A Father's Legacy

Martin Vol. 6 (Second Half)
by - Ernest D. Martin

I never had a burning desire to play a musical instrument although I always enjoyed listening to certain music. I insisted that a song should have a tune and anyone should be able to hum it. I think it has always been important to me that the words be understandable. The only musical instrument that I ever had an opportunity to fool around with was a piano and I could pick out a tune by one note at a time but my interest drifted in another direction.

I have already answered these questions but here goes again: The year was 1945 and I was 24 years of age. Your Mother was 19 years of age but would be 20 her next birthday which was about a month away. My initial attraction to your Mother was her physical beauty. It was not a sexual attraction although I will admit I recognized that she was a female. I was probably much more cautious in my advancing a closeness to her than I probably would have been at an earlier time in my life. Frankly I just knew she was too good to be true but of course in a short time I realized that she was indeed genuine.

NOTE: I have looked this little book over and discovered that many of the questions seem to reappear. For a while I thought maybe some of the questions arose in a different form from their previous structure. Now I have found that the book actually duplicates much of itself and therefore my answers may appear in a similar disorganized manner.

During the earliest part of my young life I had a very serious throat infection which led to an abscess that required surgery. I am told that I spent considerable time in a Temple, Texas hospital and today I carry the scars on my neck to show evidence of it.

Then for many years my Mother kept a strait pen attached to the lining of an old purse - it seems that during my crawling around on the floor that I ingested the pen to the consternation of my family. My big sister, Ruthelle was assigned the duty to search for it while passing her time away. She found it and I felt that it was a bit of poetic justice in return for her having given me the name Ernest.

I had an attack of appendicitis when Nita & I Lived in Houston, Texas but Daddy & Mama drove down to Houston and brought me to the hospital at Ardmore where the surgery was successfully performed by Drs. J.M. Gordon and R.C.Sullivan (1946).

Then the big one happened in June, 1984: I can only recite what I have remembered from the experience, but from the details I can only cite what has been told me and only then as I recall it. It was a Sunday Afternoon in June 1984 that I experienced pain from a severe crick in my neck. Nita massaged my neck with an electric vibrator a couple of different times and the pain would subside for a brief period.

I remember being taken to the Ardmore Hospital by automobile but I assumed it was for an EKG or maybe a brief examination. My dear Nita had secretly called Dr. Turrentine, who by the way was not on call that weekend, but he advised her to get me to the hospital promptly. After arriving at the emergency room at the hospital I remember a brief period where the nurse was asking me certain routine questions.

Jimmy & Terry were standing beside me when I remember announcing "Oh my God I am going to faint"…… Another brief period I recall was Dr. Turrentine advising me that I was having a heart attack and they were going to airlift me to Presbyterian Hospital where they would attempt to dissolve the clot with streptokynase… A military helicopter was dispatched from Ft. Sill (Lawton, Oklahoma). Lawton is where Larry Lynn lived at the time. When he got word what was going on he went to Ft. Sill and demanded to go with them on the flight… I understand that they refused to allow him passage but fortunately they gave in and it was well they did because they did not know where the Ardmore Hospital was located and later he had to direct them to the location of the Presbyterian Hospital in Okla. City.

I don’t remember arriving at the Hospital in Okla.City and it was probably a few days later that Dr. Paul J. Kanaly et al advised me that I needed open heart surgery in order for me to make it. The Doctor said " Mr. Martin you are 63 years old and we want to make it possible for you to live another 20 years - We must do surgery". I replied that I first must discuss it with my wife but they informed me that they had already talked to her about it. "Ok, I said, then its not a matter of whether but rather when" - "Yes, that is correct" and so it was done.

My dear family devoted their entire effort to see that all went well and I know it was because of their prayers and the prayers of many Christian friends that The Lord saw fit to bring about my recovery. I had an experience that happened one night while all alone in my recovery room that I know to be a divine occurrence. At the foot of my bed stood a figure of a man that did not particularly radiate a light or even seem to be unusually different in appearance from any ordinary person. The words he spoke shall always remain with me and I cherish them as a word from the Lord that was spoken directly to me.

The words "Do not be concerned for your well being because I have come to carry your burden for you."

