PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402 Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net Phone: 580-490-6823
This week’s newsletter is a little shorter than usual because I’ve been spending all my extra time getting our new toy we bought a week ago last Saturday ready to travel.
We decided to go for broke a couple weeks ago and traveled to Cleburne, Texas to pick up a new travel trailer. We love those mountains and pine trees of eastern Oklahoma and hopefully will find time to do some camping in that area. I’m thinking in the Talihina, Oklahoma area, like Horse Heaven RV or even closer, Boggy Depot. We purchased a 24 footer, and in the beginning really didn’t want one that long, but this particular model had everything we wanted in the floor plan and amenities.
http://www.funtownrv.com/inventory/310397/New-2014-Gulf-Stream-RV-Gulf-Breeze-Ultra-Lite-22-TRB.aspx
Just a reminder, I am still unable to add anyone new to my Facebook as I have reached my 5,000 friends limit. That’s all Facebook will allow. But if you know anyone wanting to join, they can go to my Facebook wall and click LIKE under the FRIENDS tab, then click GET NOTIFICATIONS.
Q. How many miles of shoreline are in Oklahoma?
A. Oklahoma has approximately 55,646 miles of shoreline.
Oklahoma contains approximately 1,401 square miles of water area in its lakes and ponds. (Larger than the state of Rhode Island!)
Oklahoma has approximately 167,600 miles of rivers/streams.
The longest river in Oklahoma is the Beaver/North Canadian River at 752 miles. The second longest is the Red River at 570 miles.
Q. What is Red Dirt music?
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of August 28, 1999:
I had a visit from a T&T reader from Lexington, Oklahoma this week, and she brought something very interesting to my attention. She has a distant relative of Walter Tate, who was a deputy sheriff in Love County in 1917. He went to Oswalt, Oklahoma, another town just outside Marietta, to serve an arrest warrant. While trying to serve the warrant, he was shot through the stomach by the man he was trying to arrest. The deputy died four days later in the Hardy Sanitarium and Hospital here in Ardmore. When I went to the link below, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in Washington DC, and guess what? He was not listed as killed in the line of duty. So I’ve started communication with the NLEOMF to get his name added to the Wall of Honor in Washington DC. I’ll have a more info at a later date, including all the details of this killing of a deputy sheriff in Love County, Oklahoma.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/16483-deputy-sheriff-walter-tate
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/wtate17.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos3b/wtate.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/textfiles/CantyTrial4a.txt
https://oklahomahistory.net/textfiles/wtate17.txt
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This is a very old 1 qt. can of “MERIT” Paraffin Base Motor Oil made by the CATO Oil & Grease Company in Oklahoma City. It also says: Manufactured from 100% Pure Virgin Stock
https://oklahomahistory.net/photos/meritoil.jpg
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Norman is the capital seat of Cleveland county in Oklahoma. The Cleveland County Sheriffs Department now has a website thanks to the work of my friend Mike Holt. Mike helps keep all the sheriff’s computers running at Cleveland County and he is using homestead.com for their website.
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“Hi Butch: Really enjoy “This and That”. My wife and I were married in the First Baptist Church in Ardmore June 1, 1950. That same summer I took this picture of Turner Falls. It was a favorite swimming hole in those days. I haven’t seen the falls in years. We always take the I-35 cutoff these days. I well remember the old “hairpin” curve. It was tortuous if you got behind a long-haul truck going up the hill. I’m impressed with the work you are doing for the county.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/turnerfalls/TFalls50.jpg
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“This is a photo taken the summer of 1950 of “2 Lakes Skyway Courts” located at the SE corner of Lake Murray State Park. My in-laws, Bert and Mabel Paschall, operated the courts for years. It was built in 1948 when there was very little activity over on the SE side of the lake. The paved road in the park stopped at the state cabins then. That’s where the lodge is these days. Few people came over to the SE part of the lake then and we pretty well had that part of the lake to ourselves most of the time. When 2 Lakes Skyway Courts first opened for business there was an airplane landing strip in front of the store. After two plane crashes within the first three years which killed some people, Bert closed the air strip, changed the name to Paschall Village, and planted peanuts where the air strip was. When the state finally paved the road all the way around the lake more and more people came to the SE part of the lake and frequented the store. Weekends during the summer were really busy. My wife and I would sometimes come to visit for the weekend and would end up working most of the time. If you ever came over to that part of the lake and stopped at the store, I probably at some time gassed your vehicle or sold you some minnows. Bert and Mabel sold the store and cabins in 1972. They are no longer with us and the store has long since burned and been torn down so we haven’t been there in years.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/photos/skyway1950.jpg
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Just 40 miles south of Ardmore, across the Red River into Texas, is Gainesville, Texas. In 1880 my mother’s grandparents moved from Altoona, PA to Gainesville and that was our start in this area. Gainesville is the county seat for Cooke county. The Cooke county Courthouse has an original working clock still in their courthouse. In February 1920 the people of Cooke county started a fund to purchase a clock and put it in the courthouse as a memorial for those of that county that gave their lives in World War I. In April of 1920 county commissioners award a contract of $2,800 to the E. Howard Clock Company to install the clock as a memorial to those of the great war. In December that same year the clock arrived at the courthouse. In January 1921 the clock in the dome of the Cooke county courthouse started ticking. Here are several pics of this historical masterpiece.
