Dora Wolfe

DC: It's 1979. Ms. Wolfe, when did you first come to Bristow?

DW: In 1919, my father bought the Morris Drug Store, and he changed the name to Palace Drug Store. And I came the following year to teach school. I taught school one year. He sold out, oh my goodness, [indecipherable]. He'd have to stay open until 11 and 12 o'clock. And it was just too hard on his health, so he sold out. Then we went to Claremore, and I was there three years, and he had a drug store over there. Then I liked it better here, so I came here. And I was here the rest the time. I taught 39 years in Bristow. My first year I taught in 00:01:00Miami in 1919, and that's when we moved here.

DC: Now where did you go to college?

DW: Well, I went to--

[Inaudible] can't think of the name of it.

DW: Central College for Women [indecipherable]. At that time we called it Methodist College.

DC: Now how was that?

DW: That was at Central.

DC: Uh-huh.

DW: You want some of the members that went there?

DC: Well, okay.

[Inaudible]

DC: Oh, I know, well just skip that. You went to Central College for Women.

DW: And, then, well Roger's nephew [indecipherable] was there.

DC: Oh, really?

DW: And niece was there. And Ola.

DC: Ola Lee?

DW: Ola Lee [indecipherable] and then all of us sisters went the next year. Rachel, [indecipherable] she was at home. Now, was there anybody else that went from here, I don't know. But those did. I graduated from there in the next year, I mean two years. And that's when I came here.

DC: Uh huh.

DW: And I was sort of a strange student. I didn't hardly stay in the school all the time. So I went to Enid one summer with some girls, some teachers that was on from Claremore. Let's see, where I went the next time. I suspect it was OU. And I taught--I went to school--I don't know how many summers I went to school at OU. I worked off my, I was majoring in English, and I worked off my major all 00:03:00except one course. And then I went to Tahlequah. My mother went to Tahlequah. She didn't graduate. She got married when she was too young. And I graduated from there, oh, in 1935, I believe it was. Then in the summer of 1936, Mrs. Exelton and I went to the University of Idaho. And we made a nice trip out of it. We had a wreck on the way. I was supposed to go with this group that was to 00:04:00make an English course, you know, for the Bristow Schools. [Indecipherable] And I was supposed to that, and we had a wreck. The car had [indecipherable] so Ms. Exelton sent a telegram to Mr. Black, I mean to her father. Well, she did have uh--what am I talking about--well, anyway, she had, well anyway. She was sending that to the telegraph office, and she said, "I wished you were going." And I said, "I was just sitting there thinking that trying to word a telegram to Mr. Black." So I did. She almost jumped over the table, because she had about a 00:05:00thousand more miles to drive by herself. Well, so we got the telegram the next morning from him. Got out of bed and he said, "By all means go on." He said, "I'm sorry you had the wreck but I'm grateful that none of you were hurt." So we went on.

DC: Now this is on your way up there to go to school?

DW: Uh huh. The University of Idaho. Oh, and we had a lot of fun going up there. You can imagine all those roads up there under construction. You know that had a bad winter, and we road across the bridge. I wouldn't do it again for any amount of money. Ms. Exelton said, "Now we will wait here and see if those people get across." Oh, it was dusk. She said if they can get across, we can get across 00:06:00that bridge. It wasn't completely [indecipherable]. So went on across and we stayed at, well, I don't know where it was. And then we would go to Oregon and stay there, which we did, but we didn't get there as soon as we thought we would. Then we went across to [indecipherable] and on into, we were about three days late, getting into Idaho. And, oh, we had a lot of fun--

DC: Now that's the only year that you went there?

DW: That was the only year and we came back through Yellowstone Park and just made a trip coming back, the girls came back with us.

DC: Well, now, were you doing library work at that time?

DW: No. Then when I came back, I went to--oh, I took a number of courses at OSU 00:07:00during the summer. You know, when Clara Jones (ph) was living, we went with her.

DC: Yeah, uh huh.

DW: And we took those during sometimes on Saturday. And then--

DC: Well, what year did you, do you remember, that you started the elementary school library program in Bristow? I think that's been such a--

DW: I don't remember what year we did but--

DC: But you did it a long, long time.

