This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 14 Issue 722 Circulation 5,000 November 25, 2010
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
Don't you just hate it when someone tells you just enough to wet your tongue, and then won't tell you anymore? Just to say "I'll get with you later and tell you more?" I had that happen this week. A friend mentioned a road I never heard about. "Spanish Road" somewhere in the Lake Murray area is what he said. I assume its a name from long ago. Anyone have knowledge of this road?
From This and That newsletter archives November 1997:
EMAIL ADDRESS FOR
CARTER COUNTY OSU EXTENSION OFFICE
The OSU Extension Office in Ardmore has had their computer up and running on a
T1 line for several weeks now. But only this week did they actually get their
"official" email address. I mentioned in an earlier T&T that downloading from
the fiber T1 line from the Ardmore Public Library is an experience everyone should
get a taste of at least once. FAST, FASTER, and DEARLY BELOVED, is the only way
to describe it compared to dial-up internet.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Thanksgiving holidays and not eating too much. A side from all the food, family, friends, and fellowship, we need to take a minute and reflect the original meaning of Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims dug seven times more graves than they built huts. Yet they celebrated the bountiful blessings of God.
I try to keep the newsletter from getting too long, and this week's Mailbag is pretty lengthy, so I want to take everyone straight to the Mailbag and what others are saying.
Q. Who was the Cherokee
Bandit?
A. Edward
Ned Christie,
one of the most vicious men to raise a gun in Indian Territory
Q. What is Oklahoma's oldest incorporated town?
A. (answer
in next week's newsletter)
Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/gasprices.html
Some mail from this week's MAILBAG....."The picture of the oil pump jack in your latest T&T letter reminded me of something that happened in 1979 here in Healdton. An attorney from the East coast flew into the little Healdton airport. After I had picked him up in my pickup, we passed a pump jack going up & down. The attorney ask me what that was & I told him that it ws an oil pump jack. He asked, "Well, where is the service station?" Taken aback, I asked what service station he had in mind, he said that if oil was coming out of the ground there, where were they selling the stuff. The old saying is, "Ignorance is bliss."" -Tom
http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/oil-pumpjack-in-texas-field-tx285.jpg
Bare handed snapping turtle hunter from Tennessee
http://www.wimp.com/snappingturtles
"Butch, here is a really great article about the Henderson ferry back in the old days at Gene Autry." -Doug Williams
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okmurray/stories/henderson_ferry.htm
"Butch, thanks for the photos of Wintersmith Park in Ada. My grandmother lived in Ada when I was a kid. My mom would drive my brother, sister and me down from OKC during school breaks and summer. I thought Ada was the ultimate destination and Wintersmith Park being the center of it all. We would fish in the lake, feed old bread to the ducks and geese and swim in the pool. The lake has a fountain in the middle, also. At the north end of the park is a miniature train that goes around the park. The kids hop on and the conductor runs that train all day. On the east end there was a huge round cage about 50 feet diameter that housed several monkeys. The cage was concrete and sunken about 20 feet below the ground with wire fencing forming a dome on top. There was also a tiny zoo. All was still there when I visited a few years ago, but a local told me they haven't had the monkeys since the early 90's." -William Davis, Corinth, TX
"Butch, Here are a couple of pictures of a Persimmon tree I have in the yard. They don't have any seed so I can't weather forecast. I sure get a lot of onlookers and questions about the tree. It is about 12 years old and always has Persimmons on it like this every year." -Sam Cottrell, Durant, Oklahoma
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/CottrellPersimmon2010a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/CottrellPersimmon2010b.jpg
"Hi Butch. Loved your outside view of Pam's Diner in Talihina Ok. Was she really a "Hateful Hussy" as the sign says? The food sure looked good though and that could make all the difference in the world." -Dave
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/BigCedarOK/PamsOutside111310.jpg
"You found the best, maybe the only, place in Talihina. Pam's is good. Never been there for breakfast, but their blue plate specials at lunch are really good.
