All posts by Red Dirt Kelly
Saturday Morning RDC News
Dear friends,
I’m in Atlanta at a conference this week. Kendy’s been soccer-momming, Rob: coaching, Mark: geoteching, Joey: thinking and writing, Julie: teaching and farming, Lamar: holding his beautiful baby girl, Josh: advising, and Rachel: studying. I share these “every day life” details about our contributors because I’m just really grateful for our team of volunteers and what they do. None of them have to write, yet all of them do…thanks to all of them!
In about eight weeks, our website will have a new look and will be easier to navigate. There will be “one-stop-shopping” in terms of pages and categories, and the design will be customized just for us. I’m already looking forward to it after seeing the new masthead…eee! We should probably have a launch party…
We were chosen for WordPress.Com’s “Freshly Pressed” feature Thursday morning. Our site received one-third more views that day than our historical highest. It’s kind of like the weather in Oklahoma…we have a record lows, and that was certainly a record high.
In closing, I wanted to tell you about a funny interaction I had in the Starbuck’s line at the Marriott Marquis yesterday morning. As I head downstairs each morning I make mental bets with myself on how many people will be populating the line. I was thinking “12” in my head. There were 15. About five minutes into the waiting-to-order process, I engaged the girl in front of me by saying, “So – this line is generally long all day, isn’t it?” What followed was just downright weird.
She looked at me as though trying to focus, looked down at her phone, and in broken English replied, “This doctor has made a bra that serves as a gas mask. My friend sent this to me, would you like to see it?” Baffled at the bizarre response to my attempt at conversation, I took her phone and glanced at the screen. The only thing showing on the screen was this word: “EBbra.” I handed the phone back to her and said, “Well, yes, that is an interesting invention.” She looked at me with the gaze of an innocent child and said, “Yes. A very helpful invention for our society.” Then she turned back around and didn’t say another word to anyone else in line.
I made a mental note to check “EBbra” when I got back to the room.
The “Emergency Bra” does indeed exist and was designed by Dr. Elena Bodnar. I think Dr. Bodnar my have Red Dirt in her veins as well. After all, last Saturday’s essay was about a bra saving my friend’s life (alternative uses for lingerie) and Thursday’s essay was about an alternative use for barf bags, right? Industrious people, we are, here in Red Dirt Country. And, clearly Dr. Bodnar is as well. You can find her demonstrating how to take off, detach into two pieces, and then apply to your face in gas-mask fashion this invention on YouTube. Click here for the demonstration.
Well, that’s about it for right now. With this news update I’m sending you warm wishes and hoping you have a safe and happy weekend.
All the very best to you and yours…Red Dirt Kelly
RDC Friday Morning Shout-Out? Bob Waldrop!
Good morning friends. Today’s RDC Friday morning shout out goes to Bob Waldrop, co-founder and long-time president of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. We’re working on a full length essay about his life growing up in Oklahoma, his teenage journey to California and subsequent sojourning to Utah, Kansas City and ultimate return to his Oklahoma homeland. We hope to have the completed piece out for you next week. I sat with him for two hours during our interview and felt like we had just scratched the surface of who this man is, and the capacity he has to love those around him.
Bob has a dedicated and passionate mission to connect the citizens of our great state with each other in order to build a community network of wholesome, organic and locally grown or produced food: Producers and consumers working together to build sustainable and satisfying, relational food systems not easily interrupted by more national events or various wrinkles in the larger systems.
You go, Bob Waldrop! Thanks for all you do…we look forward to sharing our full-length essay about you and your work very soon!
P.S. Remember…Rob will be treating you with a sports essay around noon today. His last essay on Kevin Durant’s character received an especially high readership. And, speaking of readership…THANK YOU to WordPress.Com for featuring the RDC in their “Freshly Pressed” section yesterday. Like I shared with our author group and FB friends: Who knew barf bags could be so interesting? Take care – and have a great weekend!
Red Dirt Kelly
Ha, Ha, Ha! = I Love You
I’ve had this cartoon hanging on the outside of my university office door for about three years. That side of my door is plastered with quotes, thoughts, cartoons, etc. My thesis advisor used to plaster his door and he’s now retired. Somebody’s got to pick up the hallway humor and I figure it might as well be me.
I change the quotes out periodically, but this one has stuck for a while now. Just about the time I think it’s time to take it down, I’ll see a person look at it, pause, then smile. Sometimes they are with another person and they comment to each other. So, I guess it will stay put for a bit longer. The cartoon does, however, remind me of something that I think about a great deal: humor within relationships.
