This and That Newsletter
A Weekly Publication

www.OklahomaHistory.net

Vol 17  Issue 835      Circulation 5,000       January 24, 2013

PO Box 2

Ardmore, Oklahoma 73402

email address:  butchbridges@oklahomahistory.net

580-657-8616


Dr. Pepper back in the 1980s was the most opened soft drank in Ardmore. More Dr Pepper was sold in Ardmore then any other city in the United States. I can say I have been a dyed-in-the-wool Dr Pepper drinker all my life. Up until 90 days ago when I started my Paleo Diet, I still would drink only Dr Pepper. For decades the Dublin Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas sold a special blend of Dr Pepper made with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar. In January 2012 that all came to an end when Dublin Bottling got into a legal battle with the parent company in Plano, Texas and had to stop selling the Dr Pepper made with cane sugar. But this special blend of Dr Pepper continues to be bottled and sold by Temple Bottling Company in Temple, Texas which as always been the bottler of cane sugar Dr Pepper, even for Dublin. I found an informative article on who bottled and who sold what and where at the link below.

http://soda-emporium.com/FRESH-6-Pk-8oz-Dr-Pepper-with-IMPERIAL-PURE-CANE-SUGAR-P2356927.aspx

I found out the other day there is only one place (supposedly) in Ardmore where you can still buy Dr Pepper made with pure cane sugar.  The store gets it from Temple, Texas for their customers.  Its located east on Springdale Road to Mary Niblack Road at Larry's Country Corner. These are the 8 ounce size bottles.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/DrPepperCaneSugar012113.jpg

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/LarrysCountryCorner.jpg

Several years ago at 521 West Broadway was the McPherson Feed Store. 521 is next door to the new Colvert Ministry Center in Ardmore. Today the building is owned by the First United Methodist Church and named the Velma Mitchell Building. The building has been home to a number of various businesses through the years. I'm not sure when the brick building was built, but before that there was a home located on the lot around 1910. From looking at the bricks I'd guess red brick building was built about 1920.

1910 J.H. Palmer

1913 W.P. McLaughlin

1918 and 1920 Edward Hoffman

1922
        511 West Broadway - J.L. Love
        no 521 listed
        515 West Broadway - Butcher and Spell Auto Repair

1924 Atwood Pickens Manufacturing Company. Pecan Cracker Manufacturers

1926 National Pecan Cracking Manufacturing Company

1928 -1930 Joseph Herrell Grocery

1932 vacant

1935 Carl Tackett Auto Repair

1937 Clifton Radio Service

1939 - 1946 Folsom Auto Shop

1949 - 1960 Folsom Tractor Company

Here is a picture of the Velma Mitchell Building as it looks today.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/VelmaMitchellBldg.jpg

We traveled to Madill last Monday to check out J&I Manufacturing, something we do every few months. J&I is a business like no other in Southern Oklahoma or North Texas. To repeat their commercial, "If you can put a magnet on it, you can find it at J&I." We love to just go up and down each aisle looking for something of interest, and we always find something. I thought of one Reader who has been fighting gophers for a couple years, and this is one gopher trap I had not seen before until our visit to J&I at Madill.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/GopherTraps.jpg

But something that caught my eye besides the gopher trap was the Nooski Mouse Trap. I didn't get a picture of this unique kind of trap, but I did find a couple of demos on youtube.  If I remember right the mouse trap sold for $6.

Here is a youtube video of the Nooski Mouse Trap in action. A green rubber ring catches the mouse around the neck every time it sticks its head inside the trap. They claim it is humane, and I guess it is, even though choking it to death is questionable.  Just as long as it's dead, that's all I care about.  lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGM-eS4Nrmk

J&I also sells the Nooski Rat Trap (about $10).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeBouRBtVQM

I took a picture of J&I at Madill, but this picture does not do it justice.  This is just the south end of the building with much more floor space stocked with everything a person can imagine.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/J_I_MfgMadillOK012113.jpg

To get an idea of what J&I sells, go to the link below. It has something even for the ladies!

http://jimfg.com/

It was after high noon and time to eat, so we stopped at El Tequila Mexican Restaurant for lunch. Being on the Paleo Diet we only ordered 2 things, grilled beef fajitas and guacamole. I'm sure the waitress thought these people are weird, when she went back to the cook to place our order. These people don't want chips and salsa, that don't want the plate with fried beans, fried rice, flour tortilla, cheese, etc. They just want these 2 items. Anyway, she brought out a huge sizzling plate of grilled fajitas with onions and green peppers.  Absolutely delicious to the last bite. We will be going there again when we're in Madill, Oklahoma.

