Robert D. Coleman, known as Bob, or Bobbie as a young boy, was born to John and Oleta Coleman on July 18, 1925, the fourth of six children. He attended Oakwood School through all 12 grades and graduated in 1943. The Coleman family owned and operated Oakwood Produce on Main Street Oakwood. His Father, John Coleman also drove the Oakwood school bus for 21 years.
Robert D. Coleman wrote a series of articles under the entitlement, Main Street Oakwood. These articles are as he remembered them when he was 7 years old, before his family moved to the farm after the death of his grandfather.
Robert D. Coleman was drafted into the United States Navy in June, 1944 and served twenty-four months, mostly in the South Pacific, Japan, Philippines and Northern China. His ship was the U.S.S. Woodford AKA 86, an attack cargo vessel. The first load of cargo was a load of beer from Norfolk, VS to Pearl Harbor. The second load of cargo was from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa. This was a load of five-inch mortar shells.
After being discharged from the Navy, Bob attended Oklahoma A&M (OSU). He was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity and received his BS degree in accounting in June 1950.
Bob married Jean Davis on September 14, 1952.
After graduation he was employed by CR Anthony Company, Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and the State Treasurer's Office.
In 1959 He purchased Peery's Flower Shop in Oklahoma City and changed the name to Coleman's Flowers Inc.
He was the winner of the Oklahoma State Florists' Association Designer of the Year in 1974.
Mr. Coleman is a member of Northwest Christian Church and Northwest Optimist Club, and was a distinguished president twice.
He is also an amateur artist and his home is decorated with his paintings.
Mr. Coleman considers himself an amateur genealogist, researching the Coleman Family to 1676 in Germany, Scott Family to 1722 in Tennessee, the Haney Family 1800 in South Carolina and the Wood Family to 1760, Johnson, Jonsen, Beckmon from Germany.
MAINSTREET OAKWOOD
I lived on Main Street Oakwood during my adolescence years. Main Street started at the top of the hill on the east and extended about seven blocks to the dead end at the hilltop on the west. There were houses on each side on East Main, but only one house faced the street on West Main. Several families owned businesses on the street and some of these families had living quarters either over or behind the businesses. Though it has been more than a half century ago, my memory recalls many incidents from my early years.
Oakwood was a sleepy town twenty miles west of Watonga and twenty miles east of Seiling. Geographically it is less than one half mile square, a glen in earth's topography, the upper drainage follows the Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way and dumps the access waters into Big Baby Creek.
The town was unofficially called Edsel, but when it came time to name the post office, the postmaster, Mrs. Mills named it Oakwood. Their were many varieties of oak trees with their lush green leaves and they turned to bright hews of yellow to red in the fall. Why should our hometown be called by any other name? The population in the early nineteen-thirties was probably four hundred people. We, as a family knew about ninety-nine percent of them as we lived on Main Street of Oakwood, Oklahoma.
We knew many of the people because we delivered the Daily Oklahoma, the Wichita Eagle Newspapers and also the Saturday Evening Post Magazine. The publications were delivered to Abb Smith's house in the far southeast part of the town to Nick Hunck's house in the far northeast sector. We delivered from Lynn Sions who lived in the southwest part of town to Joe Stein living in the northwest part.
One day a man on Main Street asked me about the headlines of the Wichita Eagle and since I was not old enough to read political words, I just turned the paper so he could read it. The man purchased the paper.
FIRES OF MAIN STREET OAKWOOD
Fires in the small town were devastating. There was no fire fighting equipment other than a bucket brigade and the supply of water from the horse tank in the middle of Main Street. The water was of little consequence and the wooden structures usually burned out of control, turning them into ashes as the people stood by helplessly.
One was a store building where Blanche Hole had her feed store. It was a produce business where my parents purchased cream, eggs and chickens from the farmers and in turn sold them livestock feed.
The building burned in 1924 along with a grocery store and hardware. Our shoes burned in the fire and the next day our grandfather purchased us all a new pair.
The lodge hall at near the west end on the north side of the street also burned.
The bales of cotton smoldered throughout the night and blazed out early in the morning.
The C.A. Sions store burned one Saturday afternoon.
The Harry Fielder Store flamed out in the middle of one night and burned everything.
There were probably more fires before I was aware of them.
Red Brick Schoolhouse – 1919 Constructed by WPA 1941
THE SCHOOLS OF OAKWOOD
The schoolhouses have always been the center of learning, athletic contests and social events. The first formal schoolhouse stood near the Carl Marshall Home. It was a log structure and the school term was three months in length. Walter Rogers was a young student there.
The second schoolhouse was in the far southwest corner of Oakwood, about a quarter of a mile north of the original school. It was a wooden structure with many windows. The eight-grade class of 1908 was the first class to graduate there.
The red brick building with the 1919 panel stood until the W.P.A. razed it and erected the present deserted building. My brothers, sisters and I all attended classes in the red brick building and had our pictures taken facing the sun on the south steps (all squinted up!). I had classes in every room at one time or another.
This red brick building had a boiler room and steam radiators in the classrooms. This two-story building had nine classrooms, a study hall and boiler room. The study hall had once been a basketball court. The superintendent's office was in an area above the doublewide stairway. Children seemed to grow up when they reached the grade level to have classes upstairs.
At one time the library with its very limited supply of interesting books was in the superintendent's office. The librarian was excused while Mr. Creech needed to punish the students; some of them had classes here also. The teacher of long time service in these classes was Ethel Wright Spurlock.
The downstairs room on the southwest was the second and third grades. The two north rows of desks was for second grade students and the third grade occupied the others. The room had windows on the south and black boards on the north and west walls. Clara Brandley Craig taught many eager students in this classroom.
Students were on a weekly list to dust the erasers and wash the blackboards.
The largest room downstairs was the study hall. The library was in the east end of this room. Before the erection of the auditorium in 1938, this room served for all programs and school plays. The senior class of 1938 had their graduation ceremony in this building.
The boiler room and supply of coal was in the southeast corner of the downstairs area. In cold weather when the old boiler could not produce enough steam to properly heat all the class rooms, the students would gather in the boiler room to warm their hands and their equally cold feet.
The other classroom in the basement was between the boiler room and the stairway. English and grammar classes were taught in this area.
The fourth and half of the fifth grades were taught for many years in the room at the top of the stairs. The students in this room lined up on the west side of the front walk when recess was over and when it was time to march into their room. Viola Andrews was the only teacher I remember in this room.
The other part of the fifth grade and the sixth grades were taught in the southeast room upstairs. The students hung their coats in the hall between this room and the seventh and eighth grade room.
The seventh and eighth grade room was in the northeast corner upstairs. The desks were larger to accommodate the students who were maturing in size since the sixth grade. Florence Rutherford, Anne Langdon and Thelma Brandley Butts were teachers of these grades. Other activities of these teachers were: 4-H Club sponsors, basketball coach and class counselors. All were very good at these extracurricular activities.
The general sciences and biology courses were taught in the northwest corner room. A minimum of science experiments were performed due to limited equipment. The biology classes collected insects, leaves and dissected an occasional preserved frog.
The other room upstairs was for math and algebra. A bookkeeping class was later added to the course of study and was taught in this room. Teachers in this room were J.B. Creech, Herman Harris and John Elliott.
We were proud of our school bell and Tom Reneau rang it to call the students to class. All the students would line up on the front sidewalk and wait until Tom Reneau would clang a cadence on a triangle and the students marched into their respective classrooms. Fire drills were held at the discretion of the superintendent, and a surprise to all the students. Tom Reneau would put the clanger bolt inside the triangle and go around hitting all three sides as fast as he could. The building would be evacuated immediately.
The outhouse toilets were cold in the winter, hot in the early months of the school term and smelled bad all the time. The water fountain was a long pipe drilled with holes and attached to the pump. Students would take turns pumping so others could drink.
