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00:00:00 - Born on the Farm

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Partial Transcript: RS: 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 May 7th, 2024, and I'm sitting here with Louis Peters, which I call you, Bud.

LP: Yeah.

RS: If that's okay.

LP: Yeah.

RS: At the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell me a little bit about his life and his history living in the Bristow area.

RS: All right. Can you please state your full name?

LP: Louis, L-O-U-I-S, Mitchell Peters.

RS: Okay. And you do go by Bud or Buddy?

LP: My sister got that done. She was trying to, when she was learning to talk, she was she would, she couldn't say Louis, so she called me Buddy. But when I got it, everyone started calling me Buddy then. And then, except for my Grandpa Peters. And he called me, he called me Junior. And when I got old enough, I said, why do you call me Junior? He said, Louis, your dad is senior. You’re Louis, Junior. Okay!

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about he and his cousins being born at Newell Ranch and remembers his grandparents, Mom & Papa Newell, and what life was like being on the farm.

Keywords: Celeste Leona Goodmon Newell; Cotton farmers; Dairy farmers; Dr. Coppedge; E.W. King; Clarence Newell

Subjects: Farm life

00:06:26 - Parents & Grandparents

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Partial Transcript: RS: That's awesome. So, can you tell me, you called them Papa and Mom Newell, but do you have, what are their actual names?

LP: It was Thaddeus, no, his name was, no, his name was, Clarence.

RS: Clarence?

LP: Clarence.

RS: Okay.

LP: And I'm trying to think of her name. I never knew, I don't know if...

RS: Because you always called them Papa and Mom.

LP: Yes, she was Mom Newell [Celeste Leona Goodmon Newell]. You didn't say anything else. It was just Mom Newell.

RS: Well, that's okay, we can we can get that information later. So, let's back up a little bit. Can you, in still talking about your family, can you tell me about your parents? So, what are your parent’s names? And if you had any step-parents, what, what are their names?

LP: My dad was Louis, same name as mine, Joseph Peters.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about his parents and grandparents.

Keywords: Gene Vernon Pierce; Louis Joseph Peters; Rita Fern Newell; Clarence Newell

Subjects: grandparents; parents

00:09:47 - Siblings

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Partial Transcript: LP: And, luckily for me, his two sons were younger than me, and, and they had one daughter and their mom had took off and, and left them, so he had his three kids, and then me and my sister moved in.

RS: Tell me about your sister. What is her name?

LP: Barbara Jean, J-E-A-N [Barbara Peters Maroon].

RS: And is that your only sibling?

LP: That's my only sibling. Yeah.

RS: So, Barbara Jean. And so, was she older or younger?

LP: No, she's younger.

RS: Younger.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about his sister Barbara Jean Peters Maroon.

Keywords: Barbara Jean Peters Maroon; Sister; Siblings

00:10:51 - Mother's Occupation

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, you and Barbara and your mom moved to Tulsa. Okay. And your mom got into secretarial work at that time, is that what…

LP: She was working for, I can't think of the name of, I can't remember the name of the place, but it was, it did technical equipment, and she was, she was actually one of the people that checked all the equipment that was being built down the line. She was over a line of women that was working there. And, so she would check everything, make sure everything was right.
And, they wound up, we had kind of a, a two-story house, and they, they went to, to picketing, and they were wanting something, whatever they were wanting…

RS: Where she worked at they were....okay?

LP: Where she worked at, and she couldn't afford not to work.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about moving to Tulsa because his mother had to find work to help support the family.

Keywords: occupation; Rita Fern Newell

Subjects: mother's occupation

00:12:07 - Life on the Farm & Mrs. Donovan

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, if you don't mind, can we back up just a little bit, because I want to capture your time before you moved to Tulsa as a younger person. So, did you, before you moved and before your parents divorced, did you live near any of your family? And, can you tell me…I know that you spent a lot of time with Mom and Pop Newell.

LP: Oh, yeah.

RS: And at their dairy farm. Can you tell me about that? Can you tell me about your experiences there? Like what they were like. What were your favorite things to do?

