00:00:00Debbie Blansett: This is Debbie Blansett with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma, and this interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is May 5, 2021 and I'm sitting here with
00:00:16Will Parish: Willard Parish.
00:00:17Debbie Blansett: At the Bristow Depot, who's going to tell me a little bit about their history in the Bristow area. Okay, so why don't we just start out with what was your name at birth?
00:00:32Will Parish: Willard Franklin Parish. I was named after my two granddads. My Grandpa Parish was named Noah Willard Parish, and my Granddad Ford, his was Wendell Franklin. So, that's why I wound up with Willard Franklin.
00:00:46Debbie Blansett: And where were you born?
00:00:48Will Parish: I was born at 520 East Jackson, in my Grandpa and Grandma Ford's house at that time in Bristow.
00:00:58Debbie Blansett: In Bristow.
00:00:59Will Parish: Yes, ma'am.
00:00:59Debbie Blansett: Okay, and the date of your birth?
00:01:01Will Parish: Was June 30, 1941.
00:01:05Debbie Blansett: Your parents names?
00:01:07Will Parish: Was Claude [Thomas] and Elnora [Marie] Ford Parish.
00:01:12Debbie Blansett: Okay. Do you remember when they were married?
00:01:15Will Parish: They were married April the 19th of 1939. As matter of fact
00:01:21Debbie Blansett: Your mind is a steel trap.
00:01:22Will Parish: 2014 they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. Dad passed away in May, and mom in September that year.
00:01:31Debbie Blansett: Oh, wow.
00:01:32Will Parish: So, they got to celebrate their 75th anniversary.
00:01:36Debbie Blansett: Do you know where they were married?
00:01:38Will Parish: They were married at a justice of the peace in Sapulpa.
00:01:42Debbie Blansett: In Sapulpa. So had they always been in Oklahoma? Were they raised in Oklahoma?
00:01:47Will Parish: No, my dad was born up by Montreal, Missouri, and my granddad, well, my dad's granddad came down to Kellyville and worked at the old gas plant that's south of Kellyville there by the railroad tracks. Worked there till he made enough money to buy 200 acre farm back up in Missouri, and so he went back. Well, in the meantime, my dad's older sister had married Jeff Holcomb (ph) over at Kellyville, so she didn't want to go back. Well, my great granddad, it would be,told my granddad, if he would come back up there and help him on the farm, that when he passed away, my granddad could have the farm. But from what I understand, my grandmother and my great grandpa, I don't think they got along too well, so they moved back down to Kellyville, and then my granddad went to pumping an oil lease. And that's pretty much what he did up until he retired, pumping oil leases. They lived up at Barnsdall for a while, and they lived, excuse me, they lived down at Tuskegee around that area. They lived north of Beggs. When I was going to school. they lived west of Beggs, about six miles west of Beggs on 16 and just before he retired, they moved him back up to Barnsdall. Then they moved him down by Wilson, down by Henryetta, and that's where he was at when he retired. And they had bought a little place there on the south side of Beggs, and that's where they lived until they passed away.
00:03:36Debbie Blansett: And your dad, what kind of occupation did he have?
00:03:39Will Parish: Well, when I was born, he was working for my Uncle Jeff out east town on a ranch out there for 50 cents a day. And there was a seismograph crew had came to town, and they were trading up where Wendell List used to be up at 10th and Main. And my granddad was in there, and he heard him talking about needing some hands. So he went got my dad, and they came into town, and they talked a while, and they said, well, how much does this pay? And they said, 45 cents an hour. And dad thought, my goodness, that's, you know, a nickel less than what I'm making for all day. So, they and anyway they they went ahead and hired him. And he said, the first day they worked, it rained. So, they told him, well, Claude, if you want to, you can ride down south of town and look at this job prospect we're going to be looking at. So, when they came back, dad said, they's gone like a couple hours. And they said, well, Claude, put your time down. He said, what, just riding around down there? They said, yes. And so he put down a couple hours. Well, you know, that was 90 cents.
00:05:03Debbie Blansett: About what year would that have been?
00:05:05Will Parish: That's '41.
00:05:06Debbie Blansett: About '41.
00:05:08Will Parish: And mom and him were living with my Grandpa and Grandma Ford over 520 East Jackson. Dad said he ran all the way from 10th & Main to 520 East Jackson, to tell mom about
00:05:23Debbie Blansett: His 90 cents!
00:05:24Will Parish: Right! And he said, I thought, Elnora, how in the world are we going to spend all this money I'm going to be making?
00:05:32Debbie Blansett: My goodness!
00:05:33Will Parish: And I asked him one time how much it was for me to be delivered, and he said $15 and I said, you still hadn't gotten your money's worth.
00:05:48Debbie Blansett: That's pretty good. That would have been, that would have been quite a bit of money.
00:05:53Will Parish: Well, the only bad thing about him working was when it was just me, Mom would go with him, you know, and they'd move here, there and yonder. Well, after my sister was born, Claudia, and then Tommy came along, and then Larry, and we were getting up to school size. Well, mom didn't want to drag us from one school to another school. So, at that time, they had what they called the veteran apartments, and where mom and dad used to live on West Second Street, right across the street. There was like two rows of them. They were all one single building, but had different doors for different apartments, and one faced second, one faced first street, and then on the other side of Ash there was another one that faced First, and that's the one we lived in. And
00:06:50Debbie Blansett: So, like duplexes?
00:06:52Will Parish: Well, they were just one long building, and then they'd have like, several doors, you know? And anyway, that's, that's where we started living. And then dad would come home on weekends, and he was working at that time for what called SSC, Seismograph Service Corporation out of Tulsa, and they knew he had a family. So, they kept, they kept dad pretty much close in Oklahoma, working so he could come home on the weekends.
00:07:27Debbie Blansett: Had he been to college? What did he
00:07:29Will Parish: Well, he and mom went two years of college and at Tahlequah, and they thought that, he thought he was going to be a teacher. And he had one little bout of teaching, and he that wasn't his cup of tea.
00:07:43Debbie Blansett: So at the seismographical place, was that like geology stuff?
00:07:49Will Parish: Well, they they search, seisomgraph crews go out,
00:07:54Debbie Blansett: Seisomograph, sorry.
00:07:55Will Parish: Seismograph crews go out, and they get certain locations, you know, they record the seismic, they set off dynamite, and it records these seismic deals. Then they turn what they find, and then the big oil companies would think, well, that looks like a good location, set up a big rig and then drill for oil.
00:08:22Debbie Blansett: Oh, okay
00:08:23Will Parish: So, it was, it was like an exploration.
00:08:26Debbie Blansett: Oh, okay.
00:08:27Will Parish: Deal.
00:08:28Debbie Blansett: Did your mother ever work out of the home?
