The Archivist: Perhaps the police chief needed driving lessons in 1922
Here's a cute item from The Daily Oklahoman on Feb. 12, 1922:
Another worm has turned. And an adopted Ford coupe caused it.
Joe Burdette (Bourdette), with shining star and long mustache, chief of police in Stillwater, has been for years the eagle-eyed guardian of traffic here.
"Watch out for Joe!" is the motorist's standby. He's always on the job.
About two months ago he picked up said flivver, abandoned on a country road nearby. For weeks he advertised it, but no claimant appeared.
Joe has pursued infantry tactics in his sleuthing, but the call of the coupe was too much. This week he paid the storage bill, spent $40 dollars on repairs, hung on a spare-tire cover labeled in red, "Chief of Police, Joe Burdette," and started out to drive the gosh- durned thing.
Let's ask Harry Jones, city commissioner, to finish the story:
"Joe asked me to ride. It was so unusual that I had to accept, regardless of the danger. The gas gave out right away, although Joe declared that he had put in five gallons that morning. Gassed up again, Joe attempted to negotiate Main street.
"At the intersection of Seventh he got on the wrong side and nearly rammed a jitney bus. Two blocks down he decided to park (center parking is the custom in Stillwater) but he couldn't stop—because he had his foot on "low" instead of the brake. The coupe jumped onto the sidewalk, nearly smashing a plate glass window. In getting off the sidewalk he butted into the rear of another car. Finally, in the clear, he made three more attempts to stop within the white-lined space for parking."
About the worm turning — no one has reported a "call-down" or "pinch" for traffic law infraction since Joe entered the flivver field.
A 1938 interview for the Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma conducted by the Works Progress Administration said: "Mr. Bourdette was Deputy Sheriff and on the Police Force 25 years (five years as chief of police)."
That turning worm refers to a change, for better or worse, and the Ford coupe would most likely have been a Model T.
If you would like to contact Mary Phillips about The Archivist, email her at gapnmary@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: The Archivist: Perhaps the police chief needed driving lessons in 1922
