Oklahoma culture, Photography

I Love Logan County and Here Are The Reasons Why

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My drive from the Oklahoma State (OSU) v. Baylor game this afternoon to Guthrie provided the best hour of my week.  You KNOW that’s saying a great deal since I’m such a huge OSU fan – and we beat the pants off Baylor today.  Mick and I had driven to the game separately because I had an early appointment this morning, and then I left after the third quarter because I tend to get antsy when I sit still for a very long period of time.  He stayed ’till the glorious end of that fine, fine game.

Don’t doubt my team loyalties, though…I DID listen to the game on the radio through the very last play.

I was on a mission.  Pick up a bucket of chlorine treatment tablets for our aerobic septic system. We have to buy one about every eighteen months.  No one carries the product within a 50 square mile area of our house except the Ace Hardware in Guthrie.  I would not fail; I would accomplish my goal and meet my hubby back at home.

But then I got sidetracked.  I saw another hay truck and it was broken down on the side of the interstate.  I had to go take pictures!  The driver and his daughter were from Apache and she had brought tools to the site so he could make repairs.  I just wanted to get close to the load on that truck and smell the hay!  They good-naturedly agreed.  So, stop one in Logan county…broken down hay truck.  I REALLY wish I could provide you with the scent of that beautiful cut hay aroma filling my lungs while I snapped away.

Mmmmm. Can you smell the hay?
Well, here. Stick your face in it. Maybe that will help. Breathe deep!

I thanked the driver and his daughter, turned around, and saw some cows in a pen I thought might need their family portraits taken.  So I provided that service, free of charge.

It was dusty in the pen! I told them to look at the camera and smile. But, you know how it goes...always a trouble-maker in the bunch.
I tried to work with this family, but Dad kept trying to get Junior to stand up straight. Junior didn't want to cooperate. The girls on the right had just fixed their hair and weren't about to mess it up by moving around.
I was just about to leave when this poor dear ran up to me and asked for a Kleenex. I fixed her right up, and then went on my way.

I headed down the highway, got off on Highway 33, and drove into Guthrie.  Before reaching the hardware store, I stopped to walk around a bit.  I noticed two things on my stroll.  1) There are lots of American flags hanging from the homes and businesses there; and, 2) if it weren’t for the cars, the calendar could easily have been somewhere between November, 1880 and 1950.

Five flags between the three houses.
I love their brick streets!
If we're pretending, I get the top corner bedroom with the three windows!
J.M. Williams would like for you to come to "The Willows" Gallery of Fine Fits and Home Decor and buy some teapots. I like their quilts!
Guthrie, Oklahoma - a place where the barber pole still beacons you for a haircut.
I like muscle cars. This one has a challenge to the highway patrol on his bumper.

Next stop, Ace Hardware (OHC Supply).  I appreciate this place for all the reasons you’re getting ready to see.  I love the Tractor Supply Store in Edmond, but I think I love this place almost as much.

They flew the American AND the Oklahoma flag. Bonus points!
Ace ALSO has taxidermical interior design, with gaslight accents...and they're a little less dusty than the ones at Meers. (See my post for "And THAT's the News in Red Dirt Country" for an explanation re: this caption).
Every narrow aisle is stacked from the hardwood floor to just below the ceiling with inventory. It's kind of like being in your grandparent's attic.
Bingo, mission accomplished! The chlorine tablets are in stock and I'm taking one home to my hubby!
This is Alex. Not only was he kind enough to pose for a photo, but he assured me that the chlorine tablets were going to stay at a reasonable price until I needed them next time. This shot also made me realize that it may not have been dust at the cow pen, but a fingerprint on my lens...oh no!
Do you know why I embrace the fact that Ace carries Dickies brand outer and work wear? No, it's not because the clothing is good...although it may be. (See next photo).
It's because Dickies has hunky models for their Ace Hardware ads! Sigh.

Okay, time to leave the store.  On my way out I cleaned off my lens because I thought there might be a few shots left of something I’d like to share with you from my journey through Logan County.  There was.

Rather than beavers, eagles, bears or other wildlife, artists in Guthrie carve high school football players from their dead trees. It takes skill to carve that football with a chainsaw and not cut it off!
It's pansy time, and the window boxes in Guthrie were full of them!
I drove by this hot rod and it yelled at me. I heard it. It said, "Ditch the RX300 and take me on your ride around Logan County instead...I know where I'm going!" I couldn't look it in the eye or I would have caved. Sorry, hot rod. I had to get home.