Humor in the classroom has shown to have positive effects in terms of students’ perceptions that they are learning more. Humor in the military is a tried and true coping mechanism – a mainstay of comrades helping each other get through extremely stressful situations. Attraction science measures “type of humor” as one of the highest factors in selection criteria when young couples begin pairing up for potential marriages. And, humor is even considered a type of power among same-gendered groups. In other words, he or she who has the humor, has the power. Social scientists continue to be interested in the secret to humor and how it is useful (or not) within our relationships.
Sometimes when I think about my husband during the day, I catch myself thinking about a joke or a laugh we’ve recently shared together. In fact, our entire 25 year marital history is now a complex and interwoven “secret language” of inside humor, insider stories and meanings or narratives that only the two of us would fully understand. But I also wonder why it’s the laughs that I use as a memory resource. Are the laughs a reserve, perhaps, like the old emotional bank account adage of deposits and withdrawals? Big laughs certainly punctuate our human bodies with nice doses of hormones which are helpful to our emotional well being. Maybe returning to those memories is like “going back to the pool” for second dip. It’s a good thing.
This post isn’t meant to be a long drawn out literature review on humor and relationships so much as it’s meant to ask you a simple question: Are you laughing? Are those with whom you are close sharing laughter occasionally? Do you feel supported or connected because of those humorous moments? If yes – good! Keep it up!
If not, then here is your prescription today: Take one joke before each meal, three times daily. Share with those you love. And start building your happy memories.
OSU v Tulsa Football Game Day Slide Show
Photos of OSU fans taken during Oklahoma State University football game day have been compiled into a RDC slide show for your enjoyment. We even have one shot of a University of Tulsa couple dressed in their game day gear. We hope to have a University of Oklahoma football game day presentation before the end of the season as well. This past Saturday was, indeed, a good day in Stillwater.
Our “Relationships” entry will be released around noon today. Enjoy!
CLICK PHOTO TO BEGIN SLIDE SHOW
Silent Sundays: 9/19/10
State Fair, Final Chapter
Everybody’s Crazy ‘Bout a Man Who Helps You Dress Sharp
HELM Handmade Boots were made for walkin’ and lookin’ good.
This Friday morning RDC shout-out goes to Josh Bingaman, an Okie who now lives in Austin.
Who has a passion for creating a line of nouveaux rustic, and downright dapper, hand-made men’s boots and shoes.
Who’s inspiration for his creations came from a venture he co-owned and managed with his brother called the Subterranean Shoe Room.
Who also owns Progress Coffee in Austin with his wife.
You can read the story and other press pieces on their website. You can know that, depending upon your foot size, these men’s boots could fit women as well. And you can be certain that when wearing them, you’ll walk a little taller…how could you not?
Utilizing connections and relationships the world over, HELM boots are hand-made in Istanbul with soles from Italy, served up in several locations around the U.S. And they absolutely eke of style; an old-world return to a new future we have for fashion and footwear.
Based upon my research this morning, it appears that Josh and the boots have received a good bit of publicity in Oklahoma, including a feature in the Daily Oklahoman and a trunk show at the Shoe Gypsy. However, I’m just now finding out about them and frankly, have mentally started a “HELM boots savings account” to buy my favorite pair.
The culture of creativity runs deep in Red Dirt country and sometimes that story extends beyond the Red River. And sometimes to the other side of the world.
Congratulations, Josh, for realizing one of your dreams. I’m sure you’ll have more, based upon what you’ve done to this point. I’m making a note to check on you in another year…and I’ll be sportin’ my HELM boots when I do.
Alphabet Relationships: What A, H and M Shapes Mean
Some people are visual learners. Some people are “repeat the information over and over and I’ll finally get it” learners. And some people touch things or are walk-around-and-think learners. Visual, auditory, tactile or a blend of all three…which are you?
What I’ve noticed in working with couples over the years is that many times the same message or intervention needs to be implemented using two different methods in order for both of them to really get it. That’s because they each learn or process information in slightly (or vastly) different ways. The context, process and perspective of each person has to be understood in the therapy room, as well as how it looks when they are together.
