Chicken Fries

Details: Category: Ponca City Grand Prix; Published on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 15:37; Hits: 1912

While surfing the Net I found "Chicken Fries," a good read short story by Eric Wilder. Set in North central Oklahoma, Eric's story includes the Sports Car Club of America races at Ponca City, to wit;

"Ponca City is too far off the beaten path for most tourists, a pity as the city and region are steeped in history. Ponca was the home of oil baron E.W. Marland, a man who arrived in town penniless, soon drilled his way to an enormous wealth. In 1922 he controlled a tenth of the world’s oil supply, chickenfries yet died penniless. His second wife Lydie was his adopted daughter before he had the adoption annulled. Even before the adoption, she was his niece by the marriage with his first wife, Virginia. Their mansion, built at the cost of more than five million dollars, even in the twenties, remains one of the major attractions of Ponca City. At the risk of sounding like a travelogue, check out Ponca if you ever get the chance.

Anne and I weren’t interested in history that particular day. We had come to Ponca City to get away from the hot and noisy drilling rig, and to partake in the holiday festivities happening there during the Fourth of July. Since the sixties, the Sports Car Club of America had staged races at a one point five mile track, constructed from city roads, just east of town. The track abutted Lake Ponca. During the Fourth of July, the normal 20,000 or so population of Ponca City would double. Anne and I felt very lucky we didn’t have to search for a room to have a place to spend the night." topo map

Born in northwest Louisiana, not far from fabled Black Bayou and Caddo Lake, Eric Wilder continues to pen short stories and murder mysteries. He now lives in Edmond, Oklahoma with wife Marilyn, daughter Katelyn, three dogs and two cats. Please connect with him at Eric’sWeb and check out more of his books and stories on his Homepage at Smashwords. You can purchase the EBook of "Chicken Fries" for $1.00 at: diesel ebook store.