Posted on 12/07/2016 9:09:55 AM PST by Mad Dawgg
All liberals should beware and stay far away. Stay in the city where it is safe.
I grew up there in the 40's and 50's. As I recall, the 1940 census credited Medford with 1,121 residents. By 1960, we had grown to a peak of 1,350. By 2010, it was down to 996.
Wheat farming and running cattle were the two primary pursuits of the entire county.
In a small town, I grew up surrounded by family, friends of the family and childhood friends of my own. Everyboy new everybody. And all the kids under almost constant surveillance.
The school was Grades 1-12 in one building, about 25 kids per class. Half of them bussed in from the surrounding farms. We got a superb education from our teachers, most of who had grown up in Medford and gone to school there themselves.
High school football provided a focus for the entire town. The home side of the field usually amounted to 1,000 folks and almost as many would show up for road games (never more than a 40 mile trip).
The Cardinals were expected to win. And we did. There were four state championships in the trophy case, as I recall.
I graduated from Okie State in 1961 and moved away. But even in our seventies, we show up for homecoming -- though in dwindling numbers.
Changes:
When I go back to Medford, the starkest change in the town is on Saturday. Used to be that the town was packed with shoppers as the folks who live on the farms made their weekly shopping trip into town. Nowadays, downtown is virtually empty on Saturdays -- for two reasons. First, the population of the entire county is now about 4500, about half what it was when I was growing up. Second, it's not that much further to Enid (pop. 50,000) with far better shopping.
The high school now plays 6-man football. And it's the band that brings home the trophies. Most of the schools we used to play have either been absorbed in a consolidation or ceased to exist.
Many of my childhood friends still live in the county, so I assume Medford is still a good place to grow up. Nonetheless, I fear the small town culture I grew up in -- a healthy hybrid of independence and interdependence -- is dying a slow death. And when we lose this, America will be a lesser place.
was cared for, by men I didn’t know in the big trucks that I finally understood
Yes.
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