THESIS
FINAL PROJECT
WEEK 08
HOMESTEAD
POST OFFICE
FIRE STATION
BARN 01
INTERVIEW
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:01 - 00:00:34:07
Unknown
The Red River? Yes. Okay. Yeah. We're almost in Texas. I'm sorry. I'm here to go. She was in Texas because that part of the the state at one time was in Texas. Then they discovered that the survivors had made the on the wrong river and the salt Salt Fork Lake, salt fork of the Red goes north of Duke and Altus, and then the red itself is south.
00:00:34:07 - 00:00:51:22
Unknown
So you're supposed to be on the red itself. And they made a mistake. And for about I don't know how many years. But anyway, they went up going to Supreme Court. And finally the Supreme Court ruled that that should be in Oklahoma. So they moved the state line to the Red River. Yeah. When when was that 1800 something?
00:00:51:24 - 00:00:55:07
Unknown
Okay. Before the way.
00:00:55:10 - 00:01:21:19
Unknown
I don't know, but before the what? Rush? The land. Rush. Oh. The land. Oh. The center. Oh, right. Okay. And the senators were the ones that you were supposed to start at a certain time from a certain line, and there were people that came and cheated and that. So they were planted out there, and they already had their little spots, so they were called Sooners.
00:01:21:22 - 00:01:43:06
Unknown
That's interesting. I didn't know that was the the history of it. Yeah. Their mascot is a cheat. Yes. Cheaters. The boomers were the one that played on the line. And when the gun went off, the rush to find the spot somewhere and they just they went covered wagons, horses, whatever. And I think it was a quarter section as they could to get a piece of land.
00:01:43:10 - 00:02:05:10
Unknown
I think they could stick out a quarter section, no cost, 160 acres, man. 240 acres. Can't do that now. No. And you said that was mid 1800s. I don't think so. So pre-Civil War then? Yes. Okay, I'll have to. I'll. I'll find out if on the land run.
00:02:05:12 - 00:02:31:20
Unknown
That was your family from that area, then? Rich. Okay. And they settled in. Very cool. When have you been to Germany? No I haven't. Yeah.
00:02:31:23 - 00:02:44:07
Unknown
That might be nice.
00:02:44:09 - 00:02:57:05
Unknown
I know, I know, it was after the Civil War.
00:02:57:07 - 00:03:11:20
Unknown
Now, when you say the border was at the Texas Oklahoma border, no, I would have line somewhere up to the north. It was, I think it was falling on the the line which is north of Oklahoma City.
00:03:11:23 - 00:03:33:01
Unknown
Yeah. Okay, then that line would extend it all the way to the east. Texas to the Panhandle. Oh, no, it didn't go back to east because the East had already been granted to the various Indian nations. Okay. Okay. Interesting. That's what used to be the capital of Oklahoma. And then somebody they came in Stowe and put it on the thing.
00:03:33:03 - 00:03:58:08
Unknown
It's so was I think. Well, Oklahoma's got a history then of cheating. You look at a map of Oklahoma on old map to the east, I don't know. I don't remember what tribes. This is a nation. This is the Choctaw Nation. This is the Chickasaw Nation. And different nations have whole streaks. Up north was the Osage Indians.
00:03:58:08 - 00:04:23:18
Unknown
Up in round, north and east of Tulsa. And they had well there. And so that's that's a very rich tribe. I had a brother that was from up there, and he was part of Indian, and he had head rice, they called it, and he had a brand new Ford car and fine clothes and did what he wanted to.
00:04:23:20 - 00:04:47:04
Unknown
It must be nice, because the Indian player had all and every every one that was on the rolls got some kind of a check. Wow. It's the same, is it? That's still the same with the oil today. Yes. Okay. Yeah. That was there. An Indian nation. And they're there to the U.S. government. I mean, the government can't jack with them.
00:04:47:06 - 00:05:16:06
Unknown
Wow. They they got lucky with the their plot of land. Yeah. And that's the same with the casinos. The casinos somehow declare where they are, like. Like across the river. It was the Chickasaw Nation, across from Sherman and Durant. That was the Choctaw Nation. Okay. And they can operate in there without. They can have the casino, and they don't have to ask the state or anybody.
00:05:16:10 - 00:05:48:14
Unknown
They just want to see them. So we're going to be able to see them. Did they pay taxes? They pay income taxes. I don't know about property taxes. Yeah. They play property taxes too. I don't know. Okay. That's but the nation has a lot of rights of various kinds. Yeah. Well, I guess. Yeah. Do you wanna maybe tell us a little bit to begin with about what you remember of era when you were growing up?
00:05:48:16 - 00:05:53:24
Unknown
Oh, that's.
00:05:53:27 - 00:06:09:03
Unknown
It was just a very small town. We had two grocery stores and two service stations and the school and three churches and.
00:06:09:05 - 00:06:37:11
Unknown
The road down the street was gravel. All the gravel. He was all gravel road. And up toward the cemetery there was a cotton gin. That was a big deal. I remember when we had cotton on the place going up there time or two and taking trader loads of cotton, and it was fun to watch the got gotta have a huge vacuum cleaner that's like this.
00:06:37:11 - 00:07:02:25
Unknown
And they suck all the cotton out of your trailer with that big, big vacuum cleaner and blows up into a place where then it's goes through the gin and becomes seed and fiber, and then they baled it. Where was the cotton gin? If you turn right, going toward the cemetery. Okay. You'll see. Just before you get to the cemetery, you'll see a dense grove of trees.
00:07:02:28 - 00:07:24:15
Unknown
Okay. Before you hit the cemetery, before you get to the open ground. And that's where it was. If you can, if you can walk around in there, you can find some of the concrete from the. Oh wow. From the, the old building. When did it go out of business or in the 50s. Okay. Like the late 50s.
00:07:24:17 - 00:08:00:27
Unknown
Cotton in this area that you say cotton was kicking back the 2030s and 40s, but a disease called cotton root rot at the area. And you just. It would be like Hatcher crop. So it just became non productive to plant cotton. And that's that was in the mid 50s. And far as I know that was I can remember going to the gym probably when I was about 10 or 12 was the last time and that would be 40.
00:08:00:29 - 00:08:06:24
Unknown
7 or 8 I guess nine somewhere along there.
00:08:06:27 - 00:08:34:18
Unknown
The two stores, the Alexander's Grocery and the Mr. Pike's, had the other grocery store, and eventually Mr. Foster went out of business. And I never did go to this, but they the somebody strung lights over between the two stores. They were like, as far apart from here to that door. And both got there were, you know, where?
00:08:34:21 - 00:08:57:15
Unknown
Just to the west of the fire station. Okay. And, they strung lights between them and they sanded it down and had a coke court, and the men would. That was a gathering place for the old man. And come late evening or after dark and play croquet for an hour or two and gossip and visit and everything kind of a gathering place.
00:08:57:17 - 00:09:25:04
Unknown
And do you know when that would have been roughly. I mean, would that be in, in the, No, it would have been a mr. Parker must have gone out in the late 50s, because I believe there were still, still two buildings when I went away to college and then along and their sometime the Alexander brothers bought the other store and they moved them together and made one large store.
00:09:25:07 - 00:09:56:22
Unknown
They just moved to move that building over. Okay. Alexander's grocery there were five others and and others. And there was a Jack ran the store, and Rex and Kenneth and Gordon were farmers. And Ed Alexander, the baby of the family. He left the farm and went to town. Was a banker in Gainesville. Okay. But they operated the store and their farming enterprise and the one bank account.
00:09:56:25 - 00:10:25:10
Unknown
Oh, wow. And supposedly when Mr. Alexander, the father of this bunch, was on his deathbed, he called the boys into his room at home and had him bring him a bundle of five sticks, singer size sticks. And he told one of them, said take that one and break it. And of course he couldn't. He said don't take one.
00:10:25:14 - 00:10:41:05
Unknown
Can you break it. And he said look I. He said remember that said as long as you stick together nobody's going to break you. And so they stay together and under one account, one operation for and down in the.
00:10:41:08 - 00:10:47:15
Unknown
I guess late 50s again. That's probably what I was going.
00:10:47:17 - 00:11:14:15
Unknown
My mom was good friends with two of the wives. And they had a little club that they went to all the time. And whenever Esther Alexander, whenever they got a new car with an era, Alexander was saying, well, we need a new car. So it was then. Gordon. Yeah, that Alexander was saying, we need a new car. So so Ed, being the banker, finally said, all right, guys, create a farm account and some individual counts for each family.
00:11:14:16 - 00:11:40:12
Unknown
And so that's the way you got to do it. So that's what they did. Are any of the Alexanders still in the area? No. There a son of Gordon who is still alive. He had a being a had a PhD in something and is an instructor at two. And then. Okay. Not too far then. No. Now, when did your family was it.
00:11:40:13 - 00:12:04:02
Unknown
It was in the 30s that you moved here. My guess is 36. And my coach, Joanne, was born before they moved out here, and I was born after. And Joanne was born in 34. So I'm thinking about 36 or 7. Okay. And I know that I was born while they lived here because they talk about being born while they were constructing 51.
00:12:04:04 - 00:12:29:20
Unknown
Oh, wow. And, the mother and daddy took in boarders at that time, and the guy named Prater was the engineer or construction of the construction doors for the the road. And he boarded here while I was in infant. Okay. At that house up there on the hill. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
00:12:29:22 - 00:13:15:29
Unknown
Can you do maybe a, family tree of your parents? Well, mother was born in Gainesville, and her father, Albert or Jones a for Jones came from Indiana. We don't know exactly when. I don't. Before 1900 and settled in Gainesville and married my grandmother Jones. His last name was Tice. Laura. Josephine. Thais. She lived out east of town and was, I think, of less than average means.
00:13:15:29 - 00:13:33:27
Unknown
I think they were fairly, poor family. I don't think, I think her father and mother had passed away or something. I don't really not sure about that.
