Gardner, Fred
Fred Gardner, Jr.: First Mayor of Summit, Oklahoma
Student Interview
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
A: I was born on July 4, 1925. My name is Fred Douglas Gardner, Jr. The first thing and miraculous thing about my name is that original name was Douglas Gardner, period. I went to school when I was six years old and my teacher said that “Fred” always precedes “Douglas” in names. So I went home and told my daddy, “My teacher said my name is Douglas Gardner.” And daddy smiled and said, “If that be the fact then, you are a junior, because my name is Fred Douglas Gardner.
Q: OK, can you give me a geographical description of the town of Summit, Oklahoma?
A: Summit, Oklahoma is a small Negro town that – on Highway 69 halfway between Dallas, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri. The little town is south of Muskogee, Oklahoma about seven miles.
Q: And the population of the town?
A: The population of the town now is approximately 200 people.
Q: (tape skipped) . . .store? How many churches?
A: They got one – one store still resides there. It’s a dry-goods store with approximately anything that you would need so far as medical, food, and things of that sort. But it does not have a filling station, so it cannot service your cars in the town. It’s a small town, but anything else you could possibly need.
Q: OK, why did you decide to get the town of Summit incorporated?
A: Ah, the town of Summit had been tried to be incorporated even when I was a youngster. I didn’t know the nature of it, but it failed on three tries. And so when I became a young man, I looked the word “incorporation” up and it said that it’s a town that you can have to have your own laws, rules, and regulations. And we had good laws and good rules so far as the town was concerned, but I thought by incorporating it, it would be done, you might say, nationwide. So I went out to get it incorporated that we would have a nice little town that we could be proud of.
Q: What year did you decide to get Summit incorporated?
A: The year we got – we started out in 1977. The final incorporation date was 1980 – three years.
Q: (tape skipped) . . . plan was developed to get Summit incorporated?
A: Ah, a cousin of mine, whose name is O.B. Jeffries, and a brother-in-law of mine, whose name was Bobby Lee Hudson, we set down one night and decided we would put this last effort to get it incorporated, even though we were faced with the four – three other times when it was turned down, so we . . . what we done was, ah, we got the addresses of everybody in the town of Summit. And we typed up a letterhead asking each resident to be present on a certain day, time, for the incorporation procedures. And we had a real good turn out at that first meeting. I would say 96 percent of the town residents was present.
Q: What did the plans consist of?
A: We were nearly teenagers . . . to call the community together to get their approval which we – after they received these letters – at the schoolhouse. And then when we got it OK’d through the community, then we had to set plans to see how you go about incorporating a town because we didn’t know nothing else but just the word “incorporation.” So we got books from libraries telling us how to go about it. And we went to our county commissioner at that time and he set the wheels in motion.
Q: What outside help did you find to get the town incorporated?
A: Well, the ministers of the town were very instrumental. Our teachers were very instrumental, and, ah, once we got a picture – we had to have a picture of the town and all this to even lay out our groundwork. So we hired someone to come and take a picture of the town. And then we worked through our county commission and just worked it. But one of the things I’d like to say, though, that in getting the town incorporated, it was not a easy task, so it took us three years from the day we started until we got it voted on and things of that nature. So it was a hard-working little deal. But what I would like to say as we go through – records is very important. Any endeavor you try, you must have a record – a written record, not a word of mouth.
So we put all our paperwork together, and O.B. and I – and this is a little funny, but this is true – O.B. and I decided “well, there’s three of us in this thing starting it, so let’s take the record and have a duplicate made of it and get us a safe deposit box and put the balance of the duplicate in this box, so if anything happened to this real papers we can always go back to them.”