LP: Oh, they were, they were, they were country folks. And they were, they were all about country. They had horses, and the dairy farm. And they had a lot of, a lot of chickens.

RS: I have one story I want to ask you about. You know, I did my research, so I talked to Scott a little bit before this interview. He wanted me to ask you about the neighbor lady's flower bed.

LP: Oh, jeez! Yeah, I wound up loving her.

Segment Synopsis: Bud shares his memories of being on the farm with his grandparents, Mom & Pop Newell, and, also, shares a story about an unexpected friend, Mrs. Donovan.

Keywords: Celeste Leona Goodman Newell; Clarence Newell; dairy farm; mischief; neighbor; farm life

Subjects: farm life; neighbors; grandparents

00:15:45 - Grandpa Em's Tamales

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Partial Transcript: RS: Right. So, another thing Scott mentioned, was your Grandpa Peters known as Em, I guess.

LP: Yeah.

RS: Was famous for making homemade tamales.

LP: Oh, my gosh, yeah, yeah. He had an old grinder that you could clamp on the edge of a table and grind it. And, so he’d do that, he didn't do it all, all the time. He did it just once in a while. And, so I got to turn the grinder.

RS: Oh.

LP: I said let me help, so I could turn the grinder. He'd get the, I went with him one time, and he would get pork and beef.

Segment Synopsis: Bud fondly recalls helping Grandpa Em make his famous tamales.

Keywords: Fisher's Farm; Ira "Em" Emerson Peters; Juedeman's; tamales

Subjects: tamale making

00:17:45 - Grandma & Grandpa Peters

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, so both of your grandparents, your the your Newell grandparents, they lived on a dairy farm and then so you had, Grandpa Peters [Ira “Em” Emerson Peters], who was known as Em, what was what was your grandma's name, or what did you call her?

LP: Just grandma [Cora Grace “Gracie’ Peters].

RS: Just grandma? Okay, and so they lived on a farm also?

LP: No, they lived at 420 South Chestnut.

RS: Oh, okay.

LP: Yeah. Right there on Chestnut.

RS: So, they lived in town. Okay.

LP: Right on the corner.

RS: Okay.

LP: And, their uh…

RS: So, did you spend a lot of time with both sets of grandparents or one more than the other?

LP: Well, both of them because, they were going back and forth to doctors with dad, and when I was little and, he was just having a bad time. They ain't got the doctors we have today. And, so we wound up staying a lot of time them. Well grandpa, here’s another story, grandpa would take us, he had a…

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers what it was like spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa Peters which included fishing at the city lake and his sister catching a rather large catfish.

Keywords: Bristow City Lake; Cora Grace "Gracie" Peters; Deep Fork (Okla.); Fishing; Ira "Em" Emerson Peters

Subjects: Fishing; Grandparents

00:23:19 - Mom and Papa Newell's Farm

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Partial Transcript: RS: Do you have, like, a favorite memory being at your Papa and Mom Newell’s farm? What were some of your favorite memories from there?

LP: Oh, yeah, riding. They had a creek down there that went through their place. Was a little ways from the house. And all us, all his cousins, we'd all go down there, and a little hole you could swim one part of it, a little bit deep enough but you couldn’t drown in it. But, unless someone held you under. We didn't fight, so we didn't fuss and fight. So, we'd go down there, play in the water and get all messy. She told us, when we honk that horn, you come a running. And, so we knew that the women were all in the house and the guys were, of course, they played music, and in the living room. And I had one uncle, that was married to one of my mom’s sisters.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers about a harrowing horse-breaking experience. He also recalls how the farm was a gathering place for all the family.

Keywords: Celeste Leona Goodmon Newell; Clarence Earl Newell; Horses; Mike Newell; Newell Ranch; horseback riding; Clarence Newell

Subjects: Newell Ranch

00:29:21 - Childhood Memories

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Partial Transcript: RS: That’s funny. So, during childhood, say, when you still lived, you know, around Bristow, do you remember having any favorite toys, or any particular games that you played as a young child?

