Progress.Progress brings new business and a fresh look to communities.
Progress also stirs memories.
Last week, the final demolition took place on the 600 block of south Broadway.
For years – 50, in fact – a two-pump gas station stood. For the last several years, the station lay vacant, bringing about descriptions such us eyesore or blemish.
As the old station, adjacent house, and abandoned tire shop came down, fond recollections stirred through this town, like the dust billowing from the newly formed rubble.
Two Marlow women remember days gone by spent at that station, because their grandmother called the razed house home, and their uncle made the dilapidated station one of the most popular stops for truckers and motorists, alike.
Marva Ratliff and Melody Thompson have youthful memories of the station and house.
Ratliff, and her husband Darrell, are in the midst of remodeling a house that had been in the family behind the demolition site.
“It’s sad to see it come down,” Ratliff said. “Every Christmas, we would all meet at Grandma’s house, and it would be standing room only. I bet there were 50 people in that little house.”
The station’s humble beginning had very little to do with gasoline or diesel.
Roy and Emma Price, the grandparents of Ratliff and Thompson, owned a small grocery store west of Marlow.
“It was before Highway 7 was road,” Thompson said. “I think it was on Blackburn Road. That was the road people would take to get to Lawton.”
The ladies remembered that groceries were purchased out of barrels in that store, which also had a single fuel pump.
“Everything was bought out of barrels,” Ratliff recalled. “There was once that they went to Lawton to buy supplies. They had bought a barrel of syrup, but it had a leak. They didn’t discover it until they got back. They had a empty barrel, and a long string of syrup back to Lawton.”
Eventually, Highway 7 was constructed, rendering the little store useless. It was also home to the Prices, who also owned a farm in the Central High area.
Thompson and Ratliff believed the house was moved into Marlow, and may still be a home in the area near the cemetery, but weren’t sure.
In 1948, they built a grocery store near the current location of Marlow Food Market.
“It was just time to come to town,” Ratliff said.
But Roy wasn’t ready.
Four years later, they bought the house that was recently taken down. Emma moved into town, but Roy stayed with the farm.
Well, at least some of the time.
“He came in every day at lunch,” Ratliff noted.
The couple also leased a filling station where Flinn Furniture now stands, but decided that owning their own station was far better than leasing one.
Thus, the couple used part of their property next to the house and built the station in 1959.
Not long after that, Roy’s brother Gerald took over the station.
“His name was Gerald, but everybody called him Cork,” Ratliff said.
The station was a prime location on what was then the south end of Marlow.
“I remember sitting out on grandma’s porch and watching all the trucks go by at night,” Ratliff said.
But not all those trucks were going by.
The station was one of the more popular stops, thanks to the price break for truckers.
“Cork loved starting price wars,” Ratliff said. “He would drop the price by as much as nickel.”
A nickel was significant in those days, mainly because of the fact that diesel was just 15 cents. Giving truckers a price break was just good business in those days.
Before the turnpike and interstate system, Highway 81 was one of the main thoroughfares through Oklahoma for truck traffic heading south to Fort Worth and Houston.
“Trucks would travel at night to avoid the in-town traffic during the day,” Ratliff said.
“The station was just as it was before they took it down,” Thompson noted. “It had the canopy, and trucks could only pull up in the outside lane.”
There was more room at the station since 81 was just a two-lane road.
“There could be as many as three or four trucks parked on the shoulder waiting to receive service,” Thompson said. “And they would stay open until the last truck was served.”
The building was more than just a service station.
Through the years, it housed a café, a pawn shop, and even a snow cone stand that Ratliff remembers running.
The station also had living quarters in the back.
Over the years, the station changed ownership to Jack and Maxine Van Dyke, who were relatives of the Prices.
There was a backyard behind the station and living quarters, and Ratliff remembered one cousin wanting to dig to China.
He succeeded with a large hole, which stayed in the yard under the guise of one day becoming a swimming pool.
The pool never materialized, although dances in the back yard were a common occurrence.
Dances weren’t the only kind of music at the station. Ratliff remembers Roger Miller stopping by on occasion and singing a tune or two.
Jerry Boyce bought the station in the late 70’s and operated it until his death.
The south end of the block also had a D/X station, which eventually gave way to a tire shop.
The city of Marlow now owns the lot, and is in the process of cleaning it. Preliminary plans to place a library on that spot have been discussed.
That would be just fine to Thompson and Ratliff.
“Grandma would be proud that a library could be built there,” Thompson said. “She was a teacher in her younger days, and she would be happy that education be involved on that lot.”
Ratliff added, “I guess that’s progress.”