This is why although therapists utilize their theory of therapy to guide, assess and manage what goes on in a room with couples, they also make occasional trips to their “Toolbox.” A therapist’s toolbox can include actual “tools” such as games, figures, assessments or other manipulatives to use in session, or ideas and resources. Today I’m going to share a resource that I seem to use at least once or twice per year because some couples (or individuals) are visual learners. The lesson for them with this tool is understanding the difference between “unhealthy dependence” versus “healthy interdependence.” Here is a copy of what I summarize on a white board or provide them to take home. I apologize for the tilted view. CLICK CHART TO SEE LARGE VIEW:
An “A” shaped relationship is frequently seen in those with co- “needy” behaviors. A couple might get together because one is the life of the party (filling a need for the other’s wish to be expressive) and one is structured and responsible (filling a need for the other’s wish to be respected or mature).
We often see this in co-addictive relationships involving substance abuse, but we also see it in couples who sometimes describe themselves as acting like a “parent and child” or “victim and rescuer.” These couples will ultimately get their real needs met when they find their own self-actualization; their own individual happiness. If they continue to lean on each other because of their unmet illegitimate needs, the tension becomes too great (the bar in the A breaks) and they fall (which would happen to both sides when the bar was no longer there).
An “H” shaped relationship is very common in the U.S. We especially see this pattern in “DINK” couples (double income, no kids). The independence they feel from meeting their own needs to such an extent, and avoiding engaging their partner in asking for legitimate needs to be met, distances the couple over time. If you look at the H shape you’ll see that the middle bar could eventually be broken due to extreme independence and distance (pulling away), but both sides would remain “standing” as “I”s…still themselves, but certainly not a couple.
And finally, the “M” shaped relationship is a type that most couples find they can grow and thrive within best. They each have a healthy identity for themselves, but they also engage each other in requesting and meeting needs while also intimacy needs with the use of adult toys and other accessories. Their relationship with one another can develop and strengthen over time because they support each other in ways that don’t rob the “self” of either individual. This dynamic is very powerful and is a worthy goal of couples who might find themselves in a different part of the alphabet.
Dependence, Independence or Interdependence. A, H or M. Which are you?
Signing off on R-day (relationships), K-E-L-L-Y.
Note: Most of the basis for this information and the chart come from “Illusion and Disillusion: The Self in Love and Marriage,” by John Fulling Crosby, 1991, Chapter 2.
Silent Sundays: Photos of the Week, 9/12/10
State Fair, Part Deux
Saturday Morning RDC News: 9/11/10
Good morning:
You might have noticed by now that I schedule our weekday posts to come out around 7 a.m. I’ll usually try to deploy our Saturday posts by 9:30 a.m. Silent Sundays I create Saturday night, scheduling that post to release for Sunday morning around 7. We sometimes have additional posts or short messages released during the day, but this is the schedule we’re going to try to stick to so you’ll know when new material or updates might be available.
This pattern allows our contributors to understand when content should be ready and our community to know when their new essays will be available for viewing. Readership is also higher in the morning and in the evening, which follows a standard work-day pattern in our country.
We have some good developments in the planning and preparation stages. I’ll let you in on a few of the secrets:
We may be guest-hosting a consistent weekly feed from Finding Manhood for our “Man Cave” section very soon.
We’re working on the development of a female answer to the “Man Cave.” Potential names are: The XX Factor, Woman2Woman, or Girl Talk. Please comment and let us know if you feel strongly pro or against one of those titles.
A friend recently returned from a very special trip to Africa and we’re working on busting up his journal and his wife’s photos for a new series in our Travel section. There are 2,000 photos and about 10 pages to the journal…so it will take a bit to turn it into readable, bite-sized pieces. What special people they encountered!
We will be adding another contributor to our group soon. He will be covering topics such as outdoor life, raising four children, hunting, home-schooling and the perspective of becoming a triathlete and/or runner again at middle age.
We also added our Faith Wednesdays author, Alfred Lamar Jackson, to our group and his first release was this week. Welcome Lamar!
Josh Bottomly, author of the piece we released a couple of weeks ago (A White-Skinned Father and Black-Skinned Son), is preparing an excerpt from a book he and his wife authored to be released soon. That may come out next week as well.
Finally, we’ll be providing you with a profile of more every-day Oklahoma people or businesses. Potentially this week or next is a very unique gentleman who’s humility and intellectual acumen are simply amazing. We’re also working on a piece about St. Francis of the Woods Eastern Orthadox retreat center and farm in Coyle, OK.
I am becoming endeared to Julie, Rob, Mark and Joey and am already remembering why I loved Lamar. I hope you are beginning to get to know them through their work as well.
