Crews removed the time capsule from behind the cornerstone at the Carter County courthouse this week. I can hardly wait until opening day ceremony on October 10th at 2pm to look at the contents inside it 114 years ago. Opening ceremony will be followed by tours of the courthouse until 4:00pm.
Speaking of the courthouse, an art contest has been started. Help get the word out to any artist who may be interested in entering the contest.
Jimmy White of Zanies did a make-over on the Reck Cemetery bell in western Carter county which was damage by vandals a few years ago. Jimmy did a fantastic job!
This week I received a photo sent in by Ernesto Wallerstein who played professional baseball for the Ardmore Indians team in the early 1950s. You can see in the photo the Globe Theater on East Main behind the guys.
Below is the same photo where I used ChatGPT and its artificial intelligence (AI) to improve and also colorize the photo. What a difference. AI even repaired the damaged part of the photo at the top. By the way that’s Ernesto in the center who now lives in New Jersey. When Ernie played for the Ardmore Indians his professional name was Ernie Klein.
A few years ago I went to the Ardmore Airpark and picked up the signed registry pages of people who visited the American Flyers Memorial since dedication day June 17, 2000. I scanned all the pages. This week I gave the files to Doug Williams to put on his SmugMug website for people to view. I need to get back out there, get the newer signed pages and scan those too. To view the pages of people who visited the site on Doug’s website, just TAP on the link below.
Below is a webpage I created about the April 22, 1966 air crash
https://oklahomahistory.net/american-flyers-memorial/
Some mail from this week’s MAILBAG….
Hi Butch: Just read your latest edition of This n That and enjoyed the article about the Tivoli Theater. I may have told you some of this before, but from about 1953 thru 1955 I worked for the Criterion Theater Group out of Oklahoma City. They owned the Tivoli , the Park (once the Ritz), The 77 North, The Skyview, and the Starlight Drive in theaters. I was a projectionist and along with David Harris and Ed Henry I worked at all the theaters at one time or another. I especially liked changing the Marquee at the Tivoli on Saturday night for the midnight matinee that also showed on the following Sunday and through the week. A lot of the local kids would gather round and hand me the plastic letters so I could hang them on the sign. One downside I didn’t know at the time was the fact I had to clean all the letters with Acetone before putting them up. I learned several years later how toxic it was. Keep up the good work and thanks again for all you do. -Jim Guess
Q. What was the railroad line that went east out of Ardmore? -Darrell Vaughn
A. It’s the St Louis and San Francisco – the Frisco Line from Ardmore over to Hope, Arkansas via Madill, Durant, Hugo and communities along the way. It was the one that ran across the trestles in east Ardmore – although that entry to Ardmore was actually built by the Rock Island and handed off to the Frisco after Rock Island (which ran up to Tishomingo, Milburn). -Tom Elmore
HAM Talk By Butch Bridges KC5JVT
Allstar node # 58735 – Echolink # 101960 – HamsOverIP # 103010
Hope to hear some of you local HAMs Sunday night at 8pm on the Arbuckle 97 Net.
Below is from my newsletter archives
June 1999 – Everyone loves a mystery, and did I learn about one this week that peeked my interest. A resident in Houston, Texas sent me email inquiring about a Mena Walters. Mena Walters died in Houston, TX on April 21, 1923. The newspaper of that day said she was to be transferred to Ardmore, Oklahoma for burial. But for unknown reasons that never happened. Instead she was buried in the space next to this man’s grandmother. All these years this man’s family thought that was a vacant burial space in their family lot. But through cemetery records, they now know that is not the case. This man in Houston was able to get a death certificate on Mena Walters, but it gave no further details to this mystery…. no parent’s names, no next of kin, nothing. Even Mena’s place of birth and date was marked “unknown”. There was a Mrs. Grace Seigel listed as an informant on the death certificate. No one in this man’s family ever heard of Grace Seigel either. What a mystery. I wonder what could be the connection between Mena Walters and Ardmore? Why was she not sent to Ardmore for burial as stated in the Houston Chronicle? Does anyone remember Mena Walters?
Note: I found this on the GenWeb website:
WALTERS, Mena (1923) Ardmore, OK
Seeking any info on a widow named Mena WALTERS, age 64, who died 4/18/23 in Houston, TX. Her obituary stated her body was shipped that night to Ardmore, OK., but for some reason she was buried in a family plot at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Houston, TX. The plot belonged to my great grandfather and his second wife, August & Katherine RAIF. (We know for sure this was not his first wife, as she is buried at St. Vincent Cemetery.) Mena’s death certificate states her parents, husband, & her place of birth were unknown. -Joseph C. Dorsey, Aug 16, 1997
Here is a link to Mena’s info and death certificate on Find-A-Grave
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60014026/mena-walters
Sept 1999 – Just a little additional info about Chock Thompson at the Hamburger Inn. About 1972 Chock got mad because the then owner, Jimmy Brown, would not give him a pay raise. So Chock quit and went across the street from the Hamburger Inn and opened up his own grilled onion hamburger place. Not too many months went by and Chock decided he’d close his hamburger joint and go back to work at the Hamburger Inn. I talked to the original owner of the Hamburger Inn, Ernest Brown, this week. He and his wife Lillian opened their first Hamburger Inn across the street from its present day location. The first one was opened by Brown in 1938 at #32 North Washington. Ernest built the present Hamburger Inn at #27 North Washington in 1956.
Sept 1999 – A friend at the courthouse had a 1.44 diskette crash on which 20 or so important documents were stored. I was able to recover nearly every file using Norton Utilities. She was so happy she brought me a coconut cream pie! And her husband said he didn’t care either. hahahaha
Sept 1999 – “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.” Below is picture of the Whittington Park swimming poll
Setp – 1999 “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.”
“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net