00:08:30Will Parish: Well, not, not for a while there, but then, after we got settled in, we had a Woolworth store here, and she worked at Woolworth.
00:08:40Debbie Blansett: Where was Woolworth?
00:08:42Will Parish: Up there, where the parking lot is next to Los Arcos.
00:08:48Debbie Blansett: Oh, and Ben Franklin was in there?
00:08:51Will Parish: Well, Ben Franklin, Ben Franklin was a couple of doors down. Mr. Patton had it first, and then Bill and Beth took over. And then when Woolworth went out, then Bill went up to where Woolworth was.
00:09:07Debbie Blansett: So, it was kind of on that same block right there.
00:09:11Will Parish: Yeah, right next to where the old Goodrich store was.
00:09:14Debbie Blansett: So, Woolsworth, was it like, was it like JC Penney's or?
00:09:18Will Parish: Well...
00:09:20Debbie Blansett: What did they sell there?
00:09:22Will Parish: Everything.
00:09:23Debbie Blansett: Everything, like Sears, maybe?
00:09:25Will Parish: Well, kind of like Walmart. I remember Mr. & Mrs. Strickland had an older daughter. I can't remember her name, but she always worked the candy. They had a candy bin there and
00:09:37Debbie Blansett: But did they have groceries?
00:09:39Will Parish: No, they didn't have groceries. It was just
00:09:41Debbie Blansett: Dry, dry goods.
00:09:43Will Parish: Excuse me.
00:09:43Debbie Blansett: Clothing.
00:09:44Will Parish: They would have, like, toys and, you know, material.
00:09:52Debbie Blansett: Like, when I grew up there were TG&Y's.
00:09:54Will Parish: Well, it's was kind of
00:09:55Debbie Blansett: And then Ben Franklin was kind of like that. So, was like that?
00:09:59Will Parish: It was pretty much that, like that.
00:10:01Debbie Blansett: Because I don't remember any Woolworth stores.
00:10:03Will Parish: Well, and we, at that time we had, it was F. W. Woolworth, and then we had a JC Penney, C.R. Anthony's Montgomery
00:10:14Debbie Blansett: Montgomery Ward, I think.
00:10:15Will Parish: Well, yeah, but they were, I could just remember about every store up down Main Street was some kind of a business,
00:10:26Debbie Blansett: And there weren't those big gaps for parking lots. They were actually store fronts.
00:10:30Will Parish: Well, yeah, and then the parking was like diagonal parking, and that, that was when Main Street was just two lanes. But, gosh, I remember at least three furniture stores - Farha's, Logan's and Henderson's, several, several grocery stores. I can remember, I can, I'm old enough to remember as a kid bringing cotton into town, you know. And O.D. Thorpe (ph) had a grocery store between Fifth and Sixth on the east side of Main and back where the part of the fire station was that was just a lot. And people drive teams and wagons into town, and that's where they would park their team and wagons when they'd come to town on Saturdays. And Thorpe's had a back door, so they would just, you know, trade by, you know, groceries and stuff there. I remember when they would buy, like, flour by 25-50 pound sacks of flour, same way on sugar and stuff like that. Matter of fact, when I was in grade school, some of the, some of the little girls that lived out of town, you know, the old flour sack dresses and stuff.
00:11:57Debbie Blansett: My mother had dresses made out of flour sacks.
00:11:59Will Parish: Right? And, you know, people may do with what they had back then.
00:12:05Debbie Blansett: Absolutely.
00:12:06Will Parish: My my daughters and my sister sometime would get aggravated with mom, because she'd save her tin foil. Claudia would go buy paper cups. Mom would wash those. And I don't know, Mom, you can just throw that stuff away, you know. And then I said, Claudia, you gotta remember, Mom was raised up back during the Depression, and they had, you know
00:12:31Debbie Blansett: On 90 cents a day!
00:12:32Will Parish: Yeah. Well
00:12:33Debbie Blansett: No, 90 cents was a big deal!
00:12:35Will Parish: Well
00:12:35Debbie Blansett: Just two hours.
00:12:37Will Parish: My my granddad was a fireman here, and he did plumbing jobs on the side.
00:12:43Debbie Blansett: What was his name?
00:12:44Will Parish: Wendell Ford.
00:12:46Will Parish: Everybody called him W.F. And my grandmother, they lived at Second and Maple, where I live now, and she worked in the cafeteria at the Washington School, and she would walk.
00:13:01Debbie Blansett: Oh, really?!
00:13:02Will Parish: It's a long time, they never had a car. He would, the fire station was at Eighth and Main with the police station the courthouse, and he would walk to work.
00:13:12Debbie Blansett: So, that the house that you live in now was the house they lived in?
00:13:18Will Parish: They bought it in 1944. That's when they moved from 520 East Jackson, big two story house, and he gave $2,200 for it, and his house payment was $22 a month. And matter of fact, when Mom and Dad was talking about buying their house, I remember them sitting at that little kitchen table at the veteran apartments, and dad sitting there saying, Eleanor, I just don't know how in the world we're going to afford $55 a month house payment. And they only gave like, $8,500.
00:13:56Debbie Blansett: It was a new home when they bought right?
00:13:58Will Parish: They were the only, they were, the only one that lived in it till we sold it.
00:14:02Debbie Blansett: Well, it was a beautiful home. It was kept up really nicely and
00:14:07Will Parish: Well, you know, they did a lot, it was actually just a three bedroom frame home when they bought it, but then dad had it bricked and things like that. But anyway, like I said, I remember, you know, lots of things about the town back when I was a kid about, you know, there was not too much activity during, but on Saturdays, oh, you know, the farmers would come in. I can remember when the old peanut mill was going,
00:14:40Debbie Blansett: Where was the peanut mill?
00:14:41Will Parish: It was where that dialysis deal is there at Second and Main.
00:14:46Debbie Blansett: A big metal building?
00:14:47Will Parish: Well, big, big brick building with a metal roof. But, I remember as kids, we'd take brown paper sacks down there when they was unloading the peanuts and stuff, and some of them would get scattered on the ground, and we'd go down there and gather up all that was on the ground, and
00:15:09Debbie Blansett: Sackfuls!
00:15:10Will Parish: Take them home, and and Loretta McDaniel (ph) and my Aunt Betty would get McDaniel's house, and they'd put them on a cookie sheet and roast them. And so a lot of good memories. I remember the big Christmas parades we used to have where they'd hand out those big peppermint stick candies and, oh, you know, just out at the park. They they something going on out every night, you know, some kind of softball game. Their businesses sponsored different teams when, when my dad was here, he used to pitch for Raymond Cecil's team. And when he could.
00:16:03Debbie Blansett: Larry's dad was a pitcher. I'm not sure if he ever played in Bristow. I know Larry played some softball out there for some company here in town.
