Jesse "J.L." Darnell

WN: -ninety-six. I'm Wanda Newton. I'm in the basement of the Christian Church where they are having a fellowship breakfast. JL Darnell will be the speaker today, and he's going to talk about early schools in Oklahoma. JL was the last Creek County Superintendent of Schools. He's also a former teacher.

(indistinct group chatter in background)

JL: Hi. I--it was my time to make this talk at the church, you know. I don't know much about the Bible, but I do know a little bit about the school since I was in the business thirty-seven years. You know, prior to 1907, the year that Oklahoma became a state, we had no public schools. The territorial government didn't provide for it. If you had schools, it was a subscription school. And 00:01:00you--each parent had to pay to the--some teacher that wanted to, to teach the children so much a month. The only man that I know that went to subscription school was Raymond Freeland (ph). And--down in Tahlequah.

Unidentified Man: You'll be telling how old I am, now.

JL: The first legislat--the, the--when Oklahoma became a state, they had--first they had to have a Constitutional Convention. And that Constitutional Convention mandated that every county in the state of Oklahoma had school districts. And the first legislature that they--was formed in 1908--drew up the plans. The super--the process of setting up the school districts was in the hands of the 00:02:00county superintendent. Now, I wasn't county superintendent then.

(laughing)

But there was a fellow from Bristow that was the first county superintendent, and his name was P.T. Frye. I didn't know him, but I knew his daughter in Sapulpa. She worked in the abstract office, and she'd come by to see me every once in a while. And when she was a little girl, she went with her daddy--the county superintendent--all over the county in a buggy! Because they didn't have any roads to speak of. And nobody had a car--any cars in that day. So he'd--P.T. Frye began to work in 1908. And he had to make the nine-hundred-and-sixty or --seventy square miles of Creek County into school districts. And he and the 00:03:00second county--well he didn't get it all done. But he and the second county superintendent--a fellow by the name of Jeff Burgess (ph)--finished the job. And they organized Creek County into seventy-nine school districts.

Now, the school districts then had to be relatively small. Everybody walked to school. There were no roads. So most of the school districts were about three miles north and south, and about four miles east and west. And they tried to get the school as near as possible in the center of the district. If they had quite a few kids, they'd build a school on one side or other of the district, and another school on the other side of the district. And, as I said while ago, by 1910 or '15, all seventy-nine school districts had been formed, and they started 00:04:00having board meetings, selecting teachers, and school started!

Most of you don't know much about a one-room school. And most of these little schools that first started were one-room schools. It was a frame building, usually about twenty by forty, or eighteen by thirty-five. They had no lights in the school whatsoever. There wasn't even electricity out in the country. They--it was heated by a big stove in the middle or on the corner of the room 00:05:00with wood. It had a big hood around it so that the heat would circulate. The teacher had to get there real early and build a fire. The teacher was not only the teacher, but she was--she or he was the janitor. And the fireman, and everything. So it was quite a little task for the teacher. But everybody--we, we got enough teachers that we eventually filled up all the vacancies.

They organized--you know how a board of education--as soon as the--as soon as the county superintendent got the district organized, then they had an election. And they selected--they elected three board members: a director, a clerk, and a member. And they sure didn't hold elections like we do today. They'd--they'd post five notices in the district that they's gonna have this board meeting from two until four. And the people all gathered in, and if you wanted to run for 00:06:00board member, you had somebody nominate you. And then they'd nominate as many as they wanted, and they wrote their names on the blackboard and then give everybody a little slip of paper. And they selected the man that they wanted to be on the board.

The one-room schools--the teacher--where the teacher's desk was, was a little bit elevated so she could look over and see what the kids is doing because it was quite a job teaching fifteen or twenty or thirty kids, all eight grades. Not many of you experienced that. But maybe Dillard and me and some of you others did.

All right, now. One of the things that they voted on--after you voted for the 00:07:00board members, you voted the millage. Which was used to conduct the school. And you voted whether or not to have a school for six months or nine months or five months. You know, the little old districts didn't--didn't--they tried to make the districts in such a way that they would have a valuation of $100,000 or so, so that'd be enough money to pay the teacher because the teacher didn't get but about $40 or $50 a month.