00:13:34:00 - 00:14:14:17
Unknown
She had a brother named Clay. Clay ties. And I'll tell this story. I think you'll enjoy this. You may have. I think you've heard it before, but, collectors had to work. And. Laura. Laura, my grandmother was stayed at home and was a young girl, and I'm guessing 12, 14. And some guy came through town, and when uncle Clay came home, grandmother was all stressed out and had been not not the word molested, but she had been harmed.
00:14:14:19 - 00:14:41:02
Unknown
Okay. And we don't know if that means right touched. We don't. We have no idea what that means. We never heard anybody say what that means. But. But somehow traumatized by this stranger on horseback. And uncle Clay got on his horse and rode around and found kind of tract where the guy had gone, followed him across the river and up into Indian territory.
00:14:41:05 - 00:14:59:00
Unknown
And I don't know how far was somewhere up in there. He found him hiding out under a bridge and shot him and killed him and came back to Texas, and after a few days decided he might be in trouble. And so he went to Mexico and stayed in Mexico for, I guess, 30 or 40 years, I don't know.
00:14:59:06 - 00:15:33:00
Unknown
Oh, wow. He. I remember hearing a little bit about uncle Clay when I was a teenager, and he had come back to Arizona and had been a successful in citrus fruit, and he had orchards and lemons and oranges and that kind of thing. Do you have any idea when, like, what years that would have happened? No, no it would, I don't even know your grandmother was born, but, pretty sure it would have been around in 1860 something.
00:15:33:04 - 00:15:42:25
Unknown
Wow. And so this would have been in 70, 70, 1870, 75.
00:15:42:28 - 00:16:00:04
Unknown
And, Okay. And mother was born in Gainesville. That's her ancestry. That's where I know it. Daddy was born in Tennessee. In Giles County, the town of.
00:16:00:07 - 00:16:12:21
Unknown
Makes no difference. Charles county, his father died that he was born in 1905. And in 1919. His father died.
00:16:12:23 - 00:16:40:09
Unknown
Apparently of some kind of what they called consumption. But in his. That's all that we came forward with, some kind of a lung situation. Couldn't breathe. Okay. But if you read back in history, that was the year of the influenza epidemic. Influenza epidemic that hit the country and killed a few million people. The Spanish flu. Okay. And and we presume that's probably what got him.
00:16:40:13 - 00:17:08:13
Unknown
Okay. Then he was 14 at the time. He had to drop out of school because he had five sisters at home. And his mother. He was like a homer. And Uncle Aaron had already left home and were scattered to the four winds. And Oklahoma had settled at ponder and wrote a letter to Grandmother Yarborough and said, sell the farm, come to Texas.
00:17:08:15 - 00:17:21:26
Unknown
And so they did. And so that they sold the farm. And daddy loaded up the four sisters and the five sisters and grandmother and on the train. And they came to Benton.
00:17:21:28 - 00:17:53:04
Unknown
At a place still known down there as Cooper's Crossing. That's where they landed and knocked out at ponder. And so they made their way to ponder, and they rented a farm there from January and raised cotton there for a year or two. I have met Chet January years ago, and at the time that I met him, there was still a little house there on the corner in the middle of ponder for a dead end.
00:17:53:06 - 00:17:58:09
Unknown
Then it settled and they were there. It's kind of fun to see.
00:17:58:12 - 00:18:27:00
Unknown
At one time or another. Caller in pondered that he saw Sam Bass riding a Denton there through town. Oh, wow. And, Uncle Homer then had moved on, and he got a job on the ill ranch for working for waiting. And Jones appear on Red River. And so he sent word to that in the sisters and down there and said, there's a good from up here you can rent, so move up here.
00:18:27:00 - 00:18:54:02
Unknown
So they did, and I think they had like 60 acres and they, they could sharecropper that farm for the for the while they called that the ranch the while Mr. Hoyland and Mr. Jones. And when they weren't sure cropping their crop then they worked for the ranch itself cattle and and farming for the ranch and whatever. So,
00:18:54:05 - 00:19:09:03
Unknown
The five sisters and the sitting years all became registered nurses, which I think a real score for that time and place of life.
00:19:09:06 - 00:19:16:19
Unknown
Daddy was in the crop in the field one day and.
00:19:16:21 - 00:19:56:03
Unknown
While he was going on working on the ranch, my mom started in, I guess, 1920 something and was a student at Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and at the time, she was the first female to enroll in the School of Agriculture at Oklahoma, in which was kind of a special deal. And she came home one time. She loved the farm, loved the outdoors, loved animals, and daddy was on a bundle wagon.
00:19:56:08 - 00:20:00:24
Unknown
And I kept.
00:20:00:26 - 00:20:22:10
Unknown
You can do it, okay. In those in those days, there were no combines, you know, to combine in. Yes, they were threshing machines. A threshing machine is a combine. This is still right. And you remember seeing pictures of grain and shocks, you know, in the fields. All right. The machine went through and made those, and people came along and set them up and let them dry.
00:20:22:12 - 00:20:46:00
Unknown
And then when the threshing machine could come, it would set up in that field and to go out with pitchforks and put their bundles on wagons stacked as high as a pitchfork and reach. Okay. And then they would sit up there and the team. The team would go to the machine and pull up beside it and pitch it off into the dressing machine, 1 or 2 bundles at a time.
00:20:46:02 - 00:21:05:12
Unknown
Okay, well, mother drove out to the field and saw the cross. She went to get where the action was, so she left her car, ran across the field and jumped on the back of the bundle wagon, crawled up over it, crawled up and set down by the driver who was Paul Yarbrough. And that was their first meeting. Okay.
00:21:05:14 - 00:21:34:25
Unknown
I don't know much about the romance, except over the same year or so, I guess. They went. They socialized and they did. And what have you and Grandfather Jones died? And William Bonner was managing the ranch. And so he he said, Paul said you need to go Stillwater and get, get, get Frances Ringer home. So he took off.
00:21:34:26 - 00:21:56:10
Unknown
They gave him a car, and he took out Stillwater to get mother and bring her home. And Bill Biffle and associate another hand at the ranch. She said, well, Paul's going to get his wife. And sure enough, he did. How much longer was it till they got married?
00:21:56:12 - 00:22:10:08
Unknown
This was, I think, in I think they got married in 32.
00:22:10:10 - 00:22:28:20
Unknown
And when was their first meeting? Like how what's the time frame for when she came and climbed up the the bundle wagon? Well, she graduated from Stillwater in 29, so it had to have been before that. While she was still in school.
00:22:28:22 - 00:22:33:11
Unknown
She was a.
00:22:33:13 - 00:23:08:12
Unknown
Mother. Had a she managed to crown her a four year degree in about eight years. I think she was kicked out of the San Marcos Baptist Academy down in San Marcos. And she went to Hockaday and Dallas Girls School. And I don't know exactly where all else, but it took her while. That's okay.
00:23:08:14 - 00:23:14:14
Unknown
I guess till the homecoming thing.
00:23:14:16 - 00:23:39:21
Unknown
At Oklahoma A&M in the period that she was there in those days, I think in most schools, most universities, in those days, the football team picked the football queen. Okay. Nothing to do with the student body. The football boys. That's that's a clean. Well, I think it was the year of 28 again. I'm not sure. Just while she was doing school.
00:23:39:24 - 00:24:13:13
Unknown
The administration decided it should be a student body thing. And so they had this election and selected someone to be football queen. In those days, the football team traveled by train, and the football team was somewhere off in Louisiana at a football game. And Emmett Curtis was not a football player, but he was, I think, student body president and a friend of mothers and.
00:24:13:15 - 00:24:42:15
Unknown
Ball team heard that they had pointed out, elected this woman to be football queen. And the football boys got together and said, we ain't having that. Said, we're going to like football and it's going to be Francis Jones. And they made it stick, really. So she was a football queen. Yeah. And, her mom has a the letter sweater that they gave her and they go black and orange.
00:24:42:18 - 00:25:04:15
Unknown
And Kelly wears it to homecoming games occasionally and gets a lot of jazz about how great it is and how can they bind one like it and all that. You can't know. It's it's a, it's a like a low blow hip plane. Oh, okay. And heavy heavy fine fine wool and they own it's about this big around big orange over on it on the side.
00:25:04:15 - 00:25:29:15
Unknown
And it's pretty cool. Sweater. Has it shrunk with time at all? No. She's taking very good care of it. Mother took care of it, kept it in a drawer, wrapped up. And so it's Kelly? No, it's still just like it used to be. So that gets and. And I guess you figured out Grandfather Jones was was the partner in the Wild Ranch.
00:25:29:18 - 00:25:57:23
Unknown
Okay, I think that partnership started with Mr. Wiley around 1900, maybe 99, maybe 1 or 2. And the story I was told by more than one person was that, Mr. Jones had a few cattle. Mr. Hoyle had a slight pleasure to and had some cattle. And in those days the local the local market was Fort Worth. And so they drove.
00:25:57:25 - 00:26:27:25
Unknown
Mr. Wiley had was taking a herd, and I don't know if we're talking about ten or 50 or 100, but I heard the Fort Worth for sale, and Mr. Jones happened to also be going that way with his herd. And somewhere down around ponder somewhere they they happen to get together. Mr. Jones, I told, was a real quiet will not came in, but a real soft spoken, easygoing, not boisterous at all.
00:26:27:28 - 00:26:46:11
Unknown
And that Mr. Wiley was one of those kind of Wendy people that how how you doing everything glad handing and and but sincere but I mean a good man but a lot more outgoing and he kind of looked cattle and said Mr. Jones said, you know, I think if we mix these cattle that I think we could both get a better, better deal.
00:26:46:12 - 00:27:10:00
Unknown
So they just kind of blend each other and be better price of both of us. And so they did. They got to Fort Worth and put the kettle all together and they got sold. And they David after the profits and shook hands said that was a good deal. And that was their only partnership. That was the only that was a partnership agreement that lasted for the next 30 or 40 years.
00:27:10:02 - 00:27:40:18
Unknown
They had up there, they had around 5 or 6000 acres. You know, where the little road goes off over here when you go into. Okay, on the left and right there, they owned all of that. They had a couple thousand acres over there or maybe more. They had some land out around Pecos. They had, I think it was two and a half leagues of land, and I'm not sure what the league is, but it's big.
