Oak Ridge Memories

By: Charlie Hennigan

and all His Neighbors

Here is the South Roosevelt Drive portion of Oak Ridge.  It may take a minute or two to download...
The original is not flat, so it caused me some problems.  Richard photocopied some of it that looked better, but I don't have the entire plat as photocoped by Richard...
.
I "ain't" giving up... "I shall return!" to Minden, that is.  

Nolan Bailey

Dear Classmates and Friends:

After viewing Bob Grambling's photographs on the Minden Memories site I have found another
name that I think I know from over sixty years ago.  It's Tommie Farrow.  I'm quite sure that
his family lived on South Roosevelt Drive during the World War II years.  If I'm right, his family
lived on the same side of the street as mine, and just down the hill by two or three houses.
Again, I'm trying to remember of visualize all of this with "eyes" that were from two to six years old during the years of 1941 to 1946.
Someone may have already verified this, but I think that at Mobley family lived in Oak Ridge during those years, too.
As my last live brain cell continues to "strain," I may remember more...hope so.
 
It's quite a coincidence for me to learn that Ruby Anderson Mathews now lives in the same home
that my family did during World War II, 210 South Roosevelt Drive.   It's slowly coming back to me that
Gary may have been a couple of years older that I was, but we still "terrorized" the neighborhood as a "team."
They came up with the term "dynamic duo" after seeing us at work. :-)

Nolan Bailey

                                            ORIGINAL SURVEY

Hi folks, just a thought... I have the original survey done when Oak Ridge Subdivision was built to house the employees of LOP. (Louisiana Ordinance Plant) It shows every house, including the dimensions of the house and lot. It is dated August 16, 1941, and was done by Harry Hardeman, a local surveyor. It's too big to copy or fax, but I will gladly show it to anyone who wants to come by my office. Just give me a little notice to be sure I am here.

Submitted by Richard Carey

                                                               PHOTOGRAPH THE SURVEY

Hey..Richard...

I'm the person who got all of the Oak Ridge Subdivision "hoopla" started.  My family moved to 210 South Roosevelt Drive around 1942.  My dad worked as a fireman at the Ordnance Plant, and my job was to make trouble around the neighborhood until I was old enough to start school in 1945.  We moved back to Bienville after the war had ended, and the Ordnance Plant job had ended, too.

I'm really interested in taking a picture of your Oak Ridge survey.  That way we could put names to all of the houses that are shown, recreating very early Oak Ridge history.    I will be back in Natchitoches from Wednesday through Friday of this week and would be willing to make a special trip to Minden to make the photograph, with your approval.  I taught photography at the university level for fifteen years so I have the right equipment to do the job.  Please let me know where you are located and when I can come...if possible.  I'll be leaving Texas tomorrow fairly early and won't have internet access back in Louisiana.  Hope you can get back to me before I depart for the "Bayou State."

Thanks very much,

Nolan

                               THE DATE OF THE SURVEY

The date of the original survey gives me an idea as to when we moved there.  I must have been in very late 1941 or in 1942...good!  It's too bad that my "folks" aren't around to answer these questions.  I tried a phone call a while back but it didn't go through... the "distance was too long," I guess...

 Nolan Bailey

                                             WE PLAYED CARDS AND RODE  BIKES IN OAK RIDGE

                                                                   BIENVILLE PARISH

You're gonna have to tell Charlie to quit taking those "pills." I'm sure that the Hennigans lived at the foot of the hill in Oak Ridge during most of World War II. As I've said before, I'm sure that my parents knew the Hennigans when they lived in the Bienville/Bryceland area of Bienville Parish. I do remember an Aaron Hennigan that lived in Bienville.

I'm still thinking that Lura Taylor Hennigan was Buel Gene Taylor's sister. Something about this "rings a bell" in the cobwebs of my mind. Anyhow, unless Lura "commuted" from downtown Minden to hold "religious services" in my parents home a few times, I'm sure that they just walked up the hill to our house. Charlie is about our years older than I am and his brother, I think, is about two years older. I was born in June of 1939. Even though I was one of the youngest "wieners" that lived in Oak Ridge, I "hung around" with the older boys and pestered them to let me try anything that they did. By the way, I do remember the "Maxey" name, too.

