My grandfather, George Martin, trained to be a history teacher in college. George was a starter on his college basketball team. He served in the US Army in World War I as a lieutenant. First chasing Poncho Villa and then on to France. After the war, he married Estella Blair who also played basketball.
George accepted a teaching/coaching position in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. In the early 1920s, Oklahoma had one oil boom after another. Okmulgee was another overnight boom town. Construction began on a refinery for the Barnsdale Oil Company.
Now George went back and forth to school in a horse and buggy. One rainy afternoon as George was going home, he came upon a man walking that he knew from church. George pulled to and offered the man a ride. The man got in and said he was headed out to apply for a job at the refinery under construction. My grandfather decided to drive the man for he wanted to see the refinery.
When they got to the construction site, the rain was pouring down. George’s passenger got out and went into a cabin being used as the refinery’s headquarters. George sat in the buggy looking around and waiting to take his passenger home. He was still dressed for school wearing a coat and tie. The door opened and Mr. Barnsdale walked out on the porch. Mr. Barnsdale saw George and called out, “Hey, you there in the buggy. Do you have a college degree?” George said, “Yes.” Mr. Barnsdale said, “Come up here; I need a refinery manager. The salary was four times what George made teaching so the decision was easy to make. The teacher became an engineer and had a great answer for Stella when she asked, “What made you late getting home?”
Barnsdale Oil boomed and later became Sun Oil. George took two years of engineer correspondence courses. He built refineries and pipelines all over Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. In 1955, George and Stella moved to Corpus Christi to build the new Sunray DX refinery.
For eight years my family would go for vacation in Corpus and my grandparents’ home on Bermuda Street. My sister, Christy, and I loved going to the beach to collect seashells and build sand castles. At the end of Bermuda Street there was an elementary school. Each morning it was open to go play board games, basketball, tetherball, and swing on the playground. Christy and I met other kids and had a great time.
In the evenings all of us would pile into the station wagon to ride down the coast road to get ice cream. But the best part was when we got back to my grandparents. Christy and I would play hide and seek with our dad in the dark backyard.
You see, during the school year, Dad coached football, cross country, basketball and track. We rarely saw him. When we were little, our mother put Dad’s picture on the table so we could remember what he looked like. So, these times of hide and seek were extra special for us. We would climb up the Chinese tallow trees, hide and just plain have a great time with Dad the coach. Christy and I are now senior citizens, but we rate this activity in our top ten. Why? Fun with Dad was always fun!
By the way, a word to the wise: Never climb too high on a Chinese Tallow tree. Those small limbs will let you down; literally.
