PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net, Phone: 580-490-6823
Jill and I were in the quiet little town of Seminole, Oklahoma last week and stopped in at a placed called Trading Places where the owners David and Dawnette Chandler sell all kinds of whatnots, furniture and antiques, in their two story building on Main Street. This last week makes the second time we’ve stopped in, and make a good find on something unusual and very reasonable priced. I know in the future when we go through Seminole, Jill is going to insist we stop at Trading Places and see what she has new for sale.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/TradingPlaces07a.jpg
This is an old wooden bench we found in Seminole’s Trading Places store for $10. It really had a terrible finish, and even a plastic seat on top, but it was very sturdy, no wobble to it. So Jill, said let’s get it. She redone the wood finish and used a piece of fabric we had stored in the garage. It really turned out nice. I didn’t get a before pic, but here’s the after…..
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/BenchAfter.jpg
Jill has really got an eye for something that may not look like much, knows there is beauty just beneath the surface. She can turn it into something beautiful with a little wood stain, some varnish and lots of elbow grease. We found this 75 cent wood candle stick in a little junk store just west of Durant called The Red Door. It didn’t have any eye appeal but being wood, Jill knew she could make something pretty out of it. This is the before pic……
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CandleStick080507a.jpg
And this is the after picture…..
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CandleStick080507after.jpg
Just 2 doors north of the Trading Places Store in Seminole is Ali’s Cafe. They sure serve up a great hamburger. When we were told about this little out of the way place, I couldn’t resist…. and I wasn’t disappointed. This hamburger was just like homemade.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/AlisPlace.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/AlisPlaceOwners.jpg
Now here is a glimpse of that delicious burger from Ali’s…..
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/AlisHamburger.jpg
The 3 closeup photos below are of a mural painted across the side of a building in Seminole…. a real work of art. The mural is so long, I had to divide the picture into three parts.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/SeminoleMural07a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/SeminoleMural07b.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/SeminoleMural07c.jpg
Mary Maurer sent in the following bell pictures from Caddo, Oklahoma (Bryan county). This first one is the Methodist church in Caddo.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bellphotos/MethodistBellCaddoOK.jpg
Mary also sent in a picture of the bell at the Presbyterian church in Caddo, Oklahoma showing it in its more rustic state.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bellphotos/PresbyterianBellCaddoOK.jpg
Here is a couple of pics I snapped of the water gushing over the Denison Dam bridge, about a week or so after it crested from the heavy rains.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/DenisonDam080307a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/DenisonDam080307b.jpgCarol West Wise sent in some old pictures this week. The pictures have been handed down to her folks in Healdton. If anyone can identify the pictures, send Carol an email. cattywmail-cw@yahoo.com
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CarolWisePhotos7a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CarolWisePhotos7b.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CarolWisePhotos7c.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CarolWisePhotos7d.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CarolWisePhotos7e.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CarolWisePhotos7f.jpg
Crews have been busy at the Carter county courthouse this week using an electric lift to finish painting the molding around the rotunda, all three floors. Sure looks beautiful now with the different pastel colors that replace the all white surfaces. If your in the area of downtown Ardmore, stop by and take a look. It’s sure looking awesome. The inside has had quite a renovation the past month or so.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/Skyjack080607a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/Skyjack080607b.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/Skyjack080607c.jpg
I received an email this week from long time Ardmoreite James Clark. Most of you will remember James as one of the locals in the movie Dillinger when parts of it were being filmed here over 30 years ago. James was cast as a G-Man in the 1972 flick about the gangster John Dillinger. Today, James has teamed up with pilot Robin Smith to publish the book….. A PAID VACATION – Every Pilot’s Dream ….a true story of one ferrying assignment from Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos, (in the Bahamas) to El Paso, Texas that turned out to be a living nightmare. The links below will take you to more info on the new book and authors. From what I’m reading, this book will keep a person on the edge of their seat with suspense!
http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=38685
http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/author.asp?authorid=25183
Speaking of G-Men, I have a friend stationed in Afghanistan right now working as a G-Man, and was in need of an old fashion mouse trap, so he put in a request. Here is what the government sent him…. its huge, with teeth, and one dangerous looking contraption. I sure would hate to be the one trying to set this thing. lol (that’s a dime beside it)
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/MouseTrap7a.jpg
This is an interesting webpage a Reader sent in this week showing a world clock and its ever changing statistics in many categories, like births, and deaths, abortions, diseases, immigration, etc.
