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My family lived in Phillips, Texas from the mid-40s
until June of 1955. In 1955 I completed 5th grade, and my Dad, J. Frank
Svetlik, was transferred to Akron, Ohio to conduct research on carbon
black and provide technical support to tire producers. The tire industry,
then centered in Akron, was the major consumer of carbon black products.
Memories of
Phillips
The Fire.
The high school burned down in the spring of 1950. I don't recall
seeing the smoke from it. I was in kindergarten which was conducted in the
basement of one of the two brick churches in Phillips. Because the high
school was gone, the high school students finished out the year by
attending classes in the basement classrooms of the two churches. I recall
that they had to share books because so many textbooks were burned in the
fire. We little kids were not used to having these big kids around. I was
in the morning class of kindergarten. They let us out early each day and
told us to go home so that we weren't around when the big kids had lunch
time. The new high school was open by the next fall when I was in the
first grade.
Selling
Kool-Aid. We lived on Phillips Avenue, almost at the end of
the road about a mile from the school. One day we decided to sell
Kool-Aid. My mother supported the idea and then she told us that we had to
pay five cents for the Kool-Aid, and another five cents for the sugar. She
didn't charge us for the water or ice or the use of the pitcher and
glasses. So we made grape Kool-Aid and set up a Kool-Aid stand out on the
front sidewalk and waited in the sun for people to come by. It was very
optimistic of us because hardly anybody traveled so far as the end of
Phillips Avenue, and they probably were not looking for Kool-Aid when they
did. Some neighbors bought some at 5 cents a glass. The milkman drove up
the hill from the last street in Phillips and stopped and bought one of
our biggest classes of Kool-Aid for 25 cents. He was by far our biggest
sale; it was really nice of him to buy that Kool-Aid from us. Over the
summers we sold Kool-Aid, always with pretty good results. Having to pay
mother for the cost of supplies was a valuable lesson about production and
sales that I have remembered all my life, i.e., “Nothing is free in life.
You have to earn it."
Snowball and
Blackie. Blackie was our dog (aptly named) and Snowball
belonged to our babysitter, Elaine, and her older sister, who lived on N
Youker St. adjacent to the canyon. Snowball and Blackie liked to go down
into the canyon and explore it. One day Snowball and Blackie got into a
tar pit somewhere down in the canyon. When they came back they look like
two Blackie's and no Snowball. The oily mess dripped from them and matted
down their hair, making them look really skinny. The question was what to
do next. Daddy put Blackie in an old metal washtub and got a bunch of old
towels and some turpentine and carefully poured it over Blackie from below
his eyes to the tip of his tail until he was cleaned up, and then repeated
it for Snowball. These were two very contrite and humble dogs that slinked
around warily for many days after being "washed". For many weeks Snowball
had a lot of black tinge on her fur but eventually she returned to looking
like Snowball - pure white. Blackie came out of it okay too and eventually
they both return to their playful ways. They never visited the tar pit
again.
Elephant Rock.
We lived directly across the canyon from the huge rock we called
"Elephant Rock" toward the end of Phillips Avenue. Our neighbors Scott
Railsback, Linda Evans, Kenneth Gene Evans, and my younger brothers Frank
and Harvey Emil and I liked to go through the barbed wire and down into
the canyon to explore it. We usually just went just a little way down into
the canyon on our side but eventually we became brave enough to go to the
bottom of the canyon. In about 1954, we went all the way across the canyon
and up the other side to the famous Elephant Rock, which looked like an
elephant from our house. We climbed carefully all the way onto the top of
the rock and sat on it and were able to explore the rock. Eventually we
came down from the rock and returned from our adventure and re-crossed the
little creek at the bottom of the canyon and returned to our house. This
was an unauthorized trip but one that we really enjoyed. Had we not moved
from Phillips in June 1955 when I completed 5th grade, I’m sure that we
would have returned many times to Elephant Rock.
The Fossil.