The works progress administration better known as the W.P.A. tore down the red brick schoolhouse. It was replaced with a structure with solid cement walls, one story in height and the pride of all students. Despite all the jokes about the W.P.A., the structure still stands, but in ghost town state.
The hectic year of construction saw classrooms in all the churches, empty buildings and the Masonic Lodge Hall. Superintendent Herman Harris had his office in the post office.
The classrooms in the lodge hall had one large coal heater. With its make shift chimney the stove gave off clouds of black smoke much to the dismay of some teachers.
The new school building made it possible for classes in typing 1 and II, home economics and wood shop. A hall and steps connected the new building to the auditorium. Athletic dressing rooms were at the top of the steps between the two buildings. A cafeteria room was a first for the students. Mrs. Freeman made high and light hot rolls for the meals. Most of the meals came from commodities furnished by the welfare department. The new innovative heating system was propane heaters.
The basketball games were played on a clay court on the north side of the school. The first time I saw an indoor basketball game was in Milt and Bunt Jones's Garage. The backboards and baskets were on each end of the service area. My cousin, then a high school student took me; I yelled when she yelled, as I was too small to see over the other spectators. I really had no idea when the team had scored.
Our first hope of an indoor basketball court came about 1939 when the school board decided to erect a Quonset type building. Construction was started and when all the ovals were up, a gust of wind flattened them to the ground. A new gym was designed and built back into the embankment.
THE CHURCHES OF OAKWOOD
There were no churches on Main Street; the school was never there either, but they were the glue or adhesive that held the town together. The churches nourished the spiritual needs of the community and some fine arts events. The Christian Church was located two blocks south of Main Street. It was a white clapboard structure with a bell tower. The large bell was rung on Sunday morning to call the worshipers to church services. It was a one-room structure with a high ceiling and heated with one large wood-burning stove. The church had an indoor baptistery.
The Methodist Church was located in the southeast quadrant of Oakwood, three blocks east of the Christian Church. This church building also had white clapboard siding, one large room, one bell tower and its large bell was usually rung at the same time as that of the Christian Church. (On a Halloween night my mother and her friends tied a cow to the bell rope. The bell rang and rang throughout the night…) the high ceiling echoed the preacher's voice and the congregation's singing. The Sunday School Classes met in the corner areas for their lessons.
The Pentecostal Holiness Church was located on the same street about half way between the Methodist Church and East Main Street. It too was a one-room structure with the usual one large heating stove.
These were the only denominational churches in Oakwood. The rural schools like Bell, Butte and Little Robe served as worship centers for the rural communities. When summer time revivals were held here, the converts were baptized in a local creek. Many converts had their sins washed away in the swimming hole on Big Baby Creek west of Nobscot
THE GRAIN ELEVATORS OF MAIN STREET – OAKWOOD
Oakwood had three wooden grain elevators setting along side the Santa Fe tracks. One on the north of Main Street and two on the south. The farmers would bring their grain here in wagons pulled by one or more teams of horses. The wagons and grain were weighed, the grain unloaded and the empty wagon weighed again. The elevator operator wrote checks for the purchased grain. The Farmers brought wheat in late June and early July; corn, maize, kaffir corn and millet in the fall.
The grain was emptied into a bin below a grate in the floor of the elevator. The grain was loaded into boxcars for shipping by means of a long continuous belt fitted with cups, which dipped the grain and lifted it to the top of the elevator where it was dumped into a hopper with a long metal tube. The grain fed through the tube into the boxcar.
When the cars were filled, the next train going to Kansas City was switched onto the siding, hooked to the filled car and connected to the long train.
My granddad always made sure all husks were cleaned from the ears of corn. He took me with him one day to sell the load of corn. The operator, Bill Mitchell, complimented him on the clean ears, to which granddad replied. "You don't pay a damn bit more for it than the half-shucked corn" When he received the check we climbed the wheel to the high springed seat and drove the team to our place on Main Street Oakwood.
HENRY STOLL'S MILL
The farmers took their grain to Henry Stoll's Mill for grinding when they needed flour, corn meal or whole-wheat cereal for their families. Some of the grain was ground as animal feed.
Mr. Stoll, Mabel Davis's Father, was short in stature, wore baggy pants and a shirt two sizes too large. He had a mustache, which was usually white with flour dust.
A one-cylinder engine powered his mill. To start it, he would open an oil cup and squirt a small amount of lubricant from a coned shaped can with a long spout, which made a click-click sound when the bottom was pushed. Mr. Stoll would then open a petcock on the side of the engine to release some of the piston pressure. He would then try to spin the large spoked iron balance wheel that was connected to the crankshaft. The petcock would hiss; the engine would put-put a couple of times, backfire and stop. He would then spin the wheel again, the pet cock would hiss, more put-puts and may be more put-puts; if not he would spin the wheel, which was as large as he was tall, again and again until it ran on its own.
A series of wide belts that revolved and flapped together ran inside the building. He controlled the grinder he chose to operate with clutches.
He ground flour, whole-wheat cereal and corn meal in the mill located half-a-block north of Oakwood's Main Street pump
MRS. NEAL'S HOUSE ON MAIN STREET, OAKWOOD
Mrs. Etta Neal lived in the last house on the south side of our street. The front porch had a swing large enough for two adults or for a child like me to take a nap.
The rains always washed loose sand down the hill and deposited it in the street in front of her house. Many cars got stuck there and she had to 'wade' the sand to reach her front porch.
She was a frail lady, who walked to work in the morning and returned to her house for dinner; walk to her store after dinner and home again in the evening.
Her furniture store was located in the middle of the next block east of her house on the north side. Her partner was Clarence Keller who later moved to Watonga and operated a funeral home there for many years. They sold furniture and caskets, and I am not sure just how much 'funeral directing' they did. The deceased were either laid out in a room in Mrs. Neal's home or in the family home.
One day as I was returning home from Harry Fielder's Grocery Store, I saw a curious sight in the front part of the furniture store. They had constructed a big wood box and covered it with white cotton quilt batting. The batting was secured to the box with carpet tacks.
When I told my mother of this unusual sight, she explained they were making a coffin for a destitute family whose mother had died.
The building later became Sions Grocery Store, then Fielder's Grocery Store. This house still stands on Main Street, Oakwood.
THE CHAMPLIN FILLING STATION ON MAIN STREET, OAKWOOD
Frank Porter erected this building and operated this as a filling station for some time. The filling station was sold to Bill Bartell who with his four girls sold motor oil and filled the empty gas tanks. The daughters were Gladys, Pearl, Lola and Helen. Bill had lost a hand in an accident and wore a stocking over the arm stub. He would wrap that stub arm around the gas hose and operate the nozzle with the good hand.
Elbert and Grace Gooch then had the Champlin Service Station, one of three stations in Oakwood. Their building was a cube like structure with parts of the roof slanting to all four directions. The building had stucco outside and red tile on the roof. The station had a cement driveway and underground gasoline tanks.
The station was lighted with real electric lights. A Delco Plant generated the electricity in a small building behind the station. A Delco Plant consisted of a gasoline powered generator and a series of batteries.
They also had a windmill with a water tank on a tower. The water was piped to the station to fill the radiators of the overheated cars and to water the many flowering plants which decorated the yard.
A neatly trimmed hedge was on the back of the lot and extended at an angle from one street to the other street. Large flowerbeds of phlox, petunias and marigolds were planted each year. Gilbert and Grace let me water the flowers anytime I desired. They also planted two Arborvitae trees and I thought they were the prettiest flat leaf cedars.
The gasoline was manually pumped, using long bars that swung back and forth, from the tanks into 20-gallon upright glass cylinders for display. The White gas was clear, Ethyl was golden yellow and 'High Test' was a shade of red. The gasoline flowed by gravity through a tube to the car's tank. Bulk motor oil was stored in a square container. It was measured in quart jars with a screw-on spout. This was one of the three "Filling Stations" on Main Street, Oakwood.