I pray that Jesus Christ will forgive me if I have not quoted him as exactly as I should have or if I have in some way misrepresented what I believe to be a true rendition of this most important experience. Later when Nita would admonish me for something I was not doing properly as it would seem to be appropriate for a recovering surgical patient, I would reply that "I am not the sick person here - It’s that other fellow."

I remained very sore for several months and it was imperative that I follow all the guidelines laid out for my well being, I still marvel at how quickly I seemed to mend and recover. There had been some expression of concern regarding a possible impairment or damage to my brain due to lack of oxygen for an undetermined time. However I don’t suppose there was because I can still tie a Windsor knot in my tie and I can still remember things that happened 70 years ago. I never smoked a Cigarette again. Although, I had indulged in them for over 46 years. amen

In Feb. 1994 we managed to carry Nita to the Hospital because her illness had gone way beyond any indication that her condition was improving. For an extended period of time we had watched as it seemed that her life was slowly ebbing away. She resisted being taken to the Hospital and complained vigorously when the Doctor was called. It broke our hearts to see her in such anguish but it was our only choice by now.

At the Hospital when all the sophisticated test results were in and we were given the report that her liver was totally involved by cancerous tissue we also were advised that in could be a matter of hours before she passed away. I wanted to scream because I would not accept this as a fact. I knew it could not be true - That the test results were all wrong and besides I already knew in my heart that I would be the first to go. I called on God to intervene and maybe tell me that it was all a bad dream. I entered into a state of shock that has been lived through only by the wonderful grace of my heavenly Father.

Nita and I cashed in the war bonds that I had bought during the war & purchased the equity in a little house on SW 18^th. in Oklahoma City. We really had no intentions of making this our home but it was a means of having a place to live at a cheaper rate than the rent we had been straddled with. The location of the house was only a little over a mile SW of the slaughter pins at Stockyard City and during the summer season we were blessed with the fragrance from that area and managed to receive a good bit of that saturated air due to our wide open windows. (No air conditioning back then).

The land on our lot was black gumbo mud when it rained so we had to haul many loads of sand from the banks of the North Canadian River, which was conveniently close. After I graduated from Oklahoma University College of Pharmacy, in January 1950, we moved to Ardmore - Rented the house out briefly and later sold it on the very day that Larry Lynn was born.

Now I enter into an answer that seems I have already dealt with since starting this book but maybe I have just told the story so many times that it seems I have already put it into writing. If you have heard the story before then just cram cotton in your ears and don't listen.

When Nita & I moved to Ardmore back in Feb. 1950 we rented a place to live from Mrs. Walden down in the 11 block on B St. NW and later moved up to 409 12^th. and lived in the old home place which had been converted to a duplex. We lived on the east side of the house at first while Bill & Darlene Bowden lived in the west side.

Larry Lynn was born while we lived there but when Bill & Darlene moved away we moved over to the west side because it was roomer.We attended the First Orthodox Baptist Church but later moved our membership to a little country church out east of town which was known as the Springdale Baptist Church. We loved the little church and its close knit membership so we decided we would try to find a place to buy in order to move into the community.

There was not an available existing house in the area that we could either buy or rent. We began to look around the area but found nothing there either. Someone suggested our trying to acquire property just east of the church that might could be bought. We looked at the barren wind swept hill that did not have a sign of a tree and absolutely no grass (except maybe a sorry grade of needle grass) on it and turned away in total disgust. We did admit that the view from the treeless hillside to the west was excellent. As time went by it became quite evident that it just might be the only spot anywhere in the whole country side. We visited the couple (E. John Willingham) that owned it but they had no interest in selling even the slightest bit of it but if they ever decided to sell any of it they would give us first option.

Land usually sold for less than $100 and acre back then so I offered to pay them $300 just to get the deal off of high center. Of course my offer was turned down right off but over a period of time they weakened and agreed that they would sell us 1 acre but that we would have to pay for bringing the abstract up to date and that we would even have to pay for recording the deed. Frankly we were so unimpressed with the property that we were not thrilled with the offer.

Shortly thereafter (May 7^th. 1952) we closed the deal on the purchase of the land but with a request that we be given first option on the remaining acreage they owned that joined this land. We thought we were buying the NW corner acre of a 20 acre plot of land but instead we found that they owned all of the 20 acres except for a 50 ft. strip along its western perimeter that ran south for 1340 feet - this amounted to about an acre & a half.

