FYI: the timestamps of the next 13 entries are incorrect, because they were moved here from the backup Guestbook. I had switched to the backup due to some problems with the regular one. The entries are in the correct sequence, and none were lost. Just FYI...Webmaster


Date: 15-Jul-00 03:10 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Lowell Burch  
My face is red and Bryan is right. I don't know why I wrote 61st street because I did mean 71st. Riverside Drive In used to be right across from where the auction house stands. I guess I am really getting old, so just ignore me.


Date: 15-Jul-00 03:11 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Frank Morrow  
Emailfmorrow21@netzero.net
Geographical location: Austin
Someone mentioned the Tastee-Freeze that was located about a block East of Yale on 11th Street. They used to have great shakes. I used to drop in frequently in the '50s.

Guess what? It's still there, and the shakes are the best in town, so far as I know. But, the strange thing is that it is open only on week days. It's closed on weekends! Go figure.


Date: 15-Jul-00 03:09 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Bryan Crain  
EmailBCrain@rsu.edu
The Riverside Drive in theater was located on 71st Street between Lewis and Peoria where the Red River Apartments are today. There is an old auction building (still standing) that was almost directly across the street from the Drive in. I have a copy of an aerial photo from the Tulsa Historical Society and you can see the auction building...of course nothing else was around!


Date: 15-Jul-00 03:04 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: David Bagsby  
Emaildavid_bagsby@hotmail.com
Web site: The Tulsa Project and more
Mike,
Glad to hear that the Tulsa Daily Bugle is finally giving this site a plug. You deserve it!


Date: 15-Jul-00 03:05 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Webmaster  
I was interviewed by John Wooley of the Tulsa World today for a feature on Tulsa TV Memories to appear in the Sunday edition! I will put a link to the story here on Sunday for you ex-pats. I parked right across the street from the Coney Island downtown (currently shown on the main page and in the Briefcase).

After the interview, I chowed down on 5 dogs with everything, including cayenne pepper. Still very tasty!


Date: 15-Jul-00 03:01 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Lowell Burch  
Having lived in Tulsa since '55, I can tell you that each decade had its magic. Remember, from 1955 until they built the malls, downtown was exciting. Yes, as a little kid, I could ride the bus by myself, go to the movies (triple feature, cartoons and news reels) with a thousand other kids and pretty well run anywhere I wanted to until late. We never got into any trouble that we couldn't handle and knew how to have fun without ruining our lives or someone else's.

Throughout the sixties the Tulsa electronic media was a blast, and we all enjoyed the mystique of Oiler Park. Come the 70's, Brookside was the greatest strip anyone could ever drag and we all knew that a segment of rock's elite knew where Tulsa was and could be found jamming in local clubs and studios.

The eighties and nineties are different but in some ways better, and every bit as exciting.

The Riverside Drive-in was on 61st Street. Traveling south on Peoria, the two-lane blacktop curved with the river back to the east just before it ran into a restaurant/club. The drive-in was on the south side of 61st as you headed back east. Coming from the east on 61st, of course, the theater was on the south right before Peoria turned sharply north. It was sort of a "Dead-man's Curve", with a big tree that was scarred by the bumpers of inebriated guys trying to make it at a high rate of speed. I went to that drive-in a lot of times.


You're right, Lowell, somehow the knowledge that Tulsa was on the world map musically in the 70s shaped our feelings about the city. Of course, as far as Hanson fans are concerned, Tulsa is in the center of the map right now.


Date: 15-Jul-00 02:58 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Chris Coffey  
Emailcac@texas.net
Web sitehttp://cac.home.texas.net
Hi, Mazeppa!
I grew up in Tulsa, from 1952 till 1994. This page brings back a lot of great memories. I remember all those great shows and what Tulsa used to look like in those great days. I'll visit this site often.

Mr. Chris Coffey


Thank you Mr. Coffey, please do.


Date: 15-Jul-00 02:58 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Frank Morrow  
Emailfmorrow21@netzero.net
I don’t remember exactly where the Riverside Drive-in theater was except that it seemed to be out somewhere near where Oral Roberts University is now. It might have been closer to town, though But I do remember some of the activities that went on there.

There were stories of people being smuggled into the place in the trunks of cars. Other people supposedly tried to get in for free by backing in the exit with their lights out to avoid notice.

