This and That
Newsletter
A Weekly Publication
Vol 15 Issue 754 Circulation 5,000 July 7, 2011
PO Box 2
Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402
email address: butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net
580-657-8616
I was going through some books, trying to see what all I
really had, and found the 1966 booklet Confederate Grave Markers, Rosehill
Cemetery, Ardmore, Oklahoma. It was compiled by the Oklahoma Genealogical
Society, Mrs. Frankie Garrison Followill, Chairman. Recorders were Mrs Muriel
Teel, Mrs Frankie Garrison, Mrs Waneta O'Haver, Mrs Patti Campbell Howell, Mrs
Phyllis Hack McMichael, Mrs Myldred Compton Lankford, members of the Oklahoma
Genealogical Society.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/ConfederateGraveMarkerBook1969a.jpg
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/ConfederateGraveMarkerBook1969b.jpg
Inside the book is also a 1966 map of Rosehill Cemetery
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/RosehillMap1966.jpg
The 25 page booklet list the names as recorded in 1966 in alphabetical order. It
would be interesting to compare the 1966 list of names with the ones Doug and I
recorded back in 2005 and 2006.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/ConfederateGraveMarkerBook1969_01.jpg
Webpage of the 2006 Confederate Grave Project
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/vetmarkers.html
I hope in a few days to get all 25 pages of the booklet scanned and online.
November 16, 1917- The Daily Ardmoreite, The Ardmore Street Railway
service will be resumed tomorrow morning. Cars will leave the barns at 6:15
and 6:45am and every thirty minutes thereafter until 10:15pm. Cars will
leave downtown at 6:30 and 7:30am and every thirty minutes thereafter, the
last car leaving at 11 o'clock pm. The cars from the barns to the Electric
Park, Country Club, and Bloomfield Academy will leave at 7:15, 7:45 and
11:45am, 12:45 4:45, 6:45 10:45pm. Cars will leave park at 7:30 and 8, 12am
and, 5, 7, and 11pm.
Within the last week or so, Ardmore's Walmart started selling UltraSteel tools. I bought 4 different tools last weekend and they are very good quality for the price. Heavy duty steel. Great for the home's tool box.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/UltraSteelTools070211.jpg
A Facebook friend and former Ardmoreite sent me this picture she took at Fire Lake Casino in Shawnee, Oklahoma. I could not help but laugh. Jill would say immediately upon seeing it, "redneck". lol I guess the guy's gas pump stopped working, so he rigged a gas tank behind the cab, and a copper line to the carburetor so the gas is gravity fed to the engine.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/TruckGasTank.jpg
Weekend before last I went out to lock up the chickens in their coop, it was dark, I had a flashlight thank God, and when walking back to the house I saw a copperhead snake in the flower bed. Grabbed a hoe and ended its life. Anyone who has lived in the country for any length of time, knows you always keep a hoe or two at strategic places on the property.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/CopperheadSnake062411a.jpg
Sure a lot of snakes being seen and killed in this county. Everyone be careful.
From This and That
newsletter archives of July 4, 1998:
Wow..... its hot as Hades here in Oklahoma. Even my COLD water is warm when it
comes out of the faucet. Hope we get some relief soon, or everything is going to
die. Farmers have it bad already around here. Other parts of Oklahoma has got
rain recently, but not the south central area.
Now fast forward to today..... Current U.S. drought map.
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
Q. Vance Air Force
Base is located at what Oklahoma town?
A. Enid, Oklahoma
Q. Oklahoma City is one of only
two capital cities with their state name as part of
the city name. What is the other city/state?
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 Daily
Ardmoreite
February 14, 1946
COURT HOUSE IS DAMAGED
Cole Johnson, county commissioner, said that the court house sustained
considerable damage from the wind of Wednesday in addition to noticeable injury
to the cupola atop the building. He was at the court house early on Wednesday
and set about getting services restored to the offices. Several windows were
broken in the offices. Johnson said that permanent repairs of the damage would
be undertaken immediately.
February 17, 1946
COUNTY JAIL WALL CRACKED
Wind of Wednesday night not only took a crack at the cupola atop the county
court house, but likewise gave the ancient county Bastille next door a wallop as
well. A check made Saturday of the sprawling, red-brick landmark revealed that
the force of the wind had cracked the east wall of the south section of the
building from cornice to foundation. The crack tracks the crooked line of
bricks, varying in width from a narrow track to an opening near the roof half an
inch in width. A more complete study will be made by the jail officials to
determine if other damage came from the tornado to the prison.
From my Facebook Archive: Email I received a minute ago. Maybe someone out there knows the answer? "Mr. Bridges, Help! Can you settle a little dispute between my spouse and I? I cannot find the answer to the following question: When was the 12th street overpass of I-35 in Ardmore constructed and opened? Was there a bridge over it before the one that is there now? Was it, or another one, there when Uniroyal was built? Thanks for helping me with it. Or telling me where I can find the answers."