I'm sure you know the meaning of the Choctaw name of Talihina. Tvli means rock (steel) and hina means road. Talihina was founded as a railroad town.
If you stopped in Big Cedar then you must have took the Talimena skyline drive. Of course, Big Cedar is the only place that John F. Kennedy ever visited in the state. He dedicated the highway at that point.
There are lots of beautiful places in Eastern and Southeastern Oklahoma. It's overlooked by most and that is all right. That keeps the crowds down. It's sometimes better that it is just our secret.
The persimmon seed predictions get skewed from person to person. I've always heard that if the seed contained a spoon that this meant lots of snow and you would be shoveling snow all winter. I'm sure that nature will give us what it gives us and we'll deal with it, or not.
Thanks for all of your hard work each week."
Gerald Whitworth
Glenpool, Oklahoma
SPRINGER ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARADE -SATURDAY - DECEMBER 11, 2010 AT 1:00 PM
All participants meet at 12:30 PM in the Springer School parking lot on the South side to register.
Entry fee is one (1) unwrapped toy per entry.
Everyone welcome - ATV's, cars, bikes, animals, walkers, floats, tractors and etc.
Immediately following the parade join us for refreshments at the Springer Community Center.
Volunteers and donations are welcome and greatly appreciated.
The Daily Ardmoreite
Ardmore, Carter County, Oklahoma
Sunday, November 2, 1947
More Conveniences Needed for Inmates of County Home
There are many commendable things that can be done for the county home for indigent persons, said CHARLES F. ADAMS and JOHN F. EASLEY, who went to the home. Mrs. CLAUD ARNOLD, who with her family moved in here nine years ago from Newport and Lone Grove, is the matron, and her husband is the superintendent. Mrs. Arnold's daughter-in-law was at the place Thursday morning.
The home is located on a highway that skirts the south edge of the Walcott addition. The home of the county, first owned, was destroyed by fire and to provide immediate shelter for the inmates, an oil field house was moved to serve temporarily but that temporary house has not been changed. It has three rooms and a kitchen and dining room combined. It looks frail. It has electricity, gas and water. It does not have a water heater or bathing equipment.
Small cottages, if you would dignify a room by calling it a cottage, are maintained to house the inmates, at this time, six men and one woman. The inmates must like it. Mrs. Arnold says they were all there when she came here nine years ago. .
All the churches visit the home. The Salvation Army comes. It has no meeting room. It has no room where inmates might hear a sermon or where they might listen to a radio.. They bathe in a tub and they resist taking a bath. Their toilet is a WPA outside toilet.
But in food the matron is not limited. She buys groceries and meats and serves dinner in her own dining room. When asked which commissioner manifested the most interest in the home, she named CLAUDE HOLDEN but said that LONNIE ROONEY, who took office July 1, was taking quite an interest in the home. . The oldest inmate is 90 and he is blind or almost blind. The one woman has a little room off to herself. If the inmates could raised turkeys or chickens or take an interest in the cows, they have that opportunity for the place has plenty of acreage. HERSHEL GILLIAM is giving certain receipts from his picture show to build these people a hall to use for games or for Sunday school purposes.
"Just to let you know that Clem Brooks (who is the Clem part of ClemScott, Oklahoma) was my grandfather. There are many Brooks still in Ardmore." -John M Connely b52d2000@yahoo.com
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/ClemscottOklahomaMap.jpg
"Butch, I'm not sure if you're serious or not, but before you buy any land in SE Oklahoma to retire on, you might want to find out how long it will take you to get to an emergency room. And then how far to a decent hospital. Idabel would likely be the closest to Honobia. It will take anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get there from areas around Honobia. The isolation is a big draw, but it's also a big disadvantage. Have to make sure you are friends with the UPS drivers. If you haven't lived there you don't understand how isolated it is. You might want to investigate this: I suspect that area, (about 4 counties) has more unsolved murders and murders of law enforcement personnel then any other equal area. They still haven't found those two people from two summers ago. The ones that disappeared east of Wilburton and left $40,000 in their abandoned pickup.