00:27:40:21 - 00:28:09:01
Unknown
And they had a few sections out near Lubbock, little town called Beulah, and they started a wheat mill. The old mill there in Gainesville was with the White and Jones Mill and and prospered really, really, really good. And then not too long after grandfather died, well, they decided to start their ways. And they just. You take this. I think that whatever.
00:28:09:04 - 00:28:36:06
Unknown
They sold the mill to some corporation. So they got shares of the stock in that particular mill. When did that mill go out of operation? Well, it went out, I can remember. It must have been the late 50s, because I can remember hauling grain to that mill, holding weight to that mill when I was a kid. I drive a truck up there and dumped loads of wheat.
00:28:36:09 - 00:28:41:04
Unknown
So we'd be talking about,
00:28:41:06 - 00:29:04:19
Unknown
5758. Okay. I suspect he was gone by 60. Okay. And they they actually had bought another one. Somehow that corporation was a part of the fat mill over in Sherman, and they it was operating both males at that time. And they shut this one down and kept the Sherman mill going. And it's it's I think it's still active.
00:29:04:22 - 00:29:25:24
Unknown
Oh, wow. Okay. Well, after the cotton, it was a root disease. You said cotton root rot. Cotton root rot. What did you switch over to instead of cotton? Well, we eat corn and oats and sometimes barley.
00:29:25:27 - 00:29:41:21
Unknown
We had. Sometimes we'd have sit down crops for. Hey, I'd like to raise a millet sometimes for hay, but the cash crop was usually wheat. And our corn and those.
00:29:41:23 - 00:30:07:21
Unknown
Wheat was usually the main cash crop, because the corn and oats we would use a lot of on the place feeding cattle. Sure. You saw that you were there at the barn yesterday, I can remember, probably preschool age, but being on a wagon with daddy behind two mares, Console and Clementine were the mayor's names going to the cornfield.
00:30:07:23 - 00:30:30:29
Unknown
And a small trader trader would be maybe 15ft long, probably maybe three and a half or feet wide with sideboards, what, four feet or so? And daddy would leave me sitting up on the wagon seat. He'd be down there sniffing. You're going to go off right on the trader. Fill them up, fill it up, fill up the trailer.
00:30:31:02 - 00:30:43:28
Unknown
Take the team to the to the barn. Drive through that barn. And I didn't point it out to you, but on the west side of that hallway, I was a corn crib. Okay. Still there.
00:30:44:00 - 00:31:06:16
Unknown
And corn crib because it has spaces between the boards. So the hurricane circulate and keep it dried out and doesn't mold. And so that he would scoop all the over into the there. And I remember seeing that thing full of several times full to the brim was calling him. He had scooped in the time and then go back to the field to come back.
00:31:06:19 - 00:31:28:26
Unknown
Was it sweet corn or field? Cream field called going up just for the for free. Okay. And horses. Did you have horses? Yes. Yeah. Did you I mean did you raise them or were they predominantly just for them. We raised them to use using horses as all we had. Okay. We never did have any fancy stuff. And then cattle as well.
00:31:28:28 - 00:32:00:25
Unknown
No. So at, at your, I guess maybe peak. I mean, how many acres of land were you working on? It was in here. There was about. We had Joanne had the place over there. And after folks passed on. But right at a thousand acres here. Okay. 970 or 87. Okay. And then, your sister was your sister was born 34.
00:32:00:27 - 00:32:18:25
Unknown
Okay. And would she help quite a bit, too. I mean, I assume back in that day was a full family after, but. Yeah, but, my mother, Joanne, didn't do a lot of field work. Seen one picture of momma on the truck at one time, but as far as of the field and doing serious work, no they didn't.
00:32:18:27 - 00:32:34:16
Unknown
Okay. Do you remember at all that you're a hotel or was that your hotel? No, I don't remember it. And I didn't know there was a hotel. I think there was a college. There was an area. There was some kind of a university. I don't even know the name of it, but there was a college street in here.
00:32:34:19 - 00:32:52:03
Unknown
Okay. And that's good. College was on that street, okay. I didn't I didn't realize that I had read somewhere that there was an era hotel, but it may have been in the 1800s and never. I'm not aware of it. Okay, okay.
00:32:52:06 - 00:33:33:21
Unknown
I think, could you talk about maybe when you came into ownership of our property and when the, homestead was constructed, or if you remember it? Well, I mean, I guess, came up in the Air Force in 64, and they gifted the whole acreage to Joanne and I and Guy and and Peter and Sandy. And so that would have been 65 or 6, 66,066 who gifted it?
00:33:33:24 - 00:34:03:25
Unknown
Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. And was the homestead was originally built for, what do we call it, the homestead? I'm sorry. The house behind Kelly's the smaller. Oh, that that was a that was something that after Mother and daddy. Grandmother Jones gave them the bulk of this property out here, but Mother and daddy bought. I think it was about.
00:34:03:27 - 00:34:42:06
Unknown
40, 50, probably 70 or 80 acres over there after they moved out here day about that, that place. And that was the house. Those people were named a writer, and that was after I was born, because I can remember one time a neighbor boy and I walked from here down to Santiago, used to live. And and when we were at that corner, we were just, I don't know, I was I doubt if I was in school and Harold Lloyd, the guy that was with me, he was a couple of years older and just me and boys, we were talking rocks and everything and said, well, let's see when he hit that barn.
00:34:42:06 - 00:35:06:08
Unknown
And so we were in the road to the rock, and we hit the top of that barn. And when it hit the barn, three little kids went running out of the house and got up to run out of the barn and up to the house, and and we went ahead and threw 1 or 2 more rocks. And about that time, Mrs. Ryder stepped out of the house with a shotgun.
00:35:06:11 - 00:35:32:08
Unknown
Boom. And we felt babies coming down on us. And so we we didn't waste any time getting on down the aisle. So it wasn't until I go down the hill, said Mr. Hale, live. And so that happened. That was about after while I was alive. Okay. And also they bought over where the the, Longhorns here on the corner.
00:35:32:11 - 00:35:49:09
Unknown
They bought they bought that place. I think before that place sometime they bought that part and added to the, to the property. But nobody we know ever lived in the house without Mr. Morrow. Yes.
00:35:49:12 - 00:35:54:14
Unknown
One that one up there.
00:35:54:17 - 00:36:31:20
Unknown
Yeah. Which house? Where I grew up. Okay. Right there. Yeah. Okay. Well, a house burned there sometime in the 20s and was rebuilt before grandfather's homes about the place. And so when Mother Daddy moved in, there was the two front rooms. The bathroom that's there now. And. And the den and the small kitchen. And Joe. And they knew I was coming and Joanne didn't really have a place.
00:36:31:20 - 00:37:10:01
Unknown
So they built a I had it on a room. And so that was probably in the 30s, late 30s. Then in 41, we declare war on Pan 41 and 42. The government came in and seized five 55,000 acres in Cook County, which included the ranch. The people had, I think, close to a year. If you had whatever you had only fences, barns, anything you could take, you wanted to take, you could.
00:37:10:07 - 00:37:34:23
Unknown
But they seized it, paid for it, and gave people that want to get on. Well, there was a foreman's house on the place, so in 42 they literally sort it in half, had house movers, moved half of it over here and attached to the west end of that house. Wow. Excuse me. The other half went to my uncle's house over the hood and attached it to their house.
00:37:34:25 - 00:37:48:29
Unknown
So? So the house grew by another bathroom and two bedrooms up there. And so that's the way I grew up. And this was a,
00:37:49:01 - 00:37:59:17
Unknown
Pitched roof, you know, with the Galileans. And then in 50.
00:37:59:19 - 00:38:27:11
Unknown
Five, before Joanna's wedding, daddy had had a good year and the kind of business and decided to he wanted to help the roof and make it look like a modern house. So he kept the roof on both ends. They bricked it, but in central, heating the area and extended one bedroom out in about five feet. And I guess that's it.
00:38:27:13 - 00:38:40:09
Unknown
Expanded it that way. Added the garage that did okay. And then in.
00:38:40:12 - 00:39:07:20
Unknown
Your mom was born in 68. In 68, we had Joe and Trey and him. And he was like either before, after Kelly came along, we decided we needed one more room or some more room. So we had this two store in the playground above the garage and put that on. So the house was kind of like topsy had just grow from time to time.
00:39:07:22 - 00:39:15:20
Unknown
But, what was it before the brick? What was it? Just wood siding. It was,
00:39:15:22 - 00:39:39:16
Unknown
Not. I can't think of the right word, but it will drop siding. And I was singing Ron Drops, I think. Yeah, yeah, I think it was drops on now that the other half of the foreman's house that went. You said to hook hood. Hood? Oh. Community of hood over here. Yes. Okay. Is it still there? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's still there.
00:39:39:16 - 00:39:49:04
Unknown
Haven't been there in a long time, but it's still there,
00:39:49:07 - 00:40:16:20
Unknown
Did you maybe talk a little bit about Mr. Morrow and your. How you knew him? Well, Mr. Morrow, was looking for a job, and in, I think 8 or 9. Then he decided he needed some help, and I'm not sure where, but Mr. Marley was somewhere over southeast of Gainesville, and they went over and interviewed him, and they got along and they came and he said he allowed him to.
00:40:16:21 - 00:40:38:27
Unknown
Sharecropper your place over there, the the the grass that was a field and then the one to the where the clean grass is now by the barn that was a field and Mr. Borrow wood and kept a couple of dairy cows like where the climate clean grass pasture and he formed a bigger patch to the north, to the south.
00:40:39:00 - 00:41:06:02
Unknown
And he cut and he, he worked, he shared that acreage. And then when daddy needed help, he had he had worked for daddy. And when he had done over here and he stayed with us until. But you know him, didn't you? I yeah. So until then, did he have kids in that house? And he had Thomas and Charles and Larry.
00:41:06:05 - 00:41:36:06
Unknown
Larry was a special needs boy. And that was a big tree that was recently cut down. Mr. Ma had a special place under there for Larry to play in the summertime. And Thomas is in Canaan now. And as I think a place out at Pedro River in New Mexico, I think they go in the summer sometimes. Charles.