And after we had met with the county commission board with parents and whoever, Bobby Lee was a talker at the meeting. And he was very outspoken. But, ah, we let O.B. wind it up at this particular meeting, and then we went back to the schoolhouse to see what had transpired at this meeting. And so, we got into a difference, and Bobby Lee said, well, I’ll tell you, he got so angry, he said “I will take these papers and burn them up.” And we thought he was playing. Se he went outside and got some newspapers and lit a fire and we thought he was just going to stick them in there and just not burn them up, but he burnt all those papers up. And he thought he had us (garbled), but we decided, “OK, now since you did that act, you’re no part of the incorporation from thus forward.” So we would handle it from here. And we went to our safe deposit box and got some more – got those papers and when over them again and made some more, and O.B. and I carried the ball to the finish line.
Q: What was Bobby Lee’s argument? What was the argument about?
A: The disturbance was that at this, ah, town meeting with the commissions and everybody in Muskogee, Bobby Lee wanted to do the talking. They voted that Fred Gardner was too light for us, he couldn’t talk, so we voted to let O.B. do the talking. And that was – and he carried – represented the town very well at this particular meeting. That was the disturbance, so it had Mr. Bobby Lee Hudson angry because he wanted to do the talking. And that was just kind of a disturbance, but we weathered the storm.
Q: Now, Mr. Gardner, you told me that when you wanted to get the town incorporated, you had a general store, but did you have any schools or churches?
A: Ah, yes. What I was going to say earlier was that the town was already incorporated – after we looked up the word “incorporation” and studied it, that it was already incorporated in ways and actions, but not on paper. What I’m trying to say is that as a young child raised in the town of Summit, we – we had, when I was a youngster, four churches – two Baptist churches and two Methodist churches. And each church had a Sunday – first, second, third, and fourth Sunday. And we had a wonderful time, because you didn’t know who belonged where because we – everybody went to all the churches. But we as youngsters enjoyed it tremendously because on the fifth Sunday of each month, the four churches would go together at the school building and have church all day, dinner, and etc. And that was a time. Because we would go to school all week and now this fifth Sunday come in there, we got to go to Sunday School, church, preaching, singing, and we would show off to our parents. And so, after looking up the word “incorporation,” we was already incorporated, but yet we didn’t have it on paper. So then when I became a young man in the ‘70s, (garbled) we decided “let’s get this on paper and make it work because it’s doing a good job unincorporated.”
Q: Now Mr. Gardner, you mentioned the school – what grades attended this school?
A: Ah, from my early childhood days until 1946, we went from first grade through twelfth grade. I finished in 1946. And I think it continued the twelfth grade until 1959, and then we lost the first – the last four grades.
Q: Mr. Gardner, you mentioned that a plan was developed to get Summit incorporated. Can you give us more details on that plan?
A: After we left the county commission’s office and the paperwork was done, the commissioners told us we needed to take these papers to the governor’s office in Oklahoma City. And O.B. Jeffries and I left Muskogee and came to Oklahoma City and met with the governor and showed him our papers. And it was in the governor’s office that they said, “This is a big task. It’s too big for you all trying to carry it. You need some kind of divine guidance, so I recommend that your next papers will show some preacher behind you all in this maneuver.” And we left Oklahoma City and went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to consult O.B. Jeffries’ father, who was a pastor in Tulsa, as to who we might get to be our divine guidance in Muskogee, and he recommended Reverend Noble.
Q: Mr. Gardner, what help did Reverend Noble provide for you all?
A: Reverend Noble told us that along with spiritual guidance, we needed political guidance as well, so he recommended us to get in touch with our congressman, Mike Synar, and we pulled those two on our team, and with their guidance, they led us to victory.
Q: Was there any cost involved to the people in Summit during your three year battle to get the town incorporated?
A: Ah, yes, there was costs involved and what the town done was we took this preliminary board of five and went to the bank and borrowed a thousand dollars with the stipulation that after the town became incorporated, we would have pie suppers and any other suppers to raise money and reimburse them before we went into the incorporation procedure. That’s what we done. A loan was made and the board signed it with the guarantee that after it was incorporated, they would be reimbursed through – I don’t know what the word is I want to use – entertainment of the community. And that’s what happened.