One time in about 1953 or 1954 we were exploring in the canyon
behind her house and we went down just maybe a third of the way down and
found a fish fossil. But we didn't know what a "fossil" was at the time.
We just knew it looked like bones of a fish in the dirt. So we went back
and told our mother that we had seen an impression of the fish's bones in
the dirt. And she said "Oh, that's a fossil." She asked us if we could
find it again and later we went down with her to find the fossil. We
looked and looked everywhere but we couldn't find the it again.
Arrowheads.
Like many children in Phillips, we found arrowheads as we explored
the areas near our houses - both in the canyons and "up on top". Some were
well chiseled and some were crudely shaped. We did not keep any into
adulthood. I wish we had.
DDT.
I remember us kids from the neighborhood running behind the DDT
trucks (spraying for summer insects) into the fog so we would be invisible
for a few seconds. The deadly fumes were awful and made us cough -- and of
course our mothers told us not to do this.
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Horny toads.
My three brothers and I became expert at trapping horny toads.
George, the youngest, was particularly adept. We used to keep them in
boxes and feed them. Eventually we let them go. A few years ago my brother
Harvey Emil gave me two silver "paper weight" horny toads that had been
cast in metal. Only a brother could give a gift like that to an older
sister. What great memories of Phillips!
Turtles.
We used to come across turtles out the backyard sometimes we would
keep them in boxes. Eventually mother made us let them go. When we moved
to Ohio in 1955 I never saw those kinds of turtles so these are good
memories from Phillips, Texas.
The 8mm Movie
Camera. In 1955 we were told our family would be transferred
by Phillips 66 to Akron, Ohio after school was out. In April 1955 friends
of my mother gave her an 8mm movie camera as a going away present. It was
highly unusual to have such a high tech item at that time. Mother used
this camera to take many pictures of us in Phillips, Texas before we
moved. Over the years many other movie pictures were also recorded - some
by my father as he traveled for Phillips in Europe and Japan. Due to the
generosity of the friends in Phillips we now have movie pictures of first
graders through fifth graders in the spring of 1955 before we left
Phillips. We were able to share these precious pictures with Phillips
classmates at my 40th reunion. It will be a joy to show them again at the
50th reunion.
Oct. 4, 1953
Refinery Fire. It was my brother's birthday. After supper a
fire broke out in the refinery across the canyon and one of the tanks
exploded. My mother saw the top of the tank fly up in the air and come
back down. Then a huge fire ensued. It was early evening, not quite dusk.
Naturally as soon as the boom was heard all the kids - and adults - came
running to the back yard to see what was going on to the north. Pretty
soon it became very hot even across the canyon. We moved halfway back up
the yard. It was still warm and then it got too hot to stand there. We
moved back to the very back of the house and it was still too hot.
Eventually we had to move to the front side on Phillips Avenue. The adults
started to be concerned about the effect of the inferno on our houses, but
eventually the heat receded and we were able to go inside our homes. The
fire raged into the night and continued the next several days until it
burned out. Early on there was great concern that the fire might spread to
nearby tanks. Thankfully the fire department was able to contain the fire
to one tank. To the best of my recollection, it was determined that the
fire was started by smoking. In fifth grade during October's fire safety
week I drew a picture in Mrs. Bickle's art class of the tank roaring with
fire. My motto on the poster was "Do not smoke near oil tanks." My brother
George turned four the day of the explosion and he still remembers the
tank blowing up. He thought all the fuss was in honor of his birthday.
Movies.
In summertime a school bus took us from the elementary school
parking lot to see movies on Wednesdays in Borger. The price was 10 cents,
including the bus ride. The movies I remember were Cinderella, Bambi, and
1952's The Secret Garden. I also remember going to the two outdoor movie
theaters in Borger and listening to the movies on the scratchy speakers
that were put into the car and seeing cars drive off and break the speaker
line.
Swimming Pool.
Like everyone else who grew up in Phillips, one of my biggest
memories was going to the swimming pool and taking beginners swim classes.