00:16:16Will Parish: Yeah.
00:16:17Debbie Blansett: I don't remember.
00:16:18Will Parish: Well, you know, mom, mom actually, during the Depression, her family had it probably a little bit more rougher than what my dad's family had. I said my granddad, he was a firemen here and did plumbing jobs on the side, but they were like seven kids, and like my dad's side, there was four. Well, they lived in lease houses as a gas well on the lease, they were pumping. They had, they had gas, you know, lighting and gas heating in the house. A lot of lot of them didn't have running water, you know, out there, but they had a well there. And then, as I said, you know, mom's folks lived in town, and actually, how they, mom was born in Drumright. That's all right. I probably need to do mine that way too.
00:17:31Debbie Blansett: There we go.
00:17:32Will Parish: We're back on now.
00:17:33Debbie Blansett: Mom was born in Drumright.
00:17:35Will Parish: And at that time, my granddad had a plumbing business in Drumright, and he had a appendix rupture, and they tell me that it was so bad that the doctor wouldn't even try to get him, they he operated on their dining room table, and while he was laid up, his partner absconded, uh, left his wife and daughter and took off with this other gal, and I guess all the deals for the business, but grandpa wound up having to go to work in Okmulgee. So, on Sunday
00:18:21Debbie Blansett: This is grandpa Ford? Okay.
00:18:23Will Parish: Grandpa Ford, he would take a train on Sunday evening at Drumright, and would come to Bristow, where he would change trains. And then there was a train that ran down through Slick for a long time, you could see the old railroad bed there, and went to Okmulgee.
00:18:45Debbie Blansett: There was a depot there in slick too.
00:18:47Will Parish: Right. Still is, and anyway, then on, when he would come back on Fridays evenings, he would come to Bristow, and he'd usually have a little delay. So, Smith's Drug Store was up on the corner of Seventh and Main. So, he would walk from the train depot here, up there and have him a cup of coffee while he was waiting for the train that would go to Drumright. And one day he came, and he started up through there, and I'm not for sure, but I think it was Callaway and Daley (ph) had a plumbing shop on east seventh, and when he walked by, they had a sign Help Wanted. That's when the boom was 1922, and this was when the boom was going pretty good, and I guess they were, you know, plumbers were really busy then, and so he went in and talked to them, and they said, yeah. He said, he said, well, when do you need me to go to work? They said, in the morning. And he said, well, he said, can I can I wait till Monday, because he said, my family's in Drumright, and I've got to find a place for them to live here and then move them to Bristow. So, that's what they did.
00:20:14Debbie Blansett: You think they got moved in a weekend?
00:20:17Will Parish: Well, they didn't have nothing. And anyway, mom said they moved over in the 200 block west ninth and a little house that sat on the alley behind the main house. And but there was a few things you know, that she couldn't remember, kind of like, like I am now. But anyway, that's how they come from Drumright to Bristow, yeah. And the way her and dad met, like I said, she lived at 520 East Jackson, and she run around with the tea garden girls. And they played softball down there about where the well Bristow Village is. There was a big open field. Matter of fact, they even used to have rodeos down there. And anyway, she met her, her and her girlfriend, she kind of liked this guy that dad run around with. I can't remember his name now, and they were sitting there, and I remember dad telling about, well, I think it's on that video about mom and her girlfriend said, well, I guess if they get to first base, we'll hold their hand, and then if they get to second, what was it? We'll give them a hug. And if they get to third, I think, I think they said they'd give them a kiss. And Dad said, well, what'll you get if I get a home run? And she said, you'll never find out. But anyway, dad said a day or two later, he and his buddy was driving around town, and he said your mother just kept driving by, you know, and honking at us, and said she was in her your granddad's car, and so anyway, he said he just pulled up and blocked her, and they got to talking, and she asked them if they wanted to go for a ride. Said, I knew her girlfriend, liked Murph, was this guy's name, and said I knew he liked her. So, she said, well, I have to take daddy's car home. Said, So we followed him over at granddad's house and said, we talked about, well, which one do you want? I well, I don't care, which one. Well, you know, you just pick out the one you want. Dad said, I'll take, you know, the other one. And so, of course, he said the girl, I can't remember now which one it was, but the
00:22:55Will Parish: girl that liked Murph, of course, when he got in the backseat, well, when they came out. Said she just jumped in the back seat and
00:23:03Debbie Blansett: He didn't have to decide.
00:23:04Will Parish: No.
00:23:05Debbie Blansett: She did all the decision making.
00:23:06Will Parish: Yeah. Said, your mother got in with me and we rode around there and said, we went, went, took them home and said, I went to kiss your mother good night. She said, oh, I don't kiss on the first date. And he said, well, you are on this one.
00:23:23Debbie Blansett: What a rascal!
00:23:27Will Parish: Yeah, he said, I just laid one on her. But he said, then it wound up Murph and this other girl didn't this and then your mother and I wound up getting married.
00:23:38Debbie Blansett: For seventy-five years! It was a good match.
00:23:41Will Parish: Yeah, yeah.
00:23:43Debbie Blansett: Isn't that amazing?
00:23:46Will Parish: I tell you what, I had some pretty good stories about, but like I said, you know, my dad's folks lived down on the oil lease, and my granddad always planted a big garden. So, you know, they always had, you know, a garden and stuff.
00:24:02Debbie Blansett: Your Grandad Parish?
00:24:04Will Parish: Yeah, sorry.
00:24:05Debbie Blansett: That's all right.
00:24:06Will Parish: And so they did pretty good, you know, during the Depression, but, you know, mom and them, they had it pretty rough with seven kids. And
00:24:16Debbie Blansett: Did they, are they the Fords that had the store?
00:24:19Will Parish: No, no.
00:24:20Debbie Blansett: Probably a different Ford.
00:24:22Will Parish: But well anyway, when Granddad Ford went to work for the plumber stuff, well, from what I gather at one time, you know, when work kind of started dying down a little bit, he went to work for the police department here in town, first. But my grandma, she didn't like him, she said, back then there was still some old roughnecks around that
00:24:51Debbie Blansett: This is Ford.
00:24:52Will Parish: Yeah.
00:24:53Debbie Blansett: He worked for the police department?
00:24:55Will Parish: Starting out. But like grandma told me once, and she said there were still a bunch of, she called them hooligans, still around town here, you know.
00:25:05Debbie Blansett: And we still got some of those around.
00:25:09Will Parish: And, so, an opening come open on the fire department. So, he went over to the fire department and, and I remember, well, before we moved into the veteran apartments, we were still living with my Grandpa and Grandma Ford there, where I live now. And I remember when they had have a fire down in the neighborhood, well, I would go down there. Well, then after they'd get well, on the way back to the fire station, well, I'd get to stand on the back of the fire truck with my grandpa. And, boy, I really thought I was somebody.
