Category Archives: Oklahoma

A Visit to the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma

My brother Bob and I drove to Tulsa suburb of Claremore to visit the Will Rogers Museum. Will Rogers may be the most popular Okie ever. Even more revered than Garth Brooks. Will Rogers was a humorist, author, actor (both film and broadway), radio personality, author, and columnist. He was known for his folksy ways and friendly demeanor. His most popular saying was that he “Never met a man he didn’t like.” He was born on November 4, 1879 on a ranch near Oolagah, Oklahoma and died in an airplane crash in Alaska on August 15, 1935.

He grew up ranching of and worked his way into wild west shows and later vaudeville doing roping tricks. Later he was in Broadway plays and movies.

The museum is chock full of Will Rogers information and art. Their are statues of him, art of him. They have film clips of him. And all sorts of information about him and many of his possessions are on display including a large collection of saddles.

I loved all the movie posters. They have mock ups of the various rooms in his house in California where he lived when his film career blossomed. The museum is very nice and you can tell that it is a labor of love for the staff and volunteers that work there. You get a very good sense of the man. Talented yet humble and a very understated manner of speaking. I left there wondering, “Who is our Will Rogers today.”

Will Rogers is buried on the grounds there on a site overlooking the beautiful hills of Oklahoma. I love this statue that they have near the grave.

Here is a carboard cutout of Will along with my brother. Sorry about the dark shot.

Soon, I will have a post about Rogers’ birthplace in nearby Oolagah. Brother Bob and I ventured up there after our visit to the museum.

If you want to visit the Will Rogers Museum click on the link. They have lots and lots of information including the basics such as where they are and when they are open.

Skywatch Friday – Oklahoma Style

The sky at Logan’s riding stable last Saturday. It was a little breezy outside but hey this is Oklahoma we get nervous if the wind isn’t blowing.

It made me think of the lyrics from “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the musical Oklahoma”

All the sounds of the earth are like music
All the sounds of the earth are like music
The breeze is so busy it don’t miss a tree
An’ a ol’ weepin’ willer is laughin’ at me

Oh, what a beautiful Mornin’
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I’ve got a beautiful feelin’
Everything’s goin’ my way.
Oh, what a beautiful day!

Even if you are not in Oklahoma, try to have a great day! 😉

Skywatch Friday

First Ride of the Season

Saturday was a glorious day. Sunny, cool, breezy, and dry. At All-Star Therapy Group, Logan got to ride out across the pasture and through the woods for the first time this year. Of course I came along to document the event.

The new green of Spring is great. Everything is very lush right now right now in northeastern Oklahoma. As one heads west it dries out quickly and there have been several big grass fires not too far away.

But on Saturday we were just enjoying the riding and walking through the pasture and woods.

When was the last time you went on a walk through the woods?

Skywatch Friday – Donkeys, Drilling Rigs, and a Big Sky

We visited family last weekend in western Oklahoma and went out to their ranch. The ranch had donkeys in addition to the usual cows, grass, drilling rigs, and a big sky. They guard the calves from coyotes and provide comedic relief. Those big ears just kill me. Nolan is the guy to the left and I don’t know who the names of the other two. All three are big beggers. My wife Heather is feeding them treats. They have already figured out that I don’t do that.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Small Town Oklahoma

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Most of Oklahoma doesn’t have mountains or skyscrapers. We have water towers and grain elevators instead.

Skywatch Friday

August: Osage County

I had a day off today so Heather and I went to see August: Osage County with Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep. It is a movie about a dysfunctional ( I mean really dysfunctional) family living in rural northeast Oklahoma. It is based on a play by Traci Letts (that we saw about four years ago).

We loved the movie. Meryl Streep playing the drug addicted matriarch dominated the movie. She owned the mean old bitter cynical character so much that I almost began to hate her.

Julia Roberts as the oldest daughter could almost match the mother for meanness and cruelty. The movie, like the play, is almost explosive in tone. You feel that thing could get violent very easily. Decades old lies and resents me are roiling and simmering just ready to break out.

Of course everybody says that the movie is not as good as the play. Well yeah!! Movies are never as good as the books either. I think you have to judge a work for its own self not compared to what it was derived from.

I’ll be honest. I also liked the movie because it was based on a play set in Oklahoma. Osage County is right outside Tulsa. The play was written by an Okie: Traci Letts. I have never met him but I met his mother Billie Letts, author of Where the Heart is. I know that makes me provincial and parochial to some. I don’t really care.