Next Friday we’re meeting with a website developer to help our project become more community friendly. We would love to have your feedback more frequently and be able to feature our articles for a bit longer. Our current format buries them rather quickly.
Well, that’s about it in Red Dirt Chronicle land. Which is your land too. I’ll end this note to you by mentioning a few things on my heart right now: Our dear comrades who had their lives changed forever in NYC on this date nine years ago, our dear armed service men and women who have toiled and sacrificed in Afghanistan, and later Iraq, for too many years now, and our friends in Oklahoma who are reminded of our own experience with massive bombing tragedies by dates like today. Peace, blessings and good hope to all of you.
Sincerely,
Red Dirt Kelly – and the RDC Team
P.S. Please remember to “Like” our Facebook page. We’re currently at 199 friends and our 200th “Like” recieves a hand-embroidered Tag Rag. Check out that page for other silliness, and enjoy!
Why Does Ludivine Get an Uber-Rare “Double Shout-Out?” Let Me ‘Splain.
Editor’s note: For a full review on Ludivine OKC Restaurant, please visit HERE.
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There is a line in The Princess Bride where Inigo Montoya says, “Let me ‘splain. No…there is too much. Let me sum up.” Well, I feel the need to ‘splain – not summarize.
Growing up in rural Oklahoma as a youngster meant I was exposed to a life different from my current suburban context. My father was tri-vocational. He worked at FAA for his day job, he and my mother operated a small Angus cattle farm during the evenings and weekends, he did electrical wiring jobs for occasional money and ran a small business with his friend called B&C Enterprises. Dad was the “B.” My maiden name is Bomgardner. B&C enterprises operated a transportation service to and from FAA every work day, bought scrap gold and jewelry to send to the refinery for a small profit, and perhaps other ventures I didn’t even comprehend.
We usually traded my grandfather one of our steers for one of his, thus not eating our own beef (we frequently named our cattle), but beef we knew was raised in an acceptable way. We ate eggs from our Bantam (we called them Banty) chickens and harvested honey from our beehives. We gathered dandelion greens and poke salad off the land and gathered Morel mushrooms from the creek beds. And, we raised much of our food in a garden. An “Organic Gardening” garden.
“Organic Gardening” was one of the magazines my father received in the mail for much of my formative years. Every year, my father would order a load of cotton hulls to be delivered to our garden. They would sit on top of the soil all winter long breaking down with the moisture of the snow, and in the springtime before planting he would turn it all under to begin the growing process once again.
My mother canned vegetables with a pressure cooker. My grandparents raised corn in a section of their land that we harvested every year. We picked sand plums to make jams and jellies, and picked blackberries when they were in season. Our neighbors’ parents had a large strawberry patch that we were allowed to harvest. My grandfather raised watermelons. My uncle in Tuttle and my aunt in Bethany had an apricot tree. My great-grandmother in town had a pear tree. We had an orchard where we raised sweet and tart cherries, peaches, plums and apples.
My brother and I used to play a game where we would ride our small Yamaha 50 under the cherry tree during harvesting time. We would reach out with one hand and grab a bunch while cruising under the tree at top 50cc speed, then stop to see how many cherries we had scored on that particular run.
We purchased milk from our neighbors and a friend in town who had a dairy. My parents made their own yogurt with their yogurt maker. We sometimes make sumac lemonade or tea when the red velvet sumac on our property pollinated at the end of the summer. We cut and bailed the prairie hay we fed our cattle. We purchased bales of alfalfa from local farmers for supplements.
A trip into town to eat at a restaurant was fairly rare. I usually ordered a bologna sandwich or a corn dog when that happened…that was “fancy food” to me. Ah, youth…
I’m sharing this information with you because it might better help you understand why I’m using this space on the RDC to give not just one but TWO shout-outs this week to the soon-to-open Ludivine restaurant in downtown Oklahoma City. I’ve now watched every one of their eleven 4.5 minute videos posted on their YouTube channel. In each segment, they highlight a vendor they have built a relationship with in order to bring the food raised in Oklahoma to the table of those who eat in their restaurant.
My heart warmed while viewing them. We used to raise “Jerusalem Artichokes” in our garden at home. They’re using “Sunchokes” (same thing) in their restaurants. One of the videos shows the pains of gathering Sand Plums and discusses the rewards of why you would do such a thing. And most of all – there are people across Oklahoma who Ludivine has connected with carrying on a tradition of raising organic, nutritious, fresh and wonderful treasures in our precious Oklahoma soil. They seem to be committed to helping you feast on their crops or products that they prepared in a loving and conscientious way.