I do know for sure that I got good use of my folks ’49 Nash and later my ’51 Nash. For you youngsters who don’t know about the Nash’s specialty, the front seats folded back to make a bed. (Studebakers had the same feature.) It was great for drive-ins, because you could lean back against the back seat and stretch your legs out to watch the movie in great comfort. Sometimes, however, the movie could be difficult to watch if the windshield was steamed up. That was no problem, though, because you weren’t watching the movie anyway.

Two things still seem strange to me: I don’t remember ever being bitten by a mosquito (The owners must have been generous with their DDT spraying.), and I don’t ever remember being bothered by heat or humidity. I guess we were made of tougher stuff back then. Also, air-conditioned cars were not to be had at this time. We didn’t know that we were uncomfortable.

Subsequent generations owe a great debt to the drive-in movies. Without those places many of the younger people wouldn't even be in existence today.


We know from your 1951 weather broadcast that it was just as hot back then.


Date: 15-Jul-00 02:54 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Wade Hemmert  
Emailwhemmert@aol.com
Does anyone remember the Riverside Drive-in in Tulsa? If so, PLEASE let me know as I am racking my brain trying to remember where exactly it was located.


Date: 15-Jul-00 02:54 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Boyce Lancaster, Jr. (via email to webmaster)  
Emaillancaster.1@osu.edu
I stumbled across your website quite by accident, but what a WONDERFUL surprise! I should tell you now that I am Boyce Lancaster, Jr. I have many wonderful memories of living in Tulsa. Even though I was born in Lubbock, TX, Tulsa is really home to me. Reading about Big Bill and Oom-A-Gog, Mr. Zing and Tuffy, Don Woods and Gusty, what a great treat. I have a couple of pictures I shall try to send. One is from an article in the Tulsa World about the fair parade. My Dad was Circus Jim, and he and Bozo rode elephants nearly 6 miles! I don't think either one walked normally for weeks.

Dad has a copy of a TV Guide from the 50s with a picture of him as Grandpa Zeb. He also has some great stories about the cartoon show "Johnny Jet Pilot." He recalls many a great laugh watching Wayne Johnson playing Tuffy, getting a shaving cream pie in the face during Circus Jim and Bozo on his birthday, and his ne'er do well son flipping Bozo's nose of at a personal appearance!

I have forwarded your e-mail on to Dad. Hopefully, he'll drop you a note. Keep up the great work!

Great to hear from you, Boyce! There is a picture of your dad on the Other kiddie shows page. We'll be looking forward to hearing from you both!

Boyce added later: Thought you'd like to know, my Dad now lives in Orlando. Still does TV and radio commercials.


Date: 15-Jul-00 02:52 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Frank Morrow (via email to the webmaster)  
Emailfmorrow21@netzero.net
Geographical location: Austin
Now I know why KAKC was missing 78rpm records that I wanted to use: Ruddle had been there first.

When I arrived at KAKC the summer of ’51, the 78s were about the only thing we played. There was a handful of 33s, but were seldom used. The 45s had not made their appearance yet. After you cued up the 78, just before you would go on the air, you would turn on the turntable, put your hand on the record to prevent it from moving as the turntable spun underneath the record. Then, after you announced the music, you would lift you hand and let the record spin. The frequently played records would become scratchy at the start from being cued up so much.

KAKC is the only station to have pedals on the floor that you had to tromp on in order to start the turntable. But, because they made such a noise when you stepped on them, you couldn’t start a record until after you turned the mike off, leaving a second of that dreaded “dead air.” So far as I know, Jack Moore was the only announcer to use the pedals.

After several weeks at KAKC a weird little contraption showed up. It was a small turntable with a big hole in the middle. I was told it was for the new 45rpm records. Like everything else at KAKC it was the cheapest model. (Even their most reliable tape recorder was an Eichor, a cheap machine that was intended for the slowly building home market.) We were told that the record companies would no longer provide us with free 78s, and that we would have to use only 45s. However, for some reason that did not happen, although 45s and 33s slowly became more and more used.


Date: 12-Jul-00 06:29 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Frank Morrow  
Emailfmorrow21@netzero.net
Geographical location: Austin, Texas
I thought I had entered this earlier, when we were talking about Weber's Root Beer. Lost in cyberspace, I guess, or in the inner recesses of my semi-Alzheimer's mind.

Tulsa was a magic place to grow up in. I missed the city and the people terribly when I had to spend the war years in Georgia.

