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/zanies3.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Rexroat Consolidated School Located Township 4 South – Range 2 West & 1 West. – Approved March 1922 – school student census 410 valuation $365,520. School name in honor of U.T. Rexroat. The establishment of the Rexroat School district had its very beginning early in this period at a school by the name of “Iron Top” and was a subscription school taught by Mr. U.T. Rexroat. Through the years other schools were brought into the area which were Pleasant Grove, Keller, Blue Ribbon and possible others not named. Hugh W. Rose, Superintendent.” http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/rexroat3.jpg
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[Year 1923] Township: 3 South, 2 South and 1 South. – Range 3 West and 2 West – Census 435 – valuation $446,335 Fox Consolidated School District was formed in 1922 and was the third group of districts to co-operate with the movement in Carter County to raise the standard of rural schools by consolidation. The vote to consolidate was almost unanimous. After a bit of dissention over where the school building would be located it was established tha the location of the school would be at the little town of Fox. The Fox Consolidated School is composed of former school districts “Pike City, Snider Chapel, 38, Fox, 52. and Buckhorn, 53. which were continued to be used in part to accommodate students of their immediate areas. One year of high school work is offered. Bryan Duston, Principal” http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/fox1923.jpg
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“Butch, My wife and I were on Vacation, on the way to Cripple Creek, CO. when we stopped to by gas in Clayton, NM. Saw this bell ( Plaque said made in 1907) in front of a Memorial Library. We cannot remember the name for who the library is named after, but knew you’d like the bell.” http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/crippleb.jpg
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“Hi Butch: Thanks for all your effort in putting together “T&T” each week. In the July 27 “T&T” you mentioned Lt McKerson’s BBQ gravy–I don’t believe I ever tried it but Gray’s (in Madill), had some of the best sliced brisket & brown gravy that I have ever had including most of the well know BBQ places in Kansas City. Who else remembers Grays? I sure would like to have some of their offering now, it was slow smoked and they didn’t have red sweet sauce which is horrible. Also the fogging of the town to kill mosquitoes—My father, Ben Vick of Kingston was a supervisor of 17 southern counties for the Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture that was in charge of the spraying program that were paid for by the cities involved. The fog was a DDT mixture of which I had inhaled many sniffs & am lucky enough to sill to have good health (70 years old). Also there was an article about a mystic who pointed the Marshall County law enforcement department to the body of Alton Edgar. The sheriff, Ed Long, was a neighbor of my wife for several years. After his retirement he owned a neighbor hood grocery store. I graduated from Madill HS in 1950, but remember several things that you shown and mentioned. Enjoy it very much.” Don Vick [email protected]
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“My G.Grandfather G.W. Moye was a lawman in McCurtain County, Oklahoma from about 1912-13 on up to 1930. Would your newsletter happen to have any articles that mention him? I have one article, but would like to find more.” [email protected]
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“Another great edition there Cuz. Seems like your readers are beginning to provide you with a lot of interesting stories. I noticed you had a response from a reader out in Lake Havasue, Arizona. Now that place has something of history right there in their back yard. They have the original London Bridge that was brought over brick by brick and replaced in its natural state when it was put back up again. Wonder if he would be willing to share a photo for your T&T. It is a quite interesting story on how they arranged to have it shipped all the way from England to their out of the way little city.”
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“Here is the picture of the Threshing crew with “Moody and Gearham Threshing machine.” Emet, Indian Territory, Oklahoma 1900.” http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/threshe.jpg
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“Dear Mr. Martin: Thank you for expressing your interest in Grapette soda. We love hearing from our customers! Grapette does not currently have nationwide distribution. However, Grapette is available throughout most of the South, Southeast, and Southwest United States. To find out specific locations where Grapette is sold, please call our distributor for your area, Leading Edge Brands, at 1 800 335 2353. Thanks again for writing. Sincerely, David Rice Grapette Customer Service”
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“Hello Butch, I was wondering if you wrote about Carter County or just the town of Ardmore or maybe just surrounding areas. I have a story to share with you and you can use it or not it’s just interesting to me. It’s about my great great uncle Crocket Long. July 18, 1932 in Madill Oklahoma, Oklahoma crime bureau agent Crockett Long shoots it out with Wiley Lynn. In the corner drug store Wiley Lynn and Crockett Long both fatally shoot each other and one other bystander. Lynn reportedly carried a grudge against Long over an incident which occurred two years before when Long was Madill police chief. Long had used force to arrest Lynn for drunkenness. So that fateful Sunday afternoon Lynn walked into the drug store his six-shooter drawn. He said only one thing to Crockett. “Throw em up.” Firing immediately broke out in the crowded store. Wounding two innocent bystanders, one fatally. Wiley stumbled from the store to near by funeral parlor where he fell. His last words, “I’m afraid I’m goin die, I’m all shot to pieces.” Crockett later died at a Ardmore hospital. Crockett was the son of Dow Long and Ann Storm. Not to long ago there was a show called YOU KNOW MY NAME. It starred Sam Elliot as Bill Tilghman a federal U.S. Marshall. In this show which is real accounts Wiley shot and killed this man. I copied this down out of an old Madill newspaper. Pretty good history lesson.”
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========================================================================“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” -Abraham Lincoln
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday July 28, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 223
After the two weeks of trying to upload my photos to xoom/nbci, I was sent email by a Reader that explained the problem. Xoom say they are taking their website down the end of August, so they are accepting no new files for upload. I am now changing my mirror site to my fortunecity.com website. They too allow 100 megs of storage, and it works better then xoom/nbci.
I’ll continue to put each issue’s photos in an Album on my webshots.com site, so everyone can view the photos there with no problem, even hotmail, yahoo, justicemail, and other users. http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
The schools and churches photo Albums at Webshots.com continue to be popular. Over 600 hits just this week from lookers. I’ved added about 20 more photos (went to 2 webpages of Albums) but I could use some help. If you live in western Carter county, have a digital camera, and some free time, shoot away. I haven’t even stared on taking pics of schools and churches in Healdton and Wilson. If you can help, let me know! http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
I was out at Lone Grove this week and stopped in to see Mrs. Wilson (Wilson Monuments). She has so much history stored away in her brain and on paper, more then I will ever know if I live to be twice as old as her!. She showed me a map of Love County (published by the Love County Chamber of Commerce) she had just received, and the first thing I noticed was O’Saviour on it. A couple of weeks ago a Healdtonite said his parents went to O’Saviour school, south of Wilson somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. The map shows it to be south of Wilson just over into Love county. If one was going south out of Wilson on Highway 76, it looks like about 2 miles in to Love county then back west 1 mile, like you were going to Orr, Oklahoma. O’Saviour school was named after the O’Saviour family that lived in the area of Love county.
Then she said something about going to place a monument at Petersburg. I asked where Petersburg was, and she said its 10 miles south of Ringling. She said its where they came down from Anadarko, Oklahoma and did the excavation of the Indian ruins. I said, “Whoa!, tell me more.” She said long ago there was an Indian village just a mile south of Petersburg, and some “historical society” people came down in the 1960s and did a complete excavation of the ruins. Many artifacts were dug up and recovered. She said all the artifacts were given to the Great Plains Museum at Lawton. Boy, this was all news to me! I may have to make a trip to Petersburg!
