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10
101
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/cb85f690f8736cb4ee47194dddab5cac.png
60615430ec9a2e7d39fe65094427396f
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
Pinehill Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
An account of the resource
Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Abner Dalton Bruce
Mary Lee (Fuller) McCarty
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0004-02_Abner_Bruce.xml
Interview Keyword
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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.
Pinehill
Heyburn
oil
school
OHMS Object Text
This field contains the OHMS Index and / or Transcript and is what makes the
contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0004-02 Abner Dalton Bruce OHP-0004-02 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Pinehill Community Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Pinehill Community and School Oil Pinehill Heyburn oil school Abner Dalton Bruce Mary Lee (Fuller) McCarty Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|15(13)|37(12)|69(1)|88(12)|113(1)|126(3)|142(2)|167(13)|191(15)|207(3)|222(2)|235(13)|253(16)|281(10)|302(10)|337(4)|375(6) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0004-02 Bruce, Abner.mp3 Other audio 0 Abner Bruce family history BM: This is a personal interview with Abner Bruce and his wife sitting in their living room. MM: We want to put the date on so other people can— BM: October 3, 1976. Alright, Abner, to your best knowledge, do you know of some of the first people that settled in this part? Or when did your folks come into this part of the country? AB: Bob, I can’t tell you any—[indecipherable] they came into Oklahoma, but I don’t know for sure what time they went in to this right here. Abner Bruce discusses his family Abner Bruce ; Alpha Bruce ; Coleman Bruce ; Cora Belle Bruce Carson ; Frank Bruce ; J. Smith Bruce ; James Bruce ; Moten Bruce ; Roy Bruce ; Theodocia Bruce Abner Bruce ; family members https://www.geni.com/people/Coleman-Bruce/6000000036577893136 Family Records 166 Quail, Crops, and Cattle BM: Alright, whenever they first come in to this part of the country, Abner, what source of income did they have? I already know these questions, I want you to answer them yourself. AB: Well, the main thing my dad used to talk about was the market and hunting quail. They came in here and paid to ride a horse to Mannford or somewhere and come home. That was when they shipped these quails to Kansas City. And I don’t know whether that—of course, I know they farmed, but I don’t know, that’s the thing that stuck out. BM: Do you remember what, did you ever hear him say what crops that they planted? At that time? Discussion of selling and shipping quail and cattle cattle ; corn ; crops ; open range ; quail ; stockade fence ; trains selling cattle ; selling quail ; shipping cattle ; shipping quail 337 First Oil Well BM: Now then, number four question: Do you remember hearing say, Abner, or—when was the first cotton planted in this part of the country or community? Do you remember hearing say— AB: I don’t. BM: Okay, now here’s a ques—here’s a question that I was told that you would probably be the only one in the country that could answer this question. When was the first oil well drilled in this community? AB: I can’t tell you that one, but I—in this area right here, why I would think— Discussion of the first oil well drilled in the Bristow area 1922 ; drilling ; Elsa Self ; Mike Hartman ; oil well First Oil Well in Bristow 497 School and Township Fairs BM: Okay. Okay, now then, we’ll come on down here to number six, which would be the school situation—the school. Now, Leo gave us a lot of this information on the schools. AB: Leo would know a lot more about it. BM: When was the first school built? Now, Leo said that he remembered the first school being built in 1903. And his first teacher was a teacher by the name of Nell Watson. Discussion of the school house and township fairs church meeting ; community meeting ; election ; Nell Watson ; school ; teacher ; township fair school ; township fair 675 Development of Heyburn Lake BM: What year did the government come in go to buy up all that land? (pause) Can I tell? AB: [Indecipherable] I think it was about ’49, ’48 or ’49. BM: To your knowledge, Abner, whenever the government come in and went to buy this land up, to your knowledge how many families was affected by it? AB: I couldn’t tell you. I don’t have a recollection of the [indecipherable]. Discussion of the development of Heyburn Lake government ; Heyburn Lake ; lake Heyburn Lake 806 School Teachers at Pinehill BM: Who was your first teacher? Would that be any chance Mr. Bob Lucas? Or was that Mr. Taylor? MM: He said, “Not really.” AB: Before that. BM: Well it must’ve been—well, now, just a minute. Discussion of teachers and classmates at Pinehill school Bob Lucas ; Mark Shockley ; Minnie Mayes ; Nancy Curtis ; pinehill school ; teacher classmates ; Pinehill School ; school 887 Watermelons and Chicken Roasts MM: Oh, just a minute! Who raised the best watermelons? When you was a young who—who, who got some good, who raised the best watermelons? AB: I always thought Joe Fobbs (ph) did. MM: Who? That’s the one you stole the most of? AB: Huh? MM: Is that who you stole the most of them from? Discussion of watermelon stealing and chicken roasts chicken ; Greer ; Joe Fobbs ; W.O. Baker ; watermelon chicken ; watermelon 952 School Teachers BM: Well, I—who was your first teacher, Eunice (ph). UW2: Oh, I started school down at [indecipherable], so I didn’t come here until I was ten years old. BM: Alright, what was your first teacher’s name? Discussion of teachers at Pinehill School Bob Lucas ; Charlie Thomas ; Mark Schockley ; Pinehill School ; school ; teachers Pinehill School ; teachers 990 Oil Companies in Bristow AB: [Indecipherable] started out the Prairie and then Sinclair and then [indecipherable]. BM: Sinclair and what other—which other—what others was in here on that, Abner? AB: Prairie, Prairie Oil Company. BM: Prairie Oil Company. Discussion of the oil companies in the Bristow area Conoco ; drilling ; Mid-Continent ; oil ; Prairie Oil Company ; Shell ; Sinclair ; Sun Oil Company ; Sundocks drilling ; oil ; oil companies In this 1976 interview, Abner Dalton Bruce (1918-1987) describes his early life in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow Oklahoma including his family’s income from the quail market in Mannford, farming, shipping cattle on the railroad, early oil drilling in the community, participation in fairs, and the impact of the construction of Heyburn Lake upon the community. BM: This is a personal interview with Abner Bruce and his wife sitting in their living room. MM: We want to put the date on so other people can-- BM: October 3, 1976. Alright, Abner, to your best knowledge, do you know of some of the first people that settled in this part? Or when did your folks come into this part of the country? AB: Bob, I can' ; t tell you any--[indecipherable] they came into Oklahoma, but I don' ; t know for sure what time they went in to this right here. BM: What--when I said folks-- AB: Well he did though, he had a sign, 1895, that was [indecipherable]. BM: Eighteen-ninety-five, okay. On 1895, Abner, do you know how many of the boys was that come in here at that time? How many of the Bruce boys come in here at that time? AB: Why, I think their father-- BM: What was his name? AB: --brought the family in here. Coleman Bruce. BM: Coleman Bruce. Alright, then there was five brothers, is that right? AB: [Indecipherable] I believe they' ; re[indecipherable]. BM: Alright, what was their names? AB: Five brothers and one sister. BM: Okay, let' ; s have ' ; em. AB: Abner Bruce was the oldest, and my dad, Frank Bruce, and-- BM: Mote? AB: Smith! BM: Smith? AB: And then-- BM: Then Mote. AB: Then Mote. Then Roy. BM: Then Roy. AB: Then the sister' ; s name was Cora. BM: Cora. Alright, we' ; ll go on--get just a little bit further here now. Whenever they come in here-- AB: Here' ; s why--[indecipherable] grandmother was--she came in here with my grandfather. B: Grandfather and grandmother moved the family in to this part of the country. MM: What was the grandmother' ; s name? BM: What was the grandmother grandfather' ; s name? AB: Coleman and Alpha, I believe, was her given name. She was formerly Moore but [indecipherable]. BM: Alright, whenever they first come in to this part of the country, Abner, what source of income did they have? I already know these questions, I want you to answer them yourself. AB: Well, the main thing my dad used to talk about was the market and hunting quail. They came in here and paid to ride a horse to Mannford or somewhere and come home. That was when they shipped these quails to Kansas City. And I don' ; t know whether that--of course, I know they farmed, but I don' ; t know, that' ; s the thing that stuck out. BM: Do you remember what, did you ever hear him say what crops that they planted? At that time? AB: I sure don' ; t remember. BM: Alright, we' ; ll go a little further. Now, the quail that you say that he--they also had a few cattle in there too, didn' ; t they? AB: Yeah, yeah. BM: They had cattle and they had, they had the quail market. Why, I do know that during that time they planted corn and stuff to grow-- AB: Yeah, I would think so. BM: --planted corn and high gear and feeds, feed-- AB: But another thing, there wasn' ; t enough fences in here for these cattle, so [indecipherable] at that time-- BM: It was all open range. AB: --the fences. ' ; Cause they had to have a stockade fence. BM: Had another question, where did they take it to sell it? Where did they take their product to sell? AB: Well back on the cattle, as far as I know, Oklahoma City. They shipped them on the trains. BM: Alright. AB: And the quail I was speaking about, they shipped them to Kansas City. BM: You stated there that they shipped their cattle to Oklahoma City, their quail to Kansas City. How did they get these cattle into Oklahoma City? AB: They drove them to the stockyards in Bristow. And they' ; d load them on there and [indecipherable]. BM: And the quail, they' ; d dressed them-- AB: Dressed them and iced them, and some were [indecipherable], I don' ; t know, back in there at that time, cold weather' ; s when you hunted, they dressed them out and ideally [indecipherable]. BM: Now then, number four question: Do you remember hearing say, Abner, or--when was the first cotton planted in this part of the country or community? Do you remember hearing say-- AB: I don' ; t. BM: Okay, now here' ; s a ques--here' ; s a question that I was told that you would probably be the only one in the country that could answer this question. When was the first oil well drilled in this community? AB: I can' ; t tell you that one, but I--in this area right here, why I would think-- BM: I mean, that would be over here on the Elsa Self, then back up north up here around Louis' ; s, that, now, see that would be this community. AB: That was all [indecipherable]. This over here, I think 1922. BM: Nineteen-twenty-two. Do you have any--do you have any idea who drilled that first well? AB: A man named Mike Hartman (ph), I think. B: That' ; s great. And where was it drilled? AB: Well, it was one of these--Harjose (ph). BM: Harjose (ph). Harjose (ph) lease. AB: Offset to this place of place of my dad' ; s. BM: And that would be drilled in 1922. AB: I believe so. BM: Do you have any idea, Abner, if that well--that first well--do you have any idea how many barrels, or did you hear them say how many barrels-that that well made? When it came in? AB: No, it was pretty light and it--it didn' ; t last but a short while. BM: It didn' ; t last but a short while. Then they went to developing that--drilling around the rest of the community. AB: Well now, they drilled offset on my dad' ; s, it was still producing. BM: The offset drill from the first well that was drilled on your dad' ; s is still in production. Do you have any idea how much the offset well produced when it came in? AB: No, I couldn' ; t [indecipherable]. BM: Okay. Okay, now then, we' ; ll come on down here to number six, which would be the school situation--the school. Now, Leo gave us a lot of this information on the schools. AB: Leo would know a lot more about it. BM: When was the first school built? Now, Leo said that he remembered the first school being built in 1903. And his first teacher was a teacher by the name of Nell Watson. AB: [Indecipherable.] BM: Yeah. And, now then, on this school-- AB: Wait, I would like to ask you, where did he tell you it was built? BM: Well right up here on the north part, right up here on the corner. Which would be-- AB: I know, I know the location. BM: Look, look at this map, it' ; d be right here. That you got right there in your hand, it' ; d be right there. This other one down here was the church. And it went--moved up to here. There were two burned here, and the last one was here. Alright, Abner, here' ; s another question I want to ask you: What all purposes was that school used for? AB: Well, the last one is the only one I' ; m familiar with. BM: Okay, do it. What all was it used for? AB: About every committee or community meeting, or church meeting. It was used for the churches. [Indecipherable.] BM: It was used for churches. AB: Well, fairs--township fairs and election purposes. That was about it. BM: Alright, now then, you' ; re the third person that I' ; ve heard this " ; fairs" ; from. I don' ; t remember it. You said " ; township fair." ; What all was exhibited at these fairs? AB: Oh, at that time-- BM: The ones that you remember, Abner. AB: Well, I remember stock--horses, cattle, and crops. And a few of the crops at that time were cotton and corn and [indecipherable] and et cetera. BM: In other words, it' ; s just like the fairs of today, then. It was held at the, at the school. AB: Yeah. BM: What year did the government come in go to buy up all that land? (pause) Can I tell? AB: [Indecipherable] I think it was about ' ; 49, ' ; 48 or ' ; 49. BM: To your knowledge, Abner, whenever the government come in and went to buy this land up, to your knowledge how many families was affected by it? AB: I couldn' ; t tell you. I don' ; t have a recollection of the [indecipherable]. BM: Okay, we' ; ll go on down here to the last question: How do you feel about this lake? AB: You might want to get me in trouble. BM: No, I don' ; t want to get you in trouble, I want your honest opinion. I want your honest opinion, I' ; m asking everybody that, that question. I need it for the park recreation and planning. These tapes will help with the park recreation and planning. MM: Well, you know, it [indecipherable] if we don' ; t want it to, you don' ; t have to. BM: They want to know. They want to know this family' ; s situation-- pause in recording as tape switches sides BM: --the reason I hit you with that. They want to know how the people feel. Now that' ; s, that' ; s the reason I hit you with that question. AB: Well, I was against it before it started and I haven' ; t changed my mind, but it' ; s all done and done, but it never was [indecipherable] put down our throats is how I think about it, don' ; t sound right but that' ; s the way I' ; ve always felt. pause in recording BM: Who was your first teacher? Would that be any chance Mr. Bob Lucas? Or was that Mr. Taylor? MM: He said, " ; Not really." ; AB: Before that. BM: Well it must' ; ve been--well, now, just a minute. MM: He knows, he' ; s got a list of ' ; em-- BM: It wasn' ; t Nancy Curtis (ph), then, no it must' ; ve been Minnie L. Mayes (ph). AB: Mark Shockley (ph). BM: Mark Schockley (ph). MM: You was wrong. BM: No! I wasn' ; t wrong on that either! Mark Shockley (ph) come in there after Killian (ph). See, Killian (ph) was in there and then Mark Shockley (ph), and then Bob Lucas (ph). AB: Just one year for him. BM: Right. MM: Who was the first--who was the first [indecipherable] Sunday school-- AB: Well, I was talking to them today, the graduating students who were in eighth grade because they had changed. Of course my cousins--Eva (ph) and Nolan (ph) and myself and (pause) is all I can think of at that time. MM: Was Valerie in your class? AB: Yeah! Valerie was. I guess she was? BM: Yeah. Alright, Abner, let' ; s-- MM: Oh, just a minute! Who raised the best watermelons? When you was a young who--who, who got some good, who raised the best watermelons? AB: I always thought Joe Fobbs (ph) did. MM: Who? That' ; s the one you stole the most of? AB: Huh? MM: Is that who you stole the most of them from? AB: No, I didn' ; t have to steal from any of these [indecipherable]. MM: Who' ; d you steal one of those off of? AB: I never stole but one watermelon in my life (laughs) and I got caught in that, but Greers. BM: Mr. Greer over there, he lived over on the W.O. Baker place. AB: Yeah. MM: How about them chicken roasts, did you ever go on any of them? AB: Well, I heard about them but I, I didn' ; t, no. MM: Some of the younger kids, I think, did that [indecipherable] steal from their own folks and take them and roast them. AB: No, I never--I didn' ; t take that--I heard them talk about them. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: Well, I--who was your first teacher, Eunice (ph). UW2: Oh, I started school down at [indecipherable], so I didn' ; t come here until I was ten years old. BM: Alright, what was your first teacher' ; s name? UW2: Oh I can' ; t remember that far back. BM: Why now, say, Mark Shockley (ph) was Abner' ; s, and you come in here when you was ten years old, so therefore it had to be about eight or-- UW2: Bob Lucas, I think that Bob Lucas taught at [indecipherable]. MM: Charlie Thomas (ph), then. AB: You went to the new schoolhouse, when you started school. MM: Did you ever go to Pinehill School? UW2: [Inaudible.] AB: You was in this township. BM: You was in the township but you wasn' ; t in this district. pause in recording AB: [Indecipherable] started out the Prairie and then Sinclair and then [indecipherable]. BM: Sinclair and what other--which other--what others was in here on that, Abner? AB: Prairie, Prairie Oil Company. BM: Prairie Oil Company. AB: I believe they' ; re actually the ones that built it. And then Sinclair bought the Prairie Oil Company. MM: I need some information on the early oil companies-- BM: Now, did Sundocks or Sun Oil Company--didn' ; t they some stuff in here, too? AB: They never did down in here. They had some stuff over there north of Louis--where Shell is. BM: Shell. AB: And I believe, I believe it' ; s Sun. BM: Sun and Shell both-- MM: Did Mid-Continent have-- AB: But they was both out of here before-- MM: Mid-Continent-- B: Mid-Continent and Conoco, Conoc--Mid-Continent was over there, too. AB: Well that' ; s, that' ; s what they call Sun now. BM: That' ; s what they call Sun. AB: Yeah, I called them Sun but it was, it' ; s Mid-Continent, yeah. MM: How many [inaudible]. BM: No, we' ; re going to have to go, we got some more stuff we got to do. end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0004-02_Abner_Bruce.xml OHP-0004-02_Abner_Bruce.xml
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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.
1900
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
Abner Dalton Bruce
Description
An account of the resource
In this 1976 interview, Abner Dalton Bruce (1918-1987) describes his early life in the Pinehill Community outside Bristow Oklahoma including his family’s income from the quail market in Mannford, farming, shipping cattle on the railroad, early oil drilling in the community, participation in fairs, and the impact of the construction of Heyburn Lake upon the community.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OHP-0004-02
Subject
The topic of the resource
Pinehill Community and School
Oil
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976-10-03
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio
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52e620207f3e17109b6d7aadd45f08bd
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
Video Histories
Subject
The topic of the resource
Video with transcript
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Regan Siler
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Albert "Kell" Kelly
OHMS Object
This field contains the OHMS Hyperlink (link to the XML file within the OHMS
Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/render.php?cachefile=OHP-0073_Kell_Kelly.xml
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contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
6.0 June 20, 2025 OHP-0073 Albert "Kell" Kelly OHP-0073 00:31:41 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. bristowhistory Albert "Kell" Kelly Regan Siler 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0073 Kelly, Kell.mp4 Other video 0 Background/Birth Regan Siler 00:00
 ; This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is June 20, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Kell Kelly at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us about how he helped save the Bristow Train Depot. Can you please state your full name? 
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 00:21
 ; Sure. My full name is Albert Charles Kelly, Jr.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 00:25
 ; Okay, and you go by Kell, right? 
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 00:26
 ; Everyone goes, calls me Kell.
 ; Albert Charles Kelly, Jr. was born on November 21, 1954. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He lived north of Bristow on a ranch called the Wild Horse Prairie. Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Kell Kelly ; Bristow Library Annex ; Albert Charles Kelly, Jr. ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Wild Horse Prairie Birth 0 51 Parents and Grandparents Regan Siler 00:51
 ; Okay, and I want to ask, I know today we mainly want to focus on saving the depot, but I would also like to touch on your family. Can you tell me their full names and dates of birth, if you have that.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:04
 ; How many family members would you like me to tell you about? 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:05
 ; Well, just your parents, sorry!
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 01:08
 ; Well, I'll go back one generation before that, if possible. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:11
 ; Oh, sure.
 ; Kell's parents were Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. and Katherine McGee Rewerts. Kell's grandfather came to Bristow in 1902 to farm. He met a lady (Dorcas) who treated him for something at the hospital that she had started. Kell's grandfather married Dorcas, and they had five sons. Kell's father was the oldest of the boys. Kell's mother, Katherine was from western Kansas. Katherine's father started the first hospital in Golden City, Kansas. Albert Kelly ; Kansas ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Dorcas B. Kelly ; Katherine McGee Rewerts ; Garden City (Kan.) ; Harvard College ; Boston (Mass.) ; World War II ; Navy ; Joe Ihle ; Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. Parents ; Grandparents 0 301 Bob Chadderdon Regan Siler 05:01
 ; Oh yeah, okay, all right. Well, let's talk about the depot. We want to, we know you were instrumental in helping save the depot, and I would kind of like to hear your perspective on that, so you just, I guess, start from the beginning.
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 05:23
 ; Well, the beginning of the depot can't begin without involving the late Bob Chadderdon. Bob was a remarkable fellow. He'd been a fighter pilot in World War II in Europe, and had left Bristow at some point after that with $50 in his pocket that his friend Paul Joseph had loaned him, and he made his way to New York and became successful in the international trade of heavy oil and gas machinery at a time when they were discovering that the Middle East and other places had lots of stores of oil. And so Bob and his determined manner jumped right in. He was proud of the fact that he had the address on on in Washington, excuse me, in New York, that was One Carnegie Center. So, he was, he was right on the, he was right in the middle of New York and Times Square and every place else. Along about 1980, Bob and his wealth transferred back to Bristow. He wanted to always come back to Bristow, and he became almost a one man philanthropy store. However, he was never satisfied with with doing it by himself, and so he drug everybody into it that he possibly can. My father had already passed away, and so somehow he focused on on me to be his kind of his his guy, his monkey boy, to do whatever he would tell me to do. I'd come back to Bristow when I was practicing law with Joe Sam Vassar and Harry McMillan. And Bob had asked me to speak to the Class of 40 that was having its 40th reunion in 1980, and so I did. And from that point on, he would involve me in all of his many, many ventures that he wanted to give back to Bristow.
 ; 
 ; Bob Chadderdon, a wealthy philanthropist led efforts to preserve the depot. Bob had been a fighter pilot in Europe during World War II. He left Bristow and went to New York sometime after the war with $50 that his friend had loaned him. He became successful in the international trade of heavy oil and gas machinery. Around 1980, Bob transferred back to Bristow with his wealth. Bristow Train Depot ; Bob Chadderdon ; World War II ; Europe ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Paul Joseph ; New York ; Middle East ; Times Square (New York, N.Y.) ; Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. ; Joe Sam Vassar ; Harry McMillan Bob Chadderdon 0 459 Saving the Depot Regan Siler 07:39
 ; Do you know how, what, where he came up with the, I mean, like, where, where did it, how did the idea come up that he wanted to save the depot and preserve it for Bristow?
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 07:50
 ; Well, I think the idea came up that when you would drive down the streets in Bristow, why Bob would, Bob would be able to tell you who lived there in 1930. And, so, those he had the, he had the great desire to try and convey to the next generations what Bristow had been, what Bristow had evolved to, but at the same time, with an eye to what, what, who those that came before. He used to talk about one gentleman, as he said, he met every train, because his brother had gone to World War I, and he was this was a gentleman that had had some mental deficiency, but his brother had gone to World War I, and he left on the train. And Bob could Bob when the trains were running, this gentleman would meet every train, thinking that his brother would be there. This was the way that they went to Tulsa. This was the train, the train was the lifeline for towns and towns that received trains, and train access grew. Those that didn't, really, pretty well failed, or at least were minimized. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 08:59
 ; So, who owned the depot at the time?
 ; Kell was practicing law with Joe Sam Vassar and Harry McMillan in Bristow. Bob asked Kell to speak to the Class of 1940 during their 40th reunion. After that, Bob involved Kell in his many ventures to give back to the Bristow community. Bob started The Bristow Historical Society and designated Kell as the president. The train depot was owned by Burlington Northern. They were tearing down depots across the state. Bob put up a fight and eventually with the help of Kell's neighbor, Bill Farha, Sr. the depot was purchased for $1. Bob Chadderdon ; Joe Sam Vassar ; Harry McMillan ; World War I ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Burlington Northern Inc. ; Joe Ihle ; Francis Hayhurst ; Main Street ; Bristow Historical Society ; Bill Farha, Sr. ; Senator ; Mary Farha ; Governor ; David Boren Saving the Depot 0 1180 Renovating the Depot Kell Kelly 19:40
 ; And, so, after that, why, it was no holds barred, Bob went full bore into the campaign to sell bricks with people's names on them. They and raised money in all kinds of different ways.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 19:56
 ; Do you remember what year that was that the depot the actual renovation of the depot began?
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 20:02
 ; I don't really remember, you know, it was in the early 80s.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 20:05
 ; Okay.
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 20:07
 ; But working for Bob was a full time job. Once in a while, I'd get to practice law, but he had great vision. And if you go look at it today, it's beautiful. His his idea of doing many of the things that that have been done down there are somewhat elaborate, I think, and sometimes maybe a little difficult for a little town to afford. But, through the good work of the, continued work of the Bristow Historical Society, why, they've been able to renovate that and do that as as you most people know, that there is a an area that, not sure exactly what to call it, but it comes off of Main Street and it's open. It's an area that 
 ; After the train depot was purchased, the big job of renovating began. It began in the early 1980's. Bob had a vision and was even later honored at a ceremony when Mayor Washington was serving. Others have helped preserve Bristow history over the years. Kell mentions the great work that the Trigalets now do for the Historical Society. Bob Chadderdon ; Bristow Historical Society ; Town Square ; Mayor Washington ; Christmas ; Francis Hayhurst ; Chrysler Tower ; Main Street ; Joe Trigalet ; Linda Trigalet ; Route 66 ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Yale College ; Tommy Thompson ; Calvin Foster ; Navy Renovating the Depot 0 1679 Wisdom Regan Siler 27:59
 ; Well, I know just in the time that I've been managing the oral histories, whether it's been working on old ones or the new ones that I've done, I have learned so much about Bristow's rich history, and it has a very interesting history, and it's really gotten me excited to be more involved with the Historical Society. And you know, we always hope that by doing this, and you know, getting it out to the public, that it'll get them excited and to appreciate and to give back also. And you know, we have so many people from all over the country that visit the depot, and you really just want your even your hometown people to appreciate it and love it as much as we do.
 ; 
 ; Kell Kelly 28:48
 ; Well, I agree with that. And any time that you lose, in this case, the depot, I mean, once it's gone, stories are gone. Once it's gone, there's not the place that has the ingrained history to to locate all of the historical documents and and items that that the Historical Society has has put in place. You know, you had so many different people that came through that depot. You know, you had Gene Autry was, was the station master for a while. And you have, you know, Woody Guthrie, just down the road in Okemah, who obviously passed through this area regularly. All of those things, I think, are, are small, small bits of heritage for this area. And you know, one of the things that I have always found to be very accurate, and that is my late uncle, Tracy had on his desk a painted rock and it said, bloom where you're planted. And you'll see that that is also a slogan that's over my desk, because I believe we never know really. Life gives you twists and turns, and you're never really quite sure where you're going to be or what you're going to be responsible for, but whatever that may be, bloom where you're planted. And I think if people can take that as a, as a, as really a watch word phrase, as opposed to just just ignoring it, I think there'll be a lot, lot better, because sometimes where you're planted is where you're supposed to prosper and where you're supposed to contribute. And that, I think, is one of the most important things we can take from, from everything here. I mean, Bristow, the center of the country. It's not New York, it's not Rockefeller Center, and and, you know, that's where, where Bob was. If I said it is Rockefeller Center. I hope I said that, but he took great pride in that address, by the way.
 ; Kell finishes the interview with some words of wisdom. He says to do your work well and to try to make a place better for others. Kell says that you can't control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond. He says to try to make the most of setbacks because everyone has them. Wisdom ; Gene Autry ; Woody Guthrie ; Okemah (Okla.) ; Tracy Kelly ; New York ; Rockefeller Center ; Bob Chadderdon ; Bristow (Okla.) Wisdom 0 MP4 Kell Kelly talks about his role in saving the Bristow Train Depot. Kell, born in Tulsa on November 21, 1954, shares his family history, including his grandfather Albert Kelly's arrival in Bristow in 1902 and his father's service in World War II. Kell recounts how Bob Chadderdon, a wealthy philanthropist, led efforts to preserve the depot, which was owned by Burlington Northern and in disrepair. Despite initial resistance, they acquired the depot for $1 and raised funds for its renovation. The depot now serves as a historical centerpiece, reflecting Bristow's heritage and the vision of the Greatest Generation. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION BEGIN 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:21.660 This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is June 20, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Kell Kelly at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us about how he helped save the Bristow Train Depot. Can you please state your full name? 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:25.484 Sure. My full name is Albert Charles Kelly, Jr. 00:00:25.484 --> 00:00:26.864 Okay, and you go by Kell, right? 00:00:26.864 --> 00:00:28.239 Everyone goes, calls me Kell. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:31.300 Okay. And do I have permission to record this interview? 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:32.259 You do. 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:36.840 Okay, um, can you tell me when and where you were born? 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:51.479 Yes. I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in November the 21st of 1954. I was brought back to a house out in the country that was Wild Horse Prairie, still known as Wild Horse Prairie, which is north of Bristow. 00:00:51.479 --> 00:01:04.000 Okay, and I want to ask, I know today we mainly want to focus on saving the depot, but I would also like to touch on your family. Can you tell me their full names and dates of birth, if you have that. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:05.079 How many family members would you like me to tell you about? 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:08.799 Well, just your parents, sorry! 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:11.319 Well, I'll go back one generation before that, if possible. 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:11.840 Oh, sure. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:02:47.060 My grandfather, Albert Kelly, came to Bristow in 1902. He came in a wagon and brought two of his sisters from Kansas. He had a third grade education, and he came here to farm. He was a farmer. So, he started his his agricultural effort out near the where the airport is now, and began his farming career. Over the years, why he prospered and did pretty well. And somewhere around the early 1920s, why, a lady came to Bristow to start a hospital. And that was my grandmother, whose name was Dorcas [Dorcas B. Kelly]. And Dorcas did start a hospital and, ultimately, ended up treating my grandfather for something. And these people who had neither ever been married, but had a 25 year age difference between them, got married my grandfather at at 47 and my grandmother at 25 or 22, if I'm doing math correctly. They had five sons over 19 years, and my dad was the oldest one. So, that kind of gives you a brief background of of the family. I could go into a lot more detail than that, if you'd like. I, also, will address since you asked my name, my my name, everyone called me Albert, but then they called me Little Albert. And my mother was so concerned that I would be this age and people would be looking for Little Albert, so she came up with a nickname, Kell, and it just stuck. And as much as you try to get away from it, wherever you travel, that's where it sticks. 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:52.060 How interesting! And then, so tell me about your parents. What their names are. 00:02:52.060 --> 00:03:39.669 My mother was from western Kansas. Her name was Katherine, and she, her father, Charles, started the first hospital in Garden City, Kansas. And so she was in and around Garden City, Kansas through her teenage years. My father was a, graduated from Bristow High School and the Class of 1940, which I'll get to in a minute. And he attended Harvard College in in Boston, in Cambridge, and through, he attended that, obviously, in the fall of 1940 because World War II fell in at that time, they graduated him early. So, his class graduated in 1943 and he went into the Navy and, ultimately, into the submarines. And was very emotional for him the rest of his life, because I think he had survivor's guilt from all of his friends that never came back. 00:03:39.669 --> 00:03:41.120 Greatest Generation. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:56.900 Oh yeah, Lots of great stories about them. And really, 1940 the Class of 1940 was pretty much the greatest class. 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:05.719 I read somewhere though they were the most philanthropic or generous class for the community of Bristow. 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:27.125 As far as I know, there could be someone else, but as far as I know, the last member of the Class of 1940 still living is Joe Ihle. So, Joe is a pecan producer here, and he's 102 years old, and he and my father were great friends and and, so I really regard Joe highly and and amazed at him. 00:04:27.125 --> 00:04:29.870 Yes. So, your dad's name was 00:04:29.870 --> 00:04:31.660 Albert Charles Kelly, Sr. 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:35.680 Okay, and I have his birth date as 12/28/1922. Does that sound? 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:36.699 That is correct? 00:04:36.699 --> 00:04:39.480 Okay. And then what was your mother's name? 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:44.579 Katherine McGee Rewerts. R, E, W, E, R, T, S. 00:04:44.579 --> 00:04:48.660 Okay, and I have her birth date 11/17/1918. 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:49.199 That's correct. 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:58.199 Okay, alright, um, so then your family has been in the Bristow area for since the what the 20? 00:04:58.199 --> 00:04:59.339 Since 1902. 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:00.060 1902. 00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:01.379 When my grandfather got here. 00:05:01.379 --> 00:05:23.620 Oh yeah, okay, all right. Well, let's talk about the depot. We want to, we know you were instrumental in helping save the depot, and I would kind of like to hear your perspective on that, so you just, I guess, start from the beginning. 00:05:23.620 --> 00:07:39.019 Well, the beginning of the depot can't begin without involving the late Bob Chadderdon. Bob was a remarkable fellow. He'd been a fighter pilot in World War II in Europe, and had left Bristow at some point after that with $50 in his pocket that his friend Paul Joseph had loaned him, and he made his way to New York and became successful in the international trade of heavy oil and gas machinery at a time when they were discovering that the Middle East and other places had lots of stores of oil. And so Bob and his determined manner jumped right in. He was proud of the fact that he had the address on on in Washington, excuse me, in New York, that was One Carnegie Center. So, he was, he was right on the, he was right in the middle of New York and Times Square and every place else. Along about 1980, Bob and his wealth transferred back to Bristow. He wanted to always come back to Bristow, and he became almost a one man philanthropy store. However, he was never satisfied with with doing it by himself, and so he drug everybody into it that he possibly can. My father had already passed away, and so somehow he focused on on me to be his kind of his his guy, his monkey boy, to do whatever he would tell me to do. I'd come back to Bristow when I was practicing law with Joe Sam Vassar and Harry McMillan. And Bob had asked me to speak to the Class of 40 that was having its 40th reunion in 1980, and so I did. And from that point on, he would involve me in all of his many, many ventures that he wanted to give back to Bristow. 00:07:39.019 --> 00:07:50.500 Do you know how, what, where he came up with the, I mean, like, where, where did it, how did the idea come up that he wanted to save the depot and preserve it for Bristow? 00:07:50.500 --> 00:08:59.514 Well, I think the idea came up that when you would drive down the streets in Bristow, why Bob would, Bob would be able to tell you who lived there in 1930. And, so, those he had the, he had the great desire to try and convey to the next generations what Bristow had been, what Bristow had evolved to, but at the same time, with an eye to what, what, who those that came before. He used to talk about one gentleman, as he said, he met every train, because his brother had gone to World War I, and he was this was a gentleman that had had some mental deficiency, but his brother had gone to World War I, and he left on the train. And Bob could Bob when the trains were running, this gentleman would meet every train, thinking that his brother would be there. This was the way that they went to Tulsa. This was the train, the train was the lifeline for towns and towns that received trains, and train access grew. Those that didn't, really, pretty well failed, or at least were minimized. 00:08:59.514 --> 00:09:01.899 So, who owned the depot at the time? 00:09:01.899 --> 00:10:11.575 At the time the depot, at the time that we embarked upon this, why, the depot was owned by Burlington, Northern. And Bob had a tenacity that all of those Greatest Generation people had. My dad, Joe Ihle, Bob, really any of those people that you have ever encountered, they had already gone through the worst that they could go through. They'd already gone through watching their friends pass away. They'd already gone through loss. They'd already gone through leaving their Bristow and never thinking they'd come back. And, so, their friends images were very much in there, very much with them all the time, but also what they result, what that resulted in is nothing really scared him. They'd seen the worst of the worst, and it didn't matter what it was. Nothing scared them. They were willing to take any venture. And, so, when Bob would come tell you that he had some great idea, you would tell, you would say, tell it to yourself, well, I can't be a part of that. And while your head was was shaking, no, why, you'd go, of course, Bob, I'll do whatever you want me to do. And that happened more times than I can tell you. 00:10:11.575 --> 00:10:11.899 Right. 00:10:11.899 --> 00:11:13.000 But he embarked on the park. He put it in four stages. Joe Ihle was the was the principal person on that. You know, Bob would bring in the his Class of '40 classmates as often as he could, Francis Hayhurst, he always reminded me, was president of the class, and Francis was a gracious man. But Bob built a pretty good amount of money that he put together both for the park, and we did it in four stages, and it's still remarkably beautiful. It's been remarkably well done. He had the class of 1940 Scholarship Fund, which he would interview kids and, invariably, give away a lot more money than, probably, was in the fund that day. But, he believed in in the youth, and he believed in in heritage. He looked both ways. He looked back and said, people need to know why these things happen and how this was, and people need to look ahead. And, so, one of the things that he wanted to have was not just a main street renovation, but he wanted to have the the depot as a centerpiece. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:13.051 Yes ma'am. 00:11:13.051 --> 00:11:13.360 Was it, was it in, was there a threat of it being torn down? Do I remember that correctly? 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.559 Okay. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:26.860 Burlington Northern, there had been an appeal by 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:28.960 And I may be jumping ahead in the story, I don't know. 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:45.000 No, you're not. There had been an appeal by some folks in the city. I don't, I don't recall exactly who, to try and preserve the depot. The Burlington Northern was tearing down depots at that time across the, across the state. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.120 Just because they didn't want them anymore or were they in disrepair? 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:55.080 They had no use for them. They weren't, they were not in the passenger train business. 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:55.539 Okay. 00:11:55.539 --> 00:16:31.000 And they had no use for those. So, Bristow's was allowed to become very dilapidated. Had a good, a good population of pigeons and other birds. It was not, it was not well taken care of at all. It wasn't taken care of period. And, so, that was their plan of letting it get to a place where it wasn't really going to be too much of a loss to lose this supposed eyesore. They, the idea was that, at one time, just as I talked about the fellow that met all the trains, why, the depot was the place you departed from. The depot was a place that you came back from, or came back to. And, so, you know, there, there were, immediately people would gravitate up to Main Street, which is a block away. And that was how a lot of commerce, a lot of citizens, a lot of people came. There were, there were some modest hotels that surrounded that area. And, so, lots of lots of memories and lots of commerce. Bob felt like you could make the depot something that would be historically very good, and so he started the Historical Society on his own and designated me as the president, which, of course, I was saying, no, Bob, I don't think I'll do that, but I couldn't get those words up. So, I said, yes, of course. And, so, that's kind of how the Historical Society was, was started. And then we had a lot of, we had a lot of ladies that were vintage 1940 Class of '40, Class of '35, Class of '44 all that really took, took to a lot of the work trying to trying to make Bob's dream a reality. So, as he worked on the park, why, he also worked on the on the depot. And the one problem we had with the depot was that we didn't own it. One day, a backhoe showed up and took out half of the half of the platform. And, so, that was, again, the idea of gradual, gradual deterioration and ultimate knocking it down. So, Bob and his in it in a way, found out, inevitable way, found out that there was a gentleman in Tulsa who somewhat ran the the depot, depot decisions or whatever. And, so, he got a got us meeting with that and with that gentleman. And, once again, I accompanied, accompanied him up there. And I learned that day of a Chadderdon strategy that I violated, which was, you stay in the room until you get your way. But, this guy was really, he was a big fellow, and he was really fairly obnoxious, saying there's no, no way you're going to get this thing. We're going to tear it down. And he would be very explicit in the fact that he wanted to, us to understand that we lost by just by being involved, we've lost. And so, you know, I eventually, in my youth, got angry and told Bob, let's get out of here. And Bob would, would, would continue to defer. And, eventually, he left with me and, and the lesson that he gave me that day, he says, you stay long enough you're going to win this argument. Which I thought was fairly absurd, but I accepted it. And, so, we were, we were faced with the only thing we could do, which was to file an injunction, or ask for an injunction so that they not tear down the depot. So, the city approved that we could file it in my, in my youth of lawyering, why, I actually filed that, I think I filed it on behalf of the city, if I'm remembering correctly. But I was the only one that, you know, I was only operative, so to speak, once again, doing what Bob had suggested. And, so, we kept that, we preserved the depot because they couldn't get around the injunction. However, that injunction was not going to ripen into a permanent injunction. It was a temporary injunction, and because it was Burlington Northern's property, and because we could not show a true interest, other than a an interest of preserving heritage, that didn't that did not counter the ownership interest that Burlington Northern had. So, we while we preserved it for quite some time, as the city attorney then told me, he said, you know, you're going to run out of time. You're, you're, you're not going to be able to do this and keep this forever. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:40.080 Do you think the guy was just being obstinate? Because it seems like if there was an interested party and wanting to buy it, that they would be willing to sell it. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:19:19.410 His mission was to get rid of the depots that were not functional anymore, which were most of them. And he was a good company man, and that was what he is, that's what he was going to do. They didn't want the liability that they thought might attach to that. And that was a decision that, I assume, was made at the company board level. Um, so we sort of knew we were backed up against the wall, and we didn't know that we had too much leeway left. At the time, I was living on Sixth Street, and one of my neighbors was a guy by the name of Bill Farha, Sr. Bill was a was a character known far and wide by by many. I would regularly see the either the governor's car or the governor's, a governor wannabes car or the Senator's car, or Senator wannabes car sitting next door because they wanted to come, they wanted to come visit Bill and and Mary and see you know what wisdom they could could give him, and what support and this sort of thing. And, so, he was a generally wonderful man, wonderful person to live next to. Was always a character. Gave my children money for me to take him to to the ice cream store even when it was dinner time. And he enjoyed that, that sort of, that sort of jocularity. But one of the, one of the frequent stops that was there was a was Senator Boren, and when Bob heard about this, because, excuse me, when Bill heard about it from talking with Bob, why, Bill went to a little bit of back channeling and work, which, of course, worked in those days and still works in these days. But, David Boren either served on the board of Burlington Northern or was very close to the people that served on the board. I really never went back and researched that. But once Bill got Senator Boren involved, while nothing outwardly happened, I got a call from the big guy that we had met with one afternoon, and I could tell his teeth were clenched. I could tell he was, he was less than happy, and in his clenched teeth, he said, I'll sell you that depot for $1 and get the paperwork ready. And, so, we cut a check for $1 and we got the paperwork ready, and that's how we got the depot. 00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:20.000 Wow! 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:40.339 And, so, of course, Bob claimed victory because he knew we were going to win all the time. He just didn't know how. But that was how we were able to get the depot. We delayed it with the litigation. We did about everything but lay down the old fashioned logs in the road to stop the train, 00:19:40.339 --> 00:19:40.759 Right. 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:56.404 And, so, after that, why, it was no holds barred, Bob went full bore into the campaign to sell bricks with people's names on them. They and raised money in all kinds of different ways. 00:19:56.404 --> 00:20:02.525 Do you remember what year that was that the depot the actual renovation of the depot began? 00:20:02.525 --> 00:20:05.285 I don't really remember, you know, it was in the early 80s. 00:20:05.285 --> 00:20:07.400 Okay. 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:51.424 But working for Bob was a full time job. Once in a while, I'd get to practice law, but he had great vision. And if you go look at it today, it's beautiful. His his idea of doing many of the things that that have been done down there are somewhat elaborate, I think, and sometimes maybe a little difficult for a little town to afford. But, through the good work of the, continued work of the Bristow Historical Society, why, they've been able to renovate that and do that as as you most people know, that there is a an area that, not sure exactly what to call it, but it comes off of Main Street and it's open. It's an area that 00:20:51.424 --> 00:20:52.240 The town square? 00:20:52.240 --> 00:22:33.519 Yes, it's the town square, but you come off of Main Street, walk through what was a building, Bob had, has a very elaborate roof on that. And then you come down and overlook the, overlook the depot, and there are steps there. Bob used to call those the steps to nowhere, meaning that it was going to be up to another generation to build from the steps to the depot. And under Mayor Washington, why, that was done, and they had a ceremony that honored Bob that night, which was a night of, it was around Christmas time. And there was a nice, it was a nice tribute to the fact that his vision, and I'm sure that many others had, had become a reality. And so, today, the depot is used by the historical society. It is a place of a lot of activity and a lot of things that reflect on Bristow's history. So, were he able to communicate with us, he would be pleased about that, and he would, also, obviously say, I told you, so if you just stay in that meeting long enough, why, you're going to be just fine. So, but anyway, lots of fond memories, and lots of fond memories of of that class, especially since my dad was in that, why, working with Joe and working with Bob and Francis Hayhurst and others, really was enriching to me and gave me something that I wouldn't otherwise have. And, and those, those, all those gentlemen and ladies, became very, very dear to me. And, so, I'm glad that I was able to function a little bit to to achieve their dream. 00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:33.900 Right. 00:22:33.900 --> 00:23:39.200 And leave something for the next generations to come, and certainly, the Historical Society today that's preserving that just as they tried, just as they're moving the Chrysler Tower to Main Street and other things. I mean, they're, they're well, they're very well, well administered, and just doing a super job. And other places in town, such as Bristow, I think would would do anything to have that type of an administrator over, not just the depot, but over the history of the town, and trying to continually bring that back. The Trigalets do great work. They've been, Joe's been involved in Route 66, which is the anniversary, 100th anniversary, of Highway 66, and I think that's helped Bristow greatly. I want to note that my contribution has been that my half of the class made Joe Trigalet, who went to high school with me, made his top half of the class possible. 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:51.799 Well, you know, I love the Trigalets, and I think they've done a fantastic job, and I've enjoyed working with them, and very thankful that they have preserved the depot and moved it forward. 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:53.299 Sure. It's great. 00:23:53.299 --> 00:24:08.319 So, I had also heard that there, and this was coming from Joe, that there was in the midst of all of this, that there was a Yale educated attorney, maybe, that said he'd gotten "hometowned". I don't know. Do you recall that? 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:38.484 I really don't, but it was possible we did. We, I mean, we, we were able to take every favorable disposition that we might have, we might have encountered, as far as the depot is concerned, and when we did that in the court of law, we certainly never objected to a judge that sided with us and gave gave us more time. 00:24:38.484 --> 00:24:38.845 Yeah. 00:24:38.845 --> 00:24:59.920 The problem is, we got the short term. We couldn't have gotten the long term through, the through the court. And I don't want it to seem that we, in any way, or doing anything where the judges were doing anything that was incorrect. They just have to rule one way or the other. And you know, sometimes those Tulsa attorneys don't think they should lose in small towns. Matters not if you lose. You always say you're hometowned. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:17.000 Right, right, right. Well, is there anything else that you can think of that would be an interesting add to, I guess, you know, the contributions from Bob or some of the other Class of '40, or even you and your family? 00:25:17.000 --> 00:27:59.140 Oh, well, I mean, I think you always try to put back. And I think that the the efforts that culminated in the Class of '40, which were, which received wide support from other classes, I think that that was predicated upon generosity and also predicated upon a view of the future. If you, if you hold these folks up to be reflective of what happens historically, oftentimes that gets you in a situation where you you can understand the future, maybe, a little bit better. I know that, I know that we had, Bristow is fortunate at this time to have another, what I would call Bob Chadderdon aficionado, and in Tommy Thompson. And Tommy was a counselor at the school for a number of years, and really worked hand in glove trying to promote the same thing that Bob tried to promote, which was education. Get out of Bristow, go get your good education. If you come back, come back. And he was instrumental, I know, in pushing several kids into the service academies, one of whom, Calvin Foster is an admiral today in the Navy in charge of an enormous cadre of ships and people. They've, I think, you could go down the list of people from Bristow that have had the opportunity to go out and make something of themselves and of the world. And some of them may have have done nothing more than go be very successful welders or be very successful truck drivers. Those are everything is just as important as anything else. And it's not a matter of, it's not a matter of a particular position or affluence. It's a matter of contribution and and living a life that contributes to your to the to the good of the whole. And I think that's what that's what was recognized. That's one of the things that if you look back through those, those that 1940 class log, you'll see people that that were highly regarded, that didn't survive the war. But yet their friends did, and their friends took a special meaning in trying to take that spark that had been their friend forward in in by what's reflected in the works that they did. And I think that was part of what was trying to be passed on, hopefully, was passed on, that your work as an individual, whatever it is, do your work well and try to try to make a place better for others. And that's that's the I think that was reflected in everything that was done at that time. 00:27:59.140 --> 00:28:48.740 Well, I know just in the time that I've been managing the oral histories, whether it's been working on old ones or the new ones that I've done, I have learned so much about Bristow's rich history, and it has a very interesting history, and it's really gotten me excited to be more involved with the Historical Society. And you know, we always hope that by doing this, and you know, getting it out to the public, that it'll get them excited and to appreciate and to give back also. And you know, we have so many people from all over the country that visit the depot, and you really just want your even your hometown people to appreciate it and love it as much as we do. 00:28:48.740 --> 00:30:47.345 Well, I agree with that. And any time that you lose, in this case, the depot, I mean, once it's gone, stories are gone. Once it's gone, there's not the place that has the ingrained history to to locate all of the historical documents and and items that that the Historical Society has has put in place. You know, you had so many different people that came through that depot. You know, you had Gene Autry was, was the station master for a while. And you have, you know, Woody Guthrie, just down the road in Okemah, who obviously passed through this area regularly. All of those things, I think, are, are small, small bits of heritage for this area. And you know, one of the things that I have always found to be very accurate, and that is my late uncle, Tracy had on his desk a painted rock and it said, bloom where you're planted. And you'll see that that is also a slogan that's over my desk, because I believe we never know really. Life gives you twists and turns, and you're never really quite sure where you're going to be or what you're going to be responsible for, but whatever that may be, bloom where you're planted. And I think if people can take that as a, as a, as really a watch word phrase, as opposed to just just ignoring it, I think there'll be a lot, lot better, because sometimes where you're planted is where you're supposed to prosper and where you're supposed to contribute. And that, I think, is one of the most important things we can take from, from everything here. I mean, Bristow, the center of the country. It's not New York, it's not Rockefeller Center, and and, you know, that's where, where Bob was. If I said it is Rockefeller Center. I hope I said that, but he took great pride in that address, by the way. 00:30:47.345 --> 00:30:58.565 Well, it's funny, because I was gonna, my final question I was gonna ask you was, if you had any wisdom you would like to leave or share for future generations, but I think you've kind of just answered that. I like that. 00:30:58.565 --> 00:31:24.650 Yeah, I think that's what I would say, you know you you can't control, necessarily, what happens to you, and you can't control, necessarily, the environment that it happens to you in, but you can control how you respond and how you, how you try to make the most out of, out of a setback or an unexpected relocation, or things such as that. Everybody's going to have those. 00:31:24.650 --> 00:31:36.275 Yes, well, your interview will become an important part of our oral history Archives for the museum. Thank you for your time talking with us and thank you for sharing your recollection of saving the depot. 00:31:36.275 --> 00:31:38.275 You're welcome. Thank you. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION END ]]> video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/render.php?cachefile=OHP-0073_Kell_Kelly.xml OHP-0073_Kell_Kelly.xml
Dublin Core
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Title
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Albert "Kell" Kelly
Description
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Kell Kelly talks about his role in saving the Bristow Train Depot. Kell, born in Tulsa on November 21, 1954, shares his family history, including his grandfather Albert Kelly's arrival in Bristow in 1902 and his father's service in World War II. Kell recounts how Bob Chadderdon, a wealthy philanthropist, led efforts to preserve the depot, which was owned by Burlington Northern and in disrepair. Despite initial resistance, they acquired the depot for $1 and raised funds for its renovation. The depot now serves as a historical centerpiece, reflecting Bristow's heritage and the vision of the Greatest Generation.
