PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: [email protected]
Gainesville Daily Register, Gainesville, TX – Feb 9, 1919: RED RIVER BRIDGE MAKES HIGHWAY TO TEXAS A REALITY. The big wagon bridge over Red river five miles north of Gainesville, was turned over to the bridge contractors and is now open for traffic although it has not been formally dedicated in the great task it is to perform in the business life of North Texas and Southern Oklahoma.
This bridge, indeed and in truth, fills a long felt want. It was conceived, financed and made a reality by Gainesville men and is destined to prove a great factor in the future of this city. IT will be the connecting link between the rich black land and big cities of North Texas and the important commercial centers of Oklahoma. It opens a large trade territory to Gainesville has heretofore been served by other towns and puts Gainesville on the map as the gate city for one or more of the great highway systems that are now being built and planned.
The cost of the bridge is $60,000. It was constructed by the Kansas City Bridge Company, with E. E. Board as construction superintendent and Robert Jenkins as foreman of the job. The bridge is substantially and scientifically built throughout, some of the great concrete piers going down 40 feet to reach bed rock foundation. Oklahoma will build a permanent highway to the north end of the bridge and Cooke county should not delay the matter of bringing that highway into Gainesville and extending it on to the southern line of the county.
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Steve Hamm just this week added the 1967 Ardmore High School criterion. Plus a book dedicated to the men and women from Carter county who served in WWII.
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
I haven’t mention our 10 hens lately. They are doing fine, and just as comical as ever. We let them out of the penned in area (called a run) daily for an hour or so, so they can run free, eat green grass, scratch in the leaves, etc. When they see a bug flying, they just take off after it in a dead run, with their head tilted down and way forward and their tail end up in the air. Quite funny to see them run. We have this one Speckled Sussex hen that is the most curious of them all. When Jill is cleaning the coop, this particular hen walks up the ‘gang plank’ and looks inside the coop to see what she is doing. In a minute she comes on inside to find out more and gets right in the way. Jill (or I) has to pick her up and manually put her back out in the run area so we can finish cleaning the coop. You can’t scoot her back out (with the broom), because she just squats down right then and there and refuses to move. lol The most eggs we’ve got in one day is 9, which happens a couple times a week. The rest of the week we get about 7 or 8 eggs daily.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/Eggs032710.jpg
Thanks to all of you who emailed me or sent get well wishes on Facebook when I mentioned last week about the pinched nerve in my neck. Doctor Leming almost has me back to 100 percent (my last chiropractic treatment with him is Friday of this week). Speaking of Facebook, almost 1,100 of you have added me to your Facebook’s “Friends list”. Needless to say I am humbled beyond words. Thanks everyone.
http://www.facebook.com/butchbridges
Q. What is Oklahoma’s state game animal?
A. White Tailed Deer
Q. Where are forest found in Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week’s issue)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
https://oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“Butch, I laughed when I read your piece about the proposed 1970 Turner Falls concert in last week’s T&T because I remember it well. I was graduating from Southwestern State that Spring. On television Governor Bartlett said he was concerned because he heard the concert goers would be ingesting Screaming Yellow Zonkers.
Screaming Yellow Zonkers were a popcorn treat made by the Lincoln Snack Company you could buy in most grocery stores. I know because I loved them. I began buying them at Howell Brothers in Ardmore when I was in high school. I had to laugh. The TV ads for Zonkers were always funny.” -Monroe Cameron
http://veteranhosting.net/zonkers.jpg
“Butch, You will probably get a lot of answers on this one but it is the Redbud Tree. The Dogwood and Redbud blooms about the same time of year. The Dogwood is usually down in the timber and the bloom is shaped like the 4 leaf clover.” -Sam Cottrell
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“Butch, I buy the Absorbine Gel at Tractor Supply (in Ardmore) for $10.”
“Howdy Butch, greetings from San Antonio, Texas. Several years ago my wife and I discovered Absorbine Gel was great for immediate relief of rheumatoid pain. An excellent hair conditioner is “Mane n Tail.” Use of the hair conditioner results in silky hair, a result that women seek. We buy both items at a local feed store.”