Before leaving Madill and heading home I took a pic of the water fall in front of the Little Law Firm. Nice.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/LittleLawWaterFallMadillOK.jpg

There is another thing I want to mention. On the southwest edge of Madill is what I call "crazy intersection". I know the engineer that designed this traffic interchange had to be inebriated when he designed it. When you come upon this interchange for the first time in your life, your heart starts racing, your eyes jumping all over the place, you want to make a U-turn, and you start speaking out loud in tongues. This first view is a map, and the second is an aerial view.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/MadillCrazyIntersectionA.jpg

Did you see the directional arrows placed along the lanes?  There is no way in Hades a computer could do that automatically, so I know a human being had to manually place those arrows on the map, and it had to be someone who had been there.

This next pic is the aerial view.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/MadillCrazyIntersectionB.jpg

It's dry folks, very dry. Bryan Pullen of Davis sent in a pic he took last Saturday of Little Niagara Falls at Sulphur (Chickasaw Recreation Center) showing just how bad it is.  I took a pic in March 2011 so I took the two photos and made a panaramic view, side by side, just to show how its changed.

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/LittleNiagara011913b.jpg

We had an active conversation on my Facebook page last Tuesday about when Miller's Dairy Freeze closed at West Broadway and E NW and moved a block west to West Main and Broadway intersection. It was pretty much determined the building was moved in 1989. The conversation brought back a lot of memories for a lot of people as you will read below.

Linda Long: cherry dipped cone please.

Linda Joers Summerfield: Wow-that brought back some pleasant memories! I remember they had the very best thick milkshakes when we lived there in the 50s and 60s.

Frank Lightsey: I worked there after school and summers for 2 years. Sold a lot of ice cream. Mr. Miller was a good boss.

Deborah Ann Dixon Holmes: I loved going there when I was a kid when we would come visit my grandmother, always got a foot long hot dog! But it was at first location, I have never been back since they moved it!

Vi Freeman: I remember the frozen orange slush after a day at the lake!

Tony Lawson: Remember the millers winners?

Arzella Jones: We would walk to it and sit in the chairs on the east side then walk back. Our grandmother would always walk with us.

Rodney Lawrence: Loved the ice cream and the smell of cooking wieners.

Kim Woodruff Drain: Loved going there and getting a coke freeze.

Bennie Ray Wells: When We Live There in Ardmore, up to 1957...the drive Up Did Not Have Any Car Cover as Shown Here in this Old Photo...It's the First Place Where I Saw Hot Choc. Poured Over ice cream & Becoming a Hard Choc Cover in Just a Few Seconds. I Think That This Was Called a Derby Top...( I Think ).....& We would Often See The Millers, at the Drive Inn Movie Theater East of Ardmore, on the South Side of Hiway 70..East...We Love Ardmore.

Lydia Roberson: Johnson World's best french fries and cherry ice!

Lynn Franklin Christian: got my first ice cream cone there, many years ago.

Alyssa Cumbie Higby: love their chocolate dipped cones!

Jimalyn Stone: When I was in Junior High, I went there for lunch. Always got the BBQ sandwich. I found out later how to make them like Millers. I also enjoyed their frito chili pies.

Brenda Waller: I worked there as night manager for 2 years 1978/79. Mr& Mrs Miller were wonderful people we had our Christmas party at there house both years I was there.

Brenda Waller: forgot about that phone booth on west side.

Jimalyn Stone: I even remember the block or stone they used to hold the bills down when they were getting the change!

Brenda Lee Way: They had the best burgers and fries.

F.P. Jacobson: I remember the orange slush though!

George Davis: My fav was "Purple Cow", made with ice cream and grape slush!

Susan Langland: Frito Chili Pie!!! The best.