00:41:36:08 - 00:41:46:20
Unknown
Is in north suburb of the metroplex, somewhere like Keller or somewhere like that maybe.
00:41:46:23 - 00:42:03:18
Unknown
Do you have any idea roughly what year that house that he lived in would have been? Oh, God, I think I would have got 1900 jobs. Okay. Yeah. You know, it would be really, really old. I helped her down part of it. There used to be a lot more to it out in front. Really? Oh, yeah. There were two rooms.
00:42:03:20 - 00:42:25:02
Unknown
At least two rooms to the north or south. There we go. Down. Interesting. Yeah. And so it would have been, it would have been pitched to the north. Just a single. Yeah. Pitch. Yeah. Do you, do you remember roughly was it 20ft that it came out or 15. I'd say at least 15. And did it have a porch on it.
00:42:25:05 - 00:42:32:22
Unknown
No. Okay. Yeah. Now when did you tear that down?
00:42:32:24 - 00:42:45:05
Unknown
Well, I think.
00:42:45:07 - 00:43:04:15
Unknown
On a day built that house that killed that you don't live in, I think built that in about 68 or 9. So probably 71 or 2. And I don't remember for what reason we tore it down, but we took up much of it off. And Mr. Marv was doing stuff and the rest of it. So we didn't tell the rest of it down there was just continued to fall apart.
00:43:04:16 - 00:43:34:04
Unknown
Okay. But I'm guessing early 70s. So did you recite it with metal or had it, was it an addition already at that time. Because on that North face it's all metal. I think we put that medal on. Okay okay. And it was just on the north side. There was no other portion okay. Yeah. Interesting. That makes sense I because it doesn't show any signs that you, that he had been taken down.
00:43:34:05 - 00:43:59:25
Unknown
No. It's long gone over. Yeah. Yeah, 50 years ago. What about the the barn? Just. I guess it'd be east of it. Do you know how old that is? I think it's also getting back around 1900. I don't really know. Okay, so this this barn here was was built roughly 80. Confident. It was 1895 or earlier. But that's again, that's just based on what I've heard and what I know what I see.
00:44:00:00 - 00:44:29:00
Unknown
Okay. Those those trusses up in there, I don't know if you did. You go up in the barn we went and when we were photographing. Yes, sir. Okay. See how those orders and opinion together and begged and just think about only about doing that with a handsaw. A handsaw? It's hard to imagine. That was before electricity was here.
00:44:29:01 - 00:44:52:20
Unknown
Yeah. And then even that had electricity. There weren't any skill cells, of course. So I, I just and it's it's like so precise and exact. I mean somebody had to use, you know, you know, the big squares that you have, you know, all those numbers on them. Yes, sir. Those mean something. And those old carpenters could look and say and say, okay, we need it.
00:44:52:22 - 00:45:09:14
Unknown
We need a 122 pitch and we need a or we need a 38 degree angle. I could put those things on there and just make it work. Yeah, I saw a little book and I gave it to a guy that I thought I had it, but it's a little book about this thing about how to read those squares,
00:45:09:16 - 00:45:33:24
Unknown
Yeah. There's probably not many carpenters that have that skill set like Google Glass. Yeah. I was I was asking Trey yesterday, about where they would have sourced those lengths of wood. I mean, would they have had that shipped in or could that have been local? I'm sure it was shipped in, the old two story Bentley house down here.
00:45:33:26 - 00:46:10:21
Unknown
It's a huge two story house. And it was built a 4050, I think. Wow. By Mr. JHJH. Bush. Part of the land that Mr. Bush settled here he obtained from the the King of Spain, the Spanish Land-Grant. Yeah, yeah. A little, little strip that runs a little house down here. The Horton's used to live and up the road along where you are, you can see there's a fence out there.
00:46:10:24 - 00:46:36:13
Unknown
The that and the road constitute that strip. And that went to the bushes from a Spanish land grant. But anyway, what was I saying? Oh, that house down there, big house. And Mr. Bentley showed it to me. At one time they got the bill of lading where that was shipped from Denison to here by oxcart. Really? And all the all the lumber came at one time.
00:46:36:13 - 00:46:58:21
Unknown
I don't know if we're talking about two hours cars for 14, but whatever it was and the total bill was slightly over $1,000, that would be put you in debt today. So, confident that the lumber up there, but have been coming the same manner from somewhere in East Texas. Okay. Yeah, they got a lot more woods over there.
00:46:58:21 - 00:47:23:16
Unknown
So that makes sense, Now, do you outside of the the Bentley house and say this barn. Are there still quite a few structures standing from about that time period in era that you know of. Well, this house down here, the, the Wharton used to live, it would be it would make back to the early 1900s because Jim Bush lived there when I was growing up.
00:47:23:16 - 00:47:38:06
Unknown
And he was another son of Mr. Bush. So it would be a very, very old house that was there, that was there.
00:47:38:08 - 00:48:04:16
Unknown
I can't think of any others around now. Of course, the C house, you know, where Linscott lives. That would that would be back in that era. And she's got a history of that house. I think that she's kept it has a distinguished landmark marker on it. And, I can't think of any of any of the other streets in town that would be that old.
00:48:04:18 - 00:48:25:00
Unknown
Well, could you speak to, like around the time of the centennial and the video that I found. One thing they mentioned was how there was a lot of committees within ERA for various reasons. Were you involved in any of those at all? I guess all of them. All of them, which what, what were those committees?
00:48:25:01 - 00:48:50:12
Unknown
Well, it wasn't so much committees. I mean, you had the church and that it youth group, you had the PTA, a organization called the PTO. Then you had the four FFA groups. And there was those were you parents were involved in those? And then you had the the football team, boosters and booster club and were involved in that.
00:48:50:12 - 00:49:18:06
Unknown
And one lady that moved here. While Kelly and then were growing up, she said, well, it had been fun to move there. I said, you know, I just she had kids school age, you know, like second and third and fourth graders. She said, I just get up in the morning and make a batch of cookies away for somebody to tell me who's going to need it, because everybody would bring stuff, you know, everywhere.
00:49:18:09 - 00:49:45:16
Unknown
Oh. Yeah. There were a bunch of committees on it involved in this thing, and I can't name them all. They just. Well, maybe I'll flip through it. Perhaps there's something in there. Committees, I don't know. Now, when was the current fire station constructed? The fire department was started in 64.
00:49:45:18 - 00:49:48:06
Unknown
And.
00:49:48:09 - 00:50:08:27
Unknown
Our 65, I guess about the year after I got back, because there was a need for somebody to help put out brush fires and stuff and anything we. And they started it and we had a three quarter ton pickup with a 200 gallon fiberglass tank on it and a regular Stratton motor that you had to pull by hand painted red.
00:50:08:27 - 00:50:22:05
Unknown
And Arnie Cross worked at the store, and he was elected the fire chief, and he would keep it to his house in the back. What he needed the fire cut out. You'd call the store and got a fire.
00:50:22:07 - 00:50:50:05
Unknown
It continued to grow a little bit from there, and we added some equipment. And I think the first part of that existing firehouse would have been built around 70, 72. Okay. And then the addition to it, it was added on, I don't know, ten, 12 years later. Okay. Maybe 15. Did you ever. Were you ever one of the volunteer firefighters?
00:50:50:06 - 00:50:55:27
Unknown
Well, everybody was for a long, long time. But after.
00:50:55:29 - 00:51:14:08
Unknown
I got it got pretty organized and they had a group of younger guys that were taking care of everything. And I'm not a mechanic and I'm not a good welder. And so I wasn't as involved as I was in getting it started. And I went a time or two and helped on a hose on grass fires and stuff.
00:51:14:09 - 00:51:35:08
Unknown
But as far as being a real active volunteer, no, I never was. I was just always a helper. Okay. And then you said when you got back in 65, that was from the Air Force. I know the Air Force was like September 64th, 64. Okay. Now, how long were you in the Air Force? Three years. Three years. And what what were you doing?
00:51:35:12 - 00:52:01:09
Unknown
I was in the Office of Special Investigation. I was I was an investigator. Okay. It's the FBI of the Air Force. Wow. Okay, so where were you based? At Texas Goodfellow Air force base. Okay. I'd had a when you. I went through ROTC to get my commission. I was commissioned when I graduated. And before you graduate, before you get your commission, you give you a sheet of paper, and you said, where would you like to be stationed?
00:52:01:09 - 00:52:35:08
Unknown
And I put my first choice as northwest, US second choice. Southeast US. Third choice. Northeast. New York, Maine, that area. And last show us southwest. And I went to the Texas. Couldn't get away, but, we did have ten weeks of TD and DC. I had to go to a ten week school, and I went to the school there for ten weeks, and then that was Tipperary duty and came back to San Angelo.
00:52:35:10 - 00:53:04:16
Unknown
So were you involved in quite a few investigations then? It sounds pretty glamorous and I don't want to dispel your your thoughts. And so yes, it was fantastic. Okay. The book the bulk of our work loading was background investigations. If if a young man from Midland, Texas, was in Baghdad at a airbase there, and then they needed access to confidential information security clearance.
00:53:04:16 - 00:53:29:21
Unknown
In other words, that commander would say, oh, he just got cleared and sent it to Washington. Washington would send it to us and we'd go out to Middleton and knock on doors. We'd have to go to the sheriff's office, the police station. And when you fill out, when you join the services, you fill out a statement of personal history, and you have to have a five witness, a five character references.
00:53:29:23 - 00:54:11:16
Unknown
And we were also required to come up not to interview a couple of those references, but in the process develop something that they haven't mentioned, people that knew them, that they didn't. Sure. Not their top picks. Right, right. Somebody that might say something bad about it. Sure. And if you could you talk to the teachers in school, if you could, and you just developed as much as you could about them and, and, and some of the higher classifications we had to clear, you had to you had to determine their prayer abouts for no more than the biggest gap you could have would be 14 days.