JIM REEDS' BLACKSMITH SHOP
A corrugated and galvanized metal building was the blacksmith shop of Jim Reed. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and one clubfoot. He drove a team of horses to work, as he lived just outside the city limits. He would tie the team behind the shop.
The building had two large doors on the front and back. Inside everything was blackened with coal soot. He had a large anvil and many tools for handling the hot metal. There was a large wooden tub filled with water. He would dip hot items into the water to temper the metal.
The forge was about six feet in diameter and air was forced from under it my means of a hand-cranked fan, which made the soft coal burn hotter. He would place plow shears into the fire until they were very hot, then laid them on the anvil and in a rhythm of hammering, he would draw out the edge of the shears to make them sharp. Each blow of the hammer produced sparks and small bits of sludge would fall to the earthen floor. The plow shears were then dipped in the water to temper them and made them stay sharp longer.
The floor had pieces of interesting twisted metal that came from the drill bit at the drill press. Smithies were able to do some crude fusing of metal by using a chemical called flux. Some would also make horseshoes and nail them to the feet of the horse or mule.
He let me turn the crank and flame the forge until it was ready for the next job. I would go home with black spots on my face even blacker hands and bare feet, but a happy kid. My mother would dunk me in the washtub and let me soak.
Years later when I enlisted in the navy that shop was still on Main Street, Oakwood.
DADDY SHAW'S STORE
C.A. "Daddy" Shaw owned the grocery store next door east of the blacksmith shop. It was a red brick structure with two indented entrance doors. There was a high cement front porch or sidewalk with a slanting covering.
I remember the thread storage cabinet had the spools in rows from front to back of each drawer. Each tint of color was in the same row with the lighter hues in the front and going back to the darker colors. There were a variety of colors, thread sizes and textiles. Embroidery thread came in skeins and was hung on special hooks.
The shoe area had a curved wooden bench where customers tried on limited supply and styles. The bench had a picture of Buster Brown and his dog on the back. There was an outline of a star made of holes drilled in the seat.
I do not remember much about the other types of merchandise in the store, other than a few bolts of piece goods, gloves and overalls.
Daddy Shaw played church music on a Victrola Phonograph. He was a spiritual leader of the community and a leader in the Methodist Church.
Daddy Shaw had a typewriter with half of the type bars on each side of the machine. When a letter key was struck the u-shaped type bar would make a 90 degree swing to strike the ribbon and thus make a letter impression on the paper. He let me type many words like "QWRTY', GBNTM', XZCKL' and 'POJMW'. None of these ever to be found in Webster's Dictionary.
When the Shows retired, they moved to a farm northwest of town. A few years later they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in their home. We did not go to that event, but were invited there a few days later when a ladies club had their annual oyster soup supper. Mrs. Shaw took me into the kitchen and lifted the cover of the cake plate and there to my amazement was still part of that special cake. She cut me a piece and we ate it in the kitchen. I'll never forget her telling me, "Now don't tell anyone about this."
The Shaw's store building was later a cream station and many other businesses before it became a "Dine and Dance", and later Hart's Grocery Store.
Mr. Shaw was my friend and inspiration. He was a soft voiced man whose store was on the south side of Main Street, Oakwood.
TOM & FAYE WRIGHT'S BUILDINGS
The buildings east of Daddy Shaw's Grocery Store were made of wood and sort of squeezed in between there and the next structure. There were actually three businesses. Faye's Café, Tom's Cream Station and Doctor Finley's Office. My grandmother was Dr. Finley's first house call and his first patient.
Tom, Faye and family also lived in the back of their business. It was Faye who turned the vacant Shaw building into a "Dine and Dance". A nickel dropped in a coin slot of the record machine would cause it to play the latest tunes and couples danced on a well-waxed hard wood floor. There were table and chairs in the front for dining. The "Do-Gooders" warned the youth of the community that any who entered and danced would surely go straight to hell.
Faye taught several young girls, including my sister a Japanese song, dressed them in kimonos and they performed at Oakwood School. They did a later performance at Bell School where Tom and Faye taught. I think the song theme was from the operetta "Madam Butterfly".
Tom, Faye, Cleta and Lorraine were very good dancers and were eager to teach the other kids all the latest dance steps. The girls played a good game of basketball too.
The Wright's son Tommy Gene won a dance contest when a medicine show came to town. Tommy Gene would sing for you any time his mother sat down at the piano.
THE PRODUCE
The space east of Faye's café formerly was the location of my parent's produce. I was told about its burning as it did a few years before I was born. When I lived there, Nick Hunck and his partner erected a metal building for a hardware store.
To open the building before the fixtures were in place they held a dance. The cement floor was sprinkled with corn meal and granular wax. When the band started playing, Gracie Pennington and Bruce Hutton glided onto the floor followed by Armel Wills and his date. Tom and Faye Wright followed, then others. To us starry eyed kids sitting on a crude wooden bench it was like the grand ballroom of the Astoria Hotel. The finest to come to Oakwood.
Mr. Hunck and his partner operated the store for several years and then sold it to a Mr. Bryant. Uncle Nick Hunck then built a van on the back of a new International Truck Frame to transport school kids. He ran an extension of the exhaust pipe up into the van and back out for winter heat. He had a way of diverting the exhaust heat when the bus became too warm. The windows could be raised or lowered.
Uncle Nick and Aunt Nora Hunck were pillars in the Christian Church.
Blanche Hole had a feed store in that building on Main Street, Oakwood.
VERNIE MARTIN'S SERVICE STATION
The lots next to the hardware store were vacant for many years before Vernie Martin built a service station there. It was the first to have electric gas pumps, a hydraulic lift for servicing vehicles and a grease gun operated by compressed pressure. He later erected a Quonset hut type building for a full service garage.
George Holbrook later rented the service station. Many men would stay there especially during wintertime because it had a new type kerosene-burning stove. Sometimes the cigarette smoke was as thick as a cloud in that little area.
Vernie still works in his garage on the south side of Main Street, Oakwood.
THE BOLANDERS
The Vernie Martin buildings were the newest in Oakwood, and just to the east of them was one of the oldest structures. It was a clapboard building where the rust nail heads created a rust stain below each one. Like most of the wooden structures it was badly in need of being painted. As long as I could remember Jim and Molly Bolander lived in the back and upstairs with their two children. Jim was another blacksmith in our town and Molly was a dressmaker.
Jim was also the deputy sheriff. One Saturday afternoon this plump man, wearing a red bandana around his neck, jumped onto the running board of a touring type car, grabbed the keys and arrested that local citizen for drunk driving.
Molly sewed for many ladies of the community. She had a new Singer Sewing Machine with all the latest attachments. Molly put off her customers because she "just didn't feel well all week", but would finish any outfit before the item was really needed.
Molly also had a cream station. I worked there for some time, unloading the farmer's pails, buckets or cream cans when they came to town on Saturdays. The containers were weighed on Fairbanks Scales; the cream was stirred with a disk like ladle on a long metal rod before samples of the cream were taken. The samples were measured in a test tube; sulphuric acid was added and spun at high speed. A pair of calipers was used to measure the amount of butterfat in the neck of the tube. The percent of butterfat was calculated against the net weight of the cream. The station manager was only purchasing the butterfat. The price of the butterfat changed nearly every week. Molly wrote drafts to the farmers from creameries that churned the butter.
My job was to empty the farmer's containers into twenty gallon cream cans. The empty containers were cleaned by inverting them over a steam spout. When they were clean the farmers retrieved their containers and would be back next week.
The creameries trucks came by every few days to pick up the filled cans.
The Bolander place was probably the oldest building on Main Street, Oakwood.
MAIN STREET OAKWOOD BANK AND POST OFFICE
Every town at one time had a bank. Every town had a post office. In Oakwood, the two institutions were housed in the same building, but at different times. Clifford Shaw was the head of the bank and later postmaster at the post office.