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OHP-0073
Date
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2025-06-20
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video
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/2cc1edc4a6bb8d1008fa08ef61b48f76.png
67a59e2c989a9adaca92e86d85a0c6ce
Dublin Core
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Title
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Family Histories
Type
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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
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Interviewer
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Robert L. “Bob” McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Anderson Bigpond
Elwood Bigpond
OHMS Object
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0014-01_Anderson_Bigpond.xml
Interview Keyword
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“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Pinehill
cemeteries
OHMS Object Text
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contents of the OHMS object searchable in Omeka
5.4 OHP-0014-01 Anderson and Elwood Bigpond OHP-0014-01 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Family Histories Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Family Histories Pinehill cemeteries Anderson Bigpond Elwood Bigpond Robert L. “Bob” McCarty MP3 1:|13(4)|51(6)|87(2)|108(9)|117(11)|141(9)|174(1)|199(13)|228(11)|269(3)|302(8)|319(11)|350(2)|377(14)|395(8)|434(16)|463(3)|480(1)|501(11)|531(11)|559(10)|585(7)|606(1)|619(9)|632(3)|660(1)|669(11)|702(5)|741(9)|750(1)|755(6)|781(9)|797(11)|808(1)|854(3)|868(8)|896(7)|906(2)|939(8)|955(10)|983(7)|1014(9)|1050(8)|1082(2) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0014-01 Bigpond, Elwood & ; Anderson.mp3 Other audio 0 Elwood Bigpond Family Plot BM: (tape recording fumbling sounds) Now we’ll start all over again. This is an interview with Anderson Bigpond and Elwood Bigpond on the family cemeteries that they know about as well as any other cemeteries that they might know about here in Creek County. Okay, Mr. Bigpond was telling about where your father was buried. That is over about two miles east and about a quarter to a half a mile north of the Mills Chapel schoolhouse. Is that right? EB: Ehh, let’s see— BM: Right there by Little Deep Fork Creek—on the south side of Little Deep Fork Creek but it’d be on the east side of that road. [refers to map] Discussion of the location of the Elwood Bigpond Family Plot Anderson Bigpond ; Bigpond Family Cemetery ; Clinton Cemetery ; Dub Bolin ; Elwood Bigpond ; Elwood Bigpond Family Plot ; Elwood Family Plot ; family burial plot ; Little Deep Fork Creek ; Mills Chapel Schoolhouse cemeteries ; family 243 Kellyville Area Cemeteries AB: Now, how about the one north of you, where grandma lived, on the east there? Several graves in [indecipherable]? EB: Two babies there. Two babies there but that’s—that’s been sold, too. Discussion of cemeteries located near Kellyville, Oklahoma Amos Felix ; Indian Nations Council ; Kellyville ; Kenny Felix ; Little Bucktrot ; Pat Barnett ; Winnie Cahwey cemeteries ; Kellyville 414 Geneaology Society of Bristow BM: Well alright, I’ll probably—when we get this done, they’re talking about they want me to take Okfuskee and also Okmulgee County and do the same thing with a bunch in there. UM: Yeah. There’s also one in Seminole County. BM: Yeah? We have found eighty-five here in the Creek County area. Discussion of the how and why they began the project of locating the cemeteries. Bigpond Family Cemetery ; Cawhey Cemetery ; Depew ; Gene Connolly ; Geneaology Society of Bristow ; Ofuskee County ; Okmulgee County ; Seminole County cemetery ; Creek County ; Genealogy Society of Bristow 573 Barnett Family Cemetery AB: Now, Jack Tiger—what was, don’t they have a— EB: Jack Tiger’s buried south of Depew kind of off in the woods there somewhere. It’s an old cemetery right in there. BM: South of Depew? EB: Yeah. BM: Okay, how far south? Discussion of the location of the Barnett Family Cemetery Barnett Cemetery ; Barnett Family Cemetery ; Jack Tiger ; Jake Barnett ; Lodie Barnett ; Lodie Tiger ; Patsy Barnett ; Patti Tiger ; William Barnett Barnett Family Cemetery 818 Poor Farm Cemetery AB: Now I’ve got one here I’d like to ask you about. BM: Alright. AB: Since I, I usually save all these all the time. Okay. Now— [papers rustling] BM: Robert Biggs! Discussion of the Poor Farm Cemetery near Bristow Barney Harjo ; Bristow ; Bristow Cemetery ; Bristow City Cemetery ; Deep Rock Camp ; Oakcrest ; Oakcrest Memorial Park ; pauper's cemetery ; Poor Farm Cemetery ; Robert Biggs Poor Farm Cemetery 926 Magnolia Cemetery Lease BM: All them little crosses there. Now just up about 200, two- or three-hundred yards right west of that on the south side of the road, in them trees, there is another cemetery. EB: I’ve been by there but I wouldn’t know. Discussion of Magnolia Cemetery and an old lease agreement Bristow ; Harjo ; Magnolia Cemetery ; Oakcrest Memorial ; Ron Schumaker ; Roy Dunaway lease ; Magnolia Cemetery 1150 Oak Hill and Bristow Cemetery BM: Wait a min-- Oak Hill. Okay now, we’ve got—I don’t know whether you knew it—know it or not, now that would be out there at this new—that’d be out the new cemetery. Now there in Bristow they’ve got another cemetery that was the original Bristow cemetery. I didn’t know whether you knew that or not. AB: No. BM: Now they, they’ve got another one, you go out east of Bristow on sixteen -- AB: Yeah. BM: And you start down the hill there to cross Sand Creek? Discussion of the Oak Hill and the original Bristow Cemetery Arthur Foster ; Bristow Cemetery ; Foster Cemetery ; Oak Hill ; Sand Creek Bristow Cemetery ; Oak Hill 1341 Pinehill Cemetery AB: What did, did, oh—Pinehill. Did they have a cemetery? BM: Yep. Sure did. EB: Yeah, they cut one. BM: They built one a way up here. And Sally Pinehill, she’s buried way south of the old, the original. The one—the original cemetery, it’s right up on the bank of Polecat. Remember where Pinehill schoolhouse used to be? Discussion of Pinehill Cemetery Cemetery ; Pinehill ; Pinehill Schoolhouse ; Polecat ; Sally Pinehill Pinehill Cemetery 1426 Watashe Cemetery BM: They buried her back south of there about a quarter to a half a mile up on the side of the hill on her allotment up there. And you got the old Artie (ph) Skeeters (ph)--Artie Mosquito, do you remember him? Then you’ve got the old Artie (ph) Mosquito cemetery back over there on Mosquito Creek. pause Okay, now then, there’s another question that been a’rubbin’ me: I was called late yesterday evening about a cemetery. You go to Kellyville, go west out of Kellyville, to the first road that goes north. And that road goes all the way through to 33 Highway up there, and you come out up there at Bluebell. When you turn north up there—it’s just about a mile north, just before you cross the turnpike up there. On the west side of the road there’s supposed to be a cemetery sitting in there behind—according to this party that called me—there’s supposed to be a cemetery in there. There’s five or six graves in it. Do you know any of this? EB: You get more information on that if you just talk to Joe Watashe right in there, he-- BM: Okay. Alright. Well now see, Watashe’s got on up the road, on up the road, then, to the next mile section. Discussion of the Watashe Cemetery Artie Mosquito ; Bluebell ; Joe Watashe ; Kelly ; Kellyville ; Watashe Cemetery Watashe Cemetery 1644 Harry Cemetery EB: The only one I know was buried in there in the cemetery’d be Ed Harry. AB: Oh! You got—have you got the Harry Cemetery? BM: Alright, would that be it? AB: You go up here to the three mile— BM: Three miles? AB: Let’s see, let’s see—be two miles out of town back off in this Deep Fork ridge. BM: Yeah. Discussion of the Harry Cemetery Deep Fork Ridge ; Eddie Harry ; Harry Cemetery Harry Cemetery 1902 Haydeville and Knight Cemeteries BM: --but you have any idea what that cemetery would be? EB: No, I don’t. (rooster crows) BM: That would be this one right here. [refers to map] EB: Is it pretty close to the railroad? BM: Yeah, it would be north of the railroad. Brief discussion of the locations of the Haydenville and Knight cemeteries Haydenville ; Jim Bigpond ; Knight ; Tuskegee School Haydenville Cemetery ; Knight Cemetery 2094 Bear Cemetery AB: Now where’s the Bear cemetery out there? BM: Bear? AB: Yeah. BM: Okay, I’ll tell you in a minute. [refers to map] EB: I saw them over here. Discussion of Bear Cemetery Bear Cemetery ; Juedeman ; Roley Bear ; Tuskegee Bear Cemetery 2213 Clarence and Teddy Brown BM: Anything else you can think of? AB: Now, Clarence—Clarence Brown, they have a cemetery there. BM: Okay, now we’ve got, we’ve got a Brown. Another Brown. We’ve got a Brown here somewhere. [refers to map] Yeah, Teddy Brown. Old man Brown and we’ve got a Teddy Brown. Now, this is where names are a gift to me: seventy-three and seventy-six. Seventy-three and seventy-six. That’d be right in here. [refers to map] Seventy-three—(pause) and I don’t—we’ve got Brown there but that’s not right. Brown or Long over there south, Cawhey’s (ph) in there, there’s another one here. Brief discussion of Clarence and Teddy Brown Clarence Brown ; Gypsy ; Teddy Brown Clarence Brown ; Teddy Brown 2338 Madison Bucktrot and the Lane Cemetery BM: Okay, then, seventy-seven, it’s back over here right west of Iron Post. That’s the old Mason Bucktrot. AB: Madison Bucktrot. BM: Madison Bucktrot. And is that right? EB: They got, they got their own cemetery. Discussion of the Bucktrot family cemetery and the Lane Cemetery Cling ; Edna ; Madison Bucktrot ; The Lane Cemetery ; Tuskegee Madison Bucktrot 2489 McNac Cemetery and Harlinsville Cemetery BM: Now, eighty-three, now let’s see, where’s eighty-three at. [refers to map] Now eighty-three, now we’ll come back in here, that’s the Clinton cemetery, out east of town out here. Eighty-four, then, is the family cemetery. Eighty-five, then, is yours. EB: Mmm-hmm. BM: Eighty-six is Knight. EB: Wally (ph) Knight? Discussion of the McNac Cemetery and Harlinsville Cemetery Amos McNac ; Harlinsville Cemetery ; McNac Cemetery ; Wally Knight Harlinsville Cemetery ; McNac Cemetery In this 1977 interview, Anderson Bigpond and Elwood Bigpond work with the interviewer to pinpoint the names and specific locations of various family burial plots and Indian cemeteries in Creek County, Oklahoma. BM: (tape recording fumbling sounds) Now we' ; ll start all over again. This is an interview with Anderson Bigpond and Elwood Bigpond on the family cemeteries that they know about as well as any other cemeteries that they might know about here in Creek County. Okay, Mr. Bigpond was telling about where your father was buried. That is over about two miles east and about a quarter to a half a mile north of the Mills Chapel schoolhouse. Is that right? EB: Ehh, let' ; s see-- BM: Right there by Little Deep Fork Creek--on the south side of Little Deep Fork Creek but it' ; d be on the east side of that road. [refers to map] EB: I don' ; t believe that' ; s two mile, I believe that' ; s a mile (coughs) coming from Mills Chapel, you come to the corner there-- BM: Come down, so that' ; s two miles over there. EB: Huh. BM: That' ; d be--well that' ; d be a mile, actually, a mile over there. EB: And where you turn in there to go-- BM: And the road goes north-- EB: --to Dub Bolin, that would' ; ve been a mile. BM: --yep, right. A mile, okay, a mile. Okay, a mile. EB: About a mile and-- BM: That' ; s right. You' ; re right. EB: About a mile and-- BM: About a mile and a half it looks like. EB: About a mile and a half, yeah. BM: Okay. Then north up to just before you get to Little Deep Fork Creek, then on the east side of that road, is that right? EB: Yeah. BM: Okay. Now then, the Clinton Cemetery, that would be called the Clinton Cemetery. EB: Yeah. BM: Okay. EB: As far as I know that' ; s what' ; s it' ; s-- BM: As far as you know. EB: Yeah. BM: Okay, then the Bigpond Family Cemetery then, would be five miles east, a mile south-- AB: About a mile and a quarter. EB: About a mile and a quarter. BM: About a mile and a quarter south-- EB: Yeah. BM: And east about a quarter of a mile. AB: Yes. BM: Is that right? AB: That' ; s right, about a quarter of a mile. BM: Now we got that marked as Bigpond Family Cemetery." ; (pause) Alright, is there any of the--we were talking earlier about these, these babies that' ; s buried out here. Do you want to put them on here? Or do we want to let them go? I' ; m going to leave that strictly up to you. EB: It' ; s not a cemetery but I don' ; t know if they could-- BM: It' ; s a family burial plot, isn' ; t it? AB: Yeah. EB: Yeah. BM: It would be a family burial plot. EB: Mmm. BM: So we' ; re gonna mark this with a marker-- EB: That little baby here was, it died at birth. BM: Okay. What we' ; ll do with this one, then, we' ; ll mark this one over here E-L-W-O-O-D Family Plot. [marks map] That would be this one right out here. EB: Yeah. BM: Okay, we' ; ll call that one eighty-five and we' ; ll mark that one right there eighty-five. [marks map] Well that' ; s--we' ; ll call that the Elwood Bigpond Family Plot. Okay, anything else that you can think of? EB: No, I believe I don' ; t. AB: Now, how about the one north of you, where grandma lived, on the east there? Several graves in [indecipherable]? EB: Two babies there. Two babies there but that' ; s--that' ; s been sold, too. BM: Now, it don' ; t make any difference about it being sold if there' ; s two babies there. It' ; s a family plot and as I say, what is got me stirred up on this thing and got me t' ; d off--I' ; ve run into one back over east of Kellyville over here, right there was a--it was a large graveyard and it was called the Bucktrot. Little Bucktrot. Over here east of Kellyville that the old boy' ; d just taken a bulldozer-- EB: Huh. BM: --bulldozered all down, just pile the stones and everything up, went in and planted a garden on top of it. That burnt me up. AB: That' ; s not in there where-- BM: Now the Indian Nations Council, they' ; ve got a report of this as well as two attorneys here in Bristow and they say that they can be something done about that. EB: Yeah. (rooster crowing) BM: That a burial ground, regardless of where it is or what it is, is a sacred. If it' ; s one or if it' ; s 100, it' ; s still sacred ground. (rooster crowing) EB: That must' ; ve been Cunja (ph) Bucktrot' ; s place north, kind of north of-- BM: Well it--go east out of Kellyville-- EB: East. BM: East out--straight east get out of Kellyville out there, back out there on the hill. About a mile, mile and a half, mile east of Kellyville out there and then back south down there. I heard this from fellow by the name of Felix. (rooster crowing) EB: Kenny (ph) Felix. BM: I believe his name was Osc-Amos. Amos. EB: Amos. BM: Amos Felix. AB: Yeah, we know him. BM: Amos was telling me about this and I ran it down, and shore enough that' ; s what' ; s happening. (rooster crowing) AB: This is not the cemetery that--what was their, Winnie Cahwey (ph) and--Winnie Cahwey (ph) and Pat Barnett, you know, they were always feuding over a cemetery up there that her grandfather Osa (ph) had plowed it up or something like that. EB: This was out in a few minutes ago. AB: Plowed it up and-- EB: Was trying to find the cemetery. BM: You know anything? UM: Not around this part [inaudible]. BM: Well alright, I' ; ll probably--when we get this done, they' ; re talking about they want me to take Okfuskee and also Okmulgee County and do the same thing with a bunch in there. UM: Yeah. There' ; s also one in Seminole County. BM: Yeah? We have found eighty-five here in the Creek County area. UM: Well there' ; s a bunch of them that-- BM: And it doesn' ; t make any difference whether it' ; s a white cemetery, colored cemetery, Indian cemetery, family burial plot, or what. UM: Mmm-hmm. AB: Do you work for the Creek Nation? Or just working for-- BM: This is just for myself. AB: Oh, I see. BM: This is for myself. So we' ; re the Genealogy Society of Bristow. AB: Yeah. Well I thought that' ; s what I read it in the paper and then-- BM: Genealogist Society in Bristow, they appointed me and the wife to run this all down and when we get this all run down it' ; ll be put on a computer form. With the names of the cemetery and roughly how it' ; s laid out, if it' ; s taken care of, if it' ; s got a fence around it, roughly how many graves is in it, the whole works. UM: Gonna take a while isn' ; t it? (chuckles) BM: Well, you' ; d be surprised, I' ; ve already come up with eighty-five. UM: Yeah. BM: Here in Creek County. And I' ; ve been just damned near to all of them. UM: Yeah. BM: All but just this--this one back off over here that I found out about this morning, where his [Elwood' ; s] dad was buried. I didn' ; t know anything about that one. UM: Yeah. BM: And I didn' ; t know anything about the family Bigpond--Bigpond Family Cemetery. I didn' ; t know anything about that. UM: Yeah. BM: I heard about it yesterday evening but I didn' ; t--I didn' ; t know anything about it. UM: Hmm. BM: Gene Connolly' ; s (ph) wife was telling me about this here [indecipherable]. And, well, there' ; s not but one thing for me to do. UM: [inaudible] BM: (chuckles) No, I just go run down the man that--go down and run down the man with the plan. EB: You know, this fellow, this Bigpond--there is a Bigpond Cemetery in Depew. BM: Yeah, that' ; s off over here. [refers to map] EB: Yeah. BM: That' ; s way off over here. And there' ; s also a Cawhey (ph) over there. EB: Yeah. AB: Yeah. BM: There' ; s Cawhey (ph) Cemetery over there as well as a Bigpond Cemetery over there. EB: I believe they' ; re together in there. BM: Well, they' ; re right there close together, just maybe [indecipherable] apart. They' ; re all right there together. AB: Now, Jack Tiger--what was, don' ; t they have a-- EB: Jack Tiger' ; s buried south of Depew kind of off in the woods there somewhere. It' ; s an old cemetery right in there. BM: South of Depew? EB: Yeah. BM: Okay, how far south? EB: Well, let' ; s see. BM: I don' ; t want you to go, getting' ; you all upset now, why don' ; t you just relax. (all chuckling) I want you to relax. AB: Now, I know, you could--now there' ; s a girl, woman, lives over there. She' ; s married to Jake Barnett. Now they live in Depew. BM: No, I heard about them Barnetts live out here north of town. AB: Well, that' ; s some of the same family. BM: Yes. AB: But they live in Depew. Now that' ; s--Jack Tiger was her dad, wasn' ; t it? Jake' ; s wife. EB: Patti? AB: Yeah. EB: Patti and-- AB: What' ; s Jake' ; s wife' ; s name? EB: Patti and Jack Tiger. AB: Is it Lodie Tiger? BM: Otey? AB: Lodie. Lodie Tiger. BM: Lodie. AB: But it' ; s Lodie Barnett now. She' ; s married to Jake Barnett. And they live south of Depew, not maybe about a mile south of Depew. EB: That makes the cemetery on their place. AB: Yeah, well, now, see, this is Barnett Cemetery I was telling you-- UM: [aside] I' ; ll be back here after while. EB: [aside] Okay. AB: --Barnett Cemetery I was telling you about last night. [refers to map] BM: Yeah. AB: See, this is Barnett Family Cemetery. Now, Patsy Ruth Barnett, she was married to William Barnett. Now, this Cawhey (ph) and Pat (ph) were always kind of at odds with one another. And when--Pat told me, said the feud has lasted for a number of years on account of her grandfather had plowed up Mrs. Cawhey' ; s (ph) grandfather, or something like that there. But I was wondering when you' ; s telling about this over there at Kellyville that someone went in and dozed. And I just wondered if that' ; s the same place or not. BM: No, this one' ; s over there south of Kellyville. This one over here, then, would be over here about a mile south, you said, about a mile south of Depew? AB: Well, you can locate-- BM: This one here. [refers to map] AB: You can locate-- BM: This one here. AB: Well, I' ; ve been back in there now. I' ; m not too for sure. But you could contact-- EB: Lodie. She' ; ll tell you about that, sure. BM: Lodie? AB: Lodie. Jack Tiger, where Jack Tiger' ; s buried in that cemetery. Now I don' ; t know the name of it. But Lodie Tiger--Lodie Tiger Barnett, could--she lives there and she could probably tell you more about that. EB: Now, they tell me that a rancher bought that place and he--I don' ; t know whether he plowed anything or not but he' ; s pasturing it, pasturing it over there. BM: Why that' ; s--of course, pasturing it, that' ; s not gonna hurt it or anything. Go in there and go to throwing them damn claw down that deep, why, a lot of them graves that--Lord, they' ; s supposed to be four to six feet deep but now, you know as well as I do that, that there' ; s some places here in this part of the country there' ; s no way that you' ; re gonna dig four to six feet deep. AB: Yeah. BM: So there' ; s gonna be a lot of ' ; em it wouldn' ; t be over two feet deep. The equipment they' ; ve got now a' ; days, well it' ; s nothing for ' ; em to plow six--plow two feet deep. Or scratch two feet deep. AB: Now I' ; ve got one here I' ; d like to ask you about. BM: Alright. AB: Since I, I usually save all these all the time. Okay. Now-- [papers rustling] BM: Robert Biggs! AB: Robert Biggs, now he was buried in Oakcrest Memorial Park, is that the same as the Bristow cemetery? BM: That would be the Bristow cemetery. AB: Well, you see why I was wondering about it [rooster caws] see I got one on Barney (ph) Harjo, now he' ; s related to the Harjos live north of town so if it' ; s Bristow City Cemetery [rooster caws] so I-- BM: Well, see, that' ; d be that Oakcrest, that would be the same thing. (pause) Now I think that' ; s right but now I wouldn' ; t say definitely sure. AB: (chuckles) BM: Now the reason I' ; m saying that is this: Now out here west of Bristow, stop and think a minute now, and you too, Anderson. Out here west of Bristow, now you know, they had the old Poor Farm cemetery, or pauper' ; s cemetery, whichever one you want to call it, had them little crosses, sitting right there beside the road. AB: Yeah. BM: Alright, now right just up on the hill there, on the south side of sixty-six, now there is a graveyard there. But I have not been able to get any name on it. AB: I think I know where you' ; re talking about but I don' ; t know too much about that. BM: I don' ; t either! I can' ; t run anybody down that' ; s got a name on it. AB: You know out west of Bristow-- BM: Out there where that Deep Rock camp is out there west of Bristow? AB: Yeah. EB: What they used to call the Poor Farm? BM: Yeah, the Poor Farm. AB: Yeah. BM: Alright, the Poor Farm graveyard is right down there beside the highway. They' ; ve got some little crosses in there on it. AB: Just right on that-- BM: Right on the north side of the highway. AB: North side. And all them little crosses there. BM: All them little crosses there. Now just up about 200, two- or three-hundred yards right west of that on the south side of the road, in them trees, there is another cemetery. EB: I' ; ve been by there but I wouldn' ; t know. BM: But I would say that this here [refers to map], I would say that' ; s what this is right here. But I will check this out and make sure. AB: You think it' ; s the Bristow cemetery? BM: Oakcrest Memorial. AB: Now I got loooots of this stuff so I don' ; t have to be guessing, I can tell you for sure (chuckles) BM: I' ; ll check this out and see where that Oakcrest is. And if it, if it is the old Bristow Cemetery, then it' ; s out there by the armory. AB: Mmm-hmm, yeah. I--since I was leafing some, going through some of these, I just kind of, well I know we got the Magnolia Cemetery and stuff like that. BM: Oh, and 44, we' ; ve got the 44 out there, we got the Magnolia. AB: Yeah. BM: Really and truly that could be Harjo out there instead of Magnolia. But Roy Dunaway, when he put that thing in, he just got a hundred-year lease on it, he couldn' ; t buy the land, he got a hundred-year lease on it and placed that cemetery there and that man has got rich on those graves. AB: Yeah. BM: Just on leased land. Well when that hundred year' ; s up, now, here' ; s the sixty-four-dollar question: Will the Harjo family renew the hundred-year lease? Will the Harjo family? AB: But they never did buy that? They just got a hundred-year lease? BM: They just got a hundred-year lease on it! AB: Huh. That' ; s interesting, ain' ; t it? EB: What cemetery' ; s that? BM: That' ; s that Magnolia. That' ; s that one north of town. AB: They, they never did buy that. They just leased it for a hundred years, which I never, I didn' ; t know. BM: Now Roy Dunaway told me this himself before he died. And Roy and I was pretty close there at one time. And he told me when he first went to laying that thing out, goddamn Roy, you' ; re, you' ; re really sticking your neck out, ain' ; t you buddy? And, oh, he said, I got a hundred-year lease on it for two dollars a year and I don' ; t think I' ; m sticking my neck out very far, I said, No, I don' ; t believe you are, either. AB: But it' ; s gonna complicate things in the future. BM: In the future it' ; s gonna complicate things. AB: If you don' ; t buy it--I mean if you try to buy it, say probably [indecipherable] (chuckles) and what' ; s gonna happen to it (chuckles) BM: Well, Ron Schumaker, whenever they, you go out there and buy a plot, they give you a deed to that plot. AB: Yeah. BM: Well now that deed is worthless as the paper it was written on, by it being leased land. There is no way that he can give a clear deed to that plot of ground. But he can write one up. Everybody doesn' ; t know this. AB: Now, this is south of town here, now. I thought that was the old Tiger cemetery, [inaudible] ' ; cause there' ; s a lots of people buried there. Isn' ; t Alma (ph) Tiger and Tom (ph) Tiger and all of them buried in there? BM: Now, Flo (ph) Weaver told me that was called the Harjo. AB: Well, they must' ; ve--see, that was there before the Harjos existed. BM: That isn' ; t very possible, is it? (chuckles) AB: But I guess the Harjos, since they do bury there, I guess they-- EB: Clearly it' ; s kind of family-- AB: Yeah, it' ; s kind of a family. BM: It' ; s family. It' ; s sort of a family. AB: --could be called family. BM: It' ; s sort of a family get-together. AB: ' ; Cause you see, my mother--my mother' ; s mother, she' ; s buried there, too. BM: Wait a min-- Oak Hill. Okay now, we' ; ve got--I don' ; t know whether you knew it--know it or not, now that would be out there at this new--that' ; d be out the new cemetery. Now there in Bristow they' ; ve got another cemetery that was the original Bristow cemetery. I didn' ; t know whether you knew that or not. AB: No. BM: Now they, they' ; ve got another one, you go out east of Bristow on sixteen-- AB: Yeah. BM: And you start down the hill there to cross Sand Creek? AB: Yeah. BM: Just before you start, just before you drop over that hump to go down to Sand Creek, that' ; s straight south back up there, was the original old Bristow Cemetery. AB: Hmm. BM: And I' ; ve called it the Foster Cemetery but I didn' ; t know at the time that it was the old Bristow Cemetery, because the reason I did that was Arthur Foster' ; s grandfather is buried there and he' ; s the one who' ; s got the big stone. He' ; s got a big stone. AB: I didn' ; t even know there was cemetery there. BM: It' ; s--would be located right here [refers to map]. AB: That would be kind of north-- BM: Right here. Right here. Right there is where it' ; s located. AB: Well it would be kind of located--well they got some apartment buildings there-- BM: Well, now, see, that' ; s north of them apartment buildings. AB: North of them apartment buildings? BM: It' ; s north of them apartment buildings. Now they tell me, I' ; ve been in there, the wife' ; s got two uncles that' ; s buried there in that thing. AB: Mmm-hmm. BM: That' ; s what got us to really checking into it. AB: Mmm-hmm. BM: And then as times comes on, this was the original, the old Bristow Cemetery, before they moved out, out on the hill out there. EB: Is that what they called the sixty? BM: May be, I don' ; t know. EB: Right north of--two miles east of Bristow and then back north. BM: No, this is just right, this is just--now is there one out there by sixty? EB: Well, I don' ; t--I' ; ve heard of people being buried out there. BM: Out there by model sixty then. EB: Yeah. You go two miles east and then north. BM: Two miles east and go north up there. EB: Right in there. BM: I didn' ; t know anything about that one. [refers to map] Okay, we go two miles east, be here, go north two miles and now then that road, according to this map, it don' ; t show that that road goes all the way to there. But it does, it goes to and comes back out at the bottom of the hill over there, that' ; s the Joe (ph) Allen (ph) place. It just winds around comes on around comes back to the old Joe (ph) Allen (ph) hill. At the bottom of the old Joe (ph) Allen (ph) hill. AB: What did, did, oh--Pinehill. Did they have a cemetery? BM: Yep. Sure did. EB: Yeah, they cut one. BM: They built one a way up here. And Sally Pinehill, she' ; s buried way south of the old, the original. The one--the original cemetery, it' ; s right up on the bank of Polecat. Remember where Pinehill schoolhouse used to be? AB: Yeah. BM: Okay, go east from Pinehill schoolhouse, you cross the creek, you go on down--the road is going straight there and the road comes right around the side of the creek. Just before you make that curve it' ; s settin' ; right back south--southeast over there on the east side of that creek. AB: I was pretty young, you know in those days, I don' ; t remember-- BM: The the old Sally Pinehill, she didn' ; t want--they didn' ; t bury her down there in the old original, the old original cemetery. AB: Hmm. BM: They buried her back south of there about a quarter to a half a mile up on the side of the hill on her allotment up there. And you got the old Artie (ph) Skeeters (ph)--Artie Mosquito, do you remember him? Then you' ; ve got the old Artie (ph) Mosquito cemetery back over there on Mosquito Creek. pause Okay, now then, there' ; s another question that been a' ; rubbin' ; me: I was called late yesterday evening about a cemetery. You go to Kellyville, go west out of Kellyville, to the first road that goes north. And that road goes all the way through to 33 Highway up there, and you come out up there at Bluebell. When you turn north up there--it' ; s just about a mile north, just before you cross the turnpike up there. On the west side of the road there' ; s supposed to be a cemetery sitting in there behind--according to this party that called me--there' ; s supposed to be a cemetery in there. There' ; s five or six graves in it. Do you know any of this? EB: You get more information on that if you just talk to Joe Watashe right in there, he-- BM: Okay. Alright. Well now see, Watashe' ; s got on up the road, on up the road, then, to the next mile section. EB: Mmm-hmm. BM: North of there, then a mile and a half west is where the old Watashe Cemetery is. EB: Mmm-hmm. BM: And the old Watashi stompground and so on and so forth in there. EB: Yeah. BM: Okay. Then. I don' ; t know whether I' ; ve got this one right or not: You come back over to that road going on up there, up about a half a mile north of that road, now. There is one sitting back west of the road over there (chickens squawking). They say there' ; s probably twenty-five or thirty graves in it. EB: Mmm-hmm. BM: But I didn' ; t have a chance to go in and look this one over. It was wet and I didn' ; t have a chance to go and look it over. But they tell me now that they call that one George. EB: George. BM: That' ; s what I was told yesterday evening on this one. They call that one George. Do you know anything about that? EB: No, but I know a few Georges. But I don' ; t know nothing about a cemetery. BM: Okay, let me backtrack here to sixty-five (pages flipping). I' ; ve got two here--see we' ; re sixty-five out here. (chickens squawking) Okay, sixty-six, same way. Alright, now then. Sixty--I' ; ve got sixty-six (dog barking). Do you know anything about go down here to the, the road that goes across there at the airport? And go west, just before you get to the airport over there, on the north side of the road there. Do you know of anything right in there? AB: That would be going on past the Kelly farm in there? BM: Yeah, see, it' ; d be--it' ; s right on the Kelly farm in there and then this plot laid right in there between the airport and the Kelly farm. Now I do know there' ; s a dwelling, an Indian dwelling down there, but to tell you--I didn' ; t even know-- EB: The only one I know was buried in there in the cemetery' ; d be Ed Harry. AB: Oh! You got--have you got the Harry Cemetery? BM: Alright, would that be it? AB: You go up here to the three mile-- BM: Three miles? AB: Let' ; s see, let' ; s see--be two miles out of town back off in this Deep Fork ridge. BM: Yeah. AB: And you go about a mile and three quarters-- BM: West. AB: West. BM: Okay. AB: And that--it' ; s got a big sign there, it did have a big sign, the Harry Cemetery. BM: Okay, that' ; s this damn thing I' ; m trying to find, that would be this, this sixty-six. Harry. EB: Eddie Harry. AB: Oh, and then there' ; s Watson--one of those Watson girls was married, do you remember the one they called Salina (ph) died and [indecipherable] BM: Okay, now, that would be-- EB: Did they bury her there? AB: Yeah. BM: That would be the Eddie Harry. That would be the cemetery that I' ; m talking about. AB: Well, I think they just got Harry Cemetery. BM: Okay, that' ; s what we' ; ll put down here. We' ; ll put Harry. AB: Yeah. BM: Harry Cemetery down there. AB: Now they--there' ; s an old house sits kind of off in the woods by it, and now--right out there right alongside the road they did have a big sign that said Harry Cemetery. Big oh--big sign about like that yay. That just a little before, it' ; s down-- BM: You come off that hill there and you drive, just before you get-- AB: Down at the bottom of that school there. What was school there? BM: That was down, right on--going into [indecipherable] it was sitting up on top of the hill there. AB: Yeah well it was down at the--you know where it' ; s at, then, yeah. BM: I' ; ve got that--I had it marked but I didn' ; t have no name for it. Okay, sixty-five. Let me see where--let me run sixty-five down. I know there' ; s another one in there. But I gotta find it. EB: It looks right here, sixty-two. BM: Yeah. (pause) Let me find sixty-five. [refers to map] I' ; ve had to come back in after--had to come back in and as they went to coming in I' ; ve had to come back in and remark everything. [murmuring] Sixty-five. (rooster crows) Scattered-the numbers are scattered everywhere. [murmuring] Sixty-eight. Sixty-four. Can' ; t find it over here anywhere. Fifty-nine. (chicken squawking) No, I don' ; t see it right now. Oh, yeah! Right here! That' ; s the one over here just this side of Depew, now. You come around the curve coming out of Depew, come around that curve you straighten out in there right in there right south of that--well it' ; d be southwest of that salvage yard out there. (rooster crows) On the south side of the road. There used to be a sign up there. But the sign is gone. It' ; s out there, see you come in there where that road goes south to Gypsy-- AB: Mm-hmm. EB: That must be right in there by where old man Kilgore (ph) used to live. BM: Yeah? EB: South of there-- BM: It' ; s out there south of the Kilgore (ph) place out there. Well, see, [indecipherable]--before the highway was finished in there, his son was killed out on that curve just east of the house, on that damned crooked-edge crooked curve in there. They tried to take that curve ' ; round-- [brief interference in tape] BM: --but you have any idea what that cemetery would be? EB: No, I don' ; t. (rooster crows) BM: That would be this one right here. [refers to map] EB: Is it pretty close to the railroad? BM: Yeah, it would be north of the railroad. EB: No, way back there Jim Bigpond got killed on the railroad right there--well, he didn' ; t die then, but he got his arm and leg cut off and he died later on, but I don' ; t think he was buried there. BM: But there used to be a big sign up there that--that sign is gone now. EB: Yeah. BM: But it' ; s out there between Bristow and Depew. EB: Yeah. BM: Okay, let' ; s see. I' ; ve got another one in here I think. Seventy-one. Where' ; s seventy-one at? [referencing map] [mumbling to self] Sixty-five, seventy-one. Yeah, that' ; s this one up here, we didn' ; t know on the--still no name for that one, still no name for that one. Sixty-one was called George. Now this, this eighteen, we still haven' ; t got a name for it yet. That' ; s this one out here just the other side of [indecipherable]. AB: Seem like, wasn' ; t there a sign up for that? BM: There used to be a sign up there. AB: Now, tell me something: where--I think there' ; s a cemetery by the name of Haydenville or something like that, but it seems to me--I always see that come up [inaudible] BM: Haydenville' ; s way down south-- AB: Yeah, I know where Haydenville is. But I--seems like there' ; s something right down here. Haydenville--might not' ; ve been. Hayden? Or [indecipherable] or something like that-- BM: I don' ; t know what that name is right there, but-- AB: Yeah. Now, now they might have a cemetery in there, you know where the old Tuskegee School is? BM: Yeah, the old Tuskegee School, here it is right here. [refers to map] AB: You go out about a mile north-- BM: About a mile-- AB: Wait, no, about a half a mile north and then-- BM: Well then that' ; s-- AB: Then about a quarter of a mile back east. Now there' ; s a cemetery in there, too. BM: Okay. McKnight. AB: Knight. BM: Knight. AB: K-N-I-G-H-T. Now, I' ; m not too fam--I' ; ve been there, but I' ; m not too familiar. BM: Okay, yeah, I know the people that' ; s up there. AB: Now where' ; s the Bear cemetery out there? BM: Bear? AB: Yeah. BM: Okay, I' ; ll tell you in a minute. [refers to map] EB: I saw them over here. BM: You said over here, didn' ; t you? Baker, Baker, Battle, Battle, Bucktrot, Tiger, Phillip, Harlinsville, Brown--well I had it here. EB: [inaudible] AB: The reason I was asking you, I got cemetery (rooster crows) Tuskegee there, that school in there--I was thinking was thinking that the Bear cemetery and it was the same place, but they said it' ; s the same-- BM: No, it' ; s not. That is the--where in the world' ; s that at, I know it--I know Bear is on there. But I don' ; t see it. EB: I seen it a while ago somewhere. BM: Wattie (ph) Sewell (ph), Lodie Tiger, Bucktrot, Gilcrease, Battle, Bucktrot, Baker, Drumright, Cawhey (ph), Washburn (ph), Brown, Bucktrot, Clinton--well here it is! Number three! The Bear! Be right here. [refers to map] AB: Now let' ; s see, this is-- BM: That' ; s west, come right straight north of Tuskegee-- AB: Yeah. BM: That would be out there, what is now known as the Juedeman place. Down there on the Juedeman place. AB: Yeah. BM: See, Roley Bear lived just before you get--Roley Bear' ; s place was just before you get up to the Juedeman place. AB: My sister' ; s buried there. BM: Yeah? AB: Well I-- BM: Then on north of that, then, is the Juedeman place, it' ; s back off out--it' ; s back off out to the right back off out there. AB: Mmm-hmm. BM: Anything else you can think of? AB: Now, Clarence--Clarence Brown, they have a cemetery there. BM: Okay, now we' ; ve got, we' ; ve got a Brown. Another Brown. We' ; ve got a Brown here somewhere. [refers to map] Yeah, Teddy Brown. Old man Brown and we' ; ve got a Teddy Brown. Now, this is where names are a gift to me: seventy-three and seventy-six. Seventy-three and seventy-six. That' ; d be right in here. [refers to map] Seventy-three--(pause) and I don' ; t--we' ; ve got Brown there but that' ; s not right. Brown or Long over there south, Cawhey' ; s (ph) in there, there' ; s another one here. AB: [inaudible] BM: The old man Brown is down seventy-six. AB: That would be-- BM: That would be down file miles south-- AB: Out east, east of Gypsy? BM: Yeah. I gotta find it. Seventy-nine, I marked everything last night. Seventy-five, seventy-four and seventy-five. Alright, seventy-four is Teddy Brown. AB: Ted Brown. BM: Ted Brown. Seventy-five is Washburn (ph). AB: Washburn (ph). That would be-- BM: [indecipherable] five miles, go straight east here [refers to map]-- AB: Yep. Two mile--three miles-- BM: One mile, then go straight south. AB: Yeah, I know where it' ; s at. BM: Okay, Ted Brown is in there too. AB: Is that where Teddy Brown lies? BM: Yeah, yeah. Teddy Brown' ; s in there too. AB: Hmm. (chuckles) BM: Okay, then, seventy-seven, it' ; s back over here right west of Iron Post. That' ; s the old Mason Bucktrot. AB: Madison Bucktrot. BM: Madison Bucktrot. And is that right? EB: They got, they got their own cemetery. BM: Okay, that' ; s what we got it marked Madison Bucktrot. Okay. Seventy-eight--(pause). It' ; s right in here because it was marked last night. Yesterday evening. Seventy-nine, we just marked that seventy-nine, the Clinton, in here. Seventy-eight. Well anyway, seventy-eight--we got the Lucy Deer (ph). The Lucy Deer (ph). AB: Is that the same one they call Woosy Deer (ph)? BM: Woosy (ph), that' ; s it. EB: Woosy Deer (ph). BM: Woosy Deer (ph). AB: Woosy Deer (ph). BM: Woosy Deer (ph). Right it here it is, way up here. EB: Oh, it' ; s around Sapulpa then. BM: Seventy-eight. That' ; s up there by the turnpike gate out of Sapulpa. Seventy-nine is Lundsford (ph). That' ; s right in here. AB: Back in here. BM: No, that would be--that would be--I think we' ; re wrong on that. We' ; ve got the Lundsford (ph), no that' ; s seventy-nine at Clinton. Seventy-nine at Clinton. Eighty is Lundsford. Okay, that would be just right down the road down here. AB: Right down here. BM: Okay. Eighty-one is Lane. The Lane cemetery. Eighty-three is the Clinton. AB: Now is that-- BM: Eight-one, that' ; s the Lane. That' ; s a way the heck off over here. That' ; s way off over here in the southwest, southeast corner of, or that' ; d be the southwest corner, back off down there. AB: Is it like them to have two cemeteries? BM: I don' ; t know. AB: What--wasn' ; t Charlie' ; s mother--she was buried down here at-- EB: Probably Tuskegee. AB: They call that Tuskegee not [indecipherable] now. EB: And [indecipherable] down there around Edna. A big cemetery, now. BM: Now, eighty-three, now let' ; s see, where' ; s eighty-three at. [refers to map] Now eighty-three, now we' ; ll come back in here, that' ; s the Clinton cemetery, out east of town out here. Eighty-four, then, is the family cemetery. Eighty-five, then, is yours. EB: Mmm-hmm. BM: Eighty-six is Knight. EB: Wally (ph) Knight? AB: Yeah, Wally (ph) Knight. Now you' ; ve got the McNac (ph) cemetery? BM: McNac? AB: McNac. M-C-N-A-C. BM: M-C-N-A-C. AB: Yeah. BM: No, I haven' ; t. AB: See, they got a cemetery right there at where they lived. BM: Now, where' ; s that at? AB: Well, (sighs) well you go out to forty-eight out here-- BM: What, forty-eight, north on forty-eight? AB: Yeah, north on forty-eight but I can' ; t--it' ; s quite a-ways out there, eight or nine miles out there I guess, and then you turn to go back east. But it' ; s like-- BM: East or west? AB: West. BM: Okay, then that' ; d be out there what they call the old Mac (ph) Baker corner. AB: Uh-huh, I don' ; t know about that. BM: See, that' ; d be about eight mile north up there. Like you' ; re going on to the sub station. AB: Yeah. BM: And see, before you get to there you' ; ve got the Harlinsville Cemetery and there' ; s no other road-- AB: Yeah, that Harlinsville Cemetery, that' ; s the one I was trying to-- BM: Harlinsville. AB: Yeah! Harlinsville. That' ; s it. BM: That' ; s it right there. [refers to map] AB: Yeah, that' ; s the one I was--but anyway, just like I told you, that if you contact that Amos McNac, he can give you the exact directions. Now he lives out right, he lives out to where Bethel lives. He' ; s lived--where Bethel lives, he lives right across the road from Bethel there. BM: Oh, okay. AB: Or he' ; s listed in the telephone directory. He can probably give you the exact mileage out there and some information on it, but all I know is it' ; s a cemetery there. BM: Okay. AB: A family cemetery. BM: Alright. Anything else you might think of? (pause) AB: That' ; s the only ones I can think of. BM: Okay. We' ; ll stop this thing. end of recording audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0014-01_Anderson_Bigpond.xml OHP-0014-01_Anderson_Bigpond.xml
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Anderson and Elwood Bigpond
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In this 1977 interview, Anderson Bigpond and Elwood Bigpond work with the interviewer to pinpoint the names and specific locations of various family burial plots and Indian cemeteries in Creek County, Oklahoma.
