1407: North Omaha Legacies & More

(upbeat music) [Narrator] Coming up on Nebraska Stories, exploring the rich past and promising future of North Omaha.

(upbeat music) A relic hunter shares his prize collection and the history it reveals.

(upbeat music) The old time country sounds of Lloyd McCarter and the Honky Tonk Revival, (upbeat music) and the revealing wartime letters of a young soldier.

(upbeat music) (guitar Music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (light jazz music) (light jazz music) (light jazz music) (light jazz music) [Preston] Well, the truth of the matter is I'm passionate about my beloved community, North Omaha, and that passion has taken on the form of me wanting everyone who comes in contact or who does not to learn more about our community, its history and its culture.

(mellow jazz music) [Narrator] Writer, activist and native Nebraskan Preston Love Jr., is on a mission to change people's perspectives on the North Omaha community and he's found an innovative way to do it by bringing them to the historically African American neighborhood.

it's[Preston] That's why I'm doing the tour for the purpose of educating and hopefully waking up people and making them more aware of this wonderful, my beloved, but wonderful, glorious community.

[Narrator] Called the North Omaha Legacy Tour it focuses on the rich heritage, legacy and historical contributions of the community.

It begins with a short orientation to provide context for the tour, followed by a drive through areas that are culturally significant.

(light jazz music) [Preston] The Omaha Star is historic in so many ways but it tells a story about a community, like communities all over this nation who grew their own things because of racism and discrimination and bigotry.

The Omaha Star was founded in 1938 by a very eccentric woman by the name of Mildred Brown.

Mildred Brown was a unique lady in her day because she was an African American business woman in a day where there weren't a lot and she was a go-getter, she started that business.

It is still going, but The Star has quite a history.

It was started with the idea that it would only write the good news about the residents of North Omaha and it has stayed with that all along.

You have the most current edition in your pack that I gave you.

(light jazz music) [Preston] The Great Plains Black History Museum is a chronicle in itself.

It's a tour within four walls, if you will.

And so, it has great, great value for people to learn about the past and how it connects with the future.

Many things I'm going to turn you over to the executive director of the Great Plains Museum, Eric Ewing.

[Eric] As you look around the exhibit that you'll find in this space is the history of historically Black colleges and universities.

This is a year long exhibit, so actually, even what you see right now by the end of this week, it will be 10 to eight new institutions because there's so many schools we couldn't feature 'em all at once, so what we decided to do was make it a year long exhibit and each month we change out the institutions that are on display.

[Narrator] But this tour isn't just about North Omaha's past, it's about revitalizing this once thriving community.

[Preston] We visit some of our community gardens which are propping up.

We visit and comment on the amount of vacant lots that are unutilized property in the community.

We visit the many wonderful new and exciting murals in the community and then we visit the significant residuals of this long-term community disinvestment, the community's economic devastation.

All of that is caught up and is mentioned and part of the tour as well.

[Narrator] It also includes a stop at the site that was once home to the first Black honoree in the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

[Preston] The Malcolm X Center speaks for itself in my mind because people are interested and some are just learning that the iconic Malcolm X was born in this community and so we go to his birth site.

It's a natural and it is significant.

[Schmeeka] Thank you everyone for being on this great tour for stopping to visit us here at the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation.

We want everyone to come and learn the truth of who he was as a man, as a child, as a husband, as a father, and learn and help support our mission in uplifting this community.

[Narrator] Opening minds and changing opinions is what Preston Love Jr. hopes to achieve through the tour, and it seems to be working.

Well, the things with the Malcolm X thing at the end of the tour was interesting to me.

I mean, the things that we heard about Malcolm X years ago were not very nice to say the least, and so to see what's happened and how the people here have taken an interest in showing what he really did and things that have happened and are trying to make changes in this whole area based on his foundation here.

So, I think that's fantastic.

Probably one of the most exciting things that I can mention about the tour, which was expected, but underestimated was the economic impact that we're having on this poverty stricken community.

Since we've started, our estimate is that we have impacted financially over $50,000 of money that has come into the community that would not have come if it weren't for the tour.

