Volume 6 , Issue 50

Oakie & Duchess' SW Corner

St. Nick Came Early This Week!... A week or so before Christmas and all through the land, especially in NW Oklahoma, St. Nick made his appearance early Friday morning, December 17th, 2004 -- bringing first time motherhood to a three-year-old mare named Cassie.

Yep! Last week we mentioned that our 3-year-old mare (Cassie) was expecting her first offspring sometime around the first weeks of December. Well! The glorious moment happened early Friday morning in Clark's wheat field in NW Oklahoma. AND... here we are 700 miles or so and can't lay our hands on St. Nick or Cassie. We understand that Cassie's mother, Grandma Cindy was nearby helping stand guard to kept strangers away while Cassie gave birth to our new little horse colt St. Nick.

BUT... the horse expert, Bud Clark (a.k.a. Oakie's horse whisperer), was allowed to stroke the newborn colt. We haven't seen it for ourselves yet, but we are told it has the coloring of a bay. We were thinking back to when Cassie was born. Her coloring was that of a bay or chestnut coloring... as she grew older her coloring changed to the blue roan she is now.

Next week, hopefully, we shall have some photos to share with Y'all! We have found it fascinating how the related horse family members stick together and watch each others backs, protecting each other. As you can tell... this new little horse colt already has a name... St. Nick -- Nikki! His daddy goes by the "barn" name of Hustler.

1938 - Ranger Album & Noah's Ark #2... Remember back a couple of issues when we were asking about Noah's Ark #1? After reading through the 1938 Ranger yearbook, we found a photo showing the inside view of the Ark -- an article written by Ross Strader:

Noah Built The First One.

So... our reader in last weeks newsletter was correct in suggesting who/what was the first Noah's Ark.

As to Noah's Ark #2, this is just a few paragraphs that describes this Northwestern College hangout in 1938 ... "to the masses, that upper ninety some per cent, the Ark is a place where you go to see who's there, and where whoever's there is there to see who's there, who's there to --- It's a place with a swell manager and operated by a swell bunch of students. A place that will always remain in the memory of every Northwestern student. A place of color, and of friends. So clinking your coke glass with mine, Here's to the Ark."

Speaking of College hangouts, do you remember where you and your college buddies gathered for relaxing -- to see who's there and where whoever's there is there to see who's there, who's there too -- to get away from the studies, books and be with friends?

1938 Ranger Album... As you can probably tell we have started scanning the 1938 Ranger Album that Fronia sent us. We have all the faculty, student classes scanned and placed into a pdf file for viewing. We have yet to scan the Activities, Organizations, NW High School, etc... to add to it. Give us at least a couple of weeks to completely finish scanning the 1938 Ranger album and merging it into the pdf file. There are some great pictures of Northwestern State Teachers College in the 1938 yearbook, such as... Old Castle on the Hill - Burned Castle Shell - NSTC Entrance Gate - Herod Hall - Horacemann - Jesse Dunn Hall (that replaced the Old Castle on the Hill after the fire in 1935) - Jesse Dunn North Entrance - Jesse Dunn Hall & Lincoln statue - Science Hall. We believe the original owner of this particular year (1938) Ranger yearbook belonged to Veda Berry Eggleston (senior class - 1938), because of the handwritten inscriptions written on the inside pages.

Besides the 1938 Ranger - pdf file... we have also combined the 1926 Ranger & 1937 Ranger into pdf files for viewing over at our Prairie Pioneer News - Old Albums. They are large files. So... If you do NOT have a high-speed connection and/or are having trouble downloading them, send Linda an at Email at - paristimes@earthlink.net - include your snail-mail address -- we will burn you a CD for each of the Ranger albums you desire. It is our Gift to Y'all for letting us come into your email box and share some of our Okie Legacies over the past six years.

The Old Cave in NW Oklahoma?... When you get down to the Mailbag Corner, checkout the photo of the cave. We think it is Alabaster Cave near Freedom, Oklahoma. We understand that in the old days the pioneers that visited the cave would write their names on the wall. Is this the opening of the cave at Alabaster Caverns? Click the small image to view the larger picture.

Charlie in Louisiana sent us a photo copy of some treasures he found in a humpback chest that was handed down from his gg-grandparents Barnett that lived near Waynoka. The treasures he found are a 4-inch round metal plate & Fairy Soap Advertisement card. Have you browsed through your old chest, trunks, attics, basements to see what treasures there are in your home? We would love to share them in our Okie Legacy Ezine from time to time!

Next weekend is Christmas, December 25th, Saturday. So that we don't interrupt your Christmas holidays and ours... we may send out next weeks newsletter on Friday or Sunday of next weekend instead of on Christmas day. It will more likely be Sunday evening. Before we head out of here this weekend, we would like to share a few lines from a poem entitled - The Castle On the Hill - written by Thelma Meyers for the 1938 Ranger Album (pg. 2, 1938 Ranger yearbook). Does anyone out there have any information of who this Thelma Meyers was/is? Thanks! We donate & honor our troops abroad with these few lines of the poem and for Peace On Earth..

So -- then stand ye sons and daughters of Old Northwestern!
Take off your hats to the men upon the field!
They will fight tonight for Old Northwestern
And for the honor of the Castle on the Hill!
So -- then stand all ye sons of Old Northwestern!
Paying tribute to the men who never yield.
They will win tonight for Old Northwestern.
And for the glory of the Castle on the Hill!"
--- Thelma Meyers ---

MERRY CHRISTMAS -- SEASONS GREETINGS ... To ALL! See Y'all next Sunday evening with more Okie Legacies! ~~ Linda "oaKie" & Duchess ~~   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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