Here’s to you, Ludivine, for documenting your developmental journeys and relationships with your growers and vendors. And here’s to you, Wagon Creek Creamery, Two Tomatoes Farm, OM Gardens, Regional Food Bank, Avalon Seafood, Willie’s Ribs, Coop Ale Works and Urban Agrarian. (We mentioned Peach Crest Farms earlier this week).
Thank you twice. Thanks for all you do, all your plans and for all you hope to be.
Good luck! (Click the picture below to visit Ludivine’s YouTube videos).
RDC Shout-Out to: OK Food Cooperative, Peach Crest Farms and Ludivine Restaurant
Thank you, Ludivine Restaurant, for making short videos highlighting local growers and the products you use. Thank you, Oklahoma Food Cooperative, for helping share the story and share the love.
All three of you rock. Keep up the great work, Red Dirt Kelly
CLICK PICTURE BELOW TO VIEW COOL VIDEO
The Ping of Your Relational Sonar
It’s about 9:00 p.m. Labor Day night and I’m putting the last check into the last envelope as I finish paying my monthly bills. The day has been a long one with the majority of my time spent in my office reading and working on my statistics homework. I get up from my chair, stretch, grab the stamped envelopes on my desk and head to the mailbox.
I head down the long slope of the paved driveway. It’s getting dark and my mind switches from wondering if my bare feet are going to find a wayward stone (protective-mode thoughts) to the overwhelmingly beautiful twilight sky (refreshing, happy thoughts). My pace slows and I remember that my hair is pulled up into a ponytail, bound with a brown velvet scrunchie; perfect for a little pillow to rest my head on the concrete. I drop to the warm pavement, lay down, breathe in the cooling air and take a few moments to study the sky more closely.
It’s beautiful out tonight. The sun has dropped below the horizon so far that only the slightest hint of light shows along the western line. From there sweeping upward is light blue, medium blue, dark blue and the deepest midnight blue right over my head. The stars are beginning to show and as I lay still and focus, more and more tiny lights begin to peek out of the deep blue. I can now see about 30-40 stars, but one in particular catches my eye. It’s brighter than the rest and seems to be moving. I assume at this point that it’s a satellite and I watch it travel ever-so-slowly across my view.
My body begins to relax as I start realizing how many layers of sound are filling up my ears. I can hear the distant click of a katydid, intermittent bursts of cicadas, a constant tree frog sound, and another rhythmic frog sound over that. There is a dog somewhere in the distance that barks occasionally and every three or four minutes a car passes down the street, headed toward their homes for the evening. I look around for the satellite and find it again. I started thinking about my husband.
On the way down to the mailbox, I had hugged him goodnight because he was heading to bed. He gets up at 4:00 a.m. every morning to go to work. I had said, “I missed you today.” He said, “I missed you too.” We talked a bit about the homework I was doing and said goodnight.
I watch the satellite another minute more and my mind drifts back to a conversation I had last week with a colleague. He had written a blog entry for contract work we do over the topic of “checking in” with your spouse during the day. I’m watching the satellite and thinking about that topic when I link a thought about the sonar pings made by satellites, submarines or other devices that also “check in” with those monitoring their progress. I begin to play that sound in my head and think about parents monitoring their children as they grow and develop, spouses checking-in with each other to make sure all is good between them, leaders checking in with their team members in places of employment. Ping, ping, ping. The satellite has now passed two stars as I watch it continue to creep across the sky.
I start thinking about satellite orbits and how they decay over time. Without the sonar or other monitoring devices, there could be no awareness of how that orbit had decayed or whether it was stable and in good working order. Mother mammals of tiny babies constantly check to see if all their offspring are accounted for, birds guard their nests, alpha males of various species watch over their herds in case they are threatened.
I want to think about this balance or out-of-balance checking in between couples just a bit more so I reluctantly get up, walk the rest of the way to the mailbox (I only step on one small pebble), and head back to my office. On my way back up the driveway I hear a car leave our neighbor’s driveway, muffled rap music coming from the interior. I wonder what type of sonar is going on between he and his parents as he drives down the road. I get to my office and begin searching for sound files of sonar pings. I find some cool files of a WW II submarine sonar. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SOUND.