The bank served the people of Oakwood until the crash of 1930. It had three teller cages with the usual metal grill. The marble slabs where the tellers counted the money were rose colored. The president's office was in the southeast corner furnished with a desk, large swivel chair and two customer chairs. This is where the loans were made and other business transacted other than cashing checks and making deposits.
The vault had a large heavy metal door and over it in gold letters were "Oakwood Bank". The bookkeeping equipment consisted of the mechanical Burroughs Machines. The type where the depositor's ledger sheet was inserted and the transactions recorded mechanically. Each month a printed statement was sent to the depositors not too much different from the ones you receive today.
The checks were plain white with black printing. They did not have the customer names or account numbers on them as the bankers knew each one personally. In those days you were known by your name and not a number.
When Franklin Roosevelt became president of the United States and the banks failed, this one went under too. The postmasters were appointed with the recommendation of the local politicians. Clifford Shaw was appointed the postmaster and moved the post office into the bank building. Mr. Shaw's wife Fern helped him sort the mail and sell stamps.
The sign on the front of the building looked to be a one by twelve, fastened between two of the pillars holding the roof over the sidewalk. The sign that did read "Oakwood Bank" was easily changed to read "Oakwood Post Office".
Some remodeling was necessary, but basically the interior remained the same. The teller windows became the windows where postal supplies could be purchased. One became the window for asking for mail if it came "General Delivery". The rows of individual mailboxes were transferred to the new post office and placed in a row where teller windows had been. The rose colored marble became the base for canceling the stamps. A hammer like instrument with changeable dates was used. The postmaster would strike a red ink pad with the instrument, then strike the stamp on each envelope. If the letters were layed out properly, the canceling process was in a sort of rhythm.
The mail came by train twice a day. Each train carried a postal employee in the mail car. As the train picked up mail from each stop, it was sorted and ready for the next town stop or to wherever it was going.
The postmaster took his mail cart, met the train then carted the gray canvas mailbags back to the post office and sorted the mail. The letters, documents and periodicals with box numbers were put up first. Post office boxes were available for rent to persons desiring them or who could afford them. Then the general delivery mail was stamped with a date, and put in some alphabetical lettered boxes. When a person did not have a box with a combination lock, they asked for their mail at the general delivery window. (I remember our box number was 256). Some letters were marked, "If not delivered in three days, please return to the sender".
The rural mail carriers delivered long routes in the surrounding community. This was called "Rural Free Delivery (RFD)". The mail they delivered was sorted in the sequence of the families along the routes. These carriers would deposit the mail in usually oval top, galvanized mailboxes attached to a post to a specified height. That being the height of the car window driven by the carrier. Les Brodell was the carrier for many years.
There was always the same familiar odor to both institutions, that of paper, ink and oil. The floors were swept each day with an oil of cedar mop to collect the dust.
The back step of the bank was the children's source for rubber bands and paper clips. Those that fell on the floor of the bank or post office were swept out the back door and collected there, free to all who knew.
The same building, two different institutions on Main Street Oakwood.
THE C.A. SIONS' STORE
The C.A. Sions' building was in the southeast corner of the intersection by the town pump. It was a wooden, unpainted structure with a sidewalk on the west and north sides. These areas were covered with metal attached to the building and supported by wooden pillars on the edge of the sidewalk. The storekeepers had benches where the customers rested, met their friends and chatted.
I do not recall all the merchandise other than the usual grocery items, piece goods, gloves, shoes and a large display of candy. The overalls for men and boys were made of denim with metal shoulder strap fasteners and came in colors of blue, blue and white thin strips and blue and white wide stripes. If you had a pair of the wide striped overalls, you were something special.
Mr. And Mrs. Sions and their family worked the grocery store. The system at that time was to write each customer's order on a sales pad with the price, then pull it from the shelves. When the items were paid for, they were packed in boxes. An instrument for retrieving cartons from a high shelf looked like a broom handle with a gadget on top, which opened and clamped around the carton by means of a lever on the handle. Usually all the inventory of the store was on display. Sometimes it had to be stacked very high.
One tragic afternoon, the store burned. The bucket brigade was of little or no use. One of the daughters heard the warning "Fire", picked up the cash register and carried it outside. The fire spread so quickly that the structure was unsafe to save.
The Sions Family later opened their store as soon as supplies could be obtained in the building formerly occupied by Keller-Neal Furniture Company.
Mr. Dowd and Mr. Pennington occupied the only building between the Sions Grocery Store and the railroad tracks. The building had two rooms and built of white corrugated metal. The two men sold insurance, real estate and maybe practiced some law. The service most noted for was making legal documents and notarizing them.
I have some documents that were prepared in that building when my great-grandfather was applying for his civil war pension. These documents were dated before 1913.
This building was not attached to any other on the street and sort of stood out. It was quite visible from the hotel across the street. Many of the traveling salesmen and businessmen of the time stayed at that hotel.
When the building was no longer occupied, it was rented for living quarters for some of the non-homeowners. One of those renters was Howard Titus.
Many business and professional transactions that I did not know or would not have understood were consummated in this small building on Main Street, Oakwood.
THE DEPOT OF MAIN STREET, OAKWOOD
The Orient railroad company constructed the railroad, which ran through the town of Oakwood. Starting in Wichita, Kansas and ending in Sweetwater, Texas. There was a passenger train going south in the morning and an evening train going north each day. The freight train would go south one day and back north the next day. The Orient was later purchased and renamed Santa Fe.
The Oakwood Depot was painted dark yellow with dark red trim. It had a signal pole outside and the operator pulled cables to position the signal arms to tell the train personnel certain instructions. The depot was divided into three rooms. The south one was for freight storage. The middle room was the operator's office and was off limits to the public. It had a grilled ticket window and wood lattice above the partition. Through this you could hear the click, click of the telegraph machine tapping out Morse Code. The operator listened to the code, interpreted it and wrote out the incoming message. He also transmitted messages called telegrams to other cities for train instructions ad letters for the public.
The north room was the passenger waiting room. It smelled of smoke from the coal-burning stove, even in the summer time. There were long benches along the walls for the comfort of the waiting passengers. Every depot had a picture of a car hitting a train with proper lettering "Watch Out For The Trains."
The children would walk the rails, tight rope style, while waiting for the trains. When the train came into sight, depot operator, Bob McAfee, would admonish the children to get off the track and to go behind the platform cable for safety. Sometimes we children would place pennies on the track and let the train run over them, later to pick up flattened useless pieces of copper.
The trains brought merchandise, supplies, passengers and mail. There were always happy greetings and sad departure times.
A special train, once a year, would bring Wichita, Kansas Chamber of Commerce "Boosters". The train was scheduled and announced weeks in advance so there would be an enthusiastic crowd. Sometimes a band would play, but always a man would proclaim the greatness of their city. There were whistles, tops and trivial games for the kids, sewing kits for the ladies, knives, gloves and hats for the men, and of course leaflets listing the virtues of doing business with the merchants of Wichita.
In the fall a special train would originate in Fairview, Oklahoma; make stops in all the small towns between there and Clinton picking up passengers going to Ringling Brother's Circus. It would retract its route late that same night after the last performance of the circus.
A common sounds was the hissing of the steam engine, the conductors call, "Board; All Board", the two toots of the whistle, the chug chug, and the moving forward and disappearing out of sight.
The railroad tracks crossed Main Street Oakwood a block east of the town pump.
J.W. AND ALLIE BACK
J.W. and Allie Back lived in a large two-story white house just east of the railroad tracks. The house and grounds occupied most of the city block where it was located. The well groomed shrubbery on the grounds were rare and unusual varieties. Pines from the north and magnolias from the south graced this beautiful formal garden.
They had one boy and maybe two girls. This family was considered part of the elite of the town. They had maids to help with the housekeeping and for serving the meals. I remember them asking another family to dinner at 6:30 p.m.
On the grounds were areas where nursery stock was lined out until it could be sold. A rather unusual wide and almost flat topped building constructed back into the embankment was storage and served as office headquarters for "Back's Nursery".
