Lemon Twist 📝💛

What’s in a Name ⭐️🎥

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

My parents never really told me that I was named after Gail Russell, but the Golden Era Hollywood starlet was mentioned periodically throughout my childhood as one they both admired. Even in a time of no online perusing, they both knew that Russell had a significant career on the big screen, yet a tragic life cut short.

During conversations while sitting at our kitchen table, Dad would mention,

“You know there was a Hollywood actress named Gail Russell.”

Although this was said to me several times, I never once asked if I was named after her. I’ve always been partial to my parents’ story that they took the first initial of my mom’s first name, Gerry, and the first initial of my dad’s first name, David, for my first and middle names respectively, Gail Diana. However, as much as my dad loved old Hollywood and as much as we watched classic movies together, I can’t help but wonder if Gail Russell was a fleeting thought when time came to give me a name.

Hollywood actress, Gail Russell, with her only husband, Guy Madison, married 1949 and divorced 1954. Photo courtesy of Hollywood Confidential

I was born in the mid-1960s when the Golden Age of Hollywood was ending. My mom remembered watching The Wizard of Oz in a movie theater as an eight year old, when it was first released in 1939. My dad told stories of “talkies” while growing up in Kansas and Oklahoma and remembered movie screenings for GIs while serving peacetime during WWII.

Motion pictures from all the big-name production studios seemed a big part of their lives. Both were well aware of the public perception of certain movie stars of the 1930s-1960s and Russell was one who stood out for them.

I’m learning that Russell had a pretty tumultuous life. There isn’t anything that I could reveal about her that you could not just look up online, but if you are not familiar with this Golden Era beauty and tragic heroine, there are a few things I found interesting enough to share:

Russell’s birth name was Betty or Elizabeth Gale Russell. After signing with Paramount at age 18, she soon discovered she suffered terribly from stage fright and later started drinking to calm her nerves.

Often paired with big-name leading actors including John Wayne and Alan Ladd, she was known to captivate movie critics with her shy demeanor and classic beauty. In a sad twist, she preferred to spend time alone and longed to be a commercial artist, drawing and sketching throughout her childhood. Her mom, however, had other ideas, heavily pushing her into acting.

Known for Angel And The Badman opposite Wayne, the post war drama Calcutta, opposite Ladd, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay and The Uninvited, Russel’s career spanned 18 years from 1943-1961, and to me, seemed successful. However, based on a newspaper story about her death, the press was not always kind.

As her drinking escalated out of control, one source revealed that she tried to stop many times, adding that Ray Milland and Wayne were fellow actors who treated her respectfully, helping her run lines as she coped with her crippling anxieties.

Gail Russell and John Wayne, Angel And The Badman, 1947, Directed by James Edward Grant
Photo Credit @Republic Pictures/Diltz/Bridgeman Images

Russell died in 1961 at age 36 from malnutrition and liver damage due to alcoholism. She was found by a neighbor alone at her residence in Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA.

In my eyes her fall from grace was both tragic and unique. Tragic that there were not more voices surrounding her telling her she was loved and finding her the proper help she needed. Unique that she knew exactly what she wanted for her life’s work but did not, or was unable, to pursue it. Tragic that she seemingly suffered through a profession far from what she was comfortable with, ultimately triggering her demise.

After seeing the photo of Russell and her dog, I remembered a similar one of me at 18 with my beloved dog, Freeway.
Photo of Gail Russell with dog, courtesy of Getty Images.

As someone who has suffered from anxiety, I have a profound appreciation for how she endured the relentless Hollywood spotlight for so long…but sadly, for what? In today’s world, who really gives a rats about industry executives telling you who you are, what you are supposed to look like, which spelling you should use for your name or how you should act.

What is a Golden Era Hollywood Actress’s life worth in years? In Gail Russell’s case the answer is eighteen…half her life.

A few years ago I made my first trip to Hollywood. I took a brisk walk down Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame and the first star I happened to glance at was hers. How appropriate, I thought. I have never seen her movies, not one. If not for my parents she would have been no more than a mere glimpse on my radar. But now, whether she inspired my first name or not, I’m happy she’s much more than that. 💛⭐️💛

Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame Photo by
Gail Moore Woltkamp

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#GailRussell #Hollywoodboulevard

#BridgemanImages #GettyImages

A Cherished Professor and The Italian Straw Hat 👒✨

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

One of my first articles I wrote for a newspaper was when I covered a review of a classic silent film, The Italian Straw Hat, by Rene Clair. It was presented by one of my favorite professors at Baker University in Kansas, Miss Nancy Richards. At that particular time in Baker’s history, we were lucky to have Professor Richards in the journalism and communications department, as she was there for only a couple of years before moving on to Chicago.

