Tag Archives: Oklahoma Culture

Grandmother's Memoirs, Oklahoma culture

One Voice of the Oklahoma Prairie, Cont.

3 Comments

The first building raised in Waukomis. The Railroad section chief lived and worked out of it in 1889.

Editor’s Note: This series began on Monday of last week.  It most likely will run for five weeks.  Please refer to this link for the introductory information and “Entry One” of “My Grandmother’s Memoirs.”  Thank you. ~ RDK

“One Spring I was at a widow woman’s house picking up apricots. She was in the tree and hung a bucket on a limb. It broke and the bucket of apricots fell on my head. Did I ever have a big gash! She told me to run home to my mama. By the time I got there my clothes were soaked with blood. I remember all the children of the neighborhood lining up across the screened-in back porch watching Mom clean me up. I had to go to the doctor at Enid for him to dress and care for it every other day.

I had the small pox vaccination at Waukomis by a Dr. Wolfe. I always imagined he looked like a wolf, but he was pretty nice. He gave me a stick of gum and a penny because I didn’t cry.

I had chicken pox in the Spring of 1930; it was near Easter.  Our class at school was having an egg hunt, so Papa took me to the principal’s office to see if I was over them enough to go to the event. I was so happy because he said I could go!

One winter we had a big snow. Papa walked ahead of us to school to make tracks so we wouldn’t have as difficult a time getting to school.  We were always thrilled when the weather was bad and didn’t have to go home for lunch! Mom would call the grocery store and the owner would prepare a good lunch for us. One of us would go pick it up; he would make pressed ham sandwiches with buns – that was really good!

We children of the neighborhood would gather in the evening by the street light, choose sides and play a game called “Trail.” One side would hide, the other hunt. We would make arrows with chalk marking the direction we were going. Then at the point we decided to hide, we would draw a circle with arrows going all directions making it more difficult to find us.

Another time I remember was my sister Catherine and brother Charles and I went to a Methodist revival. When coming home we had to go past an opera house. We were told a little man lived under it; we were always frightened to go by. We watched the building closely!  As we were walking along Catherine slipped on the ice and I fell over her, breaking my collar bone. I was crying so loudly Catherine said, “Be quiet! That little man will hear you!”  My parents were at the door to meet us when we got there. It was so painful and difficult to wear a coat that I missed several days of school after that incident.

Continue reading One Voice of the Oklahoma Prairie, Cont. →

Oklahoma culture, Red Dirt Rambler

Red Dirt Ramblers – Stop #1: Get To Know Kathy Moore of Anichini-Moore Ranch & Farm

8 Comments

Kathy Moore shares her passion with Kelly & Julie at Gray Owl Coffee.

Note: See the introduction post to this series HERE…

(Kelly’s perspective) It’s 10:00 a.m.,Tuesday, December 28, 2010.  Julie and I are headed south on I-35.  Our destination? The Gray Owl Coffee house in the heart of Norman.  She and I have spent less than thirty minutes together at this point, yet I’m comfortable and can already tell traveling with her would be just fine.  In fact, I’m thinking it might even be better than traveling by myself for this particular journey…and I’m a highly expressed introvert; traveling by myself is one of the greatest rewards I give myself.  Julie is sitting in the passenger seat with an ink pen and a half-sized legal pad, trying to write down – in chronological order – all the “Bomgardner sons” our common great-grandmother had.  Stumped with some of the missing facts, we call my dad to ask for help filling in the gaps.  As he provides the details, I become sobered when he recalls a story that was, until this point, only a brief shred of substance in the back of my head.  He tells us that one of the boys had died during a move to a new home.  They were either building or taking down a cellar and it caved in on him.  For a few minutes my mind begins thinking about the safety cellars in Oklahoma provided from tornadoes and inclement weather, and could – at the same time – be dangerous as exemplified in his story.

We overshoot our exit because I am busy talking to Julie about something.  We double back and began to make use of her iPhone GPS device; those things are handier than a pocket on a shirt.  We park and walk into the Gray Owl at the exact time for our appointment. As I enter the “best coffee place in Norman,” I begin scanning the room for any sense of recognition.  I know Kathy Moore only from her photo on the internet and have no idea when it had been taken.

I find her sitting in the middle table right across from the cash register; I know it’s her because there is enough familiarity with her website to be certain.  Julie and I head over to her table, say hello, order our drinks and settle in for what would be a two-hour narrative by Kathy of her life, her farm, her hopes that still exist, and her dreams that have been told “goodbye.”  A short version of what we gleaned from this meeting follows:

Continue reading Red Dirt Ramblers – Stop #1: Get To Know Kathy Moore of Anichini-Moore Ranch & Farm →

Red Dirt Rambler

Red Dirt Ramblers ~ Intro, Kick-Off, and a Road Map…

In the 1970s, George Salter of the Atlanta Journal began a trek that would evolve into his blip on the radar of American History.  He would pick any small town in the state of Georgia, travel there and begin to ask around.  Eventually, he would find a story worth telling.  And then he’d tell it.  I wasn’t even aware of this work when I began to mull over traveling around our great state this past summer and taking roads not well traveled.  I wanted to meet the people at the very ends of the trails…those who had lived lives I would never experience unless I somehow came in touch with them.  It was then that one of my friends commented to me during our discourse, “Yeah, like the Georgia Rambler!”  After researching his work, I thought to myself… “Yeah, like the Georgia Rambler.  Exactly.”

