A Glimpse Into The Past
Sheriff Buck Garrett Chairman Committee On Transportation To Camp For the past 2 years sheriff Garrett has hired automobiles to transport the children to the farms at the mountain camp at Turner Falls. He is made chairman of the committee again this year and that means that there will be cars provided. The children will be assembled Tuesday morning at 10:00am at the county courthouse and the start to camp will be made at 10:30. Sheriff Garrett believes that there are enough public spirited men and women to volunteer to make this trip to provide all the cars that will be needed. Trucks loaded with groceries and cooks will go to the camp on Monday and a big dinner will be ready for the kiddies when they arrive Tuesday at noon. Those who convey them will enjoy the trip as it will be an inspiration to see the children gather from all parts of the county bearing their bedding and groceries for a camp of four days. Mrs Minnie Church reports as many as 80 people called at her office yesterday making inquiry about the camp and she expects a large number will attend. Phone Buck Garrett at 279 and volunteer your car for the trip and if he is not there call John Easley at 579. -The Ardmore Daily Press, July 17, 1921
Behind my grandparents home on 3rd NE was the Avery L. Senter place and what some might call an artesian water well. During the rainy season water continually flowed out creating a small creek that ran the entire block from west to east behind the houses along the 800 block of 3rd NE. The interesting part is during the Civil War years (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865) Confederate soldiers used the watering hole to spend the night, rest and water their horses. Even during the dry months the water was only a foot below ground level. This well was located behind my grandparents home and lumber yard of which I spent the first 21 years of my life.
The creek ran in a southeastly direction toward 3rd and I Street NE empting into another creek that ran south toward the old ballpark. I spent many a day running up and down the creek catching poor man’s shrimp, crawdads (crawfish), even taking some home and cooking on our gas oven.
Richard Creecy, for one, will remember this creek well as it ran under the Creecy’s elevated house as it crossed under I Street. I can still picture in my mind the wooden door on the west side, under the Creecy house that I’d open up sometimes and look inside as the creek traveled under the house and on southeast. Kinda creepy looking inside for a kid, I wouldn’t go under that house for love nor money.
Now I wonder if that water well is still flowing after all these years. Maybe someday I’ll pay a visit to 316 H Street NE and see if that well is still there behind Mr. Senter’s house.
I made a map of that area from my memories of the 1950s and 1960s. Hope I got the names right.
During the changeover of my old website to the new WordPress format, I didn’t notice until this this week the link to pictures/info of bells in Carter county did not work. I finally got it corrected and available for viewing.
https://oklahomahistory.net/bells-of-carter-county-oklahoma/
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG….
Butch: I enjoyed reading the article about the Tivoli theater. I have often wondered what happened to cause them to change the facade and close Clint Ross’s barber shop next door. I have been back to Ardmore several times since the eighties but I grew up and went to school there in the forties and fifties. I worked as a projectionist at The Tivoli from 1953 till 1956. Mr. Dean was the manager, and also managed the other Criterion theaters (The Park formerly the Ritz till mid fifties or so).
He also managed the 77 North Drive in, The Starlight, and The Skyview drive in. I worked at all of them.
There were two more theaters in town at that time. The Globe near Daube’s , and one on the south side of Main across from the Ritz . As far as I know they were independently owned, but I know Hershel Gilliam owned the Globe when I was in elementary school in the forties.
The cool thing about the Globe, even though it was the most run down of all the theaters was the fact that lots of B Western movie stars appeared there on Saturdays. I saw Alan Hale, Tex Ritter, Lash Larue, Johnny Mac Brown, Bob Steele, Hopalong Cassidy, and a few whose names I can’t recall. It was lots of fun growing up there in the late forties and early fifties . Thanks for listening.
-Jim Guess
Cecil Elliott of Oklahoma City sent in a photo he took in May 2018 of the ducks swimming at Lake Murray. Cecil has submitted a number of his photos over the years, he’s a professional photographer.
By the way, I’ve taken 1,000s of pictures over the years. But they were all just pictures or snapshots. There is a difference between mine and Cecil’s, he takes photographs.
Below is from my Vol 3, Issue 120 August 7, 1999 newsletter:
In October 1930 Alton Edgar, a Marshall county farmer, had been missing for several days. Law enforcement officials had been unable to find the missing man. An Ada, Oklahoma Negro mystic by the name of Ed Kelley finally showed searchers where the body could be found. I have always wondered what happened to this Mr. Kelley, what he did in following years, and where he was buried. Maybe someone in the Ada area will do some research. He must have been a remarkable man with an unexplainable gift.
https://oklahomahistory.net/ada-mystic/
The Oklahoma Association of County Commissioners recently added a website. It’s still new, but growing.
https://www.okacco.com/
“I read some of your stories. Will read more later. But just wanted to let you know we still have Horny toads in Ada, OK also. Not many but we see them sometimes. Also I had no idea anyone else besides me and my siblings did the doodle bug thing! Did you also eat chocolate gravy for breakfast?”
“Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.” -Supreme Court Justice William Douglas 1898-1980
See everyone next Thursday!
Butch and Jill Bridges
236 Timber Road
Ardmore, Oklahoma
580-490-6823
butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
https://oklahomahistory.net