Category Archives: Tulsa

Doings at the Tulsa Garden Center

The Tulsa Garden Center is a great place. It is a grand old oilman’s mansion from the 1920’s that now buzzes with activity most days.

I just love this old fireplace in the ballroom.

If you love windows and doors, the garden center is the place for you.

I helped my wife Sweetie set up for a Children’s Gardening Class (Little Green Thumbs) held at the Garden Center.

You cannot have a gardening class without “soil.” Don’t call it dirt, especially at the Garden Center. They will kick you out.

There she is, getting ready.

The part I like the best is the art deco streamline design ladies restroom shown above. Don’t ask me how I got the photo. I’d have to take the fifth. (Not really, the door was open and I was in the hallway and it was unoccupied. That’s my story. Oh, and I didn’t open the door either.) If you are saying that it is hard to tell anything from the photo. It is that way live and in person also. To get better pics I’m afraid I might risk outraging public decency.

That’s My World

Pearl District Run

We had a real nice day the other day so I went on an noontime run from my gym in downtown Tulsa. First thing I ran into as a big temptation:

Don’t worry, I resisted temptation, I don’t think they were open anyway. I decided to just generally head east and see where the force moved me. I have to tell you, I’m glad they were closed. It made my decision easier. I kept on running and meandered into a not very nice part of town and came upon an abandoned storage yard with this gatepost.

Tulsa used to be the Oil Capital of the World and there are little reminders like this everywhere you turn. I’m kind of wondering if things aren’t returning a little bit. Oklahoma companies like Chesapeake, Devon, and Continental are really leading the pack in the horizontal drilling and fracturing of shale gas nationwide. Right now, I’m thinking about a drilling rig themed geocache near here. There are lots of guys (and gals) who grew up in Broken Bow, Elk City, Vici, Cheyenne, Barnsdall, Clinton, Apache, and other Oklahoma oil towns drilling wells or building pipelines all over the world. But that is another post. Lets get back on track.

I kind of veered to the left and right as the force led me and I found myself in front of this building.

I’ve never heard of Hooper Brothers Coffee Company. What drew me close was the raised brick signage. Turns out that it is a landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. This building is all over the internet. Who would know? They actually made coffee there until 1961. I don’t know what is going on now but I do know that this section of town is crying for a geocache. What do you think?

Have you ever got to a crossroads and had to make a decision? I decided to head further east into the Pearl District. A cool but depressed area just east of downtown Tulsa.

It has got some great looking store fronts. I can imagine shops, restaurants, bars,and studios.

There are some entrepreneurs who are defying the national economic downturn and trying to make things happen. ( I have to tell you that I find that brickwork above to be beautiful, and the windows and doors.)

Can’t you see a parade out front with people on the little balconies watching? I know, I’m going crazy. But I’m seeing a lot of potential.

They have a long ways to go, it will be interesting to see how far they can go. The rest of my route I veered here and there to avoid the winos, panhandlers, bums, and broken glass and eventually ended back at the gym. I decided that I need to get off my regular routes more often.

Do you ever get off your regular routes? Tell us about it.

My World

Meadow Gold

Historic Meadow Gold sign on Route 66 in Tulsa. The story is here.

Check out Signs Signs.

A Walk Downtown

We had a cold spell last week in Tulsa. At lunch one bright, sunny, bitterly cold day I bundled up and took my new Diana, low tech, low res, 35mm film camera on a walk.

First thing was some crane action going by our building. My employer bought the building last year and has been making a bunch of updates since then.

A little bit further on is Tulsa’s BOK Center designed by Cesar Pelli (Thanks Sydney for pointing out my error). Some call it the hubcap, others say it looks like a roll of duct tape. No matter, since it opened a few years ago we have had some wonderful concerts come to town that we were missing before. I love it.

The sky was very blue and very clear. I love it when fronts come through in the wintertime. Afterward its like the air was swept clean.

I’m not sure what is going on here. Somebody is putting a lot of work into this mural. I love murals. I’ll be checking on this one to see what is going on.

