ROAMING AROUND TULSA PART 23

I decided to make the Mayo Hotel my headquarters while in Tulsa.  The Mayo was built in 1922.  There was a marble slab inside the entrance, and the bell hop stood on that slab waiting to serve.  The slab was ground down in the middle due to thirty years of turning of shoes by the bellhop.  The lobby was grand with ornate marble and huge chandeliers that hung from the very high ceiling.  Years later, Elvis, Barbara Streisand, the Beattles, and the Rolling Stones stayed there.  In 1949, the premier showing of the motion picture "TULSA"  was shown at the Orpheum theatre, and all the stars of that movie plus a massive parading of oil field equipment were in one of the grandest parades Tulsa ever had. Tulsa once once called the "OIL CAPITOL OF THE WORLD"...This was because there were over three hundred independant as well as a few major oil companies had their headquarters there.  In spite of what I said about the criminal element here, Tulsa was an all American city.  Readers Digest Magazine called Tulsa "America's most beautiful city."   This was back in the 50"s.  This was because of the proliferation of beautiful green trees plus a world class Rose Garden that people from all over the world would come to see.   During WW2, the B-24 bomber was built here, the parking meter was invented here, and I was born here! But I am not here to sing the praises of Tulsa. I am here to see that which was and is no more.  I stepped out side to downtown Tulsa in the morning.  The sidewalks were filled with business men going to work.  Suits and ties.  It bustled with econimic and moral health.  The other element crawled into their dens when the Sun came up.  I was only two blocks from the Tick of Time clock and watch repair shop; where Aunt Mimi worked.  Mildred A. Fishback was sricken with Polio at two years of age.  She could not walk and eventually she went to Iowa University which had a specialaized Medical Dept which treated Polio victims.  They fused her spine, using bone chips from her legs.  She spent months in a body cast.  She was fitted with leg braces that locked at the knee.  She came home to  live with her blessed Mother, Bertha Fishback.  Her Father and Bertha's husband, John Fishback, died in a mental institution in 1944.  My father, Carl,  quit high school to go to work in order to help support the family.  Mildred (Mimi) learned of a watch repairing school and went and learned to repair watches.  Her right hand, bent at a ninety degree angle to her wrist, became one of the most sought after watch repair persons in the city.  She died in an old age home in 1981, a few years after her Mother, Bertha died, and left her all alone.  Something in Mimi died also.  They were liftetime companions.  Even though Mimi's body was twisted from Polio, she had the face of an angel.  Even so, the Mortician could not take away the very deep sorrow in Mimi's face. Now, Grandma and Mimi are with the Lord, and i simply cannot wait to see them again.  Now, I am going down to Tick of Time to see my Aunt Mimi.  (to be continued)