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Can we ever understand what we mean by saying someone is depressed? Recordings in the Bible called depressed people demon possessed The “crazies” of those times were thought to be possessed by devils. Once, while I was a child my mom was talking in general terms about some relative or other who was thought to be sort of “nuts.” “Someone spoke up, “I think she is just depressed.” Then I spoke up asking for clarification of terms. I mean, the world was struggling through the worse “depression” we ever knew of but what does it mean when an individual is depressed? Mom went back to her ironing, and I figured that this level of medical inquisition might be a little much for a Centrahoma housewife and mom, Later on in my life, I asked a local doctor about a customer of ours who had shot herself. What caused her to do that, I asked. “She was depressed,” he answered. I was perplexed. “How?” I just didn’t understand the overuse of the word.
Read moreI remember one nice day in Oklahoma 75 years ago when I volunteering to drive my grandfather, Will W. Armstrong, down to Wister for a visit with his daughter. I was the only one handy that day and besides, being a teenager with a new driver’s license, I looked forward to the trip. I asked my grandpa a lot of questions that day. We were pretty close buddies anyway and many items he mentioned that day I still remember. Born in 1872 he knew a lot about early Oklahoma history. In fact, he lived a lot of it. Driving through Gowan on US270 and down Gowan Mountain into the vast Gowen Prairie, I asked him if he remembered how this part of the state looked in his “day.”
Read moreIt was October 19, 1944, when the Bullard’s moved west on SHW-3 to Stonewall. My older brother famously said our move was sort of biblical. We, the Bullards, were like the Children of Israel in the Bible. Dad was our “Moses” and Centrahoma was similar to Egypt. Gerald always said that Dad (Moses) led us from Centrahoma (Egypt) to Stonewall (The Promised Land). I think Gerald liked the Movie Theatre (The Main) dad bought there in Stonewall. He really like our new house, and he loved the fact that Stonewall schools had a football program. Gerald loved movies and football.
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It wasn’t until the middle of 1942 that we Centrahoma folk realized we faced yet another wartime hardship. The great coffee shortage. Seemed like it affected our fellow Americans too. We were each buying and consuming 20 pounds of coffee per year in 1942. But no worry. Grocery stores in American were well stocked. Big warehouses had it stacked up and nobody, but President Roosevelt seemed worried about it.
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