In his own words - Grandpa Cowen

These are some reflections on his life written by Ira Cowen somewhere around 1999-2000

Grandfather Remembers: Memories For My Grandchild

As the years pass by and the eye's grow dim and memory weakens day by day we forget things we would have liked to have said.

So I’d like to share some memories, and I’ll do the best I can, so you can know your grand father as a boy and as a man.

I was born Thursday August 18, 1921 at Paden, Oklahoma a small farm community, yet a prosperous community having at one time three banks. The most exciting thing that happened in this town, was when one of its banks was robbed by an outlaw named Pretty Boy Floyd, a well known outlaw who had killed several lawmen and robbed nearly every bank in Texas and Oklahoma, I was old enough to remember the times of this outlaw.

While still a small child my parents moved to Tulsa, where my Father worked in the oil fields as a tank setter. I remember some of the places we lived. One in particular was behind the famous Canes Academy which later became popular as the home of the western band "Bob Wills and his Texas Play Boys" . I can remember parties they would have as on New Years eve, you didn't dare go outside for the activity going on. Our house faced the alley which was like a street, one of my pass time activities [don't ask where I got this idea] I would take nails and prop them up on the front and back of the tires of the cars thinking if they moved forward or backward they would have a flat.

(Stephen Frederick and Lennie Mae McKnight-Hastings reared Stone circa early 1960's)

Then we lived for a while in the Lombard area [ I have not been able to find this area but there was a school next door to our house.] Our mother would send us to church over in west Tulsa, she would dress me in knee pants and a little buttoned top which buttoned to the pants, knowing if i needed to use the toilet I could not get them unbuttoned. The end result, I would mess my pants, when I had to go I would to the can for help, and start running, the only problem no one could catch me to assist me , so I would mess my pants.

I remember one time in the golf course on West Edison, which we would cut through on the way home, I had to go and caned for help and started running. My sister Lovay was not as fleet footed, she never caught me. This was an on going thing, one time at a park outing the driver held me outside the bus on the running board: this was his only choice, either leave me at the park or ride outside on the fender (because I had messed my britches). After then, when I became a teenager I could manage by my self, [joke] but it was long running episode. I would not have written this but Lovay wouldn't believe I had the nerve to talk about it. Besides I thought it was funny.

We moved on West Twenty First place about four houses from the end of the block. Here is where I met my first girl friend, she was the daughter of some friends of ours. They owned a two seated car. We kids would go sit in the car playing like we were going some place my girl friend and I would always ride in the back seat. This was the beginning of the era of the great depression: the days of soup line, of which I hear people saying there never were such thing but be assured I saw soup lines over a block long in freezing weather. Our family was lucky, or fortunate, I should say. We never had to stand in line. Our father was lucky enough to have a job which was not much, but he did have a pay check, which was not much, but it kept us off the soup line. It was not a disgrace to be poor and seeking food from the soup kitchens.

I remember at Christmas we hung our stockings up and we would get one orange, one apple, and some mixed hard Christmas candy, some times a little toy, most of the time we kids made our own toys to play with. We were lucky; our father had a job and our mother had a garden in a vacant lot by our house, so we ate pretty good. Also, food was a lot cheaper then, we bought a cow so we could have milk and butter. Around this time the bridge we called the Twenty Third street bridge was under construction my father had enough experience from his job at McMichaels Sand Plant to hire in at the bridge construction. He was pumping sand for the approaches to the bridge, but this job didn't last very long, and as my father had been raised on a farm he was offered the opportunity to move to a farm about three miles east of Nowata, OK.

This is where I have my fondest memories of my childhood, this a dream come true for me. When I was not in school I was out in the woods either fishing or hunting , but the farm we moved on was caned gumbo, when wet you could walk twenty feet and have a ball of mud as large as a bucket on your feet it was a first class craw fish farm the craw fish would build a mound of mud six inches high we would tie a piece of fat meat on a string drop it down the hole and up would come a craw fish the size of a small lobster. Money was not as plentiful as it had been before moving on the farm but we still could raise most of our food and catch fish, kill squirrels, catch bull frogs, which is a gourmet dish today. We even tried opossum but that didn't go well with me.

One day, as the head feed was ripening, the red wing black birds would come to eat the seeds from the head of the feed. The sky would be black with them. My mother told me to take the shot gun and see how many I could kill with one shot and I killed as many as she needed. She cleaned them and baked a black bird pie with veggies in it. And it was delicious.