I grew up in Clayton, just down the road. Growing up I don't remember any connection to the rest of the state. Very pretty there, but you might want to be a little closer to groceries and medical personnel. There are/were grocery stores in Clayton, but for a supermarket we had to drive to McAlester. 45 miles sometimes 65 depending on the condition of the "cutoff" Curiously the "cutoff" is still iffy. There is a bridge out (for the last 2-3 years) now.
Also before you buy a few acres, be sure it's not someone's garden patch. LOL" -Larry
"This morning the first thing I did was put some Ol' Roy in the dish for the big birds. After I put the pan down, the fox jumped up and ran up the hill. I had put the dog food under the cover where the snow won't fill the pan and the fox sat on the other side of the railing and looked at me and the dog food. After a couple of minutes, I went outside and moved the pan to the center of the deck and the fox came around the railing and ate breakfast. Then he went back to where he was sitting in these pictures and sat. After a couple of minutes, he crawled under the porch through a hole he had dug in the snow. I guess we now have a permanent winter house guest." -Monroe Cameron, Big Sky, MT m_o_cameron@yahoo.com
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/BigSkyMTFox112410.jpg
"Butch, The white building just west of I-35 is probably military in origin. It is called a VORTAC site. It is a combination VOR and TACAN. VOR is short for Variable Omni Range. TACAN is short for Tactical Air Navigation. Now I'll really muddy things, this being from the cold war era it probably contained an IFF transmitter. IFF is identification friend or foe. when it queried a plane, the plane had to respond properly or an alert was sounded." -Bill
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/FAAtowerNorthArdmore.jpg
Re Persimmon Seed: Remember hearing the folks in my family saying the knife meant it was so cold the wind would cut like a knife. The fork meant that the winter was to be a mild. The spoon meant that the winter would be snowy enough to need a shovel or to make snow ice cream.
"Butch, Here are four views of an old Texaco Service Station that I found at 728 W Reno - Oklahoma City. Maybe one of your Readers can date this building. I tried to find it on the tax rolls, but it wasn't showing." -Cecil
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/TexacoStationOnRenoOKC.jpg
"Hi Butch, have you had Mazola's dinner roll recipe on T&T? If not, does anyone have it & want to share? Been testing many but none as good as hers. Thanks for any help." -Nancy Chadwell
"Here is a plaque of interest that talks about Fort Reno. Its located south of the Lake Overholster dam on 10th NW in Oklahoma city." -Cecil
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos10a/CouncilGrovePlaque2010.jpg
Horses & Cows - My 1930s
"I wonder if other people have random memories racing on all the time. I decided to write down some of it.
Somehow horses come to mind. I didn't have a lot to do with horses. My uncle had a ranch out near Graham and I would go out there with his father-in-law, E.R. Poole early Ok pioneer, in his 1925 Dodge coupe. Took about an hour. I was allowed to ride his horse Shorty. Cautioned not to run him because he was an old horse. About 10, I couldn't reach the stirrups so I stuck my feet in the straps holding the stirrups. I remember thinking my eyeballs about to fall out with his rough trot.
Side saddles for women were still seen then in which the lady had her left foot in a stirrup, sitting sort of sideways, with her right knee around a sort of centered 'security post', with her right foot toward the left side. I guess it was a holdover from Victorian modesty - days gone by. I recall two ladies, thought to be sisters, living on C St SE about 500 block, were a dignified sight, often seen riding around town dressed in their English riding habits.
At one point the US Gov't was shooting cattle in an effort to keep the beef price up. They paid an owner for his herd, bulldozed a trench, shot the cows and covered them up. Alert workers were able to carve out some steaks during the event. I remember my Dad brought home a lot of meat we canned in the pressure cooker - that we ate on all next winter.
