traditions continue

North Side
Adams Edge Maximilians Barber Shop Bills Dollar Store Brasels Cleaners Dresswell Cleaners Elite Cleaners Salisbury Pharmacy KC Interiors Williams Furniture United Supermarket Best Way Grocery & Market Best Way Warehouse Market KC Interiors

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Gas stations everywhere

Harold Hyman shares his experiences in the petroleum business: There were 32 stations in Clinton when I came to town in 1953. For a year my wife Dorris and I ran a Cities Service station down by the river bridge. Then we ran the Cities Service station there behind the old city hall where the Oklahoma Bank and Trust is now. Running a station was hard work. Somebody would pull in, and wed wash the windshield and every bit of glass on that car. Then wed say, Can I fill it up? and theyd say, No, I just need a dollars worth. But could you check the tires? Boy, all that and sell four or five gallons and make 2 cents on a gallon. Sometimes theyd want you to check the water. You had to be careful at that. We had a long handle wed use to open that up, but it was dangerous. Everybody worked then. Everybody was poor. Back then everybody wore their tires out a lot more than we do today. We fixed a bunch of flats back then for 50 cents apiece. I remember the fire that destroyed Penneys next door to city hall. It happened in March of 1956. They called us in the middle of the night and said to come down in a hurry and get anything out of the station that we wanted. They really thought the whole block might burn. So we wrapped the kids--daughter Sharon and son Buzzy--in blankets, laid them in the back seat of the car, and headed downtown. When we got there, it must have been 2 a.m., and that fire was shooting up high in the sky. Nothing our Clinton guys had could cut a dent in it. If the Air Force hadnt come in with their big tanker, that whole block, including our station, would have burned to the ground.

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Williams Furniture United Supermarket Best Way Grocery & Market Best Way Warehouse Market

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OK State Indigent Defense Fund Social Security Administration US Health, Education & Welfare Dept. Willbur Levell Station #2 Adam Radio Service Yellow Cab Gasoline Station

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Leroy Livesay remembered that Ab Armstrong had a used car lot on Frisco in the area of 804 Frisco. Across the street at 807 Frisco was Stehr Motor Sales which is visible in the picture above along with the Dresswell Cleaners and the Bestway Warehouse Market.

Randy Meacham and the Alumni Reunion Committee started the Downtown Clinton History Project rolling with the idea of a guide to Frisco Avenue for reunion participants to enjoy as they come to town. Clinton High School students Serenity Cook, Blaire Doolittle, Sarah Hill, Christian Johnson and Emily Steffes and CHS history teacher Jo Dee Adney kicked off the research phase with information from CHS yearbooks, personal interviews of friends and relatives and walking tours of downtown. Retired Clinton Public Schools administrator Linda Thomas conducted more than 30 interviews of CHS graduates and shepherded the project along. Numerous sources including Joanna Ropers A Chautauquah: The Clinton People, Yes! and the Clinton Daily news edition of 100 Years Clinton, Oklahomawere invaluable in fleshing out the stories of our town. Thanks go to numerous CHS graduates and downtown business owners, CHS teacher and Tornado Talks advisor Debbie Carlisle, Rod Serfoss and the Clinton Daily News staff, Julie Menge and the Chamber of Commerce, and Kathy Atchley and Clinton Public Library. Their enthusiastic support of the project and their knowledge and expertise in so many areas has brought the dream of a historical guide to Frisco Avenue to life. As this stage of the project wraps up with this newspaper and the display of historical records in each business on Frisco Avenue, we realize that we must not put this work back on the shelf to gather dust and be forgotten. Instead, we have set up a website where we will post the information in this document, and keep our traditions moving forward. Please visit us there to make corrections, additions, and comments. Thanks!

www.downtownclintonhistory.weebly.com