A sculpture honoring firefighters. Firefighter’s are awesome.

A sculpture put up by our local newspaper, the Tulsa World, honoring paperboys. I don’t think they have had paperboys in the sense of kids who sell newspapers or run a route for decades but I guess that it is good to honor them. With my digital cameras I could put a little zoom action on the photo. With my Diana I just have to take what I can get. I didn’t want to walk in the planting area or duck under their security gate to get closer.

Check out That’s My World for other views of the world.

Skywatch Friday – Oral Roberts University

The iconic Praying Hands at ORU. A few of the commenters mentioned that it looked like just one hand was up against a mirror. I didn’t catch that until they wrote it.

The Prayer Tower in the distance.

The former City of Faith Hospital.

Ruby Tuesday – more Airport

Son and I saw this car in the terminal during a recent trip to the Tulsa Internationnal Airport.

We saw this in the parking lot. Nice red truck behind it also.

Check out Ruby Tuesday for more red photographs from everywhere.

My World – at the Airport

SuperPizzaBoy and I traveled to Tulsa International Airport to pickup my brother Bob. We had a little time on our hands waiting for his flight and I had a camera so like a good blogger I started taking photographs. The above is a bust of Oklahoma’s beloved Will Rogers with a Santa cap.

We also found this statue. It is named “Morning Mission” and is dedicated to the 16,000 American and Allied young men who received flight training in Tulsa during World War II.

And we found this facsmile of a wellhead at the airport. It looks pretty authentic to me except look at all the missing bolts on the bottom flange. That doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence.

Above is about one fifth of a mural dedicated to the energy business of Tulsa. I just love it. Those guys are using internal lineup clamps prior to welding a section of pipe plus there is a refinery in the background. I found some free software that stitched the whole mural together. The result was excellent but you would need a 30″ wide screen to make sense of it.

We found the chapel right next to the United Airlines baggage carousel. I don’t think it is used very much. We went in quietly and checked to make sure that nobody was in there before we started taking photographs.

It is really nice with several different areas for prayer and contemplation. They had many different copies of the Bible, the Koran, some Jewish books, and texts from other faiths.

It was decorated very nicely and maintained well. The last signer of the visitor register was two days before son and I were there.

What do you have at your airport? I mean besides airplanes and such as that.

Weekend Reflections – Owen Park

Tulsa’s oldest city park on a cold,foggy day.

John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park Dedication

I crashed a party today. The grand opening of the long awaited opening of the Dr. John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park in the Greenwood area of downtown Tulsa.

The Park features a 25 foot tall memorial tower that depicts the history of the African American struggle starting in Africa and continuing until today and includes several segments concerning the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

All sorts of people were there. Including people with lots bigger cameras than mine.

There were politicians there. Many of them men with makeup on, perfect teeth, and nice haircuts. There were also lots of school kids.

And a marching band.

I’ll have more to say on this great day for Tulsa later.

My World – Oklahoma’s Indian Ballerinas

The Yogi’s spent some time Saturday afternoon at the Tulsa History Center. Among other things we found was a series of sculptures entitled “The Five Moons.” It consists of five sculptures by Gary Henson and Monte England depicting the Five Oklahoma Indian ballerinas who achieved international acclaim in the 1940’s to the 1960’s for their dancing. After their dancing careers, they continued in various teaching and director roles in the dance fields for decades.

First row, from left to right: Yvonne Chouteau (Shawnee Tribe), Rosella Hightower (Choctaw Tribe), Moscelyne Larkin (Peoria-Shawnee tribe)

Second row, left, Marjorie Tallchief, (Osage Nation), and then her sister Maria Tallchief.

The achievements and contributions to the world that these women made are many. For example, Maria Tallchief originated the role of the Sugar Plum fairy in the Balanchine version of The Nutcracker. Click on the links to find out more about them.

In 1997 these women were honored by the State of Oklahoma as State Treasures. We Okies are very proud of them.

Check out That’s My World for more images of our shared world.