PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
Phone: 580-490-6823
This week Jill and I went to the Waller place at 712 A Street NW in Ardmore to see their Christmas decorations. Mike and Sabrina Waller, like many around town, goes all out decorating their yard for the holidays. Sabrina Young Waller and I go all the way back to Washington Elementary School days at 5th (now MLK Drive) and G street NE. As some of you know, that school burned down, but the memories are still with many of us. Every Christmas the Waller’s have open house for the public. Here are a three pics I snapped of the front view.
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But what a person doesn’t realize is the best part is INSIDE their home, and its open every evening during the holiday season for viewing. I am going to make a claim here: Mike and Sabrina Waller have the most amazing Christmas decor INSIDE their home, of any home in Oklahoma City and DFW, and anything in between! The pictures below are not going to do it justice, and show the magnitude of the Christmas decor. They remove 98 percent of everything in their home, from the front room, to the bedrooms, to the kitchen and laundry room, to the upstairs, and replaced it all with nothing but Christmas decorations of every kind imaginable. Every inch of space is used, in every room, everywhere. I took the following pictures at various places inside the Waller home.
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When Mike showed us the bathtub, there was Santa relaxing in the soap bubbles.
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And let’s not forget about Mike’s Indian arrowhead collection and other artifacts. He even has a couple of beautiful bows made by a man in Sulphur.
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This is a large buffalo skull on the 2nd floor with other artifacts they have collected through the years.
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If you take Sabrina’s tour, be careful where you step, you might step on the miniature dash hound Sugar, or the cat Cheetah, or even Patches the rabbit. I’m telling you, you will fall in love with Patches.
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Like I said earlier, the few pictures above do not even begin to show everything on display, from one end of their house to the other. So grab the kids, and bring them over the the Waller place at 912 A NW right after sundown and take the tour. Mike and Sabrina love show it all, and the kids will be smiling from ear to ear, believe me!
SOAPBOX: I just hate it when a company penalizes me for keeping my bills paid and having good credit. I remember back in the 70s I had a $5,000 credit limit with Montgomery Wards. I had not used the card for several years and around 1980 I went in to the old Ardmore Wards store (Ardmore Mall), and bought a couple gallons for paint. When I got my statement at the end of the month it showed I had $400 credit limit. I immediately went to their customer service office and asked about it. She said when you don’t use your Wards credit card for a period of time, it automatically drops you down to the default $400 limit. I said to either put me back at the $5,000 credit limit or keep the card. She made a call to the home office and it was restored. Several months later the same thing happened again. Back to Monkey Wards I went, told them I was being penalized for keeping my bills paid, and I walked out, leaving my Wards credit card.
Well surprise surprise! Same thing happened yesterday with my Wal-Mart credit card. I hadn’t used it in 3 years, Jill wanted a new computer, so I went to Wal-Mart and bought her complete system for Christmas. Gave the lady my Walmart credit card, she swiped it and said it was invalid. When I got home I called the 877 number on the back of the card, asked what was wrong, and the guy said because I hadn’t used the card in 3 years, it was now “inactive”. I asked what I need to do to get it reactivated. He said I would have to fill out another credit card application. Well surprise surprise as Gomer Pyle would say! I’m being penalized again for keeping my bills paid up. You know what I told him he could do with that card. lol
From This and That newsletter archives December 1997:
The Daily Ardmoreite
Sunday, December 28, 1919
Ardmore, Oklahoma
BUCK GARRETT HOST TO COUNTY SHUT-INS ON CHRISTMAS DAY
At the county jail, following his usual custom, Sheriff Buck Garrett was host to the prisoners on Christmas Day. And the sheriff lived up to his policy of not doing things by halves and put on a highly appreciated “spread”.
There was turkey and cranberry sauce and pies and all the “fixings” attendant at a Christmas feast. Besides all the good things at the dinner table, the “shut-ins” received candies, fruits, nuts, tobacco, etc., all of which helped materially to lighten the burden of feeling that they were denied the freedom of the average American citizen.
Q. What Oklahoma town is the champion Cow Chip throwing capital of the world?
A. Beaver, Oklahoma
Q. What Oklahoma town is home to the only authentic Indian City in the United States?
A. (answer in next week’s newsletter)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
https://oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.htmlSome mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“Butch, have you ever been to MG’s burgers (old fashioned) in Sherman, TX? They will fix them anyway you want. We really enjoy your This and That!” -Carol & Dale Wise
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And here is a picture of that famous burger and onion rings!
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“I didn’t do my usual drive out to Hackberry last weekend because I was waiting on a call from my son at Naval boot camp Saturday. I did go riding around for about 4 hours Sunday from Ardmore south to Marietta and roamed north and south of Hwy 70 almost to Waurika. I drove dirt roads looking for hawks and eagles and any ponds that might have ducks or geese. I usually don’t spend much time around this area because I can find hundreds of birds out west and very few near Ardmore, this trip was no exception. I only saw 6 red-tail hawks, one dark western and one harlan’s though. I saw more bald eagles than hawks and only two of the ponds I passed had ducks or geese, the eagles are south and west of Ringling on cattle and wild hog carcasses. I had one merlin that posed for a few shots. I think I actually saw a few cackling geese with canada geese this time, smaller with short bills.” -Larry Hancock, Ardmore, OK
Here are the few pictures, http://www.avianfocus.com/sc_ok_12-12-10/index.html
“Merry Christmas from all of us in the Ozarks to everyone in Southern Oklahoma. Hope everyone has a safe and joyous Holiday. We went to Branson last weekend when the Cold Front came through and was it cold. We were at Silver Dollar City at the Christmas Festival and the wind was blowing and the air was cold and we finally went to see the Dickens Christmas Show there in the park. It was worth seeing . Although the play was based on Dickens Christmas Carol there were songs from other movies. One song was from “The Music Man” and others from “The Polar Express” and “The sound of Music” Next day we went shopping and spent the time in Branson. If anyone gets a chance, come on up to Branson and check it out. There is always something to do there. Well got to go, And again Merry Christmas.” -Dennis and Wanda Adams, Arkansas dgwadams@cox.net
“Butch: I’m sure there are many of your readers who remember the Glider Room in the Ardmore Hotel! We used to have a good time there . They had a small dance floor & a jukebox with all the latest songs. That was a Friday and Saturday night for most of us who were dating! I don’t remember a lot about it since it was about 50 years ago but it was great fun!”
