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Dear Sirs,
I just want to
thank you for
sending me the back issues of the Planet. How I enjoyed all about
the Bicentennial
programs and all the news from years gone by. I surely enjoyed it very
much and
won’t let my subscription elapse next year, providing I’m still here.
All about
the County Fair brought back memories how we used to ride bikes that we
would
rent for .10 from an old fellow who rented skates and bicycles and we
would go
out and ride around the race track. Those
days there wasn’t anything to occupy the kids’
minds. If they had
had soft ball for women I would have been a whiz for I played baseball
with the
boys and people called me a tomboy but I had a cousin. She and I ran
around together
by the name of Fern Bloodworth who now lives in Wilmington,
California. She
had a pony and we had high spirited Kentucky
walking horse and she and I rode them. None
of the rest of girls would ride. We had something
then growing up
that there that the young kids of today never had. Dad practically
layed all
the sidewalks (concrete) in Martinsvi1le. When
I was home 4 years ago those sidewalks were still
good. I have
scars on both knees where we used to slide down the banisters at the Southside
School and after I got
hurt my Dad
removed those steps and those concrete Steps and iron railings in, that
were
still there 4 years ago and the school they tell me burned. 1 would
love to come
back and stay a month and visit and maybe I could write a book. 1 have
a
picture of one of my classes but do you know there isn’t a name on the
back it
to tell me who the kids are. I just wonder if I sent it to you, you
could
publish It Maybe there some of the old timers my age could help me with
the
names. It’s a real good plain picture and I believe it would make a
good clear
newspaper print. I would be glad to pay
for
you running it. I don’t know the
teacher’s name. The women those days wore bustles on their hips and I know somebody gave her the name “Artificial
Hips” and I remember that. I remember Uncle Henry Randall’s store on
the
corner, Millers’ Dry Goods and Grocery on the other corner, Devlin’s
Candy and
fountain, Uncle Elizar
Dill’s1 Meat Market, Faisg’s2
Drug, the water well
with a
dipper hung on it. Everybody drank out
of it and never thought about disease. The
two hotels going down to the train station, I can just see it but can’t
remember the names too well any more as time has a way of taking those
things
away from you. The only street I can remember is York
and I don’t remember it that is Main Street
or the street going down to the railroad tracks and to the Southside
School. I remember the
old
Nickelodeon, Dr. Phelps’ office and Clint Gallatin and his wife, Minnie
lived
in the corner house just across from the Randall Store. It was a
beautiful home.
I remember her coming to church every Sunday with a new hat on and she
would wait
until just as the service was a bout to start and in she would come and
everybody looking to sec her with her big, full skirts. She
was the best dressed woman in
Martinsville
or at least she thought she was. There
were a lot of good looking women then as there are now. One thing the
Bloodworth girls and I talked about in our letters is do you know why
the hill over
the railroads tracks was named “Flowery Hill?” Do
you know who gave it that
name?3
Does anyone know what the man’s
name was that used to have a flower garden just across the railroad
tracks of
the depot. I think his daughter is one of the girls in my picture I
have of the
class. He had a greenhouse and of course sold his flowers he grew. I
hope
someone can enlighten me. I don’t know how many are still living my
age. We
came out here in February 1908 and my class graduated from high school
that
spring. They sent me my diploma and my
report card. I have lost my diploma but
still have my report card. Harry Ryan was our teacher and principle. He
taught
me how to write. Well, I guess I better quit for I could ask a dozen
more
questions. I forgot to tell you I am 82 years old, was born May 13, 1894. I
live alone, have two wonderful boys and
daughters-in-law and they are real good to me. So if you can answer
some of my questions
I will surely appreciate it.
Mrs. Jessie M. (Gallatin)
Webster
1400 N.E. Euclid
Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma 73117
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