Fall Events in Full Swing on Main Street…

By Lindsey Galloway

 

 

Fall is officially here as are the many celebrations across the state…

 

Almost overnight Hobart has become a town of pumpkins.  There are pumpkins on wagons on the courthouse lawn.  There are pumpkins at the light poles, on the signs and in business windows, and it’s all to enhance the festive mood surrounding the first Pumpkin Palooza, a fall festival honoring the big, orange pumpkin.

 

This festival will truly celebrate everything pumpkin… with games including pumpkin bowling, a pumpkin relay, pumpkin stackin’, and pumpkin pitchin’.  If you don’t find a game to your liking, try one of the pumpkin contests such as pumpkin decorating, pumpkin patch bash, bingo, or competing for the largest home-grown pumpkin.  Cash awards and gift certificates will be given winners in each contest.

 

The highlight of the day will be the Pumpkin Chunkin” contest.  Pumpkin Chunkin” is a nationally recognized event where individuals and/or groups construct a contraption such as a sling shot, catapult or air cannon which will lift and shoot a pumpkin weighing at least 10 pounds.

 

There are two target distances—one of 300 feet and the second, 1000 feet.  Each competitor will have three throws and the one with the closest  average distance to the target is the winner.  In this contest, there is over $1000 in prize money.

 

The events will begin at 9 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 4, and run throughout the day. 

For more information and /or to enter a catapult, call Hobart Main Street, 580-726-4206 or visit wwwhobartok.com.

 

Sulphur Main Street will have a Historic Home Tour plus Downtown in conjunction with Arbuckle Artist Chili Supper and the Chickasaw National Recreation Park Candlelight Tour on October 18th.  Everyone is welcome and tickets are available that day or can be purchased by contacting Phyllis at the Sulphur Main Street Office for tickets, 405-313-5113.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who will be next?

By Lindsey Galloway 

Now that I have put in nearly two years here at the Oklahoma Main Street Center, I’ve had the chance to experience everything at least once and I must say, there is nothing more refreshing than the New Town Application Workshop.  There is anticipation almost like the first day of school where everyone is excited to get started.

 

It’s a great reminder of why we do what we do day in and day out. 

 

Nearly 20 communities turned out for the workshop yesterday – a new record.  While there is always interest in the program, to have 20 communities interested in becoming a Main Street community all in one year is a bit overwhelming.

 

It’s great to see such strong support for our historic commercial cores throughout the state.

 

While I‘m sure not every community will apply this year, it will be exciting as we approach the November 14^th deadline for Letters of Intent.  Who will be the next one to join our Main Street family? 

 

I can’t wait to find out. J 

Autumn Days in Ada…

 By Cari Gray

 

Ada Main Street will be holding our annual Autumn Days in Ada on Saturday November 1,2008 10am-5pm. The downtown festival will include Arts, Entertainment, Cars, Food & Fun. FALL-ing for Dessert contest and the Chili Cook Off & Salsa Showdown, will be among the activities taking place during the festival. Live entertainment will be on stage at Main and Broadway, Open Car Show will be along North Rennie and Kids activities will be at Juliana Park.  For additional information, please contact the Ada Main Street office at 580-436-1600 or stop by 114 S Rennie. Coupon books for sampling at the FALL-ing for Dessert and Chili Cook Off & Salsa Showdown, 10 samples per book, will be on sale at the Ada Main Street office and at the events for five dollars.

 

Pumpkin Palooza…

By Dewaina Edge

It’s about pumpkins—how they can be decorated, played with and even thrown. And it all takes place on Saturday, Oct. 4 on the Kiowa County Courthouse lawn in Hobart.

It’s called the Pumpkin Palooza, and local organizers hope to make the first-time special event an annual affair.

Beginning at 9 a.m., game booths involving pumpkin stacking, rolling, bowling, pitching and even a relay will offer monetary prizes and/or gift certificates to winning participants.

Buy a pumpkin and carve, paint or paste on it to win another pumpkin related event. Additionally, an award will be given to the person who grows the biggest pumpkin.

Trapper Heglin and Dewaina Edge, co-chairs of the event, credit the many local volunteers with coordinating the varied events.

“We’re also fortunate to have the Hobart Fire Department provide a barbeque feed at noon for a nominal fee,” Heglin said. “We encourage families to bring their lawn chairs and enjoy the many events.”

The highlight of the day will be the Pumpkin Chunkin.

“This is where the inventiveness and ingenuity of citizens from throughout the state pays off,” Edge said.” The purpose is to see how far your home-made contraption can fling the pumpkin.”

To date, five people have entered the contest.

Contraptions may be designed to sling, catapult or shoot pumpkins. Winners are judged on distance and accuracy. The event will be held one mile north of town and will start at 2 p.m. If you are interested in constructing a machine which can throw a 10-pound pumpkin, contact the Hobart Main Street office at (580) 726-4206.

Pumpkins for all events are furnished by McLemore Farms of Colony. To compete participants must purchase their pumpkin at the event.

Sponsors of this fall pumpkin fest are Hobart Main Street, the City of Hobart, KTJS radio, Thomas-Johnston Ford and Public Service of Oklahoma (AEP).

