September 24 2007 at 19:46:30 Name: John Hillis Topic: Game Show Angst Comments: Anything to keep from writing on my book, which
I swear will be done, one way or another, by year end.
10 years ago come January, my daughter was a contestant on Jeopardy, high
school tournament. After tryouts in New York, she was flown to LA and boarded
at Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton, and just being in the audience was the
most nerve-wracking experience I can recall. For me.
She was cool as a cucumber, and won the first game. Some of the other contestants
got the yips, including one poor kid who just fell apart off-camera.
Doing something like that in the studio setting, as opposed to sitting in
the living room and popping off the answers, is the difference between landing
the 747 in Flight Simulator and doing it for real...if you crash the real
thing, everybody's going to hear about it.
She wound up with some cash, a collection of obscure promotional gifts (no
Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat), an autographed photo with Alex Trebek,
and the knowledge that, no matter what else she achieves in life, she'll
be an ex-Jeopardy contestant.
So, Webmaster, you can anticipate your obituary headline: Mike Ransom, was
"Phone a Friend" on "Millionaire."
John, congratulations on your daughter doing so well on the show.
I do great on Jeopardy at home, but the freedom to occasionally blurt
out a boneheaded answer lets me unload a lot of good answers, too. If I were
playing the game for real, I'm afraid I would censor myself too much. But
then again, I blurted out my answer on "Millionaire" before
I heard the choices, so maybe not.
I tried out for Jeopardy in L.A. in 1994. (I had a whole slate of activities
lined up for that trip.) There were about 60 candidates taking the written
test in the studio the day I was there. It was hard. Seems like there were
about 40-50 questions, no multiple choice, and no hints implicit in the
questions, as is often the case on the air. You either knew it or you didn't.
I would estimate that I got maybe half the questions right. Sadly, my best
effort wasn't good enough that day. I understand they interviewed the top
couple of scorers to make sure they were adequately telegenic. Then they
went into the pool of future contestants.
All of us watched a taping of the show while we were there. (I noticed
the "Wheel of Fortune" wheel crated up and leaning against the wall outside
the studio. Merv's company taped the shows in that same Culver City Sony
studio on alternate weeks, I believe.) I can well imagine that with the "missile
launch" atmosphere on the Jeopardy set, playing the game up there would be
a little different than sitting in front of the tube, eating Chee-tos.
We'll be looking forward to that book of yours. I can't say I'm looking
forward to the fine headline you prophesy.
September 24 2007 at 10:44:41 Name: J. LeMoine Topic: Marcel Marceau, Adieu Email: ok_lemoineatyahoodotcom Comments: Just wanted to share this, received this morning
from my co-worker here at the code mines, re the passing of Bip:
He was a great artist, who unfortunately inspired a bunch of really bad and
annoying street artists. Interesting fact, he was Jewish and a member of
the French Resistance during WWII.
Still he was a mime so...
If the Germans had caught him during WWII, would they have told him, "Ve
heff vays of making you talk?"
And would everyone have appreciated the irony?
Should we have a moment of silence or of loudness for him?
Did he go quietly?
Can we say he's finally perfected the "mime in a box" routine?
September 23 2007 at 23:19:09 Name: Jim Reid Topic: Re: Wienerschnitzel, Der Comments: Better hurry down. I used to know of about
7 locations here. Now there's only 2 left. Still the same watery chili
though.....ymmmmm.
September 23 2007 at 18:39:01 Name: David Batterson Topic: Mrs. Olson Email:
davidbat(at)yahoo(dot)com Comments: According to imdb.com, Virginia Christine, aka Mrs.
Olson, did not appear in "North by Northwest." But she did play a supporting
role in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." And let's not forget her role as
"Eva Oster" in the American classic, "Billy the Kid versus Dracula."
That's right, she didn't appear in "NNW". However, Maudie Prickett did,
and in this movie, she looks like Mrs. Olson after a bad pot of Folger's.
Her name was no doubt the inspiration for Jonathan Winters' "Maudie Frickert"
character, who was the model for Johnny Carson's "Aunt Blabby".
September 23 2007 at 17:37:04 Name: Scott Linder Topic: Dream Job Comments: I always wanted to be Marcel Marceau's audio
engineer. What a dream job...