LP: Well, I played, 420 S. Chestnut is the house that’s got, they lived there for, I think, somewhere close to 40 years.

RS: Oh my!

LP: Rented, rented, all that time.

RS: Oh, my goodness.

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa Peters at their house on Chestnut.

Keywords: grandparents; childhood

Subjects: childhood memories

00:31:57 - Moving to Tulsa

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Partial Transcript: LP: No. When I got old enough, you know when she met my step-dad [Gene Pierce] we wound up moving to Tulsa, and so…

RS: I gather moving to Tulsa was a hard situation for you.

LP: It was a hard deal. Yeah, it was a hard deal. It’s moving in with some kids that, in a small bedroom, we had bunk beds. Luckily for me, I was the oldest and the biggest and the meanest. I didn’t like the situation.

RS: Right.

LP: I didn’t know him. I mean, you know…

RS: Did that keep you from getting to see your grandparents as much, too?

LP: Oh, yeah.

RS: Yeah, I can see where that would be hard.

LP: Yeah, that changed everything.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers moving to Tulsa after his parents divorced.

Keywords: Gene Pierce; Tulsa (Okla.); step-siblings; moving

00:34:40 - Cousins

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Partial Transcript: RS: Well, that’s awesome. So, whenever you were still here, before you moved away, did you have friends that come over and played, or did you mainly play with your cousins? How did that usually work?

LP: Oh, when we were at the Newell Ranch, it was all cousins.

RS: All cousins.

LP: We were…

RS: That’s the best built in friend, isn’t it, is to have a cousin?

LP: Oh my gosh, yeah. We had so much fun. It was so much fun. And my dad had built up some posts, one on each end and put some rope out there and put a barrel on that thing and we’d ride this, and…

RS: Try to buck you off?

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls all the fun and mischief he got into with his cousins at Newell Ranch.

Keywords: Cousins; Guitar; Hay; Ira "Em" Emerson Peters; Mike Newell; Newell Ranch

Subjects: Newell Ranch memories; cousins

00:37:07 - Early Jobs

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Partial Transcript: RS: Around 14. And then you moved to Tulsa and then you came back to Bristow your senior year. Is that correct?

LP: Yeah, yeah.

RS: Okay.

LP: Yeah, I went to work, I started work when I was 14. We lived on, we had lived on Latimer, and I was going to Hamilton Junior High School. It’s on Sheridan and you go north a pretty good ways. So, I wound up going to school at Hamilton. When I turned 14, we had been to the Tulsa Zoo, and it’s up that same way. Went up there, my friend right around, he lived on Latimer Place, just right around the block. Our backyards almost intercepted at the corners. He was a big guy. He was a big old boy. He was a real good friend. Mike O’Neal (ph) was his name.

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls moving to Tulsa and some of the early jobs he worked as a youngster.

Keywords: Bristow Ice Plant; Job; Morton's Cafeteria; Tulsa City Ice Plant; Tulsa Zoological Park; Hamilton Junior High

Subjects: Early Jobs

00:41:47 - Ancesters

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Partial Transcript: RS: Okay, well let me ask you, I know we’ve talked a little bit about like you have some interest in genealogy. Can you tell me about your family’s ancestry at all? Like where did they come from? When did they come here? Do you know any of that information?

LP: Yeah, I started, I got into that genealogy thing there for a while, and Scott’s really good at it. But there…

RS: So, do you know when your family came here and where they came from?

LP: Thanksgiving Day.

RS: Thanksgiving Day.

LP: In 1898.

Segment Synopsis: Bud tells about his ancestors that came to Oklahoma in 1898.

Keywords: A.H. Purdy; Elizabeth Peters Mallory; Genealogy; Joseph Alfred Peters; Joseph Eli Peters; Mary Margaret Richardson Peters; Rush Springs (Okla.); Texas; Water well drilling; Ancestors

Subjects: ancestors

00:51:34 - Pony Express

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Partial Transcript: LP: But Joseph Alfred wound up, Slick and Beggs were people starting to build up communities out that way.