And they also--when they organized the school districts, they used actual ground [indecipherable]. Creeks that flooded in the springtime--there's no bridges over 00:08:00them. And the kids couldn't get to school. The boundary between Bristow school district and my old school district out south of town was called Forty-Eight--old school district Forty-Eight--the boundary between us was Little Deep Fork. And the boundary between Genelle school south of--way in the south part of the county--and Mills Chapel--not Mills Chapel, but Iron Post--was Big Deep Fork. So when those things had--had a bearing on the size of the school district.

They had to--to begin with, they had a lot of difficulty finding teachers. No teachers back in those days--or very few of 'em--had college degrees. They didn't--they didn't go to college. So what they did, they--they sent the--the 00:09:00county superintendent sent the notice out that anybody that wanted to come to Sapulpa and take a little short course in the summertime on subjects and teaching and how to teach a school could do so. And you didn't--if you--the only qualifications were that you had to have finished the eighth grade. And--or high school. You went up to the county superintendent's office and he conducted a class up there for six weeks and then he gave you an examination. And if you passed the examination, you were issued a one-year county certificate. If you done real good, they might give you a two-year county certificate. And then you could teach in the county for that length of time, but then you had to go back to school in the summer in the county superintendent's office. Or you had to go to--by that time they had the teacher's colleges. And of course then you had to go the teacher's colleges in the summertime until you worked out so many hours. 00:10:00If you worked out sixty hours of college work, they gave you a life certificate, and you could teach school the rest of your life without going back to school. Now you can't teach school unless you have four years of college. But back in the day--in those days, we had to make it easy.

Now don't think them little--them old schoolteachers were not good. The best schoolteacher I ever saw was an old man named Frank Burgess (ph). He taught school way up in the northern part of the county at McAboy (ph). He had about twenty of them old kids in there. He--he (laughs). He'd--he kinda had the school as a whole. He had--when he'd teach in sixth grade arithmetic, everybody learnt sixth grade arithmetic. And them third and fourth graders could do it! Raymond remembers old Frank Burgess (ph), Frank Burgess (ph). His brother was Jeff 00:11:00Burgess (ph), I mentioned him while ago--he was the early county superintendent.

Let's see. The school districts run along pretty good until they discovered oil in Creek County. And when they discovered oil in Creek County, the population just doubled and tripled because back in those days--you old timers know--that the oilfield workers worked right out in the--lived right out in the district. They, they established camps. Oilfield camps. And when that happened, the--the population increased and they had to expand these little one-room schools. And that also brought about a lot of consolidation. One of--all of you know where Gypsy school is. Well, Gypsy and--before 1920 or '21, there wasn't a Gypsy 00:12:00school. There wasn't a Milfay school. There--there wasn't--

Unidentified Man: Olive.

JD: Olive school. And several other places. There were no--there were no schools. But when they got the oil and the population increased, then that started what we call school consolidation. In Gypsy, they had two schools out there. One was called Lincoln, north of Gypsy. The other one was Lakeside, south of Gypsy. And they merged together in 1923 or '24, and formed Gypsy school district. And it became a high school. And the same thing happened at Raymond's place. Raymond went to school--he lived at Milfay when he walked to school a mile or two to a place--to a little place called--

Unidentified Man: Sunnyslope.

JD: Sunnyslope. And Sunnyslope and the other little school that--

Unidentified Man: Lily Day.

JD: --next to Milfay joined together and formed Milfay, and then they became--it became a high school. Same thing happened in Olive. The same thing happened in Welmont (ph) when they discovered the No. 1 Wheeler oil well in 1912. Drumright was--had two--two or three little old grade schools around there. One was called Dry Hill, one was called Tiger, and the other one I--Lily. No, not Lily Day. I can't remember the name of it. But when they discovered oil there, and the people just came in with the droves, and in just a little while, well, Drumright 00:14:00became a high school. And the same thing happened to Oilton. It was a little old school out south where Oilton is. It was called Crow. Had one teacher. And when they discovered oil in the--in the Oilton area, the population increased and so they just established a town called Oilton. And the teacher that taught at Crow went into Oilton as a first-grade teacher. I don't remember her name, but she taught at Oilton, then, until she retired. And she was--she was the boss, you know, of the school because she was the oldest and (chuckles).