DW: Yes. I graduated from Tahlequah in 1936 and we moved back here. Then we bought our home. Well, I bought the home in 1943. And I think I'd been doing 00:08:00library work then, because I went back to OU and took a library, not a library course, but they were, oh subjects that--they didn't count toward a degree in library science, but it was on children's education and things like that. I met this teacher from the university of, I can't remember, she was my instructor and we became very, very good friends. So, I said, that's what I'll go on and get a degree in library science. I said Irma (ph) [indecipherable] she said they don't give any work toward a degree in library science at OU. I wasn't satisfied, and 00:09:00I wrote to OU, and they didn't. Oh, yes, at that time, I went to school at SMU, too. [Indecipherable] So I said, well, recommend some. Well, she said, Chicago, and I said, yes, I thought about Chicago, and it was too hight. And I thought about Peabody, and it was too high. And she said, well, it's nice in Denver. She taught in Denver, too. But she would come to Oklahoma and teach in the summer time. So, she wanted me to go to there, so I got my degree of library of science at the University of [indecipherable].

Unknown: Denver.

DW: Denver. And that was in 1941. And from then on, we--

DC: And you taught at least two generations, didn't you? Read and enjoy books.

DW: Oh, yes, that many.

DC: Enjoy. Well, I've always given you credit for instilling a love of reading in an awful lot of Bristow kids.

DW: Well, we had fun, really. I think they enjoyed it, and they enjoyed books and poetry that they memorized. You taking this down?

DC: It's all taken.

DW: Well, we memorized portions of the Bible in Psalms. In the third grade, we had the 23rd Psalm and in the fourth grade, I think we had the 100th Psalm. The fifth grade we had the 121 and in sixth grade we had the, we had the 101. No, we had the first one. I told Brother Bob (ph) the other day, we were talking about 00:11:00it, I said I'd get arrested now if I did it.

DC: Oh no.

DW: But those children learn in a hurry. So, one little girl came to me and she says, "Mrs. Wolfe, the police said [indecipherable]." I said, "What?" Well, she said, "It's not from our Bible." She had to have him [indecipherable]. And I said, "Well, alright, learn it from your Bible. I said, "You bring me your Bible or a copy of the Psalm that's in your Bible and if you get it right, that's fine. It doesn't make any difference to me whether you learn it from there or from yours." So that's what she did.

[Inaudible]

DW: So, that's what I was teaching.

DC: Well, you had a great deal of pleasure, didn't you, from knowing all these children.

DW: And, in between there, I taught music and did a lot of plays. Not plays, but--

DC: Programs?

DW: Yeah, but we didn't call them programs then.

DC: Assemblies?

DW: Oh, dear me. Girls, I've been asleep. I can't even talk.

DC: Oh.

DW: But, we taught, oh I taught, music for quite a while. I went to OU and took my [indecipherable] public school music.

DC: Well, now you've been to lots of different schools and things, how have you felt that the Bristow, as a school system, rated during the years you taught? Do you feel it rated high or?

DW: Not because of my teaching.

DC: No, but I mean the whole school.

DW: Oh, yes. Very high. And you know one time it was considered extremely high. Mr. Black became president of the Oklahoma Education Association. You remember that? And, well, I don't know. Alright children go back to him and apologize for the way they've acted. That was [indecipherable]. And said well I'm just sorry that I acted like that. They weren't real bad.

DC: They were just being boys.

DW: They were just being mischievous, that's all they were. Nobody, I didn't have anybody that was malicious, unless it was one or two of them, and they came from homes, you know, where that was typical. It was a lot of fun.

DC: Well, I've had a lot of students tell me, grown citizens, senior year, grown people say that you were one of their very favorite teachers, so you evidently made an impression.

DW: Well, thank you. Let me see, I never taught but three or four places. Well, let's talk about the first one in Miami. I guess you want this. I taught for $75 a month. Taught fifth grade homeroom. [Indecipherable] came over one day and said we'd like you to return. And I said well Mr. Locklin (ph), I've already been offered a job in Bristow, and I said, I can get $90 and stay at home! His eyes just popped out of his head. He said well, I can't give you that. And I 00:15:00said, well, I'm sorry, because I'm going to Bristow.

DC: So, you did.

DW: So, I did. And then I taught there three years and taught here the rest of the time. Which made 43 years.

DC: Forty-three years in all. Well, that's a quite a bit of time.

DW: I liked Miami real well, don't put this in, but I didn't care too much for the superintendent because he was, oh, he came from Wichita, and every time he had to teach with me, it was about Woodstock. And I don't like that.

DC: No.

DW: I did teaching in Wichita and teaching here and wasn't supposed to teach here. But now in Wichita we did this and Wichita we did that [indecipherable].

DC: Who was the superintendent that you served under first?

DW: [Indecipherable] Hutton.

DC: And then after Hutton came?

DW: Black.

DC: Black?