RS: Right.

LP: And, so, they had a little post office out there, somewhere between Slick and Beggs, and they were taking bids for like a Pony Express for someone to ride, get the mail and bring it back to Bristow.

RS: Right.

LP: He wanted to be it. Joseph Alfred wanted to be it. So, he met this post-mistress in that little post office thing and they got married. He wound up with, I think it was five kids. They had a little house they had built and had five kids, and she was pregnant again. She was, you know, not too far away she thought, and, so, him and the kids took off and went somewhere doing something or other. I never did find out what it was. When they got back, she was laying in the kitchen floor dead.

Segment Synopsis: Bud tells about his ancestor, Joseph Alfred, being a part of the Pony Express.

Keywords: Beggs (Okla.); Joseph Alfred Peters; Pryor (Okla.); Slick (Okla.); Pony express

Subjects: Pony Express

00:54:25 - Walks with Grandpa Peters

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Partial Transcript: LP: There was another deal that I got. My grandpa, when I was a little guy, we walked, he walked. He didn’t drive very often.

RS: And, who was this? Your?

LP: Ira Emerson [Ira “Em” Emerson Peters 1895-1966].

RS: Okay.

LP: On Chestnut.

RS: Okay, uh-huh.

LP: And he had me, and of course, summertime, he and I’d take off and Barbara Jean would stay there with grandma. And she was a little bitty gal. She was real short. She dipped snuff, too. She was just as sweet as she could be, though. Never heard a bad word or anything. Grandpa wound up as the senior Sunday school teacher for the Free Holiness Church, south end of town.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers taking walks with Grandpa Em and the people they would encounter.

Keywords: Barbara Jean Peters Maroon; Glen Cliff; Ice cream cones; Theodore Abraham; Ira "Em" Emerson Peters

Subjects: Walks with Grandpa Peters

00:57:16 - Racing on Main

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Partial Transcript: LP: They had one guy that worked, they did shifts, my Uncle Mike would come in and he got in there about 7 o’clock or something like that. At the time, I was working at Liberty Glass in Sapulpa, until that day. I had this Mustang. The Fords, I don’t know if you ever knew any of the Ford family. They lived out north of town right in the curve. That was an uncle. That was my Grandma Newell’s sister and her husband lived out there. He was a mechanic. I had this Mustang, I went and got it. It was a hot rod car. His boys were good mechanics. We took the head off and put two four-barrel carburetors on there and shackles on the back end. You could almost do a wheelie.

RS: Oh, my goodness!

LP: That car would almost do a wheelie. Of course, we’d go out around Heyburn Lake and some boy from Kellyville had a ’57 Chevy and has his car hopped up pretty good. We had one part of this road out there we could race on.

Segment Synopsis: Bud tells some stories about racing and getting in trouble with the law.

Keywords: Drag racing; Ford Mustang; Heyburn Lake (Okla.); Kellyville (Okla.); Liberty Glass Plant; Majel Shattuck; Sapulpa (Okla.); Mike Newell

Subjects: drag racing

01:03:44 - First Car

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Partial Transcript: RS: Oh, that’s funny! So, was the Mustang your first car?

LP: Yeah, well, no. No, now my first car was a car from, my step-dad had an optical shop in a building with other businesses in there, and there was an eye doctor right across the hall from his door. My mom was running the secretary. She did all the paperwork and all that kind of stuff, and he did all the measuring and everything and lenses and stuff. So, this guy across the hall, the eye doctor’s mom had been over in England and had some old car. And I don’t remember if that’s where he was from or what, but they brought the car back, too, on a ship. Her and the car, and I don’t know what all kind of a ship it was, but anyway, they come in, he said, she’s gotten too feeble to drive the car, so I bought it. It was my first…I had saved money from working and doing odd jobs and stuff. And, so, I bought that car for $90.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about his first car and some other cars he purchased from Emmett Dykes.

