Chocolate Soap!

First of all, here's a picture of the courthouse in Vinita that's actually the one that they're considering for demolition. It's about 2 blocks off Route 66, so for some reason I keep thinking that since it's not on Route 66 I shouldn't care as much about it's demolition. What kind of preservationist am I? I'm ashamed of myself! Now, I know that there are many old buildings which have been destroyed wrongly and without concern for history, but there are also those which have served their purpose and have died gracefully. In the case of this courthouse building, it seems a perfect edifice for repurposing. All it would take is some money and a good imagination.

Just a few blocks away, there's "Ladybug's", a clothing boutique that began it's life as a firehouse. This is an excellent example of reuse of a building. It's charming, and the old fireman's pole is still in place. Just a thought.

Down the road in Claremore, I finally got around to taking a photo of "Spirits of Route 66", a liquor store. I've always loved the clever name. Hey, any way to give Route 66 a little publicity, right?

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It was a great but not busy day at Afton Station, at least not busy in terms of numbers of visitors. When I arrived, before the place warmed up, I warmed myself up by doing a little manual labor (ugh!). I dusted and Windexed the display cases, then I actually mopped the floor. I'm lazy so I usually leave that task to dear Ron M., but he wasn't with me today and I couldn't stand the muddy footprints for another minute. Shortly after I finished, Betty Baumann came by with yet another batch of cute things she made for me to sell. My favorites are a pair of oversized "fuzzy dice" made from some cool Route 66 fabric. They'd look great hanging from somebody's vintage vehicle at a car show. Betty stayed for a while so we had a nice chat.

Later in the day, Josh Bowen from Fayetteville, AR stopped by and stayed for a couple of hours. He was a visitor once before (See Sept. 17, '09 entry), a very Route 66-savvy young man whom I hope will visit often. He loves to take Sunday drives, so I told him he'd have to make us his destination as often as possible. He brought me a gift. . . a beautiful and beautifully-scented bar of soap made by his wife. She has quite a soap business going. You can see her work at www.luxuryfalls.etsy.com. Please check it out. It's unique! The bar Josh gave me is Chocolate Mint. Oh, yum! Thanks, Josh.

My only other visitor today was a man from Toronto, Canada who is in the area for a few weeks on business. He had a look at the cars, but didn't stay too long. I also had a call from someone who scheduled us as a destination for a Vintage Chevy cruise in mid-October. Love those early bookings!

My drive home was sunny and clear, quite a departure from the foggy ride to Afton this morning.

Well, it's about time!

It felt SO good to get back to Afton Station for a full day today! Ron M. went with me, Betty stopped in, the temperature was almost 50 degrees, the toilet actually flushed, we had 8 visitors, and it just seemed like the world was finally rotating properly.

True, eight visitors isn't really a huge number and most were locals, but even so, it's better than I expected. We were visited by a couple from Collinsville, OK who were taking a short Route 66 weekend to celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary, three guys who were from Yukon and Edmond, OK and Oakland, NE, and two men and a young boy from Adair, OK. People were just out roaming around today, taking in the nicer weather.

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I got very nervous when I read an article in the Tulsa World this morning that indicated that the Craig County Courthouse in Vinita (OK) was in danger of being demolished. I had confused the county courthouse with the city municipal building, which I like very much. It's on Route 66 and when we pass it on the way to Afton, Ron and I often comment on how nice it is. Well, some research tells me now that I had the wrong building slated for demolition, and I presume this one will continue to stand. But, since I took a couple of pictures of it on our way to Afton today, I might as well publish them here anyway.

The frieze above the doorway is interesting -- two oil derricks paying homage to the town's contribution to the turn-of-the century oil boom.

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Don't forget -- If you have a little money burning a hole in your pocket, even if it's just a couple of dollars, you can probably find no better place for it than the American Red Cross as they struggle to help those poor folks in Haiti. Making this happen is easiest by just going to www.whitehouse.gov. They'll take you directly to the Red Cross.

Back to Afton tomorrow

I can't believe it's been four days since I've written anything here. I guess there's been nothing much to tell. The snow has melted, the temperature has risen, the toilet has thawed, and I plan to get back to Afton Station full-time this weekend. So tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll have some news for those who come here.

See you tomorrow!

Tales of Afton Past

The 90-minute DVD that Betty gave me yesterday will haunt me for a long, long time. I don't know exactly why a town that I've never lived in, and actually have only known intimately for about 10 years, evokes such fascination and sentimentality in me. Perhaps it's because everything about the town presages it's eventual demise. Although I realize that to everything there is a time and a purpose, the loss of a town -- a whole town! -- seems to be an unspeakable tragedy. For a while, I thought I was the only person in town who "got" that, but now I realize that I was foolish to be so presumptuous.

The DVD opens with Tom Bassett, now deceased (2nd of three generations of grocery store proprietors) leading a "tour" of Afton, pointing out all the existing buildings and explaining the changes and the tear-downs and showing where buildings once were that are no more. This seems to have been filmed in the late '70s or early '80s. Following that, there are numerous interviews with citizens of Afton who were obviously chosen for their longevity and their knowledge of the town as it was in the early part of the 20th century. If there was ever an argument for taking oral histories from our senior citizens, this is it. The citizens are articulate and have amazing memories, often in great detail.

Afton Depot -- gone

Although I was quite emotional while I watched the DVD, I managed to jot down a few things that I felt were important, or interesting, or just amusing. From what was said, most of the people interviewed were born between 1905 and 1912, so many of the recollections were pre-Route 66 days. There were numerous references to how busy and vital Afton once was, primarily because of the large number of trains that stopped there -- about 20 in a 24-hour period. Many buildings had rooms on their second floors where railroad workers could "flop".