After school, let's see--I wanted to make time here. Oh, Slick! You know, when they discovered--before 1918 there wasn't a Slick school. The school was called Tabor. It was a little two-teacher school two miles north. And the teacher at 00:15:00that time was a guy named Dan Baker. Dillard's first cousin. And he and his wife were teaching there at Tabor, and they discovered the oilfield in [inaudible]. Ten thousand people moved into Slick inside of two or three to four years. And they had the--they built a school at Slick.

And there's one little old boy that followed Tom Slick, the oilman. His name was Ace Borger. He was originally from Pitcher, Oklahoma. He was a promoter. Ace--now, the auditor, the guy he knew at--that audited schools--lived in Pitcher. And he told me that Ace Borger had a bank there, way back in 1910 or 00:16:00'15. And he had more money in that bank than any other bank because he let the outlaws put their money there and they didn't--they didn't have to account for it. Well, Ace Borger followed Tom Slick, and he organized the town of Slick. And helped them build the school, and everything. And then he got in trouble and they had a big lawsuit there and they run him off. And he went to Texas because they'd just discovered a lot of oil and gas out north of Amarillo. And he organized the town--I mean, yeah--the town of Borger, Texas. And took Dan Baker out there as his superintendent. And Borger--I mean, Borger becomes a big town almost immediately. Well, anyway, old Ace Borger had a lot of enemies, and the 00:17:00only way they could get rid of him was to get somebody to shoot him, and they shot him on the--they shot him and killed him on the steps of the post office. And that got rid of Ace Borger! (chuckles)

Here's something that a lot of you didn't know: when the oilfields came in, among the little schools, they started have--trying to have a high school. Because, you know, back in those days you couldn't get--well, they had no buses. And your kids had to walk to school. But the people out in the school district wanted their child to have as good of an education as possible. So they started having--organizing little high schools. They had a little high school at Valentine. They had another one at Iron Post. They had another one out here at my old school district--Forty-Eight, at the end of the airport. They had one in 00:18:00McClintock, south of Happy Corner. But they didn't last long. The state department made 'em close 'em down after two or three years. But they kept the grade school.

Now, let's see, what else have I got to talk to you about. I told you that they organized seventy-nine school districts. Back when they started consolidating, the number--it was easy to consolidate. Most people wanted to have their kids in the [inaudible] schools and [inaudible] by that time, they began to have school buses. And so that done away with a lot of little schools. And then during the World War II, a whole bunch of little schools went out because they couldn't find teachers. So by 19--when I became county superintendent in 1951--got the notes, here, (papers rustling) if I can find it--by 1951, there were 00:19:00thirty-three school districts left in Creek County. It had reduced from seventy-nine down to thirty-three. There were fourteen high schools and nineteen grade schools. And when I retired in 1975, there were ten high schools and only six elementary schools. And since that time, one elementary school--Shamrock--has gone out. Shamrock, Slick, and all them little--they were boom towns. And they just grew and flourished during the oil business, but then they folded up as soon as the oil kind of depleted.

Let's see. What else you might want to know about. I don't have much more time. 00:20:00I want to show you, now, some pictures. I---I don't--they're not very good [inaudible], but it's schools around Bristow that existed back in the '20s and '30s. And every one of those schools now is part of Bristow School District. You all may not realize it, but Bristow is the largest school district in the county. They have--I've got it written down here somewhere (papers rustling). [Inaudible] be better organized. (chuckles) Bristow school district now is made 00:21:00up of the following schools--little rural schools: every part of Forty-Four--district Forty-Four. That was right out north of town--is now part of Bristow. Every part of that--that was down below Newby--became a part of Bristow. My old school--Oakgrove, Glendale, and Brick Central (ph)--most of it came to Bristow, but the west part of it went to Depew. Fisher School--where old John went to school--is now part Bristow. Of course, first it went into Slick, and then when Slick went out it came to Bristow. Fairview! Where old Dillard 00:22:00grew up. And I guess you went to school at Fairview. Fairview?