Q: Mr. Gardner, you said you had to obtain a loan to pay for some of the town’s – the incorporation expenses. Can you tell us about some of the expenses that you had?
A: Ah, the town expenses as it got to it’s finalization, there had to be paperwork done and more especially, when it came up to the voting, there had to be ballots made, and then we had to had personnel to run the election. So that was the expenses of the town. Paperwork of all procedures, and extra workers.
Q: Mr. Gardner, once you got the town incorporated, how did you repay the loan?
A: Just before we changed from the temporary board to the, ah, regular board, we had a big pie supper, and box supper to raise money. And the way you would do it was the ladies would cook, ah, ah, pies and cakes and then you had to bid on them. And that’s where you raise the money. And when you bidded on them, the highest bid, you know, would win, so we raised enough money through that procedure on about three occasions. A pie supper, cake bake, eating with different ladies after you bid on that box. We raised a thousand dollars and went down to the bank and paid them in full. From then, we were on our own.
Q: Mr. Gardner, can you tell me about the first town meeting when you thought that you wanted to get the town incorporated?
A: Well, the amazing part about the first town meeting was simply this, that we had a vote, and the vote was ninety for and ten against. In any endeavor, it’s almost impossible to get on hundred percent, but these – the ninety percent that voted for gave us a lift to go forward. And as we worked these three and a half years, we brought the ten percent back in on our side, and that’s why we were successful in raising this thousand dollars to repay the bank because at that time – after three and a half years of hard work and the ten percent came in, and we readily raised that thousand dollars.
Q: Mr. Gardner, you said that people before you had tried to get the town incorporated and it had failed three times. Do you know the reasons why?
A: Well, I think the main reason was that they were trying to do it individually. And after we had studied the word “incorporation,” it said it means to unify. And form a legal corporation to give a physical bond to. And so we studied the word and called the entire community in as a group, rather than try to do it individually. And that’s why we were successful because we had three or four classes, community-wise, even before we had our first – first meeting. We had classes on studying the word “incorporation” – “incorporate.”
Q: Mr. Gardner, what were the struggles involved in getting town incorporated, and was there ever a time when you felt like giving up due to the confusion and the difficulties that you had to face?
A: The strangest thing of this whole matter is that O.B. Jeffries and I were classmates together and we played basketball at DuBois for four years and we learned the tougher the situation, the tougher we must get in order that we might win. So every time we met an obstacle in trying to incorporate the town, it just made us work that much harder from our experience that we’d had on the basketball court. And, ah, that’s why we didn’t give up until we were successful.
Q: What were some of the obstacles that you faced?
A: Well, the obstacle that we faced when we started out, a lot of the boards – the Muskogee board and places like that – they were saying no. They didn’t want us to do it. But we had one member after the talk that O.B. made after the first meeting in Muskogee to this particular board – the Muskogee board had to give us an OK, and they still said no. And we had one member there, and she said that we’re not going to close the door on Summit, we’re going to keep it open and give them a chance to work for it. I would like to mention the name, but the name is not relevant. But if it had not been for her, we probably wouldn’t have been able to do it. Her name was Ms. Avalon Reece, a member of the Muskogee council.
Q: Mr. Gardner, can you tell me about the meeting that you and the town of Summit had with the Muskogee council?
A: Ah, that meeting was something on this order: I had to have a representative and as many as I could to meet with the Muskogee council to bring up our proposal. So I had bus loads, car loads, and we just filled the room up. And it was – it was a nine member board that we met with, and we gave them our proposal, and O.B. gave them our talk, and etc. And then they went behind closed doors after listening to our report and they voted eight to one not to let us be incorporated. Ms. Avalon Reece happened to be a member of that council and she said, “We will not close the door on Summit tonight. They have as much time as they need and keep on working.” And that’s why we were successful.
Q: Mr. Gardner, you said that the Muskogee council vote was 8 to 1. Do you know why eight of the council members were against the incorporation of Summit?