Keywords: Emmett Dykes; England; Plymouth; first car

Subjects: first car

01:06:03 - Run-ins with the Law Enforcement

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Partial Transcript: LP: No, huh-uh. So, I was dating Rita, and I had gotten into with the school guy here at Bristow and walked out. So, my dad had to go get signatures from city council members or something so I could go to Depew. We were only a half a mile inside Depew’s range.

RS: Right.

LP: So, he got signatures. Everybody knew him. So, I wound up in Depew. I’d drive that car back and forth to over there. Well, they had a, I can’t remember that cop’s name, but he was mean.

RS: Well, it sounds like you should know ALL the cops with the way you drove.

LP: Yeah, yeah. He, I can’t think of that guy’s name. He wound up…he was a mean dude. He stopped me one day right around in at lunch time. He said, he stopped me one time. I wasn’t doing anything, and he stopped me, and I pulled over, and he was really hateful. He said, I heard about you been hot-rodding around town here. I said, no. Have you seen me hot-rodding around town? No. He said, well, I’m going to call…you hot-rod around Bristow? I said, no. Well, he called over. Well, my uncle was a policeman. He said my name. You got anything to say about this young man? No, everything is fine.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers having a run-in with the Depew police.

Keywords: Depew (Okla.); Emmett Dykes; Law enforcement; Rita Reed Peters

Subjects: Law Enforcement

01:08:14 - Meeting and Marrying Rita

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Partial Transcript: LP: Yeah, he would say, well, what was funny, Rita lived, if you go toward Depew and you kind of go up a hill, there’s a curve there, and you go up a hill, and then you go down the hill and you turn into Depew. Well, she lived in that farmhouse up on that curve on the right-hand side if you were going west. Her, her sisters and brothers…I was riding the school bus because I had gotten my car took away from me, and I had to ride the school bus, and I watched, and instead of the bus stopping on the highway in front of the house, which would be a bad deal, they pulled up on that gravel road right behind it. So, she had to walk out of the house, across the little bit of the pasture and then crawl through the barbed-wire fence. So, I was sitting on the bus watching her, and I said, oooo. I said, oooo. I’m going to have to learn who she is. And, so, I did. And, we started dating, and yeah, said okay, I said this is, this is it. This is who I’m going to marry. I know I’m going to marry her. Well, she was still a senior, and I was out of school then.

Segment Synopsis: Bud fondly recalls seeing Rita for the first time and knowing he was going to marry her.

Keywords: Depew (Okla.); Lorn Reed; Wedding; Rita Reed Peters

Subjects: Engagement; Marriage

01:11:34 - Working at Haliburton

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Partial Transcript: LP: I can’t remember his name. But, Rita remembers everything, thank God. I’ll ask her, who’s that? Well, another thing, we got in the store after Haliburton closed. I had worked my way up to a supervisor driving a car. I moved myself up the line. You have to learn how to do everything on every truck, so I wound up learning all of it. There was one guy named, I don’t know if you ever heard of Jack Vickers [Jack Wesley Vickers 1927-2012]?

RS: I, I know Jack Vickers, and he was a wonderful man. Yeah, wonderful man.

LP: He took care of ALL that, all the parts, all the, everything we ran, everything we used. He had part numbers. Some of them several digits long, and he said he’d order on, it was all spent when he’d inventory, you’d count everything. And the big tanks, you had to run a plumb bob down and measure how much feet of this you’ve got.

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls his 20 years working at Haliburton, as well as, other jobs he had along the way.

Keywords: Bristow Well Service; Chandler (Okla.); Company; Jack Vickers; Love Box Company; Oil fields; Oklahoma City (Okla.); Wichita (Kan.); Haliburton &

Subjects: Company; Haliburton & Oil fields; occupation

01:20:19 - Getting Hired at Haliburton

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Partial Transcript: RS: And that that’s…I wanted you to tell that story of how you ended up meeting the boss there and getting on there.

