This and That Newsletter

www.OklahomaHistory.net

Vol 11  Issue 520     Circulation 5,000     January 11, 2007

Ardmore, Oklahoma


OETA will air a program on Oklahoma outlaws on January 23rd, and again January 28th. This documentary is part of a series of programs for the Oklahoma Centennial during 2007. The title of this Stateline program is "Dead or Alive." Dee Cordry, author of "Alive If Possible, Dead If Necessary," was interviewed by OETA and appears in this documentary. I have known Dee Cordry for a long time, I hate to say how long, because it would give away our ages. lol  Dee has worked through the years to help preserve Oklahoma lawman and outlaw history from early days of statehood through his website and journals and books. Visit the link below for more about the OETA programs:

http://www.oeta.onenet.net/stateline/index.html

And to learn more about the Oklahoma historian Dee Cordry visit his website:

http://www.ionet.net/~okhombre/dcordry.html


Pauls Valley resident David Cathey (owner of Rapid Roberts convenience store in PV) likes to go cruising on his motorcycle around the state and snap photos of his travels. Sometimes he shares some of those pictures with us here, and this week he did just that. Not so much photos from across the state, but David sent in some great pics he took right in Pauls Valley, mostly around the train station and downtown area. Let's see, there are several of the depot in Pauls Valley and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train engine that happened to be there. And then Pennington Grocery Co ad painted on the side of an old red brick building and the Garvin county courthouse.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley01.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley02.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley03.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley04.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley05.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley06.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/PaulsValley07.jpg

Last week Dee Ann Burris wrote: "My uncle who is in the woodsman of the world uniform died here in Ardmore at my gr-grandmothers house he died of pneumonia, a month after his mother who died in the big flu epidemic in 1918 and i think he probably had it to. my gr-grandmother was Ran Webb, the photographer."

Here is an old photograph Dee Ann Burris owns of the two men wearing the Woodmen of the World uniforms. Her kinfolk, Arley Weatherbee (1897 - 1918), is the man on the left. It seems like many people when they first see someone in these uniforms of long ago, thinks the uniform belongs to the Salvation Army. Woodmen of the World was a fraternal organization.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/WoodmenWorldUniforms.jpg

Here's an interesting postcard Dee Ann brought in last week. Its titled Apache Ghost Dancers. I assume it was taken in Lawton, Oklahoma.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/ApacheDancers1941.jpg

This is a photograph taken in 1932 near the front gate (east of the gate) of Rose Hill Cemetery of the burial spot of David Dunn. What caught my attention was in 1932 there were few graves behind (looking west) from his marker.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/DavidDunn1932.jpg

And this is pretty much the same view looking west, only I took the pic this week.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/DavidDunn1932b.jpg

This is an old photo postcard Dee Ann Burris had in her possession of the Belleview Plunge in Sulphur, Oklahoma.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/BellviewPlunge7a.jpg

This is what looks like a 1950s photo of the fountain that stood at the front entrance to the old Seventh Day Adventist Hospital here in Ardmore. I remember the fountain being there in the early 1970s.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/ArdmoreHospital7a.jpg

Speaking of old picture postcards, here is one showing the inside of the Walter Dean Jewelry store, located at #10 West Main in Ardmore.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/DeanJewelry.jpg

Linda Wagner, author of Okie Legacy of Alva, Oklahoma had a real toe tapping piece of history in her newsletter last week. It was a song I remember hearing as a kid many times. I probably shouldn't tell this, because its on me, but I always misunderstood this one word in one line. The song was written by Stuart Hamlin in 1954 and really made popular a short time later by Rosemary Clooney. The song I'm referring to is "This Old House". And what I misunderstood as a kid was, "....I'm getting ready to meet the Saints." I thought Rosemary Clooney was singing, "....I'm getting ready to meet the train". hahaha.  Oh well, I know now, and its a beautiful upbeat song. And when you hear it, if it don't make you want to tap your toe, then all I can say is, well, I don't know what to say. Anyway, below is the song in a wav file format. Turn up your speakers!