While I’m playing with these sonar sound files I begin thinking, “They sound a little bit like a heartbeat.” My mind drifts back to all my relatives who have been in the hospital with heart monitoring devices…ping, ping, beat…beat. I think about the inordinate amount of journal articles I’ve been reading the past six months over a person’s physical well being and how it relates to their relational well being. People who are stressed because of unhealthy relationships actually have different vagal tones when on a heart monitor than when their relationships are better, or when they feel closer to their partners.
I make a mental note of this thought process and head back into the bedroom to tell Mick goodnight a second time. I need to check in with him and make sure our orbit is not in decay. He’s fine. We’re fine. I’m glad I check, however. He tells me goodnight a second time and that “All systems are go.”
How about yours?
Silent Sundays: Photos of the Week, 9/5/10
State Fair
Yummy Tailgating Recipe Using the Last of Your Summer Habaneros
I do not like habaneros peppers. I don’t like to pick them. I don’t like to can them for habanero pepper jam to spread over cream cheese later in the fall. I always forget I’ve been handling them and then scratch my nose or rub my eyes; horrific running around in circles ensues: “Argh – my nose! My eyes! Ahhh!” When I’m out picking them I make a mental note, “Use gloves, or go wash your hands immediately.”
I always forget.
So, are we clear? I don’t like habanero peppers. What I DO love, though, is a jerk chicken marinade recipe that is so good it even makes me tolerate growing the peppers…really, just for this one recipe. I give the rest away. There are people out there who eat them, even raw. My eyes are watering while I’m typing this entry!
So, this Saturday morning post is to remind you that Jamaican Jerk Chicken can be a hearty AND lower fat item for your outdoor grilling. And in case you’re trying to use up any extra habaneros left in your garden, even better.
Remember, tomorrow is “Silent Sunday.” We hope you enjoy our Photographs of the week and our new masthead featuring the Oklahoma State Fair while we take the day off from writing. We’ll see you back with new essays on Monday.
From the Red Dirt Chronicles Contribution Group to You and Yours…Have a safe, happy and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.
Sincerely,
Kelly, Julie, Rob, Mark, Rachel, and our soon to be coming on board or one time contributors
(Click photo to go to “AllRecipes.com” for my favorite Jamaican Jerk Chicken Recipe)
Labor Day Weekend In Oklahoma, 1960
I don’t envy the library employees who labored to document, scan and archive electronic images of The Daily Oklahoman from the day OPUBCO opened its doors. But I sure do appreciate them.
Last year I was doing some research that led me to discover this feat had been accomplished, so last night I logged on to do some more. This time for the Chronicles. I wanted to see what Labor Day Weekend was like in Red Dirt country fifty years ago.
What I found was a slice of life that made me laugh, frown, send a clipping to my colleague at OSU and think about my friends who are politically active. I experienced quite an array of emotions for the hour I perused the September 1st, 2nd and 3rd issues of the paper. Then I tried to decide how I would put all that information into a small Friday morning blog posting.
The decision I arrived at was to provide you bullet points of what stood out to me, provide you with a few visuals, then encourage you to try this type of exercise on your own if you enjoyed it. Here we go…
- The Oklahoma local and county fair scene was being announced in several sections. In Beaver, OK they were announcing festivities in a recently completed complex that cost $150,000 to construct.
- H.E. Bailey and group were doing the final studies to put in a turnpike to travel eastward. I’m sure the Tulsa World reported the project as traveling westward.
- Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee were preparing to “tie the knot.”
- OU and OSU were gearing up for their first football games of the year to be held later in September. OSU was celebrating being voted into the Big 8 conference; 1960 would be their first year to compete although they had petitioned many years prior. OU had just finished a pre-game scrimmage and was concerned about two injuries they sustained during the contest. They did win the scrimmage, however.
- An OU professor was being investigated. He was under suspicion for being a “Red.” The “Red” theme was all over the paper. “Red China” was the title they used for that country in a national headline. This professor story was sad to me. From what I could tell, all they knew at this point was that he and his wife had “legally updated their passports while in Moscow” on an academic trip.
- And speaking of Moscow, Khrushchev was in the news because the US had refused to provide him an actual red carpet to walk on into the United Nations building due to a classification of his status “being one of the 60 states represented” rather than “a dignitary.” There was another international article wherein a student from Africa was warning her fellow students back in her home country not to attend a Russian university, as she had, because of extreme derogatory names she was called while there.