Richards is beautiful and was part of the reason I wanted to major in journalism. Her presentation, which was part of a silent film series, was intelligent, unique and charming, which is also how I would describe Professor Richards’ personna exactly.

The Italian Straw Hat is a 1927 silent film that holds a significant place in the historic cinematic world. A plot involving a bridegroom, a hat, a horse and a secret coverup before a pending wedding, it would be a disservice to describe the overall feel of the story as anything less than whimsical.

As Clair’s feature debut, it is considered one of his most notable, as well as one of the most durable French silent films in history. Based on the 1851 play by France’s Eugene Marin Labiche and Marc-Michel, Clair’s silent film version is a brave example of comedic timing and a worthy representation of his work in filmmaking.

In Professor Richard’s eloquent description, she spoke of how Clair was “continually experimenting with composition, movement and eventually with sound.” She mentioned through Clair’s career, he “never abandoned his liking for fantasy or the absurd.” His personal style of filmmaking, she suggested, was displayed best in this particular work.

In my article, I went on to quote Richards in her description of the film as “neat and precisely timed” as she noted the film’s structure is “perhaps its greatest strength.” Richards further explained, The Italian Straw Hat was actually released one year after Warner Brothers’ sound-on-disc film, Don Juan, although it was not the last silent film ever made.

I would presume throughout my life, I would not have cared too much about particular silent films, their plot-structure or timing, if not for Professor Nancy Richards. The likes of Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo or even Lilian Gish, all with whom I am familiar, fall short of filling me with too much intrigue.

Professor Richards, however, has been unforgettable. Her work ethic and knowledge of film and journalism, combined with the example she set, stuck with me. She compelled me to think and reach beyond my own interests, and for that, I am eternally grateful. 💛

Baker University Professor Nancy Richards,
Mass Communications/Journalism
Photo Credit Gary Collins/ Baker Wildcat 1986

#theitalianstrawhat

#reneclair

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Stanwyck Earned her Groove🩵

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

My dad loved old movies. Many of his favorites came from the decades of the thirties and forties. I grew up spending Sunday afternoons with Ma and Pa Kettle, the Bowery Boys, Shirley Temple Theater, and maybe a couple Judy and Mickey musical dandies thrown in.

I loved watching all the old stuff with my dad. Something about it felt safe. There was always something genuinely funny about each of the films or shorts and they usually ended on a happy note.

With my dad at a surprise retirement party for my mom in 1991

From my own generation’s sitcom end of things, I never made Dad sit with me to watch things like “The Partridge Family.” Although if I had, I’m sure he would have given me his opinion that Shirley Jones was once upon a time in her musical genre era…worth watching.

In the summers during my junior high school years, our front living room with twenty-five inch Zenith console was usually all mine after Mom and Dad went to bed.

One late summer night, I found a Barbara Stanwyck movie, “Stella Dallas.” Now by the time I was thirteen, I was versed in the Stanwyck classic, “Christmas in Connecticut,” thanks to my dad, but I had never seen “Stella Dallas.”

If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s actually a little disturbing. Stella’s outspoken wardrobe, with clunky hats and oversized bows, is almost clownish as the character is portrayed as not succumbing to social stereotypes or traditional societal expectations.

Maybe it was my age at the time, but my initial impression of the movie was that it dragged. Several trips to the kitchen to make popcorn and back to my magenta- flowered sleeping bag, I managed to stick with it. By the final scene I was touched to tears and then, in return, the movie stuck with me.

The next day all I could think about was how much Stella did for her daughter. She put herself in such unforeseen situations. At my precarious age of thirteen, it upset me how awkward and over-the-top she looked in her wardrobe. I felt sorry for Stella when she overheard her daughter’s teenage friends make fun of her behind her back. How could they?

Her daughter, played by Anne Shirley, did all the right things throughout most of the movie. She stuck by her mother’s side, putting her first when she had a choice. However, in Stella’s effort to give her daughter a better life, the two eventually parted ways.

In years since, I have never forgotten that classic final scene where Stanwick is standing in the rain outside the church of her daughter’s well-to-do wedding. She could see, just barely, the kiss between her and her new groom. Stella then tearfully walked through the misty city neighborhood, sad, but with a feeling of greater good, that she had fulfilled her job as a mother.