http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf
I need to make a correction in last week’s T&T. The actual site of that horse race track that was shut down south of Thackerville, Oklahoma is located due east of Winstar. This track on the far right side of the photo is more of a straight away track, unlike the circle track shown last week.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ThackervilleRaceTrackAerial.jpg
The race track I depicted last week was the defunct Red River Downs track. Its located just SW of Winstar on the west side of I-35.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ThackervilleRedRiverDowns.jpg
In browsing the Thackerville area (30 miles south of Ardmore) using Google Earth, I see what looks like another track located immediately SE of the town of Thackerville???
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/ThackervilleRaceTrack.jpg
We are in a heat wave, that’s for sure, with the heat index way over 100. I sure wish Devils Den was still open north of Tishomingo. Jill and I would drive over there and jump in to cool off. Of all my webshots albums, the Devils Den photo album now receives more look-sees week after week then any of the others.
http://news.webshots.com/album/29733398gxVnvBScVX
Jill and I have looked at several pieces of property out in the country the past month, not found anything we like yet. So, we are still looking for about 5 or more acres with a house in the Lone Grove area. Ideally we would like the house to be not visible from the road. But then if the land had water and no house, we might even look at building a home on it. If anyone has some land in that area of Carter county they want to sell, let us know. And if anyone knows a good house mover in south central Oklahoma, I need to talk with him. Just send me an email and I’ll get in touch with him.
MAILBAG
“Hi Butch & Jill, As usual, I enjoy your T & T, I enjoy Dwane Stevens’ pics also. That was a nice “Timber” Rattle Snake that Dwayne killed at his home. They are also known as Velvet Tails as their tail is solid black and velvety. The Diamond Back has rings of black and white on it’s tail. The “Timber Rattler” is not as common in this part of Oklahoma as the Diamondback. -Bill Uhles
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/StevensRattlesnake7a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/StevensRattlesnake7b.jpg
“Butch, I know you think I have forgotten this. Not the case. I have just been very busy trying to get ready to move. Here are a few pics of the bell. I do not have much history about it. It is at Sycamore Chapel United Methodist Church just outside Wyandotte, Oklahoma. It was a bell on the old school house before the church got it. It is used every Sunday. About 10:00 AM you can hear it ringing all up & down Sycamore valley.” -Tom
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/WyandotteBell7a.jpg
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https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/WyandotteBell7c.jpg
“I was at flea market and I found a Don Pinkston ink. In trying to research the artist I came across your website. I know that the artist is from the Davis/Ardmore area, where can I find more on this artist.” mgeroux@sbcglobal.net
“Scheryl and I are trying something new. We are making yard pavers out of cake pans and concrete. Autumn liked hers so much we have to make her 12 more of the round ones that you see we have done. When Scheryl paints them they look like sunflowers. Autumn has some and she loves to walk on them to keep the morning dew off of her feet. The other two you see are on the left, a fish and another kind of flower on the right. We enjoy making them and Scheryl loves to paint them.” -Doug Williams
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CakePavers7a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos7a/CakePavers7b.jpg
“I was wondering if anyone knows any info on the ghost around Claypool, OK (on Hwy. 70 west of Ringling) of a 4 year old girl who disappeared. There had been sightings of a wolf in the area before her disappearance. This happened around the end of the 1800’s or early 1900’s. The house where she lived has been torn down since then. Thanks for any help on this.”