Linda Long: BBQ sandwich and a pecan milkshake made any Saturday into Christmas morning for me.

Carolyn Tate Briscoe: The best foot-longs! And their buns would always melt in your mouth fresh!

Robert Bust: I remember when it was millers dairy queen and they were not using dq products but Colvert's and lost their franchise....we havent had a dq since.

Randy Day: I ate there so much for lunch when going to Jr. High School. Fritos Chili Pie or Foot long Cheese Coney. Just loved their slushes and milk shakes. It was all good, and the people were good too.

Laura Word: Mmmmm! Frito Chili Pie in the Frito bag.

Christy Dickinson-Davis: I don't think it was 86 or 87,I graduated in 87 and it was still in the old spot. I know this because of all the times I drove around the drag with my friends, it was not where it is now. I went to college in OKC in 89/90 and when I can home one weekend it had moved. My guess is 89.

Jo Cochran: Miller's had that ice cream on a stick that was a frozen pineapple ring with vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate! It was sooo good!

This is a photo I took of Miller's Dairy Freeze in the old location at E Street and West Broadway.

On January 31st (next Thursday a retirement reception will be held for Carter County Commissioner Bill McLaughlin (District 1). It will be a come and go event that Thursday afternoon in the Annex Building next door to the courthouse in Ardmore.  I'm sure going to miss seeing that man at work, I love him like a brother. He has been a great public servant.  Come by and give Bill a great send-off. I hope to see some of you there on the 31st!

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos13a/McLaughlinRetirement.jpg

Q. Pemmican was a food eaten by Native American Indians. What is pemmican?
A.  Simply put, its pulverized meat, dried cranberries, and fat
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-make-pemmican/

Q. The capitol building was originally supposed to have a dome, but a lack of funds prevented it. When did Oklahoma's capitol finally receive a dome?
A.  (answer in next week's T&T)

From This and That newsletter archives of January 22, 2000:

In 1927 Ardmore had a population of 20,000. So really in the past 70 or so years we haven't grown a lot. We also had 35 miles of paved roads, 40 miles of sewer lines, and 40 miles of water mains. We had 4 banks, 8 public schools, 22 churches, and 1 business academy. 15 hotels, 4 railroads, 3 newspapers, 4 fishing and hunting clubs, 4 cotton gins, a cotton compress, a cotton seed oil mill, a flour mill, and a pure bred cotton seed house. 8 public schools, 4 banks, a pecan cracking machine factory, 2 golf courses, a country club, a creamery, 2 bottle works, 2 hospitals, a Public Farm Market, 3 oil refineries, Southern Oklahoma State Fair and Western Association Baseball.
----------------------------------------------------
The Daily Ardmoreite, Ardmore, Oklahoma, Sunday, March 29, 1925

STROMAN WORKS FOR BIGGER AND BETTER ARDMORE
Only Dealer in Auto Replacement Supplies in This Section of State

