The Okie Legacy

January - 2001

Millennium Edition, 6 January 2001, Vol. III, Iss. 1

Here it is a week into the New 21st Century! Thanks for all the memories you have sent in the past Volumes of "Oakie's HTH." I am working on some Slapout, Oklahoma 2001 photos I took this week and hope to have them ready for you next week. Send me some history and memories of Slapout... If you get a chance.

We ate our good luck black-eyed peas in Buck's Hoppin John Recipe on New Years Eve for good luck to follow us into the New Millennium. I have stuck the recipe link below just incase someone wants to check it out.BucksHoppinJohn.doc

New Years Day found this Oakie on the road again back to Oklahoma, January 1, 2001. As to New Years traditions & black-eyed peas... Scott says, "My family always ate black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. Why? I haven't a clue."

My family also ate black-eyed peas on New Years for good luck. I don't know why or when the black-eyed peas tradition started. Does anyone out there have any clues to this mystery?

Some of you NW Oklahomans and Paris family relations out there might remember my Uncle Alvin. On our way back through Colorado to Oklahoma, we stopped and visited with my mother's older brother, Alvin Paris. Alvin worked with the McClure Loans & Insurance Company, in Alva back in the 1930s. Alvin & Naomi married in 1935 and lived in the Monfort Apartments before moving to 718 4th Street. I'm not quite sure where the Monfort apartments were located, but Alvin and Naomi moved from those apartments to the 718 4th Street home sometime shortly after the Castle on the Hill burned down. Does anyone have any clues to where the Monfort Apartments were located? Alvin and Naomi also lived in the two-story, framed, white house on the southeast corner of Choctaw & Third Street, across the street south from the Old Armory. Alvin Paris was born 1 Nov. 1912; married Naomi Warren (b. 1910), 3 February 1935. They will be celebrating their 66th anniversary, Feb. 3, 2001. Alvin is the next to the oldest of nine siblings of Ernest Claude Paris and Mary Barbara Hurt. Of the nine siblings (Leslie, Alvin, Vernon, Vada, Zella, Kenneth, Sam, Geneva and EJ)... the three remaining are Alvin (88, in Colorado Springs, CO), Sam (76, in Sand Pointe, ID) and Geneva (72, in Chester, OK).
OkieLegacy/image/alvin-naomijan01-01.jpg
paristimes.com/paris/fam00039.htm

Everyone knows about Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs, but what about the Cave of the Winds. These caverns are located near the small community of Manitou west of Colorado Springs, Colorado. You use a steep, winding, corkscrew mountain road to reach the entrance of the Cave of the Winds. The caverns have been around for over one hundred years.

They were temporarily lighted with electric lights 11 October 1904. On 4 July 1907 a new electric light system with arc lights were installed in the larger rooms of the cave for the first time. The entrance building was built in the spring of 1906 with a veranda for views of Williams Canyon and Manitou.
caveofthewinds.com/cave2000/timeset.htm

We stopped to take the tour so I could walk in the footsteps of my grandmother Constance Warwick who took the same tour in the early 1900s (1907-1909) before she married my grandfather, Bill McGill. I found this great old photo of the "Cave of the Winds" taken sometime during the early 1900s. There were NO names or dates written on the photo. The only clues to the dated items in photo are the long skirt and white blouse worn by the lady; the two horse drawn carriages in the sloping foreground; and the sign on the front of the building over the steps that reads, "Brilliantly Electrically Lighted." OkieLegacy/image/cavewinds.jpg

You can view a January, 2001 view of the "Cave of the Winds" for comparison. OkieLegacy/image/cavewinds-jan01a.jpg OkieLegacy/image/cavewinds-jan01b.jpg OkieLegacy/image/cavewinds-jan01c.jpg OkieLegacy/image/cavewinds-jan01d.jpg

Nearby is a free public park called "Garden of the Gods." It has towering sandstone rock formations against a backdrop of snow-capped Pikes Peak and blue skies. In 1909, Charles Elliott Perkins' children conveyed his 480 acres to the City of Colorado Springs. It was/is known as the 'Garden of the Gods' and free to the public and maintained as a public park.
gardenofgods.com/history.htm

I did get a few shots of the 'Garden of the Gods' when we traveled through there January, 2001. If you look really hard, you might spot this Oakie leaning on a rock wall with the sandstone formations in the background at one of the overlooks.
OkieLegacy/image/gardengods1.jpg OkieLegacy/image/gardengods2.jpg