On my way home I took Waterloo Road (the county line between Oklahoma and Logan counties) on a back-road route because I really needed some farm raised eggs.  We were down to one, and if I eat one more runny store-purchased egg I’m going to throw a fit.   Unfortunately, the egg sign was down.  That’s country talk for, “None right now.  Check with me later.”  So, I drove the last few miles home.

But then I stopped again.  I saw Ferdinand sitting under his cork tree.  Okay, it wasn’t Ferdinand the Spanish Bull from the well-known children’s book, he didn’t have long horns and it wasn’t a cork tree.  But it was a black Angus and he was looking pretty majestic under his beautiful tree this afternoon.

Add horns, pretend it's a cork tree, and cue the Spanish Bull Fighter music. Ole'!
I had to tiptoe over a cattle guard to take this shot. Not to be outdone by a chainsaw artist, these ranchers created their own art by hanging cobalt, white and mauve bottles from their dead tree. Reminds me of Sante Fe, NM for some reason.

Well, you’ve seen about 25 of the 100+ shots I took…all reasons why I love Logan County.  I hope next time you’ll see a photo of me buying fresh eggs and celebrating because the chlorine tablets are no longer $56.00 per bucket.  Either way, I also hope you enjoy your own drive through this area sometime.  And if you do, please send us a photo and tell us about the treasures you found.

Take care…RDK

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RDC News & Updates

RDC News and Updates: “What’s New” Plus Standards and Practices

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Hello there, dear RDC community.  I’m sitting here with wet hair in my big fuzzy bathrobe and no house shoes in a 65 degree house trying to write an entry about “what’s new” when all I can think about is whether or not the hot water on my stove is boiling yet so I can make some tea. I also ALMOST edited that sentence because it was too long.  I didn’t, however, because the point of it and the rest of this article is to share with you just a bit about who we are, what we do and why we do it. And, the fact that an occasional long sentence slips in is just part of how we’re structured right now.

The RDC will be deploying our 200th post this upcoming week.  We’ll hit our 17,000th view sometime on Sunday or Monday and we’ll be giving away more promotions in November and December than the previous four months combined.  We kicked off two new areas of writing this month (a series on “Where the Red Fern Grew” and the “Stockyards City Cookbook Cook-Through“) and have added a few more contributors as well.  Since our last update Kendy, Jennifer, Jani, Whitni, Michael (guest blogger) and Dan have joined our team.  Our “Friends of the RDC” are also growing and we couldn’t be happier; we generally have between 100-250 views per day with some spikes these past few months hitting 600-1100, depending upon what content was deployed.  What this means, however, is that we’re adjusting to that growth.

This week I’ll be talking to someone about managing our promotions and advertising.  We’re going to celebrate our 6 month birthday by launching a new website, designed to be more efficient for someone who might visit us, as well as more visually appealing.  We’re also having a first official “contributor meeting” on December 11th at which time we’re going to make a decision about which way to steer the RDC in terms of a business model.  And, we have a few interviews scheduled for this next month that make me think we’re beginning to get noticed as perhaps a place that has some beneficial contribution.

And, while I’m really happy about all that is going on around here, I also want to let you know that we’re doing our best to keep our side of the street clean.  What that means is that the world of blogging isn’t very well-defined.  If you go to WordPress.Com and simply begin looking through a random selection of blogs you will find some amazing work, and some extremely poor work.  Some bloggers simply post other work they’ve found and would like to share.  That’s fine as long as they are referencing the source, and most do.  Others appear to be writing all their content but sometimes you can’t tell about their images.  And finally, there are those who cite or link to their sources, credit their photos and seem to be doing the best they can to keep their own standards high.

In case you’ve wondered in the past, we write all our own content.  We shoot all our own photos or credit the source from which they were derived.  If there’s no credit, then we purchased the license for that image from a photograph company.  And, we link to all our references or sources whenever we feel you might need further context or the original source supporting what we have created.  Right now, I do light editing for every release except sports.  Rob is our sports editor.  And, when I feel like I need to make a decision about something I’ll bounce a question off Julie (she was my first co-contributor) or send it out to our whole team.

I’m sharing this information, in part, because of a very unfortunate copywrighting issue that came out on the Reddit and Facebook communities this week.  This link pretty much explains just how bad theft can get when it comes to plagiarism and blatant use of what was deemed to be the fact that “all content on the internet is public domain.” Cook’s Source Magazine royally ticked off “the internet” and they’re paying for it handily.