Dillard Baker: Well, I was--

JD: Fairview was--Fairview was file miles south and two miles east and then about a mile south. Lovett! Which was about six miles west of Bristow and--east of Bristow. And I--I don't--I'm not sure, but I think the most important man in Lovett school that lives in Bristow today is Dub Bolin! Is that right? (laughing) Another one was Edna. You know where Edna was--it's now part of Bristow. Cloud just east of Slick is part of Bristow. Sand Creek eleven miles south and a mile east is, is all Bristow. Union Hill (ph), which was out 00:23:00near--out on the Red Bank (ph) road to the north. Mills Chapel became part of Bristow in '46 or '47. Mills Chapel was three miles south and two--two miles west.

Group, simultaneously: East. East.

JD: Two miles--yeah. East. Mountain Home, and [indecipherable], was back east of Bristow. Tuskegee, where the Krummes came from, is all Bristow now. And of course, as I said while ago, Slick.

Here are the schools that were divided: Pine Hill--the south part of Pine Hill went to Bristow, the east part went to Kellyville, and the north--and the north and the west part went to Olive. Iron Post went out in '54 or something like 00:24:00that, '55. Part of it went to Gypsy and the rest of it came to Bristow. Central Oak Grove and Glendale--that's my little school--as it went out, most of it went to Bristow, but part of it went to Depew. Wyatt--Wyatt was a little high school way back in the '20s, and they lost out on their high school, but they kept a grade school. And about '46 or '47, they got--'49, it was--they got so low in attendance that they divided it up and part of it went to Slick, part of it went to Kellyville, and part of it went to Bristow. Victor Chapel--nine miles north and a mile or two west was divided between Bristow and Olive. Newby school--all of you knew where Newby school was. Newby went out about '60 or '61, and part of it--most of it went to Bristow, but a little bit of it went to Gypsy. 00:25:00Genelle--which was three miles east of Brist--west of Bristow on Cemetery Road and back north a mile and then back west a little bit further. It was divided between Depew and Bristow. Bellvue was northwest of Bristow, and it was split two ways. Part of it went to Olive and part of it went to Bristow. In other words, Bristow is all, or part, of twenty-some school districts.

And I graduated from Bristow High School in 1931. And they had no buses whatsoever. The kids out in the rural school had to get there on their own. 00:26:00They--the parents usually rented a place in town and they lived in--in an apartment and went to school, and when school was out they went back to home. But I--I came back from New Mexico in 1935 and Bristow had a whole bunch of school buses. Now Bristow has fifteen or sixteen school buses because it's got to go to all these areas where the--where the rural schools are.

I want to talk to you now about some of the important people that are in Bristow now that lived in the rural areas. And then I'll show you some films on it. The first one I'm going to talk about is Genelle. The most important man in Genelle way back yonder was Raymond Cecil. And he [indecipherable]--his dad worked in 00:27:00a--a gasoline plant out there. And Raymond got into trouble with old Shamblin (ph), the teacher, and he didn't like him. So his dad arranged for him to Bristow. And when Raymond got up here in Bristow, he fell in love with the prettiest little girl and she's here--(laughing)--she's here tonight [indecipherable].

Another school that I talked about while ago was Mills Chapel. And Dillard Baker is one of the important fellows that lived in Mills Chapel years and years ago. Another one was Dykes kids. All of you know Emmett Dykes and Jack Dykes and Mildred and Bernice. Bernice became a teacher and she was one of the finest. She taught many years at Iron Post. But then she met an old boy that swept her off 00:28:00of her feet and they went to California after he got out of the service. And both of 'em taught school out there.

Let's see--oh, there was--there was another pretty little girl out at--at Mills Chapel. And when she got in high school she came to Bristow, and there was an old city slicker here in Bristow named James Lyons, and he just swept her off of her feet, and they married right--just before the war. (laughing)

Unidentified man: She got that backwards. (laughing)

JD: All of you know the Alcorns from Slick. They had a whole bunch of big old strong girls, and they had such a good girls' team that they won every softball game they ever played. They even beat the boys down in Slick! You all know the Alcorns.

Let's see another one here. Mountain Home out on the high--the Slick Road--I mean on the Eighth Street Road--they had a real fine school out there and the 00:29:00only boy that I remember that's here now was James Neighbors (ph). When he graduated the eighth grade he came here.