That's the tours, buying from our retail since they're here, having meals here since they're here returning after the tour.

(upbeat jazz music) [Gladys] What being a part of the Legacy tour has done for Big Mama's is, you know, continue my mom's vision of bringing people together over great food.

The tours bring folks from all over the state, from all walks of life and in these crazy times that we live in, we need things to bring people together and my mother always felt that you could change the world if you prepared somebody a great meal.

(upbeat jazz music) [Preston] I think the tour is serving a great purpose.

I want people to come and take this tour because they will learn about a community when they come from outside the community that they don't know.

Several times I said, I didn't know that.

The red line delineating white neighborhoods from black neighborhoods, I found very interesting.

It never occurred to me that there was an exact dividing line between neighborhoods.

I didn't know that.

You know, one of the things I'm really proud of, somewhat unexpected but it is that we really are really making a difference as it relates to bridging the gap between communities and culture within the city.

We are really making the difference and I'm proud that as people learn about our community then they have a tendency to wanna learn more, number one and reach out and develop new relationship.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (soft guitar music) (soft guitar music) (soft guitar music) (soft guitar music) (soft guitar music) [Pete] When you started in the morning, you could probably see where you're gonna stop at night.

I would say if they made 10 miles would be a real big day, I would bet.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music) You see a lot of depressions out here on along the Oregon Trail, you know?

And I never did dig one but I think what happened is these covered wagon trains they had to stick together for protection.

If they had like 40 wagons, the military would send a company to accompany 'em.

And if somebody passed away during the night I think they would, the ground was hard, you know, I think they'd dig a shallow grave.

Just big enough to get 'em in and cover 'em up.

And they had to be ready to go by morning.

And I'm sure within two nights, the coyotes, badgers wolves, dug them up, you know?

'Cause you see the depressions but you never see anything that's very deep.

And I bet they didn't bury 'em very deep.

And think of how hard they had been to leave one of your loved ones.

(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [Pete] The interstate ruined a lot of it, and it's too bad.

But down east here, when they were surveying it, I went down there and the trails were real obvious.

Deep and everything, and then I told the guys, I said, "You realize that you're ruining the Oregon trail?"

And they said, "Well, we'll just put a sign that says you're traveling on the Oregon Trail."

(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [Pete] He said this was a ranch, which they called 'em.

And he never did say if that's the one he had worked at.

But dad always said, he said he came here and worked on a ranch and there were no cattle ranches.

So I assume it would've been on the Oregon Trail.

And he took us down and I remember walking around and seeing stuff.

You know, as a matter of fact, I picked up an arrowhead and then on, of course, I just loved the place.

(chuckling) And that was that terrible depressive blowout country in the thirties.

And I remember him taking his folks down to see his brother.

They lived in a sod house and they had just built on an addition of sod and it was still wet.

And anyway, I can remember the, everything was blowing and they told me to go out and look around.

And I think when the day was done we had like 40 arrowheads we'd picked up.

And I just remember they gave 'em all to me.

So, that was my first big start.

(gentle music) (gentle music) [Pete] In the early fifties it was so dry and it blew so much.

And at that time we didn't have the pivot irrigation.

And it had a tendency, of course, over winter to blow.

And those hilltops, it blew down to hard ground.

And gosh, all you had to do was walk out there and that's about all there was, was flint.

And it was easy to find an arrowhead.

Now it's not.

(drawer scratching) (drawer scratching) Well it's a Remington new model, which was popular in the Civil War period.

This particular one was lost along the Oregon Trail apparently, or possibly the owner was shot or whatever.

But it's fully loaded.

All of the cylinders still have their balls in 'em.

So, how it happened to be there, I don't know.

But anyway, that's where it was found.

And it's along the Oregon Trail.

(gentle music) [Pete] I think the most fun I had though, was probably digging bottles out of the old forts.

I just loved those old bottles.

Bitters, which is whiskey, they didn't like to call it whiskey, but it's what it was.

It was an age of alcohol.

(chuckling) They drank a lot of it.

We used to dig the crock ones.

They were too toned and they were ale.

And they must have lived off of that stuff because they were everywhere.