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OHP-0014-01
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Family Histories
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1977
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audio
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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/.
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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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Georgia Smith
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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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Basil Baker
Description
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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.
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OHP-2020-08
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2020-12-13
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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
Advent Christian Church
banks
Bristow Public Schools
Dust Bowl
farming
Great Depression
Mills Chapel
peanuts
statehood
stores
World War II
WPA
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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
The person(s) being interviewed
Bill Dalpoas
Beth Dalpoas
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-18_Dalpoas_Bill_and_Beth.xml
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5.4 June 3, 2021 OHP-2021-18 Bill and Beth Dalpoas OHP-2021-18 00:00 - 53:53 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Bill Dalpoas Beth Dalpoas Georgia Smith MP3 1:|62(11)|84(4)|121(4)|138(16)|168(3)|198(2)|232(7)|255(1)|305(11)|343(5)|385(2)|411(16)|430(2)|470(4)|509(11)|552(4)|591(4)|618(9)|638(5)|666(3)|696(8)|729(14)|772(12)|795(3)|814(12)|857(7)|892(7)|924(5)|943(10)|981(12)|1000(14)|1049(7)|1073(4)|1118(6)|1147(8)|1162(3)|1178(3)|1203(6)|1229(7)|1251(4)|1268(3)|1287(13)|1305(2)|1327(7)|1358(11)|1388(5)|1407(9)|1438(9)|1468(8)|1493(9)|1513(11)|1523(16)|1543(5)|1563(8) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-2021-18 Dalpoas, Bill and Beth.mp3 Other audio 0 Introduction BD: Here we go BD: Red light is on GS: Yup, and it’s running so here we go. BD: Okay GS: Alright, 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 day is June 3rd, 2021 and I am sitting here at the home of Bill and Beth Dalpoas, who are going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now, I’ll start with you Beth ; give me your full name and your date of birth. BD: Wow. Elizabeth Ann Long Dalpoas. Birthday: March 19, 1939, in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. GS: Okay thank you, and Bill what was your full name at birth and birth date, and place. Dick List ; Elizabeth Ann Long Dalpoas ; Hartshorne, Oklahoma ; J.L. Bobson ; J.L. Turner ; McAlester, Oklahoma ; William Raymond Dalpaos 185 Local Businesses GS: Well we’re glad you didn’t. So what job did you come to here? BD: I was manager of a store. We opened in the old Safeway location, which is now Homestead. GS: Okay that’s right, Safeway was there BD: Right off the corner GS: 8th in Main, uh-huh. BD: And we opened the store and it was kinda [Indecipherable] store, we’d get big baskets of socks that were not even matched and we had to go through all of them and match them GS: Oh wow BD: It was nationwide department stores, wasn’t it? Ben Franklins ; Cleo Pinson ; Department Stores ; Dollar General ; Hi-Way Cafe ; Homestead ; Safeway Stores, Inc. ; Travis Paten ; Walmart ; Wolverton Mountain https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186812043/cleo-wayne-pinson Cleo Pinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpmztcX_BtI Wolverton Mountain 643 Organizations and Church Life GS: Okay so when you moved here, did you get active in any of the organizations here in town? BD: Yeah we— GS: I’ll start with Bill, and then I’ll jump to you Beth BD: We had started a JC Program GS: Okay BD: I was president of JC’s for two years. We had a hundred members GS: Wow! BD: But— BD: Now that’s a certain age group, the JC’s are. GS: Okay Ashley Vandever ; Barbara Hutten ; Danny Ashley ; Dunaways Funeral Home ; First Baptist Church ; JC Program ; Johnny Carmichael ; Joule Dean Masterson ; Linda Suther ; Mary Hellen Holmes ; Morris Hancock ; Stacey James ; Sue Tapana ; Swimming Pool Project ; Western Heritage 1003 Special Memories and Events GS: Okay so do you have any anecdotes about those years, or special memories of events that happened during that time? BD: Well at one point in time I was a Welcome Wagon hostess for Bristow GS: Very good! BD: And the business professional women, we had a big committee of that— or group of that GS: Yes BD: And they got Jane Ann Jurough (ph), the reigning at that point in time, to come down. GS: Yes BD: And they— they had decorated the force field house with the big swing and all of that, and as the welcome wagon hostess, I got to go out to the [Indecipherable] house west of town GS: Yes Ally Reynolds ; Ashland, Oklahoma ; Buddy ; Corwins Dentistry ; Danny Hanks ; David Leflar ; Dowell Matthews ; Dr. Copiague ; Fort Cob ; Hartshorne, Oklahoma ; Jane Ann Jurough ; Johnny Darnell ; Jones Foundation ; Mr. Wells ; Myrtle Alexander ; Presbyterian ; Robert Jones ; Steve Holland ; Thurmans Hotel ; Welcome Wagon 1910 Entertainment GS: Yeah. Okay so you had a lot of the youth in your home BD: Yes GS: What else did you do for entertainment Bill? BD: Well we went dancing a lot GS: Oh where did you go dancing? BD: Anywhere there was a dance BD: Anywhere—When we first got married, we’d go to a dance every week GS: Were there dances here in Bristow? BD: No BD: No, that was before we moved here, there was Italian place in McAlester that would have us come at—it wasn’t Pete’s place, it was [Indecipherable] Big George Joseph ; Cara Jean Thompson ; Dana Dalpoas ; dance ; dancing ; Danny Dalpoas ; Jitterbug ; Pete's Place ; Roland Hotel ; Saturday Night Fever 2084 Work GS: Okay so Beth tell me about your time at Edison Elementary BD: Well, when we moved out here in 1976, and we got all settled and everything, I didn’t have anything to do. Both of the children were in school, he was at work, and so I went to Doctor Carmichael and I said “I’m ready to go to work. Is there anything available” you know? Well there was two or three jobs available, and I said “put me where you want me” and he put me as kindergarten aid. So for two or three years, I had my own room, where home alone is now, and I had every kindergartener every day. GS: Wow BD: They would come to my room, ‘cus we only had half day kindergarten then GS: Yes BD: And so one room—one half of the room was for morning kindergarten, the decorations and stuff, and the other room was—half was afternoon. And that went on and I mean the decorations were what they did. I mean, we had a— Bill drew a great big tree and we put it and we decorated it for every holiday, they did paperwork. Plus, then I as given the attendance books for Edison Elementary to keep on top of that GS: Okay Betty Lindsay ; Brent ; Doctor Carmichael ; Joann Free ; Judy Vise ; Lomenick ; Mr. Sanford ; Olivia Neil ; Rex Kearly ; Scott ; Warren Carmichael https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26832848/warren-c-carmichael Dr. Warren Carmichael 2523 Influential Figures GS: Looking back at the decades again, who were some of the more influential people that you think have come through Bristow that have helped Bristow? BD: Well number one Doctor Warren Carmichael (ph) GS: Okay, he was the Superintendent for the schools BD: When I was on the school board they hired him, and when he came to Bristow, Bristow’s schools were stagnant. We had old building, and that’s what we jumped on first. We started building buildings, and it just went in a different way after he came here. He got retirement for the maintenance people and all of— BD: Support people BD: Support people GS: Yeah, yeah BD: Which they appreciate it GS: Which before they didn’t have? BD: No BD: He had a chain of command, you didn’t just— GS: No you didn’t Bob Chatterton ; Dick List ; Doctor Warren Carmichael ; Joann List ; Tara Montgomery 2848 Military Service GS: That brings up a good, different direction to go in. Did any either of you or your children serve in the service? BD: I did GS: What branch? BD: Army GS: Army? BD: 11 years GS: Were you— was it during peace time or did you go overseas? BD: I didn’t go overseas because I belonged to a division that was a training division GS: Okay BD: We trained troops to go over there GS: And what years were you with the Army? BD: Oh, I enlisted when I was in high school, 1956 until 64’ and I resigned, but the army kept me on 24-hour standby for three years 45th Division ; Army ; Okmulgee 2997 Biggest Societal Impact and COVID GS: Yes, it does. It definitely does. I usually ask people looking back over your lifetime, what do you consider the biggest, maybe not invention, but the invention or situation that changed things the most, or made the most impact on society or your life? BD: Wow GS: Yeah that’s a biggie BD: When you live as long as we have, there’s been a lot GS: Yes, there has BD: Technology GS: Definitely. I think technology is a lot like Pandora’s box BD: Yes, yes BD: I think we’ve had too much. I’m like the guy in the Tulsa paper today that complained about all the computers failing and everything, and he called 911, well their computer was down, he called the police and their computer was down, so he called the chief of police and asked him ‘have they outdated pencil and paper?’. But I think we’ve got too much communicating. When I was a kid growing up in Elementary school, if I got in trouble we didn’t have a home phone, but if I got in trouble before I came home that evening, my mother already knew about it. BD: True, so true COVID ; Elementary School ; Social Distancing ; Technology ; Tulsa Paper ; Vo-Tech In this 2021 interview, Bill and Beth Dalpoas share about life in Bristow as young adults. Together, they talk about the organizations they were active in, different businesses, and entertainment during that time. Interviewer: Georgia Smith Interviewee: Bill and Beth Dalpoas Other Persons: Date of Interview: June 3, 2021 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Abby Thompson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: OHP-2021-18 at 00:00 to 53:53 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. BD: Here we go BD: Red light is on GS: Yup, and it' ; s running so here we go. BD: Okay GS: Alright, 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 day is June 3rd, 2021 and I am sitting here at the home of Bill and Beth Dalpoas, who are going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Now, I' ; ll start with you Beth ; give me your full name and your date of birth. BD: Wow. Elizabeth Ann Long Dalpoas. Birthday: March 19, 1939, in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. GS: Okay thank you, and Bill what was your full name at birth and birth date, and place. BD: William Raymond Dalpoas, and I was born in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, August 5, 1938. GS: Very good, wow. Okay and what year were you two married, Beth? BD: Oh, 1959 October the 4th in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. GS: In Hartshorne, Oklahoma. BD: We repeated our vows five years later First Baptist church in Bristow with reverend Dick List (ph) performing the ceremony. GS: Oh how wonderful! And what prompted you to do that? BD: Well, it was a promise that I had made my parents that we would do this, and-- but they didn' ; t show up. But the ladies at the church decorated with the colors that we had used in our wedding, and our son Danny carried our rings for us GS: Aw how sweet BD: And there was a reception at the church afterwards just like when we got married GS: Aw that' ; s-- that was pretty neat, that' ; s pretty neat. Well what brought you to the Bristow area Bill? BD: Well I was working in a store in McAlester, Oklahoma GS: What kind of store? BD: It was a general merchandise store, clothing. GS: Okay BD: It was a company owned by J.L. Dobson (ph). BD: Turner. J.L. Turner-- okay. BD: Out of Kentucky, and when I found out they were gonna move me to Bristow, we drove up here and looked the town over. GS: Very good BD: And we were not very impressed GS: Oh you weren' ; t? BD: No. There was [Indecipherable] and a Penny' ; s (ph) and two drug stores, two jewelry stores, and that' ; s just about all. And there was a Safeway, but that' ; s about all there was. I counted eleven empty buildings. GS: Wow, and that was in what year? BD: 1962 GS: My goodness BD: And I almost backed out when I saw the town, but I didn' ; t GS: Well we' ; re glad you didn' ; t. So what job did you come to here? BD: I was manager of a store. We opened in the old Safeway location, which is now Homestead. GS: Okay that' ; s right, Safeway was there BD: Right off the corner GS: 8th in Main, uh-huh. BD: And we opened the store and it was kinda [Indecipherable] store, we' ; d get big baskets of socks that were not even matched and we had to go through all of them and match them GS: Oh wow BD: It was nationwide department stores, wasn' ; t it? BD: Yeah it was a nationwide, and it morphed into what is now Dollar General store. GS: Oh okay! And Dollar General store is presently where a different old Safeway was (Laughter) BD: And the first person that we saw when we came to Bristow, really, was Cleo Pinson standing on the corner there by the store, singing Wolverton Mountain. GS: Oh my goodness BD: And after we looked the town over and ate at Hi-way Café, we drove around town awhile looking at houses, not knowing which side of town to look on or anything, got wound up out by the swimming pool and there was Cleo still singing Wolverton Mountain (Laughter) GS: How wonderful, Cleo was a main stay in Bristow for many years BD: Yes, and he never called me Beth, it was Beverly GS: Really? Well. BD: Beverly, the whole time, yes. GS: Okay, so how long were you with Nationwide? BD: Well, I was with them from 61' ; until 64' ; GS: Okay, and what caused you to leave them then? BD: I was hired by Travis Paten GS: Okay, to do what? BD: Be an assistant manager at a variety store, which was planned [Indecipherable] was gonna leave Bristow, and he bought the building and we opened a Ben Franklin store there. GS: I remember that, yes. So he hired you to be the manager of it? BD: Yes GS: How long did Ben Franklin' ; s last in Bristow? Well first off where was it? BD: Oh, it was right directly across the street from Safeway GS: Okay, so between 7th and 8th street on the West side BD: Yes BD: Where the parking lot is now GS: For the Mexican Restaurant BD: Right GS: Uh-huh, okay. And how long were you with Ben Franklin store? BD: Oh, till 1978 and I opened the men' ; s store GS: And what was the name of that store? BD: Bills [Indecipherable] GS: I remember that. And did you open it in Ben Franklins or in a different location-- I mean in the same building or a different location? BD: No, different location. GS: Okay, and so did-- was Ben Franklin' ; s still there, or-- and they had a different manager BD: Yes, it was still there, yes. GS: Okay, and how long did you have Bills [Indecipherable]? BD: Oh, what three years? BD: I believe so BD: Three years, and then I bought the Ben Franklin store GS: Oh okay! Okay, how long did you own it then? BD: Not very long, it burned. GS: I remember that BD: I think about two or three years later GS: Aww BD: We had it in 1982 because my dad' ; s clock that he had at the naval base in McAlester was in there that burned, Danas little flowers that she had in a coronation in high school were in there, and dads big roll top desk, remember? It was in there. BD: Yeah GS: Can you tell me anything Beth about some of the businesses that were on each side of the street? BD: I thought Bristow was a neat little town, I thought it was busy, but you know, I wasn' ; t a merchant so I-- I do know that there was-- when I was trying to find a house for us, or whatever, Chamber of Commerce wasn' ; t too happy about us moving to Bristow, but-- GS: Really? BD: Yeah, but it was-- GS: Why on earth not? BD: ' ; What kind of business are you putting in?' ; That was one of the questions, and I said " ; Well it' ; s a general merchandise, sir" ; and da-da-da, and they just weren' ; t too receptive, you know. GS: Well, that' ; s unusual BD: It really-- it really was GS: You would think they would' ; ve welcomed all business. BD: But-- no they weren' ; t, you know, because it was, you know, we had sharps, or not sharps at that time it was-- GS: Pennys (ph) BD: Pennys, and Shamus (ph) GS: Yes BS: and-- GS: Clothe stores BD: Yes, those. And we had men' ; s store, and it was like infringing on their business GS: Yes, I see BD: Which, in a way-- GS: And Patens Place (ph) BD: Yes, well Paten still had Ben Franklin, the small store. GS: Okay BS: It was-- GS: Well, but didn' ; t they have a clothing store too? BD: Yes, later on they did. GS: Oh, not right then BD: No, Pauline Paten (ph) GS: Okay BS: That was Pauline' ; s GS: I didn' ; t realize that, okay. BD: So it was-- I mean the people were great! The people themselves, you know, but I can sorta understand the business part, just like how we felt when we heard that Walmart was coming in. GS: Right, yes. BD: Bill made a comment when that happened, they said " ; What are you gonna do when Walmart opens" ; and he said " ; It wouldn' ; t matter if I had the Dallas cheerleaders dancing naked out on main street, they' ; d still go to Walmart" ; GS: Yeah BD: Which is-- GS: And Walmart has really hurt mainstream, downtown America. BD: If you look at any town that' ; s-- they have messed up main street America. I know everybody needed a job, but they had jobs before that in a different area. But it' ; s, yeah it has. BD: Yeah Walmart took 75% of my business the very first day GS: Wow, wow BD: At the time before Walmart moved in, I had 13 women working for me, and I ended up with two. GS: Oh my goodness, yeah that would be really disheartening BD: Yeah, it was GS: Yeah it would be. BD: People used to park on Main street on Saturday night because that was the late night to stay open just to see who was coming to town and to look inside the stores GS: Really? BD: It was really neat, yes GS: I like that! BD: They did! Certain people would have certain parking places every Saturday night and they parked on main street to watch the foot traffic and to see what was going on and it was really-- GS: Did we have the vertical parking then, or the horizontal? BD: We had both! GS: Okay BD: It was the vertical then we had the horizontal, and I think the ODOT said, you know, since it was a state highway, we had to do the-- BD: Parallel BD: Parallel parking GS: Yes, parallel parking BD: Whatever-- yeah, whatever that was, and so. GS: Okay so when you moved here, did you get active in any of the organizations here in town? BD: Yeah we-- GS: I' ; ll start with Bill, and then I' ; ll jump to you Beth BD: We had started a JC Program GS: Okay BD: I was president of JC' ; s for two years. We had a hundred members GS: Wow! BD: But-- BD: Now that' ; s a certain age group, the JC' ; s are. GS: Okay BD: And we were instrumental in doing a lot of things. We bought a siding machine and all the-- we did all the street signs, and put them up GS: Oh that' ; s awesome! BD: And we were instrumental in the swimming pool project GS: Yes BD: And we did a lot of-- lot of good things. GS: They have been a good organization in Bristow, they have BD: But it' ; s made up of young business men GS: Uh-huh BD: And Bristow ended up not having any GS: Yeah, yeah. Not very many, we had a few but not too many anymore, yeah. Most of them that we do-- BD: What we have now are good, but back then it was--really we went to state conventions and everything and made little Indian necklaces to represent Oklahoma. I mean the Women ; the JC Janes were the co-whatever' ; s of the JCs. GS: Were you a member of the JC Janes? BD: Yes, Barbara Hutten (ph), Ashley Vandever (ph), Sue Tapana (ph), Linda Suther (ph), yes, I mean we were all. Well I have a silver plate that says " ; Charter Member" ; For Stacey James (ph), Mary Ellen Holmes (ph), yes. GS: Yes BD: We were very active. I mean, we raffled Christmas items off, we' ; d sit and sew sequins on Christmas tree skirts and raffle those off. We were the backbone mainly of the JCs. I mean we were the support group of the JCs. Whatever they were active in, we went along with it. GS: So you didn' ; t do your own thing, you were there to back up the JCs? BD: Right GS: Okay very good, yeah. BD: And the JCs were the backbone of western heritage BD: Yes BD: We had gun fights GS: I remember, I was a kid and loved to go down to the gun fights and the stage coach coming in, bicycles build for two BD: Yes, yes GS: Lots of fun things BD: My best memory of that was I was due to get shot, and I got shot and I think it was Dunaways (ph) funeral home that had an old horse drawn hearse GS: Oh my goodness really? BD: Yeah and they come down and put me in that thing GS: Oh my goodness BD: Now this is in August bear in mind, no air conditioning, nothing BD: And it was hotter than blazes, I couldn' ; t hardly wait to get out of that thing BD: They took him ; I don' ; t know where they-- on up north main BD: they rode around with me for a while GS: Oh my goodness, I' ; d have said-- it probably wasn' ; t air conditioned, was it BD: No, no GS: Oh my goodness sakes BD: Joule Dean Masterton (ph) is -- I think I' ; ve donated the pictures, I' ; m not sure but there she is over and she' ; s tickling him trying to get him to move, but I mean he' ; s been shot you know. (Laughter) BD: But Joule Dean was trying to get him to move or something, then they loaded him up in that GS: I' ; d love to have some copies of some of those pictures BD: Okay GS: That would be just marvelous, that would be wonderful. So besides the JCs and the JC Janes, are there other organizations you were involved in? BD: Well we were very active in the First Baptist Church, we were both Sunday school teachers for Junior high, and he coached baseball-- BD: Yeah BD: For-- GS: Little league baseball? BD: Well we had church leagues then GS: Oh okay BD: If you didn' ; t attend Sunday school you didn' ; t-- GS: Play baseball BD: you didn' ; t play that week or whatever GS: Uh-huh BD: So it was-- BD: And I still have-- well there were a few that played on my team in Bristow and they still call me coach GS: Aww that' ; s nice BD: Or Papa Bill-- or Daddy Bill! BD: Yeah Daddy Bill BD: Daddy Bill, because that' ; s what Danny called him, ya know was Daddy Bill. GS: Danny? BD: Our son GS: Oh okay BD: Our son called him Daddy Bill, so I mean there were Danny Hanks, and-- my goodness BD: Ashley BD: Ol' ; Danny Ashley BD: Danny Ashley (ph) BD: Yes BD: Johnny Carmichael (ph) BD: Yes, his dad was a highway patrol man here, the Carmichael' ; s BD: And Morris Hancock (ph) GS: Yes BD: Yes. Yeah, I still keep up with them on Facebook GS: He came into the museum over tabbouleh fest BD: Oh really? GS: He did, I got to see him, I hadn' ; t seen him in years. BD: Well that' ; s great! We haven' ; t either. GS: Okay so, you mentioned Danny, your son. How many children did you have? BD: We have two children ; Danny was nine months old when we moved up here GS: Okay BD: And then Dana is our daughter and she was born in February of 64' ; out here in Bristow medical center-- or the hospital then! The Baptists had it then GS: Yes BD: And Danny was born at Saint Marys' ; hospital in McAlester GS: Okay BD: So, our families were not too happy when we moved up here, but-- GS: I' ; m sure BD: You' ; ve gotta do what you' ; ve gotta do GS: That' ; s right, jobs take you where they take you BD: Right GS: Okay so do you have any anecdotes about those years, or special memories of events that happened during that time? BD: Well at one point in time I was a Welcome Wagon hostess for Bristow GS: Very good! BD: And the business professional women, we had a big committee of that-- or group of that GS: Yes BD: And they got Jane Ann Jurough (ph), the reigning at that point in time, to come down. GS: Yes BD: And they-- they had decorated the force field house with the big swing and all of that, and as the welcome wagon hostess, I got to go out to the [Indecipherable] house west of town GS: Yes BD: And give her gifts from the local merchants GS: Oh how wonderful! BD: So that was-- and I understand she' ; s still a TV announcer in Oklahoma City GS: Uh-huh, I' ; ve seen her a time or two BD: That was a, something. And then Ally Reynolds (ph) one of the baseball-- BD: Yeah one of the baseball field was dedicated out here, which now football--high school football has taken it over GS: Okay BD: And I had a New York Yankees baseball that my Anna gave me, and I took it up to him and had him resign under his name GS: Aww how wonderful! Do you still have that? BD: No GS: Aw BD: I gave it to my son and he sold it on Ebay-- BD: Ebay or something GS: Aww, that' ; s a shame. BD: But he does have a baseball signed from-- when we had the t-shirt shop, it was in the summer time in the Fort Cob boys. There was a little team from Fort Cob baseball, and they' ; d come in the store and they ordered t-shirts that had certain lettering on them, well our daughter Dana could do the lettering real good, she and Bill did that, and they were not allowed to swim on--and they were staying at Thurman' ; s hotel up on North main, and every time they' ; d win a game, they' ; d bring those little shirts in and I' ; d wash them for them and they' ; d have new lettering put on [Indecipherable]. And they got into the finals, and they would just lay around in the store because it was air conditioned, they didn' ; t bother anything or anybody, they' ; d do little errands and they were the nicest young men. And their coaches were fantastic, and they got in the championship game over in Mannford, and they won. GS: Oh wonderful BD: And the first people they came to show the trophy was Bill and I GS: Aww BD: So that really-- GS: Spoke a lot to them BD: Yes, so Dana-- I brought all their shirts home, washed them on Saturday night so they could have them on Sunday to be able to go back to Fort Cob, but we heard from one of the coaches' ; wife for quite a few years, and they offered to come get us for their picnic in a private plane, but we didn' ; t go. GS: That would have been a fun experience BD: Oh--maybe! Maybe so BD: I still have their baseball bat there BD: Yeah, they signed us a baseball GS: Aww BD: And I have the baseball from my team too from 1966 GS: Oh that' ; s wonderful, 1966 BD: Yeah we' ; re a collector of ' ; things' ; , I mean just-- BD: Well I had-- she had a birthday party for me, and they all came to the house and that' ; s when they signed the baseball GS: Awww that' ; s perfect! That' ; s just the perfect present BD: Our house was the party house and the whatever house that the kids wanted to come to, because was it the bachelors that? BD: Yeah BD: They used to come practice in our living room, the band BD: Oh boy GS: That takes some patience to put up with that now BD: Yes, yes. Yeah that--but they did-- GS: Who was in that band? Was that Steve Hollands band? BD: No, that was before Steve I think BD: Yeah it was BD: Or maybe it was in between-- I don' ; t remember, there was Danny Hanks (ph), gosh we went all through that just recently, who was in what band. And then they would have teen town on Friday nights, was it? BD: Yeah BD: At the Presbyterian basement. GS: Oh in the Presbyterian basement! I never went to it there BD: I--yes it was because we lived on West fifth street, the house has been torn down now GS: That was probably before I lived here BD: Yes, yes GS: When I went to Teen town, it was on east ninth I believe BD: No that was before the Presbyterians sponsored it GS: Was after it? Presbyterian was before or after the east ninth teen town? BD: Yes, yes. It was before. GS: Before BD: Yup GS: Okay, and then it moved from the east ninth location to seventh street and it didn' ; t last very long on east seventh. About where that church is, the Cornerstone church BD: Oh okay GS: My memory' ; s a little fuzzy but about there BD: I don' ; t remember--I mean GS: When I was, oh maybe a sophomore in high school BD: Oh okay GS: So around 71' ; maybe, I moved here BD: Okay GS: Okay so looking back at the decades you' ; ve been here ; what decade do you think was the best for Bristow? BD: 60' ; s GS: The 60' ; s? BD: Definitely the 60' ; s GS: What do you think made it the best? BD: The people GS: The people? BD: They were together. I mean they worked together, business was good, schools have always been great, he served on the school board for-- BD: Nine years BD: Nine years, and then I worked for Edison for 27 years, and how long did you work at-- BD: Seventeen years BD: Seventeen years, so. It' ; s been great, really. We have no--well people were motivated in the 60' ; s, you know? The families in the 70' ; s were alright. We moved in our present home where we are now in 1976 in June. In September of that year, school had started and our son comes home and says " ; I volunteered the carport to build our float" ; (Laughter) BD: The big nails are still out in the carport framing, and they were out here-- I mean BD: I came home from work, and it was dark, and I turned the corner and came in the driveway and I had kids on the roof GS: Oh my goodness BD: They were everywhere BD: Well this was all woods then, so we were the second home to build out here. This was all a wooded area GS: Oh my goodness, and now look at all the houses around you. BD: Yes, this 40 acres was bought by Mr. Jones and Mr. Leflar from a little Indian-- GS: Robert Jones (ph) and David Leflar (ph)? BD: No GS: The lawyers? No? BD: David Leflar and-- BD: Well Leflar was the--he had the Jones foundation BD: Yes GS: Okay, those Jones BD: And they kept telling me--when we were building this was not in the city limits and I said " ; Yes it is" ; " ; No it isn' ; t" ; so I went to city hall one day when Johnny Darnell (ph) was still with us in the city clerk, got my coke and peanuts, and I went through all the records that Johnny would let me go through GS: Uh-huh BD: And I found a school board minutes one time and there' ; d been a [Indecipherable] on there cus' ; Mr. Leflar was also the school attorney GS: Oh okay BD: So he had added that on that this was--this 40 acres was in the city limits GS: There you go, good for you! BD: So I-- we, well they weren' ; t gonna give us any city utilities or anything GS: Oh yeah BD: We still have our own water well, we don' ; t have city water GS: Really? BD: But that' ; s okay, we don' ; t have a water bill GS: Yeah, exactly yeah BD: And it' ; s good water too GS: That' ; s good, that' ; s very good BD: So we did-- this was all red clay when we moved here GS: Lots of red clay in Bristow BD: Yes, yes. And the Matthews home on the hill was the first home built out here because Dowell (ph) and Leflar owned this GS: Okay BD: Dowell Matthews and David Leflar. GS: Okay, and did they develop-- did they build all the houses or just they sold the lots? BD: The lots, we bought two lots ' ; cus we lived where Corwins dentist office is in a two story house GS: Oh okay! Uh-huh! BD: And we had the first tree that was ever had Christmas lights outside on it GS: Aww BD: And they tore ' ; em down GS: Aww that hurt, didn' ; t it? BD: Yes, yes it did. Especially when you found out it was someone in your Sunday school class GS: Aww (Laughter) BD: But it--then when the grocery store burned, Mr. Wells, who was the owner of the grocery store, started buying lots. Bill and I had said to ourselves " ; When we get to x amount of dollars, we' ; ll sell" ; GS: There you go, uh-huh. BD: He did! GS: Wow! Very wonderful BD: So we used that money to build this home GS: Very good! BD: So, he was-- there was a lot of fun times over there on 7th street too. I mean, the folks over there were really good too-- GS: Good neighbors BD: Yes, yes. The Methodist church was right across the street GS: Yes BD: And, ohh what was her name? Alexander-- Myrtle GS: Myrtle Alexander (ph) BD: Yes. I would crank up the stereo if I was cleaning a house and open the door and she' ; d go sweeping down the sidewalk to tell them about [Indecipherable] BD: Dancing GS: How wonderful BD: She was-- she was a keeper for sure. GS: I' ; ve heard many good things about her BD: Then we had--there was a little--did Buddy just have one leg? The little black guy who had the shoe shine? BD: Hm, yeah BD: There was a little black guy' ; s first name was Buddy. I have heard his last name ; someone has told me but I' ; ve forgotten. He had a little shoe shine place in the alcove of where-- BD: Where Penny' ; s (ph) was BD: Yes, where-- GS: Okay, yes BD: There' ; s a little alcove in there and Buddy had a shoe shine stop GS: Oh how wonderful! BD: And he would talk by our house and one day he just stopped and he--we just had the best conversation because he told us, told me who had built lived in that house. It was a doctor Copiague. Now I don' ; t know which Copiague it was, but he told me that he took care of his horses, little paint horses, their little team. And when Doc Copiague (ph) would go out at night, Buddy said I would go, and he said that this porch right here on this house ; when it got hot, the girls would sleep out on this, and I said " ; Really Buddy?" ; and he said " ; Yeah" ; . And he said " ; On all the sides on this side of town, you see the little houses on the ally? Well that' ; s where the house keepers stayed" ; or whatever. And he said " ; We just had a lot of fun. Doctor Copiague was so nice" ; GS: Aw BD: I just thought ' ; Wowie' ; , ya know. And he said this house had a big wrought iron fence all the way around it, because we dug and found--we didn' ; t know what was going on, but it was--We moved from a five room house to a nine room house GS: Oh my goodness, that' ; s wonderful BD: And the nine room house people moved into our five room house (Laughter) BD: That was a busy, busy night GS: Downsizing and upsizing BD: Yes, yes. But we' ; ve-- this is home GS: Yes BD: You know ; we weren' ; t raised here. Bill was raised is Hartshorne, and I was raised in Ashland, which is a farming community. GS: What--where is that in Oklahoma? BD: That' ; s south west of McAlester BD: Yeah GS: Oh okay BD: My dad was called to the naval base, it used to be a navy base, it' ; s an army base now. GS: Yes DD: Now I' ; ve still got a ashtray and stuff from that navy base. And dad worked for the rock Island, he went to work from-- he was manager southern ice in Haileyville, and then we went to work for Rock Island Railroad and hated it, then when the war broke out, my dad had a fantastic memory for numbers. And they needed somebody to dispatch the railroad cars, so basically he was drafted. I mean he was-- had too many dependents to be drafted. But it was like ' ; give up your job-- ' ; GS: I' ; m just gonna check and make sure we' ; re going great, yes we are. BD: And worked at the navy base GS: Oh, uh-huh BD: So dad worked out there for twenty something years before he retired GS: Oh BD: So, and then we moved on--McAlester was here, Navy base was here, Ashland was here, Hartshorne was on the other side-- east of McAlester, we were Ashland was west. We were 45 miles apart when we were dating, so big drive. (Laughter) You' ; d drive that way-- BD: I put a lot of miles on my car GS: I bet you did Bill BD: And how many months, we dated? BD: Six months GS: Ahh BD: Our first date was April the 15th, 1959 income tax day GS: Oh my goodness, yes. BD: And we got married October the 4th GS: Oh, well that' ; s a pretty speedy courtship there BD: Yeah. Be 62 years this October GS: Well congratulations BD: I guess BD: Yeah GS: Yeah. Okay so you had a lot of the youth in your home BD: Yes GS: What else did you do for entertainment Bill? BD: Well we went dancing a lot GS: Oh where did you go dancing? BD: Anywhere there was a dance BD: Anywhere--When we first got married, we' ; d go to a dance every week GS: Were there dances here in Bristow? BD: No BD: No, that was before we moved here, there was Italian place in McAlester that would have us come at--it wasn' ; t Pete' ; s place, it was [Indecipherable] GS There was a large settlement I think the Italians in that area BD: Right [Indecipherable] And we go--they' ; d ask us to come dance Tuesday night to get people to come out on the dance floor and dance, then they' ; d give us our meal free GS: Oh how wonderful! Well that was pretty good for a newlywed couple BD: Yeah that helped a lot, that helped a lot. GS: I think Ted would' ; ve learned a dance BD: Danny and Dana both danced. We had-- we went to Sapulpa and Danny and Cara Jean Thompson (ph) went to Stroud and a contest, like Saturday Night Fever or whatever, they were very good, they could-- GS: And was it 50' ; s type dancing or ballroom dancing? BD: Bill and I, both GS: Both BD: Uh-huh, yeah. He was very good dancer BD: Jitterbug GS: And you could Jitterbug? BD: Oh yeah GS: Oh I wish I could see you Jitterbug BD: I wish I still could (Laughter) GS: I understand that BD: You could if you wanted to, you could if you wanted to. But we-- GS: So did you go to Tulsa to dances from Bristow? BD: No, they used to have quite a few dances. I mean, and up on top of the Roland Hotel is a big ballroom GS: Oh okay BD: And on top of JC Penny was, is a ballroom GS: Yes BD: But the J.C.' ; s used to have our-- some of our new year' ; s parties up there. When Big George Joseph (ph) and all of those were-- GS: Yes BD: Big George had a pig onetime that had been roasted, and that was our centerpiece and [Indecipherable] so, yeah. GS: Was it staring back at ya? BD: Yes BD: Yeah, it had an apple in its mouth BD: Cherries for the eyes BD: I didn' ; t eat too much GS: I understand that BD: But that--there' ; s a very nice dance floor up there. And on top of the Penny' ; s building was also-- BD: Well they used to have dances out at the country club. GS: Okay, were you members of the country club? BD: For a while, yeah GS: Uh-huh, any other organizations, like the Elks or anything? BD: No I belonged to the Lions for a while GS: The Lions club, okay. BD: Did you belong to the Rotary or was it Travis? BD: No, the Lions club. I didn' ; t belong to the Rotary BD: Okay GS: Okay so Beth tell me about your time at Edison Elementary BD: Well, when we moved out here in 1976, and we got all settled and everything, I didn' ; t have anything to do. Both of the children were in school, he was at work, and so I went to Doctor Carmichael and I said " ; I' ; m ready to go to work. Is there anything available" ; you know? Well there was two or three jobs available, and I said " ; put me where you want me" ; and he put me as kindergarten aid. So for two or three years, I had my own room, where home alone is now, and I had every kindergartener every day. GS: Wow BD: They would come to my room, ' ; cus we only had half day kindergarten then GS: Yes BD: And so one room--one half of the room was for morning kindergarten, the decorations and stuff, and the other room was--half was afternoon. And that went on and I mean the decorations were what they did. I mean, we had a-- Bill drew a great big tree and we put it and we decorated it for every holiday, they did paperwork. Plus, then I as given the attendance books for Edison Elementary to keep on top of that GS: Okay BD: So it was running all the papers for the two teachers at that time, and myself, plus taking the attendance for Edison. And when Christmas came, it was Brent, Scott, Lomenick, all that group. I had made little Christmas ornaments for every one of them. And one of the mothers told me not long ago they she still have it GS: Aw that' ; s so sweet BD: So I' ; m going ' ; Okay' ; but it was out of clothespins and glue and paint, and then we moved down to-- what building is it did they used? Now it was where that third grade building, I don' ; t know what they use that building for, it' ; s not the administration building, But there was Joann Free (ph) and Betty Lindsay (ph) and I was will their aid in the room, I was there all the time. So I went from one to the other, but I loved those little ones. It was-- I can still remember ' ; Sounds like Gurple, but it' ; s Purple' ; ya know. But teaching them their colors and kindergarteners are so much more advanced for the time they-- I mean we' ; ve got a great granddaughter that' ; ll go in kindergarten this next year and she' ; s