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Family Histories
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Oral History
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
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Ed Cadenhead
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Jack Carman
Reba Carman
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0040A_Jack_Carman.xml
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5.4 June 7, 1979 OHP-0040A Jack Carman OHP-0040A 0:00-25:30, 25:33-35:25 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Jack Carman Reba Carman Ed Cadenhead 1:|9(2)|25(2)|40(3)|50(5)|68(2)|85(5)|97(10)|111(3)|129(2)|144(1)|154(7)|165(12)|188(2)|209(12)|228(8)|249(8)|266(5)|284(10)|292(2)|303(5)|310(13)|326(12)|342(13)|354(14)|367(5)|380(1)|399(13)|411(3)|435(4)|467(8)|476(7)|492(3)|503(9)|514(10) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0040A Carman, Jack.mp3 Other audio 4 Family history of Jack Carman EC: This is an interview with Jack Carman, June 7, 1979. Why don’t we start with just you. Tell me where your folks came from? What you know about why they came if you do, anything like that. JC: Well, my folks came from Billings, Missouri out of Springfield, Missouri a little ways. And my dad used to buy cattle in the early day and down in Indian Territory and took [indecipherable] train back to St. Louis, and he got acquainted in this country. Finally, he moved down, moved his family down. He had five children, and [inaudible]. Yeah, he just had one child then, and the rest of us was born here in Bristow. Family history of Jack Carman including their move from Billings, Missouri Billings Oil Company ; Billings, Missouri ; buying land ; cattle business ; oil boom ; Springfield, Missouri ; trading with Indians 121 Childhood memories in Bristow EC: Well, when were you born? JC: 1905. EC: Alright, what were some of your early memories about your childhood? Anything special, you know? What do you remember about Bristow and what life was like, what you did? JC: My dad had a Model T Ford Agency here in Bristow during the boom, and I wasn’t but about 12 or 13 when I learned how to drive one of those Model T’s pretty early in life. Every time we sold one to a farmer, why I’d have to teach them how to drive. They never had driven before or hardly ridden in a car. That was quite an experience for me. Childhood memories in Bristow including working at Model T Ford Agency date of birth ; driving ; Model T ; Model T Ford Agency Childhood memories in Bristow 170 Attending School EC: You went to school here? JC: Yeah, and graduated and went to OU, and graduated there, and coached a couple of years. I decided I didn’t want anymore of that, so I came home and started farming and bull dozing and a little bit of everything. EC: What were the schools like when you went to school in Bristow? Attending school in Bristow and college at OU bull dozing ; farming ; Mr. Hutton ; OU ; sliding on railing ; superintendent ; two-story school Attending School 260 Oil Boom EC: You mentioned the oil boom. When you think of the boom, what years do you mean? JC: Well, I don’t know exactly but it was about ’23 or something. EC: Right. JC: That’s way back there, and I was, I was born in 1905. But they had two or three after that and that was the first one anyway. EC: What do you remember about the town of Bristow as the boom hit? Do you remember any changes? JC: Yeah. We used to have dirt streets, mostly, I think, when the boom hit. I remember there was dirt streets and they had wooden sidewalks, they followed along in front of the stores and buildings. And if you was pretty heavy and you could step on the outside of one of those boards was about four foot wide in front of the building, while then the other ones would fly up. EC: Well, do you remember the cotton days and all the wagons in the street? JC: Yeah, gosh yeah. We had a lot of fun playing on the wagons that came in town. What the town of Bristow was like during the oil boom 1923 ; born 1905 ; cotton days ; dirt streets ; oil boom ; wagons ; wooden sidewalks 338 Jobs in School EC: Did you have any jobs that, oh in high school or as a teenager? Did you work around town at all? JC: Yeah, I worked plenty but it was for my dad. EC: In the Ford Agency, mainly? JC: Well, I was just kind of a small kid, and when they’d get a car load of Model T’s in the train, why they had the body off of them and the chassis, you know, all in the same box car. My job was to put the body on the chassis and bolt it down, so they would go together. He worked for his dad at the Ford Agency putting cars together and teaching farmers how to drive driving ; Ford Agency ; jobs ; Model T Jobs in School 410 Jobs after College EC: After you got out of college, what kind of business did you go into? JC: Well, like I say, I coached two years over at Poteau. That was the start of the depression. We got married that year and graduated. Let’s see what else did I [inaudible], huh? Yeah, had my first new car. I was really on top until I found I didn’t like coaching too well. Jobs after college including coaching at Poteau for two years coaching ; new car ; Poteau ; The Depression 438 Memories from Youth EC: Did you, when you were a child, what kind of things did kids do? Horseback riding or what was the fun part of life when you were a kid? JC: That’s a hard question. [inaudible] EC: Any of them pranks? JC: Oh yeah. Had one past time of Halloween, you know we all had outhouses, and at night we’d shove ‘em over. Then they modernized those out houses, you know, and put water system in them in the outhouse and it was a little harder to push over then with plumbing in there. Memories from youth including pranks and 4th of July picnics 4th of July ; fireworks ; ice cream ; outhouses ; picnics ; pranks 524 Events During the Oil Boom EC: Did Bristow seem crowded to you during the oil boom? JC: Yeah, it was crowded. There was about twenty-five to thirty thousand people here compared with five or six they got now, counting the cotton wagon [indecipherable]. EC: Was it a typical oil town in the sense that there was fights and gambling or whatever? JC: Yeah, money changed hands pretty freely, and fortunes were made and lost over night or gambling, you know. EC: There’s a former marshal I have only heard about, Uncle Billy? JC: Billy Freshour. The population of Bristow grew during the oil boom which made for gambling and fights and the need for US Marshal, Billy Freshour. Billy Freshour ; cotton wagon ; gambling ; jail ; Paul Jones ; population ; The Depression ; US Marshal ; Well's Grocery Events During the Oil Boom 715 Politics in Bristow EC: Were you ever involved in politics in Bristow? JC: Yeah, I run for County Commissioner once and that’s [indecipherable] from now on. EC: Who were some of the people who were involved in politics? Were there two sides? Was there democrats versus republicans or were there factions in town? How would you describe the politics in Bristow? JC: Well, [inaudible] I never did take part. Yeah, my dad was a republican, of course, I was, too, and all us kids. I never forget my dad never did take much part in politics, but my mother and brother did, my older brother. He got beat, too. Jack ran for County Commissioner and Mark Schrader was mayor county commissioner ; politics ; republican ; town leaders ; WWII 837 Notable Events in Bristow JC: On harvest day, you know, everybody got their guns up shooting, you know, celebrating. Somebody accidently shot the rope from the flag pole, and they thought there was a traitor there in the crowd shooting the flag down. EC: Well, had there been any, particularly, oh, amusing things that have happened in Bristow over the years or exciting things that you happened to see? Were you involved in any of those bank robberies or anything like that? Notable events in Bristow including harvest day, bank robberies and race relations bank robberies ; harvest day ; Ku Klux Klan ; race relations ; riot ; Tulsa 966 Indian Relations and Moonshine EC: How do you feel that the relationship between Indians and whites has been? JC: We hadn’t had any trouble there. They weren’t very [indecipherable] but they did get along and didn’t get in much trouble. They liked liquor like all other Indians. EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Huh? EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Oh, moonshine mostly. Made it out in the country. Once instance when I was out on the farm, this fellow came up and said, “Say you making whiskey over on the back side of your place?” I said, “Hell no!” He said, “Well, you got a still running over there.” And I said, “Well, hell, let’s go over there and look at it.” Indian relations and a moonshine still on Jack's property Indians ; liquor ; moonshine ; still Indian Relations and Moonshine 1045 Major Land Owners EC: Who were some of the major land owners around Bristow? JC: Oh, the Kelly’s has been some of the first. My dad, of course, was in that early. Used to, all you had to have was a bottle of liquor and a deed and you could buy land pretty cheap. And then the court had to approve all the Indian deals, of course. EC: Do you think there was a good bit of that done? JC: Yeah, there was some of it, but more and more crude work on the lease and all that. The oil business was trading land, you know. Major land owners included Jack's dad and the Kelly Family Indian land deals ; liquor ; The Kellys 1086 Building of Heyburn Lake EC: I know what I wanted to ask you about, this Lake Heyburn? JC: Who? EC: Lake Heyburn or Heyburn Lake out here? JC: Yeah, Heyburn Lake. EC: I judge there was some controversy about the building of that. JC: There was on my part. EC: Well, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I don’t know anything about the story. JC: Well, Brick Kirchner and I bid on the clearing of the lake, you know, getting the brush off of it. First job we ever had that large and that kind of a job. We started the clearing on it, a $120,000 job, and about three-fourths done [indecipherable] was good up to that date. Jack and Brick Kirchner worked to clear the land for Heyburn Lake just in time for floods to ruin their progress Brick Kirchner ; building Heyburn Lake ; floods ; Heyburn Lake ; lawsuit Building of Heyburn Lake 35.9526° N, 96.3027° W 17 Heyburn Lake https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/projects.cfm?ID=M507500 Heyburn Lake 1198 Sports EC: I take it that sports were pretty big in Bristow in your high school days…sports, athletics? JC: Oh yeah, because the oil boom mostly. The men had the money and they wanted to bet on the team. They wanted Bristow to win, and if we had a weak spot on the team why the coach or somebody would hire this kid’s dad whose job was here and that he would be living in Bristow legal to play on the Bristow team. It was several pictures there of boys that had been moved in, you know, from [indecipherable]. We played for the state championship down in Oklahoma City against Norman. Sports and betting on sports was big during the oil boom in Bristow athletics ; betting ; cheating ; Norman ; oil boom ; Oklahoma City ; sports ; state championship 1307 Travel EC: You mentioned, speaking of trips, you mentioned earlier that you used to go to Colorado in the summers. Where did people from Bristow go for vacations? Colorado? JC: Well, yeah, Joe Abraham had a big family, and he did about like my dad. He’d go out there and rent one of those houses, you know. They had a big family, and dad would just lay around there and enjoy the cool nights and rest up. And us kids was kind of on our own. I sold newspapers and did a little guide. A whole lot of people wanted the kids to show them where just sight-seeing tour was. People often vacationed in Colorado and most of Jack's business connections were in OKC business connections ; cattle market ; Colorado ; Norman ; Oklahoma City ; Siloam Springs ; travel ; vacations business connections in OKC ; vacation to Colorado 1391 Buildings Around Town EC: Let me ask you, what are some of the houses or buildings still standing that you remember as being some of the oldest? JC: [Indecipherable] Grocery on west sixth street, Dr. Schrader (ph) had this kind of nice house right here next to the park. [Inaudible] EC: Okay, any others? Bill Cheatham (ph) house on 11th. JC: Joe Abraham had this large brick house on 8th Street that’s still standing. One of the daughters lives in it. EC: What about downtown? Are there any of the buildings that are the original old ones? Jack's dad built the first brick building and made the bricks for the building Bill Cheatham ; Community State Bank ; Dr. King ; Dr. Schrader ; first brick building ; first hospital ; Joe Abraham ; making bricks ; Mrs. Albert Kelly, Sr. ; Reba Carman Buildings Around Town ; First brick building ; First hospital 1571 Reba's Family EC: Tell me about your family. Who was your father and where did he come from? RC: My father came, my family came from Tennessee. And the day we landed in Bristow, I was six-months-old, and he had just graduated from medical school in Tennessee and had taken a trip out in Oklahoma, down in the southern part of the state, way down in the south part of the state to find a location. And he didn’t like what he had seen in the south and he started back home on the train and met a drug salesman. He told him that there was a little settlement, Newby, 10 miles south of Bristow here, that badly needed a doctor. So he went down and he liked it, so we went back to Tennessee and brought the family out. And we lived in Newby about four years. Reba's family came from Tennessee when she was six-months old where her dad, Dr. Wells settled their family in Newby Dr. Wells ; family ; Newby ; Tennessee Dr. Wells ; Reba's family 1639 Reba's Memories of Bristow EC: What are some of your memories of Bristow as a child? RC: Well, I can remember how rough it was during the oil boom. EC: Rough? How? RC: Well, women just couldn’t go out on the streets alone. We lived, at that time, over on East 7th Street, and right down there where Well’s Grocery Store is, was a livery stable. And on that main street, right across from where Johnny Roberts now lives, was the livery stable. And I remember how carefully we used to have to walk by there, because it was a pretty rough place. Women didn't go out at night alone during the oil boom because the streets were rough. Bristow felt small enough to feel close but large enough to have things like the Chautauqua and Billy Sunday in OKC. Billy Sunday ; Chautauqua ; flu epidemic ; oil boom ; The Depression ; WWI doing without during The Depression ; Rowdy times during the oil boom ; seeing Billy Sunday ; the Chautauqua visiting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua Chautauqua 1816 Town Doctors & ; First Hospital EC: Now, your father was a doctor. I’ve heard some interesting stories about some of the doctors here in town. Do you have any… RC: Not my father. EC: No, no, but… RC: I can guarantee you that! [Inaudible] RC: Well, they’re the ones that ruled the town. EC: They ruled the town? RC: You’re right. The town and the politics of the town. Reba's dad, Dr. Wells, along with three other doctors, formed the Bristow Clinic & ; Hospital. Bristow Clinic & ; Hospital ; Bristow Memorial Hospital ; doctors ; Dr. Bisbee ; Dr. Hollis ; Dr. Wells ; Dr. Williams ; John Collins ; Mrs. Kelly ; politics Bristow Clinic & ; Hospital ; Bristow Memorial Hospital ; doctors were town leaders 1970 Church Involvement & ; Catholic Relations EC: Well, have there been any particularly exciting or amusing things in Bristow that I haven’t asked about that you remember? Things that happened to you or that you saw? RC: Um, I don’t think so. My mother and family were very much involved in the Methodist Church, and I have grown up in the churches and have been familiar with all of them here in Bristow and watched their growth and their organization. The first brick church, first church we had in Bristow was the First Christian Church and it was over on East 9th Street. And the little church that sits down here next to the new City Hall was one of the original. It’s been used by several different congregations. The Catholic used it. The Presbyterian used it. And the Christian Science have it now. Reba was very involved in the churches of Bristow, attending the Methodist Church, and recalls Catholic relations being good. The first brick church was the First Christian Church. Catholics ; church ; Ed Abraham ; first brick church ; First Christian Church ; Lebanese ; Methodist Church ; Syrians ; Useph Abraham attending the Methodist Church ; Catholic relations ; First Christian Church MP3 1979 interview with Jack Carman and his wife, Reba. Jack spoke on the oil boom, growing up around Bristow, working at his dad's Ford Agency and the depression. He also spoke on his part in building Heyburn Lake. Reba spoke about her childhood, moving to Newby where her dad practiced medicine, and, eventually, moving back to Bristow at the age of six. Her dad was a physician and integral part of medical care in Bristow, establishing the first Bristow Clinic and Hospital with three other physicians. She described growing up in Bristow and the Chautauqua coming through. She was also involved with the churches of Bristow, specifically the Methodist Church. EC: This is an interview with Jack Carman, June 7, 1979. Why don' ; t we start with just you. Tell me where your folks came from? What you know about why they came if you do, anything like that. JC: Well, my folks came from Billings, Missouri out of Springfield, Missouri a little ways. And my dad used to buy cattle in the early day and down in Indian Territory and took [indecipherable] train back to St. Louis, and he got acquainted in this country. Finally, he moved down, moved his family down. He had five children, and [inaudible]. Yeah, he just had one child then, and the rest of us was born here in Bristow. EC: I' ; ve noticed there were several people from Bristow who came, their families came from Billings, Missouri. Was there any connection that you know of? JC: Well, yeah, dad was the first one come down, and he got to trading with the Indians, you know, and got acquainted, and got to making a good bit of money was one reason in the cattle business, of course, and buying land. Then it wasn' ; t very long after that the oil boom came, and that' ; s when things did start happening. He had to organize his Billings Oil Company. There was so many people down here from Billings, and they sold stock in there, and I think they made a little money but not a whole lot on that. EC: Well, when were you born? JC: 1905. EC: Alright, what were some of your early memories about your childhood? Anything special, you know? What do you remember about Bristow and what life was like, what you did? JC: My dad had a Model T Ford Agency here in Bristow during the boom, and I wasn' ; t but about 12 or 13 when I learned how to drive one of those Model T' ; s pretty early in life. Every time we sold one to a farmer, why I' ; d have to teach them how to drive. They never had driven before or hardly ridden in a car. That was quite an experience for me. EC: You went to school here? JC: Yeah, and graduated and went to OU, and graduated there, and coached a couple of years. I decided I didn' ; t want anymore of that, so I came home and started farming and bull dozing and a little bit of everything. EC: What were the schools like when you went to school in Bristow? JC: Well, my dad and the superintendent were good friends, so that put me in a different category from the rest of them. But the school house that I went to school in had been torn down. That' ; s right across from the gymnasium now. It was a rock school. Several pictures of it around town here. Mr. Hutton (ph) was the superintendent then. It was two-story, and they had a nice slick railing, you know, from the first story to the bottom story and the street level. The bell would ring and we' ; d scoot on out while all us boys would slide down that railing. The superintendent didn' ; t like that very well, so he just drove some nails, two or three of them, into the railing just high enough that it would catch your britches, not your skin. That stopped the sliding. EC: You mentioned the oil boom. When you think of the boom, what years do you mean? JC: Well, I don' ; t know exactly but it was about ' ; 23 or something. EC: Right. JC: That' ; s way back there, and I was, I was born in 1905. But they had two or three after that and that was the first one anyway. EC: What do you remember about the town of Bristow as the boom hit? Do you remember any changes? JC: Yeah. We used to have dirt streets, mostly, I think, when the boom hit. I remember there was dirt streets and they had wooden sidewalks, they followed along in front of the stores and buildings. And if you was pretty heavy and you could step on the outside of one of those boards was about four foot wide in front of the building, while then the other ones would fly up. EC: Well, do you remember the cotton days and all the wagons in the street? JC: Yeah, gosh yeah. We had a lot of fun playing on the wagons that came in town. EC: Did you have any jobs that, oh in high school or as a teenager? Did you work around town at all? JC: Yeah, I worked plenty but it was for my dad. EC: In the Ford Agency, mainly? JC: Well, I was just kind of a small kid, and when they' ; d get a car load of Model T' ; s in the train, why they had the body off of them and the chassis, you know, all in the same box car. My job was to put the body on the chassis and bolt it down, so they would go together. Of course, I had two or three school kids that helped me. One day there was a farmer that brought a car in and said, Mr. Carman, seems like this seat is trying to get away from the chassis. Dad looked around a little on it and found out I didn' ; t put the body bolts in that connected. It was just sitting on there. And that was the last time I had any school kids to help me. I had to do it by myself. EC: After you got out of college, what kind of business did you go into? JC: Well, like I say, I coached two years over at Poteau. That was the start of the depression. We got married that year and graduated. Let' ; s see what else did I [inaudible], huh? Yeah, had my first new car. I was really on top until I found I didn' ; t like coaching too well. EC: Did you, when you were a child, what kind of things did kids do? Horseback riding or what was the fun part of life when you were a kid? JC: That' ; s a hard question. [inaudible] EC: Any of them pranks? JC: Oh yeah. Had one past time of Halloween, you know we all had outhouses, and at night we' ; d shove ' ; em over. Then they modernized those out houses, you know, and put water system in them in the outhouse and it was a little harder to push over then with plumbing in there. EC: Did you, do you remember the Fourth of July picnics? JC: Well, they had one every year, and I don' ; t know-- EC: Well, that' ; s what I mean, I just heard that was an annual affair, and I wondered what one was like. [inaudible] JC: Well, mostly what I can remember about it was they had a lot of banners, you know, and just a red, white and blue and flags like all decorated, band stand in front of the stores, setting off fire crackers and [inaudible]. Yeah, had a lot of times free ice cream. EC: Did Bristow seem crowded to you during the oil boom? JC: Yeah, it was crowded. There was about twenty-five to thirty thousand people here compared with five or six they got now, counting the cotton wagon [indecipherable]. EC: Was it a typical oil town in the sense that there was fights and gambling or whatever? JC: Yeah, money changed hands pretty freely, and fortunes were made and lost over night or gambling, you know. EC: There' ; s a former marshal I have only heard about, Uncle Billy? JC: Billy Freshour. EC: What can you tell me about him? JC: Well, he was short with a large stomach. He was daring, and I don' ; t think anybody was afraid of him, and he wasn' ; t afraid of anybody at all. Let' ; s see, he lived to be pretty old to be a sheriff. They had the jail down about where [inaudible]. What' ; s the damn grocery store down there? Well' ; s, yeah, it was down there in the Well' ; s corner of the Well' ; s grocery store down there. They finally got a new enough courthouse. EC: You were about to tell the story about the jail, I think. JC: Oh well, an instance in junior high or high school it was. Let' ; s see, how' ; d that go? Oh, after school were shooting craps up in the gym, you know. One fellow, Paul Jones, went out to the police station, and he swept the police station out. They made it up against us that the law was to come up there and arrest us for shooting craps, you know. So, two or three laws came up and took us down and put us in the jail. Policeman said, " ; Now you want to turn this joke around while you just tell them that you found out that Paul Jones is the one that turned you in, you see." ; We did, and we didn' ; t see Paul, you know, for a day or two because he was hiding out. EC: When the depression came, what evidences of it did you notice in Bristow? JC: That was 1930 when I got out of college. That' ; s when I found out. I got married. I had a car and all that I found out where all this money was coming from. People just didn' ; t have fans. Didn' ; t have a lot of things. The oil boom, of course, helped out on that deal. EC: Were you ever involved in politics in Bristow? JC: Yeah, I run for County Commissioner once and that' ; s [indecipherable] from now on. EC: Who were some of the people who were involved in politics? Were there two sides? Was there democrats versus republicans or were there factions in town? How would you describe the politics in Bristow? JC: Well, [inaudible] I never did take part. Yeah, my dad was a republican, of course, I was, too, and all us kids. I never forget my dad never did take much part in politics, but my mother and brother did, my older brother. He got beat, too. EC: Who would you say ran the town in those days? JC: Who ran the town? EC: Who ran the town? JC: Oh, Mark Schrader (ph) was the mayor two or three times here, and he was [inaudible]. Who? Oh, Jimmy Weaver [inaudible]. EC: What about World War II? Any particular effects on Bristow that you recall? JC: Well, it didn' ; t affect me too much. I was too old for World War II, and I wasn' ; t old enough for WWI, so I came in between there. None of my family, luckily, didn' ; t have to go. Of course, I had my cows and I still kept [indecipherable]. [Inaudible] JC: On harvest day, you know, everybody got their guns up shooting, you know, celebrating. Somebody accidently shot the rope from the flag pole, and they thought there was a traitor there in the crowd shooting the flag down. EC: Well, had there been any, particularly, oh, amusing things that have happened in Bristow over the years or exciting things that you happened to see? Were you involved in any of those bank robberies or anything like that? JC: Well, I saw one bank robbery. I saw them come out shooting. I forgot what bank it was. I just happened be going down the street, you know, and I saw this old boy come out, and somebody had gotten up on the building across the street shooting at this bank robber. I saw where the brick, you know, shell went in the building into the brick. EC: When you think of Bristow, do you think of it now, this many years later, do you think of it mainly as a farming area, cattle raising or what? JC: Well, I had a little part in all of it, I think, pretty well, around the town. You can make a living if you work at it, you know. EC: You told a story earlier, the part about the Ku Klux Klan. Do you remember there being a Klan here in Bristow? JC: I don' ; t know if there was any here or not, but I remember reading, you know, all over the country about it and this and that. EC: How do you feel relationships between the races have been in Bristow? Have there been any problems? JC: No. I remember that one up in Tulsa. They had a big riot up there, you know. People from here went up there with guns. I remember that. [Inaudible] EC: How do you feel that the relationship between Indians and whites has been? JC: We hadn' ; t had any trouble there. They weren' ; t very [indecipherable] but they did get along and didn' ; t get in much trouble. They liked liquor like all other Indians. EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Huh? EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Oh, moonshine mostly. Made it out in the country. Once instance when I was out on the farm, this fellow came up and said, " ; Say you making whiskey over on the back side of your place?" ; I said, " ; Hell no!" ; He said, " ; Well, you got a still running over there." ; And I said, " ; Well, hell, let' ; s go over there and look at it." ; And there was one over on the back side, wasn' ; t but about a mile from where I lived. There was an old copper boiler and actually with fire under it right in operation, you know. It had two or three fifty-gallon barrels, wooden barrels, sitting around. Of course, nobody was there that heard us coming up, I guess. [indecipherable] didn' ; t have a chance to move his still. I took a team. I had a team wagon those days and took it over there I hauled the mash home and fed it to the hogs. I had the copper to sell. I had a little spring over there. That' ; s how come they [indecipherable] how it got there or whose it was. EC: Who were some of the major land owners around Bristow? JC: Oh, the Kelly' ; s has been some of the first. My dad, of course, was in that early. Used to, all you had to have was a bottle of liquor and a deed and you could buy land pretty cheap. And then the court had to approve all the Indian deals, of course. EC: Do you think there was a good bit of that done? JC: Yeah, there was some of it, but more and more crude work on the lease and all that. The oil business was trading land, you know. EC: I know what I wanted to ask you about, this Lake Heyburn? JC: Who? EC: Lake Heyburn or Heyburn Lake out here? JC: Yeah, Heyburn Lake. EC: I judge there was some controversy about the building of that. JC: There was on my part. EC: Well, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I don' ; t know anything about the story. JC: Well, Brick Kirchner and I bid on the clearing of the lake, you know, getting the brush off of it. First job we ever had that large and that kind of a job. We started the clearing on it, a $120,000 job, and about three-fourths done [indecipherable] was good up to that date. A big flood came and washed all a lot of trees down in what he had already cleaned up. The government made us go back and clean what we had cleaned up, [indecipherable] and we figured it was acts of God, and we wasn' ; t liable for it, you know, getting all the flood water down on that. It liked to washed the Heyburn Dam out anyway. But we sued the government, but we didn' ; t do any good. Just about broke even on the deal, so that was lucky. EC: I take it that sports were pretty big in Bristow in your high school days--sports, athletics? JC: Oh yeah, because the oil boom mostly. The men had the money and they wanted to bet on the team. They wanted Bristow to win, and if we had a weak spot on the team why the coach or somebody would hire this kid' ; s dad whose job was here and that he would be living in Bristow legal to play on the Bristow team. It was several pictures there of boys that had been moved in, you know, from [indecipherable]. We played for the state championship down in Oklahoma City against Norman. We had a special train left at Bristow and went to the city with four or five cars on it. I wasn' ; t on it but they said that was pretty rough. Plenty of liquor and drinking going on. Had five cars [indecipherable]. Norman football game, we lost. Come to find out the referees did have money on the game. One instance [indecipherable] ran out, trained to run out of bounds. The umpire overruled that. Then they said, well, he was a holding back up the way of somebody at Bristow. EC: You mentioned, speaking of trips, you mentioned earlier that you used to go to Colorado in the summers. Where did people from Bristow go for vacations? Colorado? JC: Well, yeah, Joe Abraham had a big family, and he did about like my dad. He' ; d go out there and rent one of those houses, you know. They had a big family, and dad would just lay around there and enjoy the cool nights and rest up. And us kids was kind of on our own. I sold newspapers and did a little guide. A whole lot of people wanted the kids to show them where just sight-seeing tour was. EC: Did you go to Siloam Springs at all? JC: Just drove over there for the weekend or day. EC: Were your business connections in Bristow through Tulsa or through Oklahoma City or Kansas City or where? JC: Mostly Oklahoma City. Sold cattle down on the Oklahoma City market, and I borrowed my money for school [indecipherable] and went to school at Norman, so that put me down in Oklahoma City more than it would have Tulsa. EC: Let me ask you, what are some of the houses or buildings still standing that you remember as being some of the oldest? JC: [Indecipherable] Grocery on west sixth street, Dr. Schrader (ph) had this kind of nice house right here next to the park. [Inaudible] EC: Okay, any others? Bill Cheatham (ph) house on 11th. JC: Joe Abraham had this large brick house on 8th Street that' ; s still standing. One of the daughters lives in it. EC: What about downtown? Are there any of the buildings that are the original old ones? JC: Yeah, there' ; s a lot of them. Of course, a lot of them burned and a lot of them tore down. My dad had the first brick building in Bristow. He met the brick guy here on east 8th Street, there was a little creek out there had water and right kind of sand or brick material. They had an old mule or something like, you know, squeezing sorghum. They put this mixture in his box and the mule would turn it to mix the mortar to make brick with. And they had mold where they made it. Then they had a fire they call it, you know, to heat them to make the brick where they' ; d stand up to weather. He made the brick for this first brick building in Bristow. When they tore it down about two or three years ago, I saved a lot of the brick out of it. Some of the brick. Deteriorating the brick and, then I forget who owned it then, plastered it, plastered over it. Then that got to deteriorating, so they put a new brick wall on the outside of it and all that' ; s old was still in there. Then when they opened the Community State Bank (ph) [indecipherable]. Then when they decided to build the new Community State Bank (ph), they had to tear all the inside brick out of it, as well as, the new outside. EC: This is Mrs. Jack Carman (RC) RC: The first hospital that I ever remember is down here on North Main, next door north of the Masonic Temple. It' ; s still standing. It' ; s an apartment house now. And Mrs. Albert Kelly, Sr. had charge of it. That was before she married Mr. Kelly. Of course, the doctors all had offices upstairs downtown in the building over the stores downtown. My father had an office in the same building as Dr. King and Dr. Schrader. EC: Tell me about your family. Who was your father and where did he come from? RC: My father came, my family came from Tennessee. And the day we landed in Bristow, I was six-months-old, and he had just graduated from medical school in Tennessee and had taken a trip out in Oklahoma, down in the southern part of the state, way down in the south part of the state to find a location. And he didn' ; t like what he had seen in the south and he started back home on the train and met a drug salesman. He told him that there was a little settlement, Newby, 10 miles south of Bristow here, that badly needed a doctor. So he went down and he liked it, so we went back to Tennessee and brought the family out. And we lived in Newby about four years. [Inaudible] RC: Oh, yes, drove a horse and buggy. Then we came to Bristow before I was six-years-old, and we' ; ve been here ever since. EC: What are some of your memories of Bristow as a child? RC: Well, I can remember how rough it was during the oil boom. EC: Rough? How? RC: Well, women just couldn' ; t go out on the streets alone. We lived, at that time, over on East 7th Street, and right down there where Well' ; s Grocery Store is, was a livery stable. And on that main street, right across from where Johnny Roberts now lives, was the livery stable. And I remember how carefully we used to have to walk by there, because it was a pretty rough place. It was a dirty place, of course. But women didn' ; t go out at night without someone being with them, because it was pretty rough. I can remember the terrible flu epidemic we had during WWI, how my father worked night and day, and how we would beg him to stop. But, no, he was needed. But that was a terrible time. I can remember that. That flu epidemic was [indecipherable]. EC: What other things stick in your mind about growing up in Bristow? RC: Well, I think it' ; s been a marvelous place. It' ; s been just small enough that it was close. And, big enough, we had Chautauqua. Do you remember the Chautauqua and the [indecipherable] courses? We had those in the summer time, and they were up here this, back where the library stands now, along in there. You remember that, Jack? The Chautauqua? And we were close enough even to Tulsa and Oklahoma City, anything big that went on, we would take the train and go to the city [indecipherable]. And when Billy Sunday was in Oklahoma City, the big evangelist, why we all went down to hear Billy Sunday. But I think it' ; s been a fine place. [Inaudible] EC: What, thinking of the Chautauqua, did they have the tent? RC: Oh yeah, great big tent and chairs and everybody just smothering to death and fanning like mad. EC: Do you remember any of the people that came through? RC: No, off hand, I don' ; t. No, I really don' ; t. EC: That would have been about what years? RC: Oh, that would have been in, in the early 20s or late eighteen, nineteen, somewhere along in there. EC: Do you have any memories of the depression that stick in your mind? RC: Well, no. We were married, and of course, had three little tiny kids, so that was depression enough, you know. Just the usual things. Nothing in particular. We just didn' ; t buy anything we didn' ; t HAVE to have. EC: Now, your father was a doctor. I' ; ve heard some interesting stories about some of the doctors here in town. Do you have any-- RC: Not my father. EC: No, no, but-- RC: I can guarantee you that! [Inaudible] RC: Well, they' ; re the ones that ruled the town. EC: They ruled the town? RC: You' ; re right. The town and the politics of the town. EC: They did? EC: About how many doctors were there in those days? RC: Well, I remember from the enterprise, oh, we had nine or ten [indecipherable]. EC: And the hospital that Mrs. Kelly, did she run it? RC: Yes. Uh huh. EC: Who actually started it? Do you know? RC: No, I don' ; t recall who actually started it. That' ; s my first recollection of it is that she was running the hospital, and my father being a doctor, I expect that' ; s the only reason I remember that part of it. And it was there, then, until my father and Dr. Hollis and Dr. Bisbee and Dr. Williams organized a clinic, and went into the building, now occupied by Schumacher Funeral Home, and it was called the Bristow Clinic. And they were there several years. Then they built, just across the street, east of the American Legion Hut. They built the Bristow Clinic and Hospital was the new first new hospital they ever had. And they ran that for, well, I don' ; t know many years. It was the Bristow Clinic and Hospital. And then Bristow began to get bigger and the need was there for more hospitalizations and better care, a graduate nurse, for instance, and things like that. So then, John Collins was really instrumental. EC: Who? RC: John Collins in starting, as I recall, the movement for the hospital out here, Bristow Memorial Hospital. But the need was there, definitely. And my father and the three partners dissolved up in years and sold out to the sister and Todd (ph) [indecipherable] from Tulsa. Dr. [indecipherable] sister is still in Tulsa, as well as, one of the young boys. [Inaudible] EC: Well, have there been any particularly exciting or amusing things in Bristow that I haven' ; t asked about that you remember? Things that happened to you or that you saw? RC: Um, I don' ; t think so. My mother and family were very much involved in the Methodist Church, and I have grown up in the churches and have been familiar with all of them here in Bristow and watched their growth and their organization. The first brick church, first church we had in Bristow was the First Christian Church and it was over on East 9th Street. And the little church that sits down here next to the new City Hall was one of the original. It' ; s been used by several different congregations. The Catholic used it. The Presbyterian used it. And the Christian Science have it now. EC: Have you been aware of any anti-Catholic feelings in Bristow in your life here? RC: I don' ; t think so, particularly, there has been some, I think. As I can recall, now I' ; m not saying it' ; s true, but as I recall, most of the Catholic people were the, what we call Syrians then, but they call themselves Lebanese now, came into Bristow, Cejul (ph) and Ed and Useph Abraham, the three brothers came to Bristow. And, of course, they were all Catholic. I believe that' ; s my first memory of that, and then, of course, as other people moved in, people from back east in the oil [indecipherable] so it changed from being predominantly foreign-born people to more like it is today. EC: Had there been any major controversies in Bristow that you remember? Things like arguments over whether to, oh, pave the streets or whether to build the new City Hall? Or has there been anything that' ; s really controversial? RC: I don' ; t think of anything, really. I think we' ; ve done pretty well through the years without any big fights over anything. Do you remember anything? EC: This is an interview with Jack Carman, June 7, 1979. Why don't we start with just you. Tell me where your folks came from? What you know about why they came if you do, anything like that. JC: Well, my folks came from Billings, Missouri out of Springfield, Missouri a little ways. And my dad used to buy cattle in the early day and down in Indian Territory and took [indecipherable] train back to St. Louis, and he got acquainted in this country. Finally, he moved down, moved his family down. He had five children, and [inaudible]. Yeah, he just had one child then, and the rest of us was born here in Bristow. EC: I've noticed there were several people from Bristow who came, their families came from Billings, Missouri. Was there any connection that you know of? JC: Well, yeah, dad was the first one come down, and he got to trading with the Indians, you know, and got acquainted, and got to making a good bit of money was one reason in the cattle business, of course, and buying land. Then it wasn't very long after that the oil boom came, and that's when things did start happening. He had to organize his Billings Oil Company. There was so many people down here from Billings, and they sold stock in there, and I think they made a little money but not a whole lot on that. EC: Well, when were you born? JC: 1905. EC: Alright, what were some of your early memories about your childhood? Anything special, you know? What do you remember about Bristow and what life was like, what you did? JC: My dad had a Model T Ford Agency here in Bristow during the boom, and I wasn't but about 12 or 13 when I learned how to drive one of those Model T's pretty early in life. Every time we sold one to a farmer, why I'd have to teach them how to drive. They never had driven before or hardly ridden in a car. That was quite an experience for me. EC: You went to school here? JC: Yeah, and graduated and went to OU, and graduated there, and coached a couple of years. I decided I didn't want anymore of that, so I came home and started farming and bull dozing and a little bit of everything. EC: What were the schools like when you went to school in Bristow? JC: Well, my dad and the superintendent were good friends, so that put me in a different category from the rest of them. But the school house that I went to school in had been torn down. That's right across from the gymnasium now. It was a rock school. Several pictures of it around town here. Mr. Hutton (ph) was the superintendent then. It was two-story, and they had a nice slick railing, you know, from the first story to the bottom story and the street level. The bell would ring and we'd scoot on out while all us boys would slide down that railing. The superintendent didn't like that very well, so he just drove some nails, two or three of them, into the railing just high enough that it would catch your britches, not your skin. That stopped the sliding. EC: You mentioned the oil boom. When you think of the boom, what years do you mean? JC: Well, I don't know exactly but it was about '23 or something. EC: Right. JC: That's way back there, and I was, I was born in 1905. But they had two or three after that and that was the first one anyway. EC: What do you remember about the town of Bristow as the boom hit? Do you remember any changes? JC: Yeah. We used to have dirt streets, mostly, I think, when the boom hit. I remember there was dirt streets and they had wooden sidewalks, they followed along in front of the stores and buildings. And if you was pretty heavy and you could step on the outside of one of those boards was about four foot wide in front of the building, while then the other ones would fly up. EC: Well, do you remember the cotton days and all the wagons in the street? JC: Yeah, gosh yeah. We had a lot of fun playing on the wagons that came in town. EC: Did you have any jobs that, oh in high school or as a teenager? Did you work around town at all? JC: Yeah, I worked plenty but it was for my dad. EC: In the Ford Agency, mainly? JC: Well, I was just kind of a small kid, and when they'd get a car load of Model T's in the train, why they had the body off of them and the chassis, you know, all in the same box car. My job was to put the body on the chassis and bolt it down, so they would go together. Of course, I had two or three school kids that helped me. One day there was a farmer that brought a car in and said, Mr. Carman, seems like this seat is trying to get away from the chassis. Dad looked around a little on it and found out I didn't put the body bolts in that connected. It was just sitting on there. And that was the last time I had any school kids to help me. I had to do it by myself. EC: After you got out of college, what kind of business did you go into? JC: Well, like I say, I coached two years over at Poteau. That was the start of the depression. We got married that year and graduated. Let's see what else did I [inaudible], huh? Yeah, had my first new car. I was really on top until I found I didn't like coaching too well. EC: Did you, when you were a child, what kind of things did kids do? Horseback riding or what was the fun part of life when you were a kid? JC: That's a hard question. [inaudible] EC: Any of them pranks? JC: Oh yeah. Had one past time of Halloween, you know we all had outhouses, and at night we'd shove 'em over. Then they modernized those out houses, you know, and put water system in them in the outhouse and it was a little harder to push over then with plumbing in there. EC: Did you, do you remember the Fourth of July picnics? JC: Well, they had one every year, and I don't know-- EC: Well, that's what I mean, I just heard that was an annual affair, and I wondered what one was like. [inaudible] JC: Well, mostly what I can remember about it was they had a lot of banners, you know, and just a red, white and blue and flags like all decorated, band stand in front of the stores, setting off fire crackers and [inaudible]. Yeah, had a lot of times free ice cream. EC: Did Bristow seem crowded to you during the oil boom? JC: Yeah, it was crowded. There was about twenty-five to thirty thousand people here compared with five or six they got now, counting the cotton wagon [indecipherable]. EC: Was it a typical oil town in the sense that there was fights and gambling or whatever? JC: Yeah, money changed hands pretty freely, and fortunes were made and lost over night or gambling, you know. EC: There's a former marshal I have only heard about, Uncle Billy? JC: Billy Freshour. EC: What can you tell me about him? JC: Well, he was short with a large stomach. He was daring, and I don't think anybody was afraid of him, and he wasn't afraid of anybody at all. Let's see, he lived to be pretty old to be a sheriff. They had the jail down about where [inaudible]. What's the damn grocery store down there? Well's, yeah, it was down there in the Well's corner of the Well's grocery store down there. They finally got a new enough courthouse. EC: You were about to tell the story about the jail, I think. JC: Oh well, an instance in junior high or high school it was. Let's see, how'd that go? Oh, after school were shooting craps up in the gym, you know. One fellow, Paul Jones, went out to the police station, and he swept the police station out. They made it up against us that the law was to come up there and arrest us for shooting craps, you know. So, two or three laws came up and took us down and put us in the jail. Policeman said, " ; Now you want to turn this joke around while you just tell them that you found out that Paul Jones is the one that turned you in, you see." ; We did, and we didn't see Paul, you know, for a day or two because he was hiding out. EC: When the depression came, what evidences of it did you notice in Bristow? JC: That was 1930 when I got out of college. That's when I found out. I got married. I had a car and all that I found out where all this money was coming from. People just didn't have fans. Didn't have a lot of things. The oil boom, of course, helped out on that deal. EC: Were you ever involved in politics in Bristow? JC: Yeah, I run for County Commissioner once and that's [indecipherable] from now on. EC: Who were some of the people who were involved in politics? Were there two sides? Was there democrats versus republicans or were there factions in town? How would you describe the politics in Bristow? JC: Well, [inaudible] I never did take part. Yeah, my dad was a republican, of course, I was, too, and all us kids. I never forget my dad never did take much part in politics, but my mother and brother did, my older brother. He got beat, too. EC: Who would you say ran the town in those days? JC: Who ran the town? EC: Who ran the town? JC: Oh, Mark Schrader (ph) was the mayor two or three times here, and he was [inaudible]. Who? Oh, Jimmy Weaver [inaudible]. EC: What about World War II? Any particular effects on Bristow that you recall? JC: Well, it didn't affect me too much. I was too old for World War II, and I wasn't old enough for WWI, so I came in between there. None of my family, luckily, didn't have to go. Of course, I had my cows and I still kept [indecipherable]. [Inaudible] JC: On harvest day, you know, everybody got their guns up shooting, you know, celebrating. Somebody accidently shot the rope from the flag pole, and they thought there was a traitor there in the crowd shooting the flag down. EC: Well, had there been any, particularly, oh, amusing things that have happened in Bristow over the years or exciting things that you happened to see? Were you involved in any of those bank robberies or anything like that? JC: Well, I saw one bank robbery. I saw them come out shooting. I forgot what bank it was. I just happened be going down the street, you know, and I saw this old boy come out, and somebody had gotten up on the building across the street shooting at this bank robber. I saw where the brick, you know, shell went in the building into the brick. EC: When you think of Bristow, do you think of it now, this many years later, do you think of it mainly as a farming area, cattle raising or what? JC: Well, I had a little part in all of it, I think, pretty well, around the town. You can make a living if you work at it, you know. EC: You told a story earlier, the part about the Ku Klux Klan. Do you remember there being a Klan here in Bristow? JC: I don't know if there was any here or not, but I remember reading, you know, all over the country about it and this and that. EC: How do you feel relationships between the races have been in Bristow? Have there been any problems? JC: No. I remember that one up in Tulsa. They had a big riot up there, you know. People from here went up there with guns. I remember that. [Inaudible] EC: How do you feel that the relationship between Indians and whites has been? JC: We hadn't had any trouble there. They weren't very [indecipherable] but they did get along and didn't get in much trouble. They liked liquor like all other Indians. EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Huh? EC: Where did the liquor come from in Bristow? JC: Oh, moonshine mostly. Made it out in the country. Once instance when I was out on the farm, this fellow came up and said, " ; Say you making whiskey over on the back side of your place?" ; I said, " ; Hell no!" ; He said, " ; Well, you got a still running over there." ; And I said, " ; Well, hell, let's go over there and look at it." ; And there was one over on the back side, wasn't but about a mile from where I lived. There was an old copper boiler and actually with fire under it right in operation, you know. It had two or three fifty-gallon barrels, wooden barrels, sitting around. Of course, nobody was there that heard us coming up, I guess. [indecipherable] didn't have a chance to move his still. I took a team. I had a team wagon those days and took it over there I hauled the mash home and fed it to the hogs. I had the copper to sell. I had a little spring over there. That's how come they [indecipherable] how it got there or whose it was. EC: Who were some of the major land owners around Bristow? JC: Oh, the Kelly's has been some of the first. My dad, of course, was in that early. Used to, all you had to have was a bottle of liquor and a deed and you could buy land pretty cheap. And then the court had to approve all the Indian deals, of course. EC: Do you think there was a good bit of that done? JC: Yeah, there was some of it, but more and more crude work on the lease and all that. The oil business was trading land, you know. EC: I know what I wanted to ask you about, this Lake Heyburn? JC: Who? EC: Lake Heyburn or Heyburn Lake out here? JC: Yeah, Heyburn Lake. EC: I judge there was some controversy about the building of that. JC: There was on my part. EC: Well, tell me about it. Tell me about it. I don't know anything about the story. JC: Well, Brick Kirchner and I bid on the clearing of the lake, you know, getting the brush off of it. First job we ever had that large and that kind of a job. We started the clearing on it, a $120,000 job, and about three-fourths done [indecipherable] was good up to that date. A big flood came and washed all a lot of trees down in what he had already cleaned up. The government made us go back and clean what we had cleaned up, [indecipherable] and we figured it was acts of God, and we wasn't liable for it, you know, getting all the flood water down on that. It liked to washed the Heyburn Dam out anyway. But we sued the government, but we didn't do any good. Just about broke even on the deal, so that was lucky. EC: I take it that sports were pretty big in Bristow in your high school days--sports, athletics? JC: Oh yeah, because the oil boom mostly. The men had the money and they wanted to bet on the team. They wanted Bristow to win, and if we had a weak spot on the team why the coach or somebody would hire this kid's dad whose job was here and that he would be living in Bristow legal to play on the Bristow team. It was several pictures there of boys that had been moved in, you know, from [indecipherable]. We played for the state championship down in Oklahoma City against Norman. We had a special train left at Bristow and went to the city with four or five cars on it. I wasn't on it but they said that was pretty rough. Plenty of liquor and drinking going on. Had five cars [indecipherable]. Norman football game, we lost. Come to find out the referees did have money on the game. One instance [indecipherable] ran out, trained to run out of bounds. The umpire overruled that. Then they said, well, he was a holding back up the way of somebody at Bristow. EC: You mentioned, speaking of trips, you mentioned earlier that you used to go to Colorado in the summers. Where did people from Bristow go for vacations? Colorado? JC: Well, yeah, Joe Abraham had a big family, and he did about like my dad. He'd go out there and rent one of those houses, you know. They had a big family, and dad would just lay around there and enjoy the cool nights and rest up. And us kids was kind of on our own. I sold newspapers and did a little guide. A whole lot of people wanted the kids to show them where just sight-seeing tour was. EC: Did you go to Siloam Springs at all? JC: Just drove over there for the weekend or day. EC: Were your business connections in Bristow through Tulsa or through Oklahoma City or Kansas City or where? JC: Mostly Oklahoma City. Sold cattle down on the Oklahoma City market, and I borrowed my money for school [indecipherable] and went to school at Norman, so that put me down in Oklahoma City more than it would have Tulsa. EC: Let me ask you, what are some of the houses or buildings still standing that you remember as being some of the oldest? JC: [Indecipherable] Grocery on west sixth street, Dr. Schrader (ph) had this kind of nice house right here next to the park. [Inaudible] EC: Okay, any others? Bill Cheatham (ph) house on 11th. JC: Joe Abraham had this large brick house on 8th Street that's still standing. One of the daughters lives in it. EC: What about downtown? Are there any of the buildings that are the original old ones? JC: Yeah, there's a lot of them. Of course, a lot of them burned and a lot of them tore down. My dad had the first brick building in Bristow. He met the brick guy here on east 8th Street, there was a little creek out there had water and right kind of sand or brick material. They had an old mule or something like, you know, squeezing sorghum. They put this mixture in his box and the mule would turn it to mix the mortar to make brick with. And they had mold where they made it. Then they had a fire they call it, you know, to heat them to make the brick where they'd stand up to weather. He made the brick for this first brick building in Bristow. When they tore it down about two or three years ago, I saved a lot of the brick out of it. Some of the brick. Deteriorating the brick and, then I forget who owned it then, plastered it, plastered over it. Then that got to deteriorating, so they put a new brick wall on the outside of it and all that's old was still in there. Then when they opened the Community State Bank (ph) [indecipherable]. Then when they decided to build the new Community State Bank (ph), they had to tear all the inside brick out of it, as well as, the new outside. EC: This is Mrs. Jack Carman (RC) RC: The first hospital that I ever remember is down here on North Main, next door north of the Masonic Temple. It's still standing. It's an apartment house now. And Mrs. Albert Kelly, Sr. had charge of it. That was before she married Mr. Kelly. Of course, the doctors all had offices upstairs downtown in the building over the stores downtown. My father had an office in the same building as Dr. King and Dr. Schrader. EC: Tell me about your family. Who was your father and where did he come from? RC: My father came, my family came from Tennessee. And the day we landed in Bristow, I was six-months-old, and he had just graduated from medical school in Tennessee and had taken a trip out in Oklahoma, down in the southern part of the state, way down in the south part of the state to find a location. And he didn't like what he had seen in the south and he started back home on the train and met a drug salesman. He told him that there was a little settlement, Newby, 10 miles south of Bristow here, that badly needed a doctor. So he went down and he liked it, so we went back to Tennessee and brought the family out. And we lived in Newby about four years. [Inaudible] RC: Oh, yes, drove a horse and buggy. Then we came to Bristow before I was six-years-old, and we've been here ever since. EC: What are some of your memories of Bristow as a child? RC: Well, I can remember how rough it was during the oil boom. EC: Rough? How? RC: Well, women just couldn't go out on the streets alone. We lived, at that time, over on East 7th Street, and right down there where Well's Grocery Store is, was a livery stable. And on that main street, right across from where Johnny Roberts now lives, was the livery stable. And I remember how carefully we used to have to walk by there, because it was a pretty rough place. It was a dirty place, of course. But women didn't go out at night without someone being with them, because it was pretty rough. I can remember the terrible flu epidemic we had during WWI, how my father worked night and day, and how we would beg him to stop. But, no, he was needed. But that was a terrible time. I can remember that. That flu epidemic was [indecipherable]. EC: What other things stick in your mind about growing up in Bristow? RC: Well, I think it's been a marvelous place. It's been just small enough that it was close. And, big enough, we had Chautauqua. Do you remember the Chautauqua and the [indecipherable] courses? We had those in the summer time, and they were up here this, back where the library stands now, along in there. You remember that, Jack? The Chautauqua? And we were close enough even to Tulsa and Oklahoma City, anything big that went on, we would take the train and go to the city [indecipherable]. And when Billy Sunday was in Oklahoma City, the big evangelist, why we all went down to hear Billy Sunday. But I think it's been a fine place. [Inaudible] EC: What, thinking of the Chautauqua, did they have the tent? RC: Oh yeah, great big tent and chairs and everybody just smothering to death and fanning like mad. EC: Do you remember any of the people that came through? RC: No, off hand, I don't. No, I really don't. EC: That would have been about what years? RC: Oh, that would have been in, in the early 20s or late eighteen, nineteen, somewhere along in there. EC: Do you have any memories of the depression that stick in your mind? RC: Well, no. We were married, and of course, had three little tiny kids, so that was depression enough, you know. Just the usual things. Nothing in particular. We just didn't buy anything we didn't HAVE to have. EC: Now, your father was a doctor. I've heard some interesting stories about some of the doctors here in town. Do you have any-- RC: Not my father. EC: No, no, but-- RC: I can guarantee you that! [Inaudible] RC: Well, they're the ones that ruled the town. EC: They ruled the town? RC: You're right. The town and the politics of the town. EC: They did? EC: About how many doctors were there in those days? RC: Well, I remember from the enterprise, oh, we had nine or ten [indecipherable]. EC: And the hospital that Mrs. Kelly, did she run it? RC: Yes. Uh huh. EC: Who actually started it? Do you know? RC: No, I don't recall who actually started it. That's my first recollection of it is that she was running the hospital, and my father being a doctor, I expect that's the only reason I remember that part of it. And it was there, then, until my father and Dr. Hollis and Dr. Bisbee and Dr. Williams organized a clinic, and went into the building, now occupied by Schumacher Funeral Home, and it was called the Bristow Clinic. And they were there several years. Then they built, just across the street, east of the American Legion Hut. They built the Bristow Clinic and Hospital was the new first new hospital they ever had. And they ran that for, well, I don't know many years. It was the Bristow Clinic and Hospital. And then Bristow began to get bigger and the need was there for more hospitalizations and better care, a graduate nurse, for instance, and things like that. So then, John Collins was really instrumental. EC: Who? RC: John Collins in starting, as I recall, the movement for the hospital out here, Bristow Memorial Hospital. But the need was there, definitely. And my father and the three partners dissolved up in years and sold out to the sister and Todd (ph) [indecipherable] from Tulsa. Dr. [indecipherable] sister is still in Tulsa, as well as, one of the young boys. [Inaudible] EC: Well, have there been any particularly exciting or amusing things in Bristow that I haven't asked about that you remember? Things that happened to you or that you saw? RC: Um, I don't think so. My mother and family were very much involved in the Methodist Church, and I have grown up in the churches and have been familiar with all of them here in Bristow and watched their growth and their organization. The first brick church, first church we had in Bristow was the First Christian Church and it was over on East 9th Street. And the little church that sits down here next to the new City Hall was one of the original. It's been used by several different congregations. The Catholic used it. The Presbyterian used it. And the Christian Science have it now. EC: Have you been aware of any anti-Catholic feelings in Bristow in your life here? RC: I don't think so, particularly, there has been some, I think. As I can recall, now I'm not saying it's true, but as I recall, most of the Catholic people were the, what we call Syrians then, but they call themselves Lebanese now, came into Bristow, Cejul (ph) and Ed and Useph Abraham, the three brothers came to Bristow. And, of course, they were all Catholic. I believe that's my first memory of that, and then, of course, as other people moved in, people from back east in the oil [indecipherable] so it changed from being predominantly foreign-born people to more like it is today. EC: Had there been any major controversies in Bristow that you remember? Things like arguments over whether to, oh, pave the streets or whether to build the new City Hall? Or has there been anything that's really controversial? RC: I don't think of anything, really. I think we've done pretty well through the years without any big fights over anything. Do you remember anything? audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0040A_Jack_Carman.xml OHP-0040A_Jack_Carman.xml
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Jack Carman
Description
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In this 1979 interview with Jack Carman and his wife, Reba, Jack spoke on the oil boom, growing up around Bristow, working at his dad's Ford Agency and the depression. He also spoke on his part in building Heyburn Lake. Reba spoke about her childhood, moving to Newby where her dad practiced medicine, and, eventually, moving back to Bristow at the age of six. Her dad was a physician and integral part of medical care in Bristow, establishing the first Bristow Clinic and Hospital with three other physicians. She described growing up in Bristow and the Chautauqua coming through. She was also involved with the churches of Bristow, specifically the Methodist Church.