When I told Mrs. Wilson I was putting the old county schools on webshots.com she told me her parents went to West End School in 1906. Thats out by Oil City in western Carter county.
I was talking one of the sheriff’s employees this week and she mentioned how she saw on TV where some law enforcement agencies had used mystics to find missing persons, etc. Neither of us really understand how a mystic could tell someone exactly where to go find a person, but it happens. I mentioned this is really not new, back in 1930 an Ada, Oklahoma mystic, Ed Kelley, was used to find missing Marshall county farmer, Alton Edgar. The mystic travelled by car to Madill and took the relatives to a spot SW of Madill to where the badly decomposing body lay. Mr. Edgar had been missing a week. Here’s the complete store. http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/mystic.html
I talked to an Ardmoreite this week, her husband worked for Safeway Stores for nearly 50 years. He first worked for the Safeway Stores here in Ardmore (now called Homeland) back around 1947, but only worked at that store about 6 months, and transferred to the Chickasha, Oklahoma store. She told me about 1952 or 1953 Ardmore’s Safeway Store was completely gutted by fire and had to be rebuilt. Maybe someone has a pic of the old store.
In my 19 years of working everyday with computers, I’ve never seen the viruses proliferate like I have the past three months. This past week the SirCam worm/virus has been hitting Ardmore hard. So hard in fact, that early Thursday morning OneNet in Oklahoma City had to shutdown our network in town, leaving the courthouse, city hall, libraries, schools, hospital, etc., without Internet access for several hours. Plus many computers in Ardmore have been infected. I hope everyone is using a virus checker. If you’re not, then there is a 99% chance you have a virus on your computer and don’t even know it. The http://www.grisoft.com’s FREE antivirus program works great, and it does detect this new SirCam virus. You must have grisoft’s Version Update 265 7/18/01 for the SirCam detection and healing. Here is more info on this new destructive virus. http://www.grisoft.com/html/news/sircam.cfm
If you want to check your computer for this SirCam virus only, I have a small file you can download and RUN to do just that. Just use your mouse to Right Click on the link below and then save it to your hard drive. Remember where you Save it, because you have to go RUN it when you’ve got it downloaded. http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/FixSirc.com
If you just want to run a scan of your hard drive without downloading a big program, I recommend http://housecall.antivirus.com as the place to go. Just do the “unregistered scan”.
If it is an Ardmore email address you’re looking for, this website has the most up-to-date listing. http://www.ardnet.com
Another piece of Ardmore history was torn down last weekend. Lt McKerson’s BBQ on East Main was leveled by a bulldozer. I remember going there so much from my early teens to adulthood. Lt McKerson had the best BBQ gravy in town…. I could make a meal out of just his gravy and bread!
Last week I talked about the new 911 coordinator working at the courthouse. If you really want to see how a 911 system is put together, go the the link below. They are being touted as a model for the whole country. http://www.shelby911.org/
Plus the link below is a national clearing house of 911 information. http://www.nena9-1-1.org/
A Reader sent me an old package of Bull Durham tobacco in the little pouch. The Durham, North Carolina company started during the Civil War and continued to put their tobacco in little muslin bags until the 70s. Since I’m a non smoker, I wouldn’t know anything about it, but the package is neat, and it’s truly a piece of American history. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/bulld2.jpg http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/bulld3.jpg http://208.199.176.213/BullDurham.htm
With the hot weather Oklahoma is having the past week or so, my mind flashed back to about 1957 when it seemed terribly hot. We didn’t have air conditioning, only a box fan in the front room window. And the City of Ardmore would come down 3rd NE about 9pm using the fogger to kill mosquitoes and that box fan just pulled that thick gray fog right into the house. I didn’t know if it would kill mosquitoes, but we sure thought it was going to kill us. Anyway, it was so hot I’d go outside and sit in the swing and cry. That swing is still on the porch at 805 3rd NE where I spent the first 21 years of my life. Here’s a pic of that swing. http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/lbrswing.jpg
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Hi Butch, Getting a little behind in my correspondence, but the article about Freckles and pix of his grave as well as Land Frost, I have visited their gravesites in Hugo. Also, back when I was in the Jaycees we got Freckles Brown to come to our bullriding to honor him. He was a great man. The section of the cemetery he and Lane are buried in is reserved for circus/rodeo/show people. It’s worth a trip to visit.”
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“Hey there Butch, how is it going? I was back down in the Ardmore area last weekend for a family reunion at Courtney. When I got to Horns corner I went north on Hiway 76. Just south of Wilson I saw a bell for the Post Oak School that was in a monument. I was just wondering if you had seen this bell or knew of it being there. Just thought I would drop you a line about this bell.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/postoak6.jpg
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“Hello Butch, on the hamburger Inn photos you put on xoom.com it should be nbci.com both photos are real good. Thank you.”
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“Hi Butch, We still have an old push mower in the shed that we haven’t used in years and I mow our lawns with one of those electric mowers. Have for 20 some-odd years!” –California
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“Hi Butch, In the latest T & T, you mentioned that “a person can still buy one of those motorless push mowers (made in Germany) but $225 it cost more then the ones with a motor.” I have the Cumberland General Store catalog, and I knew there was one in there. I found it on line for you and it’s only $126 !”
http://www.cumberlandgeneral.com/AB1257/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=9 13&CATID=22
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“Butch… not sure when the tracks were moved for 1108, but I do remember that in 1956, high school classes were dismissed for the afternoon to attend the memorial services of Ole Buck (Hardy Murphy’s famed horse). The service was held in front of 1108 at Whittington Park. From day forward, we always said “hats off to Ole Buck and 1108″ as we drove past on the way to Lake Murray.”
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“Hey Butch……….. I thought you might enjoy this old family picture from my grandmothers album…. I’m not sure who these people are but they are my relatives…. It appears to have been taken at Turner falls… probably on a Sunday Picnic because they are wearing church clothes…. but the date I do not know…..my family lived west of davis, ok and my Grt. grandfather W.H.H Myers (William Henry Harrison Myers)…. Had the first trading post in indian territory at ft. Arbuckle…….. I am enclosing a picture of it as well…. I have a large number of old pictures that were in her albums……………. thanks for the great column.”
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“Hi Butch, Enjoy your “This and That” each week so much and love looking at the old pictures. Noticed the one of the Selvidge Business College in 1910 and was wondering if you know where this building was located. If not, do you have any ideas as to how I might find out? I remember you from your ambulance driving days in Ardmore and think it is wonderful the interest you have taken in the history of Ardmore and the time and effort you put into delving into bringing things out each week to tease our memories. Living away from Ardmore now I probably enjoy it even more.”
