Down With Trees!

Pay attention.  This is one of the few times you shall hear me complain about my native Ninnekah!

You see these trees?

I HATE these trees!  Not trees in general; I love trees in general.  I am all about planting trees and initiatives like the one I can't remember specifics on right now - it was a company I read about recently that is planting a million trees a year for ten years or something?

That is great.  Awesome.  I am all for that kind of thing.  But THESE trees?  I HATE them!

This is the view from our front yard.  'Our front yard' being the Gee home in Ninnekah.  Growing up we would often count the cars on the trains that went by or even try to see what we could make out of the vehicles on Hwy 81.  But what do you see in this picture?  Trees.  Just trees.  Ugly trees.  I took this picture on July 29, 2012.  As I took this picture a train was going by.  Do you see a train?  No.  Just trees.

This is how it looked still during the winter of 2000/2001:

A few trees but mostly open space.  For crying out loud at least you could see if a train was going by!

Okay.  Rant over.

Now that the weather is starting to cool off hopefully I will soon have a lot more fodder for OST!  It has just been too hot recently and I've been too busy to go on any appropriate adventures.

So until next time...

The Cattle and the Pond

I am fairly certain that I am currently caught up with On Sooner Trails.  Now I need to go on some new adventures!  :-)


For now I thought I would discuss the wallpaper that you see on this blog.  The wallpaper is a modification of this:

This photo makes the picture look rather small.  This picture is probably about 24" x 24" or so without the frame.  It is the top portion of what used to be a big calendar - like the ones businesses would give away sometimes back in the day.  Now I know businesses still give away calendars (we have BEAUTIFUL ones here at the funeral home! :-)), but I mean the BIG ones.  I haven't seen those in a long time.  This was from a BIG one that Ferguson Motor Company gave away. 


No one seems to know when it is from.  Apparently Ferguson Motor Company did the calendars every year and always had Hereford Cattle, but probably not the same pic every year.  The best guess seems to place it sometime in the 70s or 80s, but they did calendars like that long before then as well. 


This particular one was framed and given as a gift to Charles Ferguson by somebody or other....yeah, the salient details slip right by me.  That isn't the important part, though it is muy interesante.  What is important is that I have become obsessed with this picture. 


When I started the blog I was going to use WordPress which is the platform for my other blog, Cannons, Beads and Raktajino.  I wanted a very specific look, something that screams 'Oklahoma' and I could not seem to find a template that allowed me to use a pic on the background as more than an accessory.  I needed it to SCREAM Oklahoma!  And so I checked out BlogSpot (or Blogger, whatever!).  This way I had much more freedom to customize. 


The next problem was what would SCREAM Oklahoma?!  I flipped through tons of pics online and on my computer and landed on one of the Hereford Cattle (not this particular photo of it).  What could say 'Oklahoma' better?  Cloudy skies, muddy pond, clumsy cattle, cowboy in the back and those hills in the background that say 'the Great Plains' in a way that people that aren't from around here could never understand.  Technically I don't know if this is meant to be Oklahoma or not.  My guess is that it is.   


I have been trying to figure out where this came from!  I have looked everywhere - on websites that offer stock photos for commercial calendars, stock photo websites, e-bay and more.  I even used TinEye reverse image search.  Nothing.  No joy.  The origins remain a mystery.


So that was August 8, 2011, it seems.  Start the blog, show everyone the wallpaper because I thought it was so cool, and then I don't think that much of it for months.  But I see that picture every day at work and the more I see it, the more I am fascinated.  It just SAYS Oklahoma!  And let's not forget that is coming from an Okie that wouldn't know that those are Hereford Cattle if it hadn't been for the Boss Man telling me that.


Are you getting my point?  Obsessed I've become.  With this picture.  It IS Oklahoma!  I don't know why I like it so much.  I don't decorate in Western (and wouldn't have it in my house! :-) ).  I have never been around farms or cattle or anything of the sort.  So WHY IS THIS OKLAHOMA TO ME, you ask?!  I don't know.  But it is.  I mean - look at it.  

