Some Thoughts andReflections

Man, this year is just flying by. Down in Weatherford (Texas) we just had our first minor freeze and here comes Thanksgiving. The leaves are falling and those that haven't are turning color. Needless to say, my Harley is spending a lot of time in the garage these days.

I hope everyone has noticed the chat column on Medicine Park's website. That was a good idea on Muriel's part. I havent seen a name I recognize yet but I keep looking. As I was reading the column today I couldn't help but wonder how many people actually know there is a place to correspond with other MP folks. There is actually 2 places, not to mention email. One is Muriel's chat column and the other is right here on the Old Timer's Blog. Maybe it is just over-presumptive for me to think everybody has a computer and an internet provider. Hopefully, we will find out after this article publishes.

On a different note, we just had an historic presidential election and aside from the news agencies, I haven't read many commentaries on the winner, it's as though nobody dares! I'd really be interested in hearing the viewpoints of Oklahomans on the topic. By today's standards, I guess I would be quickly classified as a racist if I criticize this guy very strenuously. Be that as it may, I just cannot buy that he is qualified to be President. He has no military background whatsoever; no experience of leading anybody, let alone a country that is engaged in two wars and a broken economy; he is all in favor for abortion, completely opposed to gun ownership, and will select several Supreme Court judges during the next four years; and is going to be handicapped throughout the world by his race and his middleastern name. Yes, I said race. Regardless of where I have traveled in this world, black people have been mocked and subject to a line that separates them from others, whether people will come right out and say it or not. I heard it in New York, Indiana, Mississippi, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Hawaii, and even Japan and China. Yes, I know, there is always someone poised to criticize you if you dare mention anything about race., Well, the way I look at it is that if I have to go around being subdued on the topic of race but the other races can take shots at mine without being accountable for their words, then who is it that is getting their rights trampled? People are just too sensitive. I had to ask myself, who are the majority who elected this rookie Senator? My guess is that whether he is qualified or not, people of his two cultures (black and middleastern) did not stay home on election day if they were registered to vote, they turned out big time. For them, McCain was destined to lose to anyone with black skin and a middleastern name (Hussein Obama), even it was a grocery store carryout. Keeping America solvent and victorious was not these voter's first priority. The next four years are certainly going to be interesting, if nothing else. I sure hope Obama gets lucky and is able to do the correct things it will take to carry America forward. Does anyone have thoughts on this subject besides me? Go ahead and sign up for this blog and post your opinion.

How is the economy affecting Medicine Park? Has the price of gas dropped like it has down in Texas (1.80 at WalMart today). We lived there during Eisenhower's third term and JFK's first year (gas was 20 cents per gallon)and the economy was hurting then too. Good jobs were few and far between for the adults and times were just hard. I wonder, does anyone remember old Sergeant Bill? He was a WW1 veteran who had to fish in the creek every day just to avoid going hungry. Poor guy, I really felt bad for him. I always made it a point to stop and talk to him. As a newspaper deliverer, I got to know a lot of Medicine Park people, all of them good folks, and almost all of them scratching to get by. In spite of those hard times, there was a comradery among Park folks that would transcend the years and prove to be the bond that kept us all together over the decades. So when the newly arrived, more affluent residents take up living in the Park, please know that the people you refer to as 'Parkies' have become connected through decades and generations of mutual struggles that you just had to be there for to understand.

For a post on a blog, this is getting a bit long. Do take the time and effort to login to this blog and and post a response, it is as much yours as it is mine..................Jack

October 2008 - Halloween is near

Time has flown since our summer visit to the Park in the 90-something-degree heat, and now the air is anything but hot, fall is falling into the Park. It seems weather is something that never changes in Southern Oklahoma, I can remember having four distinct seasons during my years in Medicine Park. Winters were always something mildly cold and always wrought with frozen condensate ranging from frost, to ice, and sometimes, snow. How many of you have seen deep snow in the Park?
If memory serves me, it was the winter of 1959 that it snowed 2-3 feet deep (that was considered deep) and we who attended school in Elgin, got to stay out of school for a couple of days. That was fun in and of itself. We had snowball fights, sledded down the hill on the road leading down to Ballou's filling station and the Park Cafe, and built almost as many snow men as residents living there at the time. Some of us were a little innovative, if not downright imaginative. The cars had to drive slow down what is now known as Lake Drive (it had no name then) and we would latch on to their bumpers and in the prone position, be drug through the snow. What a blast! Yes, recreational opportunities were always at low ebb in Medicine Park but we always managed to make the best of the few opportunities that happened our way. I was amazed that despite the cold winters in the Park, I cannot remember ever seeing the creek freeze over. In fact, I never saw the gondola freeze over. I always figured the water was always in motion and could not stay still long enough to freeze. The roads froze frequently, but never the creek or the lakes, go figure.