A: Well, my main thought is that they felt like that we, as a small community, should remain as a child, and not try to help ourselves. So they would rather issue us whatever our needs was than for us to be able to handle our own. So we had grown up. We had always – always been incorporated, yet it wasn’t on paper. So now we thought it was time to get it legalized and do for ourselves as a community.
Q: Mr. Gardner, were there any other obstacles that you’d like to tell us about in getting the town incorporated?
A: Ah, near as I can remember, the old site map of the town of Summit was one mile square – one square mile. But it was half a mile north of the school building and a half mile south of the school building. And we had a map of it. But this ten percent that had a chance to oppose our map site, so they did, and we had to go back and have the map redrawn – had to get them back in the plan and redrew our map. And we took this ten percent out. And this was our second map. After we got it approved, now we were ready to be incorporated.
Q: Do you know why ten percent of Summit didn’t want to get the town incorporated?
A: Their argument was that we moved to the country to be in the country and we want to remain in the country. And they didn’t want us to be incorporated as a – as a intelligent town. That was their argument. So in order to satisfy them, we spent an extra amount of dollars to get a map redrawn leaving them out so we could continue with our plan of incorporation. Otherwise, we would have had to stop right there.
Q: Mr. Gardner, you said that the vote from the Muskogee council was eight against and one for. How did you get the approval of the other eight members?
A: Well, we had to have a second map drawn, which that made us pay double. We met back with the Muskogee council. We showed them the drawing and we left this ten percent out. And then after a short discussion, they said – the ten percent said “fine, as long as we’re out of the community, we have no objection to the incorporation – to them incorporating.” Then the Muskogee council met after the hearing of both sides and they voted unanimously for us to go ahead with our incorporation papers, voting, etc. And that’s what was done.
I never will forget one day after working at the Nelson’s Furniture all day – hot and tired – I got a telephone call from my dad. He told me to come up to his house, he had some good news and some bad news. And, ah, so I took me a bath after eating supper, and went up to his house and I said, “You said you’ve got good news and bad news. Give me the good news first, because I don’t know whether I can handle it if you give me the bad news first.” We laughed, and he said, “The good news is that you’re going to be able to get the town incorporated, but you will have to work for it, so you might drop some sweat.” And he said, “If you don’t have enough sweat, I’ll pour some water on you.” (laughing) And we had a big laugh.
Q: Mr. Gardner, can you tell us your fondest memories of Summit?
A: One of the fondest memories of the town of Summit is simply as I would stand and look at the high school – look at the picture, but as I looked through this picture there, this tree is not – but there was a great tall maple tree that stood on the east side of our building. And now the building and tree is gone, but the offspring of the tree have turned into a maple forest, which reminds me of a poem that I learned when I was in high school by Joyce Kilmer, ah, Trees. “I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree. . . Poems are made by fools like me, but only God make a tree.”
What I’m trying to say, that in incorporating this town it lets me know that families are important because it’s from this tree, now it’s nothing but a forest, and incorporating the town, ah, it reminds me of a family. Family must – the family that prays together, stays together. That’s why I’ve got so much enjoyment out incorporating our little town. Trying to make an outstanding record from my family , being growed up in the town of Summit.
I remember after looking at this picture of the DuBois School, my mind reflects back to the first storm that ever came through Summit. I don’t remember the year, but I remember very distinctly the first tornado, since we have just passed tornado season, that came through Summit. I was a little lad and I could look to the west and I saw this tornado forming, and didn’t know where it was going. Cloud would run - shape up and they’d run a little bit and shoot like a star. So after about three or four hours it came into the Summit area, and at that time we lived in a tin-top house. And it started – the wind started blowing, started raining and hailing, and you can imagine how much noise was being made with the hail hitting that tin-top – that roof. So the wind blew and thunder rolled and lightning flashed, and finally it came a big clap of thunder hit in the old wood stove, and ashes went all over the room. And my mother was praying, “Lord, save me and my family.” My baby brother, he was afraid and said, “Mama, maybe God will save us.” And after a few minutes and the storm subsided, there was trees down all around and everything. And so that was the first tornado that I can remember ever hitting around the Muskogee area.