And now I see it everywhere.  At work.  On my blog.  I even used PicsArt for the first time to take a picture of it - and now the wallpaper on my HTC EVO is the above edited version of the cattle!


So there you have it.  Now you don't have to wonder anymore about OST's wallpaper.  :-)

Memorial Day Weekend II - Ninnekah History in Rose Hill Cemetery

As explained in the last post, we added Rose Hill Cemetery as a stop for our Memorial Day Weekend traditional trek.  Our destination?  The graves of Fred & Christel Kluver.  Our mission?  To put flowers on the graves for Memorial Day.  The result?  Well, we did the flowers (though not the ones I wanted - waited too late to buy this year) and we will continue to visit their graves on Memorial Day Weekend.  However, what happened as we were fulfilling our task served to change the atmosphere of the whole day and to throw Betsy into full-scale geeky history-loving mode that poor Rick had to deal with the rest of the day. (Yeah, and beyond that day.  Possibly forever!  :-) )

You see, as I was getting pictures I spotted something very close to Mrs. Kluver's grave out of the corner of my eye.  It was the name BEELER.  I had to look.  I made my way over and RIGHT THERE THEY WERE!!!  The graves of George & Georgia Beeler!!!!!


Rick was immediately thrown into the midst of a Ninnekah history lesson.  I told him just about everything I could remember about the Beelers.  I shall now regale you with the high points:

• George Beeler founded Ninnekah!!  
• Georgia was the first postmaster and she picked out the name which means 'Dark Waters' in Choctaw.  
• He turned down the roundhouse that the railroad wanted to put in, causing them to go to Chickasha and in turn for Chickasha to practically overnight become more important than Ninnekah.  
• They had a large residence of which there is a replica in the Ninnekah Historical Museum.

What particularly blows my mind is there they lay in eternal rest with very simple markers and a simple family marker that just says 'Beeler.'  No mention of them founding Ninnekah?  No mention that he is considered the first resident of Chickasha (more details on that tidbit I looked up later)?  It seems there should be something marking the grave!

The reason I know anything about the Beelers at all is because of Mrs. Craig.  She was my art teacher in 7th & 8th grade and my civics teacher in 8th grade.  She and the 8th grade class of 1990 started Heritage Day in Ninnekah and helped put in motion all kinds of things to preserve Ninnekah's history.  In 1992 Mrs. Craig complied a book of sorts of various pieces of Ninnekah history including brief biographies of prominent individuals, interviews with descendants, cemetery records, and more.  At the end of my 8th grade year (1994) the last assignment of the year was to read through this 'book,' and write a summary of it.  I LOVED IT!!!  I am looking at my report right now, which ends with 'I found this book very interesting, and wish I could get a copy!'  First off, I don't know what purpose that comma is supposed to serve and secondly, it doesn't seem to be an appropriate conclusion for a summary of a book.  Nevertheless it got me a copy!  Mummy took me out of school a bit early the last day of school (the same day we turned the reports in) to go visit Aunt Debbie who had just moved to Oklahoma City.  On our way out of the building Mrs. Craig stopped us and gave me one of the books.  I was far too shy back then to tell her how I appreciated that, but I can tell you without a doubt that I WAS ECSTATIC!  That is evidenced by the fact that I am looking at that book right now if nothing else.


Want to know more about Ninnekah?  Sadly, this article is about the best you will find online.  But don't worry.  We will talk more about Ninnekah and the Beelers later!!

Memorial Day Weekend I - The Kardokus / Gee Way

THE OLD RITUALS

Memorial Day Weekend.  A time of cookouts, lake trips, food and fun for many.  For my family and me in particular, it means fake flowers and the dusty wind that just seems to always come with cemeteries in Oklahoma.
From the time I was just a little thing we would make the trek out to Eakly (where Mummy is from) to decorate Grandpa Don, Grandma Florence and Zelda Faye's graves.  We only occasionally make the longer journey to Enid for Grandpa Russ's grave.