September 23 2007 at 17:03:22 Name: Rick Brashear Topic: Re: Wienerschnitzel, Der Email: We've got lumps of it 'round
the back. Comments: I'll be sure and drive to Texas for a lips/ears/snout
dog. Actually, I really did like Der Wienerschnitzel. The Kraut Dogs and
Polish sandwiches kept me alive during high school while at Hale. I went
to the one on Sheridan for lunch and, on weekends, the one on Peoria for
dessert, though I don't remember ordering any food there.
As Marcel Marceau once said in a public service announcement, "A mime is
a terrible thing to waste."
September 23 2007 at 16:18:07 Name: John Topic: Crown Auto World Email: jssok99@hotmail.com Comments: I've asked before, but thought I'd try again. Does
anyone have a copy of one of the radio commercials for Crown Auto World with
"and Sam's is still next door"?
Just thought I'd ask...
September 23 2007 at 14:07:50 Name: Webmaster Topic: Mrs. Olson revisited Comments:
In GB 242, Lionel pointed a paw at 1960s
Folger's coffee spokeswoman Mrs. Olson as having doubled as a Nazi spy.
I was just watching the Hitchcock thriller, "North by Northwest", with
Cary Grant. There is a housekeeper resembling Mrs. Olson who pulls a gun
on the hero. Could she be the proper target of Lionel's "J'accuse!"?
September 23 2007 at 13:10:44 Name: Ken Topic: Marcel Marceau Comments: His last words were reported to be " ".
September 23 2007 at 10:42:59 Name: Gary Chew Topic: Marcel Marceau Comments: With sadness, I noted this morning the passing
of the great French mime, Marcel Marceau. His death brought back to me a
bit of trivia. So if you'll please turn to the program schedule page of one
of your very early issues of the KWGS Program
Guide (after NPR affiliation) observe the overnight title for hours KWGS
was off air---back in the days when some broadcast stations actually signed
off and then, back on at about 5 am or so.
That segment from about midnight to 6 am on KWGS was then called "The Marcel
Marceau Mime Theater of the Air."
Dead air for us, then...but as a friend noted to me this morning, insofar
as Marceau is concerned, "He spoke volumes."
September 22 2007 at 04:42:47 Name: Stacy Richardson Topic: Wienerschnitzel, Der Email: stacyr at usa dot net Comments: If the photo of 21st and
Harvard is looking north on Harvard, then the Der Wienerschnitzel --
which hadn't been built at the time that photograph was taken -- would eventually
be located on the north side of 21st, to the east of the DX station, which
eventually became Jack-in-the-Box, then Apple's, then Arby's.
An addendum to the Wienerschnitzel web site discussion: you don't have to
go to California to get one of their hot dogs. The Dallas-Fort Worth area
will do fine, with many locations available, the nearest probably being the
ones in Allen or Denton.
September 21 2007 at 19:24:39 Name: Mike Bruchas Topic: Tale of 2 Cal's
Comments: I did something at KOTV with Cal Tinney on a morning
show a bazillion years ago; can't remember anything at all. I think
Buddy Allison alternately chuckled and groaned on
headset. Also worked a few times in DC with Cal Thomas, a "conservative values
commentator".
Tangent: are they running CDC PSA radio spots talking about Flu Pandemic
Preparation in the home?? After 6pm, they air almost on the hour in DC. Not
to get a bit fearful, but... Get thee thy flu shots early, folks.
September 21 2007 at 14:35:41 Name: David Bagsby Topic: Phone Email:
deeceebeeatsunflowerdotcom Comments: Sounds like our humble webmeister needs to sign
up as a phone friend for the show "Cash Cab"...just be sure to get your cut.
That's a fun show.
September 21 2007 at 11:10:54 Name: Webmaster Topic: Linda Soundtrak video! Email: Linda Soundtrak's: adsthatwork
at charter dot net Comments: I just got this email from Linda (Verin)
Soundtrak:
"For those of you that asked - and most of you that didn't. Finally I'm on
YouTube. A former ad manager put us on; he plays the doctor."
The manager is Dwayne Helt in KOCO TV Sales, OKC. Check out that 1986
50" projection TV. And the prices.
September 21 2007 at 08:56:25 Name: Lowell Burch Topic: $1,000,000
Comments: I happened to turn on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?"
and wondered who I would use as my friend for the Lifeline. Prof. Webmaster
easily made my short list. Then, the very next day, I read right here on
TTM that he will be playing that very part for a real contestant! Pretty
cool.
