Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > The Lighter Side
ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game
MaineWriter:
Opdyke, TX
The town's name is pronounced O. P. Dike - just as you would pronouce someone's name. The someone in this case was probably Charles W. Opdyke, director of the Santa Fe Railroad. It is also suggested that the name could've been after a relative of the man (W. A. Dykes) who had built the town's first cotton gin in 1937.
Opdyke had no 19th Century history. The town got started in 1925 - and it wasn't until 1945 that they had a population of 50. All activities revolved around the gin throughout the 40s and 50s with a service station/general store to serve the needs of the citizens. By the late 50s the Farmers Co-op Gin was the town's last business.
Leslie
jpwagoneer1964:
Eldorado, Tx
The Tom Ratliff Civic Theater History
The picture show building, known as The Lone Star Theater, was built in 1930 by Mr. and Mrs. T.K. Jones. It was built shortly after the Whitten oil well made history. Having profited from this venture, Mr. Jones wanted to invest in real estate in Eldorado. To give the town some class, he built the picture show building. The construction was done by a Mr. Chidester from Menard who also did other construction work for Mr. Jones. The advent of the oil well triggered growth in the community and several other buildings on Main Street were constructed about the same time. Despite the fact that it was a boost to the community, some felt that talking pictures would be the downfall of the town.
T.K. and his wife sold it to Catherine Creigh Hall in 1944. It remained in that family until 1961, when Tom Ratliff purchased it from the Halls to house the insurance business he had purchased from his brother Jack Ratliff. Tom Ratliff modernized the very front of the building only, leaving the auditorium in tact to be used for storage.
In 1986, Tom Ratliff decided to retire and considered selling the building. He quoted a selling price which his wife, Winnie Helen considered to be ridiculously low. She made him a better offer on the spot, and he quickly said, "Sold!" Tom felt he had made a good business deal, but before the sale could be finalized, he had to put on a new roof and install new air conditioning. He was not so sure of his good business deal after that!
In 1986, a community theater group began to produce plays and developed into an organized group called " The Way Off Broadway Players". Their first show was in 1986. They became incorporated in October of 1989.
Shortly after incorporating, the group needed a permanent home and they approached Winnie Helen about the possibility of purchasing the old picture show from her. To their great surprise and delight she gave them the building on March 16, 1994. She stipulated that it be called the "Tom Ratliff Civic Theater" in memory of her husband Tom who died September 3, 1991. The Way Off Broadway Players as well as the community were deeply grateful, and plans for renovation were started immediately. The renovation was done by Herman Walker Construction of Eldorado.
The Way Off Broadway Players are a non-profit, tax exempt corporation (501-C corporation). There has been wonderful support from the community and neighboring communities from the beginning.
Eldorado was also the name of Cadillacs top of the line luxury personal car, from 1953 to 2002. Cadillac once considered 'standard of the world' now just another higher priced car. Far too many years of complacency by General Motors, lack luster styling, poor reliability causing huge rapir bill by owners, lead many to seek their luxury motoring elsewhere. The final 2002 is nearly idenctical to the model introduced in 1992.
Mark
Fran:
O'Farrell, TX
O'Farrell is on Farm Road 995 nine miles west of Atlanta in northern Cass County. It was settled in the 1870s, and a post office was established there in 1886 and remained in operation until 1905. In 1890 the community had a post office and store run by W. S. Thompson, with a Baptist church and cemetery nearby. By 1896 it included two stores, a gin, and the church. The first population estimates for the town were recorded in the 1940s, when it had two rated businesses and a population of forty. In 1983 O'Farrell had a church, a cemetery, a town hall, and a population estimated at twenty. Its population continued to be reported at twenty in 1990. -- Cecil Harper, Jr., The Handbook of Texas Online
moremojo:
Lloydminster, Canada
--unique community in Canada, legally existing in both the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan simultaneously. Straddling the border of the two provinces, this is the Dominion's only bi-provincial town.
MaineWriter:
Raywood, TX
Originally settled in the 1830s, Raywood experienced the various adventures and misadventures of its neighboring southeast Texas communities until the 1890s when a man named Alex Miller introduced rice farming in 1890.
Raymond Harwood was the proprietor of the local rice mill and the town was named by combining his two names. Raywood was platted alongside the Texas and New Orleans Railroad in December 1893. A post office was granted in 1894. The population ranged from 100 to 125 until oil and gas was discovered in the mid-50s.
The late discovery occured when automated drilling methods had long been in place - so the "boom" only amounted to a doubling of the small population.
Leslie
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