So, everything in this letter (except for the previous immediate paragraph) pretty much sums up the way we do business.  But we also “do business” on a volunteer and for-a-hobby only status right now…which is why I’m in my bathrobe writing to you this morning.  After December that might change, but for right now all you see is simply because of the heart of those who write it.

Have a wonderful Saturday in Red Dirt Country.  Y’all come back now, ya hear?

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Man Cave

Confessions of a Sports Hoarder

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“This is way more junk than I expected.” 

That was my thought as I stared at the boxes piled high in my garage.  Clearing out my house in preparation for a move, made me come face to face with the harsh reality of just how many things I actually own. 

There were several items that flat out needed to be trashed, while many others made for great garage sale material.  However, there were a couple enormous boxes I didn’t even think about tossing, donating, or selling.  These were the special boxes, the “don’t you even think about throwing that stuff away” boxes.  Those squares of cardboard contained all of my sports tokens, souvenirs, apparel, memorabilia, and mementos. 

A shoebox full of media credentials from my days in TV, everything from bass tournaments to college basketball to arena football.

I wouldn’t call it a collection.  It’s more of a random gathering with absolutely no rhyme or reason.  There are the obvious items like the jerseys and the posters.  There are the things which take me back to my childhood like the football cards, the action figures of my favorite players, and the stickers I used to put on my closet door.  And then…well, then there’s the other stuff.  I don’t know why I have this stuff, but I don’t want to get rid of it either.  I have a souvenir baseball from the Class A Clearwater (Florida) Threshers.  Long story, don’t ask.  There is a single golf ball commemorating the 10th anniversary of Texas Motor Speedway.  I’ve never been to Texas Motor Speedway, never teed it up, don’t need it, but kind of like it.  And speaking of worthless, look no further than the 2007 Indiana Football Media Guide.  I picked that up at the Insight Bowl a few years back when the Hoosiers faced Oklahoma State.  Haven’t looked at it once, not quite ready to chuck it.

I acknowledge that I have a problem, but I also feel like these things tell my own personal sports history.  They are the fabric of what makes me a fan.  I don’t know if you can put a price on that.  All my stuff is worth a couple hundred bucks, tops.  In other words, its junk.  But there’s a difference between junk and stuff I have a connection with.

A $3 racket turned into a little piece of family history.

Take for example, the old wooden racket I picked up at a thrift store.  When I showed it to my dad, he told me it was the exact frame he played with when he was in high school.  Now I’ll never look at that racket the same way.  For three bucks I got myself a reminder of my father, the man who got me started playing the game I love so much.

Unpacking the boxes, I stumbled across a dozen different Dallas Cowboys’ hats.  They were dirty, sweat stained, and beautiful.  As a young Cowboys fan, I would watch every game with several hats at my disposal.  If my ‘Boys weren’t performing well, obviously the hat wasn’t performing well, and so a change needed to be made.  This hat rotation went on for years and I’m so glad I still have every single one.  Maybe I can pass them on to my son one day, and tell him about the tradition as we suffer through Cowboys games together. 

Hats from the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Do I need three almost identical hats? Probably not. Will I get rid of one? Definitely not.

My girlfriend doesn’t understand this obsession.  My mom really wishes I’d stop using my old closet as a long distance storage space.  They don’t get it, but they don’t have to get it.  I need these things to feel at home, to feel like myself.  I like to walk into my apartment and be surrounded by my stuff.  Maybe it’s wrong, shallow, superficial, and psychologically weird, but my stuff is me.  The pennants, the pucks, the sweatshirts that don’t fit anymore, it’s all me.  The golf club head covers, the stained coasters, and those stadium cups you get with your nine dollar soda (I’ve got six), all me as well.

A reminder of a trip to Wrigley, one of the coldest nights of my life watching Kerry Wood throw a 4-hit shutout of my Redbirds.

