The Crazy Hotel · Moore Family Stories

The Crazy and The Baker Hotels

Working in our fields, or picking cotton, we watched the Crazy, and then the Baker Hotel---'just rise up'. They were built, about 3 miles, across the river, to the northeast.

The first Crazy was built in 1910, it burned in 1925. It was built back fireproof. It has nice tile toilets, like we had never seen before. Etta remembers, "We didn't have a nickel to put in that slot. I was the smallest, so I was the one to crawl under the door and open it."

The Crazy has never closed its doors. It's a retirement center now. The Baker Hotel was built in 1929---13 stories and 400 rooms. 6000 people lived in Mineral Wells. It had 200,000 visitors a year in the 1930's. It was the thing to do, come and drink the water and take baths in it. Guy Lombardo, Walt Whitman and Lawrence Welk and their orchestras played there. Mary Martin, Dorothy Lamour, Pat Boone, Will Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, The 3 Stooges, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable had shows there. I (Annie Louise Knight Moore) was working there at the 'mineral water fountain' in 1940, when Thelmer Moore and I married. It was December 28, 1941, just after Pearl Harbor, on December 7.) I handed out free glasses of mineral water, there were four strengths, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Number 4 was a pretty good laxative, for most people. We sold fruit juice, nothing was frozen. We made fresh carrot and celery juice. We ordered newspapers for guests, from any place in the world. There weren't many, a letter had to be written to order them, it took about 3 weeks to start.

Judy Garland

I saw her!! I was around by the front desk. Someone had failed to hold an elevator for her, a crowd quickly gathered. She frowned about it, but then smiled and signed autographs anyway. I was thrilled; she had such a charming smile, much prettier then her pictures.

Other guests included Jack Dempsy, Clark Gable, General John Pershing, Bonnie and Clyde, Dr Charles Mayo, Sam Goldwin and Helen Keller. There were no police radios back then so a red light was put at the very top of the Baker. In an emergency it was turned on and all policemen went to the police station. Camp Wolters opened for basic infantry training in 1940, with 30,000 men. By the 50's business had just trailed off. The foundation and heating needs repair. The Baker closed in 1963, it had over two million guests. It's just sitting there.

Etta Remembers the Calf

Me and Ludie were staying with Granny Gill, going to school at Progress. We came in one afternoon and she said "Someone has left the cow lot gate open and the calf is out. Maybe it has not got to its mother yet and sucked the milk. Maybe if we run over in the pasture and found the milk cow and the calf has not got to her, we can save our milk." We run over to the back of the pasture where the tank was. Sure enough, there was the milk cow and several more cows. But the calf was not there. We tried to drive the cow back to the house. She would not leave the others. They all wanted to graze. Ludie was a little long legged teenager. She grabbed the cow's tail and around that tank dam they went. After about two rounds, the old cow went into the water. Ludie turned loose. We could not get the cow out of the water. We started back to the house, following the trail. About halfway, we met Granny Gill. She had found the calf in the lot. He was lying in the stall. He did not know the gate was open. Poor old Granny, she liked to have not made it back to the house. The old cow didn't give very much milk when she did come up. She have been chased, Ludie had done her best.

'Old Boss'

'Old Coot' was Granmama's first buggy horse, he got to old. 'Old Boss' was the next one. He did not like to be caught. Granmama wanted to use her buggy. I went out in the pasture and chased Old Boss till I caught and bridled him. I got on his back, he did not like to be rode. He would run and go under a limb and knock you off. This time he started running, headed toward a big tree and some low limbs. I couldn't make him slow down. I had to jump off, and I didn't have time to pick a good place to land. I landed in a rock pile and I skinned my legs. I didn't have britches on, because I did not have any. I always wore a dress, or skirt and blouse. The britches that I sometimes wore, working in the garden or picking cotton, they were old overalls at home, that Hanner had out-growed. Dad finally give in and let us wear britches in the field. We had to pull them off the minute we set foot in the house.

Granmama

Etta remembered staying with Granmama 3 years and going to school at Progress. Alex had lived with her since his parents died. Granmama had a 2 door 1925 Ford. It had curtains and plastic windows that snapped. She traded it for a 1927 Ford, that had glass windows you could roll up and down. Etta and Alex drove for her. Granmama never did try to drive. "I would drive Granmama to town and go to see Aunt Anne (she was Dad's youngest sister) and Uncle Jim. He was blind by then. I had been in their house, before that, maybe two times. You just didn't go to see Aunt Anne." One time my friend, Lois Jacques was visiting me at Granmama's house, when Aunt Anne and Uncle Jim come to visit. We got tickled at something that Uncle Jim did---because he was blind. After they left, Granmama really got onto me for laughing. Since then I have never laughed at anyone because they were blind or had anything else wrong with them. I have remembered all that Granmama said to me.

Etta remembers her hiccups

Me and Granmama had gone to town. We got tired and went in at Poston’s. The piece goods counter was long and low. It had little round stools. I would set and spin real slow, while Granmama and Mrs. Poston visited. We got back to Granmama’s and I had the hiccups. I drank water, and didn't breathe. I swallowed, and swallowed, and held my nose. And I couldn't stop the hiccups any way that I tried. Granmama asked, "Why did you steal that spool of thread from Mrs Poston?" I was shocked and denied it. She said that Mrs. Poston said she saw me take it--and I had to take it back. I was getting mad!

Granmama asked, "Where are your hic-ups?"

Boogers

Even after we were grown, Granmama could always scare us. She could 'make' boogers. Staying with her, graduating from Progress School, "Did you see that N----r man looking in the window?"

Her sewing machine

Granmama's eyes were always bad. She had cataracts took off in Fort Worth and had to stay in bed for two weeks. She had a new Singer Sewing Machine, It's still nearly new. She couldn't see to sew, and she didn't like to sew either. She did make her own sheets and pillow cases. You could not buy them 'ready made'. Mama sewed all Granmama and Fred's dresses. Granmama peddled and made the money to buy all of their shoes and other things.

Alex and Mary

Alex had lived with his Granmama since his Dad had shot his Mother, and then his self on July 24, 1916.(see Oaksie) Alex and Mary Shrum planned to get married. They couldn't tell Granmama because she didn't approve of Mary's family. I, Etta, knew but wasn't to tell. Alex packed his clothes in a bundle. P.I., was going to walk down the road and whistle. Alex was going to walk to town with his friend. I slept with Granmama. Granmama heard Alex go out the door. She walked out the door and asked Alex what he was doing. He told her that him and Mary was going to get married. Granmama said everything under the sun to stop him. She said that was the way n-----s in slave time did. (Granmama had slipped out from her home 50 years earlier, when she and Grandad married.) Alex had his heart made up and he left. Granmama came in and asked me if I knew anything about it. I told her, "Yes, but I wasn't supposed to tell it." Granmama was mad, but she finally said, that I did right, not to tell it. In a couple of days, Alex's, Uncle Walter told him that he heard that Grandad was going to have their marriage annulled. Mary was just 16. Alex and Mary left town. Mary sold his saddle to get the money to leave town, he never did get another one. They got a job with a carnival. Mary was the one that they threw knives at. After a few months Granmama welcomed them back and called Mary, "that woman", for a while. Alex and Mary had 4 children and 38 descendents in 1997. They had a big 50^th wedding anniversary party. He lived to their 66^th anniversary and they were very happy.