I guess that I should have said that East is at the top of my map. The left hand side is North. Yes, one would have gone East from my home, up the hill, and around the corner to the Anderson's home. hen, further on, the road made a sharp left to West, and went rapidly downhill. Then, it made a sharp right to the North... Am I right, here?

As for A. C. and Martha McEachern, all one has to do is give Martha a call at the Cards and Things shop and ask her. She might be able to give us lots of Oak Ridge names, too.

Nolan Bailey

                                         BUEL GENE TAYLOR'S SISTER

Nolan, my family lived in Oak Ridge from the early forties until Good
Friday of 1969. Yes, at the foot of the hill next to the big ditch. My
parents built a home on Nella Street, just off the Homer Road.  Also
yes,  my mom, Lura, was Buel Gene Taylor's older sister. Aaron Hennigan
was mine and Charlie's grandfather. He lived at the Meadowview nursing
home after his second wife, Kitty, passed away in the seventies. Aaron
lived until just past his 101 birthday.

Sharon Hennigan Waters
 

                                                          SCHOOL BUS DRIVER

I have really enjoyed the Oak Ridge Memories!!  I have two childhood connections to O/R.  My aunt & uncle (Louise and Herman Wright) lived across the street from Charlie Hennigan.  My two cousins were Donald & Jackie Wright.  They were both older than me. 

 

My dad was the school bus driver for that area before he became a deputy sheriff about 1960.  I remember so many who rode his bus.  Before I started driving to high school, I rode with him in the mornings.  (Albert Simolke)

Thanks, for sharing all of this,

Beverly S. Bryce 

                                      THE BLUE DANIEL

 

I talked with Wayne Lee at the funeral home about a year or two ago, and asked him if he was the Blue Daniel.  His answer was , "Yes, I was."  I never saw his friend, so I don't have any idea who he was.  A lot of the guys in Oak Ridge thought I was the Blue Daniel, but I was with them once or twice when he appeared and they stopped accusing me.  Gary Daniels thought I was, and really teased me about it a few years after he stopped appearing from the hill behind Oak Ridge. 

 

Danny Cheney lived in Oak Ridge when he first came to Minden.

He lived in the house or next to the house that is labeled Roberts on the map.  Joe and Charlie Roberts lived on the other side across from Charles Samuels.  I don't know if that is the same Roberts family that whoever made the map meant, but if you walk on Roosevelt toward Highway 80, you will pass the Anderson's house which will be on your right, then there is a 90 degree curve that goes down a pretty steep hill.  About half-way down that hill on the right is where Joe and Charles lived, almost directly across from Charles Samuels place.  I wasn't in the area during WW II, so I don't know who lived there then, but I knew just about everybody in Oak Ridge from about 1947 until 1950 and I don't remember A. C. or the Toms living there.  When I was in the area, Carol Toms lived near where his station is today. As for Jim Landrum, I was in his gym class in high school and he didn't ride the Shreveport Road bus, but that doesn't mean anything, because I didn't ride it much either.  It went to the Sibley Road first and by the time it got to Sparkman's grocery store there were no seats, so I usually walked to and from school.  Anyway I hope the Blue Daniel mystery is solved at last.

 

Narley Stryder ( aka Fred Moore)

                                                                 THE CLUB HOUSE   

I've been thinking about what Charlie has said, below.  As I recall, his "crowd" of "older guys" had built a club house up in a tree, or something.
It had lots of "Keep Out" signs everywhere and we "younger kids" were afraid of being "killed" if he trespassed.  We "trespassed anyhow," but we made sure we didn't get caught.  Again, it's a figment of my memory, but I think that someone trashed the Hennigan and crowd's clubhouse one day.  Since we "younger criminals" were caught in the area, we were accused of the dirty deed.  Of course, I learned at an early age to deny...deny..deny.  However, we really didn't have anything to do with the club house damage.   I'm hoping that this fits in with what others recall...that there was a club house and that it was trashed back then...