Not to be outdone we approached the owners (Viola Walker) of the 1½ acre strip and managed to purchase it for $150. About 4 years later we acquired the remainder of the 20 acres from the people we had bought the 1 acre from originally.

Now with the one acre of land acquired, the next problem was to find a contractor to build a house for us. It seemed that every contractor and every wood-butcher in the country was so busy building houses everywhere that they were not at all interested in talking to us about building for us. Not even the local banks would finance a GI loan.

What to do? I had gotten acquainted with a carpenter that was a member of the Church, but he worked for a contractor that was always behind and besides he built only expensive commercial building or occasionally an elaborate home. Buster (A.E.) McKenzie and I had become friends and had fished together many times so when he realized my dilemma he asked "Why don't you build the house yourself?"

"Hey Buster I’m no carpenter and don’t know the slightest thing about even how to start," I replied.

He said "Have you ever built anything?"

I said, "yeah I built a dog house once",

"Fine" he said "then that means you can drive a nail."

With those few words it was agreed that he would offer his assistance in getting me started and that he would come over to this location on his spare evenings and give me an assignment which would hold me until he gave me another job to do. Before you start anything else, he said, you need to start hauling sand from Mr. Smith’s creek. He told me that he was going to Louisiana for a week or two and for me to haul sand until he got back. I asked him how many loads I should haul but he said just keep hauling because you won’t haul too much.

I had managed to buy an old 1942- ¾ ton Chevrolet pickup that had side boards on it and granny low gears - overload springs & 17 inch wheels. Mr Tee Bone Smith graciously granted me the permission to haul sand from his creek. I knew I could haul a bunch of sand and bless my soul Larry Lynn (about 1 ½) & I made many round trips before Buster got back to Ardmore.

After Buster got back to Ardmore he asked me if I had a floor plan to follow and I showed him a plan that Nita & I had gotten out of a magazine. That’s Ok, so the first thing we did was put up the batter boards and laid out the location for the footing. Strings were stretched and my first assignment was to start digging the footing. It was summer time and the ground was exceedingly hard but when you dug down a little depth into the clay it was really hard digging. Buster had told me that the footing would not be stair-stepped to accommodate the drop or rise of the elevation but would be dug so the footing was the same all the way around the house. That didn’t seem to be such a difficult matter to deal with until I approached the east side of the house.

By now I had discovered there was a half-inch per foot rise in the lay of the land. Suddenly I am chopping through solid sand stone with a pick & sharp shooter and it became obvious that the foundation would expose 3 blocks high on the west side of the house but only one block high on the east side. When it came time to run the concrete footing it was decided that the concrete would be mixed with shovels & hoes and in a wooden mixing box.

There had not been a well drilled yet so I got 2 or 3 barrels and filled them with water from the well at the church. After the leveling stobs had been driven all around the footing, Don Kitch (our pastor) and I began mixing on a 4^th.of July morning and before the day was out we had mixed 26 batches of home-made concrete and the job was done. It was hot alright but we were young.

The next chore was to lay the blocks. I had no earthly idea how to lay a block, yet I knew that the 6 inch block was 3 cents cheaper than the regular 8 inch block, yet I did not realize that since they were 2 inches narrower that they would be even more difficult to lay. Buster came over and set the SW corner of the foundation. When he did so I remember he sang a little song under his breath that went "The sun’s a shinning and the birds are singing and Ernest Dorsey is starting his house, tra la"

You must realize that I did my work only until after completing a shift at my Dad’s Drug Store and that I would not work on Sundays or so late on Wednesday evening that I would miss prayer meetings.

From the time I began laying the foundation blocks until I could declare a finished job was a period of 5 weeks. Time was critical because I had started the house in mid June and I could not qualify for a conventional loan until the house was 60% completed. I had borrowed $4200.00 from the Exchange National Bank on a 90 day note (with my Dad as co-signer).

I don’t remember getting an extension on the loan but I remember that we qualified for the conventional loan and managed to move into the shell of a house on Dec. 2, 1952. I will skip all the gory details relating to the actual step-by-step construction of the house. Just be advised that I did all of the carpenter work through out the entire structure except I did hire a preacher student from the First Orthodox Institute to work with me for a week in building and raising the frame work, setting the rafters, and other jobs that proved to be a two man job. I had already run the floor joist and the diagonal shiplap sub-flooring before he came to help. Afterwards I ran the sheeting (also in a diagonal manner), the decking, set the windows, put felt and composition (green-blend ) shingles on the roof.