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“My name is Richard Manley and I attended Ardmore High School 1n the 40s, about 1943, with an Ann Hefner and a Carol Jean Inman. Your name does not ring a bell with me. Because of the two names your name is associated with in the OK Gen’l Web, I hope you might be able to help me. Carol Jean Inman was the daughter of the persons who owned Inmans Drive In back in the 40s. Rose Emerson was, I believe, adopted by the Inmans. Rose became a dispatcher for the OHP in the 40s and became my stepmother when my father, I. W. Manley married her later. My father was a trooper at the Ardmore Barracks of the Highway Patrol. The eventually moved to Miss. in later 40s, about 1946 where Rose and Daddy had two children, Linda Jean born in 1946 and Robert Eric, born 1947. I left home in 1947 and never returned. Rose and IW split up in 1947 and Rose returned to Ardmore. The last time I spoke to Rose was about 1975 when my father died. Rose was working for OK Gas & Elec. as far as I know. What I would be eternally grateful for is to be able to contact my brother and sister as I have not seen or talked to them since apx. 1947. I have heard that Robbie had been a coach for Ardmore High football. Linda, I know nothing about. Please, do you feel that you might be able to help me? Richard Manley, Hyde Park Vermont. My e-mail is [email protected] Thank you.”
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“Another great addition. Was extremely happy to see so many responses about the Encarta photo of Turner Falls. Guess I am not the only one who remembers the falls in its glory days and could see past the touch ups by Encarta to see the “real” falls that we all loved so much when growing up back there in Davis and Ardmore area.”
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“We were in Ardmore last week and hope to come back next week again. Trying to remember where, in Ardmore, you said you could find Grapette. Or close by at least.If you get a chance a quick note would sure appreciate. Went and saw depot and were excited to see the progress. Waited for Heartland Flyer about 45 minutes from time it was due and never did see it- too hot to wait longer.” [email protected]
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“Hey Butch………..I thought you might enjoy this old family picture from my grandmothers album….I’m not sure who these people are but they are my relatives….It appears to have been taken at Turner falls…probably on a Sunday Picnic because they are wearing church clothes….but the date I do not know…..my family lived west of davis, ok and my Grt. grandfather W.H.H Myers (William Henry Harrison Myers)….Had the first trading post in indian territory at ft. Arbuckle……..I am enclosing a picture of it as well….I have a large number of old pictures that were in her albums…………….thanks for the great column.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/ftarbtp.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/tfallstr.jpg
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“The movie reviews are for those who don’t trust the critics and who need an “everyman” sort of view point.” http://www.mp3.com/schahara
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“Happy Belated Birthday…….If I read it right, your birthday was July 18……My granddaughter’s birthday is also July 18. She was 7 years old. I knew you and I had a connection ……. just kidding!!!!!!”
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“I am attaching a copy of a picture of the house in Emet that was the home of Douglas H. Johnston in Emet, Oklahoma. The old house holds alot of memories for me because we would go past it going to the Emet Cemetery. I don’t know if you can use it, but thought you might enjoy viewing it. The paper is dated May 1993.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/emethse.jpg
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“About that viaduct – one of Daddy’s favorite stories is about the day he (Don White), his best friend Roy “Buddy” Garnand, and his cousin Bobby Taylor were walking across the viaduct. They were about eight-years-old, and lived on A Street – they went to that elementary school on the other side of the tracks (which has been torn down). He said as they were walking back home over the viaduct from the playground at school, every church bell in town and every siren started up – people were honking horns all over town – the boys thought something horrible had happened and ran all the way home! The radio had just announced that WWII was over!”
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“here’s a few photos I recently shot from Hwy 142 Overpass (truck by-pass) and Hwy 199 underpass at Ardmore. Amtrack #821 and the LTEX Local. Please help support the Heartland Flyer and keep Oklahoma moving in the right direction!”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/amtrak2.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/amtrak3.jpg
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/amtrak4.jpg
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“I’m looking for the birth records of my grandmother and grandfather. Her name is on your site as Alma Jones, born December 5, 1878 and died May 30, 1954 Ardmore, Oklahoma). Also for Frances Shaw, born June 19, 1919 and died September 16, 1981.Would you know how and if (where) I can obtain her death certificate and birth records? I spoke with the funeral director in Carter who would have buried her, but when they bought the funeral home from Ragsdale, the records were taken with the owners. They only have records from 1960. I’m trying to locate any and all family members.” [email protected]
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“BUTCH, FINALLY GOT MY COMPUTER CLEANED OF THAT HORRIBLE VIRUS. IT ATE EVERYTHING BEFORE IT WAS STOPPED. GOT A NEW NORTON ANTI-VIRUS HOPE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN. MY MOM’S UNCLE HENRY WILLINGHAM WAS KILLED IN THAT EXPLOSION OF 1915. HE WAS HER DADDY’S BROTHER.” MINNIE LOU WHITTINGTON [email protected]
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“Really enjoy T&T. Keep up the good work. I have several old phone books from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. I was looking through May 1963 and ran across a listing for Sunset Golf Course located west of city. Does anyone know anything about who ran this course, and where it was located and how big was it? Also do you have any pictures of the old Superdog Drive Inn or Skyview Drive Inn or 77 North Drive Inn. What was the date that these closed?”
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“Lots and lots of women come to see me from Oklahoma when they want to treat themselves, or when their husbands and boyfriends and families want to treat them, to a gorgeous makeover. They’ll come down here and get their faces done, their pictures made, or see me before they go out on the town in Dallas. A lot of times, brides to be like to see how they should look for the big day and use my advice and products if I can’t actually BE there for it. There must be lots more ladies there who would LOVE to do this, but who don’t know that I’m here for the doing. They could go see my website at http://www.makeupmaven.com and write and ask me any questions they want. I like to help!”
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“Dear Mr. Bridges, I enjoy your weekly e-mail very much. I have been reading about old schools in Carter County. I am attaching a picture made outside the old two-story brick school building in Springer, Okla. All twelve grades went to this school. This photo was made of the 5th and/or the 6th grades about 1935 or 1936. I am seated in the front row, third from the right. My sister, Ruby (Sisk) Whitfield (we called her Miss Ruby), third row center, was the teacher and the best girls’ basketball coach Springer ever had. Shortly after this was made, the school was demolished to be replaced with a new building made of natural stone by the WPA. At the same time they built a very nice gym. The material came from a quarry north and west of Springer in the Arbuckle Mountains on the property of Mr. Miller Wisdom who was the grandfather of C.L. Hunnicutt, who was married to another sister, Vivian (Sisk) Hunnicutt. During the time the school and gym were being built, all the classes were held in the numerous churches in Springer. I would like to hear from anyone in this photo or is familiar with these happenings. I was born in Springer on Dec. 27, 1924 and attended school in Graham, Springer, Davis and Ardmore. Thanks.” Bill Sisk, Lake Havasu City, AZ [email protected]
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/sprsch35.jpg
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[Year 1923] “New Zion School is located west of Berwyn. New Zion is a two teacher school offering eight grades of school work. It is believed that this school will, in the near future, realized the wisdom of petionioning to become a part of some adjoining district in order to give the children a better graded school. as well as an opportunity to attend high school. New Zion has accomplished good work under the direction of Mrs.Eldridge. Principal, and Miss Clara Williams, Assistant. School census 126 with Valuation of $118,116.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/newzions.jpg
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[year 1923] “ZITA School – District # 68 Township 2 south – Range 3 west – area school census is 100 with a valuation of $ 94,101…The school is located in the northwest part of Carter County and maintains two teachers offering 8 grades of work. . A.F. McFarland is Principal with Autis McCullum as Assistant.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/zitasch23.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Berwyn Consolidated School is located in the town of Berwyn in the northeast portion of Carter County. There are at least three schools that have been added to the Berwyn system, those being the schools of Henderson Flatts, Dunlap and Cullins schools – Former school districts # 10s, 11 and 13. (pictures of these schools are available if requested). Berwyn is accredited for 16 units and will become an independent district another year. Superintendent is E.A. Gilder. Valuation:$ 711,885 – census” 469.”