When my father was about to get out of the army, he wanted to try to stay in Atlanta and to do something different than working for British-American Oil Co. He decided that Atlanta was the perfect place for a Weber’s Root Beer franchise. He made a pitch to old man Weber, but the guy was so paranoid about his recipe that he refused to license it to my dad. I heard later that Mr. Weber would allow no one but himself and his son into the area where the liquid was made. So far as I know, Weber never expanded outside of Tulsa. He might have become rich.

We wound up back in Tulsa. Boy, was the rest of the family glad.

When I was back in Tulsa a year or so ago, I went to the last Weber’s place—-the one on Peoria. I got a root beer. Frosted, of course. I talked with the Weber son who was supervisor. He bragged that the recipe is still the same. I said, “It never had all this carbonation before or after the war and into the ‘50s. You could drink the mugs as fast as you wanted to but without the burping or sting of carbonation.”

He sheepishly admitted that this was true.

I saw a sign on a pole that there is a new Weber's location in town; first one in quite a while!


Date: 12-Jul-00 03:40 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Mike Bruchas  
Emailjmbruchas@juno.com
Geographical location: Down the road from Wolf Trap
Favorite Tulsa TV show or personality: Johnnie Lee Wills
How did you find TTM? I was paged to aisle 97 at Oertle's - right next to this webpage
When I was in Tulsa and Clarence Gatemouth Brown appeared at Cain's several times a year - I figured just another Cain's Saturday time filler act - knew nothing of his music because I had never heard any! I missed a lot of SW groups/artists that I was unknowing of...Never knew the GAP Band till I came here either.

Now that I am a "matured" listener - have most of "Gate"'s albums of the last 15 years. He is BIG in Europe, rediscovered here by a new more country blues oriented generation and has capitalized on Western Swing with son and big touring band in the 80's before it was popular. Though he has been on about 8 different album labels - both foreign and domestic. Have seen him here 4-5 times in DC - once at the Barns of Wolf Trap. He dresses Western now with boots to Stetson - puffing on a pipe with some dimestore variety tobaccy - but does blues, jazz, conjunto and swing with a variety of pick-up guys that varies from show to show. Again every third or 4th trip thru he has a BIGGER band with. And he must be ???? years old now. He worksthe crowd at Wolf Trap beforea show in the lobby - chatting folks up and selling CD's. Remember seeing an old pix of him in a Texas Monthly article on "pickers" that sounds like Jim Ruddle's image of him.

Yeah - I too missed Papa John Creech in the '60's/'70s...Amazing how our music tastes change! Better "Gate" than Ray Conniff any day! Still sounds great.


Date: 12-Jul-00 02:56 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Jim Ruddle  
Emailgardel@erols.com
Geographical location: Rye, NY
Those freebies from Columbia formed the basis of my record collection. Dick Campbell let me take all of the Columbia Masterworks LP albums I wanted, because the station (KOTV) didn't use them. I still have a few, although the last time I tried to play one, the surface noise was almost unbearable. Still, some of them have never been reissued as tapes or CD's so they have some value to me.

When KAKC did its famous barbecue, a lot of shellac must have helped feed the flames. We had thousands of old 78's down in the basement, many of them the precursors of rock n'roll, but then just considered black rhythm and blues. None got played, or not very many. I used to slip in some unknown black groups like the Ray-O-Vacs and the Ravens, but they were pretty mainstream.

I recall one evening when the Big 10 Ballroom, THE black dance hall, and a pretty classy place, was featuring Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown and he came to KAKC for a promotional interview. He was spectacular, dressed in a canary yellow suit. I had never seen anything quite like it, nor have I since. Within the past year or so, I have read of Gatemouth performing (still) at various venues.

One of the best things about the KAKC 78's was that most were never played and were, therefore, eminently expendable. Thus, when you got really pissed off at something down there in the subterranean void, and there was no one to whom you could vent, all you had to do was go into the record library, pull out a couple of shellac discs, and smash them against the wall with a most satisfactory noise. By the time you had swept up the pieces, all was once again right with the world.

I believe Jack Moore did some moonlighting at Bill's T-record shop, a place I never ventured to explore.

By the way, in those days, it was possible to buy even older records--those thick Victrola and Edison Diamond Disc types--at junk shops on First Street and on Brady for a penny a pound. God knows what treasures were hidden there.