LP: Oh, yeah, Wink Almond was his name. He was such a great guy. He would…and my brother-in-law, married my sister, Leroy Maroon [Melvin “Leroy” Maroon 1947-2022], married Barbara. He wasn’t working there at the time, but Melvin was, his dad. He was a dispatcher. So, if it rained or anything, they wouldn’t hire…the wells were just making small amounts, so they couldn’t afford to get a dozer and stuff and pull them in and back out. It cost a lot of money, so wound up just shutting down. No day, no pay.

RS: Right.

Segment Synopsis: Bud tells the story of how he met the boss at Haliburton and got hired.

Keywords: Bristow Well Service; Company; Haliburton & Melvin "Leroy" Maroon; Oil fields; Wink Almond

Subjects: Haliburton

01:24:34 - Bud's Mini Mart

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, then from there, you ended up with your store, which was Bud’s Mini Mart?

LP: Yeah.

RS: And you were there for how many years?

LP: Seventeen years.

RS: Seventeen years.

LP: A little bit over seventeen, not but seventeen…

RS: Did you enjoy, enjoy having your store?

LP: Well, yeah, we did. We had, I think, a lot of friends.

RS: Yes. Everybody, that’s how I, you know, really got to know you.

LP: A lot of great people.

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls retiring from Haliburton and opening his store, Bud's Mini Mart.

Keywords: Self-employed; Bud's Mini Mart

Subjects: self-employed

01:25:58 - Daughter Susie

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Partial Transcript: LP: When my daughter joined the Navy, right out of high school. She went down to Florida, and she wound up working in a, in Florida, underground, you would never know they were working bombs and stuff in a huge thick door. She was in there with that, and she wound up with MS [multiple sclerosis] from all the stuff that she did.

RS: Oh, I didn’t know that.

Segment Synopsis: Bud tells a little bit about his daughter Barbara Sue "Susie" Peters and her family.

Keywords: Cody Austin Everett; Courtney Sue Everett; Florida; Marines; Multiple sclerosis; Navy; Barbara Sue "Susie" Peters

Subjects: grandchildren; Daughter

01:27:11 - Children

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Partial Transcript: RS: Oh, so, while we kind of transitioned back to your family, let me ask you about your children. How many children do you have?

LP: We’ve got three.

RS: You have three. And tell me what their names are.

LP: Susie, Barbara Sue [Barbara Sue Peters].

RS: Barbara Sue but goes by Susie.

LP: Yeah.

RS: Okay.

LP: Then we had Scott, Mitchell Scott [Mitchell “Scott” Peters].

RS: Okay.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about his children and grandchildren.

Keywords: Brian Joseph Peters; Camerson Joseph Peters; Cody Austin Everett; Courtney Sue Everett; Elsi Ruth Peters; Joseph Eli Peters; Macy Ray Peters; Mitchell Scott Peters; Barbara Sue "Susie" Peters

Subjects: grandchildren; children

01:28:07 - Grandchildren

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Partial Transcript: RS: And, then, what do you think about those grandkids?

LP: Oh! They are so amazing! Scott’s boy [Joseph Eli Peters], of course, I knew, before that…Karah, his wife, Karah, she’s amazing, too. They are really into church. She teaches, now, she’s a school teacher, has been for years. We sat out on the patio, behind their house there, you could open the Bible up and he could recite verse for verse.

RS: And this is Scott’s son that can do this?

LP: Yeah.

RS: Oh, my goodness.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about how his grandson, Joseph, can recite Bible scripture

Keywords: Bible; Elsi Ruth Peters; Karah Peters; scripture; Joesph Eli Peters

Subjects: grandchildren

01:29:16 - Family Reunion

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Partial Transcript: RS: And that’s where the, was it the Alfred family had…

LP: That’s where he moved to, started that whole thing.

RS: Where he had the 16, ended up having the 16 kids.

LP: He started the whole thing up there.

RS: So, you went to a family reunion in Pryor? Okay.

LP: Yeah, it was about 200 of us.

RS: Oh, my.

LP: It was just amazing. I just couldn’t understand how in the world they all had a lot of kids!

RS: Right.

LP: All of them.

Segment Synopsis: Bud talks about attending a family reunion in Pryor where his ancestors, the Alfred Family, settled.