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OHP-0040A
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1979-06-07
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audio
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230
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67ef7befad1c42a2ccee374bde40802e
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Family Histories
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Oral History
Subject
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Oral accounts of various family histories
Source
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Georgia Smith
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Marland Armitage
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-23_Marland_Armitage.xml
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5.4 June 29, 2021 OHP-2021-23 Marland Armitage OHP-2021-23 0:00 - 66:51 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Marland Armitage Georgia Smith MP3 1:|74(3)|105(5)|126(3)|162(3)|189(6)|213(7)|257(16)|300(2)|329(2)|361(6)|399(4)|422(2)|457(2)|477(2)|495(5)|516(12)|545(5)|586(3)|617(4)|654(11)|689(14)|720(2)|753(3)|780(7)|801(3)|834(6)|863(11)|889(2)|921(2)|962(8)|999(2)|1035(6)|1066(2)|1109(3)|1149(4)|1172(4)|1198(14)|1234(2)|1261(7)|1281(9)|1323(9)|1346(2)|1364(12)|1393(2)|1415(1)|1437(2)|1474(12)|1510(1)|1534(15)|1569(8)|1608(2)|1630(8)|1654(2)|1682(10)|1715(2)|1737(5)|1753(5)|1774(5)|1805(5)|1829(12)|1850(2)|1881(2)|1903(11)|1931(14)|1957(15)|1994(4)|2016(12) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Marland Armitage.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is June 29th, 2021, and I’m sitting here with Marland Armitage at the Museum depot and he’s going to tell me a little bit about his history in Bristow. Now, Marland could you give me your full name? MA: Frank Marland Armitage GS: Alright, and that was your name at birth? MA: That’s correct GS: Alright. Where were you born Marland? MA: Born in Slick, Oklahoma GS: Alright MA: Ten miles away GS: Ten miles away, so were you born in a hospital or were you born in a house? MA: Born in a house Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow, Oklahoma ; Frank Marland Armitage ; Frank Sisler ; Georgia Smith ; Marland Armitage ; Slick, Oklahoma 75 Family GS: Awesome, what were your parents’ names? Let’s start with your mother’s maiden name MA: Mothers name was Nola Lee Fletcher (ph) GS: Nola Lee Fletcher, and what’s your father’s name? MA: Jay Bryan Armitage GS: And do you know where they were married? MA: I think it was in Sapulpa GS: Okay MA: They were from Slick GS: Okay, you think they— MA: But I think they married in Sapulpa Betty Lee Armitage ; Dorothy Jane ; Georgia Marzetta ; Georgia McGuire ; Jay Bryan Armitage ; Nola Lee Fletcher ; Orville, Texas ; Prairie Pipeline ; Robert Henry Armitage ; Shirley Holderfield ; Shirley Jane ; Sinclair https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363625/nola-l-armitage Nola Lee Fletcher https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363621/jay-bryan-armitage Jay Bryan Armitage https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62652740/jay-bryan-armitage Jay Bryan Armitage https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/159535892/betty-lee-livingston Betty Lee Armitage https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22213680/robert-henry-armitage Robert Henry Armitage https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/240957219/shirley-jane-holderfield Shirley Jane Holderfield 323 Childhood GS: Tell me about your home when you were growing up, what kind of house did you grow up in? MA: Georgia, I just found, not just recently, the title to the home mom and dad bought GS: Oh how wonderful MA: They bought a house and I think it only had three rooms in it when they bought it GS: Mhm MA: It had four lots on the end of east 6th street, and they gave $200 for one GS: Isn’t that amazing MA: The note was that they paid $10 down and $10 a month GS: Wow MA: To pay for it John Bell 540 Appliances GS: What kind of laundry apparatus did your mom use? Did she have a washing machine, was it ringer, or— MA: Number three washtub GS: Number three washtub MA: And a rubber [Indecipherable] and I don’t know when we got a washer, but I know I can remember laundry and baths were taken on Saturday. GS: Yup, yup MA: And that number three washtub just depend on how far the line you were, if you got your turn or not. GS: What kind of stove did she cook on? MA: She had a gas stove 654 Depression (1934) GS: So you were born, refresh my memory again, what year was it? MA: 1934 GS: 1934, so you were born in the middle of the depression, do you remember anything of that? MA: No GS: Yeah MA: My dad always had a job during the depression, half of his family, I think they took care of him a very long time. But dad had a job during that time GS: Was it with the oil and gas company? MA: It was with Sinclair GS: With Sinclair, that’s wonderful. Did you have chores in the home? Daily chores you had to do? Sinclair 817 Grandparents GS: Alright do you remember—blah, do you remember anything about your grandparents lives? MA: I do somewhat. My mother’s father ran a filming station in Slick GS: Okay MA: Way back there, he had lost one, it was [Indecipherable] GS: Aw MA: Raised a big family on the farm with—and his plow that had one handle and had a ring on the other side, and he would put that ring up to his elbow so he could run that plow, and— GS: Disability didn’t stop him, did it? MA: He was on the farm until all his kids were gone, and my dad’s parents lived in Bristow. My grandad was—wrote to the Salvation Army, he preached. And so we—they died when I was young, like 8 years old when my grandmother passed away Henry Armitage ; Hulda Armitage ; Nellie Fletcher ; Robert Fletcher ; Salvation Army https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21579862/v-hulda-armitage Hulda Armitage https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21579855/henry-bascum-armitage Henry Armitage https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21580705/nellie-g-fletcher Nellie Fletcher https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21580708/robert-amos-fletcher Robert Fletcher 941 School GS: Yeah, okay where did you first attend school? MA: Bristow, Oklahoma Washington school on east 1st street GS: Alright, and do you remember who your teacher was? MA: I think my first grade teacher was Mrs. Asher and I had Mrs. Lester as we called her. I think she taught second grade GS: Okay MA: And Mrs. Wilson was a principle, lived just a couple of blocks from us GS: Wow MA: And I can remember we’d go over there and help her grade papers at times GS: Oh how fun Bristow, Oklahoma ; Mrs. Asher ; Mrs. Lester ; Mrs. Wilson ; Okemah, Oklahoma ; Washington School 1289 Jobs MA: I worked during high school GS: What did you do? MA: I worked for, started my career. I turned 13 years old and loaded freight cars for Bill Bursar (ph) GS: Oh wonderful MA: For two weeks, I worked a two-week vacation for somebody, that was it. And I turned 13 at that time GS: Wow MA: And then at 15 I went to work for C. R. Anthony GS: Yes MA: And I made thirty-five cents in an hour GS: That wasn’t bad back then MA: I could buy all the pop and candy I wanted Bill Bursar ; C. R. Anthony ; M. W. Woolworth ; Woolworth 1433 Church GS: Okay I’m gonna switch to church life. Did your family attend church when you were growing up? MA: We attended all of my life, the Nazarene church that started in Slick. I did not—that, here in Bristow our church was located on 8th and— GS: 8th street MA: Maple and had a little brown church, doors in the corner, with one by four pews GS: One by four, yup MA: And then we later built a frame [Indecipherable] GS: Uh-huh MA: And I know my dad was on the board of the church, one day we were redecorating it and they were painting it and apparently gasoline caught fire and exploded, blew that church to pieces. GS: Aw MA: and I mean [indecipherable] GS: How disappointing Gladys Banks ; Nazarene church ; Okmulgee, Oklahoma 1732 Medical Care GS: Okay, now you’ve already said Franks Sisler was your doctor, did he make house calls? MA: As I recall, he did early GS: Okay, you probably didn’t need him very often, did you? MA: Not very often, I recall having pneumonia when I was real young, and they called it then double pneumonia, but and I was really sick and I believe he came to the house then. GS: But you didn’t go to the hospital? MA: No GS: Did we have a hospital in Bristow at that time? MA: We did GS: Sisler, was it Sisler Clinic or the one that was before that? MA: Cowart and Sisler American Legion ; Cowart and Sisler ; Frank Sisler ; Sisler Clinic 1807 Town Life GS: Okay, what was Bristow like when you were growing up? MA: Bristow was a lot like it is today GS: Really? MA: Buildings are mostly the same GS: Uh-huh MA: As usual, drug stores GS: Few more things for kids to do maybe MA: Few more things, well we played baseball in the summer, [Indecipherable] GS: Uh-huh MA: And the swimming pool was there, I can remember I couldn’t swim but I went to the swimming pool J. C. Pennys ; Kemps ; Max Kemp ; Rexal ; Route Hometown Furniture ; S& ; M ; Smiths Drug ; The Princess ; Walmer 2061 Clothing GS: How did people dress back then? MA: Well, the girls wore penny loafers and they put the penny in the little slot in the front of it GS: Yes, yes MA: I recall in high school what we would do, we went through a spell of wearing white shirt and overall cowboy boots GS: Oh MA: We wore blue overalls, or the striped ones GS: Uh-huh MA: And I used to sell them at Anthony’s 2123 Travel GS: Did you ever take the train out of town? MA: We did, we took the train when I was in grade school, and went to the Will Rogers memorial in Claremore GS: Oh wonderful, uh-huh MA: And the thing I remember is when we went to the, I called it the tunnel in Tulsa, it was dark for a short time, that’s where their depot was apparently up there. GS: Oh okay MA: But we went to Will Rogers memorial and then toured it when I was in— GS: Took the train there, did you come down here to the depot? Was it this depot or was it the one before? MA: It’s the same one that’s here now GS: Well that’s wonderful. Now we’ve talked about your jobs already, did you ever serve in the military? MA: No I didn’t Claremore, Oklahoma ; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Tulsa, Oklahoma ; Will Rogers ; Will Rogers Memorial 2423 Segregation GS: Okay we’re gonna really shift gears here now, do you remember if Bristow is segregated when you were growing up? MA: It was GS: Mhm MA: Black school was on north east side of town GS: Do you remember the name of it by chance? MA: Lincoln GS: Lincoln, okay MA: Lincoln high school. I lived about three blocks from it GS: Okay, okay MA: So pretty much 8th street was the dividing line, you know GS: Okay MA: At that time GS: Yeah MA: A few of us, I mixed with them, you know Henry Kemp ; Joe Mouse ; Lafayette Johnson ; Lincoln High School ; P. M. Moore ; Roosevelt Joseph ; Smiths Drugstore 2763 Local Businesses GS: That gas station you mentioned, is it the one that’s just back here behind? MA: Right GS: Do you remember the name of that gas station? Was it a DX Station? MA: I don’t think it was DX, an independent station GS: We were trying to think of it the other day MA: I think we were just, Henry Kemp ran it GS: Okay MA: And then he later had a [Indecipherable] that’s when Merle Baker went in partnership with the Kemps GS: Okay MA: And then he had a [Indecipherable] across the street GS: Okay MA: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay Alonzo ; Arthur Foster ; DX Station ; Foslers ; Fosters ; Henry Kemp ; Merle Baker ; Prairie Pipeline ; Sinclair 2910 World War II GS: Okay, okay I’m gonna switch to World War II. What kind of memories do you have of World War II? You were a teenager or preteen during the years? MA: I was a preteen GS: Preteen MA: I was—my brother graduated high school here in 43’, and went straight to the navy GS: Okay MA: And that was the year we lived in Okemah, and as I remember him being gone then coming back home GS: Was he stationed on a ship? MA: He was on a what they call an LST, which is [Indecipherable], but he used to describe it as one that goes over one wave and under two. But it was at the end of it would drop down and make it rain so that you were just [Indecipherable] GS: Oh okay MA: He had [Indecipherable] GS: I see ; I’ve seen those in movies LST ; Okemah, Oklahoma ; Sallisaw, Oklahoma 3092 Early Adulthood GS: Okay, tell me about after you got married here in Bristow. I think I failed to ask you earlier about your children. You and your wife, did you have children? MA: We had one son GS: Mark MA: And— GS: What was his name? MA: His name was Marcus Allen (ph) and he graduated from—he was the next one to graduate from high school after I did GS: Aw MA: When we came back from Bristow. Mark grew up in Sapulpa, we transferred to Sapulpa not long after I went to work O& ; G here in Bristow GS: When did you go to work for O& ; G? MA: Went to work for O& ; G the Monday after I graduated high school GS: And you worked for them all those years MA: Worked for them a little over 41 years Marcus Allen ; O& ; G ; Sapulpa, Oklahoma 3295 O& ; G Career GS: Tell me about your work with O& ; G MA: I started out as a meter reader GS: Okay MA: Transferred from here to Sapulpa, went into the county department, with no county training at all, but I could add and subtract, I could do that GS: Right, and you were a fast learner I’m sure MA: And I went into the county there, and in the mid 60’s I transferred to Tulsa still in the county, went to a nice school at TU for a couple of years, got some accounting courses in that they told me I needed O& ; G ; TU ; Tulsa University ; Tulsa, Oklahoma 3375 Clubs and Organizations GS: Okay, what can you tell me about Bristow during those years? For instance, were you active in any organizations here in Bristow? MA: This year I would’ve completed 50 years as a member of the Lions Club, I went into the Lions Club, I’ve always been active in city [Indecipherable] GS: I thought you had MA: And when I was in Sapulpa I was in the J.C.s (ph), went to the J.C.s, wasn’t old enough to join. You had to be 21, I’m 19, and— GS: They took you anyway? MA: They let me to go meetings until I got old enough to join, and then when I went into Tulsa I did fundraising for a YMCA, was active over there with the boy scouts, did fundraising for the boy scouts, salvation army, and then when I come back here I’ve always been active here in Bristow GS: Yes, you have MA: President of Chamber of Commerce, president of the Lions Club Assembly of God Church ; Chamber of Commerce ; Freewill Baptist Chuch ; J. C.s ; Lions Club ; Nazarene Church ; YMCA 3656 COVID 19 Pandemic GS: Alright now we’re gonna shift a little bit. We’ve just, we’re just coming out of a pandemic from COVID 19, how has that affected you? MA: Caused me to spend a lot more time at home GS: Yes MA: My usual routine was to get up and go to coffee, with a whole bunch of coffee drinkers about 9 o’clock in the morning for about an hour GS: And that stopped that for about a year and a half, didn’t it? MA: That stopped that for about a year and a half, and in fact we had our first session back yesterday GS: Oh wonderful, wonderful MA: But it has made a difference on it, it’s something to respect GS: It is MA: We were able to—we got the shots fairly early COVID 19 3755 Most Important Invention GS: Looking back over your life, what would you consider to be some of the most important, or the most important, inventions during your lifetime? MA: It would be hard to decide which one. Of course the cars were already here, they had washing machines, we didn’t happen to have one of them but, but I think, you know, refrigeration. We grew up with an ice man coming to the door GS: Yes, yes MA: And putting a chunk of ice in the box GS: In the bottom of the fridge MA: In the wooden ice box GS: Uh-huh MA: At our house, we had a window box GS: Okay 3858 Biggest Problems that Face Our Nation GS: As you see it, what are some of the biggest problems that face our nation right now and how do you think they could be solved? MA: Well, just the relationship of people is something that bothers me GS: Yes MA: It seems like it’s nothing. You know, I grew up with if there’s something that needs to get done, we’d go and do it GS: Exactly MA: Now it’s, you know, you do it. And the kids today, the younger generations, I’ve told my family, you know, just two words they know and that’s me and I GS: Mhm MA: If it’s not and if it doesn’t benefit me, I don’t care about it GS: That’s so sad MA: And it bothers me GS: Yeah, you’re not the only person I’ve interviewed who has said this MA: Church is important to me In this 2021 interview, Marland Armitage shares his experience living in Bristow throughout the years. He discusses the different businesses located in town and what life was like during the depression. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: Marland Armitage Other Persons: Date of Interview: June 29, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-23 00:00 -- 66:51 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is June 29th, 2021, and I' ; m sitting here with Marland Armitage at the Museum depot and he' ; s going to tell me a little bit about his history in Bristow. Now, Marland could you give me your full name? MA: Frank Marland Armitage GS: Alright, and that was your name at birth? MA: That' ; s correct GS: Alright. Where were you born Marland? MA: Born in Slick, Oklahoma GS: Alright MA: Ten miles away GS: Ten miles away, so were you born in a hospital or were you born in a house? MA: Born in a house GS: Yeah, yeah. And did you have a doctor deliver you? MA: Not that I know of. GS: Okay, well now you said that Frank was from Frank Sisler, was he your doctor? MA: When we came to Bristow GS: Oh okay MA: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay MA: My baby sister was delivered by him GS: Oh alright, alright. And what year and day were you born? MA: August the 7th, 1934 GS: Awesome, what were your parents' ; names? Let' ; s start with your mother' ; s maiden name MA: Mothers name was Nola Lee Fletcher (ph) GS: Nola Lee Fletcher, and what' ; s your father' ; s name? MA: Jay Bryan ArmitageGS: And do you know where they were married? MA: I think it was in Sapulpa GS: Okay MA: They were from Slick GS: Okay, you think they-- MA: But I think they married in Sapulpa GS: But they were living in Slick, do you know what year that might have been? Or approximate year? MA: Uhm, not exactly but it was would' ; ve been early 20' ; s GS: Okay, how many children did your parents have? MA: Had six GS: Six children, that was pretty common back then, wasn' ; t it? MA: Yeah it was, and I was number five GS: You were number five? Oh my goodness, what were your sibling' ; s names? MA: My oldest brothers name was Jay Bryan Armitage, and my sister was Betty Lee Armitage, then we had Dorothy Jane and then a brother Robert Henry Armitage, he was named from his grandparents GS: Okay MA: On both sides GS: Oh how nice MA: And then our baby sisters name is Shirley JaneGS: And are any of them still living? MA: My middle sister, Dorothy is living, lives in Orville, Texas. And my younger sister Shirley Holderfield (ph) lives in Bristow GS: Shirley Holderfield is your sister MA: That' ; s it GS: Aw I just love Shirley ; I did not know that. That' ; s good to know. What did your father do for a living? MA: Dad worked for originally the Prairie Pipeline, which later became Sinclair GS: Ah MA: And he worked out of state, and then they transferred their office to Bristow GS: Okay MA: And he worked from here all these years GS: Until he retired? MA: He didn' ; t get to retire GS: Aw that' ; s a shame MA: He had a heart attack at 59 years old, and we lost him GS: That' ; s a shame, how old were you when you lost your dad? MA: I was twenty-three GS: Twenty-three, that' ; s hard. What did your mother do when you were growing up? MA: She cooked more for six kids. She didn' ; t work outside the home-- GS: I don' ; t think she could' ; ve MA: She was a homebody GS: Yes MA: And a wonderful cook, and just did a good job on raising us kids GS: That' ; s-- MA: I always told them we didn' ; t have much, but we had plenty to eat and clean clothes GS: Knowing you and Shirley I believe she did a wonderful job. What' ; s your spouse' ; s name? MA: Georgia Marzetta, her maiden name was McGuire, lived in Kellyville GS: Okay, and do you remember the date of your marriage? MA: I think, I think I' ; ve got it wrong on here GS: Oh no, we can fix it. We' ; ll-- MA: Complete GS: Okay MA: February the 19th GS: February the 19th, of 53' ; ? MA: I think--no, of 54' ; . GS: Alrighty, very good thanks for correcting that Marland. Tell me about your home when you were growing up, what kind of house did you grow up in? MA: Georgia, I just found, not just recently, the title to the home mom and dad bought GS: Oh how wonderful MA: They bought a house and I think it only had three rooms in it when they bought it GS: Mhm MA: It had four lots on the end of east 6th street, and they gave $200 for one GS: Isn' ; t that amazing MA: The note was that they paid $10 down and $10 a month GS: Wow MA: To pay for it GS: That' ; s wonderful MA: They later had to build on so all the kids had a place to sleep GS: Sure MA: And it wasn' ; t much, but it was home GS: It worked and it was home. Was it a frame house? MA: Frame house, actually had some of the walls were two by twelves GS: Oh my goodness MA: When we got into it, I can remember they papered it, when they put the cheesecloth on the wall. GS: Really? MA: So the paper would stay GS: I did not know that MA: And our neighbor papered that house for us, John Bell lived across the street from us GS: Uh-huh MA: And he papered our house for us GS: Well, and cheesecloth underneath it MA: Yeah GS: I never knew that. Did you live in the country or in town? I guess that was at Slick MA: It was right at the edge of town, we had the best of both worlds. The pavement ended just before you got to our house and then we had the woods to play GS: And that was at Slick? On the edge of Slick? MA: On the edge here in Bristow GA: Or the edge of Bristow MA: I came to Bristow when I was about a year old GS: Okay MA: And our parents lived on west 12th GS: Okay MA: Right up by the water tower GS: Uh-huh MA: And for a short time until we bought the house on east 6th GS: On east 6th MA: And I don' ; t know at what age it had to be in GS: Yeah. Did you have to share beds with brothers and sisters? MA: I did GS: Yeah MA: Shared it with Dorothy and my brother GS: Uh-huh, yup. Did you have toys growing up? Did you have boxes of toys like they do today? MA: Good night, no. We didn' ; t have boxes of toys GS: But you had some toys MA: We had some toys GS: What type of toys? MA: But we made most of ours. GS: Yeah MA: I can remember rolling those little hoop with the stick GS: Yes MA: We would crush carnation mint cans on our shoes and walk on them. We set out under the streetlight, taking--I can remember us taking saw blades from the saw GS: Yes MA: And we' ; d throw them, stick them in the light pole GS: Oh my goodness MA: And then every once in a while, they' ; d have to come back and change the pole. GS: They' ; d say those kids have been at it again probably MA: Those kids have been at it again GS: What kind of laundry apparatus did your mom use? Did she have a washing machine, was it ringer, or-- MA: Number three washtub GS: Number three washtub MA: And a rubber [Indecipherable] and I don' ; t know when we got a washer, but I know I can remember laundry and baths were taken on Saturday. GS: Yup, yup MA: And that number three washtub just depend on how far the line you were, if you got your turn or not. GS: What kind of stove did she cook on? MA: She had a gas stove GS: Good, mhm MA: That early, we had a wood heat stove GS: Okay MA: [Indecipherable] the best I remember that, I don' ; t remember her ever cooking on it GS: Was she a good cook? MA: Correct GS: What were some of your favorite meals she made? MA: Great baker, she would bake pies. The ones that I' ; d always tell people about was her apple pies and mom would sit in front of the oven and baste them with butter and browning GS: Uh-huh MA: And she made a hundred of them, they' ; re all just exactly like that GS: Oh my goodness I envy that, mine never look the same MA: We had family dinners, you know the kitchen table was full of dessert GS: Uh-huh MA: I can remember she asked my older brother " ; What kind of pie do you want bud?" ; and he' ; d say " ; Well I' ; ll take this first" ; . And then he' ; d go through the rest of them. She was a wonderful cook. GS: So you were born, refresh my memory again, what year was it? MA: 1934 GS: 1934, so you were born in the middle of the depression, do you remember anything of that? MA: No GS: Yeah MA: My dad always had a job during the depression, half of his family, I think they took care of him a very long time. But dad had a job during that time GS: Was it with the oil and gas company? MA: It was with Sinclair GS: With Sinclair, that' ; s wonderful. Did you have chores in the home? Daily chores you had to do? MA: Not in the house. Well the only, I was made to dry dishes because when I got in the age, my brother older than me had gone to the military soon as he got out of high school. So just me and my baby sister GS: Uh-huh MA: And I had to dry dishes and I hated it GS: So you took care of things on the outside of the house? MA: I, yeah I did the eggs and mother would, you know, we always had a cat or more, and she sold milk and butter and eggs around the neighborhood GS: Yup, yup MA: I had a little cart, a little crate that I carried and I delivered milk and butter to the neighbors GS: That would be a fun job MA: Gathered those eggs and [Indecipherable] then I got to do the [Indecipherable] GS: Oh MA: Quite often, but I can remember I don' ; t know if I was excited about it, we had to churn with the plunger. GS: Yes, yes. MA: Momma would put a dish towel over my lap so I didn' ; t get my pants wet GS: Uh-huh MA: And I churned that butter and then in later years we graduated to daisy churn GS: Yes MA: With the crank GS: Yes MA: That went better GS: Yes, yes, I have a couple of those at home MA: Do you? GS: Do you remember the first time you heard a radio? MA: I don' ; t remember GS: Or was there always one in the home? MA: We were real young, but that was the way my dad started his day GS: Listening to the radio MA: He would get up early, eat breakfast, but before he left for work he would sit in front of the radio and listen to the farm show. GS: Aw MA: You know the old Purina (ph) song, Get Up and Feed those Chickens GS: Can you sing it? MA: Don' ; t know that I can do all of it, but it' ; s started " ; Get up and feed those chickens, [Indecipherable], gonna make them grow before they' ; re done. Gonna do the right thing, that' ; s everything a chicken needs. It' ; s superior all in one" ; GS: I love it, thank you, thank you very much. Alright do you remember--blah, do you remember anything about your grandparents lives? MA: I do somewhat. My mother' ; s father ran a filming station in Slick GS: Okay MA: Way back there, he had lost one, it was [Indecipherable] GS: Aw MA: Raised a big family on the farm with--and his plow that had one handle and had a ring on the other side, and he would put that ring up to his elbow so he could run that plow, and-- GS: Disability didn' ; t stop him, did it? MA: He was on the farm until all his kids were gone, and my dad' ; s parents lived in Bristow. My grandad was--wrote to the Salvation Army, he preached. And so we--they died when I was young, like 8 years old when my grandmother passed away. GS: Do you remember their names? MA: Don' ; t know the middle ones GS: That' ; s okay MA: But my grandmother Armitage was Hulda (ph) and my granddad Armitage, his name was Henry. And mom' ; s parents were Nellie and RobertGS: Nellie and Robert, and the last name again? MA: Fletcher GS: Fletcher, Nellie and Robert Fletcher. Who is the oldest person in your family that you can remember? Would it have been those grandparents? MA: Those grandparents GS: Yeah, okay where did you first attend school? MA: Bristow, Oklahoma Washington school on east 1st street GS: Alright, and do you remember who your teacher was? MA: I think my first grade teacher was Mrs. Asher and I had Mrs. Lester as we called her. I think she taught second grade GS: Okay MA: And Mrs. Wilson was a principle, lived just a couple of blocks from us GS: Wow MA: And I can remember we' ; d go over there and help her grade papers at times GS: Oh how fun MA: But we had a wonderful time there GS: And-- MA: We had our own playground and softball field and you had to pitch uphill GS: Oh my MA: The batter was up on the top and then the ground sloped GS: That must be before they leveled it and put the blacktop there MA: Yeah, [Indecipherable] cafeteria where it was [Indecipherable] GS: Okay MA: And if you hit it too far, we had a drain collection down at the east end of it, and the water would run into there. But every once in a while the ball would get down there GS: Aw, was that a home run if it did? MA: It had to be because it would take a while to get it out. You could get into that hole but it' ; s hard to get out GS: And so did you go through 6th grade at Washington? MA: Went to--I went to first and 2nd grade in Bristow, and then we moved to Okemah for a year GS: Okay MA: Just happened, and I hate to tell it, but I flunked 2nd grade GS: Oh well that happens, that' ; s nothing to--no shame in that MA: And so I went to Okemah GS: Uh-huh MA: And took 2nd grade over GS: Okay MA: And then we came back and I--so I went to Bristow all 12 years GS: Well good, yes you did, didn' ; t you? MA: I didn' ; t skip that one GS: Just a year you' ; d like to forget, huh? MA: Yeah I' ; d just forget GS: How many kids were in your classes back then in, you know, in a classroom. Do you remember? I wouldn' ; t know all mine. MA: There were several, I' ; m gonna guess 20 GS: Yeah MA: Or so many of them I still remember GS: And did you walk to school? MA: Walked to school GS: Did you have a best friend that you walked with or with brothers and sisters or? MA: Walked with my brother, but we had neighbors that we' ; d pick up along the way GS: Right MA: You might, I don' ; t know about best friends because some of them I' ; d fight with before I got home GS: So how many blocks did you have to walk? MA: Let' ; s see, six? GS: That' ; s not a bad walk MA: That' ; s not a bad walk, even in the winter GS: Yeah, and did you graduate from Bristow? MA: Graduated from Bristow in 1953 GS: Do you have--were you active in sports or organizations in high school? MA: Probably too much GS: Aw, well tell me about it MA: In junior high, I played football, basketball GS: Yup MA: And wrestling. GS: Doesn' ; t seem to have hurt you a bit MA: No, didn' ; t hurt me any. My only problem was I had two older brothers who were good athletes GS: Oh, you had to live up to them MA: Best I could do wasn' ; t gonna be good enough GS: Aww MA: I think my mother never saw me play a football game GS: Aww MA: But she went to my older brothers GS: Well that' ; s a shame, that' ; s a shame. MA: We--they used to tell you know, that' ; s probably the reason they started putting the fence around the football field. When my brother would get hurt, my mom would wanna get down there and check on [Indecipherable] GS: Well that makes sense, yeah. MA: But in high school I played basketball and was captain, went on to senior, was the captain of the basketball team GS: Uh-huh MA: Didn' ; t have a good year GS: Aw MA: But we made all the games GS: Yup MA: I think I recall I wrestled one match in high school when I was a sophomore GS: Just decided that wasn' ; t for you? MA: Well we had a basketball game scheduled for that night and a wrestling match in the evening GS: Gosh MA: So I went up and tried out and made the weight and wound up having to wrestle the captain of the team and it was Oklahoma [Indecipherable] GS: Aw MA: I never had such a day in my life GS: I imagine, I imagine MA: That' ; s a long seven minutes GS: I' ; m sure, I' ; m sure MA:I told them, I said " ; You couldn' ; t even hear me?" ; when I told him [Indecipherable] GS: Aw MA: Oh well. I didn' ; t enjoy sports, but I was active in school GS: Any class offices or anything like that? Any other organizations? MA: Well, back then when I was in high school, we had district education plans, which was [Indecipherable] GS: Okay MA: And I was president of that for a year. I worked during high school GS: What did you do? MA: I worked for, started my career. I turned 13 years old and loaded freight cars for Bill Bursar (ph) GS: Oh wonderful MA: For two weeks, I worked a two-week vacation for somebody, that was it. And I turned 13 at that time GS: Wow MA: And then at 15 I went to work for C. R. Anthony GS: Yes MA: And I made thirty-five cents in an hour GS: That wasn' ; t bad back then MA: I could buy all the pop and candy I wanted GS: Sure you could MA: And I kept myself in clothes. GS: There you go MA: And then I went from C. R. Anthony' ; s to Woolworth (ph), M. W. Woolworth GS: Uh-huh MA: Got a raise, made 50cents an hour GS: Very good! I' ; m sure you were a great employee MA: I tell them, I used to take them, one of my jobs was to check the fire extinguisher, which at that time was a two-and-a-half-gallon bucket of water under the counter, floors were all [Indecipherable] GS: Oh my MA: Mop them, and when I worked at Woolworth it was during the war, and all the employees were women GS: Yeah, yeah MA: And I-- GS: Of course you were a teenager, right? MA: I was a teenager, I was, well I was worked until I was graduated, so 16, 17 years old. GS: Uh-huh MA: I' ; ve been--they called, you know they sold canaries and parakeets. GS: Really? MA: And inadvertently somebody' ; s gonna leave the door open then they-- GS: Aw MA: And I remember getting called out of school and I' ; d go down there and catch some bird with a butterfly net. Put them back in the pen and go back to school GS: Oh my goodness. And the school let you, didn' ; t they? MA: The school let me, yeah GS: It was no problem MA: They were good GS: That' ; s wonderful. Okay I' ; m gonna switch to church life. Did your family attend church when you were growing up? MA: We attended all of my life, the Nazarene church that started in Slick. I did not--that, here in Bristow our church was located on 8th and-- GS: 8th street MA: Maple and had a little brown church, doors in the corner, with one by four pews GS: One by four, yup MA: And then we later built a frame [Indecipherable] GS: Uh-huh MA: And I know my dad was on the board of the church, one day we were redecorating it and they were painting it and apparently gasoline caught fire and exploded, blew that church to pieces. GS: Aw MA: and I mean [indecipherable] GS: How disappointing MA: Nobody injured GS: Well that' ; s good MA: They rebuilt it, and then that brick church on top of the basement GS: Yeah MA: And I can remember my dad telling me we cannot afford a brick church, it just cost too much GS: Yeah MA: We struggled, but we had a brick church GS: But you made it, and it that the church that' ; s still standing there today? MA: That' ; s the church that' ; s still standing there, and a lot of wonderful memories there GS: I' ; m sure MA: Yeah GS: Can you tell me about any of them? MA: A few. I know as a teenager, I was a head of our youth group. The one thing I remember about it, we had a convention in Okmulgee, and I was probably 15, and one of the ladies was taking us down there the road from Bristow to Slick, down through there. And I [Indecipherable], it was rutty, muddy, and she drove down there in the mud in an old [Indecipherable]. But when she got to Okmulgee, she couldn' ; t parallel park GS: Oh, she could drive on the muddy roads but not parallel park MA: So I parallel parked the car for her GS: You probably didn' ; t even have your license yet MA: Oh no, no I didn' ; t at the time. GS: Well that' ; s a neat memory, any others? MA: We really enjoyed it, growing up there. Lots of young people GS: Good youth group MA: I was looking at some pictures not long ago, the pictures of our classroom. Sunday school teachers name was Gladys Banks (ph), and she lived out between Bristow and Slick GS: Okay MA: [Indecipherable] GS: Yup MA: And we' ; ve had problems before getting in that class [Indecipherable] and it would, we just covered the whole stairs, steps going up into the church. Lot of wonderful people, there' ; s a lot of memories GS: That' ; s wonderful. What were the Sunday, what were the services like on Sunday? You know, did you have Sunday school then worship service? MA: We had Sunday school, just basically like we do today. I mean, we had Sunday school early and as I recall, we sang a little song about 9:45, gotta be at Sunday school at 9:45 GS: Yup MA: Back then during the war, they had a bus GS: And you' ; re saying during the war, which war are you referring to? MA: World War II GS: Okay MA: They had a bus that would run and it would come to your house and would, it would come and we would walk about a block I think, and catch the bus if dad wasn' ; t able to go. Normally he was. GS: Yeah MA: And, but we rode the bus home just because it was gasoline was rationed GS: Right, oh yeah. MA: So, but we had some wonderful times there, good times. GS: Did your--you said your dad helped build the church, did they have a choir back then? Did, because now aren' ; t you a singer? Don' ; t you sing? MA: Well choir, yeah. I didn' ; t sing GS: Okay MA: It was best I didn' ; t GS: Oh MA: But we did have a choir, and you know a couple pews in the choir, not a big one GS: Uh-huh MA: ' ; Cause we didn' ; t have, you know, [Indecipherable] GS: Did your mom or dad sing in the choir? MA: No GS: No MA: No, they did not sing in the choir, but they were faithful. GS: Okay, now you' ; ve already said Franks Sisler was your doctor, did he make house calls? MA: As I recall, he did early GS: Okay, you probably didn' ; t need him very often, did you? MA: Not very often, I recall having pneumonia when I was real young, and they called it then double pneumonia, but and I was really sick and I believe he came to the house then. GS: But you didn' ; t go to the hospital? MA: No GS: Did we have a hospital in Bristow at that time? MA: We did GS: Sisler, was it Sisler Clinic or the one that was before that? MA: Cowart and Sisler GS: Okay MA: It was on west 8th street next to the American Legion GS: Okay MA: I spent one night there GS: Oh you did? MA: Had my tonsils taken out, almost bled out GS: Oh my MA: But it was I remember two or three stories tall that I can remember. Looking out the window, and the school' ; s having a bonfire before a football game GS: Aw MA: And, but as far as I know, till I was old, it was the only night I spent in the hospital GS: Well that' ; s wonderful. Okay, what was Bristow like when you were growing up? MA: Bristow was a lot like it is today GS: Really? MA: Buildings are mostly the same GS: Uh-huh MA: As usual, drug stores GS: Few more things for kids to do maybe MA: Few more things, well we played baseball in the summer, [Indecipherable] GS: Uh-huh MA: And the swimming pool was there, I can remember I couldn' ; t swim but I went to the swimming pool GS: Did they have the day camp and pre-swim back then? MA: Not that, not the day camp GS: Okay MA: Not that far back GS: Okay MA: They had the building out by the swimming pool and I' ; m trying to think of the name, they had a junior college GS: Yes MA: And they--and I can remember that building GS: Oh it was not ; it was not in the old high school? The junior college? MA: As I recalled it was in that building that later became the farm center for state GS: Okay, out by the lake? MA: Had a gin out by the lake, yeah GS: Okay MA: There' ; s just a parking lot there now GS: Okay MA: But they had it in [Indecipherable]. I think they had a gin and that' ; s where the junior college started GS: Was, where it started MA: Huh? GS: Where it started, where it began. Do you remember, were there theatres in town? Where there--you know? MA: We had Walmer (ph) and the ones I remember was Walmer and The Princess (ph) GS: Uh-huh MA: I didn' ; t go hardly GS: Yeah, you didn' ; t get to go to the movies? MA: I didn' ; t have the time GS: Oh yeah, you were too busy in sports, weren' ; t you? And working MA: But the Walmer was between 6th and 7th and the Princess was between 7th and 8th GS: And was it always there or do you remember when it was built or? MA: I don' ; t remember, but they were there as far as I can remember. We had several drug stores GS: Okay MA: You know, Smiths Drug and S& ; M (ph) and Rexal (ph) GS: Yes MA: And Kemps was there GS: Oh MA: And-- GS: Well yes because Max Kemp took it over from his father, didn' ; t he? MA: It was his family, right GS: That' ; s right. Did you ever eat out at restaurants in town? MA: Very seldom, the only thing I can really remember is maybe a hamburger GS: Uh-huh MA: Mom cooked GS: Yeah MA: It was better coking at home [Indecipherable] GS: I' ; m sure it was. Did you have a favourite hamburger place? MA: I can remember some, I never did eat much of it, but I can remember one that we had which would be, would' ; ve been right across from the fire station now. GS: Okay MA: Little old building on the ally way GS: Okay MA: And you could get ten hamburgers for a dollar GS: Oh my goodness MA: But you didn' ; t go in and sit down, you just buy them, take them out the window GS: Just to go place strictly, huh? MA: Just to go GS: Was there a place that was a teen hangout? MA: We had a teen youth center above what would be now the old Route Hometown Furniture GS: Okay MA: Where J. C. Pennys was GS: Yes MA: Upstairs was the youth center GS: Yes, I didn' ; t realize that MA: [Indecipherable] and had music they played, I never did dance, but you could GS: Uh-huh MA: They would just sit and visit primarily GS: Well that' ; s wonderful they had that place MA: It was nice for that time GS: Sure, my parents square danced in that area in the 60' ; s MA: Yeah GS: How did people dress back then? MA: Well, the girls wore penny loafers and they put the penny in the little slot in the front of it GS: Yes, yes MA: I recall in high school what we would do, we went through a spell of wearing white shirt and overall cowboy boots GS: Oh MA: We wore blue overalls, or the striped ones GS: Uh-huh MA: And I used to sell them at Anthony' ; s GS: Ah MA: And-- GS: So that would' ; ve been early 50' ; s? MA: Early 50' ; s, yeah, late 40' ; s. GS: Okay, that' ; s interesting. Was that kind of a general trend across maybe the area, or just a Bristow thing? MA: As far as I know it was Bristow, we didn' ; t know about the other areas, we didn' ; t get out of town much GS: Did you ever take the train out of town? MA: We did, we took the train when I was in grade school, and went to the Will Rogers memorial in Claremore GS: Oh wonderful, uh-huh MA: And the thing I remember is when we went to the, I called it the tunnel in Tulsa, it was dark for a short time, that' ; s where their depot was apparently up there. GS: Oh okay MA: But we went to Will Rogers memorial and then toured it when I was in-- GS: Took the train there, did you come down here to the depot? Was it this depot or was it the one before? MA: It' ; s the same one that' ; s here now GS: Well that' ; s wonderful. Now we' ; ve talked about your jobs already, did you ever serve in the military? MA: No I didn' ; t GS: Lucky youMA: I can recall [Indecipherable], back then a lot of our classmates was on the national guard GS: Okay MA: And during my hospital deal when it was activated for Korea GS: Okay MA: And several of my classmates went to Korea with the national guard bureau 45th division, but I had some issues with--the doctor told me, he said if they call you let me know because they don' ; t need you GS: Well very good, very good MA: Had a vision problem GS: Yeah, that' ; s alright MA: Well I would' ; ve gone, they tried to get me to join the national guard and--no I' ; ll go when they call me GS: There you go MA: But I don' ; t need to GS: Yeah, yeah. Okay, let' ; s see. Did you go to Tulsa or Oklahoma City much growing up? MA: We would go to Tulsa a lot, I had relatives in Oklahoma City GS: Okay MA: And several summers I would go spend a week or two GS: Oh that' ; s nice MA: With my cousins up there. But that was our vacation was to go to Oklahoma City on the weekend GS: Ah, what would you do when you were there? Just visit with the relatives? MA: Just visit with the relatives GS: And the kids probably played and-- MA: I was telling Joy (ph) earlier that that was our vacation where you go up on Saturday, spend a night, then come back on Sunday GS: Yeah MA: And now we run up there and eat lunch GS: That' ; s true, don' ; t have to make it an overnight trip MA: Don' ; t have to make it an overnight trip GS: Did your family have a car? MA: We did, now as far back as I can remember GS: Do you remember what kind? MA: Yeah, my dad had a--I think probably the first one I recall what' ; s the name. 38' ; Cheverolette, four door sedan GS: Uh-huh MA: We never had a new car GS: Yeah, yeah MA: Dad says you can fix them, his concern was if the body' ; s good you can fix them up. GS: And back then you could MA: Yeah GS: Without all the computer stuff on it MA: But I can remember a lot of them he had, I can remember when my brother was a senior, he was working part time during school, and we bought a 37' ; Chevy [Indecipherable] GS: Oh yeah MA: I said we did, he did and old [Indecipherable] went out north of town that I can remember [Indecipherable] hotel, and Jay, if those boys want that car to last, tell them to just drive it like it was new, like they were breaking it in. So it' ; s never been over 35 miles an hour, and we did it. GS: Wow, yup MA: And when he went to the service, I got to drive the car to school once. I' ; ve even, it was so seldom, I can remember walking home from school, leaving it at the school, because I forgot I had it GS: Oh my goodness MA: Georgia, I went up and I came back [Indecipherable] several years ago now, went up and talked to the class at school and when I walked through the parking lot there and saw all the cars, and I remember going to school and all the cars that the kids drove to school you could park on elm street between 8th and 9th GS: Yeah MA: Between the catholic church and school, there were probably five or six is all the cars that were at school GS: Yup MA: First thing he couldn' ; t afford GS: Right, exactly. Yeah it' ; s a lot different today MA: A lot different, a lot. GS: Okay we' ; re gonna really shift gears here now, do you remember if Bristow is segregated when you were growing up? MA: It was GS: Mhm MA: Black school was on north east side of town GS: Do you remember the name of it by chance? MA: Lincoln GS: Lincoln, okay MA: Lincoln high school. I lived about three blocks from it GS: Okay, okay MA: So pretty much 8th street was the dividing line, you know GS: Okay MA: At that time GS: Yeah MA: A few of us, I mixed with them, you know GS: Yeah, you had some friends MA: I had some friends at that time, I didn' ; t run with them in school, of course we weren' ; t in school GS: ' ; Cause you weren' ; t in school together, right? MA: Right, but I can remember an incident though which is not good, but when I was visiting one of them downtown, and I said " ; Well let' ; s go drink a coke" ; and I went in Smiths drugstore, and they served it. But the next time I went in there, they called me out and I said " ; Don' ; t you do that, don' ; t do that no more" ; GS: Aw how sad, but that was pretty common back then MA: That was common, that was common GS: Yes, a sad time in our history. Do you remember the names of any black people in the city back then? MA: Well it' ; s gonna be hard GS: That' ; s alright, that' ; s alright MA: I do remember an old gentleman called Roosevelt Joseph (ph) GS: Roosevelt Joseph MA: Yup, and then there was one that worked for P. M. Moore at the tire shop, and then there was a black girl that worked for Joe Mouse (ph) at his station, and of course one of the ones I remember most was Lafayette Johnson (ph) at the shoe store GS: Sure, I think a lot of people remember Lafayette MA: Shoe shine. Lafayette was remembered by everybody GS: Yes, yes MA: Then there was one that was a janitor at the high school, they lived on east 8th street, just about three blocks from me, just wonderful and encouraging to all of us young kids, and I can' ; t remember his name GS: Yup, yup MA: I know where he lives, his house is still there GS: Yup, I understand. Some of those names slip my memory too anymore. You mentioned going, well you mentioned the pool. Did you ever go to the pool, and were black children admitted to the swimming pool? I mean it was total segregation back then, wasn' ; t it? Yeah, yeah. MA: I don' ; t remember any in there at all, and I didn' ; t go often GS: Yeah, do you know if there were any freedmen in Bristow? Freedmen? MA: Freedmen? GS: Freedmen MA: No, I don' ; t remember GS: Okay, were there ever any episodes of racism that you remember growing up, other than what you just told me about the drug store MA: No GS: Yeah, I don' ; t think we had it bad here MA: To my knowledge we didn' ; t GS: Yeah MA: They were all [Indecipherable] in the north east part of town and that was pretty much it GS: Yeah. What about Indians? We were Indian territory, were Indians treated well in town, did you know any Indian families? MA: I did, I went to school with some and I don' ; t ever recall an incident. Now I remember some that would, you know, get drunk GS: Yeah, do you remember-- MA: They threw them in jail overnight, you know GS: Yeah, do you remember any that were employed, like you know some of the blacks you remembered working. Do you remember any Indians being employed at certain places? It' ; s okay if you can' ; t MA: One I remember was if I can recall his name, he was a son-in-law for Henry Kemp, and he worked at the station [Indecipherable], there was a real nice home over on the east 1st street just as you started out of town, the Indians lived in GS: Okay MA: But I can' ; t recall their names GS: Yup, yup. That gas station you mentioned, is it the one that' ; s just back here behind? MA: Right GS: Do you remember the name of that gas station? Was it a DX Station? MA: I don' ; t think it was DX, an independent station GS: We were trying to think of it the other day MA: I think we were just, Henry Kemp ran it GS: Okay MA: And then he later had a [Indecipherable] that' ; s when Merle Baker went in partnership with the Kemps GS: Okay MA: And then he had a [Indecipherable] across the street GS: Okay MA: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay MA: Which used to be, when I was a kid, there was a purple store GS: Where the skating rink? MA: Huh? GS: Where the-- MA: Skating rink wasn' ; t there then GS: Okay MA: It was on the corner, Foslers (ph) had a [Indecipherable] where they sold chicken GS: Oh MA: And a guy name Alonzo (ph) used to pick chickens there, a black boy GS: Okay MA: And you could buy fresh chickens there GS: Well MA: And I can remember going in there, he had a rubber chicken picker GS: A rubber chicken picker MA: That old electric deal that would just take the feathers off of it GS: Huh MA: But he would, you know, hang them up by their feet and just cut their throat and let them bleed out there in the store, it was all over GS: In the store? Oh my goodness MA: And you' ; d just buy them fresh GS: Wow MA: And the Fosters owned the business GS: Uh-huh, the Fosters you say? MA: Yeah GS: Okay MA: Arthur Fosters dad I think was the one that had it GS: Okay, that' ; s interesting. Anybody in your family involved in the oil industry that went on here? MA: My dad worked for Prairie Pipeline, which later became Sinclair GS: Right MA: And he worked with them all his working years until he was dead. And of course my brother, oldest brother worked for them, and later he worked for [Indecipherable]. At one time, [Indecipherable] wasn' ; t headquartered in Bristow GS: Yeah MA: Worked out in Cushing GS: Okay, okay I' ; m gonna switch to World War II. What kind of memories do you have of World War II? You were a teenager or preteen during the years? MA: I was a preteen GS: Preteen MA: I was--my brother graduated high school here in 43' ; , and went straight to the navy GS: Okay MA: And that was the year we lived in Okemah, and as I remember him being gone then coming back home GS: Was he stationed on a ship? MA: He was on a what they call an LST, which is [Indecipherable], but he used to describe it as one that goes over one wave and under two. But it was at the end of it would drop down and make it rain so that you were just [Indecipherable] GS: Oh okay MA: He had [Indecipherable] GS: I see ; I' ; ve seen those in movies MA: He was a welder in Sallisaw GS: Okay MA: Boxed while he was there GS: And he made it, oh he was a boxer in the army--in the navy? MA: He was a boxer, he boxed in the navy GS: My uncle boxed during the war also MA: Dad had him boxing when he was two or three years' ; old GS: Oh my goodness, really? Were you ever a boxer? MA: But, not me, not me. I told him, you know, in my family the three boys, there was a boxer, and a fighter, and a diplomat GS: And you were the diplomat, weren' ; t you? MA: I was the diplomat. My oldest brother boxed a lot and was good, my middle brother would fight anybody GS: Wow MA: And he was pretty good at that. GS: He was good at it MA: Bob ran around with Buck [Indecipherable] GS: Okay, he goes to my church MA: Yeah GS: Buck does MA: Yeah, and see I graduated-- GS: Sits right in front of me MA: And I graduated with his younger brother Kenny GS: Okay MA: Still know a lot of people in town GS: Yeah, yeah. Did rationing affect your family a lot during the war? MA: To some extent, yes. I remember lard was hard to get and momma always had to use lard GS: I' ; m sure if she was a baker MA: I can remember when, I remember when we couldn' ; t get candy bars, you know some of those places they got them, one of them would have, if they had any, they put them under the counter for certain people GS: Oh MA: But I could walk by that thing look in the window to see if they had any GS: Could you talk them out of it if you-- MA: Not often. I remember that the sugar was short, gasoline wasn' ; t that--we didn' ; t need a lot of gasoline cause we wasn' ; t going anywhere GS: Uh-huh, uh-huh MA: I--hose, silk stockings were not readily available GS: Right, right MA: That' ; s about it GS: Okay, tell me about after you got married here in Bristow. I think I failed to ask you earlier about your children. You and your wife, did you have children? MA: We had one son GS: Mark MA: And-- GS: What was his name? MA: His name was Marcus Allen (ph) and he graduated from--he was the next one to graduate from high school after I did GS: Aw MA: When we came back from Bristow. Mark grew up in Sapulpa, we transferred to Sapulpa not long after I went to work O& ; G here in Bristow GS: When did you go to work for O& ; G? MA: Went to work for O& ; G the Monday after I graduated high school GS: And you worked for them all those years MA: Worked for them a little over 41 years GS: Wow, I did not realize that Marland MA: I took my test for them while I was in high school, graduated Thursday night, took my physical on Friday and went to work Monday morning GS: That' ; s fantastic MA: And I transferred to Sapulpa and we raised our son in Sapulpa, he came back to Bristow midterm Junior GS: Okay MA: In 1971 GS: Okay MA: And graduated in 72' ; GS: He was in my graduating class MA: Right, with you GS: Yup, and-- MA: Had a wonderful, I got to come back and be manager of the office where I went to work GS: Aw, that is neat, that is neat. And O& ; G isn' ; t based in Bristow anymore MA: They' ; re not based in Bristow, I was there during the transition back in 86' ; , and they had a downsizing and the crews that we had here moved to Sapulpa, and they had an early out push. We only had to have 10 years of service, but you had to be 55 years old, and I had gotten thirty something years of service GS: Right MA: But I was 52, so I went back to Sapulpa, which is where I transferred from in the beginning of it GS: Right MA: I went from Bristow to Sapulpa to Tulsa and from Tulsa back to Bristow GS: Uh-huh MA: And then went from Bristow back to Sapulpa GS: But you were able to still live here the whole time, weren' ; t you? MA: I didn' ; t move back to Sapulpa in 86' ; GS: Yeah MA: I commuted GS: Right MA: From then and we were able to keep the office open for just [Indecipherable] just attached here inside until I retired in 94' ; , and when I retired then they closed the office. GS: I missed the offices being open MA: I do, I miss-- GS: I think it had hurt the communities when that happened MA: And it just-- right GS: Tell me about your work with O& ; G MA: I started out as a meter reader GS: Okay MA: Transferred from here to Sapulpa, went into the county department, with no county training at all, but I could add and subtract, I could do that GS: Right, and you were a fast learner I' ; m sure MA: And I went into the county there, and in the mid 60' ; s I transferred to Tulsa still in the county, went to a nice school at TU for a couple of years, got some accounting courses in that they told me I needed GS: Yeah MA: To promote GS: Yeah MA: Then I transferred into the budget department, went to our service center out on east 15th, worked out there a couple of years, and then transferred into marketing department you know back downtown, and worked in our marketing department for about three years. And then transferred back to Bristow as manager of the office where I went to work GS: Okay, what can you tell me about Bristow during those years? For instance, were you active in any organizations here in Bristow? MA: This year I would' ; ve completed 50 years as a member of the Lions Club, I went into the Lions Club, I' ; ve always been active in city [Indecipherable] GS: I thought you had MA: And when I was in Sapulpa I was in the J.C.s (ph), went to the J.C.s, wasn' ; t old enough to join. You had to be 21, I' ; m 19, and-- GS: They took you anyway? MA: They let me to go meetings until I got old enough to join, and then when I went into Tulsa I did fundraising for a YMCA, was active over there with the boy scouts, did fundraising for the boy scouts, salvation army, and then when I come back here I' ; ve always been active here in Bristow GS: Yes, you have MA: President of Chamber of Commerce, president of the Lions Club GS: Okay MA: And I' ; ve actually was awarded citizen of the year GS: Do you remember what year that was Marland? MA: I think it was 76' ; , in that area GS: Okay MA: I can tell you, I can give you the exact dates but I' ; d have to go home GS: Right, right MA: And then I was chosen for lifetime achievement, [Indecipherable] the chambers highest honour. GS: That' ; s quite an honour MA: And one of the few who had got it, well it was [Indecipherable] GS: That makes it even better, doesn' ; t it? MA: Makes it even better GS: A little bit sweeter MA: And I tried to be, you know, a good citizen and to participate in-- GS: Now you attend--Oh I' ; m sorry, go ahead MA: And I' ; ve--was received the highest honour that the Lions had, which was the [Indecipherable] award GS: Wonderful MA: And my club here bought me a lifetime membership in the Lions Club, I was going to retire GS: Aw MA: And they said no, when I turned 80 I was gonna retire, and they said no you' ; re not gonna retire, you just come when you want to GS: Well that' ; s nice, that' ; s nice MA: So I still try to go GS: They know valuable people when they see them, they don' ; t wanna let them go MA: I' ; ve shared the united way drive twice, and I' ; ve tried to do my part to be a good citizen GS: Well and I think you' ; ve done an outstanding job MA: For in the church and all of that GS: Now you currently go to the Freewill Baptist, don' ; t you? MA: Right GS: How long have you been going there? MA: We went to Freewill Baptist in Sapulpa, I was raised a Nazarene, but when we went to Sapulpa, Nazarene church was big. Martha and I, you know, we were kids, so we went for a while to the Assembly of God church, which was smaller, and her sister and her family went GS: Uh-huh MA: And then while we lived in Sapulpa, her Brother, who is a minister, took the Freewill Baptist church in Sapulpa so we began to go with him, and then of course when we came back to Bristow, we transferred back, we went [Indecipherable]. We' ; ve been in the Freewill church here for 50 years GS: I thought you' ; d been there a long time MA: We came back to Bristow in 1971, and-- GS: And you probably are on the boards of elders and about everything that there is in the church MA: Sure I' ; m on the board, I was treasurer for several years, taught Sunday school class, then I got too old GS: You' ; re not too old Marland. Alright now we' ; re gonna shift a little bit. We' ; ve just, we' ; re just coming out of a pandemic from COVID 19, how has that affected you? MA: Caused me to spend a lot more time at home GS: Yes MA: My usual routine was to get up and go to coffee, with a whole bunch of coffee drinkers about 9 o' ; clock in the morning for about an hour GS: And that stopped that for about a year and a half, didn' ; t it? MA: That stopped that for about a year and a half, and in fact we had our first session back yesterday GS: Oh wonderful, wonderful MA: But it has made a difference on it, it' ; s something to respect GS: It is MA: We were able to--we got the shots fairly early GS: Good MA: And, but we' ; ve--we respect it GS: Amen, mhm MA: The danger of it and so I spent a lot more time at home, which was good GS: Yes MA: [Indecipherable] GS: Did you lose anybody in your family due to COVID? MA: We have not, my sister had it, a light case, several of her family had had the COVID GS: Uh-huh MA: But we did not GS: Good MA: Our grandson was exposed to it early in his work, and took the test, but never did have it GS: But it didn' ; t affect him much, good. Good, good, good. Looking back over your life, what would you consider to be some of the most important, or the most important, inventions during your lifetime? MA: It would be hard to decide which one. Of course the cars were already here, they had washing machines, we didn' ; t happen to have one of them but, but I think, you know, refrigeration. We grew up with an ice man coming to the door GS: Yes, yes MA: And putting a chunk of ice in the box GS: In the bottom of the fridge MA: In the wooden ice box GS: Uh-huh MA: At our house, we had a window box GS: Okay MA: In the winter time, we just left our stuff out. They had to build a box outside the window and you just raised the window up and put the milk and the butter and stuff, screen wire over it. And in the winter time, it would stay real cold out there. GS: Well sure it would, that' ; s the first time I' ; ve heard of that MA: And I can remember in the kitchens, you know, that' ; s what it was and you could raise the window and mom would get the milk and stuff GS: How fun, that time we lost electricity for nine months, nine months--nine days MA: Nine days GS: We did that, we put our food outside because it was cold MA: And during that time, I didn' ; t lose mine GS: Good for you MA: I' ; m served off the transmission deal out there, and we were off for two to three hours GS: Wow, wow well you were lucky because most of the rest of the town was out. As you see it, what are some of the biggest problems that face our nation right now and how do you think they could be solved? MA: Well, just the relationship of people is something that bothers me GS: Yes MA: It seems like it' ; s nothing. You know, I grew up with if there' ; s something that needs to get done, we' ; d go and do it GS: Exactly MA: Now it' ; s, you know, you do it. And the kids today, the younger generations, I' ; ve told my family, you know, just two words they know and that' ; s me and I GS: Mhm MA: If it' ; s not and if it doesn' ; t benefit me, I don' ; t care about it GS: That' ; s so sad MA: And it bothers me GS: Yeah, you' ; re not the only person I' ; ve interviewed who has said this MA: Church is important to me GS: Yes MA: And the attendance at church is not nearly-- GS: No it isn' ; t MA: --What it should be. Salvation is something that seems like people have just forgotten GS: I agree 100%, it is MA: God' ; s still there, God' ; s still on the throne, and his time is gonna come one of these days GS: I agree with you Marland MA: I just hope I' ; ve made mine right GS: Do what? MA: I just hope I' ; ve made my life right GS: Well I know you have. Okay is there anything that you would like to tell us that I haven' ; t thought to ask? MA: Georgia, it' ; s just that I came to Bristow early, I like Bristow. When I came back here, I told them when I was elected for citizen of the year, I didn' ; t have to come to Bristow GS: No MA: But it' ; s home GS: You chose Bristow MA: I chose to GS: Mhm MA: And I chose to stay here, when I was-- opportunity to go out of town again. My mother was still alive, which was up in her 90' ; s and I chose to stay here and drive for 8 years to Sapulpa and back everyday GS: Yeah, it was a longer trip back then than it is now too MA: Yeah, and but the only thing, the bad part of going from here to Sapulpa and doing a day job is that you drive into the sun going-- audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-23_Marland_Armitage.xml OHP-2021-23_Marland_Armitage.xml
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1100
Location
The location of the interview
Bristow, Oklahoma
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
66:51
Interview Keyword
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“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Bristow, farming, great depression, home life, hospital, Lincoln High School, Nazarene church, oil companies, segregation, Slick, train, Washington School
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Marland Armitage
Description
An account of the resource
In this 2021 interview, Marland Armitage shares his experience living in Bristow throughout the years. He discusses the different businesses located in town and what life was like during the depression.
