Back in the early 1970s we’d transport patients to the VA Hospital in Talihina, Oklahoma. One Sunday afternoon I had to transport a Veteran to that hospital in our long hearse type Pontiac ambulance. The driving distance was 146 miles one way. I arrived about 7:00pm and knew I could not make it back to a larger town (Atoka) for gas, and I was on empty. That big Pontiac was a gas guzzler. While in town I saw a police car coming my way, I flagged him down. It was the police chief of Talihina. He was friends with the owner of a gas station there in town, called the owner, and he took me to the gas station where I filled up. It was Sunday and many gas stations in the U.S. were closed (1973 gas embargo by OPEC). I sure was glad I was able to get gas and get back to Ardmore.
January 13, 1922
The Daily Ardmoreite
Tuberculosis Hospital at Talihina Opened
Miss May Juno, public health nurse, reports that the tuberculosis hospital at talihina, has just recently been completed and opened.
This is a modern tuberculosis hospital and according to Miss Juno patients will have the benefit of treatment under the care of the very best physicans. Those in charge of the sanatorium will have special study of the most up-to-date message of treating tuberculosis. The equipment of the building is complete in every capacity.
Below is a PDF file on the history of Talihina Hospital in cronological order.
Cecil Elliott in Oklahoma City sent in a couple of photographs he took. One of an old filling station in Luther, Oklahoma. The other is the Round Barn at Arcadia, Oklahoma. Cecil is retired but was a professional photographer in his hey day.
Speaking of photographers, back around 1965 or so I rode my Honda 305cc Super Hawk motorcycle over to one of Ardmore’s professional photographers, Carl Rhoades. His photo shop was located at L Street and 8th Northeast in the NE Corner of that intersection. Carl and his wife, Bernice, lived at 1101 8th NE and for the life of me I can not remember exactly why I was there, but I’m sure it was to make a copy of a photo I had taken with my 35mm camera. Digital was still a twinkle in some inventor’s eye back in those days and didn’t show itself until 1975.
Mr. Rhoades operated his photo shop in the west end of his house, and he and his family lived in the east end.
Cedric Bailey just happened to have a photo of Mr. and Mrs. Rhoades in front of the Jefferson Grade School where she taught.
I was over on 3rd Northeast this week and noticed workers were inside the old Hunt’s Grocery Store where Mike’s Construction was doing some remodeling. I was told the new owners were making it into a beauty salon and a thrift store in the east end of the building to sell used items.
In last week’s niewsletter I mentioned Plain City, Oklahoma depot. Come to find out there is no Plain City, Oklahoma, and the depot photo was in Plain City, Ohio.
Q. Where in Oklahoma is one of the biggest remote dark sky Parks in the world?
A. Oklahoma Is Home To One Of The Biggest Remote Dark Sky Parks In The World. Astronomers flock to Black Mesa State Park & Nature Preserve for its dark nighttime skies. In fact, it’s famous for having some of the darkest nighttime skies in the whole country.
Q. Where in Oklahoma is the Healing Rock located?
A. Answer in next week’s newsletter
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG….
Carl and Bernice Rhodes were true pioneers of Ardmore Oklahoma. He was a scout leader and the photographer. Mrs Rhodes was teacher at Dunbar Elementary and at Jefferson Elementary. -Cedric Bailey
Below is from my Vol 3, Issue 126 September 18, 1999 newsletter:
“The community of Wilson creek is still there. At the time it was regarded as a town it was known as Wilson. Nothing remains of the town but a cemetery and of course the creek that is known as Wilson Creek. I think the actual post office location was west of the creek. George H. Shirk’s book “OKLAHOMA PLACE NAMES” states the following: “”WILSON. In the southeastern Carter County, 7 miles southeast of Ardmore, A post office from April 4, 1888, to Aug. 15, 1907. No longer in existence. Named for J.H. Wilson, local merchant.”” The town of Wilson, 17 miles west of Ardmore is not to be confused with the above mentioned post office location. This town, once known as New Wilson did not become known as Wilson until 1/28/1920. Wilson (creek) location is: Carter County, Section 29 Range 5 South Township 3 East”
“I really enjoyed the T&T this week. I remember well the old swimming pool and skating rink at Whittington Park. The Skating rink was the place to go on Saturday night before the “Preview”. In case you don’t know what the “Preview” was it was the preview of Sunday’s movie at the Tivoli Theater. It started at 12:00 AM every Saturday night. That was where everyone went. I remember at one time the Cochran family owned the skating rink. They had a daughter “Cherry”. We went to school together. That was in the late 40’s. Good memories.”
“Hi Butch. Sure do enjoy reading the This & That here in Algiers. Thanks for including the words to “Oklahoma Hills” in the last issue. About a year ago or less, I had dinner at a club in Australia where Arlo Guthrie, Woody’s son was singing for one night only. It wasn’t publicized very much so there was a relatively small group of people there that night. We all sat around after dinner and sang along with Arlo while he played a lot of his own and his dad’s old songs including Oklahoma Hills. Woody was quite a writer and Oklahoma Hills was one of his best.”
“In a previous issue of T&T, someone asked about the old pool at Whittington Park. Here is a picture of that pool. You can see the slides in the background. This pic was taken in 1920.”
“In those days, you could be sure the tag was purchased in Carter County only by the CE,CR or CRR. Also another interesting thing to know is that the tags were made in batches of 10,000 each – therefore Carter County probably only had 30,000 Car tags (or less). The system used now is much different because maybe for the same reason we have changes in area codes so often.”
“Love your weird stuff! Wanna know what I thought of when I first got to the site that sent me here? I’ve lived in Houston a long time and when it said “Carter County”, first I pictured a bunch of cars with “CR-” license plates and then looked around to see where I was, Ardmore, of course. Since I haven’t read all your stuff here yet, you’ve probably touched on old license plates in Oklahoma, but if you haven’t, please do! It used to be so much fun to drive from my house in Bartlesville, as a kid, to my grandmother’s in Chickasha and then maybe to Norman for a football game or to Dallas for Texas Weekend and guess all the county plates. Now we’re in Washington, now we’re in Tulsa (they had those ZZ’s that didn’t make sense), now we’re in OKC, with their XX’s, now Grady Co. (the old-time women were horrified when they had to go to GD from their original GR ‘cuz the county was growing), now ST, Duncan, now CR, Ardmore, etc. Don’t ya miss not knowing where people are from when you’re driving along the highway? We went to the New York World’s Fair in 1964 and stayed at some Holiday Inn on the outskirts of NYC somewhere and there was a Bartlesville car parked right next to ours the next morning–and it belonged to friends of mine. The worst was, we had to go on out to the Fair before we ever saw them. So, on the way back to Oklahoma, we went to spend some time in Williamsburg, VA– you guessed it– they were parked next to us there, too, and we finally got to visit. Is it a small world? Thanks again for a fun time here.”
“To the world you may only mean one person, but to one person you may mean the world.”
See everyone next Thursday!
Butch and Jill Bridges
236 Timber Road
Ardmore, OK 73401
580-490-6823