This weeks newsletter is very limited. I tried to upload a couple of photos this week for todays newsletter to the Server and Hosting Service and it said I had reached my limit of media storage (10 gigabytes). I’ve talked to them 3 times and the only option they gave me is to buy more storage space on their Server. I can double my storage for $390 for 20 gigabytes. So I’m trying to decide that to do.
Anyway, for 29 years my weekly newsletter has gone out to 10’s of thousands of people and gets over 3,000 visitors a month. One time I was even at Milford, Pennsylvania and still able to send it out to everyone. Nobody even knew I was not in town when I sent it out.
I mentioned 3 weeks ago I planned to cut back and not send the newsletter out EVERY Thursday, but still several times a month starting in January. Hopefully I can come up with a solution by next week. Thanks for being understanding in this, I’m in uncharted territory.
I have created a gofundme account in hopes some of my Readers will help me reach the $400 goal. Just follow the link below:
Below is from my newsletter archives
January 2002
“Butch, in the early forties my grandfather would take food over to the Cornish Orphans Home. He would get a letter asking for food and money and we would get in the 38 Nash and go. It was a two story brick building(I think) and had a sheet metal tube for a fire escape from the second floor. We would get to go up and slide down thru the fire escape, a scary ride for a five/six year old. I would appreciate any information about the home, it may have been operated by the Methodist church. After the carload of food was delivered we would have lunch which was potato and meat stew, pinto beans, onions, and lots of bread. It was an all day affair to get over and back from Brock. Also, I am curious about a rock quarry that is a little north and a couple of miles west of Ardmore. We swam there in the summer. As I remember, it was quite deep and had a bright blue/green water color. Does anyone know where it is and who owned it the early fifties? What was the material removed from there (maybe limestone)? Keep up the good work Butch, I really enjoy your writings.”
“Hi Butch, I seem to remember that the shi water cans made in Sulphur you mentioned carried the brand name “Shimaid” with a picture of a young Indian lady on the side of the can. Thanks for sending T&T each week.” -Roy Miller, Oklahoma City
“Butch, you bring back memories of the hot Oklahoma summers in the ’50s and ’60s hauling hay. That ice cold well water from a metal can was the best there ever was! The insulated plastic water jugs we have now can’t compare. I don’t want to haul hay like that again, but sometimes long for a cold drink of water from one of those tin cans.”
bout 60 years ago, when my grandmother, Mrs. H. J. Dixon lived at 126 E. N.W., and my folks and I lived behind them in a small house, just a block west, must have been in the one hundred block of ‘F’ Street NW, I recall there was about a 4 room frame house that someone opened up the two front rooms of, and sold tamales. They had 4 tables with red/white checked ‘oilcloth’ table cloths on them. (There were no plastic back then), and they would serve you tamales by the dozen and that’s all they served, along with crackers and catsup and cokes. I still remember the smell of those tamales! They smelled almost as good as they tasted. You could eat there, or take them home and enjoy them, for about a quarter a dozen! Those were the days!” -Bob Taylor, Rocky Top Ranch, Urbana, MissouriA
“”Oklahoma Place Names,” by George Shirk, says Cornish was a post office from July 10, 1891, to March 15, 1918. It was named for John H. Cornish, rancher.”
“In one article in this week’s paper some mentioned a beer joint south of the Avalon Club (South Commerce). The joint called The Cattle Club about a mile south and on the east side of the highway. I don’t remember the round house there where Montgomery Wards store was located. I remember very well the place. The train came through and I think took on water. There was a water tank on the south side of Grand I think there is an Arby’s there now. There was what we called the tar pit along there and as kids we would play out on it and wait for the train to come by and get the engineer to blow his whistle for us. I remember well the Geurkink Dairy Farm on 12th NW. If Nathan was the one who wrote the one article. He and I went to school together. Back then if you went out to the farm they would give you all the ice cream you wanted what ever kind they were making, but you had to stay there and eat it.”
See everyone next week! (hopefully)
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net