Answers received on Facebook:
Sandi Shipman Copeland THIS ONE IS DON DUKES DOING...HIS LAST TERM IN OFFICE
(AROUND THIS TIME).
Tracy Fox My son was born in 1989 & it was opened then & my neice was born July
5,1988 & I think that it was opened then???
Linda Presley Lathum Don had a place
couple miles west of there!!!
Amy Jolly Morse i was thinkin more like 88 or 89 too maybe as early as 87
Amy Jolly Morse it was def before the 90's
Sandi Shipman Copeland MY HUSBAND WORKED ON THE HIGHWAYS AND HE SAYS IT WASN'T
OPEN IN 88
Carole Geurin Wiggs 1989
Tony Martin 89'
Amy Jolly Morse i have to agree with 89
Amy Jolly Morse i got my license in 90 and it had been open a while then...i
worked at anthonys
Sandi Shipman Copeland BEAMIS CONSTRUCTION IN OKC BUILT IT....IT OPENED LATE
BECAUSE WE HAD THE SNOW STORM IN MARCH AND IT WASN'T OPENED UNTIL AFTER THAT BUT
HE SAID PROBABLY LATE 89
Carole Geurin Wiggs And and as far as there being another bridge before, there
wasn't. You could drive up to it from the west side though.
Amy Jolly Morse i remember that storm...me and my friends got stuck n the tommys
(now sumnart) parking lot!!
Sandi Shipman Copeland THEY HAD TO PUT INA RETENTION POND WHEN A MAN SUED
BECAUSE IT FLOODED HIS PROPERTY....92..
Rhonda Thornton Krohn I Know construction started in mid to late summer 1988
cause I broke up with a boyfriend and he drove past the barricades to make me
think he was going to drive off of it. But it was finished in 1989 early
Rhonda Thornton Krohn now that use to be great place to sit and watch fireworks
before they redid it you could sit and watch Dornick hills The Lakes and all
over
Sandi Shipman Copeland DOES THIS ANSWER THE QUESTION...LOL
Amy Jolly Morse with all the memories and all!! lol :D
Russell Martin The first bridge was a
two lane that was built when the Uniroyal plant was built in 1970 and 12th
street was also rebuilt from the interstate to commerce.
Sylvia West Moore
Russell, I'm glad you found that because I know before I married in 1969 they
were building it. I kept seeing the 1988-1989 and thought it sure took a long
time for them to finish that bridge! LOL Can you imagine back when I was a
teenager,... we didn't have I-35. To go to OKC we had to go around the horseshoe
curve in the Arbuckle and through every little town in between here and there.
Can you imagine what that would be like nowdays with all the traffic!!
Donavan Ellis I lived in Rolling Meadows in the mid to late 70's. I don't remember there being a bridge over the interstate. I do remember the pond that was on the south side of 12th, floated many model boats on it. Seems like the road went up a hill heading west, but stopped. It was a pretty steep hill, we rode cardboard down the side of it a bunch.
Candace Ballard Martin We moved here in 1975 and it was built after that because I know we lived between Broadway and the Flying J exit and we had to get off before or after to get to our house.
The Black Theater of Ardmore is a historic theater building in Ardmore, Oklahoma. It was built in 1922 during a time of racial segregation, when Ardmore's community of more than 2,000 African American residents had its own business district and its own residential area. The theater provided entertainment for black residents who were excluded from patronizing white theaters. It is also a symbol to the once-thriving black business district of Ardmore. It functioned as a theater until 1944, when it was sold to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. The building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos11a/VictoryTemple2001.jpg
"Dear Butch, another testimony about Ernest Brown of the Hamburger Inn. We went to church with the Brown's at the Orthodox Baptist Church. My family left there in the 50s. When our father passed away in 1964 and our brothers in 74 Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Mr. and Mrs. Adams came to our home when they heard the news. I have always lived away but I remember that about these families." -Fern
"Dear Butch, My grandfather, Jack Inman, had a small cafe in the 30s and early 40's, called Inman's Inn. It was on 12th NW. I never got to meet him; he died in April before I was born in August 1947. If anyone has any memories to share about the cafe or about Jack Inman, I WOULD REALLY LOVE IT READ THEM! His wife was my grandmother, Arkie Sullivan Inman." -Susan Nance
"Enid, Oklahoma is not so much the wheat capital any more. The Union Equity Co-Op went busted and outlying transit elevators all over the country have closed. Railroad rates are so much cheaper for unit trains (80 or 100 cars or more that much of it moves directly to the port city, such as Houston or Galveston. I remember the Santa Fe used to have a particular symbol for Union Equity trains.
Vance Air Force Base (also in Enid) used to have a big arts, crafts and gift sale (open to the public) a few weeks before Christmas."
