Joseph Alfred "Joe" Ihle

DB: This is Debbie Blansett 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 July 8, 2020, and I am sitting here with Joe Ihle in his home in Bristow, Oklahoma, who is going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Okay! Let's begin. What was your name when you were born?

JI: What was my name?

DB: Mmm-hmm [affirming].

JI: Joe Ihle! (laughing)

DB: No, middle name--just Joe Ihle?

JI: Alfred is my middle name.

DB: Joe, not Joseph?

JI: Yeah, Joseph.

DB: Joseph Alfred Ihle.

JI: Yes.

DB: And when were you born?

JI: August 7, 1922.

DB: Were you--and you were born in Bristow?

JI: Yes.

DB: Were you born at home?

JI: In a home, yes.

DB: In your home. Your parents' names?

JI: My parent--my dad's name was Joseph Alfred, and my mother's name was Iva Mae (ph).

DB: Iva Mae (ph). Do you remember when they were married?

JI: No.

DB: No. And--

JI: I wasn't here yet.

DB: (laughing) Good answer. How--you are out of how many children? How many brothers and sisters did you have?

JI: I had one brother and one sister.

DB: One brother and one sister. Do you remember what your father did for a living?

JI: He was a manager of the lumber yard here in Bristow.

DB: Manager of the lumber yard.

JI: It was during the oil boom, and he furnished the timber to build these rigs 00:02:00over this whole area--had a yard in Bristow and another one in Depew.

DB: And your mother, did she work outside the home?

JI: No. She had, oh--she was the--

DB: Homemaker.

JI: Not until my dad died, she never had worked outside the home.

DB: What was the, her--the favorite thing she used to make for you? What was her fav--your favorite thing?

JI: Oh, gosh, I--she was a, she was an excellent cook and everything she made was good, I--

DB: Everything she made was good. Okay, and you were married.

JI: Yes.

DB: And your wife's name?

JI: Was Margarie.

DB: Margarie. And do you remember your anniversary?

JI: No, that's--we got married while I was in the officer school at Quantico, 00:03:00Virginia, in the Marine Corps. And we later--she's the mother of my children, but we later got divorced. And I don't know, I--

DB: Okay.

JI: I--don't ask many dates. I don't remember any dates.

DB: Okay, that's--that's alright. And you had how many children?

JI: I had four children. Two boys and two girls.

DB: Two boys and two girls. Okay. Now. Early childhood: what do you remember about growing up? In Bristow?

JI: Bristow was really a great place to grow up for kids. You didn't have the problems then with drugs and so on and so forth that you have now. We had a great swimming pool, we had a good school system--really good school system. Good athletic programs. And it was just a--just a good place to grow up.

DB: In school, how--I've seen pictures of old yearbooks. Did--and it looks like people dressed differently when you would've been in school. So, can you tell a little bit about--I mean, you dressed up to go to school, right?

JI: Oh, no, not really dressed up, no.

DB: Oh, no?

JI: No, no.

DB: Not like slacks and shirts? Jeans? You wore jeans?

JI: Well, I don't remember wearing jeans as much but there was no uniforms. I don't think jeans were--when I was a boy, was--it isn't nothing like it is today, and the--everything was pretty casual.

DB: What did you like about school?

JI: That school?

DB: Mmm-hmm (affirming).

JI: The kids.

DB: The kids? What were your favorite subjects?

JI: Probably recess.

DB: (laughing)

JI: I didn't--I was not a good sch--student. But I never did have any problems getting through, but I just didn't--I didn't apply myself.

DB: You have a favorite teacher?

JI: Well, my favorite teacher would've been out of high school, his name was Joe Jackson.

DB: Joe Jackson.

JI: Taught government. And then we had a lot of really good teachers that were really--I mean really sharp teachers. It was a good, good group of them.

DB: Good group. High school--where was the high school?

JI: Well the high school was there on Ninth and Elm, where they tore that building down three or four years ago--that was the high school.

DB: That's where you went to high school?

JI: Junior high was just over on Tenth Street, right behind it. And the grade school was just where the grade school is now.