(Lennie Mae Cowen 1901-1984)

This farm was in an ox bow of the verdigris river. When the river overflowed it would leave its banks on the north side of the bottom and follow the foot of the hill around and exit back into the river at the south side. This made a lake some places ten feet deep and twenty five feet wide. There were fish a plenty bullfrogs fifteen inches tong an snakes a live when we would get tired of fishing we would hook the snake in the belly and kill them.

There were an abundance of fur bearing animals so my father taught me how to set traps and I got twenty five traps which was the limit and became a trapper. I had two box traps to catch rabbits in to use for bait for the steel traps mostly what I caught was skunks and opossum any of good hides from them, stretched and clean from fat with no holes in them would bring fifty cents to a dollar twenty five.

I would get up every morning rain, shine sleet or snow and run my traps before I would go to school, l caught so many skunks that when the kids smelled a skunk they would all look at me but I contributed a few dollars to the family.

Things got no better and I can't remember what the disagreement was about but my father and M.r McMichael got cross ways and we moved further down into the bottom, in fact we were the last house in the bottom before the river. Now, as far as I was concerned I was happier because this was to me like a jungle and I was Tarzan.

This farm was better, the only thing was that it had not been cultivated in a few years so we had to clear the land of all the sprouts from the last time it had been cultivated, but we accomplished the task in time for planting after having one huge bon fire from the pile of sprouts One other problem was that we had no drinking water. We had to haul water a half a mile sometime with a twelve quart bucket in each hand. The next few months were rough mother would save eggs or churn the milk and make a pound of butter to use as barter at the store.

Hardships come and went I remember once when my older brother fell madly in love with a neighbor girl she was a pretty girt but she had the itch and gave it to my brother who in turn gave it to the rest of our family. Boy what an ordeal. We went to the doctor for a cure but he had nothing, so our mother using a home remedy boiled poke plant roots in water and made us bathe in it what a terrible ordeal; it was like liquid fire but it got the job done.

We worked very very hard during that year. I was still going to school. By now I had another girl friend, her name was Helen Spray. We would write love letters to each other. I would keep mine from her and hide them in the stairwell. One day my mother noticed a bulge in the wall covering and found my letters. After reading them and she got back to earth she verbally threatened me with bodily harm when I arrived from school. I did not see anything wrong with the letters. I believed me to be a pretty good letter writer and I know my penmanship to be excellent for I won in contest with it.

During the summer we had a natural swimming pool in the river so we always had every kid in the bottom at our house swimming practically every after noon. There were just three kids at that time in our family, better make that four I forgot about Virginia, I don't know how because she would sit down in the trail to school and cry for me to carry her on my back and there I was just a child my self but with her threatening to tell "daddy on you" made me turn around and go back pick her up and carry her. We had about three miles to walk to school. The school was a two room country school at Coody's Bluff, a farm community with two stores and the school; practically all inundated when Oologah came to filled with water from the dam by the same name, Oologah Dam, the foundation may still be visible at times. If we could have crossed the river just north of the school we would have had about a mile to walk to school.

Things got no better but the last year we lived there, the dates are difficult to remember, and it was about time to cut our wheat and oats and put them in shocks to await the threshing but it was not to be. The corn was as high as an elephants eye in the tassel stage. And it serrated to. I think it rained forty days and forty nights and the river began to rise and kept on rising till just the tops of our corn was above the water and living in an oil field the oil was floating on top of the water just even with the heads of our wheat of our mother and oats, the the rain stopped and the water began to recede, but mud was left, we went into our house washed the mud out and moved back home, and it started to rain again, and it rained and rained till the river began to flood, so we reloaded our belongings in the wagon and never looked back. My father sold all our farming equipment to the best offer, so we bid all good bye and moved to Seminole, OK where many of our relationship lived. These were my mothers, mother and father and two sisters (Ira's maternal grandparents Tim Stone). We had not even got settled in till they all left for California the only income we had while at Seminole was a daily newspaper route which was not much, and what my dad made at odd jobs.

We didn't live at Seminole but a few day's when my father went to visit his brother who farmed ten miles north of Paden and my father rented a farm and came back to Seminole and got us and we moved eight mites north of Paden, but again things went ba. This was the start of the dust bowl days which the movie Grapes of Wrath was made about. If you had lived during those days you could appreciate what I mean: Hard Times, again with the ability to grow most of our food and with the ingenuity of our mother to cook a meal from almost nothing we survived.