I once went to audition for the show and they cut the line off right before
I walked in. I said, "Hey, at least give me a cap!" I am now a proud owner
of a "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" baseball cap. Almost as good as $1,000,000.
This is the year that both OU and TU could go perfect seasons - except that
they play each other! I'm guessing the Sooner's defense will slow down the
Hurricane offense just enough to pull out the win - but it won't be easy.
Tulsa teacher Brenda Cox calls the TTM webmaster, Mike Ransom,
for the $8,000 question on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?". Aired 1/7/2008,
taped 8/8/2007.
Webmaster: No cap for me, just the lingering memory of Meredith Vieira's
dulcet tones.
At 9:20 am on the designated day, a representative of a third-party outfit
got me and the 4 other phone friends on a conference call (I was scheduled
off work that weekday). He confirmed that we were who we were supposed to
be, that we hadn't participated within the last 6 months, and that we would
be at this landline phone number until 6:30 pm.
The third-party guy said that when our contestant was on the hot seat, we
would receive a call to alert us. The next call would be from Meredith Vieira.
I got the hot seat call about 3:15 pm. Meredith called 5 or 10 minutes later.
After I gave my answer and the 30 seconds were up, the call ended abruptly.
My contestant was sworn to secrecy about the outcome. I don't know anything
myself, other than the dollar level she was at when I got the call.
I was amazed at how stressful it was waiting for the phone to ring. I was
hardly nervous at all when I was interviewed at OETA for "Tulsa Times" earlier
this year. It must be the uncertainty of when the call is to come.
Fun in retrospect, but I don't plan to make a career of phone-friending.
I'll mention it when I know the exact date the episode will be aired.
September 20 2007 at 16:01:20 Name: Jim Ruddle Topic: Language Email: jruddle@earthlink.net Comments: Re: Native tongues
Down around Haileyville and
Hartshorne, English was the first casualty.
Ha, ha!
September 20 2007 at 15:38:53 Name: Mike Bruchas Topic: Native Tongues
Comments: Tangent - per my employer - the National Geographic
with new international studies being done - many of the world's indigenous
languages are fast disappearing. And OKLAHOMA is the place in the whole U.S.
where native tongues are being lost the fastest. Very sad.
September 20 2007 at 09:48:31 Name: Webmaster Topic: Camelot Inn update
Comments:
The latest news about the Camelot on KOTV's web site:
Hotel Fire Remains Under
Investigation. As stated in the story, the Camelot is being demolished
and a QuikTrip, among other developments, will be built there.
September 19 2007 at 16:38:58 Name: Kristi Stewart Topic: Good Ole' Summer Memories Email: ok-kid@rogers.com Comments: To continue with the comments that the webmaster
made a few days ago about Summer 2007 nearing its end and enjoying the special
venues TULSA has to offer...
I'm certainly glad I took time out last summer when back in T-town visiting
to take my 12 year old son to BELL's! WOW! What a great time we had! We darn
near rode every ride...including the Himalaya (one of my favorites as a teenage
girl on a date-- you get Real close to your fella.)
We got drenched on the log ride and of course we couldn't pass up my all
time favorite - ZINGO! For some reason.. I felt compelled to ride ZINGO over
and over again (5 times to be exact.) I guess I felt deep down inside it
might be the last time I would. And, unfortunately, it was. (And, YES, my
son and I both had our arms raised high into the air!)
I still remember the smell of cotton candy spilling into the air and the
smiles on everyone's faces as they lined up to ride "one more time." My son
and I went to Bell's the following night as well. This time, we brought my
80 year old Father and my Mom who was recovering from a stroke. Nice to see
the memories flash across their faces and spend ONE more night at Bell's
as a family!
Thanks Tulsa and Bell's for some great childhood Summer memories!
September 19 2007 at 15:02:03 Name: David Bagsby Topic: Dial-A-Pile Email:
deeceebeeatsunflowerdotcom Comments: The only joke I can recall from Cal's 'Dial-A-Smile'
was something about a shotgun wedding and the groom asking the angry
father-of-the-bride to be careful with his shotgun and the dad replying:
"Boy, I ain't aiming to please".
September 19 2007 at 13:32:28 Name: Lowell Burch Topic: Wanda Jackson
Comments: I am sorry I missed the Circle Cinema
event with Wanda Jackson. About 25 years ago she started doing country
gospel concerts in churches. I heard gossip that she was performing in the
churches "just for the money". I soon found out that was not at all true.