- People were gearing up for their Labor Day weekend cookouts. Sound familiar? I’ll bet you wish we had 1960 grocery prices!
- In fashion, the new fall line was being introduced at Peyton-Marcus in downtown Oklahoma City.
- People were getting married, people were dying and babies were being born.
- The weather was exceptionally hot for this time of year.
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"Er, I ran into a door!" - political cartoons changed? Not much. And, Governor Edmondson was trying his best to educate the state about several legislative measures going to a vote of the people very soon.
- I noticed that in the business section there were many announcements from local business and industries about new hires or new appointments to management. All of the names were male.
- A young pro golfer had been found murdered in Lawton. There were other crimes and murders as well.
- And, I read a nice recipe in the food section on how to prepare garlic bread with a clove of garlic, butter and Parmesan cheese.
So I wonder…what has changed? The Oklahoma culture is still here: Football season, Labor Day cookouts (standard across our country), the local and county fairs, community, politics and the news.
It seems that most of what has changed, besides the fashion, are socio-political factors. There isn’t a “Red” scare any more…but there are others, right? Are people of various skin colors still being threatened with persecution and derogatory name calling?
Okay. Perhaps not all that much has changed.
However, the technology to retrieve this information is a huge difference. People will cook with technology that wasn’t invented in 1960. The football games will have real-time updates on the internet and entertain the crowd with multimillion dollar big screen “wow factors.” Brides-to-be will be utilizing event management software by an account set up online within their wedding planner’s website. People will take digital photographs of their fair entries and send them to their family around the country.
There are differences. Perhaps a bit of the socio-political paranoia is gone…maybe.
But there sure are similarities as well.
Tylz and Rylz Go to Meers
How many people have visited Meers, Oklahoma to get a hamburger and wax nostalgic? How about Eischen’s Fried Chicken in Okarche? Wilson’s BBQ in Tulsa? J&W Grill in Chickasha? The Italian restaurants in Krebs?
How many have visited these establishments for so long that they then take their children and eventually their grandchildren? Of those grandchildren taken by their grandparents (who were waxing nostalgic as well as enjoying their precious cargo), how many decide to then take their teenage friends back and begin their own sentimental journeys?
I have no idea. I do know that at least one has followed this hypothetical pattern. She took her boyfriend on August 18th, their two-year “dating anniversary.” She took him to Meers, Oklahoma to get a hamburger because she had a nice time when she was a kid on a trip with her grandparents.
Tylz and Rylz (Tyler Garcia and Rylee Roberts) headed toward southwest Oklahoma at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon. They had scheduled the afternoon and evening off work, dressed up slightly, printed out a map and set out to find the restaurant on their own. It wasn’t their first road trip and it probably won’t be the last.
They arrived at the restaurant, ate dinner, talked to the cook, and said hello to the stray cats. The cook said they could take one with them if they wanted. “Well,” he hesitated. “Not the fat one. You can take one of the others.” Evidently he had a soft spot for the “fat” cat. I wonder how many hamburgers that cat has ingested?
Just prior to arriving at the restaurant, Rylee spied a sign on the road. “That’s where I went on youth retreats! Camp Y’Shua…Let’s go back there after we eat. I’ll show you where I camped!”
Where she camped. Where she went with her grandparents. Where she went to her youth retreats. Tyler was getting the grand memory tour and Rylee was just fine with being the tour guide.
They said goodbye to the cats at the restaurant, explored the grounds at Camp Y’Shua, stopped by the lake to watch the sunset and headed home.
Tonight I was trying to decide what to put on the blog since we moved our Sports release to Friday, and another piece I had come in didn’t really fit our mission. It was one of those “What do I do now?” times. So I’m digging. Digging for some angle. I asked Rylee, “What is it about the 20-something crowd that makes them want to go back and explore the Oklahoma culture? The grass roots of our state? What is it that motivated you to choose Meers for your two-year anniversary trip?”
“It’s not my ‘group’ or my friends that are doing this, mom. We were the only ones our age in the restaurant. I just wanted to go back.” She sounded slightly annoyed.
“Okay. So, you just randomly decided to go?”
“No,” she replied. “That’s not it. I just wanted to go because I went there once with Granny and Papa when I was little and I liked it. That’s all.”
She wasn’t waxing philosophical. She just wanted to share a happy memory with her boyfriend.
Her reason was so much more than I had assumed before I heard her answer. And, it was certainly deeper than my questions.
