DOES ANYONE REMEMBER OBIE DEDMAN? CIRCA 1930-1970 Obie is another one of those characters that roamed the streets of North Town when I was young. The McAlester News Capital did a story on him several years ago. I believe it was titled The Gentle Giant. They also had a picture of him. This is not that story. I have rechecked some of my memories of Obie with others that knew him growing up just to be sure I had it right. I hope this story does not offend anyone, but I will relate it as it was back then. The first time a saw Obie he was coming down the sidewalk from Cecil;s Cafe to the 6th ward park. (Back then 6th ward was east of North Main from Electric north to the city limits and 5th ward was the same on the west side of North Main.) He was a giant of a man well over 66 with shoulders as broad as a door. He was not fat, but was a little chunky. He wore a white t-shirt under a pair of overalls, workmans shoes, and an engineers cap. The most striking thing about his appearance was the cane 2-3 in diameter and 6 tall carved out of wood that he walked with. If you saw his picture in the paper you knew he was not a handsome man. If anything he looked more like an ogre. So, here he comes down Smith toward the park. I was about ten at the time and was loafing with some friends on the park bench watching this giant coming our way. The park bench was at the baseball field just across the street from our house so I figured I could out run him if I had to. To our shock, he walked around to the bench, sized us up, and then asked if we would like to play some mumble peg. I had never heard of it. He said all we needed was a pocket knife, (which no respectable boy back then would be without). The game consisted of putting your knife on your shoulder, elbow, knee, and hand and flipping it in the air. If it stuck in the dirt you stayed in the game, if not, you were eliminated. There would always be five or six of us kids and Obie sitting under a big shade tree in the park playing mumble peg, or marbles, or just carving on a stick. After we played games for a while we would retire to the park bench and Obie would quote us a chapter from the Book of Psalms and give us a little bible lesson. I would sometimes go across the street to my home and get my bible. He always thought that was a good thing. But honestly, I was just wanting to see if he got each verse right. He could rattle off any of the Psalms as fast as I could read them. And then he would reach into his pocket and pull out a piece of candy for everyone, usually a jaw breaker. Then he would head back across the park with that huge cane leading the way back to North Town. To be such a giant of a person physically he was really a very soft spoken man. He was always almost childlike in his play with us, but very much the teacher when we went to sit on the bench. We really enjoyed our time with him on the days he came to see us. I understand that he did the same with the kids in 5th ward. Here are some other facts about our friend Obie. I did not know that he did the same thing for the kids of my dads generation. He was a lot older than any of us thought. My dad told me that anytime there was a group of kids in the park back then he always had a bible story and candy. He had almost Herculean strength. As a young man he was walking down North Main and a group of men were breaking up some rock to build something. There was this one huge rock that no one could bust. They thought they would have to dynamite it. They saw Obie coming and one said rather sarcastically that they bet he could not break the rock. Obie said he would but he would have to break the sledge hammer doing it. They all had a good laugh on that one. So he rared back with that sledge hammer and let it go on that rock. The rock busted to pieces and the sledge hammers head went flying. Obie handed them back the other half of the hammer and went on down the road. That story was almost legendary among the oldtimers when speaking of Obie. In my dads time, Obie would help the Edmond Doyle PTA at their money raising functions. He would let them put chains all over him. He would hold a tin cup. Everytime someone would put money in the cup he would rattle the chains and act like a crazy man. Over time, I think Obie helped them raise lots of money. Obie also spent about two years in prison in his younger days. Know one can remember why, but the general consensus is that he was caught steeling. It is believed that it was while in prison that he memorized the Book of Psalms. He turned his life around completely. Another fact well known before my time was that Obie tried to join the Second Baptist Church and was voted down. I do not know exactly when that was but it caused several men of my dads generation to not want anything to do with that church. This article is not about religion, but if you have to go to church to go to heaven, and the church had to take a vote on rather they wanted me or not, well I can assure you, I would be going straight to hell. So this was the Gentle Giant: from North Town. Some kids feared him when they saw him coming and would leave the park. Others parents would not let them near him. But those Northtowners that knew him for years had no problem with him. If you were a ten year old standing there looking up at Obie you would have felt very much like David standing before Goliath. But Obie was no Goliath. I did not realize it then, but he was for two generations a missionary carrying Gods message to the young heathens of North Town. And believe me, we needed that message. I believe somewhere in the new testament Jesus says that unless you can become like on of these (referring to the children), then you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. I am pretty sure that Obie knew that scripture because he could become like the children for the purpose of sharing Gods word. Like I said before, I do not know about having to go to church to go to heaven. I hope someday to be there. And if I am, I know that I will look up that street paved with gold and there coming to me through the crowd, cane before him with each step, will be this giant of a man in t-shirt, overalls, and engineers cap. When he reaches me the first thing he will say is do you want to play a game of mumble peg? I will gladly say yes and well head for that circle under the shade tree in the park. And what a huge circle it will be. Rest in peace my old friend Obie.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 19:29:10 +0000
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