I do not remember the time or the reason for the family moving out of that big elegant house. The Back's built a new house on the north side of their property. It was landscaped to the ninth degree as only a landscape artist could have conceived.
I recall once the grade school class was invited to tour the new house and grounds. The guided tour took us through the plants and shrubbery. Orange trees producing fruit and tobacco plants being raised in Oklahoma was very uncommon. Mrs. Back told us how the tobacco had to be cured by drying, and then processed into useable products.
In later years, a gas rodent bomb exploded in the new house and it was not safe to live in for many years.
Mr. and Mrs. Back divorced and Mr. Back moved to his farm north of Oakwood. He operated his nursery business from the farm for many years to follow.
This family's home and business was on Main Street, Oakwood.
MR. AND MRS. SAM MARTIN
The house on the corner east of the depot was that of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Martin. This house seemed very narrow and long. The front door faced the north where steps led down the embankment to the street. Their son was Vernie and their daughter was named Lottie. Vernie still lives in Oakwood and Lottie lives in Fay, Oklahoma.
Sam was one of the first rural mail carriers. I think he first delivered the mail in a horse drawn buggy. He had probably retired from the Postal Service before I was born.
The whole of down town could be seen from the front porch of the Sam Martin home on Main Street, Oakwood.
DR. SHARP
Dr. Sharp lived in the house on the southeast corner of the intersection east of the railroad tracks. This house set atop an embankment to the west, but was on ground level in the back.
His office was downtown and he attended many ladies who were giving birth to their new babies. The list of babies he helped come into this world would fill many pages, and I was one of them. Dr. Sharp was one of our paper customers.
Dr. Sharp's home was one of the better kept homes in Oakwood. It was painted some tint of evergreen color.
To the east of the Sharp home on the 'S' curve were several small homes whose occupants changed so frequently that it was difficult to remember who lived there.
These residents lived on Main Street, Oakwood.
MR. AND MRS. WEST
The house furthest east on the north side of the street was that of Mr. and Mrs. West. Their house was a modest unpainted hose located on the corner across the street from Dr. Sharp.
Mr. And Mrs. West had many flags (iris) growing in their front yard. They also raised a garden to the east of their home. The garden furnished an abundance of fresh vegetables for the family.
Mr. And Mrs. West are buried in the 'Odd Fellow Cemetery' south of Oakwood.
This house also faced Main Street Oakwood.
VERNIE MARTIN HOME
The next block had three distinct homes. The first of these housed the family of Vernie and Lucy Martin. It was a plain white house with only a couple of evergreen bushes in the front. There was a small front porch, not much larger than a step.
This family was not much different from others as they enjoyed the fresh vegetables harvested from the ever present summer garden.
Also in the back yard were one or more cars, some operable, others in the process of being repaired and others in a complete disarray. Vernie was always interested in mechanical things.
Vernie was a graduate of Oakwood School and a brother to Lottie Sober of Fay. His business downtown was described in an earlier chapter. It was in this house that the Martin family started their family on Main Street Oakwood.
CLIFFORD AND FERN SHAW
Clifford and Fern Shaw lived in the second house. They had one son, Roland, who still lives in the Oakwood area.
This house was a single story with a screened-in porch on the east. I remember the refrigerator was the type with the cooling coil on top.
They had a windmill with an elevated storage tank for their water supply. The house always had flower beds of colorful perennial and annual flowers. The garden at this house was well kept with nary a weed. The strawberries were on ridges, in straight rows and well mulched. There was a barn on the back side of the lot, and the cow therein furnished the family supply of milk.
Clifford lead the singing at the Methodist Church. Clifford and Fern worked in the bank and later were the Postmasters.
Another plain, homey home on Main Street, Oakwood.
JOHN AND ETHEL SPURLOCK
The next house in this block was that of the Spurlock's. I remember it as a square house with a roof line that sloped to all four sides. There was no front porch, just a step. This house was painted the popular color of white. The foundation was made of red brick. To the west between this house and the railroad were vacant lots, usually grown up in tall weeds.
This house could almost be called a "teacherage", as many of the teachers lived there at one time or another. I think this was the first home of John and Ethel Wright Spurlock. Ethel Wright Spurlock had a hand in the schooling of the children of our family. She got me started as she was my teacher for kindergarten and first grade.
This house was on the east slope of the town. It faced the south to Main Street, Oakwood.
COTTON GIN
The Cotton Gin sat empty and deserted most of the year. It only operated during the fall and early winter months when the cotton crop was being picked. The power for the many machines was that of a steam engine where coal was burned for heat. The tall smoke stack was a landmark of the town.
The farmers brought the cotton to town in wagons, later in trucks. They were weighed and then moved to the gin where a large tube with suction lifted the cotton and distributed it to the machines which separated the lint from the seeds.
The lint was conveyed to one of the two steam powered presses where it was amassed. When the right amount was in the hopper, the steam powered press would compact the cotton lint. Then metal straps would encircle the bale and the steam let off. The bale would then tumble to the floor. Men with large two-wheeled carts would load the bale and take it to the storage yard.
The seeds would go on another conveyer and be deposited in the seed bin. The hulls in case the cotton was 'pulled' went on a separate conveyer and deposited outside as a waste product. (Sometimes the farmers would take these hulls and spread them on their fields.)
During the busy cotton harvesting season, the farmers would wait in line for many hours before the suctioning process of their cotton would take place.
The empty wagons would be weighed again to determine the net amount of cotton to be sold by the farmer.
Once a worker at the gin got his sleeve caught in the saws which separated the lint from the seeds and was pulled into the gin. He was killed in this accident. My father was hired to remove the body and clean that part of the machine.
Cotton harvest months were busy months, but it usually assured the farmers of cash flow. These were the times when fall and winter clothing was purchased. Of course this also increased the sales and cash flow of the local merchants. Some farmers paid their previously charged purchases when the wheat was harvested and again when the cotton was sold. The merchants sometimes rewarded the farmer for paying his bill with a bag of candy for the children.
The wind direction could be determined by watching the smoke rise from the tall smokestack.
The scales at Oakwood's Cotton Gin not only weighed the cotton, but weighed cattle and people too. A citizen of the community was a very large lady, whose weight was guessed at or estimated by many. One day the young men persuaded her to ride in their car. They proceeded to the gin, drove up and visited with the scales man, who was in on the joke, weighed car and people. Later the lady was deposited at her home and the car reweighed. Many boasted they knew her true weight.
This impressive sheet metal building was just west of the Santa Fe Tracks on Main Street, Oakwood.
EARLY POST OFFICE
A drainage ditch separated the grounds of the cotton gin from the building which housed the Post Office. The Postmaster was Bruce Hutton. The building was a wood structure and more than once had several inches of water in it after extremely heavy rains.
When the stamp collecting craze hit Oakwood, the children of Oakwood would raid the trash box behind the post office to retrieve the stamps from discarded letters. Bruce would bait the trash box to excite the kids.
When the depression hit and Franklin Roosevelt came to power, the Postmaster position was given to Clifford Shaw. He then moved the Post Office to the old bank building.
This structure then became a "Beer Joint" and pool hall during the construction time of highway 270. Many of the truck drivers hauling gravel from John Norris' sand pit and the construction crew had a nightly one there. Abe Smith received a gunshot wound while trying to break up a fight one evening. The church people tried unsuccessfully to close this den of iniquity many times.
The old Post Office building housed many businesses until it was removed from Main Street Oakwood.
HOTELS
One of the two hotels in Oakwood was next to the Post Office. It was a two story building with a balcony type upstairs front porch. I do not remember how many rooms it had as I had only been upstairs one time. There was an inside stairway which was in the northeast corner of the lobby. A sort of boardwalk spanned the lean-to type shed below that housed the kitchen for the hotel's dining room. Steps connected to the boardwalk above the kitchen and extended to the ground. Since this was the days before fire and safety codes, I think it was an exit from the hotel to the outhouse.
