Sentimental Lady

by Bill Spencer

The wind was “fresh” as a seaman would call it on this Saturday in early March.  The temperature could not reach 50, but at least the sun was bright and stationed in more or less the right position to photograph the subject in a favorable light. “She is a beauty,” the picture-taker thought.”  “I bet she knows what's going on here and is standing in her most radiant pose.”

Of course the subject for this photograph is the Farmers & Merchants Bank that has recently had a face lift.  The old building was restored back to it semi-original appearance when it was actually two separate buildings.  One building with the lighter colored brick was known as the F & M Bank and the other building with the earthy, red brick was called Ellis & Wilford Dry Goods.  Today two different exteriors hide the truth that this is in fact only one building owned by Nocona Independent School District.

The old building is like the proverbial Gemini siblings of the Zodiac with its mixed front design.  Some call Gemini the twins, but others call them exact opposites tied together, perhaps similar to a being with a split personality.  The F & M Bank has led two productive lives to match its two fronts.  Once the financial center of a thriving small town, now it is a center for the transfer of knowledge to the children in the community.  Bankers moved out and practitioners of pedagogy moved in, but all the while the old building provided a good working environment for its inhabitants.

The F & M Bank, alias NISD Administrative Office, has always been at the center of the action in the small metropolis.  Approximately in the center of downtown on Clay Street, it was once the heart of Nocona’s thriving economy, plus it had the best meeting room in town, and now it houses the main offices of Nocona’s top educators.  Ghosts from the past are still felt on entering the structure. Some wheeling and dealing, along with a good many important policy decisions have left a patina on the surfaces inside the old building that visitors can only sense.

Contrasting the Bank’s heady past with the “nothing doing” mood of this breezy Saturday is a slightly melancholy endeavor of the mind. The brisk wind whining down the empty canyon of downtown Nocona is not visible in the photograph, but it serves a purpose.  Few people will be conducting business downtown; consequently, the building can be imaged without the extraneous comings and goings of humans.  Not that there would be many people in downtown Nocona on a Saturday afternoon anyway.

A few decades ago Clay Street would be a relative beehive of commerce all day Saturday, with cars filling every parking place along the entire street.  The two traffic lights along Clay might have three or four cars idling impatiently waiting for the green lens to glow. Today the traffic is so sparse that a man can stand in the middle of Clay and take pictures of the Bank without fear of being hit by a car.

Today, much of Nocona’s commerce is being conducted in suburban malls and discount stores miles away on this same windy Saturday afternoon.  The traffic moving along Clay amounts to no more than one vehicle moving past every couple of minutes.  One Dodge truck chugs past pulling a trailer full of cattle.  The Stetson-wearing driver cranes his neck to look at the Bank to his right as he heads north. He even slows down a bit to get a good look at the attractive remodel.

The stately lady at the corner of Clay and Elm can still turn a head or two, but on this Saturday there are few sight seers.  At one time the F & M Bank would have financed the whole ranching operation owned by the passing cowboy in the Dodge truck.  This same cow hauler will drive past dwindling oil fields traveling north of town that once poured big money into the bank’s coffers.  In fact the bank’s money helped build much of Nocona with its home, small business, and car loans. 

Now the clientele residing in the remodeled building specializes in education.  Two different professional mind sets have made this place their work home (more of the Gemini influence, no doubt). First businessmen and women and now educators carry out the daily industry here. Educators obviously do not know how to make money, but they do know how to capitalize on knowledge. Nevertheless, the old building appears to be happy that it is still vital to the needs of the community.

Also, now that economic times have changed, NISD is arguably the number one employer in town.  Consequently, the old Bank still holds an important place in the way of life that locals have grown to love. Cultural and economic conditions have changed in Nocona, but the old Bank still stands at her post at 220 Clay serving her citizens in a utilitarian and stately manner.  As a reminder of the pass, she continues to be an important part of the future of Nocona.

“Sentimental gentle wind

Blowing through my life again”

 Lyrics: Sentimental Lady

Written by Bob Welch