Identifier
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OHP-2021-23
Date
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2021-06-29
Format
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audio
Creator
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Publisher
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Rights
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Copyright Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Language
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English
Type
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sound, oral history
Bristow
farming
Great Depression
home life
hospital
Lincoln High School
Nazarene church
oil companies
segregation
Slick
train
Washington School
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/d1b80d6d5195142f47217526853cf084.jpg
8ac2714537977695b4070c30ae2f4f68
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Family Histories
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral accounts of various family histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Georgia Smith
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Carole Ellis
OHMS Object
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-09_Carole_Ellis.xml
OHMS Object Text
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contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 November 12, 2020 OHP-2020-09 Carole Ellis OHP-2020-09 00:00 - 64:15 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Carole Ellis Georgia Smith MP3 1:|60(7)|92(1)|114(3)|154(15)|166(13)|183(15)|202(11)|220(3)|241(8)|263(12)|291(1)|318(7)|333(2)|358(7)|377(8)|409(1)|420(9)|441(1)|467(6)|477(9)|507(2)|527(3)|542(5)|568(2)|591(5)|603(4)|621(7)|641(3)|677(3)|704(8)|718(13)|728(6)|746(7)|754(11)|768(4)|782(1)|791(15)|813(11)|832(11)|842(6)|853(9)|862(14)|874(2)|880(3)|893(1)|906(3)|914(10)|925(2)|943(6)|955(16)|969(1)|982(6)|995(6)|1011(11)|1036(5)|1065(2)|1079(9)|1094(6)|1105(1)|1116(6)|1131(6)|1142(15)|1156(1)|1169(13) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Carole Greer Ellis.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. The date is November the 12th, 2020 and I am sitting here with Carol Ellis at the museum depot who is going to tell me a little bit about her history in the Bristow area. Now, could you give me your full name Carol? CE: Hi Georgia GS: Hey CE: My full name for the Bristow area is Carol Greer Ellis. GS: Okay, what was your name at birth? CE: Carol Lynn Greer Baltimore, Maryland ; Bristow Historical Society ; Carol Greer Ellis ; Carol Lynn Greer ; Georgia Smith 77 Family History GS: Okay, right in the war almost, at the end of the war. What were your parents’ names, and we’ll start with your mother first and her maiden name? CE: My mother was from Baltimore, Dorothy Elizabeth Rigel (ph), my father from Bristow, Merle Leroy Greer. GS: Where were your parents married? CE: I have no idea, my father was in the navy and he was stationed in Maryland at the time when he met my mother, and they were married in Baltimore. GS: Okay, you know when they were married? CE: About a year or so before I was born. GS: Okay, 43’ or 44’ CE: Yes Dorothy Elizabeth Rigel ; Edward Wyatt ; Gale Lease Lawson ; Jerry Ellis ; Merle Leroy Greer https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25270948/edward-j-wyatt Edward Wyatt 220 Childhood GS: Alright. Tell me about what your life was like at home when you were a young child. CE: Well, when I was a young child, I still have some childhood friends that are still here, Sherry Hill (ph), Slyman lived across the street, Claudia Parish—Parish family lived across the street, we lived near the football field. We played a lot on the football field after football games, we walked to Edison elementary school, growing up here my life was in nature a lot, you know, we walked around the town, went to the schools here, had close friends and their parents were friends with my parents. We were all involved in the churches and the schools and the swimming pool in the summer, and riding horses in fields, being out in nature. And art, always doing art of some kind. GS: Sounds like a delightful childhood. What kind of house did you grow up in? Billy Newton ; Claudia Parish ; Edison Elementary ; Peggy Newton ; Safeway ; Sherry Hill ; Silver plunge ; Washington Elementary ; Winky Dink ; Zorro 705 Grandparents GS: All the time, yeah. Okay we’re gonna switch to your grandparent’s now CE: Okay GS: Do you remember hearing your grandparents describe their lives before—let me back up, what were your grandparent’s names? CE: I was a very fortunate child that I knew both sets of my grandparents and my great grandparents GS: That is, I don’t get many of those on the interviews CE: So my fathers parents were Earnest Greer (ph) and Willa Wyatt Greer (ph), and my—they, daddies father was from Mounds and of course my grandmother was born here in Creek county. My mother’s parents were Dorothy Elizabeth Troxel (ph), she was born in Maryland, and Thomas Charleston Brigle (ph), my mother’s father, and he also was born in Maryland. Creek County ; Dorothy Elizabeth Troxel ; Earnest Greer ; Mounds, Oklahoma ; Thomas Charleston Brigle ; Willa Wyatt Greer 917 School GS: Where did you first attend school? We’re gonna jump now to. CE: I first attended school here in Bristow and I went to Catholic kindergarten. The catholic school had a kindergarten GS: Yes CE: And I went to kindergarten there. GS: Okay CE: Then Edison elementary, Washington elementary, Bristow Junior high school, Bristow high school graduated. GS: What year did you graduate? Bristow High School ; Bristow Junior High School ; Edison Elementary ; Gladys Holcombe ; Mrs. Foster ; New York City ; Oklahoma State University ; Peadee Smith ; University of Oklahoma ; Washington Elementary 1234 Church Life GS: I'm sure you did, I'm sure. Okay we're gonna switch to church life. You mentioned that you all went to churches ; did you attend a certain church as a child? CE: We went to First Baptist Church GS: And is it the same building that is now at sixth and chestnut? CE: Yes, it is. GS: Can you describe any of the services? CE: I think the services as a young kid you can't remember GS: No First Baptist Church ; Harvets Jewelry Store 1374 Medical Care GS: Yes, the turbulent sixties. What was medical care like when you were a child? CE: My mother was diligent about taking us to the doctor to get, you know, a vaccinations or whenever we needed to go then my mother was always very medically inclined. GS: Do you remember any of the doctors or your family doctor? CE: Sure, my family doctor was Dr. C. T. Kent GS: Okay CE: And I remember his whole family, yes I remember him very well. I also remember, yeah I remember him very well and his family. GS: Did they make house calls or did you need to go to the office? CE: I also remember Doctor King, my great grandmother Wyatt's doctor GS: Yes CE: Dr. King made house calls GS: Okay Dr. C. T. Kent ; Dr. King ; Kay James ; Laban ; Saint Francis Hospital ; Siscler 1633 Businesses GS: My goodness. Do you remember any of the businesses downtown? You've mentioned some grocery stores, there were several, do you remember any others? CE: Okay, I'll start on the west side. Beginning at Edison elementary school, there was a MedalGold (ph) place that was in where Oscars lunch place used to be GS: At ninth and main CE: Bushes Cafe, where Mrs. Bushkin (ph) made great homemade everything, there was a locker where people who butchered their cattle or brought their chicken frosted--chickens and their cows. GS: Just south of the last--Bushes CE: Bushes GS: Just south of Bushes American National Bank ; Bushes Cafe ; Dairy Queen ; Ford Hardware Store ; Hamburger King ; Harvest Jewelry ; Harvets Jewelry ; Ice House ; Kemp Drug ; MedalGold ; Mrs. Bushkin ; Oscars ; Patens ; Princes Theater ; Redbird ; Shamus ; Silvers ; Stanford Clothing Shop ; Strongs ; Tropes Service Station ; Walmer ; Woolworth 1800 Jobs and Art GS: Okay, that's pretty good. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? CE: I only knew what I liked to do, I didn't have an idea of like " ; I want to be this" ; . I know I loved to do art all the time, and I loved to write and I loved to be outside. In high school I thought about being a teacher, but I was really loving writing and debating and being in plays, they had--the speech teacher had to really rope me into debating. But once I did learn to do it, I liked it and I loved plays, doing theater. And dance, oh yeah I forgot that part. When we were in the first and second grade, Wanda Newton had a dance studio in her house. GS: I did not know that. National Academy ; New York City ; Oklahoma City ; Oklahoma State University ; The Natural Wire Draw ; Wanda Newton 2118 Oklahoma City Bombing GS: Now I know that you've used your artistic talents in the memorial of the Oklahoma City Bombing, how did the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Murrah building affect you personally? CE: I think that's two different questions so I'm gonna start the art part first GS: Okay CE: You know ; art is very underrated in the study of--in the curriculum of schools. There's fine art and there's commercial art. Commercial art is whenever you can just get assignments for clients and it's a business and you make money and you have techniques and you can do what they want, like building a kitchen cabinet. Fine art you never know what your future's gonna be. You never know that it's gonna be based on money or how you're gonna survive. You train yourself fin the basics of drawing and painting and anatomy and ceramics and sculpture and art history, and you nurture yourself and you become the kind of artist you're going to become, you don't have a name for it at the time. I gravitated to like a journalistic fine artist because I grew up in a lot of life here in Oklahoma and went to a lot of things in life. I loved to draw live events, I love to paint what I--live things, or if I remember something from something that's happened in my life, it might stay with me so long that I need to express it artistically somehow. So when the Oklahoma City bombing happened-- American Library Association ; Chris Watt ; FAA ; John Lennon ; Murrah Building ; Oklahoma City Bombing ; Oklahoma City Project ; Oklahoma Department of Libraries ; Parsons ; Woody Guthrie 2886 Oklahoma Hall of Fame Ceremony CE: It did-- GS: And I beg your pardon because I don't remember if it was a television thing, but tell me about that when you had the beautiful dress. CE: Oh the dress, the blue dress. Okay, well first every year at the anniversary of the bombing, I'm very aware of it so I will always do something just like the initiative for bringing it to you guys at the 20th anniversary was because of that normally when I do that. That time of year is I'm always getting back involved with it. Well after I'd been working on the project a year, after-- GS: And I need to make a correction, that was the 25th anniversary CE: Okay, that's right GS: I said 20th but it was the 25th CE: It was, so--thanks for catching that Georgia. After I'd been working on the project for a year, I had all this drawing and work and [Indecipherable] and stuff and I said, alright, I was talking to a friend I said " ; I have all this work for you, I'm not sure what to do with it" ; and they said " ; Do you know anybody who has--is in television?" ; well actually because of the first Bristow all school reunion, I had met this man named Jimmy Baker who had graduated from Bristow High School right out here on near the bricks at the historical society, and I had met him and helped him find brick for his family, and we got into a conversation and he was a producer for ABC from Los Angela's back here in Bristow to do the All School reunion, so I remembered him because he asked me to keep in touch with him. So I called him up and said " ; I have this material that I've written and drawn about the Oklahoma City Bombing, what do you suggest? Someone said if you know someone in television, talk to them about it" ; so I talked to him about it, and he said " ; Send me everything" ; , so I sent him--sent it to him a lot of it. And he called me shortly thereafter and said " ; Can you speak in front of an audience?" ; and I said yes and he said " ; Can you memorize your poem?" ; And I said yes-- Fashion Institute ; Jimmy Baker ; New York ; Oklahoma Hall of Fame Ceremony ; Trace Kelly 3213 Politics GS: You did ; alright we're going to switch now. I don't think--I think I know the answer to this one, but we're gonna throw it out there anyway. Were your parents involved in politics? CE: You know, that's a loaded question right now. My parents both voted, they were both registered republicans though my mother would vote more independently than my father. But we were up in, you know, it's better to ask that question about civics I think. You grew up to be a citizen of your community, citizen of your country. You could have great arguments with someone on the other side of the fence, and you didn't mud sling. GS: You still respected them CE: You did, and you actually learned that way. GS: Yeah CE: Because you learned to absorbed someone's else's point of view or see their side of things without becoming defensive and stonewalling yourself. Korean War ; Martin Marietta ; Princeton ; World War II 3408 Lifetime Changes and Closing Thoughts GS: We're gonna switch to lifetime changes. Looking back over all the years, what would you consider to be the most important inventions? Doesn't have to be just one, it can be several during your lifetime. CE: I remember my grandmother Greer (ph) who lived a good hundred was asked this question, and she said seeing the rover land on mars. GS: Oh my goodness CE: Or if it was mars, or the moon, one of them. Whichever. I would have to say that too, man landing on the moon, television, let's see, oh forty-five records. (Laughing) GS: Those were wonderful. How is the world different now than when you were a child? CE: It's a much more defensive world, a more splintered world. I find that quite sad even in this local community. I think this last election has really shown that to each group, and this whole--the last four years, but it was building up to that I think. I think when you believe your own beliefs so strongly that you become angry at other people, I think it builds walls, and there's something about having fences not walls. Fences that you can see through or land that you can see through. You don't have to go along with someone else, but you can be like that--civil to one another. COVID ; Gilcrease Museum In this 2020 interview, Carole Ellis talks about her experience growing up in Bristow. She discusses the different businesses located throughout the community and her passion for art. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: Carole Ellis Other Persons: Date of Interview: November 12, 2020 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2020-09 at 00:00 to 64:15 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. The date is November the 12th, 2020 and I am sitting here with Carole Ellis at the museum depot who is going to tell me a little bit about her history in the Bristow area. Now, could you give me your full name Carole? CE: Hi Georgia GS: Hey CE: My full name for the Bristow area is Carole Greer Ellis. GS: Okay, what was your name at birth? CE: Carole Lynn Greer GS: Okay, and where were you born? CE: I was born in Baltimore, Maryland GS: Were you born in a hospital? CE: Yes, I was GS: Okay, and what was the date of your birth? CE: February 26, 1945. GS: Okay, right in the war almost, at the end of the war. What were your parents' ; names, and we' ; ll start with your mother first and her maiden name? CE: My mother was from Baltimore, Dorothy Elizabeth Rigel (ph), my father from Bristow, Merle Leroy Greer. GS: Where were your parents married? CE: I have no idea, my father was in the navy and he was stationed in Maryland at the time when he met my mother, and they were married in Baltimore. GS: Okay, you know when they were married? CE: About a year or so before I was born. GS: Okay, 43' ; or 44' ; CE: Yes GS: Okay, what brought them to Oklahoma? Probably that he was from here. CE: My father' ; s family was here from before statehood, his mother was born in a sod house in creek county and her dad, Edward Wyatt, created one of the first rural schools in creek county. GS: Oh awesome! I find out so much I didn' ; t know. How many children did your parents have? CE: Two GS: Okay and what were their names, or are their names? CE: Well myself and my sister Gale Lease Lawson (ph) GS: What did your father do for a living? CE: My father worked for the post office. GS: Okay, most of his life? CE: Yes, he did, he retired from the post office and so did his father. GS: Oh, what did your mother do? CE: My mother was a dental assistant, and did dental education in Bristow schools GS: I remember your mother and the kids would always come home and say " ; The tooth lady came to see us today" ; CE: That' ; s right, and of course she was involved in starting the historical society. GS: Yes, yes she was. What is your-- are you married? CE: No GS: Okay, have you been married? CE: Yes, I have GS: What was your spouse' ; s name? CE: Jerry GS: Jerry-- CE: Ellis GS: Ellis, okay. And what date was that, that you got married? CE: Oh gosh, it' ; s been so long ago. I don' ; t really remember. GS: Okay, did you divorce? CE: Yes, we did GS: Or was he-- Okay. Did you have any children? CE: No GS: Alright. Tell me about what your life was like at home when you were a young child. CE: Well, when I was a young child, I still have some childhood friends that are still here, Sherry Hill (ph), Sly man lived across the street, Claudia Parish--Parish family lived across the street, we lived near the football field. We played a lot on the football field after football games, we walked to Edison elementary school, growing up here my life was in nature a lot, you know, we walked around the town, went to the schools here, had close friends and their parents were friends with my parents. We were all involved in the churches and the schools and the swimming pool in the summer, and riding horses in fields, being out in nature. And art, always doing art of some kind. GS: Sounds like a delightful childhood. What kind of house did you grow up in? CE: First we were in something called veterans apartments, which I think were near the football field where I think people were returning from the war. Now my father was in World War II, and the Korean conflict he was called back, I remember that time because my mom was really sad and he left us before we were home. And then they started building a new housing edition on South Cedar street, and we watched a house being built there and moved there. GS: Okay, what are some of your favorite toys as a child? CE: My crayons GS: I knew you were gonna say that. Carole is quite the artist. What kind of role did your mother play in the home? CE: Well mother was--she baked a lot of things, she made the house look beautiful, but she was also a working woman. GS: And how was your laundry done? CE: In a washing machine, but I do remember going over to my grandmother Greer' ; s house and seeing a big sink in the basement and there was an old washing machine that had a wringer, you know those wringer things GS: Yes, but yours did not have a wringer CE: No it didn' ; t GS: Okay, what kind of cooking stove? CE: Gas GS: Gas cooking stove. What were some of your normal daily meals? CE: Cheerios in the morning, lunch at the elementary schools where the cooks made the best food whether there was Edison Elementary or when we moved across town to Washington Elementary, and those wonderful cinnamon rolls that they cooked in the morning and you smelled them in the school while you were doing your morning classes. And then while it' ; s close to thanksgiving time now so we would' ; ve gone to my grandmother' ; s house and there would' ; ve been a big turkey and lots of homemade dressing and pies cooling on the back porch and homemade rolls, lots of them because the family was big. My father had five brothers and sisters and everyone came to grandmother' ; s house with my cousins. And the big dining room table was laid out and then the kids tables were in the kitchen and in the summer time, homemade ice cream, and the freezers in the--the ice cream makers in the back yard where the kids sat on a palate while the adults churned the ice cream GS: Did they sit on top of the ice cream freezer? CE: Yes, you sat on top of the quilt of the ice cream--on top of the ice cream freezer. GS: Do you have any of the family recipes from your childhood that you still make? CE: No I don' ; t, but my grandmother made incredible mashed potatoes, which I tried to do myself with lots of butter. You have to have lots of butter in mashed potatoes GS: Oh yeah, that makes them much better. Where did you--where did your family shop for groceries? CE: Well, at the time I grew up main street had a lot of stores, among it were some small grocery stores on main street itself. And so I remember going to that store. Also at that time, grocery stores delivered sometimes. It' ; s funny now with the pandemic that we' ; re actually reverting back to the older ways of having groceries delivered to your house. GS: This is true CE: I think--I think Safeway was here then. GS: What were your daily chores? CE: Summer, mowing the lawn. Laundry when my mother was working and washing and drying the dishes, and washing the car in the summertime with my sister. GS: Oh, I always thought that was fun. Did your family ever employ any household help? CE: No. GS: What type of clothes did you wear? CE: My mother was always very good about keeping us up with the latest things, so it was nice. GS: So probably store bought clothes CE: Yes GS: And you already told me who some of your childhood friends were, what about some of your childhood games that you played? CE: Well the Newton' ; s were big friends too, Peggy and Billy Newton. Games, monopoly, I wasn' ; t a big game person, I was more of being an outdoor person GS: Well maybe outdoor games CE: Well, hide-and-seek in the summertime till it got dark then the neighborhood kids had to go inside, swimming of course in the summertime learning how to swim, and walking, going to day camp, day camp was just--first day camp for Bristow schools was started when I was growing up and we all went to day camp. GS: Was that at the--was the swimming pool called the Silver Plunge back then? CE: It was, and the day camp was in what were the--the city has the buildings now but those buildings-- GS: Were the camp CE: Where they used to have the county fair and county buildings. GS: What was your daily life like? Just to--a day in the life of Carol Ellis when you were a child, Carol Greer? CE: Well of course on Saturday when we got TV finally, you would watch some of your favorite shows like Zorro or go over to the neighbor' ; s house and watch Winky Dink, which had a Wink--Sherrin had a Winky Dink set which was something you bought from the TV people and you put this little screen up on your TV and Winky Dink would have adventures and you would have a little pencil that you would draw little bridges or-- GS: Oh how fun CE: You would interact with the story GS: And that was right up your ally. CE: Well that was fun GS: Yes, I' ; m sure you enjoyed that. Okay you just mentioned television, do you remember the first television you got? CE: I do, because it was a family decision. We had to decide whether we wanted to spend money on getting bicycles or television. GS: And television won out CE: It did GS: Did you have radio before that? CE: Yes GS: And did you all listen to it in the evenings much? CE: All the time GS: All the time, yeah. Okay we' ; re gonna switch to your grandparent' ; s now CE: Okay GS: Do you remember hearing your grandparents describe their lives before--let me back up, what were your grandparent' ; s names? CE: I was a very fortunate child that I knew both sets of my grandparents and my great grandparents GS: That is, I don' ; t get many of those on the interviews CE: So my fathers parents were Earnest Greer (ph) and Willa Wyatt Greer (ph), and my--they, daddies father was from Mounds and of course my grandmother was born here in Creek county. My mother' ; s parents were Dorothy Elizabeth Troxel (ph), she was born in Maryland, and Thomas Charleston Brigle (ph), my mother' ; s father, and he also was born in Maryland. GS: Okay CE: Then my--I knew my great grandparents Brigle and my great grandparents Giden, all in Maryland. And then I knew my great grandmother Wyatt (ph) who was my grandmother Greers mom, and her sisters and all her sisters, she had three, lived to be older than 95 years old. GS: Wow CE: And my grandmother lived to be 100, and all of them had their wits about them GS: That is wonderful CE: That' ; s true. GS: Do you remember who the oldest person in your family was when you were a child? CE: My great grandmothers GS: And-- CE: Great--grandfather. GS: Okay, do you remember anything specifically them saying about life or anything? CE: I remember what they did GS: Ok CE: My great grandmother Giden and they had this wonderful two story house and they held us outside of Maryland and whenever we would visit in the summer times, the house number one was quiet. The only sound in the house was the ticking of the clock in the living room GS: Wow, mhm. CE: And the--there was a water pump on the back porch and a beautiful stream near the side of the house and she raised beautiful lilac bushes and flowers and she had banty chickens, so when we would visit for vacation time, she would cook--she was a great cook, and the thing I remember most was she would make pancakes after the dinner after we arrived and then she would put chicken gravy on the pancakes in the morning. GS: Oh my goodness CE: And that was very delicious. And my great grandfather Giden had lost his arm shooting off fireworks GS: Ohh CE: Just below the elbow, but he never let it interfere with how active he was in driving the car, or whatever he did. And he had a really wonderful personality, he would sit down on this old screen covered porch with us as grandchildren and we' ; d sit in these wonderful wicker rocking chairs and watch the trains go by. GS: What delightful memories I love those. CE: All my grandmothers were good cooks. GS: Ah, I think most grandmothers back then were good cooks CE: They were very good cooks GS: Where did you first attend school? We' ; re gonna jump now to. CE: I first attended school here in Bristow and I went to Catholic kindergarten. The catholic school had a kindergarten GS: Yes CE: And I went to kindergarten there. GS: Okay CE: Then Edison elementary, Washington elementary, Bristow Junior high school, Bristow high school graduated. GS: What year did you graduate? CE: 1963' ; then Oklahoma State University, graduated in English, started my masters in English and OSU, stopped that when I decided I didn' ; t think I knew enough to write a dissertation, and then I started working in the libraries in Oklahoma City, then I went to the university of Oklahoma and got my masters in Library Science. Completed that, then went to work at the state department of the libraries in Oklahoma City, and did public relations, and then I went to New York city and worked in Publishing and public relations and at that time, that' ; s when I got involved in the art schools in New York City, even though as a child I' ; d always done art and when actually I was here in Bristow, growing up there was an art teacher named Peadee Smith (ph) and Peedea gave art lessons in her house and a lot of us kids took art lessons with her. And then Gladys Holcombe (ph) was the art teacher in elementary school at Washington, and so she was very influential both Gladys and Peadee. GS: Did they, back then, switch like 6 months at Washington and 6 months at Edison? CE: Oh no GS: Like they do today? CE: Not at all, m-m. No you went there all the time, it was a neighborhood school. GS: Okay CE: You know ; this was a small town. You walked to school, wherever you lived on which side of town doesn' ; t matter whether you went to Edison or Washington, and you walked to school. And it was not kindergarten, but first grade through sixth grade. GS: Were you a member of any clubs or organizations or sports? CE: Yes GS: In high school? CE: In high school. Pep club, speech and debate, future teachers of America, Latin club because we studied Latin, two years of Latin, and I was involved in everything. GS: That' ; s wonderful, that' ; s what kids need to do. Was the high school used for any other community purpose back then that you remember? CE: No GS: Did you take a sack lunch or did you eat in the cafeteria? CE: There was no cafeteria in the high school GS: Okay CE: And there was no cafeteria in the junior high school GS: Just the elementary? CE: Just the elementary schools, so junior high I remember I' ; m not sure quite what we did there. We' ; d walk home, I mean it was nothing to walk home, or we would take our lunches, they had lunch rooms where you--people who brought their lunch ate their lunch. And then whenever we were in high school we came down town and went to the cafes. GS: Do you remember anything in particular about the classroom, or were teachers strict back then? Easy going? CE: We had incredible, incredibly educated teachers. If you look in our yearbook, over half our teachers had master' ; s degrees at the time in their field GS: That' ; s wonderful CE: We had a library in all the schools with librarians. There was natural light in the classroom, the windows opened and stairways, you go up and down beautiful marble staircases in high school. Our teachers had command of what they taught and were legendary. I mean my father had teachers I had and my sister had those same teachers. Those teachers were here for twenty, thirty, forty years. You know, educating all of us. I remember Mrs. Fosters English classes, legendary, loving learning how to diagram census and having to watch Shakespeare on TV as part of our assignment for a week once those programs happened, and I really missed having art classes after elementary school, they didn' ; t think art was important. GS: They didn' ; t offer it as an elective back then? CE: Nothing, nothing at all. GS: That' ; s a shame. CE: So I started writing more and yeah I longed for it, I missed it a lot. GS: I' ; m sure you did, I' ; m sure. Okay we' ; re gonna switch to church life. You mentioned that you all went to the churches ; did you attend a certain church as a child? CE: We went to the First Baptist church GS: And is it the same building that is now at sixth and chestnut? CE: Yes, it is GS: Can you describe any of the services? CE: I think the services as a young kid you don' ; t remember GS: No CE: I think you remember, I remember the beautiful stained glass windows, having little pencils in the pews so I would draw pictures on the bulletins, I remember the wonderful choir music from the youth choirs and the adult choirs, I remember the wonderful dinners in the church basement, I remember the Sunday school teachers who might have you over to their house, who would be especially nurturing, I remember wonderful socials in the summer where you' ; d have delicious cakes that everybody made and homemade ice cream. So that' ; s what I remember about churches. GS: Were your parents involved in the church? CE: Yup, my parents were involved in everything GS: Did your mom sing in the choir? CE: No GS: Okay, or your dad? CE: No GS: Okay, what were the weddings like back then? CE: Well everyone went to Harvests (ph) Jewelry Store to register what kind of china and silverware pottery they wanted GS: Uh-huh CE: There were big wedding dressed and bridesmaids and grooms and--I think much too much was made of getting married after women got out of school or college, although at the same time they were beginning to gear us as women for professions, that wasn' ; t the overall message of the society at the time. That' ; s when it was really beginning to change. GS: Yes, the turbulent sixties. What was medical care like when you were a child? CE: My mother was diligent about taking us to the doctor to get, you know, a vaccinations or whenever we needed to go then my mother was always very medically inclined. GS: Do you remember any of the doctors or your family doctor? CE: Sure, my family doctor was Dr. C. T. Kent GS: Okay CE: And I remember his whole family, yes I remember him very well. I also remember, yeah I remember him very well and his family. GS: Did they make house calls or did you need to go to the office? CE: I also remember Doctor King, my great grandmother Wyatt' ; s doctor GS: Yes CE: Dr. King made house calls GS: Okay CE: And Dr. King made all kinds of house calls in the country and everything. In fact, I remember one time, I think it was [Indecipherable] someone would set, you know Doctor King was that kind of country doctor that you went out to see the patients no matter what, no matter what kind of weather or what--and he would always use one of the water towers as a guide to getting him back home. GS: Oh my goodness CE: You know the water towers weren' ; t always here GS: No CE: I don' ; t know the history of them, but they weren' ; t always GS: No CE: But I remember that story. Another great thing about living in a small town or any place were you are for a while, even if you leave then come back, which I did and gone for a long time, you learn stories that tied other stories ten years ago, twenty years ago, and it' ; s always an interweaving of the stories that we tell, which is really the great thing about having oral history GS: It is a wonderful thing about it, and I can see that in these interviews interweaving and looping, I love it. Did we have a hospital in Bristow back then? CE: I remember the old hospital which was behind where the homestead clinic is today, was on 8th street, the Siscler (ph), I think it was Siscler I think that was the name of it. I remember Kay James was born there cause my mom went to be with Laban (ph), my mother and Laban were good friends, I remember going to the doctor there and sitting in the waiting room there, and then of course the new hospital was born. And the new doctors building was built, which is where--Doctor Kent' ; s office is where the creek county health department is now. GS: Okay. Do you ever remember being hospitalized as a child? CE: When I was a senior in high school, that summer I started getting terrible pains in my belly, and then I would just double over almost, and they couldn' ; t--doctor Kent couldn' ; t find out what it was so my mother took me to Doctor King, the old doctor that my great grandmother had, and he was in an office upstairs on main street. I remember walking up the old stairs and he started thumping on my belly ' ; cause older doctors would thump on your body and they would look at your fingernails, they would examine your body carefully. And he would make an X where I said ' ; ouch' ; or something, and then he connected them. He did this with an old fountain pen. GS: Wow CE: And then about a week later, Saint Francis hospital had just been built, and he told my mom, my parents that he was sending me to a young surgeon and the young surgeon decided I needed to have surgery and they did surgery when I was--a week after I was football queen GS: Ohh CE: In high school. And at the time you were there almost two weeks GS: Oh my goodness, did they find out what it was? CE: Yes, appendicitis and a few other things GS: Well it' ; s wonderful they got it before that appendix burst CE: It is GS: My goodness. Do you remember any of the businesses downtown? You' ; ve mentioned some grocery store, there were several, do you remember any others? CE: Okay, I' ; ll start on the west side. Beginning at Edison elementary school, there was a MedalGold (ph) place that was in where Oscars lunch place used to be GS: At ninth and main CE: Bushes Café, where Mrs. Bushkin (ph) made great homemade everything, there was a locker where people who butchered their cattle or brought their chicken frosted--chickens and their cows GS: Just south of the last--Bushes CE: Bushes GS: Just south of Busches CE: No, no. Yeah, south. Then there was Strongs, and then there was the Stanford Clothing shop, and then let' ; s see, there was a Ford Hardware store on the corner, and then there was--and then I remember Woolworth (ph), ton of fun, Patens (ph) next to Woolworth, more fun for kids since it had toys and everything in there GS: Between seventh and eighth street CE: Right, and then the banks. American National bank, and then the small grocery store was kind of between sixth and seventh, between right up here near sixth street GS: Sixth and seventh then probably CE: And then Shamus' ; s GS: Yes CE: And let' ; s see, oh Redbird, the shoe store GS: Yes, yes CE: I mean that was between sixth and-- GS: I think CE: Fifth GS: Fifth, yes CE: Okay ; no, sixth and seventh GS: Okay CE: Yeah, okay. And then let' ; s see, Tropes Service Station (ph) which was out on the highway, so--Oh Harvest (ph) Jewelry was on the west side, Silvers was on the east side, Kemps drug store on the east side, the movie theaters on the east side, the Princes Theater and the Walmer (ph), The Hamburger King at the end of the corner GS: Did you ever eat there? CE: No, that was an adult place. GS: Oh okay CE: We ate at the Dairy Queen that first came near the railroad tracks and you got your first ice cream cone with the chocolate on top GS: Oh yes CE: Oh and then there was the Ice House GS: Yes CE: Across the railroad tracks, so that' ; s what I remember GS: Okay, that' ; s pretty good. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? CE: I only knew what I liked to do, I didn' ; t have an idea of like " ; I want to be this" ; . I know I loved to do art all the time, and I loved to write and I loved to be outside. In high school I thought about being a teacher, but I was really loving writing and debating and being in plays, they had--the speech teacher had to really rope me into debating. But once I did learn to do it, I liked it and I love plays, doing theater. And dance, oh yeah I forgot that part. When we were in the first and second grade, Wanda Newton had a dance studio in her house GS: I did not know that CE: With a bar and the mirrors and everything, so all--a lot, every little girl in my group of girls, we took ballet in town for several years. And we continued to dance our whole lives with Wanda, kind of like Jennifer is now. When we got older in high school, the future teachers we would put on dance skits and Wanda would choreograph them and we would have male dance partners. So we were dancing all that time too. GS: Oh that' ; s wonderful. How did you decide, well let me back up. What did after you became an adult, what were some of the jobs that you had? CE: When I was at Oklahoma State University when I was studying my masters, I was a teaching assistant, I taught freshman English for several years there. And then I went to Oklahoma City and I got a job being a public relations officer for the state department of [Indecipherable] GS: Now you' ; ve mentioned your love of art, how did you interweave art into your lifestyle? CE: Well at different times it came out. I think I didn' ; t really realize how missing it was in my life until I went to New York city after I left the department of libraries in Oklahoma City, I went to live in New York City and worked for a publishing company, children' ; s book publishing on 5th avenue. GS: Okay CE: I see it' ; s red GS: It' ; s still doing good CE: Okay, and so I was taking care of my neighbors plants and I came upon this book called The Natural Way to Draw, and it' ; s a classic still that' ; s used by the art students and I began drawing again [Indecipherable] things in that book, and then I met this artist in Central Park from Spain, a painter from Spain, and he--I really loved his paintings, the first time I was really in an artist' ; s studio, all these beautiful paintings he was doing and everything, and I wanted him to teach me how to paint. Also when I was studying here with Pete, when the first time I ever touched oil paint or paint I loved it, loved how it smelled, loved mixing it up, I loved everything ; brushes. So in New York, he said " ; I' ; m not gonna teach you how to paint until you have to learn the basics, the language of drawing, you have to go study anatomy and life drawing. If you can do that for a year, then you can come back and we' ; ll start painting" ; . So I went off to the National Academy and started studying anatomy and life drawing and it was very hard because I was in my 30s and my drawings looked like I was 5 years old. But after I was there, then I' ; m like " ; How am I gonna remember these big long names and skeleton and these people are drawing these beautiful figures and what am I doing?" ; . But after about a month, I started getting this very strong feeling that I was longing to know this, and then the final day of that summer class, we went and I said " ; You just got to do your best at your drawing" ; and all of a sudden, this figure popped up on my page and I' ; m like--and then another one and then another one and I' ; m like " ; Where did this come from? Did I make this?" ; and that' ; s when I got this real strong sense that art was something that I missed in my life a long time and I had studied English, my native language, for over twenty years and that I needed to study art for at least ten years to get myself a basic vocabulary of art and that' ; s when I really got the strong sense of truly being an artist and what it meant to feel that. GS: Now I know that you' ; ve used your artistic talents in the memorial of the Oklahoma City bombing, how did the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Mura building affect you personally? CE: I think that' ; s two different questions so I' ; m gonna start the art part first GS: Okay CE: You know ; art is very underrated in the study of--in the curriculum of schools. There' ; s fine art and there' ; s commercial art. Commercial art is whenever you can just get assignments for clients and it' ; s a business and you make money and you have techniques and you can do what they want, like building a kitchen cabinet. Fine art you never know what your future' ; s gonna be. You never know that it' ; s gonna be based on money or how you' ; re gonna survive. You train yourself in the basics of drawing and painting and anatomy and ceramics and sculpture and art history, and you nurture yourself and you become the kind of artist you' ; re going to become, you don' ; t have a name for it at the time. I gravitated to like a journalistic fine artist because I grew up in a lot of life here in Oklahoma and went to a lot of things in life. I loved to draw live events, I love to paint what I--live things, or if I remember something from something that' ; s happened in my life, it might stay with me so long that I need to express it artistically somehow. So when the Oklahoma City bombing happened-- GS: And what year was that? CE: The Oklahoma City Bombing happened on April 19th, 1995. I was in New York City at the time, I' ; d been living in New York since 1974. GS: What took you to Oklahoma City? CE: Not Oklahoma City GS: Or not Oklahoma City, New York City, sorry. CE: Well I had been living in Oklahoma City before I went to New York City GS: Okay CE: What took me to New York city, my life took me and youthfulness took me. There' ; s no rhyme or reason, my life needed to change and I' ; d been on this national public relations committee, I' ; d been a very young judge, I had put together public relations campaign for the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, and it won a national award, and part of winning a national award from the American Library Association was ten judges who' ; d won those awards for that year were brought to New York City in the summer for one week to judge all the public relations efforts of the American Library Association. GS: And you fell in love with it. CE: And not that way, no. GS: No? No? CE: That was a very nurturing experience, but something about the city itself drew me there in a time in my life when I needed a change in my life and that' ; s what I did. GS: Very good! Okay so you were in Oklahoma--I keep saying that, you were in New York City when the Murrah building was bombed CE: Yes, I was and a friend of mine, I' ; d gone to my local diner where I had breakfast in the mornings, and someone at the counter mentioned to me " ; Carole, a bomb went off in Oklahoma City at a federal building, what happened?" ; . Well I didn' ; t listen to television all the time or the news either. When I was in New York city, studying art and being part of the life, that was a lot of what I did. And so I said " ; I don' ; t know" ; . So when I got home, I said " ; Well maybe the FAA" ; , that' ; s the only federal building I knew of, I remembered and then I went home and a friend of mine called me, a friend of mine who' ; s a classical pianist and told me about the bombing and what had happened and that children were killed and he was very affected by it, and kids started playing music that composers had written for their children, piano composers. And it affected me, learning this. And well I couldn' ; t get through to Oklahoma on the phone GS: I' ; m sure CE: For over 24 hours, I couldn' ; t call my parents or anything. So I just started writing. I just started writing. And I wrote for 24 hours, I mean off and on, the next morning I went to the diner again, I had known then what happened. Then I walked home and that--when I walked home after all that 24 hours of writing, that' ; s when I sat down and wrote the poem, the 19th of--no it' ; s called the 20th of April 1995, cause it' ; s about the Oklahoma City Bombing, but I wrote it the next day. And wrote it almost in its entirety, straight out. And just--and it was as I wanted it to be and then there was kind of like, you know I did those drawings and they popped up on my page from that cabinet. The poem was similar, they often talk about--often times an artist feels like they' ; re a vehicle, you know, for something to come forth from you, and sometimes those things happen and it' ; s very special. And then--then I started, I' ; d taken the Oklahoma Flag with a small Oklahoma flag, I always thought the Oklahoma Flag was so beautiful. I had it on my wall in my apartment all the time I was there, and then I decided to make a series of drawings with the Oklahoma Flag to go along with the poem I' ; d written. So I took the Oklahoma flag and I rolled up an American flag I have on one of those wooden sticks and I stapled the Oklahoma flag to it and I carried it first to central part and I sat it down some few places trying to saw it. It didn' ; t seem quite right, but there was this shared knowledge of what had happened in Oklahoma City and kind of a quiet in the city, and people would see the Oklahoma flag walking by and they' ; d stop. They didn' ; t know, and they' ; d start talking about the bombing or something. And so I ended up rolling, taking the flag and finding the place in the tulip beds of fifth avenue, nope, yup, the tulip beds of fifth avenue. Is it fifth avenue? I' ; m not sure, square the streets, the streets are on both sides and the tulip beds go down the middle. And so I started doing a series of drawings of the flag in the tulip beds, and it was April, I continued to draw the flag for almost a year. That' ; s when I started working at the Oklahoma City Bombing and I called it the Oklahoma City Project because in studying, I' ; m more of a project person too. Like when John Lennon died, I was at Parsons at the time. I first started off with sketches at the Dakota building that night after he was killed. Then I went into Central Park for the memorial service and did a great big charcoal drawing of the crowd. Then I took the feeling of that crowd into making sculpture in the studio at Parsons ; clay sculpture, steel sculpture, doing interviews. I knew that I wanted a final project and it took a year before the final project came, which was a painting. Usually when I do a final project, it' ; s kind of like when I wrote that poem. You know, I' ; ve written pretty hard for twenty-four hours, couldn' ; t get what I wanted. Then the next morning I went for a walk and got away from it and came back and wrote the poem, same thing with the John Lennon project, I' ; d been working a year on different mediums and ways with John Lennon, I did John Lennon and the thing is, it stays with you, it doesn' ; t leave. GS: Right CE: Okay, and so I knew " ; Okay I wanna do a final painting" ; so I put everything away and one day I put all the work away for a couple of days to sort of ruminate and then I made this painting of my three muses walking around with a hole in them. Not gory, but and then on a peace symbol that was on the ground and sort of colors in the sky like a Van Gogh painting. GS: Yes CE: And that was the final, that was the final work. And so then you know it' ; s done, so that' ; s what fine art is like. You can' ; t predict it, you just have to be trained in it and trust yourself to know certain things, not give up. GS: So how did your talent there get applied and how did you become even more involved in the Murrah building bombing memorial? CE: Oh well that went on for years, and the way it went on was I continued to do the drawings, entered the design contest, came back to Oklahoma a number of times to visit the site for the design contest and whenever I' ; d come home and visit my family, I would go there because it was still inside working on it and there were different parts of it, it was pretty big. And then I went to the--took me a while before I could go the memorial itself, but I went to the dedication, I think I moved back to Oklahoma at the time just had moved back to Oklahoma. And I was always able to get it--I knew how to get press passes, so as an artist it' ; s interesting--it' ; s good to get a press pass if you can. You know, I did that often times with the Woody Guthrie thing, so I went to the dedication and sat with the CNN film crew under the bleachers and then when they had the first Oklahoma City memorial marathon, I went there I think when Rena was running in that. And local people from Bristow were running in it, Chris may have been one of them too, Chris Watt. And so it' ; s sort of--tried to take it to different places at different times, and it would get a certain way then stop, so I have all this material, huge [Indecipherable] material, and it just kind of came to a standstill after that. GS: And you' ; ve been good enough to share that material with us here at the museum. We were going to do a display of a lot of your material and the communities reaction to the Oklahoma City Bombing this last April on the 20th anniversary but COVID stopped that. Tell me about the-- CE: It did-- GS: And I beg your pardon because I don' ; t remember if it was a television thing, but tell me about that when you had the beautiful dress. CE: Oh the dress, the blue dress. Okay, well first every year at the anniversary of the bombing, I' ; m very aware of it so I will always do something just like the initiative for bringing it to you guys at the 20th anniversary was because of that normally when I do that. That time of year is I' ; m always getting back involved with it. Well after I' ; d been working on the project a year, after-- GS: And I need to make a correction, that was the 25th anniversary CE: Okay, that' ; s right GS: I said 20th but it was the 25th CE: It was, so--thanks for catching that Georgia. After I' ; d been working on the project for a year, I had all this drawing and work and [Indecipherable] and stuff and I said, alright, I was talking to a friend I said " ; I have all this work for you, I' ; m not sure what to do with it" ; and they said " ; Do you know anybody who has--is in television?" ; well actually because of the first Bristow all school reunion, I had met this man named Jimmy Baker who had graduated from Bristow High School right out here on near the bricks at the historical society, and I had met him and helped him find brick for his family, and we got into a conversation and he was a producer for ABC from Los Angela' ; s back here in Bristow to do the All School reunion, so I remembered him because he asked me to keep in touch with him. So I called him up and said " ; I have this material that I' ; ve written and drawn about the Oklahoma City Bombing, what do you suggest? Someone said if you know someone in television, talk to them about it" ; so I talked to him about it, and he said " ; Send me everything" ; , so I sent him--sent it to him a lot of it. And he called me shortly thereafter and said " ; Can you speak in front of an audience?" ; and I said yes and he said " ; Can you memorize your poem?" ; And I said yes-- GS: It was probably already memorized CE: [Indecipherable] I remember my old speech days at Bristow High School, so I can train to do those things. And so he said " ; Well I want you to be an ambassador for New York and come back to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame ceremony in November of 1995" ; , November the magic month here we are. " ; And I want you and a guy from New York is gonna be honored [Indecipherable] and he' ; ll be coming too" ; so that' ; s how I got there, I was--he invited me to come in November of 1995 to present the poem and it was gonna be televised on [Indecipherable] it was, it was filmed. And there was a large audience, my parents were invited, it was a huge affair, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame ceremony is a big deal every year in Oklahoma. That and that--so a friend of mine in New York City who knew how to find beautiful dresses at in great places, she graduated from the fashion institute in New York, she found that dress. GS: Oh it was a beautiful dress CE: It' ; s a beautiful dress. And so I brought the dress, carried it on the plane, it was a [Indecipherable] plane. So when the [Indecipherable] crew learned what I was doing because there were, they were very touched by it all because one of those [Indecipherable] planes, something happened to it off the coast of New York before Oklahoma City, and so you know I had an all-expenses paid trip, a beautiful hotel-- GS: Wow CE: My sister sent beautiful flowers in my room, you know you go to the Oklahoma--we had rehearsals in the Oklahoma City auditorium, I had a dressing room with a big star on my door, I had an assistant, and we rehearsed. It was a big show and then I always remember my mom got me the--she got these blue rings to match and you know, Trace Kelly (ph) and Polly were there, people were in tuxes and everything. I remember right before it was time to go out on stage, I always think this is interesting with acting, you remember your lines, you remember your lines [Indecipherable] ready to go on the day and you get real nervous. I remember I looked at Jimmy when we were standing on stage, the stage lights were on and the ceremony was rolling, and I looked at him and said " ; I don' ; t know if I remember" ; . He looked straight me straight in the eyes and said " ; Yes you do, you' ; ll do just fine" ; and he pushed me right out there. In that beautiful blue dress. So that' ; s-- GS: Well I' ; ve seen your picture, you looked beautiful in that dress. CE: So that' ; s where it came from GS: You did ; alright we' ; re going to switch now. I don' ; t think--I think I know the answer to this one, but we' ; re gonna throw it out there anyway. Were your parents involved in politics? CE: You know, that' ; s a loaded question right now. My parents both voted, they were both registered republicans though my mother would vote more independently than my father. But we were up in, you know, it' ; s better to ask that question about civics I think. You grew up to be a citizen of your community, citizen of your country. You could have great arguments with someone on the other side of the fence, and you didn' ; t mud sling. GS: You still respected them CE: You did, and you actually learned that way. GS: Yeah CE: Because you learned to absorbed someone' ; s else' ; s point of view or see their side of things without becoming defensive and stonewalling yourself. GS: Right, right. What are your memories of World War II? CE: I wasn' ; t born. GS: That' ; s true, you were just born at the end of it. You said your father served in World War II? CE: He did GS: Do you have--what branch did he serve in? CE: My father was in the navy GS: Okay, was he on one of the carriers? CE: Daddy was on the Princeton GS: The Princeton, I forgot to turn off that telephone, let me do that real quick. CE: He was on an aircraft carrier. GS: The aircraft carrier, Princeton. CE: Right GS: Okay, let me just turn this off so we don' ; t have that again. Okay, and did he--how long did he serve in the navy? CE: Again I don' ; t know ; I think he went in I think two or three years GS: Okay, and you mentioned that he went to Korea then? CE: Yes, he was called back into Korea. GS: So he had gotten out of the service but then was called back in CE: He was GS: Okay, do you know what he did in the Korean war? CE: No GS: Okay. What was that like for you with your father gone off to war as a child? CE: It was scary because you' ; re a young child with an older sister and you don' ; t know, you see your mom being very very sad and your dad leaving, and then you--then we went to live with my mother' ; s parents in Texas, they moved to Texas because my grandfather Brigo worked for Martin Marietta (ph) and we lived with them for a while then we came back to Bristow. GS: We' ; re gonna switch to lifetime changes. Looking back over all the years, what would you consider to be the most important inventions? Doesn' ; t have to be just one, it can be several during your lifetime. CE: I remember my grandmother Greer (ph) who lived a good hundred was asked this question, and she said seeing the rover land on mars. GS: Oh my goodness CE: Or if it was mars, or the moon, one of them. Whichever. I would have to say that too, man landing on the moon, television, let' ; s see, oh forty-five records. (Laughing) GS: Those were wonderful. How is the world different now than when you were a child? CE: It' ; s a much more defensive world, a more splintered world. I find that quite sad even in this local community. I think this last election has really shown that to each group, and this whole--the last four years, but it was building up to that I think. I think when you believe your own beliefs so strongly that you become angry at other people, I think it builds walls, and there' ; s something about having fences not walls. Fences that you can see through or land that you can see through. You don' ; t have to go along with someone else, but you can be like that--civil to one another. GS: Right CE: And nurture your community as a whole so that children, especially so that children don' ; t see such a divided world and see the value of [Indecipherable] your ideas and your philosophies to create a better community for everyone. GS: I love that, I love that. As you see it, what are the biggest problems that face our nation, and how do you think they could be solved? CE: One of the biggest problems now is to think that whatever channel or little google thing we bring up--I' ; m not looking at this-- GS: No I' ; m just making sure everything' ; s still going well CE: Whatever social media channel or television channel or place we go to get our opinions, if that causes us to freeze up and hate other people, I think there' ; s something quite wrong with that. That' ; s very detrimental to the whole human being--the value that human beings have for nurturing one another, so that human beings grow and survive in a healthy way. GS: What do you think we could do to solve that? CE: I think we each have to take a step back and look at ourselves and see how are we doing that and how are we contributing to that, and to watch ourselves when we get caught up, because we all get caught up. We can step back, but we so easily get caught up again, I do. GS: Right CE: And so I have certain things I do every day or every couple of days that sort of I say keep your feet on the ground to help me do that with my own self. GS: That' ; s good. Is there anything else that you' ; d like to tell me today? CE: I' ; m very glad that everyone at the historical society worked so hard to get the grants in the first place, and to continue to find more grants to fund the oral history project, and for everyone who' ; s worked on it during the COVID time. And that I' ; m just really grateful for everybody' ; s efforts to add this wonderful element of oral history to our town. GS: Thank you very much. You' ; ve mentioned COVID, how has COVID affected you this year? CE: Dramatically, I' ; m not able to give tours at the Gilcrease museum, I' ; m not able to come here to the historical society and volunteer and sit in the board meetings, I' ; m not able to go among the people that I' ; m normally with and sit with them, not everybody wears a mask all the time, especially in our town and it' ; s kind of scary. My sister is in late stage cancer, and it affects whether or not I can go see her or not. GS: I understand CE: I' ; m in the older category of people, so I have to remember that and wear my mask and social distance and wash my hands all the time, and the hardest thing is not being able to see my sister when she was in rehab and not being able to visit people that need you in hospital and rehabs when they' ; re your family and you can' ; t go and nurture them. Not being able to hug people physically when everybody needs to be touched and feel love by hugging or at least seeing our families whenever we want to. Like even now, coming into the office here was emotional. I didn' ; t need to be emotional, but it was emotional because I' ; m able to sit here with you and have a conversation like we did before March-- GS: COVID CE: Of 2020 GS: And I have found that to be the case with several people I' ; ve interviewed. They have been so thankful for the companionship of someone else to talk to. It' ; s a sad time we' ; re going through. Well Carole, thank you so much for this CE: Thank you Georgia, this was a pleasure GS: I have learned so much and we appreciate you and everything you' ; ve done in our community so very much. CE: Well I appreciate you too and all that you all are doing to keep this going GS: Thank you Carole CE: Alright GS: Alright then. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-09_Carole_Ellis.xml OHP-2020-09_Carole_Ellis.xml
Sort Priority
This field should be added if you are using the Philly Theme with your OHMS
Plugin Suite. Consult the Philly Theme User Guide for details.