00:25:47Debbie Blansett: So, they had, like, a fire truck?
00:25:49Will Parish: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Matter of fact, they even still had that old 1912, or seven, whatever it was that's in the Smithsonian. They were still using it when I was a kid. And but I that, like said, that was that. And another thing, my mother's two brothers played football. Matter of fact, my uncle Bob, he wound up being all-state.
00:26:17Debbie Blansett: They're from Drumright?
00:26:19Will Parish: Well, no, Uncle Bob, Uncle Bob was born here in Bristow.
00:26:26Debbie Blansett: Oh, so he played here?
00:26:28Will Parish: Yeah.
00:26:28Debbie Blansett: Oh, okay.
00:26:30Will Parish: Excuse me. I had three uncles that played - my Uncle Francis, my Uncle Bob, my Uncle Jim. And, let's see, I was trying to remember, Uncle Francis, now I can't remember, seems like it's '41 that he graduated, but soon as he graduated, he went right into the Marine Corps. This is back during WWII. Then my Uncle Bob graduated in '46, and he played on the All State team down in Oklahoma City that year. And then my Uncle Jim, he graduated in '51 here in Bristow. Then my Aunt Betty, mom's sister, she graduated in '54 she was only five years older than me. She was more like an older sister, really, than an aunt and but at the time, there wasn't any dressing rooms at the football field, so they would change at the old Le Force Field House. Mose LeForce was the coach. They would come down Maple.
00:27:47Debbie Blansett: Taking a bus?
00:27:48Will Parish: Yeah, in the school bus, they would come down Maple which and Maple and Second were still dirt roads then, and I'd stand out on the corner. I knew about what time they'd be. So, Mose would always stop the bus, let me get on the bus and go down watch my uncles practice football, and then on the way back, they'd drop me off there at the house.
00:28:10Debbie Blansett: Were you just a little boy?
00:28:11Will Parish: Yeah.
00:28:12Debbie Blansett: So, did the was the football field where it is now?
00:28:17Will Parish: Yeah, as a matter of fact, the field that's south of the football field, that's where the band used to practice. They would practice when the football boys were practicing, instead of, I think now, the band practices in the morning. And then, yeah.
00:28:34Debbie Blansett: So they did it in the afternoon.
00:28:36Will Parish: Yeah, and anyway, I'd go down there and watch my uncles, you know, and then I'd always, usually go to the football games. Well, after the war, Uncle Bob had enrolled over Tahlequah playing football over there. So, Uncle Francis, when he got out, he went over there. And then, up until 1958 Uncle Francis was the football coach at Tahlequah, and then he went to Arvada, Colorado. Uncle Bob, best I remember, one of the first jobs he had, he was assistant coach at Henryetta, and I don't know if you remember Billy Vessels?
00:29:26Debbie Blansett: Um hm.
00:29:27Will Parish: First
00:29:27Debbie Blansett: Cleveland?
00:29:28Will Parish: Yeah.
00:29:29Debbie Blansett: Okay.
00:29:29Will Parish: Well, he was their at their banquet that were the speaker, and he got me his autograph. So I've got
00:29:37Debbie Blansett: That's pretty cool.
00:29:38Will Parish: I've got Billy Vessel's (ph) autograph. I've got Steve Owens autograph. I've got Billy Sims autograph. I got Jason White.
00:29:47Debbie Blansett: I like these OU names.
00:29:48Will Parish: Well, at the time, I said, well, I've got all those Heisman Trophy winner's autograph. And then when Sam Bradford made it, yeah, I don't, I don't have his and then, course, then Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, and I said, dadgum, now I'm gonna have to have
00:30:09Debbie Blansett: We might need to throw some of your clout around and get some of those autographs.
00:30:15Will Parish: But anyway, I, you know, I had a pretty good childhood. We weren't, you know, wealthy by any means, but my dad provided, I guess, pretty good, you know.
00:30:29Debbie Blansett: You all were taught a good work ethic.
00:30:33Will Parish: I just talking about the $55 house payment. I said, of course, Dad was probably on making maybe 400 a month, if that much at the time, you know, and but we, we did all right. Then, like I said, when we start getting up school age, well, mom, she, she pretty much got involved with the school, back when they had the PTA, and they used, I was telling my daughters, you know, they talk about Parent Teacher Day. And I said, well, that was the PTA back my day, and they met at night, so we didn't get out of school for that.
00:31:11Debbie Blansett: That's right, that's right.
00:31:13Will Parish: I used to tease them about, you know, boy, y'all have to start so early, and you still get out about same time we did. We didn't start till the day after Labor Day. And I said I got one of their school calendars one year, and I counted 31 days that they were out of school during that. Of course spring break, we might have got Good Friday off. We got out the Christmas Eve, and we went back second day of January. Thanksgiving, we got out Thursday and Friday. And I said, so, and I was teasing Claudia's daughter, Diane. She was talking about that one time. And I said, well, you know, Diane, we didn't get out two weeks for Christmas, a week for spring break and all that, and I said, and besides all that, we weren't so hard headed. It didn't take them that long to teach us.
00:32:11Debbie Blansett: Oh my gosh. She probably went
00:32:14Will Parish: Yeah, but I enjoyed going school and went the whole 12 years on that one block.
00:32:25Debbie Blansett: Did you play football?
00:32:27Will Parish: I played
00:32:28Will Parish: At it.
00:32:29Will Parish: Well, I played, yep, as I said, I went, I went the whole 12 years on that one block, I went to Edison. I started well, I went to Edison the first through the sixth grade. Then I went to the old high school, or a junior high before they tore it down, and I went through the seventh and ninth grade then. And at that time, 10th and 11th and 12th grade was high school. So I played football pretty much during my junior high years. Had Bus Blackburn was coach. He and Herb Thompson. And Bus was pretty good. I mean, you know, you may not get to play a whole lot, but he played you just about every game. And then when I got up to the 10th grade in high school, Cal Woodworth (ph) came and he had graduated from OU and he would he had played tackle for Bud Wilkerson. Well, when he came back then the head basketball coach was Cletus Green. Well, he was the assistant football coach. During basketball, he was the head basketball coach and Cal Woodward (ph) was the assistant basketball coach. Herb Thompson was the wrestling coach. And then in the spring, when they had track, those three coaches. So for four sporting events, we had three coaches. And, so, they put me in the backfield, and I kept telling Coach Woodward, I said, Coach, I've never played in the backfield. I've always played up on the line. I always played guard. Well, you'll play where I tell you to play, okay. Well, at that time, you didn't have offense and defense. You had first string, second string, third string. Well, I was so little, I was always on the third string, which meant you, during the week, you were blocking dummies for the first two strings. As I said in junior high Bus, if you wanted in there, he'd let you go in. Maybe not very much, but at least my sophomore year, I got to go in one game. The rest of the time, I sat on the bench and I just, you know, next year I went out, they put me in the line. I was getting past their first string guard, and the coach started hollering at me, and he
00:35:34Will Parish: said, what do you call it? What do you call it? What kind of defensive charging you call that? And I said, oh, little something Bus showed us back junior high. Well, I thought we graduated you from junior high last year. And I said, well, you had me playing in the backfield last year. And I said, besides all that, I thought the name of the game was, get to the ball carrier. Well, it is, but you'll play the way I tell you to play or you won't plat at all. And I said, well, you know what, coach I'm not getting to play anyway, so.