Nolan Bailey
Miscreant...Oak Ridge...1941-1945

                                                                  

                                             COWART, FARRAR OR FARROW FAMILY

                                                                               AND

                                                            LEARNING TO SHIFT GEARS

It looks like most of the names given for Oak Ridge must have been lot of folks that moved there after WWII.  I know for sure that Martha McEachern Wimberly's family lived there around that time--and her brother AC. She is an Aunt of my wife's.  And, I hear that she still works in the card shop in downtown Minden.  I'll bet she can remember lots of the very early families. The Mobley name is familiar to me.  I guess my family lived there from 1941 to late 1945...after the war was over.   I can't remember the names, but two brothers lived right in front of us.   I'm surprised that someone hasn't mentioned the Cowart ("Carrot")  family.  He had a foreign accent, but I don't know where he immigrated from...I think that the Farrar family lived down the fill from us on the same side. We kids called them the "Farrow" family....what the heck did we know...   

Our driveway was directly opposite of the neighbor's driveway across the street. One day I got into our 1939 Ford and was "practicing shifting the gears" like I was learning to drive. When I got out of the car, I left it out of gear. The next morning the Ford had "backed itself into" the neighbors drive. Since we lived up hill, the car slowly rolled the street and into the neighbor's drive. Boy was I in trouble, again.... 

Nolan Bailey

                               FARROW AND THE FARRAR'S

Ann Mays Harlan

                           MY MEMORIES & BEDTIME STORIES

I only know how the map changed by the early sixties. Nearly across the
street from the Ashcrofts was a very sweet family with four children.
The Moore's mom was Melba and the kids were Dale, Sandy, Roxanne, Karen
and Drew. I wish I could remember their immediate neighbors toward's the
highway. They had the best pomegranite tree! There were the Hightowers
and the Chreene's lived just above them and the pretty brick house right
at the highway was the Hammontree family. I knew Tanya and Charlotte.The
house across the street from us lived a very elderly man that was blind
and sold parched peanuts from a wagon. The house just behind us was the
Goodwins? Or maybe Goodwills. ( I know that there was also a Goodwin
family across the street, too.)  They didn't have children living at
home at the time and he worked as a grocer. They had a mimosa tree right
at our property line which I remember falling out of and knocking out my
breath. David and I also set up a "drum set" of pots and pans out there
that made enough racket for them to come out and make us dis-assemble
it. Across from them was a nice young family named Richardson. He was
very good looking and she was really pretty. Emogene, the pretty wife
and mother to Greg and and a little baby girl, was a special education
teacher (maybe still is?) I think right next to them was the Schindlers.
Tommie was the mom's name. There were two older kids, Dianne was the
lovely girl. John Paul, the youngest was about four or five years older
than I. There was one story told that one brother shot the other in the
gut with a bow and arrow. Daddy carried him to the doctor in his police
car. As I recall they were Roman Catholic--very exotic to us
protestants! Mrs. Schindler used to make candles for their church
services. John Paul married and moved to the Northeast. My husband and I
had dinner with him and some friends down in south Louisiana back about
twelve years ago. There was a while when Jack and Shirley Maxie lived
just below and across from Gary Matthews (Gary's daughter Karen was my
classmate and her mom (Ruby?) was one of our Brownie leaders. I used to
love to play with Lisa, Lori and Lynn Maxie. What I really loved was
that Shirley would let David and I come in during the hot weather when
Mama would lock the door so that she could get some rest during the
afternoons. (you know, she was in her forties when David and I were
born. She needed that rest!)

