OK-C

Pictures: Ginger, Zoo, Pops, Sunday Dinner, Jean and her pig Harold, Oklahoma Centenial sculptures of the great land rushes.

I think Oklahoma and Arkansas share a common imagination.  Listen to some of the town names in this neck of the woods: Blue Jacket, Clebit, Heavener, Smackover, Toad Suck, Ozone, Yellville, Joy and next to it, Romance.  Like an ocean wave sliding to an end on the beach, the eastern deciduous forests and southern pine forests of the south come to an end as we move westward toward OKC.  We’re in the plains again.  Or are we?  Is this the Midwest or the South?  Is this a farming or ranching area?  Some people sound like west coast people.  Some sound like they are from the south.  They get 20 below 0 weather and 110 degree weather.  Oklahoma seems like some sort of geographic, economic and social transition zone.  OKC has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country but in small towns in the hinterlands it’s pretty clear that the recession has hit.  Gas is cheap (3.19/gal) but the Family Dollar and Dollar General Stores parking lots are full.  My metaphor for the ambiguity experienced here is the picture of Ginger the dog.  Notice she doesn’t know whether to have her ears up or down so one is up and one is down!  Had a nice visit with Sister Carol and daughters Erin, Lisa and Jean.  Spent Sat. afternoon at the zoo and then to POPS a gas station and hamburger joint that stocks over 600 flavors of pop – things like Pumpkin Spice and butter beer pop.  Great burgers too.  Before OK was a state this area was known as the “Indian Territories”.  In 1830 Congress passes the Indian Resettlement Act which was to exchange Indian lands in the east for the “unused” lands in the west, Oklahoma.  Stopping at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee we heard the stories of the “Trail of Tears” endured by the Seminole, Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee and Chickasaw, all of whom were resettled in Oklahoma.  We bid farewell to our family here and move on to Texas.