00:36:04Debbie Blansett: So, there was that.
00:36:06Will Parish: That was that, yeah.
00:36:07Debbie Blansett: Did you do other sports, like wrestling?
00:36:09Will Parish: Oh, I went out one year for basketball, but I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't one of your typical jocks.
00:36:19Debbie Blansett: Were you taller?
00:36:19Will Parish: No, I was, I used to make me so mad about Kim, my daughter. Everything Kim did just was just like Mandy. They never had to study for a test. I mean, it was just just natural ability. When Kim was a cheerleader, she'd go down that gym doing all those flip flops, but all of a sudden she don't want cheerleading anymore. When she her and Carrie (ph), her twin, played softball for Dawn Dixon (ph), Kim was really good softball player. Well, got up to middle school, well, she don't play softball. She wanted to cheerlead. Then when she got to high school, didn't want cheerleading. Well, then she started, then she started playing slow pitch, and wound up being the catcher. But anyway, Tracy (ph), the oldest, and Carrie (ph) are like dead. Whatever I did, I had to work for it. I wasn't a scholar, I wasn't a jock. My two brothers were the jocks and but I just, but anyway, I I graduated in 1959. Thought I wanted to go to college. Went down to Edmond for one semester.
00:37:45Debbie Blansett: It wasn't your thing.
00:37:47Will Parish: No, and I told my oldest daughter, after two years at Rogers, she's talking about, well, maybe my mom's right. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for college and stuff. I said, you know, Tracy (ph) college is not for everybody. I said, I was one of them. I said, because when I went to college, it was back to math and English again. And I said, you know, I thought I was going to college to to learn how to do something and and I said, and back then, Okmulgee Tech was the only tech, and they only had like refrigeration and auto upholstery. And I wasn't interested in any of that. And so I I started working seismograph crew like my dad did. And then in 1963 Uncle Sam said, here I am.
00:38:41Debbie Blansett: And that was four years?
00:38:45Will Parish: What was spooky, though, is Kennedy gets assassinated one Friday, and I'm due to report the next Friday. And course, we don't know what's going to happen. And so wound up going down to Fort Polk, Louisiana, or as we affectionately called it, Fort Puke, Lowsiana. And I got what, what they call the, oh, what did they call that? Anyway? Your job description. I remember mine was 112, which was heavy weapons, infantry. So I left Fort Polk, went Fort Benning,
00:39:31Debbie Blansett: Which is where?
00:39:32Will Parish: In Georgia. And I wound up doing my AIT there. And at that time, they were testing this helicopter concept out, and they had taken the old 11th Airborne and made it what they call the 11th Air Assault. Fort Benning, Georgia's made up of four posts. There's the main post, Sand Hill, Kelly Hill, and then Harmony Church. And I was in the Second Infantry Division, then, Second 23rd Infantry. Us, and the first and the 38th we occupied Kelly Hill. Well in the fall of '64 they were going to do a big, three month long play war against the 82nd Airborne to test this helicopter concept out, so they were under strength. So, since we were next to Harmony Church area, they just gave us 11th Air Assault patches, and we sewed them on the pockets of our shirts, and then we started training with this 11th Air Assault. Went to South Carolina, played army against 82nd Airborne for about three months. Came back to Benning. Then we just kind of went into a hiatus. Wasn't really done much of anything. And I asked my little sergeant, you know what, what the deal was? And he said, well, they're still evaluating the helicopter concept. And said, if it doesn't go, we're going to go back to mechanized, which he said, you will be my driver on the PC chair, you know, one of the like out here at the armory, that little and I said, I'm not getting in that coffin that that's what they remind me of a coffin. And I'm pretty claustrophobic anyway. And so luckily, the helicopter deal went out, and then they decided we were going to become the first cav air mobile. I thought, well, the first cav's in Korea, so I guess we're, I'm going to Korea now. We just took our patches off and boxed them up, sent them to them. They sent us ours. Well, rumors started going around about Vietnam. Well, most guys like me, where in the heck is Vietnam, you know. Heard of French Indochina, but what's Vietnam? And I remember we were told, now don't be writing home about this, because this is all hush hush and and the way we found out we were going - Lyndon Johnson gets on nationwide TV - today, I have ordered the first air cav mobile.
00:42:29Debbie Blansett: Oh no! You all were told one thing and the president was
00:42:32Will Parish: Right.
00:42:33Debbie Blansett: Speaking another thing.
00:42:34Will Parish: So anyway, we we loaded on ship in Charleston, South Carolina, and went down, went through the Panama Canal up to Long Beach. Spent the night at Long Beach, and then 20 days later, we landed at Qui Nhơn.
00:42:47Debbie Blansett: I was gonna say, how long did it take to get you all there?
00:42:50Will Parish: Well, 30 days all total. It took us 10 days to go down, around, through the Panama Canal, back up, and then 20 days to get to Qui Nhơn. And they took us up there in the central highlands, and of course, then, well, she got a post in there being stuff, and so anyway. I came back, went back to work on the seismograph crew. Wound up getting married and didn't like being away from home, so wound up going to work over QuikTrip. And that time, QuikTrip only had 20 stores in Tulsa. I wound up in one Sand Springs. Then my brother in law, Bobby Warner called me and said they looking for propane truck driver. So, I did that for a while. Well, mostly, most of the jobs I had were driving trucks, and I don't know I, I kind of liked it, because after going through all that
00:44:01Debbie Blansett: So, when you were through in Vietnam, you were through, there was no you didn't want to, did they have reserves? But you had just
00:44:10Will Parish: I was give, I was given so many days to join a reserve. And when I went to re-register to draft over in Sapulpa, because they told us, if you don't join one, they'll put you in one, it might be 500 miles from where you live. So, I was talking to the lady when I re-registered for the draft, and she said, well, her husband and both of her sons had joined reserves. And she said, and they they have a max, you know, that they can only have. And she said, and right now they're all pretty full because of Vietnam. And she said, I would just wait. Never heard, well, at one time, I got a deal that they wanted me to go to a two week summer camp. And that's when I was driving the truck for Bobby Warner and and he sat down and wrote a letter that he couldn't do without me. I was, I was the only driver he had and stuff. So, they exempted me from going to summer camp. And then in 1968 I got a deal that said that they had changed my draft status was I was beyond the age of legal ability and and then about a year later, then they sent me my discharge, and like said, I I just drove trucks and worked worked for Coors for about eight years, and
00:45:44Debbie Blansett: Driving trucks?
