Tag Archives: Oklahoma Culture

Every Point on the Map, Photography, Travel

“Every Point on the Map” or Why My Heart Has the Flutters

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Have you ever had an idea spark at some point in your brain, move from the incubation stages slowly and deliberately, then continuously remerge in your consciousness until it demands to be reckoned with?

I would imagine those types of ideas are the fabric from which “Bucket Lists” are constructed.  They’re the kinds of ideas that send little currants of electricity down your spine, or through your teeth.  They’re the visions that, when played out in your head, give your heart a little flutter, or awaken the butterflies in your stomach.

They’re the kinds of ideas that aren’t uttered aloud until you can own them.  And, until you can own the results of your utterances.

One such result might be that by uttering your idea aloud, you’ve implied some kind of social contract with the person who heard you.  Or, perhaps a contract with yourself.

Some people blurt their ideas in the early stages, before they’re fully developed.  Others harbor them covertly until they’ve weighed every risk associated and every aspect or contingency.  I fall more into the second camp.  And that’s why it’s not until NOW that I’ve decided to publicly announce a project I’ll be starting in February called, “Every Point on the Map.”

Every Point on the Map will be a ten year journey to visit each one of Oklahoma’s 593 townships or cities and have a meaningful conversation with one person in each place.  My daughter will be traveling with me, documenting the journey through two types of digital video and with two different cameras.  Every Point on the Map is something of a “bucket list-type” idea that has been incubating for a while, and by virtue of writing this beginning post – to me – it’s like forming a social contract with Oklahomans at large.  To me, it’s like the beginning of trying to introduce the idea.  And, to introduce you to the “why” behind the idea. Continue reading “Every Point on the Map” or Why My Heart Has the Flutters →

Humor, Politics

Is your kid playing video games OR being trained to do Drone strikes?

I have to tell you that this week’s comments are going to be somewhat vague, secretive. This week I am talking about drones. See, it looks like because we have increased drone strikes so much that the need for drone pilots has tripled. Oh I know what you’re thinking; they call them drones because no one flies them. So what’s the deal? Ok, here’s the top secret part. It’s really just a video game and maybe, just maybe our government is already in the process of training … Kids, Game Cube, Playstation. When I was younger I was really good at the space games, and if we would have had an alien invasion, I would have made Luke Skywalker look silly. I was also good at Street Fighter and the combat games… Maybe Wii and the Cube, or whatever’s out there is really just setting the youth of tomorrow on a flight plan of weapon system video games, at least until they figure out how to use all robots. We can blame people if they strike the wrong target, with robots…

My plan: put world leaders behind the controls of the game Street Fighter.., USA against Iran, or China. We’d whoop their butts …Only thing is we may have to barrow a quarter from China to play the game …I’m

Will Roberts

PoliticalComedians.com

Oklahoma culture

The Dreams of Greenhorns

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Vines & Cattle Schoolhouse – “Before”

The first official day of Spring Break was almost over, as was the rain that had been pouring down all day long.  So much had come from the clouds in so little time I almost called and cancelled dinner plans.  The plans, you see, included some navigation on an Oklahoma dirt road to reach my destination and I wasn’t sure my little white Jetta was up for the slide-and-react task left by gully washers.

But late that afternoon, the hostess for our evening sent out a message: “the roads drain well, so dinner is still on.”  The note was all the encouragement I needed.  I needed to de-stress from a busy semester, I already had a reservation for that night at Roman Nose, and I wanted to meet this particular group of young farmers who were coming together to see the completed Base Vines and Cattle Schoolhouse in Geary, OK.

To say Aaron and Jennifer Base have sweat equity in their newly restored eighty year-old, one-room Schoolhouse is an understatement.  They’ve infused every piece of lumber, all the nails, the foundation blocks and gallons of paint with love and hours of work.

Aaron working on the roof

Continue reading The Dreams of Greenhorns →

Man Cave, Oklahoma culture

The “Board of Directors”

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They were humorously mentioned as “the spit and whittle club” in The Imaginary Family Project story on “Gary Ireland.”

As I child I fastidiously avoided them in the Tuttle “Save-a-Stop” as they drank coffee every morning and discussed the local, state and national current events. For some reason, any grown man in farm clothes and boots who wasn’t part of my family scared me.  Perhaps that’s normal?

Yet as an adult writer trekking across Oklahoma, I now depend upon them when needing information about a local community point of interest.  I merely need to ensure these three factors, and can almost guarantee I’ll find them:

1) It needs to be early in the morning, preferably before 9 or 10 a.m.

2)  Cruise the entire street in any small Oklahoma town and scope out the quick stop or diner with the most farm trucks parked in the lot.

3) And then simply walk in, look around, make eye contact with the group and say, “I need help!”

This process has never…I mean NEVER failed me.  There they will be, a group of local men seated around a table or in a booth or perhaps occupying two or three tables and booths, discussing the morning’s business before heading out to begin the rest of their day.

I was reminded of this this small-town Oklahoma phenomenon while out on the “phase 1 section” of the Base Vines & Cattle schoolhouse deck two days ago.  It was 55 degrees, the wind had finally laid, and on a perfectly still and dark evening a few farmers, a distributor and a consumer had gotten together to chat.  The subject of the “Oklahoma Table” had come up by way of the delightfully caring female farmer among the group and then someone said something about “the group of men who gather in the mornings for coffee.”

“Oh, yeah…we call them The Board of Directors,” said Aaron Base with a chuckle.  And immediately, everyone knew what he meant.

They are the experts in the community.  They are men who know the town narrative and probably created it.  They are the group who has seen people move in, and people move on.  And, they take whatever activity goes on within their community to heart. Continue reading The “Board of Directors” →

Oklahoma culture

Red Dirt Kelly Says: “Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Oklahoma”

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Number Ten: Spotting a real, live princess in an autumn Oklahoma pumpkin patch is a frequent occurrence. Photo by Rachel Apple.

Number 9: The spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains majesty AND the fruited plain can all be found within our boundaries. Continue reading Red Dirt Kelly Says: “Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Oklahoma” →