gonna be bored at first. GS: Aw, pretty sharp BD: She' ; s very sharp GS: She already reading? BD: Yes, yes. BD: Yeah her mother' ; s a teacher so that helps GS: Yes, it does. BD: Yes, they' ; re the ones who were here this past weekend to visit us GS: Aw that' ; s wonderful BD: So we had a sleep over. They slept in here and it was-- it was great but I loved my time at Edison because I worked in the office, or back in the office for I don' ; t know how many years, and then Mrs. Vise, Judy Vise (ph) was the principal and she said " ; Would you like to move to the media?" ; Because the lady out there was gonna be leaving, last name was Neil, I can' ; t think of her first name right now. Olivia. And I said " ; I would love to" ; I mean, and that' ; s, the library was my thing GS: Oh that' ; s wonderful BD: I love to read, I-- GS: So how long were you at Edison? BD: 27 years GS: So you retired from Edison BD: Right, right. GS: Very good, and what year was that? BD: I don' ; t know, ' ; cus I still substitute at the high school GS: I knew that you did. Do you still substitute today? BD: I didn' ; t this last year because of the COVID, but hopefully and the Good Lord willing, the creek don' ; t rise, and my health holds up, I' ; ll go back this next year. GS: Well bless you and more power to you. BD: I love-- Why the high school? I don' ; t know. But I love history, we' ; re lacking in that. I don' ; t know music that well, but I love to substitute for Mr. Sanford in the Choir. And fact is a couple years ago, I taught a young man how to dance for the prom. He didn' ; t know how to dance, and I said " ; if you step on my toe one time we' ; re gonna quit" ; because he was a big young man. But I still love the kids. GS: Aw that' ; s wonderful, it' ; s good for you, good for you. What year did you retire Bill? BD: 2001 GS: And you retired from what business BD: From--I was maintenance supervisor at the school GS: At the school. So when did you go to work for the school? After Ben Franklin burned? BD: Yeah, I was in my 40' ; s and when the store burned, I was, you know, I didn' ; t. And I tried reopening a store in the location where homestead is GS: Okay, uh-huh BD: And that didn' ; t last. Walmart was still-- when I opened the store, Walmart sent clerks into the store with notepads writing down everything I' ; d put in that store GS: Aw BD: And then they' ; d go back and put it in Walmart at a lower price, so. GS: Aw that makes me sad BD: Then I went to Doctor Carmichael and asked him if there' ; s anything available at the school, and he said " ; give me a few days and I' ; ll get back to you" ; . So he came back and said " ; I want you to be the night supervisor for house cleaning" ; , so I did that for a year, and then Rex Kearly (ph) retired and he hired me to be the maintenance director GS: Okay BD: Then that' ; s where I stayed, till I retired GS: In 2001, very good. Have you been active in anything since you retied? Hobbies or organizations? BD: Oh I' ; m [Indecipherable] but I still worked after I returned, I mowed for the school for what, 14 years BD: Yes GS: Very good, it' ; s good to stay active BD: Oh yeah, I miss that now but I can' ; t be very active GS: Oh I know, I understand that totally BD: He' ; s still a good guy, he' ; s a keeper GS: Looking back at the decades again, who were some of the more influential people that you think have come through Bristow that have helped Bristow? BD: Well number one Doctor Warren Carmichael (ph) GS: Okay, he was the Superintendent for the schools BD: When I was on the school board they hired him, and when he came to Bristow, Bristow' ; s schools were stagnant. We had old building, and that' ; s what we jumped on first. We started building buildings, and it just went in a different way after he came here. He got retirement for the maintenance people and all of-- BD: Support people BD: Support people GS: Yeah, yeah BD: Which they appreciate it GS: Which before they didn' ; t have? BD: No BD: He had a chain of command, you didn' ; t just-- GS: No you didn' ; t. BD: No, it was--it was entirely different and everybody-- a lot of people complained about the yearly picnic we had, but--and every once in a while when insurance stuff would come up, we' ; d all meet in the old junior high auditorium. He kept us updated on our insurance, all the school, the cafeteria would fix all the chicken before the picnic. But every school was to bring certain dishes and we' ; d meet out at the high school for that. So Dr. Carmichael had a great deal to do, and coming on down the line honey, who would you say? BD: Influential people? BD: Yeah GS: In Bristow yeah, that have helped it quite a bit. BD: Hm, well we had a few merchants that were active and-- GS: Go getters BD: Yes, they started fixing up their storefronts, which helped the main street GD: Definitely, definitely did BD: That helps a great deal to have--even if the store is basically empty, if the windows are decorated or something it has great appeal to folks. Well so many, though, really have done a lot that have not been recognized, you know. GS: Very true BD: Behind the scenes that, you know, I commend Tara Montgomery (ph) for all that she' ; s done for the swimming, you know GS: Yes, definitely BD: And-- GS: We know Bob Chatterton (ph) with the city lake, that' ; s a big asset to Bristow BD: Oh Bob Chatterton in his class of 40' ; did wonders. I did the first 1940 thing for Bob Chatterton GS: Oh really BD: Yes, I did, when I went to the school he came in and we visited and then Christmas that year I got this humongous, now we' ; re talking big, poinsettia type tree. And it was from Bob Chatterton and the 1940 class GS: Aww BD: And he didn' ; t forget, I mean that was--because I had typed up all of those for-- all the students that had been had submitted things for scholarships. Bob Chatterton did a lot for the depot, he did a lot for the students, he did a lot for our town. BD: He did football field to BD: Yes GD: Oh he did? I didn' ; t know that BD: Yeah he played for the track BD: Track GS: I didn' ; t even realize that BD: First--the first asphalt track GS: That' ; s a nice track BD: Yes, it is, yes it is. And Gosh you caught us off guard on that because GS: Sorry about that BD: We' ; ve admired and been friends with a lot of people. GS: You' ; ve probably known a lot of business men, a lot of pastors BD: Oh yes, the Pastor when we moved here was Dick List GS: Okay BD: And his wife, and we visited every church that Dick and Joann-- they were very, very close friends out ours. Every church, and they even served in England too, they went overseas, and there was one church that we didn' ; t visit Dick and Joann. We went to Louisiana, or [Indecipherable] Mississippi where their church was and visited some of the Antebellum homes there while we were. I mean, when they came to Bristow, this was their home. They were here. And he calls sometimes, he was in the military, he was a chaplain. GS: Oh! How wonderful BD: And he did that when the Vietnam war, he went in. And I went in and said " ; Dick why did you do that?" ; and he said " ; How can I minister to the families of these young men if I don' ; t know what' ; s going on?" ; and that' ; s just the kind of pastor that he was. I mean, he was-- GS: That brings up a good, different direction to go in. Did any either of you or your children serve in the service? BD: I did GS: What branch? BD: Army GS: Army? BD: 11 years GS: Were you-- was it during peace time or did you go overseas? BD: I didn' ; t go overseas because I belonged to a division that was a training division GS: Okay BD: We trained troops to go over there GS: And what years were you with the Army? BD: Oh, I enlisted when I was in high school, 1956 until 64' ; and I resigned, but the army kept me on 24-hour standby for three years GS: So you were still doing army when you came here and started working for Nationwide, right? BD: Yeah GS: Well that kept you busy, didn' ; t it? BD: Yeah BD: They didn' ; t have a slot for him here at the reserve, so he had to drive to Okmulgee GS: Oh BD: Well Bristow had a 45th division here GS: Okay BD: And they were artillery, and all my background was infantry GS: Ah BD: So I had to drive to Okmulgee GS: Makes sense BD: But, he is eligible for VA benefits because the time that he served was during what they call the Cold War BD: Well they' ; ve got me written down for Korea service, but I never went to Korea GS: Praise the Lord BD: Yeah BD: But I was in that time frame GS: You were training men to go over there BD: Yes, and Vietnam they got me down for that, but I never went to Vietnam. I probably should have, but I didn' ; t. GS: Yeah, well it' ; s not for lack of you, they thought you did better work here probably BD: Yeah, I' ; ve always felt a little guilty about not doing it because I was trained for it GS: Right, well you go where they put you BD: Yeah and I had two little kids and a wife, so that made a difference GS: Yes, it does. It definitely does. I usually ask people looking back over your lifetime, what do you consider the biggest, maybe not invention, but the invention or situation that changed things the most, or made the most impact on society or your life? BD: Wow GS: Yeah that' ; s a biggie BD: When you live as long as we have, there' ; s been a lot GS: Yes, there has BD: Technology GS: Definitely. I think technology is a lot like Pandora' ; s box BD: Yes, yes BD: I think we' ; ve had too much. I' ; m like the guy in the Tulsa paper today that complained about all the computers failing and everything, and he called 911, well their computer was down, he called the police and their computer was down, so he called the chief of police and asked him ' ; have they outdated pencil and paper?' ; . But I think we' ; ve got too much communicating. When I was a kid growing up in Elementary school, if I got in trouble we didn' ; t have a home phone, but if I got in trouble before I came home that evening, my mother already knew about it. BD: True, so trueGS: Okay we' ; ve been-- we' ; re at the tail end thank goodness of this COVID pandemic. How has that changed life for you Beth? BD: Well, it kept me out of the school this past year, for one thing. But we both have had out two shots and we were very cautious when we went out, we didn' ; t go out that much, the grocery stores and-- GS: Yeah I-- no I' ; s just checking my recorder BD: Oh, okay. Grocery store, doctor, that' ; s about the only time-- we didn' ; t attend any basketball games or any social stuff, but we wore our masks and it' ; s been kind of rough in some ways, but we' ; ve done a lot of visiting with our neighbors out on the porch that way we were-- GS: Social distancing BD: Right GS: And you have the outside air and, yeah, yeah. BD: So we were--fact is out Christmas was with the ones that were here this past weekend. We had it on our deck, they came down the day after Christmas ; we had out masks on, we were outside, the little ones played in the backyard and in the garden, and so it was a beautiful day. God took care of us and neither of us had any signs of COVID and we got our shots over at Vo-Tech so we were Ok. GS: Wonderful, that' ; s wonderful. How about you Bill, can you add anything to that? BD: No, I' ; ve kinda liked staying at home so it worked out good for me (Laughter) BD: Very true GS: Good deal. Okay is there anything you can thing of story wise, personal information, town wise that we haven' ; t thought to mention that you would say " ; Oh that would be good to tell her about" ; ? BD: Oh we' ; ll think of it after you leave Georgia GS: Of course, of course. Well I sure do appreciate you giving us your time for this oral history interview and it' ; ll be remembered for a long time BD: Well we' ; ve enjoyed it I think, right Bill? BD: Yeah GS: Oh well thank you so much, I' ; ve enjoyed it tremendously. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2021-18_Dalpoas_Bill_and_Beth.xml OHP-2021-18_Dalpoas_Bill_and_Beth.xml
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Bill and Beth Dalpoas
Description
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In this 2021 interview, Bill and Beth Dalpoas share about life in Bristow as young adults. Together, they talk about the organizations they were active in, different businesses, and entertainment during that time.
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OHP-2021-18
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2021-06-03
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audio
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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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Regan Siler
Interviewee
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Bill Gurley
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6.0 August 7, 2025 OHP-0075 Bill Gurley OHP-0075 00:43:20 Bristow Historical Society, Inc. bristowhistory Bill Gurley Regan Siler 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0075 Gurley, Bill.mp4 Other video 0 Birth Regan Siler 00:00
 ; This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is August 7, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Bill Gurley at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us a little bit about his life and what it's been like living in the Bristow area. Can you please state your full name? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 00:25
 ; William Ray Gurley.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 00:26
 ; Okay, but you go by Bill. 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 00:28
 ; Go by Bill.
 ; William Ray Gurley was born on October 25, 1939. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Bristow Historical Society ; Bristow Library Annex ; Bristow (Okla.) ; William Ray Gurley ; Oklahoma City (Okla.) Birth 0 42 Parents Regan Siler 00:42
 ; Okay, and let's just start off by talking about your family. Can you tell me your parents full names?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 00:51
 ; My mother was Neva Matilda [Carmen] Gurley. My dad was Arthur Eulus Gurley.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 00:57
 ; Okay, and I have your dad's birthday as 9/22/1897?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 01:02
 ; Yes. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 01:03
 ; Okay, I have your mother as March 1, 1902?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 01:07
 ; Yes.
 ; Bill's mother was Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley. His father was Arthur Eulus Gurley. Neva was a math teacher at Bristow Schools for 40 years. Bill's father, Arthur was a rancher. He raised cattle and hay. Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley ; Arthur Eulus Gurley ; Bristow Public School Parents 0 143 Siblings Regan Siler 02:23
 ; Right, right. I understand that. Do you have any siblings?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 02:28
 ; Yes, I had a sister, Barbara Jean, who was, she was born in '42, but she died, and when she was about 40-some years old.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 02:44
 ; Okay, um, and so just the one sister?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 02:48
 ; Yes. And then I have a half-sister and three half-brothers.
 ; Bill had one sister, Barbara Jean. Barbara passed away when she was in her 40s. Bill also has a half-sister and three half-brothers. Barbara Jean Gurley Siblings 0 182 Moving to Bristow Regan Siler 03:02
 ; Okay. And so did you grow up in Bristow? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 03:05
 ; Yes, I did.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 03:06
 ; Okay. So, you were born here?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 03:06
 ; No. I was born in Oklahoma City.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 03:07
 ; Well, Oklahoma City.
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 03:07
 ; But then we moved here when I was six-years-old.
 ; Bill and his family moved to Bristow when he was six years old. Bill's mother owned land in Bristow. Also, Bill's grandparents lived in Bristow. Bristow (Okla.) ; Oklahoma City (Okla.) ; Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley ; Grandparents Bristow (Okla.) 0 221 Childhood Regan Siler 03:41
 ; Okay, Okay, gotcha, um, well, let's talk a little bit about your childhood. We'll we'll touch on that a little bit and ask some some kind of fun questions to see if you remember. Do you remember any of your favorite toys or games as you were growing up?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 04:02
 ; No, mostly I, out in the country, we had horses and cattle, dogs and, you know.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 04:08
 ; And you probably had to work a lot on your farm, I'm guessing?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 04:11
 ; Oh yes, all the time. We had a dairy, up at four o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon.
 ; Bill spent much of his childhood outdoors. He helped with the dairy cows, milking at four o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon. They had cattle, horses and dogs on their family farm. Bill helped maintain the farm by fixing fence, cutting trees and cutting hay. He also enjoyed hunting. Bill also took piano lessons. He was involved in band at school. Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley ; Arthur Eulus Gurley ; Band ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Depew (Okla.) Childhood 0 420 School Regan Siler 07:00
 ; Not really, okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your school life. I know when we visited on the phone, you said you attended Bristow Public Schools for 12 years. Do you remember having any particularly influential teachers in your life?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 07:17
 ; Bristow, we were very fortunate to have four doctoral degree people teaching, and I think there's Covey [Lola Effie Best Covey]. She taught a lot of Spanish and English. We had Corey [Kate Broad Baldridge Corey], my mother. She didn't have the PhD, but she had, she could have had.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 07:41
 ; Yes.
 ; Bill attended Bristow Public Schools for 12 years. Bill remembers some influential teachers, Kate Corey and also Lola Covey. He rode to school with his mother, who was a teacher. Bill enjoyed school and his favorite subject was math. Bristow Public Schools (Bristow, Okla.) ; Lola Effie Best Covey ; Kate Broad Baldridge Corey ; Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley ; Bristow Band School 0 557 Childhood Home Regan Siler 09:17
 ; Okay, okay. Um, well, let's talk a little bit about the house you grew up in, whenever you moved back to Bristow, when you said you were six, and you had this big farm, is that where you lived in your entire 12 years of school? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 09:31
 ; Yeah. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 09:31
 ; Can you tell us about that house? Was it like a farmhouse or?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 09:34
 ; Yeah, it was pretty, I'll use the word crude to start with. We had outdoor plumbing, both water and sewage. So we had outhouse and a pump on the outside. But when I was about 10 years old, I helped my dad remodel our house, completely remodeled it, and put indoor plumbing and everything. Yeah, that would have been in what, '49.
 ; Bill and his family lived in a farmhouse. Bill said it was pretty crude, with outdoor plumbing. When Bill was ten, he helped his dad completely remodel the house. It had been an old oil field shack until they remodeled, even adding a second story. Bristow (Okla.) ; Arthur Eulus Gurley Home 0 644 Mealtimes Regan Siler 10:44
 ; Right, right, okay. Well, can you remember what meal times were like with your with your family? Did everybody sit down to eat?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 10:53
 ; Yes, mother cooks the meal and we sit down and ate.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 10:57
 ; Okay and do you remember, maybe, a favorite meal that she cooked whenever you were younger? Did you have a favorite one? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 11:07
 ; Not really. We just ate everything.
 ; Bill said his mother did the cooking. He says they all sat down and ate meals together. Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley Mealtimes 0 669 Community Activities Regan Siler 11:09
 ; Anything that she provided. Okay, well, thinking back to town life and growing up, do you remember any favorite community activities? And when I say that, I mean, like a lot of people talk about Western Heritage Days or county fairs, stuff like that. Can you remember as a young person enjoying any of those activities in Bristow?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 11:36
 ; Well, we, Bristow hosted the Creek County, the Creek County Fair every year, which is out here, that's near the where the pool is now. And that was always a big event. My dad was president of the Fair Board, so he was active. He'd always give me tickets to the from the rides. I'd have plenty of those, share with my friend. We had two movie theaters back then, Walmur and Princess Theaters. That was a big event. Go 10 cents to go a movie on Saturday afternoon. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 12:11
 ; Yeah, yeah, I've heard about those. I wish we had one now.
 ; Bill recalls the Creek County Fair being a big deal when he was young. He says his father was the president of the fair board. His father always gave Bill tickets to the rides, which Bill would share with his friends. Bill also remembers going to the movies on Saturday afternoons. Bill also enjoyed playing pool at the pool hall and the pinball machine at the drugstore. Creek County Fair ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Walmur movie theater ; Princess Theaters ; Pool Hall ; Drugstore ; Arthur Eulus Gurley Community Activities 0 760 Bristow Businesses Regan Siler 12:40
 ; Okay, um, do you remember any of the, I guess, biggest or most popular businesses around town growing up? Or an yone that sticks out to you? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 12:52
 ; We had, Bristow was a really nice community back in the old days, as far as commercial, we had two men's clothing stores. We had, you know, really good, like Safeway Grocery Store. We had, we had Penneys. We had 5 and 10. We had women's clothing stores. We had
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 13:14
 ; It was booming back in the day, wasn't it?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 13:16
 ; I mean, we had a lot of good things that have been taken away from us now.
 ; Bill remembers some of the businesses in Bristow when he was young. He says Bristow had two men's clothing stores. It also had a Safeway Grocery Store, 5 and 10 store and JCPenney's. Bill says Bristow had a lot of good things that have been taken away from us now. Bristow (Okla.) ; Safeway Stores, Inc. ; JCPenney's ; 5 and 10 store ; Wal-Mart (Firm) ; Turner Turnpike Bristow (Okla.) ; Business 0 823 Teen Life Regan Siler 13:43
 ; Yeah, yeah, exactly. Did you have a favorite hangout as a teenager? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 13:55
 ; Home.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 13:58
 ; Home?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 13:59
 ; Farm.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 13:59
 ; Yeah, you were always at the farm, huh? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 14:01
 ; There was plenty to do there.
 ; Bill says he spent most of his time as teenager at home on the farm. He says there was plenty to do. Bill enjoyed horseback riding and fishing in his free time. Farm ; Horseback riding ; Fishing Teenage Life 0 860 Automobiles Regan Siler 14:20
 ; Right, right, okay, um, well, let's see, do you remember, do you happen to remember your family's first car? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 14:29
 ; I don't know whether it was the first one or not. I can remember like a '49 Ford.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 14:39
 ; Okay, okay. Do you remember your first car?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 14:42
 ; 1955 Ford.
 ; Bill remembers his family having a '49 Ford. He says his first car was a 1955 Ford. He learned how to drive on the farm, starting out on a tractor when he was eight or ten years old. Ford automobile Automobiles 0 901 Entertainment Regan Siler 15:01
 ; Yes, yes. Okay, so did you have or what sort of entertainment did you have growing up? Did you have a TV at some point?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 15:15
 ; I think about 1950 we got a TV for the first time.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 15:19
 ; Okay, and do you remember any particular programs you enjoyed watching?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 15:24
 ; Not really. I can't think of anybody, any that we really watched. It's kind of wasn't too many to choose from.
 ; Bill believes his family got their first television set around 1950. Bill listened to the popular music at the time, such as Frank Sinatra. Entertainment ; Television ; John F. Kennedy ; Radio ; Frank Sinatra Entertainment 0 993 Medical Care Regan Siler 16:33
 ; Right. Okay, what was medical care like for you growing up? Did you have a family doctor or did you mainly take care of, did your mom take care of stuff at home? Or how did that work?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 16:46
 ; Probably most of it was at home. I remember cut my hand one time, and, you know, we just looked at it and put a band aid on it.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 16:56
 ; Patched it up as best as possible.
 ; Bill says most of the medical care during his childhood was taken care of at home. He remembers cutting his hand and patching it up as best as possible. He also remembers his father cutting a splinter out from under his fingernail. Bill recalls there being a clinic on Eighth Street that he visited to have his tonsils removed. Medical care ; Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley ; Arthur Eulus Gurley ; Bristow (Okla.) Medical care 0 1085 Church Regan Siler 18:05
 ; Okay, okay. Did you attend church growing up? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 18:11
 ; Yes.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 18:12
 ; You did. Okay. Where did you attend?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 18:14
 ; First Christian Church here in Bristow.
 ; Bill attended the First Christian Church in Bristow. He was baptized in the church when he was 12. He rededicated his life to the Lord when he was 34. Church ; First Christian Church ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Lord Church 0 1141 Holidays Regan Siler 19:01
 ; Well, that's neat. Alright, well, let's talk about holidays in your family. Were holidays a big deal?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 19:11
 ; I guess you'd say somewhat. You know, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was always a big thing, because have big dinners.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 19:19
 ; Did all the family come to your house? Or did you go somewhere?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 19:22
 ; Pretty much, my mother had four, three sisters, and they'd show up their families. We just had to get togethers most of the time.
 ; Holidays were a big deal in Bill's family. Bill remembers Thanksgiving and always having a big dinner. He recalls receiving a bicycle for Christmas when he was six years old. Bill's mother had several sisters, and they would bring their families for the holidays. Holidays ; Christmas ; Thanksgiving ; Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley Holidays 0 1198 Childhood Dreams Regan Siler 19:58
 ; So, that was a big deal. As a child, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 20:07
 ; Yeah, really, I wanted to be a rancher.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 20:09
 ; Really? Okay, and you still do that now, correct? 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 20:13
 ; Well, not now I'm retired. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 20:14
 ; Well, okay.
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 20:15
 ; I sold all the land then.
 ; Bill wanted to be a rancher when he grew up. He went on to fulfill that dream and has now sold the land and retired. Ranch Childhood Dreams 0 1227 College Regan Siler 20:27
 ; So, that was still in your family? Wow! Okay, um, all right, well, let's talk about college. When we visited on the phone, tell me where you went and what degrees you achieved, and tell me a little bit about your college experience.
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 20:27
 ; Yes.
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 20:50
 ; I went to OU, University of Oklahoma for 1957 to '60, and I got my undergraduate degree in mathematics. Then I went to OSU in 1960 and I got my masters and PhD, finally, in 1964.
 ; Bill attended college at the University of Oklahoma. He attended there from 1957 to 1960 and received his undergraduate degree in mathematics. Bill then attended Oklahoma State University in 1960 and received his masters, and then his PhD in 1964. Bill received his degree in mathematical statistics. College ; University of Oklahoma ; Oklahoma State University College 0 1304 Jobs Regan Siler 21:44
 ; Yeah, you're trying to achieve it. Okay, so for the man that has worn many hats, let's talk about your work life. So, say whenever you got out of college, tell me, like, what was your first major job that you had?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 22:03
 ; Well, I started working 1964 with Sunray DX Oil Company in operations research analyst.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 22:10
 ; And it was Sunray?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 22:12
 ; Sunray DX Oil Company.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 22:14
 ; Okay. 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 22:14
 ; They were in Tulsa.
 ; Bill's first major job was in 1964 when he started working at Sunray DX Oil Company as an operations research analyst. A couple years later, a coworker and Bill formed a company called Petroleum Marketing Research Company. Bill later programmed the first computer at the Amercian National Bank, which is now SpiritBank. Sunray DX Oil Co. ; Petroleum Marketing Research Company ; SpiritBank ; American National Bank ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Stroud (Okla.) ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; Tracy Kelly ; Levan Kelly ; Royce Kelly ; Oklahoma City (Okla.) ; State Representative Jobs 0 1569 State Representative Bill Gurley 26:09
 ; Oh, I was the first Republican elected in Creek County. Which is it was totally democratic back in those days. Of course, now it's completely turned around the opposite direction.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 26:19
 ; Right, right. So, how would you describe your experience being a representative?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 26:28
 ; Well, it's very, it's a lot more demanding than you think, because people are always calling you, asking you to do this and do that and help them do that. You know, it get a lot of problems solved. But it's also a, it's a good, interesting job to be involved with. You're helping make laws for the whole state.
 ; In 1987, Bill ran for office as a state representative. He was elected and served as the state representative for the next four years. Bill was the first Republican elected in Creek County. He says being a representative is more demanding than you think, with people always calling you. State Representative ; Republican ; Creek County (Okla.) ; Democratic Party State Representative 0 1642 Teaching Bill Gurley 27:22
 ; Now that the computer stuff dried up in about '86. In '87 I ran for office, got in for four years and went back, you know, back to the ranch after that. At '97 then I think it was that first started teaching at Depew. Taught there two years. Then I came over to Bristow in '99 and then I was technology director here for the Bristow Schools for two years. We had about 550 computers that we had to deal with, maintain that fiber optic network. 
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 27:56
 ; So, in all the hats you've worn, did you have a favorite hat?
 ; In 1997, Bill started teaching in Depew and taught there for two years. He went to Bristow in 1999 and was the technology director at the Bristow Schools for two. He had about 550 computers to deal with and maintain the fiber optic network. Teaching ; Depew Public Schools ; Bristow Public Schools (Bristow, Okla.) ; Paul Montgomery ; Slick (Okla.) Teaching 0 1733 Activation Outreach Regan Siler 28:53
 ; Well, then you also mentioned to me, when we had visited about Activation Outreach. Can you tell me about that?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 29:02
 ; Well, we started, Majel Wisotsky. She was, she headed it up, and we started a group called Activation Outreach, just a small church group. We met Methodist Church Annex a couple of years. And she got married, moved to Texas.
 ; With Majel Wisotsky heading it up, a church group called Activation Outreach was started. Bill has been a huge part of this group. They met at the Methodist Church Annex for a couple of years. Their goal is to witness and help people, particularly the elderly and homeless. Majel has since married and relocated to Texas, but the group still meets in homes on Wednesdays. Activation Outreach ; Majel Wisotsky ; Methodist Church ; Texas Activation Outreach 0 1841 Wife, Peggy Ann Gurley Regan Siler 30:41
 ; Not large, okay, okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your immediate family. Can you tell me your spouse's full name?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 30:52
 ; Peggy Ann Gurley.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 30:54
 ; Okay, and I have her birth date is February 22, 1942.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 30:58
 ; Correct.
 ; Bill and Peggy met in Stroud at the Full Gospel Businessmen Association. Peggy's husband and Bill were both directors. Peggy's husband was a veterinarian in Stroud. He tragically died in a small plane crash, leaving Peggy as a widow with four children. The Lord told Bill that he was going to marry Peggy Robertson. They were married on March 5, 1977, at the First Assembly of God Church in Stroud. They have now been married for 48 years. Peggy Ann Gurley ; Stroud (Okla.) ; Full Gospel Businessman Association ; Veterinarians ; Tulsa (Okla.) ; First Assembly of God Church ; Depew (Okla.) Wife 0 2019 Children and Grandchildren Regan Siler 33:39
 ; Okay. Um, so how many children do you have?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 33:46
 ; Total, we have seven. I had two. Peggy had four, and then she and I had one.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 33:51
 ; Okay, do you want to tell me their names so we can have that on the recording?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 33:56
 ; Well, there's Mark Steven Gurley. There's Ambra Leigh Gurley [Maxon]. Then there's Deborah Ann Gurley. There's Kim Roberta, well, her name's Shepherd now but and then there's Heather Lynn Spencer. There's Kip Robertson Gurley, and then there's Jennifer Kay Alexander. She's our youngest.
 ; Together Bill and Peggy have seven children. Previous to their marriage, Bill had two children and Peggy had four children. Bill and Peggy had one child together. They now have sixteen grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren. Peggy Ann Gurley ; Mark Steven Gurley ; Ambra Leigh Gurley Maxon ; Deborah Ann Gurley ; Kim Roberta Shepherd ; Heather Lynn Spencer ; Kip Robertson Gurley ; Jennifer Kay Alexander ; Highway 66 Children ; Grandchildren 0 2174 Retirement Regan Siler 36:14
 ; Fun times! I guess that's probably why the heat doesn't bother you, huh? Well, so I know now you said you retired. Have you enjoyed being retired? And do you have any hobbies now that you enjoy?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 36:28
 ; Well, after I retired, I think it was maybe 2009, I got involved with one of my best friends from high school and Frank Groom. We had a Bristow handyman business, so we remodeled out all over town. Had that for several years.
 ; After Bill retired, he started working some with Frank Groom and they started a handyman business. They did a lot of remodeling around Bristow, even at the Bristow Social Services. He even helped with Cornerstone Church, remodeling their building. Retirement ; Frank Groom ; Bristow (Okla.) ; Bristow Social Services ; Cornerstone Church Retirement 0 2285 Most Important Invention Regan Siler 38:05
 ; Okay, okay, well, what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 38:15
 ; Invention? Probably would be the computer.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 38:24
 ; I kind of,
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 38:26
 ; You know, on into the, cell phones and tablets and everything we got now, laptop.
 ; Bill believes the most important invention is the computer. Invention ; Computer Invention 0 2313 How the World is Different Regan Siler 38:33
 ; Somehow, I kind of figured you might say, the computer. How do you feel the world is different now than when you were a child?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 38:43
 ; Well, we've really gone, we've lost a lot of the, I'll use the word innocence, that we used to have, which it all goes back to the truth of the matter is, everything has gone anti Bible. If you want to call it that. God's Word, the left, you got the right and left in politics. But the left has taken an anti everything that the Bible believes. they take the opposite, whether it's, you know, sexual situations, don't speak, you know, cussing and all that sort of thing. You got your, the homosexual, all that thing is just the opposite of what God said we should do, and that's how the worst thing it has done is that changed. I don't we're still having wars all over the place. Doesn't seem to be getting any better.
 ; Bill says the world is different than when he was a child, he says we have lost a lot of innocence. He says everything is now the opposite of what the Bible says. Bible ; Politics World 0 2381 Nation's Biggest Problem Regan Siler 39:41
 ; As you see it, what do you feel is our nation's biggest problem and how do you think it could be solved?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 39:50
 ; I don't know what the biggest problem is. Biggest problem is our national debt. That's the biggest problem. I don't think it can be solved. There's so many trillion dollars in debt, that can't ever be solved.
 ; Bill says that the nation's biggest problem is our national debt. He does not feel that it can be solved. Bill also talks about how bad drugs are in this country. Nation Nation 0 2439 Historic Events Regan Siler 40:39
 ; Okay, how have historic events say, like maybe the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, natural disasters, world wars, even covid, affected you, and you can pick one or several, or have any of the natural have any natural disasters affected your life, personally, or historic events? I'm sorry, not natural disasters?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 41:10
 ; Well, one natural disaster was a tornado went across our farm in 1960. Had a lot of rebuilding that took place as a result of that.
 ; Bill recalls a tornado that went across their farm in 1960. He says they had a lot of rebuilding to do as a result. Tornado Tornado 0 2526 Wisdom Regan Siler 42:06
 ; Okay, well, is there anything else that you would like to tell us or share any wisdom for future generations?
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 42:18
 ; I can't say anything offhand, really.
 ; 
 ; Regan Siler 42:23
 ; I know you have, I know you have some kind of wisdom to share in there. 
 ; 
 ; Bill Gurley 42:29
 ; The biggest wisdom you can give anybody is that get have a relationship with the Lord. Be born again, because everything hinges on that as far as to have a He promises an abundant life, prosperous life, and that that's the solution to it, is to start there. Beyond that, I mean, it's it'll take care of itself once you get started.