00:45:45Will Parish: Driving, delivery and stuff. Well, they called us route salesmen, And I was working part time for Clifford Smith at the radio station, and he kept trying to get me to go full time. And my wife got pregnant with oldest daughter, and I didn't want to raise any kids up in Tulsa, so we talked about maybe moving to Sapulpa, but wound up back to Bristow and and my oldest was born, and I was getting up, you know, leaving out about five in the morning, 530 and getting back home, you know, after dark. And the only time I was getting to see her was on the weekends. And I don't know, they went to this presales concept at Coors, which everybody in the world had tried it and it didn't work, but we're going to make it work. Well, they didn't. So, I was pretty upset, and matter of fact, time I got home, I was trying to figure out how I was going to manage what all I had to do the next day, and I was talking to my wife about it, and she said, well, Clifford called again and waned to talk to you. And I said, so I called him. He said, yeah. So, I went to work for him and selling radio advertising. And at that time I was still doing a little disc jockey work on on the weekend and and that was back when the little oil boom was going pretty good, back in the early 80s, and I was doing pretty good, you know. And then when, when that went down, then, you know, people quit advertising and stuff, and it was getting pretty rough, and, matter of fact, wound up going to work at the radio station at Okmulgee, KOKL at nights. I'd work up here during the day and then drive down there and work at night. And walked into the Community Bank one day, and I had said something to my sister, Claudia, who worked there, and Bill Farha, Big Bill, he said, your sister says you're looking for a job. And I said, well, yeah. And he said, well, did you think about going to work for the turnpike? And I thought, well, if I went out on maintenance, I could probably still work the board shift at the radio station. And Bill said, no, no. Said, you want the booth? Well, I remember when they first opened the Turnpike, those guys were only making, like, $250 a month. And I thought, man, there's no and he said, well, it's lot different. Well, I filled out an application, and it rocked along for about eight months. Never heard anything from them. And I was working Sunday night at KOKL, and I can't remember this guy's name now, down at the city, and he called me, wanted me to be at the Tulsa gate the next morning. And I said, hey, I said, can I give these guys where I'm working at least a week's notice? I said, I wouldn't just walk off and leave you all. Well, you want this job or not? And I said, yeah, but like I said, I wouldn't treat you that way. Well, all right, all right. Be there a week from Monday. So, anyway, long story short, I wound up working for them for 16 years, retired. Then after I retired, Kell Kelly at Spirit bank called me and asked me if I'd be interested in running a courier route for Spirit bank. And I said, well, I really don't want to work full time. And he said, well, you'll like this. You run it one week, and Gene Thompson runs it the next week. Well, that gave me time off. Mom, dad wanted to go on the trip. You know, I could take a week off and do it. Was fine during the summer, but during the winter, I'm out spending money, thinking, well, I need to find something. And Derlad Glover was superintendent, and I guess Larry had said something to him, and my oldest daughter was a senior, and Derald come over and said, Larry said, you was looking for some work. And I said, yeah. And he said, well, he said, think about substitute teaching. I said, Derald, I don't have any kind of a teaching degree. Oh, well, you don't need it. Well, okay. And I said, but I'll be honest with you, you know, if I go to work for you, the first thing you probably do is put me in a math class, and I don't know nothing about math, especially this new math stuff, you know, where a plus is a minus and a minus is a plus and all that. I said, you know, I said, I try to help my daughters with their math deal, and I sit down and do it. Like, well, Dad, that's not the way they told us how to do it. And I said, well, is that the right answer? Well, yeah, I said, then what difference does it make? I said, like, I never understood algebra. You know, I I just never did understand it. And to this day, I don't think I've ever had a job where I've ever had to use algebra. But anyway, I said, well, what do I need to do? And he said, well, go to Administration Building, fill out an application, then you'll go before the school board. Okay, well, and, and I had to pay him $15 for a background check, and they said I would get that back. So, this was in the fall, and I went filled out application. Never heard a word from them, and I went up there to the middle school one time to pick the girls up, and that's when Jerry Lomenick was the principal there. I'm standing there waiting on the girls, and said, well, do you ever think about coming up here and substitute teaching? I said, and I'd got my $15 back, too. And I said, you mean like, go fill out an application, pay the $15 and all that. And he said, well, yeah. And I said, I already did all that. And he said, well, how come you haven't been up here subbing? I said, nobody's ever called me. So, he said something to Marie Womack then, and Marie said, w, yeah, he's on the list. And he said, what? I guess they've hired you. And I said, well, I never went before the school board and Dowdy, Mary was on the school board then, and I said, I ran into her, and I said something to her about she's, oh well, when your name come up, we said, oh yeah, he's all right.
00:53:07Debbie Blansett: You didn't have to go.
00:53:08Will Parish: No, so I went up there, and I subbed mostly in the middle school. And I was, you know, and I just tell those kids right off the bat. I said, you know, I'm here to fill in for your teacher. I'm not here to babysit you, or I'd get paid more. And I said, so here's what, well, I started doing things Debbie that makes me feel pretty good that Dana says they're doing now. Like what I would do, I'd tell the teachers, I said, not only leave me a list of your lesson plan, but leave me a list of your rules and regulations. So, when they say, well, Mrs. So and So, or Mr. So and So, lets us do this, and I say, no, right here. They don't do that. And then another thing I got to doing was I'd grade each class.
00:54:09Debbie Blansett: Oh, yes.
00:54:10Will Parish: I would, I would write, well, they tell me now they got a form for the substitute teachers that do that. Of course, Dana was always good, because her class, whichever one turned out to be the best, she would reward them, you know, with some candy and stuff.
00:54:27Debbie Blansett: Were you one of my substitutes before?
00:54:29Will Parish: Probably.
00:54:30Debbie Blansett: I think I rewarded them.
00:54:32Will Parish: Yeah.
00:54:32Debbie Blansett: In some way also.
00:54:33Will Parish: But I would, I would take each hour and then I put a big star by the one that was the best class. But I remember one time with Dana, I told her, I said, Dana, I they were all good, you know, I couldn't pick out the best one. But my problem was, you know, that I'd sub that day, and then [indecipherabale] say, well, you're going to sub so and so's class tomorrow. Which I thought, well, that's pretty good class, you know. Well, I'd get there and I'd say, well, Mr. Tucker's not going to be here, so we're going to let Ms. so and so happen you and I always wound up getting all the
00:55:16Debbie Blansett: Tough classes.