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/berywn23.jpg
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“Butch, In 1928 Herbert Hoover was elected President of the United States and I remember that night because it was such an eventful affair. I was reminded of that night this evening, when I took this picture of the new Courthouse Pavilion in Ardmore. In 1928 not many people had access to radios so the officials caused loud speakers to be mounted on the side of the Courthouse and the results were announced over the speakers as they came in. This lawn was crowded with hundreds, if not thousands, of interested citizens. This had been an exciting campaign between Hoover and Al Smith. I am sending a bit of information concerning an analysis of that time.”“”When United States voters elected Herbert Hoover 31st president in 1928, the country was enjoying an industrial and financial boom. Within seven months of his taking office, however, the country was swallowed up in a depression that swept the entire world. He devised emergency measures in both the domestic and the foreign fields. Conditions, however, grew worse steadily until by the end of his term more than 12 million people were unemployed. Blamed for the hard times, he was defeated in the 1932 election.””
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/italy/56/photos/pavi701.jpg
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“Butch, Maybe some of your readers could help me out with this one. Someone wrote in asking for info and history on Robinson, Oklahoma. I looked in my ghostowns of Oklahoma book and online but could not find anything. Have you run across anything on Robinson, Oklahoma?”
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========================================================================“Somewhere Over The Rainbow… Way Up High
There’s A Land That I Heard Of
Once In A Lullaby.Somewhere Over The Rainbow… Skies Are Blue
And The Dreams That You Dare To Dream
Really Do Come True.Someday I’ll Wish Upon A Star
And Wake Up Where The Clouds Are Far Behind Me.
Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops
Away Above The Chimney Tops…
That’s Where You’ll Find Me.Somewhere Over The Rainbow… Blue Birds Fly
Birds Fly Over The Rainbow… Why Oh Why Can’t I?If Happy Little Blue Birds Fly Beyond The Rainbow
Why ..Oh Why Can’t I?”–Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz, 1939
http://www.zianet.com/jjohnson/oz.htmSee everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges Ardmore, Oklahoma
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Saturday July 21, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 222
With this weeks issue of T&T and I having trouble again uploading the photos to xoom. So if the links to the pics do not work, I have put them in a Photo Album in my webshots.com website. Just to to the link below to see the photos. This will also help those of you who use “portable email addresses” like hotmail and justicemail and yahoo, etc. As soon as I xoom is working properly, I will upload the photos below. http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Back when I was a wee lad of about 7 years old, we had an old motorless push mower I used to mow the grass, and here is a photo of that push mower. http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/pushmow2.jpg http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/pushmow3.jpg
And guess what, a person can still buy one of those motorless push mowers (made in Germany) but it cost more then the ones with a motor at $225. If you go to the link below and do a search for “push mower” you see the modern day version of the old push mower! http://www.brookstone.com/world.asp
I wonder if anyone still uses those electric lawnmowers? We don’t seem them at all in this part of the country. But I remember in my early teens, Mrs. Phinn (Christine) Townsend lived a couple houses away, and she had this electric lawnmower she used every week to mow her grass. I just watched in awe as she mowed the yard, with that electric cord trailing behind. I know if I had one what would happen with that cord. hahaha
Back 30 or so years ago, if I remember right, the old 1108 steam locomotive that’s now in front of the Hardy Murphy Coliseum was move a track at a time, from the depot to the coliseum. Does anyone remember exactly when that moved took place? http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/loco.html
Speaking of the depot, here is a good pic of the Ardmore Depot about 1920 http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/adepot20.jpg
Back before the Big Explosion of 1915, in the SW corner of Caddo and East Main stood the Whittington Hotel. It was destroyed in the Big Explosion. Here is an excellent detailed pic of the Whittington Hotel. http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/whitt05.jpg
If you havn’t read about the Big Explosion of 1915 in Ardmore, here’s the story http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/locomo.html
The Carter County Assessors Office went over the 10,000 mark of photos of Carter county properties this week. (Plus there’s another 10,000 thumbnails!) And Steve Hamm has been busy fine tuning the website. He’s made it so easy to pull up maps of properties along with those photos. And its easy to Identify the owner of adjoining properties too. Carter county is the first county in the state to have maps available to the public of county properties. http://www.cartercountyassessor.org
I said last week I thought the webshots.com Page I set up with the schools and churches of Carter on it, was going to be popular. That is turning out to be use the case, with about 500 hits a week from people looking at the photos. I’ve added about 20 churches this week. If anyone has a photo of an Ardmore or Carter county church from years ago, I’d love to include it with the others. I can think of several churches that no longer exist but I’d like to see them listed with the others on the website. http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
J.L. Self moved into her new office in the Annex Building next door to the courthouse this month. She is the new 911 coordinator and will be working with the company that will be mapping the county for implementation of a county wide 911 system. The 911 Office address is 107 1st SW, Ardmore, OK 73401 Phone 580-224-9006. J.L.s email address is [email protected] http://www.brighok.net/cartercounty/e911page.html
Arbuckle Communications of Ardmore has a Free program you can download and run on your local computer, giving you the ability to Page any of their alphanumeric Pagers while you are on the Internet. Just Run the program, add a config entry, type in the Pager number, enter the message, and hit Send! http://www.arbuckleonline.com/pagerinst.html
The Daily Ardmoreite has an interesting Poll going on at their Website right now. There is talk across the country of doing way with the lowly penny and just rounding off whatever we buy to the nearest nickel. I went to their website and cast my vote, maybe you want to do the same. http://www.ardmoreite.com/
If you have a pet animal, here’s a free book filled with Q&As on pet care http://www.practical-pet-care.com/ebooks_main.php
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Another great and informative issue. I really enjoyed all the feed-back you received on the Turner Falls Picture from Encarta. Guess I was able to either see past the touch-ups or am getting older than I thought. All I can say for sure is that my brother and I used to walk the five miles from Davis to Turner Falls almost daily just so we could swim. As we got older, I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the Life Guards at the Falls and the old “Blue Hole” pool just as you enter the area on the right where the slide and diving board used to be. We also use to swim at Cedarville and dive from the old tower as well as swing out on the rope into the water there just before the spill way. Fond memories that can’t even be tarnished by a bad picture of the falls.”