Valentine--pretty little girl, what's her name? Eva Sanders. And old Jack Hancock pursued her and finally made her his wife.

Shady Glen--which was, what? Six miles south of Depew and a mile west and then three more miles south, down on Big Deep Fork, was where Carl Sparks grew up. Now, I don't know where Carl found his sweetheart. (laughs) But he found himself one.

I talked--I mentioned Victor Chapel School. Nine miles north on Highway 48 and then a mile and a half east--west. It was a real [indecipherable] school, and that's where the Lesters--R.C. Lester--he went. And her--[indecipherable]. They went to grade school and when they got through they came to Bristow High School.

One school that I was especially proud of was about eight miles north of Bristow and a mile east, and it was called Pine Hill. It was named--there wasn't--there wasn't any pine trees out there, but there was an Indian named Pine Hill. And it was named after him. And there's a whole bunch of people out there named Bruce. And they all went to school at Pine Hill--even there, my sister-in-law went to 00:31:00school at Pine Hill. But the most important person in Pine Hill graduated out there in 1940--no, in '37. And she lived--she had to walk a mile to catch the bus up through the woods. And she--for four years she walked up there and caught the bus, rain and shine, and she's right [inaudible--poor tape quality].

[Inaduible--poor tape quality]

I'm running out of time here, I don't want to [inaudible]. I know you want to see some of these pictures. So at this time I'm gonna try to put 'em through this machine and [inaudible--poor tape quality]. I'll talk a little bit as they come right through. Flip the light off, preacher.

That's--that's the front--that's the front door of Genelle school. Raymond Cecil 00:32:00[indecipherable]--I'll pass them around if you want to look at 'em. Let's see here.

(talking and murmuring in background)

JD: That's--that's Mills Chapel School. And the teacherage. That's the biggest picture we could find--Majel had that and gave it to us so we could show it to you.

(talking and murmuring in background)

JD: [inaudible] That's--

Unidentified Man: Iron Post!

JD: Victor Chapel School. Off to the left--in the middle row, you can't see it very good. Right behind is--is Lenora. She went there one year. Now you all--you probably know the teacher. Her name was Buela Hope. And she married a guy named--out in there named Earl--I mean, Roy Bath. And they were the ones that were murdered about 1974 or '75. They never found who--who murdered them.

Now that's a picture of Louis Harding's school. You can't tell, but he's right 00:34:00down there on the front row. And that's Iron Post. And Louis thought it was about 1930 or '35, I don't know. But--but anyway, that's--that's Iron Post.

Now there's a picture where Lenora and me went to school. That's Pine Hill. And 00:35:00there's a bunch of kids out in the yard, but I--it's not plain enough that you can see who they are. Pine Hill.

Now, let's see. Now that's--that's where Carl Sparks came from. Shady Glen. The one farthest south, just north of Big Deep Fork and south of Salt Creek. And I--Carl's in there somewhere but I don't--I couldn't--I couldn't recognize him. But I appreciate you bringing the picture, Carl, so we could see it. Shady Glen 00:36:00became part of Gypsy, and then later they--it became part of Milfay. They switched around.

Now, that's old Glendale school. File miles west and a mile south on the Gypsy Road. And that little bitty guy in the middle on the front row happens to be old J.L. Darnell. (laughing) And right behind him is his first sweetheart--Eva Smith. And you probably wouldn't--my brother's over on the left side and you wouldn't recognize him. But Glendale was a nice school and it became--it really 00:37:00grew during the--during the oil boom.

Now that--that's Oak Grove School in 1939. That was the second year I taught. That's me on the left there, and that's all my kids. In that is a little girl named Wanda Henderson. I had her in the third through the seventh grade. But one--but--Glen--I mean, Oak Grove School was a very good school through the years. Lyman Hutchins--Raymond's dad--went there, and Lyman--Raymond told me that he--his dad got seven whippings in one day. The most important person, though, in old--old Glend--old Oak Grove School was a gal that Bill Flood really fell for. And she's here tonight, and Bill is proud of her, I'm sure, and she's 00:38:00proud of Bill. Her name was Mildred Henderson. So that's Bill's--that's Bill's sweetheart.