And I got to where I didn't even pick 'em up, I didn't like 'em because they'd throw 'em in the pit and break the good ones.

And there's some more of the old bottle.

That's the ale that I was telling you broke all the other bottles, pretty common.

I remember going to Wallace one time, the fort, couldn't find anything and it was getting late in the day, and I was starting to come home and the old town it was a trading post to Wallace and nothing left to it, just flat ground.

And I had my spade and I took a spade full out and hit a bottle, the first thing, you know?

And that little thing was hacked full of bidders bottles.

One of the best pits I ever hit and yet it wasn't three foot square and three foot deep probably.

But you never knew what you were gonna find.

(gentle music) It was beautiful morning and we went up there and she... we took the two kids and I looked around and pretty soon I found a depression, a pit.

(gentle music) And she put the baby or the blanket down on the grass and I started digging.

And I hit a bottle pit and I dug bottles.

(gentle music) And I told her a while back, I said you know, (gentle music) that's probably the best day of my life.

Probably the most pleasant day that I ever spent.

(gentle music) Oh, I can just sit there and just picture the covered wagons going by and all that stuff, you know?

It's just a calming place to go, for me anyway.

I hope the old Oregon trails there many many generations after I'm gone, (gentle music) I hope they make provisions that it's not to be destroyed, you know?

Now, I don't think there is anything if they wanted to build a highway over it, I think they could.

But I think it should be preserved.

(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) ("Mexico" by Lloyd McCarter and the Honky Tonk Revival) Lloyd: I grew up on really old country music.

My whole entire family played music.

When I was eight years old I started playing just because I didn't want to be left out.

I was the baby of the family.

My mom and dad would take me to the bars where they were playing music.

I'd go lay my head against the speakers and listen to my dad's deep voice, and fall asleep.

That's my childhood.

I just grew up with this style of music and so it's something that's very near and dear to me.

It means a lot to me.

Country music in particular means a lot to me.

This is what I was born to do, play music.

Our sound, it's a mix between rockabilly and old school hard driving country music.

Its music to drink and dance to.

Some of us come from different parts of the country.

Musically, we all have a little bit different backgrounds.

But our differences, it just works.

Every time we get together, we love each other so much just as friends, that we just like playing together.

And a lot of times, you know it doesn't matter if there's ten people or ten thousand people, it's just us four on stage having fun.

And so that chemistry that we have on stage, we feed off the crowd and the crowd really feeds off of us.

Because we're up there dancing and smiling and having fun.

♪ When I get on stage and the lights come on, it's a lonely ♪ ♪ man's way to pray.

Well it's a hard life of drinking.

♪ -There's not a lot of people that play traditional country music anymore.

Honky-Tonk, Western Swing, those old waltz's.

Those old crying, sad, cheating, drinking songs.

It's becoming lost I guess.

So I try to keep it going.

Whether I'm the last person on the face of the earth that likes it or not, I'll probably just play it because it means so much to me.

("Who's Going to Drive This Pick-Up") (country music) ♪ Well, who's going to drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Gonna soothe my head, it feels right ♪ ♪ Who's gonna tell me the fun I had last night?

♪ ♪ Who's gonna drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Well, time and time it happens ♪ ♪ I stop off with some my friends ♪ ♪ For just one drink before we go on home ♪ ♪ That one drink leads to another ♪ ♪ Bartender, bring me another ♪ ♪ I know it's late but she's not at home ♪ ♪ It's 1 am ♪ ♪ And all my friends are gone again, so it seems ♪ ♪ And I'm sitting in this old bar alone ♪ ♪ Well, there's one thing for certain ♪ ♪ That I'm gonna be hurting ♪ ♪ If I can't find my way back home ♪ ♪ So, who's gonna bring this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Who's gonna soothe my head, that feels right ♪ ♪ Who's gonna tell me the fun I had last night?

♪ ♪ Who's gonna drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Oh, watch Mikey go ♪ (country music) ♪ Well, who's gonna drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Who's gonna soothe my head, that feels right ♪ ♪ Who's gonna tell me the fun I had last night?