Does anyone recall snow events in the Park? Ever? Were we old timers the only residents in Park history to see deep snow? How about icing of the creek or the lakes? I have been gone from the Park several decades and I am wondering if the Park has had snow, say, in the past ten years or so?

Clyde Sallee - Lawman legend of Medicine Park

It was back in 1959 when I first met Clyde Sallee. I was 14 back then and very impressionable. Clyde lived down the road toward Lawton from the Merry Circle. I knew he was Medicine Park’s Constable but not much more than that. I figure he was in his late twenties or maybe earl thirties but I could see he was all cowboy. That day in 1959 I was walking by his plce and he was out front brushing his horse. I remember the horse was beautiful, a quarterhorse with white blze and stockings. I walked over and complimented him on his horse and that started a conversation between a boy and the local cop. He asked me what I was going to do after high school and I immediately told him I was going in the Navy just like my big brother did when he turned 17. Clyde told he spent a tour in the Navy but decided to not make it a career. We rattled on about the Navy and his horse and finally, I walked on down the road to wherever I was heading. Clyde had clearly made an impression on me and across the next 45 years I became both a sailor and a quarterhorse riding cowboy myself.
In the old West, cowboys, especially cowboys turned lawmen, left an indelible impression on Americana that would help mold our country into a hearty, rugged place where freedom loving, hard working people could and eventually did flourish. Clyde Sallee was one of those cowboys in my opinion.
I heard so much about his exploits as Constable of Medicine Park, I was awestricken. I specifically remember one time when five soldiers from Ft Sill were driving recklessly thru the Hotel area and Clyde just happened to be parked there at the time. It was about 2 am and he figured they were drunk and rowdy. The chase was on and the pursuit ended out toward the ‘y’ on 49 when Clyde finally ran them off the road into a ditch. When he walked up the car they had gotten out and immediately jumped him. Apparently they thought he was a hayseed country bumpkin they didn’t have to worry about. Five minutes later they were all five unconscious and the Sherrif from Lawton showed up and carried them off to jail. Clyde Sallee became a Medicine Park law enforcement legend that night. Nobody was ever surprised to hear that Clyde had busted another bad guy from that time on and there were several similar occasions. Ironically, nobody ever laid a fist on him or harmed him in any way.
I lost track of Clyde when I joined the service and moved away from the Park. He was one heck of a good guy. I guess he would be 75 or 80 today. If anyone knows where he went or came of him, I would sure love to hear from them.

The first shot is standing on the car bridge looking toward the swimming pool. That sidewalk just doesn't look right.
The second shot is standing on the car bridgelooking toward SH 49, see the bridge down there? Lots of drag races across that Puppy.
It's me, Jack Sullivan with the not so swing bridge behind me. Lot of good times here to remember.
Jack and the official welcoming committee in front of the hotel.................uh, the not so Old Plantation. See the swimming pool in the backdrop?
What happenned to our toboggan rail?

It was a cool trip (not really, the temperature had to be 130 in the shade). We ate lunch at the Park Caf'e (now called the Riverside Restaurant) and was impressed with what a good job they did renovating it. The chow was good too.

Does anyone remember the mountain behind Calloways Grocery store? There are modern homes all over it now and a new highway across it (Highway 58) that leads out of the Park. Things have relly changed in many ways but stayed the same in many other ways.

Jann Williams, Marilyn Jo Callaway, Pat Kelly Blogsite

Attention Medicine Park folks of yesteryear!!!!!



This is the place to tell or ask about people who have lived in Medicine Park at one time or another. The authors (Jann, Marilyn, and Pat) are in the process of developing a list of all the people who are Medicine Park's legacy and history, you will definitely want your name on this list for the next 50 years. Like the old song goes, "Where have all the good times gone?" More than that, where have all the folks who had those good times (and bad) gone? Who lives where and became what?



Here is where the fun times of the past get re-hashed and different points of view given. So join the fun and leave your posting on the MPOT Blog. This service is absolutely free but does require a painless signup (So Google knows who is writing on their system). So go ahead and take the plunge, leave a post now.