DB: But it was a smaller school?

JI: Oh, yeah. They would--

DB: Was Washington on the other side--was Washing--

JI: Yes, Washington School was over there, they tore that building down a couple years ago.

DB: But was it Washington, or was it the junior college?

JI: It was, no--Washington. Junior college was in the high school building--

DB: Ohh.

JI: --on the top floor.

DB: On the top floor.

JI: And--the--most of the teachers taught both junior college and high school.

DB: Oh!

JI: And the only athletic program we had in junior college was the basketball program.

DB: Now, did you play basketball?

JI: Yes.

DB: What position?

JI: I was forward.

DB: Forward.

JI: To guard--

DB: Whatever they told you to do?

JI: Ma'am?

DB: That's what--whatever they said to do, that's what you played?

JI: Well, wherever they didn't--(chuckles)--

DB: Needed you?

JI: --needed a poor athlete. (chuckles)

DB: Now, and you played football?

JI: I, I played at it, yes.

DB: You played at it?

JI: Yeah. I was very, very small. When I graduated my senior year, I weighed 110 pounds.

DB: Oh, my.

JI: And was the slowest down the whole thing. So, I--my athletic career wasn't stellar.

DB: One hundred and ten pounds!

JI: When I was a senior.

DB: Wow! And you went--did you go to college?

JI: I went to junior college for a year, and then went down to OU.

DB: Boomer Sooner!

JI: Yep, Boomer Sooner. I had uncles that played down there, that I'd been down there a lot of times to college football games, and--

DB: Who was the coach then?

JI: At Bristow?

DB: No, at OU.

JI: Snorter Luster was the coach--

DB: When you went there, when you visited?

JI: He was the head, let's see, to start with, and then--I think most of the time I was there.

DB: Okay. Who were the coaches that you remember at Bristow?

JI: Oh, Mose LeForce. He was the--he coached--

DB: Football?

JI: Football, basketball, track, everything.

DB: Everything.

JI: I mean, it was so different and--

DB: And he was a pretty great guy?

JI: Hmm?

DB: He was a pretty great guy?

JI: Yeah, he was. He was a very, very good coach and--didn't have near the facilities that you have today. Growing up, they thought that a weight program made your muscle bad, and no schools had a weight program, and--

DB: Oh, wow.

JI: And--

DB: It's a completely different way of thinking now. When you were growing up, 00:09:00did you live in town or did you live in the country?

JI: Lived in town.

DB: In town? Is your house still here?

JI: Yes.

DB: It's still here! Your childhood home. And what do you remember playing with when you were little? Like, did you have a favorite toys, or--

JI: Oh, gosh! We had a great neighborhood--Sherman Smith, Bill Ross, Buddy Brown, Quince Brown, Johnny Raney, it was a great neighborhood--

DB: That was your gang?

JI: --and we used to--things was so different that--in the summertime we'd just gather the guys together and have--play baseball. Of course during the 00:10:00sch--during the year, we were active at school so we didn't, but--it was a, it was a fun period.

DB: No shenanigans?

JI: No. As we got older, the swimming pool opened of a morning and stayed open until about--I think was even nine or ten o'clock at night. Opened at nine in the morn. And we swam three times a day. We'd go out there, and we'd come home to eat lunch, and go back out and--Bristow had, I guess, the best group of really strong swimmers anyplace, 'cause the--the pool at that time held a million gallons of water--

DB: Oh, wow.

JI: And it--the archives'd show you, but they--it was built by an Indian. I 00:11:00can't remember his name. And he finally, he gave it to the city and it was just a super place, it--

DB: And they've--it's still a nice place, but it was a lot bigger then.

JI: Oh, it was bigger and a lot more activity. I mean, it, it--there was some of us kind of cent--growin' up kind of centered around there.

DB: Any other, well--were there any other active spots beside the swimming pool?

JI: No, that was the main--

DB: In the summertime. Parks? We still had parks?

JI: Yeah, the--had the same parks.

DB: The amphitheater, was it there yet?