https://oklahomahistory.net/GainesvilleClock.html
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Gas prices today in the Ardmore area……
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754
Check gas prices by town or zip code anywhere in U.S.
http://www.kmov.com/traffic/gas-buddy
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“These are some pictures I took from my front yard. We live a couple of miles south of Lolo, MT. At last report it has covered 8500 hundred acres and about 600 firefighters are working along with helicopters and fixed wing aircraft dropping water and retardants on it. No estimate as to when it will be contained. The smoke is very thick here.” -M Patten
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/LoloMTfire082213a.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/LoloMTfire082213b.jpg
“Butch, The schools located in Carter County was very good. It seems there was some uncertainty as to the exact location of Blackjack School. I can remember the foundations when we used to go north on the Homer Duke Road. I think now it is called Henderson Road. The old foundations were on the east of the road. If you go east of the foundations, you would find the old Blackjack Cemetery.”
CarterCountySchoolsRelease1 (must have Google Earth to view)
“I don?t think all the old Carter county school is on that list. I didn’t see Tatums on it.”
“Hi Butch, Some time back you had a lot of information on the Paleo Diet, I forgot what T&T it was in, could you please shed some light on that, I think its time I lost some weight and felt better. Thanks.” -Wayne
https://oklahomahistory.net/paleodiet.html
“Butch. I thought I would send you some photos of my jewelery store. I was a watchmaker at Strasmick and Peden’s Jewelers from the mid 50’s to 70’s. Then I bought B & L Jewelers from Vic Larsen and had my own store, Paul’s Jewelers.” -Fred Paul
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/PaulsJewelers01.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/PaulsJewelers02.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/PaulsJewelers03.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/PaulsJewelers04.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/PaulsJewelers05.jpg
Hey Butch, There always seems to be some link between the Ardmore Ok area and Water Valley Ms where I grew up. I remember as a very young child my Grandmother pulling a long broom straw and taking me outside to one of the many “RED CLAY” ditches/hillsides. Grandma demonstrated the technique this way, she lied to keep me busy and quit bothering her. lol
1. Put one end of the broom straw in your mouth get it good and wet.
2. Find a small hole in the dirt bank, put it in the hole and twist left and right as you pulled it in and out.
3. Now this was the critical part, you also had to yell out/sing:
“Doodle Bug, Doodle Bug,
come out your house,
your house is on fire!”
I did this for hours and days at a time and “NEVER” saw or caught one Doodle Bug, all I ever got was a mouth full of wet Red clay in the end. I was doing this around the age of 4-6 and I just turned 70. Thanks to your reader for the trip down memory lane.
Your friend,
John “Butch” Trusty in Illinois
Doodle Bug
When I was a kid, this is what I did
Just to pass the time away,
I?d look all around until I found
A doodle hole, then I?d say:
Chorus:
?Doodle, doodle, doodle; bug, bug, bug,
Doodle, doodle, doodle; bug, bug, bug,
Doodle bug come out and look all around,
And doodle back in the ground.?
Well, I don?t know why to a doodle I?d lie,
So this is what I?d say,
?Your house is on fire, your children will burn,
Doodle, fly up this way.?
Now that I?m grown, I wish I did own
A doodle piece of ground,
I?d get up each day, with a doodle I?d play,
Happiness I would have found.
-Mary Pippin
“This is more info on the building that was torn down last weekend at 7 East Main St. I talked to my dad, Jack Hensley, about the name of the theater that was at 7 East Main. He said it was called the Star theater then later the Globe theater. It was owned by Hershel Gilliam .The projection booth was at the back and the screen at the front of the building. He said he went there to see movies back around 1945. He also said that there were big rats that roamed the theater during a movie looking for popcorn dropped on the floor. He used to kick them out of the way when they came near him. He would see other people jump up or scream as a rat would run up a person’s leg or on climb on the back of a theater seat. Dad also told me that the Paramount theater use to be next door to Strasmicks jewelry store and it later became John Smalls Bakery.”
Railway search lights by Dwane Stevens.
https://plus.google.com/105596720221202276873/posts/P54pcVjuovd?cfem=1#105596720221202276873/posts/P54pcVjuovd?cfem=1
“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.” -Alexander Graham Bell
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Carter County Courthouse Paver Project
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/pavers
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
All previous issues of This & That can be found on my Website.
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