00:54:11:19 - 00:54:38:15
Unknown
Oh, man. So you had to say, you know, and he was he was employed here by employment or other liens. You had to say they were there for the spiritual time. That sometimes got hectic because some of the people who were clearing were teenagers in the 40s, and they all boom in the Permian Basin was on in the 40s.
00:54:38:22 - 00:55:02:14
Unknown
Okay. And there were all companies starting up today and tomorrow they'd be bankrupt and the little companies all over. And so employment records were sketchy at best. And yeah, I had to climb in a few attics to go to the old two farms. No. You know something? Oh, yeah. Wow. And some of the people you show them are our creditors.
00:55:02:14 - 00:55:21:02
Unknown
Look just like FBI things happen and you do that. I don't want anything to do with them. Government. And they had no use for Uncle Sam at all. And they barely talked to you. This was during the,
00:55:21:04 - 00:55:52:03
Unknown
A real people were. Who was the chief justice? 1 or 1 Jesus or one. Okay. Everybody thought he was a communist. And the temperature of the political feelings in Texas were pretty hostile to government, period. Sure. Yeah. Doesn't help your job at all? No, but we got. But we. Well, we in close out of a civilian car. Okay.
00:55:52:06 - 00:56:01:21
Unknown
And we we traveled as far as Van Horn, Texas, which is almost El Paso.
00:56:01:24 - 00:56:26:21
Unknown
And Marfa and O'Donnell back this way away. And I covered both Midland and Odessa. And you'd take 4 or 5 cases and go out and spend a couple of days on the road and go from town to town doing all this stuff. So from the time that you would have been given a case to once you're you've done and say cleared them, how long would that actually take?
00:56:26:24 - 00:56:46:01
Unknown
Well we had a on a, on a background case. I think we had a we were we had to have it finished. Like I think we usually had 30 days to get it done. Oh wow. And I'm sure we had more than two weeks. But the secretary of the suspense fired up and say, you know this, we've got these cases getting old.
00:56:46:02 - 00:57:01:02
Unknown
You got to get them done. And. Yeah, before the due dates. So you're putting some miles on those cars, then those civilian cars. Yeah. And that was always kind of fun though, to see the country. Yeah. It was. We enjoyed it.
00:57:01:05 - 00:57:23:21
Unknown
So then you came back. You had a few criminal investigations, but not many. Okay. And so you you've you spent three years doing that and then came back in 64. And then when you came back at what point did you start doing real estate I guess.
00:57:23:23 - 00:57:27:18
Unknown
Excuse me.
00:57:27:21 - 00:57:52:01
Unknown
Yes, sir. Hey grandpa got my own. And cleaning up some. Pardon me, I just got done my own and I just cleaned up the miller. Very good. Proud of you. You got. You got both places. Yes, sir. All right, all right. Good job. Yes, sir. Did you get your payment last night? Yes, sir, I did. Thank you. All right.
00:57:52:03 - 00:58:18:05
Unknown
That saves me more than you know. Go ahead. Glad to do it. Glad to do it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye bye. Hey! Wait! Grandpa! Yeah. Who's your visitor up there in that cool truck? You know Sandy Lane? Yeah. Sidney Lane, I Sydney lane. I mean, yeah, it's her and Bodie. Oh, cool. Yeah. Bodie. I think he likes your truck there.
00:58:18:05 - 00:58:43:03
Unknown
Right here with me. You're on speaker. Hey. What? Good. How are you doing? Pretty good. I just I just finally finished restoring my old truck like that. Oh, you got a square, buddy? Yeah, I got a 76 C10. Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah. That's awesome. Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. I heard you on the baseball team now. Oh, yeah. I'm playing for a team.
00:58:43:04 - 00:59:06:21
Unknown
Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. What have you been up to? I'm still in New York. I'm still going to school up there, so I'm about done. Yeah, yeah. There you go. It was good. Good to talk to you. Good to talk to you, too. Thank you. Watch. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye. Sorry about that.
00:59:06:22 - 00:59:36:26
Unknown
Oh. You're fine. Where were we? I was asking when you. When? At what point you started working in real estate. Oh, and 92 or 3. I took a we would typically harvest oats. I would store some over at the female for feeding the cows. And then we'd put in grain storage here at the house and those, those grain tanks up there.
00:59:36:28 - 01:00:05:08
Unknown
And usually after the first of the year, you know, the price typically goes up from harvest time to people to using Lord and took a load of roads to Valley View to sell great little money for taxes or pay for Christmas or whatever. And I think it harvest oats had been brought out $2 a bushel. And so I always I trusted them.
01:00:05:08 - 01:00:31:08
Unknown
I used to close them, sold them and said, what? What are you going to give me for them? And they said, 210 of us. And I said 210. I said they were there were two at harvest. I said, I held him up more than that. And they said, well, Parker, we're kind of giving you a little bit of a bonus if we can get we can get river oats in here for I believe it was 215 a bushel.
01:00:31:10 - 01:01:05:19
Unknown
And river oaks were a much higher quality weighted more, more oats per pound. And I said, well, what a river. Oaks and river oaks were oats that originate in Denmark or Finland or Sweden. Somewhere in those Upper European countries, they're harvested, put in an elevator, then they're offloaded either into a truck to take to the port or, at the portrayal, played it into a boat, a barge.
01:01:05:21 - 01:01:36:16
Unknown
Come across the Atlantic Ocean to the port of New Orleans, offloaded into an elevator, offloaded from there into a barge, pushed up the Mississippi. And there's a port over here in eastern Oklahoma. Can't call the name of it now, but I think they're offloaded the barge into the elevator, out of the elevator, into a truck, and hold the value for 215 a bushel.
01:01:36:19 - 01:02:13:00
Unknown
Can't compete with that. So, yeah, you know, there's there's a lot of extra money on there somewhere from the Swedish government or Finland government or. I don't know, but it was, it was just and that just made no sense to me. So I had actually got my real estate license in about 66 or 7. I'd had a college buddy who had gone into real estate in Fort Worth and was working with farm and ranch stuff and came up and said, hey, I need to find a place for.
01:02:13:02 - 01:02:30:17
Unknown
This man that's looking for some bluestem pasture. And so I didn't think too much of it. But anyway, we figured around in the next year, I went ahead and got my license and.
01:02:30:19 - 01:02:37:11
Unknown
Didn't do much with it and kind of languished. And then.
01:02:37:13 - 01:03:15:01
Unknown
I guess 2 or 3 years after that. Oh, this is that's that's back in 66 and nothing with it from, from that I think, I, I think I had one sale in around 68 or 9 and I didn't like it because that was the time when they were talking about people buying land, and it was only for three years and a bunch of gimmicky stuff, and I and I was supposed to be talking to old people and trying to talk to them out of their place, you know, and tell them how it was really good price.
01:03:15:02 - 01:03:41:27
Unknown
And I just didn't like it. So but I bet I had kept my license in. And in 70 and 91 or 2, I went back and activated my license, had to take some courses, and went in with Hawkins for a while, and then after had been with him a year or so. I got my brokerage license in the mound office around 93 or 4, I guess.
01:03:42:00 - 01:03:47:26
Unknown
Probably 94. Okay.
01:03:47:28 - 01:04:28:01
Unknown
Along about that time in 80, 88 or 89, Carol was working at the appraisal District in Gainesville, and this was before I decided to go active in real estate. But before I was getting one, doing very good. So I had discovered that most people that had agricultural land were not aware of the agricultural discount for property taxes. And so I literally at that time, all the property owners, Cook County, were in a big, big book.
01:04:28:04 - 01:04:56:12
Unknown
So they went through the book and found people with more than ten acres that were playing to high taxes. Carol helped me prepare a mail out, and we held out a letter to remember how many, maybe 500. Several, several hundred people telling them that they were paying too much, that I would help to reduce their taxes, and I would charge them 60% of whatever I say to them.
01:04:56:12 - 01:05:18:19
Unknown
Otherwise there was no charge. And we got some response going. And that kind of got me in touch with people owning real estate, and they were wanting to sell real estate and things. And so that's one of the sad to go really active. Okay. Is that did you stop farming at that point? No, I kept on for 3 or 4 years and I woke up one day.
01:05:18:19 - 01:05:40:29
Unknown
San Diego was taking care of things, pretty much. Mr.. I was still around some, and I realized it had probably been ten days or two weeks or something like cows or looked at the crops or anything, and it just just wasn't. One couldn't do both businesses so. Sure. But that way.
01:05:41:01 - 01:06:08:27
Unknown
Now the property up near the Red River, the ranch up there, when did you come into ownership of that? Well, again, it was when, mother and daddy, both mother mothers. Well, left it into a trust. I want.
01:06:08:29 - 01:06:34:19
Unknown
Okay, okay. That's about the time mothers mothers were elected in the state for, benefit of us kids and and daddy with daddy maintaining full control and interest. And then after he died, then it went to a trust and to join the.
01:06:34:22 - 01:07:06:00
Unknown
Okay. Now, when did your father pass away? 95 girl for daddy. Okay, okay. I guess coming back to you a little bit. Do you know when the post office that isn't there anymore? Do you know when the new one on the the west side of town. When they switched over and this one became commercial property, I guess.
01:07:06:03 - 01:07:28:26
Unknown
No, no, you'd have to talk to somebody in town that watched those kind of things, because we don't use that post office and didn't keep up with it. Okay. After we were married, wasn't it? Well, that one west of town hadn't been there with, what, ten years or so? Oh, along with that, but with post office where the beauty shop was?
01:07:28:28 - 01:07:52:24
Unknown
Yes. So do you think that there was one in between? The one outside of town a little ways. Oh, no. There wasn't. No, I don't think so. They probably use that one up until recently. Then before it became the beauty salon. Yeah. Yes, yes.
01:07:52:26 - 01:08:12:15
Unknown
Okay. Okay, okay. What about, when Alexander's became the buzz, or was it anything? One more little story. Okay. And.
01:08:12:17 - 01:08:30:06
Unknown
1878, the town was prospering, community was prospering. And they said, well, we need to we need to we need a post office. And so community meeting and they were talking about the.