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“Couldn’t that Encarta picture of Turner Falls be a picture taken many years ago before there were cedars covering the Arbuckle’s and from such a low angle that the mountains behind the falls are not visible? It’s also taken from an extreme angle to the left of the falls. The cedar trees that cover the hills now add about 10-20 feet to the height to the area surrounding the falls. That would be 15-30 percent of the actually height. If you were to digitally add cedars to the terrain in the Encarta picture it would look more like what we’re used to seeing. I’m not saying it is Turner Falls, but it might be. The falls themselves look very similar. I wonder if you found some pictures that you knew were of the falls, but taken in the 50’s that rock in the pool might show up.”
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“I have been going through some old photos of my dad’s and found two old post cards of Turner Falls. I’m not sure what year they are from, but my dad’s “voice” on the back of the cards is very child like as he writes to his grandma about a band trip to the falls. Here are the scans:”
http://www.stoutgenealogy.com/images/turnerfalls_old1.jpg
http://www.stoutgenealogy.com/images/turnerfalls_old2.jpg
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“I am pretty sure it was mid 70’s like 1976 check the paper and see and there was another water elevator on the north side of the old Ardmore Hotel (Lincoln Bank) I rode it many times and it always leaked. It might still be there.”
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“To bad the building in Tish (Walker Hotel) is being torn down… It was a sad day when the viaduct burned down… I was there in town and lived on 3rd ne but you know i do not remember it burning… i must have been out of town… i know i could not believe it when i was told.”
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“Butch do you have any idea where the Strawn school was located? My maiden name was Strawn and I have heard of the school all of my life,but never knew where it was located. Any information would be appreciated.”
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“Butch, This is the information I sent to you on June 20th. 2001 which lists & pictures the Strawn School which was a part of the Wilson District # 43 – There is no actual geographical description of where the school building was located except to state that it was near DILLARD and the Principal was Mrs. L.C. Daniels [in 1923].”
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“Dillard, Oklahoma located in Carter County, 16 miles west of Ardmore. A post office from November 22,1924, to June 30, 1955. Named for Lee H. Dillard, Choctaw allotee.”
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“Butch, here’s a thought about the name Strawn…. the Strawn School was named for a Mr. G.W. Strawn who was regarded as one of the most progressive citizens, coming to Ardmore from Wagoner County. Mr. Strawn was originally from Illinois where he was associated in school work. His first teaching experience was in Nebraska schools. At one time he taught at the Strawn school near Lacon, Ill.”
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“I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the article about the old viaduct fire….and with good reason. My family lived at 523 F St., just 3 houses down from the viaduct, and when it caught fire, my mother was frantic, worrying about sparks drifting over & catching our house on fire as well. So she grabbed up pictures, clothes, and mementos and started loading them in the car so if it came to it, we would not lose everything. It was a terrifying few hours for all of us living in that close proximity to the burning bridge.”
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“Butch, do you have any pictures of the Falls Creek Baptist Assembly grounds?? I attended church camp there when I was a young girl and now, my granddaughter who lives in Dallas, is attending church camp there this week. I haven’t seen Falls Creek in years and thought you might have recent pictures of the camps. Hope you are having a great summer.”
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“Butch, here is the bell from the courtyard at the First Methodist Church in New Braunfels, TX. Don’t have any history on it yet but will soon and will forward to you.” http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/newbtex.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Brown School District 64 contains only four sections of land, being the smallest school district in Carter County. The school was organized during Mrs. Niblack’s administration as County Superintendent. The school is located in the center of the district and no pupil following section lines can be any farther from the school house than two miles. The Brown school offers 8 grades of work and the district presently is paying tuition for two students to attend Ardmore High School. Location is Township 4 south & 3 south – Range 1 west. Valuation $77,667 – school district census is 51”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/brownsc.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Dundee School – Township 4 south and 3 south – Range 4 west and 3 west – valuation $2,285,358 Number of Teachers employed: 28 – lowest salary $1,215.00 – highest salary $1,800.00 Enrollment: High School, 70 – Junior High school, 200 and grade school: 530 for a total of 800. Superintendent: H.W. Cooley” http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/dundee3.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Shady Grove School district 66 is located six miles Southwest of Ardmore. The school is located in a small community and there are few student to attend school. The school is well equipped and some excellent work has been accomplished. Eight grades of school work are offered in this one-teacher school. Dixie Elledge, Principal. School district census is 46 with an evaluation of $100,649” http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/shady23.jpg
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[Year 1923] The Rock Springs School was organized during the summer of 1917. The school is located just 4 miles north of the Healdton ballpark. The school has two teachers, both teaching in the one room building. Consolidating with a neighboring school is urgently needed. Teachers are Mr. & Mrs. Arthur A. Willis. School census 55 and valuation is $ 166,200″
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/rockcrk3.jpg
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“According to the tomb stone marker, his nick name was “PUNY” Sparger, not “Tiny” Sparger. [Rose Hill Cemetery – Ardmore,Oklahoma 6-18-01]” http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/spargerp.jpg
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“Butch: I am looking for a photo of Charles M. Campbell, the banker that signed currency in Ardmore. He was also a well known judge in earlyday Ardmore. Does the courthouse have a photo gallery or file of judges and if the answer is yes, is his photo amoung them? He came to Ardmore in 1890 and died in 1911. Thanks!”
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“Butch- Have you done anything to your Hamburger Inn pictures for T&T that were on Xoom?”
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/hambur47.jpg
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/hambur56.jpg
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=========================================This last Wednesday was my birthday, and I wanted it to just kind of let it slide, not going to say anything about it. But it would not turn out that way. I have been overwhelmed with all the electronic birthday cards, ICQ Notices, and emails the past few days. Needless to say, I’m thankful for all the friends I have out there, and I’ve tried to write everyone personally. If I missed anyone, please forgive me. This has been a good 52nd birthday. First the Assessors Office took me out to eat lunch with them, and I over stuffed, but we all had fun! The Court Clerks Office called me over on the pretense of fixing a computer, and there was German chocolate cake waiting on me! Plus a couple of nice gifts and even a hot water bottle. hahahaha. I got probably a dozen of those old fashioned birthday cards, you know, remember, the kind you sign your name, put in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and mail at the post office? One reader even mailed me this beautiful brass bell, and when I opened the box, you can imagine the smile that came over me! Another Reader gave me a jar of Hot sauce, like with it over 100 degrees here, and things aren’t hot enough. But it sure is good on taco chips! Another Reader had a Dr Pepper sitting on my desk when I arrived at work Wednesday morning, with a note attached, “This cold one’s on me”. Another Reader had it announced on KXII TV. Plus the 2 or 3 dozen friends that came over after the noon hour to eat chocolate swirl ice cream at the Annex Building with me! I’ve used this phrase in past issues, and I think this is a good time to use it again, “Friends, they make life worth living.”
