From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Wed Mar 22 15:31:35 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k2MMVZjb006116; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:31:35 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k2MMVWNh003201 for ; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:31:32 -0700 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k2MK0WFI003067 for ; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:00:32 -0500 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k2MK0WYY003066 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:00:32 -0500 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k2MJ92FI002898 for ; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:09:03 -0500 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k2MLdp5x005084 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:39:51 -0700 X-Envelope-From: paul_odlesr@yahoo.com Wed Mar 22 14:39:50 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k2MLdojb005073 for ; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:39:50 -0700 Received: from web60923.mail.yahoo.com (web60923.mail.yahoo.com [209.73.178.251]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id k2MLdles008404 for ; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:39:48 -0700 Received: (qmail 34086 invoked by uid 60001); 22 Mar 2006 21:39:44 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=GtYME3KKeQY0u/GPcMJPqN5fRIULjFgYPlha0OlxxMH1vykHjwnAW+9+pvHW1xJhi+2pZPeREd57bGOjsxhfyMggiP4Gs1h8DYJ6AkFWe3YdwrRJIeORonH9ACSbcQubg8OLI7SLGB8Ex3RnP9s1oFJ/BQbzQ5wTrlvaxs7fAsk= ; Message-ID: <20060322213944.34084.qmail@web60923.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [66.141.90.216] by web60923.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:39:44 PST Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:39:44 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Odle To: Roots Webb MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by lists5.rootsweb.com id k2MLdp5x005084 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by roots-l.rootsweb.com id k2MJ92FI002898 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Living At Turner Place 1956 Living At Turner Place 1956 It was in 1956 I was living on Randolph St. in Enid, Oklahoma in a house my in-laws Charlie and Opal Calivas bought for Helen and I to live. In the back yard of the house on Randolph Street was an old fashion lily pond with big gold fish. I loved that Lilly Pond. There was also an old fashion wood cook stove in the back yard that I used as a Bar-B- Que Grill. At the very back of the back yard was a chicken house and fenced in chicken pen. There was one big old oak tree in the yard and the air was always filled with the beautiful songs of the various pretty birds. The house was a wonderful three bedroom house with a big living room, dinning room, kitchen, back utility porch and a bathroom. At that time Helen and I had two little boys PAUL JR. (known as TYKI) and DOUGLAS MICHAEL, and one baby girl JOYCE CAROL ODLE. I was a S/Sgt. In the U.S. Air Force stationed at Vance AF Base, Enid, Garfield County, Oklahoma in charge of the surgical floor in the base hospital. I was in the 3575th Medical Squadron. The Government gave me the opportunity to go to PA School (Physicians Assistants School) in Alabama. It was just such a great opportunity that I just had to jump on it. I had a brand new blue and white 1955 custom Ford that I waited to buy until the 1956 Fords came out. I think I paid $2300 for it. The payments were $75 per month for 36 months. So I really paid $2700 for the car. This was my first brand new car and I was so proud of it. S/Sgt. BENNIE JOE ELLIS and his wife Shirley from somewhere in Kansas was my best friend. We played cards (Hearts) at each other¡¯s houses. Before we left for Alabama I took my car to JOHN DAY FORD HOUSE to get a tune up, so we would not have any trouble on our trip. We left Enid, Oklahoma on a Sunday and we get over in Eastern Oklahoma it is pouring down rain, my car is cutting out on me, my youngest son Douglas is burning up with fever and I do not know what was wrong with him? And I do not find any full service filling stations that are open that have a mechanic on duty. Every time I stopped at a stop sign my car would die and it would take forever to get it started again. Still no Mechanic! We pulled into Memphis, Tennessee it was raining so hard my little boy Doug is on Fire with fever. I pulled into this garage and service station and they had a Mechanic on duty. He checks my car over and discovered that DAY FORD IN ENID, OKLAHOMA failed to put the distributor cap back on after they greased the pole. The car ran perfect after that. That cost me $29 to do what I had already paid DAY FORD. Twenty nine dollars in 1956 would buy weeks worth of groceries. All through out the south in 1956 you seldom found an indoor privy. My wife was raised in the City and had never used an outhouse, she was pregnant with our fourth child and she was not about to start using out houses now! After all her father never made her mother use an outhouse. By the time we reached Montgomery, Alabama my wife Helen had to go to the in doors ladies room pretty badly. And by the time we got to Montgomery we knew that Douglas had the months. Tyki called his little brother Doug ¡°BOY!