Lindsay Broomcorn Sweeps the World

   The small town of Lindsay, Oklahoma, is legendary for its high school football teams and girls basketball teams of the 'fifties, 'sixties, and 'seventies. Its Leopard football teams won several class A state titles during the 1950's to the early 1960's, and laid claim to class 2A's winningest team for the decade of the seventies. Its Leopardette basketball teams won state titles in 1954, 1963, and 1969, and made several state tournament appearances during that same time period.
   Lindsay is most legendary, though, for something else during the 1950's, 1960's, and into the 1970's - Broomcorn. Broomcorn was a crop grown by almost every farmer along the fertile Washita River and further south along its major tributary, Rush Creek. Many Lindsay and surrounding communities' citizens "worked broomcorn" during the hot summer months at that time, as it was about the only employment most young people could find. Most high school and jr. high kids worked all summer in the broomcorn patch as a way to earn about $10 a day, in order to buy their clothes for the following school year. Most would save around $200 to buy school necessities, shoes, jeans, and shirts or dresses, and would clean up real good for school. I can honestly say it was the hardest job I ever had, and I worked as hard getting out of working broomcorn as I did while cutting, hauling, and thrashing the crop used to make "brooms". As a matter of fact, I was very thankful when two-a-day football practices began in early August, for I was then able to use practice as an excuse for quitting the field work for the year. When I grew old enough and strong enough, I quit the broomcorn patch entirely, as I graduated to the farm executive work of "hay hauling". It was much easier, but paid more, as a high school kid could earn as much as 5 cents a bale - or $50 for a 10 hour day.
   This past weekend, memories rushed back to those hot summer days spent cutting broomcorn on Rush Creek as we got to visit the Ryan Taylor Museum in Lindsay. It's usually not open to the public every day, so many Lindsay residents haven't had the opportunity to visit this museum, but I was lucky enough to see it. Carl and Cathy Dutton have put together one of the top museums in Oklahoma, which displays the old farming methods, tools, photos, and machinery of those long gone broomcorn summers around Lindsay. If the opportunity to visit comes up again, don't miss it, even if you're one who doesn't miss those days past... in the broomcorn patch.