JI: Yes, the amphitheater was there. You know, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at that amphitheater one time. And there was a colosseum there, a big three story red 00:12:00brick building that is where the parking lot is now. And it served a lot of things over the years. They had a lot of government offices in there, and they had a basketball court.

DB: Oh, my gosh.

JI: I--I had remembered seeing my mother play in softball--indoor softball in that building. And my dad'd taken me to wrestling matches and boxing matches out there.

DB: I had no idea there was a--an arena inside there.

JI: There was a basketball court. And over the years it got so run down everybody moved out and as we were rebuilding the park, we took the building down.

DB: You were part of the park committee?

JI: Yes.

DB: You were part of the--at one time, when that happened? When I came here in 1981, that building was still there. So I remember that building.

JI: Yeah, there was a lot of controversy to taking it down.

DB: It had been there a while.

JI: Hmm?

DB: That happens when a building has been someplace for a long time, always controversy.

JI: Well, it--there was a lot of controversy about it, and there was nothing--it was, it was inhabit--I mean, uninhabitable. It was a risk being in it, and--but they liked it because of how old it was and, and that's right--I liked that, but it was an eyesore outside of that, and we finally gave them, I think, six months to come up with a solution for the building, and they even brought a guy in from Washington as far as the historical--and they couldn't do anything with it at 00:14:00the end of the six months. We went ahead and took it down.

DB: Tore it down. So--and I know you've had lots of jobs.

JI: I'm sorry?

DB: You've--you've had a lot of work yourself, you've done a lot of different things.

JI: Yes.

DB: Through your life, what were some of those things?

JI: Well, outside of what I did growing up, you know, after I got out of the Marine Corps we went--we put in a--Pete Folk (ph) and Dick Vining (ph) and myself put in a pecan processing plant. Which was a--wasn't the smartest thing we ever did.

DB: (chuckling)

JI: We didn't even come close to having the capital to do it, you couldn't possibly do it today with what we had. I mean, they'd laugh you out of the building. And we got that in, and it--then a little later, Clyde LeForce, who 00:15:00was playing professional football at the time, bought in with us and we brought the Creek--bought the Creek old--

DB: Mill?

JI: Mill. Grain elevator. And which--put us in more jeopardy.

DB: (chuckles)

JI: And--

DB: You didn't have enough already!

JI: Hmm?

DB: You didn't have enough already--

JI: Yeah.

DB: --you had to get into something else.

JI: And we--when we got the mill, we went into the raw fur business, buying raw fur during trapping season. Mink, muskrat, 'coon, opossum, skunk--all of, all of the furs in Oklahoma. Which is a real growing concern at--I mean, 00:16:00it--there's--there's a lot of trappers that that was their livelihood during the winter. And we got into that and grew that, we were the largest fur buyers in the state. And that was a very interesting business. But as time has gone by, there's, there's not hardly any market for your--

DB: Hmm-mm (agreeing no).

JI: At one time a good mink, buck mink, would bring forty-five to fifty dollars. And there's just--times were a lot different, lot harder then and there's a lot of people that trapped for a living, so--but now there's no demand for that. Which really shows up in the country, now--we've got 'coons and opossum and the skunk and they just overrun you and are a problem, but they will be forever.

DB: Forever.

JI: Unless their fur got to be worth something.

DB: So, a lot of your work was agricultural?

JI: Yes. I got really interested at--through the pecan business. I was doing business with growers around the state. And I got really interested, and I love the outdoors. So I found this land in the southeast corner of the county that'd been a--for sale for years and years and years. And nobody was interested in it, it was basically a jungle. And that changed my life. I started with clearing the land and did most of it by hand. And I started establishing a pecan operation down there, growing pecans.

DB: Oh. I didn't know that!

JI: I still, I still have that land. And--

DB: A few trees left?

JI: I'm sorry?

DB: A few trees left?

JI: Oh, we--we cleared out all of the native timber, and even the pecans, and then as time went by, well we thinned those pecan trees out, and then we've planted a whole lot of trees since.

DB: So you still--that's still an operation?