Keywords: England; Pryor (Okla.); Family reunions

Subjects: family reunion

01:31:32 - Childhood Interests

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Partial Transcript: RS: Yeah, that’s very cool. Well, let’s see. Let’s talk a little bit more…I wanted to ask you a couple of other questions. So, when you were growing up, did you get to watch any TV, and if so, what were some of your favorite programs?

LP: Red Skelton.

RS: Red Skelton, okay.

LP: Yeah. You ever hear of him?

RS: Yeah…oh yeah!

LP: He was, my grandpa was real religious, and grandma. We sat there, he had a…

RS: So, now did you say your Grandpa Em, did you say he ended up being the preacher at the Holiness Church?

LP: Yeah, he was the senior’s preacher.

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls his favorite TV show, childhood interests and attending church with Grandma and Grandpa Peters.

Keywords: Baseball; Bristow Holiness Church; Church; Ira "Em" Emerson Peters; Red Skelton show (Television program)

Subjects: church; childhood interests

01:34:38 - Holidays

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Partial Transcript: RS: Well, I also wanted to ask, in your family, you know how you talk about like, especially at your grandparent’s, Newell’s, what were holidays like for your family? Was Christmas a big deal? Like what was Christmas like for your family?

LP: Oh, Christmas was amazing. We’d all be out, usually we’d go to the Newell’s and have a big time. The food was…

RS: That’s what I was gonna say, like what was the food like?

LP: Oh my, everything is homemade. You just couldn’t get there quick enough. There was, I didn’t like, I wouldn’t eat hominy. I would not eat grits. I didn’t like green beans.

RS: Oh, no. You didn’t like green beans?

LP: Yeah, and I really don’t know why. When they honk the horn, if we were out playing, here we come. We all come in lined up. One thing, Mitch Glisson, I don’t know if you ever knew him?

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers what holiday were like at Newell Ranch.

Keywords: Christmas; Mitch Glisson; Newell Ranch; Holidays

01:36:36 - Western Heritage Days

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Partial Transcript: RS: Well, so thinking back to, like, your town life when you were here, not necessarily while you were in Tulsa, but, like, say, before you left and when you came back your senior year…were there any favorite, like, community activities that you remember doing? Say, like, maybe, Western Heritage Days, day camps, county fairs?

LP: Oh, Western Heritage Days, they had rodeos and stuff going on. Uncle Mike and Clarence Earl [Clarence Earl Newell 1936-2011], his brother, big brother, were always in the rodeo. And, then, my cousin, Dwight Pilant, he was a clown. He would do the clown thing out there, get all goofy looking.

RS: Right.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers what fun Western Heritage Days was and his uncle riding in the rodeo.

Keywords: Bull riding; Clarence Earl Newell; Mike Newell; Rodeo clowns; rodeo; Western Heritage Days

01:38:26 - Memorable Businesses

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, do you recall, like, what were the biggest or most popular businesses around town when you were growing up? Like, did you have a favorite place to eat out? Or did you get to eat out very often when you were younger?

LP: We almost always ate at home, but we used to go up, me and grandpa used to always like to go up to the north end of town. We’d walk up there and, I can’t remember the name of the place was, Frosty Free…no, it wasn’t…that was my sister’s…

RS: It seemed like there was a Frosty Freeze, there was a Tastee Freeze.

LP: It was a Frosty Freeze was, they had a business, my brother-in-law, he’s passed away now, Leroy Maroon. His mom and dad had a business right across the street from where the ice plant was. Where the Community Bank is now. They were across the street right there at the railroad tracks. I think that was a Frosty Freeze. And they had food, hot dog, corn dogs and that kind of stuff there.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers some of his favorite businesses when he was growing up.

Keywords: Melvin "leroy" Maroon; Princess Theater; Skating rinks; Tastee Freeze; Walmur Theater; Frosty Freeze

Subjects: memorable businesses

01:40:54 - Life with Step-Siblings

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, do you feel like you were, do you feel like maybe, so were just ornery from the beginning or do you feel like that come from, maybe, some of your circumstances?

