PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 580-490-6823
This week brought some much needed rain, several times, in this area. South central Oklahoma’s drought is bad enough, but in western Oklahoma it’s even worse. We are just thankful for any precipitation.
Two weeks ago we talked about John and Shelley Hynard visiting from Australia. Besides the local history we talked about the day they visited, he mentioned something that caught my attention. On the day they visited Ardmore their neighbors back on the east coast of Australia embarked on a 2 month trip across the center of the country through the outback, traveling all the way to the west coast. His neighbors and about 5 other families are making the trip across country in a vehicle caravan. The only contact they will have with the outside world is through their satellite phones, and they will only be used in an emergency. John said some of the members admitted they are fearful of the trip, as it will be in the outback, and just surviving will be a top priority. Here is John’s email today:
“My neighbour is out of contact at the moment he is still crossing the Simpson Desert (northern Australia) which should take about 3 weeks. Simpson Desert Map. He can only use a satellite phone which he will do if they have an emergency. I believe he is in a convoy of six vehicles, his being the only British (land rover) and the rest Japanese (land cruisers) the most popular and reliable in Australia.” -John and Shelley
I hope to follow this unbelievable trip of over 2,500 miles across the Outback of Australia in future issues of T&T.
August 1930 – Plans are almost complete for the “make it rain” experiment which is to be conducted by James Boze, ex-service flyer, who will use specially designed “rain bombs” suspended 600 feet below an airplane into the clouds in an attempt to make it rain. Five, 100 pound paper Mache bombs will be set off. Material for the bombs costs $700.00 and has been ordered from a powder house in Houston. Businessmen have subscribed the funds.
Note: I wonder if this is the James Boze mentioned above?
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=boze&GSfn=james&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=25387012&df=all&
Roy Little, 35, who was shot to death at Orr has lived in Wilson for nine years. He is divorced from his wife and had custody of the four children. Mrs. Mark Moses, wife of the man who shot Little, has been keeping house for Little for some time. Moses also died in the shooting affray. It is reported at Orr that the trouble developed over alleged attentions Little paid to Moses’ wife. Police have arrested Mary Moses, wife of Mark Moses and her sister. Both are in the Love County jail.
August 1954 – Old 1108, a Santa Fe Railroad engine, dating back to 1902, has been given to the City of Ardmore. Unfortunately, it doesn’t want to go to a final resting place in the fairgrounds. Old 1108 jumped the track on its first try to pass the main line to the hurriedly built spur. And then the engine refused to make a curve built to get it into the rapidly built spur. The result of the attempts is that the Ardmore City officials are owners of a locomotive they can’t get possession of. However, Santa Fe is sending an engineer to the site to study the problem and officials expect a resolution.
Old 1108 has reached its final destination in the fairgrounds after many mishaps. Everett Purcell, Waco Turner’s welder, welded the wheels to the rails to keep the locomotive in place for all time to come. However, there are still problems. Residents near the location are awakened at night by kids ringing the bell on the engine. The clapper was removed, and the kids brought hammers and kept banging away. They put a fence around the engine, and kids climbed the fence. Since the fence didn’t work, they now leave the gate open.
August 1965 – Gene Autry has a new board of trustees, even though there hasn’t been a municipal election in 30 years. Governor Henry Bellmon appointed Thomas J. Winters, C.R. Reid, and Herman Day as trustees after receiving a petition signed by 66 of the town’s 110 residents. The last election was in 1935.
A recent photo of Ardmore depot on East Main Street.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/ArdmoreDepot2014.jpg
Every wonder how safe a website might be as far as spyware and malicious activity? Google has a webpage where a website can be submitted to see if there have been any bad reports of such activity. Here is my oklahomahistory.net website report.