Back then, several churches south of OKC put on an event and they asked Wanda
to sing. They invited my wife, Susan, and me to do some music, too.
Of course, Wanda did a great job and the capacity crowd loved her. After
it was over, Wendell, her husband/manager stopped me and told me he had a
"bone to pick" with me. This made me nervous but I stepped into his rig to
talk things over. Wanda was there and they handed me the check that had given
her for the evening's performance. She had endorsed it and wanted us to have
it. Wendell asked me not to mention it to anyone and I never have, until
now.
However, over the years I have made it a point to tell people that she is
not only a talented performer but a very genuine individual. Her gift to
us was a heart-felt, and much appreciated, act of generosity.
Later, Wendell called and asked us to go to Colorado to do some concerts
with them there. We hated that we were already booked but eventually we did
get to do two or three more church events with them.
Thanks to Wilhelm, Gaye and I sat down and talked with Wendell, then Wanda
for awhile after the movie. (It was like continuing the movie in real life.)
Wendell is a super-sharp character (he was once an IBM programmer/supervisor),
and funny, too. Wanda is just as she appears on-screen, a genuine person,
as Lowell said.
September 19 2007 at 10:09:08 Name: edwin Topic: Cal Tinney
Comments: Did several "Will Rogers" programs with Cal back in
'74. He wanted to take it on tour with me as THE roady, but, as I always
did, declined. Roadies are a strange bunch and while some may think me strange,
I'm nowhere near roady strange!
September 19 2007 at 07:42:49 Name: Beverly Topic: Camelot Hotel
Comments: I think the Camelot Hotel was built in the 60s. I just
remember that it was always there and I thought it was the most beautiful,
unusual place. My very best memory was meeting Donny Osmond there in 1972
and having my picture taken with him. That was this 13 year-old's dream come
true...in 1972 anyway.
September 19 2007 at 04:50:15 Name: Phil Cook Topic: Gailard Sartain Comments: In the Nathan Hale High School locker room,
1974-75.
One day a new machine was discovered in the locker room, it was a ZIMI machine,
ZIMIs were frozen, flavored slush drinks dispensed in paper cups that dropped
down. It wasn't a bad product. The neat thing about it was after your ZIMI
was made you could hear a voice inside the machine. Keep in mind this was
the 70s. Recreational self-medication was popular, so a talking beverage
dispenser raised an eyebrow for several reasons.
It was a recording of the one and only G Ailard S Artain! With each ZIMI
you got a joke or funny story. He also maintained a dial-a-joke phone line
for a while. It was kind of OK but, he never finished the joke due to his
own laughter.
Also back then was another dial-a-joke guy named Cal Tinney. He was a Will
Rogers type, with folksy wisdom. Ahh ZIMIs - Good times...
I checked with Mr. S. on this, and indeed he did a laughtrack for ZIMI:
"...the only thing that I remember doing was recording a two minute, straight
laugh track for the ad agency that handled the Zimi Corporation. That's all
they wanted - there were no jokes. You put in your money, you got your Zimi
and you got me laughing hysterically."
But he doesn't recall doing any flavor of "dial-a-joke":
"It sounds totally foreign to anything I would have done."
Periodically in the 80s, I also called the Cal "Dial-A-Smile" Tinney phone
number to hear several of Cal's corny jokes. He always added his own chuckles
after each joke, but he did finish the jokes.
September 19 2007 at 01:09:17 Name: Jeff Topic: Camelot Hotel Comments: Does anyone know the history of the Camelot
Hotel: when was it built, what were the heyday years, why did it decline
and when?
The Tulsa World printed a history of the Camelot last week:
"Day
of wrecking".
September 18 2007 at 18:55:35 Name: John Hillis Topic: Now You've Done It
Comments: OK, now I've got a Japanese Astrud Gilberto eating a
cellophane-wrapped vending machine hot dog with a Swedish duo named after
the ex-Surgeon General.
Sounds like the storyboard for one of those sleep pill commercials about
how your weird dreams miss you.
Catchy tune, but I still don't feel like I'm wearing PF Flyers...I feel like
a cranky, arthritic, 50-something, who is about 1,900 miles from the nearest
Coney I-lander.