Date: 12-Jul-00 11:58 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Jim Back  
Emailjim.back@cox.com
Geographical location: Edmond
Sandy's Hamburgers in Austin today Mike, that Sandy's at 11th & College opened in 1962. I know that because I worked there starting the day it opened, and off and on during my senior year in high school and the summer before college. I also worked at the one about 37th and Harvard, which opened a few months after the 11th St. location, and was closer to my house. I can't remember what I made, but I'm sure it was minimum wage -- $1.25 an hour sticks in my mind. Hamburgers were 15¢ apiece (10 hamburger patties to a pound!); fries were a dime; small Cokes (12 oz.) were a dime; and large ones (16 oz.) were 15¢.

You're right about the similaries to McDonald's. I learned at the time the Sandy's chain was started by a group of former McDonald's guys who thought they could do it better. They should have stuck with Ray Kroc!

Is this Austin "Sandy's" related to the original? The logo looks the same as I remember it.

(Added 6/14/2005: Close, but not quite; see the Sandy's Hamburgers site.)


Date: 12-Jul-00 10:50 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Mike Bruchas  
Emailjmbruchas@juno.com
How did you find TTM? Middle Path Cafe recommended it as their special
Got an e-mail - "What was Sandy's?".

It was a McDonald's knock-off low dollar national hamburger chain whose fish sandwich was often known to be fatal. We had one on 11th about 2 blocks East of Delaware. When you were a poor TU student - you went to Sandy's and spent $1.25-$2 on a big meal; when wealthy - you went to THE LIBRARY or ordered Hideaway Pizza delivered to your dorm (webmaster: I don't think we had Hideaway in Tulsa at theat time).

The staff wore little Scottish tams and white uniforms but the lay-out looked stolen from McDonald's - which incidentally we had a CLASSIC one on 11th about 2 miles East of TU. It was too far to walk to save money - if we went that far - there was a GREAT Tastee Freeze on 11th 2 blocks East of Harvard that we opted for.

Yeah 11th Street - old 66 - had all the "name" chains.

Sandy's went thru a name/image change in the 70's and became something else then became Hardee's.

Eff 'N Tee


Remember Tastee-Freez' mascots, "Tee" and "Eff"? They looked like Casper The Friendly Ghost with goo on their heads. I recall finding it amusing to pronounce T-F's "Brazier" burger as "brassiere"


Date: 12-Jul-00 10:37 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Mike Bruchas  
Geographical location: Warshington, Dee Cee near Camp David and them peace talks
How did you find TTM? A guy at Bill's "T" Records told me where to look...
Hey radio guys/gals! Remember when stations signed up and got albums (for free) from RCA and Columbia on a subscription service? They never let you subscribe to all of their "lines" though. This was often in conjunction with local p.r. guys from labels coming by to plug artists. They NEVER came to KWGS though. Often we would try borrow albums for production from KVOO which had one of the biggest, best organized libraries in town. After they went country - they retained all their MOR stuff for production work and eventually gave a lot to KWGS.

All too often when doing summer shifts at KWGS, I remember opening a box from Columbia/CBS and finding NOT rock albums but the works of Percy Faith and other "elevator" types thrown in. Not our rock or classical format...

When the late Honest John Foutz started supplying KWGS in '69 or '70 with music for "subterrania" - a new source for non-mainstream material appeared. I presume Matt Bunyan at Starship may still be supplying non-mainstream music to stations in Tulsey.

I also remember cuts we weren't supposed to play - often had red Avery sticky dots on that record band - to prevent needle passage....

Which leads me to MORE geezervating. Gotta stop hitting Starbucks before I write these tomes!

Where did YOU buy your personal records and tapes at in Tulsey? When first at TU - Bill's T Records at Admiral and Harvard was the local joint that we from TU could walk to. It was a general record store - heavy on country and pop, some decent jazz, nil classical unless a special order. You paid LIST price but sometimes got 50 cents or a buck off. Can't remember if they were the store that had the punch cards - the more you bought, they punched your card and sometime you either got a free record or a discounted price.

The earliest version of BMG Music - then Columbia House had cards in all the TU "greeting packages" of toiletries and stuff given us each Fall but they sold at LIST plus postage then - but were a source of national music not heard in Tulsey - if you wanted to pay...

I think someone "rack-jobbed" Looboyle at 11th and Xanthus for a while and you know they DID discount everything. Gotta Herb Alpert LP still from there (so my taste has changed!).