I remember a lot of those trips to the Eakly Cemetery from my childhood.  Before Aunt Thelma passed away we would go to her house with the horseshoe drive afterward.  It had been Grandma Florence's house and behind it used to stand the house that Mummy and her uncle Johnny were both born in - among many other peeps I am sure.  I still can find it when I drive into Eakly (which is rare - usually we just hit the cemetery and head back towards Binger) but it is no longer in the family.


These Memorial Day visits and Mummy's feelings about cemeteries helped me to grow up with a fondness for them.  Mummy always loved cemeteries and dreamed of buying and living in an old rural church with a cemetery.  She wanted to spend her free time tending to the cemetery.  I think I would like to be a cemetery sexton in retirement or something (assuming, of course, that I START a career to retire from!).


I am not sure when I went on the cemetery run by myself for the first time - and by myself I most likely mean with the ex-husband.  I would guess maybe 14 years ago or so.  As time went on, more graves were added.  Chris's grandparents in Anadarko (handily on the way to Eakly), and in Eakly, Mummy, Cousin Rattlesnake Leroy and Grandma.  There is a ritual to it, as there is to just about anything I do, which involves certain colors of flowers for each person and the order of the stops and what convenience stores to stop at among other things.  Memory Lane Cemetery in Anadarko is first, followed by Eakly Cemetery.  Then home.  If a trek to Enid is planned, it is most likely a different day.  Also I greatly prefer to go just prior to the weekend or very early in the weekend; you don't want peeps to be at the cemetery thinking the family has been forgotten!


But the most important part:  the flower colors.  I have only set the colors for the more recent graves - very carefully, of course.  The older graves get the same colors that Mummy had put on them for many years before I ever started going with her or was on this planet for that matter.  Those colors were also carefully chosen; substitutions are done in extreme emergency situations ONLY.

A NEW TRADITION

Several months ago Rick and I were walking in Rose Hill Cemetery - the premier walking trail in Chickasha - when we spotted Mrs. Kluver's headstone.  It was right near the gate and easy to get to so it took us all of a couple of minutes to decide that we would add Rose Hill Cemetery and Mrs. Kluver to our Memorial Day Weekend treks.
You see, while we only met Mrs. Kluver on a few occasions she is very important to us.  We bought her house!  There is even still a 'K' on the front screen door.  :-)  She was just the sweetest little old lady!  I know she would be disappointed that I didn't keep her garden spots up and that we have taken out most of the shrubs and stuff AND that the house is in such desperate need of remodel.  Nevertheless, I think she would be happy with us being there because we LOVE the house!!!  This is what it looked like shortly after she and Fred bought the house in 1945:

The house was 20 years old at the time.  She lived there for 60 years (he passed away in 1996) and they raised four children there.  They built on to the back around 1960 - probably mostly to give Mrs. Kluver a larger kitchen!  :-)  We still have the coppertone stuff that was put in at that time.  The back porch was added on to in the 90s - or so I estimate from various pictures.  Those windows you see?  Pretty sure they are the same ones we have now except for the one on side of the house on the far right.  Isn't it just fabulous to have a house with so much history and love behind it?  I think so!  I could go on and on about this topic, but I will wrap it up with a picture of the house now for comparison.  This is a photo of a pencil drawing Michelle did of the house (using Google Maps!) as a Christmas present:

CONCLUSION

Now that you know a little bit about the Memorial Day Weekend rituals and new addition to this year, let's get started on chronicling Saturday, May 26, 2012, shall we?

A New Blog About Adventures in Oklahoma

My name is Betsy Phillips.  I was born and raised in the greatest state in the union:  Oklahoma!  I have lived my entire life in Grady County.

I recently decided that it was time to stop talking about exploring Oklahoma and get to it!  Besides, lets be real--I will never traipse around Europe or see Victoria Falls and meet my country twin.  I can, however, wander the Oklahoma trails and discover the fun facts behind the historical markers.  And lets not forget all the fun and excitement of cemeteries!  Every tombstone with a story to tell!

So this is my new blog.  I will chronicle my adventures in Oklahoma.  Happy Trails!  :-)