I still did not have a water-well but now I was ready for a rain to see if the roof leaked. Realizing that I could not declare 60% completion of the house before digging a successful water well I approached Harold Epperson, local well driller, to see if he would drill the well for me on credit. He agreed and when the well was completed I bought a jet pump on credit from Wards Department Store as well as the bathroom fixtures and other necessary fixtures for the kitchen etc. Emmitt Key, the local propane gas dealer had already set up a filled propane tank and run the gas pipes under the house with required risers - Also on credit. I had paid for all of my building material as I received it from Hudson-Houston Lumber Company and received a 5% cash discount by doing so. Thinking that the inspector from Peoples Federal would not pass on my application unless I had a septic tank in place, I Hurriedly dug a crude hole in the ground, walled it with baby chicken wire and plastered it with concrete that I mixed in the bottom of the hole. Then I quickly ran a curbing around the top of the hole and followed that by covering the hole with old steel pipe & Kotex racks which I had filched from the old Drug Store basement.

Next came a cover with tar paper felt which was covered with layer after layer of concrete. I should mention that I had hired Mr. Bill Nance, country unlicensed plumber, to do my roughed in plumbing but I set all the fixtures thereafter. The electrical wiring had been roughed in by Osgood Heartsill & then I followed that by my installing the electrical outlets & fixtures.]

The Lord stayed with me throughout this entire effort because I was never injured on the job and everything was finished in a timely manner not to mention the encouragement and support I received from Nita and the family. It is obvious that nothing would have been accomplished had it not been for the help & guidance I received from my friend Buster McKenzie.

After we moved in on Dec. 2^nd. 1952 a terrible cold spell arrived. The inside of the house was far from finished so we nailed 1x12 boards on the studs in the Kitchen to put the dishes on. The only doors in the house were the two doors leading to the Outside. We had one little gas stove in the living room that had a terrible time trying to ward off the chill that found its way inside, so we hung tar paper in the doorways throughout the house to try and contain the little heat we did have. I had managed to put hardwood flooring in every room in the house but it would be a year before we would have it sanded and varnished.

Christmas was only about 3 weeks away but that did not deter Nita in her effort to put Christmas decorations throughout the house and even on the outside. The first tree we had was a cedar tree she had brought in from some neighbors pasture. I nailed it to the floor at the east wall of the living room and I feel confident that it was the prettiest Christmas tree we had ever had. There were no cedar trees anywhere on our property at that time and actually except for the few Sycamore, Maple, Chinese Elm, Peach and Plum that I had managed to set out. Our hill was still about the same wind-blown, treeless, grass-less barren place it was when we first moved there.

As time went on the house was enlarged about 3 times, the trees, flowers, bushes, fences, carports, well house, barn etc... became important additions to the estate. Along with all the other good fortunes the Lord then blessed our family two more glorious times, he sent us a little girl and another little boy. Now we had Larry Lynn, Anita Susan & Terry Lee Martin. We all had each other and we shared our love freely among our selves.

Obviously throughout the past 50 plus years there have been many scientific discoveries and about each one was strange in its own right. I think the first really strange and rather frightening thing I ever saw was a natural phenomenon in which occurred one evening while I was at Grant Park on Michigan Ave. in Chicago, Ill.

Fred Rupp and I were walking through the park when suddenly the sky lit up with florescent streaks racing upward, downward, inward and in all directions. It was quite frightening to me because I had never seen anything like that and to make it even more shocking was that I had not the slightest notion what was causing it or what it could be called. I was amazed that no one around us seemed to be the least bit impressed while I am experiencing such an uneasy feeling.

Fred said "Oh that’s just Northern Lights" but otherwise more properly termed Aurora Borealis. Being from the southern part of our country I had never seen anything like it and was awed in total ignorance when told that they occurred quite commonly in the Northern hemisphere. I probably don’t need to tell you that I soon researched that little matter in the encyclopedia.