I think that's about all the pictures we have. Turn the--turn the light on, now. (rustling)

Unidentified woman: Did you want to show this one right here?

JD: [Inaudible in background.] You know, to get a good crowd out, I asked--I told the women in our church that I would tell something about my love affairs. You know, I was thirty-seven years old, almost, before I got married. But I had a few girlfriends, and it took a long, long time to fool--the only one I fooled was Lenora. But when I went to school at Glendale--started there in 1919. My 00:39:00classmate was Eva Smith. And I drew her name at Christmas. You know, we drew names and exchanged gifts. And I drew Eva's name and I had to buy her something. Well, my mother helped me out. In those days, you bought flour in a twenty-five-, fifty-pound sack. And it had a design on it. Well, this one had a design of a, of a--of a little old red--I mean, red dots. And my mother cut that out, 1919--Christmas of 1919, and stuffed it, and I put it on the tree for Eva Smith. And she was just tickled to death. Now, how did I get it back? Well, Eva in the mean time went to Sapulpa, and she became principal of a big school out there, even though she had taught a lot in just little country schools. And one 00:40:00day she called Lenora and said, Lenora--this is forty years later--she called Lenora and said, Lenora, you and J.L. and your oldest daughter--I don't know whether Marie--might not have been born, I guess she was. But said, Come over, I want to give Ed--Edith something. And we went over there and Edna said, I want to give this to your oldest daughter. So I'm gonna pass it around, you might want to look at it. (laughs)

Two other loves stories. We left old Glendale in 1923 and went to California and stayed a little while and came back and I made the fourth and part of the fifth grade in Bristow. And then in January of 1925, we moved back to Glendale. I was 00:41:00only twelve years old, and I was in the fifth grade, but there was the cutest little old girl that had moved in. Her daddy was an oilfield worker. And she had little pretty blonde hair, pretty little old doll face, and freckles. And we became sweethearts. We played together at recess--Black Man (ph). Well one--she lived west of school and I lived east of school. And so one afternoon, after four o'clock, she started going our way when she should've gone the other way. And I said--her name was Juanita. And I said, Juanita, what are you doing going this way? She said, I want to go home and stay all night with ya.

(laughing) (crowd laughing)

Well, that took me--I didn't know what to say to her! It was just three of us old boys, my dad and mother, we just had two bedrooms. Me and my three brothers all slept togeth--I said, What in the world would we do with her? And I begin to try to figure out some way to get her to change her mind. I said, Juanita, does your dad and mother know that you're gonna go home and stay all night with me? She said, Nooo, I didn't tell 'em! And I said, Well, you better go home and get permission first! (laughing) Well, she went home and--and--I--she never did come back and stay all night with me. (laughing)

One more love story and then we'll be gone. I--I went to New Mexico in 1929. And stayed out there for two or three years. I came back to Bristow to finish high school. Well, one--either in '29 or '30, I went back out to old Brick Central 00:43:00(ph)--you know, we had a pie supper every year. And I went into this--to see my old friend. And boy, there was the prettiest little girl there. She was about fourteen--I was fifteen or sixteen. And she was fourteen. Well, I'd known her when she was a little bitty old thing, three or four years before. But boy, she sure looked good to me that night! She had filled out. So I got to--in those days, if you bought their pie, you got to walk 'em home. So I said, Well, I'm gonna see to it that I get to walk her home. So I--her name was Thelma. I said, Thelma, did you bring a box, or a pie? And she said, Yeah. And she said, Now if you'll watch me, I'll tell you when the auctioneer brings it up. Well, she nodded--she gave me the nod, and I bought it. And I gave seventy-five cents for it--which was quite a bit of money, you known, down in the Depression. Boy, I 00:44:00said, I've got it all made now, I get to eat and then I'm'a get to walk her home, and put my arm around her, to hold her hand. But I found out before the thing was over that she had another admirer there in school. And his name was James King. And he came to me, and he said, James--J.L., did you buy Thelma's pie? And I said, Yeah. He said, I'll give you your money back. I said, Nooo----I don't want that money back. He said, I'll give you a dollar! Nooo. Finally, he said, I'll give you a dollar and a half, and boy, listen--that got me. I--(laughs) I--he gave me a dollar and a half and I gave him the ticket. And at the end of the pie supper, he went up and got her pie--got her box, and brought it back to where she was, and she got so mad, she wouldn't eat with him! And she 00:45:00wouldn't speak to me! And I didn't get to walk her home. So--so I found out that--that romance and profit-making don't always go together. (laughs)