2900
Location
The location of the interview
Bristow, Oklahoma
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
64:15
Interview Keyword
This field adds keywords to the Omeka Oral History item type. Keywords are
included in the OHMS XML, this field in Omeka will allow for full data migration
between OHMS XML and the Omeka Record. This field does not impact the
OHMS / Omeka integration and is optional if you do not need to map the
“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
sod house, statehood, home life, school, hospital, stores, art, Oklahoma City bombing, First Baptist Chuch
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Carole Ellis
Description
An account of the resource
In this 2020 interview, Carole Ellis talks about her experience growing up in Bristow. She discusses the different businesses located throughout the community and her passion for art.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-2020-09
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-11-12
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
sound, oral history
art
Bristow Public Schools
First Baptist Church
home life
hospital
Oklahoma City bombing
sod house
stores
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/d87d8e94a385cf5d2e4b563948624aa4.jpg
60ab497a49701c80b9cb390ea9e4ccbf
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Family Histories
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral accounts of various family histories
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Debbie Blansett
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Leola Roebuck
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-22_Leola_Roebuck.xml
OHMS Object Text
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5.4 March 31, 2021 OHP-2021-22 Leola Roebuck OHP-2021-22 0:00 - 26:26 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Leola Roebuck Debbie Blansett MP3 1:|65(4)|114(2)|153(9)|206(2)|239(3)|272(7)|307(2)|343(2)|392(2)|441(2)|487(9)|540(2)|575(3)|632(2)|676(4)|715(3)|754(5)|798(3)|848(3)|889(3)|922(2)|974(5)|1020(4)|1066(8)|1108(5)|1137(6) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Leola Roebuck.wav Other audio 0 Introduction DB: Alright let’s give this a try, I’ve got to read this. This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is March 31st, 2021 and I am here with Leola Roebuck in her home and, say your name. KR: Kenneth DB: Kenneth Roebuck, her son. And— MR: Michelle Roebuck Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow, Oklahoma ; Debbie Blansett ; Kenneth Roebuck ; Leola Roebuck ; Michelle Roebuck 45 Moving to Bristow DB: Okay, does she remember—do you remember when you came to Bristow? KR: What year did you come to Bristow mom? LR: What? KR: What year did you move to Bristow? DB: Do you remember? KR: You know, from Boley. From Arkansas, you moved to Oklahoma from Arkansas, what year did you move to Bristow? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: You don’t remember what year? Boley, Oklahoma 135 Farm KR: Did you work outside the house? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: [Indecipherable] DB: Oh did you have a big garden? LR: Yeah, I made a big garden DB: Did you grow tomatoes? LR: Tomatoes, yeah anything you could plant in a garden DB: Anything you could plant, you’d put in your garden LR: Uh-huh DB: And you just—did you make your own bread? LR: Did I make my own what? 250 Babysitting KR: And then when we moved here, you sued to babysit kids while we were in school, other kids. DB: You took care of other babies when your kids went to school? LR: Uh-huh DB: Uh-huh, for a long time? LR: Mhm DB: What did they call you? KR: What did the kids call you? LR: What? KR: What did the kids call you? The kids you kept when— DB: When you were babysitting, what did they call you? Did they call you Miss Leola? Did they call you grandma? 357 Family DB: And Melvin is your grandson? Melvin? He wanted us to come talk to you. KR: Melvin, Melvin. Melvin. LR: Who? KR: Melvin, Melvin wanted her to do this interview. Melvin, Mary Allen’s boy the daughter’s boy. LR: Oh DB: He said “You have to talk to my grandma”. You sure have a pretty hair thing on KR: [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Yeah your brother do stay with you Mary Allen ; Melvin 489 Church DB: Did you go to church? LR: Yeah I go to church DB: What church do you go to? LR: I go to Duffys Chapel KR: Duffy Chapel DB: I do know Duffys Chapel LR: My church DB: That’s your church? LR: Uh-huh Duffys Chapel ; Myrtle Alexander ; Reverend Parker 588 Food DB: I know they could make peach cobbler ; they were known for their peach cobbler. Can you make peach cobbler? Do you like peach cobbler? KR: Do you like peach cobbler momma? LR: Huh? KR: Do you like peach cobbler? LR: Yeah DB: Oh yeah KR: Her specialty is peach dumplings DB: Oh, peach dumplings KR: With the cinnamon in them DB: mm, It’s probably been a while since she’s got to make some. KR: Mhm, tell them about your homemade cake and the homemade ice and that white icing with that sweet milk, sugar, and butter, and vanilla flavouring. You remember that? Boley, Oklahoma ; Oklaha 802 Moving KR: You gonna tell her about Oklaha, what y’all used to do in Oklaha? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Oklaha, the town LR: Oh yeah, down in Oklaha, we stayed all around that little place DB: She what? MR: She stayed all around that little place DB: Oh alright KR: Oklaha, Boley City, all of it DB: Right [Indecipherable] LR: Muskogee Aunt Bea ; Boley City ; Muskogee ; Oklaha ; Uncle Buddy 952 Sewing DB: What did you like to do in Bristow? Did you go to the grocery store in Bristow? LR: Yeah, [Indecipherable] DB: Made quilts LR: Curtains DB: Curtains LR: Childrens clothes KR: Childrens clothes DB: Childrens clothes. So you had a sewing machine? KR: She done it by hand LR: I did it by hand DB: You did it by hand? KR: Everything by hand DB: You didn’t have a sewing machine? 1106 Lye Soap KR: Tell her--hey, tell Mrs. Blansett how you used to make the lye soap LR: What? KR: Tell Mrs. Blansett— DB: How you made soap KR: Soap LR: [Indecipherable] KR: The soap, the lye soap. You know the soap LR: Yeah KR: Tell her how you used to make that lye soap 1229 School KR: Tell her about you used to have to walk five miles to school, tell her about your school day. LR: More than five minutes [Indecipherable] KR: More than five—I know DB: More what? KR: More than five minutes, I know. You told me you used to walk about five miles in the snow and stuff. Tell them about how y’all used to go to school while— DB: Did you have to walk to school? Did you walk to school? LR: [Indecipherable] DB: And no bus? LR: Momma couldn't keep me out of the field KR: Huh? LR: Momma couldn’t keep me out of the field 1446 Conclusion DB: Alright, well miss Leola I’m so glad you talked to me today, I’m glad Kenneth and Michelle were here to help me understand KR: She said— LR: What? KR: She said thank you DB: Thank you LR: [Indecipherable] KR: She said thank you LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No she isn’t talking about [Indecipherable], she’s talking about she wants to thank you for letting her have her interview with you, talking with you today In this 2021 interview, Leola Roebuck shares her experience living in Bristow. She talks about her farm, babysitting, sewing, and cooking. Interviewer: Debbie Blansett Interviewee: Leola Roebuck Other Persons: Kenneth Roebuck, Michelle Roebuck Date of Interview: March 31st, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-22 at 00:00 to 26:26 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. DB: Alright let' ; s give this a try, I' ; ve got to read this. This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is March 31st, 2021 and I am here with Leola Roebuck in her home and, say your name. KR: Kenneth DB: Kenneth Roebuck, her son. And-- MR: Michelle Roebuck DB: Her daughter-in law who is going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Okay, does she remember--do you remember when you came to Bristow? KR: What year did you come to Bristow mom? LR: What? KR: What year did you move to Bristow? DB: Do you remember? KR: You know, from Boley. From Arkansas, you moved to Oklahoma from Arkansas, what year did you move to Bristow? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: You don' ; t remember what year? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Okay what year was it? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? DB: She doesn' ; t know LR: I don' ; t remember KR: [Indecipherable] DB: 1920 maybe? KR: That' ; s when she was born DB: No that' ; s when she was born KR: Uh-huh. DB: Did you live in the country? LR: Uh-huh DB: Uh-huh, did you have a lot of kids? LR: Lot of kids KR: A lot of kids DB: Did you have a lot of babies? LR: I had a couple KR: You had--no you ain' ; t had, but you had ten kids, remember? DB: Ten kids? KR: Yeah LR: Uh-huh KR: Yeah she had ten of them DB: Ten, what did you--did you, were you just momma all the time? Did you work outside the house? LR: What? KR: Did you work outside the house? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: [Indecipherable] DB: Oh did you have a big garden? LR: Yeah, I made a big garden DB: Did you grow tomatoes? LR: Tomatoes, yeah anything you could plant in a garden DB: Anything you could plant, you' ; d put in your garden LR: Uh-huh DB: And you just--did you make your own bread? LR: Did I make my own what? KR: Your bread, you know you made biscuits every morning. DB: Biscuits every morning? KR: Mom made biscuits, yeah. DB: Did you have chickens? No chickens? KR: Yeah she had chickens, tell them about the--tell them about where y' ; all used to do your hogs. Put them in the sweat house and salt them down and all of that. You remember when you had to farm when you stayed on the farm? LR: Nuh-uh KR: When you stayed on the farm LR: Oh yeah KR: You raised hogs and chickens and stuff DB: And you have to butcher them? That was pretty hard work LR: Yeah DB: Did you-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No she isn' ; t talking about [Indecipherable] she' ; s talking about how you raised the animals on the farm DB: Uh-huh, and you had pigs? KR: Pigs, you had hogs and stuff DB: hogs LR: Yeah I had hogs and chickens KR: Chickens DB: Chickens LR: Guineas KR: Guineas LR: Turkeys KR: Turkeys DB: Wow, that' ; s a farm KR: Y' ; all had a set of mules too, didn' ; t we? LR: Uh-huh DB: You had a set of what? KR: Mules DB: Oh, some mules. KR: That' ; s how they done all their farms LR: Yeah I [Indecipherable] KR: And then when we moved here, you used to babysit kids while we were in school, other kids. DB: You took care of other babies when your kids went to school? LR: Uh-huh DB: Uh-huh, for a long time? LR: Mhm DB: What did they call you? KR: What did the kids call you? LR: What? KR: What did the kids call you? The kids you kept when-- DB: When you were babysitting, what did they call you? Did they call you Miss Leola? Did they call you grandma? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: She' ; s wanting to know what did the kids call you? Did they call you grandma? I bet most of them called you Aunt Leola DB: Aunt Leola, how many did you keep? LR: How many did I keep? KR: Kids at one time, how many kids did you keep at one time? You know you babysat, how many kids did you babysit? That' ; s what she' ; s asking you LR: About four or five DB: Four or five, you are brave. What about this guy? Is he a pretty good guy? LR: Yeah, he' ; s pretty good KR: What? MR: She said yes, he' ; s pretty good DB: Does he take god care of you? LR: Awful good DB: Awful good KR: Yeah, but she' ; s out here-- DB: Michelle takes good care of you too? LR: Michelle KR: Michelle, Michelle my wife, your daughter-in-law Michelle LR: Oh yeah, uh-huh DB: And Melvin is your grandson? Melvin? He wanted us to come talk to you. KR: Melvin, Melvin. Melvin. LR: Who? KR: Melvin, Melvin wanted her to do this interview. Melvin, Mary Allen' ; s boy the daughter' ; s boy. LR: Oh DB: He said " ; You have to talk to my grandma" ; . You sure have a pretty hair thing on KR: [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Yeah your brother do stay with you MR: She says she favours Buddy KR: Yeah her brother DB: You sure are a pretty lady KR: Thank you, she said you' ; re pretty LR: Huh? KR: She said you' ; re a pretty lady. She said you' ; re a pretty lady LR: Yeah KR: You act surprised she ain' ; t said that, I know [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] My oldest daughter [Indecipherable] DB: Her oldest daughter maybe? KR: Yeah she passed, Melvin' ; s mom, she would' ; ve been--see we wrote down all her brothers. DB: Okay, okay, okay. [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No, them are papers she' ; s gotta fill out to put you in the magazine DB: How old are you? LR: Huh? DB: How old are you? LR: 101 DB: 101, did they give you 101 spankings? LR: No, I didn' ; t get spankings DB: No spankings for you LR: I didn' ; t want spankings DB: Don' ; t want any LR: [Inaudible] KR: Huh? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No DB: Did you go to church? LR: Yeah I go to church DB: What church do you go to? LR: I go to Duffys Chapel KR: Duffy Chapel DB: I do know Duffys Chapel LR: My church DB: That' ; s your church? LR: Uh-huh KR: Yeah she was treasurer up there for 38 years DB: Now isn' ; t that where-- KR: [Indecipherable], we' ; re having Reverend Parker do it now DB: Okay, and-- KR: New Life, they changed it to New Life DB: Myrtle, Myrtle Alexander, that was her church, I mean she kept kids at our church but that was always her home church KR: Yeah, yeah, yeah. DB: Odell' ; s and Clydals momma KR: Yeah before they moved to the Methodist, yeah. DB: Do you remember Myrtle Alexander? Do you remember Myrtle? KR: She probably don' ; t DB: No KR: You remember Mrs. Alexander? You remember-- MR: Mrs. Alexander KR: You remember Mrs. Cross LR: Who? KR: Mrs. Cross LR: What? KR: Mrs. Cross, that would' ; ve been Myrtles mother. You remember Mrs. Cross, right? LR: Yeah KR: Okay now she wants to know, did you know her girl, daughter. LR: Yeah KR: Mrs. Myrtle LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No Mrs. Alexander LR: [Indecipherable] DB: Duffys Chapel, I haven' ; t heard that in a long time. LR: I remember [Indecipherable] KR: Yeah she knows, she [Indecipherable] DB: I' ; ve got all this stuff KR: She used to go to church there LR: No more DB: Did you sing in the-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: [Indecipherable] DB: I know they could make peach cobbler ; they were known for their peach cobbler. Can you make peach cobbler? Do you like peach cobbler? KR: Do you like peach cobbler momma? LR: Huh? KR: Do you like peach cobbler? LR: Yeah DB: Oh yeah KR: Her specialty is peach dumplings DB: Oh, peach dumplings KR: With the cinnamon in them DB: mm, It' ; s probably been a while since she' ; s got to make some. KR: Mhm, tell them about your homemade cake and the homemade ice and that white icing with that sweet milk, sugar, and butter, and vanilla flavouring. You remember that? LR: Yeah, [Indecipherable] KR: [Indecipherable] DB: It best is, sounds like a birthday cake KR: Yeah she' ; s the best LR: Yeah DB: It sounds good KR: That' ; s good eating DB: That' ; s good eating right there. KR: Hey, hey, hey, tell them about how you like the black eyed peas and cornbread LR: I love black eyed peas and cornbread DB: That' ; s what we have at our house KR: [Indecipherable] LR: Yeah I love black eyed peas and cornbread DB: And cornbread, black eyed peas, what do you like in your black eyed peas? LR: Yeah KR: She said what you like to put in them, what kind of meat you season them with LR: With bacon KR: Bacon DB: Bacon LR: Uh-huh KR: And what else we put in that? LR: Salt meat KR: Salt meat, and what else? Ham [Indecipherable], remember? DB: Ooh, I' ; ve got some of those in my freezer KR: We keep ham [Indecipherable] DB: I need to go pull one out and make some of those, I think my husband would like that LR: Yeah DB: He likes cornbread KR: Yeah she loves cornbread DB: Hard to cook it in a big skillet LR: Yeah KR: She' ; s-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: What? LR: At home DB: At home? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: She likes that, she eats cornbread, pulled pork, buttered milk DB: Oh. I don' ; t know what else she would feel like telling me about KR: Hey, tell them about--we moved to Bristow from Boley, right? LR: What? KR: From Boley, Boley Oklahoma? You know you stayed-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Did you stay down Boley and Oklaha LR: Yeah KR: Tell them about them towns LR: [Indecipherable] DB: Good what? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Yeah but she wants to know about the time when you lived in Oklaha and moved to Boley. Remember? DB: Well she was saying something straight out of the oven KR: Yeah about how they used to cook the biscuits DB: Ohh come straight out in the oven KR: Yeah LR: So good DB: So good LT: Yeah, really good DB: I' ; ve got her talking about food now KR: Yeah LR: The what? KR: The food, the food you like DB: My grandma always made angel food cake, she liked to make angel food cake for our birthday. LR: Yeah DB: Yeah LR: [Indecipherable] KR: You gonna tell her about Oklaha, what y' ; all used to do in Oklaha? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Oklaha, the town LR: Oh yeah, down in Oklaha, we stayed all around that little place DB: She what? MR: She stayed all around that little place DB: Oh alright KR: Oklaha, Boley City, all of it DB: Right [Indecipherable] LR: Muskogee KR: Muskogee and all them DB: Just moved from house to house? LR: Yeah we moved from house to house DB: Yeah LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Stayed all night [Indecipherable] DB: Uh-huh, with all those kids? LR: Huh? DB: With all your kids? Moved around with all those kids? LR: Yeah I think I had one or two MR: She said one or two DB: Oh KR: [Indecipherable] which one? Aunt Bea (ph) or Uncle Buddy(ph)? DB: Maybe both of them KR: Yeah, but [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Yeah he left-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: You only lost four of your siblings DB: She still has brothers and sisters living? KR: No, she' ; s the only one DB: She' ; s the last one? KR: She' ; s the only one, she' ; s talking about her kids. DB: Oh KR: Let me see that, lick your tongue out, you' ; ve got something on-- LR: Oh DB: It' ; s-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: I got it, okay DB: He got it KR: Okay, just tell them about something what you' ; ve done during life. Your life, I mean-- DB: Hundred and one years, that' ; s a long time. Did you have a birthday party? LR: Oh yeah KR: A small one DB: A little [Indecipherable]? KR: The [Indecipherable] DB: This COVID thing is bad LR: Yeah DB: Did you all get your shots and everything? KR: Yes DB: I have too. Well you look nice and snug, you look good and wrapped up, you' ; re not cold. KR: She stays cold, she don' ; t like cold, that blood thing. Tell them a little more about your life mama. MR: What' ; d you used to do LR: Huh? MR: What did you used to do? DB: What did you like to do in Bristow? Did you go to the grocery store in Bristow? LR: Yeah, [Indecipherable] DB: Made quilts LR: Curtains DB: Curtains LR: Childrens clothes KR: Childrens clothes DB: Childrens clothes. So you had a sewing machine? KR: She done it by hand LR: I did it by hand DB: You did it by hand? KR: Everything by hand DB: You didn' ; t have a sewing machine? MR: How' ; d you sew it? Did you sew it with your hands? LR: What? MR: Your clothes and quilts? LR: Yeah I did it at home, [Indecipherable] DB: Uh-huh. Where did you get your material for your quilts? Where did the material come from? LR: The material MT: [Indecipherable]. Did you get your material from old clothes and stuff? DB: Feed sacks? Flower sacks? Did you have a frame for your quilts? Did you have a quilting frame? LR: Uh-huh DB: Was it big? LR: Uh-huh DB: Yeah, that' ; s what my grandmother used, one of those. And she did hers by hand LR: Yeah DB: Oh there' ; s one of your quilts, Kenneth has one of your quilts KR: Pizza man, look here mom, mom. Mom, ain' ; t this yours? DB: Did you make that? LR: Make what? DB: Did you make this quilt? LR: Yeah DB: That' ; s beautiful LR: Made out of scraps DB: Made out of scraps LR: Uh-huh DB: Where' ; d you get the scraps? LR: [Indecipherable] MR: From where? Where' ; d you get your scraps from? Old clothes? LR: Yeah I did KR: Where did--how did you make your quilts? What' ; d you make the quilt--what material did you make the quilt out of? LR: The what? KR: The quilt, where' ; d you get the material to make the quilts? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: I said where did you get the material to make the quilts LR: At the store KR: At the stores-- DB: At the stores KR: Some of it at the general store, lot of it was old jeans and she' ; d cut that into pieces and she done everything by hand. Tell them, hey, tell Mrs. Blansett how you used to make the lye soap LR: What? KR: Tell Mrs. Blansett-- DB: How you made soap KR: Soap LR: [Indecipherable] KR: The soap, the lye soap. You know the soap LR: Yeah KR: Tell her how you used to make that LR: Well, you put so many cans of lye DB: So many cans of lye LR: So much grease KR: So much grease LR: Water KR: Water DB: Water LR: [Indecipherable] KR: [Indecipherable], ok. And then you [Indecipherable] right? DB: And you cook it? LR: Huh? DB: You cooked it? LR: You had to cook it [Indecipherable] KR: In my storage house, I' ; ve got a piece she made DB: In a big pot? LR: Yeah DB: Did it get you clean? LR: Sometimes DB: Sometimes. Did you use it for your clothes? Did you use it to wash? KR: The soap LR: [Indecipherable] and mop DB: And mop. So you worked pretty hard LR: Huh? DB: You worked pretty hard. KR: You worked pretty hard when you were growing up. You worked hard, did you work hard? LR: Uh-huh DB: Oh yes KR: I still got a piece of her lye soap DB: Oh my. Did you--when did you get electricity? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No when did you--when did y' ; all have lights? How old was you when y' ; all had electricity in your house? DB: When you got lights in the house? KR: You remember how old you were? DB: Much later KR: Huh? About how old were you? Tell her about you used to have to walk five miles to school, tell her about your school day. LR: More than five minutes [Indecipherable] KR: More than five--I know DB: More what? KR: More than five minutes, I know. You told me you used to walk about five miles in the snow and stuff. Tell them about how y' ; all used to go to school while-- DB: Did you have to walk to school? Did you walk to school? LR: [Indecipherable] DB: And no bus? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Huh? LR: Momma couldn' ; t keep me out of the field DB: Momma something KR: Yeah your momma couldn' ; t keep out of the field DB: Oh, did you have a horse? LR: Yeah, I had a horse and I had a plow DB: Horse and a plow, did you have a buggy? LR: Yeah, I had a buggy KR: Did you have a buggy to ride in? Did the horse pull a buggy? LR: Yeah I-- KR: A wagon or a buggy, did you have a wagon or a buggy? LR: Yeah, a wagon DB: A wagon KR: Wagon LR: And a buggy too KR: And a buggy too DB: And a buggy too LR: Momma gave me a buggy too KR: Your momma did DB: Momma used the buggy LR: Bouncing up and down the road KR: Bouncing up and down the road DB: Yes. Was it hard to plow? LR: I had a plow DB: You had a plow, was it hard? LR: No DB: No? Not with the horse? LR: Working the peas KR: Working the peas DB: Working the peas, you had a lot of peas? LR: We had a lot of [Indecipherable] DB: Were they black eyed peas? LR: [Indecipherable] KR: [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Raise and eat [indecipherable] trade and sell off the farm too DB: Oh, they would sell their things? KR: They would sell, you know, what they didn' ; t keep they would sell. They raised enough to make money off of. That' ; s what she used to tell us all the time. When I was a kid, [Indecipherable] used to make the whole yard a garden DB: Make the whole yard a garden KR: Yeah LR: Huh? DB: He said the whole yard was a garden LR: Who? KR: The field, you know like the field? LR: Yeah KR: The whole field, y' ; all would plow the whole field up wouldn' ; t you? LR: Oh yeah [Indecipherable] KR: She would help her sister DB: Did you go to school? LR: I did if could DB: How long did you go to school? LR: I did go to school KR: Yeah she said how long did you go LR: [Indecipherable] I' ; d go to school KR: It would change when you wasn' ; t working you would go, but you went up the the 8th grade, 7th grade DB: To 8th grade KR: I think she took the 8th grade LR: Don' ; t tell that boy about [Indecipherable] KR: I Won' ; t tell him DB: What did she said KR: Don' ; t tell that boy about [Indecipherable]. Hey, what year--you went up to the 8th grade, didn' ; t you? Your 8th grade, [Indecipherable] in 8th grade? LR: Yeah KR: Yeah DB: Did you make good grades? LR: Yeah DB: Yes, did you like to read? LR: I like to read KR: She loves reading the bible, well used to LR: Everything I went to do, I got it KR: Everything she went to do she got it DB: Alright, well miss Leola I' ; m so glad you talked to me today, I' ; m glad Kenneth and Michelle were here to help me understand KR: She said-- LR: What? KR: She said thank you DB: Thank you LR: [Indecipherable] KR: She said thank you LR: [Indecipherable] KR: No she isn' ; t talking about [Indecipherable], she' ; s talking about she wants to thank you for letting her have her interview with you, talking with you today DB: Thank you for letting me talk to you. Will you let me take your picture? KR: She wants-- LR: [Indecipherable] KR: Mom she wants to take a picture now, you gonna let her take a picture of you? DB: Yes LR: Huh? KR: You gonna let her take a picture? She wants to take a picture DB: You' ; re so pretty KR: Let' ; s fix your little bonnet up here a little bit LR: [Indecipherable] It' ; s not no bonnet KR: Okay I know it ain' ; t a bonnet but I just said that, okay. DB: Oh, she looks so pretty. You want to hand me my purse over there? They keep you looking mighty fine. KR: Say thank you MR: She said you look good, you gonna smile? KR: Smile so she can take a picture. Look at the phone, she' ; s gonna take a picture of you DB: I get the camera first, alrighty. One, two, wait let me try this one. One, two, three KR: Cheese DB: I think that' ; s wonderful, 101 years' ; old KR: Yes DB: Miss Leola MR: Her mommas gonna go down to the corner, she said DB: Now she' ; s laughing MR: She said her mommas gonna go down to the corner and catch a man DB: I think they' ; re not gonna let you do that. You' ; re gonna go catch a man? KR: [Indecipherable] LR: [Indecipherable] audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-22_Leola_Roebuck.xml OHP-2021-22_Leola_Roebuck.xml
Sort Priority
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5400
Location
The location of the interview
Bristow, Oklahoma
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
26:26
Interview Keyword
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“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
home life, farming, Duffy Chapel
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Leola Roebuck
Description
An account of the resource
In this 2021 interview, Leola Roebuck shares her experience living in Bristow. She talks about her farm, babysitting, sewing, and cooking.
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OHP-2021-22
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2021-03-31
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audio
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Copyright Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Type
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sound, oral history
Duffy Chapel
farming
home life
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7a8922c8acb5ce6e9d409a2e30e0fd72
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Title
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Family Histories
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Oral History
Subject
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Oral accounts of various family histories
Source
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
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Tammy Levin
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
JoNell Jones
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-20_Jones,_JoNell.xml
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5.4 April 6th, 2021 OHP-2021-20 JoNell Jones OHP-2021-20 0:00-60:27 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. JoNell Jones Tammy Levin MP3 1:|65(2)|117(4)|161(2)|222(8)|273(14)|325(2)|354(2)|392(7)|433(3)|488(2)|514(2)|565(2)|589(3)|628(16)|668(2)|698(5)|759(4)|789(7)|831(11)|864(3)|908(13)|943(7)|972(1)|1009(11)|1043(3)|1074(4)|1106(11)|1132(10)|1170(9)|1203(12)|1235(15)|1264(4)|1309(9)|1362(5)|1399(2)|1450(8)|1477(2)|1513(5)|1539(2)|1563(8)|1592(2)|1623(14)|1644(11)|1679(3)|1698(4)|1723(6)|1756(2)|1797(2)|1829(2)|1868(4)|1922(2)|1962(14)|1993(4)|2021(2)|2038(17)|2057(4)|2080(3)|2130(3)|2166(11)|2190(8) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Jonell Jones.mp3 Other audio 4 Introduction TL: Okay, are you ready? JJ: I guess so TL: Okay. This is Tammy Levin with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing historical oral history project. The date is April 6th, 2021, I’m sitting here with— JJ: JoNell Jones TL: At Bristows train depot, who’s going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now give me your full name. JJ: JoNell Sears was my maiden name Bristow Historical Society ; JoNell Jones ; JoNell Sears ; Tammy Levin 56 Family TL: Alright let’s begin. Okay, what was your full name at birth? JJ: JoNell Jones TL: Okay, and where was you born? JJ: I was born in Tulsa but I was brought right back here TL: Okay JJ: I’ve been here all my life TL: Okay, okay. And was you born—were you born in, at the home or in a hospital? JJ: In the hospital TL: In the hospital, do you remember which hospital? JJ: Well it was Morningside then but it’s Hillcrest now Eileen Lee Sears ; James Sears ; William Edgar 220 Childhood TL: Okay? Tell me about your life and what it was like at home when you was younger. Okay, can you tell me about some of your early memories of being younger here in Bristow? JJ: In this office TL: We’re gonna really work your memory today JJ: One of my big memories is we lived out on Jefferson TL: On Jefferson? JJ: And it was still a dirt street TL: Okay JJ: And I was playing out in front of my house in the dirt and mother was not very happy about it because she just knew that some car was gonna come by and run me over Bishops ; Glen Acres ; Roberts ; Treadle Sewing Machine 871 Grandparents TL: Okay? Do you remember hearing your grandparents describe their lives? JJ: Not really, my daddies parents lived in Bristow, they came before statehood. TL: Oh wow JJ: And they came out on a covered wagon, of course that’s the only way they can get here TL: Right JJ: They had five boys TL: Okay JJ: I think, and then they lost two little girls at a young age TL: Okay JJ: But they lived over on the corner of second chestnut their whole life TL: Second and chestnut, okay. Okay and their names? JJ: Sears, Ira and Eula (ph) Eula Sears ; Ira Sears ; Joe Lee ; Tana Lee 1104 School TL: That’s wonderful. Okay now we’re gonna go to your school memories JJ: Okay TL: Okay, where did you first attend school? JJ: Washington school TL: Washington school JJ: First grade, we didn’t have kindergarten then. TL: Oh really? Okay. Who was the first teacher that you had? JJ: Her name was Christian TL: Christian, okay. JJ: Hazel, Hazel Christian TL: Hazel Christian, okay. JJ: Actually, she and my mother went to college together Catherine Cane ; Donna Doke ; Hazel Christian ; Jean Sampson ; Washington Elementary 1422 Church TL: Okay, okay. Okay now we’re gonna go to church life. Did your family attend church when you were a child? JJ: Yes TL: Okay, and which church? JJ: First Christian TL: First Christian JJ: Disciples of Christ TL: Okay, and do you still attend that church? JJ: Yes TL: Okay. Can you describe the Sunday services when you were a child? JJ: Pretty much like they are now, we had Sunday school early and I always went and then we had church service, you know had a choir. First Christian Church 1660 Medical Care TL: What was medical care like when you were a child? JJ: Doctor King made house calls TL: Doctor King, I’ve heard that name a time or two JJ: Yeah TL: Okay, uh-huh. JJ: They took care of me, he didn’t deliver me because mother went to Tulsa, but he took care of me all my life, and my mother and my dad and my grandparents. TL: So why did your mom go to Tulsa? Was there a—? JJ: I think her family had had hard deliveries TL: Okay JJ: So she just went in TL: Just to be safe? JJ: Mhm Doctor King 1747 Town Life TL: Okay now we’re going to town life. JJ: Okay TL: Okay, what are your recollections of Bristow in your early childhood? How about main street? Any special stores that you really enjoyed? JJ: I loved Anthonys and I loved Pennys TL: Okay JJ: And then Miss Stanford had a shop that—for children TL: Okay JJ: That was fun TL: Okay, okay. So about those stores, was it just because you went shopping there a lot or was there—? Anthonys ; Lions Cafe ; Miss Stanford ; Pennys ; Wade Hardware 1927 Holiday Events TL: Okay, what were the main holiday events held in town? JJ: Halloween, Christmas, I don’t remember any others. TL: How did they celebrate Halloween? JJ: Well they just opened up main street and let everybody run up and down it TL: Okay, did you dress up as a child to go trick-or-treating? JJ: Oh yeah TL: Yeah? What was your favourite costume? JJ: Well I think I was a witch TL: Yeah, yeah. And what about July 4th, did they celebrate July 4th? JJ: Yes TL: Yeah? JJ: They did, had fireworks and— 1989 Early Adulthood TL: Uh-huh, good. Okay, early adulthood. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? JJ: I wanted to be a teacher but I never did that TL: Yeah, why not? JJ: I just did not like college and quit TL: Where did you go to college at? JJ: OSU TL: OSU? JJ: [Indecipherable] TL: Okay, what was your first job? JJ: Oh, I worked at a bakery Bunny Baker ; Meta Hill 2234 Travel TL: Okay, now it’s asking about travel. How did you travel to Oklahoma City or Tulsa in the early? JJ: Well usually by car, we always had a car TL: Okay JJ: During the war we used to trade a lot TL: Did you, and when did you get married? What was the date? JJ: July the 27th, 1961. TL: 1961. Okay, when you took the train, what are your memories of this depot here? JJ: It looks pretty much—I was trying to think, what was the ticket office in here? TL: I’m assuming where it’s at now, but I don’t know. 2412 Segregation and Racism TL: Right. Okay we’re gonna be talking about racism about the blacks and Indians here in town, okay? Was the town segregated? JJ: Yes TL: Yes, what are your memories of it? The segregation? JJ: Segregation. I remember the Indians really more than the blacks TL: Okay JJ: And they would just sit on the sidewalks TL: Okay, on main street? JJ: On main street TL: Okay JJ: And the blacks had their own town, they didn’t really come into the main part of Bristow very much that I recall 2721 The Great Depression TL: Okay, the great depression. Do you have any memories of the great depression? JJ: Just that there wasn’t any money TL: No money, yeah. Hard times. How did it affect your home life? JJ: It really didn’t because my daddy worked in the post office and always had a job TL: Okay, yeah. JJ: But I had friends that were very, very poor. There just was nothing. They would love to have something to eat. TL: Right. And so your dad didn’t lose his job during that time? JJ: No 2784 Amphitheater TL: Do you remember the work being done to construct the lake or the park? JJ: I remember work in the park when they were building the amphitheatre. TL: Do you? Okay, what do you remember of that? JJ: I was trying to think who was president then. She came, the president’s wife came. TL: Eleanor Roosevelt? JJ: Was it Eleanor? It could’ve been TL: She came and she dedicated that JJ: Okay, she came and dedicated the amphitheatre TL: Uh-huh, did you guys go out there? JJ: Oh yeah TL: Was it pretty exciting? JJ: Yup Eleanor Roosevelt 3014 Politics TL: Was your family politically involved? JJ: Not really TL: No, okay. Did any of your family members ever run for office? JJ: Well I had a great uncle that did TL: Yeah, here in Bristow? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, and who was that? JJ: Cal Foster TL: Okay, and do you remember what office? JJ: Probably county commissioner, I don’t really know TL: Okay, okay. Did he win? JJ: I think he did? 3076 WWII TL: Okay, World War II. What are your memories of WWII? JJ: Well, I had bunches of uncles in the army and the navy and the marines TL: Uh-huh JJ: I had one uncle killed in Italy TL: Okay, and who was that? JJ: Daddies youngest brother TL: And his name? JJ: Milton TL: Milton? JJ: Sears TL: Milton Sears (ph), okay Milton Sears ; The Bristow Record ; Tribune 3251 Most Important Invention TL: So what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime? JJ: Oh dear. I suppose one that affected most people is the television TL: Okay, and why do you say that? JJ: It’s just a better way to get the news. [Indecipherable] TL: Right JJ: I remember sitting in front of the little radio listening to it TL: Right, while everyone gathered around it. How is the world different now than when you were a child? JJ: So many ways. Travel, it’s so much easier now than it was then. But I miss, I really miss the slow pace of my childhood 3319 Biggest Problems that Face Our Nation TL: As you see it, what are the biggest problems that face our nation and how do you think they could be solved? JJ: I’m not smart enough to solve them, but I think the race problem is the biggest one we have. I don’t know why people can’t accept you for who you are. And then there’s so many more, there’s drugs and there’s all this stuff, but I really think race is the big one. TL: And then I was just gonna ask you, how are your feelings about COVID? How do you think it’s changed how we are doing things? JJ: I think they have overplayed it ; I’ve always thought it was a political thing. TL: Okay. JJ: I don’t pay attention to it 3389 Closing Thoughts TL: Yeah. Okay, your—Linda said that you kind of have some information about that grand piano back there, you kind of knew a little bit about the history about it? JJ: Oh, I don’t really. I’ll tell you who probably could give you some is George Foster TL: George Foster, okay. JJ: Because that looks exactly like the piano that his grandmother had TL: Okay, good deal JJ: She had it in her house TL: Okay. I think we’re good. Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about? About your life or? JJ: I don’t really think George Foster ; William Edgar In this 2021 interview, JoNell Jones shares her experience growing up in the Bristow area. She discusses family, town life, and travel. Interviewer: Tammy Levin Interviewee: JoNell Jones Other Persons: Date of Interview: April 6th, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-20 00:00 -- 60:27 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. TL: Okay, are you ready? JJ: I guess so TL: Okay. This is Tammy Levin with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing historical oral history project. The date is April 6th, 2021, I' ; m sitting here with-- JJ: JoNell Jones TL: At Bristows train depot, who' ; s going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now give me your full name. JJ: JoNell Sears was my maiden name TL: Okay JJ: Jones TL: Alright let' ; s begin. Okay, what was your full name at birth? JJ: JoNell Jones TL: Okay, and where was you born? JJ: I was born in Tulsa but I was brought right back here TL: Okay JJ: I' ; ve been here all my life TL: Okay, okay. And was you born--were you born in, at the home or in a hospital? JJ: In the hospital TL: In the hospital, do you remember which hospital? JJ: Well it was Morningside then but it' ; s Hillcrest now TL: Okay great. And your parents' ; names? JJ: James and Eileen Lee Sears (ph) TL: Okay, so your maiden name was Sears? JJ: Mhm TL: And how do you spell that? JJ: S. E. A. R. S. TL: Okay great. And when were your parents married? JJ: Let' ; s see here, about 27' ; I think TL: 27' ; , 1927? JJ: 1927 TL: Okay, do you remember where they were married? JJ: Here in Bristow TL: Oh here in Bristow, okay. How many children did they have? JJ: Me TL: How many children did your parents have? JJ: Me TL: Just you? Oh goodness JJ: Just me, I was enough TL: Man, they stopped with perfection, right? JJ: yeah, yeah. TL: Yes. What did your father do? JJ: He worked in the post office TL: In the post office? JJ: He was a mail carrier TL: Okay JJ: But he had hurt his back when he was an [Indecipherable] for years from the time I was 11 TL: Okay JJ: And he died when I was 22 so he was, it was pretty much bed fast that whole period of time TL: When he worked in the post office, did he work just in the post office or was he a mail carrier? JJ: Well he started out as a mail carrier TL: Okay JJ: But that' ; s where he hurt this back, and then he moved into the window TL: Okay, okay. And what about your mother, what did she do? JJ: She was a homemaker TL: Okay JJ: A then after daddy died, she had to go to work and she worked at the Community bank as a secretary. TL: Okay, okay good deal. Okay, and what' ; s your spouse' ; s name? JJ: William Edgar TL: Okay, and what was the date of your marriage? JJ: July the 27th, 1961 TL: 1961 okay, and how many children did you have? JJ: Okay, both of us together had four TL: Okay JJ: He had a little girl and I had a little girl, it was a match TL: Ooh! JJ: And then we had two TL: Okay, okay. And their names? JJ: Julia TL: Julia? JJ: Becky TL: Becky JJ: Laura TL: Laura JJ: And Bill TL: And Bill, okay. Okay so what was--he had two you say? JJ: He had one TL: No he had one and you had one JJ: Uh-huh TL: Okay, okay. Okay can you--we' ; re going to go now to your early childhood. JJ: Okay TL: Okay? Tell me about your life and what it was like at home when you was younger. Okay, can you tell me about some of your early memories of being younger here in Bristow? JJ: In this office TL: We' ; re gonna really work your memory today JJ: One of my big memories is we lived out on Jefferson TL: On Jefferson? JJ: And it was still a dirt street TL: Okay JJ: And I was playing out in front of my house in the dirt and mother was not very happy about it because she just knew that some car was gonna come by and run me over TL: Oh, uh-huh. She was worried about that, yeah yeah. JJ: And we just lived alone in a two-bedroom house and at that time it was right on the edge of town TL: Uh-huh JJ: Daddy had built it for her when they got married TL: Okay, is the house still there? JJ: Yes TL: Is it? JJ: Yes TL: Okay do you drive by it to look at it? JJ: Occasionally TL: Do ya? JJ: Occasionally, yeah TL: Uh-huh, does it still look the same? JJ: No TL: No, okay. JJ: They' ; ve changed it TL: Okay, what was the address of that house, do you-- JJ: 512 TL: 512 Jefferson? JJ: 512 east Jefferson TL: East Jefferson, okay. 512 East Jefferson. JJ: Isn' ; t that funny? TL: That you still remember it, yeah. What about some of the neighborhood kids? Do you remember any of the neighborhood kids? JJ: There was one little boy that lived next door but he was really old, her name was Ward (ph) TL: Okay JJ: There weren' ; t any kids out there TL: Okay, okay. What about--this is kind of an odd question, but what kind of bed did you sleep in? JJ: I had a regular full size bed TL: Oh okay, what about your favorite toy as a child? JJ: Oh I had a little doll that was named Sabra (ph). But I think I still have her. TL: Do you? JJ: Yeah TL: Wow, what kind of doll was she? Was she a porcelain? JJ: Just a baby doll TL: Was it a porcelain type doll, porcelain head, china head? JJ: I' ; m sure it had a China or Porcelain head because it was way before plastic. TL: Right, uh-huh. Was it a blond or a brunette? JJ: It didn' ; t have--it didn' ; t have hair, it had just-- TL: It had the painted head? JJ: Yeah TL: Painted hair? JJ: She was kind of blonde TL: Blonde? Okay JJ: Yeah TL: Okay, okay what kind of role did your mother play in the home? JJ: She was the homemaker TL: Until she had to go to work JJ: Yeah TL: Okay JJ: She didn' ; t go to work until my daddy couldn' ; t work anymore. TL: How was the laundry done? JJ: We had a black woman that came and did it TL: Okay, mhm. Okay, what about the cooking? Did she do the cooking as well? JJ: Mother did all the cooking TL: Did she do the cooking? JJ: She was a fantastic cook TL: Was she? What was your favorite meal that she fixed? JJ: Oh dear, fried chicken. TL: Fried chicken, oh that sounds good! Did you have mashed potatoes and gravy with that fried chicken? JJ: Oh of course. TL: That sounds wonderful, what kind of stove? JJ: She had a [Indecipherable] which was a really big stove for that little house TL: Uh-huh JJ: She won it at a drawing at the movies TL: Oh wow JJ: Isn' ; t that fun? TL: At the theater downtown? JJ: At the Princes (ph) TL: At the Princes JJ: Yeah TL: Did you hear that we just got some movie theater seats from the Princes movie theater? JJ: No TL: Yup, I just--they were put out on the street curb and so I went and grabbed them really quick, so how about that? So this lady that did your laundry, is that all she did was for you? She just did the laundry for you or did she help out some? JJ: As far as I remember, I don' ; t think--mother was an immaculate housekeeper, I doubt if she let anybody come in. TL: Okay, and what were some of the normal daily meals that you had? JJ: We had three meals a day, we had breakfast and lunch and dinner. TL: Okay, okay. JJ: Supper, not dinner. TL: Yeah, that' ; s what I grew up with supper too. Are there any family recipes from your childhood that you still make? JJ: Oh yes TL: Yeah? And what--can you tell me about some of them? JJ: Well let' ; s see, I still make mothers chocolate pie TL: Do you? JJ: And she made a coconut cake that I still make occasionally TL: Do ya? Do your kids still make some of those recipes? JJ: No TL: No? JJ: They don' ; t cook, my children. TL: Uh-huh, do they still ask for those two recipes? JJ: No because they usually have them when they come TL: Okay. Where did you shop for groceries? JJ: What was her name? Shopped at Bishops, and we shopped at Roberts TL: Okay, and were those neighborhood grocery stores? JJ: They were on main street TL: On main street, okay. Were there other neighborhood grocery stores though? JJ: Yes, there was one or about two that was out on chestnut, I can' ; t even think of the name of it. TL: Okay JJ: [Inaudible] TL: And did you have any daily chores that you had to do when you were little? JJ: Had to make my bed TL: You had to make your bed, uh-huh. JJ: And help with the dishes TL: Okay, okay. And I' ; m guessing you probably didn' ; t have any livestock if you lived in town JJ: No we did TL: Oh you did, did you? JJ: My grandfather had a little farm just about four or five blocks from us east over where Glen Acres (ph), or not Glen Acres. Anyway, we always had a cow and chickens down there. TL: Okay JJ: A big garden TL: Okay, and what did you grow in your garden? JJ: Everything TL: Did you have a favorite? JJ: Green beans TL: Green beans? JJ: Yeah TL: Did you help snap them? JJ: Oh of course! TL: Yeah? Did you eat more than you--? JJ: No, I was not a very good eater TL: Okay, okay uh-huh. Okay did you do your own butchering if you had cattle or did--? JJ: They butchered hogs TL: Okay JJ: We never butchered cattle, but they butchered hogs. TL: Okay, now did you use the cattle, the cow for the milk then? JJ: Milk TL: Milk? Okay. And how did you store your food? JJ: How did we store? TL: Uh-huh JJ: We had a--I think we had an icebox when I was a real little girl and as soon as we got a refrigerator, daddy bought one. TL: Okay, so you had the old fashion icebox? JJ: Yeah with the ice in the top of it TL: So where did you get your ice from? JJ: They delivered it, the ice company down on 1st street, or--down where [Indecipherable] is now, about that area, there was a big ice plant. TL: Okay. Okay this question is did your family employ household help? So yes JJ: Some TL: And did you have anyone else besides the lady that helped you with the laundry? JJ: No TL: No, just her okay. And it' ; s asking how much were they paid? I' ; m sure you probably don' ; t-- JJ: I have no idea TL: Yeah JJ: I want to say a dollar a day TL: Okay JJ: But that' ; s strictly a guess TL: That' ; s an--right, right. Okay and what kind of clothes did you wear? JJ: Whatever mother made. TL: Oh did she make your clothes? JJ: Yeah TJ: Okay JJ: She was a really good seamstress TJ: Yeah JJ: She was a really good homemaker, I mean she--she did all that, yeah. TL: Right, the sewing machine, I' ; m guessing a treadle sewing machine? JJ: Mhm TL: Uh-huh? Do you still have that or is that long gone? JJ: No it' ; s long gone. TL: Uh-huh, did you like to sew? JJ: Not really TL: No, that wasn' ; t your thing? JJ: I did a lot of sewing when my girls were growing up TL: Uh-huh JJ: But I didn' ; t really like it TL: Okay, did you have shoes to wear all year round JJ: Yes TL: Did you? Okay. And it' ; s asking who did you play with most of the time? JJ: Oh I had, I had two or three real good friends that we played. They were not neighbors but they were close, close enough to get to. TL: Did you have cousins to play with? JJ: I had cousins to play with but they didn' ; t live here TL: Okay, okay. What were some of the common childhood games that you played? JJ: Red rover, I' ; m sure we played Ring around the rosy when I was little bitty TL: Right JJ: Jacks TL: Right, uh-uh. How about some of your favorite songs that you sang as a child? JJ: I don' ; t even remember them TL: Okay. It' ; s asking about your fathers' ; work and that was we already discussed that. What was his role in the house? Did he help in the garden? JJ: He--I' ; m sure he did anything that needed to be done but he was a [Indecipherable] for years. TL: Okay JJ: So--my memories of him are in bed pretty much TL: So how did he get hurt on his job? JJ: Slipped on the ice TL: Oh, okay. JJ: Went down to crippling arthritis. TL: Oh okay, you said he died when he was 22? JJ: I was 22 TL: 22 JJ: Daddy was 44 TL: Aw so he died very young JJ: But when he died, he could use his right elbow and his right hand. TL: [Indecipherable]. Okay how about do you remember the first time you heard a radio? JJ: We always had a radio TL: Did you? JJ: Yup TL: Okay, saw television? JJ: I was in college. The people of Bristow bought my dad a television when they first came out TL: Uh-huh JJ: Because he was bed fast and they put it in his room TL: Aww JJ: And we had a--it was one of the first televisions in town TL: Wow, do you remember what show was playing the first time? JJ: No, I was in college so I really didn' ; t pay much attention to it TL: Okay, I bet he was very appreciative of that JJ: Yeah he was, he was. TL: That' ; s neat, how neat. Okay now we' ; re gonna go to your grandparents JJ: Okay TL: Okay? Do you remember hearing your grandparents describe their lives? JJ: Not really, my daddies parents lived in Bristow, they came before statehood. TL: Oh wow JJ: And they came out on a covered wagon, of course that' ; s the only way they can get here TL: Right JJ: They had five boys TL: Okay JJ: I think, and then they lost two little girls at a young age TL: Okay JJ: But they lived over on the corner of second chestnut their whole life TL: Second and chestnut, okay. Okay and their names? JJ: Sears, Ira and Eula (ph) TL: Okay, okay. So they would' ; ve came here before statehood, or they wanted to--probably one of the first settlers here then. JJ: Yes, my oldest, my dads oldest brother was the first white child born in Bristow TL: Oh okay, that' ; s interesting JJ: Grandma talks about the Indians, they had a--they called them stomp grounds TL: Uh-huh JJ: It' ; s where they did their dances TL: Right JJ: And they walked down chestnut right by the house to the stomp grounds and she said they just would go in in streams down there to their dances TL: So did she say where the stomp dances were located? JJ: Well south of town, I' ; m not sure where TL: South of town, okay. That had to be a very interesting-- JJ: Yup, yup. TL: Do you have memories of your grandparents, the Sears, then? JJ: Oh yeah TL: Okay JJ: I was a big girl when they died TL: Okay JJ: Was in high school TL: Oh okay, so you got to spend a lot of time with them then JJ: Yeah I did TL: Okay good, grandparents are pretty special JJ: Yes TL: Yes, very special. JJ: My mother' ; s parents lived here too TL: Okay and their names? JJ: Lee (ph) TL: Lee JJ: Joe and Tana TL: Okay JJ: And they had moved at that time, but they lived in Tulsa TL: Okay JJ: So TL: When did they move out of Bristow? JJ: I guess after mother got out of high school in 27' ; TL: Okay JJ: Her older sister and her husband opened a big feed store in Tulsa TL: Okay JJ: And grandad went up, he had a little ice stock right there on the corner from it TL: Okay JJ: But he was in the feed store with uncle Frank, so. TL: Okay, okay [Inaudible]. Who was the oldest person in your family you can remember from when you were a child? The oldest person that you can remember from childhood. JJ: My great grandmother Roberts was 92 TL: 92, okay. And who--from what side of the family? JJ: My mother' ; s side TL: Your mother' ; s side, okay. JJ: My grandmother Foster was--I had two great grandparents--I had four grandparents and two great grandparents alive while I was growing up and they were all real well liked. I mean, nobody died young. TL: That' ; s great, yeah! JJ: Yeah TL: And how old are you? JJ: 91 TL: 91, and happy belated birthday! Happy birthday! JJ: Thank you TL: Yes! So what do you remember about them? They were pretty active? JJ: Yes, granddad was the first fire chief in Bristow, granddad Sear TL: Oh okay JJ: And, yeah. TL: You have a lot of history here in Bristow JJ: Yeah, they came and settled and we stayed so-- TL: They must' ; ve liked it JJ: Who didn' ; t? TL: That' ; s wonderful. Okay now we' ; re gonna go to your school memories JJ: Okay TL: Okay, where did you first attend school? JJ: Washington school TL: Washington school JJ: First grade, we didn' ; t have kindergarten then. TL: Oh really? Okay. Who was the first teacher that you had? JJ: Her name was Christian TL: Christian, okay. JJ: Hazel, Hazel Christian TL: Hazel Christian, okay. JJ: Actually, she and my mother went to college together TL: Really? That' ; s neat. What hours were the school held? JJ: I think 9 to 4 TL: 9 to 4, okay. So what age did you start school then if you didn' ; t go to kindergarten? JJ: Six, which was first grade. TL: Okay. Did you walk? JJ: Yes TL: Yeah, how long? JJ: It was about five blocks TL: Okay JJ: I had two neighbor girls that were older than I was, and I walked with them. TL: Okay, do you remember how many children attended your class? Was it a large class? JJ: I think they were pretty large classes, I' ; d say 25, 30. TL: And what year was this? JJ: 1936 TL: 1936, okay. Do you remember what year you graduated? I' ; m sure you do. JJ: 48' ; TL: 1948, okay. Who was your best friend? Let' ; s start--okay, who was your best friend in first grade, do you remember that? JJ: Catherine Cane (ph) TL: Catherine Cane, okay. And how about when you-- JJ: And Donna Doke (ph), [Indecipherable] TL: Oh okay, okay. JJ: Yeah, they were my best friends TL: Okay, and did they remain your best friends throughout school? JJ: Pretty much TL: Aw that' ; s pretty special JJ: They' ; re all gone now, but-- TL: Oh, right. And I' ; m assuming, you said you went to college so you completed? JJ: No I didn' ; t complete it, I went two and a half years TL: Okay, okay. What kind of building was the school in? Grade school JJ: Actually they just tore it-- TL: Washington JJ: Washington? Yeah, it was that very first build that they had, it was--it was new, they had [Indecipherable] TL: Yeah, I got to walk through it before they tore it down so--and then you went to the high school here? JJ: Mhm TL: Yeah, and that was Bristow High School? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, were you a member of any of the clubs or organizations in high school? JJ: I was a member of everything TL: Yeah? Like what? JJ: Well I was in the band, I was a cheerleader, and I was president or vice president of the senior class. TL: Of the senior? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, like choir? Was it the same as choir or was it-- JJ: I didn' ; t sing in choir, I don' ; t sing TL: Okay, so what was that? What' ; s the singer class then? JJ: Senior [Indecipherable], senior class TL: Senior class, okay okay. Uh-huh, good. JJ: I did everything, I liked it. TL: Well good. Was the school building used for any other community purposes? JJ: Not that I know of. TL: What types of food did your mother pack in your lunch if she packed your lunch? JJ: She didn' ; t pack my lunch, I went home for lunch TL: Oh did you, okay. Was she home for lunch with you or--? JJ: Most of the time TL: Okay JJ: My daddy was always there TL: Okay, so did she have lunch ready for you or did you fix lunch together or how did you spend your lunch? JJ: She probably had gotten it ready before she went to work. TL: Okay, and then did you eat lunch with your dad since he was home there? JJ: Mhm TL: Did you? Okay, so that' ; s nice. Okay what do you remember about your classroom? JJ: Well blackboards and the musty smell that it had TL: Okay, okay. JJ: All the books that were in there TL: Do you have any favorite teacher from grade school? JJ: Not really TL: No, how about high school? JJ: Jean Sampson (ph) was my--he was the science teacher and he was my favorite teacher TL: And why was he your favorite teacher? What about him? JJ: I don' ; t know, he was just funny and he was--it was good, yeah. [Background noise] TL: Did you-- [Background noise] TL: Did you have a favorite subject in high school? JJ: Yeah, biology TL: Did you, so you' ; re a science person? JJ: No TL: Oh no JJ: I just like biology TL: Okay, okay. Okay now we' ; re gonna go to church life. Did your family attend church when you were a child? JJ: Yes TL: Okay, and which church? JJ: First Christian TL: First Christian JJ: Disciples of Christ TL: Okay, and do you still attend that church? JJ: Yes TL: Okay. Can you describe the Sunday services when you were a child? JJ: Pretty much like they are now, we had Sunday school early and I always went and then we had church service, you know had a choir. TL: Okay, do you remember any songs? Anything special? Any favourite songs during that time? JJ: Not really TL: Can you describe the holiday events at church? JJ: Oh, it' ; s been--not really. We always had a church for the--when I was growing up, we had a big youth group, we had a lot of kids. And we had church, we did church Sunday once or twice a year, us youth group and, oh we had parties and did all the things that you' ; d probably do TL: Did your friends attend the same church? JJ: No TL: No JJ: Well Donna did TL: Donna, okay. Sometimes that makes it a little bit--what were your Christmas' ; like as a child? JJ: We always went to my grandmothers TL: Which grandmother? JJ: Grandmother Lee TL: Okay, okay JJ: And, oh they were big deals. TL: Cousins there? JJ: Cousins and aunts and uncles and-- TL: Uh-huh, did you usually go for Christmas eve or Christmas day? JJ: Oh we went Christmas eve and spent the night and had a big Christmas breakfast TL: Aw, special meals? JJ: Yup TL: Yup, all of that? JJ: All of that TL: Did Santa-- JJ: Santa came TL: Yeah, good. Was there a special food that brought back memories or that was always served? JJ: We always had turkey, I think. It could' ; ve been chicken and I didn' ; t know it TL: Right JJ: We always had ham. For Christmas breakfast we always had ham TL: Oh, okay mhm. And what about the Christmas tree? Was there anything special about the Christmas tree or just-- JJ: No it just was loaded with stuff I' ; d made and stuff my cousins have made TL: It was just spending time with family, right? JJ: Yeah TL: Yeah, good deal. Did your mother sing in the choir? Did you sing in the choir? JJ: No TL: No, what was your parents' ; involvement in the church? JJ: Let' ; s see, daddy taught a Sunday school class, mother taught a Sunday school class. Daddy was an elder TL: Okay JJ: Back before women could be elders TL: Right JJ: I' ; m an elder now, I was the first woman elder in our church TL: Really? JJ: Yeah TL: Congratulations, and when did that happen? JJ: Oh let' ; s see ; it was probably--it' ; s been a long time. Let' ; s see, probably in the 60' ; s TL: Oh okay JJ: When they first started letting women be active in--and our church, our disciples church was one of the first that did I think TL: That' ; s neat. Okay what were weddings like in your church? Anything special? Nothing? Okay. Okay now we' ; re going to medical care. JJ: Okay TL: What was medical care like when you were a child? JJ: Doctor King made house calls TL: Doctor King, I' ; ve heard that name a time or two JJ: Yeah TL: Okay, uh-huh. JJ: They took care of me, he didn' ; t deliver me because mother went to Tulsa, but he took care of me all my life, and my mother and my dad and my grandparents. TL: So why did your mom go to Tulsa? Was there a--? JJ: I think her family had had hard deliveries TL: Okay JJ: So she just went in TL: Just to be safe? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay. It' ; s asking here, did women generally give birth here or at home and most likely they did but your mom just wanted to be-- JJ: My aunty had lost a baby at home birth, so. TL: Yeah, yeah. What were some of your mother' ; s home remedies? JJ: She' ; d just called Doctor King TL: Okay, were you ever hospitalized? JJ: When I had my tonsils out TL: Okay, and here in Bristow? JJ: Yeah TL: Yeah? Which hospital? JJ: Well it was up on 8th street, the old one they tore down TL: Okay, I' ; m not from Bristow so was that--? JJ: Okay, it was the Sisler TL: Sisler, that' ; s what I was thinking, okay. Do you have any special memories of that time? Did you get lots of ice cream? JJ: Yes, I remember a sore throat TL: Sore throat JJ: Yeah TL: Nothing- okay now we' ; re going to town life. JJ: Okay TL: Okay, what are your recollections of Bristow in your early childhood? How about main street? Any special stores that you really enjoyed? JJ: I loved Anthonys and I loved Pennys TL: Okay JJ: And then Miss Stanford had a shop that--for children TL: Okay JJ: That was fun TL: Okay, okay. So about those stores, was it just because you went shopping there a lot or was there--? JJ: Oh we didn' ; t shop very much, but when we shopped that' ; s where we went TL: That' ; s where you went, okay. How did you travel when you went to Tulsa? Did you travel by car ; did you travel by train? JJ: We travelled by car, but I travelled by train a lot. When I was having my teeth straightened, I had to go to Tulsa every three weeks and I rode the train up there and back every three weeks. TL: And did you go by yourself or did you go with your mom? JJ: No I went by myself, I was in high school TL: Oh okay, so you were older, okay. JJ: Actually there were about four of us going, so TL: Oh, okay JJ: We all went to the same orthodontist TL: Okay, who were some of the biggest businesses in town? JJ: Hm, Wade Hardware, there were a lot of businesses. Of course Anthonys and Pennys, and Miss Stanford, [Indecipherable] I can' ; t remember. TL: What kind of shops did your mother frequent a lot? The ones that you mentioned earlier? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay. What about restaurants, did you eat out very often? JJ: Not very often TL: Okay JJ: If we did, we ate--when I was in high school we ate at Lions Café TL: Okay, okay. JJ: I' ; m sure you' ; ve heard of that one TL: I have, and I hear about an ice cream shop a lot too, but I' ; m not for sure about the time period though, so. How did people dress? Like during, how about high school days? Was there a particular-- JJ: Dress code? TL: Yeah JJ: We wore dresses TL: Dresses, okay JJ: And they had to be a certain length TL: Okay, and what length was that? JJ: They had to come at least below your knee TL: Below your knee, okay. Did you have a favourite dress, or a skirt? Did you like to wear skirts or dresses? JJ: I wore both TL: Both, okay. It' ; s asking did you mostly buy your clothes or did you make them? JJ: Mother made most of my clothes TL: Okay, what were the main holiday events held in town? JJ: Halloween, Christmas, I don' ; t remember any others. TL: How did they celebrate Halloween? JJ: Well they just opened up main street and let everybody run up and down it TL: Okay, did you dress up as a child to go trick-or-treating? JJ: Oh yeah TL: Yeah? What was your favourite costume? JJ: Well I think I was a witch TL: Yeah, yeah. And what about July 4th, did they celebrate July 4th? JJ: Yes TL: Yeah? JJ: They did, had fireworks and-- TL: Did they do that out on at the lake or--? JJ: They did it at the lake and then of course the country club they always had a golf--as I got older, they always had a golf tournament that we played in. TL: Okay JJ: And usually a lunch TL: Okay, what' ; s your favourite holiday to celebrate? JJ: Christmas TL: Christmas? Yeah. JJ: That' ; s the day we all get together TL: Uh-huh, good. Okay, early adulthood. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? JJ: I wanted to be a teacher but I never did that TL: Yeah, why not? JJ: I just did not like college and quit TL: Where did you go to college at? JJ: OSU TL: OSU? JJ: [Indecipherable] TL: Okay, what was your first job? JJ: Oh, I worked at a bakery TL: At a bakery, oh that could be very dangerous JJ: It was, but I was thin then TL: Right, and which bakery? JJ: I don' ; t even remember the name of it, these people came in and put a bakery in TL: And that--was that here in Bristow? JJ: Yeah, it was between 7th and 8th down in that area TL: Oh goodness JJ: And it was really nice bakery, they were here for several years TL: Uh-huh JJ: And I worked it a lot through high school TL: Did you sample a lot? JJ: Oh of course TL: Oh what was your favourite? JJ: They made the best donuts you ever ate, make you hungry TL: Yeah, I love bakeries. JJ: I do too TL: Pastries are my downfall JJ: You don' ; t look like you had a downfall TL: Oh yes, what kind of jobs have you held in the past? JJ: Well let' ; s see, I' ; ve worked in the bank, I worked at the gas company, [Indecipherable] Natural TL: Okay JJ: I never worked much. As soon as I got married, I never worked after that. TL: Yes, you worked very hard JJ: I worked, I raised four kids. TL: You worked very hard, yes. JJ: I didn' ; t get paid for it. Well I did, ultimately. TL: You did, yeah. Okay, you didn' ; t work in the military. When did you meet your spouse? So Ed is your spouse JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, when did you meet him? JJ: Met him in 1960 TL: Okay, and where? JJ: I was working for Bill [Indecipherable], and he worked--he had an office across the street. TL: Okay, and where was that at? JJ: By the post office TL: Okay JJ: On 6th street TL: Okay, okay. JJ: And we just happened to meet. Actually I went to him, he was--I had a really bad back and I went over there to see if he could fix it. TL: So he was a doctor here in town then? JJ: Yeah TL: Okay, so that' ; s where his practice was at? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, okay. And what was your first impression? JJ: How shy he was TL: Aw, really? JJ: Yeah TL: Uh-huh JJ: He was extremely shy until you knew him TL: Okay, how long had he been practicing here in town then? JJ: Not too long, maybe a year TL: Okay, and where did he come from? JJ: Oh he came from basically Seminole (ph) TL: Okay JJ: Well he first came from Arkansas, did we run out your tape? TL: Nope, I just heard a squeaky noise. Seminole? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, can you tell me about your engagement? JJ: We weren' ; t really engaged very long, we just started dating then got married TL: Okay, how long did you date then? Just a short time? JJ: Probably three or four months TL: Okay, okay. Can you tell me about your wedding? JJ: Yes, it was in my mother' ; s living room that was just mother and my step-father and me. And Bunny Baker. TL: Bunny Baker, really? JJ: I had worked with her downtown TL: Okay, okay. How about that. So after you got married, did you live here in Bristow then? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, and did you work after you got married? Stayed home? JJ: No, this doesn' ; t get head shakes, does it? TL: Huh? JJ: I said that doesn' ; t pick up headshakes, does it? TL: No it doesn' ; t pick up headshakes, no. Where did you live after you got married then? JJ: Oh, we lived out on Meta Hill (ph) when we first got married, and then we moved ; we bought our house on sixth street. TL: Okay JJ: The corner of sixth and pecan, yeah. TL: Okay JJ: We outgrew our first house TL: Did you? JJ: Yeah TL: Okay, now it' ; s asking about travel. How did you travel to Oklahoma City or Tulsa in the early? JJ: Well usually by car, we always had a car TL: Okay JJ: During the war we used to trade a lot TL: Did you, and when did you get married? What was the date? JJ: July the 27th, 1961. TL: 1961. Okay, when you took the train, what are your memories of this depot here? JJ: It looks pretty much--I was trying to think, what was the ticket office in here? TL: I' ; m assuming where it' ; s at now, but I don' ; t know. JJ: But I do know it had two waiting rooms TL: Okay two waiting rooms, okay. JJ: And there were lots of trains through town, there were about six a day TL: Six a day, okay. JJ: Maybe more. It looks pretty much like it does now. TL: Okay, and now you were talking about the waiting rooms, can you tell me a little bit about the waiting rooms? JJ: They just had lots of chairs, they had a black--one for the blacks and one for the whites. TL: Okay now where was the black waiting room and the white waiting room? JJ: The black one was over at the side TL: Okay, back there? JJ: Yeah TL: Okay JJ: I may be wrong on that, but that' ; s what I can recall TL: Okay. And okay, looks like we' ; re going back. Okay we' ; re going to route 66 now, you remember route 66? JJ: Oh yes TL: Okay, do you remember route 66 being built? This would' ; ve been, this would' ; ve been before--this would' ; ve been 1920 so, yeah. JJ: No I don' ; t remember TL: No, you wouldn' ; t remember, yeah. 1926, yeah so. But do you remember it, people traveling it a lot? JJ: Oh yeah TL: I' ; m guessing so, yeah. Do you remember it being a big to do? Probably not because that was just the way people travelled, yeah JJ: That just normal, yeah. TL: Yeah. JJ: And we really didn' ; t travel an awful lot here, you know. People didn' ; t travel like they do now TL: Right. Okay we' ; re gonna be talking about racism about the blacks and Indians here in town, okay? Was the town segregated? JJ: Yes TL: Yes, what are your memories of it? The segregation? JJ: Segregation. I remember the Indians really more than the blacks TL: Okay JJ: And they would just sit on the sidewalks TL: Okay, on main street? JJ: On main street TL: Okay JJ: And the blacks had their own town, they didn' ; t really come into the main part of Bristow very much that I recall TL: And when you say they had their own town, where was that located at? JJ: It was over on the east 9th and 10th TL: Okay, over on east 9th and 10th which would be over--okay. JJ: Yup TL: And I think I know where that' ; s at, okay JJ: It' ; s up east of us north TL: Okay, okay. JJ: We can go over there now, there' ; s a big media hall of some kind over where that used to be TL: Okay, so that' ; s kind of where they stayed in their own part of the town, okay. And when you say that, that' ; s kind of like when you were a child or during that time period, or what time period are you? JJ: When I was a child TL: Child, okay. JJ: Segregation came in--see my brother' ; s 18 years younger than I am, and he was in one of the first segregated classes in school. They segregated the third grade I think TL: Okay JJ: But I was not--schools were segregated when I was in school TL: So they just kind of kept--the black' ; s kind of kept to their own part JJ: Yeah they had their own high school and they had their own grade school TL: And then so the Indians just kind of, you say just kind of sit on the sidewalks and stuff? And what did they do then? JJ: That' ; s all I ever saw them do TL: Okay, okay. Was there any kind of problems or anything? JJ: Not that I was aware of. Of course mother made sure I wasn' ; t aware of a lot of stuff TL: Okay. Okay, do you remember the names of any black families in town during your childhood? JJ: No TL: Okay, were you allowed to socialize with any of the black children? JJ: Wasn' ; t done TL: Okay, and I' ; m guessing none of them attended your school JJ: No TL: They had their own schools, okay. Did you ever swim at the Bristow pool? JJ: Oh yeah TL: Did ya? JJ: Yeah TL: Were there any black children allowed at the pool? No, okay. How were black people employed? JJ: I think mostly as maids and-- TL: Okay JJ: Neighbour, and see I don' ; t really know because I do know that they had--their school teachers were all educated like they had to be to teach TL: Right, so did they have their own teachers then at their school? Okay. Do you remember any freedmen in Bristow? JJ: Any what? TL: Freedmen? JJ: No TL: Okay. What are your memories of any racism in early Oklahoma? JJ: You know when you grow up with them like that you don' ; t even know it' ; s racism. I' ; m sure there was a lot of it, but my parents were very kind and very gentle and they never, never said bad things. TL: Right JJ: I' ; m sure there were bad things said, but they didn' ; t say them. TL: Right. Okay, how were the Indians treated in town? JJ: I don' ; t know ; I really don' ; t know. I know we had a lot. TL: Right JJ: As far as how they were treated, I don' ; t have any idea. TL: Do you remember any of the Indian families in town? JJ: No TL: Do you remember how they were employed? Any of the jobs that they held in town? Do you remember any of the Indian allotment holders? JJ: No, I' ; m sure there were--I' ; m sure I did but I don' ; t remember them. TL: Okay now we' ; re gonna go to the oil drilling here in town. JJ: Oh okay. TL: Okay, was your family involved in any of the early oil drilling here? JJ: No TL: Okay, the great depression. Do you have any memories of the great depression? JJ: Just that there wasn' ; t any money TL: No money, yeah. Hard times. How did it affect your home life? JJ: It really didn' ; t because my daddy worked in the post office and always had a job TL: Okay, yeah. JJ: But I had friends that were very, very poor. There just was nothing. They would love to have something to eat. TL: Right. And so your dad didn' ; t lose his job during that time? JJ: No TL: Yeah. What did it do to your grocery supply? Did you guys have to cut back at all? JJ: Not that I know of. My little mother was miss frugality so you wouldn' ; t have known it. TL: Aw, yup. Okay, do you remember the work being done to construct the lake or the park? JJ: I remember work in the park when they were building the amphitheatre. TL: Do you? Okay, what do you remember of that? JJ: I was trying to think who was president then. She came, the president' ; s wife came. TL: Eleanor Roosevelt? JJ: Was it Eleanor? It could' ; ve been TL: She came and she dedicated that JJ: Okay, she came and dedicated the amphitheatre TL: Uh-huh, did you guys go out there? JJ: Oh yeah TL: Was it pretty exciting? JJ: Yup TL: Uh-huh JJ: Pretty crowded TL: I bet, that had to be a pretty big-- JJ: It was a big deal TL: --event for Bristow JJ: Yeah it was a big deal TL: How old would' ; ve you been? JJ: Probably about 6 or 7 TL: Oh JJ: I was in, well it was in 30' ; , I think it was 36' ; [Indecipherable] TL: Did she get a pretty--did she give a speech? Is that right? JJ: I' ; m sure she did but at that age I didn' ; t-- TL: Right JJ: I thought, probably just thought it was boring TL: Right, that' ; s pretty neat JJ: More exciting TL: Uh-huh. You probably just--you knew there was excitement, you know? Not for sure what was going on but there was an excitement. So when they was building the park and the amphitheatre, did your family go out there to kind of watch the progress of it? Or not? JJ: Not that I know of TL: Okay. Did you attend events at the amphitheatre? Where they held the different events out there? Did you, besides going to the dedication of it, what events did you go to? JJ: Well over the years I' ; ve gone to a lot. They' ; ve had band things and-- TL: They used to hold graduation? JJ: Graduation TL: For high school? JJ: We' ; ve had graduations out there TL: Okay JJ: In fact, I was trying to think. I can' ; t even remember where ours was, it may have been out there TL: Really? Okay, that' ; s neat. What was the lake used for, besides people going out there for picnics, picnics and-- JJ: Fishing and-- TL: Fishing, okay. Anything else, or no? Did they ever allow boats or-- JJ: You can put little boats out there TL: Okay JJ: With little trolley (ph) motors or-- TL: Okay JJ: Actually, they had a boat house and they had boats you could rent TL: Oh JJ: But you had to paddle, we used that a lot in high school TL: Okay JJ: We' ; d go out and spend the afternoon with--on the lake just paddling around TL: And what about swimming? Did they allow or have they ever allowed? I' ; ve never seen-- JJ: Not on the lake, they' ; ve never, never allowed swimming in the lake TL: Okay I was gonna say I don' ; t think I' ; ve ever--we' ; ve been here about 20 years and I don' ; t think I' ; ve ever seen someone-- JJ: But they' ; ve always had a nice pool here so we didn' ; t need to swim in the lake TL: Okay, okay. How about ice skating? JJ: Yes, I can remember times they ice skated out there TL: Oh JJ: But I was little TL: Uh-huh JJ: I didn' ; t have any ice skates but I did skate around with my slick shoes, yeah TL: Right, yeah. Has it ever been a very, like, a lot of people going out there or--? JJ: Yeah there used to be a lot of people go out, I don' ; t know what they do anymore but-- TL: Yeah, I see a lot of walkers out there JJ: Lots of walkers TL: Yeah, I love it out there JJ: Yeah it' ; s so pretty and it' ; s peaceful TL: That' ; s what I like about it JJ: Well maintained and-- TL: It' ; s very peaceful and just, I love it out there. Okay politics JJ: Okay TL: Was your family politically involved? JJ: Not really TL: No, okay. Did any of your family members ever run for office? JJ: Well I had a great uncle that did TL: Yeah, here in Bristow? JJ: Mhm TL: Okay, and who was that? JJ: Cal Foster TL: Okay, and do you remember what office? JJ: Probably county commissioner, I don' ; t really know TL: Okay, okay. Did he win? JJ: I think he did? TL: Did he? JJ: Yeah TL: Okay, that' ; s good. Did women commonly vote during your childhood? JJ: I don' ; t know TL: Do you remember your-- JJ: I think mother voted, yeah I' ; m sure she did TL: Good for her, good for her. How was voting done during your childhood? JJ: I think pretty much like it is right now TL: Okay JJ: Here in Bristow. No, we didn' ; t have any machines, we just marked ballets TL: Right, right. Have you always voted? JJ: Yes TL: Good for you. Okay, World War II. What are your memories of WWII? JJ: Well, I had bunches of uncles in the army and the navy and the marines TL: Uh-huh JJ: I had one uncle killed in Italy TL: Okay, and who was that? JJ: Daddies youngest brother TL: And his name? JJ: Milton TL: Milton? JJ: Sears TL: Milton Sears (ph), okay. JJ: And actually I think he has a [Indecipherable] out at the cemetery TL: Okay, that would be very hard for the family JJ: I remember ration cards TL: Right JJ: And we had three gallons of gas a week, and that' ; s why we rode the train a lot TL: Right, yes. JJ: They were hard times TL: Hard times, yeah. Yeah. JJ: I remember reading the obituaries and holding your breath that nobody that you knew was gonna be on the list TL: Right, now did Milton have a family, I mean a wife? JJ: He had a wife, he was--he was only I think 19 when he died so, he was real young TL: But still hard for the family JJ: Oh yeah, Carmen never got over that. TL: I can' ; t even imagine JJ: Oh I can' ; t either, I can' ; t either. TL: So what branch was he in? You said the navy? JJ: No he was in the army TL: In the army, okay. JJ: He was a first lieutenant ; he was--he was killed on [Indecipherable] TL: For 19, he--oh, so how did they get the, how did the family get the news that he had-- JJ: With a telegram TL: Telegram JJ: They finally brought his body home TL: Did they? Okay, okay. JJ: He' ; s buried out at Magnolia TL: Oh okay. What newspapers did you read here in Bristow during that time? JJ: Oh, Bristow had two papers. They had the Record and the Citizen (ph) TL: Okay JJ: Tulsa had two papers, Tribune and the World TL: Okay JJ: We would get our Oklahoma City papers part of the time TL: Oh okay. Yeah, looking at those papers during that time, just that' ; s all front page every day, every day reading about the news. JJ: I really miss the newspapers TL: So what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime? JJ: Oh dear. I suppose one that affected most people is the television TL: Okay, and why do you say that? JJ: It' ; s just a better way to get the news. [Indecipherable] TL: Right JJ: I remember sitting in front of the little radio listening to it TL: Right, while everyone gathered around it. How is the world different now than when you were a child? JJ: So many ways. Travel, it' ; s so much easier now than it was then. But I miss, I really miss the slow pace of my childhood TL: Yes JJ: Seems like we stopped longer and enjoyed it TL: Took time to enjoy things JJ: Yup TL: As you see it, what are the biggest problems that face our nation and how do you think they could be solved? JJ: I' ; m not smart enough to solve them, but I think the race problem is the biggest one we have. I don' ; t know why people can' ; t accept you for who you are. And then there' ; s so many more, there' ; s drugs and there' ; s all this stuff, but I really think race is the big one. TL: And then I was just gonna ask you, how are your feelings about COVID? How do you think it' ; s changed how we are doing things? JJ: I think they have overplayed it ; I' ; ve always thought it was a political thing. TL: Okay. JJ: I don' ; t pay attention to it TL: Yeah. Okay, your--Linda said that you kind of have some information about that grand piano back there, you kind of knew a little bit about the history about it? JJ: Oh, I don' ; t really. I' ; ll tell you who probably could give you some is George Foster TL: George Foster, okay. JJ: Because that looks exactly like the piano that his grandmother had TL: Okay, good deal JJ: She had it in her house TL: Okay. I think we' ; re good. Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about? About your life or? JJ: I don' ; t really think TL: Are you sure? JJ: I know the elections day is for a new hospital and I remember why they built this one TL: Yeah? Do you? JJ: Oh yeah TL: What can you tell us about it? JJ: Oh well I remember how excited Ed was TL: Uh-huh JJ: Because he had a new hospital to work at TL: Yeah, where did he have his practice? You say it was across from the post office? JJ: Oh TL: The first, his first, okay JJ: His--out where the health department is now. TL: Oh JJ: On first street, that was his office TL: Oh, okay. JJ: He and doctor McAlester shared a building TL: Okay, okay. And how long did he practice? JJ: Probably 40 years out there. He retired the day he turned forty--65 he retired TL: Good for him JJ: Yeah TL: Good for him JJ: And we had 20 years before he died TL: Uh-huh, right. Good. JJ: And we made the most of it TL: Good. Did he do surgeries or-- JJ: Mhm TL: Did he? What kind of surgeries? Just everything? JJ: He did almost anything. He actually was a trade surgeon ; he was train out in colleges but he didn' ; t wanna do a gynaecology practice TL: Uh-huh JJ: Because he would have had to go to the city and he didn' ; t want to go to the city TL: Uh-huh, did he have a special, a favourite surgery that he liked to do or? JJ: He just liked surgery, he liked to do surgery TL: Uh-huh, did-- JJ: The nurses all said he was the best surgeon out there TL: Wow, did he like doing--making house calls? JJ: Oh he made house calls TL: Uh-huh JJ: He didn' ; t like them in the middle of the night TL: Of course not, yeah JJ: And he delivered babies, he delivered babies--one of the nurses out there called him in and said " ; I' ; m having a baby and you' ; re gonna deliver it" ; TL: Did he keep tabs of how many babies he delivered? No? JJ: Said he wished he had TL: Uh-huh, yeah. JJ: He liked delivering babies, but he didn' ; t want to do it all the time TL: Right, would he walk down the street or " ; I delivered that one" ; or " ; I remember--" ; ? Did he recall memories to you of patients? No? JJ: We didn' ; t discuss patients much. Well I didn' ; t work out there unless I--he was absolutely desperate. He didn' ; t think I needed to be involved in his practice and I didn' ; t want to be TL: Smart man JJ: Yeah, well anyway. We had a good life and we raised four kids and they' ; re all successful so. TL: Good deal. JJ: Yeah, when you look at your kids and you think " ; they turned out good! And we thought in high school you were [Indecipherable].TL: Exactly, and you wonder many days and many nights JJ: Are you gonna survive this? Am I gonna survive this? TL: That' ; s right, that' ; s right. Yes, yeah. JJ: Anyway TL: Well this has been very pleasurable, thank you for doing this with us JJ: Okay TL: So yeah, okay well this concludes this interview JJ: Good TL: Thank you JJ: Thank you TL: Uh-huh. Can I--let' ; s see audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-20_Jones,_JoNell.xml OHP-2021-20_Jones,_JoNell.xml
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JoNell Jones
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In this 2021 interview, JoNell Jones shares her experience growing up in the Bristow area. She discusses family, town life, and travel.
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OHP-2021-20
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2021-04-06
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audio
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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sound, oral history
amphitheater
Bristow Public Schools
Community Bank
drive-in theaters
First Christian Church
Great Depression
home life
Native Americans
segregation
statehood
stores
television
Washington School
World War II
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Family Histories
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Oral History
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Georgia Smith
Interviewee
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J C Hutson
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5.4 July 19, 2021 OHP-2021-19 J C Hutson OHP-2021-19 0:00-40:33 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. J C Hutson Georgia Smith MP3 1:|55(5)|83(9)|110(7)|140(5)|161(13)|186(1)|225(7)|248(2)|278(8)|319(3)|361(8)|389(5)|426(8)|455(2)|493(6)|519(10)|536(10)|583(3)|616(10)|638(2)|665(2)|698(12)|717(8)|731(11)|742(17)|762(5)|796(9)|822(13)|848(4)|869(2)|885(9)|910(3)|938(5)|970(3)|989(3)|1006(11)|1031(1)|1047(8)|1076(4)|1116(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/J C Hutson.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction and Family History GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is July 19, 2021 and I am sitting here at the Rainbow Assisted Living Center with J C Hutson who’s going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow Area. Now, since J C can’t see, I am going to be filling out his paperwork as I answer—ask some of these questions so there may be a little bit of a pause with the questions. Okay, once again J C what was your full name at birth? JH: Johnny Cleo Hutson (ph) GS: And where were you born? JH: I was born in three miles north of Tuskegee, Oklahoma GS: And what was your father’s name? JH: Wesley Monroe Hutson GS: And your mother’s name? JH: Lily—her married name? GS: Her maiden name Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow Oklahoma ; Bristow Tire Service ; Candace Lou Hutson ; Central Gas and Oil Company ; Georgia Smith ; J C Hutson ; Jacqueline June Hutson ; Johnny Clea Hutson ; Lily A Hutson ; Rainbow Assisted Living Center ; Tuskegee, Oklahoma ; Wesley Monroe Hutson https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160089441/wesley-monroe-hutson Wesley Monroe Hutson https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/47291617/lillie-a-falconer Lillie A Falconer https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130518979/jacqueline-june-hutson Jacqueline June Hutson 245 Childhood GS: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your life as a child growing up JH: Oh gosh, well we were living in the country and of course we didn’t have running water, we didn’t have electricity, we did have natural gas, we had gas lights and gas stove for heating and I went to school at Mountain Home, which was just across the street, across the road actually from us. GS: So it was five miles north of Bristow? JH: Yes GS: Okay, Mountain Home school district JH: There were several little—every little school district had a couple of schools GS: Okay Barrel Grocery ; Bishops ; Mountain Home ; Mountain Home School Disctrict ; Safeway 584 Grandparents and Transportation GS: Do you remember your grandparents? JH: Yes, my grandparents? GS: Yes JH: Yes, they were, their name was Carter, W. H. Carter, he was a Freewill Baptist preacher GS: Oh, how wonderful! I did not know that JH: What? GS: Was that your dads—no that would’ve been your moms JH: My mothers, my mothers GS: Okay, any other older people that you remember besides your grandparents Carters? JH: You mean in the family? GS: Uh-huh JH: No, not really model-a Ford ; W. H. Carter 695 High School GS: Okay, what about high school? Were you active in any activities when you were in high school? JH: Yes, I played basketball and I was in the junior play GS: Oh, do you remember the play? JH: Something in King Arthurs Court GS: Oh how fun JH: You know about that? GS: Yes, yes JH: Okay, and Ms. Borris (ph) was the director of it GS: Oh okay, and I guess she was the speech or drama teacher? JH: Yes Ms. Borris 770 Church GS: When you were growing up at home, did you attend church with your family? JH: Yes GS: Where was that? JH: Cleveland First Freewill Baptist Church, my granddad was the preacher. Not the preacher but then, but he was a preacher in the denomination [Indecipherable] GS: Had he retired or was he in a different church? Had he retired or was he in a different church? JH: He was in a different church GS: Okay. You—do you remember any of the songs that they sang? JH: Oh my gosh, I do but I’m [Indecipherable] GS: That’s okay, that’s okay. Did they do special things for Christmas or holidays? Cleveland, Oklahoma ; First Freewill Baptist Church 899 Medical Care GS: Okay we’re gonna switch gears and go with what was medical care like when you were a child? Did you ever have to go to the doctor? JH: Not very often, no. Unless you had a bad case of poison ivy or something like this that’s, you know, the only way that you ever went to the doctor. GS: Do you remember your family doctor? JH: Doctor Sisler (ph) GS: Dr. Sisler from Sisler Clinic. Did your mother give birth at home to all of you? JH: Yes GS: And did Doctor Sisler or one of the doctors—no, one of the—a doctor came out JH: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay Doctor Sisler ; Sisler Clinic 952 Recollections of Bristow GS: What are your recollections of Bristow when you were young? Your earliest recollections of Bristow? JH: Oh gosh, it was all—we had so many nice stores, you could buy about anything you wanted to buy in Bristow and usually on Sunday evening, everybody had their bath and we went to town and we had lots of the oil field people GS: Yes JH: I mean a lot of them GS: Yes Anthonys ; J C Pennys ; Safeway ; Warehouse Market 1131 Military GS: Did you serve in the military in WWII? JH: Yes GS: What branch? JH: I was in the air force GS: In the air force. What were your duties there? JH: I was a tail gunner on a B-17 flying fortress GS: Oh my goodness, did you have some pretty scary moments— JH: Yes GS: --During that time? B-17 Flying Fortress 1312 Trips GS: Oh that’s wonderful, that’s good. And where did you meet Jackie? JH: Well of course I’ve known her all—I met her in high school GS: Okay, so you met in high school and did you date in high school? JH: No GS: No, waited until after you got out? JH: What? GS: What brought you together? JH: I don’t know, we—she went to the Baptist church and I did too and of course we were in the same classes in school in high school and, I don’t know we just had—we were in the same circles, we had the same friends and it’s, you know, it just grew better and better all the time J. D. Dobson ; New York Harbor ; San Francisco 1624 Bristow Tire GS: Well dates are hard for everyone to remember, dates always have been. Tell me a little bit about your Bristow Tire business. JH: I was selling bread for Bottom Bread company at that time for quite a while, and my father-in-law was getting old, he owned Bristow Tire GS: Oh, your father-in-law owned it! JH: Yes GS: And his last name was Carter, right? JH: No his last name was Moore GS: No Moore, Moore. What was his first name? JH: P. M. we called him Bristow Tire ; Goodyear Tires ; OBU ; P. M. Moore ; Rotary Club ; Western Heritage Days 2000 Main Street GS: Yes, any other memories of main street? JH: No, just the memories of back in the 30’s and 40’s when all the oil fields here GS: Did you ever see Bob Wills when he came through town? JH: Oh yeah, uh-huh GS: At the J& ; J Café? JH: No, it was in—Bob Wills was at Hamburger King GS: I meant Hamburger King, I said J& ; J but I knew it was Hamburger King JH: Well he—he was a Hamburger King man Bob Wills ; Hamburger King ; J& ; J Cafe 2044 Communication GS: How did you get information about the war when you were in the 40’s? JH: How did I get information? GS: Uh-huh, like over the radio, television? JH: [Indecipherable] well all we got was—on the radio, of course until we went into the army, and we got very little even when we were in the army just on what we were doing and maybe what we were gonna do. GS: Yes, they wouldn’t give you any more information, would they? JH: No, no. Not lots of information 2088 Closing Thoughts GS: What would you consider to be the most important change that has happened in your lifetime? JH: A what? GS: An invention or maybe an invention—an important invention? JH: No I can’t remember one, there were so many little—you know, when you were raised, when you’re a little country boy, everything is new and kind of nice kind of to you GS: True JH: So everything was very interesting then. GS: Yes, it was JH: Lots of changes taking place GS: There were, how is the world different today than it was back then? JH: One thing I think we were much friendlier back then, and of course the—we get so much information now so easily and they didn’t back then Bristow Record ; Tulsa World In this 2021 interview, J C Hutson talks about growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses his time in the military and owning the Bristow Tire Shop. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: J C Hutson Other Persons: Date of Interview: Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-19 at 00:00 to 40:33 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is July 19, 2021 and I am sitting here at the Rainbow Assisted Living Center with J C Hutson who' ; s going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow Area. Now, since J C can' ; t see, I am going to be filling out his paperwork as I answer--ask some of these questions so there may be a little bit of a pause with the questions. Okay, once again J C what was your full name at birth? JH: Johnny Cleo Hutson (ph) GS: And where were you born? JH: I was born in three miles north of Tuskegee, Oklahoma GS: And what was your father' ; s name? JH: Wesley Monroe HutsonGS: And your mother' ; s name? JH: Lily--her married name? GS: Her maiden name JH: Lily A Hutson (ph) GS: What was her maiden name? JH: Carter GS: And what was your spouse' ; s name? JH: Jacqueline June Hutson, Moore was her maiden name GS: Do you remember how to spell Jacqueline? JH: J. A. C. Q. U. E. L. I. N. E. GS: Moore? JH: Yes GS: Okay. Do you remember when you got married? JH: No I really don' ; t GS: That' ; s okay, I' ; ve noticed most men don' ; t. Okay, do you remember where you got married? JH: Yes, out in Bristow GS: Okay JH: At her mother and dads home. GS: Did you have any children JH: Yes, we have one child GS: And what is her name? JH: Candace Lou Hutson (ph) GS: And what education level did you achieve? JH: One year of college GS: And what about occupations? What have you done in your life work wise? JH: The most lucrative, the best employment I ever did was with the tire shop, Bristow Tire Service. GS: And you were the owner of that, weren' ; t you? JH: Yes, right. GS: What years did you do that J C? JH: Oh my gosh, I can' ; t remember but it was probably about 20 to 25 years GS: You were there a long time, my parents went to you then I did when I got grown, so you were there a long time. You were born by Tuskegee, when did your parents move to Bristow? Or when did you move to Bristow? JH: Well we didn' ; t move to Bristow, we moved five miles north east of Bristow. GS: Okay JH: And my dad was working for Central Oil and Gas Company GS: Ah that' ; s wonderful, my father worked for them also JH: I think [Indecipherable] GS: Yeah, yeah. And do you remember about what year you moved north of Bristow? Were you pretty small? JH: Oh yes, I was small child. GS: Okay, and your mother, was she a stay at home mom? JH: Yes GS: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your life as a child growing up JH: Oh gosh, well we were living in the country and of course we didn' ; t have running water, we didn' ; t have electricity, we did have natural gas, we had gas lights and gas stove for heating and I went to school at Mountain Home, which was just across the street, across the road actually from us. GS: So it was five miles north of Bristow? JH: Yes GS: Okay, Mountain Home school district JH: There were several little--every little school district had a couple of schools GS: Okay JH: And that' ; s where I went to school until I was in the junior high in Bristow, then my dad and mother, and of course we had--also some people who lived in the area that were working for Central. There was three houses in the area we lived and we--our families would take turns hauling us to school in Bristow. GS: All right, you did some carpooling back then JH: Uh-huh GS: So you went--you started going to Bristow in Junior High, right? JH: Yes GS: In--growing up-- JH: Probably not until--not until I was in high school GS: Oh, in high school, okay. At home, did you have chores that you had to do? JH: At home? Yes. Yeah we always had chickens and cows and of course we had to--we' ; d clean up, keep the yard clean GS: Sure JH: And there was just lots of new projects, you know, when you live in the country [Indecipherable]. Of course she always had a big garden, which I hated to work in it but I loved to-- GS: Eat the fresh veggies? JH: Yes, we lived right across the street, it' ; s not the street, the road from mountain road school GS: Okay, were you the only child? JH: Oh no GS: How many children did-- JH: Four and four GS: Four and-- JH: Eight children GS: Oh my goodness JH: Four boys and four girls GS: Are any of them living today? JH: No GS: Aw, did you have to share your beds with your siblings? JH: Yes, always yes. GS: What kind of toys did you have as a child? JH: What? GS: What games or toys did you have as a child? JH: Oh my gosh, we played with rubber guns and [Indecipherable] flips and we dug caves and we built tree houses and of course we played cowboy and Indian and we had a beautiful big croquet court GS: Yes JH: We seemed to always have a lot of fun GS: I' ; m sure you did, sounds like my husband' ; s upbringing. JH: Yeah GS: Now your mom, it sounds like your house was pretty self-sufficient. You grew your vegetables, you grew your own meat, did she come into town to shop at any of the local grocery stores? JH: I' ; m not sure, usually over the weekend on Saturday GS: Okay okay, and what--do you remember what markets were open then? JH: [Indecipherable] GS: What ones she traded with? JH: There was a store named Barrel, Barrel Grocery (ph), and I think Bishops might' ; ve sold stuff, them too. GS: Okay JH: And of course Safeway was here and there were several--we had a beautiful town, we had several grocery stores. GS: We did have a nice town back then. Since you grew some vegetables and meat, did your mom can the vegetables? JH: She always, all the vegetables in the garden, she usually canned several of them GS: Did you get in on helping with that? JH: Oh yeah, we always had to get in on all the peeling and corn and all the stuff that you knew you had to do when you' ; re canning GS: Did she make any jelly? JH: Oh yes, yes. GS: Did she grow the-- JH: We didn' ; t grow any grapes or any kind of fruit, we always had to buy that GS: Okay, what about blackberries? Did you go out and pick the wild blackberries? JH: Yes, we did GS: Did your family employ any household help? With all those kids probably not. JH: No GS: What kind of clothes did you wear as a child? JH: What kind of clothes? GS: Uh-huh JH: I can give you a picture of it right here GS: Oh alright! I' ; m going to pause for just a minute JH: That' ; s striped GS: Yes JH: Stripe and overalls GS: I love it, I love it. Before I leave, can I take a screenshot of that with my phone? JH: Sure, yes uh-huh GS: Oh thank you so much J C, we' ; ll lay it right here and don' ; t let me forget that. Do you remember your grandparents? JH: Yes, my grandparents? GS: Yes JH: Yes, they were, their name was Carter, W. H. Carter, he was a Freewill Baptist preacher GS: Oh, how wonderful! I did not know that JH: What? GS: Was that your dads--no that would' ; ve been your moms JH: My mothers, my mothers GS: Okay, any other older people that you remember besides your grandparents Carters? JH: You mean in the family? GS: Uh-huh JH: No, not really GS: Okay, did you ever see your Hutson grandparents? Did you ever see your Hutson grandparents? JH: Yes, my--not my grandmother, she passed away before I came along. But yeah he came to visit us, his name was Jim GS: Okay JH: And he lived out in Lawton, Oklahoma, he came once a year to visit us GS: That' ; s a ways, especially back then JH: Yes GS: Travel took a lot longer, didn' ; t it? JH: Yeah GS: How did they travel to come and see you? JH: Well usually he--he usually took the bus GS: Okay, and we had bus service here then, didn' ; t we? JH: Yes. Uh-huh GS: Grey Hound Bus service JH: Uh-huh GS: Do you remember going to pick him up from the bus station? JH: Yes, I probably was out playing somewhere and someone else would drive in and pick him up GS: Sure, yeah. JH: In a Model-A Ford GS: Oh how wonderful, how--a model-a Ford. I didn' ; t ask you about your first teacher, do you remember your first teacher? It' ; s okay if you don' ; t JH: No, I--my mom, I was thinking maybe it was [Indecipherable] was her name, well I' ; m not sure GS: Okay, what about high school? Were you active in any activities when you were in high school? JH: Yes, I played basketball and I was in the junior play GS: Oh, do you remember the play? JH: Something in King Arthurs Court GS: Oh how fun JH: You know about that? GS: Yes, yes JH: Okay, and Ms. Borris (ph) was the director of it GS: Oh okay, and I guess she was the speech or drama teacher? JH: Yes GS: Any--were you in any sports? JH: Yeah basketball GS: Basketball. Did they have women' ; s basketball also back then in Bristow? JH: No I don' ; t think so ; I don' ; t think so. GS: Don' ; t think so. Did you pack your food? Did you have a sack lunch that you took to school every day? A sack lunch? JH: No, we usually had just the cafeteria GS: Okay, was the food-- JH: Or downtown bought a meal GS: How was the food in the cafeteria? JH: Pretty good GS: Pretty good food, of course back then they made it all by hand, didn' ; t they? JH: Yes GS: When you were growing up at home, did you attend church with your family? JH: Yes GS: Where was that? JH: Cleveland First Freewill Baptist Church, my granddad was the preacher. Not the preacher but then, but he was a preacher in the denomination [Indecipherable] GS: Had he retired or was he in a different church? Had he retired or was he in a different church? JH: He was in a different church GS: Okay. You--do you remember any of the songs that they sang? JH: Oh my gosh, I do but I' ; m [Indecipherable] GS: That' ; s okay, that' ; s okay. Did they do special things for Christmas or holidays? JH: Yes, usually yes GS: What did they do? JH: You mean the church? GS: Uh-huh JH: They usually had a little skit, you know, the manger and all this stuff and then we sang Christmas songs. GS: Did-- JH: [Indecipherable] GS: Did the children do that or adults? JH: Both GS: Both? JH: MhmGS: Very good. Did you or your mother or your dad sing in the choir? JH: No, but I did GS: Okay JH: And two of my sisters did and a brother did. GS: Did you keep singing as you grew older, did you keep singing? JH: Did I teach it? GS: Did you keep on singing? JH: Yes, I really did GS: Well good, good. We need more singers. JH: I was in the choir at First Baptist church GS: Okay, for a long time? JH: Yes, it' ; s been a long time. GS: When did you start going to First Baptist? JH: I guess probably when I married, started going with Jaqueline. GS: Is that where she went? JH: Yes GS: Okay we' ; re gonna switch gears and go with what was medical care like when you were a child? Did you ever have to go to the doctor? JH: Not very often, no. Unless you had a bad case of poison ivy or something like this that' ; s, you know, the only way that you ever went to the doctor. GS: Do you remember your family doctor? JH: Doctor Sisler (ph) GS: Dr. Sisler from Sisler Clinic. Did your mother give birth at home to all of you? JH: Yes GS: And did Doctor Sisler or one of the doctors--no, one of the--a doctor came out JH: [Indecipherable] GS: Okay JH: And that' ; s something all four--all eight of us GS: All eight delivered at home, that' ; s marvelous. She didn' ; t have any still births that you know of or miscarriages? What are your recollections of Bristow when you were young? Your earliest recollections of Bristow? JH: Oh gosh, it was all--we had so many nice stores, you could buy about anything you wanted to buy in Bristow and usually on Sunday evening, everybody had their bath and we went to town and we had lots of the oil field people GS: Yes JH: I mean a lot of them GS: Yes JH: And they would kind of gang up on the street and talk and you just tell one lie, but they--everybody was so friendly and they were--we were happy to see each other and it was just a gathering place of, oh I don' ; t know what the word I want to use, but it was happy occasions that everybody--the streets would be full of people and full of cars and all the stores will be open and doing business and it was just a wonderful time GS: It sounds like it, sounds like something we need now JH: And you looked forward to meeting some new friends GS: Sure, it was a big social event wasn' ; t it? JH: Yes, it sure was GS: Did they ever have entertainment during these times? JH: You mean a street entertainer or something? GS: MhmJH: No, not that I remember GS: Just everybody just visited and told stories JH: Yes, uh-huh GS: Okay, that sounds really nice. What did you want to be when you grew up when you were a child? JH: You know [Indecipherable] GS: Oh, that' ; s okay. And your first job, what was your first good paying job? JH: I guess working at a grocery store GS: Okay. Do you remember the name of that store? JH: I think it was the Warehouse Market GS: Oh okay JH: We had a Warehouse Market here GS: How old were you? JH: Oh I was probably 18, 17 or 18 GS: Still in high school? JH: What? GS: Were you still in high school JH: Yes, uh-huh. And also I worked JC Penny (ph) GS: Okay, we had one of those back then too JH: Yeah we had Anthonys, we had Pennys, we had Safeway, we' ; s just--all the good stores we had here. GS: Now I know you were pretty young during the depression, what are your memories of the depression? JH: I really don' ; t have any GS: Don' ; t have any, it didn' ; t affect your family much did it? JH: No, not at all. GS: With being self-sufficient on the farm JH: All we did, people worried all the time you know, about their family and about their job GS: Sure JH: Excuse me, what did you ask? GS: No that' ; s fine, yeah that' ; s good. Did you serve in the military in WWII? JH: Yes GS: What branch? JH: I was in the air force GS: In the air force. What were your duties there? JH: I was a tail gunner on a B-17 flying fortress GS: Oh my goodness, did you have some pretty scary moments-- JH: Yes GS: --During that time? JH: We did have ; I only flew six missions. We went to, we would always get up real early, probably about 3 o' ; clock in the morning and we would go to the sergeant cafeteria but they called it the mess hall GS: Yes JH: And before I even got into the mess hall, I started having pains in my stomach. And anyway, as I sat there before everything started, I started vomiting GS: Oh myJH: And I went to the, what do you call it? Doctor, same as doctors. You remember what they called the doctors in the-- GS: In the service? I don' ; t JH: Infirmary probably GS: Oh yes JH: Anyway they took me down there and said that I had appendicitis GS: Oh myJH: But I didn' ; t--wasn' ; t operated on at that time. Anyway, they got another young man from the area and he flew in my place and that plane was shot down that day GS: Oh my, J C JH: Yeah, the only people who got out was the pilot and co-pilot and the side gunner and I have been--felt kind of guilt, they called in for a replacement for me, but I have felt guilty ever since then that I didn' ; t--I wasn' ; t doing really what I needed to do, but I couldn' ; t help it. I felt like-- GS: Like it should' ; ve been you up there JH: Yes GS: Did your replacement, did he pass away? JH: What? GS: Did your replacement live? JH: He got killed GS: He got killed JH: MhmGS: Yeah but-- JH: Everybody was killed except the pilot, co-pilot, and the side gunner GS: Well, God knew that you were needed for-- JH: They were shot down, what? GS: God knew you were needed for something later on JH: Well evidently I don' ; t know what it would be GS: Isn' ; t it odd how appendicitis could save you JH: Yes GS: But it did JH: I' ; m sure it was for some reason GS: I' ; m sure it was. Did you see--after, I' ; m sorry I apologize. After that, did you see any active combat up there? JH: No, nothing, the war was over in just about a week or two GS: Oh that' ; s wonderful, that' ; s good. And where did you meet Jackie? JH: Well of course I' ; ve known her all--I met her in high school GS: Okay, so you met in high school and did you date in high school? JH: No GS: No, waited until after you got out? JH: What? GS: What brought you together? JH: I don' ; t know, we--she went to the Baptist church and I did too and of course we were in the same classes in school in high school and, I don' ; t know we just had--we were in the same circles, we had the same friends and it' ; s, you know, it just grew better and better all the time GS: Sure, sure. Tell me about traveling back then. Travel, after you were a young man did you have a vehicle or did you take buses, trains? JH: No we took short trips in [Indecipherable] or a car, but we had several nice trips. We went to--we had, go on two or three cruises, we went to San Francisco and all the California areas. Drove down [Indecipherable] and drove down highway [Indecipherable] to the Hurst, went through the Hurst mansion. And the funny thing happened, we went into the, what' ; s the capital of California? GS: Is it Sacramento? JH: Sacramento, and we was just, it was almost time to eat so we went into a place not too far from the capital and as you were sitting there eating, and we were looking out the window and I said " ; Jackie, there is J.D. Dobson" ; , he graduated with us in high school GS: Oh my word, what a coincidence JH: And Jackie said " ; No that' ; s not J" ; I said " ; Yeah hunny, it' ; s J.D." ; so I went to the front of the door that they were entering and walked in behind him and said " ; J.D." ; , he turned around and quickly recognized me. And Jackie, he was real sweet on Jackie in high school GS: Oh myJH: But we had a very interesting talk and then we also, we took two or three cruises and we were on, we were in New York Harbor, [Indecipherable] ready to sail after midnight on 9/11 GS: Oh my word JH: So we went ahead and took our little cruise and I guess it was about three days later, it was about time to come home, and we couldn' ; t get a plane, just about everything was grounded GS: Yes JH: But we did finally get a plane into [Indecipherable] Georgia and then flew back home from there GS: Wow JH: But that was a wonderful trip, but we had a lot of, like--we took two or three cruises and we went up to--after that, we went to, back to New York and then we got a car and drove way up into Maine and then back down then we, they called us [Indecipherable] and they called the little people that came in, they called them leaf peepers. You know, the pretty leaves? GS: Yes JH: And we drove from Maine all the way back down to [Indecipherable]. Anyway, as we were driving along one evening about supper time, there was a big sign on the church that said " ; leaf peepers welcome, dinner tonight at so-and-so" ; GS: Wow JH: I said " ; Jackie, you wanna try that" ; she said " ; sure" ; so we went and had dinner with them GS: Well how nice is that JH: And they were very nice, we really enjoyed it. But we had a lot of nice trips like that, and of course we went to the cruise, went to England, Ireland, Scotland, so we had a really nice life, Jackie and I did. GS: That' ; s wonderful JH: Even though we were kind of poor GS: I don' ; t think you were kind of poor JH: But anyway, we both were working and we had fun GS: When did you lose Jackie? When did Jackie pass away? JH: 8 years ago, I believe it is GS: 8 years ago JH: Yes, I can' ; t remember the date GS: I' ; m sorry JH: [Indecipherable] I' ; m getting to where I can' ; t remember anything GS: Well dates are hard for everyone to remember, dates always have been. Tell me a little bit about your Bristow Tire business. JH: I was selling bread for Bottom Bread company at that time for quite a while, and my father-in-law was getting old, he owned Bristow Tire GS: Oh, your father-in-law owned it! JH: Yes GS: And his last name was Carter, right? JH: No his last name was Moore GS: No Moore, Moore. What was his first name? JH: P. M. we called him GS: P. M. Moore owned Bristow tire before you did JH: Yeah GS: Okay JH: And he was getting old and wasn' ; t able to just do things, you know, like he should so he and his wife came to me and asked me if I' ; d like to, you know, be in the tire business and I said sure. So I went to work for him, and worked for quite some time GS: Sure JH: And then he decided to sell it to me, so he did, I don' ; t know what year it was but I was down there for thirty years GS: Oh my goodness JH: But anyway, I took over the tire business GS: Was it the 50' ; s? Was it in the 50' ; s? Was it in the 1950' ; s do you think? JH: It could be, yes GS: Okay JH: I don' ; t really remember. But anyway the Lord has been good to me, has blessed us with a real nice business, I couldn' ; t have asked for anything any better, and of course I got to work right here at home, and my customers were, you know, I don' ; t know the word I want to use but they were always happy that they could do business with someone that was honest. GS: Yes, I think that' ; s why my parents did business with you. JH: Right, but anyway as I said the Lord was good to us, he gave us enough money to get a new home and take care of our child that went to college, so everything--I' ; ve had a pretty good life [Indecipherable] GS: Where did Candy go to college? JH: She went down to OBU for a while, and then to Edmond GS: And where does she live now? JH: She lives in Tulsa GS: In Tulsa, for some reason I thought she lived in New York JH: No, uh-uh GS: Okay, well I sure didn' ; t know that. Let' ; s see here, what memories do you have of Bristow when you had the tire shop? You know, like maybe businesses you did business with or events that they had, like Western Heritage Days, they had the Western Heritage Days. JH: Yeah, my father-in-law had horses and I decided that I' ; d like to be a cowboy, so I started riding one of his horses and he said Well [Indecipherable] guy try to teach you, you know, to be a [Indecipherable]. I tried that for a while, but you don' ; t just decide [Indecipherable] GS: Yes JH: And I kind of hurt my back one evening riding the horse, and Jackie said " ; I think that' ; s the end of your cowboying" ; . And of course Candy was little. GS: Uh-huh JH: But anyway, we had lots of fun GS: Good, did you belong to any organizations in Bristow? JH: Yeah, I belonged to the Rotary Club and of course was a member of First Baptist church GS: Right, were there any project you were active--were there any projects that you were active in in those two organizations? JH: Yes, Rotary Club usually had some kind of fundraisers or I was cleaning up the city or doing something like this about all the time. Of course it depended on what kind of a President we had, whether he wanted to do projects or not. GS: Right, right. What kind of tires did you sell at Bristow Tire? JH: Goodyear was my main tire and I used some, I bought some cheaper tires-- GS: For people to afford, yeah JH: What Hun? GS: If they couldn' ; t afford the Goodyear tires? JH: Yes, right GS: Yes. Did you have good business dealings with your--did you have good business with your suppliers? JH: Oh yes, you bet GS: Good, good, good. Any big thoughts stand out while you had Bristow Tire? Anything stand out while you owned that? I take-- JH: Well I have one, there was a lady that came in one day and she said, and I thought it was pretty nice, she said " ; You' ; re a Christian, aren' ; t you?" ; I said " ; Yes ma' ; am, I am" ; . I said " ; How' ; d you know?" ; , she said " ; Because you always have a smile on your face" ; GS: Aw how wonderful JH: And that meant a lot to me GS: Well you better believe it, that was a good witness too JH: Yeah GS: That' ; s wonderful, do you-- JH: Of course we had lots of people who weren' ; t smiling also GS: Yes, there always are JH: Yeah GS: When did you sell your Bristow Tire? JH: Oh my gosh, let' ; s see. I' ; d guess it' ; s been probably 15 years ago or so GS: And you sold to Jack Smith? JH: Jack Smith, uh-huh GS: Okay. And now his son is running it, Elliot Smith JH: Yes GS: Yes, any other memories of main street? JH: No, just the memories of back in the 30' ; s and 40' ; s when all the oil fields here GS: Did you ever see Bob Wills when he came through town? JH: Oh yeah, uh-huh GS: At the J& ; J Café? JH: No, it was in--Bob Wills was at Hamburger King GS: I meant Hamburger King, I said J& ; J but I knew it was Hamburger King JH: Well he--he was a Hamburger King man GS: That' ; s right JH: No I never did go to any of the performances GS: But you got to see him here in town JH: Yes, mhm: How did you get information about the war when you were in the 40' ; s? JH: How did I get information? GS: Uh-huh, like over the radio, television? JH: [Indecipherable] well all we got was--on the radio, of course until we went into the army, and we got very little even when we were in the army just on what we were doing and maybe what we were gonna do. GS: Yes, they wouldn' ; t give you any more information, would they? JH: No, no. Not lots of information GS: What would you consider to be the most important change that has happened in your lifetime? JH: A what? GS: An invention or maybe an invention--an important invention? JH: No I can' ; t remember one, there were so many little--you know, when you were raised, when you' ; re a little country boy, everything is new and kind of nice kind of to you GS: True JH: So everything was very interesting then. GS: Yes, it was JH: Lots of changes taking place GS: There were, how is the world different today than it was back then? JH: One thing I think we were much friendlier back then, and of course the--we get so much information now so easily and they didn' ; t back then GS: Right JH: We had to depend on the radio or the newspaper, sometimes that was a little bit late coming out GS: Right, what newspaper did you read? JH: Tulsa World, and the Bristow News--Bristow Record GS: Bristow Record, yes. Have you been affected any by the pandemic that we' ; re going through? The COVID pandemic? JH: Not really GS: That' ; s good, that' ; s good. Did you get lonesome here when it was in lockdown? JH: Oh yes, sure GS: Is there anything I haven' ; t thought to ask you J C that you would like to tell me? JH: No, I can' ; t think of anything, I just--I' ; ve had a [Indecipherable]. There is one thing back when I was a kid, we lived out in the country, we didn' ; t have electricity, and it--my mother did have a washing machine, it was gasoline operated. And one--on wash day one day, she did the washer, and of course we didn' ; t have a dryer, and we had everything on the clothes line. GS: Uh-huh JH: Usually all of our clothes had to be washed. But anyway we hung them all on the clothes line, and it came time to get them in, we thought we went out and checked them and my mother said that they' ; re still a little damp, let' ; s just leave them out tonight and we' ; ll bring them in tomorrow. Well the next morning we woke up, we didn' ; t have any clothes or clothes pin, we had nothing. Someone had stolen all of our clothes GS: Oh my goodness, the [Indecipherable] JH: And another time, just listen to this. Another time we went out and we always had a few chickens so we had eggs. And we' ; d went out to turn the chickens out the next morning, there wasn' ; t any chickens [Indecipherable] GS: Oh myJH: And I' ; m not through yet. We all--we had a garage, and the car was in it, and we always had a pretty nice car. But anyway, dad opened the garage door and the car was sitting on blocks. Somebody had stolen all the tires and wheels. GS: Wow JH: And we thought we were in a nice neighborhood GS: Was that in the 30' ; s? JH: Yes GS: Yeah, during the depression time JJ: And we were sure disappointed, you know, when your--you say that you might be poor folks. My dad had a job but they didn' ; t pay a lot back then. But anyway we lived through all of it. GS: I think you were one of the fortunate ones, you didn' ; t have to get up and move JH: That' ; s right GS: You always had food on the table JH: Right GS: So I think your family was rich JH: We surely were GS: And you had each other JH: Uh-huh GS: And did all of your siblings grow into adulthood? JH: Yes GS: That' ; s wonderful, it is wonderful JH: They' ; re all gone now, but they were adults. GS: One thing I forgot to ask you, when you first took over Bristow tire, was it in the same location that it is now? JH: Yes, right. GS: Do you remember that address? It' ; s on West 4th, I know. JH: Yes GS: Probably the 100 block of West 4th JH: It' ; s one something, I can' ; t remember exactly GS: Yeah, okay but it was in the same location? JH: Yes, uh-huh GS: Was it ever in a different location? JH: Yes, my father-in-law had it--it was up on main at, let' ; s see what' ; s that on that corner? Where Bolin Ford is? GS: Okay, so maybe 11th street? JH: [Indecipherable], that' ; s where he had his tire shop GS: Okay JH: It' ; s a very small place GS: Did he move it ; I guess he moved it to 4th street before you took it over JH: Yes, yeah. GS: Okay, alright. J C, I just appreciate you so much for letting me interview you JH: Thank you GS: And next time you see Candy, tell her I said hi. JH: Thank you for coming by GS: I really, really appreciate it and we really appreciate it at the museum JH: Yeah, I' ; ve had a long life, I' ; ve had a good life, and I praise God for it. GS: Amen audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-19,_Hutson,_J_C.xml OHP-2021-19,_Hutson,_J_C.xml
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Title
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J C Hutson
Description
An account of the resource
In this 2021 interview, J C Hutson talks about growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses his time in the military and owning the Bristow Tire Shop.