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=oklahomahistory.net
The pledges of $425 has not changed since last week toward the purchase of a granite memorial to be placed in Healdton in honor of the City’s police officers who have given their lives in the line of duty. I hope some more join in, and let’s make this memorial happen in Healdton.
https://oklahomahistory.net/hutchison.html
Here are a few pavers I sandblasted this week.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/JonPamPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/AddiePaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/JerryLouAnnPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/RonReynoldsPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/TiggerPaver.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/bricks/BoomerPaver.jpg
Q. What is the second oldest town in Oklahoma and the first to establish electric service?
A. Vinita, Oklahoma in far northeast Oklahoma.
Q. How many U.S. astronauts rose from the red dirt of Oklahoma all the way to outer space?
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of September 9, 2000:
This week I learned from a friend about a program called Heartland Share. Even though the program has been operational in Ardmore for nearly 2 years, I didn’t know about it. But it really looks like a great program to help people lower their food bills and also build stronger communities.
All a person has to do is volunteer two hours of service, pay a $14 fee plus tax, and also a $1 transportation fee for each share they want. What does one share consist of? Typically four packages of frozen meat, fresh fruits, vegetables, and two or more staple items. All this would cost approximately $30 or $35 at the grocery store. The Heartland Share organization distributes no generic, seconds or commodity goods. Here is an example of the food included in one monthly share:
20 ounces of BBQ beef, 2 pounds of split chicken breasts, 8 ounces sausage links, 1 pound of chicken fajita meat, 1 pound of hamburger meat, 4 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound of carrots, 2 red peppers, 2 pounds of lettuce, 4 Gala apples, 2 bartlett pears, 1 pound of red seedless grapes, cheese, fudge brownie mix.
The Heartland Share Program looks like a great program to help people, especially when a family has children to feed.
The fall of the stock market in 1929 would mark the beginning of the Great Depression. I might add that because there was not a high tech electronic communication system in place as we have today, it would be three and one-half years later before things had deteriorated to the point the President closed the banks, and declared a “bank holiday”.
Little Elmer Elliott along with his mother, father and brothers and sisters, lived in the 300 block of K Street Northeast. My grandparents lived just around the corner at 3rd and K Northeast. Remember, I was not told by Elmer Elliott this story until about 1970. He told me my grandfather had a good job, making at least $50 a day, when during the depression, men who could get a job, were lucky to make 50 cents a day. My grandfather Carmon was a bricklayer and roofing contractor during the depression, and always had a good income during those years. So they always had plenty to eat at the Carmon house.
Elmer told me he and his brothers and sisters had nothing to eat at their house because his father could not find a job. But they always knew my grandfather would have food on the table around 5:30pm each evening. So they would head over to the Carmon place and Stanley and Addie Carmon would always make room at the table for them and any other children in the neighborhood. Elmer said he really believed they would have starved to death had it not been for the Carmons allowing them to eat at their table during those depression years of the 30s.
Just like my grandparents helped a few Ardmore children to eat back in the 30s, I believe the Heartland Share Program will do the same thing, but on a nationwide scale. The program started in 1983 and is already established in many states with distribution points in cities all across America. If you want to help bring the Heartland Share Program to your area, or if you or someone you know can be helped by just such a program, you can find out more at their website. -Butch
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This is an aerial photo of the Ardmore Airpark.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/AirparkAerial.jpg
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Here is 1908 photo of the Springer, Oklahoma Public School.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/SpringerSchool1908.jpg
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Here’s another aerial photo of downtown Ardmore. One can see the old Coca-Cola Bottling company in the lower right hand corner. It was torn down to build the present sheriff’s office and detention center.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/ArdmoreCokePlantAerial.jpg
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“Hi Butch, I can see this smoke stack from my house and often wonder what it once belonged to. I was told long ago that it was part of a gun factory that was located here in Ardmore. I am including some pictures of the area that is northwest of Day Concrete just off Refinery Road.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/DubielArmsFactory1.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/DubielArmsFactory2.jpg
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/DubielArmsFactory3.jpg
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“Butch, Years ago, when we still had Constables in our counties, there was a local race which involved Mickey Cain & Earl Minter running heads up against each other. I considered these two men to be personal friends of mine, but it happened that Mickey only lived about a couple of miles down the road from us. The morning of election day – my wife & I discussed who we were going to vote for. Usually we would vote the same way and she indicated that she would vote the way I did. We voted at separate times of the day, and somewhere along the way she was not sure just who we had agreed to vote for. That evening when the vote tally came in, each had received the exact same number of votes. These gentlemen agreed that they would settle the problem with a toss of a coin. This would not have been necessary if we had voted the same way. Another example of one vote making a difference.” Ernest Martin, Ardmore, Oklahoma
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“Thought you might like this for your file. Can you find out what Highway Patrolman Jones first name is? Elmer Koscheski is my dad. He was later undersheriff when Wesley Liddell became sheriff after Clyde McGill died. The photo was taken in 1964 at the Love county Sheriff’s Office in Marietta, Oklahoma” -Peggy
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/ElmerKoscheski.jpg
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I saw on the news this week where an ex employee of the Marietta, Oklahoma cookie factory is going to open her own “cookie store” next to the Sonic Drive In in Marietta. The cookie factory announced three weeks ago they were closing their retail outlet after 30 years. Ms Jeannine Hicks of Marietta will not be able to sell the “broken cookies” like the old store, but she will carry most of the Keebler products.