The Stroman Motors Supply Co., located at 224 West Main street, Ardmore, is the only jobber of automobile replacement supplies in Southern Oklahoma. The business was started by E.J. Stroman and W.C. Davis in January 1923. They began in a small way and their business has grown to be a fair sized wholesale house. They have built up a reputation in the Ardmore trade territory for giving service and for fair dealing.  Mr. Stroman says that although their business has grown continually, yet they are still operating at a loss. This was expected. It takes several years to get a jobbing business on a paying basis. However, as expressed by Mr. Davis if their already long list of customers and friends increase during 1925 as it did in 1924 The Stroman Motor Co., should go safety over the top by the end of 1925, and Southern Oklahoma can boost of having a real wholesale automobile replacement supply house. These men belong to the Chamber of Commerce. They are shouldering their share of the church and civic work. They merit success. And it is believed the business men and citizens of Ardmore and Southern Oklahoma will give them their hearty support.
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"Hello Butch, I love your website. Has anyone heard of or seen the STAMPS QUARTET in Oklahoma area? They started out in Texas, but appeared in Oklahoma frequently. Way back in the 1930's? The later Stamps Quartet sang back up for Elvis in 1970 until his death in 1977."
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"So.. You don't eat that much meat and you're looking' for homemade brick chili. Have I got the place for you, my friend. It is a little meat market in Alva, Oklahoma. They make homemade brick chili w/beans or w/o beans. Your choice. They only use the leanest of leanest sirloin hamburger with hardly any fat. The Store's name is Whittet's Country Store in the south part of town. They started out in Dacoma's Meat Market and the family grew and extended some of their businesses into Alva. REAL, LEAN MEAT... NOT that Grocery store processed meat substitute."
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"george hunt is one of the best people there is in my book at making chili. i've known him longer than i've known myself......my grandpa clarence woolery was also a butcher with george at some point (they may have worked at lasley's together?)....i used to get off the school bus at 3rd. and P st NE and walk to cashway lumber to work after school and i always stopped by hunts grocery and could smell that chili. now days i've been buying chili at Ernies ole fashion meat market. i've also known earnie and jackie forever......and they'll fix you up on the chili."
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"My brother spent many years in Mexico working in the oil business and he told me that Chili is not a Mexican dish. He said it was created in the U.S, (probably Texas). There was once a little restaurant at Calera, Oklahoma that served super good chili (the restaurant is no longer there) & they told me that their chili is at Sam's, by the name of "Chili Bowl". I bought it at Sam's but was surprised to find it in the frozen food department. It was the best chili I found since Dorn Moore retired. We should dig George Hunt out of retirement and put him back into the chili making business."
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Gas prices today in the Ardmore area......

http://www.oklahomagasprices.com/index.aspx?mss=152754

Check gas prices by town or zip code anywhere in U.S.

http://www.kmov.com/traffic/gas-buddy

Some mail from this week's MAILBAG.....

"Little Niagara is on Travertine Creek. Travertine is created by the springs of Buffalo and Antelope Springs and just a few minor 'seeps' within the creek. The springs went dry last Fall. They are dependent on rain soaking into the anticline in the fields east of Sulphur and are very susceptible to drought conditions. The creek is never damned up." -Earlene Chandler
"My grandparents raised me (I am now 81) and this was his brother. I have heard him tell that his brother took a herd of cattle to Indian Territory from Texas and that he sold the herd. He was then approached by bandits who demanded the money, they shot and killed him after he refused. Armond's parents went to Oklahoma, dug him up and took his body back to Fannin County, Texas and burried him in Carson Cemetery at Ector. His tombstone shows his name as ARMEN VERCHOYLY BEATY, born 27 July 1871, date of death May 20, 1896. I have a post card written by him to his aunt in Fannin County and he was working for a ranch in Ellis County, Texas. He signed the card with what appears to be Armond Beaty. I have been working on our family history for sixteen years. You can imagine how excited I was to find this tidbit of information on your This and That forum. I have been searching for years and this is as close to anything I have ever found on him." -Armond C. Beaty, From Hopkins County, Texas
"Please watch this video and pass it to everyone you know. I've seen the AED's (automated external defibrillator) in public places, but never knew how easy it is to use one."
http://www.heartrescuenow.com/
The class of 1968 of Murray State College is having a reunion on Feb. 28th from about 4 o'clock until after the basketball game that evening. We will be meeting in the ballroom and eat and visit. We have a group on Facebook.. Murray State College Alumni of 1968. Contact: maca405@cox.net or msimpson112.ms@gmail.com
"Mr. & Mrs. Bridges, I want to thank you for my birthday wish and for let me know what is going on in Oklahoma and Ardmore of course, every Thursday you transport me 60 years ago when I played baseball at there and I always have in my mind how good were the people of Ardmore, they treat me like one of their own, they made me feel at home, not only that Mr. & Mrs. Peden offer me to live in their home for the entire season and gave me their son's room, he was in the Air force and in Korea during the War. now tell me Mr. Bridges who do that to somebody from another Country and didn't know anything about me. This is only an example of that beautiful Town was and I am sure is today, Thank you again, your friend, Ernie Wallerstein in New Jersey."
http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/IndiansReplica4.jpg

http://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos6a/IndiansReplica1.jpg
"Hello Butch, Just another story of my childhood. I love to read your stories of growing up in Ardmore. Our childhoods were so different. You being established in one place for ever.I envy you. Me being moved from town to town. Folks like yours and mine, did what they could to keep bread on the table and the Wolves from the front door. This story is one of my experiences growing up as a child.