JI: Oh, yeah, that's--that's my--everything I do now is tied to that. I've sold everything else. I started an equipment company back there. We got where we could produce pecans, but you just--the hand labor was gone. You couldn't really--so I was the--there was different companies trying to develop or manufacture a--a pecan harvester. And these are very difficult conditions that 00:19:00you do that in. Nothing's been successful but one--I was the contact person in Oklahoma for this company and one year they came through and they had a machine that would work. I mean that--we tried it and it would work. So I set up an equipment company. I got a franchise on that harvester. And then we'd look for tree shakers and sprayers and chemicals and all that, and I developed that into a--we covered all of Oklahoma and parts of Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. And that was a--my son has a cut in that, he bought that, and--my son Bill--he's developed it a long ways past where I was, so he--

DB: And that's Pecan & Ag?

JI: Yes.

DB: Let's see, we covered school. Were you a member of any club or organization 00:20:00in school?

JI: In school? I don't--DeMolay.

DB: Do what?

JI: DeMolay.

DB: I don't know what that is.

JI: It's a youth organization of the Masons.

DB: Oh!

JI: And the DeMolay was for boys and Rainbow for the girls. And--

DB: So are you still a Mason?

JI: No, I never did become a Mason.

DB: You never did become--

JI: But my dad had been at the highest--as far as you can go in that. But--

DB: My dad was--

JI: Forty-second degree, I believe it was.

DB: My dad only got to, like, thirty-something degree. But--did you pack your lunch when you went to elementary school?

JI: I'm sorry?

DB: Did you pack your lunch when you went to elementary school?

JI: No. I lived within four blocks of the school and I walked home for lunch, 00:21:00and--this business of buses and people riding and having cars and stuff--(chuckles)

DB: It wasn't like that.

JI: There is more kids that's got cars driving to school now in the high school than there was when I was at OU. You had to have a permit to park down there and there's more cars here than there was down there during the school year.

DB: Wow.

JI: I mean, it's just so different. So different.

DB: But ya'll had a car--your parents had a car.

JI: Oh, yeah. But kids walked from Washington School to over here--I mean didn't nobody thought anything about it. You just went in time, and--

DB: You just went.

JI: It's just different, I mean you just didn't think about it--

DB: --You just, yeah, it's just different. Okay, let's see--what--we could've talked a little bit about how people dressed. Pretty much--we talked about how people dressed. Pretty casual.

JI: That was pretty casual. There wasn't--

DB: I remember when I moved here in '81, like, the women wore dresses to work, there were--we didn't wear slacks, but some in other places there were, so I guess maybe that was a little different.

JI: Oh, you know, for many years there weren't any shorts. You know, today, shorts is the dress of everybody, just about, during the summertime.

DB: Absolutely.

JI: And some people, because of their business, don't wear shorts, but they do as soon as they get off. I mean, it's just a--and they just weren't a popular item at the time.

DB: Mmm-hmm.

JI: And--

DB: But everything seems a little bit more casual now.

JI: Yeah, and probably more casual in Bristow than they would be in Tulsa.

DB: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.

(Phone buzzing in background)

JI: Ahh, I can't--

DB: Is that your phone?

JI: Yeah.

DB: Do I need to go get it?

JI: Naw.

DB: Okay.

JI: If they want me, they'll call back.

DB: Well now, I know you go to the Methodist Church. Did you always go to the Methodist Church?

JI: Yes. My mother was very, very devout Christian and we were in church twice on Sunday and once during the week. Every Sunday school--I mean the whole--

DB: Every--when the door was open, you were there.

JI: And--yeah, and there was no picture shows on Sunday or anything like that until finally it got, the pressure got--she backed off of that. (laughs)

DB: (laughs) She said go do! Do what you want to do! Let's see. So, really 00:24:00no--I'd like, not really hard times growing up? Like, Christmases or out of work times, or--

JI: Oh, we didn't have--you might have called it hard times today, but we didn't consider it hard times. They--some families had a whole lot more money than the majority of others but I don't know--we just didn't pay any attention to it. It was just--it was--

DB: I--I think I get it. We were very middle-class, we never wanted for anything, but we--there were others who probably--who I know had more, but we 00:25:00were fine.