01:08:30:09 - 01:08:55:12
Unknown
Ought to name it. And one little girl was there, Mr. Hargraves daughter, and I guess she was a little bit precocious and she said, name it after me daddy. Her name was era, so they named it era after after her. Really? Yeah. And her her grave. If you go to the far north corner, northwest corner of the cemetery by the road era.
01:08:55:12 - 01:09:15:09
Unknown
Hargrove is buried in that plot there. Okay. And that's what the town was named after. Yeah, we'll have to check that out. So what? What did they call it prior to that thing? I don't know. Okay, but the installment or the initiation of the post office is when they finally came up with the name. The reason, the reason they needed a name.
01:09:15:09 - 01:09:32:20
Unknown
They were trying to get a post office and they needed. So they had to come up with a name for the post office. And so. Okay. Yeah. And the first. Do you have any idea where that first post office was? Yeah, right there at the same. Well, I say right there, when I was a little bitty kid, there was an old frame building there.
01:09:32:22 - 01:09:58:19
Unknown
Okay. And that's where the post office was. Okay. So it's horizontal. It was always right there. Okay. And then, Alexander's when it became the buzz or wasn't something in between? Well, no, it went through several hands after Alexander's. Okay. Puckett's ran it for a while. Eddie Puckett, he's still around.
01:09:58:21 - 01:10:04:17
Unknown
And that would have been when my mom was the. Okay.
01:10:04:20 - 01:10:16:28
Unknown
David Griggs, the Griggs has had it. Greg's had it for a while. She's Marcia still around? She's over. Ruston lives close to. She's an English kinfolk.
01:10:17:01 - 01:10:49:25
Unknown
Somebody else in there? Oh, Scott's, Lynn and Linton. Glen Scott ran it for a while. So was it pretty much always a general store? Grocery store? Yeah. Okay. No. Yeah. When? When I think Scott's may have been the first ones to put in the food service before they had just been a store. Okay. Now, did you did you go to ERA?
01:10:49:28 - 01:11:10:02
Unknown
Sure. Okay. Yeah. What what did it look like at that time? I mean, was it a picture? I got some pictures in here. I don't, I don't I don't know where to find them right now, but there's some pictures in there of the grade school buildings. I think they're toward the back. But, was it a one room schoolhouse when you were there?
01:11:10:03 - 01:11:33:05
Unknown
Pardon? Was it a one room schoolhouse? Oh, no. No, it was the there was an elementary building in a high school building. The elementary building was probably built in the 30s. I think it was built by the Works Progress Administration. That one was built in the 30s?
01:11:33:07 - 01:12:00:14
Unknown
Yes. That was the elementary school. Yeah. Probably built by WPA grant. This one says in the 40s. Okay. That's the high school building where I went to high school. Okay. But it was yellow brick. Now, do you have any idea when these were, I guess, demolished? Oh.
01:12:00:16 - 01:12:11:25
Unknown
No voting. I'm sorry, I can't. That's okay. They,
01:12:11:28 - 01:12:33:11
Unknown
No, I just have to be guessing. That's fine. Yeah. I had a high school. Had a band. When you were there in school. They had a band. Oh, yeah, we had a marching band. Were you a part of it? Oh, yeah. Okay. Would you play tenor sax? Okay. So how many student was everyone in the in the marching band.
01:12:33:12 - 01:13:00:00
Unknown
Everybody had to be pretty much. But yeah, there weren't the high school boys weren't. Oh, well, Harold Wilson was so, I guess the band probably we had had probably about 30, maybe 35. That's pretty good. We I can remember we would march the football games and this was before I played football. This was when I was in the six, fifth, six and seventh grades.
01:13:00:03 - 01:13:33:03
Unknown
But I can remember we had March out this, marched down the street by the store and then the county marched down there, maybe march around the churches and come back and and march up back into the football field. And, and we had a few, a few concerts just for fun. I do remember we entered we entered a band contest over in Warwick, Oklahoma, and I think we won second place marching band.
01:13:33:05 - 01:14:01:12
Unknown
I think I want a first or second place tenor sax. Jim. Interview on a first or second place in Coronet knew a lot of fun. And that's when you were in fifth or sixth grade. Probably seventh grade for that. Yeah. Wow. Seventh grade. You think you could still play? No, no, she bought me one. I like, really make the reed get wet and didn't make a noise out of it now.
01:14:01:14 - 01:14:24:02
Unknown
Were you were you in a band at all? Oh, okay. We didn't have a band. No. Yeah. We, I had there were 19 people in my class. I think the class behind us had 16 in the classic head of us about had about 25 or 6. It was the class ahead of us was bigger than normal. It was close to 30 in it at one time.
01:14:24:04 - 01:14:51:03
Unknown
Now, were you ever in school at the same time as Mr. Grundy? Bob Grundy okay. Bob Grundy was playing football and they won district the year I was a first grader or the year before one, I'm not sure. Okay. And he would have star. He was a big deal. One. He had one. A big deal of truck. He was a high jumper and had won state meet in high jumping okay.
01:14:51:05 - 01:15:18:08
Unknown
Somewhere along in his high school career. But it was interesting that okay he he was graduating. He came back my junior and senior year and was my coach. Oh, wow. And, his wife Ruby was a favorite of of my mom's who taught Sunday school at the Baptist church. And Ruby was a Baptist, and Raby was one of her favorite students.
01:15:18:10 - 01:15:42:23
Unknown
And when they got married after they got out of college. And okay, so he coached me for a couple of years. I go through college, Air Force Base, kids come back and Bob comes back and coaches Troy and so no way. Wow. So yeah, we've got a lot of Bob Grundy. Yeah. Have you spoken to Ruby at all?
01:15:42:26 - 01:16:02:17
Unknown
I haven't talked to Ruby now. Probably in 2 or 3 months. Okay. Is she still living in the house that they both did? And is Rex still behind? I think so. Okay, okay, I didn't realize I knew he was older than you, but I didn't know quite what the. I guess you'd have to be, what, ten years older?
01:16:02:19 - 01:16:23:03
Unknown
Ten years? Yeah. Not 12, 12, 13, I guess. I guess 12 years old. But he was full. He was singing when I was the first grade. He was 12 years old. Okay. And I guess your sister went to her as well then. Yeah. Okay. Her class was the last one in those days, so I guess for budgetary concerns.
01:16:23:03 - 01:16:46:07
Unknown
But it only took 11 years to graduate. They skipped the second grade, and my sister was in the last class that skipped the second grade. So she went through 11 years and I went through 12 when I came along. So was that common to study? Okay, so it it wasn't like first third. It was just a seven years total.
01:16:46:07 - 01:17:13:07
Unknown
It was still first, second, third. Well, no, it went first to third. Oh really. Like so I guess I don't really know that. Well, it doesn't matter too much, but I've never heard that before. Yeah. Another thing that was common. You'd start school in September around September the 1st go about two weeks, maybe three, and then you would let out for a week because so many of the family kids were necessary to pick.
01:17:13:09 - 01:17:44:08
Unknown
It was time to pick cotton. Late September, early October. And so they'd have a have a one, 1 or 2 week delay or vacation for kids to go pick cotton. That stopped around, I don't know, 47 or 8, but it was, I can remember 1 or 2 years, I think, of cotton. Cotton vacation? No. As far as, like for the football season, would that would they just start the season later or.
01:17:44:10 - 01:17:53:26
Unknown
No, I don't know, Bodie. Okay. I don't know it. It's not a big deal trying to think.
01:17:53:26 - 01:18:06:29
Unknown
Do you know when they built the, new elementary? Was that in the 60s, or was that later than that? No, it's later than that.
01:18:07:01 - 01:18:17:21
Unknown
The gym they just toured down, I think was built in 58. Yeah. Okay.
01:18:17:23 - 01:18:23:23
Unknown
But a long building behind.
01:18:23:26 - 01:18:30:28
Unknown
Full of classrooms. That would have been built.
01:18:31:00 - 01:18:48:06
Unknown
In the 80s. Okay. Probably 83 or 4 somewhere long. And there. Daddy was still on the school board then and get that old gym that, that was just torn down.
01:18:48:09 - 01:19:10:00
Unknown
It's too bad they had to tear that down. We went into the fire station yesterday and they had the scoreboard and the basketball saved in there. Yeah. Glad to see they saved it. Yeah. Well I guess you tell them about the Hornet. Yeah. Okay. Yeah I don't I was told that was saved but I don't, I don't know where Joe has it.
01:19:10:06 - 01:19:37:24
Unknown
No, no. They're going to wound up. They're going to incorporate it into the new to maybe put it in a glass case or something somewhere I think. Oh that's great. Yeah, that's really cool. What about the ERA community center? Do you know when that would have been made? The current one? Well, it's not, it's the. It's the original, that after the war.
01:19:37:27 - 01:19:43:06
Unknown
The army camp. The.
01:19:43:09 - 01:20:17:13
Unknown
Closed down camp house. And any NGO and non-government organization, our guest government organizations to that wanted anything they could get it. And because of our location out here at ERA, housing was very difficult to find and for teachers. Oh so you know, a teacher from Denton wanted to come here and teach. You had to find a house somewhere, and usually it was just a had a border at somebody's house in the back room and things.
01:20:17:13 - 01:20:23:04
Unknown
And so the school board at that time.
01:20:23:07 - 01:20:49:20
Unknown
Got that building that's now the community center. And it was three apartments. Really? Yeah, three apartments and lived there for a while. Persia. Lester lived there, and I think Alfred Greeley over there at one time he was principal. And they also there was two other houses. You know, where Keith Bentley's place is? There were two houses between Keith Shop.
01:20:49:20 - 01:21:15:17
Unknown
There were two houses in there that were also they were single, single family houses that they got from the army camp. Wow. Their license gone. But but the community club was once part of camp House. They also got got an add on to our lunch room at the time when I was in school from from the camp and in the back there for he became a head windows head and it was a place for concessions and bowl games.
01:21:15:20 - 01:21:42:07
Unknown
Oh, okay. And so it was built by the Army camp moved out here, I guess 48 or 9. And with the departments for a long time. The school didn't need it anymore or became too much to upkeep or something. And so they were trying to start the community club, and they gave it to community club. Okay. Oh, that's that's pretty cool.