¡± I pulled a U-Haul Trailer with the bare necessities, washer and dryer, baby beds, clothes, dishes, beding, and cook wear. We found a nice place to live at 126 Turner Place, Montgomery, 7, Alabama. The owner name was TURNER. He owned a Service Station just before you enter into Turner Place. Turner Place is maybe eight blocks long. Each block has a series of two bedroom four plexus built in a ¡°U¡± Shape on both sides of the street.. The weather was very much like Sacramento, California. Every morning it would be Chilly enough to wear a sweater or light jacket and there would be a soft rain until about 10 A.M. then the sun would come out and would be warm and beautiful. Our Four plex was cold and I could not figure out how to light the furnace and by now I have three sick kids. Now the words that I am going to use I hope will not offend any of my African American readers but this was in the times of the old south when white folks did very little and black folks did it all in the deep south. I went to Mr. Turners office at the filling station for a month and ask him would he please come turn on the heat at my place that my children were all sick with the mumps and we were in Quarantine for a month. Every day Mr. Turner would tell me ¡°I¡¯M Gonna send my nigger on down to you alls place!¡± No one ever came and we were paying $80 a month rent. I finally got upset and I went to Mr. Turner¡¯s office again and told him I still had sick kids and we had no heat. Mr. Turner says ¡°OK I will send my Nigger on down to you ¡®ons place!¡± I told him that was not going to cut it. I said wear I come from if we say we are going to do something we do it! We do not say we are gonna send our nigger down to you¡¯ons place and he never shows up. I said I am going to stay in your office until some one goes with me to light that wall furnace. Well I want you to know he sent his man to my place and in no time I had heat. Turner Pace was filled with medical students. All of the students excepting my wive worked. The other wives worked and they had a wonderful black lady taking care of their children. Those little Southern kids were meaner than hell. I had to teach my little boys how to box and defend themselves. We lived like communist must have had to live. We bought a months supply of groceries. We ate a lot of 29 cent a pound hamburger, even after it turned black. At our School all of our instructors were some kind of Doctor. So if we got sick or our kids got sick we took them to one of out teachers. He would examine you and give you a prescription then we would go house to house in TURNER PLACE trying to find some one that had that medicine then we would trade him something we had that he needed. No one had any cash money after they paid rent and bought groceries. I loved the school but I had to study around the clock to maintain an average grade of 87. I would come home usually in the fog, eat dinner, play with the children an hour. Then I would Study until 2 A.M., go to bed and get up at 5 A.M. and study until it was time for breakfast. Then I would drive to work in the rain or fog. My Lab pardoner was a big old Texas boy named BO BEATTY. BO BEATTY had the prettiest little five year old daughter that had been taught to be potty mouthed! Both BO and his wife thought that was cute coming out of their Childs mouth. Bo Beatty had a very weak stomach and that lucky fellow drew me for his lab pardoner. Right before lunch each day we got to dissect our KITTY CAT that had been preserved in Formaldehyde. I do not know why but I was always starving to death in that class. We had a Munson Burner that was lit on our table. I remember one time we were dissecting the Cats leg learning the names of the bones, muscles, veins and Arteries. I said to old BO BEATTY that leg looked like a drumstick of a fried chicken I think I will hold its leg over the flame until it gets done and eat it for a snack. Will poor old BO went home for lunch and what dose his wife have fixed for lunch none other than fried chicken. Bo lost his lunch and could not eat. Another time in that same Lab class we were taking the back of a scalpel and scraping out the meat from our kitty¡¯s vertebrae¡¯s so we could learn the names of the vertebrae¡¯s. I was so hungry, I said to old BO that looks just like tuna, I think I will ma! ke some cream of tuna out of it and eat it over toast. Will you guess it folks when ole BO went home for lunch his wife had prepared Cream of Tuna over toast! Bo loses it again! By Paul L.Odle, Sr. Lawton/Fort Sill Veterans Center P.O. Box 849 Lawton, Oklahoma 73502 1-580-354-3287 1-580-512-4767 --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.