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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
Non-ethanol gas (pure gas) stations in the Ardmore area.
https://oklahomahistory.net/puregas.html
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
“The old gas station in the picture became a taxi company in the late 40s. I recall riding my bike at full speed one day and as I crossed the drive, a taxi was coming out and I scraped the front bumper of the taxi. I kept going but, I can guess that driver called me some bad names. I am pretty certain the building with the word Tille on it was the old Union Bus station on the corner of C st and Main. The buses used to pull into a tunnel sort of drive. I suppose to avoid weather problems. I doubt OSHA would allow that arrangement today due to the danger of carbon monoxide. I remember their candy display and magazines for travelers. My dad purchased the Marquette Hotel at 222 1/2 West Main to support his family in case his tile business did not succeed. I use to play on the sidewalks with my buddies back then. Robert ‘Tick’ Ward and I use to play ‘cops and robbers’ around Stroman Motors, Montgomery Wards, A & P Grocery. Matt Alexander, the ‘beat cop’ for years would come along and me and Tick would hide our play guns. Matt always sort of glanced at us as if to say “I see you”. Here is a fact that is probably not public information, a ‘scoop’ for you reporters. Matt Alexander could touch his nose with his tongue as he was walking his beat. He walked from C street to Caddo several times a day. When it started getting dark and the stores were all closed, he would go into their entrances and reach up and turn on their night lights with his ‘billy club’. This was before automatic lights. Just a public service at no charge to the store owners. Dem’ were the days.” -Dale Young
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/PalacineGasStation.jpg
“Hello butch, I enjoyed the piece about Sucker Day by Jerry Summy, I didn’t live in Wetumka but had lot’s of relatives there and visited often., I seen many of Sucker Days and like Jerry it left quite and impression, I bought a book a few years ago written by B.J. Osborn called Wetumka a centennial history, it told how Sucker Day came about, I was surprised at all the history behind Wetumka and the famous people who visited there, Jerry might be interested in reading the book. Very Best Regards D.L. Davidson” ([email protected])
“Dear Butch, I have been working for some years on a book about the artist Joseph Glasco (1925-1996), who was the great-grandson of Joe T. Roff, who founded the town of Roff OK, and was himself born in Paul’s Valley. I would like to be able to illustrate an early photograph of Roff, and I found the one below on your website, which would be ideal. Do you by any chance have a higher-resolution scan of the photograph, which would give a better result in printed form? Any help you could give would be much appreciated.” Michael Raeburn in London, England [email protected]
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos14b/RoffCottonWagons.jpg
Stop Wait 23 Seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6qUWwYP4Rghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6qUWwYP4Rg
“Hi Butch, I have been one of your most faithful readers since your very first edition, I believe. Please, please don’t resort to putting this wonderful newsletter on Facebook! I hate that thing! We old timers, especially, enjoy sitting down on Friday mornings and spending an hour or more, reading about our old home town. We love your work and effort and count you as one of our dearest friends. Keep up the good work and God Bless you and Jill.” -Kathy in Vegas
“Please~ never, never stop publishing This and That… and NO, we don’t want FACEBOOK to publish it…..NO.” -Jo
“WOW! Found him thanks to your listing of my post last week!