Q: Mr. Gardner, earlier you told us that Mr. Bobby Lee Hudson decided to no longer be a part of the corporation plans. What problems did his leaving cause?
A: Well, ah, it was a kind of hardship, ‘cause see where there was three of us doing different jobs made it lots easier, then when he pulled out and we had to take his responsibility and divide it among us two and carry it on, so it was a hardship. But as I said earlier, O.B. and I had played basketball and we had many hardships in basketball season, so we knew how to combine our efforts and work things out from that issue, so we did the same thing in the incorporation of the town. And then Mr. Hudson was no longer part of the incorporation.
Q: How did Reverend Noble and Congressman Mike Synar contribute to getting the town of Summit incorporated?
A: Ah, well, Reverend Noble, he was the spiritual advisor – he sat in on every meeting and took notes and he gave us spiritual counsel and guided us as we went along. And then Mike Synar was a congressman, and so we had to make several contributions to other people from a congressman’s standpoint, so Mike Synar would inform us as to the addresses and who we needed to contact in order that the town might be incorporated.
Ah, as I said earlier, there is an old saying that says “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.” Ah, and the town had been – tried to – had been in the process of being incorporated three times earlier before we decided. But from this old proverb, “If at once you don’t succeed, try again,” so we buckled ourselves down and got all the help that we needed, along with Reverend Noble and Congressman Mike Synar and others. But we were determined not to fail in this third attempt.
Q: How many people were on the town board and what responsibilities did the members of the board have?
A: The people on the town board – it was a five team board. It was, ah, three trustees, and the clerk, and the treasurer made a five-member board. Their responsibility was that, ah, they could – especially the trustees that vote and decide on any issue that come up – that was their responsibility. And then we had a treasurer who kept the proceeds or all money matters, and we had a clerk who kept the records.
Q: Mr. Gardner, were there any special laws that were passed after Summit was incorporated?
A: I don’t know per se what they were offhand, but I know there had to be some because we, ah, had Drew Edmondson as our attorney to set all laws and things in – in an incorporated town. So Drew Edmondson, who is now the attorney general, was our attorney at that time. So he passed – he passed and saw to us carrying out laws as was recorded for an incorporated town.
Q: Could you tell a difference in Summit after the incorporation?
A: At, ah, at the beginning of it, it was a great gift – everything was real, ah, fine, with all the new laws and the, ah, putting up different signs saying “welcome to the town of Summit.” Cutting down trees, picking up paper – that was a great gift for a long while, but finally we changed mayors and things of that nature, so it didn’t turned out to be as pretty a site as it was at the beginning.
Q: What benefits did having the town incorporated provide for the people?
A: Well, ah, we had – we got us a fire station. Someone had some land down there and he donated it to the town of Summit and we got us a fire truck and it had a great big building on it, and we used it to house the truck that we purchased. So we had a fire truck right in the town of Summit, so whenever there was any kind of a fire, we had our own facilities to go out and put the fire out. So that was a major benefit that we had. We didn’t have ambulance service, but we did have fire protection.
Ah, I would like to add that there was about three acres of land belonged to an Indian person out in that area and he willed it, the three acres, to Summit, ah, for a fire truck. It had a big building on it, and so we housed the fire truck in this building and as long as there was a fire truck or facilities, this land belonged to Summit, but after the fire truck was no longer, then the land went back to the owner of these three acres that I’m talking about. So we no longer had the fire truck and that three acres went back to it’s rightful – it’s original owner.
Q: Was there any difference in police protection after Summit was incorporated?