JI: That's exactly the way it was then. The most of us were middle-class and, and--there's always gonna be people--be people with more.

DB: Mmm-hmm. Always. Always. Did you ride the train? Did you ride the train?

JI: Well, hitchhiked more than riding the train. We'd--we rode the train maybe if we were alone, but I can't ever remember taking a family trip on a train. I took the train home when I'd--had enlisted in the Marine Corps and when I found 00:26:00out, when I was going in on active duty I left school and I rode the train home then. That's the only time I ever rode in my life!

DB: From Norman to Bri--from Norman or from--

JI: From Norman.

DB: From Norman, home.

JI: Yeah. And you didn't think anything about hitchhiking.

DB: Huh.

JI: Today I wouldn't pick a hitchhiker up for anything in the world, and I thought I'd never see that time. But I just wouldn't do it today.

DB: Umm--

JI: And--

DB: --first time you flew on a plane?

JI: First time was when the Marines flew me. (chuckles)

DB: (laughs) Didn't have a choice. And you were in--so you were about eighteen or nineteen when you enlisted? You were in college?

JI: I was probably nineteen.

DB: About nineteen. And--

JI: It was the thing to do. There was none of this--I'd say ninety-nine percent 00:27:00of the guys would've been heartbroken if they couldn't get in, and they couldn't serve. There might've been one percent that--or less that they did not want to. And then those that were physically unfit that couldn't serve because of their physical conditions, they were really heartbroken. I mean it was a, it was a completely different thing and it was a--the war was a--just everybody was involved. Everybody was--the people at home suffered greatly. They--it was--everybody participated.

DB: Your brothers--your brother--every--were you the only one--

JI: He had a--he had a--he had a, a physical condition and couldn't--

DB: He couldn't do it. Now had your father served? Had your father served?

JI: My father? No, he was in-between.

DB: He was in-between. Let's see. Do you remember any segregation in town? Any segregation in town?

JI: Oh, when I was growing up the schools were segregated. And all the time I was in school. And--

DB: Did they have their own--

JI: An incident that changed my mind completely on this subject happened when we were putting in a Teen Town. Put in a Teen Town and it was, it was segregated. And there got to be a problem over that when they integrated the school. So at a 00:29:00board meeting when we were trying to decide what we were going to do, make a decision--Richard Stromme (ph) who was a high school athlete at the time, came in--we had kids in talking, and he says, I don't know what the problem is. I can still remember him saying--

(cell phone music playing in background)

DB: Sorry.

JI: I can still hear Richard saying, You expect us to go out. We get in a dressing room. We dress with 'em. We go out, we play football with 'em. We come back in and we undress, shoulder to shoulder. We take a shower together. Now are we supposed to--when we walk out of the--are we supposed to say, We'll see you tomorrow, we're going to Teen Town and we'll just see you in the morning. And that changed my mind completely on the subject and--

DB: Absolutely.

JI: It was--it was absolutely right, no question about it, and the integration in Bristow was as--went off as easy as it did any place in the country, I believe, as far as any memory I have of it. We had two or three black elderly guys that were very, very prominent through the black neighborhood, and who also had been involved in the white world.

DB: Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.

JI: And they--they was just invaluable in this thing. I don't remember any problems happening, any riots or any--anything over it.

DB: Well, that's--

JI: I think it went off easier here than any place. Which it should've been--

DB: Too bad there weren't cameras so that we could do that now.

JI: Isn't that the truth.

DB: Let's see. Any oil drilling in your family? An oil people in your family?

JI: Oil? Oh, my dad was involved with all of the rig building back there--

DB: Oh, yeah.

JI: --during the boom. That's when your derricks were all built--they had a rig, you know, timber and they'd--on their drilling sites, and, yeah. And he was involved with that but never got involved in owning any oil, or--

DB: The production or the drilling. Well, and then he would've had that lumber yard right in the middle of the boom.

JI: Yep.

DB: So he would've done really well. Supplying the wood. Well--

JI: I'd like to talk to you about the hospital.

DB: Oh, I'd love to hear about the hospital.