 ; Bill finishes the interview with some words of wisdom. He says the best advice that he could give a person is to have a relationship with the Lord. He says to be born again, because that is the key to an abundant and prosperous life. Wisdom ; Lord Wisdom 0 MP4 Bill Gurley, born October 25, 1939, in Oklahoma City, shared his life story with Regan Siler. Bill's parents, Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley and Arthur Eulus Gurley, were educators. Bill helped his father on their 500-acre farm. He attended Bristow Public Schools, where he was influenced by several doctoral degree teachers. Bill pursued a career in mathematics, earning degrees from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. He worked in operations research, founded Petroleum Marketing Research Company, and later became a state representative. Bill and his wife, Peggy, have seven children and many grandchildren. He retired in 2009 and enjoys remodeling projects. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION BEGIN 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:25.065 This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is August 7, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Bill Gurley at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us a little bit about his life and what it's been like living in the Bristow area. Can you please state your full name? 00:00:25.065 --> 00:00:26.984 William Ray Gurley. 00:00:26.984 --> 00:00:28.664 Okay, but you go by Bill. 00:00:28.664 --> 00:00:29.385 Go by Bill. 00:00:29.385 --> 00:00:32.145 Okay, and do I have permission to record this interview? 00:00:32.145 --> 00:00:32.960 Yes, you do. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:36.979 Okay. Please tell me when and where you were born. 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:42.200 Born in Oklahoma City, October the 25th 1939. 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:51.960 Okay, and let's just start off by talking about your family. Can you tell me your parents full names? 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:57.479 My mother was Neva Matilda [Carmen] Gurley. My dad was Arthur Eulus Gurley. 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:02.700 Okay, and I have your dad's birthday as 9/22/1897? 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:03.119 Yes. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:07.980 Okay, I have your mother as March 1, 1902? 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:08.700 Yes. 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:12.420 Okay, um, what type of work did your parents do? 00:01:12.420 --> 00:01:20.504 My mother was a math teacher at Bristow for 40 years. And my dad was just a rancher and raised cattle, hay. 00:01:20.504 --> 00:01:22.200 Okay. 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:23.140 Pretty much that. 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:36.519 So, I've heard a lot, I've heard your mom's name a lot. I was never blessed to get to meet her, but it sounds like she worked with a whole lot of kids during her time here. 00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:42.819 She died in '97 [9/16/1997] but even after she retired, she tutored a lot of kids. 00:01:42.819 --> 00:02:09.370 My husband being one of them. Yeah, yeah. Well, it sounds like she had a very long and fulfilled career here in Bristow. Did that, and I know you told me when we visited on the phone that you have worn many hats in your time teaching, being one of them, and we'll get to that. But did she inspire you at all to become a teacher, or? 00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:18.129 No, that just as a result of, I needed to work and I had the degree. 00:02:18.129 --> 00:02:19.000 Worked out that way. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.680 When you live, when you live on a farm, you got to have something to help support it. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:28.560 Right, right. I understand that. Do you have any siblings? 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:44.520 Yes, I had a sister, Barbara Jean, who was, she was born in '42, but she died, and when she was about 40-some years old. 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:48.900 Okay, um, and so just the one sister? 00:02:48.900 --> 00:02:54.284 Yes. And then I have a half-sister and three half-brothers. 00:02:54.284 --> 00:02:59.025 Okay, okay. And do the, did you grow up with family around you or? 00:02:59.025 --> 00:03:02.000 Not them, no. They were off somewhere else. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.520 Okay. And so did you grow up in Bristow? 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:06.000 Yes, I did. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:06.479 Okay. So, you were born here? 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:07.039 No. I was born in Oklahoma City. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:07.280 Well, Oklahoma City. 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.939 But then we moved here when I was six-years-old. 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:14.759 Six, okay, okay, gotcha. 00:03:14.759 --> 00:03:22.199 That's when she started teaching school for a second time was in that year when we came here. 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:28.439 And so whenever you guys moved here, where was your family rooted, like your extended family? 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:28.860 Here. 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:33.080 Here, okay. Was that the reason why that you guys moved back here? 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:41.180 Well, my mother owned land here, and my grandparents lived here, and they owned land, so they were rooted here. 00:03:41.180 --> 00:04:02.044 Okay, Okay, gotcha, um, well, let's talk a little bit about your childhood. We'll we'll touch on that a little bit and ask some some kind of fun questions to see if you remember. Do you remember any of your favorite toys or games as you were growing up? 00:04:02.044 --> 00:04:08.944 No, mostly I, out in the country, we had horses and cattle, dogs and, you know. 00:04:08.944 --> 00:04:11.580 And you probably had to work a lot on your farm, I'm guessing? 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:18.139 Oh yes, all the time. We had a dairy, up at four o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon. 00:04:18.139 --> 00:04:26.899 Oh, my goodness, okay. Well, that was going to be my next question is, did you have chores that you were expected to do? So, obviously, that's yes. 00:04:26.899 --> 00:04:31.220 That, plus had took piano lessons, so I have to always practice that. 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:35.839 Really? Okay, and so is that something you enjoyed? 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:40.865 Well, to be honest with you, not really. Mother kind of forced me into that. 00:04:40.865 --> 00:04:43.324 Well, so can you still play today? 00:04:43.324 --> 00:04:43.745 Oh, yeah. 00:04:43.745 --> 00:04:44.720 Okay. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:48.079 Problem is, I don't have an ear for music, and that's a big difference. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:49.100 Oh, okay. 00:04:49.100 --> 00:04:54.000 Well, I can sight read, but not play by ear. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:54.699 Well, there's just a lot of work maintaining a place where you got, you know, constantly fixing fence, cutting trees, and, you know, had to cut hay and mow. And I remember when I was kid, we had a big silo and had to feed the cattle in the winter with that silage, and they're just constant work. 00:04:54.699 --> 00:05:26.985 Right, right. Okay, well, what were some of the things that you did, like on your farm? Tell us about some of the chores that you had to do, other than your, I'm sure, getting up and milking cows first thing in the morning. 00:05:26.985 --> 00:05:34.485 Right, right. Did you enjoy it? Or did you know any different? 00:05:34.485 --> 00:05:39.660 I guess I enjoyed it, because that's why I wanted to come back to and be a farmer, rancher. 00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:51.139 Farmer, rancher today. Okay, um, so did you living in the country, did you have any friends that would come over and play with you or? 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:58.879 Yeah, we had kids that come out. We'd ride horses together and just do what, fish down in the pond and go swimming down in the creek. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.160 See to me, that's the good old days, that's, that's. 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:01.699 Very much so. 00:06:01.699 --> 00:06:11.899 Yes, I like that. Did you have any favorite activities or hobbies as a child? 00:06:11.899 --> 00:06:23.524 Other than, you know, dealing with horses, of course, I was in the band, that sort of thing, I liked to hunt. 00:06:23.524 --> 00:06:28.865 Hunt, okay. Did you have, like, how much acreage did you guys own? 00:06:28.865 --> 00:06:32.225 Oh, about 500 acres. 00:06:32.225 --> 00:06:36.785 Oh, my goodness. So, did you farm all of that, or? 00:06:36.785 --> 00:06:37.000 Mmm hmm. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:37.024 250 at Depew and we had 90 here at Bristow. That much, at least. 00:06:37.024 --> 00:06:45.639 Oh man. 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:49.899 So, was it just mainly you and your dad that worked it, all of it? 00:06:49.899 --> 00:06:50.319 Oh, yeah. 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:59.379 Oh, my goodness, that's a lot of work. Do you remember if you collected anything as a child? 00:06:59.379 --> 00:07:00.000 Not really. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:17.079 Not really, okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your school life. I know when we visited on the phone, you said you attended Bristow Public Schools for 12 years. Do you remember having any particularly influential teachers in your life? 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:41.245 Bristow, we were very fortunate to have four doctoral degree people teaching, and I think there's Covey [Lola Effie Best Covey]. She taught a lot of Spanish and English. We had Corey [Kate Broad Baldridge Corey], my mother. She didn't have the PhD, but she had, she could have had. 00:07:41.245 --> 00:07:42.264 Yes. 00:07:42.264 --> 00:07:55.764 Because she was an excellent teacher. And we had a excellent history teacher. Anyway, we just had some excellent teachers, I think, in the 50s. 00:07:55.764 --> 00:08:00.504 So, whenever you said, you said Corey, the last name was Corey. 00:08:00.504 --> 00:08:02.115 Kate Corey. 00:08:02.115 --> 00:08:05.170 And how do you spell, do you remember how to spell her last name? 00:08:05.170 --> 00:08:06.420 C O R E Y. 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:07.000 Okay. And then the other teacher? 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.939 Covey. C O V E Y. 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:12.160 And what was that teacher's first name? Do you remember? 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:13.480 No. 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:15.160 No? Male or female? 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:15.699 Female. 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:23.079 Okay, so Ms Covey, okay, um. Do you remember how you got to school? 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:24.339 I was in the car with my mother. 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:25.240 Okay, so your mom 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:25.420 So you rode, yeah, well, that makes sense. Um, was o was your mom ever your teacher? 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:30.699 She taught school. 00:08:30.699 --> 00:08:31.839 Oh, yes. 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:32.500 Okay. 00:08:32.500 --> 00:08:36.259 All through, you know, high school, when you had to take math. All the math courses. 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:39.899 Oh, okay, so that's probably why you're good at math, huh? 00:08:39.899 --> 00:08:43.019 Yeah, she even talked physics, so I took that, too. 00:08:43.019 --> 00:08:49.500 Okay, okay, um, were you a member of any clubs or organizations? I know you said you were in band. 00:08:49.500 --> 00:09:04.080 Right. Bristow Band. I think we were in a can't even remember the other clubs we were in. There was, there were several that were involved with. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:10.125 Okay, um, so did you enjoy school overall? 00:09:10.125 --> 00:09:11.024 Yes, I enjoyed it. 00:09:11.024 --> 00:09:14.144 You did, okay. Did you have a favorite subject? 00:09:14.144 --> 00:09:17.600 Math, obviously. That's what I got my degrees in. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:31.460 Okay, okay. Um, well, let's talk a little bit about the house you grew up in, whenever you moved back to Bristow, when you said you were six, and you had this big farm, is that where you lived in your entire 12 years of school? 00:09:31.460 --> 00:09:31.759 Yeah. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:34.820 Can you tell us about that house? Was it like a farmhouse or? 00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:39.379 Yeah, it was pretty, I'll use the word crude to start with. We had outdoor plumbing, both water and sewage. So we had outhouse and a pump on the outside. But when I was about 10 years old, I helped my dad remodel our house, completely remodeled it, and put indoor plumbing and everything. Yeah, that would have been in what, '49. 00:09:39.379 --> 00:10:03.044 Yes. 00:10:03.044 --> 00:10:03.840 Okay. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:07.679 It was just an old oil field shack, basically. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:10.220 Okay. 00:10:10.220 --> 00:10:28.279 And dad remodeled it and turned it into a two story house. 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:29.419 Wow! 00:10:29.419 --> 00:10:30.980 Had several bedrooms. 00:10:30.980 --> 00:10:38.225 So, you just learned as you went. Your dad taught you how to do things as you went, huh, as far as helping. 00:10:38.225 --> 00:10:44.164 We just, you know, learn do everything from carpentry to welding to plumbing and electrical. We did it all. 00:10:44.164 --> 00:10:53.585 Right, right, okay. Well, can you remember what meal times were like with your with your family? Did everybody sit down to eat? 00:10:53.585 --> 00:10:57.049 Yes, mother cooks the meal and we sit down and ate. 00:10:57.049 --> 00:11:07.019 Okay and do you remember, maybe, a favorite meal that she cooked whenever you were younger? Did you have a favorite one? 00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:09.899 Not really. We just ate everything. 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:36.585 Anything that she provided. Okay, well, thinking back to town life and growing up, do you remember any favorite community activities? And when I say that, I mean, like a lot of people talk about Western Heritage Days or county fairs, stuff like that. Can you remember as a young person enjoying any of those activities in Bristow? 00:11:36.585 --> 00:12:11.000 Well, we, Bristow hosted the Creek County, the Creek County Fair every year, which is out here, that's near the where the pool is now. And that was always a big event. My dad was president of the Fair Board, so he was active. He'd always give me tickets to the from the rides. I'd have plenty of those, share with my friend. We had two movie theaters back then, Walmur and Princess Theaters. That was a big event. Go 10 cents to go a movie on Saturday afternoon. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.000 Yeah, yeah, I've heard about those. I wish we had one now. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:30.000 Had a pool hall, you go in play pool. Had another, I guess you'd call it, I don't know if you'd call it drugstore or what it was. But anyway, we went, they had a pinball machine. We loved to play pinball. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.259 So, did, was the pool around at that time? Did you enjoy the pool? 00:12:34.259 --> 00:12:34.679 Yeah. 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:39.240 Yeah, did you get to go, did you get to go there much at all? 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:40.440 Yeah, some. 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:52.000 Okay, um, do you remember any of the, I guess, biggest or most popular businesses around town growing up? Or an yone that sticks out to you? 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:14.679 We had, Bristow was a really nice community back in the old days, as far as commercial, we had two men's clothing stores. We had, you know, really good, like Safeway Grocery Store. We had, we had Penneys. We had 5 and 10. We had women's clothing stores. We had 00:13:14.679 --> 00:13:16.524 It was booming back in the day, wasn't it? 00:13:16.524 --> 00:13:19.000 I mean, we had a lot of good things that have been taken away from us now. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:27.940 Yeah, well, I kind of feel like, hopefully, we're maybe trending back in the right direction of an upswing in town, hopefully. 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:31.159 We are growing, but, you know, Walmart is taking everything away. 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:32.019 Yeah, that's kind of been the general consensus whenever I have done these interviews, is that when Walmart came and the turnpike came, it really kind of changed the landscape of Bristow and the, you know, the smaller stores closed, and it kind of kind of changed everything. 00:13:32.019 --> 00:13:43.960 Just can't compete. 00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:55.284 Yeah, yeah, exactly. Did you have a favorite hangout as a teenager? 00:13:55.284 --> 00:13:58.404 Home. 00:13:58.404 --> 00:13:59.245 Home? 00:13:59.245 --> 00:13:59.664 Farm. 00:13:59.664 --> 00:14:01.585 Yeah, you were always at the farm, huh? 00:14:01.585 --> 00:14:03.745 There was plenty to do there. 00:14:03.745 --> 00:14:04.825 Oh, I can imagine. 00:14:04.825 --> 00:14:08.000 Horseback riding, yeah, fishing, you know, just anything you wanted to do. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:15.860 Right. Do you have any particular memories of the train depot? 00:14:15.860 --> 00:14:20.840 Not really other than just seeing trains come through. 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:29.539 Right, right, okay, um, well, let's see, do you remember, do you happen to remember your family's first car? 00:14:29.539 --> 00:14:39.184 I don't know whether it was the first one or not. I can remember like a '49 Ford. 00:14:39.184 --> 00:14:42.784 Okay, okay. Do you remember your first car? 00:14:42.784 --> 00:14:45.544 1955 Ford. 00:14:45.544 --> 00:14:48.965 Ford. And who taught you how to drive? 00:14:48.965 --> 00:14:52.024 Well, myself, I guess. 00:14:52.024 --> 00:14:56.345 I'm guessing you were probably driving long before you had a license, since you were on the farm. 00:14:56.345 --> 00:15:01.000 I started driving a tractor, you know, when I was eight or ten years old. From then on, It's just natural. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:15.340 Yes, yes. Okay, so did you have or what sort of entertainment did you have growing up? Did you have a TV at some point? 00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:19.299 I think about 1950 we got a TV for the first time. 00:15:19.299 --> 00:15:24.924 Okay, and do you remember any particular programs you enjoyed watching? 00:15:24.924 --> 00:15:33.000 Not really. I can't think of anybody, any that we really watched. It's kind of wasn't too many to choose from. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:38.519 Right, and I'm sure you were probably always outside and, you know, it 00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:41.519 Well of an evening, you always did that sort of thing. 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:56.580 Right, right. So, do you remember seeing any pivotal moments on TV, like newsworthy moments? I've had some people tell me that they remember like when JFK was shot or 00:15:56.580 --> 00:16:00.345 Well, I remember that very vividly, but, of course, I was in college, but then. 00:16:00.345 --> 00:16:01.304 Right, right. 00:16:01.304 --> 00:16:02.924 That was momentous event, 00:16:02.924 --> 00:16:06.720 Yeah, yeah, yeah, but nothing else that you can. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:13.620 I just remember hearing stuff about World War II on the radio. You didn't have TV, then. 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:26.340 Did you, was music, I know you said you you played piano, but did you frequently, like listen to music like the radio or and what type of music did you like? 00:16:26.340 --> 00:16:33.105 Just the popular music at that time. You know, you just had good singers like Frank Sinatra and all those good singers, 00:16:33.105 --> 00:16:46.605 Right. Okay, what was medical care like for you growing up? Did you have a family doctor or did you mainly take care of, did your mom take care of stuff at home? Or how did that work? 00:16:46.605 --> 00:16:56.788 Probably most of it was at home. I remember cut my hand one time, and, you know, we just looked at it and put a band aid on it. 00:16:56.788 --> 00:16:57.000 Patched it up as best as possible. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:20.039 I remember one time I stuck a big splinter under my thumbnail, and it went way deep, and Dad took his pocket knife and literally cut a little square out of the center of it and pulled it out through that little hole. I can't imagine that being done today, or even surviging it. But yeah, that's the way it was back then. Of course, we had the 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:23.900 I think you guys were a lot tougher than what we are these days. 00:17:23.900 --> 00:17:41.000 We had, I just remember we had there on Eighth Street, there, just west of Main Street, there was a clinic, and when I was six years old, had my tonsils out there. But it was just in the clinic that we had it done. Put you under ether anesthetic, and took your tonsils out, ate ice cream for a week. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.940 So, it wasn't all bad, huh? 00:17:43.940 --> 00:17:49.460 But that's the way it was. You didn't, didn't do much in the way of doctors. 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:57.859 Right, right. So, and I forgot to ask you, as far as, like, where your house and your farm was, where was that located at roughly? 00:17:57.859 --> 00:18:05.579 It's a mile south of town, about a quarter of a mile west of 48 on Airport Road. 00:18:05.579 --> 00:18:11.759 Okay, okay. Did you attend church growing up? 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:12.299 Yes. 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:14.039 You did. Okay. Where did you attend? 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:15.900 First Christian Church here in Bristow. 00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:19.559 Okay. So, where is that one located? 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:20.900 Just right down the street. 00:18:20.900 --> 00:18:33.259 Okay, okay, um, and then I know you told me you were a born again Christian in 1974, so around 21 ish. Were you 21 I guess, maybe? 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:36.019 What, 25? No, 34. 00:18:36.019 --> 00:18:37.880 Oh, I must have had 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:39.559 '49 to '74. 00:18:39.559 --> 00:18:40.880 I had bad math there. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:42.200 Thirty-four. 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:44.000 And I'm saying that in front of a math teacher. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:57.920 I was, I was baptized when I was 12 there in that First Christian Church, but it, the Lord looked after me from that point on, but I did, wouldn't, didn't give him too much time until I was 34 and 00:18:57.920 --> 00:18:59.839 Then rededicated. 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:01.880 Yeah, I had the real experience with the Lord. 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:11.400 Well, that's neat. Alright, well, let's talk about holidays in your family. Were holidays a big deal? 00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:19.319 I guess you'd say somewhat. You know, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was always a big thing, because have big dinners. 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:22.420 Did all the family come to your house? Or did you go somewhere? 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:32.740 Pretty much, my mother had four, three sisters, and they'd show up their families. We just had to get togethers most of the time. 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:41.440 So, is Christmas more about, I guess, maybe being together and having a good meal, versus, say, like presents, or what? 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:46.525 There was always presents associated with Christmas alonw with a meal. 00:19:46.525 --> 00:19:51.744 Can you remember any, any particular thing you got that stuck out in your memory for Christmas? 00:19:51.744 --> 00:19:58.345 Just remember a bicycle when I was six years old. Primarily, other than that, I can't remember too much. 00:19:58.345 --> 00:20:07.380 So, that was a big deal. As a child, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:09.960 Yeah, really, I wanted to be a rancher. 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:13.359 Really? Okay, and you still do that now, correct? 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:14.619 Well, not now I'm retired. 00:20:14.619 --> 00:20:15.819 Well, okay. 00:20:15.819 --> 00:20:17.019 I sold all the land then. 00:20:17.019 --> 00:20:19.539 Oh, okay, okay. 00:20:19.539 --> 00:20:22.599 It's just too much work to maintain all that stuff. 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:27.319 So, did you have your, so did, were you still working your family ranch? 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:27.460 So, that was still in your family? Wow! Okay, um, all right, well, let's talk about college. When we visited on the phone, tell me where you went and what degrees you achieved, and tell me a little bit about your college experience. 00:20:27.460 --> 00:20:50.025 Yes. 00:20:50.025 --> 00:21:07.904 I went to OU, University of Oklahoma for 1957 to '60, and I got my undergraduate degree in mathematics. Then I went to OSU in 1960 and I got my masters and PhD, finally, in 1964. 00:21:07.904 --> 00:21:09.704 And you said that was in math statistics? 00:21:09.704 --> 00:21:11.299 That was mathematical statistics. 00:21:11.299 --> 00:21:15.019 Okay, okay. And did you enjoy your college experience? 00:21:15.019 --> 00:21:15.859 Very much. 00:21:15.859 --> 00:21:17.059 Okay. 00:21:17.059 --> 00:21:18.799 What free time you have. 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:36.125 Yeah, well, and I think it's so much different whenever you go to college versus maybe, like high school, you're going for something that you want to do, that you're wanting to pursue. So, it has a little bit of, I feel like it feels a little different whenever you're doing it for yourself and something that you want to do. 00:21:36.125 --> 00:21:41.704 You've got an objective, you got kind of go for it. It's not, it's not a chore so much is just . 00:21:41.704 --> 00:21:43.325 Yes. 00:21:43.325 --> 00:21:44.285 Working to get that job. 00:21:44.285 --> 00:22:03.000 Yeah, you're trying to achieve it. Okay, so for the man that has worn many hats, let's talk about your work life. So, say whenever you got out of college, tell me, like, what was your first major job that you had? 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:10.000 Well, I started working 1964 with Sunray DX Oil Company in operations research analyst. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:12.460 And it was Sunray? 00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:14.200 Sunray DX Oil Company. 00:22:14.200 --> 00:22:14.559 Okay. 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:15.519 They were in Tulsa. 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:16.440 Okay. 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:23.640 And then a couple of years later, another gentleman worked there and I, formed a company called Petroleum Marketing Research Company. 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:24.420 Okay. 00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:46.619 We had designed a computer program that would basically tell you how many gallons of gasoline a service station would produce wherever it's located in the city. We were successful to sell it to four major oil companies. Then we got this throughout all the cities that they can do survey work to supply the monster that we created. 00:22:46.619 --> 00:22:56.000 So, would you say that that was that technology was ahead of its time at that time? That sounds like a pretty big accomplishment. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:10.039 Well, it was just using what you call it, the intuition, or to figure out how to make it work. And we did. 00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:11.539 You did and it was successful. 00:23:11.539 --> 00:23:21.365 And then we programmed it back then we had big 360 IBM computers. My cell phone probably got more capability than that did. 00:23:21.365 --> 00:23:22.444 Right, right. 00:23:22.444 --> 00:23:30.299 Yeah, it had a million bytes of worth of storage, where today we're talking gigabytes and terabytes. 00:23:30.299 --> 00:23:42.680 Right. Yeah, the technology advancements have been crazy in a relatively short period of time. Um, okay, so what was your, where did you go from there? 00:23:42.680 --> 00:25:00.275 Okay, from there that finally dried up. I moved back to Bristow and started ranching for a while, and then after that, opportunity opened up, where I started programming a guy's computer that was over at Stroud, and from that, led into programming computers for all of these Oklahoma. Primarily because I got involved, because people didn't want to leave Tulsa to go out in the small town. So, I didn't mind doing that, and I'm getting decent wage for programming the old Wang computers back then. They were pretty, pretty good computer. In fact, I helped put one of the first computers, it's a American National Bank, which is now Spirit Bank. I programmed it. It was, they had a big mainframe that did their main checking account. But I was dealing with the loan applications. Had a little computer for that, so I programmed that. That was the first one they had in house. Tracy Kelly and Levan Kelly and Royce Kelly were all people that I was involved with. 00:25:00.275 --> 00:25:09.335 I actually grew up in the American National Bank because my mom worked there. So, around, do you remember around what year that would have been? 00:25:09.335 --> 00:25:14.839 Probably '79 through '80, '81, '82, '83. 00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:28.460 So, that's that's cool. You saw a need, because, honestly, it kind of seems like that now you can't get people to come out of Tulsa to come to the smaller towns, so that's neat that you saw the need and you you filled it. 00:25:28.460 --> 00:26:04.069 Yeah, and then as that expanded, and I started selling computers as well, and opened up an office in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, where we, I worked with this Wang salesman, too. I sold their computers and programmed them. It was fun, and that area kind of dried up. And about '86 something like that. And then '87 I ran for office, for state representative, and got elected for four years down there. 00:26:04.069 --> 00:26:09.289 And tell me what the you told me on the phone, a little detail about that, that you were the first. 00:26:09.289 --> 00:26:19.849 Oh, I was the first Republican elected in Creek County. Which is it was totally democratic back in those days. Of course, now it's completely turned around the opposite direction. 00:26:19.849 --> 00:26:28.640 Right, right. So, how would you describe your experience being a representative? 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:52.085 Well, it's very, it's a lot more demanding than you think, because people are always calling you, asking you to do this and do that and help them do that. You know, it get a lot of problems solved. But it's also a, it's a good, interesting job to be involved with. You're helping make laws for the whole state. 00:26:52.085 --> 00:27:07.144 I can see where it would be a very rewarding, could be a very rewarding venture. So ,were you doing that while you were working, or were you just doing that? 00:27:07.144 --> 00:27:13.805 When you say working, I've always had the farm and ranch, but I was doing that was in addition to that. 00:27:13.805 --> 00:27:16.789 In addition to, okay, yeah. 00:27:16.789 --> 00:27:21.049 But what I was doing, I wasn't doing any computer work when I was doing that.' 00:27:21.049 --> 00:27:22.220 Right. That's kind of what I meant. 00:27:22.220 --> 00:27:56.005 Now that the computer stuff dried up in about '86. In '87 I ran for office, got in for four years and went back, you know, back to the ranch after that. At '97 then I think it was that first started teaching at Depew. Taught there two years. Then I came over to Bristow in '99 and then I was technology director here for the Bristow Schools for two years. We had about 550 computers that we had to deal with, maintain that fiber optic network. 00:27:56.005 --> 00:28:01.759 So, in all the hats you've worn, did you have a favorite hat? 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:44.404 They're all enjoyable. Always loved ranching. I guess I loved programming computers too. I mean, that was good. That was a fun job. And I didn't mention it, but one other one in between there about '77 I guess it was. I helped Paul Montgomery over Slick for about a year. We tried, we were trying to build horse buggies for, you know, horse and buggy type situation. And turned out I wasn't that good at the carpentry, so I just let him have the whole thing. And that's when I got into the computer business. 00:28:44.404 --> 00:28:44.959 You went back to computers. 00:28:44.959 --> 00:28:53.450 And Paul went ahead and made some beautiful buggies, working with, I can't think of his first name, but Groom was his last name. Down there at Slick. 00:28:53.450 --> 00:29:02.089 Well, then you also mentioned to me, when we had visited about Activation Outreach. Can you tell me about that? 00:29:02.089 --> 00:29:22.055 Well, we started, Majel Wisotsky. She was, she headed it up, and we started a group called Activation Outreach, just a small church group. We met Methodist Church Annex a couple of years. And she got married, moved to Texas. 00:29:22.055 --> 00:29:30.634 So, what kinds of, what kind, tell me more about that, like, what, what did that program do? 00:29:30.634 --> 00:29:46.900 Well, mainly, we're trying to just help people, you know, that's, that's the main thing, is to get out and witness to people and also help people that need help, elderly. And we needed a lot of homeless work too, witnessing the homeless people. 00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:48.579 So, locally, or anywhere? 00:29:48.579 --> 00:29:48.940 Locally, 00:29:48.940 --> 00:29:50.200 okay. 00:29:50.200 --> 00:30:30.204 Primarily locally, So it's, you know, we're trying to get people to basically ideas, to bring people to life. Because the truth of the of the gospel is Jesus came that we could be free from all the junk that pollutes our lives. That's what He said. I came to set the captives free. So, we want, see those people are slaves to drugs and a lifestyle that's just drug 'em down. But if you really under, get a hold of the Lord, then he will set you free. And that was our whole objective, is to work in that realm. 00:30:30.204 --> 00:30:34.500 So, is that still going on even though she has moved? 00:30:34.500 --> 00:30:41.759 Well, we still meat in our home on Wednesdays, uh, small group of us, but it's not very, not very large at the moment. 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:52.740 Not large, okay, okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your immediate family. Can you tell me your spouse's full name? 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:54.720 Peggy Ann Gurley. 00:30:54.720 --> 00:30:58.904 Okay, and I have her birth date is February 22, 1942. 00:30:58.904 --> 00:30:59.505 Correct. 00:30:59.505 --> 00:31:05.279 Okay. Um, When and where did you meet her? 00:31:05.279 --> 00:32:02.099 In Stroud [Oklahoma]. We were involved with the Full Gospel Businessmen Association there, and we'd meet once a month for a dinner meeting, and a speaker would speak. And her husband was, he and I were both directors for that organization. He was veterinarian over there at Stroud. And then in 1976, he had a terrible plane accident. He had a private plane that they were flying. It crashed behind his house, or at least about a mile north. But anyway, as a result, she was a widow with four children. I knew her through that we were part of that organization. [Indecipherable] the Lord said that you're gonna marry Peggy Robertson. And I thought it was four kids, you gotta be kidding. But it turns out, we've been married for 48 years now. 00:32:02.099 --> 00:32:05.819 Oh, my goodness. Well, congratulations. That's an accomplishment. 00:32:05.819 --> 00:32:07.660 Yes, it was good thing. 00:32:07.660 --> 00:32:18.619 Um, so did you just decide you wanted to get married? Or did you have an engagement period? Or, how did that, how did that work out? 00:32:18.619 --> 00:32:43.085 Well, we walked in, we went to a church in Tulsa in separate cars, and we happened to walk in the church together and sit down together, and then when the preacher said, everybody, hold hands. You know, how they do. We held hands, and they just felt electricity going up and down our arms. And that was kind of a confirmation that this is good. 00:32:43.085 --> 00:32:46.144 That was, that was your positive sign. 00:32:46.144 --> 00:32:57.184 We, we, what do you call it, courtship was going over to her house and eating supper with all with all the kids around you. Didn't go out too much. 00:32:57.184 --> 00:33:01.085 Okay, well, so, when and where did you marry? 00:33:01.085 --> 00:33:10.430 We were married at the First Assembly of God in Stroud in 1977. 00:33:10.430 --> 00:33:13.369 So, I have March 5, 1977? 00:33:13.369 --> 00:33:13.730 Yes. 00:33:13.730 --> 00:33:18.109 Okay, did you have a small wedding? Big wedding? 00:33:18.109 --> 00:33:22.670 Yes, I'd say small. Maybe 20 to 25, people, probably. 00:33:22.670 --> 00:33:25.910 And, so, were you living in Bristow and she was living in Stroud at the time? 00:33:25.910 --> 00:33:26.869 I was living in Depew. 00:33:26.869 --> 00:33:28.000 Oh, you were living in Depew? Okay. 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:29.980 Had a farm over there. 00:33:29.980 --> 00:33:33.160 And then, so, then you all ended up. 00:33:33.160 --> 00:33:34.480 They all moved to Depew. 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:34.900 Okay, gotcha. 00:33:34.900 --> 00:33:36.519 Kids all went to school at Depew. 00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:37.660 Okay, okay. 00:33:37.660 --> 00:33:39.460 They all graduated from Depew School. 00:33:39.460 --> 00:33:46.240 Okay. Um, so how many children do you have? 00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:51.924 Total, we have seven. I had two. Peggy had four, and then she and I had one. 00:33:51.924 --> 00:33:56.980 Okay, do you want to tell me their names so we can have that on the recording? 00:33:56.980 --> 00:34:25.164 Well, there's Mark Steven Gurley. There's Ambra Leigh Gurley [Maxon]. Then there's Deborah Ann Gurley. There's Kim Roberta, well, her name's Shepherd now but and then there's Heather Lynn Spencer. There's Kip Robertson Gurley, and then there's Jennifer Kay Alexander. She's our youngest. 00:34:25.164 --> 00:34:31.405 Okay, and how many do you, I'm guessing you probably have grandchildren, too? How many grandchildren? 00:34:31.405 --> 00:34:34.644 We've got like 16 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren? 00:34:34.644 --> 00:34:46.179 Oh, my goodness! So, you have a huge family. Do you remember any particular challenges of being a dad when your kids were young? 00:34:46.179 --> 00:35:34.945 Well, there's always things you gotta deal with, like your daughter getting hit with she's riding her motorcycle and getting hit with a pickup truck out on Highway 66. You talk about a miracle. She pulled out in front of that pickup. He said he was going 54 miles an hour when he hit her. It literally caved in that motorcycle. She had not a scratch on her. She had a bump on her head where she stayed with the motorcycle and it laid over on the on the highway, and it bumped her head, and that was the only, and how she got her leg out away from when that pickup hit the side of that motorcycle. I don't know. 00:35:34.945 --> 00:35:36.385 How old was she? 00:35:36.385 --> 00:35:37.284 Fourteen. 00:35:37.284 --> 00:35:40.164 Oh, my goodness. So that's 00:35:40.164 --> 00:35:42.019 You know, that's just one example. 00:35:42.019 --> 00:35:43.179 Yeah, oh, yeah. 00:35:43.179 --> 00:36:07.164 And then you got the, I remember my son Mark, when it was with him. I was coaching Little League ball, baseball. That was a fun time. Of course, you got just think of kids hauling hay. When we first got married, we bailed 10,000 bales of hay every summer, and she and my wife and I and the four kids hauled all the hay, put it on the barn with maybe one one person's help that we'd hired. 00:36:07.164 --> 00:36:09.684 Oh my goodness! 00:36:09.684 --> 00:36:14.539 Fun times! 00:36:14.539 --> 00:36:28.820 I guess that's probably why the heat doesn't bother you, huh? Well, so I know now you said you retired. Have you enjoyed being retired? And do you have any hobbies now that you enjoy? 00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:48.605 Well, after I retired, I think it was maybe 2009, I got involved with one of my best friends from high school and Frank Groom. We had a Bristow handyman business, so we remodeled out all over town. Had that for several years. 00:36:48.605 --> 00:36:57.579 Frank Groom is actually the one that recommended you on being interviewed, so you can thank him for that. 00:36:57.579 --> 00:37:09.400 Well, he's a good friend, and we enjoy working with him. I mean, we, we are very compatible, and I don't, it's just fun to do that sort of thing is to create things. 00:37:09.400 --> 00:37:18.039 Now did you help with the renovation of the Bristow Social Services, the project that he worked on there? 00:37:18.039 --> 00:37:18.699 Yes. 00:37:18.699 --> 00:37:19.119 Okay. 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:24.204 We did. We were, we were both involved in that. He kind of headed it up, but I helped. 00:37:24.204 --> 00:37:24.625 You helped? 00:37:24.625 --> 00:37:38.905 And then also I got involved with the Cornerstone Church here on Seventh Street. You know, down there by the alley. I have completely remodeled that 10,000 square foot building, two story, and we gutted it. 00:37:38.905 --> 00:37:42.909 It doesn't look like it's 10,000 square feet. It there's a lot of 00:37:42.909 --> 00:37:45.130 5000 down and 5000 up. 00:37:45.130 --> 00:37:45.360 Wow, okay. 00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:53.559 I mean, it used to be an old hotel, and all those old rooms. We totally gutted it made it into different rooms. 00:37:53.559 --> 00:37:53.659 So, do you still do handyman work? 00:37:53.659 --> 00:37:53.960 No. 00:37:53.960 --> 00:38:05.659 I might help somebody, or, you know, somebody wants a wheelchair ramp or something, Frank and I will put it in, but we don't advertise that we're available. 00:38:05.659 --> 00:38:15.800 Okay, okay, well, what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime? 00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:24.920 Invention? Probably would be the computer. 00:38:24.920 --> 00:38:26.199 I kind of, 00:38:26.199 --> 00:38:33.400 You know, on into the, cell phones and tablets and everything we got now, laptop. 00:38:33.400 --> 00:38:43.059 Somehow, I kind of figured you might say, the computer. How do you feel the world is different now than when you were a child? 00:38:43.059 --> 00:39:41.875 Well, we've really gone, we've lost a lot of the, I'll use the word innocence, that we used to have, which it all goes back to the truth of the matter is, everything has gone anti Bible. If you want to call it that. God's Word, the left, you got the right and left in politics. But the left has taken an anti everything that the Bible believes. they take the opposite, whether it's, you know, sexual situations, don't speak, you know, cussing and all that sort of thing. You got your, the homosexual, all that thing is just the opposite of what God said we should do, and that's how the worst thing it has done is that changed. I don't we're still having wars all over the place. Doesn't seem to be getting any better. 00:39:41.875 --> 00:39:50.599 As you see it, what do you feel is our nation's biggest problem and how do you think it could be solved? 00:39:50.599 --> 00:40:06.260 I don't know what the biggest problem is. Biggest problem is our national debt. That's the biggest problem. I don't think it can be solved. There's so many trillion dollars in debt, that can't ever be solved. 00:40:06.260 --> 00:40:09.659 Yeah, fiscal responsibility has gone out the window. 00:40:09.659 --> 00:40:39.945 Yeah, that morality. There's two issues that, and another obvious one is the drug problem. I think most of our homeless people are causing drugs, and that whole thing is just, you know, it pulls weight down on society, because you have to take, take care of those people somewhere. I don't know if there is a solution, because nobody seems to want to truly tackle it and stop it coming into the country. 00:40:39.945 --> 00:41:10.409 Okay, how have historic events say, like maybe the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, natural disasters, world wars, even covid, affected you, and you can pick one or several, or have any of the natural have any natural disasters affected your life, personally, or historic events? I'm sorry, not natural disasters? 00:41:10.409 --> 00:41:20.534 Well, one natural disaster was a tornado went across our farm in 1960. Had a lot of rebuilding that took place as a result of that. 00:41:20.534 --> 00:41:22.000 Did it damage your home or just the barns? 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:42.039 Took the barns out and a house that was sitting across the driveway from our house. We had an extra house sitting there, and it disappeared. It took the shingles off of the main house. Had a big, two story brick house. Took the shingles off and a few bricks off of one area, but basically left it standing. 00:41:42.039 --> 00:41:44.500 Did you have a cellar at the time? Where were you when it hit? 00:41:44.500 --> 00:41:53.244 I wasn't in it at the time, but the person living there, he said he was in the cellar, and it said bricks were hitting that cellar door like bullets. 00:41:53.244 --> 00:41:54.324 Oh my goodness. 00:41:54.324 --> 00:42:06.324 But the house survived. And then, of course, we, you know, remodeled it and brought it up to current standards. Because I had to remodel the inside, with the plumbing and all that had to be redone. 00:42:06.324 --> 00:42:18.429 Okay, well, is there anything else that you would like to tell us or share any wisdom for future generations? 00:42:18.429 --> 00:42:23.170 I can't say anything offhand, really. 00:42:23.170 --> 00:42:29.880 I know you have, I know you have some kind of wisdom to share in there. 00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:56.505 The biggest wisdom you can give anybody is that get have a relationship with the Lord. Be born again, because everything hinges on that as far as to have a He promises an abundant life, prosperous life, and that that's the solution to it, is to start there. Beyond that, I mean, it's it'll take care of itself once you get started. 00:42:56.505 --> 00:43:08.385 I like that answer. That's good wisdom to share. Is there anything else that we didn't cover that you would like to add to this interview? 00:43:08.385 --> 00:43:09.960 I can't think of anything at the moment. 00:43:09.960 --> 00:43:16.360 Can't think of anything? Okay, well, your interview will become an important part of the oral history archives for the museum. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. We really appreciate it. 00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:17.360 Thank you. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION END ]]> video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/render.php?cachefile=OHP-0075_Bill_Gurley.xml OHP-0075_Bill_Gurley.xml
Dublin Core
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Title
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Bill Gurley
Description
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Bill Gurley, born October 25, 1939, in Oklahoma City, shared his life story with Regan Siler. Bill's parents, Neva Matilda Carmen Gurley and Arthur Eulus Gurley, were educators. Bill helped his father on their 500-acre farm. He attended Bristow Public Schools, where he was influenced by several doctoral degree teachers. Bill pursued a career in mathematics, earning degrees from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. He worked in operations research, founded Petroleum Marketing Research Company, and later became a state representative. Bill and his wife, Peggy, have seven children and many grandchildren. He retired in 2009 and enjoys remodeling projects.
Identifier
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OHP-0075
Date
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2025/08/07
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video
-
https://bristoworalhistory.org/files/original/f46113fbec414894ffd66d03e610e7eb.jpg
3fc831f302d7bf4708bb7f2aa192eb57
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
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Pinehill Histories
Subject
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History of the Pinehill area north of Bristow
Description
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Several interviews were done by Mary and Bob Mc Carty of people who grew up in the Pinehill area north of Bristow. This collection is the Pinehill subset of the Bristow Oral Histories
Source
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Bristow Historical Society, oral history collection
Type
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Oral history.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Robert L. "Bob" McCarty
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Bob Moore
OHMS Object
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Viewer)
https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-01_Bob_Moore.xml
Interview Keyword
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“keywords” field in the OHMS XML to the corresponding Omeka record.