Then the federal government enacted a relief for farmers called drought relief, but at that time my Dad could not get access to that, but along about the same time the government started the Civilian Conservation Corps for young men seventeen year and older. They would send them all over the United States and would build roads & fight forest fires. In return they received housing, meals and cloths and was paid one dollar a day of which twenty five dollars was sent home to the boys family keeping five dollars for the boys personal use. My brother went to the CCC first and stayed six months, the one hundred and fifty dollars sent home to the boys family in the six months the boy served was not much but it was all the family had to live on. I was the next one to go. I was sent to Wyoming (1937), a sixteen year old boy in Wyoming would make a man out of the boy rather quickly, because Wyoming was still the wild west. I enjoyed my time there, where we had been transferred from Cheyenne to what we called a side camp in the mountains south of Douglas WY. Again I found myself in ideal country for a barefoot kid (but i did wear shoes )I with cheeks of tan, we were just north of Laramie mountain a wild unsettled area full of abandoned mines, we checked the mine shafts over and crawled down a way inside of them but the timbers were so rotten we decided it was not worth it, besides the bottom of the shafts were full of water.

Then I volunteered for a side camp of which there were only about twenty boys an the
foreman. Some of the boys with the foreman lived in a house on the site the rest lived in tents, I lived in a two man tent, the place was called Cold Springs. Here we were working on a ranger station. Grandma Maggie and I went back to this area fifty years later and found the exact location of our camp, we found where we had lain rocks to form side walks, I wanted to see if it looked any thing like i remembered, it was difficult to find much of what i remembered.

After six months I was scheduled to return home, but before we left we moved to a town right out of the old west, Saratoga Wyoming. They had dirt streets and board sidewalks as you walked down the side walk or into the stores it sounded like some of the scenes on the western movies. The North Platte river ran right through town it was all ways jammed with logs destined for the saw mill, also a small earthen dam separated a hot spring from the river. In the evenings most of the town would be down at the spring enjoying the therapeutic qualities of the spring. Each day we would drive two hours up in the mountains to what was called, and can be found on the map, as the Snowy Range where we would bug trees: I will explain. A ranger would mark the trees that was full of wood borers which spread from tree to tree. We would cut the tree down pile it up in a pile peal the bark off the stump below the surface of the ground, and when it snowed and forest fire danger was minimal the brush piles would be burned.

The day for our departure finally arrived and we loaded aboard a train and headed for home. I would stay at home only six months and would sign up again for the CCC, this time i was sent to Henryetta. OK (1938). I would remain there for eighteen months. We constructed a beach on the Henryetta lake by hauling sand from the North Canadian River to create the beach. All of the buildings were built using native stone from the hills south of Henryetta. This is where I met and married your grandmother (9-21-1940 @ 19 ears old)

A month after that I was discharged from the CCC camp and started looking for a job, which were scarce as hen's teeth. My first job was working for a timber cutter, we cut saw logs and mine props. The pay as well as I remember was 9 1\2 cents an hour with lunch furnished but, when we loaded mine props to haul to the mine as long as I was riding in the truck I did not get paid. (For your information mine props were used to shore up the roof of the mines to keep them from falling in they were about the size of a fence post and about five foot long.) If I worked all day some times I would make one dollar. Pearl and I would live a while with her family and then go stay with my family. After a while I got a job from a government program working in a mattress factory (1941). We would refurbish old mattress using the old cotton with some new cotton to make new mattress, after a while as I gained experience I was promoted to the sewing machines sewing the covers, I was promoted to where we tuft and rolled the edge of each mattress.

This went on for about a year and Pearl and I moved to San Diego, CA. I joined the labor union and went to work feeling like I was a real man at last. I worked at various common labor jobs. One day I saw an add wanting workers in a defense plant and I went and applied and got a job helping build 8-24 heavy bombers. Now I was happy, working on airplanes. There I stayed for four and a half years. (1941-1945)

But, with no vacations I become tired and seeing war movies I was ready to go in and whip the Japanese, Pearl was pregnant with Wanda Faye, but I went down to the draft board and told them the uncertainty was to great not knowing at what time I would be drafted, and if they wanted me to take me, my bluff didn't work so I volunteered for the navy.

I was given a month to go back home and visit and I would be inducted from Okemah this time passed very quickly and I was soon on a bus for Tulsa where I would be sworn into the military. In a couple days I was sent to San Diego naval training station which was just a fence between where I had been working for the last four and a half years. My training was not that interesting so we will skip that part of my fife. (1945-1950)

I was assigned to the navy air wing and sent to Alameda, CA where I did the work of an apprentice seaman like sweeping the hangers, picking up cigarette butts and walking guard at night in the hangers, which I hated. So I volunteered for radio school and was accepted. We were sent to Moffett Naval Air Station which had a blimp squadron stationed there. I did not apply myself as I should have and did not get my radio license was sent back to Alameda NAS resumed my duties as before. In the mean time Pearl brought Wanda Faye out to San Fransisco where I could be with them nearly every week end and night. In the mean time I was trying to leave the base by anyway I could. I volunteered for aircraft carriers, several different other duties, and finally was accepted for duty over seas, of which I had no idea where it was.