My Mother's sister was married to Frank Cardwell (insurance), lived at 1210 W Main. They were a horsy couple with no kids, kept horses in the back, rode in parades, he played polo, etc. They bought a farm about half mile East of the turnoff to go to Gene Autry (then Berwyn). The house had burned down so when we stayed overnight we slept in the hayloft. I remember fondly that hayloft. In the depth of the depression everyone was raising vegetables. My uncle plowed up an acre or so and I can still see my mother, grandmother and aunts working their garden, dressed in their long skirts and sunbonnets, looking like a century earlier.
They had a cow Clara that I would ride. About all I did was sit on her back as she walked where she wanted to. She was a fence breaker and had a iron yoke on her neck with prongs that would stick when she pushed into a fence. Once I was sitting too far forward and she put her head down. I slid down and one of the prongs gouged me in the chest. Anxious moments with my uncle and grandfather deciding if it was serious. I still have a scar.
Frank was a lifelong friends with Floyd Randolph (Sheriff 1930s) and his wife Florence who was famous as a rodeo performer. I remember Floyd recalling early days when he 'cowboyed' with later western movie star Tom Mix. A lot of people recall Randolph's saddle shop in the 1950s corner So. Commerce and Myall.
A modern day thought -- lately TV news has carried a story about a wanted fugitive out in Idaho who, among his other misdeeds, was known for eating squirrels. When I was a kid everyone who could ate squirrels, and rabbits, and quail and ducks. Things do change with time." -Bob McCrory
Museum Memories
Compiled by Melinda Taylor
The Wilson News
10-27-1916
Postmaster Roy M. Mobley has been renovating the old government submergible, or post office, of which he is in charge and things are now looking a little brighter around the premises. The lobby is yet as commodious as ever but it may be that patrons will soon be favored with a pair of roller skates upon entering the door and privileged to skate the length of the building in order to get their mail, which we believe will greatly expedite matters for the public.
11-03-1916
NEW WILSON POST OFFICE REMOVAL
The local post office has been removed from Main Street, East to Main Street, West. Roy M. Mobley, postmaster, received permission Saturday from the Federal authorities, to make the move, and he lost no time in getting into newer quarters, where already he has everything nicely and conveniently arranged and is in a better position than formerly to accommodate the very large number of patrons at this office.
10-27-1916
Contractor Westcott is back in New Wilson looking for a suitable location for his family. Mr. Westcott also secured the contract for the brick power plant which is to be immediately built one mile east of Wirt in the Wilson-Healdton oil fields. The job calls for a $75,000.00 brick (building).
Now about a little short-length stove wood. We mean about 15-inch wood. Would swap subscriptions for big loads and might be prevailed upon to pay cash difference, however, the News is going to be worth its weight in gold hereafter and you will strike a bargain if you can get it in exchange for wood.
10-27-1916
SUPPLY HOUSE, NO FOUR
New Wilson already has three supply houses which furnish thousands of dollars' worth of material to oil field operators in the Wilson-Healdton territory, but there is another soon to be added by the Continental Supply Company people. They have bought two valuable lots on a prominent busy street near the depot, and will erect a modern, and commodious building.
* Carl Russell, Carter county farm demonstration agent, was in New Wilson Monday. He will return within a few days and organize a boys' club in this section.
*Lindsay Son is branching out in his undertaking business, establishing another place at Wirt.
*Photographer Skidmore is moving a building to a lot south of the News office in which his studio and Mr. Edwards' electric shoe and harness shop will be located.
*Reed McKim of Oklahoma City, arrived in New Wilson Thursday with a view to establishing another garage here. He is awaiting the arrival of his partner before closing a deal.
http://www.WilsonHistoricalMuseum.org
Wilson Historical Museum Hours: Tues., Thurs., Fri., Sat., 10:00 a.m. - 4:00
p.m.
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
PO Box 2
Lone Grove, Oklahoma 73443
Save on long distance calls, just a couple cents a
minute!
http://www.CheapLongDistance.org
Ardmore High School Criterions Online
http://www.ardmorecriterion.com/
Oklahoma Bells:
http://www.OklahomaHistory.net/bellpage.html
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
http://www.brightok.net/~gsimmons
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/
Ardmore School Criterions
http://www.ArdmoreCriterion.com
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