Wait! What? This parenting style certainly wouldn’t fly with today’s high-powered-fuel-injected helicopter mom. Nonetheless, Stanwick and Shirley were both nominated for academy awards, the movie goes down as one of Stanwick’s signature performances and all is well on the “old movie” front.

Barbara Stanwyck in a final scene from “Stella Dallas,” a 1937 film nominated for two academy awards: one for best actress for Stanwick and the other for best supporting actress for Anne Shirley.

When I look back and explore why this film stuck with me, I arrive at two things: empathy and appreciation…and of course, these sentiments, in all their sincerity…are intended for moms.

My mom was classy, stylish, had a great office job lasting forty years at a pipeline company, maintained many friendships over the years and seemed close to perfect. But I guess the movie made me realize how lucky I was to have a mom who did so much for me and I hoped no one would ever poke fun or make light of her sacrifices.

Mom was not as passionate about old movies as was my dad. She would often peek in the back den where Dad spent the majority of his leisure time and ask “What are you two watching this time??” “That’s Gary Cooper!” “He must be a hundred years old.”

Mom keeping it real on the leisurement of old movie watching seemed to add to my enjoyment of the movie and to my pride of being their daughter.

Some of my most cherished childhood memories are centered around particular old movies… “A Christmas Carol”, “Citizen Kane”, “The Best Years of our Lives”…all of which, my mom would call out the lead actors and announce they must be a hundred or dead.

Today, I relish those memories with the three of us. Those moments that ultimately play a small part in forming who you are as a person later in life.

A few months ago I found “Stella Dallas” on Turner Classic Movies. I had not seen it since my original viewing back in 1979. Aside from a few plot details, my memory of it was pretty accurate. I can’t say why certain performances resonate more than others, but I can say that Stanwyck as Stella earned her groove with me.

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Popular Pipelines Remembered 🦕

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

Sinclair Pipeline Company 🦕❤️

One of my first toys as a child was an inflatable Sinclair Dinosaur. Many pictures of my early childhood years show me sprawled out on a blanket with that green dinosaur. Various Sinclair collectibles graced my home during those early years. This was because my mom worked for Sinclair Pipeline Company, (affiliate of Sinclair Oil Corporation), in Independence, Kansas.

By the time I was born in the mid-1960s, Mom was on her sixteenth year of working as an executive secretary for Sinclair. The company, itself, was on its sixtieth. Unique for a town that reached it’s peak in population at around 12,000, (and, by the way, where Harry Sinclair grew up), the headquarters in Independence, Kansas was a substantial operation employing a large percentage of Sinclair’s workforce.

Image from “A Great Name in Oil: Sinclair Through Fifty Years”

Merger and ARCO Pipeline Company ❇️

When I turned three, in 1969, Atlantic Richfield Company (an already merged entity between Atlantic Refining Company and Richfield Oil Corporation) acquired the Sinclair holdings, becoming ARCO Pipeline Company/Subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield. For the next twenty-six years, this subsidiary served as a headquarters and remained in the five story Independence office location.

Sinclair Pipeline Company (later, ARCO Pipeline) Independence, Kansas
1960s Contributed photos by
Moore Family Collections

Many of our close friends and family members held office jobs in the classic and now historic building located near the town’s downtown area. The company’s contribution to the overall health and wealth of the town’s economy was immeasurable.

Through the late eighties and early nineties, ARCO gradually transferred its Independence offices to new locations. By 1995, remaining departments officially relocated, capping off nearly eighty years combined, through each company’s tenures, in our unique Kansas town.

Prairie Oil and Gas Company 🤎

The Prairie Oil and Gas Company was a rival of Harry Sinclair’s. Established in 1900 with roots from the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the company was bought by Standard Oil’s Prairie Pipeline System and then acquired by Sinclair in 1932. This, of course, is the abbreviated version of its early evolution, as pipeline companies traditionally and consistently endure mergers and acquisitions.

Office Locations

Within its first four years, the Prairie Oil and Gas Company’s office space and refinery were located in Neodesha, Kansas, twenty miles north of Independence. According to “Oil And Independence” (Compiled by R.L. Wells), the Prairie Oil and Gas Company moved its offices from Neodesha to Independence in 1904 to a space inside the town’s Carl-Leon Hotel.

