The windmill structure featured in last week’s edition was built by Manuel Flaming. Our story indicated otherwise. We regret the error, but love that it turned into another story. Here is the backstory on Manuel’s Fan.
Thirty years ago in Cordell, a farmer called Manuel Flaming about a windmill the farmer was no longer using. Since Manuel (pronounced Man-u-el) had rebuilt windmills before, he said he would take the contraption even though he was told it wasn’t in good condition.
Not in good condition turned out to be an understatement, according to LaWayne Flaming, Manuel’s son.
“It had been driven over and walked on,” LaWayne said. “The fan blades were so bad they wouldn’t hold their shape anymore. But he’d rebuilt them before and he decided he’d give it a try.”
The condition didn’t faze Manuel. He had grown up in a blacksmith’s shop back in the days when it was the repair center for a small town. Over the years that blacksmith shop turned into a machine shop and Manuel picked up skills as the business changed.
LaWayne said his dad farmed and was a good carpenter who would build a house about once a year. He also kept a shop and all year long as they farmed, when a piece of equipment developed an issue – say a squeal or knock – Manuel would write on the side of the item ‘bearing going out’ or a similar description. Then, during the winter, he’d pull the equipment into that shop and make the needed repairs.
Making repairs, parts and parts to make parts came in handy when the windmill was an ongoing project.
“He had to build a jig just to put the crease in the wide end of the fan blades,” LaWayne said.
Manuel spent months scrounging parts from many different brands of windmill. “You can buy parts, but they are really expensive,” LaWayne said. When the fan was complete, Manuel painted ‘Flaming Enterprises’ on the tail of the fan, since the parts were of carious brands of windmill. Flaming Enterprises was the name of Manuel’s company.
LaWayne inherited the windmill and moved it to Wiley, Texas. In 2008, when he and his wife Doreen relocated to Watonga, LaWayne dug up the windmill and brought it along. “I wasn’t just going to leave it,” he said.
But he had no place to put the windmill up, until he heard this year that Joe Horton was going to open a barbecue stand on Main Street
“I thought it was a good place for it,” LaWayne said. “He (Joe) thought it was a good place for it.” So, Mike Wood, Mike Wilson, James Gillery, LaWayne and Horton put the tower up and intend to add the fan as well. LaWayne is even trying to hook it up to pump water again.
Chances are, he’ll find a way. LaWayne tells the story of a SWOSU student who was assigned a project to build a running model car with a mousetrap for an engine and a ruler for a body. The student asked around until someone at a lumberyard suggested Manuel could do it.
Manuel figured it out and coached the student through building the model car, for which he was awarded a good grade. From then on, LaWayne said, Manuel built dozens of the models, just to see how many ways he could find to power them.
With a background like that, there is no doubt that one day soon, over a barbecue joint in Watonga, Manuel’s fan will draw water again.
Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com