Curtis William Gardner – August 31, 1917 to May 14, 2016

Autobiographical Overview

This is the story of my life by Curtis William Gardner. I was born in Upland, Arkansas (near present day El Dorado, Arkansas) on August 31, 1917. In 1921, my family moved to Junction City, Arkansas and I attended school in Junction City until I was 14 years old. Around this time, we moved to Houston, Texas and where I attended Sam Houston High School. As of this writing, I am just a few short weeks of turning 96 years old (as of 2013).

Early Childhood Memories in Arkansas

As a young child growing up in Junction City, Arkansas, I remember in about the second year in school, if you misbehaved in class, the teacher would send you to the principal’s office where he would give you several lashes on your behind with the razor straps. While I never got in trouble and earned high marks in conduct, not all of my classmates were so lucky.

When I was around 5 years old, my dad, James Russell Gardner bought me and my brother J.D. a small Shetland pony to ride. We enjoyed riding the pony around the backyard. Unfortunately, about 3 months later our house burned to the ground and we had to sell it. Shortly after this, our family moved about a mile down the road from the old home place across the border in Junction City Louisiana.

When I was about 10 years old, my brother J.D. and I would go to my dad’s farm and cut wood for our fireplace and kitchen stove. We would borrow a wagon and mule to haul wood to our house. Our job was to split the wood for the kitchen stove into small sticks and larger sticks for the fireplace in the living room. We also shared our land with a sharecropper who raised peas, corn, and sweet potatoes who would give us a portion of the crop for the use of our land.

While my mother was cooking breakfast, I would sometimes sit behind the stove and drop a long string with a grain of corn tied onto it through a small hole in the floor to the ground six feet below where the chickens sometimes roamed. I would wait for a chicken to swallow the grain of corn and then pull the string back out of his mouth.

Also during this time in my life, my brother J.D. and I set out steel traps to catch coons and mink. Once we caught the coons, we would skin them. We let the hides dry before taking them to market where they brought around $25 a piece.

While we all worked hard while growing up, in the little bit of free time I had I enjoyed playing marbles with my brother and friends from across the street.
When I was around 14 years old, I remember our home once again caught fire when flames from the kitchen stove pipe caught the shingles on fire and burned the house down to the ground. Unfortunately we had no fire department in Junction City. Shortly after this fire, our family move to Texas.

Life in Texas

After moving to Texas, I went to Sam Houston High School in downtown Houston where I joined the R.O.T.C. I remember marching in several parades in Houston as we were dressed in World War I army uniforms. For two summers while I was in the R.O.T.C, I went to military training camp for 2 days each summer in Camp Bullis in nearby San Antonio where we trained in handling firearms such as rifles and machine guns. While at camp Bullis, we also had several sports we could play in. I entered the 100 yard dash and won with a running time of 9.8 seconds.

After graduating from high school, I got a job at Eastern States Petroleum Company, a refinery in Houston, Texas, as a sample boy working in the laboratory.
My job was to climb to the top of the petroleum tank and lower a bottle with a cork into the tank to a predetermined depth at which point I would pull the cork and take the sample. I would take the sample to the laboratory and would perform various tests to determine the octane, sulphurs, gravity, distillation, and vapor pressure. We would continue to modify the petroleum until the product met the ASTM standards.

After working in the lab awhile, I quit and enrolled and attended Arkansas A&M college in Magnolia, Arkansas for a year. I later returned to Houston and went to work at Eastern States Petroleum Company again working as a full-time laboratory specialist testing all petroleum products refined in the plant. Later on, I took a job selling products for the company for about 10 years. The company furnished me a car so I could conduct business with various gas station owners in the Houston and surrounding area. My job was to research the prices the owners paid for fuel and try to convince them to buy it from Eastern States Petroleum. When I first took the job, the company was selling approximately 1 million gallons of petroleum a month. After a short while of working, I was able to increase sales to 8 million gallons a month. My strategy was to meet with the client and develop a personal business relationship.

Around this time another relationship was brewing. After securing full-time employment, I asked my girlfriend Glynovale Myrtilla Willis to marry me. She said “I will” and we married in 1939 and made plans to build a house in the Garden Oaks neighborhood. Glynovale worked on making a home for our future family which would include Gary Jay and Richard while I continued to work at Eastern States.

When Eastern States sold to another company, I decided to apply for another job since the buyer wanted me to travel throughout the U.S. to buy up independent service stations. I wanted to stay close to home so I bought some property and built a service station on it. I borrowed $50,000 from Albert Alkek, a Texas oilman, and started a service station with six full service pumps near the Garden Oaks neighborhood in Houston, Texas. After owning the service station for about 5 years, another oil company offered to buy my station for a reasonable price.
I sold out and bought another station about a half mile down the road. Eventually, the large petroleum companies refused to sell gasoline to independent dealers forcing me to close the station and go to work as a car salesman. During my tenure here, I was the leading car salesperson for a month. Later, I reopened my service station and employed a mechanic to work on cars. Ultimately, I sold the station and went to work for Harris County overseeing county files where I retired age 67.

Later Years

My wife Glynovale passed away in 1995, giving us 56 years of happiness together. We made many friends in these years including Vincent and Joan Davis. When Vincent died in 2000, Joan and I married in April of 2002 and we are still together (Joan passed January 28, 2015). While I am limited today to what I can do, I watch T.V., work on the computer, and do light jobs around the house. I contribute my long life span to avoiding any kind of tobacco, alcohol, drugs and getting plenty of exercise, eating and drinking healthy food and drinks. I have enjoyed living every day of my life.

Memories of My Parents

My dad, James Russell Gardner, took a correspondence course in law when he was younger to improve his education. His knowledge of the law enabled him to survive hard times. We lived in a small town and everyone in town and the surrounding small towns would come to him for his legal advice. He also worked for large company in El Dorado, Arkansas where he obtained mineral rights for many years.

My mother, Lucy Cates Gardner, married my father, James Russell Gardner and bore 8 children, five girls and three boys. Besides raising the children, she would work in the garden planting all kinds of vegetables, pick fruit such as blackberries, blueberries etc. in the woods, and milk the cow. She always stayed busy washing the clothes, ironing, sewing and taking care of the family.

Siblings:
J.D. (James Decimus)
Paul
Ruth
Flossie
Alfa
Lucille
Ola


Memories of My Children

First born: Gary Jay Gardner, September 30, 1945 / Wife: Karen
Second born: Richard Glenn Gardner, February 10, 1946 / Wife: Ann

Grandchildren:

Gary Scott Gardner / Wife: Amanda
Jenny Dale Rucker / Husband: Joe
Alice Beth Gardner-Bates / Husband: Josh

Great Grand Children:
Lauren Rebecca Rucker

Foot Note:
Dad was a loving husband and father and lovingly fulfilled his wedding vows to Glynovale and then to Joan. Curtis and Joan moved to Helping Hands Nursing Care on November 15, 2014 and received the best care anyone could ever hope to receive. Mary Murphy took care of Dad with love and kindness and joy and Dad loved being there with Mary and her assistants to take care of him. He said “Mary is the best in the West” and there was nothing that he wanted for. He was happy, comfortable and content in a cozy country style home surrounded by people that loved and cared for him during his remaining life. There are no words to express the depth of gratitude we have for Mary Murphy for caring for Dad.