Generally paying list for records and tapes was the norm unless you were in a big city or visiting KC, L.A. or Dallas with a Tower or Sam Goody's.

In the 70's we had Greer's, Honest John's discounting and some shopping center music emporiums (like smaller Sam Goody's) then Sound Warehouse starting to discount. Peaches came in, cleaned up and went bankrupt nationally - while putting a lot of small record dealers out of business in Tulsa.

Where else did you buy your records, 8 tracks, cassettes (and whoops - OPEN REEL 1/4" recorded tapes for Ed Dumit and classical fans with Sony 777 Hi Fi Stereo decks) from in the 50's, 60's, 70's & 80's???


The late 70s introduced the used record stores. Great for cheapskates, or for taking bigger chances on music you think you might like. Lots of the records were trade-in's from DJs, embossed or with a sticker saying "for promotion only - not for sale". There was Wolfman Records, Dale Bishop's Record Alley, Discovery Records, Wizzard's...good places to dump those Percy Faith records, but the trade-in value was pretty low.


Date: 11-Jul-00 02:02 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Mike Bruchas  
How did you find TTM? It sucked me into the vortex....
Ah - the simple life! I remember when Guy Atchley's Dad used to make money reconditioning those coolers/chillers that folks had in place of air conditioners all over Tulsa + Sapulpa. Some place by Sand Springs we would get barbecued baloney platters - the poor man's lunch for $2 plus drink extra and be stuffed.

I remember my first trip to Tulsa in 1969 on the "Tulsan" Santa Fe train from KC. Didn't know that "the sandwich man" got off somewhere outside KC and had the driest, most hungerpanged filled trip. Presumed - dumbly - that a diner was on board and hadn't eaten on the Chicago to Kansas City train. That was a long 4 hours. When arriving at the freight depot/passenger station by channel 6 in the dumpier part of town - thought I had made a big mistake on coming to TU. (Some "pervert" who got off on the train wanted to share my cab and show me Tulsa at 10pm - I declined.) Stayed at the Mayo - got an airconditioned room because my ultra-efficient corporate aunt had connections and the Holiday Inn wasn't a "real" hotel. The Mayo was known nationally as THE place to stay in Tulsa in the late 60's - especially for folks from Chicago. Could call down for free (a tip though) pitchers of ice water delivered to my door versus a $2 room service Coke which seemed like a $10 one today. Maybe $40 a night. Could walk down the street to a newstand on a Saturday and get juice and out of town papers (by Dillards BROWN DUNCAN). Ogled the strip bars across from the Mayo. Downtown Tulsa still had department stores open then and was ALIVE!

In '70 came back on the Santa Fe - luckily dragged a care box of food because the "sandwich man" had given up on servicing the 2 car train. Stayed again at the Mayo till the dorms opened up and somehow got an UN-airconditioned room - really DID need that ice water then! And I truly "sweated" thru reading THE GODFATHER that August weekend. The hotel was actually 50% full but somehow I couldn't get another room.

Though later during TU days and after - we could get $30 standby tickets to Chicago in the early 70's on Ozark, TWA and American - though often no food and were treated like second class passengers by the "stews" - several of us trained down on the Santa Fe before we all owned cars. A much longer trip - not affected by bad weather and it was fun. You could check a trunk for cheap all the way from Chi-town (and you DIDN'T want your folks showing up to drop you off in Tulsa when a COLLEGE KID).

Oh, yeah - sometimes you could con a bar car guy to selling you a rum & Coke without getting id'ed - which you savoured.....


Date: 11-Jul-00 11:23 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Wade Hemmert  
Geographical location: Tampa Bay, Florida
How did you find TTM? It was my destiny..........
Reading Mike Bruchas' latest note in the guestbook reminded me of so many things that are almost non-existent today. Although I now live in Tampa, I fondly remember the simpler times of growing up in Tulsa. Before we had air conditioning installed in our house, we (my family) often slept with the front door not only unlocked, but open to for nighttime ventilation! We never worried that someone would take advantage of this situation. This was about 35 years ago when I was 7. I moved away from Tulsa in August 1997 to find better work (I'm an electrical engineer). But I really miss living there. There was (and still is) much less crime there now than here in Tampa. It may sound silly, but I have a soon-to-be 4 year old son who I want to experience some of the same things I experienced growing up in Tulsa. Like going to Weber's on Peoria for a tall, frosty root beer freeze. When I was younger, we always went to the A&W rootbeer stand that used to be on the southside of Admiral just west of Memorial. Unfortunately, there is nothing like that here. And I really miss the Utica Square tree lighting ceremeony every Thanksgiving and bundling up for the Christmas parade downtown.