In 1916 a new office building was erected for the Prairie Oil and Gas Company on the corner of 9th and Myrtle in Independence. The company would operate in this location until becoming home to Sinclair Pipeline Company, then finally, ARCO Pipeline. Later the structure underwent a more modern look as shown in my previous photos.

Prairie Oil and Gas Company building erected in 1916 on the corner of 9th and Myrtle, (Now 200 ARCO Place), Independence, KS.
Postcard courtesy of Moore Family Collections

Original Pipeline in Oklahoma 🧡

Prairie Oil and Gas built its first pipeline in Northeast Oklahoma running from Bartlesville to Humboldt, Kansas. One of its earliest projects was to extend a pipeline north into Copan, which was once Indian Territory.

This area, now Washington County, is where my dad’s family farm was located from the early 1900s through the early 1970s. My dad’s uncle was employed by the company when the original pipelines were being built through that area.

Information on the “History of Bartlesville and Washington County” website reveals that Prairie Oil and Gas also initiated Oklahoma’s first ever storage tank that carried oil and gas by rail which ran from the Bartlesville train depot to the refinery in Kansas.

Early 1900s oil derrick and my great grandparent’s original farmhouse on their acreage in Washington County, Oklahoma
Photos courtesy of Moore Family Collections

My mom retired from ARCO in 1991 after forty years of service to the company. Although my green toy dinosaur is long gone, I still have a Sinclair ashtray, ARCO coffee mug, roadmaps and a brochure or two that are all part of my Independence, Kansas collections.

Sinclair and ARCO items that are part of my personal collection 💚

Sinclair and ARCO collections are on display at the Independence Historical Museum and Arts Center, located at 8th & Myrtle Streets in Independence, Kansas, a block away from the “ARCO Building.”

Many valuable sources relating to the petroleum and pipeline industry used for this piece can be found in my references.

Find out more! 🦕 ❇️ ⛽️💙

References 🦕

A Great Name in Oil: Sinclair through Fifty Years; F.W. Dodge Company, 1966

History of Bartlesville and Washington County, Oklahoma website

Oil And Independence; Compiled by R.L. Wells; November 12, 1987

https://www.okhistory.org/publications

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A Nod to Napco (National Potteries Corporation) ❤️🤍❤️

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

It simply wouldn’t be Christmas without her. The vintage ceramic “cold paint” angel passed down to me from my grandmother is a keepsake I look forward to displaying year after year. Aside from her festive style and intricate design, it’s her signature Napco marking that confirms her authenticity to prime collectors.

Ohio Roots

National Potteries Corporation (Napco) was established in 1938 opening its doors in Bedford, Ohio, southeast of Cleveland. During its first peak in popularity, (the 1950s and 60s), the company distributed a variety of collectibles depicting the times, with products like birthday and Christmas angels, Lady Head Vases, (Remember the Lucille Ball one?) planters, ashtrays and nursery rhyme figurines.

This explosion in production of novelty items made them a much-familiar sight in my Midwestern household and I’m sure in others across the country.

Since I have long admired many of my family treasures, I decided to research more about the company. A quick discovery was “Napco: A Schiffer Book for Collectors,” by Kathleen Deel, which I purchased, and contains great info on various Napco collectibles.

Napco’s products stand out as they are known for being well-designed as items are distinctive, with a “cold paint” technique, referring to the outside finish of the ceramic item. The first coat consists of a clear glaze finish that’s been fired in a kiln. The item is then decoratively painted with cold paint.

Vintage and Today

The company’s success in maintaining its staying power reflects its ability to keep up with consumer interest along with leveraging the vintage marketplace.

In Napco’s vintage world, each product is marked with various paper labels, foil seals or markings featuring wording such as: “A Napco Collection;” “Napco originals by Giftware;” “National Potteries Co., Cleveland, OH; and “Napcoware, Import Japan.” fromgrandmastree.com

Napco cookie jar, purchased as a gift for my grandmother in 1978. The red and gold foil seal is one of many variations of authentic Napco labels
Photo by Gail Moore Woltkamp

Today, Napco has an extensive product presence through online sales platforms like eBay, Pinterest and Collectors Weekly. The website, Napcoimports.com, has an impressive online catalog, and touts a customer-driven product line with a 150,000 square foot distribution center in Jacksonville, Florida.

NAPCO Marketing Corporation, a wholesale distributor of floral and plant containers, sells similar products and is owned by 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.