Our family always respected Christmas as the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birthday and if the day fell on a Sunday that seemed to make it even better. My Dad forbid the firing of fire crackers or any other carnival type celebration. My Mother always decorated the tree & hung the garland etc, wherever it seemed to belong. She managed to prepare a Christmas dinner with all the wonderful delicacies and you could always depend on finding the old-fashioned Christmas candy in your sock.

Santa seemed to always take a bite from the slice of cake and sip from the glass of milk that she encouraged us to leave out for him - Usually on top of the piano. Since the lights that decorated the tree were actually candles which were clamped to various branches all around the tree, we only lit them on rare occasions. Although the lighting of the candles was an exciting time it could be a most dangerous time and must be done with every caution. I remember waking on Christmas morning and hurrying to the tree to see what Santa had left for me.

For a child I was convinced that Christmas morning was designed just for children. I truly believed in Santa Claus and was deeply devastated when I learned that he did not really exists. Years later, as a parent we made every effort to make the Christmas season as beautiful and fulfilling as we could for our little ones.

Nita had the greatest inspiration and motivation of any person I ever knew. She celebrated Christmas the year around and purchased gifts throughout the entire year. She enjoyed decorating the home and loved every minute of it, which was evident by the way it radiated around her. It was her Christian nature to present a gift as a token of friendship - Any time of the year.

I would like to see the United States return to its original tenants and truly return to be known as a Christian Nation throughout the World. It appears that we have lost our moral standards and have permitted our country to be taken over by a court system that has little regard for the American Creed.

God has had patients with our nation but I wonder how much longer we can abuse this status and remain within his grace. I would like to see the citizens of the world try to live in peace. History tells us that such a thing has never prevailed on this earth but we must continue to pray for a day that it could happen.

Early in this century there was a theory being pursued that if the atom could be cracked there could be almost limitless energy made available for use by civilization. This was a far fetched idea to the ordinary man but it certainly would be an important achievement if it could be done. Just think how the energy could be harnessed and used in the place of depleting sources now being used at such a fast rate. I was intrigued by the prospect of such a thing ever being done but looked forward to the day that it may become a reality.

The idea that such a thing could be developed into an instrument of destruction just did not occur to me. In 1945 the United States actually accomplished the cracking of the atom but it was not used for peaceful purposes at that time, but instead a dreadful bomb was built and used.

Many thousands people lost their lives when bombs were released on the Nation of Japan. That action brought about the sudden end to a terrible war that Japan had initiated with our country. Today we do not bask in the glory of a new found energy but rather we sway under the threat of a world wide atomic war that could destroy civilization as we know it. May the Lord forbid. Another fantastic change came about with the development of the transistor which opened up an entirely new world of electronics.

Television was a very important achievement but computers, calculators, signals from the use of satellites located hundreds and thousands of miles above the earth --- These and many-many more developments tend to boggle the mind, way beyond comprehension. The world is literally an instrument that man has taken over to use at his will.

I know that this 20^th. Century has seen more scientific development than all the centuries in previous times. The quote by Marconi (I believe) states it well when he said "What has God Wrought" yet we could also say "Why has God permitted it".

No doubt space travel by man has exceeded the limits that we believed were imposed on human-kind. The landing on the surface of the Moon by man and his safe return to the Earth was a fantastic achievement. To accomplish this mission it was necessary to utilize all of the research that man had done back to the very basics of jet propulsion and the successful development of rocket power. It has been through the launching of satellites that have made it possible to communicate by video imagery almost instantly around the world. By television we can visually monitor a happening anywhere on the earth as itis happening.

Presuming I have nothing particular to do except enjoy a leisure time inside I would very likely just watch it rain and maybe read a book. This works Okay for a day or so but not for so long that I would get cabin fever.

Footnote: This completes the answers to questions presented to me by the book entitled "A Fathers Legacy". I must admit that many of my answers were extensive and probably boring. Although, I successfully completed all of the English and Literature Classes imposed on me throughout my formal education periods, this narrative does not in any way reflect or suggest that I learned much about sentence structure or punctuation. I would want you to know that the layout & re-creation of the rough draft of this legacy into the beautiful web site that it has become should be credited to Mrs. Linda McGill Wagner. She literally took a sows ear & converted it into a silk purse. I thank her personally, although she insists that she needs no recognition - its a work of love. I thank God for such friends.

END of Second Half of Vol. 6