 

Hometown in Woodward

by Lindsey Galloway

 I was fortunate enough to be in Woodward this week, in the midst of preparations for their upcoming Hometown Festival.  The festival is scheduled for this weekend (September 20), and promises to include something for everyone from the sounds of it.  

The festivities include a car and motorcycle show, kids zone, fine arts show, BBQ cookoff, and two stages for live entertainment.   The one thing that jumped out at me as I was making my trek northwestern was the “So You Think You Can Dance” contest being sponsored by a local radio station – not only did it sound like a lot of fun, but first place was $500.

For more information on the festival you can contact Kathryn Upchurch, director for Woodward Main Street (580.254.8521) or check her out promting the festival on OklaTravelNet.net. 

Some kind words

 by Linda Barnett 

Duncan’s very successful Main Street Banquet hosted our very favorite Friend of Main Street, Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins.  Tammy did a fantastic job of putting together a great banquet and Governor Askins did a great job also.  I thought you might be interested in a couple of things she said last night.

 1.  She said that she didn’t need to see a sign to tell her when she was in a Main Street community.  You could tell by just driving into it.

2.  She said that Duncan (and, of course, any Main Street community) should fill 3 or 4 tables at the Annual Awards Banquet, not for the awards, but because it is a privilege to be a part of such a great network of Oklahoma communities.

  Oklahoma Main Street communities, you make me proud.

 

 

The State Fair Begins!

 By Lindsey Galloway

 I love this time of year.  And this week we received another sign that fall is near… the kickoff of the Oklahoma State Fair. 

  

Each year, the Oklahoma Main Street Center joins forces with the Tourism Department for booth space in the Agtropolis building near gate 10.   We provide this space to our communities as a chance for them to promote themselves on a statewide level.  It’s a great opportunity for our towns to spread the word about all the wonderful things they have going on in their downtowns and we are glad that we can assist them with this opportunity which may be to time intensive and costly on their own.  

Due to some scheduling conflicts, Tracey and I got to man the booth this morning and really get a feel of the audience the fair provides.  We met several very nice people who were interested in all that was going on. 

 

 

So when you are out at the fair stop by and see us.  There will be different communities there each day! 

 

Granite and Hobart, OK

by Ron Frantz

 It was a God and Country type of day that makes one want to sing a hymn, carry a flag, and bleed red, white, and blue.

 The day started with a side trip to Granite, Oklahoma—a small southwestern Oklahoma town that bills itself as “Granite-A Hard Place to Beat.”  With a north-south Main Street that dead ends on the north at the base of an actual granite mountain, this town has a solid sense of place.  Granite curbs, granite trim, granite architectural elements grace stoic little commercial structures aligning Main Street and awaiting better, new uses.

 

I met with a native, Jeanie VanVacter, the wife of the pastor for First Baptist Church, an anchor on Main Street.  Also, I met with Cheryl Daniels, a newcomer who fell in love with the front wall of what once was the Kozy Theater.  As we pried open the front door to view the theater, we realized it was easier to go down the alley and view the interior of the theater from the back…which is really an open lot.  Jeanie recalled seeing a very scary movie in the Kozy one time.  Cheryl has the vision of movies once again. 

 

We talked about the state of Granite—a typical little Oklahoma town that is struggling to keep a dot on the state map.  As we looked at the hand-carved granite elements on the buildings (with the granite having been quarried just a couple of blocks away), we talked about ways to generate more enthusiasm.  Jeanie mentioned a recent “Prayer Walk.”  Yes, members of churches met and walked through town.  They stopped occasionally and verbally prayed for various issues regarding this little town.  I only can imagine what an evening prayer was like.  During the Christmas season, on that large granite mountain at the north end of Main, a brightly lit cross shines above Granite.  Complemented with a navy blue sky of twinkling stars, this event must have been a little slice of heaven right on Oklahoma soil.

 

Now, for the country part of this blog.  Just a few miles northeast of Granite sits our Main Street town of Hobart.  Their population of 3,997 seems large to Granite’s size of 1,844.  Main Street manager Stephen Hobart took me on a whirlwind tour looking at half a dozen buildings.  One stop was the “country” part.  Meeting with director Trapper Heglin, we toured a $14 million museum that is filling 5 historic commercial spaces on Hobart’s south end of Main Street.  The General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum is one of those just unbelievable things to happen to a town.  His wife’s Oklahoma roots in southwestern Oklahoma are what brought this four-star, world-renowned general to this little corner of Oklahoma.  We walked through amazing displays with items from around the world.  Then we stepped out the back door.  There sat a gleaming new 44 foot trailer with a mobile history-of-the-world exhibit inside.  Over 120 Oklahoma schools are on the waiting list for this free exhibit.  Just unbelievable.  It is like a history course condensed into a 3-D walk through diorama.  A five minute overview left me feeling slighted.

