Bob Thompson

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 00:01:00thing, 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 00:02:00down 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 00:03:00water 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 00:04:00this 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 00:05:00on 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 00:06:00town. 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, 00:07:00toys, 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 00:08:00larger, 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 00:09:00was 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 00:10:00not 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 00:11:00street 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 00:14:00was 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 00:15:00I 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 00:16:00pulled 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 00:17:00married 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 00:18:00[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 00:19:00[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 00:21:00several 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, 00:22:00[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. 00:23:00That 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 00:24:00carried 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 00:27:00in 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, 00:28:00his 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 00:29:00one, 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 00:30:00had 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 00:31:00facilities 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 00:32:00[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 00:33:00don'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 00:34:00daily 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 00:36:00operate 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 00:37:00lot 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 00:39:00pen. 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) 00:40:00lived 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 00:41:00one 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 00:43:00first 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 00:44:00big 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 00:45:00genealogy 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. 00:46:00I'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 00:47:00the 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 00:48:00said "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 00:49:00"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 00:53:00for 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 00:54:00ground 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. 00:55:00Their 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 00:57:00have 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 00:58:00was 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 00:59:00a 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 01:00:00had 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 01:01:00broken 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 01:02:00all 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 01:03:00going 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.