To keep my family’s 1950s holiday nostalgia intact, I will pass down my cherished “cold-paint” Christmas angel, along with some other novelty keepsakes. After all, Christmas would not be Christmas without Napco! 🎁⛄️🎁

References

1-800-Flowers.com, Inc.

collectorsweekly.com

Deel, Kathleen; Napco, A Schiffer Book for Collectors; Schiffer Publishing Limited, 1999

fromgrandmastree.com

https://www.napcoimports.com

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Landmarks Lost : Reflections of a Kansas Town 🌻💛🌻

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

Notable landmarks that were once part of my life and neighborhood while growing up in Independence, Kansas, are now gone. Some, I consider historically significant, not only to my life, but to the town and to the state of Kansas.

Mercy Hospital

Something that seemed unprecedented, from the time of selling my childhood home in 2014, was that Mercy Hospital, part of the Mercy Hospital System, closed its doors, partially due to the Kansas decision not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The hospital closed in October of 2015, but months before that decision was final, the town had found itself losing doctors and its number of patient visits were declining. The result was no more hospital for the roughly 9,000-person community and for other areas it served in Montgomery County.

Mercy Hospital was within clear view of my childhood home in Independence, KS.
Standing in my old neighborhood on Myrtle Street with hospital in the distance (1970 )💙

My beloved old neighborhood really is empty. The original part of the hospital, founded by the Sisters of Mercy and erected in 1927, along with its unique counterpart, an architecturally rounded addition, built around 1959, are both gone.

Like so many of my friends and family members, I was born in that hospital. My grandmother worked there as a registered nurse in the 1930s and 40s. My mom was a longtime volunteer for the Mercy Hospital Auxiliary and my dad was born in May of 1928 in one of the hospital’s original units.

A welcomed solution

Mercy Hospital’s closing initially imposed a deeply chaotic and disgruntled impact on the local area. However, a welcomed solution came along two years later in 2017 with the opening of the Labette Health/Independence Healthcare Center. This rural health clinic with state-of-the-art facilities includes an emergency room and small cancer treatment center. The facility is located further west of town, not in my old neighborhood.

Nonetheless, the efforts of Brian Williams, President and CEO of Labette Health, (nearby Parsons), secured a $6 million dollar low-interest loan from the U.S Department of Agriculture, added along with $1.6 million dollars raised in local funding, helped create a winning alternative to a full-fledged hospital.

Labette Health Independence Healthcare Center serves Independence, Kansas and parts of Montgomery County. The facility, designed by HFG Architecture, opened in 2017.
Photo copyrighted by Steve Rasmussen

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Lincoln School

When I was growing up I attended Lincoln School, which was located directly across the street from my house and East of the hospital. The solid white Art Deco style school was architecturally and structurally sound, built under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939-40. My memories of it are vivid and many of my closest friends, to this day, are ones who attended Lincoln.

Backdrop of my life: 💙
Lincoln School was a perfect view outside the front door of my childhood home in Independence, Kansas

I remember during my Kindergarten year, winter of 1971, we had a huge snowfall, nearly up to my waist in some parts of our yard. Because the streets had not been cleared in time for morning Kindergarten, my dad carried me across the street onto the steps of my Kindergarten class.

I have never forgotten that day–how special I felt because I lived so close to the school, and the effort of my dad to make sure I stayed safe and dry.

The bus kids to me, however, were the lucky ones. In extreme cases, if school was in session before the weather hit, they were often dismissed early. Although it seemed back then, school was always in session. Rain or waist-high snow, my across-the-street-residence gave me no excuses.

Winter scenes from the early 1970s in my old
neighborhood in Independence, KS.
Photos: Moore Family Collections

Demolished

Shortly after closing it’s doors in 2011, Lincoln School was torn down in a plan involving Mercy Hospital and its need for a helicopter landing pad. The community adjusted okay to this change. Due to a shrinking population, Independence needed only two public elementary schools as opposed to three and found a way to secure a section of land and raise funds to build a new school on the other side of town.

Consequently, the helipad was used for only four short years due to the closing of the hospital. My mom missed hearing the happy sounds of the school kids playing on the playground during their recess time. It really was a welcomed familiarity that kept her company. Her view out of her screened-in-front porch for the final year of the previous sixty that she lived in that home was unfortunately an empty lot.

Still a Vibrant Community

In recent years Independence has experienced a slight decrease in population and a change in its overall economic growth. Some of these factors were noticeable even before the pandemic hit, yet the town appears to sustain a vibrant, hopeful spirit.

