Down Memory Lane (in an Old Ford)

"In 1941 when William C. 'Bill' Doenges bought the Bartlesville Ford dealership, he immediately stepped up to sponsor the local American Legion baseball team," the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reports. "Sixty-six years later, Doenges Ford is still sponsoring Amercian Legion baseball in Bartlesville — and that’s a record." Indeed, the Examiner-Enterprise reports that Guinness World Records has officially named Doenges the longest corporate sponsor of a sports team.

Having been gone from Bartlesville for nearly 12 years now, news stories like this one warm my heart. I grew up on a ranch abutting the Doenges (rhymes with sponges) ranch, and our families have known each other for years. When I lived in Bartlesville and my Bronco needed maintenance, Mr. Doenges' son-in-law, Joe Dillon, would come get it and take it in to be serviced. He would leave me his truck so I would have something to drive. When my Bronco was repaired he would bring it back to me and retrieve his truck. (Suffice it to say I don't enjoy customer service like that from Bob Howard in Edmond.) I am currently driving a vehicle I bought in 1999 from Bobby Doenges, who was driving it as a demo.

Once during a serious snowstorm my elderly grandmother's vehicle got stuck in a ditch on a remote gravel road. This was before cell phones, and she was a bit worried about her situation. Joe happened to pass by, so he stopped and pulled her out of the ditch. She was eternally grateful.

As a kid I faithfully attended the American Legion baseball games in Bartlesville. As hard as it is to believe now (in an age when Native American mascots are verboten), the team was actually called the Injuns. Not the Indians, mind you. The Injuns. (A few years ago, bowing to the forces of Organized Touchiness, they did change the name to Indians.)

The news about Doenges setting a Guinness world record also sent me to my scrapbook, where I have a letter my great-grandfather wrote to Bill Doenges on October 27, 1958:

Dear Bill:

The picture which I showed you today at the Home Savings and Loan directors meeting was the picture of the first 1908 model Ford in Washington County, which was owned by our Company and used principally in the oil fields. We owned the first automobile in the county, which developed in the fact that in 1905 we tried to drive a car from Junction City, Kansas to Bartlesville but could only get as far as Coffeyville, as the Coffeyville trail at that time was impassable for cars.

In 1906 we shipped a car in to Dewey, where we were building the original cement plant. The cars then were impractical as there were no graded roads and most of the travel was done through pastures, so when the 1908 model Ford came out it was the only practical solution to travel in this country, and was my only means of getting back and forth between Dewey and Bartlesville.

The ratio of horse power to weight, together with a clearance, had a very distinct advantage in getting over high center roads and I soon found out that by jerking the throttle and spark down at the same time I could practically hurdle mud holes. To the best of my recollection, I never missed travelling the bottomless Dewey-Bartlesville road, commuting back and forth, except, of course, during high water, and even then I went through some seemingly insurmountable floods, considering that the engine was so high off the ground.

The original 1908 model "T," as I remember, cost about $900, but a year or so afterwards I believe Henry Ford reduced the price by about half.

The model "T," of course, made Ford history and I think you will agree with me that Ford has made an excellent car ever since.

Very truly yours,

D.M. Tyler