00:55:17Will Parish: Well, and you know, what? To be honest, the girls give me more static than the boys did.
00:55:25Debbie Blansett: At that age.
00:55:26Will Parish: Yeah, so. But I would, you know, I would tell them. I say, hey, you know, when you come to class without pencil or paper, that's like going to work without tools.
00:55:41Debbie Blansett: Absolutely.
00:55:42Will Parish: I said, and well, can I go in my locker and get them? I said, Let me tell you about the real world. You show up job every day and you don't have your tools, and you say, can I go home and get them? They're gonna say, yeah, and you can stay home. I said this same thing on this giving them two more weeks for a lesser grade. I'd go round round with Mr. Lomenick. I said, just teaches them to procrastinate. And I said, and I'd tell him, I say, let me tell you about the real world. You got a job boss, once you get in a certain time, you think he's going to give you more time for less pay or is he gonna get somebody get the job done on time? And I said, you know, you can, you
00:56:25Debbie Blansett: They need to hear that.
00:56:26Will Parish: You can pay attention to what I'm telling you, or not. But I said, I and I remember one reading class that I gave them their assignment, and they started getting these pillows and laying down the floor. What y'all doing? Well, Ms. so and so, let's just lay on the floor and read. And I said, I don't think so. Well, I said, but this is my class today. And I said, and this is the deal. If this was a bedroom, they'd have beds in here, but it's a classroom. They got desks, so we'll sit at our desk today. But you know what? It just made me feel so good that first year I had noon lunch deal playground, and those kids that got their annuals and they come, hey, Mr. Parish, would you sign my annual? Well, I'm not, and some of those kids, when I'd walk in to come, are you subbing today, mister? But you know, and I thought they probably hate me because I'd make them do their stuff, you know, and, and I remember this one.
00:57:36Debbie Blansett: They can sure warm your heart, though.
00:57:37Will Parish: Yeah, yeah, I tell you, I got so tickle and the special ed ones, I tell you. We had a kid up there, Danny, little red headed boy. And he just, I remember, we had the Special Olympics out there and we were running, and he keep getting out of his lane. And I'd say, Danny, I said, Let me, you know, and you know, heck, I'm in my 60s. I said, let me show you how to run, you know? And I think it was like a 40 yard dash. Well, when we got to it, he stayed in his lane and me running beside him. Well, when we got he just kept running and chasing about halfway around the track. Danny, come back, but.
00:58:21Debbie Blansett: Turned into a half mile run.
00:58:22Will Parish: Yeah, but I enjoyed that, and I said one time, I think maybe sometimes the teachers need body cams like the cops so they can see what their little darlings do in the classrooms.
00:58:38Debbie Blansett: Yes.
00:58:39Will Parish: And but I enjoyed doing it. And, you know, I remember a third hour was my best, because I could say, everybody gets their work turned in, I'll let you go to lunch early. And I remember they all turned it in, except this one kid, and I can't remember now who he was, but anyway. Said, can we go now, Mr. Parish? I said, no, whatever this kid's name was, I said he hadn't turned his work in, so but you said we could go to I said, when everybody turned their work in. Well, that's not fair. I said, well now, but instead of being mad at me, you're mad at him. And, so, they started in on him then, the whole class. He said, well, I don't have paper. I don't have pencil. So, they got it anyway. He wrote his name on this blank paper and went over and just slammed it in that deal where they turned the work in, turned around and said there, what do you think about that? I said, you know what? It don't make me any difference. I said, you know, you're the ones gonna have to discuss this with your teacher tomorrow. And I said, but you know what? At least you did turn in the paper. I don't care if there's a mark on as long as you turn the paper in with your name on it, that's all I care about.
01:00:02Debbie Blansett: They got the job done.
01:00:04Will Parish: That's when old McMillan, not McMillan. Yeah, it was Macmillan, wasn't it? The football coach. Anyway, he was assistant principal there. He was the high school football coach. Had, huh, no, not McQuarters (ph). He's the one that went down there to Keys. Had the son that
01:00:39Debbie Blansett: [Inaudible]
01:00:43Will Parish: Mac something or another. But anyway,
01:00:47Debbie Blansett: He was at the middle school?
01:00:49Will Parish: Yeah.
01:00:50Debbie Blansett: He was the assistant principal?
01:00:51Will Parish: He was assistant principal of the middle school, but he was the head high school football coach.
01:01:00Debbie Blansett: They wind up in Collinsville?
01:01:03Will Parish: Well, we played Keys one year, and he was the head coach down at Keys. Had that boy that was mentally McMullen (ph), yeah, yeah. Anyway, McMullen (ph), yeah, he he brought that we were down at the cafeteria, and he brought that kid over there and made him apologize to me. And he said, now do you know what work you're supposed to turn in? He said, well, you're on noon detention till you get it turned in. I like coach. He didn't put up with him, and I didn't either. I just tell them. I say, well, you know, you either go down there and see Mr. Lomenick or you can straighten up. [Indecipherable]
01:01:50Debbie Blansett: We're going to keep that one quiet.
01:01:57Will Parish: But I did. I enjoyed it.
01:02:00Debbie Blansett: So, you substituted for a while, and then
01:02:04Will Parish: I don't know, probably a couple of years or so.
01:02:07Debbie Blansett: Odd jobs around town work for the city some?
01:02:11Will Parish: Well, I went to work after, well, I was running the courier route, and then they was all going to go computerized, and they was going to cut down from 12 routes to three, and I was one of the last that they had hired. So I figured, well, I don't have a chance in keeping my job. So, that was, I was there with the bank one day, and that's when I've seen an application for the First Wave, when they first went in out there, and I filled out an application and took it out there, and I went to work for them as night security.
01:02:59Debbie Blansett: I didn't know that.
01:03:00Will Parish: Yeah, but then they started having layoffs, but I stayed longer than I thought I would with the with the lay, I lasted almost two years before I got laid off, and then I went to work for Walmart.
01:03:19Debbie Blansett: How long did you last there?
01:03:20Will Parish: About three months. But Leon Pinson asked me if I'd be interested in going to work for the city, and so I wound up going to work for them for about, oh, eight or nine years.
01:03:36Debbie Blansett: I was gonna say, a while.
01:03:37Will Parish: Yeah, and then I got with this VA rep and showed him all my stuff, and he wanted to know, he said, how come you're not drawing 100% disability? And I said, I don't know. I've been stuck on 60% for years. So,he said, have you seen Dr Hoffman, which is their mental doctor deal. And I said, no. And, so, he got me in to see Dr.Hoffman. The first thing Dr. Hoffman said, how come you're not
01:04:09Debbie Blansett: 100 percent.