The community has innovative leaders and dedicated citizens who keep their rich traditions alive, support their existing local businesses and look for ways through the Main Street program, Chamber events and festivals to keep volunteers active.

Neighbors helping neighbors improve their homes, residents coming up with unique ways to enhance the downtown area, are all things that have helped the town’s viability.

My old neighborhood is different, yet sustainable. Its fight is long but worth its journey. 💛🍋💛

References

https://www.labettehealth.com/clinics/independence-healthcare-center-rural-health-clinic/

https://www.kcur.org/health/2017-08-23/new-health-care-center-helping-to-fill-void-after-closure-of-southeast-kansas-hospital

http://www.newson6.com

https://www.labettehealth.com

https://hfgarchitecture.com

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For the Love of Northeast Oklahoma 💙💚💙

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

Although I am a native of Southeast Kansas, part of my family’s history is deeply rooted thirty miles south and across the state line into Northeast Oklahoma. My dad’s paternal grandparents owned a family farm and ranch in Oklahoma’s Washington County, (thirty miles northeast of the larger Osage County), from the early 1900s through the early 1970s.

Etched in my memory are trips to Copan, Dewey, Bowring and Bartlesville, visiting great aunts and uncles as well as a few family cemeteries and interesting sights along the way.

My great grandparents’ original farmhouse sat on a section of their property of several hundred acres before Copan Lake and nearby Hulah Lake were developed.

Throughout my own childhood, (1970s-80s), my dad would tell stories about his summers spent on the farm in the 1930s—it’s close proximity to the now infamous Mullendore Cross Bell Ranch, and his fun visits with half cousins, who were Native Americans. He was often given warnings by his family, out of respect for private property, not to venture onto the Mullendore’s land.

Spending time as a child with various generations of my family, while visiting the area that holds our shared history, helped shape my interest and love for Northeast Oklahoma, its landscape and culture.

Hulah Lake 💙💙💙💙

Spreading across miles of rolling terrain, that was once Indian Territory, Hulah Lake is located in Northeast Oklahoma’s Osage County. “Hulah,” meaning “Eagle” in the Osage language, was previously an Osage Nation farming community. outdoorsy.com

Situated 20 miles north of Pawhuska, 15 miles southwest of Copan and five miles north of Bowring, the man-made reservoir was completed in 1951 by the United States Army Corp of Engineers, Tulsa District. (US Army Corp of Engineers, Tulsa District Website)

December on the Lake 💙 ☃️

Hulah Lake is a recreational lake in Osage County Oklahoma, fifteen miles southwest of Copan and twenty miles north of Pawhuska.
Photo by: Gail Moore Woltkamp (December 2019)

Last December, my son and I traveled toward the lake from Bartlesville in search of a family cemetery near Bowring. It was a gorgeous drive on Oklahoma State Highway 10 North where the winter landscape with late Fall foliage was visible for miles.

Stopped off at Hulah Lake in Osage County Oklahoma on a freezing cold December day. 💙

The lake itself, in all its beauty, has a shoreline of 62 miles and offers nearby residents and out of town travelers a chance to enjoy picnics, hunting, fishing, boating, a bird sanctuary, camping and rest area. (Oklahoma Fishing Guide Website) On our drive down Oklahoma Highway 10, we spotted a notable entrance to the Mullendore Cross Bell Ranch to the West.

Mullendore Cross Bell Ranch located at 3484 Mullendore Ranch Road near Copan, Oklahoma.
1972 Contributed photo by
Moore Family Collections
2019 photo by Gail Moore Woltkamp

Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve 🧡💙🧡💙

Bartlesville, Oklahoma is home to Woolaroc, (named for Woods, Lakes and Rocks), which is the wildlife preserve and art museum founded and developed by Phillips Petroleum Company founder Frank Phillips and his wife, Jane Gibson Phillips. (woolaroc.org).

Originally Frank’s and Jane’s summer retreat, the exquisite property, which has been expanded over the years, is now owned and operated by the Frank Phillips Foundation, Inc. The mission of its board is to sustain the Phillips’s original intent to preserve the history of the West as well as to educate and entertain. It has been open for the public to experience and enjoy since 1937. (Woolaroc Museum Gallery Guide)

Standing at the entrance of the Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Located in the Osage Hills of Northeast Oklahoma, Woolaroc is the ranch retreat-turned wildlife preserve founded by Phillips Petroleum’s Frank Philips.
Photo by: Gail Moore Woltkamp (August 2019)

My scenic drive off the entrance of Oklahoma Highway 123, (this time in August), led me across the Woolaroc property spanning 3,700 acres of peaceful terrain. The picturesque route included crossing a couple narrow bridges while spotting lots of buffalo, elk, llamas and a zebra along the way.