01:21:42:07 - 01:21:48:10
Unknown
I had no idea.
01:21:48:13 - 01:22:06:21
Unknown
Was there ever a library in the era I'm not aware of? Okay, I can't I can't think of anything else we have to add.
01:22:06:24 - 01:22:18:13
Unknown
Yeah, I think that pretty well covers it. I can, unless you can think of anything else. That kind of an interesting fact right off hand.
01:22:18:16 - 01:22:25:01
Unknown
I will tell you one funny thing for her, but her benefit.
01:22:25:04 - 01:22:47:09
Unknown
When there had never been a woman on a school board. Okay. And Cindy was a little bit outspoken about some things and going on in school. We didn't like the superintendent at the time. He didn't think he was doing right. And so she just said she had run and we wanted to enlist the help of Wayne Selby, Greggs, and he was on the board, okay.
01:22:47:15 - 01:23:07:28
Unknown
And talked to him. And Wayne said, well, I guess we could use a woman on the Lord says, you know, they could do things like make sure there were plenty of tampons and Kotex in the restroom and things, and.
01:23:08:00 - 01:23:11:18
Unknown
Shame on it.
01:23:11:20 - 01:23:23:15
Unknown
Did did she end up winning? Yeah, despite. Despite Mr. Selby. Yeah.
01:23:23:17 - 01:23:28:17
Unknown
Wallace was chicken story. Yeah.
01:23:28:19 - 01:23:51:22
Unknown
Yeah. Sunday was from like I want to New York. Okay. And So deep roots and I heard her dad and friend and both had rich around that area, and, I don't know, he'd been here a long time, been on a long time out of the Air Force and.
01:23:51:24 - 01:24:14:15
Unknown
Doris and Clayton. Were cousins. But her cousin was the same age as her parents, so they were, like, more like aunts and uncles and cousins, and they would come up and visit. And they loved being on the farm and seeing the animals and everything. And I think he had a little bit of a farm background when he was growing up.
01:24:14:17 - 01:24:45:11
Unknown
And so they called one day and said they were coming up on that Sunday afternoon. And Wallace and I'd kind of been up to the mischief. And we thought, well, let's let's pull the trick. So, Doris, I mean, Clayton always went to go there and say, well, what's going on? What's new? And so, well, at that time, we still had chickens and chicken house and Wallace and he met Wallace anyway.
01:24:45:11 - 01:25:24:28
Unknown
Anyway. Wallace can wear a no slouch hat and be the Levi jacket, and looked like he fell right out of the 1850s. Okay, with riding a sound pass or somebody worse. But he would come to come. The chickens tied the legs together, and all this had a horse. And he settled one of our horses out there at the barn, and he was ready to go, and I had it rigged up whenever Doris and Clayton pulled up the way, the one, 1 or 2 minutes, and then take off down the road with the chickens, and so down the back of the place back there and not not the county road.
01:25:24:28 - 01:25:48:16
Unknown
I'm talking about back, back to the back of the place. And, so Dawson Clayton pulled up and I think they had they had another couple with on this time and all pretty much city people. And Clayton said, well, how things have been going on, what's going on with anything going on? I said, well, yeah, we've been having a little trouble with got some new neighbors back to the West and they've been stealing chickens.
01:25:48:16 - 01:26:09:15
Unknown
Clayton and I just we just can't do anything about it. And about that time, well, it goes down. I mean, he's got his head like this, and he's living at home like this, and the chickens are in plain sight. And and I said, there he goes now. And I put my shotgun just inside. And I grabbed the shotgun, came out and.
01:26:09:17 - 01:26:12:25
Unknown
Just got about that big.
01:26:12:27 - 01:26:40:23
Unknown
And said, maybe that'll scare him off and come back. And so we went into the house and Wallace came back and unsettled the horse and went home. And we never told him, ever, never told them. They went to their graves and they'd seen somebody shooting at the. Oh, man. No, no, I didn't know about that. Oh, that's that's a good trick.
01:26:40:26 - 01:27:06:22
Unknown
You pepper him at all. Was it well above him? Did you pepper him at all or was it well above? But it sure would even written out from under him. I don't I don't know, he never complain about being Pepper. That's great. Well I, I sure appreciate you sitting down. Well I hope it's been informative to you don't exactly what you're going to do with it.
01:27:06:25 - 01:27:31:12
Unknown
Heading back. I'm heading back tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, we're just trying to kind of chronicle the history of era a little bit and try and put some documentation while I was still can. Okay. But of the. I wish I had done this with Bob Grundy. Yeah. And I, I missed that opportunity. So.
01:27:31:14 - 01:27:51:08
Unknown
There was in school anymore. You were there. He was he still substituted but. Yeah. Yeah, but I was real good friends with his grandson. Read read Riley. I don't know him. And he would take us out to he would drive middle of nowhere and point to a place and tell us the history about us. Spent a lot of time with him.
01:27:51:10 - 01:28:19:08
Unknown
Tell you about the, rock quarry down there on the creek. He showed me the dam down there. I don't know about the rock. Well, not too far. Okay. You know, our Clear Creek is down there. It would be to the east of where they are and across the highway. But somewhere there was a rock quarry, and there was no stone masonry down there, and it was limestone.
01:28:19:14 - 01:28:52:01
Unknown
And as I said, he lived in a tent, just didn't make much money and didn't apparently didn't want much money, but sure, but he would. He had a star drill and a hammer, and he would. And board holes in the concrete. Apparently the concrete was kind of a little bit. And the toes. And then he would put our God would work pegs and drive in the hole and then keep walking on to like swell and split the limestone.
01:28:52:03 - 01:29:12:26
Unknown
Really. And then he would, he would have chisels and stuff and a dress it up a little bit. But he made a lot of fence posts for corner posts and, and if you drive through and you think about it, you're going to see some corner posts still down south and most of your own down in there. And those all came from that thing, like building blocks.
01:29:12:26 - 01:29:34:09
Unknown
So incorporated them a foundation stone that he made in the fireplace up at the other house. I didn't have any for this one when we put it in, but the big foundation started about this long, about probably six inch square and about this long.
01:29:34:12 - 01:29:51:25
Unknown
Now, when was he doing that? I mean, was that. Oh, that's got to be 18. So I don't really know. All the fence posts I remember seeing in been there for probably a hundred years when I saw him, so.
01:29:51:27 - 01:30:18:02
Unknown
At least almost 200, maybe even now. Wow. That's pretty incredible. Yeah. Bob took me to quite a mr. Grundy. Took me to an old, I guess, one room schoolhouse that's on the west side of 51, but kind of back where the county line is roughly the Denton county line. He took me back up there. He took me to a couple little places like that.
01:30:18:05 - 01:30:41:09
Unknown
Yeah, there were there were two schools down there, you know, he took it a hill, Grundy Place, just east of 51. There was somewhere there was a good right in there somewhere. You see, this is the era Consolidated School district. So what that means is it's a consolidation of a number of schools. Okay. At one time, the schools were all under one superintendent in the county courthouse, and you just had principals.
01:30:41:12 - 01:31:10:07
Unknown
And so various ones would come together. Well, not too long before I started school, the consolidated with Ralston and Prior Point both had a little one room schoolhouse. Okay. And so those became part of the era. And then they eventually took in somewhere around Myra took in a bunch of them that way. Okay. And those others, the little ones that I was talking about down there, they called in, in and became a bigger school district.
01:31:10:10 - 01:31:36:16
Unknown
No is valid. You kind of structured the same way as it consolidated or, Valley View was a town I think long before ERA. Okay. But yeah, I think it's also a consolidated school district. So they picked up the school's out in that area to you. Now at what point did I know that like the Wagner cattle line like ran through just north of here a little ways and I'm sure there were other cattle trails.
01:31:36:17 - 01:32:01:29
Unknown
Like at what point did the lots of land start getting fenced off and that, that kind of activity stuff. Okay. Did Bob show you where the the, Butterfield stage came up out of the creek? No. He didn't. You know where the the on the old fisher place. All right. If you go just a little bit further, you drop off the hill, okay?
01:32:02:04 - 01:32:24:07
Unknown
You got to go started going downhill on the highway. That's that's that's a steep ridge. And you go to your right. It's a steep ridge. And about 50 yards out in that pasture, there's a cut in that rock ridge, big enough for car drives. And that was where the Butterfield stage came out at the bottom way and went down.
01:32:24:07 - 01:32:39:20
Unknown
So the 51 was kind of called the Butterfield Trail by some people. I didn't know that. And I don't know how they got together. But do you know the corner of 373 and 22?
01:32:39:23 - 01:33:05:20
Unknown
Through 73 is the one that goes to Munster? Oh yes, sir. And they're all 922. Yes, I do know. All right. There used to be an old barn there on the right, on the west side of 73 and the north side of 22. And it was the chain station where the stage would change horses. Oh okay. And Wallace it's in this property now.
01:33:05:22 - 01:33:23:09
Unknown
And all of a sudden they used to go down there and mess around and find the home. You from, from the old. You used to build stages. No. It would Wells Fargo have ran through there then? I think I've been in the Butterfield. Oh. Butterfield. Fargo was more outward, but I don't think I've ever heard of before being here.
01:33:23:09 - 01:33:44:22
Unknown
But I don't really know. Okay. No. Did the did the Butterfield line. Was it like, how how big are we talking? I'm not familiar with that. Butterfield stage was a pretty big deal. Okay. Yeah it was, it was I don't guess Bell's Fargo the big, but but big. All in Texas, Oklahoma or like, I'm sure you're much of Texas just to Austin.
01:33:44:22 - 01:33:56:09
Unknown
Probably down there. San Antonio maybe. I don't really know, but I know it was big. Sure, sure. Yeah. That's interesting. I had I'd never heard that before.
01:33:56:11 - 01:33:59:01
Unknown
The,
01:33:59:04 - 01:34:27:00
Unknown
There are a lot of people say that the the, Chisholm Trail is through this area somewhere, and I don't know, I've been told that because, in Denton, there's a John Chisholm memorial in the courthouse, which allegedly, I'm distantly related to him, so. Okay, but we didn't. We never grew up in this area. My family, it partly is from California and partly from Missouri.