“My Daddy, the late, Lloyd R. Benton, was a Ham Radio Operator, call numbers: K5YTW. He died on 25 September 1988. He was a radio and television repairman in the 1940’s and until 1956, when he moved to Palmdale, California and went to work in the Civil Service, then transferred to Tinker Air Force Base in 1959. We are from Ringling, Ok. He worked for several TV Repair shops in Ardmore, plus had his own, off and on in Ringling. In April, 1981, my husband lost his mind (to my way of thinking) and transferred from Tinker to the U.S, Postal Service, hired first at Healdton, where we still reside. He was as Distribution Clerk at the Ardmore Post from which he retired in 1996. My parents moved back to the area with us. Daddy went to many meetings at Ardmore. He never missed the Texoma Ham Fest, even when he still lived at Midwest City. My niece sent me an email awhile back, she, like all of his kin thought Lloyd hung the moon. I forwarded it on to a cousin of my Daddy in Kansas City, Mo., who is also a Ham. I added my Daddy’s name in places, and his cousin added a little more. His cousin sent copies to every one of his Ham Buddies, I am going to try to send it to you again. Every time I see the magazine, American Radio Relay League or anything pertaining to Hams, I start crying. I have his repeater books and the last badge he wore that gives his name and call letters, and other things, on a table in my bedroom, he was a member of The Mars Net Work out of Tinker. The late Henry Kyker, also from Ringling was a friend of his, plus others at Ardmore. His call letters were retired when he died.” -Betty Benton Lyle
“You have a very good website. I am a GGG Nephew of J.L. Galt the first mayor of Ardmore. I have MUCH info on the Galt family if anyone wants to share.” -James Galt Reeves
“Read the blurb on kerosene ingestion in the August 2, 2007 T&T and that it was particularly toxic for children. My grandma used to give me a spoonful of sugar and coal oil, as kerosene was called in those days, when I had the croup. it never hurt me any, and I had to take it so often I got to where I actually liked it.”
“Butch – about the kerosene drinking story – over fifty years ago when
one of my children had croup every spring and winter (also before
antibiotics) my grandmother told me of an old country remedy for
croup. Take a teaspoon of sugar or honey, mix in two drops of
kerosene and give it to them – supposedly the kerosene would break
loose the phlegm in their throat and the sugar or honey would coat it.
I never tried it as I lived maybe 2-3 miles from the Dr. or Hospital.
I’m not sure my grandmother had tried it either from what I remember.”
“Butch, In reference to the article about Chauncey L. Kiser drinking kerosene. Do You know anyone who has drank kerosene. I accidentally swallowed kerosene while syphoning from a barrell when I was ten years old. I was so sore from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, I couldn’t stand to be touched. I sat in a chair for three days before I could do anything. Chauncey Kiser pulled some kind of trick to do this. From my experience I know he didn’t drink Kerosene.”
“As we walked both cemeteries, we were sad, happy, and a whole mix of emotions. Such as one epitaph in the circus cemetery that read partially something like this: All that is left is wagon tracks and popcorn sacks. I can’t remember the entire epitaph; I have the photos somewhere of that headstone and of others that brought out some kind of feeling in me. It was a mixture of sadness but also of happiness for lives that were full of “doing what a person loved”. We just take off driving some days to look at scenery, and we will see a grave marker seemingly in the middle of nowhere, or just a pretty cemetery with beautiful monuments, or even just the small plain markers that someone took the time to mark the beginning and ending of someone’s life and what they were about. I guess some would think it morbid to enjoy walking around a cemetery reading headstones, but we enjoy it. We’re not world travelers by any stretch of the mile, but we’ve found some very beautiful cemeteries, such as in Beaufort, NC where the pirate Black Beard sank the Queen Mary in the port and lived at one time. That small community has the prettiest old cemetery I’ve seen so far. It dates back to before the American Revolution. I promise we don’t drive a hearse, or live in a creepy mansion with Uncle Fester or anything like that. Cemeteries are part of history and I love history.” -Brenda
Grape Stomp
August 11, 2007
at the Homestead Winery in Ivanhoe, Texas (Fannin county)
http://www.homesteadwinery.com/
6:00 -8:00 pm – Family Time
Activities will include grape stomping, bouncy house, balloon toss, hula hoop contests, other games and winery tours. There will also be a special appearance by McGruff the Crime Dog. A limited number of event T-shirts will be for sale. Those who purchase a T-shirt will also have an opportunity to stomp on some red grapes and then leave their footprints on their T-shirt if they choose. Concessions, including hamburgers, hot dogs, snow cones and cold drinks, will also be sold.
8:00 pm – Live Music by Loco Motive
All proceeds from the event will benefit the Fannin County Children’s Center and help provide critical services to children and youth who are recovering from abuse and neglect.
“Whether the weather be fine, whether the weather be not, whether the weather be cold, whether the weather be hot, we’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not”
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443https://oklahomahistory.net
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a minute!
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Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
https://oklahomahistory.net/crash66.html
Official American Flyers Memorial Website
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Base Website
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons
Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
https://oklahomahistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/
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