Back in Minnesota after a trip to Oklahoma and today a "girl fix" with school friend Peggy in North Branch for the usual lunch at the local cafe and talk for 4 hours about all kinds of stuff! The cafe manager took our picture and I told him we were friends for 100 years - he was young and he said "That must be combined right?" Good guy with the right words and that means we only look 50 years old instead of 70 years old - maybe!!!
Back to 4 May in Tulsa OK and a wonderful art deco walk. This land was wealthy with oil money and this was maybe the Waite Phillips building lobby as that means the oil baron of Phillips 66 petroleum. J. Paul Getty also lived in Tulsa as did many other oil barons.
WP on many doors = Waite Phillips. I'm thinking I need DJ in brass on our doors as it gives me the feeling of ownership!
Hmmm - just outside of one of the beautiful buildings and I do love signs! I was just surprised that someone had not removed the TERY off the first word in an act of vandalism
The art deco and the oil boom were in the 1920s and 1930s and this is the old train station. Best thing to see is the beautiful preservation of all this beauty.
Ross is the Real Okie I guess but I've been married to this Real Okie for almost 45 years so maybe I'm half Yank-half Okie?
There was a lot of "street art" similar to what we saw in South America and I must say it is impressive and beautiful.
A part of history that was not visible for a long time were the Greenwood Race Riots of 1921 in Tulsa where many people died, large areas of the city destroyed in about 16 hours. The district was the wealthiest black community in the United States and was known as the "Negro Wall Street". 10,000 blacks were left homeless and 35 city blocks were destroyed. The full report was released by the state in 2001. To get more of the story I would recommend "googling" - very interesting especially for me as a farm girl from Northwestern Minnesota!
Tahlequah - one of the major cities of the Cherokee Nation. We had lunch at the restaurant in the background with Ross' brother and fiance. Interesting street sign.....
Cherokee Prison kitchen. There are several museums in the city but we only had time to see the prison and gallows. The area is home to Five Civilized Tribes - Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (aka Muscogee) and Seminole. In Minnesota we have Ojibwe and Dakota Sioux which are broken down into 11 "communities".
The Jones family cabin at Wauhillau Outing Club which is a private "club" type place and has been around since the early 1900s and Ross' father helped his father build the cabin and Grandpa Pete was born in 1908!
Grandpa Pete (Ross' father) was in the Army and stationed in Nancy France in WWII and was already an attorney so was with the JAG.
Ross and brother Preston looking over Barren Fork Creek which was a little high at this time after the rain deluge.
Ross' mom was quite the artist and did a lot of oil paintings including this one which hangs in the cabin.
I think this is the 70th anniversary of Wauhillau in 1977 and Ross' dad is on the right.
The "clubhouse" where meals are served in season and social activities are encouraged.
Preston and fiance Debbie on one of the Wauhillau bridges - sweet photo!
Muskogee - Honor Heights Park - if only we had our fishing gear with us which of course we do not even own and we are not fisher people.
The cemetery where many generations buried. This is not a family stone but I thought it was quite interesting and I do love cemeteries!
The wife of one of Ross' college roommates visiting the railroad museum - very interesting and well done.
Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame - hard to believe so many famous country stars are from Oklahoma: This is Jimmy Buffett's guitar!
The real reason we ended up in Muskogee was Ross' class of 1960 high school gathering where almost everyone is turning 75 and Ross can gloat because he is one year younger than most! It's fun for me because after all these years of reunions I know quite a few of the "guys" and "gals".
Out of a class of over 400 they always have boards of those who have died and the board keeps getting bigger.
So - next up - 7 days from today we will be on the plane to Scandinavia for a tour - "Ross' trip" as each year we get to pick a trip and the rule is we can't complain about each other's trip - it has worked fantastically for many years!!!
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