This is on "The Ranch". This tree is one of the cottonwoods that Grandpa Tom Arnett planted along the wash to keep it from eroding toward the corral! (we think, anyway!!).
This is the road on "the Ranch" (my mom lived there until at least 8th gr.) - That railroad crossing has a little bit of an incline, and she remembers having a hard time driving a stick shift up (in their car "ole presh") over that incline at first!! (that would've been at around 14 yrs. old!). We thought that was a great story about our young mom!.jpg)
This is where the post office was, and inside they still have the old p.o. boxes and mail slots from way back!! Way cool!.jpg)
This is the canal (some of us would refer to it as a ditch, but to my mom it was "the canal"), where she and all her siblings (my uncles and aunts) as well as my Grandpa Tom Arnett were baptized! It runs right behind the old Franklin church that was torn down. The foundation is still there - see next pic!
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This is the spot (right where the cows are on the right!), where Grandma Sarah Ann Gale's house was. This is the place where my mom, Doris, was born..jpg)
The whole gang in front of the Duncan High School. Our "photographer" wanted to make sure he was in the picture! Oh, that Sam!.jpg)
This is in the hallway of Duncan High, upstairs. Mom,(Doris) is telling us how in that very room (that cousin Kat is looking in) is where her Biology class was, where she got a D!! She said, and I quote, " I could not see any reason whatsoever why I needed to know the circulatory system of a frog"! She says she not scientific at all! I am shocked at her attitude! I never knew this until this trip!! Oh me oh my!.jpg)
Doris Arnett Whatcott's family attending. (front: Sam, niece Heather andher son, Zach. Back: Rhea, mom-Doris, my nephew Tyler, brother Tim, brother Gaylen). This is at Grandma Annie Gale and Grandpa Tom Arnett's graves in the Franklin Cemetery. To the right is Grandpa Tom's father's grave-Ahijah "Babe" Arnett.jpg)
Here, my mom, Doris talking about Grandma and Grandpa Arnett, and Great grandpa Ahijah - at their graves.
This is the house that was built after the chicken coop house!! On Christmas day, when the wall had fallen in at their house Christmas Eve, they began the plans for this one. They lived in the chicken coop until this house was built enough to live in. If you don't know the chicken coop story, you need to hear or read it!.jpg)
This is the building where my mom and dad (Doris and Garth) had their wedding reception in. It's in Duncan. It was an LDS church back then. The old Franklin building had been torn down and a new one being built so the Franklin ward was meeting in this one..jpg)
Mom in front of her old alma mater!!! Back in her day, they were the Duncan punkin rollers!! Another school had lost to Duncan and so they referred to them as the Duncan punkins--trying to make fun of them, in their losses, and the Duncanites, took it on as a real cool thing and so wrote their fight song about it!! Their mascot was also the WildKats, even in my mom's day, but were known more so as the Duncan punkin rollers!!The WildKats is spelled with a K, because when they decided they needed a real mascot, rather than a punkin, they chose Wildcats. But their big rivals, Morenci, got upset, cuz they were already the Wildcats. So to show them they said, "fine we'll spell it with a K then!!" What brutes!
So here's to Duncan and Franklin!
The fight song -back in the 30's and 40's!! (to the tune of "I've been working on the railroad")
We're the Duncan Punkin rollers
rolling up the score
we're the Duncan punkin rollers
shining as before.
Can't you see our colors flying
up and down the line.
We're the Duncan punkin rollers
Say boys, how we shine!!!
It's kind of a neat phenomenon, how as you get older your parents' and ancestors' stories become much more interesting and important. As a youth, I probably would have died rather than going to this reunion out in the boonies and listen to stories of old, dead people -mostly ones I never knew! And yet I was excited to go and see for myself, and see the places my grandparents, great grandparents, uncles, aunts, greats, cousins, great cousins, etc. settled, worked the land, made it into workable farmland, lived and played, struggled and died. In other words, I got to hear and see a part of me and where I came from! And that is the beauty of it. The scripture of . . . the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers and the fathers to their children" is true doctrine! Isn't it great??
