Memories of an Oklahoma Farm Boy

I guess most Oklahomans at least have heard of Waynoka, OK., though the town doesn't have near the glamour of a few years ago. Waynoka was a prosperous little town in Woods county, of a few thousand population. It was one of a few Oklahoma towns which did not have to rely entirely on the farming community. Though the town was located north of the Mason-Dixon line, it was here that I first lived in a segregated community. There were no blacks in the area but many men of Mexican origin worked for the Santa Fe railroad. At one time they were required to live outside the town itself. Consequently there was a large settlement of these people who lived in a community about a mile north of town. They had their own Catholic church but, when we lived there, I don't believe they had any type of shopping center. In the late 40's a few had left the settlement and lived within the town limits.

The little Woods county town was, at one time, a transportation hub for much of the traffic which crossed the nation. At the beginning of air travel for America, there was an airport east of Waynoka where airplanes could be serviced and travelers could be brought into town to spend the night. Passenger planes did not fly after dark.

The town was perhaps best known as a railroad terminal. It is located on one of the main lines of the Santa Fe Railroad. There was a large Harvey House where train passengers could find a good meal and relax on their trip from Chicago or Los Angeles. Harvey Girls, who lived upstairs, were always there to help meet the passenger's needs. There was also a large roundhouse with a turntable where the huge engines could be turned around and also where repairs could be made on engines or railroad cars. There was also two large ice houses on the north side of town which really are the subject of this writing.

After finishing college in 1949 my first teaching position was at Waynoka. The main industry of the town at that time was the railroad. The airport was long gone and the Harvey House closed. Many trains still passed through the town and the roundhouse and ice house were still booming. Burt Gadberry, one of my new friends, worked at the roundhouse and Carl Parker was a yard fireman--the second operator on a locomotive. Til Knight, a retired engineer, would joke with Carl saying, "All firemen should have to fire an engine with wood or coal before being promoted to engineer." Engines used fuel oil in their fire boxes at that time and the fireman never had to shovel coal.

Since it was necessary for me to work at a second job in the summer's I was hired at the icehouse. These were the days when there were only a few refrigerator cars for transporting vegetables and other perishables so crushed ice was placed in each end of the car to keep it cool. Sometimes salt would be added if the car needed to be especially cold. The ice house operated 24 hours a day.

Ice was made in a large open sided room which was probably about 75 feet square. Since I didn't work in that area, I don't know much about it. I did see them pulling about seven large containers of ice at a time from below the floor area with a hoist which run on tracts. They were moved on the tract to a skirted door where the containers were laid on one edge and the ice would slide out of them and through the door into the ice house for storage. Once inside they were stacked in rows and layers until, at times, the house was completely filled. One could hardly imagine how much ice was stored in the ice house. The building must have been about 75 feet square and three stories high. There was a second storage building but not quite so large. The ice was stacked on edge, layer upon layer and often clear to the ceiling. That was a lot of ice!!

Shifts varied in size from about 25 to 50 or more men, each doing his special work. Usually I worked inside the icehouse where it was always cold even in the hottest July weather. At one end of the room was the chain conveyer on which the 300 pound blocks of ice were placed to be transported outside to a raised platform beside the tracts. The platform was a little higher than the top of the railroad cars. It was probably 100 yards or more long and train tracts were on each side of the platform. There were times when as one train was being iced, another was waiting on the opposite side. Because the items in the cars were perishable and the train must keep a schedule, speed in icing a train was of utmost importance.

Work would begin even before the train pulled up beside the platform. Inside the ice house the men would line up about 15 feet apart with the last man near the chain conveyor. The head man would be at one end of a row of ice and begin by pulling one block at a time between his legs with as big a thrust as possible. The second man was in position to send the block on its way by catching it at the proper time with his ice tongs and sending it between his legs with new momentum. The ice was relayed in this way until it reached the last man at the conveyor exit. We could probably send a block of ice to the conveyor about every 5 seconds. Of course there were times when a block would hit an uneven spot on the ice below it and be broken. Often there would be a broken toes or smashed fingers.

Outside, the ice blocks would move up the chain conveyor to the dock and be sent each direction down or up the dock. There were probably twenty cars beside the dock at one time. Two men would be stationed at each end of the railroad car, one to work the dock and one to guide and chip the ice into the car. The dock man had a wooden handled tool with a hook and pick on one end with which he could pull a block of ice from the conveyor, chip it into three one hundred pound pieces and slide them down a skid to the open door of the car. The man on the car would further chip the blocks into smaller pieces as it passed on it's way into the car. If needed, he would also add salt to the ice. In this way all the cars that were beside the dock would be iced, then the train would pull ahead to finish the remaining cars. There were times when two trains would arrive at the same time, thus doubling the work to be done. It is difficult to adequately describe the operation as it took place, but timing and speed was always a factor and one would marvel as man and machine worked together as one to complete the enormous task.

I was back in Waynoka a short time ago. The large round house with it's turntable was gone and I could only imagine where it had been. The ice houses and dock had also disappeared and weeds grew where they once stood. There was no trace of Mexican town and the homes that once were there. The Harvey house is still standing and I think they are trying to renovate it. Such is the passing of time.

I guess it is time for me to move on...