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/clooney-thisoldhouse.wav

This old house once knew its children
This old house once knew its wife
This old house was home and comfort
As they fought the storms of life

This old house once rang with laughter
This old house heard many shouts
Now it trembles in the darkness
When the lightning walks about

Aint gonna need this house no longer
Aint gonna need this house no more
Aint got time to fix the shingles
Aint got time to fix the floor
Aint got time to oil the hinges
Nor to mend the window pain
Aint gonna need this house no longer
Hes getting ready to meet the saints
 

You can check out Linda Wagner's great newsletter and website at:

http://okielegacy.org/journal/

Jill and I were at Teepee Beach at Lake Murray last weekend. The water level is really down as you can tell from the two pics I took of the beach area. I remember back in the 60s when beautiful sand covered the entire area, all the way out to the wood float about 150 feet from the shore line.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/LakeMurray010707a.jpg

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/LakeMurray010707b.jpg

A Reader wrote in this week asking for a better look at the Christmas tree skirt Jill made from two old robes. The red one belonged to my mother 15 or more years ago when she was live. She cut both robes in strips and sewed them together in a quilt like fashion. Jill is quite the artist when it comes to handiwork such as this type. With the talents she has, who knows, she may make something good out of me too. lol

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttphotos7a/TreeSkirt7a.jpg

The past two weeks several of you emailed to say you can't pull up the pictures, or it takes forever to pull up the pictures, or the pictures just time out.  I checked with my hosting service and come to find out there was a problem, not in the new newsletter's HTML format, but accessing the oklahomahistory.net server. Seems when that major earthquake took place off the coast of Japan December 26th, it took out some undersea fiber optic lines. Last Tuesday my Server company migrated my website to another server site and things are back to normal now. If you still have trouble pulling up the picture links, let me know. Also here is a link to my newsletter archive on the website.

http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/ttnews.html

I mentioned in the past two issues about no birds anywhere to be seen in my neighborhood since I started looking December 26th. Well, maybe the birds did know something was coming..... ice and snow and bitter cold predicted this weekend in Oklahoma and Carter county is expected to get ice. Boy I hate that stuff, sure hope Ardmore misses the blunt of the storm.

I been checking out a FREE private voice mail service that lets you have a private number to put in a newspaper ad, or wherever you don't want to give out your true home phone or cell number. Seems to work great. You even get up to 10 ten minute calls to call the person back using the "star" key when your listen to the message the person left. Looks like a lot of features for a free service, and I can see it coming in handy in several occasions, such as females not wanting to give their home phone out. Or if you want to schedule your cell phone to ring when you are in a boring meeting, and want to leave early. lol  The number given to me by privatephone is 580-798-4731 which is not a long distance call for Ardmore callers.

http://www.privatephone.com/

MAILBAG

"Hi Butch and Jill, First hope you two have a wonderful life together, congratulations and Best wishes to both. A few issues of T&T ago you mentioned the "old" highway that runs by Dickson School (north). As a child my family lived at Mill Creek and we made trips to Ardmore to visit family here on that highway. Several years ago I sold real estate and was with Bob Longino Reality. I sold a house on the east side of Dickson school and was following the Title exam through Attorney Marvin Schilling at the time (1978). He told he had not been able to get the property clear. Reason was it mentioned Mulholland Highway as the west boundary. For some I recalled that I thought the highway back in the 30s was called such. He later called to tell me it was and the papers cleared. Thought you might like to know this, he got the information from the courthouse he told me.  Keep up the great work with the T&T, sure enjoyed by a lot of folks, especially we old timers." -Troy Seedig

