For past, present and future residents of Temple, Cotton County, Oklahoma.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Temple's oldest Alumni member has passed away.
John Gower passed away April 23rd at the age of 103 in Ponca City, Ok. John was the last surviving member of the 10 Gower children who grew up in the Temple community.
It is amazing how many thriving businesses there were in Temple when I was a child in the 1950's. My parents, Dewey & Lucille Keck, moved there in 1951 and I born in 1952. The theatre plays a role in naming me. The management always gave out play cards (mini theatre posters) or cards that looked like a calendar with the movie schedule on it. One movie that was featured on a card was entitled, "VICKI". My parents were picking out names and liked that name in case they had a girl. They would practice calling out the name from different parts of the house to see how it sounded. They liked it, so they changed the spelling to Vickie and added the middle name, "Sue", after a family member. I still have the movie card which my mother saved. (I am just glad I was not a boy.....the name they chose was Gregory Keck. ) :)
My memories of the Majestic include using the 3-D glasses to watch "13 Ghosts", the sticky floors from all the spilled drinks and someone throwing gum from the back and it getting stuck in my hair. By the time I was a teenager, the movie was closed. After that we all went to Walters on Friday or Saturday nights (the Preview was at Midnight on Saturday), the Drive-In out at the six mile corner on Sunday nights and going to Wichita Falls or Lawton to the theatres there.
I have memories of so many stores and restaurants downtown and it saddens me that most of them are all gone. There was a time when Commercial and Main Streets would be full of cars parked up and down the street as well as in the middle. We would never have imagined then that things would ever change.
Thanks, Harold for all your efforts putting together the museum.
Posts
Harold,
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how many thriving businesses there were in Temple when I was a child in the 1950's. My parents, Dewey & Lucille Keck, moved there in 1951 and I born in 1952. The theatre plays a role in naming me. The management always gave out play cards (mini theatre posters) or cards that looked like a calendar with the movie schedule on it. One movie that was featured on a card was entitled, "VICKI". My parents were picking out names and liked that name in case they had a girl. They would practice calling out the name from different parts of the house to see how it sounded. They liked it, so they changed the spelling to Vickie and added the middle name, "Sue", after a family member. I still have the movie card which my mother saved. (I am just glad I was not a boy.....the name they chose was Gregory Keck. ) :)
My memories of the Majestic include using the 3-D glasses to watch "13 Ghosts", the sticky floors from all the spilled drinks and someone throwing gum from the back and it getting stuck in my hair. By the time I was a teenager, the movie was closed. After that we all went to Walters on Friday or Saturday nights (the Preview was at Midnight on Saturday), the Drive-In out at the six mile corner on Sunday nights and going to Wichita Falls or Lawton to the theatres there.
I have memories of so many stores and restaurants downtown and it saddens me that most of them are all gone. There was a time when Commercial and Main Streets would be full of cars parked up and down the street as well as in the middle. We would never have imagined then that things would ever change.
Thanks, Harold for all your efforts putting together the museum.
Vickie Sue Keck Nowlin
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