For the week of January 1 thru January 5... from SW Colorado to Oklahoma, the gas pump prices ranged from $1.55 (Durango, CO) all the way down to $1.19 at a Texaco, in central Oklahoma. The first of the week in Colorado Springs gas prices were $1.39. Boise City, out on the very tip of the Oklahoma panhandle, saw a $1.39 gas as did Guymon, OK. The gas prices in Alva during the mid-week came in at $1.35. Ames, OK which is southeast of Ringwood and norhtwest of Hennessey, Kingfisher and Okarche all sported a $1.34 price tag. A Texaco gas station in NW Oklahoma City showed a price of gas on Friday, January 5, 2001, at $1.19. What are the gas pump prices doing in your neck of the woods?

Next week I will try to get the pictures of Slapout, Oklahoma ready for you to see what it looks like today. If anyone out there has any old photos, history or memories of Slapout to share, just attach them to an email and send along to Linda at oakiebelle@home.com.

o OAKIE'S MAILBAG & LINKS

"Hiya! Happy New Year! New Year's Traditions - My family always ate black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. Why? I haven't a clue. Another family I knew on New Year's Day, always ate black-eyed peas and collard (did I spell that right?) greens. My mother-in-law (of South Pacific ethnicity) places coins on all her window sills on New Years' Eve. This is believed to attract more money into the new year. What am I doing this year? I'm making black-eyed peas (I still haven't a clue why!) and German Bierox (why? because I'm hungry for them!) for New Years' Dinner! I can't stand collard greens, and I'd put money on the window sills, but my 3-yr-old picks up every coin she sees anywhere and hides it in her bank!"
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"For the reader interested in Oklahoma Ghost Towns - I recently purchased and read a book 'Ghost-Town Tales of Oklahoma - Unforgettable Stories of Nearly Forgotten Places,' by Jim Marion Etter, New Forums Press Inc, Stillwater, OK. It contains 26 chapters, each telling stories about a specific ghost town in Oklahoma."
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"It's a record cold winter in the Southeast US! Atlanta had a three-inch snow six days before Christmas. The city was entirely shut down! Schools, banks, office buildings....all closed. The night before it hit, the grocery stores sold out of milk, bread, batteries, flashlights...you'd have thought a hurricane was predicted to strike! This huge city, made up of fifteen counties ...paralyzed by three inches of the heavy wet white stuff. Emily and I built a snowman in the front yard...the remnants of which are STILL here today, December 30! I ran errands all afternoon, my only worry was that someone not used to driving in snow would crash into me. I told my wife--had the same 3" snow hit Alva when I was a boy, we would have put on an extra pair of socks for warmth and gone right on to school! Keep up the good work!" Scott, scottdowns@mindspring.com - www.scottdowns.net
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"Beautiful view of Americas from space... Try linking here, it's really outstanding." - Gary
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg
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"Hi Linda, Fred Wenniger was a '56 grad. His 'Medium Map' shows Fair Valley and lots of other nice NW Okla landmarks. The photo's (Many good ones) would show people who aren't from this area just what the country is like. I know it is south of Waynoka, but not too different from west of Alva. I thought you would like this." Steve Nicholson, snicholson@bazillion.com wingandrack.com/
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Baseballparks.com & Historical Baseball Parks-- "We've also just posted an interesting look at a number of "Ballpark Oddities. This collection of quirks in stadium design is entirely from the Southeastern U.S. I bet you know of some quirky ballpark designs in your part of the country, so let us know about them." -- Joe, Webmaster - joe@baseballparks.com
baseballparks.com/
baseballparks.com/Historicalparks.htm
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"Linda, My battleground of broken limbs already forbid passage near the house... Now today, it began snowing around 10 A.M. & is covering everything. Well, anyway I hope to get some pictures that camouflage & beautify the scene." Southern Oklahoma Winter Snow storm, dated, 01/01/01 from Ernest OkieLegacy/image/Jan2001wntr.jpg
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2001 Winter on Maple Street, Alva, Oklahoma.... Congratulations to the OU Sooners for their Orange Bowl victory over Florida State Universary, January 3rd, 2001, with a score of 13 to 2. I'm $5.00s richer when my brother, Lou, sends me my winnings. :-) I will probably use that $5.00 to buy one-cents stamps for my 33-cents stamps I already have. Here come the 34-Cents postage stamps.

Linda "Oakie"
ICQ ID: 1142261 -- Yahoo! ID: paristimes

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