A: I would say yes, because after the town was incorporated, the Muskogee policeman was more lenient about coming out when they received a call from Summit. Prior to that – prior to the incorporation, they might come and they might not come, but after it became an incorporated, ah, community, they would readily come to our rescue because we were incorporated.
Q: After Summit was incorporated, did the town elect a mayor and a city council?
A: Yes. The way that worked was the town was divided into three equal parts, north, south, and east. Divided into three equal parts, and each one of these areas elected a councilman. Then when we got the three councilmen elected, then they – then we elected a treasurer and a clerk, and that made a five-man board. And out of the three – first council, the three councilmen that was elected, they elected one of them as mayor. Then we were ready to go.
Q: Mr. Gardner, who was the first mayor of Summit?
A: The first mayor of Summit was – the first mayor of Summit was Councilman Erma Lee Thomas, and she was in ward – ward one on the north side. She became the first – she was the first mayor.
Q: When did you become mayor of Summit?
A: I became – I became mayor of Summit, ah, must have been seven years later, and then I resigned, and then I became mayor ten years after that, the second time around. And I was working under Drew Edmondson, and I thought I had everything lined up my second time after his advice, but that didn’t work either. So, I – I was mayor on two – two different occasions. Seven years later, I resigned during that period, then I became mayor ten years later.
In answer to your question, when did you become mayor – my answer to that question is I became mayor of Summit seven years after it was incorporated, and I served about three years there, and I resigned. And after about two more years, I was elected back in that position. I didn’t never run against anybody. I was always appointed by the board or whatever. I didn’t run against anyone for that position at all.
Q: Mr. Gardner, why did you want to become mayor of Summit?
A: Ah, the reason – what caused me to want to become the mayor was after the breaking down of the trustees and treasurers and those who were in position, and I think our first mayor, she resigned, and they had no one else as leadership to carry that on, so I resigned from the school board to become mayor of the town of Summit, in order that they would have someone there of incorporation ability to move the town. Even that didn’t work. That was when I became mayor of the town of Summit.
Q: How did the citizens in Summit respond to having a mayor?
A: For the most part, the majority of them responded very well, because we are talking about now maybe a ten or fifteen year incorporation span and, and, ah, they began to – they began, after a ten or fifteen year incorporation span, they began to put more pressure on the mayor than he was totally due. So for that reason, I had to resign as well as the others who resigned prior to me becoming mayor.
Q: Mr. Gardner, did you have any people that helped you while you were mayor?
A: Yes, ah, I had a lot of good help for the first five years of my mayorship. On my second time around, then after then help began to subside, pressure began to mount, and I saw it would be necessary to leave, though I – I didn’t want to, but then I resigned as well as some of the other mayors who were ahead of me.
Q: Can you give us a detailed description of what some of your duties were as mayor of Summit?
A: The duties of mayor was to beautify, keep it clean, and to keep it health-wise safe so far as accumulating sprays – spray in the summertime for mosquitoes and any pests or bugs that might be in the town. And then, we also put up different welcome signs at three entrances – “Welcome to the Town of Summit” – so anybody that drive through would know that this was part of the incorporation agenda.
Q: What problems did you face as mayor?
A: Well, the biggest problem that you face as mayor is, ah, jealousy, as people in this day and time, more or less than right now, is, ah, we don’t like to work together. Togetherness and jealousy were one of the biggest problems that I faced.
Q: Mr. Gardner, what did you think was your major accomplishment as mayor?
A: I think the biggest accomplishment when I look back in life now, and you know we got what’s called West [Nile] Virus through mosquito bites around in our country today, and I think, back in those days when we were incorporated and sprayed for those insects, we probably headed off any kind of virus, ah, that might been out at that time, and kept our people in our community in the incorporated area safe, because it was a lot of trees and weeds and we did accomplish it by getting a machine out to come through the town every so often and spray for these insects. So I think that was a major accomplishment, even though we didn’t know it at the time, but when you look back now, it had to be a big, ah, nice accomplishment. Safety for the health of the people.