Pinehill, tool dresser, oil rigs, wood rigs, steam engine, dances, square dance, Two Little Sisters
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5.4 October 18, 1976 OHP-0002-01 Bob Moore OHP-0002-01 43:20 Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive Parkhill Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Drilling in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma Pinehill, tool dresser, oil rigs, wood rigs, steam engine, dances, square dance, Two Little Sisters Bob Moore Robert L. "Bob" McCarty MP3 OHP-0002-01 Moore, Bob.mp3 1:|26(1)|52(1)|79(3)|96(10)|109(16)|129(7)|141(49)|152(9)|178(2)|197(1)|219(2)|232(9)|246(11)|271(2)|275(66)|287(7)|313(2)|332(2)|360(18)|374(2)|394(58)|409(5)|416(8)|439(3)|457(10)|469(8)|473(40)|481(1)|493(17)|514(2)|537(9)|558(24)|572(1)|597(2)|619(9)|634(15)|645(12)|664(2)|675(4)|696(15)|735(2)|765(2)|788(3) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-01 Moore, Bob.mp3 Other audio 0 Drilling in the Pinehill community B: …in your home on the Pinehill community. The date is 10/18/1976, time five o’clock. Now then, Mr. Moore. BM: Yeah. B: They tell me that back in your younger days that you drilled, helped work, or helped drill wells in this community, is that right? BM: That’s right! B: Where did you work at in this community? BM: Well, I worked on the Albert Biggs (ph) Mosquito allotment, right on the side of a crick. B: That would be on the side of Mosquito Creek. Bob Moore discusses drilling for oil in the Albert Biggs freedman allotment near Mosquito Creek in the Pinehill area near Bristow. Albert Biggs ; allotment ; Charlie Lowe ; Mosquito allotment ; Mosquito Creek ; Pinehill 35.950855, -96.375456 17 Pinehill Community NE Bristow 103 Drilling for Barnes and Freeland B: Naw. Where else in the community did you help drill? BM: Well, we drilled one over on, you know where this forty-eight runs up there. For Freeland. B: For Freeland. BM: Yeah. B: Do you remember the Indian allotment that that would drill on? BM: Oh, let me see. Yeah! The Morrisons (ph). B: It was on the Morrisons (ph)? BM: Yeah. B: You know that that Morrison (ph) was the freeman, didn’t you? BM: Yeah, yeah. We—that was the first well we worked on that had electric power. Bob Moore talks about working for various drillers and oil men. Bob McCarty reads from material provided by George Krumme about a gas well drilled to 900 feet. 1925 ; Albert Mosquito ; Barnes ; Big Mosquito ; Brick Kirchner ; Claude Freeland ; electric power ; Glenn Freeland ; Hoppy Toad ; Indian allotment ; Morrison 512 Hoppy Toad Oil Company and cable tools B: This was pub—this information that I have was published in 1925, although I do have records here of the Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: The who? B: The Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: Oh, yeah. B: Here is some of the Hoppy Toad and here is the C.L. Freeland Oil Company. BM: Yeah. B: Does that bring back memories to you? BM: That does, yeah. Well, Glen worked on this Hoppy Toad, dressed tools up there. I remember him talkin’ to me about it, and that was before I was—well, I was, had worked the oilfield a little but then since then I hadn’t. For a while I was— B: I just, this log here that I have in my hand is a log of a well “C.L. Freeland Oil Company Mexi-Farm.” Now where would that be? Bob talks about the Hoppy Toad Oil Company and early drilling with cable tools like a tag line or manila line. C. L. Freeland Oil Company ; cable tool rigs ; Ernie Moore ; Hoppy Toad Oil Company ; Manila line ; Mexi-Farm ; rag line ; tag line Drilling lines ; The Hoppy Toad Oil Company http://www.petroleumhistory.org/OilHistory/pages/String/rope.html “Manila” line is made out of hemp or sisal 840 Dressing tools B: You mentioned a while ago about dressing tools? How was the old tools dressed or sharpened or whatever you might do? How was that done? BM: Well, dressin’ tools is, uh—a driller and a tool dresser work together on a tower, and a tool dresser, he assisted the driller. The driller’s supposed to know more than the tool dresser did, but lots of times they didn’t know as much. I dressed tools for about twelve years before I started drilling because it was much easier on me and no responsibility. Well, I guess where they got the name “tool dresser,” when they dress a bit they’d put ‘em in a forge, they’d heat ‘em up to white heat and then dress ‘em out to gauge. They had a gauge that you’d dress ‘em out to. B: You had a gauge that slipped over the end of that bit, is that right? BM: Yeah, that’s right, that’s right. When a bit got in sand formation or after drilling so long, it’d wear out and make the hole small so that the pipe wouldn’t fall, so when it got out of gauge we had to pull the bit off and put it in a forge and dress it, but they always had another bit they put on and we’d be drilling while the bit was heatin’. B: What kind of point was on that? BM: Well, we’d dress it to both sides and would come right out the gauge in a side of a circle on the gauge [indecipherable] and we’d work it out the gauge and pound the worn surface off and it was kind of a bevel on a point and a bottom. Bob talks about dressing, or reforming, the drilling bit. Different ways of heating the bit and reforming it are discussed. dressing tools ; driller ; ram ; sand formation ; tool dresser Dressing the bit on a drilling rig 1114 Steam engines and wooden derricks B: This here is the old boiler that— BM: That’s the boiler, that’s the boiler. B: That is what, now then—you said this boiler, what part did this boiler play? BM: That made steam to run the engine on! (laughs) B: Oh, it was operated by an old steam engine? BM: Oh, yeah! That was fired with oil and sometimes they fired it with gas. Gas was much better because it was cleaner. B: It was cleaner than the oil? BM: Yep. It carried about 120 pounds of steam and the boilers were rated anywhere from thirty to forty-five horsepower boilers. That was the way they rated them. B: Well now, then, go just a little bit further. What happened, say you’re moved into an area that there wasn’t gas and there wasn’t any oil, how did you fire—what did you use to fire that— BM: We used to fire with wood or coal. Whichever one they get, which was the cheapest. B: If coal was cheaper, why you’d fired with coal. BM: Yeah. They [indecipherable] fired with wood. But boy, that took a lot of wood to heat that water up to where you get 120 pounds of steam. B: What was this well here made out of? Bob talks about the steam engines used in early drilling, the fuel used, different beams in the wooden derricks, and how these beams and cranks and belts fit together to drill. bandwheel ; boilers ; bullwheel ; generator ; Nowata ; rig builder ; smudge pot ; steam engine ; wooden derrick ; yellow gold Steam engines used in early drilling for oil ; Wooden derricks used in early drilling for oil 1359 Working conditions B: Now they had all this drilling, whenever they started drilling the wells before electric came in here, they just drilled in daylight, did they or did they not? BM: No, we drilled night and day, twelve hour shifts. B: What kind of light did you use at night? BM: Oh, we had a generator that made electric light. B: You made electric light with a generator that operated off of this steam? BM: Yeah, on the steam. But the first, before they had the generator, we used what they called the “yellow gold.” That was an oil pot come up with two spouts and a piece of hemp in each one of ‘em and we’d light that to work by. B: Worked by that smudge pot— BM: Yeah. Drilling through the night and smudge pot lighting " ; yellow gold" ; ; electric light ; shifts ; smudge pots Drilling shifts ; Light from smudge pots 1469 Time to drill a well, fishing tools, casings, building the derrick, moving in the tools B: About how long did it take to drill one of these wells? BM: Here? In this area? B: Yeah, in this area. BM: Well, ya done well to drill one in about thirty-five days if they didn’t have a fishing job losing tools. B: Uh-oh, now then, how did that come about? How did that— BM: Well, sometimes the lines would break, you know, and sometimes they would lose the tools by breaking the line and then they’d go in there and fish ‘em out. B: What kind of a deal did they use to fish ‘em out with? BM: Oh, Lord, they had a lot of fishin’ tools. The one thing that, if they had the line on it, they had what they called a three-prong grab. It was a tool that screwed onto the end of a stem and it had three long prongs on it with little wickers that come up. Oh, they were big as, oh, couple inches big. And they’d get ahold of the, try to get ahold of the line and pull them out. B: How much, how deep where they, or have you ever helped fish out one? BM: Yeah, I’ve fished one out over at Yale about thirty to a hundred, and I fished one out at Utah, was about two hundred feet. Now that was a fishin’ job. We was out there seventy-nine miles from any town, forty miles from any neighbor, and they hauled the groceries out in trucks. We used what they called a Clark engine. That was operated by gasoline. Didn’t use a boiler there. That was all sand formation and sand would drill close and would sometimes stick the tools. And we stuck the tools about, oh, I guess about two hundred feet deep, and the sand and gypsum around ‘em and we couldn’t pull ‘em out. So we cut the line and filled the hole with tools—stems after stems—and put all forty sticks to drill by it first, with the small tools. We started a twenty-inch hole there. We drilled by it with the small tools and put all forty sticks of dynamite on it. Bob talks about losing tools in the well, fishing them out, how long it took for the derrick to be built, and how long for the tools to be brought in. build a derrick ; dynamite ; fishing tools ; grasshopper derrick ; rig builder ; steel derrick ; wooden conductor Drilling a well in 35 days ; Losing tools and fishing jobs 2017 Early pay for drilling work BM: But about four days. And we worked twelve hours a day and when we was rigging up, all four of us would go out the last day and finish rigging up and the driller and tool dresser would stay there and start, they’d work about eighteen hours that day. B: What was the pay during that time, Bob? BM: Well, I was getting’ about eight, nine dollars a day. B: Eight or nine dollars a day? BM: Yeah. B: Now today their wages’d be— BM: Quite a bit more. B: Yeah, I’d say, what—what would you say the wages would be today on a modern-day rig? BM: Well, I don’t know what they’re gettin’ now, but when I quit drilling, that was about, oh, I was getting’ twelve, thirteen dollars a day, but I was only workin’ eight hours. Well I started workin’ eight hours about, oh, about 1930. B: You started workin’ eight hours a day runnin’ three shifts. BM: Yeah. Pay for oil field work in the 1910's, going to World War I, coming back to work in the oil fields, and the price of oil then. driller pay ; early oil worker pay ; shifts ; tool dresser pay ; work day 2444 Oil field workers fun MM: What did they do for fun, them oilfield guys? B: What did they do for fun, you oilfield boys workin’ out there in the oilfield, what did you guys do for the fun? To have fun? BM: Oh, we’d get—not me, but most of ‘em ‘d get drunk and get into a fight, and something like that. Play craps and play poker and run around with the women— UW: When you stayed, lived around Yale? BM: What? UW: Lived around Yale and worked, what did you all do for fun there? BM: When? B: When you lived around Yale, what did you guys do for fun up there? BM: Oh! I went to dancin’ about twice a week. B: About twice’st a week?? What oil field workers did for fun and Bob square dance calling of " ; Two Little Sisters" ; . dancing ; drunk ; fight ; play craps ; poker ; square dance calling ; square dancing ; women ; Yale In this 1976 interview, Bob Moore discusses working as a tool dresser on oil rigs in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma at a time prior to electricity, when rigs were built of wood, powered by a steam engine, and lighted at night by burning pots of crude oil. He also describes going to dances in Yale, Oklahoma in his spare time and calls a square dance named “Two Little Sisters” for the interviewer. B [Bob McCarty, Interviewer]: --in your home on the Pinehill community. The date is 10/18/1976, time five o' ; clock. Now then, Mr. Moore. BM [Bob Moore, Interviewee]: Yeah. B: They tell me that back in your younger days that you drilled, helped work, or helped drill wells in this community, is that right? BM: That' ; s right! B: Where did you work at in this community? BM: Well, I worked on the Albert Biggs Mosquito allotment, right on the side of a crick. B: That would be on the side of Mosquito Creek. BM: Yeah, that, that' ; s right! B: Right on the side of Mosquito Creek. BM: Yeah. And I worked for Charlie Lowe he was drillin' ; a well there. He was a contractor. B: Charlie Lowe was a contractor. BM: Yeah. B: Uh, do you remember, Mr. Moore, do you remember the depth that that well was? BM: I think it was about 3,200 feet. B: Did you get oil at that time, or did it-- BM: Yeah, yeah. We got oil there. It was a small well but it was a producer. B: It was a producer. BM: Yeah. B: Roughly what would you say that that well would make a day? BM: I' ; d say about fifty barrels at that time when we brought it in. B: You dug, when it came in, it came in at fifty barrel a day? BM: Yeah, something like that, yeah. MM [Mary McCarty, Interviewer]: Is that too strong? (sound of cups clinking) B: Naw. Where else in the community did you help drill? BM: Well, we drilled one over on, you know where this forty-eight runs up there. For Freeland. B: For Freeland. BM: Yeah. B: Do you remember the Indian allotment that that would drill on? BM: Oh, let me see. Yeah! The Morrisons. B: It was on the Morrisons? BM: Yeah. B: You know that that Morrison was the freeman, didn' ; t you? BM: Yeah, yeah. We--that was the first well we worked on that had electric power. B: The Morrison well was the first one that you had electric power to? BM: Yeah. B: What year was that, Mr. Moore? BM: Oh, let' ; s see--that must' ; ve been about 1925. B: Nineteen-and-twenty-five? When you first went to work in the oil field working the drilling, was there any other wells located around in that part of the country? BM: Yeah, there was a well or two around in there. Freeland had some production over in that part of the country. B: Do you have any idea where that production was? BM: Well, it was right around in there, quite a little bit of it, and then, oh, Glen Freeland, he' ; s still alive, he could tell you where it is. B: Now I talked to Glen the other night-- BM: You did? B: --and I found out from Brick Kirchner that Glen Freeland has had an eye surgery and his thinking at the present time is not very much. It' ; s pretty weak, he doesn' ; t remember. When I asked him about it, he said, " ; I don' ; t remember. I just don' ; t remember." ; BM: You know, I' ; ve known Glen Freeland for practically all his life. When he was about--when he first come from West Virginia, up around Nowata. B: Did you know Claude Freeland? BM: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I worked for Claude Freeland once. B: Our deed according to the records that we have on the, this oil survey that was made through here, Claude Freeland and--where' ; s that notebook at? (pause ; sound of pages flipping) Uh--it was drilled-- BM: He drilled a well right up here about a half a mile called the Hoppy Toad. B: There you go, now we' ; re gettin' ; somewhere! BM: Yeah. B: We' ; re getting' ; somewhere now! BM: Yeah. B: This is some stuff I got from Albert--or George Krumme-- BM: Yeah. B:--and it gives in here the first well that was actually drilled in this community. It was Barnes and Freeland, was it or was it not? BM: Yeah! Barnes and Freeland. Yeah. I knew Barnes. I knew Freeland, too. See when I first come to Bristow in 19-3. I was just a small kid then, then I come in 1911. B: See, this thing here, (referencing publication) " ; on April 11 one-third of a mile to the northwest in section thirty-six," ; which would be way over here, " ; township seventeen north, range nine east, with a depth of nine hundred and ninety feet to a thousand ten feet, it was encountered of the initial flow of seven million cubic feet per day." ; BM: That' ; s gas. B: Gas. BM: Yeah. B: (continues reading) " ; This well' ; s flood was turned into a twelve-inch line of this company, which at that time carried gas to the Oklahoma City area until the pressure decreased to a flood of which it would no longer force gas into the pipeline. The well was again connected to the pipeline in February 1917 when its open flow capacity registered 350,000 cubic feet a day with a rock pressure of 375 pounds." ; Alright, now then, on this rock pressure, what did they mean by that rock pressure? BM: That was, I don' ; t know. I don' ; t know what they meant by that rock pressure. You see, we never drilled very many gas wells. We were drillin' ; for oil, mostly. B: Drillin' ; for oil, mostly. BM: Yeah. B: Now, this well that you were talkin' ; about, what year was it--what year that you drilled here on the Big Mosquito--Albert Mosquito, what year was that? BM: Let' ; s see, oh, must' ; ve been about 1930, 19--, let' ; s see, about 1920-25. Between 1925 and 1930, I' ; d say. (woman talking in background) BM: You got a record of that, haven' ; t you? B: No, I don' ; t have a record of that one. BM: No, you don' ; t. B: I' ; ve got ' ; em up to, uh, oh, looks like about-- MM: [Indecipherable] published that in ' ; 23 so he wouldn' ; t have anything on ' ; 25 [indecipherable], remember? B: This was pub--this information that I have was published in 1925, although I do have records here of the Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: The who? B: The Hoppy Toad Oil Company. BM: Oh, yeah. B: Here is some of the Hoppy Toad and here is the C.L. Freeland Oil Company. BM: Yeah. B: Does that bring back memories to you? BM: That does, yeah. Well, Glen worked on this Hoppy Toad, dressed tools up there. I remember him talkin' ; to me about it, and that was before I was--well, I was, had worked the oilfield a little but then since then I hadn' ; t. For a while I was-- B: I just, this log here that I have in my hand is a log of a well " ; C.L. Freeland Oil Company Mexi-Farm." ; Now where would that be? BM: The Mexi-Farm? B: The Mexi-Farm Well Number One. Where would that be located? BM: [Indecipherable.] B: (reading) " ; Township seventeen north, range nine east, section twenty-nine." ; BM: Well-- B: Section twenty-nine. MM: Bob, why don' ; t you question him about the rigs, that was something, you know, ask him another [inaudible]. B: Now this, this picture here, is--that is one of the first rigs that operated, the old cable tool rigs, is that right? BM: Yeah, that' ; s right, I remember rigging up [indecipherable] in Kansas. B: That was in Kansas. BM: Yeah. B: But that is-- BM: [Indecipherable] Charlie Lowe and dress [indecipherable] name is Ernie Moore. B: Ernie Moore and Charlie Lowe. BM: Yeah, you don' ; t want to leave somebody but he dressed tools for Charlie. B: Now this Charlie--this Charlie Lowe, was he one of the people that drilled in here, too? BM: Oh, yeah. B: You mentioned that a while ago. BM: Yeah. B: Could you tell me how the old cable tool rig operated with comparison of the [indecipherable] of today? BM: Well, the [indecipherable], it drills much faster. The cable tools was much slower. And they used what they called a rag line--that, uh, manila line--that' ; s manila line that Charlie Lowe' ; s drillin' ; with there. (interference in tape) But they generally spun it in, the first of the hole with a rag line because it' ; s much easier on the rig and it' ; s much easier on everything. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: We would kind of leash a wire line in a manila line when we first started, we called that a cracker. And we drilled with a cracker at first because it was easy on the rig. Oh, that old manila line just used to, just grunt and groan and sing along with us--it was really nice to work with one of them. There wasn' ; t many drillers in my day that knew how to run a rag line--uh, manila line. B: Uh, was that a pretty complicated thing to do? BM: Yeah, it was a little complicated, it is, but the manila line would stretch out, you know, like a rope--that' ; s what it was, a rope line. B: It was actually a tag line. BM: Yeah. B: You' ; d call it a tag line of today. BM: Yeah. And it would--well, we' ; d drill about five or six feet by the rag line and it' ; d be about nine feet by the time we got through because it' ; d stretch out. B: It would stretch out four feet. BM: Yeah, three or four feet. B: Mmm-hmm. MM: Ask him [inaudible]. B: Was it--especially when you first started the hole with that-a-way, was it pretty hard to keep that hole straight? BM: No, it was fairly easy, we' ; d rig it up and guide the stem and boards across and go close to the stem and then guide the stem. B: You mentioned a while ago about dressing tools? How was the old tools dressed or sharpened or whatever you might do? How was that done? BM: Well, dressin' ; tools is, uh--a driller and a tool dresser work together on a tower, and a tool dresser, he assisted the driller. The driller' ; s supposed to know more than the tool dresser did, but lots of times they didn' ; t know as much. I dressed tools for about twelve years before I started drilling because it was much easier on me and no responsibility. Well, I guess where they got the name " ; tool dresser," ; when they dress a bit they' ; d put ' ; em in a forge, they' ; d heat ' ; em up to white heat and then dress ' ; em out to gauge. They had a gauge that you' ; d dress ' ; em out to. B: You had a gauge that slipped over the end of that bit, is that right? BM: Yeah, that' ; s right, that' ; s right. When a bit got in sand formation or after drilling so long, it' ; d wear out and make the hole small so that the pipe wouldn' ; t fall, so when it got out of gauge we had to pull the bit off and put it in a forge and dress it, but they always had another bit they put on and we' ; d be drilling while the bit was heatin' ; . B: What kind of point was on that? BM: Well, we' ; d dress it to both sides and would come right out the gauge in a side of a circle on the gauge [indecipherable] and we' ; d work it out the gauge and pound the worn surface off and it was kind of a bevel on a point and a bottom. B: It had a beveled point on it? BM: Yeah. We used to have to dress it with--the big bits you' ; d used to have to dress with sledgehammers. Then we got to where we used a ram--that ran off of a crank of machinery. B: That made tool dressin' ; a lot easier and a lot quicker. BM: Oh, yeah, a lot easier. B: A lot faster. BM: Yeah. B: All you had to do was heat it up to the white hot that you wanted it and take this ram and batter it out there like you wanted it. BM: That' ; s right. B: And if you got-- BM: I was pretty good on a ram. I was hittin' ; ' ; em too nice one day. (both laugh) BM: But they was much better. B: The ram itself in later years came into quite a accomplishment, or quite a labor-saving device than the old-time tool dressing. BM: Yes! Yeah. We used to, when I was young, we started a twenty or twenty-four-inch hole. As you can imagine them bits would be quite hot. You stand up alongside of them you got cooked. B: That' ; s right. BM: So we used that ram to drive ' ; em out the gauge. B: Ram ' ; em out there, flat end of it out the side you wanted it? If you got it flared out too big, well then how did you work it down? BM: Well, we was careful not to do that. When you got it too big you had to pound it down with sledgehammers. B: She wants to ask you a question now. BM: Okay. MM: What about that one? That picture? B: What about that picture there? BM: On that picture is a picture taken at El Dorado, Kansas. MM: But it' ; s the same kind of drilling bit, too. BM: I was on a--I worked up there one winter, that was at El Dorado. B: That was at El Dorado, Kansas. BM: Yeah. B: This here is the old boiler that-- BM: That' ; s the boiler, that' ; s the boiler. B: That is what, now then--you said this boiler, what part did this boiler play? BM: That made steam to run the engine on! (laughs) B: Oh, it was operated by an old steam engine? BM: Oh, yeah! That was fired with oil and sometimes they fired it with gas. Gas was much better because it was cleaner. B: It was cleaner than the oil? BM: Yep. It carried about 120 pounds of steam and the boilers were rated anywhere from thirty to forty-five horsepower boilers. That was the way they rated them. B: Well now, then, go just a little bit further. What happened, say you' ; re moved into an area that there wasn' ; t gas and there wasn' ; t any oil, how did you fire--what did you use to fire that-- BM: We used to fire with wood or coal. Whichever one they get, which was the cheapest. B: If coal was cheaper, why you' ; d fired with coal. BM: Yeah. They [indecipherable] fired with wood. But boy, that took a lot of wood to heat that water up to where you get 120 pounds of steam. B: What was this well here made out of? BM: That derrick is made out of wood. B: It' ; s an old wooden derrick. BM: Old wooden derrick, right. It was about seventy-two feet tall. B: What kind of wood was--BM: Pine. B: Pine? BM: Yeah. B: That would be made out of two-inch stuff, three-inch stuff, or what? BM: Oh, yeah, it was made out of two-inch stuff, the derrick was. But the big timbers like the beam, which were the biggest parts, that and the main cell, the beams and Samson post, sat in the main cell. That was the biggest timber in the whole rig. And the walkin' ; beam was next and they were slotted out and keyed with wooden keys--that was hardwood keys and drive it in with a sledgehammer They was dovetailed, the timbers was dovetailed to fit. That was built by rig builders. B: Had to be a rig builder to do that? BM: Yeah. MM: [Inaudible.] B: And now then, on this first well that worked your walkin' ; beam that operated your bit, there was a big bullwheel on that, was there or was there not? BM: Oh, yeah. The bullwheel, they would wind up the cable that the stem was to, and the walkin' ; beam, after it got about, oh, it spun. You had a gangway at about a hundred feet and that' ; d hook onto the walkin' ; beam. B: It would hook onto the walkin' ; beam at about a hundred feet? BM: Yeah. And this would go onto a crank that run to the belt, to the belt on the bandwheel. And it hooked the [indecipherable] up to the timber down here, it had a whole--had a whole band of ' ; em who put that on this crank to come through the bandwheel. And the engine run here in this engine house with about a twelve-inch belt that run over the bandwheel and operated the bandwheel and the crank that operated the walkin' ; beam that the tools was on the end of it. B: Now they had all this drilling, whenever they started drilling the wells before electric came in here, they just drilled in daylight, did they or did they not? BM: No, we drilled night and day, twelve hour shifts. B: What kind of light did you use at night? BM: Oh, we had a generator that made electric light. B: You made electric light with a generator that operated off of this steam? BM: Yeah, on the steam. But the first, before they had the generator, we used what they called the " ; yellow gold." ; That was an oil pot come up with two spouts and a piece of hemp in each one of ' ; em and we' ; d light that to work by. B: Worked by that smudge pot-- BM: Yeah. B: --that old smudge pot at night, then? BM: Yeah. Called that the " ; yellow gold." ; B: Was those smudge pots pretty dangerous? Workin' ; at night? BM: No, they wasn' ; t dangerous. You soon learned not to get too close to ' ; em, you get yourself burned. B: Well, after you got a well down, oh, down into the gas sands-- BM: Then it was dangerous. B: Then these smudge pots was dangerous. BM: That' ; s right, that' ; s right. But I don' ; t think they had ' ; em in this--well, they had derricks, they had to' ; ve been up there around Nowata where they wells is about 600 feet deep and they worked with a machine, [indecipherable] and [indecipherable], a machine like that. B: About how long did it take to drill one of these wells? BM: Here? In this area? B: Yeah, in this area. BM: Well, ya done well to drill one in about thirty-five days if they didn' ; t have a fishing job losing tools. B: Uh-oh, now then, how did that come about? How did that-- BM: Well, sometimes the lines would break, you know, and sometimes they would lose the tools by breaking the line and then they' ; d go in there and fish ' ; em out. B: What kind of a deal did they use to fish ' ; em out with? BM: Oh, Lord, they had a lot of fishin' ; tools. The one thing that, if they had the line on it, they had what they called a three-prong grab. It was a tool that screwed onto the end of a stem and it had three long prongs on it with little wickers that come up. Oh, they were big as, oh, couple inches big. And they' ; d get ahold of the, try to get ahold of the line and pull them out. B: How much, how deep where they, or have you ever helped fish out one? BM: Yeah, I' ; ve fished one out over at Yale about thirty to a hundred, and I fished one out at Utah, was about two hundred feet. Now that was a fishin' ; job. We was out there seventy-nine miles from any town, forty miles from any neighbor, and they hauled the groceries out in trucks. We used what they called a Clark engine. That was operated by gasoline. Didn' ; t use a boiler there. That was all sand formation and sand would drill close and would sometimes stick the tools. And we stuck the tools about, oh, I guess about two hundred feet deep, and the sand and gypsum around ' ; em and we couldn' ; t pull ' ; em out. So we cut the line and filled the hole with tools--stems after stems--and put all forty sticks to drill by it first, with the small tools. We started a twenty-inch hole there. We drilled by it with the small tools and put all forty sticks of dynamite on it. B: Forty sticks of dynamite? BM: Yeah. [Indecipherable] put on twenty-five and I had fifteen left, and I said to Charlie, I said--we was livin' ; in a camp thar that had two small boys, and I said, " ; Before somebody gets hurt, let' ; s just put ' ; em all on, instead of hidin' ; ' ; em some place, we' ; ll just put ' ; em all on." ; And we filled the hole full of tools and pulled ' ; em out. But it broke the beam and there wasn' ; t a piece of timber in that part of the country big enough to make a beam out of and they sent to Florence, Colorado to get a piece of timber big enough to make a beam out of. And then once we got the beam out of it, ah, why, then we pulled ' ; em out. MM: [Inaudible.] B: What is the difference between the early casing and the casings of today? BM: Well the early days started a well with a wooden conductor. B: A wooden conductor. BM: Yeah. It was made like a pipe. If we started a twenty-inch hole we' ; d get about a twenty-two-inch wooden conductor, and that was just about twenty feet long, and as we drilled we would put the wooden conductor in and then reduce the hole to a fifteen-inch hole, or eighteen, and go on from there. B: Now, this wooden conductor that you' ; re speaking of, that would be what we would call today the surface pipe. Is that right? BM: Yeah. That' ; s right. B: The only thing in the early days, the surface pipe, or wooden conductor, it was made out of wood but today it' ; s made out of steel. BM: Made out of steel, that' ; s right. MM: What kind of wood? B: What kind of wood would they be made out of? BM: That was made out of two-by-fours and two-by-sixes, about twenty feet long. B: Oh, you made it yourself? BM: No, they made--a company made it. B: The company made it. BM: Yeah. It was a company that made the conductors. MM: What year did they quit using them? B: What year did they quit using that wooden conductor? BM: Oh, it was, I supposed, about nineteen, nineteen eighteen. B: Then they went to the regular steel surface pipes. BM: Steel surface pipes, right. MM: [Inaudible.] BM: You had to have something, you know, to keep the hole from caving in, and protect the drilling root. Stem. MM: [Inaudible.] B: What year--or do you know--what year did they go to the steel derricks instead of the old wooden derricks? BM: Well, they used wooden derricks up until, well, I guess they still use some of them now. But they got to where they make units out of steel and hardwood and turnbuckles and things like that they started in on that about, oh, about 1920. MM: [Inaudible.] B: What year did they do away with these derricks and go to the type that they' ; re using out here now, what they call a grasshopper? BM: Oh, that' ; s just been late years. B: That' ; s been here in the later years? BM: Yeah. B: Say, from uh, 1960, then? BM: Well-- B: Fifties or ' ; 60s. BM: ' ; Bout that time. B: What kind of wagon and teams did they use to get, to, uh, wait a minute, let me back up a minute. On puttin' ; up one of these wells before you--you started drilling, how long did it ordinarily take you to put one of them up? BM: A derrick? B: Put up a derrick and get all set up to go to drillin' ; . BM: Well we probably put up a derrick in about four days and then we would move the tools in, that' ; d take us about four days. B: Now then, let' ; s say that again. BM: I said it' ; d take about four days to build a rig. The rig builder' ; d do that, there was a crew of about, generally about five men. And they worked hard. And fast. And they worked daylight. Then we would move our tools in, that' ; d take us about four days to rig up, to get ready to start. And then we' ; d start drilling in about four days. B: You' ; d start then, it' ; d take roughly from the time they rig builders moved in and everything was completed, ready to go to drilling, it' ; d take about twelve days, is that right? BM: Well, no, it didn' ; t take quite that long. B: Ten to twelve days. BM: If we didn' ; t start up in four days after we started rigging up, why, the contractor would get on our tail! (both laughing) BM: But about four days. And we worked twelve hours a day and when we was rigging up, all four of us would go out the last day and finish rigging up and the driller and tool dresser would stay there and start, they' ; d work about eighteen hours that day. B: What was the pay during that time, Bob? BM: Well, I was getting' ; about eight, nine dollars a day. B: Eight or nine dollars a day? BM: Yeah. B: Now today their wages' ; d be-- BM: Quite a bit more. B: Yeah, I' ; d say, what--what would you say the wages would be today on a modern-day rig? BM: Well, I don' ; t know what they' ; re gettin' ; now, but when I quit drilling, that was about, oh, I was getting' ; twelve, thirteen dollars a day, but I was only workin' ; eight hours. Well I started workin' ; eight hours about, oh, about 1930. B: You started workin' ; eight hours a day runnin' ; three shifts. BM: Yeah. B: Three eight-hour shifts, and of the eight hours you' ; d draw about twelve dollars a day? BM: Yeah. Ten to twelve. B: Ten to twelve dollars a day. BM: Yeah. B: The drillers, what did the driller draw? Was that the driller' ; s--BM: The driller' ; d draw two dollars or a dollar more than a tool dresser did. B: Say the tool dresser drawed twelve dollars a day then the driller would draw about fourteen dollars a day. BM: Yeah. B: What year did you start in working in the drilling business? BM: Oh, 19-well, I first started in it as a kid, I was, I was sixteen years old. I worked on a cleaning-up rig up around Little Fall. It was [indecipherable] shallow stuff. And that was, oh, that was about 1912 or ' ; 13. And then I got fired because I was too little to dress bits, the contractor thought. But I had a good driller by Charlie Lowe who' ; d drilled, and he was big and strong as an ox. And he took a lot of work off of it. Well then, about, oh, about 1914, why I started back again. B: About 1914 you started back in again, into the oil pipe work. BM: Yeah. I worked ' ; til World War I and I went to the Navy, I was drawing fourteen dollars a day working twelve hours over in Yale when I went to the Navy in 1918 for--well, I worked six months and drawed fifty dollars. Which was quite a comedown. (laughs) B: That would be quite a cutback in pay. BM: Yeah, it sure was. And I wondered if it was a good idea for me to quit a fourteen-dollar job to go to--fourteen dollars a day--to go to war. But since then I' ; ve been drawing a little pension, about sixty-two dollars, and I guess if I live to be a hundred I' ; ll get the money back. B: You' ; d probably have to live to be about a hundred and fifty! BM: Yeah. (laughs) Which I don' ; t think I' ; ll [indecipherable]. B: What year did you--then after you came out of the Navy, did you go back in to the oil pipe-- BM: Oh, yeah, I was working for the Carter Oil Company then, and he-- B: Carter Oil Company? BM: Yeah. Over in Yale. And the company had a plan that if you went into the service, well when you come back they' ; d give you your same old job back. And I went for it. B: You went right back to work for the same people that-- BM: Right back to work, and I recollect, yeah. B: Then what year did you finally give up the oilfield, settle down and say " ; to heck with it?" ; BM: That' ; s when I starved to death! B: That' ; s when you starved to death? BM: Yeah! Oil business was pretty good but you worked maybe two or three months and the company shut down and you' ; d be off for a month or two. And it was hard to get a job. But I was pretty lucky, I was a good tool dresser, and was always able to go to work. Lots of tool dressers would be drunk or into a fight or something, but I was always able to go to work and generally had a job if anyone else did. I worked for Wilcox for, oh, about two years. B: What year did you finally completely quit the oilfield and leave it alone? BM: Let' ; s see, well I come out here in 1929, I' ; d been out of a job for about thirty days, and damn near starved to death, and I' ; d had one job since then, I worked about thirty days, and when that, well, when we--by that time I was quit, or--couldn' ; t get a job. B: At about 19-and-29, then, is when you actually left the oilfield? BM: About 1930. B: About 1930 is when you actually left the oil--oil pipes for good. BM: Yeah. B: I believe that' ; s-- MM: [Inaudible.] B: How important was that oil in this community? BM: Well, it was not quite as important as it is now, we didn' ; t have to buy foreign oil, and we had plenty of oil the fact of the matter is that there was times when they cut the production of the wells down to where they were only producing so much a day. They prorated. MM: How much a barrel? B: How much a barrel at the beginning, how much a barrel did that oil sell for? BM: I think about two dollars a barrel. B: About two dollars a barrel? BM: Yeah. B: What would you say it is today? BM: Oh, I imagine about fifteen dollars. B: I believe it' ; s more than that. BM: You do, well, that' ; s probably worth it. B: I would say, I would say about twenty-three to twenty-five dollars a barrel today. BM: Yeah, well that depends on the grade of oil, of course, and the way gasoline is selling I expect it ought to be worth more than that! B: Yeah, I would too! (laughs) B: [Indecipherable], is there anything you wanna ask him? You got ' ; im talkin.' ; MM: [Inaudible.] UW [Unidentified woman, Bob Moore' ; s wife]: Ask him out loud. MM: What did they do for fun, them oilfield guys? B: What did they do for fun, you oilfield boys workin' ; out there in the oilfield, what did you guys do for the fun? To have fun? BM: Oh, we' ; d get--not me, but most of ' ; em ' ; d get drunk and get into a fight, and something like that. Play craps and play poker and run around with the women-- UW: When you stayed, lived around Yale? BM: What? UW: Lived around Yale and worked, what did you all do for fun there? BM: When? B: When you lived around Yale, what did you guys do for fun up there? BM: Oh! I went to dancin' ; about twice a week. B: About twice' ; st a week?? BM: Yeah! UW: They had square dancin' ; . B: You mean them old feet got-- BM: Yeah! Listen, they couldn' ; t start a dance ' ; til I got there! B: Oh, oh! BM: I was a dancer. I liked to dance. UW: Tell them about how far you walked to work each night. BM: Oh, sometimes we walked three miles ' ; round [indecipherable] B: You walked three miles? BM: --horse, you get a horse and buggy and sometimes quick to get up when you couldn' ; t get over with a buggy and' ; d have to walk. B: Did you ever call for any of these square dances? BM: Oh, yeah! B: What was some of the calls that you called? BM: Oh, I called a hundred of them. B: Call a little bit for me! BM: Well, let' ; s see--how ' ; bout " ; Two Little Sisters?" ; B: That' ; s good! Let' ; s have it! BM: (calling, clapping, and stomping in rhythm) Two little sisters form a ring/ dosey out and dosey in/ two little sisters ready again/ back to your partner and everybody sway/ two little sisters out to the right/ pick up one little sister and three little sisters form a ring/ back to your partner and everybody sway/ four little sisters form a ring/ get back to your partner and everybody sway/ four little sisters form a ring/ back to your partner and everybody sway. That' ; s one of ' ; em. B: That' ; s mighty good, Bob, mighty good. UW: Bob and I have danced a million miles. BM: That was when she would answer my callin' ; . She don' ; t do anything I tell her now. (laughs) B: We' ; re gonna have another little get-together. end of interview audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-0002-01_Bob_Moore.xml OHP-0002-01_Bob_Moore.xml
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Bob Moore
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In this 1976 interview, Bob Moore discusses working as a tool dresser on oil rigs in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma at a time prior to electricity, when rigs were built of wood, powered by a steam engine, and lighted at night by burning pots of crude oil. He also describes going to dances in Yale, Oklahoma in his spare time and calls a square dance named “Two Little Sisters” for the interviewer.