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OHP-2021-19
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2021-07-19
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audio
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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English
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sound, oral history
Bob Wills
Bristow Tire
First Baptist Church
Great Depression
Greyhound bus
Mountain Home School
Rotary Club
stores
World War II
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Family Histories
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Oral History
Subject
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Debbie Blansett
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Myra Fadely
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-15_Fadely,_Myra.xml
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5.4 March 17, 2021 OHP-2021-15 Myra Fadely OHP-2021-15 0:00-47:02 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Myra Fadely Debbie Blansett MP3 1:|51(12)|63(7)|77(6)|87(5)|98(7)|127(10)|134(8)|148(7)|164(10)|180(2)|189(5)|202(8)|210(17)|233(7)|243(7)|267(1)|289(13)|302(14)|317(5)|334(7)|348(7)|359(5)|369(5)|379(3)|392(5)|405(5)|439(12)|455(6)|477(5)|486(11)|506(2)|518(15)|525(16)|538(5)|566(5)|578(14)|602(11)|615(14)|649(13)|668(8)|697(5)|731(4)|744(5)|757(2)|771(1)|796(7)|833(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Myra Fadely.mp3 Other audio 0 Family DB: Alright I think we’re going, let’s start. This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. The date is March 17th, 2021 and I’m sitting here with Myra Fadely who’s going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Okay, so now we just talk. MF: Okay, well I’m happy to be able to give you a little bit about my life in Bristow, Oklahoma. To start with, I did not move to Bristow until December, 1971—71’? Yes, yes. And the funny thing about it was that it was just like two days before Christmas and I told my children that we weren’t going to have a Christmas tree because it was too much trouble and we didn’t know where our decorations were or anything. Brett Fadely ; Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow, Oklahoma ; Dallas, Texas ; Debbie Blansett ; Jean Ann ; Jean Ann Fadely ; Jean Ann Wilson ; Kemps Drug Store ; Myra Fadely ; Scott Fadely ; Topeka, Kansas https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25182641/jean-ann-wilson Jean Ann Fadely Wilson 140 Early Life DB: I’d love to hear some about your early life MF: Okay DB: Even if it wasn’t in Bristow, let’s hear a little bit about your early life MF: Okay, I can tell you I was born in a little Podunk town in Arkansas named West Point. There was a school, there was a little store that also served as the post office, and there was a gas station and that was it. And my dad worked at a plant that employed people in that area. Ginger Rogers ; Independence, Kansas ; John Fadely ; Margie Lou ; Marion, Ohio ; Polly Kelly ; Stamps Baxter Boys ; Topeka, Kansas ; Tracey Kelly ; West Point, Arkansas 525 Dentistry MF: Well, we had only been here maybe a year and one day Doctor Reed McCullough (ph) who is a dentist called and asked if I would like to work in his dental office, and the kids were all in school and I thought hmm I’ve got time, I need to be doing something so I said sure. So I went, like the next day, and didn’t know what to wear but I thought okay it’s a doctor’s office, everything’s always white. So I had this cute little white dress so I sashayed down there and they laughed at me. Anyway I found out that I needed some scrubs so they happened to have scrubs and gave me them. I worked in that office for Dr. McCullough and later for Dr. McCullough and Dr. Corwin who came to the practice for 30 years, I worked in that office and they were very good to me and very nice people and I got to learn about almost everybody in Bristow. Of course today when I see them at Walmart or somewhere, I look at their faces and know I remember them but I can’t remember their names American National Bank ; Dental Association of Oklahoma ; Dr. Corwin ; Dr. McCullough ; Independence, Kansas ; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Oklahoma Dental Assistants ; Reed McCullough ; Sinclair ; Sinclair Gas Station ; Tulsa, Oklahoma 938 Jean Anns School of Dance MF: One thing I remember about that station is on Fourth of July, you know everybody’s wanting to buy fireworks. Well John sat up, got a firecracker stand and my kids ran the firecracker stand and of course all of their friends were down there all day long and Jean Ann, my daughter, would even sunbath on top of it and they had more fun doing that DB: On top of the station? MF: On top of the stand, on top of the stand DB: On top of the firework stand? MF: Yes, yeah you could go by and she’d be laying up there sunbathing. DB: Well later on, didn’t she do the swimming pool? Bristow High School ; Jean Ann Fadely Wilson ; John Fadely ; Presbyterian Church ; Rolland Building ; UCO https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25182641/jean-ann-wilson Jean Ann Fadely Wilson 1168 Jean Ann MF: It’s still there today. You want me to tell about Jean Ann? DB: Sure MF: Okay, Jean Ann, she was probably the best known person for miles around and everybody loved her and she would do anything you asked her to do. A lot of the times, people would hire her to go embarrass people when they were having their birthdays when they were having their birthday dinner out somewhere, and she would go and sing and dance and embarrass them to death. Anyway, she had a really nice place to have her dancing now then, and she had lots of students every year more would sign up. At that time, she also had dancers in Depew and later on in Stroud, she owned a building in Stroud and at Depew the school, they let her use the school property. Depew, Oklahoma ; Jean Ann ; Jean Ann Fadely Wilson ; Jennifer Kemp ; Makayla Wilson ; Stroud, Oklahoma https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25182641/jean-ann-wilson Jean Ann Fadely Wilson 1597 Freeland Center DB: Well I think it’s interesting at the—when we built the Freeland center MF: Oh yes, yeah. DB: Tell about that and what they put in the stage and— MF: Of course in Bristow, there was really no good place to have dance recitals, and we had one or two over at, what is that building there? DB: Oh at the— MF: Parking lot behind the— DB: American Legion MF: American Legion building, yeah. DB: And we had some in Depew, in the auditorium at Depew Alisha ; American Legion ; Chip Cooper ; Consolidated Turbine Specialist ; Freeland Center ; Grand Ole Opry ; Home Alone ; Jean Ann Fadely Wilson ; Makayla Wilson ; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Ryan Wilson https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25182641/jean-ann-wilson Jean Ann Fadely Wilson 2130 Strongs DB: Now we talked a little bit before we started the recording about how Bristow has changed in the 50 years you’ve been here and the 40 years I’ve been here, and you were telling me about Strongs, you might tell what kind of store that was and tell your story that goes with. MF: Okay, it was a store on main street that was—we called it Strongs because Mr. Strong owned it and he had a lot of clothing in there and maybe some housewares, I can’t remember for sure. I remember the clothing and the shoes, he had shoe department. Well I bought a pair, this has been a hundred years ago DB: It feels like it MF: I bought a pair of snow boots, they’re all furry and they’ve got the thick rubber sole on them and lace up, you know and they’re really cute I think. Because when I wear them nowadays, and yes I do still wear them, you couldn’t tell that they’ve ever been worn. DB: And I’ll take a picture so that it can be attached Mr. Strong ; Strongs 2239 Church MF: Oh and speaking of church, I’m a member of the Presbyterian church that is a hundred and five years now old. It is the most beautiful church, has windows by Tiffany and I love everybody there DB: It’s on the historic MF: It’s on the national historical societies register DB: Mhm MF: Yeah, anyway we have good people at that church and right now we do not have a regular minister, but we have some members, one of them Debbie’s daughter-in-law. Cara (ph) is one of those members that fills in for the pulpit every Sunday DB: She’s a good little preacher Cara ; Presbyterian Church 2322 Businesses MF: I’ll tell you about something else we used to have in Bristow was a skating rink DB: Yes MF: You remember that? DB: I do MF: Were you here? DB: I do remember two skating rinks MF: Oh really? And there was a bowling ally DB: One was underground MF: That’s the one I remember DB: And it had a wooden floor and it was on sixth, it was on sixth street—east sixth and then where the casino is, there was another skating rink and it was, I mean for 1980’s it was pretty stylish. It wasn’t a wood floor American National Bank ; bowling ally ; Carrie K ; Krummes ; Paddens Place ; Paula Womack ; Pauline Padden ; skating rink ; Spirit Bank ; Taxi service 2504 Gum Story DB: But it’s been interesting to see Bristow change through the years and I appreciate your time today and telling us about what you remember about Bristow and some of your life stories. Before we go, is there anything else? I see here in WWII you had a gum story, did you wanna share a gum story? MF: Gum? DB: You don’t remember? It says “Gum story” next to rations MF: Yes,yes DB: Did you wanna share? Independence, Kansas ; Leslie, Arkansas ; WWII In this 2021 interview, Myra Fadely shares her experience in the Bristow area. She discusses the Freeland Center and the different businesses. Interviewer: Debbie Blansett Interviewee: Myra Fadely Other Persons: Date of Interview: March 17, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-15 at 00:00 to 47:02 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. DB: Alright I think we' ; re going, let' ; s start. This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the Historical Societies ongoing oral history project. The date is March 17th, 2021 and I' ; m sitting here with Myra Fadely who' ; s going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Okay, so now we just talk. MF: Okay, well I' ; m happy to be able to give you a little bit about my life in Bristow, Oklahoma. To start with, I did not move to Bristow until December, 1971--71' ; ? Yes, yes. And the funny thing about it was that it was just like two days before Christmas and I told my children that we weren' ; t going to have a Christmas tree because it was too much trouble and we didn' ; t know where our decorations were or anything. Well, my husband took the kids and went out and somewhere, I think it was Kemps drug store that had Christmas trees, but they only had one left and it was the most pitiful looking thing you have ever seen. So they just gave it--they gave it to him. DB: Well there' ; s a deal MF: Yeah. Anyway, I am happy to tell you that I have three children. My first was my son Scott Fadely who was born in Topeka, Kansas, and I have my next son is Brett Fadely who was born in Dallas, Texas, and then there' ; s my daughter Jean Ann who was born in Houston, Texas. So we kind of moved around a little bit, but we' ; ve been in Bristow for a long time now and I' ; m proud to say that I love it here and my kids have grown up to be very good people. I can tell you something about my grand--my parents. DB: I' ; d love to hear some about your early life MF: Okay DB: Even if it wasn' ; t in Bristow, let' ; s hear a little bit about your early life MF: Okay, I can tell you I was born in a little Podunk town in Arkansas named West Point. There was a school, there was a little store that also served as the post office, and there was a gas station and that was it. And my dad worked at a plant that employed people in that area. He worked there for several years and he also bought a farm down there and he raised cotton and strawberries and watermelons. If you want to hear a good story about watermelons ; one night, my dad snuck down to the watermelon patch and hid in the bushes because he had heard that some boys were taking his watermelons. He had his gun with him, so he hid in those bushes and when those guys came over and started picking his watermelons up, he shot up in the air and they ran so fast and he turned on the little electric wire that he had strung around and boy did they get out of there in a hurry. He was something else. DB: That' ; s a good story, that' ; s a good story. MF: Let' ; s see, we moved to Marion, Ohio when I was in the fourth grade. Oh let me tell you, while we were in West Point, we went to this little Baptist church and my sister Polly and I were always singing in the Baptist church and my sister played the piano, and we had a little old Baptist minister who--minister who thought we were hot stuff singing, and he would take us around to funerals, weddings, or any place that he thought we needed to sing. And Polly was so short that one time we had to sing for a--you' ; ve probably heard of the Stamps Baxter Boys (ph), anyway they were a men' ; s quartet that were very famous back in those days, and they sung on the radio. Well this little minister got us on the show and we were going to sing, and Polly had to stand on the stand because she was a little bit too short to reach the microphone, and we started singing and we got to one point and Polly forgot the words and I got down off of that and I said " ; I' ; m not singing with you anymore, you can' ; t remember the words" ; and I walked off. DB: Do you remember about how old you all were? MF: Oh, probably--oh well I was, when we moved away I was in the fourth grade. It was probably, I don' ; t know we were-- DB: Second or third grade? MF: Yeah DB: Seven or eight. And-- MF: We' ; ve always-- DB: Your sister is Polly Kelly, correct? MF: Polly Kelly, mhm Polly Kelly. She' ; s married--was married to Tracey Kelly (ph) and-- DB: I forget that, but when you said Polly I was--I remembered. MF: Yeah she' ; s my buddy, that girl is. Anyway DB: So then you moved to Ohio MF: We moved to Ohio and we stayed there until we moved to Independence, Kansas and I entered the seventh grade in Independence, Kansas and I don' ; t know how it happened, but every year that I was in seventh grade, high school, junior in college, college, I got chosen as a cheerleader every year. And that' ; s why I hate going to football, basketball games because then I had to go to every one of them. And anyway I had a good, good life as a high school student and was involved in a bunch of things. And then on the first day that I went to visit the college up in Topeka, Kansas, a friend of mine and I drove up there and we saw some guys playing football out on one of the lawns so we parked the car and watched and I said " ; Hey Margie Lou (ph), look at that guy over" ; I said " ; That is the most handsome man I have ever seen" ; well somebody told him that he--and a day or so later he called me and asked me for a date and I thought " ; Oh this is just wonderful" ; you know, and he was. He was gorgeous! Now those of you who have seen him, who saw him in later years may not think so, because he let himself go and got a big tummy and all of that, but he was beautiful when he was in college. John. DB: And that was your husband? MF: That was my husband John Fadely DB: And you were a little cheerleader MF: I was a cheerleader DB: He probably thought you were as cute as he was handsome MF: Well when I went off to college up in Topeka, I thought I don' ; t think I' ; ll try for cheerleader because nobody knows me. Well, they did! They chose me. So I know all about cheerleading and dancing, I love to dance. When I was in high school, there was one boy that was a good dancer and we would actually do performances where we would do, you know like Fredistare (ph) and Ginger Rogers (ph) type things, so loved dancing. Anyway, you want to hear about more about Bristow probably. DB: Well I' ; m ready whenever you' ; re ready MF: Well, we had only been here maybe a year and one day Doctor Reed McCullough (ph) who is a dentist called and asked if I would like to work in his dental office, and the kids were all in school and I thought hmm I' ; ve got time, I need to be doing something so I said sure. So I went, like the next day, and didn' ; t know what to wear but I thought okay it' ; s a doctor' ; s office, everything' ; s always white. So I had this cute little white dress so I sashayed down there and they laughed at me. Anyway I found out that I needed some scrubs so they happened to have scrubs and gave me them. I worked in that office for Dr. McCullough and later for Dr. McCullough and Dr. Corwin who came to the practice for 30 years, I worked in that office and they were very good to me and very nice people and I got to learn about almost everybody in Bristow. Of course today when I see them at Walmart or somewhere, I look at their faces and know I remember them but I can' ; t remember their names DB: Well people change MF: People change DB: Mhm. And when you worked for Dr. McCullough and Corwin, you--what did you do in the office? MF: Oh well when I first started out, I watched, you know, for a few days as they did surgery and stuff and then I worked as a chair side assistant and I did that for several years and I would go to classes in Tulsa or somewhere and learn more and belonged to the dental association of Oklahoma and they had also a part of that was for dental assistants assisting. And at one point, I was the president of that organization for Oklahoma Dental Assistants and finally after 30 years, I decided to retire and the very next year, Dr. Corwin built this fancy new office and somebody said " ; Man they must have paid you really good" ; because now they had enough money to build a new building DB: Now that you were retired MF: That ain' ; t so DB: No, during your time when you were the--when you sat next to the patient, did you see things change? The practice change, what you--? MF: Oh yes, it' ; s--it is so much easier now. Way back then, we had the one thing that really changed is taking x-rays. We took them the same way, but then we had to go in this dark room where we had to dip them in different solutions, you know, and then hang them up to dry, it was a mess. Now, they take them and they can see them right then, no mess. And I can tell by the way Dr. Corwin does surgeries and fillings and things that it' ; s all improved. He can do like a--like he did a root canal on me a couple of months ago, it didn' ; t take probably 15 minutes. DB: And they still did root canals when you went to work there, but it was hours long procedure. MF: Oh yes it was, it was. It' ; s so much easier now. DB: And when you started working, where was the office? MF: Right behind that building on seventh and main. At that time, it was--was it a business or was it somebody office? I can' ; t remember but it was the office right behind the building on seventh and main DB: On west seventh? MF: West seventh, uh-huh, and it was not very big DB: Kind of near what used to be American National Bank, which is now the library? MF: It was between the corner, yeah and the library, mhm. Yeah it, like I say it was--anything like Dr. Corwin has today, his office is really up to date and they can do just about anything there. DB: Well when you moved here in 1971, what did your husband do? MF: He worked for a company that--where he dealt with customers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and the reason we ended up in Bristow is because my parents had moved here from Independence, Kansas, my dad was working for Sinclair and they moved here and so when we found out that we were moving from Houston, Texas to Bristow--or to Oklahoma, my sister Polly says " ; Well you' ; ve got to come to Bristow because it' ; s kind of in between and he can be close to either city" ; so we moved here, and I' ; ve been here a long time it seems like. DB: And at one time he had a Sinclair gas station MF: He had a gas station down on main street on the way to the turnpike DB: Yes MF: Yeah DB: Was it near the Pizza Hut? MF: Uh-huh, right next door yeah. DB: And how long did he do that? MF: I can' ; t remember, for several years yeah. I was trying to think, we got divorced, I can' ; t even remember when that was, but he--I think he may have even been divorced then when he ran that station DB: Well I know in 1981 when I came here, it was still in operation MF: Yeah DB: And I remember when--I don' ; t remember when it left though MF: One thing I remember about that station is on Fourth of July, you know everybody' ; s wanting to buy fireworks. Well John sat up, got a firecracker stand and my kids ran the firecracker stand and of course all of their friends were down there all day long and Jean Ann, my daughter, would even sunbath on top of it and they had more fun doing that DB: On top of the station? MF: On top of the stand, on top of the stand DB: On top of the firework stand? MF: Yes, yeah you could go by and she' ; d be laying up there sunbathing. DB: Well later on, didn' ; t she do the swimming pool? MF: She did the swimming pool, that girl she--want me to tell you about her dance studio? DB: Sure, sure MF: Okay when she graduated from Bristow High School, I wanted her to go to college. She said " ; I don' ; t really want to go to college" ; she said " ; All I want to do is to teach little kids out to dance' ; and I said, well you know you need to go to college, so to please her own mother she went to college in Edmond and I can' ; t even think of the name of it DB: UCO MF: UCO, and she got in the phys-ed part of it over there because she was an acrobat too, and even one she was won the student of the year in that category at the college. Anyway after one year she said " ; Mom" ; she said " ; I don' ; t want to go back to college" ; she said " ; I want to teach kids how to dance" ; because she had taken dance, gosh almost all of her life, and I said " ; Okay, you figure it all out then" ; . Well the first place that we could find for her to teach was at our Presbyterian church and they have a big fellowship hall and they said that she could teach down there. Well of course starting off you didn' ; t have too many kids, so she had her classes down there then she got, I don' ; t know that she even filled out a whole year that year because she found out that there was a big old ball room up in the top of the old hotel and I-- DB: At the Rolland building? MF: Rolland building DB: MhmMF: There was a big old ball room up there and nobody was using it, so she talked with whoever was managing it and rented it and of course we' ; ve had lots of work to get it in shape but it had a wooden floor and lots of room, so she taught up there a year, maybe two, and then she wanted somewhere else. It was better, nicer, cooler in the summer, and she bought the building where the dance studio is today, and that was the one owned by a little lady, I can' ; t remember-- DB: But it' ; s on--it' ; s between ninth and tenth, eighth and ninth? On main street. Ninth and tenth? Eighth and Ninth? MF: Eight and tenth isn' ; t it? DB: Hm, but it' ; s on main street MF: Yes, it' ; s on main street DB: And it' ; s still there today MF: It' ; s still there today. You want me to tell about Jean Ann? DB: Sure MF: Okay, Jean Ann, she was probably the best known person for miles around and everybody loved her and she would do anything you asked her to do. A lot of the times, people would hire her to go embarrass people when they were having their birthdays when they were having their birthday dinner out somewhere, and she would go and sing and dance and embarrass them to death. Anyway, she had a really nice place to have her dancing now then, and she had lots of students every year more would sign up. At that time, she also had dancers in Depew and later on in Stroud, she owned a building in Stroud and at Depew the school, they let her use the school property. DB: And these kids would be from three or four years old? MF: Three DB: Until high school? MF: Uh-huh, yup they would do that. And she, well it' ; s kind of hard to talk about, but Jean Ann after years of teaching and everything, she lived next door to me and one day early in the morning, somebody was banging on my door and I go and it' ; s Jean Ann and she can' ; t talk, she' ; s--can hardly walk and she kept saying " ; Makayla, Makayla" ; well at that time, she had the little child named Makayla along with her son also. But anyway I said " ; I' ; ve got to call Chip" ; who' ; s our doctor in town and he lives just down the street from us. Well he was here in five minutes, and he said " ; She' ; s had a stroke" ; and so-- DB: And she wasn' ; t very old MF: Nuh-uh, I don' ; t remember, I have to figure things out DB: It' ; s alright, I remember her not being very old MF: Yeah, anyway we went to the hospital and it was decided that she had a stroke and somehow they figured out that it was in her brain, that she had cancer in her brain. And we went to the--Chip sent us to a specialist the next day in Tulsa, and we didn' ; t like him, for some reason we didn' ; t like him, and I have a niece who had had some problem with her brain and they had gone to this doctor that they really liked, so we got an appointment with him, and he told us that he could do surgery but that he wasn' ; t sure that he could get it all. And anyway, so she had the surgery and did fairly well, she at the time that this happened, she was still gonna be running the swimming pool also, and so she had to quit that and then it was in the summer time and she wasn' ; t having dance lessons and anyway, she lived fairly well just almost exactly one year. DB: From her stroke? MF: Yeah, and then of course she had that brain surgery DB: Mhm, mhm. MF: And we took her to Texas, we' ; d go down there for treatments, and finally Chip says " ; Myra" ; he says " ; She' ; s not gonna get well" ; and he said " ; I would, if she was my child, I would quit running her all over everywhere" ; . Anyway, so she did get to the point where she could hardly talk, but she was worried because it was time to sign kids up for dancing, " ; What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" ; and I said " ; Well, you can' ; t do it, you can' ; t do the classes" ; . One day I was over there, of course I was there all the time, somebody knocked on the door and it was Jennifer Kemp. DB: A miracle MF: A miracle, and Jennifer was like Jean Ann, she was a good dancer and she had been going taking dance in college and she traveled in different shows and things. Anyway, she said " ; Is there any way that I can help with the dance school?" ; And I said " ; Can you take over the dance school?" ; And she said " ; If that' ; s what you want" ; she says " ; That' ; s what I can do" ; and oh it just saved our lives, I mean Jean Ann was so worried about it. And ever since then, Jennifer is still doing dance lessons. DB: How long has that been? How long has Jean Ann been gone? MF: Well Jean Ann died in, oh when did she die? I have it somewhere. These dates just [Indecipherable] DB: Well see Makayla is-- MF: [Indecipherable] DB: How old is Makayla? MF: Makayla is 20, and she was 6 when she died DB: So 14 years ago MF: Yeah DB: 2007? So Jennifer' ; s been doing the dance studio for 14 years, no 15 MF: Yeah DB: For a while MF: Yeah she' ; s always--she' ; s done it since that-- DB: Jean Ann couldn' ; t do it anymore MF: do it anymore, mhm. DB: That' ; s just amazing. MF: It is, and Jennifer does a good job DB: Well I think it' ; s interesting at the--when we built the Freeland center MF: Oh yes, yeah. DB: Tell about that and what they put in the stage and-- MF: Of course in Bristow, there was really no good place to have dance recitals, and we had one or two over at, what is that building there? DB: Oh at the-- MF: Parking lot behind the-- DB: American Legion MF: American Legion building, yeah. DB: And we had some in Depew, in the auditorium at Depew MF: Yeah, and we did some in Stroud at their high school, and anyway she was a busy busy girl, I can tell you that. And when Jennifer took over, she did not do the other cities, towns. But I had a granddaughter who also took lessons from Jean Ann and she had graduated High School and was a good dancer and so she took over and taught some of the kids in Depew and Stroud DB: Ms. Mallory? MF: No, and that' ; s Alisha DB: Oh MF: A. L. I. S. H. A. She' ; s Scotts daughter DB: Oh MF: And that' ; s a sad story that I don' ; t want to go into, but Alisha died a horrible death, she was in the hospital for three months in Oklahoma City, in intensive care, she had two kidney transplants and one liver transplant DB: Oh my MF: They never really knew what was wrong with her or what was causing all her problems. Anyway, that' ; s that. DB: Well, what I thought was neat was when they build the auditorium and they put the stage in that they put a box in the floor MF: Yes, well Chip Cooper was kind of the instigator for getting the Freeland Center, which is a wonderful auditorium for Bristow and Jean Ann always wanted to have an auditorium, and when they were trying to get people to donate money for the building, a lot of money was given in her honor, which was fantastic. And Chip wanted some way to remember Jean Ann in the auditorium, and we kept trying to think of something and finally he came--he says " ; I know what we can do" ; he said " ; We' ; ll cut a hole in the stage and put her shoes in this hole and cover it with plastic so that the kids can dance on it and everything" ; and you know, but it' ; ll have her shoes in there with a little plaque on it. DB: And it' ; s still there MF: And it' ; s still there DB: Anybody that goes on that stage can see Jean Ann' ; s spot MF: They can DB: Which I think is just really neat because like even in Nashville when they had the Grand Ole Opry, they saved that circle and moved it to their new place and people stand in that circle so that kind of gives me warm fuzzies thinking about it, but I know when I stand on that stage right there Jean Ann is there with me, and that' ; s just kind of a neat thing for all of the generations to come. MF: Sometimes people who are performing there from out of town will ask about it and Chip will come and get me and say " ; go back there and tell them about that" ; and people are interested who don' ; t know the story, you know. DB: I think it' ; s a really good story. MF: But, another miracle was when Jean Ann, well she had a son named Ryan who is a very smart young man and he--he works for, he went to college for I think one year and, or longer than that, he only needed a few hours to get some kind of degree but he didn' ; t do it. Anyway, he works for, what is that company out there, I can' ; t ever remember the name, let me get it. Consolidated Turbine Specialist DB: Oh, uh-huh MF: I can' ; t ever remember that. He has a good job out there, he' ; s probably number three man out there. Has a good job, plus Ryan buys old houses in Bristow and remodels them and works on them and usually rents them, some of them he has sold, and he' ; s also built three houses in Bristow. So he' ; s a busy boy, and I' ; m very proud of him. And then Jean Anns other child is Makayla. Makayla is now 20 years old, and she was born with down syndrome. And everyone--when she was born, everybody, we had all these people out in the waiting room, it was wild. They had to come in and tell everybody to be quiet all the time. Anyway, we all wanted a girl and they let me go in the operating room actually and see her be born. And as soon as this baby girl came out, I was on the phone telling them " ; It' ; s a girl" ; and we were so thrilled, and anyway they took baby out to clean her up and another doctor came in and he said " ; I have news about baby, she has down syndrome" ; . We didn' ; t care what she had, she was our special little bundle and she has been a marvel DB: Absolutely a marvel MF: Everybody everywhere we go, everybody knows Makayla. She has accomplished so much, and-- DB: And touches every life she come in contact with, I mean nobody' ; s the same after they meet her. MF: I know, it' ; s amazing. And she' ; s 20 now and she' ; s graduated from High School, she was the prom queen, she' ; s been cheerleaders and-- DB: She went through dance MF: Oh yeah DB: Since she was little until she graduated and-- MF: She started at three years old and went every year, yup. DB: And she works at the swim pool in the summer, and does she do Home Alone? MF: Yeah DB: For the children? MF: Yes, she worked when she was in high school DB: Oh MF: She would work in the office, you know do things for the office in high school and then when she graduated, she has a job where she works at the kindergarten and home alone, which is-- DB: Oh, I didn' ; t know she worked at the kindergarten MF: --Where parents who work, home alone is a place where parents who work can leave their children and she kind of goes back and forth between home alone and the kindergarten and she loves it and they all love her, you can' ; t help but love Makayla. DB: Now we talked a little bit before we started the recording about how Bristow has changed in the 50 years you' ; ve been here and the 40 years I' ; ve been here, and you were telling me about Strongs, you might tell what kind of store that was and tell your story that goes with. MF: Okay, it was a store on main street that was--we called it Strongs because Mr. Strong owned it and he had a lot of clothing in there and maybe some housewares, I can' ; t remember for sure. I remember the clothing and the shoes, he had shoe department. Well I bought a pair, this has been a hundred years ago DB: It feels like it MF: I bought a pair of snow boots, they' ; re all furry and they' ; ve got the thick rubber sole on them and lace up, you know and they' ; re really cute I think. Because when I wear them nowadays, and yes I do still wear them, you couldn' ; t tell that they' ; ve ever been worn. DB: And I' ; ll take a picture so that it can be attached MF: Okay DB: To this story so-- MF: Okay DB: So we' ; ll all have a picture of Strongs snow boots MF: Yeah, people ask me " ; Where did you get those cute boots?" ; and I say " ; Way long time ago, Mr. Strongs" ; DB: Any other favorite stores you remember in Bristow that aren' ; t there anymore? MF: I remember the furniture, the big furniture store across the street, the--I know [Indecipherable] kind of ran it for a while, and they went to our church. Oh and speaking of church, I' ; m a member of the Presbyterian church that is a hundred and five years now old. It is the most beautiful church, has windows by Tiffany and I love everybody there DB: It' ; s on the historic MF: It' ; s on the national historical societies register DB: Mhm MF: Yeah, anyway we have good people at that church and right now we do not have a regular minister, but we have some members, one of them Debbie' ; s daughter-in-law. Cara (ph) is one of those members that fills in for the pulpit every Sunday DB: She' ; s a good little preacher MF: She is wonderful, and she had good news for us Sunday DB: Don' ; t talk about that yet MF: Okay, okay. Yeah Cara and your son are a big addition to our church and we just love them to death DB: Well they love the church, they do love their church. Well I see it on your-- MF: I' ; ll tell you about something else we used to have in Bristow was a skating rink DB: Yes MF: You remember that? DB: I do MF: Were you here? DB: I do remember two skating rinks MF: Oh really? And there was a bowling ally DB: One was underground MF: That' ; s the one I remember DB: And it had a wooden floor and it was on sixth, it was on sixth street--east sixth and then where the casino is, there was another skating rink and it was, I mean for 1980' ; s it was pretty stylish. It wasn' ; t a wood floor MF: See I don' ; t remember that DB: And it was--it was pretty fancy MF: And there was a bowling ally DB: That was before me, or I didn' ; t know about it MF: Seems like it was up there by KrummesDB: Oh, yes. In fact, I think it used to be in KrummesMF: Well that' ; s what I was thinking but I wasn' ; t for sure DB: Yes. There were dress stores MF: Uh-huh DB: There was Paddens Place (ph) and [Indecipherable] to dress store over there where Carrie K (ph) used to have a radio station MF: Oh radio station DB: And then [Indecipherable] MF: Oh yeah next door DB: Right there and she sold real high end fashion clothes for women, and then Paddens Place (ph) which was put in by Pauline Padden (ph) and then run later by her daughter Paula Womack (ph) MF: Yeah DB: Sold very nice women' ; s wear MF: Yup, and of course the bank has moved DB: The American National Bank that which became Spirit Bank, it was where the library is now and I think that was its second move when it went there, that was all before-- MF: Yeah it was on main street, wasn' ; t it? The beginning? DB: Yes, I believe the [Indecipherable] like across the street from where community bank is now is where it used--started out MF: Used to be DB: And then it moved to where the library is then they built a new building. So a lot of changes in 40 or 50 years in Bristow MF: Oh yeah DB: We were also talking about there used to be a taxi service MF: Oh yes DB: In Bristow MF: One little man DB: MhmMF: Yes DB: And he would come and pick people up and take them where they needed to go and--so those were some pretty good memories MF: Of course nowadays they have that bus DB: Yes MF: That they, you know, older people-- DB: A senior bus MF: Uh-huh DB: That takes people around where they need to go MF: Take people around, yeah DB: But it' ; s been interesting to see Bristow change through the years and I appreciate your time today and telling us about what you remember about Bristow and some of your life stories. Before we go, is there anything else? I see here in WWII you had a gum story, did you wanna share a gum story? MF: Gum? DB: You don' ; t remember? It says " ; Gum story" ; next to rations MF: Yes,yesDB: Did you wanna share? MF: When I was a kid, we went--we probably stayed at my grandfather' ; s house in Arkansas, we lived on little teeny town in Arkansas and he lived I don' ; t know how far away, it wasn' ; t too far because we could drive our car there in half a day. Anyway, he was a doctor in this little town up in the mountains in Arkansas called Leslie, Arkansas and it seemed like--my mother had two sisters and they were really close knit family with their dad, who was the doctor, and it seemed like that every summer we spent most of the summer at grandpa' ; s house. And upstairs there were three bedrooms and each daughter had their own bedroom and the kids slept on the floor or little beds in that room. Anyway, we spent a lot of time up there and in the town, there was a drug store and we could get a dime and go have a coke, you know at the drug store, or we could go to a little movie house for a dime DB: For a dime MF: And anyway, one thing that we always wanted was bubblegum. Well they never had bubblegum, and finally when the war was over or some celebration that I remember, we' ; ve heard that they got gum at the drug store. Well, one of my mothers had--sister had a son and they had quite a bit of money. Well that son had money and the rest of us were lucky to have a dime. So we go running down to the store and he beat us there and bought every piece of candy DB: Oh no! MF: Of gum that they had and wouldn' ; t let us have any. If he did, we had to give him something or something, but he was so stingy with that gum and I' ; ll never forget it. DB: That' ; s so funny, the things we remember. And I was also noticing here, probably because I told you my mother was born around the same time about when you were a girl and you were talking about your home life and that you had two sisters and you all shared the same bed? MF: Uh-huh DB: And you had feather pillows, that' ; s interesting. MF: My older sister was quite a bit older than we--than Polly and I were, but we all slept in the bed and I, somehow always got in the middle. And if you would cough, well for some reason I would cough during the night and my older sister would get up and check me and she' ; d say " ; shut up that coughing" ; and so we did that DB: I wonder, you come from a small place in Arkansas and then you went to Ohio, was it still a small town in Ohio? MF: Actually-- DB: Larger than-- MF: it was [Indecipherable], it was much larger DB: Much bigger MF: Yeah but we lived in out kind of in what you call the country, and we had our own school out there, it was a nice school. DB: And then you went to college in a small college MF: Independence DB: So when you did finally come and then Houston, that was huge MF: Oh yeah DB: And then you came to Bristow MF: That was-- DB: I mean, was it--it was a lot smaller than Houston, did it remind you of where you come from in Arkansas but it wasn' ; t quite that small? MF: Yeah, it, well yeah it was more like Independence, Kansas. A lot of people are familiar with Independence, Kansas, and yeah it was about the same as Independence I would say because we had good schools there and-- DB: And we had good [Indecipherable] MF: We have wonderful schools DB: And the people are close knit MF: Mhm, yup. DB: Well again I thank you for all your time today, I appreciate it. MF: Well, I hope that it' ; ll help some for-- DB: I know it-- MF: and people will get a thrill out of it maybe DB: I know they will, thank you Myra MF: You' ; re welcome audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-15_Fadely,_Myra.xml OHP-2021-15_Fadely,_Myra.xml
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Myra Fadely
Description
An account of the resource
In this 2021 interview, Myra Fadely shares her experience in the Bristow area. She discusses the Freeland Center and the different businesses.
