It made you appreciate the strength of a Ford Galaxie to have seen me and Dave climbing all over that car waiting for the show to start. Too much Sparkling Punch and Oreos I guess.

I happen to work with one of those people who was interested in buying the 51, Bob Ritter. I wish he had gotten the chance, because then it would probably still be a going concern. He is now the reigning monarch of Hubcap Kingdom, the biggest (and best organized) source for new and used hubcaps in Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma. He is also the same fellow with the elaborate Christmas lights seen in Guestbook 65.

It was "Trigger Beeler's Barn," and I always thought that was the best name I ever heard for beer joint. I seem to recall a story that ran in one of the Tulsa papers to the effect that the place's namesake had picked up that moniker by the simple expedient of shooting somebody.

Does anyone know anything more about it?

I was fortunate enough to see a movie at the 51 on one of the last nights it was open. The screen was destroyed in a minor tornado (or as one of the Tulsa meteorologists would call it, a "gustnado") in May 1993.

I was editor of the Broken Arrow edition of the Community World at the time -- it had just started. The movie showing that night -- the Saturday before the screen was destroyed -- was Disney's Aladdin. The place was just packed.

I always loved that drive-in. When I was a kid, we'd arrive really early and chase the wild rabbits. The only disappointment was that they didn't have any playground, unlike all the other area drive-ins.

Once I became an adult, I kept going to the 51, although I would usually be asked to open the trunk of my mammoth 1972 Ford LTD so they could make sure I wasn't sneaking anyone in.

Even though it was on 71st Street, it was called the 51 because, when it opened, 71st Street was State Highway 51. They never renamed it when 51 was moved to the Broken Arrow Expressway when it opened in 1965.

It's about 4 blocks east of 71st and 145th (if you are headed toward the Wal-Mart Supercenter, it's on your right). The fence and the posts where the speakers hung are still there, but a gated/new community is threatening to swallow it whole.

I am either not old enough to have gone to any of the other DI's or I didn't live here at the time, but I remember that one from my teenage years. Saw Rocky 3 and SpaceHunter there, as I remember. Dad and I sat on the roof of the family 1978 Olds Cutlass Supreme and watched them.

Apparently, Bryan Crain is a precog, since he answered your question several minutes before you asked it. Of course, Wade also asked it two days ago.

That was the Santa Fe that went northwards from Tulsa to Bartlesville; still can, but now it's owned by the North Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. Top speed limit: approximately 25 mph.

Concerning trains, my brother Steve and I rode on one of the last passenger trains from Tulsa to Bartlesville at the behest of our grandparents. Frisco line I believe.

I am well aware of Fort Worth's nickname as "Cowtown," but I didn't want to apply that to Tulsa and I'm sure a few oil barons live in Fort Worth. The reviews indicate the picture isn't worth a quibble.

I had a Brownie's burger on Saturday, the place was packed. I had to stand in line for awhile to get in. Tulsa radio personality Michael DelGiorno was right behind me. We had a nice visit about the radio biz until we finally were seated.

Speaking of bad movies that refer to Tulsa, did anyone see that one where John Candy played a Tulsa P.I.? The movie wasn't much but he was great, as always.

P.S. Webmaster, was the concert rained out?

No, it went on as planned, but turnout was sparse due to the threat of rain, though I saw none while I was there at 6th & Peoria. A Channel 2 cameraman was there, and elicited a peace sign (or was that a "2" sign?) from me and others in attendance. More after Wilhelm's comment below. The story may be on 2's Monday morning show; it was preempted by extensive local coverage of the tornado that touched down in Dewey and Copan.

The movie was Who's Harry Crumb?

Re loco notes - I wonder if the Santa Fe loco is still in downtown Amarillo? It was nominated as a Freedom Train loco but I think needed too much repair.

Growing up in Chicago - in the 60's - the Burlington ran a lot of team excursions - we took one on the 100th anniversary of the road - pulling modern doubledecker cars to Aurora. I think Mom paid $10 each for her, my brother and I to ride it.

I rode a lot of Norfolk Southern runs behind their 1218 steamer when in DC in the 80's and 90's.

Best run was inhaling the steam at 50 miles an hour between Manassas and Alexandria, VA about 10-12 years ago. Gary Porter - another Ozark, AR escapee & brother of Martie Kretchmar at NatGeoChannel was working then as a brakeman on that run. We got to go to the open-doored baggage car (albeit too the "recording car" for audio buffs) and hang out the bay doors to "eat some smoke" and as it thundered eastward. NS later scrapped all steam runs due to insurance costs BUT they ran the best on the East Coast for years!

Gary Porter is back "in the oil patch" as a rig boss in LA/MS offshore now - gave up his railroadin' days. 20-25 years ago Gary was a crewman then later crew boss with Halliburton - doing well capping and other chores. He probably knows more about backroads and no longer existant towns in OK and No. TX than anyone I know - he drove over most of them on service calls.

Speaking of teen memories, I still use Brownie's Hamburgers as the measure of what a delicious, home- made, hamburger joint burger should taste like. Have never found anything to match those burgers. Maybe it was the marble work counter on which they flattened the meat before slipping onto the griddle. Nothing like Brownie's in California (I'm probably misspelling the name). Once included a Brownie's prototype hamburger cafe in a TV movie my partner Henry Stern and I were writing/producing for CBS. Turned out a programs/practices person who had been assigned by the network to peruse the script was from Tulsa. She spotted the similarities and alerted us to a possible problem. The movie was shelved - too bad because I intended to hold the wrap party at Brownie's after shooting finished in Tulsa.

