Oakie's Heart to Heart - All In This Together

The Okie Legacy

All In This Together

It's been another mind boggling week. I'm still learning and working at the small, weekly community newspaper in Freedom, Oklahoma. Speaking of Freedom, everyone has seemed to have settled down this week after the Freedom Rodeo. Everything is getting back to normal and moving at a slower pace around here again.

I did get to spend some evening time the first half of the week with my horses. A few times bearing nothing (no feed) and they still gathered around me as if asking, "Why and Where are the oats?" They tried to make me feel bad, but it didn't work. So... They headed back over to the alfalfa hay a few feet away.

A friend, will call him Bud, let me know that when he went out to check horses early this Thursday evening, my colt (Moon, 4 months old) was pouting with his ears laid back and his lower lip was curled up in a pouting kind of way. I don't know if it was because Moon missed my pampering, or what! I like to think that it was all because Moon missed me coming and talking to him. When I am around him and talking to him in a low easy kind of tone I find myself calling him "Easy Moon" trying to keep him calm as I slowly advance towards him. I Don't suppose he was upset about seeing Bud instead of me coming out there, do you? The last time I was out there and brought feed to them, Moon was letting me get a little bit closer and wasn't hurrying off and out of reach.

I did get a few photos of some more ghost towns in NW Oklahoma. If you travel west on highway 64 as if you are traveling to Freedom, you will find on the north side of the road an old concrete, dilapidated old country store and gas stations where Whitehorse, Oklahoma once flourished.

Besides the old building, there seems to be a house and a couple of cars parked out front. Does anyone out there remember Whitehorse?

Another little ghost town (McWillie) in northwest Oklahoma is located west of Helena, Oklahoma. There isn't much there except for three or four homes, a grain elevator that has "McWillie & Helena Co-op" written across, and a rundown little building that looked like it at one time housed a small country grocery store. The McWillie, OK elevator -- McWillie, OK country store

Northwest Oklahoma isn't the only part of the state that has small ghost towns. South central Oklahoma has Gene Autry which went through a number of name changes. A friend says, "Gene Autry (Berwin & formerly Dresden) is in Carter County NE of Ardmore, located west by southwest of the Washita River. Dresden's name changed to Berwin in September, 1887. Later, January 1, 1942, Berwin's name changed to Gene Autry. The name Berwin comes from Berwin, Pennsylvania.

Have you noticed this week's newsletter is a bit shorter than usually. I have lots to say, but trying to get it all organized and on paper finds this Oakie mind boggled. One of these days the routine will get worked out and things settled down. Y'all have a great weekend! Hug a friend or just call and say hello! See Y'all next weekend!

o OAKIE'S MAILBAG/LINKS

Oakie's Photo Album Updated -- Ghost Towns

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OAKIE'S POLLS -- Have you VOTED in Oakie's Presidential Poll? If you have voted, you can leave as many 'Comments' in that Poll. I have a couple of other Polls that you can check out, also.

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Oakie's Ghost Towns Collections - Check out Oklahoma's ghost towns for

more names added to the list.

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"RANDOLPH, Oklahoma is in southern Johnston County, 5 miles SW of Tishomingo. It had a post office from Sept. 5, 1901 to June 5, 1919. Named for Thomas Randolph, Frisco Railroad official.