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OHP-2021-15
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2021-03-17
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audio
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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English
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sound, oral history
dance studio
dentistry
Freeland Center
Presbyterian Church
stores
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Family Histories
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Oral History
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
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Georgia Smith
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Edgar Spencer
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-13_Edgar_Spencer.xml
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5.4 Unknown Date OHP-2020-13 Edgar Spencer OHP-2020-13 0:00-28:37 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Edgar Spencer Georgia Smith MP3 1:|50(4)|90(2)|121(4)|154(5)|195(2)|242(2)|275(5)|309(12)|347(4)|387(3)|424(5)|460(2)|500(2)|527(3)|574(10)|609(2)|637(6)|669(3)|704(11)|739(6)|780(4)|806(5)|842(5)|869(2)|887(13)|921(3)|960(8)|982(4) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Edgar Spencer.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction and Family GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society—stop. Now that we have the cell phones turned off, we’ll try it again. This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma, and I am here with Edgar Spencer of Bristow. We’re at the depot, he’s going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow area. Let me check my volume on this first, make sure we’ve got it turned up good. Yeah I think so, I think we’re good, yeah we’re good. Okay, what was your name at birth? ES: Edgar McDonald Spencer GS: And where were you born? ES: Slick, Oklahoma GS: Were you born in a home or a hospital? ES: Home GS: In a home? Did the doctor come there or was it a midwife? ES: I’m sure it was Dr. King Billy Chadmoore ; Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow, Oklahoma ; Dr. King ; Edgar McDonald Spencer ; Edgar Spencer ; Fanny and Lou Robinson ; Fanny Robinson ; Georgia Smith ; Hi-Way Cafe ; Johnny Spencer ; Laurie Puckett ; Lenon Spencer ; Liberty Glass ; Lory Puckett ; Lou Robinson ; Michael Spencer ; Nancy Thurman ; Slick, Oklahoma https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168592424/nancy-jane-spencer Nancy Thurman 185 Growing Up GS: Okay thank you. Okay tell me what your life was like at home when you were growing up when you were small. ES: [Indecipherable] home, had three brothers, we got along well, did well. GS: No fights? ES: Oh sure GS: What kind of house did you grow up in? Was it a wood frame, a brick, what? ES: Wood frame GS: Wood frame, and was it in town or out in the country? ES: In Bristow GS: In Bristow, okay. Now you said you were born in Slick, when did they move to Bristow? ES: Well I don’t know Franklin Spencer ; Hi-Way Cafe ; Liberty Glass ; M& ; P Grocery ; Pulms 502 School GS: Okay, where did you first attend school? ES: Bristow, Washington school GS: At Washington Elementary? Who was your teacher? ES: What was her name? Mrs. Frump (ph) was one of them, that’s about the only one I miss [Indecipherable] GS: Okay, I had Mrs. Frump in second grade ES: Did you? GS: Mhm ES: Mrs. Spear (ph) GS: Yes, uh-huh ES: Mr. Zero (ph) Bristow Quarterback Club ; Mr. Zero ; Mrs. Frump ; Mrs. Spear ; Washington Elementary 595 Church GS: Okay, did your family go to church when you were a child? ES: Yes GS: Which church did they attend? ES: Bristow Gospel Tabernacle GS: Okay, is the same building now standing? ES: Mhm GS: Describe what your Sunday services were like ES: Typical prayer station, then a sermon. And [Indecipherable] GS: Did they have Sunday school— ES: Yes GS: --before, mhm. Do you remember any of the songs they sang? ES: Just the old hymns Bristow Gospel Tabernacle 698 Medical Care GS: What was medical care like when you were a child? You mentioned Dr. King delivered you, can you remember going to the doctor when you were small? ES: Just for immunizations GS: Yeah, yeah. Did you have a family doctor? ES: Yes GS: Dr. King? ES: Dr. King GS: Did he make house calls? ES: Yes, he did Dr. King 754 Businesses and Events GS: Okay we’re gonna turn around to Bristow now. What are your recollections of Bristow from when you were a kid? ES: My recollections? GS: Uh-huh ES: It was a small town GS: Anything in particular you remember like the buildings or the people or the business? ES: Oh the parks and the people and the church, schools. GS: Any building in particular stand out to you ES: No Drive In ; Globe Store ; Hi-Way Cafe ; M& ; P Grocery ; Prince ; Shamus Dry Goods ; Walmer ; Woolworth 917 Jobs GS: Okay. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? You had no—yeah. Nothing, huh? Okay what was your first job? ES: Working in service station GS: Which one was it? ES: Henshaw GS: Henshaws? Where was that located? ES: It’s about fourth and main GS: Fourth and main, okay. Where— ES: Down where the old ice plant used to be, you remember that thing? GS: Oh, okay, yeah. ES: [Indecipherable] it was right in there. city councilman ; Department of Public Safety ; Henshaws ; Korea ; military ; Missouri ; Oklahoma ; Policeman ; Service Station ; Texas 1081 Marriage GS: Okay, when and where did you meet Nancy? ES: When did I meet? GS: Uh-huh, when and where? ES: Well I don’t know GS: You just always knew her maybe? ES: Yeah just probably, we got together. GS: What were your first impressions of Nancy? What made you fall in love with Nancy? ES: Personality Liberty Glass ; Nancy Spencer ; Nancy Thurman https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168592424/nancy-jane-spencer Nancy Thurman Spencer 1150 Transportation and Travelers GS: Did you ever travel to Tulsa or Oklahoma City when you were younger in your early life? ES: A little GS: Did you ever take the train from the depot here? ES: No GS: No, do you have any memories of the depot? ES: I can remember the trains ; it was a [Indecipherable] GS: Does your family always have a car, or was there a first car that made you this— ES: No we always had a car GS: Yeah ES: My dad always had a car Candy Creations ; Hamburger King ; Harby House ; Hi-Way Cafe ; J& ; J Cafe ; Oklahoma City ; route 66 ; Thurman Motel ; Tulsa 1270 Segregation GS: Okay. Okay, we’re gonna switch gears a little bit here and we’re gonna go to racism. Was Bristow a segregated town when you were growing up? ES: Early part, yes. I think I was probably a junior in High School when the first black went to High School in Bristow GS: Okay, do you remember the names of any of the black families in town during your childhood? ES: Not really GS: Were you allowed to socialize with the black kids? ES: Oh yeah, yeah. GS: And so you were a junior when segregation ended and they integrated into the schools. Did you ever swim at the Bristow City pool? ES: Yes GS: Were black children admitted then? ES: I don’t believe so Bristow City Pool ; Cloud ; Jerry Riley ; Riley ; Segregation https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/112945715/jerry-garland-riley Jerry Riley 1416 Oil Boom GS: Okay, was your family involved in any of the early oil well boom that was in Bristow? ES: No GS: Do you have any memories of the boom? The oil boom here? ES: Just vaguely GS: What kind of memories? ES: All the people coming in, fill their [Indecipherable] go out and work on the rigs, stuff like that. GS: Okay ES: Bristow [Indecipherable] the oil boom back then 1472 Amphitheater and the City Lake GS: Okay, let’s move on to the 40’s. You were young, do you remember any of the things that went on in the city lake with the WPA doing the work projects out there, Eleanor Roosevelt coming, you have any memories? ES: [Indecipherable] GS: Of any of that? Do you remember as a kid people using the amphitheater much? ES: Mhm GS: What did they use it for? ES: Concerts, stuff like that. Revivals GS: Did they have high school graduations there? ES: I can’t remember, I don’t believe they did, but [Indecipherable] Eleanor Roosevelt 1543 Politics GS: Was your family politically involved? ES: No GS: Okay, did you ever have any family members run for office? ES: No, just me GS: Just you, that’s right just you! And how long were you city councilman Edgar? ES: Six years I believe GS: Okay, what years was that, do you remember? ES: No not really GS: Okay, it was fairly recent though, wasn’t it? ES: Yeah city councilman 1585 Closing Thoughts GS: Okay, what would you consider to be the biggest most—well let me rephrase, what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime? ES: Most important invention? Probably medical GS: All the medical discoveries that they’ve made? ES: All the medical, yeah. GS: And how is the world different now than when you were a child? ES: It’s altogether different, it’s— GS: It’s not the same at all, is it Edgar? ES: Not the same, people are not involved with helping each other, helping the city, [Indecipherable] COVID ; OSU In this 2020 interview, Edgar Spencer shares his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses the many businesses and segregation. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: Edgar Spencer Other Persons: Date of Interview: Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2020-13 at 00:00 to 28:37 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. GS: This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society--stop. Now that we have the cell phones turned off, we' ; ll try it again. This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma, and I am here with Edgar Spencer of Bristow. We' ; re at the depot, he' ; s going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow area. Let me check my volume on this first, make sure we' ; ve got it turned up good. Yeah I think so, I think we' ; re good, yeah we' ; re good. Okay, what was your name at birth? ES: Edgar McDonald Spencer GS: And where were you born? ES: Slick, Oklahoma GS: Were you born in a home or a hospital? ES: Home GS: In a home? Did the doctor come there or was it a midwife? ES: I' ; m sure it was Dr. King GS: Doctor King? What was your date of birth? ES: 11/[Indecipherable]/1939 GS: And what were your parents' ; names? We' ; ll start with your mother' ; s maiden name. ES: Fanny and Lou Robinson (ph) GS: And do you know about when they were married? ES: No idea GS: Have no idea, that' ; s okay. Do you know where they were married? ES: I would say Bristow, Oklahoma GS: Okay, and did they grow up here in Bristow? ES: Slick GS: In Slick, okay. How many children did your parents have? ES: Four GS: Four children? Can you tell me your siblings names? ES: Billy Chadmoore (ph), Johnny Spencer (ph), and Lenon Spencer (ph) GS: Okay, what did your father do for a living? ES: He worked at Liberty Glass in Sapulpa GS: Okay, and Edgar you might speak up just a little bit, with that mask it' ; s gonna make it a little hard to understand. What did your mother do? ES: She worked at the Hi-Way Café in Bristow GS: Oh, I ate there many a time! What is your spouse--what was your spouse' ; s name? ES: Nancy Thurman GS: Nancy Thurman, and when did you get married to Nancy? ES: 1962 GS: 1962, how many children did you have? ES: Two GS: Two? And what are their names? ES: Laurie Puckett (ph) and Michael Spencer (ph) GS: Okay, could you say those one more time? ES: Laurie Puckett (ph), P. U. C. K. E. T. T., and Michael Spencer (ph) GS: Okay thank you. Okay tell me what your life was like at home when you were growing up when you were small. ES: [Indecipherable] home, had three brothers, we got along well, did well. GS: No fights? ES: Oh sure GS: What kind of house did you grow up in? Was it a wood frame, a brick, what? ES: Wood frame GS: Wood frame, and was it in town or out in the country? ES: In Bristow GS: In Bristow, okay. Now you said you were born in Slick, when did they move to Bristow? ES: Well I don' ; t know GS: Don' ; t know, you were pretty small? ES: Yeah, I' ; m sure I was GS: Did the kids have to share a bed? ES: Yes GS: What were your favorite toys when you were a little child? ES: Probably trucks GS: What kind of role did your mother play in the house? ES: Typical housewife and she worked GS: She worked outside the home? ES: Yeah, Hi-Way Café GS: At the Hi-Way Café, that' ; s right you said. And was she a waitress or a cook? ES: Cook GS: She was a cook, that was some good food. How was your laundry done at home? ES: Washing machine, washtub GS: Was it one of the wringer kind or electric? ES: Wringer tub GS: I mean electric wringer. ES: Yeah GS: What kind of stove did you have? ES: What kind of what? GS: Stove, cooking stove. ES: Typical gas stove GS: Okay, and what were your meals like? Were they like the Hi-Way café or were they different? ES: They were good GS: They were good? Maybe meat and potatoes or-- ES: Oh yeah GS: Yeah ES: [Indecipherable] bacon, sausage GS: Oh yum, are there any family recipes from your childhood that you got to keep? ES: Meatloaf maybe GS: Meatloaf? She made good meatloaf? ES: Mhm GS: I probably should get that recipe from you, I' ; m not too good with meatloaf. What did you shop for groceries? ES: Where did? GS: Where did you shop, yes ES: M& ; P Grocery GS: And that was on seventh street, or? ES: I believe that' ; s correct, yeah. GS: Okay, and did you have daily chores you had to do? ES: Oh yeah GS: What were they? ES: Mow the lawn, work in the garden, help clean the house GS: You had a garden here in town? Vegetable garden? ES: Mhm GS: Did your mom can some of the produce from it? ES: Yeah GS: So they probably didn' ; t--weren' ; t able to own livestock though here in town, right? ES: No GS: Yeah, what kind of clothes did you wear? ES: Typical jeans GS: Mostly jeans ES: Mostly jeans, yeah GS: Button down the front shirts? ES: Yeah GS: And I' ; m sure I know the answer to this but it' ; s on here so I' ; m gonna ask it. Did you have shoes year round? ES: Did I have what? GS: Shoes year round ES: Oh, yeah GS: Yeah, I think most people from your generation on had shoes year round ES: [Indecipherable] we had shoes GS: Yeah, maybe my mommas, maybe not, but. Did you have many friends in the neighborhood that you played with or was it just with your brothers? ES: No, there was kids in the neighborhood GS: Anyone in particular that you remember fondly? ES: Well there was some Pulms, P. U. L. M. S. and a couple of kids we played with all the time GS: Did you have any childhood games that you played? ES: Typical games, hide and seek. GS: Kick the can? ES: Yeah GS: Where did your father work? ES: Liberty Glass in Sapulpa GS: Okay I didn' ; t know that, and what was his role in the house? Just as provider? ES: Yes GS: Do you remember the first time you saw a television? ES: No GS: Yeah, do you remember purchasing your first T.V.? ES: Not really GS: Okay, now we' ; re gonna go on to your grandparents if you can remember anything about them. Do you remember hearing your grandparents describe their lives, what it was like for them? ES: Not really GS: Not really. Do you remember great grandparents at all? ES: No GS: Okay, who was the oldest person in your family that you can remember from when you were a child? ES: My grandfather GS: Your grandfather, and what was his name? ES: Franklin Spencer GS: Franklin Spencer? ES: Mhm GS: Do you remember anything particular about him? ES: No, not really. Typical grandfather GS: Okay, where did you first attend school? ES: Bristow, Washington school GS: At Washington Elementary? Who was your teacher? ES: What was her name? Mrs. Frump (ph) was one of them, that' ; s about the only one I miss [Indecipherable] GS: Okay, I had Mrs. Frump in second grade ES: Did you? GS: Mhm ES: Mrs. Spear (ph) GS: Yes, uh-huh ES: Mr. Zero (ph) GS: Okay, what hours was school held? ES: I don' ; t know, from 9 -- 3 GS: Were you a member of any clubs or organizations or sports? ES: Bristow quarterback club GS: Okay, well when you were in school ES: Oh when I was--no. GS: Yeah, was the school building used for other community purposes? ES: I don' ; t believe so GS: Did your mother pack your lunch for you or did you eat in the cafeteria? ES: Both GS: Both? ES: Yeah GS: What kind of lunches did she pack you? ES: Sandwiches GS: Do you remember anything about the classroom in particular? ES: Not really GS: Were your teachers strict? Kind? What were your teachers like? ES: They were kind but strict GS: Kind but strict. Okay, did your family go to church when you were a child? ES: Yes GS: Which church did they attend? ES: Bristow Gospel Tabernacle GS: Okay, is the same building now standing? ES: Mhm GS: Describe what your Sunday services were like ES: Typical prayer station, then a sermon. And [Indecipherable] GS: Did they have Sunday school-- ES: Yes GS: --before, mhm. Do you remember any of the songs they sang? ES: Just the old hymns GS: Were holiday events at church special? Did they do anything special for Christmas or Easter or--? ES: Yes, we always had a program GS: Was it a children' ; s program? ES: Mhm GS: Were you in those? ES: Yes GS: What did--what was your favorite one? Can you remember one in particular? ES: No GS: What were Christmases like when you were a kid? ES: They were good GS: They were good, did you get a lot of gifts, one special gift? ES: We' ; d usually get one special gift GS: And did you--I' ; ve been curious about this, did you put up the tree like a month ahead of time or did you wait just a few days before Christmas? ES: Few days before GS: Few days before, I think that used to be more common than it is today ES: Yeah GS: Did your mother sing in the choir? ES: No GS: Or your father? ES: No GS: Were they involved in the church in any way? ES: A little, not a whole lot GS: What was medical care like when you were a child? You mentioned Dr. King delivered you, can you remember going to the doctor when you were small? ES: Just for immunizations GS: Yeah, yeah. Did you have a family doctor? ES: Yes GS: Dr. King? ES: Dr. King GS: Did he make house calls? ES: Yes, he did GS: I didn' ; t remember if he did or not. Did your mom have any home remedies that she would try out on you? ES: Yeah, I don' ; t remember what they were GS: But you were her guinea pig, huh ES: Yeah GS: Were you ever hospitalized? ES: I think once in my life I' ; ve been in the hospital with a pneumonia GS: Ah ES: I' ; ve been fortunate GS: Okay we' ; re gonna turn around to Bristow now. What are your recollections of Bristow from when you were a kid? ES: My recollections? GS: Uh-huh ES: It was a small town GS: Anything in particular you remember like the buildings or the people or the business? ES: Oh the parks and the people and the church, schools. GS: Any building in particular stand out to you ES: No GS: Did you--I know we had two walk in theaters and a drive in theater, did you attend those? ES: Yes GS: Did you do it on a regular basis? ES: Not regularly, we did it every now and then GS: Every now and then. Did you go to the Princes or the Walmer or the Drive in? ES: Both GS: Both ES: There' ; s Walmer, the Princes, and the Drive in GS: Yeah, okay. Do you remember any of the big businesses in town? ES: M& ; P Grocery (ph), Woolworth (ph), that' ; s about all I can remember. GS: Okay, what kind of shops did your mother go to shop at? ES: Grocery store GS: Did she go to Shamus dry goods ES: Yeah GS: Or to the Globe Store to buy her clothes ES: Yeah GS: Or did she make her own clothes? ES: No, she would go to the store GS: Okay, did you ever eat out at the restaurants? I know the answer to this ES: Yes, my mother worked at Hi-Way Café so we were always eating at it GS: Yeah, yeah. How did women dress back then? ES: How did what? GS: How did women dress back then? ES: Long dresses GS: And the men? ES: Jeans and shirt GS: I bet you saw a few more overalls ES: Oh yeah GS: And suspenders back then too ES: Yeah GS: Did Bristow have any main holiday events that they would make a big to-do out of? ES: They would always have a Christmas event GS: Parades? ES: Mhm GS: Did they have a fourth of July parade or a fireworks display? ES: I believe they did, yeah. If I remember right. GS: I remember going to the pirate drive in theater for fireworks ES: Mhm GS: After the double feature on the fourth of July. Did you ever do that? ES: Yeah, yeah. GS: Okay. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? You had no--yeah. Nothing, huh? Okay what was your first job? ES: Working in service station GS: Which one was it? ES: Henshaw GS: Henshaws? Where was that located? ES: It' ; s about fourth and main GS: Fourth and main, okay. Where-- ES: Down where the old ice plant used to be, you remember that thing? GS: Oh, okay, yeah. ES: [Indecipherable] it was right in there. GS: Okay, what kind of jobs have you had in your life? ES: Service station, policeman, military, that' ; s about it. GS: City councilman? ES: City council, yeah. GS: What career did you land on to raise your children? ES: Department of Public Safety GS: Department of Public Safety, and what was your job there? ES: Policeman. GS: Okay, how did you decide to become a policeman Edgar? ES: I don' ; t know, I just--I just liked it and enjoyed doing it GS: What do you think drew you to it? ES: Just people I knew that were in that profession GS: You respected them and-- ES: Mhm GS: When you were in the military, when and where did you serve? ES: I served in Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Korea. GS: Were you in the national guard or the army or what branch were you in? ES: Regular army GS: Regular army, and what rank were you? ES: Sergeant GS: Sergeant, and what years were you in there Edgar? ES: 19--I forgot already. Probably 1956 GS: Okay, I just like to check it every now and then.1956 through what? ES: 62' ; maybe GS: Okay, so you saw active duty in Korea? ES: Yes, after the war GS: After the war? ES: Yes GS: So you probably weren' ; t injured since it was after the war ES: Right GS: Were you in the peace keeping-- ES: Yes, occupation force GS: Okay, when and where did you meet Nancy? ES: When did I meet? GS: Uh-huh, when and where? ES: Well I don' ; t know GS: You just always knew her maybe? ES: Yeah just probably, we got together. GS: What were your first impressions of Nancy? What made you fall in love with Nancy? ES: Personality GS: Her personality, she did have a great personality. Were you engaged very long? ES: Six months maybe GS: Six months, did you have a big wedding? ES: We had a church [Indecipherable] GS: Very nice, what were your first years of marriage like? ES: Very good GS: Very good, did you live in a house, an apartment building with parents, where did you live? ES: We lived in rent houses GS: In rent houses, and where did you work when you were first married? ES: Liberty Glass in Sapulpa GS: At Liberty Glass, did you ever travel to Tulsa or Oklahoma City when you were younger in your early life? ES: A little GS: Did you ever take the train from the depot here? ES: No GS: No, do you have any memories of the depot? ES: I can remember the trains ; it was a [Indecipherable] GS: Does your family always have a car, or was there a first car that made you this-- ES: No we always had a car GS: Yeah ES: My dad always had a car GS: Yeah, do you remember--no you wouldn' ; t remember that, never mind. I--the question was " ; do you remember when route 66 was built?" ; and I thought " ; ah, no" ; ES: That was actually 37' ; GS: That was a long time ago. Do you remember though when route 66 came through here and was a big deal? ES: Oh yeah GS: Yeah, well it still does. Where did the Viet (ph) travelers stay when they came through Bristow? ES: I remember Thurman motel, there was two or three motels in town. GS: Was Thurman motels related in any way to Nancy your wife? ES: No GS: No, and I' ; m sure that they would stop at the Hi-Way Café and eat? ES: Oh yeah, Hi-Way Café GS: What are some of the other restaurants you think they stopped at? ES: Harby House (ph) GS: Where was the Harby House located? ES: Somewhere along there where our shop is now, where our shop was it was right in there GS: Where Candy Creations? ES: Yes, yes. [Indecipherable] GS: So between 8th and 9th street? ES: Yeah GS: Okay, on the west side. ES: Yeah. GS: Okay ES: Hi-Way Café GS: Are there any businesses that catered specifically to route 66 travelers, do you remember? ES: Probably Hamburger King and what was the other restaurant there by Hamburger King? GS: Oh, J& ; J Café ES: Mhm GS: Okay. Okay, we' ; re gonna switch gears a little bit here and we' ; re gonna go to racism. Was Bristow a segregated town when you were growing up? ES: Early part, yes. I think I was probably a junior in High School when the first black went to High School in Bristow GS: Okay, do you remember the names of any of the black families in town during your childhood? ES: Not really GS: Were you allowed to socialize with the black kids? ES: Oh yeah, yeah. GS: And so you were a junior when segregation ended and they integrated into the schools. Did you ever swim at the Bristow City pool? ES: Yes GS: Were black children admitted then? ES: I don' ; t believe so GS: How were most black people employed in the city? ES: Some of the worked for the city, some of them worked for the county, just various jobs. GS: Do you remember any freedmen in Bristow? ES: Any what? GS: Freedmen ES: No GS: Do you remember any incidents of racism in Bristow or in Oklahoma that occurred? ES: No not really GS: How were Indians treated in Bristow? ES: Indians? They were treated kind. GS: What kind of jobs did they have? ES: Just various, labor GS: Like anybody else? ES: Just various jobs [Indecipherable] GS: Who were some of the Indian families that you might remember? Do you remember any of them? ES: The Riley' ; s, Jerry Riley, Clouds, that' ; s about all I can remember GS: Okay, the Riley' ; s and the Clouds. Were there any other groups here in Bristow that you ever noticed were targeted for exclusion? For instance, maybe the Lebanese or any other groups? ES: There was quite a few Lebanese in Bristow, yeah. GS: Were they ever the targets of racism? ES: I don' ; t believe so, most of them were merchants on main street GS: Okay, was your family involved in any of the early oil well boom that was in Bristow? ES: No GS: Do you have any memories of the boom? The oil boom here? ES: Just vaguely GS: What kind of memories? ES: All the people coming in, fill their [Indecipherable] go out and work on the rigs, stuff like that. GS: Okay ES: Bristow [Indecipherable] the oil boom back then GS: Yes, it was, oil raised me so I have a soft spot for oil. Okay you were born in 39' ; , I didn' ; t want to ask you something that was gonna be age inappropriate there. So you were born at the end of the great depression ES: Right GS: Do you remember in the 40' ; s any residual effects from the depression? ES: No GS: Okay, let' ; s move on to the 40' ; s. You were young, do you remember any of the things that went on in the city lake with the WPA doing the work projects out there, Eleanor Roosevelt coming, you have any memories? ES: [Indecipherable] GS: Of any of that? Do you remember as a kid people using the amphitheater much? ES: Mhm GS: What did they use it for? ES: Concerts, stuff like that. Revivals GS: Did they have high school graduations there? ES: I can' ; t remember, I don' ; t believe they did, but [Indecipherable] GS: You might speak up just a little bit more. Was the lake area crowded? Did the people make good use of the lake? ES: Yup, there was quite a few people use the lake, fishing, even swimming. You wasn' ; t supposed to but they did GS: Yup, didn' ; t stop them did it? ES: Yeah GS: Was your family politically involved? ES: No GS: Okay, did you ever have any family members run for office? ES: No, just me GS: Just you, that' ; s right just you! And how long were you city councilman Edgar? ES: Six years I believe GS: Okay, what years was that, do you remember? ES: No not really GS: Okay, it was fairly recent though, wasn' ; t it? ES: Yeah GS: So in the 2010' ; s or-- ES: Yeah GS: Or in the teen years? ES: Yeah GS: Because it' ; s just been a few years since you retired, hasn' ; t it? ES: Yeah, it has yeah GS: Okay ES: I' ; m 81 now, I retired when I was 65 GS: Okay, what would you consider to be the biggest most--well let me rephrase, what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime? ES: Most important invention? Probably medical GS: All the medical discoveries that they' ; ve made? ES: All the medical, yeah. GS: And how is the world different now than when you were a child? ES: It' ; s altogether different, it' ; s-- GS: It' ; s not the same at all, is it Edgar? ES: Not the same, people are not involved with helping each other, helping the city, [Indecipherable] GS: It' ; s an opinion I' ; ve had shared quite a bit Edgar. As you see it, what are the biggest problems that face our nation, and how do you think they could be solved? ES: That' ; s a good question, more togetherness, more involvement from people, people becoming involved and together. GS: Right now we' ; re in the middle of a pandemic, how has the COVID pandemic affected you? ES: I trying to stay away from the public, I try to avoid crowds. GS: Are you going to get the vaccination or have you already received it? ES: No they didn' ; t have it, it' ; s coming in next week. GS: Oh ES: Yes, I will get it GS: So you registered online for it? ES: Yeah GS: Good, good. Alright now is there anything I haven' ; t asked you about or anything that you' ; d like to tell me about? ES: No I' ; ve had a good life GS: Had a good life, no complaints, huh? ES: No complaints, Bristow' ; s a good little city for families GS: It is a good city. I really thank you Edgar for coming in and talking to me ES: You' ; re quite welcomeGS: I appreciate your coming down here and this will be an important part of our history here at the museum as well as we share with OSU extension service ES: Okay GS: So thank you so much ES: You bet audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-13_Edgar_Spencer.xml OHP-2020-13_Edgar_Spencer.xml
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Title
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Edgar Spencer
Description
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In this 2020 interview, Edgar Spencer shares his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses the many businesses and segregation.
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OHP-2020-13
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audio
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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English
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sound, oral history
Bristow Gospel Tabernacle
Bristow Public Schools
drive-in theaters
home life
restaurants
stores
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Family Histories
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Oral History
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
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Interviewer
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Debbie Blansett
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Bob Thompson
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-12_Thompson,_Bob.xml
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5.4 January 4, 2021 OHP-2020-12 Bob Thompson OHP-2020-12 0:00 - 66:56 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Bob Thompson Debbie Blansett MP3 1:|47(5)|58(5)|74(3)|88(11)|94(13)|99(5)|118(9)|127(7)|135(16)|155(2)|166(9)|186(3)|198(13)|213(7)|230(10)|234(8)|242(6)|273(11)|286(6)|308(5)|320(1)|329(2)|340(8)|350(5)|362(3)|375(9)|385(1)|394(3)|398(9)|416(10)|424(7)|430(3)|437(1)|440(17)|445(4)|459(16)|468(12)|474(7)|483(14)|493(9)|506(5)|516(3)|527(5)|536(8)|545(9)|551(1)|564(3)|569(11)|576(4)|583(6)|597(4)|611(7)|624(6)|629(7)|636(11)|642(1)|653(8)|676(15)|707(4)|714(11)|722(7)|729(4)|746(8)|753(2)|771(2) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Bob Thompson.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction DB: This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow historical society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is January 4th, 2021 and I’m sitting here with Bob Thompson in his home in Bristow who’s going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now give me your full name so that we’ll know who all’s here. Bob Thompson ; Bobby Thompson ; Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow, Oklahoma ; Debbie Blansett ; Larry Blansett https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/232073174/bobby-hope-thompson Bob Thompson 63 Hand Dug Water Well DB: Alright, let’s begin. First thing, do you know anything about the hand dug water well that’s in Bristow? BT: I know a little bit about it DB: Can you tell me a little bit about it? BT: It was dug back in the 20’s, my grandparents stayed all night there in 1921, and it was dug there and was a congregational place for all of the farmers would come in and congregate and stay all night and go somewhere. You know, it was a more or less stopping point of people leaving Bristow or creek county and going there which way. cedar street ; Greensburg, Kansas ; Hadie Bishop ; Hand Dug Water Well ; Mickey Moore 683 Childhood DB: So you just had an anniversary BT: I just had an anniversary DB: 61 years BT: I just had an anniversary of living in this town. I have the honor of being the oldest tenant of cedar street DB: That’s still here? BT: Of age, and living here. All of these other houses, these 42 houses has been—somebody has been in it since 1960 DB: Wow BT: There’s no, no other one lived here as long as I have Ball Park Hill ; Depew, Oklahoma ; Gulf Oil Company ; Stedman Hill 892 Education and Work BT: In 1940, or 41’ rather, in June of 41’ we moved to Drumright. They had a lease up there that my father [Indecipherable]. We lived there till 1949, I’m graduated from Drumright in 1949, and I wondered how long it’d take. It used to be the schools—it used to be the school’s technology. That’s OSU University. I stayed there, I graduated from there in 1950, 53’. And I had to go to the army and—no, in 51’ they came back, in 51’ and in 52’ I graduated, got out, and there was when Gloria was real going strong and I got drafted in Korea campaign. I stayed in the army until 1954. I went to Japan, I was sent to Japan as a radar operator and [Indecipherable] division. I got pulled out in Yokohama, Japan and went to call the Hiroshima specialist school DB: A Hiroshima specialist? creek county ; Eastern Electrical Oil Company ; Fort Bliss, Texas ; Hervert Oslers ; Hiroshima ; Hiroshima Specialist School ; Korean Campaign ; OSU University ; Radar M.O.A. ; Yokohama, Japan 1546 Family DB: You’ve done some really spectacular things BT: I’ve had a good life, I lost my wife five years ago, I’ve reconciled that, I have friends that I would not take a hundred dollars for, I would give 50 cents for some, but I wouldn’t take a hundred dollars. DB: How many children did you have? Do you have? BT: We have two children, Michael (ph), which is 62 and Cathy, she’ll be—it’s kind of strange, I want to say this, I tell people that my family grew. My son was born on the twenty—on the 14th of January, my daughter was born on the 19th of January, and my wife and I got married on the 21st of January DB: Oh! Amanda ; Cathy Thompson ; Elizabeth ; Megan ; Michael Dillon ; Michael Thompson 1858 Hospital DB: I remember. Now you told me on the phone that you had some—you had the cornerstone from the clinic, and you had some specimen vials or flasks and you had doctor Sisler’s (ph) day book, how did you come by those things? BT: How did I come by those? In 1960, I was on the city council, I can’t remember what I did, I served two terms on the city council and at that time, we had a hospital where Doctor Sisler— DB: Sisler BT: Sisler and Cowart, C. O. W. A. R. T., they were partners, Sisler and Cowart Clinic, and they both retired. Well that left a building with the facilities for a hospital. Well, Dr. Frank Chapman, coming he would become a doctor at that clinic until our hospital was built out here. That became a vacant building and [Indecipherable] and we needed a parking place, parking, so we decided to put it up for auction and put it up for bid and a fella by the name [Indecipherable] and they were the highest bidder. Barbara ; Cowart ; Cyler Raymond Jones ; Doctor Sisler ; Dr. Frank Chapman ; Jimmy Rae Jones ; Kacey Jones ; Loraine Hocket ; Sisler and Cowart Clinic 2345 Cedar Street BT: Oh, by cedar street, let me back up a little bit, and not back up but just fill about cedar street. When I come to Bristow in 1952, I stayed in the house over there on the corner. The house back to the side, on the west side of it, was a farm house, this was a corn field and a hog pen. My backyard was a hog pen. I’m building my patio, I dug into an old hog jaw. And I know because the smell was still there. All of this was corn field, this twenty acres. This was built—I started building this—this addition [Indecipherable] winding down, and all the G.I.’s wanted [Indecipherable]. Oh gosh there were G.I.— there was G.I.’s all up and down, this was the world protection we had three highway patrolmen on this street at one time. DB: Wow BT: [Indecipherable] lived over there, [Indecipherable] lived here, John (ph) lived next door, and then on the corner it was when I was a little big old boy, he was a highway patrolman, he lived next door. DB: Very well protected area. cedar street ; Louis Templeton ; Mr. Dordie 2753 Geneology BT: We’ll go to the—we traveled a lot. This room in here, spare bedroom, is a genealogy room. My wife was real deep in genealogy. We traveled probably the last four years of her life, I suppose. We started out after I retired. We liked to travel, we had travel trailers. We spent three weeks out in Salt Lake City in the library, we found out that my grandmother on my daddy’s side, his mother, ancestors come from another country called Rine Meed (ph) in Europe. German has—Germany has taken over this little country, and it was called Rine Meed. I’d [Indecipherable], my daddy’s ancestors back to 1655. At 1655, I have computer book about that too, looked like a [Indecipherable]. Ancestors for my grandson matched to him. We saw Gustaugh Rorabough (ph), was his name. DB: Say it again BT: Gustaugh DB: Gustaugh BT: Rorabough Gustaugh Rorabough ; Rine Meed ; Salt Lake City 3188 Amphitheater BT: Oh, there’s something about a amphitheater I’d like to put out. DB: Have a what? BT: The Amphitheater DB: The amphitheater, yes! BT: In 1965, the boy scouts was real active here, and there was four adults, [Indecipherable], Haskell Golden (ph), George Back (ph), and myself were scout leaders. We—two of us, George Back and Haskell Golden was a boy scout master, Haskell Golden and I were exploring, there were boys over 17 and older, seniors in high school, juniors and seniors in high school, we combined that and called it Post 271. At that time, we entered a [Indecipherable] Robuck Foundation grant for a project in Bristow. Amphitheater ; Clydes Daily ; Conservation Corporation ; Eleanor Roosevelt ; George Back ; Haskell Golden ; Leon Davis ; Mike Dual ; Post 271 ; Robuck Foundation Grant ; Walter Jones 3993 Conclusion DB: Well, I appreciate your time BT: Have we run out of tape? DB: Oh I never run out of tape, but I’ve got to save some room for some other folks. But I just can’t begin to thank you enough for the time you gave us today to just walk down the memory lane and— BT: [Indecipherable] DB: And we’ve enjoyed it. I’m gonna turn this off, thank you Bob BT: You’re welcome. In this 2021 interview, Bob Thompson shares his knowledge of Bristow. He discusses the hand dug water well and the local amphitheater. Interviewer: Debbie BlansettInterviewee: Bob Thompson Other Persons: Date of Interview: January 4th, 2021Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2020-12 at 00:00 to 66:56 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. DB: This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow historical society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the historical societies ongoing oral history project. The date is January 4th, 2021 and I' ; m sitting here with Bob Thompson in his home in Bristow who' ; s going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now give me your full name so that we' ; ll know who all' ; s here. BT: My name is Bobby Thompson, I live at 638 south cedar and I' ; m 90 years old. LB: My name' ; s Larry BlansettDB: And Debbie Blansett. Alright, let' ; s begin. First thing, do you know anything about the hand dug water well that' ; s in Bristow? BT: I know a little bit about it DB: Can you tell me a little bit about it? BT: It was dug back in the 20' ; s, my grandparents stayed all night there in 1921, and it was dug there and was a congregational place for all of the farmers would come in and congregate and stay all night and go somewhere. You know, it was a more or less stopping point of people leaving Bristow or creek county and going there which way. My grandparents went from Olive to Bristow to Pushmataha county down at Antlers. But they stopped all night here in Bristow because of that well, they could get fresh water and there was a horse trough right there they could water their horses and feed and stay all night, and a safe place to stay. DB: So it was already there in the 20' ; s BT: Yes DB: But you don' ; t know who dug it or-- BT: I don' ; t, you know they' ; re saying the Chinese dug it but I don' ; t know. DB: You don' ; t know? BT: I don' ; t know for sure, but I do know that back in the 60' ; s when there was on the city council, an electrician, a water commissioner [Indecipherable] was a water commissioner there then and it' ; s not like it was set or like it was now, each department head was elected. He was elected as a water commissioner, we had street commissioner, we had building inspector, and things like that. But he asked me to go down and rewire that pump in the well. Of course it had unsafe wiring and I went and rewired it and it was spooky. DB: I bet BT: I had to walk out there, the pump was a fifteen horse [Indecipherable] pump DB: A? BT: A [Indecipherable] pump, it was a screw type. It wasn' ; t a lift pump, it was a screw type water pump, and it was fifteen horse power and it pumped water to this part of to the water system, and at that time, the water department was up on north chestnut street about ten and a half, it' ; s past 10th street. Each well would have 27 wells at that time pumping water for the city of Bristow. Of course, he added more up there, there was about two-foot-long and about a foot wide and it had numbers on it ; 1-27. And that was [Indecipherable] of what water well was pumping at that time. If the number one well was pumping, it was in the on position. They had a pin, a plug that they' ; d put out there and if number one water well was off, it put it over in the off position. And that way, the people would know [Indecipherable] the employees at the water department would know which well was pumping at that time. They alternated these wells, they were at the golf course and east oak street and out at [Indecipherable] we had all over town. There was water wells. DB: Are there still water wells like that? BT: They' ; re still here, the hole is there but they' ; re capped off. We only have three, I believe three water wells supplying the water for Bristow now, I' ; m not sure but I think there' ; s only three water wells. DB: When you worked on the fifteen horse power pump, did it remain a fifteen horsepower pump? BT: It did. DB: Or did you make it larger? BT: No, it remained at fifteen horse power but eventually they disbanded it because of the health department because it was not safe for human consumption. Because of the consumption, there' ; s a building around it. It was an open building, people could walk in there and throw trash and anything, bicycles, toys, anything that a kid could put in there they would put in it. But they disbanded it and now they' ; re trying to do something with it. They found out that it was larger than the one in Greensburg, Kansas. DB: Yeah they say that it' ; s the biggest one, biggest one in the world or the biggest one somewhere, I don' ; t know. BT: It shifted in and they didn' ; t go down to the bottom of the well. Went in there one time and run a survey, tape down and they found out that it was larger, deeper than the one in Greensburg, Kansas. Our mission team from the Methodist church went to Greensburg, Kansas when the tornado come through and demolished it. We went up there and spent a week rebuilding help, rebuilding [Indecipherable]. DB: Uh-huh BT: And I had the pleasure to go down to that Greensburg water well because back in 1947, no it was 1949, we were coming back from Wyoming to see my brother who was in the air force and we stayed all night in Greensburg, Kansas so dad and I drove up there from the motel and visited that water well. I had the pleasure of taking my camera bag, who was had a decal on the back of it showing the water well at that time. The mayor was--of town at that time was so elated that she took a picture of my camera bag of the water well back in 1949 DB: Oh wow BT: So that' ; s, that' ; s about what I know about the water well DB: Okay BT: I don' ; t know DB: No that sounds great, there' ; s just not a lot of people I know, Mickey Moore (ph) has done some work there, but it was just rumored that you knew some things about it. I find it interesting that it was a gathering spot in the 20' ; s for travelers to get water and to feed their animals and a safe pass through BT: Of course all of that was a passage, was an open field. The nursing home was not there then. DB: The houses weren' ; t there BT: Hadie Bishops (ph) house was not there on the corner of main and first street, there was not a grocery store there at that time, it was all--Kum and Go was not there, [Indecipherable] Stop was not there, the church of-- DB: Yes BT: All of the buildings, it was just open field just like this here. This cedar street was built and was put together in 1957, 58' ; and 59' ; , and I moved out here the first day of January of 1960. I stayed in this house in 688--638 south cedar. DB: So you just had an anniversary BT: I just had an anniversary DB: 61 years BT: I just had an anniversary of living in this town. I have the honor of being the oldest tenant of cedar street DB: That' ; s still here? BT: Of age, and living here. All of these other houses, these 42 houses has been--somebody has been in it since 1960 DB: Wow BT: There' ; s no, no other one lived here as long as I have DB: So did you--you didn' ; t live in Bristow ; you weren' ; t born here? BT: I was not born here, but I was born in Depew DB: Not far BT: I didn' ; t fly far from the nest. I was born in Depew in 1930 DB: Were you born at home? BT: I was born at the home and I had the bed stead that I was born in DB: Oh wow BT: And I wanted to be close to my mother. I was born from Depew, people know Ball Park Hill, Ball Park Hill, I was born from there. It was a mile south, a mile east, and about a half a mile north. My father worked for the Gulf Oil Company, and there was 12 houses from that corner all the way up to we call it Stedman hill [Indecipherable] the water well. I stayed there, started my first school there, and in 1949, my dad was transferred to davenport and [Indecipherable] the Gulf Oil Company had a lease over there. Junior of 49' ; , we moved back. DB: To Depew? BT: To Depew, and that same lease, and then the lease house. The house that I was born in was what you call the shotgun house, was a three room house, excuse me. DB: Okay. Okay I think we' ; ll go on again. You were in a lease house that was a shotgun house BT: Yeah, was three--was three rooms, a kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Every room as all right together. The reason that we called it a shotgun house, you could open the front door, put a shotgun in there, and kill everybody in the house. DB: You go straight through the house BT: Straight through. In 1940, or 41' ; rather, in June of 41' ; we moved to Drumright. They had a lease up there that my father [Indecipherable]. We lived there till 1949, I' ; m graduated from Drumright in 1949, and I wondered how long it' ; d take. It used to be the schools--it used to be the school' ; s technology. That' ; s OSU University. I stayed there, I graduated from there in 1950, 53' ; . And I had to go to the army and--no, in 51' ; they came back, in 51' ; and in 52' ; I graduated, got out, and there was when Gloria was real going strong and I got drafted in Korea campaign. I stayed in the army until 1954. I went to Japan, I was sent to Japan as a radar operator and [Indecipherable] division. I got pulled out in Yokohama, Japan and went to call the Hiroshima specialist school DB: A Hiroshima specialist? BT: Hiroshima specialist school, it was a school, they had 27 different educations all the way from [Indecipherable] core which I was a part of, I taught school until 1954. I got out and come back home and I met my wife in the college in square-dance. We had square-dance at the activity center, and we were married in January the 21st of 1952. DB: I take my--the dates. You came back here from Japan in 54' ; ? BT: Yeah DB: And then you went back to school at that time because you would' ; ve had to stop? BT: No, I went to the army DB: Yes BT: In 51' ; DB: And you were-- BT: 52' ; DB: In 52' ; BT: July 52' ; DB: Had you finished your schooling? BT: I was discharged in 54' ; DB: Okay BT: But in 52' ; , I got set up here to--I don' ; t roll, the rock don' ; t roll fast [Indecipherable]. I come to Bristow with Eastern Electrical Oil Company as a power lineman and I stayed on the corner up there where 6th--by 6 days, I [Indecipherable] in July or January the 14' ; to 1952' ; . [Indecipherable] my wife and I were dating at that time and she was coming back and forth on a bus from Tulsa. She was living in Tulsa ; I was living in Bristow. We decided that there was no need of that, so she come down there January the 14th or January the 21st and we got married DB: Just that day? BT: [Inaudible] DB: You just got married on just that day? BT: Just after I got off of work, we just come down there and my [Indecipherable] and his wife stood up for us. They were the best man and judge Hervert Oslers (ph) DB: Herman what? BT: Judge Hervert Oslers (ph) DB: Hervert, ok. BT: Marriages had--I lived with [Indecipherable] for 63 years until her passing five years, and we had a good life right here in this house. And-- DB: So were you married when you had to go to Japan? BT: I was married six months DB: Oh my! BT: I got married in January and I had to go to Japan in July DB: Oh myBT: I went to Fort Bliss, Texas and gained a knowledge in radar and I went to Japan, which is radar M. O. A. [Indecipherable] DB: Uh-huh BT: I was qualified to run a radar DB: And then you taught your--you taught school there BT: Well while I was in Japan, they pulled me out in Yokohama and I went to school, which was about six miles south and three miles west out in the ocean was this Japanese naval academy, which the US in the army called it the Hiroshima Specialist School, and three days passed, my buddy and I were [Indecipherable] and we' ; d go to Yokohama, and we' ; d go to Hiroshima. I traveled several times as just visiting Hiroshima, and it was still devastated DB: Oh I' ; m sure BT: [Indecipherable] the council house was just still a shell. [Indecipherable] was at ground zero. His back was just nothing but solid blister, it was scarred, it was blistered from--then I come back to [Indecipherable]. Come back and I got discharged in 54' ; . Come back to Bristow and I got my old job back as a lineman for East Central Electric and I stayed with the core up until 1953, [Indecipherable] 1993. DB: Oh my! BT: Until I retired, I had 41 years with them DB: You saw them go through a lot of changes in 41 years BT: We had one sub session [Indecipherable] 325, some people don' ; t understand what I' ; m gonna say, what I' ; m gonna tell now. We had in 1954, when I got back from the army, we had one sub session that consisted of 325 KV transformers. That sustained a whole system of northern creek county. We had [Indecipherable] wooden servers, they was building one, a new substation east of town two miles. As the system grew, when I retired, we had seven sub stations DB: Oh man BT: And none of them could [Indecipherable]. We had one substation that carried the quick set corporation after [Indecipherable]. That was one substation, this substation east of town, we had a [Indecipherable], we had [Indecipherable], we had [Indecipherable], we had [Indecipherable], and there was those substations carried less than a hundred now, they were [Indecipherable], the forty years has grown that much, of oil field work industry, and [Indecipherable] was acquired--required at that time. DB: Yes BT: So, we had a good system. I' ; d go back [Indecipherable] once a year, I didn' ; t go this year so. DB: Just to check on them and make sure everything' ; s still going? BT: Yeah, it' ; s been a good life DB: You' ; ve done some really spectacular things BT: I' ; ve had a good life, I lost my wife five years ago, I' ; ve reconciled that, I have friends that I would not take a hundred dollars for, I would give 50 cents for some, but I wouldn' ; t take a hundred dollars. DB: How many children did you have? Do you have? BT: We have two children, Michael (ph), which is 62 and Cathy, she' ; ll be--it' ; s kind of strange, I want to say this, I tell people that my family grew. My son was born on the twenty--on the 14th of January, my daughter was born on the 19th of January, and my wife and I got married on the 21st of January DB: Oh! BT: Makes people think DB: Yes, yes. There' ; s something about January. BT: There was--Michael, when I retired in 93' ; , I hung my [Indecipherable] become a licensed electrician. And now since my six--about six years ago, I [Indecipherable] to my son Mike, and he' ; s taken over now. And Cathy is working in town at headquarters there and runs all [Indecipherable] in Catoosa. She and her husband had to sell out--highway 20 was taken their home from her. It was expanding, highway 20 from 169 to Claremore DB: Uh-huh BT: So they chose a new home down there and they bought a new underground home and I travel to Catoosa and they like it very well, and it' ; s 18 acres and [Indecipherable]. My grandchildren, Mike has one child and two adopted children, his name was Michael Dillon (ph), he graduated from Bristow high school and I have three granddaughters of Cathy' ; s children and Amanda is the oldest, Elizabeth is the middle child, she' ; s a teacher in Jenks high school, and Megan is living in Collinsville, Oklahoma. They all got children, Megan has got one, one little boy Jett, Elizabeth has got three, one adopted and two of her own, and Elizabeth has got one--or Megan has got-- DB: Amanda, Amanda. You told me Elizabeth and Megan. How many did Amanda have? BT: Amanda had one. DB: Now is Amanda the one that would come every summer and stay with you all? BT: Yeah, she would come and stay with us and we' ; d go places, take her to the park, take her to the zoo, what kids would like to do. DB: That' ; s right BT: And she remembers, she remembers. DB: I remember. Now you told me on the phone that you had some--you had the cornerstone from the clinic, and you had some specimen vials or flasks and you had doctor Sisler' ; s (ph) day book, how did you come by those things? BT: How did I come by those? In 1960, I was on the city council, I can' ; t remember what I did, I served two terms on the city council and at that time, we had a hospital where Doctor Sisler-- DB: SislerBT: Sisler and Cowart, C. O. W. A. R. T., they were partners, Sisler and Cowart Clinic, and they both retired. Well that left a building with the facilities for a hospital. Well, Dr. Frank Chapman, coming he would become a doctor at that clinic until our hospital was built out here. That became a vacant building and [Indecipherable] and we needed a parking place, parking, so we decided to put it up for auction and put it up for bid and a fella by the name [Indecipherable] and they were the highest bidder. At that time, the building was [Indecipherable] at this time. But I asked him if I could have the [Indecipherable] off of the building, and they said they don' ; t need, they wanted to bring the lumber out there, which [Indecipherable] and bricked his mothers house down in Gypsie, and [Indecipherable] took some lumber and built a home here in Bristow. I read that [Indecipherable] and I' ; ve had it ever since, I' ; ve moved it twice, that' ; s how heavy it is, it' ; s out in my backyard under my patio roof. And in the contents of the hospital, at one time I had [Indecipherable] and emergency equipment out at the hospital. [Indecipherable] over the years I don' ; t know where they' ; ve went. But I do have Doctor Sislers graduation picture from his college. I have the beakers of his chemistry room that he would put cultures in it and find out what was wrong. Now I have his day book that has daily patients, which come in as someone would pay a dollar, someone would pay fifty cents and, let' ; s see, that' ; s about all. And that--I do have his operating table and I' ; ve used it outside. It' ; s not deplorable, it' ; s--it can be--it can be [Indecipherable], it can be repainted, it can be and I' ; d like to get all of that all in one package because it' ; s related. DB: Oh they' ; re very thrilled about your donation ; I was just curious how you came about it but-- BT: Well that' ; s how I come about it, and I-- DB: Were they your doctors? When you all first were married and first were here? BT: Doctor Sisler, I had appendicitis at the time when I lived in Drumright. We had no hospital in Drumright, so dad brought me down on a Saturday afternoon, I was about to die, I thought. I had appendicitis at the time, and he brought a bed for me, took 28 minutes to Drumright to Bristow, they checked me in into Bristow clinic. Doctor Sister diagnosed me and he said " ; We' ; re gonna put him on ice" ; , and put ice on me. He put a big ol' ; pack of ice on me and said " ; We' ; ll operate if you want to" ; . DB: Maybe take some of the swelling down, maybe? BT: They concentrated all of that together, the pain and whatever it was. And I can [Indecipherable] other things more, [Indecipherable] because I was a teenager, I was 17 years old and the [Indecipherable] Jimmy Ray Jones (ph) and Cyler Raymond Jones, and Barbara, Kacey Jones' ; (ph) brother, [Indecipherable], it was Loraine Hocket (ph), I [Indecipherable] with her, I can only remember a lot as a kid, but they would come up and visit, bring me a candy bar, a package of gum. A sack of popcorn or whatever, somebody was always bringing me something. I become [Indecipherable] I come down to Bristow, I' ; d always come to see them. And that was--many times I wonder where they' ; re at. I don' ; t know. DB: Where their family? Where they are or where their families are? BT: I don' ; t know anything else DB: Well it sounds pretty remarkable to me BT: Oh, by cedar street, let me back up a little bit, and not back up but just fill about cedar street. When I come to Bristow in 1952, I stayed in the house over there on the corner. The house back to the side, on the west side of it, was a farm house, this was a corn field and a hog pen. My backyard was a hog pen. I' ; m building my patio, I dug into an old hog jaw. And I know because the smell was still there. All of this was corn field, this twenty acres. This was built--I started building this--this addition [Indecipherable] winding down, and all the G.I.' ; s wanted [Indecipherable]. Oh gosh there were G.I.-- there was G.I.' ; s all up and down, this was the world protection we had three highway patrolmen on this street at one time. DB: Wow BT: [Indecipherable] lived over there, [Indecipherable] lived here, John (ph) lived next door, and then on the corner it was when I was a little big old boy, he was a highway patrolman, he lived next door. DB: Very well protected area. BT: The reason the cedar street has built [Indecipherable] the engineers and the surveyors moved cedar street 10 feet to the east, that year the people on the west side of the street had [Indecipherable]. An [Indecipherable] is an ally closed by one end, it is not opened. DB: What do you mean it' ; s not open? BT: House, down the house, reason it' ; s not open. This is bigger, they don' ; t have one because they don' ; t have that 10 foot over there. And the people that [Indecipherable] works with, Louis Templeton (ph), he was a farmer. In 1957, he bought a place was 5 acres track east of us, and he lived there until 70' ; . He passed away in 1980--70' ; s. DB: So this was just a neighborhood of young-- BT: This-- DB: Young G.I.' ; s and-- BT: This was the most prolific straight in the town, had to have two one, two seven kids to the house. DB: Oh wow BT: We had box parties, we had little lady next door, lived in that house, brick house after. She was a party person, she had a little girl just cute as a button, but she wanted everybody to be happy. And every holiday, 4th of July, Valentines, she' ; d make a holiday to have something to do, she was free. She' ; d have shoe box parties, would have the kids to decorate a shoe box, and the first six houses had the most kids, and they were decorating, [Indecipherable]. Daytime on Saturday, you didn' ; t come up cedar street with a car, you waited until the kids got there [Indecipherable]. Forty--fourth of July, we were all--we weren' ; t poor but we didn' ; t have any spending money. We weren' ; t broke, but we weren' ; t badly bent. You know what talking about DB: Absolutely BT: We had, I followed Mr. Dordie, lived on the corner. He had a big tin can of big brown barbeque. We would make chicken, bologna, weenies, take them up to fourth of July, [Indecipherable], we' ; d just go anywhere. We didn' ; t have any money to go. Oh we did but we didn' ; t spend it. But we had-- DB: It was different ; it was different then. I grew up in the 60' ; s and--and we had a lot of fun at home. And if we did go someplace, it was to the lake. I mean it didn' ; t cost money to go to the lake except gas. BT: We' ; ll go to the--we traveled a lot. This room in here, spare bedroom, is a genealogy room. My wife was real deep in genealogy. We traveled probably the last four years of her life, I suppose. We started out after I retired. We liked to travel, we had travel trailers. We spent three weeks out in Salt Lake City in the library, we found out that my grandmother on my daddy' ; s side, his mother, ancestors come from another country called Rine Meed (ph) in Europe. German has--Germany has taken over this little country, and it was called Rine Meed. I' ; d [Indecipherable], my daddy' ; s ancestors back to 1655. At 1655, I have computer book about that too, looked like a [Indecipherable]. Ancestors for my grandson matched to him. We saw Gustaugh Rorabouh (ph), was his name. DB: Say it again BT: GustaughDB: GustaughBT: Rorabough DB: Rollbowl? BT: Rorabough, R. O. R. A. B. O. U. G. H. DB: RoraboughBT: Rorabough. And I have--I was just watching that lady there at the library in Utah, if you' ; re a Mormon, they won' ; t help you. You' ; re supposed to know how to go about it through their belief, which I sometimes [Indecipherable] and I have some Mormon left, Mormon friends. I was sitting there doing the computer and this lady was helping me and another man at another cubicle with a computer [Indecipherable] was a computer, and I was working this computer and I said " ; Dang, I' ; d like to find out something about [Indecipherable]" ; the computer was not--quit [Indecipherable]. And this lady said " ; I don' ; t know just exactly what to do" ; and this fella kind of heard us talking and he raised up enough and said " ; If you see that little note on that computer screen, that tells you that the rest of this program is in the archives in the mountains" ; in the mountains in Utah. I said " ; Well, I' ; d like to find that, how do I go about it?" ; and he said " ; Well you can' ; t because you' ; re not a Mormon" ; and I [Indecipherable]. I said " ; Well, are you?" ; He said " ; I am one" ; and I said " ; Well, what' ; d you charge?" ; And he said " ; Well, I get $15 an hour" ; I said " ; Well that' ; s not bad" ; but we were getting ready to leave the next day, I said " ; Well, how long maybe would it take?" ; He said " ; Well, it might take an hour, it might take 100 hours" ; I said " ; I think I' ; ll quit right here, that' ; s enough" ; and this lady-- DB: 1655 was pretty far back BT: This lady, she said " ; Do you want a copy of this?" ; and I said " ; Well yeah" ; she punched a copy button, I sat there-- DB: That' ; s where your book came from BT: That' ; s where my book come from. I took it to the cashier and he--we' ; ve become first name basis by that time and the cashier that day was Marilyn, I' ; ll never forget it, big ol' ; tall blonde headed girl. And I said " ; Marilyn I' ; d like to pay you for this" ; and I slid that book up there, and she said " ; Mr. Thompson, if you think I' ; m gonna count the pages on that, you' ; re just plum silly. Would $10 be plenty?" ; DB: Oh my goodness BT: So I gave her $10, but I imagine there' ; s over 300-400 pages of computer paper, and it' ; s just like a computer [Indecipherable], it' ; s a story book is what it is. And [Indecipherable], it starts that way then it goes to Gustaugh Rorabouh (ph). DB: That' ; s pretty amazing. BT: Right, that' ; s kind of--kind of funny. DB: I think I' ; ve got everything that I need to get, unless we' ; ve forgotten something else. Anything else pop in your head that--no? BT: Oh, there' ; s something about a amphitheater I' ; d like to put out. DB: Have a what? BT: The Amphitheater DB: The amphitheater, yes! BT: In 1965, the boy scouts was real active here, and there was four adults, [Indecipherable], Haskell Golden (ph), George Back (ph), and myself were scout leaders. We--two of us, George Back and Haskell Golden was a boy scout master, Haskell Golden and I were exploring, there were boys over 17 and older, seniors in high school, juniors and seniors in high school, we combined that and called it Post 271. At that time, we entered a [Indecipherable] Robuck Foundation grant for a project in Bristow. We undertook, refurbished the amphitheater and one time, if you look at the amphitheater now, there was a tree in between each one of those trees now. We cut out every other one of those trees. We refinished the stadium. At that time, there were two upright pianos, that grand level was over my head to the stage another was--the stage was six-foot or better from the ground level. [Indecipherable] " ; Mr. Thompson, what are you--what do you want to do with these old pianos?" ; and before I could say " ; I don' ; t know" ; there was no keyboards, no nothing, there was just out there in storage. Then old [Indecipherable] stage down under there, and there [Indecipherable] to stock up underneath. All of the trash, it was there. Walter Jones (ph) and [Indecipherable] Taylor (ph) would [Indecipherable] their horses in there with the gate of two barbed wire pieces of two barbed wire, and that was their gate. Their horses could not get out of there on account of the trees. There were so many trees like I said, if you count a tree, and I believe if I' ; m not mistaken, there' ; s a stump of a cedar tree. If you look, there might be the remains of a stump in between those trees. Very seldom, people think we renovated that, but that was the first time it was renovated since it was built and Eleanor Roosevelt spoke from that stage. [Indecipherable] DB: And she dedicated it? BT: When she dedicated it. Leon Davis was a photographer, VFW commander, mayor, jack of all trades here in Depew here in Bristow. Anyways, a promoter, I mean he was a promoter. He crawled up on the--used to be a--I can' ; t think. DB: The little back drop thing that' ; s at the back of the stage or--? BT: That was the back stage, the dressing rooms, we already finished those, rewired them, and they used to have fiddling contests on [Indecipherable] we' ; d have fiddling contests, people would come out-- DB: Is that where you climbed up on top of that? BT: No they never, no it was fiddling. DB: Oh, yeah yeah yeah. BT: In my land, people call it fiddling DB: Yes BT: And this was between the [Indecipherable] DB: Oh BT: I fiddled down here [Indecipherable] DB: Okay BT: I can remember Mike Dual (ph) and his grandpa would--his grandpa would play the fiddle and Mike Dual would play the guitar [Indecipherable] and he' ; d--and when Mike Dual back when he was younger, that was back in 65' ; . Leon Davis, who was the mayor at that time, he would call up on me [Indecipherable]which was the county fair barn. I can' ; t tell you what the name of it was, you remember when the building was out there? LB: That was, yes. DB: Oh the building that used to be in the parking lot? LB: Yes BT: Where the water tower is DB: Yeah it was a-- LB: Conservation DB: Conservation BT: Conservation Corporation DB: Yes BT: Yeah, that had a stage in it DB: Yes BT: And they had parties and stuff in it DB: Yes BT: Well I [Indecipherable] at that time, had part of me and down underneath had a basement. We care for several defense equipment, trucks [Indecipherable], firetrucks, jeeps, fire equipment underneath it. We had one of the most elaborate fire stations, fire equipment, we had five army jukes with two hundred fifty gallon tanks on the backs of them for brush, you' ; d go out here and drive over the pasture with a brush hog. We had two fire trucks, we had one water truck, and there was a whole other one [Indecipherable]. When the water or firetruck went out, a water truck went with it, and two jeeps went with it. We had this pasture out here caught on fire one time. My front yard caught on fire, I had my hose ready, I could [Indecipherable]. Several defense come through there, we had wire pliers, we cut pasture fences which farmers glad about it, we had a good one. But anyway back to the--we' ; d go out there, the scouts would go out there on Saturdays and we' ; d cut grass, we repainted the building, put a tin roof on top of it, we was working out there, cleaned grass up. Some of the [Indecipherable] was broken down and we' ; d dig them up from the back and bring them down in the front and replant them. [Indecipherable] those old seats, the broken seats, was put up there and eventually all of this dirt and the trash and the mayor at that time was [Indecipherable], Rosemarys (ph) father-in-law, Clydes Daily (ph), he said anything that the boy scouts wants he said he was gonna do it. He sent a truck driver out every Saturday morning and we' ; d fill the truck up and he' ; d bring it down to the front of the stadium and put it in that ditch. We needed a load of dirt, he' ; d take that truck and get a back hoe for the dirt and we' ; d spread it out over there, and eventually we had a level ground and all he had to do was step up on [Indecipherable]. DB: Like it is now BT: Like it is now, there' ; s three upright pianos and [Indecipherable] the garbage that people don' ; t know about DB: At the bottom of that-- BT: At the bottom of that pit. We won five hundred dollars second place prize in the contest. DB: In the [Indecipherable] Robuck company (ph)? BT: In the [Indecipherable] Robuck Company (ph). That gave us enough money to try to trip to Canada. We went to Canada, George Summoners (ph) canoe place was at [Indecipherable] Minnesota, which was on the Canadian border. We spend a week going to Canada, fishing and playing, seeing the country. And that was--and we have a book, a picture book of what we did, when we did, and how we got it and that was some of the--People don' ; t think--[Indecipherable] old timers, [Indecipherable] last summer, it was cutting a [Indecipherable] oh boy, we renovated the amphitheater, " ; You didn' ; t renovate it, you destroyed the second time" ; DB: Yes BT: We renovated it the first time because it was [Indecipherable] DB: Well and it' ; s--so it' ; s probably what they did last two summers ago, the work they did out there is probably the first time it' ; s been done since you all worked on it. BT: Yeah, yeah. DB: So it was way past needing to be done. BT: Oh if you want--if you want to go out there and look, in between each tree, there might be a stump. DB: I will, the next time I' ; m there I' ; ll make an extra effort to look and at least I' ; ll know why it' ; s that way. BT: [Indecipherable] DB: Uh-huh BT: And honestly I don' ; t know DB: Well, I appreciate your time BT: Have we run out of tape? DB: Oh I never run out of tape, but I' ; ve got to save some room for some other folks. But I just can' ; t begin to thank you enough for the time you gave us today to just walk down the memory lane and-- BT: [Indecipherable] DB: And we' ; ve enjoyed it. I' ; m gonna turn this off, thank you Bob BT: You' ; re welcome. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-12_Thompson,_Bob.xml OHP-2020-12_Thompson,_Bob.xml
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Title
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Bob Thompson
Description
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In this 2021 interview, Bob Thompson shares his knowledge of Bristow. He discusses the hand dug water well and the local amphitheater.