JI: We had a clinic in Bristow. Dr. Cowart and Dr. Sisler kept this clinic going. It was two story, their offices were downstairs and upstairs there was a half a dozen beds, upstairs. And they served Bristow. If--if you had a child born downstairs, then you had to get people to help carry mama and the baby upstairs. And there's no elevators. I mean, it was up a narrow stairway. All of my children were born there, in fact.

But anyway, when we got back after the war, the Veterans of Foreign Wars did not 00:33:00have a chapter here. And we started a Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter, and it was extremely active. The American Legion at that time wanted a separate operation, so they kept theirs. The golf course--the country club--had been turned into a cow pasture during the war, the building had sat there and was just completely--just completely run down. And the guys that--we decided to take that golf course over. Don Lewis's folks--Don Lewis was one of the guys who were involved and we later had his parents in to run the place. But anyway, we just started and did a lot of the work on the fairways and the greens. They were just 00:34:00old Bermuda grass greens and--but it was a place to play. And then we did a tremendous amount of work getting the clubhouse back in shape. All of the members--people dreaded to see us come because we always had three or four books of chances on something we were raffling off and that's--and we rebuilt it with that kind of money. I mean, it was all done and--there weren't contributions in the way there are today.

These guys--all of the guys were--wanted some kind of a memorial to the people that had given their lives and the ones that had served during, during the war. And of course, all the ideas, you know--put a monument up here, a statute, or this kind of a thing. And we wanted something better.

The government had a hospital program at the time--it was the Hill-Burton Act, 00:35:00that you signed up for. There were so many people that signed up for it, you just had to wait your turn. But we did all the paperwork knowing that when we got the chance, if it--when our name come, would come up--that we did not have the lead in our britches to get this thing done. We knew that. But nobody else had started it, so we got it started. When the--well, we got word then from the people that's running this, well we--

DB: The act, or whatever--

JI: That our due day--I mean, that we were accomp--we were approved. And we had to give them an answer by X whatever the date was. Well, we started promoting 00:36:00it. And it was so different then. Your Main Street was full, and it was individually owned and they--they were the fa--the city fathers and, and the--so we got involved with those guys. It might've been through the chamber or something, but it was--we had all the business--most of the businessmen in Bristow were involved on that end. And we kept promoting this thing to them. And they kept saying, You know that's a wonderful idea but it's too big for Bristow, we can't do this. And we'd go back and we'd try again.

Well it came down, tomorrow's the day we've got to let 'em know we're gonna do this, had one last meeting with them. And it was in the Roland Hotel. There was 00:37:00something going on in the ballroom, so we met on the stairs. Now here's all these business guys sittin' up there and we've made our last, we've made our last approach to it, and it just--it was just a negative attitude. And finally Lawrence Jones, who was Mike Jones' grandfather, got up and he was--oh, up the stairs a way, and he went and got down in front and he turned around, and he--he was a great big good lookin' guy, smart as thunder, and he gave the best speech you ever heard in your life and he shamed these guys to who laid the chunk. I mean, it was no--.

DB: (laughing)

JI: It was--he laid it on 'em. I mean, good. He sat down, this thing passed, a hundred percent, a committee was formed, that the VFW accepted this the next day and the ball was turned over to the committee. The next--within a day or two, we were going up and down the street and getting fifty dollars--fifty-dollar contribution from the business people for the--to get enough money to operate to get a bond issue. And nobody--everybody kicked in the fifty. I mean there wasn't anything, they had it, and the bond issue was promoted. One of the best promotions you ever saw in your life. And passed with ninety-nine--as I recall, 00:39:00ninety-nine point something of the votes. I mean it was just overwhelming.

DB: Wow. Wow.

JI: And it was built as a memorial to the--to the people that'd served in, in World War II.

DB: Wow.

JI: They've gotten away from that now, but the VFW started this thing, Johnny Horany (ph) is the guy that, that made--that brought this up at one of our meetings. Said, I think--what about this? What about if we built a hospital? This--you know, We've got this down there, but what if we--

DB: Brought it here.

JI: And--

DB: That's amazing.