Bicycling to
Borger. In the fall of 1953 I received a used blue bicycle as
my birthday present. The bicycle didn't have any gears but it worked just
great for me. I remember sometimes when I was bicycling home from school
the wind would be so strong at my back that I didn't have to peddle. One
time when the wind was really strong and I was coming home I saw a really
big tarantula ahead of me and I prayed that the wind would keep going so
that I could keep my feet up in the air and not have to get near that
jumping tarantula. Thankfully that turned out to be the case. My other
memory of the bicycle is set in the summer of 1954. I decided to take an
unauthorized trip from Phillips into Borger. My parents would never have
approved of such an adventure. I bicycled from the end of Phillips Avenue
up to Phillips which was 1 mile and on into Borger which was at least two
more miles, past the squatters in the metal shacks on the left, and past
the burger joint in the old silver trailer on the left as you enter
Borger, and went to the dime store and looked around. I didn't have any
money so I don't recall buying anything. Then I got back on the bicycle
and bicycled home. That was a really long way for someone who had never
bicycled more than a mile at a stretch. I was pretty tired but my lengthy
absence had not been noted. At some point in 1954 I repeated this
adventure again without detection. I never told my parents about these two
4th grade absences.
Visiting Phillips in 1967. After graduating from college I
had the opportunity to come back to Phillips and visit Marguerite
Anderson, who lived on Joplin Street down around the curve at the bottom
of the hill on Phillips Avenue. She took me in like I had never been gone.
Mrs. Anderson took me to Borger to see Olma Malone, the black lady who
took care of many of us kids in Phillips when our mothers were having
babies or were recovering from surgeries. She looked the same as always.
I took a couple of good photos of Olma Malone. I also visited Phillips
High School and got a yearbook from my class of 1962. What a joy to get
to see it! I will tell you that as I left 5th grade in 1955 I could
predict who in our class would become the majorette, queens,
valedictorian, etc., etc. Even then we KNEW how all of this would stack
up down the road and as I looked at the yearbook, my grade school
predictions were accurate! No one was at home where I used to live at 1404
Phillips Avenue and nobody answered the door at the house on either side
[1402 (Evans) and 1406 (formerly Henry and Eva Railsback)]. I did take a
picture of the Ratzlo girls (then in high school) with their mother on the
porch at their house across the street. I was really sad to have left
Phillips in the fifth grade, but it was nice to come back and visit in
1967. Little did any of us know then -- that all of us would have to leave
Phillips, Texas. Some just left earlier than others. It was a metaphor for
life and for moving on.
Post-Phillips
I went to an all-girls college-prep high school in
Akron, Ohio, complete with uniforms (which I hated). The school was as
rigorous as any I subsequently attended: University of Akron, BS, January
'67; Sam Houston State University, MEd, '69; Army-Baylor Masters in Health
Care Administration, '81; University of Iowa, PhD in Health Care
Leadership, '88. My last Army military assignment was in San Antonio, TX
as the COO of the Regional Health Command headquarters which included 8
Army hospitals in several states - now called Southern Regional Medical
Command. I had a brief marriage in the late 60s. I joined the military as
a First Lieutenant in August 1971 and retired after 28.5 years as a
Colonel in 2000. I then worked for 5 years teaching in master's level
(MBA) and health care (MHA) programs and 5.5 years for the VA in the
Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center. I met my husband in
1972-73 while we were serving in Korea, our only joint assignment. After a
lengthy hiatus, Lieutenant Colonel Anton G. (Tony) Blieberger and I were
married in April, 2010 and enjoy each day to the fullest!
There are 5 Svetlik siblings: Mary Anne Svetlik ('62,
The Elms), hospital administrator and college professor, retired, San
Antonio; Frank ('63), attorney, Houston; Harvey ('65), mechanical
engineer, Dallas; George ('67) plant supervisor, Akron, Ohio; Margaret
Abbott ('70 - Sooner High, Bartlesville graduate), Carmel, IN, teacher.
The boys all graduated from St. Vincent - St. Mary HS in Akron, Ohio.
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