"I love listening to stories from older people, they have always been interesting to me. I moved to Thackerville in 1996, where I lived with my husband's grandmother until her death. I have heard stories about Brown Springs, Leaper Lake, Blue Lake and others off the beaten path in and around Thackerville. The 80 acres that we lived on was supposed to one of the most "haunted" places around. I was never fortunate enough to have any experiences myself during the 9 years that I lived there, although, several people who visited us claimed to have seen and heard things, so me refused to stay after dark ever again. One of my favorite stories about the area is of the "Roving Graveyard". My mother-in-law, who was raised in Thackerville swears she herself has encountered the place. There are some of the older generation who have mentioned it, I was curious if, anyone has heard these tales as well. That would definitely be a treat to find out about would it not? Thank you for the new information I have gleaned from this site and I look forward to more about this unique area."
"I love the new format and I thought that tree skirt that Jill made was exceptionally wonderful!!! What a great idea.. any closeups of the skirt would be nice too!  What a darling tree that was!!" -Licia

"I really like your new format for reading the T&T newsletter.  I am once again searching for the email addys of the grandchildren of Finn & Millie Beckham who lived on 3rd NE here in Ardmore, OK. I had their emails addys, then changed ISP as well as had the computer overhauled. Apparently, when the computer went to the shop everything was lost. The addys that I have via printing a few pages from them are no longer vaild. Thanks."    jas200455@yahoo.com
Q: I ran across an article in the 1974 issue of The Daily Ardmoreite at the Chickasaw Library here in Ardmore, titled, "One Railroad In Oklahoma Has Tunnel." Does anyone remember this tunnel?

A: This tunnel still exists and is used by the KCS railway. The entrances on both ends are brick lined.  It was modified by the Frisco by increasing the clearance for pig flats by lining the ceiling with concrete. The center of the tunnel is in solid rock and is unlined. In fact it opens up into a fairly large cavern in the middle. I have ridden through it a couple of times, once in a caboose and once in the cab of a loco.  I have also walked into south end beyond the brick lining. BTW, it is barely in Arkansas. Access to both ends is from Arkansas highways. -Mike Condren


"Our area here in east central Florida is loaded with "gangs" of red breasted robins. They congregate in groups of 30-50 in yards and on the ground along ponds. It sounds like "hyper-Spring" when they are near."

"This is a great site for all the old tunes. Brings back a lot of memories. Anybody that likes the music from the fifties to the eighties will love this."
http://www.tropicalglen.com/

In our modern world of large-scale commercialism, it can be quite comforting, and even fun, to create something handmade.  Whip Up is a cool blog dedicated to "handcrafting in a hectic world", with daily posts on knitting, needlework, ceramics, crochet and many other old-fashioned, homespun arts.
http://whipup.net/

"Read the letter on Alfalfa Bill and I also had a meeting the Governor. This was posted on my home page at http://jimmydalemartin.com in December." http://jimmiedalemartin.blogspot.com/2006/12/alfalfa-bill-murray-governor-of.html
"Butch, Thought you might find this interesting and would enjoy looking through some of the old penny postcards of long ago." -Anita http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/special/ppcs/ppcs.html
Don't chew on these pencils! http://www.infofreako.com/jad/enpitsu-e.html

"We're Oklahoma rising, brighter than a star! Stand up and sing about her, let the world know who we are! We're the sons and daughers, the children of the west, rising up to be the best." http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtown/oklahomarising.htm

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." -Theodore Roosevelt from a letter he wrote to the president of the American Defense Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.

See everyone next week!

Butch and Jill Bridges

PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443


http://www.OklahomaHistory.net


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American Flyers Memorial Fund - Administration Webpage
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/crash66.html
Official American Flyers Memorial Website
http://www.brightok.net/~wwwafm
Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Base Website
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Mirror Site of the Ardmore Army Air Field/Ardmore Air Force Website
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/airbase/
Carter county schools, past and present
http://community.webshots.com/user/oklahomahistory
Carter County Government Website
http://www.brightok.net/cartercounty/

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