Here’s a pic of those two gifts from the court clerks and that hot water bottle too and the jar of hot sauce. Notice the ribbon on the gift wrapping. What they did was take a discarded thingy of Whiteout and use the plastic “tape” thats left in the dispenser to make the ribbon. What ingenuity!
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/bdgifts.jpgNow, you know I’m not going to let you go, until I show you that brass bell! hahaha
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/dbbell.jpg“Those… who think Communism is the wave of the future should come to Berlin.”
President John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 11
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday July 14, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 221
Last week I mentioned about a bicycle repair shop located in the 400 block of 3rd NE when I was a kid in the late 50s. Since bicycles played a part of everyone’s early years of life, I thought it would be interesting to do some research on the subject. My mind flashes back to when I was about 6 years old, and my grandfather Stanley Carmon bought me a new bicycle. I was too short to reach the pedals, so he took a two by four and cut pieces to clamp on each side of the pedals. This gave the pedals several more inches of height, so I could reach them!
First, the Ardmore Cycle Shop is the oldest still operating bicycle repair shop in Ardmore. In 1938 Claude B. Williams started his Ardmore Cycle Shop at #25 “A” Street NW. Around 1945 Claude relocated his shop to 128 East Main. About 1949 Charles B. Williams became the proprietor and continued the bicycle repair business at the 128 E Main address.
About 1951 Charles relocated the business to 102 East Main. Then about ’51 or ’52, Joel C. Trammell became the Manager for the cycle shop at 102 E Main. But things have changed. Joe Trammell had a partner in the same building, Paul T. Phillips, the owner of Phillips Electric Repair service who also ran his shop at the same address.
About 1955 Ardmore Cycle Shop owner Charles Williams moved the cycle shop and Phillips Electric to 119 North Washington in Ardmore where Joe Trammell continued to manage the cycle shop and Paul Phillips continued to run his electric repair business.
But let’s back up a year to two. Before 1955 Bakos Television Repair Service was located at 119 North Washington. Louie Bakos was the owner and his wife, Joyce Bakos, was a nurse for Clifford Lorentzen, M.D. Bakos Television Repair closed down making way for Charles Williams to move his cycle shop to its new location at the 119 North Washington address.
Two years later in 1957 Charles Rhyne and Loyd Smith purchased the Ardmore Cycle Shop and continued to operate the business. In 1958 Charles Rhyne bought out Loyd Smith making Charles the sole proprietor. In 1959 Charles Ryan added the Key and Locksmith business to his cycle shop. In 1970 Charles Rhyne moved his business from 119 North Washington just next door to 117 North Washington, where he continued repairing bicycles and making keys until his death in 1997. The Ardmore Cycle Shop continues to repair bicycles and and do locksmithing under the ownership of Charles’ wife, Nellie Rhyne. Whenever you need a key made, stop by and see Nellie, tell her you saw her on the Internet…. one thing for sure, she’s one of the best key makers in Ardmore!
Here is a picture of the present day Ardmore Cycle and Locksmith Shop at 117 North Washington.
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/ardcycle.jpgAnd here is Nellie Rhyne doing what she does so well, making keys inside the shop.
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/rhyne.jpgNow for the bicycle repair shop I remember as a wee lad at 409 3rd Northeast (just on the east side of the railroad tracks). It was Ritter Bicycle Repair shop and S. Wade Ritter was the proprietor. Mr. Ritter actually started his cycle repair business about 1932 at #15 “A” NW. But before that, it was Ritter and Son Sporting Goods located at #21 North Washington. Mr Ritter operated his cycle repair at #15 “A” NW until about 1955 when he moved it to where I remember it, 409 3rd NE. Mr. Ritter only operated the shop on 3rd NE until 1957, the same year Charles Rhyne purchased the Ardmore Cycle Shop from Mrs. Charles Williams.
A few more items of interest I ran across researching the bicycle shops:
1928 J.C. Penney Store was located at #26 and #28 North Washington
1928 the Ritz Theater, 117 West Main, Harry M. Lowenstein, Manager
1937 the Recreation Bowling Alleys, #22 “A” NW, Bruce Harris, confectioner
1937 121 “A” NW, the Jewish Temple Emeth
1937 #10 “A” SW, Carter County Title Company
1937 #13 “A” SW, Ardmore Abstract Company
1937 #15 “A” SW, Ray’s Office Supply
1937 #11 “B” SW, the Courthouse Garage, Cleo E. Williams
1937 #17 “B” SW, Courthouse Cafe, Charles M. Grant
1941 #22 “A” NW, the K&L Bowling Alleys
1955 Ruel B. and Kathleen Gilbert were the proprietors of the Gilbert Building. The Gilberts resided at the Hotel Ardmore that same year
1955 Waco Turner was President of the Ardmore Baseball Association. His office was in room 501 of the Gilbert Building (now called the Ardmoreite Building)
1957 the Ardmore Business College was in Room 3 at 301 North Washington and Robert C. Cavins, City Manager, was the proprietorI received an interesting CD this week in the mail. It was sent to me from former Ardmoreite Doyle Williams who now lives in Fort Worth. Back on July 4, 1964 one of the worst fires Ardmore has experienced took place, the creosote post 5th Avenue NE viaduct (bridge) burned. Doyle had an 8mm color camera on that day and took a 50 foot roll of film he hurriedly purchased from Gibson’s Discount Store at 12th and North Washington. Below is a link of the footage of that film in “mov” format. You will need the latest version of QuickTime to view it. The file is 4megs in size, so it will take several minutes to download at 56k.
Here’s a pic of the CD Doyle Williams created. It has 8 still pics of the fire captured by Doyle from the film and burned on the CD. http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/firecd3.jpg
To learn more about this MOV file and download it for viewing click on this Link:
http://www.brightok.net/~bridges/viaduct.htmlIn England is Westminster Abbey. American remember it most from the bells being played from there after Lady Diana’s funeral. It is some sweet sounding bells. Here is a link to hear them. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/bell/index.html
A couple months ago I told about Buck Hale’s saw mill NW of the Airpark at Gene Autry and how he wanted to sell it when I was up there talking to him. This week when I drove by, the saw mill is gone, its truly history now. He sold it.
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/hale3.jpg
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/hale4.jpg
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/hale5.jpgSpeaking of saw mills, my ancestors on my mother’s side, Carmon/Carman, had a saw mill on New York Island back around 1790. The Carman Saw Mill was located in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Each year after a harsh winter, the saw mill had to be rebuilt. This picture is a copy of a painting by a Carman descendant in Davis, California, Mrs. Virginia Barrett. She saw the picture in a history book, and being an artist, went home and made a painting of it. http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/carmsawm.jpg
The Colston Building was built in 1917 at “A” and Main street. I’ve talked about this piece of history before, but never told about the unique service elevator on the west side of the building that is powered only by water. It has a large water piston and the pressure from the city water pushes the elevator up to the sidewalk level. When not in use, it sits in the basement under two metal covers which are over the sidewalk above.
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/watrlift.jpgThis is a closeup of the water valve that opens and closes, causing the elevator to rise.
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/waterval.jpgI think there is only one other water operated service elevator still working in Ardmore. Its located on the west side of the Ardmoreite building.