As the ship made its way down through Puget sound my thoughts were to jump over board and swim ashore, but I still had the feeling of loyalty. I shut it out of my mind. As we reached the sea we had passed through and looked at some beautiful country. For the next few days we were on the open sea which was like a cruise. For days the pacific was smooth as glass, the day or hour I can't remember but it was early morning. Still we could see the Hawaii island but entry into the harbor was delayed because the submarine net was not opened but when we did get in we docked at the foot of the aloha tower for a while then we moved around to a loading dock, while there everyone took a trip to Waukakee beach for a swim. The only ones left on board ship was myself and a chief and the ships crew. The only bath I had since aboard ship was salt water, so i carried water from a drinking fountain up one deck until I had enough to take a bath; it sure made me feel better.

When we left Hawaii we ran a zig zag course for protection from subs and again due to time and date loss I don't know when we pulled into a small island not much larger than a few acres, by then we were getting closer to the equator and it was sweltering hot. We were supposed to join a convoy as we were getting in the war zone, but the skipper gave up and we headed out on our own. We stopped by an island which i believe was Wake Island which was a flat piece of sand. I don't think it had even one tree on it, just an air strip and some buildings, then we continued on our journey finely arriving at our destination, the island of Guam. It was hot and humid but we had our feet on the ground the island was secure.

But caution was the word because there were many japs still in unorganized groups on the island that had not surrendered. The marines would catch a few at night and even in the day time. They would raid the trash and garbage cans at night most of the time for food. My first few days in Guam I slept in a tent by myself which was at the edge of the jungle. I slept with my bowie knife under my pillow. The only attack I experienced was from mosquitoes and there were millions of them. We had outdoor showers and you could stand under the water and they would cover every inch of skin. Eventually I got assigned to a quonset hut which was my home till I left to go back home. Since I was traveling on special orders I caught the first ship out which was a navy ship much cleaner and it headed straight for Seattle, Washington. The navy chow hall was open with food like we had not seen in months and fresh milk: all you could drink.

I was discharged within two days and on my way home about midnight in the rain and no one to meet me. A police car came by and saw me in a store door way and ask me if they could take me home, and they did. This was the beginning of the transfer from military to civilian life

I thought I wanted to be a farmer so I went in debt for the things that was supposed to make me a farmer, the first year was a complete flop: all I wanted to do was fish and hunt. I had over looked cows to milk every day, hogs to feed every day, planning for the crops I would plant the coming year, the plowing of the fields to be prepared for the planting, all of this left no time for fishing and hunting, so guess which was neglected? The first year passed rather quickly and the man who owned the farm I had rented wanted to move back on it, so with the help of my father and uncle I went in debt and purchased an eighty acre farm, which would have been a good investment if it had not been for the fishing and hunting. I tried for two years and as there was not any inoculations against fishing and hunting fever, I succumbed to the fact I was not, neither would I ever, be a farmer. (1950-56)

So I sold every thing and moved to Henryetta, Oklahopma and went to work for the Pittsburgh Glass lant, which was a good place to work but not perfect place. Every year or two one of the two tanks had to shut down and if you were not high on the seniority you were out of work except for extra hours when they needed a warm body. I stayed with it for four years and quit and moved to Tulsa and worked at the OX refinery, but it was not much more secure, so i went to work for douglas aircraft. Again I was happy I was around airplanes. After seven years I was dismissed because of cut back in defense spending. The next few years were tough. First I worked as a surgical orderly, (56-58) next I worked for The Tulsa Whisenhunt Funeral home for a year(58-60) doing every thing but embalming, but I had to help do that. Then I hired on as a dispatcher at the Tulsa Police Department for twenty six years (1960-1986) and that is where I retired into an old grouch and hermit or Scrooge.

I forgot to mention !!!!!!Your grand mother died in the late 1979 in 1980.

I had a heart attack and within four months I had triple bypass surgery followed by two more major surgeries and several minor surgeries.

In 1986 I retired from the city with 26 years of service.

In 1986 I met a lady who was a volunteer at the communications division we began to date and later married and she is proud to be called grandma. She had 4 girls and one son all well mannered, thinks the world of me.

Now to you my grandson I say get all the education you can while you can, don't be as grandpa and have to pass up jobs and promotions because of the lack of education, above all love your children and your wife, don't forsake God and the church for therein you will find strength. This is where I took the wrong road, by not becoming a full time minister. I was happiest when I was preaching every Sunday.