Osage County is a magical place. Home of huge ranches and wide open spaces, oil fields and home of the Osage Tribe. It’s a great place to go to get your head on straight. The movie, more than the play could, provides a sense of place that is Oklahoma.

Anyway, this Okie strongly suggests that you go see the movie if you can.

Visiting the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma

Hey, my Dad’s in town for Thanksgiving and I like to show him around. I mean Dr. Oz isn’t on until 4 right. Not that he watches him, or so he saaaaays!!. I’ve taken him to Philbrook a bunch of times, Gilcrease several, Woolaroc, and to see the Buffalo near Pawhuska one time the Will Rogers Musuem in Claremore, and to the Tulsa History Museum, and to Reunification Park. Where do we go now? Well, he provided the answer. “Son, how come we haven’t been to the gun museum in Claremore?” Well, I don’t know Dad, lets go!

So off we went to the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore, just north of Tulsa. Do you like to look at stuff? They have 50,000 items to look at. Do you like guns? They have 14,000 firearms to look at. They have the largest privately owned gun collection in the country. (You know, except for that secret army that Obama has in Mexico waiting to invade the USA, after he signs over our sovereignty to the United Nations. Supposed to happen any minute! You gotta watch that Obama dude, he’s sneaky. Except when it comes to web sites. Too bad Al Gore, the inventor of the Internet, doesn’t throw him a bone! I mean Kathleen Sibelius, what does she know, she is from Kansas. They are not even scheduled to get the Internet until next year!) Oops, I have gone way off target. Sorry.

You don’t like guns, they have lots of beer steins.

And they have a ton of guns.

You don’t like guns, they have Native American artifacts like these spear points, and arrowheads, and axes and other items.

They have guns owned by bandits!!

You don’t like guns, they have musical instruments!!

And they have rifles everywhere.

And saucy saddles and Gal Leg spurs.

And Kalishnikov’s!

Still don’t like guns, they have banjos.

And more guns owned by bandits, complete with a getaway map. All bandits have getaway maps. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be bandits.

And for the bad guys of the world. They have a collection of actual nooses and hoods used in the hanging of various and sundry criminals in and near Oklahoma. Many of them were surely guilty, maybe even for the crimes they were hung for.

Can you top that?

It’s a heck of a museum, I don’t care if you like guns or not.

Skywatch Friday – In the Middle of Nowhere

The view late Saturday out in the middle of nowhere somewhere south of Tulsa on my way to pick up Logan at a friend’s house. It was a perfect weekend, found six geocaches, warm, dry, and the Dallas Cowboys didn’t play so they didn’t lose another game at the last minute.

Skywatch Friday

Signs, Signs – White Dog Hill

Up high on a hill overlooking Clinton, Oklahoma right on Route 66, just off Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma sits a restaurant called White Dog on the Hill.

Heather’s family gathered in Clinton a couple weeks ago to celebrate her aunt and uncle’s 60th wedding anniversary. We had a reception at a church followed by dinner at the White Dog.

The White Dog has been a restaurant for several years by now but before that the building was long abandoned and even further back it used to be a country way back when. My Mother in Law told of high school sorority dances at the club and her father’s standing tee time Sunday afternoon’s at 1:30. I just love history like that. I also old buildings being brought back to life.

Especially by owners with a sense of history and a respect for local traditions.

And you know something else they know how to cook the food was good. And even further they provide good service and really are committed to you enjoying yourself.

We have a few years to go but maybe Heather and I can celebrate our 60th anniversary there. What do you think?

Signs, Signs

The Blue Whale on Route 66 for Blue Monday

A few weeks ago I found myself with a few minutes to spare in the Tulsa suburb of Catoosa. So, of course I went to the Blue Whale of Catoosa. Right on Highway 66. A tradition since 1972 when it was built.

So, you will just have to grin and nod like I do when people talk about how they used to stop here in in the 1940’s, 50′, and 60’s when the old timers (“most of whom are younger than me!”) used to stop here when travelling cross country with their parents. I have yet to mention that it wasn’t built until 1972. And they in turn are supportive my illusions. Live and let live is my motto.

It is free. I don’t know how, but the place is well maintained, but they don’t really want you swimming there anymore.

Even the restrooms are sparkling clean. In over 1800 posts I have only posted the inside of a restroom once and talk about the uproar. You’d have thought they had actually found a live Democrate in Oklahoma. So you’ll have to take my word for it.

They stock the pond with fish. This guy came trotting through, all “excuse me sir” and of course I was all “excuse yourself sir.” Catch and release only.