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| July 20, 1954 |
July 21, 1954 Miami Daily News Record
SLIGHT CHANCE FOR BREAK IN SEARING HEAT (AP)
Oklahoma moved into its 15th consecutive day of 100-degree weather today without much chance of breaking the terrific heat wave which has claimed 67 lives.
Temperature ranging from 100--105 were predicted. Guymon was the only city in the state to have rain last night. This was the coolest official weather bureau reporting point. Kingfisher recorded an unofficial 109 while 107 readings were listed for Enid and Ponca City.
GREAT LAKES REGION GETS RAIN, COOL AIR (AP)
Showers eased a crop-damaging heat wave in parts of the nation's parched corn belt today. But a wide strip of torrid weather continued across the south and central plans and the number of heat deaths in the nation since the origin of the general heat wave in early July rose to 298.
Cooler air from Canada poured into the Great Lakes region. The temperature at Chicago plunged from 98 degrees at 2 pm to 71 at 6 pm yesterday. Showers swept from Chicago southward across Illinois where drought and het have damaged young corn seriously and killed thousands of chickens and pigs.
A farmer was crushed to death at Ft. Wayne, Indiana last night when wind flattened his barn. Two persons were injured by tress falling on automobiles.
For the last five years I have been reading and researching my hometown history through the eyes of a young girl growing up in the 1950's-1960's at the Miami Country Club, Miami, Oklahoma. A project that I thought might take two or three years in not even half-way complete. I'd like to blame it on Covid-10 but the truth is in the "News."
Miami Oklahoma Golf and Country Club History
It is the "rabbit hole" that drives me off course, and not the ones where I chased a bunny to its den and cried when it disappeared, nor the rabbit hole where my father found four baby rabbits dying of thirst. He brought them home for his two little girls to care for. With dolly baby bottles we fed the bunny babies and watched them die one by one. Such vivid memories that one little line can take you to. And while looking up a clearer definition of "rabbit holes" I found a very linear helpful guide on How to Avoid Falling Down the Research Rabbit-hole. It might have been more helpful if that had been my goal.
When, in actuality, I was looking for a more descriptive term to describe my dilemma.
But I digress, to quote Robin Williams in his movie "Good Morning Vietnam."
Perhaps this a better example of where my mind flows when reading the newspapers in the decades before social media and too many television stations to even count. I am missing our hometown newspapers that kept us all in touch with the local news and the lives of our neighbors.
NOTES FROM YOUR TOWN (July 21, 1954 )
Little Deborah Jarrett invokes an appeal for the return of her lost kitten each time she delivers the blessing at the family dinner table. The pet, Nosy, has been missing about a week. But four-year-old Deborah maintains a steadfast belief that the parting is only temporary.
The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Jarret of 428Coyne Avenue was given the kitten last May. (A full explanation of where the kitty kat came from follows, with the cat entering the household at a time when Deborah was recuperating from a tonsillectomy.)
The kitten may have made friends with some other child by now, if so, and if Nosy is returned to the Jarrett's, Deborah's grandmother says she has another kitten she would give to Nosy's founder.
I have finally found my way back through the NewsArchives to my search for the 1954 heat wave that hit the nation like the "summer of 2022". Oh, dear. I digress again: Summer of '42
July 22, 1954 Miami Daily News Record
NOTES FROM YOUR TOWN (July 22, 1954 )
Without a 'smidgin' of rain to ease their plight, Miamians, sweltered through the 22nd straight day of 100-degree temperatures as a merciless sun bore down at 1 o'clock this afternoon.
At the end of the lunch hour, the mercury reading was 103, one degree above Wednesday's high of 102, weatherman John W. Gray said.
Temperatures were hot and so were bed sheets as heat-weary residents tossed and turned in their sleep as the temperature remained in the sultry bracket most of last night.
As a six-year old living on A st S.W across from the newly built Lincoln School and only a half a block away from the blaring music and honking horns of cars dragging Main street. through Doc's BBQ and Gene's Tarry-Awhile, I do not recall the summer's heat. I wore hand made bloomers and cotton shirts on those summer days, and played outside searching for four-leaf clovers in the shade or pulling locust shells off the trees. At night I would have been sleeping (tossing and turning) in my upstairs room with an east window opened. My eyes and ears often locked into the music coming from Main Street. I could still hum "Hernado's Hideaway" to this day.
