Old Hammer & Enid Boosters
We are encouraging residents to be Boosters for our community, as they did in 1911.
See the story of the Knocker Parade and Old Hammer funeral here!
Please join the Enid Boosters Facebook group as a place to encourage positivity!
See the story of the Knocker Parade and Old Hammer funeral here!
Please join the Enid Boosters Facebook group as a place to encourage positivity!
Old Hammer funeral speech of 2017
I am Ben Ezzell, City of Enid, Main Street Board. Thank you all for being here. First, I’d like to thank Main Street for organizing this fantastic event. Thank you to Kelly, Ty, and Lexy Tompkins for building what you see before you and thank you to the Main Street staff, board, and volunteers for making this evening happen.
In 1911, our forebears recognized a persistent trend of negativity in their community. Their town was young and growing, but the naysayers were preventing Enid from reaching its true potential. Although the nattering nabobs of negativism took many forms, they were personified as “the knocker”.
A knocker was one who wielded a proverbial hammer and took aim at progress and growth in the community. A knocker was a destructive force at a time when others tried to focus on growth. The knocker represented commercial pillage, selfishness, and greed!
AND SO in 1911 our forebears joined together to strike down the knocker and bury negativity in their community. They took up the OLD HAMMER, a construct likely made of papier-mâché but not near as grand as what you see before you today. They paraded it around the courthouse square with great pomp and circumstance. And escorted by fifteen pallbearers they laid it to rest in a great grave dug in the hard red dirt of Northwest Oklahoma. Over the grave was erected a tombstone on which was written:
IN MEMORY OF OLD HAMMER
DIED AUGUST 17, 1911
FROM OVERWORK
Sadly, negativity did not die that day. It has persisted, and in recent years found new life among some who fear progress in our great town. The knocker of 2017 sits behind a dark screen typing thoughtless comments on innumerable Facebook posts, griping that there is nothing to do in Enid, and pleading into the void for someone, anyone, to construct an Olive Garden.
However, from time to time we all have to take a look at ourselves and consider what we contribute to our community. Ask oneself am I a source of good or ill? Am I the one who knocks? No one in our town is without blame and so no names shall be named today. Do not look for the hammer in your neighbor’s hand for you may find one in your own.
Instead, as we burn the old hammer of negativity today, look to the future. Look to the vision of the bright future painted behind. Look to the growth we have in front of us. And embrace the energetic, vibrant, unique community we are so fortunate to have in Enid, Oklahoma.
Take this time as the knocker burns to speak with the friends and neighbors and strangers around you and consider what we can do if all lay down our hammers together.
I am Ben Ezzell, City of Enid, Main Street Board. Thank you all for being here. First, I’d like to thank Main Street for organizing this fantastic event. Thank you to Kelly, Ty, and Lexy Tompkins for building what you see before you and thank you to the Main Street staff, board, and volunteers for making this evening happen.
In 1911, our forebears recognized a persistent trend of negativity in their community. Their town was young and growing, but the naysayers were preventing Enid from reaching its true potential. Although the nattering nabobs of negativism took many forms, they were personified as “the knocker”.
A knocker was one who wielded a proverbial hammer and took aim at progress and growth in the community. A knocker was a destructive force at a time when others tried to focus on growth. The knocker represented commercial pillage, selfishness, and greed!
AND SO in 1911 our forebears joined together to strike down the knocker and bury negativity in their community. They took up the OLD HAMMER, a construct likely made of papier-mâché but not near as grand as what you see before you today. They paraded it around the courthouse square with great pomp and circumstance. And escorted by fifteen pallbearers they laid it to rest in a great grave dug in the hard red dirt of Northwest Oklahoma. Over the grave was erected a tombstone on which was written:
IN MEMORY OF OLD HAMMER
DIED AUGUST 17, 1911
FROM OVERWORK
Sadly, negativity did not die that day. It has persisted, and in recent years found new life among some who fear progress in our great town. The knocker of 2017 sits behind a dark screen typing thoughtless comments on innumerable Facebook posts, griping that there is nothing to do in Enid, and pleading into the void for someone, anyone, to construct an Olive Garden.
However, from time to time we all have to take a look at ourselves and consider what we contribute to our community. Ask oneself am I a source of good or ill? Am I the one who knocks? No one in our town is without blame and so no names shall be named today. Do not look for the hammer in your neighbor’s hand for you may find one in your own.
Instead, as we burn the old hammer of negativity today, look to the future. Look to the vision of the bright future painted behind. Look to the growth we have in front of us. And embrace the energetic, vibrant, unique community we are so fortunate to have in Enid, Oklahoma.
Take this time as the knocker burns to speak with the friends and neighbors and strangers around you and consider what we can do if all lay down our hammers together.
Thank you to Pallbearers:
|
John Arend
Ryan Costello Sebastian Cram Riley Jantzen Estela Jantzen Owen Jantzen Ben Ezzell (driving, but still counts) Cammeron Kaiser Chloe Kaiser Walter Hobbs (palldoggy) Christopher Sneed |
Paul Stone
Adler Stuber Jeslynn Stuber Mike Stuber Sara Stuber Kelly Sisk Tompkins Ty Tompkins Lexy Tompkins Janice L Tunnicliff Mickey Tunnicliff (palldoggy) Tammy Wilson |
