{"product_id":"catale-the-last-rites-of-faye-baird-9781633023482","title":"Catale - The Last Rites of Faye Baird","description":"\u003cp\u003eCatale was, at one time, a thriving coal-producing (and later oil-producing) boom town.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eToday, we talk of boom times with oil and gas, but coal was the \"First Energy Boom\", long\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebefore gasoline fueled our cars. However, by the time we moved there in mid-1941, the town had\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebecome a dim reflection of its former self. When I started my elementary education at the Catale\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eschoolhouse in 1947, I was in the first grade. There were a few businesses still open.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur land was and still is original Cherokee Indian land. The old homestead was once owned by\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea true-to-life character played in this book, Lemuel (Lem) Paris.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the Photo Section of Rogers County, there is an Ownership Map displaying the owners of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndian Land as allotted by federal law.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne surviving store when I started school, was the original Catale general store, which at that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etime was owned by Henry and Ruby Dick. I remember the cost of bubble gum was a penny. Of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecourse, that penny was hard to get in the 1940s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe went to school with Henry and Ruby Dick's children, Billy Ray and Joyce.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBilly Rae Dick was in the same grade as my sister Lois, and Joyce Dick started\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eschool with me in the first grade. Joyce and I were classmates from first grade\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eat Catale, through our senior year at Chelsea High.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe trial and shooting of Faye Baird happened over 100 years ago, and all\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etrue stories and witnesses have long been forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe schoolhouse has been torn down, and the lot where it stood is a cemetery. Any evidence of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe coal mines, and cattle yards is gone. The Catale Coal Pits, where my classmates and I went\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eswimming, have been mostly covered up by the EPA Reclamation Project of 1974. All that is left\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enow are legends, memories, and a few houses and residences of American suburbia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Post Office closed in 1933, and train service was discontinued soon after that. The town\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCatale ceased to exist, and over the years, the buildings have been torn down, and persimmon\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etrees and prairie grass have covered the once ambitious dream of Marcus De Lafayette (Faye)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBaird.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Total Publishing and Media","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52160022937874,"sku":"9781633023482","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_52c24eab-9856-4bd2-90f9-70bb688073d1.jpg?v=1775031185","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/catale-the-last-rites-of-faye-baird-9781633023482","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}