The lobby of the hotel was also the dining room, bar and domino parlor. Hazel Hutton Chain cooked and served meals in the dining room. The dining room was decorated with various Coca Cola, NEHI and other soft drink posters. A mild drink called 'near beer' was the strongest brew served.
John Chain a butcher had his store on the west side of the hotel. It was a white building trimmed in black with two large plate glass show windows.
His family had many farms and a ranch. I think they raised their own animals for slaughter.
The butcher shop had one of the first mechanically cooled meat display cases in Oakwood. The compressor with its many twists of cooling coils was outside the back door.
My great-grandfather was the town butcher before John Chain.
This structure was one that lasted for many years on Main Street Oakwood.
SIONS' DRUG STORE
The drug store was the east most building of the main business block of Oakwood. It was a wood structure covered with flat sheets of metal which had been covered with many coats of paint. The ceiling inside the building was very high and was covered with metal sheets embossed with a design. When the ceiling was covered it had a definite pattern to cover the entire area.
The soda fountain was solid pink to tan marble. There were three chromium covered fountains sticking above the marble counter top. If a glass of soda was accidently placed too hard on the counter it was a sure crash. One of the fountains provided water and another carbonated water for mixing fountain drinks.
Several flavors of ice cream were served from the refrigerated area just below the soda fountains. The ice cream came in large containers covered with insulated canvas and shipped from Oklahoma City on the Mistletoe Express. The Oklahoma City papers also came this way.
The back bar of the soda area was a high dark stained piece of decoration with a column at each end and a mirror as large as the whole back area. The counter held stacks of crystal clear glasses, large at the top and tapering to a smaller area bottom. Each glass had been sand blasted with the trade mark of Coca Cola.
The typical twisted iron chairs and glass top tables furnished resting places for the customers to rest while enjoying a hand dipped ice cream, malt or ice cream sundae.
Lynn Sions and Alice Hutton Sions were the owners of the drug store. He stocked Memorial Day wreathes for that occasion and fire crackers for the fourth of July. He also sold school books.
The doctors of the town mixed most of their own prescriptions so the need of a pharmacy was nil. There was a hefty stock of patent medicines, cosmetics, games and toys.
The pine wood floor creaked when trod upon by shoes or bare feet.
In later years the drug store was moved next door and this building became a pool hall.
While the pool hall was in this building, games of dominos were being played by the town's more accomplished players. Later there were late night games of pitch, lowboy and poker played under a dim light in the back room.
One night Snip Baker and I slept on the pool tables as we had failed to make contact with his brother following an out of town basketball game. A bed with a straw mattress was well appreciated after that long night on a hard piece of slate.
Two long pine benches were on the sidewalk in front of the pool hall. The men of the 'spit and chatter club' met here mostly on Saturday but some members were present every day. Many a newly sharpened knife was tested and thus the carvings became the décor of these unpainted benches.
The persons resting on the benches watched the sights on Main Street Oakwood.
HARRY FIELDER'S MERCANTILE
Harry Fielder's Mercantile was in the building next to the drug store. The front part of the building had side walls of bricks with the back of wooden construction.
The grocery, piece goods, and shoe departments were on the main floor. Beside the stairway leading to the studio area upper floor was a coffee mill. Coffee was shipped in the roasted whole kernel, then was ground, and repackaged as it was purchased. This coffee grinder was later replaced by an electric mill.
The wide stairs led to the upper area where costume jewelry and ready to wear clothing was sold. Harry purchased a diamond ring for his wife, hid it in the tray with other costume rings. He admonished his daughters not to sell that ring. He did admit the fake diamond rings sparkled almost as much as the real ring. The occasion to give the ring to his wife came before it was sold in error.
The store was destroyed by fire one evening. A fire truck from Canton came to help fight the fire to no avail. They and a bucket brigade did keep the fire contained within this store area. The buildings on each side only suffered smoke damage.
The building was later rebuilt, the Fielders had purchased the Sions store next door, the drugstore moved into the new area and the pool hall was located in the drugstore building.
The businesses moved like hopscotch from one building to another but the mode of operation changed very little on Main Street Oakwood.
THE SIONS' STORE
The Sions' Store set up business after their fire a few months earlier. The new store with new merchandise was a hit of the town. To generate extra business, Mr. Sions would have the local telephone operator give a general ring on all the telephone lines announcing the sale merchandise of the week.
In addition to the 'general ring' announcement, some of the merchants would have a crawing for cash or merchandise. Mr. Sions did this every Saturday.
This store was certainly larger in area, the general lighting was better and they prospered in this atmosphere until they decided to retire. A newest model of refrigerated meat display case was installed. Although many farmers butchered their own animals, some prepared meats and cheeses were purchased on a regular basis. A vegetable case with refrigeration and humidity control was installed to assure the year round availability of fresh produce.
The merchants of the town arranged for a Saturday afternoon drawing for cash. Customers received tickets with a given amount of purchases which were put into a large cardboard hat box. Some young child was selected to draw the tickets and Don Able announced the winners. Sometimes the child was rewarded by the lucky recipient with some candy or coke.
Shortly after the drawings, most of the farmers would depart for their respective farms and return the following week for an afternoon of shopping and await the drawings.
This was the largest store on Main Street Oakwood.
MULTIPLE USE BUILDING
The building to the west of Keller-Neal Furniture, Sion's Grocery Store, and Fielder Mercantile had many businesses during my life time.
I remember it being an implement store for John Deere Tractors and implements, the tractors and implements were demonstrated in the vacant lots behind the store.
In later years it was a movie theater operated by the Spurlock family. The silent, black and white movies were projected from a booth above the entrance and ticket booth. I do not remember who played the piano for musical background.
I had not learned to read when my brother and Norval Baber took me with them to the movies. They, like most others in the theater were reading the conversation lines to the small kids seated next to them.
At one time Daddy Butts had a short order restaurant here. Many hamburgers were consumed at the row of revolving stools at the counter. He cooked on a grill on the west wall. The water glasses were heavy glass and barrel shaped. On the counter were paper napkins, salt and pepper shakers and sugar in a covered bowl. There were some ice cream type chairs and tables along the east wall and in the back of the room for those who did not prefer to sit at the counter. The room was cooled with several overhead ceiling fans.
The hamburgers with grease speckled buns were served with home grown onions, home canned pickles, lots of mustard and were served on a plain white heavy crock plate. Sesame seed buns, french fries, onion rings and potato chips had not been invented.
Coca Colas, NEHI Grape and Strawberry drinks were served in the bottles, wet with the cold water bath they received awaiting a purchaser. When it was gulped too fast, the result was a burp of carbonation which tickled the nostrils.
This was the site of Oakwood's first pool hall. There were two pool tables with many watchers and men who waited to play either the winner or the loser. The cement floor had a typical thin layer of dust or sand grit. When a person walked with a shuffle step, it sounded like sand paper.
There were domino and card games in the back of this room. The chairs had a round seat and two bent wood pieces to form a back. The onlookers to the games either stood or used an empty wooden soft drink case tipped upon one end. I was too young to understand all the games so I was unaware of any gambling if any was a part of the games.
In its pool hall days, this was a favorite for the young and old men to hang out on Main Street Oakwood.
DR. SHARP'S OFFICE
Dr. Sharp had as his office a small two room frame building between the Sions' Store and the barber shop.
He was the town's only medical staff. No receptionist, no nurse and no pharmacy. He diagnosed, prescribed the medicine and mixed it for the patients.
His visits to home bound patients were made in a buggy and team of horses. On the wall of his office was a picture of a doctor in a buggy, urging the horses on to their top speed. In the background of the picture was a stork carrying a baby. I guess that was the way it was with most frontier doctors who raced the stork in delivering babies. He assisted in the delivery of my three brothers and two sisters as well as most of the other children of the community.
Dr. Sharp probably owned the first automobile in Oakwood. It seems to me it was a Buick Sedan with a spare tire on the back. In his later years when he was unable to drive well, especially at night, he would call my father to drive for him.
