PO Box 2, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
Email: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net, Phone: 580-490-6823
When I was a kid in the 60s and worked for Kenneth Chandler’s gas station on East Main, I fixed many many flats (Kenneth charged $1). But they would not let me work no the truck tires with the “ring”. Said it was too dangerous. We had no “cage” to keep the tire in. Elmer “Goat” Elliott did the repairs on the tires with the “ring”. Goat Elliott told me in the 60s that when he was a kid in the Great Depression years (1930s) he and his brothers and sister knew they could all go around 5pm to my Grandparents Carmon’s house on 3rd NE and eat. He said they had no food at home. His dad was lucky to get 50 cents a day working, if he could find a job and my grandfather was making $50 a day roofing houses. My grandfather Stanley Carmon would take a 4×8 sheet of plywood out of his lumber yard and put it on the top of the dining room table so all the kids could gather around it to eat at 5pm. Elmer “Goat” Elliott said if it had not been for my grandparents he would have starved to death, it was that bad in the 30s.
A friend found this while going through her her mother’s things. She thought it might be something from the Ardmore airbase days. Maybe someone will recognize these “wings.”
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/AirforcePin.jpg
Follow-up. “Hi Butch, the pins you show are called sweetheart jewelry. Lots of different types, most with mother of pearl, pins, pendants, bracelets. Given to girlfriends or wives mostly by members of the air force or army air corps.” -Charles
Someone asked me this week if there was a eating place on West Broadway called the “Filling Station”. I don’t remember such a business, maybe someone on here does?
You can find current gas prices for a particular Oklahoma town by entering the name or zip code in the GasBuddy search box.
http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/
Q. Where are the tallest trees in Oklahoma to be found?
A. Mature bald cypress trees reach 80-100 feet in height and 3-5 feet in diameter. They are found in eastern Oklahoma. Baldcypress grows well at Long Lake near Poteau in LeFlore County and at other locations in eastern Oklahoma where it has been planted.
Q. Where is the deepest oil well in Oklahoma?
A. (answer in next week’s T&T)
From This and That newsletter archives of August 31, 2002:
An email from a Reader this week reminded me of a spring that was behind my grandfather Stanley Carmon’s lumber yard back in the 60s. The water kind of oozed up out of the ground behind Mr. A.L. Senter’s homeplace. Mr and Mrs Senter’s home was at 316 “H” Street NE directly behind the Carmon Lumber Company. The Reader said he had been told the springs was a place cavalry troops stop to water their horses before statehood. Mr. Senter’s property ran way back to the east to the center of the block, butting up against the SW corner of Jack Bench’s property at 830 4th NE. The spring was almost in the center of Mr. Senter’s property and the only thing I remember being there in the 60s was a water well casing sticking up about a foot above ground. The water was only about 6 inches below ground. The Senters used the well to water his big garden he had each summer, plus the milk goats and chickens they raised. Here is a pic of Mr. and Mrs. Senter’s home. It’s still standing on H NE.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/senter.jpg
The spring fed a creek that ran east through the center of the block and continuing on SE until it emptied out into a larger creek on the south side of the old Fraser’s Meat Packing Plant just south of White and “K” Street SE. As best I could tell this week, the spring on the old Senter property has been dried up a for years. I could not see a creek running through the property, the same creek where I used to catch crawdads (crayfish) when I was a kid. Some times I’d get a small piece of window screen wire out of the lumber yard and seine for the crawdads. I guess that might be called cheating, but it sure worked. Those little boogers sure could go fast too… backwards!
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This is a pic of an old saloon in Cornish, Oklahoma. https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/cornishs.jpg
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The last few days workmen have been busy on the courthouse grounds installing an automatic water sprinkler system for the lawn.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/sprink8a.jpg
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“Hi Butch, I think you might need to get your glasses checked. If you look at the picture, he is dipping Ice Cream, not cutting cake. I think Joe has his priorities in the right order. Ice Cream before it melts. The cake was already warm and it won’t hurt if it gets warm again, however Ice Cream is different. Thanks Butch. Keep up the great work.” -Claude in Alaska https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos/mcreyaug.jpg
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“Those machines in the shoe stores (the ones I know of were in Buster Brown Shoe Stores) were fluoroscopes, forerunners of x-ray machines, and who knows how many thousands of us were exposed to the radiation from those machines. I loved to step up and put my feet in the little niche provided and look in the viewer at my toes.”