There was talk of several livery stables, and how many people would come in from the country in their buggies. A five-mile trip to Afton to shop was considered a big deal, an all-day excursion. The largest celebration of the year was held on the 4th of July, when people came from all around to party all day and night.

Fourth of July in Afton

Every Saturday night, all the stores remained open until midnight because the "country people" would come in to stock up on necesssities and to eat at one of the numerous cafes in town.

Cross Mercantile

One woman told of coming to Afton from the country when she was very young and finding the granite pillar in front of the bank to be the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Old bank building - note pillar

One extraordinary fact that surprised me was reference to the "town pump" which stood in the middle of the intersection of "66 and Main". Wow, that blew me away!

Around election time, the men of Afton (but not the women, since they couldn't vote) would gather in town and many fights would break out between the opposing factions. One woman described Afton as a "shoot 'em up" town. Another described it as the "hay center of the world", which might be a bit of hyperbole, but I'm sure that at the time the citizens believed it.

There was only one black family in town, and the gentleman whose name was Uncle Joe was in charge of uprighting the outhouses which were frequently tipped over by exuberant teen age boys.

There was oh, so much more that I can relate here. If there's a way I can post the entire CD, I will do that. In the meantime, I must say that one woman said "I can't think of this becoming a ghost town", and another said "There's just no town pride any more." I'm afraid that, sadly, I must agree.

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On a different note, I noticed when passing the Blue Whale yesterday on my way home from Afton, that he was encased in a frozen pond. I couldn't stop to take a photo because of a car riding my back bumper. Fortunately, however, Brad Nickson (who is a great photographer) went out there this morning and took this picture of the frozen fishie. Thanks, Brad!

What does frostbite feel like?

This is probably a bad idea. I've been here at Afton Station for an hour and just now was able to remove my gloves. What does frostbite feel like? I was able to get the feeling back into two fingers on my right hand by sitting on my hand, so I guess I'm ok. It's taking FOREVER for this place to warm up. I'm going to stick it out until noon because I want to see Betty, but that should finish me off. The pipes are still frozen in the bathroom.

On the way up here, the car thermometer varied between 3-above and 3-below zero. I took this picture of the thermometer just as I was entering Afton. The roads are totally clear, however.I closed down the books for 2009. I had about 3,800 marks in my book representing visitors, but that number is way low of reality. It's so hard to get a reliable count. I'm too cold to start adding up states and countries, but I'll get to that another day. Financially, it was a very good year, that is if you don't want to heat and cool the place, make repairs, or EAT! :-)

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Oh my gosh, VISITORS! And not just any visitors, but a family of four from Brisbane, Australia! Lovely family -- my first visitors of the decade! They're in a rented motorhome and have been struggling to find trailer parks open. They're heading to Denver to ski at Steamboat, which is why they're traveling here in this weather when it's beautiful summer back home.

MORE visitors! A couple from Lucerne, Minnesota came through the door and remarked that it was warm in here. Of course they did -- they're from Minnesota! When they left home yesterday it was -22 there. They're heading for Arizona's warmth.

Finally, Betty arrived and it was so good to see her after several weeks. Furthermore, she brought me the most wonderful thing -- a CD of old Afton. I think it was probably made in the '70s and is pretty crudely filmed, but it's a narrated "tour" of the town, with commentary by some of the old timers who remember which buildings held which businesses and what buildings occupied the numerous empty lots that came later. If I can find a way to put it on YouTube, I'll make it available to everyone. It's a treasure for sure. Thank you so much, dear Betty!

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I left around 12:45 when I acknowledged that the temperature was never going to come up to a comfortable level. I'm writing this from home now. The trip home was sunny and pretty, and the temperature continued to rise as I approached Tulsa, but not until after I passed many fields full of shivering cows and horses.

I have an icicle

It's probably ruining my gutter, but I'm "growing" this icicle. It's about 4 ft. long now, maybe a little longer. To me, it represents melting. And I do LOVE melting! As you know, I hate snow. It snowed a little more this morning, but just a dusting and didn't stick. If I have to see snow, I'd like it to be that kind. It's gone now, and the glorious sun is out. It was -1 degree in Afton this morning, so I didn't go. However, I'm tired of making excuses, so unless there's a tornado, blizzard, earthquake, or volcanic eruption, I'll be driving up there tomorrow. Being without operational kidneys, I can spend many hours there without worrying about the frozen potty if, in fact, it's still frozen. I don't know if David fixed that yet, but I doubt it. The visitors will have to fend for themselves, I'm afraid.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from visiting Afton Station tomorrow. I'll be there, so come ahead. I'd hate a whole day with no visitors!

No Public Restrooms?

What? No public restrooms at Afton Station, where "Cleanest Restrooms In Town" is our motto? Well yes, but just for a short while. David let me know that the outdoor pipes to the bathroom are frozen. He's taking care of the problem, but I didn't open the Station today anyway. The below-zero wind chill kept me away. Too cold, and probably no visitors anyway. If there's some improvement in the weather by Saturday, I'll be there. I'm sick of staying home.

Today the sun was shining brightly in Tulsa, despite the deep freeze. I spent several hours in the car just enjoying the brilliant day, and it certainly helped my dumpy mood. I did a little Route 66 cruising to Sapulpa, but didn't see anything that I haven't already photographed. It was a lovely trip, however.