September 18 2007 at 18:48:25 Name: Mike Bruchas Topic: EDISON'S in '69 - the early 70s
Comments: In 1969, upper class-folks in John Mabee Hall with cars
would take us kids there to buy stuff to outfit our dorm rooms with. Edison's
was then a "member shopper" joint and I think TU students paid nothing or
$5 to get a membership card. Guys from India or Iran thought it the best
place to buy EVERYTHING American except clothes. I do admit their Casio and
Seikos watches were good buys then. The Indian/Iranian students (all male
then) from JMH bought the best Seikos and it was not unusual to see a poorly
dressed student sporting a $250 Seiko like the older ex-military guys coming
back from Nam and one last PX shopping spree had.
GE micro stereos with turntables (no cassette decks) or with turntable and
8-track and small cube speakers where big sellers. If turned up too high,
speaker life was about 6 mos. Couldn't replace them, they were hard-wired
to the stereo.
Desk lamps and clock radios also were big. Think "my first Sony". Many guys
would buy a Rival or other brand popcorn popper (which most never later changed
the oil in) which needed cooking oil to help pop the corn. We were told if
kept clean, you could cook soup in them on Sunday nights when TU's cafeterias
were closed. Supposedly toasters and toaster ovens were barred from the dorms
due to fire hazards. Several times in JMH in the winter, somebody late night
or on a Sunday would go screaming down the halls with a popcorn "cooker"
ablaze or smoking like burnt tires. Normally pitched out the nearest window
or spritzed with an extinguisher.
The air poppers (Sunbeam!) came later in the 70s. And dorms were safer!
Rival, made in KC-MO(!), had a lotta small coffee makers, too, which a lot
of us bought just in case of an all-nighter. Mine lasted about 8 years till
I lost the cord and gave up coffee. We drank instant or Maxwell House then.
Folger's tasted yucky. In winter we took milk from the cafeteria and cooled
in outside window wells if we did not have a fridge.
In regard to fridges, at first we couldn't have the then-expensive little
office fridges in our dorm rooms,but there was an alternative. Unofficially
there were folks at TU who ran a sideline business in used antique fridges
for like $20. All worked, but some stank. Most no longer made ice and most
seemed to have been made in the early 1950s.
GE and old Frigidaire models which always needed de-frosting. Somehow you
connected to these folks and they brought you a fridge; delivery was like
$10 extra from the back of a pick-up or an "off-duty" TU stake truck. If
going to the second or third floor in JMH or the new Twin Towers, usually
a gaggle of "sherpas" could be found to carry it upstairs. I had both white
and black painted ones as a shared owner. At the end of the spring term,
you were supposed to vacate your dorm room and have the fridge gone. Most
were left behind for TU maintenance to deal with; maybe that is how the fridge
biz stayed in business!
September 18 2007 at 15:47:25 Name: Webmaster Topic: Last days of summer in Tulsa
Comments:
Our summer days in Tulsa this year are numbered. I hope you made it out
to Driller Park and the Admiral Twin this season. As with Bell's, you can
never be sure they will still be there come spring.
This tune, "Summer Sun", by Koop (a Swedish duo), came up on my MP3 player
just as I started a training run awhile back. I felt like I was wearing PF
Flyers tennis shoes with the Flying Wedge...that's how airy this uptempo
jazzy pop song is.
The singer sounds a bit like Astrud Gilberto. When I got around to watching
this video, I was amazed to learn that the guest vocalist on this tune is
an 18-year-old Japanese half-Japanese, half-Swedish girl,
Yukimi Nagano. But Astrud was also young when she sang "The Girl From Ipanema"
in 1963...
September 18 2007 at 15:16:48 Name: Mike Bruchas Topic: Sunbeam hot dog cookers
Comments: I grew up in Chicago where Sunbeam was based and often
tested new products like about 4 generations of popcorn poppers, blenders
and stuff. But they were the first with individual hot dog cookers!
As a kid, we had one with prongs and you speared both of the ends of the
hotdog into it and it kinda electrocuted it. Sometimes the dog smelled funny
but it cooled quick. The cooker could kinda burn ya if you didn't wait. An
early Sunbeam effort.
When at TU, from EDISON'S, I bought the then-new and American-made Sunbeam
steamer and loved it. Only did 1 dog at a time but one put the split bun
on top and it was "steamed" to softness.