Unknown: E.H. Black (ph).

DC: After E.H. Black (ph), was it Bob--?

DW: Bob Nichols.

DC: And then Mr. Sims.

DW: He was a nice one.

DC: He was the last one.

Unknown: And Dora, you had such a nice doll collection, did you not? And you would bring those dolls--

DW: Oh yes, used those a lot. I still have those. If we get the museum, I can put those in the museum.

DC: Oh, well how nice.

DW: If we get it, but--

DC: Well, we'll keep working.

DW: Now really girls, I don't like the idea of having that depot for us, because those trains are going by, people that are going to donate old things, supposed it's glass and things like that. You know, the vibration will break those.

DC: Hadn't thought of that.

Unknown: [Indecipherable]

DW: Pardon?

Unknown: Maybe we could use the City Hall.

DW: Well, I talked to Mr. Veit about that. I said, well, it was condemned one time. And he said yeah, but I believe that it could be made into a good one. I said, well, you have a parking lot problem. And he said, yeah, that's right. And David said one time that there was one in the new buildings. So, I don't know, I've been on the committee for BPW for years, and I've talked to David a number of times, and I talked to [indecipherable] about getting money, you know, from the, Jones Estate. I never could get any satisfaction about what they were going 00:18:00to do. And I talked to Mr. Shibley, and Mr. Shibley has given a lot of his things especially petroleum things, oil equipment in the fields, you know to Drumright. Now, Emma Lou's husband, what's his name? He stopped me the other day and he said, Dora, what are you doing, hun? I said, I'm finding a place to have our museum. He said, I've got some things. Well, I said, save them. Don't you dare...

DC: Mr. Hockett.

DW: Hockett, yeah. He said, I have some things. And a number of other--now Kay 00:19:00Carter (ph) has, too. Which she said you want to hurry up and [indecipherable] and get upstairs to get them. Don't put that in there or she will kill me. But I did want to put the dolls in. Now there are a number of them, foreign dolls, and they're authentic. All those I put up for the children and for [indecipherable] were authentic. Many of them were ordered from [indecipherable] Company which is in Independence, Kansas and Independence, Missouri. I hadn't ordered any for a long time. I have a story about a native woman that they sent me, and a negro 00:20:00doll [indecipherable] and it was supposed to have been in the 80's. It was made of [indecipherable] and they illustrated it for me, and I didn't know they were going to do that. And they illustrated it for me and told the story of it. And they told the story of some of these, for instance, I had a Polish doll, and it was in the port in the United States when the Nazi's--

Unknown: Dora, aren't you going to eat?

CF: Well, you've seen a lot of interesting things. What, as you remember, was the most exciting or the most drastic thing that happened in Bristow? We didn't ever have a tornado that blew the place away like Drumright. Didn't have an 00:21:00Indian raid.

[Inaudible]

FF: Oh yeah, had that and then on the weekends, you know, the Indians always had something out in the country. And people would go out, they'd put on their dress up clothes and perform.

CF: Then you went to the ball games, didn't you?

FF: Yeah.

CF: That was on Sunday afternoon?

FF: Well, whenever it was.

DC: Did you get to Tulsa very often?

FF: No, I didn't.

DC: Wasn't like nowadays when you could zip up in an hour.

FF: No, if you went to Tulsa, you went to Tulsa in a horse and buggy. I never will forget one time when we went, and it was stormy. All the roads were 00:22:00terrible, just muddy, and I wondered if we would ever get home.

DC: Well, you couldn't--could you go in a day in a horse and buggy? Could you go up and then come back in one day?

FF: We generally went up and stayed all night.

DC: Where did you stay in Tulsa? Was it a hotel or at a friend's house?

FF: No, we generally stayed at a hotel. And then my folks, my mother, she did a lot of her shopping in Oklahoma City.

DC: Oh.

FF: We'd go down there and buy clothes. We could go down and get on the train in the morning, and go down and get a train back at night. And we'd have time to do all our shopping.

DC: Do you remember the stores in Oklahoma City where you shopped? Was it John A. Brown?

[Inaudible]

FF: Yeah. I got a bad broken leg [indecipherable].

DC: Oh, gracious sakes. I'll say you have.

FF: That's what put me in here. I broke the leg and the ankle.

DC: Yeah, well, it's good we had a place where you could come without having to actually go to the hospital.

FF: Well, [indecipherable] I had help [indecipherable].

[Inaudible]

FF: I had to go some place where--

DC: Yes, that's right. Well, we surely do thank you for sharing your--

FF: Well, you're welcome.