“Butch; There’s a map listed on E-Bay that you might be interested in. I’ve bought several different maps from this person and have been pleased with all. The listed map is of Ardmore and the surrounding area in 1901.
It shows lots of details including buildings, railroads all towns…etc in the area. It might be a fun one for you to have when searching for a lost town or location. Here’s the link for the map.”
“Butch, Has anyone ever identified and photographed the old two story concrete building a couple of miles north of Dougherty, OK on Highway 110? Looks old, run down, abandoned and sinister at night. Could be anything but a home. I never have a camera with me when we are near it. Maybe a Reader will fill us in?”
Gas in the 1930s
We drove out to Healdton few days ago, one of my few physical memory lane trips. I had an old Kodak picture of me at 4 and my Mother in 1928 when we lived there. We lived in this little shotgun house and I wanted to see if I could find the address again. I had been there in 1981 when I moved back to Ardmore and found the house still there – but no longer.
Old memories stir up others. I was in high school before I learned about cameras. A camera was for movies in Hollywood. A Kodak was a little square box that we took pictures with. A shotgun house was one with rooms in a row, usually three. You entered the living room that led to a bedroom to the last divided into kitchen and bath. The better ones might have a little porch front and back. Words and names and other things fall out of fashion with time.
I remember me and another kid found paint in a garage and painted each other. I can still see my Mother’s horror when I proudly came home in a bilious yellow and suggestive brown.
My Dad was manager for the Healdton area for Wirt Franklin Oil. It was a kind of job being chief of no tribe. He had one employee, a truck driver. The driver took me on his route now and then. Outside Healdton there was a store at almost every crossroads and they all had a gas pump. It stood about 9 feet high with a glass chamber called the bowl at the top. It was marked in gallons, one to ten. You put the hose nozzle in the tank of your car and gravity flowed the gas that you would shut off at the number of gallons you wanted. Then someone had to pump it full again with the long handle on the side.
Nothing high tech in those days for gasoline and only one grade. We had a little flat bed truck and the gas was carried in barrels (55 gal drums) standing upright in back. The driver would stop the truck next to the filler for the underground tank and siphon the gas out with a length of garden hose. To get it started he put the whole length of hose into the barrel and, holding his thumb over the end would put the hose down into the tank filler and let it flow. It took quite a while. A couple years later when we were in OK City and we had our first tank truck made
specially for gasoline.
Not far out of Healdton going North a nitro truck had exploded some years before and our driver pointed out what was said to be something from the explosion hanging on one of the overhead wires. I often wondered what it was & it was still there around 1940.
At age of four I probably didn’t know gas had a price but in later 1930s I pumped a lot of it at 12 1/2 to 19 cents a gallon. In town gas had its highest price, cheaper out on the highway. We heard about East Texas Lemon Gas (kind of yellow in color) and I once bought in Sherman for 9 cents a gallon. It ran OK in Model A Fords but we never saw it here in Ardmore.
Around 1932 when Wirt Franklin Oil was going belly up, we moved back to Ardmore. Until about 1940 my Dad ran the Conoco station then across from the now Ardmoreite at Broadway and B St. In those days every 1000 miles you changed your oil and had your car greased. By 25,000 miles a new car needed new tires, new brakes, engine
a ring & valve job, its second muffler and sets of seat covers. Brings to mind that some things have improved since the ‘good ole days’.
-Bob McCrory rhmc24@yahoo.com
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“Butch here is a couple of pictures of the Lukenbach, Texas post office. Pretty neat post office.” -Doug Williams
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We appreciate all the Christmas wishes, emails, Facebook postings, and even Christmas cards mailed the old fashion way, through the US Post office. Another year is almost gone, and because of time and distance, we can not met everyone in person, but you are all like one big family all across the country and overseas through my newsletter. With each passing year Christmas becomes more and more commercialized. It is my hope that we take time to reflect back this Christmas and remember the reason for the season, the birth of the Christ Child.
Christmas Day by Jim Reeves
C is for the Christ Child born upon this day
H is for Herald Angels in the night
R means our redeemer
I means Israel
S is for the star that shone so bright
T is for three wise men they who traveled far
M is for the manger where he lay
A?s for all he stands for
S means shepherds came
And that?s why there?s a Christmas day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqNqqq10iqY
Merry Christmas everyone!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
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Ardmore High School Criterions Online
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American Flyers Memorial Fund – Administration Webpage
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Official American Flyers Memorial Website
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Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Base Website
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Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
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Carter county schools, past and present
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Carter County Government Website
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Ardmore School Criterions
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