We're proud you came here. It's thirteen minutes past. And I hope your--I hope you--you've enjoyed it. I--if you didn't like what I had to say, maybe the meal was worthwhile. Anybody have any comments they want to make?

Unidentified woman: It was very good.

Unidentified man: I had a comment about that pie supper--

(applause)

Unidentified man: --about that pie supper--

JD: It's--it's early--I mean late. And I might just say this: one of the--one of the results of mine and Lenora's getting married is that little girl that's 00:46:00sitting way back there on the--black-headed, and that's her husband there, Charlie, Charlie Womack.

Unidentified woman: [Inaudible]

JD: If there's no other comments--

Unidentified man: J.L.--

JD: Raymond--I mean--

Unidentified man: That pie supper is where I met this gal.

JD: Well! (laughs)

Unidentified man: I bought her pie and she introduced me to her fiancé.

JD: Ohh! (laughs)

Unidentified man: And he--and I think he's that same old guy that advertised for Braum's, you know--Vic (ph), or whatever his name was. What was his name?

JD: (laughs)

Unidentified man: Anyhow, I--I've been eating her sandwiches ever since. And one school we forgot to mention, he did that's--back in eastern Oklahoma, if you came from that part of the country, they always kidded you if you came from Scratchout--was the name of the school! We got a gal in here from Scratchout. I'm not gonna tell you who she is, but--she can talk Indian if you want to talk to her. John's wife.

JD: Let me make one other observation, here, before you leave. After all, we ought to be--this is a church, and we should be--what I should be--is sayin' something that would build up the churches. In my old school, Glendale, and Mildred's and Flora's old school, Oak Grove, they are the forerunners of the Free--of the Freewill Baptist Church. Way back in 1921 or '22 we had a preacher who lived across the road named Sam Wall. And he--he had church every day at Glendale. And the song leader was Old Man Higgenbottom. H.A. Had one eye, if you remember. And he was a good one. And they had church there. And they were 00:48:00Freewill Baptists--only I think they called them Hard Shell (ph) Baptist back in those days. Now in--in Glendale--I mean in Oak Grove, we had another Baptist preacher. His name was Ledgerwood. And he was--he and old Sam Wall were the forerunners of the Freewill Baptist. Later they moved to Bristow and you know where the Freewill--that's where they are, and here's where all of 'em go to school.

Any other comments before you go home? Jack!

Unidentified man: J.L., did you say anything about Model on 16? You ever go down there?

JD: Yeah.

Unidentified man: East about three miles, wasn't it, then north about a quarter of a mile?

JD: Yeah. Well, Model--

Unidentified man: Mountain.

JD: Mountain Home--Mountain Home and Model were in the same school district. When they got a lot of oil out there, they didn't--they couldn't--they didn't 00:49:00have enough. And that's where you met your wife, wasn't it?

Unidentified woman: [Inaudible.]

Unidentified man: I don't know if you remember or not, but we had quite a few black schools. Iron Post was on one corner, and a mile west was another school--Morningstar or something like that was the name of it--and by gosh, they had twice as many kids over in that black school as we did [indecipherable]. And--but anyway, I remember bunch of little schools that some of us have forgotten about. Seven miles south at the Iron Post sign, right there on the corner you'll see--still see the water well that's the old--

JD: Maybe the next time I get to talk, maybe I'll talk to you about the colored schools. Well I had the one that was the awfulest one. We done away with it! You might not want to hear about that.

(laughing)

(crowd discussion)

JD: If there's no other comments, let's stand up and [inaudible].

Unidentified man: Let us pray. Lord, dismiss us with your blessing that we may go forth and do your work. Be with each one here and their families and bless them in their lives to serve thee. In Christ our Lord.

Crowd: Amen.

[end of recording]

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