01:04:11Will Parish: Then he said, oh, well, that's why, because you're you're still working. And, so, he said, if you would quit, I could get you 100%. And so it took him about a year, but I went and I told Steve McGuire, who I was, you know, working for at the time, for a minute, I thought ol' Steve was gonna cry. And, so, he went and got Leonard Washington, who was the mayor at the time, and they came down and they talked to me, and I said, well, you know, they're, they say, I'm qualified, you know, for it and stuff and everything. But I said, I don't know. And so Leonard said, well, I tell you what, if it don't work out, you can come back start in right where you left off, but it still did. I wound up getting my 100%, so and I just been a bum ever since.
01:05:16Debbie Blansett: But I can understand, I mean, like I said earlier, you were taught a good work ethic from your parents, and fewer and fewer young people have that ethic, and they knew they could count on you.
01:05:31Will Parish: Well
01:05:31Debbie Blansett: It's hard to let somebody go when you've proven for eight or nine years that you're dependable and trustworthy. It may take two or three guys to fill your position because you were trustworthy and dependable.
01:05:49Will Parish: Well, I was, I was working at Coors, and I'd worked there a couple of years, and my ex wife and I was getting a divorce, and I just kind of wanted to change the atmosphere. Well, at that time, Wayne Campbell, that had the distributorship, he had this deal, if you quit, he had a no rehire policy. They wouldn't hire you back. So, I was gone for about two years, and I was at a place one day, and the guy was the vice president for Coors came in and Bill Stevens , and he sat down beside me, and he looked, when you gonna come back to work for us? I said, Well, I guess I'm not, you know, Wayne's got that no rehire policy. And I said, you know, I don't guess there's any chance of me going. He said, man. He said, we hire these guys. And said, they want a job, but they don't want to work. And he said, not like you older guys. So, he said, I'll tell you what, said Wayne's at the plant. Said, why don't you go talk to him? So, I went talk to Wayne, come back. About time I got there, they told Bill he was wanted on the phone. He come back after being on the phone. He said, well, what did you tell Campbell? I said, I'll just you know about divorce. And I said, what, he said, well, whatever it was, he must have liked it, because he said, tell you to be work at seven o'clock in the morning. I was first guy that they'd ever hired back in 10 years, so and I went back work. Well, I worked two years first and then worked about five and a half years the second time. But then, like I said, that's when I'd moved that back to here, and was driving back forth every day and wasn't getting seen my daughter, except on the weekend. So, that's when I took Clifford up on that job. But, and then, I don't know, I guess, did the best I could with what I had.
01:08:00Debbie Blansett: I think that you've done really well.
01:08:02Will Parish: Well, I, you know, I remember one time after the movie came out from the book, I said I wasn't in, my part wasn't in the movie, but I am in the book. The movie was taken from and
01:08:17Debbie Blansett: And the movie, just for the tape sake?
01:08:21Will Parish: We Were Soldiers.
01:08:22Debbie Blansett: We Were Soldiers
01:08:23Will Parish: With Mel Gibson, but I remember Kell Kelly was on the Turnpike Authority Board, and they had me come to Oklahoma City, and they gave me a little plaque, you know, about my service and all that and everything, and and I, you know, was pretty proud of that. But I tell you, when old David McNamara (ph) said, okay, you can go sit down. Well, about time I started leaving, Kell Kelly stood up and said, wait a minute, I've got something I want to talk about on this man. And he got up there and he started saying, this man took four young daughters and raised them by himself. And I thought, no, I had a lot of help from my mom and Norma Wieberdink. But anyway, and he said, I'm pretty proud, and excuse me, that put more of a lump in my throat than the military did. So but sometimes I wonder if I did good enough with the girls. But they all seem to be, you know.
01:09:30Debbie Blansett: I think you did fine. They are good girls.
01:09:32Will Parish: Mandy, she's a high school counselor down at Tahlequah and the head cheerleading coach down there, now. Of course, that was her big thing. Tracy, she's in the home health care up there with her mother and my husband in law. And then the twins, Carrie, she's a Creek County Deputy now. And then Carrie or Kim's the deputy, and Carrie, she's a reporter for The Tahlequah or newspaper.
01:10:07Debbie Blansett: They've done really well.
01:10:08Will Parish: Yeah.
01:10:09Debbie Blansett: And, again, I think that you probably taught them a lot about not just life, but just just making it.
01:10:18Will Parish: Yeah, well, sometimes, though, you know, when, when their mother left, I, I was sometimes working two and sometimes three jobs to, you know, try to have them at least well, you know, all those other kids got cell phones. So, you know this, that and, and I tell you what, when I had three of them cheerleading, that's expensive!
01:10:48Debbie Blansett: That's very expensive.
01:10:50Will Parish: And I said, I remember I'd go to the I felt like a knot on a log. I'd go to those cheerleading meetings and stuff, and I'd be the only dude in there, you know. And I remember them talking about summer camp, cheerleading, summer camp. Well, the one at TU was only so much, you know, and that's when I had the twins, yeah, and, and I remember the coach said, well, I really like the OSU one, and which was about twice as much, yeah, and, and at that time, my daughters was in with, like, some of the upper crust as daughters and the money? Yeah, the money was no situation, but I thought, yeah, I'll manage somehow.
01:11:49Debbie Blansett: That's right. You figure it out.
01:11:51Will Parish: Yeah.
01:11:52Debbie Blansett: Well, about to wrap this up. Is there anything else that that you want to
01:12:00Will Parish: Well, I
01:12:01Debbie Blansett: Have documented?
01:12:03Will Parish: I really don't know why you. To me, I ain't really nobody.
01:12:09Debbie Blansett: I got the train story, and I got the downtown stories and the bringing cotton in, and the location of some of the old places and and just knowing what life was like during your life. And that's really what the purpose of this is, is to let people know what you've your history, what you've gone through here in Bristow.
01:12:34Will Parish: Well, I'll tell you one thing I'd like to see it back like I can remember my mother and her sister, my Aunt Iris, and my cousin Lanny, we would come down here on Saturday mornings, catch the train, ride it to Tulsa, and of course, everything was downtown, then over in Tulsa, and they would shop all day, and then we'd get on the train and come back to Bristow that evening. And I'd kind of like to see some of the old train travel stuff.
01:13:06Debbie Blansett: That'd be kind of cool.
01:13:08Will Parish: Yeah, I thought at one time they had talked about maybe running one from Tulsa to Oklahoma City.
01:13:16Debbie Blansett: Well, I know you can get Oklahoma City to Texas, but you can't get from up here at Oklahoma City, all right. Well, I'm going to sign off on this.
01:13:26Will Parish: Alrighty.
01:13:27Debbie Blansett: Appreciate your time.
01:13:29Will Parish: Well, you're welcome.
01:13:30Debbie Blansett: Thank you.