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“Hello: You had asked the readers of Butch Bridges’ newsletter for a recipe for green tomato pickles. This is a recipe that my Grandmother Stamper used – It is from 1896.
PICKLED GREEN TOMATOES
1/2 peck green tomatoes
1 pint (2 cups) vinegar
Whole cloves
2 lbs. brown sugar
1 oz. stick cinnamon
Combine sugar, vinegar and cinnamon. At a low boil, boil for 20 minutes. Dip tomatoes quickly in hot water and remove skins. Stud each tomato with 4 whole cloves. Put into syrup and cook until soft but firm. Use 1/2 of tomatoes at a time.
Anna’s Note: A lot of the pioneer ‘s recipes used quantities that we no longer use. Homegrown produce was gathered into bushel baskets then- hence the measurements. A peck is 1/4 bushel. A bushel is 8 gallons, so a peck would be 2 gallons. A 2 gallon bucket would be a good way to measure. Enjoy!!” -Anna Marie Wilson, Lone Grove, OK
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“Got another name for you. She once lived in Ardmore and wants to receive T&T. Her father was Walter Miller who had Miller’s Jewelry and Watch Repair on N. Washington that you mentioned week before last. They lived on B St. S.W. and later on A St. N.E. just north of 5th. Ave.”
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Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG…..
A. Where was the Orange Castle Cafe in Ardmore?
The Orange Castle Cafe was located in the NE corner of 12th NW and Wolverton. It was ran by Red and Florence Newnum. Below is a present day photo of the building.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/OrangeCastleCafe1940s.jpg
Below is listing of the eateries in Ardmore in 1951
https://oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos16b/ArdmoreCafes1951.jpg
From Aug 2005 newsletter:
“We spent a lot of time at BARTGIS Grocery Store and eating at The ORANGE CASTLE CAF? at 12th NW and Wolverton owned by Red and Florence Newman. My mom, Nina Barnes, cooked for them and I will never forget the yummy smells when you walked in the front door. Good ol home cooking!”
-Janice Barnes Favors in Flower Mound, Texas
RE: Inter-Tribal Council of North Eastern Oklahoma (Nine Tribes)
Butch — The link below shows the current tribal jurisdictions compared to the 1875 Oklahoma map that was shown in last weeks T&T.
Dick Lindsly, Dallas, Texas
Here’s the current map …
http://www.ninetribes.org/largemap.html
I too remember a machine that enabled me to see the bones in my feet. It was at JC Penny in Gainesville, TX in the latter part of the 30’s. An Okie residing in San Antonio, TX. -Elmer West
Aug. 17, 1952, The Sunday Oklahoman
Police Saturday, moved in on taverns, pool halls and troublesome drive-ins ?to get at the breeding grounds? in curbing rampant teenage hoodlumism in Oklahoma City.
OKC’s Charcoal Oven to close.
http://newsok.com/saying-goodbye-to-another-okc-original-drive-in/article/5515672
At the link below are 10 more scans of old postcards photographs this week. They include photos of Joe Sholer, Edna Alexander, E.E.Bogie Sunday School, Tom Sharrock, Gladys Torbett, a grandmother Bruce, and a couple more people who remain unknown. -Robert Hensley
https://oklahomahistory.net/postcards
“Be careful with your immigration laws. We were careless with ours.” -George Bourland, Member of Chickasaw Tribal Council. Overbrook, Love County, Oklahoma. January 9, 1969
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
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells: https://oklahomahistory.net/bellpage.html
Bill Hamm’s Cemetery Database
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/carter/cartercm.htm
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 Government Website
http://cartercountyOK.us/
All previous issues of This & That can be found on my Website.
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