The drive led to a unique museum experience filled with extraordinary works of art. Each room showcased Native American and Western History with American Indian collections, paintings, sculptures and exhibits by well-known artists. The museum is also home to one of the world’s most extensive Colt firearms collections and to the 1927 “Woolaroc” aircraft.

Woolaroc aircraft, from the 1927 Dole Air Race starting from California to the “Territory of Hawaii” is displayed at the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Photo by: GMW (August 2019)

Pictured is a view from the property of the Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve
Photo by Gail Moore Woltkamp
August 2019

My travels to Northeast Oklahoma are a reflection of the interest I have in my family’s past along with Oklahoma’s rich history. 💚

References

woolaroc.org

Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve Gallery Guide

Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve Campus Map

US Army Corp of Engineers Tulsa District Website

TravelOK.com Website

Oklahoma Fishing Guide Website

outdoorsy.com

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Guess Whose Parents Remind Me of My Own 🧡🍋🧡

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

Have you ever sat down and watched Spencer Tracy’s final speech at the end of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”? You should. As late to the party as it sounds, everyone should see this movie. Add to Tracy’s eloquence and thought-provoking dialogue the fact that the actor was dying throughout the entire making of the film, and the message becomes even that much more meaningful.

I was two years old when Stanley Kramer’s classic premiered on the big screen and a youngster during the Civil Rights Movement. Such an important time in our nation’s history and all I had to do was ride my trike and play with dolls. Others were doing the dirty work of paving paths of equal rights and tearing down racial barriers.

40th Anniversary Edition of Stanley Kramer’s
1968 classic “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

Watching Kramer’s film today not only reveals to me who we were during that period in our American History, but also sheds light on some family dynamics of my own…

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn as Matt and Christina Drayton remind me of my own mom and dad. Not in how they miserably fail in hiding their surprise of their only daughter’s engagement to an African American doctor, but more in how they communicate with candor and humor as they grapple with their own surprise at themselves.

Joanna Drayton, portrayed beautifully by Katherine Houghton, was raised in a special environment. Maybe because I’m an only child, and was close to both of my parents, I feel a connection to fictional “Joey.” It’s clear she was raised to think for herself, make up her own mind, regardless of outside influences.

My mom and dad, now both deceased, were not as wealthy as the fictional Drayton’s. My dad, a small town barber, and my mom, a secretary for a pipeline company, both were successful, hard-working, kind, generous, independent and accepting. At a very young age, I felt as though I had a voice as important decisions were made about our home, our family and livelihood.

My parent’s values in how to treat and accept others made a lifetime impact on me. My dad would often say about my mom that she was a “Women’s Libber” before anyone talked about it. Just like Matt and Christina Drayton, they were accepting of other people’s races and religions without wearing it on their sleeves or giving it a second thought.

Snapshot of my childhood years
mid-1960s-1990🧡

It has been documented that Tracy was frequently absent during the filming of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” He passed away just seventeen days after production wrapped. I would guess the public and even some closest to him never knew the extent of his illness. It compels me to consider his performance and wonder if it was perhaps driven by his own state of health.

I think of those final scenes where Tracy’s character is questioning himself as he unravels the events of the day in an effort to arrive at a thoughtful position regarding his daughter’s future.

Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as Matt and Christina Drayton in an early scene from “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Tracy passed away 17 days after production wrapped.
Columbia Pictures, 40th Anniversary DVD Edition

While some critics have expressed the movie is now outdated and even a little hokey, (most recently I’ve seen a movie critic discuss his disdain for the plot), I tend to disagree. Because I believe the story is ultimately about love, I stand by the film’s message as it continues to reveal to us where we are with universal attitudes on relationships and marriage.

Scene from Stanley Kramer’s classic,
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” shot in scenic San Francisco.
Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures, 40th Anniversary DVD Edition

I loved the San Francisco backdrop, the 1960s fashions and of course, Sydney Poitier. But what I continue to admire most about the film are the realistic portrayals of Hepburn and Tracy as their characters react and ultimately transform over the course of a given day.