Sometimes during those hot evenings we sat on the south side of the house waiting on a breeze. Dad and Mom held each other around the waist and sang "old" songs from World War II, like "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me." The radio, KGLC, seemed regularly tuned to any music by the Glenn Miller Band, which always brought on a dance by my parents. I regularly put my fingers in my ears and squealed at their performances.
NOTES FROM YOUR TOWN (continued)
Deborah Jarrett now has two kittens! Nosy, her favorite pet, is back after having been missing a week and, in addition, Nosy has a feline playmate. The piece about the missing kitten appeared in yesterday's News-Record. Only minutes after papers were delivered in the Northwest part of town, Nosy was being smothered with affection in the arms of four-year-old Deborah, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Jarrett, 428 Coyne avenue. A family living two blocks away had adopted the kitten after it showed up a their house. Mrs. Jarrett, having learned shortly before of the death of an uncle, said she was so upset she failed to ask the name of Nosy's guardian.
The second kitten was left at the Jarrett home while the Jarrett's were away. Deborah's aunt, Mrs. Lee Allison, of Little Rock, Arkansas, accepted the kitten which someone brought to the door, believing it was Nosy.
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| Movies were a great escape for Miamians. Churches advertised air cooler auditoriums. |
August 2, 1954 Miami Daily News Record
COOLING RAINS BRING RELIEF (AP)
General rains covered most of Oklahoma last night when high winds swept storm clouds into the state from the north and brought cooler weather. In some areas the first measurable rain in nearly a month came on the heels of one of the hottest Julys in state history. During the July heat wave, 76 people died of heat in the state.
August 20, 1954 Miami Daily News Record
Water levels at Grand Lake yesterday reached a new all-time low of 715.14 feet above sea level.
"It's up to old man river now," if the Neosho arm of Grand Lake doesn't go dry, some farmers and stockmen probably will survive Ottawa Country's three-year-old drought. There's John Blaikie, who for the last two weeks has been hauling water from the river to 31 head of stock at his farm, about eight miles northwest of Miami. The farmer's daughter, Lois, helps her dad dip water from the stream. After his pond and well went dry last month, Blaikie was forced to start hauling the life-giving liquid a mile and one-half daily from the Steppes Ford bridge to his farm.
Perhaps that cool air from Canada will find its way to Oklahoma by August, giving hope for all of us suffering in air-conditioned comfort. Better yet to quote my mother, Helen, "This too shall pass."
These are some of the stories I've written about the History of the Miami Country club, when not lost in a rabbit-hole:
1954 Miami Golf and Country Club History
1955 Miami Golf and Country Club History
1956 Miami Golf and Country Club History
Johnie Stapp, Golf Pro from California to Kansas
I often heard about how hot the summer of 54 because my mom was pregnant with me and I was born in September. That had to be rough with no AC. RMDavis
ReplyDeleteWow Letty! Not only are you a golf pro and gifted author but you are also a neat historian. I really enjoy reading your notes. Thank you very much. Woodrow K.
ReplyDeleteThanks--interesting reading!!! I thought at first that this was a report of current life and that 67 people had just recently died of heat. Then I noticed the date on the article.
ReplyDeleteIn 1954 I had just finished my 2d year of college--graduated in 1957 (extra year reason is another story for another time--perhaps) and moved to CO to start teaching that fall. SS
OMG I think I remember that summer…bad sunburn.
ReplyDeleteSending much love and hopes for the cool coming.
Take care and travel light and keep golfing…I love the pics on FB.
Judy D.
Oh gosh, the heat spells and fires are such a part of the California experience. After many years here I feel every tree a friend and am sad for the environment with this heat, the four legged and all the critters. Yes, the fires were big here and in New Mexico…and those guys who jump into the middle and work to bring them under control and real heroes to me.
ReplyDeleteYes, the natural air con…with a little fog drip from time to time….I love it, my hair get curly…jd