So far nobody has told the story about making beer and the beer
contraption exploding. Was that during Charlie and Red Cupples time or
Ronnie, Robert Earle Lee and Larry Burre'sl. There was also the potato
garden story about Charlie and his friends talking little brother Ronnie
into picking off the potato bugs and telling him that they were good to
eat--until he had a belly ache and the doctor had to be called. Those
stories and many others about my older brothers' exploits were David's
and my bedtime stories. Told by my daddy who remembered those as the
best of times.

 Sharon Hennigan Waters

                            
                        THERE WERE DITCHES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD

There was a ravine which began at Red Cupples house which became progressively wider and deeper until it reached the road at my house. We hung bag swings on trees at the edges of the ditch and had fine times swinging out over the ditch. We also played in the sand at the bottom of the ravine planting bull nettles there for the unsuspecting to dig. I think there may be some who remember the remedy for bull nettle stings.  I'm not going to tell!!!

At the top of the hill where the Anderson's lived, also Gary and Nancy Matthews, also the Burrells, the Dirty Six would take their bicycles, without chains which made no brakes, and coast downhill. Before the bikes, we also rode down the hill in wagons. There were ditches on both sides of the road so it was make it or bust (not as in breasts). We received many skinned arms and legs and not a few bruises. It was fun! My family moved there in 1941 or there about. The houses had four rooms and one bath for the most part, some maybe more.  My dad worked at the shell plant before he became a Minden policeman. 
 

#1 Stops that Itch by Nolan Bailey

I remember that ditch, too. And, I know that "number 1" is supposed to stop the itch.  Never tried it myself. I do remember bull nettle vividly.
When I was a kid we used to hang onto the back of my granddaddy's wagon and run along behind--barefooted. That was fine until he drove overa patch of "nettle," and until we didn't have time to dodge when it appeared from underneath the wagon.  Those sand burs or sticker burs weren't much better...ouch!  Back in the 1940's and 1950's all of the kids liked to "run around" barefooted in the summers.  We could hardlywait until the parents said that it was 'warm enough" to go barefooted.  They even let us go "barefooted" at our school--after my time at Minden.  That's how we got to be so "intimate" with "sand burs" and "bull nettle" plants--bare feet do not like either.  

THE DITCH IN OAK RIDGE

I can pick up where Charlie and Nolan left off about the ditch
at Oak Ridge. (Actually Brother Ronnie should fill in the gaps--he is
eight years younger than Charlie and sixteen years older than I.)  It
was right next to our house on 222 W. Roosevelt and by the time my
brother David and I came along the ravine that ran from the "Big
Ditch" had a culvert running through it that ended at the road. Yes,
there was a sand pile down on that end. I don't know when it became a
city park with a softball field but when I was big enough to toddle
out there there were two slides and two or three swing sets including
a baby swing. The see saws were down at the sand pile. David and our
friends used to  play down in the ditch. We also made the long and
dangerous crawl through the culvert down to the street. We needed a
whipping!

Sharon Hennigan Waters

                                   MAP OF OAK RIDGE

As everyone should know by now, my family lived right next to the Matthews family...on the uphill side, until WWII was over. The Hennigan's moved to Minden from Bienville in Bienville Parish (according to my young memory), so I think that my parents knew them before both families moved to Minden. As I recall, and I may be dead wrong, Lura was Buel Gene Taylor's sister. He was a family friend, and WWII veteran, that lived in Bryceland, Louisiana.  Buel Gene married a German lady.  We called it "Bryce" back then. When I was a teenager, Buel Gene learned that I was interested in photography and loaned me a Leica camera that he had brought back from the war.

It's been a while, but I think that someone in the neighborhood made themselves a makeshift "Soap Box Derby" kind of downhill  "wagon." They took something like a 2" x 8" and attached four wheels and an apple crate for the "engine  compartment."  The front axle would swivel back and forth and was controlled by a wheel on a broom handle that had a rope attached to the end. As one would turn the wheel it would twist the rope and move the front axle left or right. I think that this very early "Soap Box" car did spend lots of time in the ditch. Since my house was toward the top of the hill, it was the starting point for the "race" downhill toward the corner that led to the Hennigan's home 

Here's how a six-year-old kid remembers the neighborhood. Oh, yes, I remember that Gary and I were playing with "matches" one day and set the grass behind our houses on fire.  I've never seen parents scurrying around in such a hurry trying to "tamp out" the flames.  For a while there we thought the whole field behind our homes would burn.  My "pants" burned for several days after that.  My eyes "water" even today when I see a match being struck... <grin>

Whew, this "membering" is tough work for my last remaining brain cell....

Nolan Bailey

A boy who was killed in a motorcycle accident lived on the corner. Does anyone remember his name?

Jimmy Tauntom?

"Wiggy" had some chickens and wore a wig

Jackie and Donald Wright lived here with their parents. They are all deceased.

On the other side of the street were Charles and Jim Landreum. They moved to Shreveport  and a dentist moved in their home. Anybody remember the name of the dentist who moved in with the pretty wife?

Coming up the hill was Tommy and Buddy Ashcroft across from the Brooks home; they had a garage about six feet wide. Not all the homes in Oak Ridge had a garage back then. Buddy is now deceased.

The home on the corner at the dead end belonged to Bobbyy Wayne Goodwin. He may have graduated around 1952.

Patsy and Barbara Heflin lived nearby with their parents Beatrice & Slim.They are all deceased. 

The Toms twins ..Harold and Carroll lived in Oak Ridge also.

A.C.  McEachern's family lived in Oak Ridge

The Brazzell family lived in Oak Ridge

The Anderson's live on the right hand side of the road; They had twelve children. Mrs. Anderson lived to be over 100 years old. Hal died a few years ago. Mary Joe still lives in the family home in Oak Ridge. Gary Mathews married one of the Anderson girls& She still lives in Oak Ridge today. Gary is deceased.

Jeanine Mobley and her family lived in Oak Ridge

Red Cupples and his two brothers lived with their family in Oak Ridge. He also had an Uncle who lived in Oak Ridge.

The Brooks girls - Dorothy, Martha and Billie Sue lived with their Dad. The Mother was deceased.

There was a kid who went to LSU who lived in Oak Ride.

The Kelly girls - Patsy married Shorty Long, Mary Sue married Mr. Pierson and Martha married Ralph Moreland. Wonder if they have a basketball player in their family? Did they have a brother?

The Haruska's also lived in Oak Ridge

Edwina and Mildred Milam lived in the only two story house in Oak Ridge. It had a tiny bedroom built over a garage.

Bill Lee lived by the Kelleys

Brother Mattingly the photographer lived on the hill. He attended Parkway Baptist Church. Mrs. Mattingly would touch up his pictures after he took them.

Gary Daniels

Sammy Odom

The B. C. Garriss family lived in the nicest house Oak Ridge. They had three children. B. C. Jr. who was older, and lived in Texas, Will and Joy.

Bill Cook the dancer also lived in Oak Ridge

There were two grocery stores.

The Ketchens lived in Oak Ridge

G. V. Wise would deliver or you could cut through and walk to Samuel's Grocery which most of the children preferred to do. Mr.Samuel's also had a watermelon Garden. A lot of Minden folks enjoyed going there to eat watermelon's in the summertime. His home also backed up to the Oak Ridge subdivision. It faced Highway 80.

Additions and corrections appreciated. Send to Mindenmemories@aol.com

First, Charlie sent a real long list of all the residents that he could remember who
lived in Oak Ridge

**Carman Green and

**Tommie Sue Hudson

*Moore

*Hightower

*Hammontree

*Schindler

*Maxie

***Danny Cheney lived in Oak Ridge

Here is another name that just "popped into" my head...concerning Oak Ridge. The name is Joe Waxley.  Does anyone associate this name with South Oak Ridge. He may have worked with my dad at the "Shell Plant." Nolan

* From Sharon Waters message

** From Jeannine Mobley Love's message

Dr. Sam Williams and his beautiful wife Thelma were the couple who first owned the home across the park ditch from where we lived.  Charlie Hennigan