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion, that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, a California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: “California archaeologists, finding of 200-year old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.”
One week later, a local newspaper in Oklahoma reported the following: “After digging as deep as 30 feet in his pasture near Ardmore, Oklahoma, Fred, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. He has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Oklahoma had already gone wireless.”
“Hi Butch, You can visit the page below to view the latest newsletter on keeping chickens.” -Gina in UK
http://www.self-sufficient-life.com/1/April10Chickens
“Hey Butch, just seen in the Ardmoreite paper where Calvin Foster had passed away, he was a fine ole feller, was wondering if you could post his short story he wrote that was on your sight a couple of years ago about him growing up out around Walters and Grandfield, Oklahoma area. If you could find it, I am sure your readers would love to read it. Thanks!” -Travis Gore
04/17/08: “Jerry Westbury and Wife Nila put together a very interesting article about Calvin Foster. Jerry was a former Pastor of the Wirt Baptist Church and former Secretary of the Healdton Masonic Lodge in Healdton. Calvin has worked in and around Lone Grove in the chemical business. Reading this article really brings back memories of my early childhood!” -Hoot Gilbert
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“Butch: The Jake Hamon murder case interested me. Some This & That readers might not know where the Randol Hotel was located. My understanding is that it was on the north side of Main where the parking lot is today, immediately east of Ray’s Office Supply. Lots of old timers used to say the killing took place at the Ardmore Hotel, but I learned early on that it was the Randol, as you pointed out.
When I was new to Ardmore, I officed with Marvin Shilling. He told me that when Hamon was shot, James Mathers was the County Attorney, and that before he died, Hamon asked Mathers privately if he would resign his prosecutor post and take over Clara’s defense. I’m not sure if that’s correct or not, since a prosecutor named Brown filed the Information against Clara, according to your article. James Mathers was well known throughout the southwest as a defense attorney, and his son, “Uncle Jimmy” Mathers, was a Coal County Commissioner & later Associate District Judge at Tishomingo. Fine old jurist, and quite intelligent.” -james clark, Ardmore
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“Butch, I hope some of your Readers can tell some information on how early trains ran from Kansas City to Ardmore, Oklahoma. I have been given the task of helping write our family history and I need to know this date to see if it fits with what I have been told. Thanks a bunch!!” -Ann
“Butch, I forgot to tell you. Isabel Greenberg Oscherwitz, daughter to Max Greenberg, and her family came to eat brunch with us at The Cellar at Main Street Wine Depot last Sunday. When she entered the building she became very emotional, then said “this was my father’s building”. I knew immediately who she was and gave her the grand tour along with several old photos I’ve collected of the surrounding buildings. She spoke of the tunnels and the “interesting” people that traveled them!
She was impressed at what we have done to the building and was happy that we had maintained the history and had tried to keep everything looking authentic. The panes of glass that spell out Greenberg’s Jewelry are currently in my office along with the original Greenberg sign that hung on the outside of the building. (I thank Stephen Harris for that original sign). She said her father would be proud that we won “Best Interior Renovation of a Historic Building in Oklahoma for 2009” (award presented by Dept of Commerce & Oklahoma Main Street Program).
She was also able to solve the mystery of the name “The Fair” on the back of the building. She explained when electricity and water were available to downtown Ardmore, 20 additional feet were added to the north end of the building and this space was leased as a general merchandise store (she believed it had women’s clothes).
I found her to be a delightful and beautiful woman. Her grandson took many pictures. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me that day, but they promise to send me copies. I am attaching several photos including one she gave to me of her parents and her.” -Jadean Fackrell, Main Street Wine Depot
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http://www.mainstreetwinedepot.com/
METHUSELAHAuthor unknown Methuselah ate what he found on his plate,And never, as people do now,Did he note the amount of the calorie count;He ate it because it was chow.He wasn’t disturbed as at dinner he sat,Devouring a roast or a pie,To think it was lacking in granular fatOr a couple of vitamins shy.He cheerfully chewed each species of food,Unmindful of troubles or fearsLest his health might be hurtBy some fancy dessert;And he lived over nine hundred years.
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells: 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/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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