I want to move back, but the opportunity hasn't come along yet. I would probably like to get involved in public office as I want to make a difference in some small way.


Date: 11-Jul-00 08:43 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Mike Bruchas  
Emailjmbruchas@juno.com
Geographical location: LaLa Land East - DC
Favorite Tulsa TV show or personality: Mike Miller - running his own prompter on weekends (and wearing shorts but a coat and tie on air at KTUL)
Ahhhh geezervating! Life WAS simpler, kinder, less suspect in those days. Can still remember getting that 25 cent cheeseburger at Sandy's on 11th by TU - we used to joke Sandy looked awfully Pakistani - especially when he was a TU classmate making $2 or less an hour in the 70's. The Texaco on 6th street just East of Peoria was my favorite - with 21.9 cent a gallon gas for my '69 Opel Kadette -- friends from Neosho, MO at TU paid 19.9 and often went home on weekends to get "Ma" to do their wash and tank up that big Chevy or whatever at the "cheaper" price for another week in T-Town.

How life has changed! Here in DC - was mulling all the radio ads we would have never thought of.

Male impotence and penile erectal problems.

A bazillion ads for the latest dot.com scheme or service or swindle - many of whom won't be around next year.

2 Bazillion ads for laser eye surgery based on price not that you may NOT be helped by it!

Ads making you think you are abnormal if you DON'T have a Palm Pilot, cel phone, or intergalactic pager.

The usual military industrial ads targeted at Congress and heard only "inside the Beltway" - laughed today when TRW is running a big number of spots touting that one of their inventions -a laptop computer (not GPS) may be more important for soldiers in the field at war. So they know "Where am I, where are my buddies, and where is the enemy." Yeah - try throw a laptop at that tank or RPG in Kosovo - don't need no stinkin' guns. Better hope the enemy DOESN'T have weapons!

The fraudulent but earnest sounding ads for senior medicare reform backed by shadow GOP/insurance groups that make AARP sound like a bunch of "Commies" with their agenda.

"Poor" private schools that run 25-50 ads a day about donating your aging car to them to fund "better" education - it would seem ad money in prime time might be better spent on education though.

Oh yeah - more shadow groups with agendas supporting Dubya or Gore or some stupid Trent Lott/big tobacco/anti-poor scheme but sounding like "good citizen' initiatives.

Gimme the Ugh U-Needum Tires spots ANY DAY and "truth" in advertising!


Date: 09-Jul-00 06:24 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Mike Miller  
Emailtypo1@erols.com
Geographical location: Vienna, Virginia
Frank’s musings sparked a few memories of growing up in Tulsa (at 15th and Peoria.)

I too recall a lot of walking and biking: to Lincoln and Marquette up the street from our home/dancing school, and to Ray’s Cafe for chicken fried steak or the Crosstown Grill, across the street. (Later with a car, we would hit Pennington's for "black-bottom" pie.)

I remember during World War II the ration stamps, and hard to find gas and tires. And eating a real steak over a bowling alley in downtown Tulsa, when my folks told me such things were impossible to find. I remember tap dancing in the “Hey Rube” shows my dad put on at the army camps.

After the war, there were summer days spent playing baseball or listening to Diz on the radio. I too, took the bus to watch the Oilers quite often. (The bus was handy for me, living in 15th Street.) Does anyone else remember eating ice-cold watermelon in a tent near 15th and Lewis? Or riding the ponies near what is now Utica Square. And Saturday matinees at the Plaza Theater. Without air conditioning, we often would sleep on the porch, fighting mosquitoes.

Nathan Wilcox, my neighborhood friend, would take me to visit his dad, the engineer at KFMJ. We visited with Jay Jones and Ed Dumit who pretended to be Willy the Hillbilly. We decided to build our own radio station, (KLAD “Keep Listening All Day,”) and wired nearby homes. I guess that’s where it all started.


