"COLUMN ONE"
By Mary Mayo, Editor

Trying to get together a reasonably intelligent article involving a little history and background of the Jenks area is a hard, almost imposible chore. I found that out recently when I had a crying need for such information and didn't know where to start in looking for it.

There's any number of old-timers around like Morris Engle, Roy Love, Ezra Cooper, Lane Frailey and a long list of others who did furnish all sorts of facts from memory machines that clicked like well-oiled railroad watches and contain volumes of interesting history that someone should get busy and compile in written form for posterity.

But when you get started on a certain project where you must pinpoint a myriad of seemingly-unimportant details, it becomes a nuisance and a big fat bore and I wouldn't blame any of them for wishing I'd stayed in Texas in the first place.

Every person I ever asked for information was more than nice about trying to help me get a picture of something I wouldn't have been very adept at visualizing if Walt Disney himself had taken over the job. I learned a lot about the lay of the land in the old days, the people around here and even the early town-government, but oh, those details!

"Did you know", said one elderly lady, "we never did hear about O.N.T. thread? It must be pretty new . . . at least, I don't recall it was ever sold around here anywhere back then."

Well, I must admit I didn't pick up that choice morsel from one of the menfolks I talked to about Jenks history. I just needed some timely background and I remembered hearing my grandmother talk about Clark's O.N.T. thread, but she lived in McAlester about that time.

The other day a very nice-sounding person called.

"Did you know," he said, "that you spelled the name of the construction company that laid the first water lines in Jenks wrong? It was spelled D A U G H E R T Y. And the second name was not "Nichols" but "Caddo."

My felings weren't hurt the least bit by either of these corrections; anybody who wants to write seriously and factually welcomes this kind of criticism and recognizes a friend in whoever goes to the trouble to criticize.

The man who called was an old-timer in Jenks who moved here from Texas in 1916. Undoubtedly, many people remember him well even though he lived in California from 1936 until just recently. His name is Claude C. Paschal and his wife was the former Eva Williams, daughter of A. G. Williams. She is also the sister of Mrs. Theo Aguilar.

Mr. Paschal said he and Mrs. Paschal left their children in California and moved back here where they could breathe deeply of clean, uncluttered fresh air because the smog out on the west coast is more than a man can stand for long.

They have bought a home here in Jenks so apparently, California's smog lost them another customer.

He remembered the name of the construction company particularly because he was doing the carpenter work on the old east school building while that company was engaged in laying the water lines. Later he worked on the school gym building, helping to build the track. He wondered if anyone around here remembers that event and if they do, he'd like to hash over a few old times.

Meanwhile, I've added another name to my list of old timers who might furnish me with some colorful history of Jenks sometimes . . . at least, until I bore them with too many seemingly unimportant details.