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OHP-2020-12
Date
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2021-01-04
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audio
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
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English
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audio, oral history
amphitheater
Boy Scouts
East Central Electric
hand dug well
home life
hospital
Korean War
social life
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Family Histories
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Oral History
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Oral accounts of various family histories
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
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Georgia Smith
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Basil Baker
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-08_Baker,_Basil.xml
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5.4 December 13, 2020 OHP-2020-08 Basil Baker OHP-2020-08 0:00-82:09 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Basil Baker Georgia Smith MP3 1:|59(4)|95(10)|123(10)|146(2)|180(9)|193(2)|226(6)|260(9)|279(10)|316(3)|348(2)|377(2)|405(10)|414(5)|437(10)|457(3)|474(11)|486(4)|510(6)|527(1)|539(4)|568(2)|585(9)|601(8)|619(8)|639(4)|665(4)|683(16)|701(9)|720(7)|761(13)|778(2)|793(17)|814(2)|840(6)|862(1)|876(11)|890(15)|898(8)|910(12)|934(3)|948(9)|963(14)|978(5)|1000(16)|1010(7)|1032(12)|1044(3)|1059(2)|1081(4)|1105(10)|1118(12)|1150(1)|1188(3)|1212(2)|1226(5)|1244(4)|1265(4)|1281(12)|1288(12)|1307(3)|1322(14)|1332(1)|1358(1)|1377(2)|1396(7)|1410(11)|1417(12)|1432(5)|1466(2)|1487(12)|1513(7)|1521(8)|1528(15)|1539(10)|1553(3)|1573(9)|1608(14)|1621(8)|1635(4)|1664(5)|1678(7) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/Basil Baker.mp3 Other audio 0 Intro and Family GS: Okay, I’ve got that set now we’re gonna set it right there Basil BB: Okay GS: And I’m gonna talk first BB: Okay, I hope you do a lot of the talking GS: No, you’ll do most of it. This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the history societies ongoing oral history project. Today’s date is December the 13th, 2020 and I am sitting here with Basil Baker at his home in Bristow who is going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow area. Okay Basil, let’s begin. What is your full name? BB: Basil Baker Basil Baker ; Bessie Baker ; Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow, Oklahoma ; Bunny Baker ; Cordie Overstreet ; Dillard Baker ; Dillard Roy ; Georgia Smith ; Gonda Inez Meek ; John H. Baker ; Merle Baker ; Mill Chapel ; Mills chapel ; Oval Baker ; Reeth Baker ; Virgil Baker ; Wayne Baker https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/217928254/cordie-baker Cordie Baker https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/217917768/john-henry-baker John H. Baker 651 Work (Hospital and Military) GS: Gonda Inez Meek (ph), okay. And you both got married in September, on September 13th, 1973? BB: Yeah GS: Good, and where did you get married? BB: Las Vegas GS: Were you living there at the time? BB: No, we took a vacation, we were working at a hospital GS: Oh BB: And we took a vacation and went out there and got married 7th Cavalry ; Albuquerque, N.M. ; Gonda Inez Meek ; Santa Fe, New Mexico 1297 Dust Bowl GS: That’s amazing, I’m gonna back you up just a little bit and ask you about the Dust Bowl. What are your memories of Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl? BB: [Indecipherable] GS: (Laughing) BB: I don’t even [Indecipherable] think of it. To begin with, you couldn’t see anything GS: Even here in Bristow? BB: Yes, way out there where we lived on the farm just south of Bristow, it looked like a light bulb in the sky GS: Wow Dust Bowl ; Oklahoma Dust Bowl ; Peanut Capital 1711 Military Service GS: Now you told me that you entered WWII in 1940? BB: Mhm GS: Was that before Pearl Harbor? BB: Yeah GS: What made you enter then? BB: Well, I didn’t wanna be a farmer, dad wanted me to be a—well he wanted me, he’s getting old and he wanted me to take over my end of the farm, I didn’t want that. I didn’t wanna starve, if I did I wanted to starve doing what I wanted to do Fort Bliss, Texas ; Fort Eustis, Virginia ; Fort Riley ; Fort Riley, Kansas ; Fort Sheridan, Wyoming ; Frankford, Germany ; New Mexico National Guard ; Pearl Harbor ; Santa Fe, New Mexico ; Topeka, Kansas ; WWII 2793 School BB: I taught school GS: Oh you did? BB: Yeah GS: Tell me about that BB: When I was, after I graduated, time I graduated in June, we used to get out of school in June, and I was 12 years old and then I was 13 the following November. So I went to—I enlisted, I enrolled in Bristow High school, the bus went by the house, I was proud of my new striped overalls and new shirt, but there was a group of guys at that farmer had no place in Bristow high school, and they drove me out, I quit— Bristow High School ; VanOrsdol 3007 Economic Depression BB: The depression GS: Yes BB: Wasn’t fun either GS: No it wasn’t BB: I saw people, they never did complain, the guy with a wagon, the team would pull up with their commodities they called them GS: Yes Economic Depression ; Roosevelt Administration 3219 Church GS: Did you go to church as a child? BB: Pardon? GS: Did you go to church as a child? BB: Oh yes, the church I was with was right across the road from me GS: What church was that? BB: It was the Advent Christian GS: Okay, okay, and— BB: It’s like the one going south of Chestnut Advent Christian 3349 Doctors and Cars GS: What about doctors? Did you go to the doctors much when you were a child? Or your family? BB: No, the doctor come to us. GS: Okay, okay. BB: Yeah the doctor by the name of Doctor King and he drove a touring car I think it was a dodge and he had a crate on the bumper of the car and he would take chickens, he would take hogs, he would take anything, he owned a farm. And he’d take anything that he could take back to that farm GS: For payment? BB: Yeah GS: Yup Chevrolet Coop ; Doctor King ; Model T-Ford 3468 Market and Ways of Payment GS: Did you come into town much? Did you bring your goods for—to market? BB: Saturday GS: Okay, what was that like? BB: Butter and egg day. Well that’s the only time you had any money. GS: Okay BB: Momma had customers that she sold butter to and eggs. And for all the eggs that was left, we took them to Safeway and they’d be able to take the eggs and pay you in what you wanted to buy GS: Okay American National Bank ; Mr. Floods ; Mr. Stone ; Safeway ; Spirit Bank 3922 Works Protection Act (WPA) GS: I won’t tire you out too much, but—Do you remember anything about the Works, Works Protection Act during the 40’s and— BB: The WPA? GS: Or the 30’s I guess it was, yeah the WPA, do you have any memories of that? BB: Yeah, yeah. There was, there’s a funny thing that was attached to that too. They had lots of pick and shovel prize, I mean they did everything with pick and shovel GS: Okay BB: And then so many guys in the – had to register that lived in the community, and each one of them would get fifteen days’ work, then— GS: Okay Eleanor Roosevelt ; Works Protection Act ; WPA 4170 How the World Has Changed GS: Okay, we’re gonna wind down here. What would you consider to be the most important inventions during your life time? BB: The most— GS: The most important inventions that have been—happened in your lifetime BB: Oh my goodness GS: There have been so many, I know it’s hard to pick one. BB: I think the one that has probably involved more people, served more people, and was a convention—was a convenience for them, was the airplane. GS: The airplane Jessica Baker 4816 TV Appearance GS: And I appreciate it ever so much. BB: Well that’s just like, I appreciate it being on TV GS: Yes BB: I never thought something like that would happen. And Jessica was the cause of it. GS: Oh was she? BB: Yeah she has a friend, this lady from— GS: Amy Kaughman (ph)? BB: Yeah, Amy. GS: Uh-huh Amy Kaughman In this 2020 interview, Basil Baker shares his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses his family, military service, and life during the dust bowl. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: Basil Baker Other Persons: Date of Interview: Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2020-08 0:00 - 82:09 Abstract: Preface: The following oral history testimony is the result of a cassette tape interview and is part of the Bristow Historical Society, Inc.' ; s collection of oral histories. The interview was transcribed and processed by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc., with financial assistance from the Montfort Jones & ; Allie Brown Jones Foundation. Rights to the material are held exclusively by the Bristow Historical Society, Inc. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. Insofar as possible, this transcript tries to represent the spoken word. Thus, it should be read as a personal memoir and not as either a researched monograph or edited account. To the extent possible, the spelling of place names, foreign words, and personal names have been verified, either by reference resources or directly by the interviewee. In some cases, a footnote has been added to the transcript in order to provide more information and/or to clarify a statement. Some uncertainties will inevitably remain regarding some words and their spellings. In these scenarios, a (ph) follows a word or name that is spelled phonetically. The notation [indecipherable] is used when the transcriber has not been able to comprehend the word or phrase being spoken. The notation [inaudible] is used where there is more mumbling than words, or when interference on the tape has made transcription impossible. GS: Okay, I' ; ve got that set now we' ; re gonna set it right there Basil BB: Okay GS: And I' ; m gonna talk first BB: Okay, I hope you do a lot of the talking GS: No, you' ; ll do most of it. This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the history societies ongoing oral history project. Today' ; s date is December the 13th, 2020 and I am sitting here with Basil Baker at his home in Bristow who is going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow area. Okay Basil, let' ; s begin. What is your full name? BB: Basil Baker GS: You have a middle name? BB: No GS: No middle name, and where were you born? BB: I was born five miles south and one mile east on a farm GS: In your home, in the home? BB: Yup, born in the home. GS: What was the date of your birth? BB: 11 November, 1920 GS: Very good, you just celebrated your 100th birthday, didn' ; t you? BB: Two days ago GS: Do you know that makes you the oldest person I' ; ve interviewed so far? I feel honored. BB: There you go GS: And channel six came and did a special on you Wednesday on your birthday, didn' ; t they? BB: Yes, yes GS: Yes, I was impressed that you were on the golf course hitting golf balls. What was your mother' ; s name, her full name? BB: Cordie OverstreetGS: And your father' ; s name? BB: John H. Baker GS: Okay, do you know when they were married approximately? BB: Moses was the preacher GS: Okay BB: I' ; ll have to be a little funny about this because my momma--I' ; m gonna have to back up from the time they died GS: You just do that BB: Momma died in 66' ; , dad died in 64' ; and they had celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary GS: Okay BB: They both died at 88 years of age. GS: So your mom was 66 when she died? BB: No she was 88 GS: Oh, no--oh she died in 66 you said? BB: Yeah, yeah GS: And they had just celebrated what anniversary? BB: Before that, they' ; re--celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary, so 65. GS: So they were married in 1901 maybe? BB: Probably GS: Okay, 1901 sounds good. BB: My dad was 4 in 1878 GS: Okay, at the end of the civil war BB: Yeah, and momma was born in 1880 GS: Okay BB: So that could probably, I know they married momma was 16, and--I' ; m about to get ahead of things here. GS: No you' ; re fine, if you' ; re telling me something, we' ; ll just go with it Basil. BB: She had 3 brothers and 2 sisters that lost their mother GS: Aw BB: And they came and lived with her and my dad, so every one of them but one was older than she was. And so she raised two families GS: Wow BB: She--her own and them. GS: Aw BB: And they always called her mom GS: Aw BB: I' ; ve been to visit at Arkansas and talked to all of them and they said she was just like a mother to them so they just called her mom GS: Now was your mother living in Arkansas at that time, and dad or were they here in Bristow? BB: That' ; s where--that' ; s where she was born GS: Okay BB: And both my dad and mom GS: Okay BB: And they came to Oklahoma in 1905 GS: What brought them here? BB: Just needed to move out of Arkansas and new country, Oklahoma [Indecipherable] just about ready to become a state, and I don' ; t--they didn' ; t get any land, they didn' ; t--that wasn' ; t what they came for. But the boys was old enough that they wanted to come, so they came and settled around the mills chapel area, old mill chapel (ph) area. GS: Okay BB: In fact, it was just half a mile north of mill chapel GS: Now was that south of Bristow? BB: No, well yes. That' ; s three miles south and two miles east GS: Okay, okay I know about--there' ; s a housing addition down there now I think BB: Oh sure now GS: I think BB: Well, they stayed one year, things didn' ; t work out then they went back to Arkansas and came back in 1908 GS: Back to Oklahoma? BB: Yeah GS: Okay BB: But they didn' ; t go to the same place, I don' ; t know where they went to, to tell you the truth. That never was revealed to me as far as I know GS: Sure, do you have any brothers or sisters? BB: Yes, yes. We was a family of 9 GS: Oh my word, can you tell me their names? BB: Seven brothers--yeah, seven brothers and two sisters. GS: My goodness BB: Well I had six brothers, there were seven boys and two girls. GS: Well I bet your dad appreciated all that help on the farm BB: Well, the thing of it was, well when they were other than the farm that he bought and he settled that, there was only three of us that grew up there GS: Oh okay BB: And the rest of them was gone then working in oil fields and what have you GS: What were their names? BB: Okay starting at the oldest GS: Oh good BB: Dillard GS: Dillard Baker? BB: Dillard Roy (ph) GS: Okay BB: The next one was Wayne (ph), don' ; t ask me the middle names of these GS: That' ; s fine, Wayne Baker? BB: Wayne. The next one was Bessie (ph) GS: Okay BB: Then Oval (ph), then Reeth (ph), and then Virgil (ph) GS: Okay BB: And then between me and there was actually ten of us, but I had a brother that was two years and five months old and he died, they never did find out what was wrong with him. The doctors didn' ; t know then, but anyway I was come along and I was the last one GS: Now I thought you were brothers to Merle Baker BB: Merle was a nephew GS: Okay, okay. Because I got your phone number from Bunny BB: Yeah, yeah. GS: Okay. What did your mother do in the house? BB: Work herself to death GS: I imagine BB: She worked in the field before I was born, she used to tell me, not before I was born, but I mean before I was old enough to do anything outside of the house, she would tell me about how some of the older ones when they were babies, she' ; d take a number three washtub to the field, find a shade, put a big quilt in the washtub and put the baby in the washtub. GS: Oh my goodness BB: And then if they were chopping cotton or corn or chicken or what have you, every so often she' ; d go to the tub and let the baby nurse GS: Uh-huh, uh-huh BB: And she said he never did have any problems with it GS: Well very good BB: It just, it was just a hardship that' ; s all GS: Yeah BB: That' ; s all we knew GS: Yeah that' ; s true BB: We did own our own farm GS: Oh that' ; s good BB: And had a cellar full of fruit, vegetables, meat-- GS: That your mother canned BB: Yeah, and we never lacked for food, so we was alright that way GS: Uh-huh BB: No money GS: Yeah, yeah I don' ; t think many people had money back then BB: No, I remember my dad telling my mother Cordi, we came out with a hundred and ten dollars, they set a hundred and twenty in the paper, but that was around one hundred and ten dollars this year GS: Oh my goodness, can you imagine? BB: No GS: Now Basil, every now and then I' ; m gonna get up and just make sure this is still going just to satisfy me, so it' ; s fine so don' ; t get nervous when I stand up, I' ; m just checking that that' ; s going BB: That don' ; t bother me GS: Okay, what is your wifes name? BB: Gonda (ph) GS: And her maiden name? Meek (ph)? BB: [Indecipherable] GS: Was it Meek? BB: Yes, her last name is Meek, I was trying to think of her middle name GS: Oh BB: Inez (ph) GS: Gonda Inez Meek (ph), okay. And you both got married in September, on September 13th, 1973? BB: Yeah GS: Good, and where did you get married? BB: Las Vegas GS: Were you living there at the time? BB: No, we took a vacation, we were working at a hospital GS: Oh BB: And we took a vacation and went out there and got married GS: Where were you working? BB: In Santa Fe GS: Santa Fe BB: New Mexico GS: Was this after WWII?BB: Oh yes, yes. This was just before I re--well, I went to work there the third, I went to Sears, I retired during the week, I don' ; t remember the day but on the following Wednesday, so it must' ; ve been a Monday or a Tuesday I went to Sears to see if I could get a job there and they hired me as a manager of their appliance department GS: Oh BB: So I thought I' ; s pretty lucky GS: Yes BB: I went out the door and I ran across a man that I had met when my wife and his wife was in the hospital, military hospital in Albuquerque GS: Oh my goodness BB: And so he said " ; hey, when you gonna retire?" ; I said I just did, just last week. He said " ; What are you gonna do?" ; , I said " ; Well I just got a job in Sears" ; , he said " ; Go back in there and tell them you can' ; t take it" ; . I said " ; Man I need it" ; , he said " ; I got a job for you" ; well he knew what experience I had in the military GS: Yes BB: So he said " ; I want you as my personnel director at the hospital" ; GS: Wow BB: It was a 200 bed hospital bed with 906 employees GS: Wow BB: So I went up and talked to the sister who was the administrator of the hospital, it was a Catholic hospital, and she was unsatisfied with my education because I had nothing to show other than this letter and I couldn' ; t have found it in a week. I knew where it was, but it was packed with other things that was somewhere GS: Right BB: And I told her that if she would give me 30 days that at the end of it, if she was happy with my work she' ; d put me on the payroll ; if she wasn' ; t, she didn' ; t owe me a thing, I would go my way, friends and she--it was her decision. GS: So did you stay more than a month? BB: 13 years GS: (Laughing) I figured. BB: Two weeks later she saw me in the hallway and she told me I was on the payroll GS: Very good BB: But they' ; d--the personnel records were scattered all over the hospital GS: Oh myBB: Each floor had the records of the people that worked on that floor. The one that squealed the loudest about getting a raise got a nickel or something like that an hour, and they made minimum wage [Indecipherable] was five seventy-five, or six seventy-five GS: Oh, uh-huh BB: But anyway, I had a little trouble gathering all the records of all the employees because I had to explain that each floor I go to, I had to explain how much easier it was gonna be with the records in one area, one place, and they could be relieved of taking care of them GS: Yes BB: that took time GS: Yes BB: So when they finally agreed and I got all the records, well from there they didn' ; t have any pay scale, and just hodge podge two people in that hospital that was drawing the same hourly rate GS: Oh my goodness BB: So, I come up with a wage schedule, it was a seniority wage schedule and it costs the hospital 3 million dollars to put it into effect it was so screwed up. GS: Wow BB: They had nurses that had worked there for 20 years and that' ; s--they were still drawing so little pay that they couldn' ; t recruit nurses. So once we got this straightened out and I had the pay of a nurse which would make her willing to come if pay was the cause of her coming or not coming, and so that proved it and I don' ; t know where they got the money, maybe from the mother house I don' ; t know, but anyway it went into effect. GS: Sounds like they really needed you BB: Well they needed someone GS: Yes BB: And there' ; s one thing about me: I love people, I just love people GS: That' ; s wonderful BB: I' ; ll talk to anybody about anything at any time. I' ; ll go into a store with Gonda, she' ; s going after something, it won' ; t be three seconds or minutes, until I' ; m talking to someone and she' ; ll come out, we' ; ll leave the store, she " ; Who was that?" ; and I said " ; I don' ; t have the slightest idea. I said Hello, they said hello, and I started talking to them" ; . That' ; s why I like the personnel field, that wasn' ; t all I did in the military, but I was in the administrative area because I got hurt when I first went in the army, I was in the 7th cavalry horse. GS: Oh my goodness, you were in the cavalry BB: Yes, and I got injured on my knee. I rode in between--I was a squad leader and I [Indecipherable] when we went into the line for parade, it was supposed to leave room for me to ride in, it didn' ; t. GS: Uh-oh BB: So I spurred my horse and forced my way in and the rifle on the one of the left of me, the [Indecipherable] caught my knee GS: Oh wow BB: And it messed it up really, really bad. GS: Aw BB: I had to have surgery twice and I couldn' ; t crawl after that, they ran that thing all the way down. Now then it' ; s orthoscopic and a little hole and I' ; ve got probably a twelve-inch scar over my knee, and I can' ; t get down on my knee at all GS: To this day Bb: Yeah it' ; s--the scar is tender GS: Aw, uh-huh BB: And so they put me in an administrative field and that' ; s where I got into the first [Indecipherable] field. But I was interested in them for [Indecipherable] and I thought the relationship that I had with them, if it was good, they' ; d do a lot more GS: Yes BB: Because they would come and talk to me about anything. But you see, I had about 75 or 80% women, and the rest of them was in the maintenance part GS: Yes, yes BB: I didn' ; t have any male nurses at all GS: Not back then BB: Uh-uh. And if I knew that one of the men from the maintenance department, their daughter, had had a baby, I would stop and ask him how the baby was doing and things like that, I always--I showed an interest in anything that I knew that was important to them. And consequently, two years after I retired and moved to Bristow, we went back to visit Gondas sister that lives in the Sandy Mountains west, south west of Albuquerque GS: Oh okay BB: And from there, it' ; s only about 40 miles to Santa Fe. So I went back up to Santa Fe to visit the hospital ; oh my goodness. They was all over me! GS: Oh I bet they were delighted to see you! BB: They hugged me, they had me by the arms, it just made me feel so god. GS: Oh, well you made them feel good I' ; m sure when you were working there. BB: Well I got replaced by a man that had a degree in personnel management GS: He probably didn' ; t do any better BB: He lasted six month GS: (Laughing) BB: That' ; s the truth, I found that out after I went back [Indecipherable], I knew his name and ' ; where is he at?' ; , ' ; oh he got fired' ; , so. But anyway that' ; s-- GS: That' ; s amazing, I' ; m gonna back you up just a little bit and ask you about the Dust Bowl. What are your memories of Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl? BB: [Indecipherable] GS: (Laughing) BB: I don' ; t even [Indecipherable] think of it. To begin with, you couldn' ; t see anything GS: Even here in Bristow? BB: Yes, way out there where we lived on the farm just south of Bristow, it looked like a light bulb in the sky GS: Wow BB: Dark as, it was just dark. And we--you had to tie a rope to, from the barn to the house, to the chicken house, wherever you needed to go you had to have a rope to guide you from the end of the rope to the other with feed or whatever in the other hand. GS: How often was it like that where you couldn' ; t see? BB: It seemed forever GS: I' ; m sure it did BB: It wasn' ; t hardly, ya know I can' ; t tell you. I would say off and on two weeks. GS: Wow BB: Or maybe longer, I' ; m not sure. But what contributed a lot to the Dust Bowl ; peanuts were in demand at that time GS: Yes, they were, and Bristow was the quote " ; peanut capital" ; BB: Right, and when these farmers planted their peanuts, they grew up into a bush just like they' ; re supposed to GS: Uh-huh BB: Okay, if you go out and pull them up, that' ; d be a lot nuts stay in the ground. You don' ; t pull loose from the vine. So they developed, most of them, used car springs. Sharpened on the edge, it went to a single row plow GS: Wow BB: Was a two wheel called a [Indecipherable] GS: Uh-huh BB: Alright, that plow went underneath the ground and clipped the roots of these peanuts and left the dirt, didn' ; t make a furrow, it left the dirt just like, it just went underneath that dirt. The dirt reminded me of a mole working at the ground GS: Oh okay BB: And that loose dirt, the wind was blowing so hard, it just dished that dirt right out of--it was just like that. And when we went to school, we could walk over the fences GS: Oh my word BB: It had, it would stop behind the weed, big amount, it was just so thick and my mother, we had a bedroom, my brother and had a bedroom on the south of the house, and of course the wind was blowing from the south, she would put a sheet in a tub of water and wring it out and put it over us at night GS: To protect you from the dust? BB: Yeah, and in the morning, we was almost the color of that couch GS: Just hard to believe it was that bad BB: In the house GS: In the house, yeah BB: The windows was, keep in mind this was a house that was probably 20 years old. GS: Okay BB: Maybe a little older. So they had wooden windows, and you could shake them like that where the [Indecipherable] up and down and any crease where the dust could get in, it came in and built a little pile there, and mom would have to sweep out those windows every day. GS: Oh my goodness BB: She' ; d sweep it out on the porch, [Indecipherable], and sweep it out on the porch GS: Yeah BB: But we survived GS: Yes BB: And it' ; s been everybody, [Indecipherable] died far as I knew GS: How bad did it affect your crops? BB: Not bad other than sand piling up GS: Yeah B: Or there was something that it could hit GS: Yeah BB: But a lot of people took the fence down and used to tame horses in what they called a slip, which had two hands and you could fill it, it was fixed to where you could raise it up, it wasn' ; t on a [Indecipherable], it was fixed to work. You could raise it up and hold it and it would go into the ground, that' ; s how horses pulled it GS: Oh BB: And then you pushed down in it, it' ; d come up out of the ground GS: I see BB: So and then you go in where you wanna dump it, you raise up on the handle and then it just dumped it. And they would take this sand and spread it back out over the field then set their fence again where it was to have a decent fence to keep the stock outside. GS: Yeah, one that wasn' ; t covered in dirt that the cattle could just walk right over probably BB: Yes, yes, yes. Not every fence, but the fence that run east and west because the dirt was coming from the south. Now it--I don' ; t know how much area or how wide it was, I was too young to know, I was in about the third, fourth grade or something like that. It was enough, it would plug your nose when you breathe, we never thought about wearing a mask back then GS: Yeah BB: But anyway it was, it was bad. GS: Now you told me that you entered WWII in 1940?BB: MhmGS: Was that before Pearl Harbor? BB: Yeah GS: What made you enter then? BB: Well, I didn' ; t wanna be a farmer, dad wanted me to be a--well he wanted me, he' ; s getting old and he wanted me to take over my end of the farm, I didn' ; t want that. I didn' ; t wanna starve, if I did I wanted to starve doing what I wanted to do GS: Uh-huh BB: No it wasn' ; t really that bad, but it was hard work GS: Sure BB: But one of the guys, a friend of mine, came home and he was stationed at Fort Sheridan (ph), Wyoming, and he was telling me how great the military was. So I wasn' ; t doing anything, I thought ' ; well, if that' ; s a case, I' ; ll just enlist and go with you back to Fort Sheridan, okay' ; , I said okay. I went to Tulsa, enlisted, they signed me to the infantry, and they put me in a pan, it looked like it had ink in it, I don' ; t know what it was. It had me stay on a my [Indecipherable] that long, and had me stand on a piece of paper to check my instep GS: Huh BB: And my foot, my instep was as flat as it could be GS: Well BB: And they took me out of the infantry immediately and assigned me to the cavalry GS: Well good BB: We had to go this way and that way [Indecipherable] GS: Oh, yeah. BB: Yeah, but that' ; s the way I started out. It wasn' ; t a big deal to me, I knew how to ride a horse GS: Yes BB: But I didn' ; t know how to ride it military style GS: Yes BB: If you was comfortable on a horse in the military, something was wrong GS: Really? BB: Really. That' ; s--the saddle to begin with had a split about two to three inches wide right down the middle GS: Oh no! BB: To let the air into the horse' ; s back GS: AhhBB: That was their [Indecipherable] that that kept the heat from the horse' ; s back GS: I see BB: Calling them [Indecipherable] GS: But I bet it was not comfortable to sit on BB: It was not, it was not. But you had to saddle [Indecipherable], every day. And you come in from training and you had to saddle [Indecipherable], saddle it, clean it up GS: Wow BB: Corral your horse GS: Yes BB: Water them, and tie them in the stalls for feeding. The stables sergeant took care of the feeding them but you had to get them there. GS: Right BB: And odd thing people laugh about it, they had [Indecipherable] they were boarding for horses, if one of them was limping or had a cold, a horse can take a cold, and whatever was wrong with them, he took them to the vet GS: Well BB: And if one of them was your horse, you didn' ; t--they didn' ; t give you another horse to ride, they put you on stable police, and that was cleaning out stalls and hauling that stuff to the mound where we put it GS: So you probably hoped your horse never got sick BB: Yeah that' ; s the truth. But you--we used shoe polish on their hooves for inspection, oh they glistened. All the brass was shiny ; we weren' ; t gonna miss stuff. GS: Did you ever go to battle on your horse? BB: No, I--after I got her and was sent to Fort Riley, about that time they had horses there, we had, I think we had one group of recruits come in for horse equitation, and then they did away with them GS: Oh, huh BB: Because they was recognizing GS: Oh I see BB: And so the horses, they had some mules that they sent to Italy for pack mules to take artillery up into the mountain GS: Okay BB: But no horses GS: Okay BB: But they--horses, the buyers would go somewhere and buy horses, they may be in from a wild herd, I don' ; t know. But they would ride them one time to a standstill, they had GIs, that was their duty is to break the horses. GS: Oh BB: Yeah, so they--the horse was ridden and stopped bucking, it didn' ; t mean it wasn' ; t gonna buck again, but not as much (Background noise) GS: We' ; ll stop for just a minute. BB: Get back in there GS: There' ; s nobody there, there' ; s nobody there (Background noises) BB: Coda (ph), Coda, get over here. Here. GS: You were in the personnel department then, where were you stationed for most of the war? BB: After the war, I was-- GS: No during the war BB: Oh, well actually I left Fort Bliss about the time of Pearl Harbor GS: Okay BB: And I went like I said, to [Indecipherable], I mean to Fort Riley, Kansas, and this place that I was assigned to was a cavalry replacement training center. We did with the recruit, [Indecipherable] had been drafted, enlisted, whatever, they got their basic training there. GS: Okay BB: Not everybody was all over the United States, just that area GS: Okay BB: And it was every, about every six weeks there was a turnover and I was assigned to department of weapons as a weapons--cut it out--as a weapons instructor GS: Okay BB: And I was there for five years and-- (Background noise) BB: And from there, I went to Topeka, Kansas which wasn' ; t a post, it was a city that the reserve of Kansas held meetings there and different places rather than over the state. And I was a-- an advisor to the Kansas reserve GS: Okay BB: Regular army advisor, which meant that you went where they had meetings, and you didn' ; t take their count, you made count GS: Okay BB: So that you--there, who said ' ; here' ; was actually here, and the number, what was it, coincided with the number of people that said here. GS: Okay, uh-huh BB: And from there, I was with the horses, I went to Austria GS: Okay BB: I went to a post that was 50 miles down in the valley from [Indecipherable] GS: Oh my gosh BB: And it was just between two mountains [Indecipherable]. After the war, during the war, the American soldiers had acquired a hotel on the lake, big lake from the Germans, and they were using it to send our men to train people who were unaccompanied who didn' ; t have their dependents with them when they went overseas. They--and they had to take a six-week basic training to learn how to deal with the civilian population because we were an army of occupation and we had to get along with the people, and so I came back from there after about a year, year and a half, moved back to [Indecipherable], and I was sergeant major, post sergeant major for [Indecipherable] Military post. Now to anybody this doesn' ; t mean that much, but we were in charge of a transportation unit, we were in charge of an MP unit, and we were in charge of an intelligence unit. GS: Wow BB: So, I was there four years. During that time there, I was in Holland coming home, I was in Italy, I was in North Africa-- GS: Oh myBB: And get the ship to come out. Eight days in that water, I never got so sick of water in my life. GS: It' ; s a good thing you weren' ; t in the navy then BB: Yeah, but it' ; s odd how different people are in their homeland. For an example, we went through Italy, we saw an old man plowed his grapes with a horse and a cow GS: Oh my goodness BB: And the grapes were big as a fence post GS: Oh my word BB: [Indecipherable] And they were trim dried down to a nub GS: Huh BB: It was odd ; I didn' ; t know you could trim grapes that close. GS: Yeah BB: And Holland there was an island out 20 miles from the shore [Indecipherable], completely surrounded by the sea, salt water with a fresh water spring on the Island GS: How odd BB: Yeah it was odd. They--one thing was odd too, a boy and a girl gets engaged, he is required to make her a wooden shoe. They were [Indecipherable] GS: Yes BB: And when they get married, he gives her the other one. That' ; s a custom, but it' ; s a nice friendly country. We went to Poland, we stayed in a hotel, we eat at the hotel (Background Noises) GS: We' ; ll stop right there. [Indecipherable] There we go, that' ; ll hush you up. BB: We were there four days and when we returned to--hush--Frankford, Germany, we rode electric train to Holland and back. [Indecipherable]. We had spent $74 GS: Oh BB: But I was in uniform and they didn' ; t charge me like they did my wife GS: Aw BB: I came back to the states and was assigned to Fort Eustis, Virginia and a transportation unit was there. But that fall every morning, the dampness, I couldn' ; t take, my knee would--it wouldn' ; t take it. So they assigned me to Fort Bliss, Texas. GS: Yes. You' ; re fine, go on, I' ; m just checking this again. BB: And the unit I was assigned to there was--they were experimenting in low flying aircraft, what certain sized bombs would do GS: Oh myBB: To get as many personnel as you could. And we didn' ; t fly planes, but we' ; d fill flour sacks with about a three-pound paper bag and they drop those from the plane when they--when we signal them, they drop them. And we measured the distance that this flour flew out GS: Yes BB: And it' ; d given us approximately how many guys might be in that area. GS: I see BB: And then one time I remember each time we went out, they would drop one right after another, which made it almost the circle come--to the edge of the circle that they dropped the bomb for GS: Uh-huh BB: So it was a concentration of low flying air GS: And they could get more BB: Yeah GS: Enemies that way BB: Yeah, and that' ; s what--I was first sergeant of the unit there. From there, I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico as an advisor to the New Mexico National Guard GS: And was this still during the war? BB: Yeah GS: Okay BB: Yeah, and after that, I went to Hawaii and I was there for three years. I was working in the headquarters, I was in charge of, they told me, roughly forty thousand classified documents GS: Oh my goodness BB: They would come--they were in charge of the building construction in the south west pacific, and then it would be the coming and going of the information between there and Hawaii because it was a headquarters of the union. And I left there and the state [Indecipherable] general for New Mexico requested that I be assigned, reassigned New Mexico ; my old job, so that' ; s where I retired GS: Okay, and that' ; s how you met Gonda then, because you were there in New Mexico BB: Yeah GS: Okay BB: I retired at the highest in [Indecipherable] command sergeant major, and always felt that for somebody with an 8th grade education, wasn' ; t bad GS: I don' ; t think it was at all BB: I taught school GS: Oh you did? BB: Yeah GS: Tell me about that BB: When I was, after I graduated, time I graduated in June, we used to get out of school in June, and I was 12 years old and then I was 13 the following November. So I went to--I enlisted, I enrolled in Bristow High school, the bus went by the house, I was proud of my new striped overalls and new shirt, but there was a group of guys at that farmer had no place in Bristow high school, and they drove me out, I quit-- GS: Aw, those bullies BB: I told my dad I wasn' ; t gonna put up with that, so that' ; s why I wound up with an 8th grade education. But anyway this school teacher which happened to be [Indecipherable], of the VanOrsdol clan that' ; s here. GS: Yes, yes. BB: He was a farmer, and at certain times he had to take off to plow, certain times he had to take off to maintain, sometimes he had to take off to gather so he needed someone for two or three days at a time, and he asked me if I would like to substitute teach. I went through school, just like that, it was easy for me. And I don' ; t mean to brag, but it was just easy GS: No but it was easy, yup. BB: And I told him that I would, he got permission from the school board to do that. It wouldn' ; t allow any pay for me, if so it would have to come from him. And being a friend as well as a teacher, I wasn' ; t going to ask him to pay me for it cause I wasn' ; t doing anything GS: Yes BB: And it lasted during the year, school year, maybe thirty days, two days three days off and on, so it wasn' ; t no big thing but I got a lot of fun out of it GS: Well sure you did BB: But you know I felt sorry for some of the kids that had--they' ; d get to go to school maybe out of the nine-month session and they might get in three months four months GS: Oh my BB: Helping at home GS: Yeah BB: And so we had some sixteen, seventeen-year-old pupil that was in the sixth, seventh grade GS: Was that in the early thirties? BB: Yeah it had to be GS: That' ; s what I figured BB: Probably 32' ; , I think the dust storm was in 32' ; GS: Okay BB: The depression GS: Yes BB: Wasn' ; t fun either GS: No it wasn' ; t BB: I saw people, they never did complain, the guy with a wagon, the team would pull up with their commodities they called them GS: Yes BB: Maybe they in a--in a sack, they might have a couple of pounds of flour and some oat meal and maybe some salt or bacon powder or something like that, and they' ; d hand me tools, I never heard anybody complain. And of course this was a district thing we was getting probably, oh maybe 20 people from families. GS: Did you ever see the food kitchens or soup lines or anything like that during the depression? BB: The what? GS: Oh the food kitchens and the soup lines, did you ever see those? BB: Nothing in Bristow was like that. But during the Roosevelt administration, he paid farmers, for an example not to raise cotton. My dad was one of the people to go measure the cotton and measure the field and for the past five years, they would pay you for how many bales of cotton you had raised on that field during that five years. And it also meant that you couldn' ; t--I' ; ve had people plow cotton, it was that high. I say I' ; ve had--I' ; d go with my dad to measure and I saw farmers not wanting to do it. GS: Well sure BB: But they had to, it was a law that they had to do it GS: Why did they have to do it? BB: So that there wouldn' ; t be so much on the market. GS: Okay BB: Cattle ranchers did the same thing, they' ; d kill cattle, shot them right where they were standing GS: Wow BB: People would jump on them cows and take a quarter home GS: And this was during the depression? BB: Yeah GS: Wow, that almost doesn' ; t make sense, does it? BB: Well it wasn' ; t no way to keep the meat GS: Right BB: They would take the choice pieces, take them home and as long as they lasted and would not get rancid, well they would eat it and maybe sell them afterwards, I don' ; t know. GS: Wow BB: Anyway, they did that and then they canned a lot of meat, the government did GS: Okay BB: And issued back as canned meat to people. And I think I just about covered a hundred deer GS: (Laughing) BB: I think I [Indecipherable] GS: Did you go to church as a child? BB: Pardon? GS: Did you go to church as a child? BB: Oh yes, the church I was with was right across the road from me GS: What church was that? BB: It was the Advent Christian GS: Okay, okay, and-- BB: It' ; s like the one going south of Chestnut GS: Okay and your whole family went, did your whole family go? BB: Yes, Yeah. GS: Do you have any special fond memories of that? BB: Yeah, my mom and I had to sweep it out every Saturday, so it' ; d be ready for Sunday. The seats, them' ; s the hardest things to sweep around GS: I imagine BB: You couldn' ; t move them, they' ; d screwed to the floor GS: Yeah, bolted to the floor, yes. BB: Yeah I do remember--you know, in those days, there wasn' ; t any automobiles, there just wasn' ; t that many GS: Right, people couldn' ; t afford them, could they? BB: No, and they' ; d come in a wagon, some of them made 10 miles to church GS: Wow BB: And in the wagon they would have hay where they take the team from the front, bring one of them on one side and one on the other side and tie them there so they could eat this hay while they was there at church. GS: Oh my goodness, wow. BB: And they would bring almost every Sunday, there was dinner on the ground. And that' ; s why we kids looked forward to--It wasn' ; t, I don' ; t guess it was really every Sunday. It was just special Sunday, I mean a special, yeah special Sunday. And anyway it was, it seemed frequent, but they, about two oh, two thirty they' ; d all start piling back into the wagon and taking off for home. GS: What about doctors? Did you go to the doctors much when you were a child? Or your family? BB: No, the doctor come to us. GS: Okay, okay. BB: Yeah the doctor by the name of Doctor King and he drove a touring car I think it was a dodge and he had a crate on the bumper of the car and he would take chickens, he would take hogs, he would take anything, he owned a farm. And he' ; d take anything that he could take back to that farm GS: For payment?BB: Yeah GS: Yup BB: And we' ; ve taken a hog by there a lot of times when we' ; d be going to town. We finally got a model T Ford, touring, but that was top stuff GS: I bet it was BB: Yeah GS: I bet your father was proud of that BB: Yeah but he didn' ; t know how to drive, my sister--my sister drove and we later got a thirty, forty-seven Chevrolet coop. And he couldn' ; t drive the thing, so I was--well I was 12 so it was 32' ; I guess, and so I drove and I couldn' ; t hardly see over the steering wheel, I had to set on the edge of the seat and to shift cause he would put the car in low and then jerk it and put it all the way in high GS: Oh my goodness BB: And you could hear that car grinding GS: Oh I imagine BB: I told him, I said " ; Dad, you' ; re gonna ruin your transmission" ; , " ; Well you drive if you' ; re so smart" ; so I did. GS: Did you come into town much? Did you bring your goods for--to market? BB: Saturday GS: Okay, what was that like? BB: Butter and egg day. Well that' ; s the only time you had any money. GS: Okay BB: Momma had customers that she sold butter to and eggs. And for all the eggs that was left, we took them to Safeway and they' ; d be able to take the eggs and pay you in what you wanted to buy GS: Okay BB: So you didn' ; t get any money GS: But you got food or-- BB: Yeah you got food. But the butter and eggs in the community were in Bristow that she sold, she got money for that. She--my dad had a good name with the merchants in Bristow ; they would trust him. If he needed a plow share, he' ; d say ' ; I want you to go in and see Mr. Stone, tell him to send me a plow share for twelve-inch breaking plow (ph) and I' ; ll pay him Saturday when I come in' ; That' ; s all that' ; s needed, so I meeted Mr. Stone ' ; Dad said so-and-so' ; he gave it to me and I go back home. And that' ; s the way it was about anything. If he bought several sacks of feed for the horses, and it was almost thirty dollars. So he gave it to momma, my brother was coming to town and so she came with him to get groceries and he gave it to momma to get the groceries and then put the rest of it in the American National Bank, Spirit Bank took over American National. GS: Yes BB: Or it became Spirit Bank GS: Right BB: She always tied any money she had, any bills or [Indecipherable] in the corner of a handkerchief GS: I see ; I remember my grandmother doing that BB: Well, she got out on my brother' ; s car and went in to buy the groceries. She went to pay it, no money. They went back out-- this has all been told to me, I wasn' ; t along--and went back out and they looked and looked. So finally she saw it laying next to the curb, she recognized the handkerchief ; there was two guy standing there leaning up against a light post. So she went over there and picked it up and he' ; s chewing tobacco and probably, you know, spittin' ; around it what have you. And in front of them, she opened it up to see if it' ; s all there, [Indecipherable] GS: (Laughing)BB: Standing right there with it wrapped around thirty dollars GS: They might not have realized it was hers and they were thinking " ; We could' ; ve had that" ; BB: Right. They was going to charge the groceries, but when she found the money she went back and paid for it ; everything turned out. But things come up, one thing that I laughed at more than anything was probably my dad sold a breaking plow to a bootlegger. GS: Oh, haha! BB: And he was to pay him at a certain day. Well that day passes and no money. Dad waited, I don' ; t know, two or three weeks or something, and he stopped by Mr. Floods little shack, said you know " ; I need my money for the breaking plow" ; " ; Well I just don' ; t have it John H." ; said " ; I' ; ll tell ya what I' ; ll do, I' ; ll give it to you in whiskey" ; . It was fifty cents a pint. I mean it was old shotgun, it wasn' ; t like the stuff that you get this [Indecipherable] it was homemade GS: Home brewed, yes BB: So he took it was, I think there was 6 pints, and dad didn' ; t drink, but my brothers did once and a while when they' ; d come home GS: Uh-huh BB: So he took this home GS: Yes BB: And put it behind a washboard that was leaning up against the corner of the garage GS: Yes BB: Well during the meantime, leaves and [indecipherable] blew into the garage GS: Uh-huh BB: And there was enough behind this washboard that a hen started laying back there, made a nest back there. Mom was getting eggs everyday behind that washboard, oh man the day we got home, he said ' ; I don' ; t know what I' ; m gonna do with this stuff' ; and I said ' ; Well put it there behind that washboard' ; I didn' ; t know there was a hen laying there then GS: Yeah BB: Well he said " ; that might be a good idea" ; so he put it behind the washboard, you couldn' ; t see it if you didn' ; t know it was there. Momma went to gather eggs, you' ; d think that a rattle snake had bit her ; she screamed " ; Johnny, you got time to come here?" ; . She poured it out right there in front of him, every drop of it. GS: She probably thought he was drinking it or something BB: He didn' ; t say anything, cause he knew it shouldn' ; t be there to begin with. GS: Yeah BB: But that was funny to me. Fall days, a lot of things happen, I couldn' ; t start to cover any of it. Most of the stuff when you live on a farm, it happens and it happens so often, it just comes common place GS: Right BB: And you don' ; t think about--make her stay down GS: Oh she' ; s okay, she' ; s quiet when she' ; s laying on my lap. BB: But that' ; s about, unless you' ; ve got some questions GS: Well I have a few more here BB: Okay GS: I won' ; t tire you out too much, but--Do you remember anything about the Works, Works Protection Act during the 40' ; s and-- BB: The WPA? GS: Or the 30' ; s I guess it was, yeah the WPA, do you have any memories of that? BB: Yeah, yeah. There was, there' ; s a funny thing that was attached to that too. They had lots of pick and shovel prize, I mean they did everything with pick and shovel GS: Okay BB: And then so many guys in the -- had to register that lived in the community, and each one of them would get fifteen days' ; work, then-- GS: Okay BB: And they' ; d take ten men or half of them, and they' ; d work the first fifteen days and then the second half of them worked the next fifteen days. GS: Okay BB: Well they was building a bridge south of the house and they had to build it up pretty good on the road to elevate the bridge enough so there wasn' ; t a--a big drop off, you just kind of a slope down to the bridge if you cross. Well they was doing it all with wheelbarrows, they' ; d you know, they' ; d take it out and dump the dirt then come back and somebody else would fill it up at the bottom. Well, chewing tobacco then was a common thing, and smoking [Indecipherable]. Well this one guy chewed tobacco but he never had any. And he bummed chewing tobacco every day, so I went to this guy and he told him, he said--ask him for chewing tobacco, and he said ' ; now shorty, I' ; m gonna give you a chewing tobacco' ; but he said ' ; I don' ; t want any more complaints out of you, or I don' ; t want any more asking about chewing tobacco' ; . So it was in the summer time and they' ; d sweat and salt would go on their back then their armpits, well he had a new plug of chewing tobacco, so he took it out, rubbed it under his arm, all that sweat under there, and he handed it to him, he said ' ; what did you do that for?' ; . Well he said ' ; I always chew my tobacco--I mean I always do that to my tobacco, it causes it to be moist and last longer' ; well that guy said ' ; I don' ; t want any of this' ; and handed it back to him and never asked him for chewing tobacco again. GS: That man was pretty smart, wasn' ; t he? BB: Yeah, the guy said ' ; I ruined it, but it was a dime at the store, said I only lost a plug of tobacco, but he never did ask for another chew' ; . GS: That' ; s just too funny, that is good. Okay, we' ; re winding down here Basil. BB: They [Indecipherable], they did good work. GS: Would that be PA? BB: Yeah for years after your--they built school houses, they built--well of course it was the outhouses too, they built those, they lasted forever it seems like. GS: Do you remember when they built the amphitheater here in Bristow? BB: Yes GS: Or that building? BB: Yes GS: Yeah BB: Yes GS: Did you come in to see Eleanor Roosevelt? BB: No I wasn' ; t gonna walk to town to see that GS: Oh you would' ; ve have to have walked? BB: Probably, dad probably wouldn' ; t let me use a [Indecipherable] GS: Okay, we' ; re gonna wind down here. What would you consider to be the most important inventions during your life time? BB: The most-- GS: The most important inventions that have been--happened in your lifetime BB: Oh my goodness GS: There have been so many, I know it' ; s hard to pick one. BB: I think the one that has probably involved more people, served more people, and was a convention--was a convenience for them, was the airplane. GS: The airplane BB: Yes. Just north of Bristow, there was a guy that would come there in a little open cockpit plane GS: Uh-huh BB: It had a bar at the back at the--at the tail, underneath it. GS: Okay BB: So when you go, it would drag your [Indecipherable] GS: Okay BB: Man if it was wind blowing and dirt from that spike came in the tail there, it was terrible. But anyway, the charge, either 25 or 56, I think it was twenty-five six, for a trip around Bristow and back. GS: Oh, well that' ; s cool! I never had heard that. BB: I didn' ; t do that ; I wouldn' ; t have gotten into one of those things for anything. GS: Was the first time you flew when you were in the service? BB: Yeah GS: Yeah, I kinda figured that. BB: But not very many people would get in it. GS: How' ; s the world different now than when you were a child? BB: Not really. GS: How is it different? How is the world different today than it was when you were growing up, or is it? BB: Well, still around. GS: (Laughing) Hasn' ; t got flat yet, has it? BB: It' ; s gonna get that way. It' ; s the people that' ; s different, that' ; s the biggest thing. The world itself has furnished lots of mysteries that were unsolvable until recent years. But the people is really the biggest thing that I-- GS: How are they different Basil? BB: Oh my goodness, there is not a drop of love between families, neighbors. You know, used to if you--farmer broke his arm and it was time to plow, as soon as somebody heard about it, here they are, they' ; d come and plow his farm for him and wherever he wanted it plowed. Just like he would go if somebody else needs him, you know. If they heard--if somebody gets sick, they' ; d go sit up with them, you know. Work the next day would go sit up two to three hours with them at night. A woman, or a man died, we went into community and got them ready--the caskets were so flimsy, oh they were flimsy. And then they would put them in the casket and they would put them on the back of that, have a board on the back, generally a door off of a corncrib or something ; the back of two chairs, put the casket up on top of that, and they would take them to the cemetery in a wagon, and someone would go that morning and dig the grave and have it ready when they got there with the corpse. GS: Wow. BB: And people that went to the funeral wanted to get in the car, hooked up a team, left early enough that they' ; d get there for the funeral. But generally they would have a funeral at, I' ; ve seen them have it at the church, I mean at the hold, if there wasn' ; t any churches close. Where we live, the church is across the road, they' ; d have funerals there. But I don' ; t know how those caskets stay together, I' ; ve thought about that so much really during my life, it' ; d come across my mind ; flimsy. GS: It was a greater sense of community back then, wasn' ; t it? BB: It what? GS: A greater sense of community back then, wasn' ; t it? People helping each other in the community. BB: Yes, and it was just love for people. Another thing too, if a kid was at a house and something happened and they got into a little trouble or something, their mom was on the phone calling the kids momma, they' ; d send him home, tell her what they did, what he did, if they knew exactly--boy when you got home you got it. GS: I' ; ve heard that a lot, it' ; s a shame it' ; s not that way anymore. BB: No GS: Okay, we are in the middle of a pandemic, have you ever seen anything like what we' ; re living through right now? BB: No, no. Generally, the flu, you knew that it wasn' ; t lasting more than three or four days, and it was over with. GS: Right BB: But the thing you don' ; t know how long it' ; s going to last, you don' ; t know what causes it, you can' ; t prepare against it, other than what they suggest. GS: Right BB: You know, I' ; m almost afraid to get out of the house GS: Of course you are BB: And I stay home [Indecipherable] GS: Yup. BB: And Gonda doesn' ; t bother GS: Is Gonda still working? BB: You know what her job is? GS: What? BB: Taking care of her granddaughter GS: Oh BB: She takes care of Jessica' ; s little girl GS: I did not know that BB: Three houses down GS: Well that' ; s wonderful, that' ; s a nice job to have. BB: Yeah, once you retire, Jessica asked " ; what' ; re you gonna do?" ; Gonda said " ; I don' ; t know, but I' ; ll probably need something to do" ; she said " ; I' ; ve got a job for you" ; so she' ; s been taking care of the little girl for--ever since she been born GS: That' ; s wonderful BB: She' ; ll go to [Indecipherable] her grandma will sometimes leave her mother with her grandma. I never seen some I really, not because she' ; s my life, I have never ever seen a grandma like my wife. She will--one of the grandkids asked her, said, I' ; ve had it a couple of years ' ; Grandma, would you take us to McDonalds and get us a hamburger?' ; and she just drops everything and gets in the car and takes them McDonalds GS: I bet she didn' ; t do that with her own kids when they were little. BB: No, no GS: There' ; s something about being a grandma that can change that BB: Yeah she, well, all our kids I was part of it, and I was kind of rough on my boys, I tried to tell them what value was and how it should work in their lives, and never ever smear your name. And of course other things, they just knew how I stood, they knew how to work, of course I showed them how to work. But Jessica come along, she got it a little soft. She was a girl then, I treated her a little differently. GS: Well Basil can you think of anything else you' ; d like to tell me? BB: Not really. GS: Well I just consider it a great privilege to have been able to interview you BB: Well thank you so much GS: And I appreciate it ever so much. BB: Well that' ; s just like, I appreciate it being on TV GS: Yes BB: I never thought something like that would happen. And Jessica was the cause of it. GS: Oh was she? BB: Yeah she has a friend, this lady from-- GS: Amy Kaughman (ph)? BB: Yeah, Amy. GS: Uh-huh BB: Yeah, and so Amy was talking about [Indecipherable] and what have you interviewing somebody, she said " ; Oh why don' ; t you interview my dad, he' ; s has a birthday, he' ; s 100 years old, well he' ; ll just fit right in" ; GS: Well I think it did! BB: I was out then at the country club for about three hours GS: Oh my goodness BB: And they had my driving balls on the range, driving range GS: I saw that, you did pretty good there BB: They had me on the putting green and there was one hole that must' ; ve been thirty feet from where it--I never putted a ball on that green in 20 years, I didn' ; t know where it [Indecipherable] naturally, but I could see where there was a little slope to that hole, so all I wanted to do was just try to get it close enough for a tap in. I hit it, and it started curving, went right in that hole GS: Oh how wonderful Basil! BB: And he had the camera on it all the way GS: Oh that' ; s perfect, that is perfect. Well thank you so much-- BB: Oh you' ; re welcome GS: Yup it' ; s still going so we' ; re good BB: I' ; m sorry those dogs [Indecipherable] GS: Oh those dogs didn' ; t bother me at all BB: Finally, this one-- audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-08_Baker,_Basil.xml OHP-2020-08_Baker,_Basil.xml
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Basil Baker
Description
An account of the resource
In this 2020 interview, Basil Baker shares his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses his family, military service, and life during the dust bowl.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-2020-08
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-12-13
Format
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audio
Creator
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Publisher
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Rights
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Bristow Historical Society, Inc.
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
sound, oral history
Advent Christian Church
banks
Bristow Public Schools
Dust Bowl
farming
Great Depression
Mills Chapel
peanuts
statehood
stores
World War II
WPA