Gene Autry (Berwin & formerly Dresden) is in Carter County NE of Ardmore and & it is located west by southwest of the Washita River. Dresden name changed to Berwin in Sept. 1887, and name changed to Gene Autry, Jan. 1, 1942. The name Berwin comes from Berwin, Pennsylvania. Gene Autry is mostly north of Ardmore and since Madill is approximately 26 miles east of Ardmore the town would be north & west of Madill. Gene Autry still has its Post office (Zip 73436) and although the "Berwin" school is closed most of the students now attend the Springer school, which is west of Gene Autry. Some students went to Dickson which is about 9 mi. east of Ardmore and south by southeast of Gene Autry. Gene Autry has at least two stores now and, many other new features. The main street of Gene Autry is still an appendage to HW 53 down to the south edge of the town where it comes in contact with the railroad, yet Highway 53 itself, continues on east and crosses the Washita River, then on over to intersect with Highway 177 which goes south to Dickson & north to Sulphur. After the Ardmore Airforce Base was closed, the city of Ardmore acquired the property and are using it as the "Ardmore Industrial Air Park". Many, large diversified industries are located there. The Ardmore Industrial Air Park is, in fact, regarded as a part of Ardmore and the property is within the city limits of Ardmore. This annexation was done by use of a quirk in Oklahoma law that permitted Ardmore to annex property all along the rail road line. Although Gene Autry is virtually on the west side of the railroad line, it is not a part of Ardmore. Ardmore has no control over Gene Autry. The Gene Autry Museum is located in the old *Berwin school building. *(as noted before, the school at Gene Autry never changed its name to Gene Autry.)
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"my grandfather (Glen E. Billings) was born at or near Abbie in Woods Cty, OK in 1907 to Gearge Emerson Billings and Edith Gertrude Lansden Billings. I do not know if they are related but the possibility exists." mailto:ozbmb@aol.com
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"I do enjoy your newsletter!! Sometimes when I'm really down, you seem to have just the right phrase or article that can cheer me up. Keep up the good work."
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"I got a Dacoma postcard from eBay. The bank window clearly says "State Bank of Dakoma" and the store front on the left edge of the card has mdse in the window, so it was a "going" business - but the store in the middle seems to be vacant. Perhaps this was a brand new construction, just getting underway? As far as I can make out the postmark is 22 August 1915, and the card is inscribed "Pub. by Kraus Mfg. Co., N. Y. for The Dacoma Drug Co. -- K 1381" -- so I assume that the business on the left side of the card is The Dacoma Drug Co. I don't know enough about my hometown's history to know when those buildings were first built, but surely it couldn't have been too much before this time, do you think? Eventually, the W. W. Starr Lumber Co. had a building that was just left of the left edge of this card (the left is south, the right is north - and just across the street north of the bank is the current Whittet's Grocery (formerly Murrow Grocery, operated my my grandparents when I was a little kid). It has a one-cent stamp on it and was addressed to Miss Carl McKee, Mina, Ark, from Bud, who wrote: "Well how are you by this time. leaving Dacoma tomorrow. Don't know just where I will land at. I know the drug store was eventually owned/operated by Alfred and Pauline Johnson (again, by the time I was a kid in the 1950s), and the center one was remodeled and is where the Post Office was for years and years."
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"THE TOP 2O WAYS YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM OKLAHOMA:

1. It doesn't bother you to use an airport named for a man who died in an airplane crash.

2. You have used the phrase "fixin' to" during the last twelve months.

3. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date.

4. You've ever been excused from school because "the cows got out".

5. You can properly pronounce Eufaula, Tahlequah, Okemah and Chickasha.

6. You can remember the name of the last state legislator to introduce a bill involving castration and he didn't mean farm animals.

7. You know exactly what calf fries are, and eat them anyway.

8. You can recall hot summers by the year they happened easier than you can remember your mother's birthday.

9. You think that people who complain about the wind in their states are sissies.

10. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door but by the availability of shade.

11. You have owned at least one belt buckle bigger than your fist.

12. A bad traffic jam involves two cars staring each other down at a four-way stop, each determined to be the most polite and let the other go first.

13. You know in which state Miam-uh is and in which state Miam-ee is.

14. Your "place at the lake" has wheels under it

15. You aren't surprised to find movie rental, ammunition and bait all in the same store.

16. A Mercedes Benz is not a status symbol. A Ford F150 4x4 is.

17. You understand the difference between 3.2 and 6 point and more than once you've made a beer run to another state.

18. You know that everything goes better with Ranch.

19. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.

20. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel. Finally, you are 100% Oklahoman if you have ever had this conversation:

"You wanna Coke?"

"Yeah."

"What kind?"

"Dr. Pepper."

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"I would like for you to read this and if you believe in its merit, please include it in your newsletter, if possible. A good book for any one who is interested in this is called "IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE" by Peter Mathiesson. It is a full account of what happened at Oglala and a lot of the discrepencies of the trial which are also mentioned in this website. A movie about this incident was made with Robert Redford, however, I have been unable to locate the movie. Thanks for considering this." "Clemency for Leonard Peltier" -- hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service; Leonard Peltier; The People's Paths!; The International Office of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC).

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"A-MAZE-ING THINGS IN OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma is amazing. That's what Alan and Jonna Way think anyway. Really, they're the ones that are amazing. They've built a maze in the shape of Oklahoma in a three-acre field just east of Ardmore. The Ways operate Jamberry Farm, 15 miles east of Ardmore on U.S. Highway 70 and four miles south on McMillan Road. Last December, Alan was sick and he said while he was lying around he got to thinking about this maze. He said he and his wife had seen something about one in a magazine that a man up north had done. This story is continued at...

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QUOTE/POEM of the WEEK

"... no human being should ever have to fear for his or her life because

of their political or religious beliefs. We are in this together, my friends,

the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility

for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her. Never forget

that." Leonard Peltier

See Y'all Next weekend!
Linda 'Oakie'