01:34:27:05 - 01:34:50:11
Unknown
Utah. So you can live as a buster in each other. The family in this book that lived here. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Buster, they were d especially the woman was especially big in the community club. The only picture of scene of them in there is when they're in a cotton patch. But they were they were very instrumental. He probably helped write this book.
01:34:50:14 - 01:35:04:29
Unknown
Really? Yeah. Now, is any of their families still in this area? They had two daughters. And now, as far as I know, the daughters are still around, but I haven't seen them in 20 years or more. Okay.
01:35:05:01 - 01:35:25:12
Unknown
Oh, it's. Oh, yeah. It's spelt with a a instead of a W.C. Chisholm. Is that the same thing? Okay.
01:35:25:15 - 01:35:29:12
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Right there.
01:35:29:15 - 01:35:35:20
Unknown
Yeah. That's them when they were really young.
01:35:35:23 - 01:36:01:02
Unknown
Yeah. You have any idea where they lived at? No. Okay. Oh, where they lived? Yes. I don't know where they live. Where? When we were involved in the community club. Yeah. When you're going south on on 51, just before you get to the curve that goes toward Grundy's, there's a county road goes to the left. They lived right there.
01:36:01:05 - 01:36:35:16
Unknown
Okay. And Buster was Buster and the neighbor to the on down the road there, they would have both been in the army in World War Two, and they got jobs working for Chancellor, which is a big airplane thing, north side of Fort Worth. And they both had dairies and they would get up in the morning, milk their cows, commute to Fort Worth, come home, milk cows, go to bed, do it over again.
01:36:35:16 - 01:37:04:11
Unknown
And that's how they paid for their properties. Yeah, they weren't large places, but I mean, they were couple hundred acres maybe. And so they got I always thought a had a great deal of respect for them. That's a tough, tough way to do it. Yeah. Now do you have any idea. On this cover, if this is actually what, based on era itself, I mean, that says John Bickel on the.
01:37:04:13 - 01:37:19:10
Unknown
Is that a I know you're a had a blacksmith at one time. Yes. And they just cleaned up a year or two ago. This I, I've never played any attention to that, Cody. And I don't know what it's supposed to mean.
01:37:19:12 - 01:37:24:08
Unknown
The,
01:37:24:11 - 01:37:50:20
Unknown
The blacksmith shop was behind George Wilson's service station, and they just finished cleaning up some. The fire department has bought that property. The fire department knows everything. You know, there, west of the fire department now? Yes, sir. The last person property accumulated up there. They were cleaning it up and scraping the ground. Everything. And they said they probably found 500 horseshoes for the horses over there for years.
01:37:50:23 - 01:38:23:19
Unknown
And I don't know that when I was a small child, I'd say under 10 or 12. There was a guy they called him Santa Claus or Whiskers, and he was a big old fat man. Don't know where he lived, but he had the he had the the blacksmith shop behind that station back there. And when I was a little guy, I don't have no idea what his name was or how long had been there, but I just remember they talk about how we get whiskers fix that or
01:38:23:22 - 01:38:30:07
Unknown
So I'm calling Santa Claus. He kept a long beard, obviously. Yeah. And.
01:38:30:10 - 01:38:48:13
Unknown
And when you were growing up, would you ride horseback to school or. No, no, I'm not horseback after school. Sometimes to different places. I had a buddy that they lived in that lived over there.
01:38:48:16 - 01:39:11:09
Unknown
That new house on the east side of the road, just a little cemetery. Billy Van lived there, and he and I ride horseback back and forth some over there. Did you walk? If you didn't do that? No. I rode the bicycle to school a few times, but I never did. Well, I was the best of them. I heard the best last day.
01:39:11:11 - 01:39:37:00
Unknown
I never did drive a car in school. So in the era consolidated all the schools. Is. Did they offer a bus line immediately, or was it later on that they did? When the ERA consolidated all the schools? Did they begin bussing kids when they consolidated, or was it later on? No, I'm sure they started right away, right away, but I don't I don't really know.
01:39:37:04 - 01:40:05:04
Unknown
Yeah, but I would think so. Yeah. Would they want to know the story of it? Joe in the school teacher. I was just fixing to, I told you, the schoolteachers, you know, had the board somewhere. If they didn't have a house. And we they hired a teacher named Bayless, Virgil Bayless. And he lived in the front room up here then from other and daddy up here.
01:40:05:06 - 01:40:23:04
Unknown
And he was from probably Cincinnati or somewhere in Ohio. But, one particular thing about him, he talked about he didn't know about pecans. He knew about Pickens. He. Yeah.
01:40:23:06 - 01:40:53:10
Unknown
And talk about a I mean, he had no conception of rural anything. But anyway, so he was, I think, a history. He was a history teacher. And I think Joanne would ride to school with him sometimes. Maybe I did too, I don't know, but, Joanne was in class one day. Well, they got to aggravate him because he was a week teacher, and they were just teasing him and his cane with him.
01:40:53:12 - 01:41:23:21
Unknown
And they'll tell this story first Joanne to aggravate him. She had to replace his in more retainer at night. But when she had the retainer in, they had thought we were funny and had retainers do. And so she put the, she had to stand up and say something about the War of 1776. And so she stood up with a retainer in her mouth and said, and got the guts of everything.
01:41:23:23 - 01:41:43:11
Unknown
And Mr. Madison, you stopped that says you talked plain. And he she said, I have my thing, and I have to keep it. And no. And and she said, he said, if you don't get that out, I'm going to spank you. And he had a board. Oh, no. And he came at her with the board and Joanne grabbed it and threw it out the window.
01:41:43:11 - 01:41:48:23
Unknown
The window was open.
01:41:48:26 - 01:41:51:27
Unknown
So.
01:41:51:29 - 01:42:23:22
Unknown
How old was she? I guess that would have been probably the eighth grade. Oh, man, I do not on. No. So came home and mother found out about it and I don't know if she talked about this or not, but she went the next day to the school to see Mr. McClendon, the superintendent, and she said Mr. McClendon said if Joanne acts up and you want to spank, hurry, you spanker, as long and as hard as you want to, do not let that man touch her again.
01:42:23:25 - 01:42:45:23
Unknown
Did she straighten up after that? Joanne? Yeah. She wasn't bad. She was just waiting him. Just message. I know that was her only. I'm sure that was the only time she was right down. Now, the other time, Joanne and Bobby and Helen. Kind of the three Musketeers tight. Okay. All had horses. His husband lived down the lane that way.
01:42:45:23 - 01:43:13:03
Unknown
And Bobby lived in town and borrowed a harsh me to her, Helen. And so they would ride horseback and they'd right over there and I guess with boys and stuff and mess around. And they were the store getting the public. And Mr. Bayless drove up and went into the store to get something. And so Joanne and Bobby ran out and got the keys out of his car, put him in her pocket and said on the porch.
01:43:13:03 - 01:43:30:19
Unknown
And he came back and started getting his car and couldn't find his keys. And he knew immediately they had him and said, we'll give them to you when you're out of horse. He said, I don't ride horses, give them to you another horse. And so he finally got on, and I got a picture of him with his feet sticking out in two directions and holding rain and both hands like this.
01:43:30:21 - 01:43:54:01
Unknown
And they. Then they finally gave him his keys. Man. He. How long did he teach after that in here? I don't think he likes him for the year. Maybe he may have even been going about mid-term. Yeah, I can imagine he lived in a heat with y'all. I don't recall him, any of us. I guess he would have had to, though.
01:43:54:01 - 01:44:00:13
Unknown
Really? Because there was no cafe.
01:44:00:15 - 01:44:09:04
Unknown
I'm sure she wasn't the only one messing with him. What?
01:44:09:06 - 01:44:32:07
Unknown
Did you find anything in there? Oh, there's a dedication to. There's a there's Mr. Bush about the land grant. There's a picture of him in there. Oh, really? Yeah. Go to the front. And look, I know that I gave you something to. How many cats do you have? Well, three. I'll leave to have two. But she may have told you about this time anyway.
01:44:32:10 - 01:44:51:25
Unknown
Oh, no, she didn't know. Well, we may. We found this little cat, which came from. Because we haven't had pregnant cats in years that way. Marker. We had all that at the old town. And so we have this little one. She said that?
01:44:51:28 - 01:45:09:07
Unknown
Oh, was that the black little black one I saw? Okay. And this is the oldest one in here. That's precious. She's 14 and this is sassy the lumberjack. And she said.
01:45:09:09 - 01:45:16:06
Unknown
She was sniffing, oh, I don't get as important, but.
01:45:16:08 - 01:45:19:16
Unknown
When.
01:45:19:19 - 01:45:24:22
Unknown
When I was, I guess in.
01:45:24:25 - 01:45:28:17
Unknown
Freshman and sophomore summers.
01:45:28:19 - 01:45:51:08
Unknown
Are still running a flashing machine. And I worked at the treasurer for two years pitching bundles and stuff. So that was kind of cool. Yeah, we had a small tractors, no horses, we had small tractors. We put the bundle wagons within. That was day and time and there were about think four of us. Did he get her Brown my sales rose Sutton all driving little tractors, all teenagers on each other.
01:45:51:08 - 01:46:20:13
Unknown
And he was great fun driving around the country over there taking machine a good job did pay well. They paid I think they paid the tractor a dollar and a half an hour, and I think they paid us a dollar an hour. That didn't seem too bad for that time. So that of course of running daddy's gas. So yeah, I guess you got to pay him back.
01:46:20:15 - 01:46:39:15
Unknown
Now, what was was the thrashing machine. Did it run on one of those big belts that you ran again? Yeah, the the tractor would have a little belt pulley on the side over here. That kind of like a power take off of it on the side. And then we'll get that big around made out of some kind of stuff.
01:46:39:17 - 01:46:49:18
Unknown
And then there would be one on the threshing machine over there, and it would stretch the belt with you. The stretch from the tractor would be here, and the machine would be over there at the door.
BARN 02