-Wes Leatherock
"Hi Butch, If we aren't OD'd on Hamburger Inn yet, here's my recall. I graduated 1941, we had our 70th reunion a May 14 with 14 attending. As others said, Hamburger Inn then on the East side of Washington across from the then Post Office. Ordered and served thru a window on the street. I think there were four or five stools at a counter inside but I never went in. Small too, the hamburger, a nickel, about 3 inches wide. Small and cheap, the late '30s version of evil fast food, it tasted great. The meat had sliced onion pressed in and fried with it on one side. You loved it as-is, nobody thought of mustard or ketchup. Sometimes I'd like to go back in time - a short visit." -Bob McCrory
"When I left for a 22 year career in the U.S. Navy, a number of times when the conversations among us young sailors would turn to our favorite hometown foods, I would bring up the fact that we could get good hamburgers and get ten for a dollar at a place called Hamburger Inn in Ardmore. Well most shipmates would look at me as If I had already learned to tell tall sea stories at such a young age." -Don Greenaway
"All this talk about the Hamburger Inn reminded me of a place I found in Fort Worth. It's the Paris Coffee Shop and my kind of place. First off, you have to either want to be there or lost, it's on the corner of Hemphill and Magnolia Avenue, across the street from the Hot Damn Tamale place in an area of town where one wonders if they should be carrying a gun. It's been around since 1926 and shows ever decade of its age, even down to the zinc counter top. There's a treasure trove of old photos on the west wall from the coffee pots all the way past the bathrooms to the back door. The name has nothing to do with Paris France or Paris, Texas but was the name of the man who opened it. When the new owner took it over a few years later, he couldn't see any good reason to toss a perfectly good sign so it remains painted in big letters on the stucco was facing the parking lot. They are only open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday and breakfast only on Saturday. The menu hasn't changed much in the past eighty years other than prices but you can still eat breakfast for about five bucks and a dollar more for lunch where they have things like Chicken Fried Steak, Spare Ribs, Chicken and Dumplings, Liver and Onions with choice of two sides or they will even make you a ham burger. Time from ordering to food on the table is only a couple minutes. If you have room left, you should go for a slice of your favorite pie which the owner makes fresh every day. Better order your pie with your lunch because it goes fast. Better be there by 7:00 in the morning or 11;00 for lunch or you will be standing in line for a table." -Jim Foreman
http://www.pariscoffeeshop.net/
"Just read your t&t.. My granddaughters had asked me last week if I would take them to the hamburger inn. One of my mimi days I had taken one of them there and it became a favorite thing to do on special occasions. So yesterday I had them in the car going to get my granddaughter a polo shirt for her first job at Sirloin Stockade and we stopped by to eat a good ole onion burger. Funny how it is such a special treat to go there. I remember when my daughter was young and Curtis had taken Scott out somewhere, we went to eat there. I think our kids missed out on some neat things. A couple of years ago Jaree took her girls up to OKC to a drive in movie. They had some friends that met them there and they had the time of their lives. Simple pleasures that we took for granted and they love them!!! I also remember the Reavis counter being a fun place to hang out on a Saturday afternoon. And the people that worked at those places.. Reavis Drug, Skyview Theater and Hamburger Inn just made it more special." -Sylvia West Moore
You can go to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety website and sign up to be notified when your drivers license is to be renewed! Sure helps since notices are not sent out by mail anymore.
https://www.dps.state.ok.us/renewal/
"Butch, a couple more names of former employees of Ardmore's infamous Hamburger Inn. My maternal grandmother, Nona Ann (Armstrong) (Huffman) Pittman worked at the original burger site in the early 1950's. She'd walk to work and back and even after being on her feet all day at work, wouldn't slow down when she got home. She'd mow the lawn, trim hedges, weed the garden, etc (in summer), then finish with cooking a good supper and making sure everything was spotless and in the right place before sitting down to rest. A remarkable woman. Died too young at the age of 72 in 1963. Another employee was my friend, Ida Mae Wilson's, mother, Lockie Wilson. She worked at the present location for many years. My favorite desserts they had were the vanilla custard pies and chocolate cream. YUM! If course, no one could make an onion burger better than HB Inn. After I married and moved from this area, living & traveling in Texas and all the states we went thru when moving to Maryland and Virginia, no one had ever heard of an "educated" or "old fashioned" burger. I believe those terms must have originated here. Some of the younger crowd now days, those under 50, still don't know what those terms mean because they aren't used as much. I ordered an "old fashioned" from D&S Pit Stop in Dickson a few years back and got a blank look from the young lady who was taking my order. After telling her what it was, she said, "Oh, that makes sense!". And from then on they knew what I wanted when I ordered it. Thanks for the memories. Take care and God bless." -Diane
"Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree." -Michael Crichton, Timeline
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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