LP: Just the circumstances.

RS: The circumstances.

LP: And what they did.

RS: Right.

LP: Tearing up everything I had that I valued.

RS: Right. That kept you pretty unhappy and frustrated.

Segment Synopsis: Bud recalls feeling resentful and unhappy about having to share his life with step-siblings.

Keywords: Tulsa (Okla.); snipe hunting; siblings

Subjects: life with step-siblings

01:42:42 - School Memories

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, with knowing that you were kind of in turmoil when you moved to Tulsa, what was your school life like here before you left. Did you enjoy school?

LP: I can’t remember a day of it.

RS: You don’t remember any of it?

LP: Not one day of it. I told Rita, we got this store here right beside Washington School, used to be.

RS: And you don’t remember.

LP: I’m almost sure I went there, but I can’t recall one day!

RS: You don’t recall any of it.

Segment Synopsis: Bud claims he has zero memories of attending school as a youngster but has some high school memories.

Keywords: Bristow High School; Depew High School; Rita Reed Peters; Tulsa (Okla.); Washington Elementary; school

01:46:31 - Early Married Life

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Partial Transcript: RS: So, in your, in your early married life, which I know you guys were young, and, obviously, Rita was still in school, what was your early married life like? Was it a struggle, like where did you live? Where did you work at that time?

LP: Well, it was the funniest thing, because when I worked at the, I got on at the Chandler, the highway department. So, we lived in a little bitty thing in Stroud that was…

RS: Like a little shotgun house?

LP: Yeah, well, it was like apartments.

RS: Oh, okay.

LP: And, we lived there. My mom had raised Pomeranians, so we had this one little dog. She gave us a dog. Well, it yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, and the people next door poisoned it.

Segment Synopsis: Bud remembers where they lived and where he worked during his and Rita's early married life.

Keywords: Chandler (Okla.); Highway departments; Stroud (Okla.); Marriage

Subjects: early married life

01:49:05 - Life-Changing Event

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Partial Transcript: RS: Well, as we are wrapping this interview up, I wanted to ask you a couple of, a couple of more questions, and these you might have to think about. If you don’t have an answer, that’s fine. I was just curious, are there any historic events, say like the Oklahoma City Bombing, 9/11, any particular natural disasters, world wars, Covid…we’ve had all kinds of stuff, that have affected you? Or did any of those, in particular, affect you or?

LP: No, the one thing that got me one time was when I was with Haliburton. You know what a blender is? A blender, well, we have frack trucks that did the pumps. They would get the fluid from the blender with all kinds of chemicals things mixed up in it and all kinds of stuff. I learned how to run, I learned how to run all that. I was really good on the blender with the V12 is a truck that had two big V12 engines. It’s a long trailer. It’s a big muscle pump. Those engines, there’s stacks off the, not mufflers, but stacks off the outlets on the motors right behind, you had a seat up here like this, and you’d sit in that seat and you had 8-speeds, like four in the high range and four more on both sides. Both pumps were going.

Segment Synopsis: Bud tells about a life-changing experience that happened while working at Haliburton.

Keywords: Company; Fire; Oklahoma City (Okla.); Red Desert (Wyo. : Desert); Rock Springs (Wyo.); Steve "Smitty" Smith; V12 engines; fracking; Haliburton &

Subjects: life-changing event

02:00:39 - Advice for Future Generations

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Partial Transcript: RS: Well, my final question for you, because we are about out of time, is there anything else you’d like to tell us about or any wisdom that you would like to share for future generations?

LP: Just do what you know is right. Just be good and do right.

RS: I agree with that.

LP: Everything will be fine.

RS: Everything will work out.

LP: Yeah.

RS: Well, Bud, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to interview with me today. This is going to be an important part of our oral history archives for the museum. We really appreciate you. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed visiting with you today.

LP: Well, you’re welcome. You’re very welcome.

Segment Synopsis: Bud's shares advice for future generations.

Keywords: advice