Also in the Colston basement are three old safes. There is one manufactured by the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company, another by the Safe Cabinet Company of Marietta, Ohio, and then a Mosler Safe. Here is a photo of one of those safes.
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/colsafe.jpgBenefitsCheckUp – a free, easy-to-use service that identifies federal and state assistance programs for older Americans. Researching these programs used to be a time-consuming, frustrating experience. But no longer. The National Council on the Aging created BenefitsCheckUp to help older adults to quickly identify programs that may improve the quality of their lives. Family and friends can also obtain facts about benefits that their loved ones may qualify for. Chances are, you will be surprised to learn what benefits are available to you, regardless of your income. http://www.benefitscheckup.org/
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“Being from Davis and having done a lot of swimming and diving (which was against the law even back when I was young), I reviewed the Encarta photograph of Turner Falls very closely and have concluded that it is a touched up photo of the falls where someone clearly took some of the mountain away on the west side. If you concentrated on the actual falls and the area directly in front you can tell that it was once a very good picture of the falls taken from the east side where the bathhouse and old train used to stop. Do not know why someone would want to touch up one of Oklahoma’s natural beauty spots like they did but they have done the falls a disjustice. Thanks for sharing – just the picture brought back a number of fond memories.”
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“i brought up both pics of Turner Falls… and they are no where close to being the same.. even if they had a bad flood, it would not look like that… did you email them and ask where they got the pic from hehehhehe.”
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“Hi Butch…..enjoyed TnT this AM. Don’t know where those folks got that picture they are calling Turner Falls but that ain’t it!!!”
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“Hi there, I just looked in on them Turner Falls photo’s again, and it is rather pitiful isnt it !! the one from the Encarta hahah, and to think, thats what I thought they looked like ooop’s its good you were there to put me right. ha ha.”
http://encarta.msn.com/find/MediaMax.asp?pg=3&ti=761578896&idx=461538477
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“Butch: The Woodworth school and the Section 15 school were two different schools. Woodworth was a small community south of Healdton on what is now 76 Highway the first road south of the golf course road exit. As I remember it, there was a filling station and grocery, I do not remember the school as it was gone long before I started to school. Mrs. Fronterhouse first taught there. The section 15 school was just south of the Pure Oil Camp. Both schools merged with the Healdton School System. Mrs. Fronterhouse later taught 6th grade in the Healdton school. Mary Frost first taught at Sect. 15 and was later Principal (for a number of years) of Healdton Grade School.
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“Better watch those old fireworks, Old gun powder gets pretty unstable as it ages.”
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“You mentioned you were placing photos of churches on webshots, and I ran across the picture, sent by another email, of the old Nazarene Church in Tishomingo. The church was torn down in/or after 1983.”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/tishnaz.jpg
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[year 1923] “Healdton is a comparative new town but the organized school is newer. In the school year 1919-20 the High School was organized and was fully accredited with the University for 16 units. There were 2 graduates in 1920 – in 1921 there were 4 graduates and that year there was accredited 21 and one-half units. In 1922, 10 graduates received diplomas and that year the unites increased to 29 and one-half. This year in 1923, we have a senior class of twenty-six members and we have a standing of 35 units. In four years the school has grown from 18 teachers to one employing 35 teachers and an enrollment of 202 students. *see attachments for pictures of the Healdton High School building and also the Healdton Sunset Ward School building for year 1923.”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/hhs23.jpg
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/sunset23.jpg
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[year 1923] “Reck School: Just six miles to the southwest of Wilson is the school of Reck, which has been the leading educational institution of district 57 for the past 25 years. With an enrollment of ninety-five pupils and two teachers – M.H. Gilmore, Principal and Stella Gilmore, Assistant. Eight grades of school work is offered. School district census is 127 with an evaluation of $164,990”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/reck23.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Camp School is located in the northwest part of Carter County. The first Camp school was a one-room log structure, built by the hardy pioneers of territorial days. A few years afterwards a small box building was erected which was later enlarged. The school offered the usual 8 grades of school work and also one year of high school work. The Principal of the Camp school is Robert Cavins. school district census is 97 with a evaluation of $70,385”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/camp23.jpg ————————————————————–
[Year 1923] “Cool Branch School is located in the extreme NW corner of Carter County is a little white school house located on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley and a small cool stream from which the school takes its name. The enrollment of the school is about half a hundred and offers eight grades of school work. The Principal is Mr. Paul Dawson. The school district census is 65 with an evaluation of $86,135”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/coolb23.jpg
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[Year 1923] “District 63 is in the most extreme NW part of Carter county. The district is made up of this part of Carter County, also portions of Garvin & Stephens Counties. There are two schools in district 63. One is at Tussy which is under the supervision of J.H.Acree and one about three miles east of Tussy, called Woodland, of which Ernest Tate is the Principal
The schools offer 8 grades of school work.” http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/tussy23.jpg
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/woodland.jpg
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“Information from the Tishomingo, Oklahoma Capital-Democrat, dated Thursday, Sept. 3, 1961. The Walker Hotel on North Neshoba street, which was built in 1914 by W. J. Keith and his wife, S. A. Keith in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.” “The WALKER HOTEL AS IT APPEARS IN 1981. THE BUILDING IS OWNED BY CARL LANDRUM AND IS SCHEDULED TO BE TORN DOWN WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR.”
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/walkerho.jpg
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=========================================Last week I said we’d have a drawing for three wood business card holders. A lot of you emailed me and asked to be included. I wish I could send one of those little business card holders everyone of you who asked. But financial restraints prevents me. haha. Anyway, here are the three winners:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/wcard7.jpg
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” -Carl Sagan
See everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Saturday July 7, 2001 T&T Weekly Vol 5 Issue 220
Since last Wednesday was the Fourth of July and Independence Day, I have to tell you about a Zippy Pickles (Safeway Stores) jar I’ve had since the 70s. The jar contains some Black Cat firecrackers, one Red Rat firecracker, three green cherry bombs, two Auto Foolers, a box of Burglar Alarms, and some lady Fingers. My mother took them away from me when I was about 14 years old. I found them in a chest of drawers about 15 years later (in the 70s) and I’ve kept them ever since. Now why would my mother take firecrackers away from me? hahahaha http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/firew60s.jpg
Now there is a reason I’m telling all this. Every year for over 20 years I’ve taken one firecracker from that jar and popped it. It all started on a July 4th back around 1980 when I went into the Post Office to check my mailbox. Inside was this man I’d seen around town for years. I never knew his name, but he was a tall slender man, blonde hair, and rode a bicycle everywhere he traveled. You see, he was mentally retarded to some degree, but he probably understood the true meaning of Independence Day, then a lot of people do today. He stopped me that day in the post office, held up three fingers, and said, “I’m going to pop three firecrackers; one for me, one for God, and one for my country”. I was told years later he got hit by a car while riding his bicycle and received a broken leg. I’ve not seen him in a long time, but I’ll never forget his words to me that July 4th. (I’m not talking about Coleman Jones aka Santa Clause who used to ride a bike all over town.)