To so many like my mom and dad who worked and lived by example in paving incredibly important paths of human rights and equal justice–Guess whose generation truly gets it! My teenage son said it best after watching the first ten minutes of the film: “So that’s the plot?” “They wanna get married?” “Who cares?” 💛

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Worth Every Trip ❤️

By Gail Moore Woltkamp

In my very early childhood, at least twice a week, my grandmother and I would walk a few residential blocks from my house, pass by several store fronts, including my dad’s barbershop, to the Woolworth’s store in downtown Independence, Kansas.

Once reaching our destination, our shopping experience was never disappointing. Sweeper bags, hula hoops, aspirin or a hairbrush, Woolworth’s was THE place for buying whatever we wanted or needed.

As soon as we walked through the door, the smells of perfume and day-old popcorn would welcome us back like an old friend. Down the slanted entry ramp and onto the wide-open fluorescent-lit shopping space, Grandma would head for the household items and I would go directly to the aisle filled with miniature ceramic figurines.

After shopping the aisles and purchasing our must-haves, we would go to the lunch counter and order a grilled cheese sandwich and what was to me, their signature drink: a concoction of orange juice, milk, crushed ice and phosphate, aptly named the “Orange Whip.”

To this day I have dreams about that Woolworth’s…the classic fluorescent luncheonette sign, the endless aisles filled with ten cent treasures…Woolworth’s, no doubt, made an impact on me.

Always worth a trip to Woolworth’s.
Late 1960s-early 70s purchases from the Woolworth’s store in Independence, Kansas ❤️

A 1960’s glimpse of the Woolworth’s store in the background during the Neewollah Festival
Independence, Kansas
1967 Neewollah Program, Neewollah, Inc. Courtesy of Moore Family Collections

Retail Pioneers

Woolworth’s history in my hometown in Kansas and town’s and cities across the country is a long and thriving one. Some deem the F.W. Woolworth Company the most successful five and dime chain store in all retail history.

Although the first store that opened its doors in Utica, New York, failed, Frank and Charles, the Woolworth brothers, opened a new store that would be the first successful “Great Five Cent Store.”

Famous Lunch Counter ❤️

F.W. Woolworth Company Signature Florescent Luncheonette sign. Photo courtesy of Google Images

On February 1, 1960, four African American students from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter at 123 S. Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. Up to that point, the lunch counter had been for “whites only.”

When the students were refused a cup of coffee and asked to leave the lunch counter, the four freshmen refused to get up. The “Greensboro Four” or the “A&T Four,” as they would later be known, stayed until the store closed. Each day, the number of student peaceful protesters grew while other cities in North Carolina launched their own “sit-ins.” (International Civil Rights Museum Website)

A sit-in movement spawned in additional cities and states in the South. After nearly six months of boycotts, store owners abandoned their segregation policies.

Visit the sites! 🧡

In 1993, a section of the Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter was relocated to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W., in Washington D.C.

A section of the lunch counter from the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History.
Photo Courtesy of the Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike

The remaining portion of the lunch counter, including the stools where the “Greensboro Four” sat, has been preserved in its original Woolworth location, 134 S. Elm Street, Greensboro, NC, now home to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, which opened on February 1, 2010, the fiftieth anniversary of the original sit-in. info@sitinmovement.org

Standing Up by Sitting Down

An additional exhibit titled “Standing Up by Sitting Down” honoring the first national peaceful protest in America is displayed at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. This exhibit includes original interactive video footage and honors the original 1960s sit-ins in the South.

Trip to the National Civil Rights Museum, at the Lorraine Motel, 450 Mulberry Street, Memphis, TN with my cousin, Christopher Jardine (2019)

“Standing Up by Sitting Down”
The first national peaceful protest in America is honored through this permanent exhibit located at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, 450 Mulberry Street in Memphis, TN. (2019)
Photo by Gail Moore Woltkamp

Woolworth’s Today ❤️

The last Woolworth’s store in the United States closed its doors in 1997. While other retailers have used its name in many variations across the world, only a couple of those chains and corporations are currently connected to the original F.W. Woolworth Company brand.

In the U.S. the company restructured, existing as Foot Locker, Inc. which sells sports apparel and footwear, and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. (FL) ☮️

References

International Civil Rights Center and Museum website

http://footlocker.com

National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel website

NYSE: The New York Stock Exchange (Website)

www.goodreads.com

“Remembering Woolworth’s, A Nostalgic History of the World’s Most Famous Five and Dime,”Karen Plunkett-Powell, St. Martin’s Press; 1999

Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History website

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