JI: Yeah, it is. It was--it was a great story, and it will be lost unless it goes into the--

DB: Yes.

JI: All the dates and the figures and everything can, can be--

DB: I'm sure there's--

JI: --gotten from the newspaper archives. They, they were one hundred percent supportive.

DB: So our build--our hospital is what was built--

JI: That was it.

DB: --because of that?

JI: Ma'am?

DB: Because of that bond issue and that's our building that we have right now?

JI: That's our building! That--that was it!

DB: Wow.

JI: The doctor building wasn't included. But about--I don't know, I believe it was the guys that these--superintendent out there was Henry Lamb, and he told us that unless we got more doctors, we just didn't have enough doctors, but they didn't have any place to operate and they had to have support. So the hospital board went in and, three or four years later, and had a--raised the money and, and built the doctor's building that's there now.

DB: That is just--that is a good story. That is amazing.

JI: And that--that is factual. I mean, I--

DB: I can just see those businessmen: on the stairs, in the hotel, because there wasn't a room--it was something going on.

JI: We were sittin' on the stairs, and it, it--

DB: And the guy got up and said (pounding sound).

JI: Oh, he got up and--

DB: (laughing)

JI: He laid it on 'em. (chuckles) I was ready to--

DB: I like what you said, that he shamed 'em and--you said it a different way, but, I think I got it. That was a--that's a good story. No more good stories like that?

JI: Oh, no, that--you know, in the period that I was growing up, there was Highway 66, and it carried a lot of traffic between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. And 00:42:00we had three eating establishments here. The Anchor was built out on Highway 66 in my time. The Hamburger King is where the restaurant is there on South Main.

DB: Beach House.

JI: And then, on up towards Fifth Street was the J&J Café. And the J&J Café--the people traveling from--between the cities always made a stop in Bristow for lunch or something like that--it was very--

DB: About halfway.

JI: And they barbecued their own meat out there, had a big barbecue pit built out beside, behind. The Hamburger King--oh, I can't think of his name. But 00:43:00there's a Hamburger King in Shawnee, Oklahoma right now.

DB: I didn't know that.

JI: You go in and they got pictures of this guy, and it was an offshoot from Bristow.

DB: I did not know that!

JI: There was a long counter in there, and--what was his name? He sat with his cash till in the middle of this counter and one end--on the south end--you could see the cook down there and he's--that's where he cooked the hamburgers. And he could sit there and watch up and down and he always had a cigar--always had a cigar. Most of the time it wasn't lit. Sold ten cent hamburgers and got wealthy.

DB: Wow.

JI: After the wa--when we came back, one of my friends bought it. (laughs) He 00:44:00put in a club back there, got to building it to put in a club and everything and dress things up and had different venues and went broke! (laughs)

DB: (laughing)

JI: (claps)

DB: Should've gone back to ten cent hamburgers!

JI: Oh, yeah, oh that story tickles me to death.

DB: Oh, that is funny!

JI: But it wasn't anything to see, see the pro wrestlers loved the Anchor. It wasn't anything to go in there and there'd be guys that'd been down there killing each other on the mat, rode together back to Tulsa, and they'd stop in there and they'd eat. Everybody's fun and games. (chuckles) And it was a--and Jack Abraham is one that owned the J&J Cafe--named after his two boys. Jack and Joe Lee (ph), but it was--it was an up--upbeat restaurant. I mean it was first 00:45:00class. It was in--they got a lot, a lot of traffic between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

DB: Those were good times.

JI: Oh, yeah.

DB: Good times. Well, Joe, I appreciate your time. And this is gonna be an important part of the archives. It will be uploaded eventually to the archives at Oklahoma State where people will be able to go, if they're researching Bristow history, and listen to some of your stories. And if you don't have anything else--

JI: Debbie, I can't think of anything else that--

DB: You could probably tell me stories all day.

JI: If somebody could say something then that would bring back a memory and--we just had a, it was just a good place to grow up and, and then to start a family. It was just a, a--so different than it is today.

DB: Yes. Well again, thank you very much.

JI: Now I can talk off the record.