I’ve got the ticket stub from every sporting event I’ve ever attended.  I’ve saved countless issues of Sports Illustrated, and cut out newspaper headlines from some of my most memorable sports moments.  The one that stands out is from the front page of the Calgary Sun on June 6th, 2004.  It’s a picture from game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals with my beloved Calgary Flames and the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The photo shows the puck resting on the goal line as two Flames’ players crash the net.  I was in Calgary that day, ready to erupt with the rest of the city.  My brother and I promised each other we’d find a way to make it to Calgary if the Flames had a chance to win the Cup on home ice.  Tickets were too expensive, but we settled into a sports bar, just two anonymous fans in the “C” of red.  The puck didn’t go in.  Tampa Bay won the game in double overtime, and won the Cup in game 7 two days later.  I’ll never forget walking the streets of Calgary with my brother, consoling complete strangers, and reliving every moment of that game.  The headline reads, “THAT CLOSE.” Funny how a piece of paper can connect me to one of the best and worst sports memories of my life. 

Looking at this is a form of self-torture, but also a reminder of my brother and the greatest spur-of-the-moment sports trip ever taken.

I don’t have the space right now, but maybe one day I’ll realize the dream of displaying all my stuff in one big room of my house.  It will be like my own personal sports bar, the man cave of all man caves.  Until then, I will continue to search, clip, buy, and yes, save this stuff. 

I want to know I’m not alone.  Please tell me about your weird sports collection, or that one item that means the world to you, but very little to anyone else.  Leave a comment, tell me your stories, or just tell me about something cool you stumbled across at an estate sale.  Make me feel better about myself, don’t let me think I’m the only sports hoarder out there.

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Oklahoma culture

Friday Morning Shout Out: Dusty Gilpin, Tree and Leaf, and the Evolution of TRUDust

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Sometimes who you are is carved by Time on your heart.  Sometimes on your letterhead, the wallpaper on your computer, or in how you dress.  At least part of Dusty Gilpin’s identity is “carved” on his forearm in the shape of a tattoo; his last name etched into more than just skin by his history as a third generation artist.  Also known as TRUDust, he’s been around town quite a bit lately and is leaving his artistic fingerprint on the culture of Oklahoma City.  Here are just a few impressions…

Ink, before color was added.
K-N-M. Spraypaint, serigraphy, wood and plexiglass - All three photos from Dusty's Facebook Art Portfolio Page.

Co-owner of Tree & Leaf Clothing, Dusty and the rest of their team have been on their own, growing their business for about five years.  You can follow him on Twitter, check the local papers or culture scene for his next spray-paint gig, or serendipitously notice one of their t-shirts being worn by a local somewhere on the street.

However it is that you run across Dusty and his work, you can be certain there’s more to come.  After all, he’s just begun his third generation influence on Oklahoma…who knows what’s in store from TRUDust around the corner of the art world?  Or for that matter, life in Red Dirt Country?  Congratulations to you Dusty, for what you’ve accomplished thus far. Congrats to the Tree & Leaf Clothing team.  And, best wishes as you continue to carve your name, and that of what’s around you or how it influences you, on our Oklahoma hearts.

Dusty Gilpin, AKA TRUDust.

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Relationships, Travel

Forest, Trees. Clouds, Crystals. A Micro-Macro Meditation.

Monday afternoon I was sitting in the window seat of a plane flying toward Minneapolis.  During take off preparations, some of the shiny chrome trim on the tarmac equipment caught a reflective beam of sunlight and sent it directly into my eye; so, I had shut the window cover.   But now I was curious.  I wanted to see the view, to look around and say hello to the sky.

 

Ice crystals. Some of them looked like tiny caterpillars or stands of mitochondria.

 

When I lifted the plastic shade I was met with a view of tiny ice crystals that had been forming on the outside of my window.  I examined them and looked for purpose or replication in their pattern.  I thought about Minnesota and wondered if the quilted jacket I had with me was enough to keep the cold air at bay.  My thoughts turned toward the conference.  It had been a long day, so I reached up to once again close the shade and try to nap.  I had been up since 4 a.m. and had a long night of preparations still in front of me.

Just as my arm started the downward motion to close the shade, something caught my eye.  I stopped and took in the “skyscape” moment,  visually tracking the long blanket of cloud cover beneath the plane all the way to the horizon.  I’ve seen the clouds before, but I almost missed them this time.

 

Oh, HEY clouds. Good to see you!

I had allowed what was right in front of my eyes to be all that I considered.  I then wondered, who had I done that same thing to today? Yesterday? This week?  So my hope for you today is:

 

Remember to also step back, take in the whole person, and enjoy or consider their sum.  After all, their whole being is always so much more than the sum of their individual parts.

Happy skyscaping,

Red Dirt Kelly

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.