Date: 09-Jul-00 04:02 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Kenneth  
Geographical location: Tulsa
How did you find TTM? Pure Luck
Mr. Frank Morrow's very interesting account of his youthful days in Tulsa is timely. A book review in this morning's paper ("Bowling Alone") deals with America's "fractured community"- certainly the opposite of what Mr. Morrow describes. Things sure ain't what they used to be.


Date: 09-Jul-00 10:48 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Frank Morrow  
Emailfmorrow21@netzero.net
Perhaps everyone thinks that their era of growing up in Tulsa was the best. Before World War II Tulsa was an incredible place to live. Although the Depression was still on, things were better in Tulsa than elsewhere.

I had a 25-cent a week allowance. That was enough for me to take a bus downtown, go to a movie, buy a package of Milk Duds, and return home. Tulsa was so safe that, as a second grader, I roved over a mile square area from our 15th and Oswego home to sell Liberty Magazines, even occasionally going downtown to my Dad’s office in the Philtower. Then, as a third grader, I would go by myself across town from Brookside to Texas League Park for an Oiler baseball game, returning on the bus (after transferring downtown), then walking the half-mile home on dark 34th street.

It was such a simpler time. Going for Sunday rides in the car was a big deal. Going to the airport to see the twin-engine, DC-3 "mail plane" come in and take off. There always was a big crowd to see this event. A stop at Hawks ice cream shop at 11th and Lewis to get those huge (side by side) double dip cones for 10 cents was always in order. If not that, then driving to one of the Weber’s Root Beer stands was a big treat.

The Tulsa school system was like one big prep school. My first year at TU was a repeat of material I had at Central. And the meals in the schools were incredible: choices of many entries and desserts.

I never heard of a two-car family, or a household with more than one radio. The family would sit together in the living room listening to radio programs, trading knowing glances and laughs during the broadcasts. We also listened to the scary news reports about what was going on in Europe. Kids played outside until dark: hide ‘n seek, kick the can, baseball, football. I knew only one person who had a basketball goal at their house. Milk was delivered to your house, occasionally sharing a cup of coffee with you; and, if you were gone, you’d simply leave the door unlocked and the milkman would come in and put your new milk in the refrigerator for you, then leave with the empty bottles.

I could go on and on, but I’d better leave space for someone else.


We must assume that in the year 2030, adults will be looking back wistfully at these earlier, simpler days of the internet.


Date: 08-Jul-00 10:37 PM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Main Office (via email to webmaster)
Emaildatatravel@mediaone.net
The Cains Ballroom era of the 70's was a vision of a few locals, Peter Mayo (now Brady Theater), RC Bradley, Dino Economos, Michael (Big Time) Douglas, Terry, and the names can go on and on....

Now we must remember that Leon Russell and Denny Cordell of the Shelter Records days assisted Tulsa with the music scene of the 70's. How many people can remember the Oiler Park concerts on those beautiful Sunday afternoon's. In fact there are so many memories that I could sit here for hours and hours typing away.... Yet, I came home last year and vowed to never return. I wanted to remember Tulsa as it was and not what it is today. The fire and spark that Tulsa had, has now faded and is all but gone. Growing up in Tulsa during the 70's was the best. I remember a Saturday afternoon going to the OZ headshop on 15th St. riffling through the import record section, stopping for lunch at the downtown Coney-Islander where "Pop" would serve up a rack of dogs, going to the movies at the Boman Twin or heading out club hopping , 20th Century Elec. Co., Whiskers, The Wharf, The Cellar, Nine of Cups, and when it was all over, an after hours steak dinner at the Avalon on the westside. Tulsa "was" fun, what happened?

Here is a picture of the 1971 Oiler Park concert with Leon Russell  and Freddie King.

Tulsa really did seem to be a special place in the 60s and 70s. But some of those places you name, Oz, the Avalon, Coney Islander, are still there. I think what isn't the same, is us. But there is still a lot to do in Tulsa if you look in the right place.


Date: 08-Jul-00 05:19 AM (on Tulsa Time)
Name: Webmaster  
Just archived Guestbook 43; this is #44.

Former KAKC owner Carl Mark passed away this week, and was remembered on Jerry Pippin's KBIX/internet radio show by Scooter Segraves, Lee Bayley and Steve Suttle. We heard from KTEW's Roger Burch for the 1st time. A caption contest cracked open discussion of suggestive snacks, Dizzy Dean, Griesedieck and Falstaff beer. Needless to say, it's worth looking into!


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