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OHP-0002-01
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Drilling in the early 1900s in northern Oklahoma
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1976-10-18
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audio
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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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Debbie Blansett
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Bob Thompson
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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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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
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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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Oral History
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Debbie Blansett
Interviewee
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Bob Webb
Carolyn Webb
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https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-07_Webb_Bob.xml
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5.4 October 20th, 2020 OHP-2020-07 Bob Webb OHP-2020-07 0:00-58:5 'Bristow Historical Society - Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Bob Webb Carolyn Webb Debbie Blansett MP3 OHP-2020-07 Webb, Bob.mp3 1:|59(5)|89(8)|109(5)|123(10)|160(6)|174(9)|204(13)|231(3)|248(2)|274(12)|285(4)|303(15)|339(2)|352(3)|379(6)|395(3)|437(17)|467(3)|486(4)|526(14)|542(14)|561(13)|608(12)|635(1)|660(10)|692(2)|708(2)|741(13)|763(15)|804(2)|835(3)|852(14)|888(13)|922(2)|947(9)|976(15)|990(15)|1007(14)|1032(5)|1058(12)|1099(4)|1123(10)|1162(6)|1183(5)|1198(4)|1240(2)|1289(12)|1330(14)|1361(11)|1395(11)|1416(7)|1448(7)|1483(7)|1532(8)|1563(11)|1594(11)|1624(11)|1650(9) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-2020-07 Webb, Bob.mp3 Other audio 254 Family History and Early Childhood Annetta Webb ; Big Deep Fork ; Callie Hill ; Charley S. Webb Sr ; Charley Shelby Webb Junior ; County Commissioner ; Creek County ; Debbie Charles Webb ; District Two ; Farm ; Farmer ; Jimmy Weaver ; Mary Charles Hill Webb ; Newby ; Robert Earl Webb ; Tractor Childhood ; Early Childhood ; Family History ; Farming https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363927/mary-c.-webb Mary C. Webb https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363930/charley-shelby-webb Charley Shelby Webb Jr. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363936/annetta-webb Annetta James Webb https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21363935/charley-shelby-webb Charley Shelby Webb Sr. 391 Bob's Grocery and Carolyn Masters BW: But then my mother— when the Garment Factory opened, well she went to work there and she worked there— oh gosh until I bought the store, and then she went to work with me in my grocery store after I was— well on my twenty-first birthday. GS: What was the name of that store, Bob? BW: Bob’s Grocery. We couldn’t call it Webb’s grocery because Johnny (ph) and Frank Webb had a month ahead of us had bought the store across the street— GS: (Laughter) BW: —and they called it Webb’s, so we couldn’t call it Webb’s. (Chuckling) GS: No. BW: So we went to Bob’s Grocery and that’s what it was until I sold it. GS: Okay. Tell me about Carolyn, your wife. When did you all get married? BW: Oh lord. GS: Well first, what’s Carolyn’s whole name? BW: Carolyn G. Masters Webb. Bob's Grocery ; Carolyn G. Masters Webb ; Garment Factory Bob's Grocery ; Buisness ; Carolyn Webb ; Children ; Garment Factory ; Marriage 762 Childhood and The Farm GS: Okay. Now, tell me a little bit about what life was like for you as a child. BW: Well, let’s see. I was born on the ole Burt Miller Farm (ph) they called it. Every farm had a name, back in those days. And it was about a mile off of Highway 48, which was a gravel road then. And about three miles southwest of Newby. Anyway, I was born in the farmhouse. My mother started having the pains, and I had an aunt and uncle there Jesse and Lucille Propst . Lucille was my dad’s sister. Anyway, dad jumped in the ole car to go get Doc King or Doc Coppedge— one of ‘em. And anyway, I came before the doctor got there and my Uncle Jesse, was— he’s the one that delivered me. GS: Ah. BW: And he was a farmer and a barber. (Laughter) BW: So, anyway— GS: Was he a dentist also, I think back then they were dentist too— BW: Well, he may have. But my Uncle Jesse delivered me and when the doctor got there he said, “Jesse, you done a great job.” said, “That’s gonna be a good looking Naval.” (Laughter) BW: Anyway, Uncle Jesse and I— I don’t know whether it was that reason, or not because he delivered me. He was one of the closest uncles I had. He treated me better than he did his own kids. (chuckling) GS: Now, was it your Uncle Jesse or was it a different uncle that was in law enforcement with the— and caught the outlaws and you didn’t believe him— BW: No, that was— Bristow News Record Newspaper ; Burt Miller Farm ; Corn ; Cotton ; Doc Coppedge ; Doc King ; Georgia ; Isaac Webb ; New Mexico ; Oklahoma ; Peanuts ; Texas ; US Marshal ; Wild Horse Prairie Childhood ; Family ; Farm ; Memories https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22432611/ike-king-webb Ike King Webb 981 School Days BW: So— but anyway, I went to Newby school through the eighth grade. Got to start early when I was like barely five. I visited school quite a bit, ‘cause we lived two and a half miles from the school and there was no kids to play with. And I would follow my older brother to school and J.L. Darnell was the County Superintendent at the time. My dad was raised up with him and Robert Darnell and his other brother. They run around together when they were kids. Anyway, J.L. was there to visit one day and he asked Geneva Scott which was my first— was the teacher, and he said, “What’s Bob doing here he’s not old enough. She said, “Well he comes to visit so we have kids to play with.” J.L. said, “Put him in school.” So I got to start school early and I graduated out of high school. I was about a year to two years younger than my classmates my senior year. GS: And did that bother you in anyway? BW: It really did ‘cause I was small anyway and it didn’t bother me so much at Newby school, ‘cause it wasn’t all that many kids. But coming from Newby School there was just two of us graduating out of the eighth grade that year, me and Dwayne Tallent (ph). And came to Bristow school where there was twelve, fifteen hundred kids at the time probably and I was— everybody thought I was probably in the seventh grade instead of the ninth grade, ‘cause I was so small. But anyway, I enjoyed it after a year or two. Senior year I really enjoyed it— GS: Once you got your growth spurt? (Chuckling) County Superintendent ; Dwayne Tallent ; Elizabeth Ferguson ; Geneva Scott ; J.L Darnell Bristow High School ; School https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77214387/jesse-lawrence-darnell J.L Darnell https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25184764/robert-alan-darnell Robert Alan Darnell https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26863839/geneva-scott Geneva Scott 1238 Work Before Bob's Grocery GS: Let me interrupt you— BW: Sure. GS: —just a minute. Where was the M& ; P located then? BW: It was on Main Street just north of the Express Personnel. GS: Okay. BW: Yeah I think it was one door— GS: On the west side of the street? BW: On the west side of the street. GS: I’ll be. BW: And Grady Arthurs had one right next door— a grocery store. GS: Oh. BW: We didn’t have any big grocery stores then and Safeway was up at, what Ninth and Main then. Where the doctor’s clinics at now. GS: Oh. Aaron Willeford ; Business School ; Cadillac dealer ; Colorado ; Dick Cahill ; Express Personnel ; Grady Arthurs ; Lonnie Mcgall ; M& ; P Grocery ; Oklahoma Natural ; Oklahoma Natural Building ; Safeway ; Tulsa Stationery Business ; Work https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25137599/henry-grady-arthurs Henry Grady Arthurs https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92693227/aaron-isaac-willeford Aaron Isaac Willeford 1918 Bob's Grocery and Hale-Halsell GS: What year was that that you bought that store? BW: Well let’s see, that had to be ’62. GS: ’62. BW: ’62. And I just turned— GS: What was— BW: —twenty-one on my— on April 1st and got my store on April 2nd. GS: Was there a store there before you bought it? BW: Yeah, Aaron Willeford owned the store. GS: Aaron Willeford owned the store. BW: Yeah, used to be Siner Grocery. Siner’s built the building and they sold it to Aaron and moved out in western Oklahoma some place. But Aaron had it for a few years and like I said, when he got elected County Commissioner, he worked for Jim Weaver with my dad too. GS: Okay, yeah. BW: And anyway, it was kind of a natural thing and I bought it. I was there for fifteen years. I more than doubled the size of the building. I had three houses on the lots behind it. It was a complete block along the lots— or the block was. And I sold the houses off and built on the store and I made it like almost three times bigger than what it was. Put all new equipment in it and the M& ; P had sold out after I left to Hale-Halsell. It was a warehouse in Tulsa, it’s why they called it Super-H— GS: Oh. Affiliated Foods ; Audrey Gillum ; David Leffner ; I-40 ; Levan Kelly ; Okemah ; Safeway ; Siner Grocery ; Super-H Store ; Tracy Kelly Buisness ; Grocery Store ; Jobs ; Loans https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22326275/audrey-beatrice-gillum Audrey Beatrice Gillum https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/141534677/forest-levan-kelly Forest Levan Kelly https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/96953333/oliver-tracy-kelly Oliver Tracy Kelly 2575 Grocery Store Management and Real Estate BW: And built a new store. Well, Bill Farha owned the building in Bristow and he also owned the one in Okemah, GS: Okay. BW: He built ‘em for Safeway. GS: I did not know that. BW: And of course Bill traded with me at the store. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And we got together and he and I were gonna put that store in in Okemah. Beautiful building, big parking lot, and right in the middle of town. And we’d have probably put Safeway out of business earlier down there if we’d— GS: Rival. Arkansas ; Bill Farha ; Bixby ; Doodle's Steakhouse ; Escotts ; Kansas ; Larry Reasor ; Real Estate ; Reasor's ; Sysco Food Service ; The Industrial Board Buisness ; Grocery Store ; Real Estate ; Reasors ; Retirement ; Work https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25184902/william-ellis-farha William Ellis Farha https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55143314/larry-gene-reasor Larry Gene Reasor 3233 Bristow Then and Now GS: Any significant changes you’ve seen in Bristow since you are on the Industrial Board or even like as a child that you know, you think were big improvements to Bristow? BW: Well you know— GS: Or had a big impact to Bristow? BW: Yeah. I kinda beat around the bush about this, but you know a kid from the farm ; we came to town on Saturday. Main Street was just full ; you couldn’t find a parking place. And usually the farmers when they came in, they came in for the day. GS: Yes. BW: And you know, we’d go to the Walmur Theatre and get in there for a dime or so. Eat a hamburger at Llyon’s Café, and then dad would do his visiting up and down Main Street making (indecipherable) sale, or whatever. And mom would usually go to the Princess Theatre, that was where the adults went you know. GS: Okay, that’s why I never went to the Princess I guess much. BW: It was— I didn’t go very often until I married her— married Carolyn. (Chuckling) GS: Uh-huh. BW: But anyway, and the Main Street was just so busy. But you know, I’m on a couple other boards too and when we’re having general meetings or— we’ve had a couple of meetings I’d hold ‘em here in Bristow. And I had the Conservation District and we— and a whole area Conservation Districts, which takes most of northeastern Oklahoma. And it was my turn to hold it here, I had it down at the Church of God where we go to church and we was gonna really impress ‘em. So we ordered T-Bone steaks, we had like about a hundred people there. Anna Louise Foster ; Area of Conservation Districts ; Arthur Foster ; Charlie Webb Senior ; Church of God ; Community State Bank ; Harrison Webb ; Llyon's Cafe ; Main Street ; Princess Theatre ; School Board ; Tall Foster ; Walmur Theatre Bristow ; Buisnesses ; Changes ; Main Street ; Town 3532 The Webb Children GS: Yeah. Okay, do your children still live around here? BW: No. Robert JR, he lives in Phoenix. He’s been there for— oh gosh, twenty-five years. GS: How old would Rob be now? BW: He’ll be about sixty-one now. GS: Okay. BW: He graduated— all three kids graduated OSU. He went to work for General Foods and they moved him to southern California for about four or five years and then to Phoenix. And they was getting ready to move him again and he said, “I’m not moving again.” So— GS: (Laughter) BW: —he resigned and went to Arizona State and got his masters and as soon as he walked out he went straight to Intel and now he does all the contracts for Intel. GS: Good for him. BW: This is worldwide (Chuckling). GS: Good for him. Arizona State ; Federal Reserve Bank ; General Foods ; Oklahoma State University ; Robert Webb Jr Children ; Graduation ; Grandchildren ; Jobs ; School : In this 2020 interview, Bob Webb shares about his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses attending high school, meeting his wife Carolyn, and owning his own grocery store. He also shares about his later life in Bristow as he served on many boards and was even a realtor in the Bristow area. Interviewer: Bob Webb (BW) Interviewee: Georgia Smith (GS) Other Persons: None Date of Interview: October 20th, 2020 Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Macy Shields Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: Abstract: In this 2020 interview, Bob Webb shares about his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses attending high school, meeting his wife Carolyn, and owning his own grocery store. He also shares about his later life in Bristow as he served on many boards and was even a realtor in the Bristow area. 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. This is Georgia Smith with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma and this interview is part of the Historical Society' ; s ongoing oral history project. The date is October 20th, 2020 and I' ; m sitting here with Bob Webb at his home, east of Bristow-- who is going to tell me a little bit about his history in the Bristow area. His wife, Carolyn may be in and out of the room. Now, give me your full name Bob. BW: Robert Earl Webb. GS: And where were you born, Bob? BW: I was born south of Bristow in the Newby area. I was born about two and a half miles south of Newby, in the country. GS: Okay, and your date of birth? BW: April 2nd, 1939. GS: Almost an April Fools baby. BW: That' ; s right. (Laughter) GS: What were your parents' ; names? Your mother-- We' ; ll start with your mother' ; s maiden name. BW: Mary Charles Hill Webb and my dad, Charles or Charley Shelby Webb Junior. GS: Do you know when they were married? BW: Probably about 1933 or 4. GS: Okay, do you know where they were married? BW: In Bristow. GS: Okay, do you-- were they born in Bristow or did they come here? BW: No, they were both born in the Bristow area. GS: Okay, how many children did your parents have? BW: In my mother' ; s family there was like eighteen I believe. There were two wives, the first wife past away and then Grandpa Hill married my grandmother Callie Hill (ph) and then they had like five children. So, anyway there was like seventeen or eighteen kids in her side of the family. On my dad' ; s side, Charley S. Webb Sr. and my grandmother Annetta Webb sorry I-- James Webb and they were married here in Bristow also. GS: Okay, what about siblings? Do you have brothers or sisters? BW: Got one brother that' ; s Gene (ph) he' ; s about five years older. Then I got a sister, Debbie-- Debbie Charles Webb (ph) and she' ; s about fifteen years younger than me. GS: Wow, wow. BW: Yeah. GS: Okay. What did your father do for a living? BW: He was a farmer. That' ; s-- he always farmed out around the Newby area. That' ; s where he went to grade school-- where me and my brother went to grade school there too. But he was a farmer and he was a good farmer. He farmed everything from just the edge of Newby down to the banks of Big Deep Fork. GS: Wow, he had a big farm. BW: He-- well a lot of leased land, rented land. And cotton, corn, and peanuts was our main crops. GS: What did your mother do? BW: My mother was a housewife and she worked on the farm just like me and my brother and dad. She went to the fields with us and in fact my dad, back in about-- well it was when Jimmy Weaver become County Commissioner. He helped Jim get elected, and he went to work for Jim Weaver as a timekeeper for the Creek County District Two. And my mother and my older brother, we done the farming from then and of course dad would-- when he came in at the evenings or night, he would take over and start plowing the corn or whatever. GS: Wow. BW: With the lights on the tractor. GS: Wow. BW: But then my mother-- when the Garment Factory opened, well she went to work there and she worked there-- oh gosh until I bought the store, and then she went to work with me in my grocery store after I was-- well on my twenty-first birthday. GS: What was the name of that store, Bob? BW: Bob' ; s Grocery. We couldn' ; t call it Webb' ; s grocery because Johnny (ph) and Frank Webb had a month ahead of us had bought the store across the street-- GS: (Laughter) BW: --and they called it Webb' ; s, so we couldn' ; t call it Webb' ; s. (Chuckling) GS: No. BW: So we went to Bob' ; s Grocery and that' ; s what it was until I sold it. GS: Okay. Tell me about Carolyn, your wife. When did you all get married? BW: Oh lord. GS: Well first, what' ; s Carolyn' ; s whole name? BW: Carolyn G. Masters Webb. GS: Okay. And what was the date of your marriage? BW: It was on Valentine' ; s Day in 1958 or 9. GS: (Chuckling) Okay, I have to insert this right here, because I know-- I know it' ; s such-- it' ; s your favorite thing to discuss, but it was wonderful when Carolyn told me. You and your wife were married on Valentine' ; s Day. BW: Yes. GS: And she gave you a card one year, and tell me about that card. BW: Well, she always had this anniversary card and oh it' ; s a nice, pretty, big card. Anyway, a few years ago I opened it up and looked at it and I just happened to turn it over and I saw the price on it. It was a Hallmark card ; it was like thirty-five cents. And I said, " ; Where in the world did you get a Hallmark card this cheap?" ; You know, they' ; re like two-dollars or so. GS: Yeah. BW: And she said, " ; I' ; ve been giving you the same card for fifty-some years!" ; I think it was. (Laughter) GS: That story' ; s just too good not to pass-- BW: Yeah. GS: --shows clearly the difference between men and women, doesn' ; t it? BW: Yeah. We do notice price ; it just takes us years to get to it. (Laughter) GS: That' ; s right. How many children did you and Carolyn have? BW: Got three. Got Robert Junior, and then Sue Ann, and Stacy. GS: Okay. Now, tell me a little bit about what life was like for you as a child. BW: Well, let' ; s see. I was born on the ole Burt Miller Farm (ph) they called it. Every farm had a name, back in those days. And it was about a mile off of Highway 48, which was a gravel road then. And about three miles southwest of Newby. Anyway, I was born in the farmhouse. My mother started having the pains, and I had an aunt and uncle there Jesse and Lucille Propst. Lucille was my dad' ; s sister. Anyway, dad jumped in the ole car to go get Doc King or Doc Coppedge-- one of ' ; em. And anyway, I came before the doctor got there and my Uncle Jesse, was-- he' ; s the one that delivered me. GS: Ah. BW: And he was a farmer and a barber. (Laughter) BW: So, anyway-- GS: Was he a dentist also, I think back then they were dentist too-- BW: Well, he may have. But my Uncle Jesse delivered me and when the doctor got there he said, " ; Jesse, you done a great job." ; said, " ; That' ; s gonna be a good looking Naval." ; (Laughter) BW: Anyway, Uncle Jesse and I-- I don' ; t know whether it was that reason, or not because he delivered me. He was one of the closest uncles I had. He treated me better than he did his own kids. (chuckling) GS: Now, was it your Uncle Jesse or was it a different uncle that was in law enforcement with the-- and caught the outlaws and you didn' ; t believe him-- BW: No, that was-- GS: Can you tell me that story? BW: Yeah, that was my great uncle, Isaac Webb. He was my grandad' ; s older brother ; he was like two years older than my grandad. But working in the fields, he lived with us off and on for several years out on the farm and of course helped us on the farm. And he was always telling me stories and all this and he was--he was-- I was a little guy, and he was a small guy too. But, he was telling me these stories about when he was a US Marshal. And about chasing horse thieves and stuff like that. And he told me this story about getting in a gun fight out north of Bristow out around Wild Horse Prairie. And he got shot, and he showed me where he got shot. It was on his arms and-- GS: Wow. BW: --one on his hand. And of course, you know I was seven or eight years old and I thought he was just kinda windy. (Laughter) BW: But anyway, later on in-- when I got into Bristow schools, in the ninth grade I went to work for Isle Cook (ph) down at the Bristow News Record Newspaper and in my spare time I' ; d go up to the big books that held all of their old papers. And I' ; d go on through ' ; em, they started like 1900 or something like that or 1890 something. But anyway, I was going through ' ; em and anytime I had spare time I' ; d move up to another book and I opened it up-- one of ' ; em and there on the front page-- on the bottom of the front page-- Deputy US Marshal Isaac Webb captures horse thieves at Wild Horse Prairie. (Laughter) GS: The story you had heard as a child. BW: The old man was telling me the truth. GS: (Laughter) BW: Of course he didn' ; t-- that' ; s the only story I can remember ' ; cause I know it was true, it was in the paper. (Chuckling) GS: That' ; s right, that' ; s right. Well tell me some more about your-- your upbringing. BW: Well, of course on the farm and everything we had cows and hogs and all that. But after World War II, you know they put allotments on peanuts and cotton. And that was a big thing for us. In fact, we thrashed all the peanuts for everybody five miles south of Bristow all the way to the county line. We thrashed all the farmer' ; s peanuts along with ours. But anyway, after the war there wasn' ; t any demand for cotton, ' ; cause you know the soldiers were coming home. They didn' ; t make uniforms like they did. So to protect the big farmers-- you know, southern, western Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, New Mexico where the big cotton farmers at, they protected them. But we was smarter than every little ole ten, twenty, maybe a thirty-acre field, but they' ; d cut our allotments down maybe a twenty-acre field would get a three or four acre allotment. But it wasn' ; t worthwhile to plant ' ; em, and the price of course dropped down. Just put us out of the business, so-- and peanuts and cotton. GS: So in your opinion-- BW: Same way. GS: --was that the demise of peanuts in the Bristow area? BW: Oh yeah. Yeah, the allotments. And you know, it' ; s understandable but we just went into planting all these fields more in corn. And we got more into cows and dad got up to about four hundred and some acres, and we' ; d run a hundred to a hundred-fifty head of cows. And we raised our own corn for feed and we' ; d mix it with other things. In fact, we used to use-- mix it with peanut hay and we made our own cow feed. We didn' ; t have-- there was no such thing as cattle cubes back then. GS: Oh really? BW: So we' ; d made our own feed and started fighting the Bermuda grass or sodding Bermuda grass. We had fought it when we was raising crops and we sodded everything down in Bermuda grass-- in Bermuda grass for a pasture for our cows. So, and that' ; s the way it lays right now, it' ; s all in Bermuda Grass. (Chuckling) GS: All in Bermuda, well very good. BW: But anyway, that' ; s what was going on and of course I went to Newby school through the eighth grade. GS: Let me ask you this question real quick. BW: Mm-hmm. GS: Was any of that-- is any of that land still in the family? BW: No-- GS: Okay. BW: No, it' ; s not. I had to-- my dad lived until he was ninety-three and he spent quite a few years in the nursing home. GS: Ah. BW: I sold it off a piece at a time as needed. GS: Yeah. BW: And sold the last of it about twelve years ago. GS: Okay. BW: So-- but anyway, I went to Newby school through the eighth grade. Got to start early when I was like barely five. I visited school quite a bit, ' ; cause we lived two and a half miles from the school and there was no kids to play with. And I would follow my older brother to school and J.L. Darnell was the County Superintendent at the time. My dad was raised up with him and Robert Darnell and his other brother. They run around together when they were kids. Anyway, J.L. was there to visit one day and he asked Geneva Scott which was my first-- was the teacher, and he said, " ; What' ; s Bob doing here he' ; s not old enough. She said, " ; Well he comes to visit so we have kids to play with." ; J.L. said, " ; Put him in school." ; So I got to start school early and I graduated out of high school. I was about a year to two years younger than my classmates my senior year. GS: And did that bother you in anyway? BW: It really did ' ; cause I was small anyway and it didn' ; t bother me so much at Newby school, ' ; cause it wasn' ; t all that many kids. But coming from Newby School there was just two of us graduating out of the eighth grade that year, me and Dwayne Tallent (ph). And came to Bristow school where there was twelve, fifteen hundred kids at the time probably and I was-- everybody thought I was probably in the seventh grade instead of the ninth grade, ' ; cause I was so small. But anyway, I enjoyed it after a year or two. Senior year I really enjoyed it-- GS: Once you got your growth spurt? (Chuckling) BW: My senior year I came back to school after the summer and I hadn' ; t seen most of these kids since they let out of school in May. And this one girl that came up to me first hour of class and stuck out her hand and said, " ; My name is Elizabeth Ferguson (ph), welcome to Bristow High School." ; And I said, " ; Elizabeth, I' ; ve been in school with you for this makes the third year." ; (Laughter) BW: But I had changed so much in that period of time I had actually got taller. (Chuckling) BW: But it embarrassed her and every time I' ; d see her from then on we' ; d have class reunions, I' ; d remind her of that. (Laughter) GS: " ; Hi, I' ; m Bob Webb." ; (Chuckling). BW: Yeah, yeah. But you know, I graduated out of high school. GS: What year was that? BW: ' ; 56. GS: ' ; 56. BW: Carolyn graduated in ' ; 57. I got it quite well, I knew of her for years. She was a cute little blonde and anyway, I liked her but didn' ; t think I' ; d ever get a go with her (chuckling). But Mrs. Cash (ph), she used to be a school teacher. In fact, she taught school at Newby before I even started school out there, but she knew the family. And her daughter and Carolyn was good friends. And they were out driving around one Sunday and they just happened to be driving out at Newby and she mentioned Carolyn-- " ; You ought to look up Bobby Webb" ; , that' ; s what she called me. And I said-- Carolyn was real small and of course what she remembered, I was small too. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And Carolyn looked me up, and that' ; s how we got together. GS: Ah, that' ; s a nice story. (Laughter) GS: Alright, so after you graduated, what-- what did you do? BW: Well, of course I always had a job when I was in high school. I worked at the M& ; P after school and after I graduated, I went-- GS: Let me interrupt you-- BW: Sure. GS: --just a minute. Where was the M& ; P located then? BW: It was on Main Street just north of the Express Personnel. GS: Okay. BW: Yeah I think it was one door-- GS: On the west side of the street? BW: On the west side of the street. GS: I' ; ll be. BW: And Grady Arthurs had one right next door-- a grocery store. GS: Oh. BW: We didn' ; t have any big grocery stores then and Safeway was up at, what Ninth and Main then. Where the doctor' ; s clinics at now. GS: Oh. BW: On the west side of the street. And I even worked at the Safeway. They were remodeling one weekend, they had to move everything out of the store and they took it next door to an empty building they had leased. And I helped them empty that store. GS: Well. BW: I worked like two days. (Laughter) BW: But anyway, I went to work for Lonnie Mcgall (ph) he was the manager there and-- GS: At M& ; P? BW: At the M& ; P. But Carolyn and I got married, let' ; s see the second year after I graduated. She had went to business school in Tulsa and graduated and she got a job at Oklahoma Natural downtown in an office. And I had went to Colorado and spent the summer up there working for a Cadillac dealer. GS: Was that downtown Tulsa where ONG was? BW: It was downtown, yeah. Yeah, it was Oklahoma Natural Building, they called it. It' ; s-- GS: Okay. BW: --an office building now of some other type. But anyway, she worked there and when we did get married in-- God ' ; 58, ' ; 59 (Laughter). Anyway, I had a job just about a block away from there. I worked for an office supply house and we lived in Tulsa one year and I got-- she had to quit her job because Oklahoma Natural wouldn' ; t let a pregnant lady work-- GS: Oh my word. BW: --after three months in the bottom three floors. They didn' ; t let pregnant women be seen by customers. Anyway she was on the first floor. (Laughter) BW: But she got laid off, or had to quit. And a week later I got laid off. GS: Oh my word. BW: And that' ; s how we wound up in Bristow. And I got laid off that Friday and I had to go home to our apartment and tell her that neither one of us has got a job. Anyway, I called Lonnie Mcgall (ph)-- still the manager at the M& ; P and they had moved where Williams is at now, except it was a different building. GS: On East Seventh. BW: Yeah. Anyway I called him up and asked if he had any openings. He asked me, " ; Can you be here Monday morning?" ; GS: (Laughter) BW: I said, " ; I can be there." ; (Laughter) BW: So I-- the place I worked gave me a two weeks' ; notice-- GS: Where was that, Bob? I don' ; t think we mentioned that. BW: It was Tulsa Stationery-- was the name of it. GS: Okay. BW: But they sold office furniture and all that. And I called the store manager and I told ' ; em-- I said, " ; I don' ; t need your two weeks' ; notice, I' ; ve got a job." ; (Laughter) BW: So we loaded up and moved back to Bristow that weekend. Of course all we had was the clothes and a television' ; s all we had. GS: Yeah. BW: (Chuckling) Everything was furnished with the apartment. And we called and got a place, Dick Cahill, he was an ole druggist here in town and he owned a lot of rental houses and we moved in a duplex on Sunday afternoon. An old furnished duplex, and it was not the best of situations. GS: (Laughter) BW: But it was one block from the M& ; P. GS: Well that was helpful. BW: So got in there and I worked at the M& ; P for five years. I was assistant manager when I resigned and bought my own grocery store. Aaron Willeford had a store on South Chestnut and anyway, he got elected as County Commissioner, so he decided he better sell it. So I made a deal with him and I bought it. It was like a fifty by fifty square building-- concrete block building and got in it, and-- GS: What year was that that you bought that store? BW: Well let' ; s see, that had to be ' ; 62. GS: ' ; 62. BW: ' ; 62. And I just turned-- GS: What was-- BW: --twenty-one on my-- on April 1st and got my store on April 2nd. GS: Was there a store there before you bought it? BW: Yeah, Aaron Willeford owned the store. GS: Aaron Willeford owned the store. BW: Yeah, used to be Siner Grocery. Siner' ; s built the building and they sold it to Aaron and moved out in western Oklahoma some place. But Aaron had it for a few years and like I said, when he got elected County Commissioner, he worked for Jim Weaver with my dad too. GS: Okay, yeah. BW: And anyway, it was kind of a natural thing and I bought it. I was there for fifteen years. I more than doubled the size of the building. I had three houses on the lots behind it. It was a complete block along the lots-- or the block was. And I sold the houses off and built on the store and I made it like almost three times bigger than what it was. Put all new equipment in it and the M& ; P had sold out after I left to Hale-Halsell. It was a warehouse in Tulsa, it' ; s why they called it Super-H-- GS: Oh. BW: --back then. And good company, in fact I bought groceries all from ' ; em but I switched to Affiliated Foods. But they were number one in volume, I was number two in volume, and Safeway was a lagging number three. GS: Wow. BW: And of course we had a lot of other stores around too, but-- GS: Those were the three main stores. BW: That was the three main stores then. And I was on the edge of town and I had to draw the crowd from all over town. Your mother and dad traded with me. (Laughter) GS: See I don' ; t-- BW: Bless their hearts. GS: --even remember the Safeway before it was at Seventh and Main. BW: Yeah. GS: I thought when it was at Seventh and Main that' ; s when it first came in. BW: Yeah. GS: Because my folks always shopped with you and-- BW: Yeah. GS: I guess I just-- BW: Well you was young and you didn' ; t pay any attention. GS: I didn' ; t (Laughter). BW: You didn' ; t pay any attention to where your candy bars came from. (Laughter) GS: That' ; s right. BW: Anyway I was there for fifteen years and the Super-H store, one Friday night about midnight the police call me and said, " ; The Super- H Store is on fire." ; GS: Oh no. BW: And said, " ; Yours is the newest one in town." ; Said, " ; You better go out and stay with it, somebody might be burning stores." ; GS: Oh. BW: So I went out and stayed ' ; til, oh I don' ; t know one or two o' ; clock in the morning. And anyway Saturday morning my door bell ring about five o' ; clock. And I got up and answered the door. GS: Five o' ; clock. BW: And it was Hale-Halsell, a vice president and their store manager here in Bristow and, " ; What are you all doing out here?" ; he said, " ; Would you sell your store?" ; GS: Wow. BW: And I said, " ; What?" ; (Laughter) BW: He said, " ; Yeah." ; Said, " ; Ours is burned and we need a location." ; I said, " ; Well mine is brand new, all new equipment and new floors." ; Everything was brand new, you know a year old or so but-- GS: Right. BW: And I said, " ; Well I just-- I just don' ; t know." ; I said, " ; This is a shock." ; GS: (Laughter) BW: Then he said, " ; Well what time you close." ; And I said, " ; Nine o' ; clock on Saturday night." ; And they said, " ; Well have your mind made up and we' ; ll be there at nine o' ; clock tonight." ; At nine o' ; clock, went over to lock the front door. Here come about fifteen people in the door. GS: Oh my word. BW: And they just spread out in my store. GS: (Laughter) BW: And anyway this vice president said, " ; You got a place we can go and talk?" ; And I said, " ; We can go back in my little office." ; It was back behind the self-service meats and all that department. Went back there and he asked me what it would take to buy it, and or give me a price and I says, " ; No." ; I said, " ; You make me an offer." ; And he kind of studied around and he made me an offer. Well I knew what it was gonna take to buy it, I just wasn' ; t gonna tell him. The offer he made me was more than what I would' ; ve asked. (Laughter) BW: But I knew my inventory. I knew what I had in it and I knew that I had a million dollars' ; worth of the business in my hip pocket-- GS: Yeah. BW: --too. The ones that didn' ; t, probably go out of town or something. GS: Right. BW: But anyway, I just jumped the price up a little more and he stuck his hand. He said, " ; Is it a deal?" ; We shook hands. GS: Wow. BW: And that' ; s how I sold my store. GS: That' ; s wonderful. BW: And he told me-- he said, " ; Well since we' ; re making this deal tonight, we should get the receipts for Sunday. I said, " ; What?" ; GS: (Laughter) BW: I said, " ; Well I' ; m not gonna run the store for you." ; And I said, " ; I' ; ll tell you what I' ; ll do. If you want possession of it Sunday morning, have your manager to meet me here and I' ; ll give him the key." ; And they said, " ; Well we don' ; t have any money." ; We all made night deposits back then at the bank. And he said, " ; What we had to open with the next morning is in a safe and it' ; s too hot, we can' ; t get in it." ; (Laughter) BW: So I said, " ; Well I tell you what, you have your manager meet me and I' ; ll count him out enough money to last you for all three registers and cash to cash checks with. And all you need to do is just, we' ; ll write it on a piece of paper the amount and he signs it and I sign it." ; So I loaned them like three or four thousand dollars the next morning (Laughter) to operate my store. GS: Wow. BW: Anyway, got that done and Monday morning, well I call David Leffner (ph) was of course the best lawyer in town back then. And I say the best, he was one of the lawyers. We got several good lawyers, even back then. (Laughter) GS: Yeah. BW: And-- but I' ; d done business with him. I called him up and told him what I done. First thing David says, " ; You made a deal Saturday night and they' ; re running your store today?" ; GS: (Laughter) BW: He said, " ; Are you crazy?" ; I said, " ; No." ; I said, " ; I know the company and I did business with ' ; em and they know me. (Laughter) And I said, " ; We shook hands." ; GS: Yeah. BW: And he says, " ; Bob, you shoulda got something. You shoulda got a contract." ; I said, " ; If their handshake isn' ; t any good, their signature sure ain' ; t no good. (Laughter) BW: And that was my saying for years (Chuckling) GS: Well that' ; s a good saying. BW: But anyway, it went over so good. It took a little while cause it was several lots there and abstract on ever one of ' ; em. And it took about three or four months to get it straightened out between Leffner (ph) and the company lawyer. GS: And did you tell me what year that was? BW: That was in ' ; 70-- what' ; s fifteen years from ' ; 62? ' ; 77, ' ; 78-- GS: Okay. BW: -- somewhere along in there. Anyway, I' ; ll tell you how good a deal I had with ' ; em-- I didn' ; t make any provisions or say anything about if it took very long and it was still my profit until it was closed. But Hale-Halsell out on their own good will, paid me several thousand dollars a month extra for the three months it took to bring everything up to date. GS: Well good-- BW: --and closed. GS: --they should' ; ve (Laughter). BW: Yeah, and that' ; s how-- you know, they were honest. GS: Yes, they were and you knew that. BW: Yeah! But anyway, that' ; s what happened to me and after I sold the store-- and I gotta go back and say a few things too. The good people of Bristow were so good to me and I' ; m not talking about everybody up and down bank to bank and Main Street either, I' ; m talking about-- GS: The customers. BW: --the ole blue collared guys that was out working every day and I said, " ; They paid me so good" ; and I done a lot of credit. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And when I left that store and sold it, Audrey Gillum was my number one lady that checked groceries for me. They let me put a table there and a chair for her to sit and collect what collections I had. GS: Ah. BW: And after fifteen years of doing business out there of credit and checks, I lost less than two-thousand dollars. GS: That' ; s wonderful. BW: In fifteen years and that' ; s very unusual. GS: That is wonderful. BW: And they took care of me but bless their hearts, Levan Kelly of course known the Kelly family since I was a kid. GS: Yep. BW: And probably knew Levan better than any of ' ; em ' ; cause we rented a lot of their land. And we-- Levan would come by our house usually at dinner time. GS: (Laughter) BW: And he ate lunch with us at least once a month. GS: Oh my goodness. BW: And when I opened that store up in ' ; 62 he was the first one on that door step to congratulate me-- GS: Ah. BW: --on buying the store. In fact, he was the only one. (Laughter) GS: Wow. BW: But anyway, I' ; ll never forget that. And of course Tracy loaned me the money to do it. And some good words about Tracy, when they had his fiftieth anniversary-- they had an anniversary thing at the bank here years ago-- GS: Yes. BW: --and Tracy was losing his eye sight then. He couldn' ; t see really. GS: Right. BW: And of course me and Carolyn went up to the celebration to the bank. Walked up to Tracy, and said. " ; Tracy, congratulations." ; And all that. And he said, " ; Bob Webb." ; And I said, " ; How in the world did you" ; -- and he said, " ; I know your voice." ; GS: Uh-huh. BW: Stuck out his hand, we shook hands and I said, " ; Tracy, you and I worked together real good. You loaned me the money and I paid you back." ; (Laughter) BW: And-- GS: With interest! (Chuckling) BW: And he says, " ; Are you one of ' ; em that paid me back?" ; (Laughter) BW: Anyway, had good relations with them and still bank there too but, I was raised up at the other bank. That' ; s-- you usually bank where your folks were. GS: Right. BW: But, they loaned me the money! (Chuckling) GS: Exactly, exactly. BW: But, anyway, after I sold the store I never had hardly any vacation at all and I took my time about finding another job. And of course grocery business was an ideal thing for me. Affiliated tried to put me in a couple of stores. In fact, before I sold out Safeway had moved out of the one at Okemah that' ; s downtown, nice building. And moved out on I-40, close to I-40. GS: Yes. BW: And built a new store. Well, Bill Farha owned the building in Bristow and he also owned the one in Okemah, GS: Okay. BW: He built ' ; em for Safeway. GS: I did not know that. BW: And of course Bill traded with me at the store. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And we got together and he and I were gonna put that store in in Okemah. Beautiful building, big parking lot, and right in the middle of town. And we' ; d have probably put Safeway out of business earlier down there if we' ; d-- GS: Rival. BW: --of done it but anyway, Affiliated tried to get me to go ahead and do that and I thought-- you know I' ; ve took a chance and here it is ' ; 77, ' ; 78. Independent stores and all the trade-- grocery magazine said that independents were on their way out. It' ; s all gonna be chain stores. GS: Ah. BW: And I believed all that stuff. GS: Mmm. BW: Anyway, I told ' ; em-- I said, " ; No, I' ; m not gonna take a chance on another grocery store." ; Well would you believe and I' ; m sure you do, independents took over Oklahoma. Look at Reasor' ; s. GS: That' ; s true! BW: Independents are the big ones. Safeway, the big wholesaler in Oklahoma City, Fleming, (Indecipherable) and they owned a bunch of stores all over the nation too. Well it' ; s just completely different than what I thought and I know Reasor' ; s had a rough time. Larry Reasor, I knew him personally and he went broke. GS: Wow. BW: But his family, Escotts at Cushing-- GS: Escotts. BW: --saved the day for him. Reasor put a store right here in Bristow, right behind Mazzio' ; s. GS: Yes, I remember that. BW: And Larry-- GS: But it didn' ; t stay. BW: It didn' ; t go over-- Escotts his mother and father in law took it over for a while just to help him out. GS: Uh-huh. BW: But his son kind of took over the reins at Reasor' ; s and look at ' ; em today. GS: Yep. BW: Very successful so-- GS: They are. BW: I wondered if I made the right decision. But I went to work for Sysco Food Service and retired with them. And-- GS: I think you did fine, so-- BW: Well, you know it was a good company and I was looking for something with benefits. GS: And there aren' ; t as many headaches when you' ; re working for someone else. BW: Well, you know, (Chuckling) a lot of pressure when you' ; re running your own business. Especially-- GS: Yes, there is. BW: --when you' ; re young and doing a lot of credit. I was worried, one bad month would' ; ve put me down. GS: Yeah. BW: It would' ; ve. But like I say, the good people of Bristow stayed with me. GS: That' ; s wonderful. BW: And when I had the-- when I cut out the credit and all that, those people could' ; ve walked away from me and not even paid me ' ; cause they couldn' ; t go to another store and get credit. Well, they just-- everybody went to what they call a book plan and you send a check in with your grocery order. GS: Oh! BW: So when the wholesaler' ; s quit doing thirty-day credit, well the grocery stores had to quit doing-- GS: Well sure they did. BW: --thirty-day credit, cause there' ; s no cash flow. GS: Exactly. BW: But anyway, I can' ; t say enough about Bristow being good to me. GS: Yeah. BW: And I' ; ve-- I enjoyed working for Sysco, worked up to-- of course started out as salesman on the road. Created my own territory and about the second or third year I went in as sales manager. Had the office in Tulsa and went on up to regional manager which was half of Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas and parts of Kansas. GS: Very good. BW: And I had started out with about fifteen salesmen and when I retired I had like eighty-some salesmen. GS: Wow. That' ; s awesome, Bob. BW: And the president of the company told me, " ; Just run it like you did when you was on your territory and train your people like that." ; And that' ; s exactly what I did. And I had like a hundred and-- out of my office I did over a hundred and thirty, forty million dollars' ; worth of business. GS: Wow, that' ; s wonderful. BW: So it was-- it was a good operation and good company, honest company too. GS: So I know you' ; ve been busy since you retired. What have you done since you retired? BW: Well when I retired from Sysco, a month or so before I retired I went to John Hausam Realtors and they had classes for realtors. And I got my real-estate license, passed my test the first time, and good lord that was tough. But when I retired, went to work-- put my license with a-- oh a realtor out of Okmulgee County. They lived on the county line, Creek County and Okmulgee County out on a ranch and its real-estate. And there a farm couple, they been in the automobile business at Bixby running a dealership over there. But they wound up out on the farm and bought, oh I think they had two or three thousand acres up and down Big Deep Fork. And I put my license with them and I was the only man selling real estate when I started this. All the rest of them were ladies. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And of course I did commercial and farm and ranch. I' ; ve sold restaurants, convenience stores, and farm and ranch. I even sold Doodle' ; s Steakhouse. GS: Well. (Laughter) BW: But anyway, it was real good. Back when I started, it was a one-page listing and a sales contract was maybe a one or two pages, but after about ten, twelve years. It just about had to be a lawyer to do real estate. GS: My mother, it got to her-- BW: Yeah. GS: --and she had to get out for that reason. BW: But anyway, I stayed with it. I kept my license until a couple of years ago and I got-- I was appointed on the Industrial Board and about six months later they made me chairmen and the mayor put the Industrial Board in charge of all the city property. GS: Uh-huh. BW: About to go dead (Chucking) GS: No, I' ; m just double checking. (Laughter) BW: Anyway, the city turned that over to Industrial Board and of course they wanted to sell the Garment Factory and we had about fourteen lots that was given to The City of Bristow by a lady that was raised up in Bristow and she passed away out in California, and she donated them to the city of Bristow. So, they had already found a buyer for the Garment Factory but it-- nobody had closed it and they had sold it almost a year ago earlier. (Chuckling) GS: Oh. BW: And I got to looking at it and I said, " ; Hey what' ; s the deal here?" ; and they said, " ; Well no closings every been set up." ; And of course me being in real estate I jumped right on it. GS: Well sure. BW: And I got that closed and the buyer was just waiting on somebody to do it. GS: I would think that they would' ; ve pestered somebody to do it. BW: Well, evidently he had it he wasn' ; t worried about it. (Chuckling) GS: Huh. BW: So it wouldn' ; t cost him any money. GS: I see. BW: But anyway, it was a good sale and first think I did-- I got busy and got it closed out and the fourteen lots that was donated, I sold them to a builder and he' ; s already built two or three houses on some of the lots. And they' ; re homes that probably range from a hundred and ten to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. GS: Hmm. BW: Anybody that' ; s got a job can probably qualify. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And they' ; re in an area of Bristow, Hickory and Poplar. GS: Yes. BW: Especially Hickory that needs to be cleaned up. GS: Yes. BW: She-- he' ; s cleared off all the lots and there was a couple of the houses that belong to some out of town people and I think he has bought those now. And he' ; s really cleaned it up and hopefully in the near future, there' ; ll be new homes there. So I-- you know I put my real estate license on vacation. GS: Yes. BW: ' ; Cause I didn' ; t want people to think I was making money off the city. GS: Right. BW: So I haven' ; t reactivated my license. GS: Well-- BW: I think I' ; m retired now from that. (Laughter) BW: What else Georgia Kay? GS: Well, let me look-- BW: Oh I lived out on the farm and I' ; ve still got a horse. I don' ; t-- I don' ; t run cows anymore. My three kids all live out of state and you can' ; t go visit and run off and leave cows. (Chuckling). So I sold all my cows and fertilized and resodded a lot of my pasture and now I bale hay and sell hay. GS: That' ; s good, that' ; s good. BW: I can run off and leave it. (Chuckling) GS: Here' ; s an interesting question. What would you consider to be the most important intervention during your life time? Invention, sorry not intervention. Invention. BW: Invention. Oh God. GS: There' ; s been a lot of ' ; em. BW: I' ; ll tell you two things that bothered me more than anything. GS: And that was a pager and a cell phone. (Laughter) GS: You sound like my husband. BW: Well out on the road in sales and everything, sometimes-- especially when I become the manager, I' ; d get so many pages and wanting you to call ' ; em back and stuff like that and it was hard to do. And same way with cellphones, especially if you was working with somebody or even running somebody' ; s territory. But that was probably an important thing and all the computers, laptops. On my laptop I had all of these salesmen' ; s business on my laptop. GS: Oh my. BW: Every customer they had and had a complete warehouse inventory on it. GS: Wow. BW: And that laptop was absolutely a gold mine. GS: Yes, it would be. BW: And it has since I' ; ve retired, it' ; s probably quadrupled what you can do with ' ; em. GS: Oh yeah. BW: And see that was in ' ; 98. GS: Oh yeah. BW: That they were-- GS: Lots happened-- BW: Yeah. GS: --since then. BW: But that was what the capability was back then. GS: Yeah, so probably the computer? BW: Oh yeah. Yeah. GS: Any significant changes you' ; ve seen in Bristow since you are on the Industrial Board or even like as a child that you know, you think were big improvements to Bristow? BW: Well you know-- GS: Or had a big impact to Bristow? BW: Yeah. I kinda beat around the bush about this, but you know a kid from the farm ; we came to town on Saturday. Main Street was just full ; you couldn' ; t find a parking place. And usually the farmers when they came in, they came in for the day. GS: Yes. BW: And you know, we' ; d go to the Walmur Theatre and get in there for a dime or so. Eat a hamburger at Llyon' ; s Café, and then dad would do his visiting up and down Main Street making (indecipherable) sale, or whatever. And mom would usually go to the Princess Theatre, that was where the adults went you know. GS: Okay, that' ; s why I never went to the Princess I guess much. BW: It was-- I didn' ; t go very often until I married her-- married Carolyn. (Chuckling) GS: Uh-huh. BW: But anyway, and the Main Street was just so busy. But you know, I' ; m on a couple other boards too and when we' ; re having general meetings or-- we' ; ve had a couple of meetings I' ; d hold ' ; em here in Bristow. And I had the Conservation District and we-- and a whole area Conservation Districts, which takes most of northeastern Oklahoma. And it was my turn to hold it here, I had it down at the Church of God where we go to church and we was gonna really impress ' ; em. So we ordered T-Bone steaks, we had like about a hundred people there. GS: Wow. BW: We ordered a hundred T-Bone steaks and had one of the farm service representatives to bring his cooker and cooked them outside the Church of God. GS: Wow. BW: And baked potatoes, the whole ball of wax. Anyway, of course I gave a-- GS: And this is for Conservation-- BW: Yeah, this is-- GS: --Group? BW: --all of northeastern Oklahoma-- GS: Oh okay. BW: --Area of Conservation Districts. And there' ; s a district in every county. (Chuckling) GS: Yes, yes. BW: So we had a lot of people there. GS: Yes. BW: And this was board members. Anyway, I gave-- I got up and gave a little talk and a welcome to Bristow and I said, " ; While you' ; re here, I want you to go out by our school system, drive around our lake, and I want you to notice when you go up and down Main Street, how busy Bristow Main Street is." ; And I said this a many of time. Between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Bristow' ; s Main Street is the busiest one. GS: I agree with you there. BW: It is! GS: Mm-hmm. BW: And of course if they catch it early in the morning, or late in the evening, it' ; s worse than anything else. (Laughter) GS: Yes. BW: But it kindly reminds you-- I mean through the day. You go to Stroud, you go to Chandler, you don' ; t see that over there. GS: No. BW: Only time you see it in Chandler, if its court day. (Chuckling) There' ; ll be a little business there then. GS: Uh-huh. BW: And you go to Sapulpa, it don' ; t compare to ours. GS: Uh-huh. BW: Cause their Main Street' ; s not as busy as the one that' ; s going east and west, what is it Dew-- GS: Dewey, I believe. BW: Yeah. GS: Yeah. BW: That' ; s it. Our Main Street' ; s busier than Sapulpa' ; s. GS: (Indecipherable) BW: And they all-- well they even applauded. (Laughter) BW: And I said, " ; If any of yall want to move to Bristow give me a call, I' ; m in real estate." ; (Laughter) GS: There you go. There you go. Well, can you think of anything else that you would like to add? BW: Yeah. And this' ; ll give you a little project, maybe. GS: Okay. BW: Maybe. GS: Okay. BW: When they first opened it up, down at the railroad station-- GS: Uh-huh. BW: I had a picture of my dad-- my grandad, I' ; m sorry. And-- GS: And what was his name? BW: Charlie Webb Senior. GS: Okay. BW: And-- GS: So your dad was Charlie Webb and your grandfather was Charlie Webb? BW: Yeah. GS: Senior. Okay. BW: Yeah. Anyway, when he was a young man here in Bristow Arthur Foster' ; s dad-- what was his name, I' ; ll be darn. GS: Who' ; s dad did you say? BW: Arthur Foster' ; s GS: Arthur Foster' ; s. BW: Well, I' ; ll be darn. Steve' ; s (ph) son is named after him. (Chuckling) GS: Okay. I' ; ll find out (Chuckling). BW: They were friends and my grandad and Tall-- Tall Foster (ph). GS: Oh okay, that' ; s an unusual name. BW: And Anna Louis Foster (ph) GS: Yes. BW: They were on horseback and they were in the middle of Main Street where the Community State Bank is now. GS: Yes. BW: And where the stationary office supply' ; s at. GS: Yes. BW: They were all three of ' ; em on horses and they all three had black suits. That' ; s about the only suit a man would wear back then was a black suit. GS: Yes. BW: They had black suits on, black hats, and on their horses. And there' ; s a picture of them down there in the museum. And when I was on the School Board here in Bristow, Ms. Foster (ph) after she retired, she got on the School Board and I got this picture and I made her a copy of it and gave it to her. And I said-- and Arthur was still alive at the time. And she was so proud of that picture, she took it down there and they displayed it. GS: Ah. BW: And anyway-- GS: At the museum? BW: At the museum. Anyway, they change ' ; em around once in a while. GS: Yes. BW: Anyway, I' ; ve ask ' ; em about that picture over the last three or four years. And it' ; s probably stored down there some place. GS: The problem with-- I' ; ll address that pretty soon. BW: Yeah, I gotcha. Well, you know and I' ; ve ask about it, but they-- that' ; s when they was having to move stuff around and all that. But I hope it didn' ; t get lost. GS: I doubt if it' ; s lost-- BW: ' ; Cause they got the-- GS: We just-- BW: --they got the original. GS: --have to locate it. BW: Yeah. But anyway, I think I may-- I' ; ve still got the original. GS: But that' ; s something we' ; re working on. BW: Yeah, yeah. But anyway, that was a coincidence. But there' ; s a lot of other things I could tell you about. The old times, but I had a great uncle that was a brother to this Uncle Isaac that was a Marshal. GS: Yes, yes. BW: His younger brother-- the youngest one in the family. They lived out on a farm out the edge of Bristow. I think it was out here on 16. Just about straight across-- well down where yall live. GS: Okay. BW: Anyway their neighbors, and they were good friends-- the families were. But something happened-- an animal got in one of ' ; ems garden. And I think it was one of my grandad' ; s cow or hog or something-- GS: Got in the other one' ; s garden? BW: Got in the other one' ; s garden. And right by the Community State Bank where it' ; s at now, here come the father and the son of the family that lived next door. And they-- the boy wasn' ; t about fifteen, sixteen years old and the old man jumped my great uncle, and they had a little scuffle and they stabbed my uncle. GS: Oh my word! BW: And he started across the street to where the office supply is at. GS: Yes. BW: And then they shot him. GS: (Gasp) No! BW: Shot him in the back. Anyway, since the young man was-- of course they didn' ; t do anything to him. But his dad, they sent him to prison. GS: And so I guess your great uncle died. BW: Oh yeah, he died. Died right on the spot. GS: Ah. BW: Died in the middle of the street-- Main Street. GS: Ah. BW: And anyway, the old man-- I say old man, he was probably forty years old. Might not have even been that old. But he went to prison for a few years and when he got out of prison, he got killed. GS: Somebody killed him. BW: And I think I know who it was. GS: Oh! BW: The US Marshal. (Chuckling) GS: Oh. (Chuckling) BW: I mean, that story-- and the bad thing about it, or the good thing about I guess you' ; d say. Those families went back together and got close. GS: Well that' ; s good. BW: To this day, I even sold the young man that was with his dad that killed my uncle? I even sold their property. I sold his brother' ; s property. GS: My goodness. BW: I mean the families got so close. GS: Huh. BW: And my grandad lived just east of the county barn about two blocks. GS: Now what was your uncle' ; s name that got killed? BW: Harrison. GS: Harrison Webb? BW: Yeah. GS: And, do you have any idea about what decade that would' ; ve been? BW: It would' ; ve been in between-- before the ' ; 20s. GS: Before the ' ; 20s. BW: Yeah. GS: Bristow was still young then. BW: Yeah, yeah. GS: Dirt roads on Main Street and-- BW: Dirt streets, yeah. And anyway, my grand-- grandad-- a brother to the one that got killed. Lived east of the county barn and a brother to one of the people that killed my great uncle lived about two to three blocks away and they were good friends. Every birthday my grandmother or grandad or his wife-- and wife and husband-- they celebrated birthdays together. GS: Wow. BW: That' ; s how close the family was. GS: Yeah. BW: And me and Carolyn thought the world of ' ; em. GS: Isn' ; t that something. Well, you know you can' ; t hold responsibility for all your relatives. BW: Well, you know it' ; s just-- they would had to be good friends to get back together like that. GS: Yes, they did. BW: So. GS: Well. BW: But I know several other stories, but you might want to edit that out I don' ; t know. GS: No-- BW: I didn' ; t give you any names. GS: --I think that' ; s a good story! BW: (Chuckling) GS: No you didn' ; t, you didn' ; t say who the other people were so that' ; s alright. BW: And everybody else is-- GS: (Chuckling) BW: --passed on. GS: Yep, yep. BW: Except maybe-- well probably not any rest of ' ; em live around here now. GS: Yeah. Okay, do your children still live around here? BW: No. Robert JR, he lives in Phoenix. He' ; s been there for-- oh gosh, twenty-five years. GS: How old would Rob be now? BW: He' ; ll be about sixty-one now. GS: Okay. BW: He graduated-- all three kids graduated OSU. He went to work for General Foods and they moved him to southern California for about four or five years and then to Phoenix. And they was getting ready to move him again and he said, " ; I' ; m not moving again." ; So-- GS: (Laughter) BW: --he resigned and went to Arizona State and got his masters and as soon as he walked out he went straight to Intel and now he does all the contracts for Intel. GS: Good for him. BW: This is worldwide (Chuckling). GS: Good for him. BW: So he' ; s got a good job and been with them-- he' ; ll probably be retiring in the next few years too. GS: Okay. BW: Sue, my daughter-- that' ; s the middle kid. Lives in Alameda, California and she finished at OSU she got in the car and had interviews. Well she trained in TV and Journalism. GS: Ah. BW: And she got a job in Wichita Falls, Texas. The guy that owned the CBS station there also owned an advertising company and he put her to work. And Tom, her husband graduated after she did and she put his name in a pot at the TV station, and he came down and he got it and he was the director of the news and all the morning and evening news. And they were there for about a year or so and they went to Alameda, California and Tom went to work for the-- what' ; s the big-- Federal Reserve Bank. GS: Oh okay. BW: And he' ; s been with them now about thirty-three years. GS: That' ; s awesome. BW: And he' ; s probably-- GS: Gosh, it doesn' ; t-- BW: --going to retire this year. GS: --seem possible. BW: Yeah, yeah. (Laughter) BW: And Sue, she went to work for an advertising company and she had-- in fact, (chuckling) when she was at OSU they put billboards all around the state with her carrying a tray and it said, " ; Good ole boys don' ; t drink and drive." ; GS: Ah! BW: But these billboards were all over the state. GS: Oh I' ; d loved to have seen one of ' ; em. BW: Well, there was one down at Okmulgee, and of course on major highways is where-- GS: I probably wouldn' ; t have known it was her if I saw it. BW: A lot of people didn' ; t realize that probably. GS: I bet not. Ah. BW: But anyway, she did the same thing out there. She went to work for an advertising company, and she was-- they used her as a model. GS: Wow. BW: But-- GS: So she was a pretty, young lady. BW: Well, she done good and she went to work for-- after she got through with that, well she went to work for-- oh it' ; s a food program-- food bank thing. And she' ; d go out and make all the contacts for different companies and send trucks by to pick up food that they donated to the food bank. GS: Good. Good for her. And Stacy' ; s where? BW: Stacy, he was in Oklahoma City. He was a director at the-- at the Omniplex. He was one-- GS: Oh really! BW: He was one of the directors down there for about four or five years and he got the hankering to go someplace else and he followed somebody all the way to Portland, Oregon. GS: Wow. BW: And he worked out there for two or three years. Bought a condo and anyway, the place where he worked-- hard times hit Oregon pretty bad back ten years ago. GS: Ah. BW: And the place where he worked, they shut it down. GS: Ah. BW: And he was scared to death, but he got-- heard of an opportunity in San Francisco. And the Hurst (ph) family has got a thing out there. I forget the name of it, Carolyn might' ; ve gave it to you. Where they do-- for families that don' ; t have homes and-- GS: Okay. BW: Cause a lot of people live in cars and live on the railroad tracks and-- GS: Oh my. BW: --all of that. But he-- (Chuckling) he goes out and hits all of the businesses up for donations. GS: Well good for him. BW: And he' ; s got-- he' ; s done great out here. GS: Oh good for him. BW: He' ; s done good. GS: Good for him. BW: So-- GS: Well Bob, I have just enjoyed our interview tremendously and I appreciate ever so much-- BW: Oh, you bet. GS: --you taking the extra time (Chuckling). BW: Well. GS: For this. BW: I hope we both got it recorded. (Laughter) GS: I hope so too! Thanks a lot Bob. BW: Well, I appreciate you too and want to let everybody know. I' ; ve known this girl for years. She babysitted for us-- GS: (Laughter) BW: --when we lived across the street from ' ; em. GS: And he still calls me Eegee Kay. BW: Yeah! GS: Because that' ; s what little Stacy would call me. (Chuckling) BW: Yep. (Laughter) End of interview. audio 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP-2020-07_Webb_Bob.xml OHP-2020-07_Webb_Bob.xml
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Bob Webb
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: In this 2020 interview, Bob Webb shares about his experience growing up in the Bristow area. He discusses attending high school, meeting his wife Carolyn, and owning his own grocery store. He also shares about his later life in Bristow as he served on many boards and was even a realtor in the Bristow area.
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2020-10-20
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5.4 Unknown Date OHP-0002-V 'Bristow Here We Live' OHP-0002-V 00:28:48 'Bristow Historical Society-Oral History Archive' Bristow Historical Society, Inc. m4v 1:|44(3)|64(2)|86(3)|101(8)|126(2)|144(1)|144(2)|144(3)|144(4)|146(11)|164(1)|196(1)|196(2)|198(40)|230(4)|233(1)|233(2)|255(7)|288(2)|312(32)|326(1)|354(4)|362(1)|362(2)|389(5)|391(24)|412(18)|423(2) 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/interviews/OHP-0002-V 1959 Bristow Here We Live.m4v Other video 154 Mr. Arthur Foster-Community State Bank H: [indecipherable] Hugh H: Thank you H: Mr. Arthur Foster started with the Community State Bank in 1927 running errands, and when were you made president Mr. Foster? AF: 1954 H: And we have an old time resident here who is quite young uh in ideas maybe a little old in years but Mrs. Groom how long have you been in Bristow and do you mind telling us your age? MG: No, I’m 84 and I’m still running the hardware and furniture store and when I get old I shall retire. H: (laughter) Mr. Foster do you think you’ll make 84 years? I don’t know whether I ever will. AF: I don’t know ether, but I sure hope so. H: I sure hope I’m this young and spry when I’m 84 I’ll tell you that. AF: Well I always hoped so, Mrs. Groom was my neighbor and I always hoped that I could have the speed that she has and then the outlook on life that she has when I’m half that old. H: Well both of you have seen a lot of Bristow. How has the growth of Bristow compared uh this past 10 years compared to the recent 10 years? AF: In the last 10 years Bristow has grown in the way of uh housing and the volume of business has grown, the dollar volume has increased quite a bit. H: Both of the banks here have grown along with it Arthur Foster ; Community State Bank ; Mrs. Groom 257 Moe Einstein-Chamber of Commerce H: Moe Einstein is a transplanted Texan ; he came to Bristow some 10 years ago. This year was honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Moe, what caused you to come to Bristow, Oklahoma? ME: I married a Bristow girl and Oklahoma is my home now. H: Well that’s wonderful, you’ve uh certainly over the past 10 years done very well here and this year being honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Let’s talk a little but now about the aims of the chamber this year ME: Well we have a progressive little town here. We have some wonderful people, friendly people, we have good industrial sites. We’re trying to get industry to come to Bristow, and we’re succeeding in getting industry to come to Bristow. We feel Bristow is the hub of eastern Oklahoma roadways, we have the turnpike, we have Highway 66, 48, 27, in other words we can go North, South, East or West. H: Now a few years ago, Bristow was one of the cities, and there were many, that felt the turnpike might almost put them completely out of business. Has that happened? ME: No Hugh it hasn’t. H: As a matter of fact, you’ve gone forward since the [indecipherable] ME: We have and we’re going to go forward more H: Well with men like you at the helm who have the future of Bristow at heart well I don’t see how it do anything but go forward. Chamber of Commerce ; Highway 27 ; Highway 48 ; Highway 66 ; Moe Einstein ; SprayLine Boat Manufacturing Company ; Turnpike 357 Virgil and Earl Griffen-Otasco H: Virgil and Earl Griffin literally grew up with Otasco. Virgil uh when did you first start to work for them? VG: In February 1938. H: And Earl when did you start? EG: June 39 I believe it was. H:Well you fellas have had quite a bit of experience with em. Actually Otasco closed this store down in what year? VG: Uh 42 due to the work conditions, (indecipherable), and manpower along with five other stores. H: And then a little later on you and Earl uh purchased the stores and associate stores. VG: That’s correct, 1947, we’ll be here 13 years in May. H: Now its unique in that you have two stores here in Bristow across the street from each other. VG: That’s right. H: And uh I understand you’re going however to put the entire Otasco line under one roof shortly. VG: Possibly in about 12 months. S: Well fine. Earl has it been a rewarding experience for you in the last 13 years? EG: It sure has. Earl Griffen ; Oklahoma Tire and Supply Store ; Otasco ; Virgil Griffen 565 Film-Fire Department, SprayLine Boats, and Police Department 697 Mr. H Cunningham-Cunningham Chevrolet H: [Indecipherable] Cunningham was a teacher and superintendent of schools for 21 years. 5 years ago he moved to Bristow from Beggs, Oklahoma and now has the Cunningham Chevrolet Company. Mr. Cunningham that’s quite a chance from school teaching to the automobile business. Uh what prompted you? MC: Uh my first interest was that we might gain finically and second that we might have something more stable that we wouldn’t have to move around as often as superintendent of schools would move and third we had two young boys coming along that we thought would be uh given them an opportunity to learn something other than just books. H: Mr. Cunningham how is the acceptance of the 1960 Chevrolet been? MC: Uh I feel that it has been the best of any car that we’ve ever had since I’ve been in the Chevrolet business, and I’ve been in for 10 years’ present time. H: Now uh you mentioned that many folks who drive the Chevrolet for the first time this year are amazed at the luxury ride they get, uh better than any previous car? MC: That’s right. If we can get them to take a ride in a Chevrolet and do uh the driving themselves, I’ll guarantee they’ll be satisfied with it. H: Fine, thank you. It looks like you’ve learned the automobile business quite well over the past few years. This is Glenn Cunningham, who has a famous name, and is a sophomore down at the University of Oklahoma. What are you studying down there Glenn? GC: I’m studying letters, which is comprised, its comprised of history, English and philosophy H: Preparatory to a possible teaching profession? GC: Correct or perhaps law. H: You’re also going out for the football team down there aren’t you? GC: Yes, sir. Cunningham Chevrolet ; Football ; Glenn Cunningham ; University of Oklahoma 817 Film-Office, Café and Hospital 963 Tom McAdams-McAdams Pipe and Supply Company H: Here in McAdams pipe and supply company in Bristow, Oklahoma we’re talking to Tom McAdams. Tom what kind of a machine is this? TM: This is a pipe threading machine with threads from five inch through eight inch. It is a Bignog Kitter machine with a tangent head on it, has the very latest in air chucks on it and has a tapered attachment on it. It’s the very latest type of pipe threading machine equipment. H: Tom this is one of three pipe threaders that you have isn’t it? TM: That is right. We can chop pipes from two inch through thirteen inch in these pipe machines. H: You have an additional [indecipherable] to the pipe threading machines here quite a supply to don’t you? TM: We have a general office supplies specializing in secondary [indecipherable] equipment primarily. We handle both new and used and reconditioned equipment. H: Now when did you start here in Bristow? TM: We came, we moved to Bristow in 1947. H: And uh how many stores do you have now? TM: We have four stores in Oklahoma, one store in Kansas. My dad and I are in business together here H: How many employees did you start with? TM: We had five employees tha- initially now we have approximately 50 employees. H: Boy that’s been quite a growth over 13 years hasn’t it? TM: That is right Kansas ; McAdams Pipe and Supply Company ; Pipe Threader ; Tom McAdams 1021 Film-Library and School Grounds 1114 Harold Sims-Bristow Superintendent H: Mr. Harold Sims has been the school teacher for 31 years. He has been in the system here in Bristow for how many years Mr. Sims? HS: Since 42 H: And you have been superintendent for the last 4 years? HS: Yes, sir. H: How many schools do you have under your jurisdiction? HS: We have three um well four of course. Two elementary schools, a junior high and a senior high school. H: And Mr. Sims what do you feel is the primary need in education circles today? HS: Well I, for Bristow schools our biggest need is to have more money and with which to employ uh teachers in special education field to take care of those marginal students who really should not be in the regular classrooms. H: It is unfair to them and to the student who are progressing uh in a normal way that they should be in that class isn’t that right? HS: That is right yes sir. H: And of course the big problem with specialized education is that it takes uh one teacher to about six or seven students HS: That’s right, yes sir. Elementary ; Harold Sims ; High School ; Junior High 1191 Mrs. Glaser-The Globe Store H: One of the pioneer stores here in Bristow is the Globe store. Mrs. Glaser(ph), your father founded this store didn’t he. MG: That’s right. H: What year? MG: In 1916 H: And then in 1920 you MG: When I got married in 1920 why we bought the store from my father H: And now you’re carrying on that tradition in that the co-owner is your son in law here, Moe, right? MG: That’s right. I hope so (laughter) H: Moe, you’re not only interested in the Globe store here but you’ve done a fine job with the Chamber of Commerce, your president of the chamber this year. You have a beautiful store and this is part of the modernization program isn’t it? ME: That’s correct. Yes, that’s correct, this is part of our faith and progress of Bristow H: Well fine, that’s just last August that you opened this remodeled store MG: Yes. Chamber of Commerce ; Globe Store ; Moe Einstein ; Mrs. Glaser 1259 R.L Rhodes-Bristow Mayor H: [Indecipherable] Rhodes has been mayor of Bristow for the past 11 months, prior to that time for 30 years he was with the Deep Rock Oil Company as superintendent of pipelines in this district. Mr. Rhodes what possessed you to run for mayor? MR: Well it was a lot of things that I figured need to be done in Bristow and I had quite a bit of time on my hand and I could make a full time mayor, something Bristow hadn’t had for years. I don’t know when there was a full time mayor for Bristow and we’re getting things done that uh need to be done. We got a bond issue coming up, we wanna get our streets fixed up and uh water system up to date and uh streets we need uh quite a bit of our streets down there and the water department both uh so good things to make time, save time and working, save labor. H: When did you first come to Bristow? MR: I came to Bristow in uh July the 19th 1914. H: What was your first job here? What did you do? MR: Well I get a look around and uh get acquainted with people, didn’t make it into this [indecipherable] where I stayed I just had a little grit with me and I had three shirts, one dirty one, one clean one and uh one on my back, that’s all I had. [Indecipherable] where I stopped and that was where I stayed all night. Deep Rock Oil Company ; Mayor ; R.L Rhodes 1365 Mr. and Mrs. Camp-Deep Rock Oil Company H: Mr. and Mrs. Camp started in the oil business in 1946 after being in the grocery business. Mrs. Camp, when did you take on the distribution of Deep Rock products? MC: In the fall of the 1956. H: You operate how many stations here in Bristow of your own? MC: Two H: And how many do you service approximately? MC: About 12 H: I understand Mr. Camp that you’re building another station, this one in Sapulpa. Is that right? MC: That’s right. H: When do you plan on opening that? MC: We’re gonna try to open it May the first. H: There was a trend a few years ago toward the 10-W-30 motor oil, it that still continuing? MC: Yes, uh to a great extent H: Does it take ; do you have a special type car normally which is best suited to that? MC: Well yes uh not necessarily but a car has got to be in good condition to uh that will require a 10-W-30 motor oil. Deep Rock Oil Company ; Mr. Camp ; Mrs. Camp 1398 Film-Churches 1502 E. Massey-Halliburton Oil Well Cementers H: Mr. Elide(ph) Massey(ph) has just reached superintendent at the Halliburton Oil Well Cementers in Bristow. Mr. Massey how many service points do you have around world? MM: We have about 282 service points in the United States and foreign countries. H: When was this one in Bristow established? MM: Um this camp was established in 1938. H: How many employees do you have here? MM: We have about 35 employees present time H: You have, you were telling me you have equipment in Russia, but do you have any men over there? MM: No, we don’t have any men over there. All of our equipment uh in countries uh like that, why we build equipment and sell it to them outright. H: But in other countries in the world you also have your men there don’t you? MM: We have men in practially all foreign countries. H: Mr. Massey I know that Bristow and talking to the folks here are very proud to have Halliburton Oil Well Cementers here as part of their community. MM: Well we are very happy to be part of the Bristow community H: Thank you very much. E. Massey ; Halliburton Oil Well Cementers ; Russia 1547 Film-Amphitheater, Pool, and Lake 1728 Ray Baker-B.F Goodrich H: We’re visiting with Mr. Ray Baker, of the B.F Goodrich store here in Bristow. Mr. Baker how long have you associated with Goodrich? RB: Since 1948 Hugh. H: How is the fourteen inch tire coming now, is it one of the most popular? RB: Its uh vastly uh taken over as your most popular tire its coming on your new automobiles, its original equipment on in low price field. H: What’s the advantage of it? RB: Uh, it lowers your frame of your automobile closer to the ground which gives the driver a better steering qualities and then also it gives you a little better ride. H: Are most tires low pressure tires these day? RB: Most tires uh what’s is uh comes on like a sound new automobiles are low pressure tires. Now you get into some of your commercial uh light equipment why uh they’re-they’re not low pressure, but even some of your uh half ton pickups coming out now are on low pressure tires which gives a little better ride even. H: What’s the most significant uh advancement you feel over the past 10 or 15 years as far as Goodrich is concerned? RB: Oh I definitely feel that the tubeless tire which is a first of B.F Goodrich has been uh has put our company on the map in the rubber business and all your other companies has followed the same trend. Appliances ; B.F Goodrich ; Ray Baker ; Tires Interviewer: Interviewee: Other Persons: Date of Interview: Location: Bristow, Creek County Oklahoma Transcriber: Riley Wilson Organization: Bristow Historical Society, Inc. Original Cassette Tape Location: 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. H: [Indecipherable] Hugh H: Thank you H: Mr. Arthur Foster started with the Community State Bank in 1927 running errands, and when were you made president Mr. Foster? AF: 1954 H: And we have an old time resident here who is quite young uh in ideas maybe a little old in years but Mrs. Groom how long have you been in Bristow and do you mind telling us your age? MG: No, I' ; m 84 and I' ; m still running the hardware and furniture store and when I get old I shall retire. H: (laughter) Mr. Foster do you think you' ; ll make 84 years? I don' ; t know whether I ever will. AF: I don' ; t know ether, but I sure hope so. H: I sure hope I' ; m this young and spry when I' ; m 84 I' ; ll tell you that. AF: Well I always hoped so, Mrs. Groom was my neighbor and I always hoped that I could have the speed that she has and then the outlook on life that she has when I' ; m half that old. H: Well both of you have seen a lot of Bristow. How has the growth of Bristow compared uh this past 10 years compared to the recent 10 years? AF: In the last 10 years Bristow has grown in the way of uh housing and the volume of business has grown, the dollar volume has increased quite a bit. H: Both of the banks here have grown along with it AF: Both banks have increased their resources and uh have grown. H: Well Mr. Foster we want to thank you very much for allowing our here we live cameras to visit the Community State Bank in Bristow and it just so happened Mrs. Groom was here and we' ; re very happy for that to. Thank you very much AF: We' ; re happy to have you in town H: Thank you H: Moe Einstein is a transplanted Texan ; he came to Bristow some 10 years ago. This year was honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Moe, what caused you to come to Bristow, Oklahoma? ME: I married a Bristow girl and Oklahoma is my home now. H: Well that' ; s wonderful, you' ; ve uh certainly over the past 10 years done very well here and this year being honored as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Let' ; s talk a little but now about the aims of the chamber this year ME: Well we have a progressive little town here. We have some wonderful people, friendly people, we have good industrial sites. We' ; re trying to get industry to come to Bristow, and we' ; re succeeding in getting industry to come to Bristow. We feel Bristow is the hub of eastern Oklahoma roadways, we have the turnpike, we have Highway 66, 48, 27, in other words we can go North, South, East or West. H: Now a few years ago, Bristow was one of the cities, and there were many, that felt the turnpike might almost put them completely out of business. Has that happened? ME: No Hugh it hasn' ; t. H: As a matter of fact, you' ; ve gone forward since the [Indecipherable] ME: We have and we' ; re going to go forward more H: Well with men like you at the helm who have the future of Bristow at heart well I don' ; t see how it do anything but go forward. ME: No, we' ; ll-we' ; ll go forward. Uh we' ; re trying to get industry in and we' ; re succeeding at getting industry in as I said before. Last year we got SprayLine boat manufacturing company to locate here. Uh we have the industrial sites, we have the man power, we have the electricity, we have the water facilities, we have an industrial board. And we are gonna go forward. H: Fine, thank you very much. ME: Yes, thank you. H: Virgil and Earl Griffin literally grew up with Otasco. Virgil uh when did you first start to work for them? VG: In February 1938. H: And Earl when did you start? EG: June 39 I believe it was. H:Well you fellas have had quite a bit of experience with em. Actually Otasco closed this store down in what year? VG: Uh 42 due to the work conditions, [Indecipherable], and manpower along with five other stores. H: And then a little later on you and Earl uh purchased the stores and associate stores. VG: That' ; s correct, 1947, we' ; ll be here 13 years in May. H: Now its unique in that you have two stores here in Bristow across the street from each other. VG: That' ; s right. H: And uh I understand you' ; re going however to put the entire Otasco line under one roof shortly. VG: Possibly in about 12 months. S: Well fine. Earl has it been a rewarding experience for you in the last 13 years? EG: It sure has. H: Um, Virgil uh how about the associate store now uh do you feel that it offers a businessman the opportunity to be on his own and still be a part of an organization of buying? VG: Well I definitely do, I feel that uh it certainty eliminates you of a lot of salesman' ; s, and uh figuring out advertising promotions and after all they have a trained personnel to handle those things and knowing big in furniture business what that amounts to, it certainly uh well it' ; s just something you get in the average, ordinary store H: Fine. Thank you very much. Virgil and Earl Griffin, the co-owners of the associate store here in Bristow of the Oklahoma Tire and Supply Stores, Otasco. H: [Indecipherable] Cunningham was a teacher and superintendent of schools for 21 years. 5 years ago he moved to Bristow from Beggs, Oklahoma and now has the Cunningham Chevrolet Company. Mr. Cunningham that' ; s quite a chance from school teaching to the automobile business. Uh what prompted you? MC: Uh my first interest was that we might gain finically and second that we might have something more stable that we wouldn' ; t have to move around as often as superintendent of schools would move and third we had two young boys coming along that we thought would be uh given them an opportunity to learn something other than just books. H: Mr. Cunningham how is the acceptance of the 1960 Chevrolet been? MC: Uh I feel that it has been the best of any car that we' ; ve ever had since I' ; ve been in the Chevrolet business, and I' ; ve been in for 10 years' ; present time. H: Now uh you mentioned that many folks who drive the Chevrolet for the first time this year are amazed at the luxury ride they get, uh better than any previous car? MC: That' ; s right. If we can get them to take a ride in a Chevrolet and do uh the driving themselves, I' ; ll guarantee they' ; ll be satisfied with it. H: Fine, thank you. It looks like you' ; ve learned the automobile business quite well over the past few years. This is Glenn Cunningham, who has a famous name, and is a sophomore down at the University of Oklahoma. What are you studying down there Glenn? GC: I' ; m studying letters, which is comprised, its comprised of history, English and philosophy H: Preparatory to a possible teaching profession? GC: Correct or perhaps law. H: You' ; re also going out for the football team down there aren' ; t you? GC: Yes, sir. H: What do you think your changes are? Pretty confident? GC: Well it' ; s pretty tough, I hope to get a place on this next year. H: How does the squad look? GC: I think we look real well .H: [Indecipherable] What one more week before? GC: We have one more week before the varsity [Indecipherable] game H: Good luck Glen. Well we wanna wish you the best of luck down here [Indecipherable] GC: Thank you very much H: Mr. Cunningham we want to wish you the best of luck for many many more years here at Cunningham Chevrolet. MC: Thank you. People have been very nice to us here at Bristow. We appreciate the business we' ; ve had. H: Thank you H: Here in McAdams pipe and supply company in Bristow, Oklahoma we' ; re talking to Tom McAdams. Tom what kind of a machine is this? TM: This is a pipe threading machine with threads from five inch through eight inch. It is a [Indecipherable] machine with a tangent head on it, has the very latest in air chucks on it and has a tapered attachment on it. It' ; s the very latest type of pipe threading machine equipment. H: Tom this is one of three pipe threaders that you have isn' ; t it? TM: That is right. We can chop pipes from two inch through thirteen inch in these pipe machines. H: You have an additional [Indecipherable] to the pipe threading machines here quite a supply to don' ; t you? TM: We have a general office supplies specializing in secondary [Indecipherable] equipment primarily. We handle both new and used and reconditioned equipment. H: Now when did you start here in Bristow? TM: We came, we moved to Bristow in 1947. H: And uh how many stores do you have now? TM: We have four stores in Oklahoma, one store in Kansas. My dad and I are in business together here H: How many employees did you start with? TM: We had five employees tha- initially now we have approximately 50 employees. H: Boy that' ; s been quite a growth over 13 years hasn' ; t it? TM: That is right H: Well Tom uh we' ; ll look at some of the other operations, this is just one of the many operations that you have here in the McAdams Pipe and Supply Company isn' ; t it? TM: That is correct. We have pipe testing equipment, all kinds of general office supplies H: Thank you very much H: Mr. Harold Sims has been the school teacher for 31 years. He has been in the system here in Bristow for how many years Mr. Sims? HS: Since 42 H: And you have been superintendent for the last 4 years? HS: Yes, sir. H: How many schools do you have under your jurisdiction? HS: We have three um well four of course. Two elementary schools, a junior high and a senior high school. H: And Mr. Sims what do you feel is the primary need in education circles today? HS: Well I, for Bristow schools our biggest need is to have more money and with which to employ uh teachers in special education field to take care of those marginal students who really should not be in the regular classrooms. H: It is unfair to them and to the student who are progressing uh in a normal way that they should be in that class isn' ; t that right? HS: That is right yes sir. H: And of course the big problem with specialized education is that it takes uh one teacher to about six or seven students HS: That' ; s right, yes sir. H: And that becomes quite uh expensive, but it you find more students who have that problem today than 10 years ago don' ; t you? HS: Yes, we have been told um that that number is increasing and we think so by observing their own schools. H: Well Mr. Sims we certainly hope that in the future the population of this city and many cities throughout the nation will see fit to provide adequate financing for this specialized type of education because it certainly on the upsurge, there' ; s no question about that. HS: Right. H: Thank you very much. HS: Yes, sir. H: One of the pioneer stores here in Bristow is the Globe store. Mrs. Glaser(ph), your father founded this store didn' ; t he? MG: That' ; s right. H: What year? MG: In 1916 H: And then in 1920 you MG: When I got married in 1920 why we bought the store from my father H: And now you' ; re carrying on that tradition in that the co-owner is your son in law here, Moe, right? MG: That' ; s right. I hope so (laughter) H: Moe, you' ; re not only interested in the Globe store here but you' ; ve done a fine job with the Chamber of Commerce, your president of the chamber this year. You have a beautiful store and this is part of the modernization program isn' ; t it? ME: That' ; s correct. Yes, that' ; s correct, this is part of our faith and progress of Bristow H: Well fine, that' ; s just last August that you opened this remodeled store MG: Yes. H: And have you always been an exclusively ladies store? MG: No we weren' ; t, up until uh 1929 we weren' ; t. When we opened, we started in 1932 turning it into a ladies store, exclusively a ladies' ; store. H: You' ; ve certainly done a great job over the years MG: I think we have a beautiful store H: Yes, you certainly do. And folk may we suggest that you visit the Globe store here in Bristow, and visit with Mrs. Glaser and Moe here and all of the other fine folks. H: [Indecipherable] Rhodes has been mayor of Bristow for the past 11 months, prior to that time for 30 years he was with the Deep Rock Oil Company as superintendent of pipelines in this district. Mr. Rhodes what possessed you to run for mayor? MR: Well it was a lot of things that I figured need to be done in Bristow and I had quite a bit of time on my hand and I could make a full time mayor, something Bristow hadn' ; t had for years. I don' ; t know when there was a full time mayor for Bristow and we' ; re getting things done that uh need to be done. We got a bond issue coming up, we wanna get our streets fixed up and uh water system up to date and uh streets we need uh quite a bit of our streets down there and the water department both uh so good things to make time, save time and working, save labor. H: When did you first come to Bristow? MR: I came to Bristow in uh July the 19th 1914. H: What was your first job here? What did you do? MR: Well I get a look around and uh get acquainted with people, didn' ; t make it into this [Indecipherable] where I stayed I just had a little grit with me and I had three shirts, one dirty one, one clean one and uh one on my back, that' ; s all I had. [Indecipherable] where I stopped and that was where I stayed all night. H: Mr. and Mrs. Camp started in the oil business in 1946 after being in the grocery business. Mrs. Camp, when did you take on the distribution of Deep Rock products? MC: In the fall of the 1956. H: You operate how many stations here in Bristow of your own? MC: Two H: And how many do you service approximately? MC: About 12 H: I understand Mr. Camp that you' ; re building another station, this one in Sapulpa. Is that right? MC: That' ; s right. H: When do you plan on opening that? MC: We' ; re gonna try to open it May the first. H: There was a trend a few years ago toward the 10-W-30 motor oil, it that still continuing? MC: Yes, uh to a great extent H: Does it take ; do you have a special type car normally which is best suited to that? MC: Well yes uh not necessarily but a car has got to be in good condition to uh that will require a 10-W-30 motor oil. H: Now in the dead of Summer many people say I use 20 weight all year round actually they should use a about a 30 sometimes even a 40 weight shouldn' ; t they? MC: Well uh in heavier, heavy equipment, or heavy trucks it' ; d be uh that would be okay to use a heavier oil H: We wanna thank you very much Mr. and Mrs. Camp for visiting with us on " ; Here we Live" ; and you folks are in Bristow be sure and stop by at either of the two fine Deep Rock stations here or the new station soon to be open in Sapulpa. H: Mr. Elide(ph) Massey(ph) has just reached superintendent at the Halliburton Oil Well Cementers in Bristow. Mr. Massey how many service points do you have around world? MM: We have about 282 service points in the United States and foreign countries. H: When was this one in Bristow established? MM: Um this camp was established in 1938. H: How many employees do you have here? MM: We have about 35 employees present time H: You have, you were telling me you have equipment in Russia, but do you have any men over there? MM: No, we don' ; t have any men over there. All of our equipment uh in countries uh like that, why we build equipment and sell it to them outright. H: But in other countries in the world you also have your men there don' ; t you? MM: We have men in practically all foreign countries. H: Mr. Massey I know that Bristow and talking to the folks here are very proud to have Halliburton Oil Well Cementers here as part of their community. MM: Well we are very happy to be part of the Bristow community H: Thank you very much. H: We' ; re visiting with Mr. Ray Baker, of the B.F Goodrich store here in Bristow. Mr. Baker how long have you associated with Goodrich? RB: Since 1948 Hugh. H: How is the fourteen inch tire coming now, is it one of the most popular? RB: Its uh vastly uh taken over as your most popular tire its coming on your new automobiles, its original equipment on in low price field. H: What' ; s the advantage of it? RB: Uh, it lowers your frame of your automobile closer to the ground which gives the driver a better steering qualities and then also it gives you a little better ride. H: Are most tires low pressure tires these day? RB: Most tires uh what' ; s is uh comes on like a sound new automobiles are low pressure tires. Now you get into some of your commercial uh light equipment why uh they' ; re-they' ; re not low pressure, but even some of your uh half ton pickups coming out now are on low pressure tires which gives a little better ride even. H: What' ; s the most significant uh advancement you feel over the past 10 or 15 years as far as Goodrich is concerned? RB: Oh I definitely feel that the tubeless tire which is a first of B.F Goodrich has been uh has put our company on the map in the rubber business and all your other companies has followed the same trend. H: You' ; re selling a lot of nylon tires today? RB: The nylon are-is getting more and pop-more popular all the time and it' ; s taken over uh I' ; d say over the rayon. Now it hasn' ; t come out on original equipments yet, but been some talk of it coming out and I think possibly in the near future it will be. H: Thank you very much. Folks when you' ; re in the need of tires, or television or any of the other fine appliances that are sold here at B.F Goodrich be sure to stop by and see Mr. Baker and all of the other fine folks who serve you here at the B.F Goodrich store in Bristow, Oklahoma. End video 0 https://bristoworalhistory.org/ohms/viewer.php?cachefile=OHP_0002_V_1959_Bristow_Here_We_Live.xml OHP_0002_V_1959_Bristow_Here_We_Live.xml
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