He was one of our regular paper customers which were delivered to his house on the east hill.
When he was not in the country to see a patient, he was available at his office of Main Street Oakwood.
EARL BUTTS' BARBER SHOP
Earl Butts was the local barber. His barber pole stood on the sidewalk and was made of a metal cylinder like a hot water or air compressor tank, painted with red, white and blue stripes.
The interior of the shop had two long slatted benches painted bright green. There were two hydraulic chairs to raise the customers to the correct height so Earl did not have to stoop. Although there were two chairs, very seldom did Earl have another barber work for him. The chair also revolved on the pedestal, and reclined for an application of hot towels in preparation for a shave. The razors were strapped to assure sharpness and a comfortable shave for the customer.
I know that Harry Fielder and Bert Scott were barbers there at one time. Whether they learned on the job or had schooling, I do not recall that information.
The shop had a distinct odor of Bay Rum, the latest hair tonic and hair oil. Earl mixed a special hair oil tonic for special customers.
The hot water tank was enclosed in a small closet and was heated with a kerosene burner. He filled the tank once each day and that supply seemed to last him all day.
If he was not in his shop the seeker of a haircut could find him in the pool hall. Saturdays were his busiest times, as the farmers and their sons were in town and it was a convenient time to get a haircut.
While I was in high school, a room was built on the back of the barber shop and Mildred Butts had the first beauty shop in Oakwood. It was a place for the women to have their hair set or to have a permanent wave.
The permanent wave machine was a wheel like apparatus on a tall black stand. Attached to the wheel were some heated clips which clamped to a roller of hair. A solution on a special paper was wrapped around the curler of hair and heated for a special time. It was crude in comparison to the modern day machines and any lady who had just received a permanent wave was recognized immediately.
These may have been the longest, continously operated businesses on Main Street Oakwood.
FRANK PORTER'S GARAGE AND FILLING STATION
Frank Porter built a sprawling wooden framed, almost flat topped structure covered with corrugated sheet metal. It was here that he operated a garage and filling station. The garage had a front and rear door which hung on rollers on a track. They opened by pushing the door to one side. Most of the cars he worked on were Model T Fords, Chevrolets, Pierce Arrows and Buicks of now antique vintage.
My grandfather, Sherm Scott, worked for him and later purchased the business. Sometime after the purchase he was diagnosed as having T.B. and spent a cure time in a sanitorium in Colorado. When he returned he spent most of his time sitting in a cane bottomed chair leaned back against the outside wall of the garage in the sunshine.
He pumped the gasoline, kept the books, hired and trained young men of the community to be mechanics. His roll top desk was a curious thing to us and we rolled it up and down just to see it follow the groves. My father worked there rebuilding batteries after graduating from a mechanics school in Wichita, Kansas.
My grandfather owned the Chevrolet Dealership for Oakwood. John Butts was his salesman. Chevrolet's advertising gimmick was a cutout of an owl. The owl had a light bulb inserted in the two holes representing its eyes. One eye winked and the by-line on the owl read, "Be Wise, Buy a Chevrolet". It must have been the most exciting thing in town because many families gathered in front of the garage for many late evening hours to watch the owl wink. The kids played with model cars in the sand on the street.
My uncle, Clarence Scott, worked in the garage too. He had been to school and was a specialist in straightening front axels. The cause of bent axels was hitting tree stumps and large rocks.
We lived near the garage and we never missed an opportunity to go see granddad. We were happy to do his banking, as he would write something on a piece of paper and put it in a Bull Durham tobacco sack. We would take it to the bank and received pennies which were quickly traded for candy bits.
My mother made a dress for my oldest sister, who in her haste to go show granddad, fell in the mud. Grandad picked her up, comforted her, purchased her some candy and carried her home. On his fatal day, my granddad collapsed in front of the garage. I think it was Flossie Wills who called my dad from the back of the garage. My father put him in the back of the school bus, Joe Stein held him in the back door so he could spit blood. He was dead on arrival at the home two blocks away.
Joe Stein purchased the garage, moved the office to the west part of the building. He was in business for many years on Main Street Oakwood.
FRANK PORTER
Frank Porter also owned the building next to the Oakwood Garage. It was a rude corrugated metal building with only a minimum of studs and rafters. (In all the stories when I have mentioned corrugated, metal, colloquially it was called tin.) It was four walls and a pitched roof, also covered with corrugated metal. In later years the zinc coating had oxidized away and the bare metal rusted. The building was mostly rust to dark brown in color except where a new sheet of the metal had been replaced until it would start its oxidation.
I don't remember this structure as much of a garage where cars were repaired. I think it mostly stored new automobiles until they were sold.
The enterprising Frank Porter, whom I have described previously, owned a produce house, Champlin Filling Station, garage for auto repair and now a movie theater.
The movie theater was really the storage garage described above. At night the cars were parked along both sides of the garage and rows of chairs were set up in the driveway. The movie was projected first on a white sheet, then on a prepared screen. These were also silent movies and everyone in attendance read the lines aloud. When the show was over, the chairs were stowed and the building prepared for the next day's business.
The next succession of businesses to occupy this unique building is unclear. Probably a series of garages, produce houses, cream stations and feed stores. Later the front of the building was converted into a café. Howard, Millie and Willis Titus were the second owners of the café.
Then a 'Help Yourself' laundry was installed in the rear of the building, this was a likely place because a well had been drilled behind the building. Some families pumped their daily water supply here. When the laundry was installed, an electric pump was also installed to furnish the necessary supply for the laundry. Mr. and Mrs. Fruit, teachers in the school system, owned the laundry.
For a poorly constructed building, it was used for many businesses on Main Street Oakwood.
ICE HOUSE AND LOTS
The lot west of the Porter garage, theater and café never had a structure on it other than in later years a small, about eight by eight foot well insulated building was sort of dropped off here. It was an icehouse. It had one large door on the front, with ice prices posted thereon. Ira Buckles was the proprietor.
The large vacant lot behind the icehouse became a gardening attempt during the depression recovery. Someone plowed this large plot, and I understand the county home demonstration agent furnished garden seed for the project. Many of the town women dressed in long dresses, aprons and sunbonnets, cultivated the land and planted the seeds. They hoed out the weeds and awaited the growth of the young plants. Their hopes were crushed with the summer winds, sun and no rain prevailed.
A lodge hall stood on the southwest corner of these vacant and deserted lots, which produced weeds to the dismay of their owners. The building was destroyed in one of the many fires of Oakwood. Its foundation of thick concrete foundation withstood the elements for many years.
During the gardening era, the ladies' club erected a flagpole and tilled the soil between the foundations. A town flower garden was designed, planted and was much more successful than the vegetable garden. It was here that I occasionally picked a handful of flowers, walked east in the alley to Hazel Chain's Café in the hotel. She would put me up on one of those round stools, give me a kiss and present me with a big Coca Cola. We were both happy.
Two frawn type Chinese Elms planted on the south side of the lodge hall foundation along the curb survived and produced greenery for my bouquets.
For years these trees withstood the drought to adorn that part of Main Street Oakwood.
THE COLEMAN PRODUCE BUILDING
I guess this building was most familiar to me as we lived in it until I was seven years old. It was a corrugated galvanized covered building with a flat roof. This building was first a furniture store. It had a covered porch on the front and a large Boston ivy plant climbed the east pillar, which held the roof.
The water supply for the family was a cistern. When it rained, the water ran off the roof into the eaves through a charcoal filter and into the cistern. The water was brought to the surface by turning the crank on the pump. The wheel inside the pump caused a chain of square cups to dip deep into the water and deposit it in a small metal box connected to the spout. The water was always tinted a very light tan.
There was a barn-like structure on the back of the lot. Here, like many of the other families, we raised a few chickens, a couple of pigs and a cow or two.
On the west side of the store was a large garden. This supplied the family with fresh vegetables during the summer months.
