 |
|
|
UER Store
|
|
sweet UER decals:
|
|
|
 dwtaylor999
  
Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
 |  | Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
< on 4/24/2011 2:41 PM >
|  | | | If for some reason you were hopelessly lost and drove through the remains of the ghost town of Skedee, Oklahoma, you would undoubtedly notice the strange statue in the middle of what remains of the town, but you could very easily drive right by the old W.O. Berg Store.
Hidden in brush, with its pale color, it looks like a black and white photograph hidden back in the limbs. Like many stores of the day, it was a general store, selling a bit of everything, much like a "dollar" store today. Built in 1910, it remained a general/grocery store up until at least the very early 1950s. As far as I can tell, its last use was as a feed store, which closed in the 1970's.
Located on the main thoroughfare, the old store is reasonably intact. Most of the other main street buildings, such as the bank, hotels, train station, etc., are completely gone, nothing but remnants of sidewalks and steps, with the exception of a couple of building shells.
Some old photos of vanished Skedee.
An old 1920s service station still sits on the corner, and is in the best shape of any of the remaining buildings. Like most small towns, it was once a thriving community, but began to decline steadily in the late 1930's. The current population as of the 2010 census is just over 40 people, down from 102 the previous decade.
Back to the Berg Store. Like most of the buildings in town, it was built from locally quarried stone, with a concrete and plaster facade. The front was designed to allow display of the store items, both in front and above. The main part of the store was a large open room, with two smaller rooms at the back. As is typical, after its commercial run, it was used for storage.
Remnants of the old canopy hanging hardware.
I'm not sure what, if anything is up there. I didn't have my ladder to check it out.
A lot of junk, but you can still see bits of the original setup.
Gayla Hold Bob "Americas favorite bobby pin!". This display is from the 1940's from similar I found on Ebay.
This is from the 1950s. You just had to keep those saddle shoes nice and white.
The first back room. Looks like an old paper dispenser for wrapping meat.
The other back room. I'm assuming it was a storage room, from the remnants.
Old beverage crates. Loves beverage company in Muskogee, Oklahoma has been in business since 1926.
Some old paperwork from the early 70s when the building was a feed store.
Where does the kung fu come in? Some of you may or may not remember the old tv series "Kung Fu" starring David Carradine. What you probably don't know is that the show was based on actual history. Kwai Chang Caine actually did exist and did came to the U.S. in the late 1800s in search of his American half brother Daniel.
He wasn't a wanted felon, as in the tv show, but he did indeed wander the country looking for Daniel. After giving up and restarting his search many times, Kwai Change finally tracked Danny to Skedee. Now going by Danny, Daniel had dropped the E from his last name.
They where both old men by this time and lived out the remainder of their lives in the Skedee area. Kwai Chang even became a full blood-brother member of the Pawnee Indians. The story was very popular at the time and covered in the local newspapers. How does the store tie in? Danny once worked there.
Joni loves Chachi!
If you'd like to see some more on Skedee, www.abandonedok.com did a great spot on it.
Ruins, the fate of all cities. |
|
KingJalopy
 
Location: Tulsa, OK
Gender: Male
I love manholes
| |  | Re: Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
<Reply # 1 on 4/24/2011 2:57 PM >
| | | | Great job as usual DW. I drove through there just the other day. And I did miss that store.
Drains, drains, drains, drains, drains. |
|
Wiccan
    
Location: Hamilton Ontario
Gender: Female
| | Re: Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
<Reply # 2 on 4/24/2011 5:11 PM >
| | | | Awesome as always,great post!
|
|
dwtaylor999
Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
| | Re: Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
<Reply # 3 on 4/25/2011 1:28 PM >
| | | | Thanks. It's strange, but it's easy to miss. Even more so now that the leaves have returned. It's like the building learned the old Jedi mind trick. "This isn't the building you seek."
Ruins, the fate of all cities. |
|
Twisted Orchid
Gender: Female
My inner child is a mean little fuck
| | Re: Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
<Reply # 4 on 4/26/2011 6:44 PM >
| | | | Awesome post. Why do the people in historic photos always look so serious and creepy? Is it just me?
[last edit 4/26/2011 7:03 PM by Twisted Orchid - edited 1 times]
|
|
dwtaylor999
Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
| | Re: Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
<Reply # 5 on 4/26/2011 9:01 PM >
| | | | Posted by Twisted Orchid
Awesome post. Why do the people in historic photos always look so serious and creepy? Is it just me?
|
Ha! They do always look like they're going to the gallows. Probably because photography was still somewhat uncommon then, and people made a big deal out of getting their photo taken. It doesn't seem smiling came along until the smaller hand held cameras allowed more informal picture taking.
Ruins, the fate of all cities. |
|
I'm the Slime
| | Re: Kung Fu, Groceries, and Bobby Pins
<Reply # 6 on 4/26/2011 9:46 PM >
| | | | Or because film of that day was a lot less sensitive, not too uncommon for it to take one to five minutes to expose. Typically the photographer would have "posing bars" that would hold your position while the photo was captured. Given that it is much easier to look dour faced and not move rather than have to hold a smile for that long - the reason why most people in photos from the turn of the century looked so stern.
|
|
|
|
All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site:
UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service |
View Privacy Policy |
Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 156 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 739196376 pages have been generated.
|
|
