“You just got to keep whoopin’ and spurrin’”
Woodrow Wilson Childers did something on December 15 that most people aren’t able to do — celebrate their 100th birthday!
Celebrating Woodrow’s birthday at Circle N Market has more or less become a tradition through the years. It started a few years ago when his lifelong buddy, the late John Wayne Ward, and John’s sister, Buddie Ann Childress, owned the store. They sold the store in 2014.
Every year, John Wayne and Buddie Ann would have a birthday cake at the store on or around December 15 because they knew Woodrow would come sauntering in. After all, he and his coffee-drinking buddies considered it their American duty to gather at one those tables and solve world problems!
Woodrow told the Record Register at one of the birthday parties that he was born “out at McCarty.” His family moved from Guntown, Mississippi to Coal County in 1889 when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory, he said. “They came across the Mississippi River on a ferry boat. They were pretty much pioneers.”
Woodrow was a rancher in his younger days; and by all accounts, ran a lot of cattle in both Coal and Osage Counties.
Other than going to California to work on war ships during World War II, he hasn’t ventured far from Coal County. And he has seen a lot of changes take place during his lifetime. “The whole world has changed,” he said. “You used to take a $10 bill and load a wagon…now $10 doesn’t go anywhere. Don’t know where it’s going to run to.”
As far as his longevity is concerned, Woodrow’s philosophy is quite simple: “You just got to keep whooping’ and spurrin’.”
He also has these words of advice to his younger friends: “You just gotta keep on ridin’ that horse out in front.”
Well, Woodrow is still whoopin’ and spurrin’ and ridin’ that horse out in front even though he is now an official member of the centenarian club. Most days, weather permitting, he’s out in his yard diligently chopping those pesky weeds.
Woodrow and his wife, the late Betty Childers, have two daughters, Carol Wilson of Ada and Cheryl Hayes of Oklahoma City, and several grandchildren.