Often gorged on 3 dogs in my dorm room but ya needed a fridge to store dawgs
in. But ya needed a sink to dump the used water into afterward. Had it till
I moved to DC from OKC and lost the steamer insert. Wah!
In the course of my patent search for John Hillis, I saw specs for those
"Ol' Sparky"-type cookers.
September 17 2007 at 21:11:09 Name: Jeff H Topic: New fangled hot dog cooker Email: No chili and no onions, I
'll be up all night Comments: This Hot Dog topic has legs.
I thought I remembered a newer version of the "Electric Snack House", and
through the wonder of the Internet...BAM!I found the "Hot Diggity Dogger"
on Hammacher Schlemmer's web site for a mere $49.98. Why George Foreman has
not jumped on the DOG!, I don't know.
It looks very much like a toaster and only does two dogs at a time, cooking
the dogs and the buns separately and with a ship date of 3-3-08 don't put
it on your Christmas list.
Save yourself fifty bucks and grill, boil, nuke or visit one of Tulsa's fine
purveyors for your stadium steak cravings.
In case you have your heart set on an updated Electric Dog House, the
Hot
Diggity Dogger is in stock at Amazon.com for a lot fewer $$.
September 17 2007 at 18:42:25 Name: John Hillis Topic: Electric Snack House Comments: Sounds like a product designed and built by
Edwin...
Researchers, did it ever get its patent, or did the Electric Snack House
Company go ten toes up before the PTO could act? Forget about OJ...Inquiring
minds want to know!
I couldn't find anything close to it in online patent searches.
September 17 2007 at 15:22:15 Name: Scott Topic: Der Wienerschnitzel again Comments: Funny how stuff comes around sometimes! I just
happened to be watching an LA Dodgers baseball game yesterday on satellite,
and lo and behold on comes a commercial for Wienerschnitzel! Brought back
so many memories of my parents stopping at the one down on Peoria (I think)
way back when. I remember stopping once at the one near 17th and Sheridan,
but it was very run-down and pretty gnarly by this time.
Good times...
September 17 2007 at 13:49:11 Name: Beverly Topic: Der Wienerschnitzel Email: BeverlyW58@hotmail.com Comments: Der Wienerschnitzel(TTM link) was on the north side of 21st between Harvard and
Indianapolis...closer to Indianapolis. I don't think it was there in the
Beryl Ford photograph. I think it was built in the 60s. I think this photo
was from the 50s.
I love the picture of the Electric Snack House!
Thanks for the info on Der Wienerschnitzel's website. I'm hungry for coneys
now, too!
September 17 2007 at 13:35:47 Name: Jeff H Topic: Hot Dog corner and Hot Dogs Email: "Chili and onions on mine,
please!" Comments: 21st and Harvard must be the epicenter for hot dogs
in T-Town.
I was looking at the photo of the 21st and Harvard intersection and thought
there was a "Der Wienerschnitzel" where that DX station is located and a
few doors down is Jim's Coney Island, AND.... in the very next post is a
photo of the "Electric Snack House" hot dog cooker that looks very much like
a "Der Wienerschnitzel".
This is all very eerie and I am starting to crave Coney Island's for dinner,
It must be a plot.
F.Y.I: Wienerschnitzel is still around out west, check out their web site
at Wienerschnitzel.com.
September 17 2007 at 11:59:59 Name: Webmaster Topic: Hot dog!
Comments:
While poking around in the Beryl Ford Collection at the Tulsa library,
I found this strangely familiar commercial hot dog dispenser. Wouldn't "Electric
Snack House" be a good name for a band or a tune?
Courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa.
September 17 2007 at 08:26:04 Name: Beverly Topic: 21st and Harvard Email: BeverlyW58@hotmail.com Comments: Nancy,
I loved reading more of your memories! I remember the Jones Drug Store very
well. I don't, however, remember the five and dime store. I wish I did...I
love those kinds of stores! TG&Y is what I remember best...at Mayo Meadows
and Ranch Acres.
I graduated from Rogers in 1977 to give you an idea of how old I am. I also
attended Lanier and Wilson. The house where I grew up is at 16th and Gary
Avenue.
My mother used to bribe me to be good while she shopped at Will Rogers by
telling me we would go to Brownie's afterward. I still love to go there!
I was by 21st and Harvard over the weekend and was saddened to see how the
old Warehouse Market grocery store looks.