 

As we toured this, Stephen had a phone call.  “Yes, we’ll be that way.  See you at the library.”  From the 97 degree hot day we went into the library.  Located in a newer building, I wondered what this stop was about.  As we entered, Stephen introduced me to the library staff.  They wanted us to drop by and have a cool treat.  There it was.  A table full of all the toppings one could imagine—fudge, caramel, jelly, cherries, nuts, whipped cream.  The huge ice chest had Dixie cup size servings of ice cream.  “It’s our ‘Welcome back to school’ sundaes for everyone today.”  Cute, tasty, palm-sized sundaes for everyone.  Only in a small town like Hobart could such a wonderful event be so well done!

 

This was the perfect ending to the day.  As I headed to the state car, I had a little “Prayer Walk” with thanks for living in such a country, in such a state, working with such wonderful Americans who double as Oklahomans.

 

A Group Effort in Guymon

by Tracey Cox

Lindsey Galloway and I went to Guymon last Thursday and Friday to help Charles White, the program manger, merchandise his new men and women’s specialty clothing store downtown. www.e2fashions.com.  Cari Gray, the program manager from Ada, and Kathryn Upchurch, the program manager of Woodward were also there to lend their expertise.  Cari has a background in owning her own children’s clothing store in downtown Ada, she has been in retail since she was 16 years old, and has a degree in Fashion Merchandising.  Kathryn has a degree in Merchandising/Marketing and Interior Design, and has been in retail since she was 16.  She started working in a men’s clothing store in Enid, and has worked in retail in Woodward since 1980.

When we got there, Charles’ first question was about lighting…and did he do a great job with it!  He really has listened to my window display workshops!!  The majority of the store was done in track lights with 3 other chandelier style lights going down the middle.  The track lighting really highlights the merchandise well.  The colors they picked are chocolate brown and light blue which really make it feel very welcoming and warm.  I liked the fact that he didn’t pick black for his main color, but brown instead. 

We all jumped right in when we got there Thursday evening and started getting an idea of what to do and how to organize.  The next day, we got busy organizing clothing according to color and style, moving out too big of display pieces that weren’t needed, and moving rods down to reachable heights.  With four women there telling Charles what to do, I must say he stayed very calm, and handled everything like a pro! 

 

It truly is amazing what can happen when a person’s vision comes to light and people are there to help, what can come about.  We wish him all the best in his new endeavor!! 

 

Second Stories in Collinsville…

by Ron Frantz

Collinsville, Oklahoma

 

We climbed the steps to history.  Owner Snook Bayouth took us up the side stairs of the 1911 T.A. Lee Hardware Co. Building.  Most people remember it as the flagship of the Bayouth’s Department Stores in northeastern Oklahoma.  Collinsville Downtown Program Manager Maureen Wright, board president Brad Francis, and I followed the dancing beam of the flashlight up some 25 steep steps.  Alice Johnson of the Oklahoma Main Street Center staff opted to stay behind.  Not a bad idea.  Come find us in 45 minutes!

 

Into the darkened hallway with some pools of light shining through some of the interior windows we went.  Typical.  Dusty, dirty, a little smelly.  What a wonderful aroma.  History waiting for us to find it.  Old magazines, a great old Chambers stove.  A hand-operated freight elevator.  Clothing.  Furniture.  Memories. 

 

As our eyes adjusted to a muted history of darkness, more objects took shape.  So did the stories provided by Snook Bayouth.  With a sense of pride, he showed us the rooms that served as a police station for a movie shot there some 20 or 25 years ago.  He walked us through 19 vacant post-World War II apartments and talked us through 100 years of family history.  The chapters covered the arrival of his great grandfather from Lebanon to Wichita, Kansas, and then to Collinsville.  Other chapters covered the history of his grandfather Sol Bayouth’s expanding the department chain throughout a number of small Oklahoma towns—the epitome of an American success story.  Through different rooms, he noted his grandfather’s chair.  We looked for the matching desk.  We saw his little cabinet, still full of keys and combinations, and gadgets for getting through the day—many decades ago.

 

As we wandered through the space, Maureen and I joked about the paranormal, having just had a very spirited (in more ways that one) paranormal presentation at a program manager training in another town the previous week.  We told ourselves that we felt surrounded by those who previously were there.  Little did we know the joke was to be on us!

 

The highlight of the afternoon was finding a leather wallet.  As all of us waited for major amounts of money to fall from this, something else more valuable slid out of this leather chapter of history.  A newspaper clipping from the Tulsa paper (most likely dating from 1954) floated down to the dusty floor.  “Sol Bayouth Leaves $130,000 Estate” was the caption.  Snook’s grandfather died from complications from a car wreck in 1954—if I remember correctly.  At this point, I had chills and goosebumps.  The paranormal snickers were not present as we all looked at this little yellowed message sent to us.  Also in the wallet were handwritten ledgers for each child, for each department store, for each little frontier town.  To the penny, without aid of a computer or program or e-mail, Mr. Bayouth was able to track the business of a small chain of department stores. 

 

Here, in this musty, dusty space we thumbed through history of a businessman who did well.

 

Though it was hot and sticky up there, this made us all want to know more about who lived in these apartments, what they did, where they went.  Easily I could have been lost in a simple summer afternoon—much like those of many years ago.

 

Listening to others tell their stories is what I find to be such a fun part of this Main Street job.