Most people don’t know this but I am from Oklahoma. I am also part Cherokee Indian. Part of a part of a part Cherokee that is. Great-Great Grandpa on my Mom’s side was a Cherokee Indian Chief. I actually have an Indian Card. Somewhere. If I were to ever get sick I could go down to… one of the towns (???)… in Oklahoma and get free medical care and heck, maybe catch a little gambling on the side while I’m healing-up.The sunsets in Oklahoma are unique. There is something beautiful and lonesome about them. It always feels like you are going somewhere when you see them. Or maybe it’s that you are just sad to see them go. Of course that could be just me because I am usually driving through Oklahoma and when I see the sunsets, which means I am usually moving and going somewhere. In any case, Tonight’s sunset was especially nice.
The clouds looked like they were being pulled down into the pink and orange horizon by the disappearing sun like a blanket off his bed. Reaching above the burning horizon, the escaping colored clouds washed into the deeper blue heavens. Right between the changing shades of blue, a single star pulsed and peeked, eager to bring in the night and sculpt the Greek gods of old.
On the opposite side of the horizon the full moon was huge. I felt like getting out and howling or something. Maybe an impromptu moon-lit rain dance with me and my squaw Amber.
It was nice.
Trains also sound more lonesome in Oklahoma. If they race by in the opposite direction you are driving, and if you look at something like the aforementioned horizon through their empty carts, it looks a bit like a film reel at half speed.
Small houses also sparsely line the interstate like modern day tepees. Its not that people in Oklahoma do not live in nice houses, it’s just that I think that most native Okies would rather have land. --At least the ones living by the invading highway. Yes, the love of land runs deep in an Okie’s heart. It did in my Great Great Grandpa’s, my Great Grandpa’s, my Grandpa’s, my Dad and now in mine.
So I have decided that some day I want me some land. “Quapapa say uncle Sam givum Chief Sethhorn some big chunk of land so we can buildum big tepee and Casino.”
Interesting tidbit: Did you ever see “Far and Away”? (Good and underrated film btw) Well, my great, great Grandad Van Dee Ward was in that Land Rush. Some of that land stayed in the family until just recently. Most of it was lost in the depression and Dust Bowl. So Land-lust. It’s in the blood.
These things I pondered tonight as we drifted over the Oklahoma plains in our trust Eddie Bauer Expedition Covered Wagon.
1 comment:
I did my Army Basic Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which is the longest I ever stayed there, by a long shot. It was extremely hot and unpleasant (late spring, early summer), and the occasional thunderstorms were ferocious. But the countryside there was pretty.
Every other time I've ever been there, I was just passing through. On our drive from California to Tennessee (when we moved here), my wife and I had a very distinct observation about Oklahoma -- it is the road kill capital of the world.
Seriously, and the funny thing is, you'd think that if we were seeing that much road kill, we would have already been seeing it in the Texas Panhandle or continued to see it in Arkansas -- but we didn't. It was like the animals knew exactly where Oklahoma started and stopped, and they only tried to cross the road there.
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