Mike McCarville
Saturday, for the 15th year, I joined other St. Patrick’s Day revelers in Bricktown for the 30th annual parade and related festivities, and while kept busy as co-master of ceremonies for the parade, I had time to look around and for a moment, was flooded with memories of Bricktown before it was Bricktown.
Not far from the reviewing stand is the site of the old Swift & Co. complex. It holds special memories for me since my late father, M. D. McCarville, was the plant manager in 1941-42 and again in 1955-58.
I spent more than a few hours roaming that plant as a teenager and many was the day I’d ride with Mother and Dad as we took Dad to work in the family ’53 Chevy Belair and dropped him off. Back in those days, living in Del City, it was Southeast 15th to Eastern, across the old Eastern Bridge, then Reno west to the area.
Recently, I ran across a family photo of Dad standing on the loading dock of the plant; it was a closeup, so the Swift & Co. building couldn’t be seen. I wanted a photo of the plant for my family collection.
That prompted an email to The Oklahoman’s major domo of all-things-downtown Steve Lackmeyer, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the area is legend; I figured if anyone knew where I might locate a photo of the old plant, it would be Steve. I figured right; within hours, he emailed me the photo above, which appears to have been taken from the north looking south and east. The Swift & Co. building, with its affiliate Brookfield Farms building, is to the left in the photo.
A few years back at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a gentleman on the reviewing stand motioned to me and I went over to him. He introduced himself as Don Brown and began telling me what a great manager my Dad was. He then explained he worked for my Dad. He lamented that Dad wasn’t around to see Bricktown and wear the green during the parade, and to see his son on the reviewing stand.