♪ ♪ Who's gonna drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Who's gonna drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ ♪ Oh lord, who's gonna drive this pick-up home tonight?

♪ Yes, sir.

BARB STOUT: Grandpa always sat at the kitchen table with his hat on crooked and a cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth.

(laughs) Farmed all of his life, grew up on the farm.

Actually grew up in this house.

From the time he was like five I think he moved into this house.

And lived here and actually died out in this place.

He wasn't the most ambitious man in the world.

But the guy that would do anything for you.

You know anything you wanted, if he had it you could have it.

Very sharing, very generous, kind of quiet.

Not very outspoken.

NARRATOR: Everyone called him either Luther, his middle name or more likely his nickname Sally.

Where that came from is a bit of a mystery.

In 1917 he enlisted in the Army as Carl L. Bard.

Sally didn't talk much about the war.

But he wrote about it a lot.

MIKE TOBIAS: So this is the story of Sally Bard.

STOUT: Right.

TOBIAS: So tell me what all of this is.

STOUT: This is a box, most of it is letters that Sally and Mabel wrote back and forth to each other during World War One while he was gone.

NARRATOR: Mabel is Mabel Ring, the local girl Sally left behind.

They wrote to each other sometimes daily.

A big ocean and big war often delayed delivery.

Each wrote pages about mundane stuff.

The weather, who was getting married, what was happening on the farm.

And they wrote pretty openly about their social lives.

STOUT (reading Sally's letter): I had the pleasure of being out with a real English girl while I was there.

I just thought I would tell you dear being as when you tell me when you are out with other fellows, I had one good time you bet.

I can't really see my Grandpa having a good time.

(laughs) STOUT (reading Sally's letter): You would never guess who, well it was Dave Cumo.

We had some celebration here, it rained in the morning but cleared up in the afternoon so everything went off just fine.

TOBIAS: So she makes a brief passing reference about going to a dance with another guy.

And very quickly moves onto the weather.

STOUT: Yeah, then the weather.

(laughs) NARRATOR: Sally wrote of a midnight punishment march during stateside training because two other soldiers got drunk, getting called out for being unshaven at inspection, of the pleasure of getting a box of candy from home, of renting a car and driving to the big gambling rooms in Monte Carlo before he came home from the war.

(machine gun fire) But more serious stuff, letters cryptically originality from somewhere in France, told of getting used to shells landing so close they shook an old house Sally was sleeping in.

Of digging a three foot wide hole in the mud for protection from those same shells.

Of always having his gas mask ready.

Life as a private first class in the 119th field artillery.

STOUT (reading Sally's letter): The Germans made a stand here on the, some river.

I quite driving and went to work on the big gun or the first gun.

And on the 10th I went deaf from the gunfire and was relieved.

TOBIAS: I think it says the Germans put... STOUT (reading Sally's letter): A big barrage into Death Valley and killed many men and horses.

Lindgrund was wounded.

NARRATOR: This has made an old man of me in both looks and ways Sally wrote at one point.

It's a reference to hair he was gonna loose anyway because that's what happened to men in the Bard family.

But there's another meaning.

STOUT: When he got home they thought they were going to hear about his life in the camp.

STOUT (reading Sally's letter): But if they think they are going to get that out of me and tell of my experiences over here, first they are out of luck.

For the sooner I can forget about this war the better I will like it.

There has been a lot of times over here when I wished I had lived in a little different life than I have.

NARRATOR: Sally came home to farm April of 1919.

The guy who ended all of his letters as always your loving Luther and carefully kept those Mabel sent over seas.

He married his sweetheart a year later.

Sally kept wearing his hat tilted to one side like in the old Army pictures.

But he didn't talk much about that time.

Barb Stout's glad she found that magic box that speaks loudly about her grandparents and the great war.

STOUT (reading Sally's letter): (laughs) So I am off, always yours, Luther.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Watch more "Nebraska Stories" on our website, Facebook and YouTube.

(upbeat music) "Nebraska Stories" is funded in part by the Margaret and Martha Thomas Foundation, and Humanities Nebraska, and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)