Speaking of bicycles, does anyone remember the bicycle repair shop on the east side of the railroad tracks on 3rd NE here in Ardmore? The brick building was on the north side of the street, right next to the tracks. It’s just a vacant lot now. I remember going there in the early 60s.
The past week I’ve been uploading photos of Carter county schools, past and present, to the webshots.com website for everyone’s viewing. From the hits the past few days, I predict this is going to be a very popular spot on the Net. If anyone has a photo of a Carter county school and wants to put it on webshots.com with the others, let me know. Maybe you have one in that old School Criterion? Right now I have about 65 schools divided into three Volumes, including Selvidge Business College (1910) and others.
I just set up an Album for Carter county churches too. Anyone got a digital camera and want to help get photos of the churches and schools in Carter county? http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
A friend brought by my office a photo of Turner Falls he’d got off the Internet at Encarta’s website. We both would look at the photo, and know something is missing or wrong with this picture. It’s sure not the Turner Falls I’m using to seeing all these years. Here’s a photo I took last April:
http://members.nbci.com/_XOOM/OklahomaPast/photos/tfalls15.jpg
And here’s the pic of Turner Falls from Encarta’s website:
http://encarta.msn.com/find/MediaMax.asp?pg=3&ti=761578896&idx=461538477The Carter County Assessor as added a new feature to his website. Its maps! Its not 100% up and running, but you can get a good idea what the maps module is right now. Just go to Assessor Sam West’s website and click on MAPPING at the bottom of the Page. If you don’t see the word MAPPING, you may need to hit REFRESH. Now let’s say you want to see a certain house at 218 SW B in Ardmore. Type that address in the box and click GO. The next screen will show you the Address and Map Number. Now click on the little WORLD GLOBE at the right. In a minute a box will pop up showing a map of that area, and the 218 SW B address will be highlighted in green along with a Thumbnail of the house. If you click on IDENTIFY on the right hand side, and then click on that address or any adjoining property, the program will give you the owner’s name. Pretty neat! The Carter County Assessor’s Office is the first county in the state to make this kind of map information available on the Internet! http://www.cartercountyassessor.org/
Over the past few years I think I’ve exposed everyone to a lot of bells. Now an old VIC 20 programmer has come up with a program to hear church bells playing on your computer. You can even set up the system on outdoor speakers and play them from the church steeple, housetop, etc. http://www.geocities.com/churchbells1/
Here’s a sample of the bells that play. It takes five minutes to download at 56k, so be patient. But the sound quality is superb and worth the wait. That is if you like bells. hahaha http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/bellplay.wav
SOME LETTERS FROM THIS WEEK’S MAILBAG
“butch my mother callie juel willingham went to the first grade in lane ok. i’m sure that isn’t the same school. she was born jan. 3, 1915 so was probably about 1921 when she went there. she was also born at lane.”
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“The mills were originally of metal, but later were switched to some kind of pressed paper or plastic.”
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“dear butch, just seen on sayre oklahoma webpage that the hundred birthday party is Saturday sept 15 20001 downtown .” http://www.sayreok.net/CatchtheVision.htm
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“The article on Freckles Brown was great. He and Jim Shoulders used to come down to Ratchford Brother’s south of Davis and watch the cowboys buck out on week-ends. Ratchford Brothers had one bull named “Little Jim” that was a joy to watch and attempt to ride at the same time. I believe he was name after Jim Shoulders based on his rodeo abilities.”
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“Just reading about Freckles Brown, I am glad I found out the answer he gave to people, as to where his freckles went, interesting stuff, it really is.” http://www.lanefrost.com/frecklesbrown.htm
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“I remember you had a request concerning a “Woodworth” school and a teacher by the name of “Fronterhouse.” I found no listing for a teacher by the name of Fronterhouse but I did find a senior student of Healdton school by the name of Victor Fronterhouse. *SEE ATTACHMENT Although there is no picture of the Woodworth school, since the school was located in Section 15 it can be assumed that the school was merged with Healdton of district 55. The Healdton High school was organized in 1919-1920.”
http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/vfronter.jpg
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[Year 1923] “Cannon School: The first school of District 51 was known as the Russell School House, which was located about a quarter of a mile from the present building and was a tuition school. The property on which it was located was owned by M.T.Pierce. The present location is on land donated by M.T.Pierce in 1914 and a new addition was added in 1921. The school was named for Mr. I.B. Cannon who was one of the districts first school board members and directors until his death in 1922. The school offers eight grades of school and is taught by two teachers – Mrs. Harry Howe is Principal.” http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/cannons.jpg
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[year 1923] “School District # 50 is of the Tatums School district & is maintained as a separate school. Harmon School (Dist # 50] is located in school district 50 and is maintained by Carter County to accommodate the white children who live in the district. School District 50 is the only district in carter county where the Negro race is in majority, and according to school law, it becomes the duty of the county to maintain a school for the race having the fewest number of children in said district. This school is under the direct supervision of the county, it being the duty of the County Superintend to employ the teacher of the same. The number of students is less than twenty.” http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/harmonsc.jpg
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[year 1923] “Homer School – District #49″ Homer is located in the extreme northwestern part of the county (Carter County) at the foot of Arbuckle Mountains. It has for surroundings some good farming and grazing lands, and is near some oil activity. …the house is located on a slight decline. There are two large rooms, well seated and lighted and heated by warm air system. The Homer School is taught by Blaine E. Davis.Principal, and Mrs. Vada Newton, Assistant. Area school census is 84 with a valuation of & 126,794 Eight grades of school work is offered.” http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/homersch.jpg
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“Hi Butch, The writers of the Southern Oklahoma Writers’ Guild had such a good time on the Brown’s Springs tour on June 2nd, that they are wanting to return at Halloween time, (when it is cooler!) The idea of ghosts intrigued them all. I have just created a new website for those who are interested in reading poetry. The recent comment in your newsletter from one of your readers was so nice. It gave me the idea for creating personalized Poetry booklets. These booklets contain 70 pages of original and copyrighted poetry written by me.” http://sowg.homestead.com/luslinks.html
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“Butch, Hope all is well with you. I was looking through some old issues of the Oklahoma state FOP Journal the other evening and came across a story about a “Police Bell” that was dedicated on the grounds of the Lawton Police Department. This bell was used in the early 1900’s to notify the officers that headquarters had a call for them. I do not know if it is still on the grounds of the PD where it was dedicated in the 60’s, it seems like.”
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=========================================It’s been a long time since we’ve had a drawing. The other day I gave some wood business card holders away around the courthouse. They have the words “Carter County Court House, Ardmore, Oklahoma, Independence Day 2001” imprinted on them along with a pic of the courthouse. So, let’s have a drawing for three of these little jewels. Just send me email before 6pm Friday July 13th and say you want entered! I’ll announce the 3 winners in the July 14th issue of T&T.
http://members.nbci.com/OklahomaPast/photos/wcard7.jpg“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” -Michelangelo
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/michelan/michelangelo_bio.htmSee everyone next Saturday!
Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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