I miss the old neighborhood and am still in mourning for Bell's and Mayo
Meadows.
Did we attend the same schools? I'll bet we did!
I don't know if this will work, but I'm going to try to attach the photo
of 22nd and Harvard from the Beryl Ford Collection.
Courtesy of the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa. Click
for larger view.
September 16 2007 at 18:47:15 Name: Nancy Kenton Setter Topic: 21st and Harvard
Comments: Beverly,
Oops! Looks like we were "archived" mid-conversation! I'm sure that won't
stop us...
Yes, there was a piano store where you remember it - and which I had forgotten!
I, too, grew up in that area, and I'm so very old I remember when the Will
Rogers dry goods store was a "five and dime"!!! It was a teeny department
store, selling just about everything but clothing, and a wondrous place to
go with your allowance coins in hand. This was just south of the Warehouse
Market grocery store at 21st and Harvard (now a drug store).
At the west end of the grocery parking lot was Jones' Drug Store with a REAL
soda fountain, owned by the Joneses, who lived behind us in the neighborhood.
That store is now "Empire Optical", owned and operated by classmates of my
(much older, koff koff) sister.
Beverly, except that I'm sure that I'm far older than you, we may have been
neighbors. Thank you for the return memory-jolt concerning the 21st and Harvard
area.
Or, as I think of it, "home".
September 16 2007 at 15:04:09 Name: DKing Topic: Outsiders Movie Email: celestialtravelers at
yahoo.com Comments: I started recalling lost memories this last year
and ran across an amazing trivia fact.
I was living in Tulsa during the filming of "The Outsiders". I worked at
the Quik-Trip at the 1400 block of Denver. I had an encounter with a customer
which led to misunderstanding. I had no idea who he was until years later.
He was a movie actor and I will leave out the name and misunderstanding.
One of his other friends and fellow actors came to the store and passed on
a message. Sort of friendly advice.
I was living on the West Side and considered myself a struggling artist.
I wrote poetry mostly. A few years later I ran into a Seattle musican by
the name of Andrew Wood. He liked my poetry and wanted to use some of it
as inspiration for songs. He introduced me to several other musicians from
Seattle. All relatively unknown in 1986.
One I took a particular interest in. I only spoke to him over the telephone
and we spent hours talking about stories, poetry, and lyrics to songs.
I told him about my brush with celebrity and how the movie sort of came to
life in my store. It is a long story. When I told the musician the story,
he said it sounded like territorial pissings. He said it would make a great
title for a song. The lyrics were based on a conversation I had with my friends
after the run-in with the Hollywood Boys in from out of town. The musician
asked if he could use my story for the inspiration to the song. I told him
I would be flattered to find it one day in the future and look back on with
a fond rememberance.
The musician's name was Kurt Cobain. I sort of buried the memory of him after
his death.
So - truth be told - his song off of the "Nevermind" album titled "Territorial
Pissings" is based on the movie "The Outsiders" being filmed in Tulsa. I
have read reviews about a line in the song being a take on a Stalin quote.
It wasn't. "Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you."
Kurt said it sounded like I got a little paranoid about the "Hollywood Mafia"
after my clash with the actors. I told Kurt, "just because I sound a little
paranoid, didn't mean they were not out after me."
True story. Believe it or not.
Sincerely,
DKing
September 16 2007 at 14:53:23 Name: Webmaster Topic: Wanda Jackson on OETA's "Tulsa
Times"
Comments:
At the top of GroupBlog 250, we saw a photo
of rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson in person last week at the Circle Cinema.
I took that picture, and also while there, spied OETA's Duane Jones behind
a video camera. So I figured "Tulsa Times" must be doing a story. (I met
him when I was a guest on the show myself,
2/10/2007.)
Sure enough, "Tulsa Times" had a nice segment yesterday about Wanda, including
an interview with Clark Wiens, co-founder of the Circle. (Spotted my own
mug in the background of one shot.)
If you have Cox Digital service, you can see the show today (Sunday) at
6 pm on OETA OKLA, Channel 112. It will repeat numerous times this week;
here's a
schedule at OETA's site.
September 16 2007 at 14:28:12 Name: Webmaster Topic: Previous GroupBlog summary Comments:
Tulsa teacher Brenda Cox calls the TTM webmaster, Mike Ransom,
for the $8,000 question on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?". Aired 1/7/2008,
taped 8/8/2007.