As for the Circle Theater. I saw a lot of pictures there in the 1950's. "Pillow Talk" comes to mind. My mom and dad went there on dates during the depression. The management gave away dinnerware or some sort of incentive to get people into the theater during the week. I'm told that a Mr. Isley owned the theater. His daughter, Phyllis, moved to Hollywood changed her name to Jennifer Jones.

Time: April 20 2003 at 12:53:02
Name: Wilhelm Murg
Location: On Brookside trying to find a piece of Black Bottom Pie...
Comments: The Circle Theatre is one of those great asbestos-riddled buildings. Every punk promoter in the 1980s wanted the building, but it was too expensive to restore. The new newspaper MHN did an article in their first issue on the new project (their office is directly next door to the theatre).

Did anyone go to the Newvo concert? I passed it around 11:30 am when it was raining and I figured it would be canceled, but then I passed it around 4 pm and it looked like they were attempting to have a concert, but it seemed like there were more people on stage than in the audience (it was still sprinkling downtown at that point). Last year, when it was indoors, a friend of mine said there were only 15 people in the audience.

The new Outline magazine is out, featuring a little satire called "Urbinity Tulsa" and interviews with Gary Chew, The Cramps, et al. I know all the downtown, 11th Street, and 15th Street locations are stocked, and they are working on the rest of the routes.

Outline Magazine is also available online, but has not yet (4/20) been updated with the new issue, though you might enjoy reading Wilhelm's stories about Todd Rundgren and early Yes with Peter Banks in last month's issue.

I made it to the concert...saw several acts including my bro with Rusti Love. I also wanted to see Ultrafix (a "rocktronica" group from Tulsa), but couldn't hang around long enough.

I know that there was a picture taken and published in either one, or both, of the Tulsa papers; don't know if they got the "dirt on the gov's shoes" shot or not, but it would have been priceless if they had...

Now if only the Frisco 4500 can be saved from the scrapper's torch....

Since I've brought this subject up...does anybody remember the locomotive that pulled the train thru this part of the country? I know that in many parts of the US, the old Southern Pacific 4449 was the locomotive of choice. Did it pull the train thru here?

Thanks in advance....

(Added 6/19/2005:)

Time: June 19 2005 at 12:11:42 EDT
Name: Henry Fleming
Location: Michigan

My wife and I really enjoyed your site, even without nearly enough homage paid to the very best onion rings ever, the ones from Pennington's.

I saw the comments about the American Freedom Train but wondered how many saw the Spirit of 1776, its predecessor. The Spirit of 1776 was a joint operation of the Santa Fe (AT&SF), Frisco (SLSF) and the Seaboard (SCL) and visited Tulsa in late November, 1972. It had the first locomotive (SCL 1776, a GE U-33b) painted in red, white and blue on the head end. There was an exhibit car (ATSF 5005), steam generator car (ATSF 133) and an extended-vision caboose (SLSF 1776). The cars were painted to match the locomotive. There were many diesel locomotives painted in patriotic schemes for the 200 year anniversary of the country and a few steam, but it was neat to see the first to honor the Bicentennial.

It's a shame to see steam programs like the Southern's pass. At the same time, we went through Cheyenne, WY last summer and the Union Pacific's still looks strong.

(Webmaster: from the Pennington's training manual, via Judy Pennington's book, as printed in the Tulsa World, here's the Black Bottom Pie recipe, plus...)

Pennington's Onion Rings

Onion rings, sliced thin
2 cups milk, plus more for soaking
1 egg
Flour, enough to make thin batter

1. Slice onions in thin rings. Place in bowl of milk and soak for at least an hour.

2. Make batter of 2 cups milk, 1 egg and enough flour to make batter the consistency of pancake batter. Put a handful of rings in batter. Remove from batter and hold over bowl until excess batter falls off.

3. Dust the battered rings in flour until they are fully covered. Shake off excess flour. Cook in deep fryer at 360 degrees until golden.

Pennington's Fried Shrimp

1. Take each shrimp-in-the-shell and cut along the back with a sharp knife. Begin at the head and peel the shell back to the tail. Break off the shell being careful not to remove the tail. Discard the shell and the dark vein along the back.

2. The final step is the breading of the shrimp. Dust a handful of shrimp in flour. Now dip in milk. Take the shrimp and put them in cracker crumbs, using the palm of your hand to flatten shrimp one at a time. Be careful not to press too hard or the shrimp will tear.

It's all now a parking lot for the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Grocery on South Peoria. They razed the old building late last year.

When I was in high school, the old building contained a Red Bud Food Center, which was already on hard times. I recall that at night only some of the neon lights were still working, turning the name of the store into "ED BUD FOO".

I’m not sure why a downtown TV station would gather at a bar in Brookside. It was just a beer bar in those days. I suppose there was a bit of “shop talk” during the gatherings, but we were anything but stable when we left.

Talk about a mix of high and low culture--sometimes within the same post! We had just discussed both a Tulsa classical record shop and The Stables Lounge, home of the Terpsichorean muse (scantily-if at all-clad) in the 70s and 80s. Writer Wilhelm Murg contributed mightily to both discussions. Bobby Goldsboro's song "Honey" (as lip-synched by Mazeppa and written by Bobby Russell, also writer of Erling's show opener "Saturday Morning Confusion") was somewhere between the two.

We heard from Stephen Black, who started at Channel 8 and later became headwriter for "As The World Turns" (now a novelist). The topic of local trains, past and present, was carried over from the previous Guestbook. We noted the tragic passing of John Galusha, an artist, writer and filmmaker from Tulsa.

Check out all that and more in Guestbook 127.