Lifelong Odessa downtowner
Bobby Ritter has a distinctive claim. She's lived in downtown Odessa her entire life. And she's 72 years old. In fact, she and her husband, Floyd, still live in the same house on North Sam Houston Avenue that her mother had built in the early 1940s.
The former legal secretary has a lot of memories of growing up with the town. And prompted by the invitation for reader participation in the "Remember When" feature, her son Mark convinced her to put some of her recollections into writing. Bobby Ritter worked for the Shafer law firm and was named legal secretary of the year in 1987.
So now, we'll let her tell the story in her own words:
"I am a third-generation Odessan, so I do know a little about our town. My mother's original house was located on Fourth and Lee, across from the city-owned building that was originally First State Bank. Across the alley to the east was the original Rio Theater. On Fourth and Grant, the west corner was occupied by a grocery store that displayed the produce out front in wooden boxes. Across the street toward the east was Sharp's Drug Store. J.B. Simpson was the pharmacist. This drug store was my usual destination when I was dispatched by my mother to go for medicine or some other need. She would call and tell J.B. I was coming, and he would go outside and watch me as I crossed Grant on my tricycle.
"My grandmother's house was on Fourth and Jackson, and she would often walk to the drug store. Most people walked everywhere and always had time to stop and talk.
"My grandmother was Dona Rabb. There are now two streets named after her, and I think she would be very proud of that. My grandfather died in 1906, and Grandmother Rabb was left with five children to rear during a time when women simply did not work outside the home. They owned a ranch near Judkins. I have no idea how much land she had, but whatever it was she sold for cash and/or other property in town. She built her home from the old ranch house and sold the other land lot by lot. Quite a bit of the land she took in trade was on the south side of town. If people wanted a lot or two, she would let them pay it out monthly or weekly and when it was paid off she would give them a deed. All this was done on the strength of a handshake and their word. To my knowledge, no one ever was ever cheated out of one penny.
"It is a little-known fact that she donated to the county the original part of the cemetery. The addition to the City of Odessa that covers the cemetery is known as the Dona Rabb Addition.
"As Odessa grew, so did the needs of the town. My uncle was Bert Rabb, and he became Odessa's first fire chief, probably around 1920 or so.
"In early 1941 (approximately), my mother sold her house on Fourth and Lee to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain. Mr. Pipkin, owner of the chain, came to our house one afternoon to talk to my mother about selling her house. I was a small child (4 years old), and I found Mr. Pipkin totally fascinating because he had a gold ring in his nose. I had never seen this before but was later told it was there to help with his hay fever. I don't know if it helped or not, but the explanation did satisfy my curiosity. Mr. Pipkin was in a hurry for the property so undoubtedly my mother had to work fast, and she bought a lot for the new house on the 200 block of North Sam Houston. P.B. Hart built the house and a duplex on the back end of the property. The duplex was finished first, and my mother and I moved into one side while the main house was competed. World War II broke out in December, and there were delays in getting the lumber. Finally the house was finished, and we moved in sometime in 1942. Mr. Hart must have done a good job building because the house and the duplex are still standing. My husband and I live in the house, and our son has his place in the duplex that he and my husband renovated and made into an apartment. An addition was made to the house in 1952 to connect the house and addition with the duplex. The buildings are now 66 and 67 years old. They are been redone several times, but their history remains.
"During my adolescent years, Grant was the main part of town. There were variety stores, Woolworth, Wackers and Holcombs. The movie theaters were the Rio, Texas and Lyric. Later along with the new Rio came the Scott, then the Plaza and much later the Ector.
"The Elliott Hotel was a gathering place for everyone. There were also several restaurants, the Club Café, the Texas Café, the Elliott Coffee Shop and the Drillers Club. The Drillers was frequented by oilfield workers and was a good place to go if you needed a job.
"Beer halls, as they were called, included Barneys on North Grant and the Town Tavern on South Grant. The Ace of Clubs, on West Second, was the main place to go dancing, but the Kit Kat was also a lively spot where one could eat, drink and dance to the jukebox. For a while, there also was the Graveyard Inn near the cemetery.
"I graduated from high school in 1955, so I have seen many changes in our schools. I started school at North Elementary that was located where the present administration building is located, Murray Fly was superintendent, and it really is true that he knew every child's name. He had a small office across the street from the elementary school and would be outside when school ended. He would greet every child he saw. There were two other schools, East Elementary and South Elementary, There was only one junior high which was next door to the high school. The present Odessa High was built, and the old high school became Crockett Junior High and the old junior high became an elementary. Murray Fly went on to establish Odessa College and to become its first president.
"I remember when homes were built on Santa Rita, Casa Grande and Ridgecrest. These beautiful homes were selling in the $20,000 range, and it was the general topic of conversation about them being financed for 20 years. It seemed to be rather scandalous to spend this much money on a house and then to take 20 years to pay for it.
"Growing up in the 1940s and '50s was terrific. My friends and I rode our bicycles all over town. We would leave our houses in the morning and ride all day. If we got hungry, we would stop at someone's house and have lunch or a snack with them. Of course, we knew most of the people in town, so eating on our rides never presented a problem. Our families didn't worry about us because everybody knew everybody else and we were safe
"I am often asked why I have stayed in Odessa so long. After all, we have no mountains, no lakes and nothing really terrific. My usual answer is, ‘I don't know.'
"However, I do know. And my heart knows."