Q: How long were you mayor of Summit?
A: I was mayor of Summit, ah, two years the first time, and then I resigned and stayed away for about three years, and then I came back, and was appointed for five years. So a total of seven years – two at first, then I resigned for a period of time, then came back, appointed back and served five years. So five – that’s five plus two, be seven – total of seven.
Q: Mr. Gardner, do you still reside in Summit?
A: No, I don’t reside in Summit, ah, at the present, however, my home – my home church is right in the heart of Summit, the Saint Thomas Primitive Baptist Church where I do attend quite often. But as time goes on and after we get everything lined up in the town of Summit, I will probably moved my membership closer that I will not have to make this 150 mile drive every so often to my home church, which is in Summit.
Q: Mr. Gardner, previously I asked you after Summit was incorporated did the town elect a mayor and a city council. Is there anything else you’d like to add about that?
A: Ah, one of the things I’d like to add on that question, just called to my attention since we’ve been going over this – we had, as I told you earlier, we had a three-board member and a, ah, out of the three board members they elected a mayor, and the first mayor was Mrs. Erma Lee Thomas, who was a school teacher. The other two councilmen on that first board was, ah, your grandmother, Charles Etta Gardner, who was the first secretary of the town of Summit, and ah, Mrs. Lucille Ross was the first treasurer of the town of Summit. The reason why I mentioned your grandmother, she – your grandmother was a very good speller, however, she only finished the ninth grade, but she could spell most all words. But, ah, by Sister Thomas being a school teacher – whenever she’d write the minutes, she’d try to write everything that was said, and she’d try to spell those big words, and, ah, so after six months of treasureship, she came to me, her husband and said, “I’m going to resign because I get tired of trying to put – spell all these big hard words” from the first mayor, who was a school teacher. And after six months of, ah, ah, treasure, she resigned. So I just wanted to add that, ah, to the manuscript, ah – three board members and, ah, the mayor, treasurer, and the secretary, who was Charles Etta Gardner, the first secretary of the town of Summit.
Q: Mr. Gardner, looking back at the incorporation process, is there anything that you wish you could change about it?
A: Ah, yes. Looking back at the incorporation procedure at the time it was done, in the ‘70s, ah, we waited a little late to, to get it incorporated. Had it been incorporated the other three times when it was tried, it probably would have been much, much better off. But in the late ‘70s, as I stated somewhere in my conversation, that I had to resign from the school board in order to take over the leadership of the town of Summit, and I eventually became mayor, ah, I styled the whole thing as I tried to save the school and lost the whole town. Now you may not understand what I’m trying to say, but there’s an old saying that “One bad apple can destroy a barrel of good apples.” That’s what happened to us at that late date, because we had people coming in off the plantation who had no training, no ability about nothing, and we let them move into the town of Summit to save the school, so our school would have attendance. And their ability – they destroyed the whole town, so I tried to save the school by letting them in, and resigning from the school board and eventually we lost the whole town. One bad apple destroyed the whole bushel of apples.
Q: Thank you, Mr. Gardner, for your time in allowing me to conduct this interview and the town of Summit, Oklahoma.
A: Breann, you are certainly welcome. Grandpa has certainly enjoyed this interview with you, one of my granddaughters. I love all of you all, but I have enjoyed this interview. Ah, I was instrumental in buying my first granddaughter her first baby bed, Denise Andrew Gardner, ah, and so, this interview has helped me to let you all know some of the progress and some of the things that has been done in Summit, ah, that Gardners have set a record that we can’t be out there in the town now under adverse circumstances, but you know what has transpired, and we thank God for all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Thank you.
Q: To conclude the interview, I would like to mention a certificate that was given to Fred Douglas Gardner, Jr. It was a certificate of recognition that was awarded to him for his role in partnership with O.B. Jeffries in seeking the incorporation of the town of Summit after others before them had failed. It was given to him November 11, 2000.