I got a call this morning from a Debby Yust who had the info I’d been looking for on my great-grandfather, William Harvey Burdick! He died (and is buried at) Sonora, Texas on 12/31/1940. He’s listed as divorced (from Nancy Isabel) and they were married in Collins, Texas (I didn’t know this), and was a federal marshal under judge Isaac Parker of Ft. Smith, Arkansas (I knew this). I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP (AND THAT OF DEBBY YUST) FOR UNCOVERING THIS INFORMATION!” -Roy Kendrick
“I shot this from our south porch this morning. This Great Blue Heron catches a fish along with some weeds at our pond. He’s determined to get rid of the weeds without letting go of the fish.” -C. Dwane Stevens using a 100X zoom with Panasonic HC-V500 & Velbon 9000 Tripod.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWiKYHnOD5E
“The Dinky and the Santa Fe Pond of old highway 70…..That was our growing up years in Northeast Ardmore. We road the Dinky to Provence, to visit our Aunt Ruth and Uncle Mack and our cousins there. The old Santa Fe Pond I have written to you before. I wonder if your reader who mentioned these would know the name of the man who ran the pump house at the Santa Fe Lake, for the steam engines that refilled there? He helped my ‘little’ brother and I with our poles, tiny gold hooks and worms many a Saturday mornings. We looked forward to our turn to go to Mama and Papa Loyds for the weekends fishing, reading, sitting on the front porch Papa Loyd singing to us, stories, chewing spearmint growing beside the porch and smelling the buses go by. My memory of Old Highway 70 is walking up it to meet Harold Loyd, home on leave from the Navy, in his impressive uniform and the butter cups blooming beside the road, but they were pink? I always wondered why they were called butter cups and they were pink. Now I know, primroses are white, yellow and pink. Harold and I shared the same birthday, Mama Loyd always remembered me on that date.
A number of years later to commemorate that time I did a painting of the five onion towers of Red Square in Moscow, Russia. I called it Bus Exhaust. People would ask why Bus Exhaust? What do you think of when you smell bus exhaust?” -Joanna T. Smathers
“I also use SuperAntiSpyware (SAS), the Pro version, on all my computers, at home and at the office, and I also like it a lot.
I encountered a situation when Microsoft dropped its XP support that SAS couldn?t help with. I had to buy two new computers, both Dells running Windows 8.1, for the office. I bought the one in my office new from Amazon, and it came with bugs galore. One of them was an installed program that would highlight various words online, no matter what browser, and every time the cursor would pass over one of the highlighted words a popup ad would appear that was for some product related to that word. Every attempt to uninstall the program failed, plus there were other bugs that were just bugs, not installed programs, that SAS couldn?t find, so I Googled the problem (naming the popup program) and was directed to a program called ?Spy Hunter? ($40). That program is miraculous. It found every bug, including the installed popup program, and removed every one of them. My computer was so infested that I also bought ?Reg Hunter? ($30), which cleans the registry, but I really don?t know if that was necessary.
The other computer, my secretary?s, was purchased later and came from Best Buy. It also had bugs, but not to the same extent. I bought another license for Spy Hunter, ran it on her machine, and got the same result. Totally clean. Now Spy Hunter runs on both machines automatically and we haven?t had a single problem since.
Just FYI. Maybe the Norton program would have been just as good for free, but it didn?t come up when I Googled the problem I was having with that popup program that wouldn?t uninstall. I?d name it if I could remember it, but I can?t. Ad-something.” -Bob
http://www.enigmasoftware.com/products/spyhunter/
Chickasaw Dugout Canoe Exhibit at Sulphur, Oklahoma on September 27th.
http://chickasawcountry.com/events/view/dugout-canoe-exhibit?utm_source=Chickasaw%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9-2%20Email
Does the Wind Still Blow In Oklahoma by Reba and Ronnie Dunn
L.A.’s a fast horse, Daddy
Everybody rides
I’m sorry I haven’t called home lately
Out here time flies
I met a boy a few weeks back
He plays in a band
He’s a whole lot like you, Daddy
You’re gonna like him, he’s a good man
http://letras.mus.br/reba-mcentire/1973199/
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Vicious Dog Attacks in Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/viciousdogs.html
Bells of Oklahoma
https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
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/
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