But this is 2011, and my state is Oklahoma, and I’m a girl who was born some time after the Georgia Rambler so it can’t be ‘exactly.’  It might not even be ‘nearly.’  And, to begin this series I had targeted areas I wanted to learn about (as opposed to randomly just beginning to look around) – as well as wishing for a traveling companion the first time out.  Perhaps I should tell you about both of those wishes before I begin to share about the people we met and places we visited over a period of about 40 hours last week.

First…my companion:  I had as my ride-along none other than our Homestead and Garden writer, Julie at the Ranch.  A back story about her and I includes the fact that we are third cousins who never got to know each other until this past year, and that’s only because of the social networking phenomenon we now take for granted.  Julie packed her bags, loaded up her vehicle and headed toward Oklahoma last Monday morning.  Her first stop was Collinsville to see friends from her college days at OSU.  Monday night they greeted, ate, laughed and got caught up from the time they saw each other last.  The next morning, she headed to Edmond and by 10:00 we were on the road driving toward Norman.  Our agenda was loose, flexible and neither of us were highly committed to any of the ideas we were bandying about betwixt us.  In the end, however, a journey was made.  People were met.  Things were learned.  And somewhere along the way Julie and I found out just how connected our lives had been while growing up even though we never formerly spent time together.

Continue reading Red Dirt Ramblers ~ Intro, Kick-Off, and a Road Map… →

Oklahoma culture, Photography, Relationships

Why Thursday Evening Shout Outs and Kleenex Boxes Go Together

6 Comments

He’s professional without being uncomfortable.  He’s nice.  He’s creative and has a keen interest in helping reveal the beauty of life within his subjects.  In an attempt to reduce a personality and business of positive complexities into a cohesive concept, his website reads:

“There are two things you need to know about me. I enjoy life and I believe in creating images that make you feel something.”

Carl Zoch went into full-time photography business only a few short years ago.  He and his wife had to talk about it.  And think about it. And part of those discussions were about Carl’s desire to learn more and more about the subject of photography until he had exhausted his capacity to learn.  He is still not done.  However, his business and business model is beginning to take shape.

He only books 25 weddings per year.  He’s become well connected and referred within the photographer community of Oklahoma.  He is linked occasionally to other creative ventures or people such as Dusty Gilpin at Tree and Leaf (who, by the way, just designed our RDC T-Shirts).

And, his work is very good.  I invite you to spend some time reviewing his website at your leisure.  I like the background music he’s chosen for his slides, and I like his open and willing communication style when I e-mail him, asking to publish an image for our “Silent Sunday” features.  But I think more than anything today, I like him because he just sent the proofs of my daughter’s engagement photos to her in a slideshow…and because they made me cry.

Continue reading Why Thursday Evening Shout Outs and Kleenex Boxes Go Together →

Grandmother's Memoirs

One Voice of the Oklahoma Prairie

4 Comments

Editor’s Note:  Julie at the Ranch is, as we speak, somewhere in northwestern Oklahoma enjoying some time with friends.  Incidentally, she and I will be driving to south-central and northwestern Oklahoma tomorrow.  We’ll check in from time to time with information about what we found.  We’ll be talking to people, seeing places, and working on developing the RDC just a bit more. In the meantime, please accept this post as a substitute for her regular, “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch” work. ~ RDK

***

My grandmother Emma Lee, present day. I think she looks pretty good for someone who is 88 years old.

On November 13th of this year, I posted a short “Simple Sabbath” entry and described a project I had been working on for a while.  It entailed typing up my grandmother’s handwritten memoirs she recorded over a period of about twenty-two years in order for us to have a sense of our family history from her perspective.  I finished the first draft and provided her a spiral-bound copy for a Christmas present.  She will be reviewing the draft for any inaccuracies and then I’m going to go over it with an editorial eye for the final draft.  I asked her permission to begin sharing some of her memories with you, our RDC reading community, and she replied, “Oh yes, of course, honey.  That’s fine.”

And so, with that permission tucked away in my head, here is the beginning entry of her work.  I plan on publishing an excerpt on Tuesday evenings as a follow up to Julie’s posts.  I haven’t decided whether or not they will come out weekly or bi-weekly.  One more note…my grandmother wrote just like she talked.  I may keep much of this style intact, so if you see very few periods or commas, you’ll understand why.  Thanks, Kelly

***

One Voice of the Oklahoma Prairie:  My Grandmother’s Memoirs

Continue reading One Voice of the Oklahoma Prairie →