"Transferred " meant we were moving again.  1939 1940 1941 ?

Somewhere in Kansas - We had lived all over South, Central, and West Kansas, McPherson, Lyons, Chase, Hosington, Great Bend. One late summer day Daddy came home and told Mother we were going to be "transferred" to such and such town. About 30 miles away. Now remember in those days 30 miles was a long way. So mother decided instead of starting us in one school, my two sisters and I then having to move to another, she would enroll us in the new school and drive us to the new school. Of which she did.

Now listen up, this was a day of hard times. War was here or nearly here, cant remember exactly. Gas and tires were hard to come by . We had an A or B sticker window in our old car. This told how much gas you could buy. Somehow my Mother over came all these obstacles. She drove us to our new school every day packed our lunch, and some days came to school and at lunch time, took us to the local Park and we would have a picnic.  This part I'm not sure of, but I think it is true, she stayed in town until we got out of school to drive us back home. This way you didn't have to buy gas for two trips. In any event, this went on for 3 or 4 weeks. Then one day Daddy came home and said guess, what? "Were not being Transferred". "We are going to stay here for a while". I will not add my Mother's comments. She was a dedicated woman who understood the conditions we were living."  -Ken @ Wilson

"For an exhibit at the Greater Southwest Historical Museum, I am looking for folks that remember or have historical information on the Prohibition, bootleggers, saloons, illegal transport of alcohol or anything related to the Roaring Twenties. If anyone has information, clothing, an old still or items related, please call Nicki Wood, Curator of Collections at (580)-226-3857 or email me at gshmcurator@cableone.net I am working on an exhibition on Prohibition to open in the Spring. I'd appreciate any information you have on Carter County during the years of the alcohol ban and statehood."
Ever been on hold with AT&T support for what seems like eternity? Now you dont have to stay on hold......
http://m.gethuman.com/call-back/AT-T/
The Daily Ardmoreite January 30, 1921
YOUNG AVIATOR WILL ESTABLISH STATION HERE
Ardmore is to have the most modern form of commercial enterprise in existence, when Arthur Oakley, one of the world's most famous aerial acrobats, locates an aeroplane station in this city. Mr. Oakley yesterday unloaded three Curtis "Canuck" planes, and will immediately assembly them and put them in use as soon as he is able to find a suitable flying field in this vicinity. A fourth machine is expected to arrive within a week making a total of four machines to be put in use here. Mr. Oakley states that any level field about one-half mile square, preferably of hard surface, will be suitable for a field.
Oakley is an Ardmore boy and is the son of Mrs. J. E. Oakley, 219 E street, southeast. His brother, Frank Oakley, is a member of the firm which owns the Mechanics Motor Company of this city.
The young daredevil is a mere boy and yet he has thrilled thousands of people in all parts of this country by his hair-raising stunts. One of his unique performances was climbing to an aero plane above him from the top of a Southern Pacific train running at seventy-miles-per-hour. Oakley performs stunts on the landing gear of a plane with the same ease and agility as a trapeze artist in a circus. He walks about the wings and other parts of the aerial ships as though he were on solid ground, and really enjoys going to extremes to make the spectators "get the roofs of their mouths sunburned" to watch him.
But the main object of the establishment of the aerial station is as a commercial enterprise. There is no doubt but that such a means of transportation, both for passengers and express is a necessity in this territory, due to the condition of the roads in many places, and the fact that oil men often must get to a destination in a hurry and cannot wait on trains.
Just where the field is to be located has not as yet been decided. It has been reported from authoritative sources that the Chamber of Commerce will make plans for the establishment of a municipal landing field, so as to stimulate flying in this vicinity.


TREES IN WINTER by Joh Gainey, Sulphur Oklahoma

I am having trouble driving with winter at the helm.
Every oak and maple, every sycamore and elm
Paint such lovely lacy patterns on the canvas of the sky.
Each a delicate creation to attract my roving eye.

Spring may offer brilliant foliage, summer's verdure soothes the eye,
But the lacy trees of winter inking patterns in the sky
Are a bit of fascination on a gray and wintry day
That fill my heart with gladness and cause my eye to stray.

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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