The cream station and feed store were in the front of the building and the family lived in the back three rooms.
The family consisted of my father, mother, two sisters and three brothers. Our cousin lived with us while she was finishing high school. We had an abundance of relatives in the community and they all came by each Saturday.
Our mother tended the cream station and feed store, our father drove a truck. In the winter he drove a school bus route to bring the rural children to the local school.
We lived in this building until my grandfather died in 1933. We then moved to the farm to take care of my grandmother.
We had the largest family living on Main Street Oakwood.
THE TELEPHONE OFFICE
Millie Titus operated the telephone office. It was in the front room of their building and they like other families in Oakwood had living quarters in the back of the building. Howard Titus performed the maintenance on the switchboard and the telephone lines.
Outside and on the south of the office, Howard had constructed a fishpond. It had several species of fish swimming there and was decorated with marbles, pretty rocks, water lilies and water hyacinths. The plants blossomed in the summer.
The local residents and the businesses had private telephone lines with an assigned number. Very seldom did the subscribers call for a specific number, but rather asked for the business or the residence by name. The rural subscribers were on party lines and each had an assigned number, but again it was easier to ask for the person.
The rural subscribers were on one of several rural lines and they knew by the number of long and short rings who the call was intended. There was little or no privacy in this type of telephone system, only an honor system. Any subscriber could call another on the same line by ringing the long and shorts of the other's telephone without going through the central office.
One long ring brought a prompt answer from Millie, as "Central" and she would proceed to complete the call to the other party.
The switch board was a bank of brass tipped red cords, which could be plugged in, from the calling party's phone line to the other party's line. When a call was made to 'Central' a small tab about an inch square would be released and drop partly down. This was Millie's way of knowing which line was calling.
There was a small booth in the telephone office where calls could be made and paid for at that time if they were long distance.
Millie wore a heavy headset that plugged into the switchboard; it was so heavy that she developed a twitch in her neck from many years of wearing it.
The telephone lines departed the central office from one large pole. Each line was attached to a glass insulator and the insulator attached to the pole. Howard knew the direction that each line was directed to reach the individual subscribers or to the rural lines.
The rural lines were usually one line attached to the top of a pole made of a black jack tree. The pole would bend and buckle under the weight of the line after a few years.
After we moved to the farm to take care of my grandmother we had a heavy snow. Some of the telephone poles had buckled under the weight and had fallen into the snow. This grounded the line and it was not possible to complete a call.
Since grandmother was not in good health, it was imperative that we secure a doctor when she had a sinking spell. On this particular snowfall, I was sent by horseback to trace the telephone line, pull it from the snow where it was covered and laid it atop the nearest fence post. It was five miles to town and at that time I was only twelve years old. I completed the task and returned home before dark.
A general ring was a series of many short rings. The merchants to announce their Saturday or Trades Day specials used it. It was also used for 'Public Service' announcements, school closings due to bad weather or to announce the services for a deceased resident or any other emergency concerning the community.
Mr. And Mrs. Riggs had operated the telephone office previous to Howard and Millie Titus.
The telephone office was a half-block south of the town pump on Main Street Oakwood.
BIG JOE LUMBER YARD
The Big Joe Lumber Yard was across the street from the telephone office. There was a house for the manager, a sales office, a storage building for cement and another for roofing materials. The sized lumber was stored in a large shed with only a roof that sloped to the north and south and no sides. It was constructed of mostly two by fours and had squares where the lumber could be pulled from either side of the structure. The squares were two high.
The lumberyard operated for many years, but was closed during the depression.
Carl and Irma Hartman lived in the manager's house. Their sons Carl Neal and A.J. became masters at walking the two by fours of the shed's structures. Many a game of tag was played on Saturday afternoons here.
The lumber shed and other buildings were eventually torn down, but the manager's house was later converted into a Church of Christ.
This was on the east side of (what is presently known as Michigan Avenue), just south of the town pump, Main Street Oakwood.
THE RIGGS HOTEL
Mr. And Mrs. Riggs and their daughter owned the other hotel in Oakwood. In this day and time the salesmen had to travel by train. They would come on the train, call on their prospect and then stay overnight and catch the next train out on the next day.
I do not remember how many rooms there were in this two-story hotel nor do I recall the facilities for the comfort of the guests. There was an out-house and probably a 'Potties' or 'Slop Jar' named container under the beds. The structure did have an upstairs porch or balcony on the front of the building.
This family also had living quarters in the lower floor in the back of the hotel. The newspapers were delivered to the back door.
Mr. Riggs always had a garden on the back of the lot. Also there was a large building, more like a barn. This was his livery stable where the salesmen could hire a team and buggy if their business took them to other parts of the community. This building was later a garage for the family automobile.
When the automobile became common and the salesmen could travel to many towns in a day, the need for hotels diminished. It was then the upper story of this hotel was removed and the lower floor was used as a home for the aged Riggs Family.
This wooden structure still stands on the west side of Michigan Avenue, a block south of the town pump on Main Street Oakwood.
JIM BOLANDER'S BLACKSMITH SHOP
This blacksmith shop was in a long, rusty, sheet metal building near the schoolhouse. It was probably one of the eyesores of the town with an array of used, worn out, rusty farm machinery surrounding it at all times.
Jim had a small office in the northeast corner of the building. It was in this area where he kept scales to weigh metals such as aluminum, zinc, copper and brass. The kids of the community accumulated the zinc aluminum jar caps to sell for a few pennies. Copper was obtained from removing the insulation from wire and brought a few pennies when sold.
Inside the smitty's shop was a forge with a large smoke stack. He also sharpened plow shears and repaired broken farm machinery. The items stored inside the structure was covered with black smoke soot. The main driveway of the building was used to store the family automobile.
Mr. Bolander kept goats at his blacksmith shop. The goats had many purposes like, milk for the family; they kept the grass and weeds grazed. The large billy goat was a deterent for kids to play and possibly get hurt playing on the old farm machinery.
A Halloween challenge was to remove the goats from the blacksmith shop to Main Street or to tie them to a schoolteacher's front porch. Mr. Bolander would fire a shotgun into the air to scare the would-be offenders. I think he stayed at the blacksmith shop on Halloween to protect his property.
This rustic sheet metal structure was located one block north of the town pump, Main Street Oakwood.
BUNT JONES GARAGE
Bunt Jones Garage was a wooden structure with the boards in a vertical position. The cars were driven into the workshop through a large door on the south side. When the weather was warm, the two doors were swung back to each side. The entrance to the office was on the southwest corner. The corner had been cut at an angle and the flat side had a window on each side of the door. There was a water tower behind the garage. The water was pumped into the elevated tank by a windmill.
Most any man could repair the cars, as they were relatively simple mechanically.
It was in this building that I attended my first indoor basketball game. We stood on the back of a truck parked in one of the stalls and cheered for the Oakwood Team.
THE OAKWOOD LODGE HALL
The lodge hall was a two-story building covered with corrugated galvanized sheet metal. The nail heads on this building also had rusted and rust stains were below each of them. There was an enclosed stairway to the upper floor on the south side of the building.
I was never upstairs in that building. The Masons, Odd Fellows, Rebeccas, Eastern Star, and Royal Neighbor Lodges held their secret meetings there. Some of the citizens of the community belonged to more than one of these organizations. I could never understand how the many organizations could have their meetings in the same room and not confuse the rituals.
The lower floor had a small stage and many wooden benches. Most of the high school plays were held there. I played the part of a corn shock on that very stage when I was six years old. I was also the spider who frightened Miss Muffett.
When the W.P.A. was building the new schoolhouse in 1941, the lower floor of the lodge hall was divided into three rooms to accommodate some high school classes. The coal-burning stove had a poor stovepipe and would often fill the rooms with smoke.
I recall a district meeting of the Royal Neighbor Lodges when the ladies decorated their cars with crepe paper of many colors and had a parade on Main Street Oakwood.
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment