OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

July-August 1989 Vol. 39, No. 4

CENTENNIAL SERIES, PART FOUR: FRONTIER LIVING 10 As the settlers who managed to stake claims got down to the gritty business of living, they may have questioned their own luck. By Dr. David Baini OK LAKES: MANNA FOR LANDLOCKED SCUBA DIVERS 20 When divers from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas can't make it to the Caribbean, they travel to the mysterious world waiting here, beneath the water. By Jeanne M. Dmlin, photograhs by David and Jan Coud PORTFOLIO: AN AMISH CARRIAGE MAKER 26 Horsepower and a penchant for tradition keep a Clarita carriage maker going. Photographs by Jim Algo THE CHAMPIONS 32 More than in any other contest, Olympic stars reflect their glory on the folks back home. We caught up with a dozen gold medalists who still call Oklahoma home. By W.K. S~on,photographs by David Kwlrd

Page 22 Page 34 I DEPARTMENTS TODAY IN OKLAHOMA 4 IN SHORT 5 LETTERS 6 OMNIBUS Carry A. Nation, by M. Scott Caaer 7 FOOD Festival Dining, by Barbara Palmer 43 THE WEEKENDER Guest Island Ranch, by Diana Nekon Jona 45 ARTS The Ghost Dance, by Badara Palmer 47 ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR A guide to what's happening 49

COVER: Former Oklahoma State wrestlers Kenny Monday and John Smith both won Olympic gold medals in Seoul and both plan to compete in Olympic Festival '89. Photograph by David Koelsch. Inside hntcover: The Tulsa Philharmonic on the Reynolds Floating Stage on the Arkansas River in Tulsa. Photograph by David Fitzgerald. Back cover: David Terry cames the Olympic Festival Torch near his hometown, Boise City. Photograph by Larry D. Brown.

July-August 1989 ' 3 -ith Oklahoma hosting an of Perry to win in 1932 or three wres- Olympic Festival this July, tlers who now live out of state: Bobby we began wondering what Pearce who won gold in 1932 and Shel- had happened to past by Wilson and Doug Blubaugh, who Olympic greats. U'here are Oklaho- both took home gold medals in 1960. ma's gold medalists and what are they Of course, Jim Thorpe remains doing today? No one, it seems, has Oklahoma's-and perhaps the kept track of yesterday's champions by world's-greatest athlete. Thorpe's state, not even the U.S. Olympic gold medals for winning the pentath- Committee, although it did provide a lon and decathlon in 1912 can be starting list. To answer these questions viewed at the state capitol in Oklaho- took weeks of research, phone calls ma City; his daughter says Thorpe was and letters. Turn to page 32 to read most proud of his track accomplish- about those 12 Olympic gold medalists ments, because he considered them who still call Oklahoma home. true sport, the measure of an Writer W.K. Stratton interviewed individual. each athlete, catching Wayman Tis- hlore than 2.000 runners will share dale on the phone off court in Sacra- the responsibility of carrying the mento and Bart Conner home from Olympic torch through all 77 Oklaho- Hawaii. Photographer David Koelsch n~acounties on its way to the opening ceremonies in Norman on July 21. It all begins on June 18 in Cimarron County at the eastern tip of the Pan- handle; photographer Larry Brown vis- ited Boise City in April to recreate the start of the journey for a photo on our back cover and he was overwhelmed by the town's enthusiasm. Twenty- Zb~rhrunners, r/ockee,issr from top I@: nine people from Cimarron County Ham'man, Loyd, Grq, Jason H~ood, will participate in the torch run. hthrop and Pridb. To prepare for the run, 13-year-old Jennifer Priddy of Boise City says, roamed the state to capture the group "I'm running a '400' every day. Soon on film with assists from Rocky 1'11 start running an '800,' and then 1'11 Widner of Sacramento and Joan Hen- have to practice carrying something be- derson in Austin, Texas. cause the torch will weigh about three Unfortunately, not everyone from pounds." Oklahoma who ever won a gold medal Myron Lathrop, 11, runs 800 yards is included-the criteria didn't allow daily, and plans to carry a sandbag to for former Oklahomans like equestrian build arm strength. His sister, blyr- Charles Anderson, who won a gold anda, will also be a torch-runner. Their medal in 1948 but now lives in Germa- physical education teacher, Linda ny, or figure skater David Wilkinson Loyd, will also run a lap. Oldest of the Jenkins who won a gold medal as an Cin~arron<:ounty runners \r-ill be Dar- Ohioan in 1960, but who has been a lene Harriman. 59, who plays volley- Tulsan for 20 years. ball and lifts weights. So far as we can Our criteria let us include four wres- tell, there's not a couch potato in the tlers, but it didn't allow for the likes of lot. the late Jack VanBebber who came out continued on page 6

Oklahoma 'TODAY + I - a - A Blockbuster Quilt Show Oklahoma-bound settlers the classes and lectures that will brought precious few possessions accompany it, send a self-addressed, with them, but most managed to stamped envelope to: P.O. Box bring at least one item prized above 23916, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1, all for its beauty. More often than 73123. 1, not, says Jane Hamden, a member of the Central Oklahoma Quilters Elbow Grease Award Guild, that item was a quilt. In the early 1970s, Guthrie On August 10-13, the guild will woke up and realized it had umpteen sponsor a 500-quilt show in historic buildings within its city Oklahoma City. The stars of the limits that either had to go or be show are likely to be 50 quilts gussied up. "The more we looked uncovered during a two-year at it we realized about the only thing & the town had to sell was its history 3 and architecture," recalls Don "2 9 of the Logan County Historical P Society. "We couldn't tear them down. We had to fix them." A Royal Contest Bit by bit the town, which sits For 364 days each year, the size just off Interstate 35 in north central of the sandy shores of the Arkansas Oklahoma, reclaimed its historic River in Tulsa depends on the legacy. Now 1,400 acres and 400 city volume of water released upstream at blocks of saloons, hotels (now the Lake Keystone dam. bed-and-breakfasts), bordellos (no But on July 22, the flow of longer in use), homes and water is put entirely on hold. Banks, vaudeville houses glow with fresh bars and islands of sand rise to the paint and polished red brick. surface. Armed with buckets and "Each of the 2,169 homes has been shovels, people plow down the personally looked at," says sides of the riverbed with blueprints Coffin. for castles, dragons and other The work hasn't gone sandy creations in mind. unnoticed. What draws them is the annual In 1988, the historical society's River Parks Sand Castle Contest. In Maude &aman, with '89er quilt and efforts won a National Preservation its 14th year, it's grown to include guild member Pam Woolbn'g/rt. Honor Award from the National concessions and entertainment. Five Trust for Historic Preservation; the thousand people are expected chis town has become a center for year; 350 of them as contestants. For quest for the state's heirloom quilts. regional tourism, and the Guthrie Guild members put out a call more information, call Historic District is now listed as (918) 582- 0051. for quilts brought to or made in one of the nation's largest in Oklahoma before 1940 and spread the National Register of out across the state, registering and Historic Places. photographing more than 4,000 of Coffin sees no end in them. 'The tip of the iceberg," says sight for the preservation Harnden. Along with every quilt, project, either. "This there was a story. The guild collected kind of thing never gets those, too. done," he says. His Color photographs of a select next goal: To strip the A group of 200 quilts will appear in the asphalt off city streets guild's book Oklahoma Heritage revealing their original Quilts, along with pictures of their brick facade. For details makers, when available, and with call (405) 282-1947. their histories. The book will debut at the show, "A Celebration of Quilts," at Don Coffin, in the heart 1 the Lincoln Plaza in OKC. For of he Cuhni Historic information about the show, or about &hict.

July-August 1989 continued from page 4 clean air. Your motto should be: Don't 100th anniversary celebration, is it not Historian Dr. David Baird continues Overlook Oklahoma. only a time to remember but a time to the Centennial series with an article on look toward the future of Oklahoma? the lifestyle of the settlers during the Mary Longley Territorial Period. "Tell us all about Toledo, Ohio J.S. Allen-Thompson the box suppers, square dances and Ringling fun things the settlers did in those first The first issue that we had seen of years after the Run," we requested. ORIahoma TODAY was the May-June Let me first compliment you and all This was a tough task, Baird says, 1986 issue that featured Osage Coun- the staff of ORLa/roma TODAY for a because life for rural settlers was any- ty. We bought a dozen copies. We magazine that all Oklahomans can be thing but "fun" during those first 10 have two copies left. We keep them on proud...It does bother me to some ex- drought-filled years. His story, on page our coffee table so we can show our tent that the media in Oklahoma is 10, is a bittersweet tale of life on the friends and neighbors where we came making a great effort to present the prairie, through the words of those from. The photography was the most 1889 run as fie run and all of Oklahoma who lived it. beautiful that has ever been published history revolves around this single The lifestyle of the Amish in south- of the gorgeous Osage. event. I am sure Governor Bellmon, We visit Oklahoma twice each year. eastem Oklahoma may be closer to being an old "stripper" would not that of the early homesteaders than Both of our mothers still maintain agree. Be that as it may, we can all be Oklahoma's present urban dwellers. homes in Pawhuska. Some of our fam- proud of our heritage and this is their Photographer Jim Argo made four trips ilies were in Oklahoma from the dawn year. to the small town of Clarita for his of history. Others came with the open- Our Cherokee Strip Centennial portfolio on an Amish carriage maker. ing of Indian Territory. All of our par- Committee is already making plans for ents were born in the territory. Some Traditionally, the Amish shy away our 1993 celebration. We do antici- from cameras, but Argo convinced Ver- uncles made the Run of '89, but the pate, of course, "equal time" by the non Miller that his photos on page 26 one that really counts with us is the state media to showcase an equally ex- Run of '93. One father was born on a would concentrate on the buggymak- citing time in state history. ing, not the man. claim out in the "Strip" in a sod house. One mother was born at the same lati- Dr. John C. Ogle Managing Editor Jeanne Devlin Enid tude in a log cabin in the Osage. We visited Lake Tenkiller and Broken feel that we are the last generation to Bow Lake to research her story on I am writing to thank you for a beau- touch those stalwart pioneers. scuba diving. "Diving is an up-and- tiful magazine. Being at sea on a ship We think that Oklahoma is one oi coming water sport in Oklahoma," says makes not being home even harder. the best-kept secrets of our nation. Devlin. "In the heat of summer you But your magazine constantly reminds However, with really first-class publi- can see 25 feet in some Oklahoma me of home and its ever-changing cations like yours, no doubt the secret lakes." ways. I just received the anniversary will get out. With this issue, we also begin a new issue-fantastic! department, on page 5, that will allow Ruth Burns D. Holbrook us to alert readers to the unusual, peo- Fallbrook, California Miami, Florida ple, places, accolades and doings about the state. If something's happening in While traveling through the south and your town or someone's achieved na- southeast of this, my birth state, I have NEXT ISSUE: After the sultry heat of August, Oklahomans are usually more tional prominence and you think our photographed one or two of the nu- than ready to climb out of the shade and readers ought to know, write us about merous old homesites to be found. get on with living. For those ready for it. In short, we'd like to hear from Something about these crumbling the glory of autumn, we'll have a story you. -Sue Carter monuments pulls at my heart. Theirs on the best scenic drives in eastern is a testimony to days not so long gone. Oklahoma. History buffs will also find I find myself wondering about the peo- the fifth part of our Centennial Series. LETTERS ple who built these homes-about Our fall portfolio will capture the foliage their coming to this territory with little you could see if you were to travel Visited Oklahoma recently--our more than a hope for a better life and a across the state, border to border. We'll daughter and family live in Vinita. simple faith in honest, hard work. also take you to a chili cook-off in Cache Green Country is beautiful. We loved Does that same faith and hope live and a folklife festival in Oklahoma City-all in the September-October i: the countryside, the lakes, the pictur- on in the lives of men and women of esque towns, unbelievable sunsets and Oklahoma today? In this year of our

Oklahoma TODAY Carry A. Nation The Qzleen of TernGranance Leaues Her Mark on Gzlthrie.

By M. Scott Carter

t was 1902 when she first at the time-when Mrs. Carry visited "royal" treatment from the entire amved. Stepping off the train Guthrie. She was a nice woman. I re- family. platform, the woman adjusted member sitting on her lap while she Strangely, though Nation claimed to I her plain, black bonnet as talked to my grandparents and my have had visions as a child (among rust-colored dirt swirled around the aunt." them that she was Joan of Arc) folks hem of her dark, simple dress. There were two sides to Nation, one considered her perfectly sane. Most The country's most famous prohibi- a fire-breathing reformer, the other a could even empathize with her hatred tionist was finally in Guthrie, the capi- of alcohol, seeing as how it destroyed tal city of a new territory and of what 3 her first marriage to an alcoholic doctor would some day be a new state. Al- E' named Charles Gloyds. ready, Carry Amelia Nation knew if f In 1877, she met David Nation and she had anything to do with it, it married him a short time later. Al- i would be a new, dry state. g though the marriage lasted 24 years, it .% was a failure from the beginning and Gathering her satchel, which con- z tained, among other things, various sW eventually ended in divorce. pamphlets on the evils of liquor, a Bi- % It was before she moved to Guthrie ble and a few aging copies of her news- 3 that Nation changed the spelling of her paper, Tlre Smashen Mail, Nation set 3 name and became obsessed with the 2 off eastward towards town. Since her a notion that God had commanded her reputation for violence in Kansas sa- 8 to "Carry A. Nation" from the depths loons and tolerance for minorities had of sin and to destroy all the alcohol in miffed the local chapter of the Wom- the western hemisphere. en's Christian Temperance Union, no Nation sou souvenir hatchets to fund her Nation had her heart set on reform- anb-liquor neeerrpaper and rrpeeda. one was at the train station to greet ing Guthrie. The town, however, was her. blissfully unaware of her intentions. The local hotels she found in town kindly woman who helped the poor Maybe that's why the first year in were too costly, so Nation spent her and homeless. Some speculate that Oklahoma for the woman one Kansas first night in Guthrie in the home of a Nation's extremes in temperament newspaper described as a "human tor- kindly pair of black grandparents. The may have been rooted in an unhappy nado " was uneventful. Faced with family, conveniently, lived close to the childhood and heightened by two dis- poor attendance at her lectures and an railroad, which guaranteed a quick get- appointing marriages. even poorer pocketbook, Nation was away in case Nation was abruptly Born Nov. 24, 1846 into a family of in Guthrie for only a year before she asked to leave. oddities, Carrie Amelia Nation (she retreated to Washington, D.C., where Lavona Brown, befriended as a would change the spelling of her name she lobbied for prohibition and hound- small girl by Nation, hasn't forgotten as an adult) spent her youth with an ed lawmakers. the woman her grandparents took in. aunt who thought she was a weather- Anyone who knew her should have "I remember her quite well," the 90- vane, a middle-aged cousin who trav- known she'd be back. year-old Guthrie woman says. "I was eled on his hands and knees and a And return she did in 1904, like an staying with my grandparents and my mother who, under the delusion that Oklahoma wind, blowing and billow- aunt-they all lived in the same house she was Queen Victoria, demanded ing and bringing her thunderhead style

July-August 1989 of debate to an otherwise calm Oklaho- Weinberg-assumed she planned to Sensing an increasingly hostile cli- ma plain. This time Nation was pre- level the place and a riot threatened to mate, Nation decided, for the second pared to stay awhile. break out. As the crowd ran for cover, time, to pack her bags. Locking the Compared with her Kansas-saloon- Weinberg ended Nation's speaking en- doors on her mission and uprooting her smashing days, Nation's tenure in gagement and ushered her out the newspaper, she left Guthrie late in Oklahoma was tame-though, only in door. 1906 again for Washington, D.C. the physical sense. While she didn't Within minutes, word spread that But Carry Nation was not finished wreck any of Guthrie's then 32 sa- Nation had performed "hatchetation," with Guthrie. Periodically over the loons, she did almost as much damage (her word for total, single-handed de- next four years she would return, al- verbally and by publishing a second struction) on the Same Old Moses Sa- ways waging her war against alcohol, newspaper, 7Ae Hatchet. loon. Hundreds flocked to the bar to tobacco and those who crossed her. In IAe Hatchet, she berated almost see the damage. According to one account, she often every politician in the country includ- Realizing that he had launched the enraged newspaper editors by forceful- ing the Territorial Governor Thomp- most successful public relations cam- ly removing their cigars and in one son Ferguson for allowing saloons near paign of his career, Weinberg proceed- instance, an editor was so offended by the campus of Oklahoma A&M. ed to capitalize on it. He organized a Nation plucking his cigar from his Remembered as an above average tour, complete with drinks, so that mouth he came close to punching her writer, Nation's strongest asset, actual- folks could see the small dent Nation in the nose. Nation's reasoning was ly, was oratory and her ability to draw a had made with her hatchet. Copying that "it was impolite to smoke and crowd. She wasn't above using a little an earlier sign posted in Kansas, the dangerous to their health. It dulls the showmanship when the situation war- saloonkeeper posted the notice, "All brain and makes them smell bad." ranted, either. Nations Welcomed Except Carry" Nation lumped prostitutes and One of her most famous Guthrie above his door. women who wore dresses above the exploits was at one of the town's most Business flourished. Nation, too, knee together, too; neither escaped notorious saloons, owned by Mose found the fracas beneficial. the fury of her pen. Such verbal at- Weinberg, a resourceful scoundrel who Without destroying anything she tacks often backfired. After referring to believed there was no such thing as had injected new vigor into her cam- one cadre of loose women as "harlots bad publicity, nor anything that made paign, while also bypassing the usual from hell" and attempting to close the a cash register ring better. Weinberg mess of bruises and arrests that normal- saloon that housed them, Nation was invited the "Loving Home Defender" ly followed one of her appearances. It almost stoned to death in Enterprise, to preach about the sin of booze in his was to be one of the few successes Kansas, when the group turned into a establishment. Not wanting to pass up Nation would have in Gu thrie, brick-throwing band. the chance--or the crowd, Nation however. Sometimes it seemed as if no one accepted. An attempt to start a mission for could pass muster with the temperance On the appointed day, she ascended indigents failed because of her strict queen. Nation even lectured mothers a chair in the bar. Shouting and stomp- rules and poor financing. Her problems on the evils of dressing their daughters ing, Nation bellowed against alcohol, mounted. in "short dresses, frilly ribbons, and tobacco, fornication, members of the During a three-day prohibition con- embroidered underwearw-all of Masonic Lodge and Teddy Roosevelt, ference at a local church, the next which, she said, posed a dangerously who she maintained was attempting to year, Nation ran off more people than "exposed condition" and the risk that keep Oklahoma from joining the she converted. While speaking, a black the girl might become a harlot. Union. man entered the conference and was But, right or wrong, she did help to For a few minutes the audience was abruptly told by someone else to leave. drag the country into an era of prohibi- rapt. Soon, however, much of the A radical at that time as far as race tion. Genuinely devoted to her cause, crowd was making for the exit. relations were concerned, Nation she did not live to see alcotiol out- But Nation had not returned to asked those in the crowd, "who didn't lawed, but Carry A. Nation did let the Guthrie to look at people's backs. want their brother there" to leave. country-actually, the world-know Quickly, she increased the venom in The room emptied and the coun- just where she stood on the issue. her attack and, in a final, inspired mo- try's most rabid prohibitionist found ment, ended her sermon bi bringing the church doors slammed behind her. .> .-I I her hatchet down hard on weinberg's Later, she attempted to rent the local M. Scott Carter is a staf writer and new cherrywood bar. opera house, only to be told+ven photographer for heSti/water NmsPras. The resulting "thump" had the de- though it was vacant at the time-that 7Ais is his jint artic/efor Oklahoma sired effect. People-among them the building was "not available." TODAY.

- - 8 Oklahoma TODAY tion of the Centennial of the Land Run of 1889with your friends and family by taking advantage of this special selec- tion of the Centennial souvenirs selected

Every mahornanshrwkl flythe st&efiagduring 19Lt9. In 190% nylon, thg 3' by 5' flag is$373plus $1.50 fOT

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obsessed rural homesteaders as much as finding fuel. More times than not the first well on a claim produced "gyp water," a sour and sickly-tasting liquid that did violence to one's intestines. In those cases, the family drank water captured in a cistern or hauled from to rise in the wrong direction. miles away. "Almost every two days," recalled an early settler, "we had to go four miles for our water'' transporting it home in "barrels, kegs and jugs." On a homestead near Altus, Mary Ann Box and her family had to carry it did one. water too. They had purchased a claim with a "good" well, or so they were told, only to discover it was actually a dry hole filled with water from another source. When they found adequate water, it was at the bottom of a hole 45 feet deep that took three weeks to dig by hand. The Sidney Laune family near Woodward also located "sweet water" but with the help of a divining rod. That skeptics doubted a stick could find soft water never disturbed Mrs. Laune. "I just don't argue about miracles," she said. With fuel and water secured, Okla- homa's first families turned to making their homes functional. "We hshioned tables, chairs and cupboards from dry goods boxes," recalled Sarah Forsythe, who lived on a claim near Edmond, "and made our bed from peeled poles." Her husband even whittled hands after handling the patties. forks and spoons and built a stove out of logs covered with thick mud, which vented to a smoke hole cut in the

Homesteaders more prosperous than the Forsythes had factory-made fumi- ture. Lincoln Carlisle of Major County brought the family organ to this new land, but the house was so small he had to keep it outside, "except when it

As soon as possible, usually L the first spring after settlement, b quarter-section homesteaders planted a crop, generally of corn, wheat or cotton. It wasn't an easy task, iven virgin soil and poor tools. The N.J. Brown family

Oklahoma TODAY from near Altus, planted its first crop $ by hand, dropping corn seed into a $ hole punched into the sod by a stick. An Anadarko family had a walking g plow, but gained little advantage since it was pulled by an "old blind horse." a 6 Women as Farmers '3 As husbands returned to Kansas or Texas to find work to pay for improve- g ments, wives were left holding the 5 claim. Many women prepared the ground and planted that first crop in 2 Oklahoma soil. According to Sarah Le- Force of Kay County, it was often more a melancholy than heroic undertaking: "I hitched up four horses after he left, hitched them to the drill, put seed Wha traveling photographe passed by, fami/ia wouM sometima go without so thy could wheat in the and started driving halJIkrpicture taken. T?J~mtendedfami/y shows off.chetished possasions, like hsejddla. the wheat. I didn't go but a few steps till I stopped the horses and leaned my head over and cried; then after a few "we lived almost eight months on tur- propriated $50,000 in funds to relieve moments I decided to try again. I went nips and cornbread. We could not af- the suffering among Oklahoma's first a little way and stopped again and ford to buy coffee so we drank the hot families. The Rock Island and Santa cried some more and I did that way for broth off the turnips." No wonder that Fe railroads furnished wheat seed at some time until finally I just took a big James K. Hastings from near Orlando cost. Few, according to historian Bob- bawl and when I got over that I never called the winter of 1890-91 the "Tur- by Johnson, took the aid without hu- did stop to cry any more and in three nip Winter." Elsewhere in the territo- miliation. And those who did forever days time I had twenty-five acres of ry, kaffir corn--either boiled or served wore a mental badge of shame. The wheat drilled." as a pancake-substituted for turnips. wheat crop of 1897, however, was Often the best efforts of both female Under such conditions, homesteaders abundant and, selling for as much as and male homesteaders were in vain. hung on and: $1.10 per bushel, brought for the first Throughout the 1890s, the territory "... gathered chips to make their time some real prosperity to the New experienced periodic droughts with fires. Land. Settlers built better houses and searing temperatures and high winds. ... gathered bones to keep from barns, took title to their property, Crops prayerfully planted yielded starving. which they then mortgaged to improve nothing. Helen C. Candee, a contem- ... gathered their courage to keep their holdings. By 1898, the hardship porary journalist who toured the New from leaving." years had passed for many. Land in the early territorial era, con- At such time no food was ever wast- But the memories of Oklahoma's cluded it was essentially a domain of ed. The late Oklahoma historian Angie turnip years lingered as bad memories poverty where people were drawn to- Debo once recalled that as a child in are wont to do. Adjusting to the toma- gether by the "freemasonry" of hard Marshall she spilled coal oil onto a sack do-like winds was difficult, particularly times. Anzonetta Friedley, southeast of flour. The entire sack took on the killer storms like the one that leveled of Kingfisher, understood more about flavor of the oil, but the flour was not Chandler in 1897. Kittie Harvey re- hard times than freemasonry. For six thrown away. Late in life she still re- membered, "First came the hail, then weeks her family was "out of money, called the coal oil-tasting gravy and wind, and then torrents of rain. Every- out of feed" and "living on bread and pancakes she ate that year. She also thing was black and terrible." It was milk." told about a pioneer's dog that jumped barely worse than the Christmas Day The nature of the diet often re- into a barrel of molasses. "I don't guess blizzard near Dill City that blew the vealed the hardship of pioneer life. it hurt the molasses in the barrel," said axe of Emma Brown's husband "right Mary Elizabeth Nave, who with her the owner. "All that touched her (the out of his hands." husband took up a claim near Edmond dog) is still sticking to her." Varmints were just as troublesome. in 1890, remembered that early on In September, 1890, Congress ap- George Friedlev turned up 16 rattle-

July-August 1989 13 loneliness at times actually lost their sanity-some to the point of violence. One hot summer night near Woodward a mother of two took her pallet out into the yard to try to find cooler air. The next morning her husband found her "lying quiet and cold in a welter of blood. She had cut her throat." In Kay County in 1894, a blizzard left rural areas as isolated and cold as a tundra. When the snow cleared, rescuers found seven bodies of one family. A suicide note explained that the father had killed them all to put an end to their suffering. Children were often an antidote to loneliness, but raising them strained Chud services wmfirst heM in soddies or at he ssc/roo/house. Some se&n werz devout, both emotions and resources. Women histotian Angie Debo wmte, "more were pmfane, disorder-& consciously sinful." assumed primary responsibility for day- to-day care of children. They watched snakes in the initial plowing of his ized-a relief for some, a disappoint- and nursed them as babies, even while Kingfisher County claim, and Mrs. ment for others who had come to they worked in the field. Anzonetta Brown awoke to find one coiled near Oklahoma Territory looking for adven- Friedley, for example, placed her new- her bed "sticking its tongue out at ture as much as a new home. Indians, born on a plank lashed to the horse- me." Packrats so overran the house of themselves, were quite aware of the drawn plow she used to break land for Mrs. Albert Ellis in Garfield County situation and weren't above treating planting. Bettie Monahan even did her that she put her baby chicks in the homesteaders to a bit of tribal humor. chores "with a gun in one hand ... , a oven at night to protect them. Woods Mrs. N. J. Brown recorded an ex- baby in mv arms, (and other children) County homesteader Orvoe Swartz ample: holding to my apron." found bed bugs, or "blood raiders," "The chief came up to me, saying The reality of frontier living meant the greatest of all trials. "The day- something which I did not understand, that women taught young children to hiding and night-gnawing" pests, he but from his gesture I knew that he perforn~ household tasks. Still these recalled, drove the pioneers "to fren- had asked for the baby. I drew back in women were also mothers, and they zied distraction and premeditated mur- fear and shouted, 'No!' The Indian nursed their darlings when they were der," as they alternately treated their threw back his head and laughed sick, too. Fear, had they allowed it, beds and bedding with scalding water heartily and left." could easily have been a mother's con- or bonfires. Most early homesteaders were as stant companion. The trials of Mrs. Watson and her fascinated with the Native Americans Doctors, explained Betty Freeman, children were actually life threatening. as the Native Americans were with were available, "but the roads were too One evening while her husband was them. And many, like J.L. Gilliland of bad and money too scarce to call away a pack of wolves charged through Washita County, regularly attended (them) very often." Mothers cured, the quilt door of the dugout. She and tribal dances and celebrations. therefore, with prayer and home reme- the children fought the wolves off with If Indian attacks never materialized, dies. Supposedly lard and egg whites a poker and a log from the fire, but not loneliness did. Often neighbors were soothed burns, and coal oil and laundry before the baby was bitten on the leg. not all that far away, but separation bluing healed spider bites. A child suf- Not far from Elk City, Bettie Monahan from family and friends and the natural fering from "fits" could be cured by had a different problem-mountain li- isolation of rural life opened home- putting his feet into the open body of a ons. For five years she hung a lantern steaders to a loneliness that left them freshly killed chicken. A snakebite in her dugout door every night to keep rather blue at the least, and deeply was best treated by killing the snake, them out. depressed at worst. A unique environ- cutting it open and applying the warm

ment of unending grass, unbroken sky flesh to the wound. I An Absence Of Indian Raids and unremitting wind only compound- "Children were streaks of joy in an Early on, many homesteaders feared ed the problem. otherwise tedious existence," con- Indian attacks. None ever material- Those most severely affected by cludes historian Kris Newcomer. But

Oklahoma TODAY ovemb on the nd her uncy, where 4.(hO homesteads still needed settlers. Her hus- d drox-e the feisty. young team of mules. Annie tended to

-\nn~e\lcCubb~ns d~dn'tkeep a d~anof the journel. she \auld later tell her ch~ldren,but the details of the trip neler for her. F~fnvedrs later, at the age of 72, she ?at down and ut them on paper Readlng her aords, sdvs her son, Sld, vho II Ines In Oklahoma Cln, "It 1s hard to belleve that she only d a selench grade education." \nn~e\lcCubblns Ined to be 87: she d~edIn 1962. This IS from her ston: i "Papa und I and mo rhildrpn le~?Fannin coun~,7iI.~uCIr, .for Greer dnnie ,ilKubbzns and her family outstde thetr Grerr Cour~ndrqo~rt. rmp. Oklahornrt 71.rrto9, to homrstead land arrorttpanied some '14s the )#earspassed, we prospered slor~(11." otir neighbors. 11 P only trrr;,elrd 3 rni1r.r a c/q so we wouldn't tirr 41- teams too mud. 112 .rere thi~reendut15 in geffing there; h(zdprem had to (nrnl Clarmcr and zhen I put httn doz n he tanred to rlrttzb on mther all the ,vay. but thmight we got to .Ilangutn it rarne o .Yorther. my roffon rack and ndr rt, so that ddn't /act long." -\nn~ewrote. P stg~edin the .rugon yczrtl,th(zt night. Ilh hod hem ramping- out all the \r nh. '7 rouldn't ctand up to IT, co I dertdrd to /rae the ~htldrfn q.rooking our tneitIr on a ramp fire. wometi .z>a.chingclirtpen crq hotnr I uould hide the matrhrs, thq d~l/t~'ttier-rj a fire It =as up to Relta m take rare of Bonn~eand Cla~rrrrr" 'l'he group dro1.e 35 miles deeper into Oklahoma 'I'erritory, to It dl! merit pretn7 well. untd one e\enlng \\hen innle nds / the Delhi Flats: there the!- found promising soil. 'I'he others I coming home she heard all of them c~ing.Yplon1iirdtnyr/f/7gh/ I staked claims, rode to \lanpum to file and then returned to I thrrr I .a,ould not Ieme them g~ain,"- she wrote. 'li2err I ,cot hottie T'euds to u ork and n alt out Inter. "So done, Papa arid I a en/ to nothmng Ear wrong but the)' .ladrrrd/ed urrr/er the fptlre Into the tteldmnd our clartn. " -\nn~enrote. '11P found a roriple of dqorrts near orir rotne rowr rurne up on the outszde and Bonnre and Clarence zerr cnr~?;. clairn and tnored in. I was huppr. not realizitig the hartirhip~ahead.,~ to go to dehouse. Belca was holding thun back. tying to keep thrt~~.frottr Zone of the chores could be ignored, and Papa used his goit~gand .rhe was alro rqing. She was afrairl' qf the mttlr. .rhich she ingenui~on them all. He broke wild horses to ride for $5 a should hr~ebeen." piece. cleaned old wells and repaired windmills. Somehow the years managed ro go by. "li P prospered s/o-z/~." \\hen Papa ~vasn't\\.orking for someone else he worked for his ..innie wrote. ''Our c/othes wore out and I got do-zn to tto drexsex ... farnil!-, turning sod, getting out posts and fencing his land with Papa hr/d on(7 one pair of trou.cers and thq were fro patch^^‘ deep. I secondhand wire he bought from the cattlemen. "Ourfirstj8eur'.r rnatfe his shim rind all our undemear out ?ffloursads. Rut. .zith ON crop ca.i Kciffir Cot71 (25 (4rres/," Annie wrote. 'Yap(/plnnted it u.r this I wa.r happy and not a bit disrourugec/." hr tz~rnetfthr -sod . . . He Inad hitn.se/f a linle planter out of a bucket .with Times did get easier, Annie reported. After their claim n-as N lid on it (znd ho1e.r aro~ndthe r&e at the bottom made with a nail. Hr proved up, the couple borrowed money against the land to build tnfJdt N belt out ?f a piece ?f sire nndfi.~er/up u /irt/e u~ieelthclt wus a new house 'kaN painted pink and bordered it1 chire. I fplr rirh. " atr~~chedto the plow. .4s the pl~wmor.ed it could turn the wheel utzd the "But still. "she wrote, '7wasn't as thrilled as vhen we got our tint 'i'.i~~turneci the bucket and the see(/ wo~~ld.fullorit of the liffleholes. " dugour built and moced in it ontigot us a table built to eat on. IlP ate 7'he 1lcCubbins' first drinking water came from a little draw off the ltd qf our rhurk box met since we I& hnnh corm^. 720.~duyx n-here the rain water would fill the deepest holes-sweet water will ne'er be fotgotte?l jf I live to be /OJ yars old ..." before the range cattle got to it, which they always did. \\hen 'The 3lcCubbins lived on their claim for eight years-five in the water played out. Annie hauled wrater in barrels from an old the dugout and three in the pink house. where nvo more daugh- tiothitig but our cogon of land that vas worth

08, her belo~rdhus- leaving her with six $erotiM and to join him later in the

July-August 1989 15 they were also a source of sorrow, es- ' this is the greatest of all." Oklahomans survived the turnip years. pecially if they died prematurely. Nothing captures the terror of pio- They did so in part because of a strong Charles Hazelrigg, a Christian Church neering quite like a picture of a dead religious faith that produced both fer- minister in Logan County, reflected child in its coffin with parents and sib- vent prayers and church attendance, as that grief as he wrote in his journal lings seated or standing nearby. It con- well as an honest concern for others. It about the death of his own 11-year-old firms the poignant observation of Mrs. was, in other words, faith put into son in 1891: Thomas B. Ferguson of Watonga that, action. "On last Monday morning just after "A part of the richness of this Oklaho- The mother of a daughter with ty- sunrise the spirit of our darling Paul ma soil must be derived from the phoid fever, for example, prayed, "on took its flight to Heavenly climes. Oh, sweet bodies of our babies who lie my knees until sunrise and ... when I how hard it was to give him up, but we buried there." got up my little girl was well." Preach- have to bow to the will of Him who ing was in such demand that Hazelrigg always knows best. We have passed Still They Persevered often spoke twice on the same day. through trials and have had sorrows but Whatever the burdens, territorial His protracted Christian Church meet- DRESSING THE PART 1 Gilding Guthrie's Lilies insurance companies, Thomas learned gay in the Gay Nineties) colored fabric that there was an abundance of early- in brilliant shades of blue and fuchsia, day milliners and seamstresses in Guth- and also in more elegant and richer hues rie. Other research revealed it was of burgundy and gold. Dresses were common for wealthy families to have a trimmed with yards and yards of lace, live-in seamstress, if not full time, then ruching and mmes: the wealthier the for a few key months each year. wearer, the more trim. "The clothes were very seasonal," Guthrie ladies followed stringent says Thomas. It just wouldn't do for a rules of etiquette that governed which Guthrie lady to appear in last year's fabrics and styles could be worn for styles. "They really competed to have which function and resulted in exten- the latest fashions." sive wardrobes of morning dresses, din- Guthrie women monitored trends by ner dresses, walking suits, tea frocks and ball gowns (always with a train). E@nee," wit% copies of Some economies were practiced, such published in Tulsa, Indian Territory. as removable fronts that could change a Imported fashions were available to dress from a high-necked, afternoon dress to a low-necked, evening dress. Early Guthrie was a patriarchal soci- ety with rigid class lines that followed citizens even to the grave, Thomas said. She recalled an afternoon spent inter- viewing an elderly woman who was de- scended from one of Guthrie's foremost early families. While driving through the town cemetery, Thomas recalled the name of another Guthrie family, not so socially prominent, and wondered aloud whether she would see any of the family's tombstones. "Oh no," the woman sniffed. Only the best families, she informed Thomas, were buried in sight of the road.

16 Oklahoma TODAY ings extended for more than a week, in tnese wee~lyinter-denominational the faithful met in whatever Duilalng supported by other denominations that study, song and prayer sessions. The was available. Frequently two or more suspended their own services so their faithful sang Beulah Land while skep- denominations would meet at a single members could hear Hazelrigg. Dover tics-and every community had at school house. When a congregation be- community residents helped Parson least one-asked, "Where did Cain came prosperous, most built their own Barnard bury a neighbor's wife and get his wife?" Sunday Schools at first church. The largest fellowships were raise his own cabin, acts of kindness met out of doors in the shade of trees; those of the Baptists, Christians, and concern that he described as when the community constructed a Methodists and Presbyterians. But "neighborly neighboring." school building, it always moved Mormons, Catholics and Lutherans As settlers began to organize, their inside. also had widespread memberships. efforts usually led to a Union Sunday Territorial churchesas opposed to Many of the bright moments of pio- School. Whatever their religious per- Union Sunday Schools-were orga- neer life were associated with the local suasion, "everybody," recalled Sarah nized as soon as a particular denomina- literary society. These remarkable or- LeForce, "turned out and took a part" tion's membership justified it. At first ganizations represented the pioneers'

and patience; she needed a good 10 wear. yards of material to make a dress. Many homesteaders earned extra Victorian standards insisted a woman money by picking up buffalo and cattle be covered from her chin down to her bones to sell to fertilizer manufacturers; toes, while life in the territory dictated women sold butter, eggs and chickens. she climb into wagons, chase chickens Profits went for such staples as coffee, and work in the fields. "Her dress had sugar, yard goods and shoes, which to be functional," says Dr. Lynne Rich- were particularly near and dear to set- ards, an associate professor at Oklahoma tlers, Richards says. - Barbara Ann Muref demonrtra~pion State University in Stillwater, who is Most children received one new pair ' researching domestic life in Oklahoma of shoes a year. If they were careless know-hm>as she rurdr rotton I from 1850 to the late 1930s. "Most of with them or outgrew them during cold Stillwater fami. that material went into the skirt." weather, however, they wrapped rags The majority of women had one good around their feet to keep them warm. Women also spun cotton thread dress and one or two housedresses, vir- Cotton was one of the first cash crops make extraslittle touches that could tually all made from calico, which sold in the territory and most families kept brighten life on the prairie. A standard for 5 to 10 cents a yard at the local back a little for their own use, says decoration in a soddy or a dugout was a general store, Richards says. ("The 'lo- Barbara Ann Muret, a weaver and de- table covered with oilcloth and then cal' store could very well be a day signer who presides over a sheep farm topped with a doily. Women crocheted away.") and yam-andclothing shop near Stillwa- shawls to wear with their good dresses Most dresses were made without the ter. Some families brought spinning and crocheted curtains to hang over the benefit of paper patterns and were wheels with them during the Land Run windows. "That was a basic ground rule hand-sewn because sewing machines and used them to make yarn and thread in accepting marriage proposals," hluret were scarce. Though the railroads from carded cotton. Even though ma- says. "You had to get glass windows." brought a weaith of goods into the tem- chine-made items were available, wom- Overall, Richards says, in rural areas tory, settlers first used what little money en saved precious cash by making folks didn't wony about "keeping up they had to buy lumber and farm equip- them. with the Joneses " because the Joneses ment. If clothing was mail-ordered, it Socks, gloves and dishcloths were were likely to have very little. was likely to be for the males in the commonly knitted from cotton yam. "There was a basic level of not hav- family, whose wardrobes were just as "They went through a lot of gloves" ing anything. So it was very democrat- scanty as their wives. Richards read an I picking cotton, Muret says. ic." -Barbara Palmer

-- / July-*ugua ,989 i7 singular efforts to maintain the cultural Now you're born songs which, "shoak the one-room continuum that they believed linked Now you swing! schoolhouse rafters .. . , blending with civilization with the frontier. Like the Panthm scream the roaring of the red-bellied heating more famous Chautauquas, "literaries" Bobcats squall stove and the sad, distant tingle of met once a week during the winter House cat jumps harness." The tunes they sang were months. T/lroud a hole in the wall. nameless and of unknown origin: "I Members recited and sang as well as Eat ice cream married me a wife in the month of played music on violin, banjo or guitar. Drink soda water; June ... I took her home by the light of A spirited debate followed the enter- Some old man the moon" were the partial lyrics of tainment on such topics as, "Resolved, Gonna lose his dau$ter. one. Frequently, church members that the invention of modern machin- Ladies lead off gathered on Saturday evening to make ery has been a detriment to the work- In the cowbq sole; candy and to practice the songs to be ing man" or "Resolved, that the horse Stop and rope one sung in the worship service the follow- is more useful to man than the cow." Every litrle while. ing morning. Singing, in short, elevat- The Anadarko Philomathic Club, a Same OP boys ed the spirit and softened the trials of noted literary group, met regularly in An' the same of nail; homesteading. 1901 for a slightly different purpose- An' watch the same of possum By 1900 rural life in territorial Okla- to study Caesar. Wak the same oP rail. homa was no more of a hardship than A meeting of the literary society was Walk the Hwklebbeny shuffle elsewhere in the United States. One or only one way to relieve the hardships And Chinese cling; two good crops had relieved poverty and isolation of rural life. Any holiday, Elbow &kt and and provided creature comforts. An ex- especially Thanksgiving, Christmas 7Ze graptwine mirzg! panded railroad gave both rural and and the Fourth of July, or an election Swing your partnen one and a//, town residents access to the market- day offered other opportunities. Okla- Swing that b4 in he decked shawl, place. Rural postal and, later, tele- homa's first families used them as oc- &ts, hand in yourpockets, back to he phone services mitigated any sense of casions for community picnics, box wall, isolation. Accordingly, most remem- suppers, ice cream socials, horse rac- Take a chaw of tedacker and balance bered less the terrors of homesteading ing, fish fries and baseball games. Coy- all. than its pleasures. ote drives were also major social Quit that hugging, ain't you a-shamed, Anne Hutton, for example, forgot occasions, as were meetings of the Promenade, Oh Promenade! the loneliness and depression she had Farmer's Union, Anti-Horse Thief As- experienced on the family claim near sociation and fraternal societies. In some districts, church leaders Frederick. What was really important, frowned upon dancing. To accommo- she recalled after the fact, was that Grab Your Partner & Do-Si-Do date this element, the joyful held a "We all worked together and life was Square dances were another popular play-party, which resembled the dance good." Mrs. Albert Ellis had equally diversion. These were scheduled, re- in figures and tunes but substituted fond recollections: "We were not really called Lucy Franks of El Reno, "if a vocal for instrumental accompaniment. poor. No man with health and oppor- new house went up .. . if a new bridge "Skip To My Lou" was a popular tunity is poor." was built or a couple were married or play-party song, with more than a hun- A generation had elapsed, and in its (on) any other occasion .. . for which an dred verses. Another favorite con- passing the sun had finally come up in excuse could be found." Each dance tained these refrains: the right direction. Di required a fiddler who could carry a tune loud enough to be heard and a Rire you up my deamt dear In Patt V of the Centennial Senk, which caller who told the dancers what to do. And pment to me your hand, will appear in he Sq6trmber-Odober k- Dance calls were rich in local color: And we'll go in punuit sue, Dr. Baird mplom how setth went Of some far and better land about educating heir young afer the Bdtrail home Where the hawk 'll dme he buzzard, Land Run of '89 and desm'bes he S~OOAF In Indian style; And the buzzard 'II &me he m, and unbersih dq founded to accom- Swing he gal bdind you And we'll rally 'round he cane brake plish he tad. Once in a while And dme he buffalo. Now grob your paw Formerly of Oklahoma, Dr. David And go hog-wiM! At times the pioneers merely gath- Baird is now he Howard A. WAite Two lh/e sisters ered to sing, perhaps as a part of a Pmfessor of History at Ptpperdne Form a ring, "singin' school." A teacher led them in Unbersig in Mah, California.

Oklahoma TODAY July-August 1989 19

MANNA FOR LANDLOCKED SCUBA DIVERS Jeanne Devlin Photographs David and Jan Couch

or the record, there are no Klinger, an Oklahoma native who now sharks in Oklahoma lakes. works with Rowe at a dive shop in "It's always the first thing Nacogdoches, Texas. anybody asks as soon as they But it doesn't. Eavesdrop on any hear you scuba dive," laments Mike cluster of scuba divers in Oklahoma Rowe, a Brit turned Texan who often and their tongues will be wagging just scuba dives in Oklahoma. "How many fine. One may describe the 5-foot-long sharks have you seen? How many catfish she spotted in Lake Tenkiller; sharks have you seen?" another, the DeSota he found at the He heaves a big sigh. bottom of Lake Murray. "My dad "Well, I've never seen one." found an old anchor at the bottom of a A ring of Texas and Oklahoma lake," James Rogers, another Texas divers nod, not in sympathy, but em- diver, informs the group languishing pathy. Divers who live for weekends around a campfire at Beavers Bend spent not on but inside Oklahoma State Park, in southeastern Oklahoma. lakes-they've never had need of "It weighed 60 pounds." shark repellants, either. Most are em- "How did he get it up?" a diver barrassed by the fact. Put divers wonders, withdrawing the stick that around a campfire, be it here or Cozu- holds his roasting marshmallow from mel, and talk always turns to sharks. If the fire while he ponders such a task. you haven't seen one, you always feel "He hooked six-BCs to it. Inflated like you should have, even if the only them. And it rose to the top." place you've ever dived is Oklahoma. The thought of a huge anchor rising There's a lot to be said for inland scuba from the depths with six buoyancy diving; shark sightings just aren't one compensator vests attached to it like of them. "You'd think it would cramp six bright yellow balloons silences the your storytelling style," says Tom group. Then laughter erupts. lhough Lake 7hkIhreach@depth of 160feet, most smba dmmhm no dReper thn about 3U feet Mow the surface. Ihm cdon are fie mmost vivid and wildlife, like fhk shoo/ of bluegr'IAr, fhe most abundant. Any deeper, and darkness and solitude soon set in.

"After all that trouble," Rogers con- "How deep were you?" (20 feet) shop owner Frank Thompson. "I've fides, laughing as loud as anyone else, "Do they work?" (This, of course, is dived some places that I already knew "I think he feels like he has to use it." beside the point.) what they were like, and I still turned Sheepish chuckles from the group With equipment that now makes it out with talk for about six or eight let him know they've all been there. possible for grandmothers and even months." Maybe it was a Coca-Cola bottle, may- folks who don't know how to swim to McCarty and his family-his wife be an old ice chest. Whatever it was, learn to scuba dive, maybe you can't and five children also dive-spend each one has slaved to retrieve some- generalize about the type of people most every weekend April through Au- thing deep inside a lake that they who are drawn to diving like you once gust at Lake Tenkiller in the eastern would only have stepped over if they'd could, but there is one cliche that still part of the state, scuba diving. encountered it on dry land. holds true: Divers are as curious as The Oklahoma City druggist knows Why just that day Mike Rowe and your aunt's Siamese cat. the bottom of this manmade lake like scuba student Coleen Dobbs had Inland divers are no different. others know its suhce. "There's a worked 10 minutes to jiggle loose two To the hundreds of divers who trav- farm at 75 feet, another at 65 feet, and broken fishing poles lying, unbe- el each weekend to Oklahoma's three there's an old schoolhouse up by knownst to anyone but the fishermen best diving lakes, the bottoms of 5ep- Snake Creek," he reels off. "There's who lost them, on the bottom of Bro- killer, Murrav or Broken Bow lakes are an orchard down there, and the trees ken Bow Lake; the two Texas divers a different world. No dive is 'ever the are lined up in a line just like they had not only hauled their delapidated same. And there's always something were when the firmer lived there." treasures to shore, but had done so to new to find. "There's always some- This underwater world obviously the admiring clucks of everyone else. thing to talk about," says Henry impresses McCarty, as lake bottoms Divers immediately besieged the two- McCarty of Oklahoma City,who at age always seem to surprise even the most some wanting to know all the details of 59 has been diving for 12 years, ever seasoned diver. A jaded diver is a rare the hunt. since his son learned in the Explorer animal. "Nothing is touched," "How far out were you!" (150 feet) Scuba Post founded by Oklahoma dive McCarty marvels, "because nothing

22 Oklahoma TODAY decays once (fresh) water hits it." taught in one afternoon on a guy's boat see what was under there. They'd al- Just talking about it makes McCarty on the way out to an island. What ways felt around with their rods and by ready for Friday to be over. "I just diving instructors will tell you is that casting had an idea of what was down called to get the lake report," he says. more than 1,000 divers are certified in there, but now they get down there The fact that he was told water tem- Oklahoma each year. Some of those and actually see the terrain where perature was 67-68 degrees and a will never dive outside a swimming they've been fishing. They get a big strong wind was making visibility lousy pool. Others will dive once in a lake kick out of it," he observes. , doesn't faze him. It could get better. If and never don a mask again. But most More than one fisherman after div- , it doesn't, McCarty will still have the will get hooked. ing has been heard to wonder why 1 wretchedness of it all to talk about. It is the latter phenomenon that al- he'd spent years fishing his hvorite I No one pretends that diving in an lows Elvis Roberts of Lake Murray to spot since any diver could see fish 1 Oklahoma lake is the same as diving observe, "Some days you can't see for didn't frequent it. Frusher says it just off the Cayman Islands in see-through the divers lined up along the dam." gets worse when fishermen see what water; it's not. But it's not like taking Lake Murray pulls divers from six to size of catfish a diver can catch spear- your sister to the prom, either. Diving seven dive shops in Dallas and another fishing. Their disbelief is palpable. Oklahoma is better than diving in Kan- half-dozen from Ft. Worth. Gene 'They spear a lot of 15 to 18 to 25 to sas or Texas waters, because Oklaho- Frusher sees equally staggering num- 30 pounders here and you don't get ma water tends to be clear, more often, bers at Tenkiller, where he operates that with a line," explains Frusher. than the water of its neighbors, which Gene's Aqua Pro Shop: "There are It can break a fisherman's heart to is why Mike Rowe and his crew from probably at times 250 divers on the hear Frusher tell of the 65-pound cat- Texas are in the southeastern comer of lake, and times I'll be filling 300 tanks fish some spearfisherman had his pic- the state this Saturday morning and a day.'' ture taken with last summer. not on some Texas shore. "We'd heard Frusher attributes it to the mystery Oklahoma lakes are reknowned for you could see 25 feet," Rowe says. of diving. "I have quite a few bass their spearfishing. Tenkiller is practi- This weekend, they will be lucky to fishermen who learned thew qould cally a legend for it, and Frusher's dive see five. Rain has stirred up the silty bottom and a gusty wind has finished off the job. But it's also early for inland diving, and Rowe knows by late July that promised Oklahoma visibility, coupled with warm enough water for one to enjoy it, will come. When it does, he'll be back at Beavers Bend State Park or, maybe, Lake Murray. b'Visibility here," explains Elvis Roberts, who operates Scuba Quest, a dive shop on the west side of Lake Murray, "averages 15 feet a year. That's better than anywhere in the state but maybe Tenkiller. In Texas, you'd have to go to Lake Travis or Possum Kingdom. It's too far to go, and if you do you're lucky to see two to four feet. Here visibility rarely if ever falls below five." It's this rare union of good visibility, abundant catfish and good camping fa- cilities that makes Oklahoma scuba diving too good a deal to pass up. No one keeps a tally of how many divers then are in Oklahoma or how many find their way here, mainly be- I Mike Rm, ri@, urn his Twcks~~ to Btvken Bow Lake. fie /ow hAr of oxyp seen in cause a diver may have ban certified hkc watm non mm, doma adran foud in manmode hits ajmmin time. in an intensive six-week course or

July-August 1989 skills are tested in a lake setting. "One reason we like to stay in II state," he says, "is park facilities. They've got hot and cold water, res- II trooms. Arkansas has lakes, but it's also got one water setting and that's cold." Both Tenkiller and Broken Bow have features scuba divers appreciate: Camp sites are a stone's throw away from the dive site-a diver's version of heaven-and a short jaunt from hot showers--de rigueur after a chilly night dive. A park's amenities, or lack of them, may seem irrelevant. They aren't. Divers can only spend so much time I under water. A beginner may make two, one-hour dives in a day. An ad- vanced diver, maybe a third. Because serious divers go to the trouble of haul- ing oxygen tanks, fins, snorkles and wet suits on most trips, they usually stay at a lake for at least a weekend. That leaves a lot of time to notice a Scllba divefs from ORIahoma, Texas and Kansasj7ocR to Lake TmRiiIw, because its rocky shores home cmica, ma// cava and bo/es-perfect for both expforing and spearfrsng. lack of shade trees, scenery and camp accoutrements. And as long as we're talking ideal shop, which looks like a moored I pression tables, gear." diving, it doesn't hurt if there's a dive houseboat on the southwest edge of This folksy quirk of the sport, inten- shop available, either. A dive shop Tenkiller, teems with divers in sum- sified in a state as naturally friendly as means readily available air for your mer. Most, however, come as much to Oklahoma, coupled with inland scuba tanks, and usually a boat to transport chat as to check out equipment, find diver's insatiable thirst for diving, has you to remote dive sites. Oklahoma's the site of the latest submerged Volks- made the Sooner State a diver's mecca. three diving lakes each have a nearby wagen or fill up on air. "We meet over This despite a lack of clear, blue dive shop. Tenkiller has had 63-year- there," says McCarty. "We don't dive ocean, exotic coral and, yes, sharks. old Frusher and his shop at Stray Horn much anymore with Gene, but we al- Even a highly publicized lawsuit filed Landing for 17 years, but shops at ways sit and shoot the bull when we by the Oklahoma attorney general Murray and Broken Bow are relatively come in to get air." against Fayetteville, asking that the young. Until two years ago, Elvis Rob- When McCarty was a beginning div- city stop dumping its treated sewage erts operated his out of the back of a er, veterans like Gene and Frank into the Illinois River, which feeds truck near the Lake Murray dam, Thompson of Frank's Underwater Tenhller, hasn't quelled divers' en- where most of the lake's divers congre- Sports in Oklahoma City were the ones thusiasm for the lake. "Last October," gate. "I was a rolling dive shop," he he talked to when he decided he want- says Dennis White, who has certified says. ed to learn to dive and later when as a hundreds of divers from his base at Today, he operates year-round in beginning diver he needed guidance Oklahoma State University in Stillwa- the old Teepee restaurant on the on finding good dive sites. ter, "we had some of the best visibility lake's west side. In Broken Bow, Russ Now divers come to McCarty. at Tenkiller I'd seen." Willingham's dive shop is a few "There's a certain camaraderie among White worries what the dumping shelves in an auto parts store. Divers divers," says McCarty. "You can be could eventually do to diving condi- may get a kick out of being able to buy clear across the state and look up and tions at the lake, but he still takes two a gas cap for their van and get direc- see another diver from Kansas or Ada, to three diving classes a year to Ten- tions to the best islands for spearfish- and you talk. You talk, because you do killer for open waters, sessions in ing under one roof, but Willingham have something in common-decom- which students' pool-learned scuba hopes for his own address someday.

- 24 Oklahoma TODAY Testament, too, to the growing div- without a card, among divers it's an ing fever at Broken Bow is a pontoon unwritten rule you don't. boat that members of a local diving Still even certification requirements club built for off-shore diving. Club vary; these days you can get certified member Toby Tipps now rents the simply by watching a videotape at boat, on a seat available basis, on home and making a weekend visit to a weekends to any diver with $5 to lake for your open water. Frusher of- *'Gettifig spend. fers a three-day course, with four lake Servicing divers, or would-be divers, dives and pool time, for $130. "I fur- mere is big business in Oklahoma, says nish it all but bathing suits and the IAon&diUGlJbwW Frank Thompson, whose dive shop body," he says. Spring CrcaO near L&.-mt Gmn, ni& has a scuba class running somewhere Thompson and Dennis White rec- 4.4% most prdsr one of&m o*kdom in Oklahoma City or a diving trip going ommend six-week courses, with time Lka. Arrikfrorn bbirgeogqhklsprcad, W s d: to Tenkiller or someplace like Belize spent each week in the water, so that a soding to be said for Lake TeMeg.. TcnRik&n just about any week of the year. diver builds confidence-the key to drmingfi,,h lo -* a A man who remembers when diving safe and enjoyable diving in both of apsKJlung's in was a macho sport pursued by men and men's opinion. Dive shops as well as 1943. Ca@6 m~ a metwfir competitive swimmers, Thompson colleges, like Southwestern and OSU, s.men,and b~cMUrq now considers scuba "a family sport." teach scuba. And students can either . && itfor erbj&liry. (;crrc's ~ ~ pmq w "Back in the '50s and '60s," he says, rent equipment or, as is increasingly shop sirs at Snrzy Horn bdng, nod "we had very few, very few women the case among 25- to 35-year-olds, of Gore off U.S. 64. For infinnation, caii divers. I mean vqfew. Nowadays, it spend the $750 to $1,000 necessary to (918) 487-5221. is not uncommon to have at least a get a glitzy scuba outfit-BC, regula- At beddown at a Or third or half a class girls or women." tor, tank, wet suit, weight belt, snor- site On the of TnkUer- Park. Picnic pZom make lud a joy Thompson finds diving appeals to kle, mask and fins-in a fashion color. I euen in Jufy kt. For infinnation, dl both families and singles. He believes Then you can take your fancy I (918) 489-5643. it's because diving gives people a com- equipment and go noodling-the age- Lake Murray: Aa hour and a && mon ground and something to do to- old art of catching fish with your bare 'fiomfiur lIMjOT uaand T- gether. He's seen diving break up hands. "Some divers only go in (the kb, hke pulh in 365 &s a couples in which one refused to dive, water) when it's time for noodling," ymr. TO md S& m,& atelowl but he's seen the flip side at his dive admits Roberts, who finds noodling to . shop, take &e MeMumq rsit 08 shop too. "Hey," he says, "I've had be one of the main diving attractions at Inatstate 35 to I& pad, iwn @ut me several marriages. " Murray. (The other being dives spent s~bb,@ at & napr interstdon or 1111 Frusher has his own theory on why looking for gold reportedly buried by (405) 223-1032. diving has become the passion of yup- robbers in what is now a submerged meMq * pies and others: "All the equipment is cave under Tucker's Tower.) amping, cabins, sht @ RVs or La& so much better than what we had even Noodling doesn't require you be a .!~~~~odgc.~darndar~ywm mim, gvif or tkz2 how. Far it&mdmS diver, but it helps. "Divers have an 10 years ago, and it's so much more mli(405) 2334W. comfortable to wear. " edge, because if you stick your hand in Bow Lslke: Frusher remembers when scuba div- the mouth of a catfish, the fish proba- sohmM~ dop, ing not only meant swimming your bly will be in five to 15 feet of water - amone locatu/ in an w* I guts out, but was actually dangerous, and you can expect to stay awhile. It 13 minuts may in B& Bow. Bmb I because equipment was so poor. Flota- may take five minutes to pull out a Bow S& Suvias maims yon m get tion devices (which help a diver raise fish, to wrestle or tire it," he says. I airfir your kmRr, bps on djvc sriPrr uda and lower himself in the water) were Noodling attracts hundreds of out- ~ w4 t I& JwIIq unreliable and regulators (which feed of-state divers to Oklahoma to Roberts' ~0~~ at Yourn; for infonncmors call air to a diver) were unpredictable. "It chagrin. "They call it noodling," he (405) 584-9149. To dive, go nod on U.S.259 ad took a man's strength, just to get up to quips. "I call it crazy. If you want 1~rwiri&athH~acittoBtouc/s the surface some times." catfish that bad go to the frozen food I BdSmPad, go yi at kfod, dhnr Now if you're 14 years or older, you section of the grocery store." raRc ,&-nan'w dohofbdive can get certified, he says, noting a cer- spo& line &b peninsukz. Fac.&cs hem tification card enables a diver to rent Jeanne M. Dtwlin is managing editor of second to none. YOU can -1 orpknr tanks or buy air at a dive shop. Though Oklahoma TODAY. David and Jan your RV for just $4 a ni&. For U.S. law doesn't make it illegal to dive Coud are based in Enid. infomdon, MB (405) 494-6300.

July-August 1989 I PORTFOLIO 1 An Amish Carriage Maker Photographs by Jim Argo

ernon E. Miller makes his living building anach- enclosed buggy with lights-a model the Amish favor for ronisms. In a time of turbo-charged sports cars its streetworthiness, $300 for a harness or the $800 a good and the (hncorde, hliller is a carriage maker. horse to pull the carriage goes for. av builder of buggies, wagons, surreys-four-wheeled <:~~stomerstend to be museums and folks intent on contraptions pulled by horses. saving relics from the past. His best His shop in the Amish communi- season, whenever the mercury rises ty of <;larita, just 30 minutes south above 68 degrees Fahrenheit. and east of Ada. is littered with "I don't like being in my shop wooden. spoked wheels that stand when it's cold," Miller says, simply. as tall as a kindergartner. One wall "And I never work on Sundays." is almost hidden behind stray, bug- It's all very Amish, even the fact gy seats, and you can't walk but a that kliller no longer builds each few feet without bumping into a car- buggy by hand, like the Amish once riage in some state of undress. did, but instead uses tools powered "I average about two carriages a by air from a gasoline generator sit- month," says hliller, who, with his ting outside his rural shop. wife, Esta, came here in 1982 to Only visitors are taken aback by escape the bitter winters of Ohio. the power tools, he says. Amish el- His carriages cruise at speeds of 6 ders long ago decided they made to 7 miles per hour, when harnessed sense for the Clarita community. Yet to a strong horse. "It takes 45 min- elders in another Amish community utes to go 8 miles," hliller figures. could decide to make power tools "That's just a steady pace, not run- taboo and something unacceptable ning or nothing like that." in Clarita acceptable. "A lot of peo- ple wonder where you draw the ty of speed for <:larita, where line," hliller admits. "They say, signs caution motorists to be on the alert for horse-drawn 'Why motors and not electricity?'" vehicles and every garage seems to house a buggy. To them, Miller replies that motors have long existed, Though he builds carriages, in part, because he Is Amish, but electricity is a new-fangled invention as far as the hliller says, he doesn't often build them forthe Amish, not Amish are concerned, one that has only complicated life even his Amish neighbors and relatives. "If I only built by making televisions and stereos commonplace in the them for the Amish I couldn't do this fill1 time," the home, turning children into couch potatoes and reducing father-of-three says. "I'm going to build a two-seater for the time families spend together. "People talk about what the Stonewalls, but it's my first local sale." a time-saver electric appliances are," Miller observes, "but hliller attributes this to the prudent nature of the they're busier now than ever." For him, electricity crosses Amish. An Amish family has need for one buggy; Clarita's that invisible line. 19 Amish families have that; some Americans may feel And when you see Vernon E. Miller in the driver's seat, compelled to own a second vehicle or trade up every two it'll be that of a buggy. Jeanne M. Devlin years, but not the Amish. The result is that Miller must content himself with ,Miller taliill assemUe a buggy on Fn'dq and Satur&f at repairing local buggies and building new ones for out-of- 'lieaditions '89,set for Ortoher 20-22 at the .ti'yrind Gardens in towners, folks who don't mind spending $2,000 for an Okiluhorna (20. For fotiwil details, rail/ (405) 521-2931.

Oklahoma TODAY Some dqys, Vernon would rather do anything than build a carriage. Then he thinks about how a new buggy shines so pretty and he remembers why he became a camgage maker. One-horse buggies are the buggy of choice, because they can carry a family of five easily. Occasionally, a larger family requires a two-horse model. Above, Vernon and his oldest son, Steven, take a spin.

28 Oklahoma TODAY A standard buggy wheel stands three and a half feet tall. Vernon's daughter, Leona, and his oldest son, Steven, use the wooden structures as a jungle gym. Horse-drawn buggies, men with long beards and young girls in bonnets are all ways the Amish set themselves apart. Norman Miller, Vernon5 brother, and Leona enjoy a quiet moment.

30 Oklahoma TODAY Vemorr says the Amish added yellow refictm to the back of their buggies af% motorists complained the vehicles at night looked like two bobbing red apples going down the highq. OLYMPIC GOL

By W.K, Stratton Photographs by David Koelsch

he girls line up in a winner on a platform, wearing an Joyner, Carl Lewis and Greg Louganis I Norman gym after Olympic gold medal, fighting back first came to amateur sports promi- i school on a Friday af- tears as "i9e Star-SpangItd Banner" re- nence at previous Olympic Festivals. ternoon in the sounds though a crowded arena. It is fitting that Oklahoma should be spring. They look Oklahomans will get a rare opportu- the site of a Festival, for the state has a I tiny in their pink and nity to see American Olympic hopefuls distinguished Olympic heritage, begin- blue tights; none of them can be be- in action when the U.S. Olympic Fes- ning with Jim Thorpe (the Sac and yond elementary school. They take tival opens July 21 at Owen Field in Fox Indian who arguably remains the turns running toward a side horse, Norman for a 10-day run. Oficials plan greatest athlete in history) in 1912 and i where two coaches help them execute on 4,000 competitors, coaches and offi- continuing, most recently, with wres- - handsprings. Then the girls, with cials plus an international press corps tlers Kenny Monday and John Smith, scarcely a giggle or uttered word, trot of 1,500 to converge on the state. who each brought a gold medal home to the back of the line. About half a million spectators are ex- from Seoul in 1988 and who Oklaho- These girls learning the basics of pected to attend. Competition will be mans can expect to compete on home gymnastics have any number of rea- held in Oklahoma City, Midwest City, soil come Festival '89. sons for doing so: the sheer fun of it, Norman, Edmond, Yukon, Guthrie, A dozen athletes who have won gold an opportunity to play with friends, El Reno, Stillwater and Lawton. medals at the Olympic games over the pressure from parents worried about The Olympic Festival (formerly years call Oklahoma home today. I kids spending too much time in front known as the National Sports Festival) Their victories span a 52-year period. of the television. With some of these is held each non-Olympic year. Ath- Some can point to their gold medal fledgling athletes, though, something letes seek medals, but for some sports success as turning points in their lives. else is occurring. The seed of a dream the competition is also a part of the Some have gained celebrity. Others 4 is planted there in the dull echoes of qualifying process to determine who have faded into relative obscurity. But I the gym. If the dream flourishes and will be on the next U.S. Olympic for all, participating in the Olympics grows to maturity, it will peak with a team. Such stars as Florence Griffith was one of life's high points.

Oklahoma TODAY MEDALISTS CALL HOME

hundreds of speeches. He spends Gymnastics about one week out of each month in 1984 Los Angeles Games: Parallel ban Norman, the town he still calls home, Bio: Chicago native; gmnart at OU;competed to relax. "This may sound strange," he in 1976 Olympics in Montre'al. Today:31; feltvision commentator; actor; cor- says, "but I love to come home and porate spoRamun; /ive.:r in Norman. just mow the yard." This week has been typical for him. an Conner is wearing a "Seoul On Monday he delivered a motivation- Man" t -shin, warm- up pants al speech for General Electric in Ha- JIIJ hneakers. With his model's good waii. Tuesday found him in San looks-blond hair, perfect teeth-he Diego, where he played in a celebrity immediately is recognizable. He sits in golf tournament with Jerry Lewis, the gymnasium, the Gymnastics Cha- Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ed McMahon. let, he owns and operates in Norman He went into a sound studio on with Paul Ziert, the man who coached Wednesday to do the voice-over for a him at OU. Conner grins at the chil- snowboarding event he covered for dren working out around him. A girl ESPN. On Thursday, he retreated to smiles back, offering a shy "Hello." Norman to do his laundry. "I live the Conner has acquired all the trap- kind of life where people fuss over me pings of the successful modern Olym- a lot," Conner says. "It's good to get pian: clothes, imported sports car, away from that every so often." three houses. Since winning the gold Even if Conner had not won gold at - - medal in parallel bars in '84, he has Los Angeles, he would be remem- Bart Conner qorts on other sports now, appeared regularly on TV, written a bered for his contribution to the sport but doing ~ymnusticcis stdl his idea of fun. book, starred in a movie and made of gymnastics, which was a minor sport

July-August 1989 33 1 OLYMPIC HOPEFULS I I among minor s~ortswhen he came to OU. he help& change that between 1975 and 1980. First, OU's gymnastic team rose to national prominence, ah did the University of Nebraska's. "You had two schools noted for their athletic programs that now had dominant gym- nastics teams," Conner says. fans, it aoas spprest nm. More important was the rivalry Con- ner had with Indiana State University's Kurt Thomas. "He had so much talent 1RON TRIPP it sometimes was scary," Conner re- members. Their rivalry garnered sports page headlines. And it cost Conner his friendship with Thomas. 'That was too bad. But I think it was good for the

Both Conner and Thomas competed in the 1976 games in Montrkal, finish- ing in the middle of the gymnastics pack, which was the place American gymnasts typically ended up. But irr- 1980, the two athletes stood ready to claim a place at the top of the sport. The boycott of the Moscow Olym- pics-brought about to protest the So- viet invasion of Afghanistan+hanged 1SHANNON MILLER all that. Conner's was one of the loud- of Chda and Ron est voices criticizing President Carter's decision not to compete in Moscow. "When the last Soviet troops left Af- I ghanistan (this year)," Conner says I wryly, "I thought about writing Presi- I dent Carter to tell him, yeah, it i worked. It took nine years, but the 1 boycott forced the Soviets out of Afghanistan."

ncenuate,"Miller pipes up. "I guess I to concentrate more." Bio: Raked on fonn in western Okldoma; pkzyed at Noflktem State C0lI.e in Aha; I 1fill' LC1 JLI I L bansferred to ou; &rated Wod war veteran; woded andplayed basketball for Phil- bps Pehvhm Co. Today:63; mind; /king in Bafllemilh.

ayne Glasgow should know about what makes a good soldier. He saw heavy action during World War I1 and left the service a decorated vet- in backstroke. This year, he placed 9th in eran. He was awarded both the bronze 200 backstroke at senior nationals. Hi star and the purple heart for fighting in the South Pacific. I

continued on page 38 I Consequently, he looks back at the Still, Glasgow admits, "I had no his opponent's ankles instead of the war as the big event in his life. "It was idea I would ever win an Olympic gold more standard grab-the-knee ap- fightin' for the good ol' USA," he re- medal." preach) and his ability to attack from calls. But success at the 1952 Olympic kither side have astounded the wres- games in Helsinki, Finland, is pretty tling world. Joe Seay, who mached important to him as well. Ask him Wmtkr him at OSU, has characterized Smith about what it was like to win the gold 1988 fk~ulGames: Fm4ks 136 bs- as, LLalways coming at you low, work- medal in basketball there, he succinct- ~~$$~~of~f~ ~ ing the angles."~ ~ ~ ~ w ~ & ly answers: "The best." and 1992 03~~k;bKFY promo- Winning in Seoul didn't change Glasgow grew up on a wheat farm n'of~/spca~ngand~o~-~;in sti/- Smith's wrestling, but it sure did his outside the Woods County community water; phm dingMW. life. "It seems I'm always on the of Dacoma. His father died when Glas- road," he says. His win in Seoul was gow was a boy, so the responsibility of o to a significant wrestling dramatic. He almost looked bedrag- operating the farm largely fell to him 1 match. If John Smith is in atten- gled when he stepped onto the mat and his siblings. "Basketball seemed dance, you can find him easily enough. with his left ear bandaged and three easy after working on the farm," he Just look for the group of young grap- fingers of each hand taped together (all says, adding that he has fooled around plers clustered around him in pursuit had been broken at least three times). with the round ball "forever." After of autographs. Some will be after him Two nights earlier a Bulgarian wrestler the war, he eventually ended up in to sign copies of his best-selling poster. had smashed Smith's nose, and a Mon- Norman playing basketball for OU, Not long ago a newspaper photogra- golian had injured his leg. "He got on where he was named to the All-Con- pher captured him autographing a my leg and tried to rip it off and take it ference team. youngster's T-shirt. home," Smith said at the time. But Following college, Glasgow hed a In the world of amateur wrestling, none of this seemed to bother Smith, dilemma encountered by many talent- Smith reigns as a genuine celebrity. In who bested his Soviet opponent in the ed basketball players of the late '40s fact, some people say he's the best final match with a 4-0 shutout. and early '50s. He was drafted by the wrestler since Dan Gable. Smith's Smith was only six years into his life National Basketball Association's Min- mastery of the low-attack (he tries for when wrestling entered it. "Wrestling neapolis Lakers, but the truth was, professional was not Hot prnpm~k a* winning gohf mdzk b & 1988 O&mpk John Smay YI, and Kary as good a deal as now. Salaries were Motdg hi$ haw a kt-seI/ingptl?r and phto wmtk in Oiympic FesriUoI '89. low and job security was shaky at best. For a generation growing up during the Great Depression, job security was a prime consideration. The other option for a basketball player was to go to work for a company sponsoring a team in the AAU's National Industrial Bas- ketball League. Glasgow went this route. He got a job with the Phillips Petroleum Co. "I was hired principally for my bas- ketball ability," he says. But he also was expected to perform capably for the large Bartlesville-based oil compa- ny. He spent over three decades in its crude oil purchases and sales department. Glasgow played for the 66ers for four years. How good were they? "I like to use the word, the best," he says about the 66ers as compared to the other teams in the NIBL. "Of course," he adds, "the older you get, the better it seems you were back then."

' July-August 1989 35 Basketball Pkqer 1948 London Games: Guard Bio: Gmup in southern Oklahoma of Native American heritage; attended Muway State Col- &e, hen Oklahoma A&M; faugh Navy pilo& during WorM War II; worked and played and coaded basketball for Phil/lips Petmhm Co. Today: 71; retired; /king in Bartlesville.

~zwyears ago, a friend suggested to Jesse B. "Cab" Renick that II since Olympic gold medals have be- come such "a big thing," Renick should show people the one he picked up as captain of the 1948 American basketball team at the London games. Seemed a good idea. As Renick tells the story, he produces a leather coin purse from his pocket, opens it, then drops the two-ounce medal into a visi- tor's palm. "You should see some of the reactions I get. I carry it all the time." Renick began playing basketball as he was growing up near Abner in Love County. At Murray State College, he averaged over 20 points a game. "Those who got the ball, shot it," was the rule Renick and his teammates played by. Then he transferred to Oklahoma A&M where he encoun- tered Coach Henry P. Iba, who, even in 1938, already was something of a legend. Renick discovered he had a lot to learn about basketball. Cab Renick, Bob Kur/and, center, and Wayne Glasgow, n'@, share similar cager memories: "Mr. Iba's approach was a 180-de- Each played for Phillips 66en, made the Olympics and won a go/d medal. Kurland did it fwice. gree turnaround from junior college," Renick remembers. Point production, was really attractive to me. I had a lot fall, Pat will become the third Smith to Iba taught his charges, was not as im- of success at a young age." wrestle for OSU. portant as good defense and ball con- Smith grew up with three brothers As for John, he's "taking it one year trol. "Mr. Iba told us that if we could and six sisters in Del City. In a family at a time" as 1992 approaches. He con- score 40 points in a game, we should that large, parents are not always able tinues to work out at least an hour win," Renick says. "He also told us if to devote as much attention to a child twice a day; every other day, he works we turned over the ball more than five as they would like. Smith thinks wres- out with weights, runs two to three times in a game, we should lose it." tling helped fill the gap. "I'm not sure miles and the stairs at Lewis Field. If On an Iba team that won 23 games I'd be the well-rounded person I am he isn't on the American team in Bar- while losing only three, Renick was today without wrestling." celona, Spain, he'll still be wrestling. the top scorer, averaging nine points He also feels fortunate to be the "Wrestling is my life. I live, I eat, I each outing. number two boy in the family: "A lot drink wrestling. Wrestling is 'my future He went on to join the Navy as a of my success is due to my older broth- ... I've made the sacrifices it took. flight instructor during World War 11, er Lee Roy's success." Lee Roy was a Wrestling has molded my character, ending up at the Naval Air Station in star wrestler at OSU. Two other broth- molded me as a person. It has given Norman where he coached a basket- ers, Pat and Mark, also wrestle; this me discipline in my life," he says. ball team that saw AAU action. At the

36 Oklahoma TODAY national AAU tournament in Denver, When he ~otto Seoul, he added a little he met up with some members of the extra exercise, just to give him thk Phillips 66ers. After the war, the com- mental edge, to his regular workout pany offered him a job. He's lived in routine: 200 pushups before bed, 200 Bartlesville ever since. pushups upon rising. His Olympic win The Olympic memory he considers peaked a wrestling career that has his best was captured on film: team- been among the more fabled of mod- mates carried him off the court on their em time. It began back in North Tul- shoulders after they captured the gold. sa, in the living room of Fred and Renick says the returning gold med- Elizabeth Monday. It was your typical alists were not treated as celebrities in living room, except, of course, that 1948. "We had to get back to our there was no furniture in it, only car- jobs." And during all this talk of the pet. The Mondays kept the room fur- Olympics, Renick is quick to say that niture-less to provide a place for their winning a gold medal was not the most three sons, Michael, James and Ken- important thing in his life. 'The most ny, to wrestle. All three proved them- important thing I've done was adopt- selves to be talented wrestlers, but ing and raising seven children in addi- Kenny, by the time he turned 18, es- tion to two of my own. I guess you tablished himself as the greatest high could call that caring and sharing. Or school wrestler of the 1970-d may- else you could say I'm lovable and be of all time. gullible." In four different weight classes, Monday claimed four state wrestling champions, becoming only the third 72e 1972 Munid skyings wt7l akays be part of Wqyne We/.' Olympic memori~. Wmth person to do so. But more amazing was 1988 Seoul Games: Fre~tyL,163 bs. his record for the four years, 140-0-1. Bio: Nahe of Tuka; wmtledfor OSU. (Mike Sheets of Tahlequah, who had ob Kurland looks out the window Today:27; I . in Stilhater; grodtuzte ask- cant coad for OSU wmtkng team; worRing on lost to Monday 10 times dating back to of his northeastern Oklahoma a business degree at OSU; n-aining for I& 1992 junior high school, managed to tie his hideaway at the rain falling on Grand Oiympia and nwpmfessional wmtkng leagrre. old nemesis during a meet at Tulsa.) Lake. "The reason I am able to stand Monday's accomplishments during his here and enjoy this is because of a :n wrestlers talk about Kenny time at Tulsa Washington High School wonderful game played with a little I ond day, they talk about how earned him a profile in Spom IIIustrat- round ball. " tally tough he is as a wrestler, how ed, a first for a high school wrestler. Indeed. when you get hion the mat he has His coach at Washington, Ernie Jones, But it's also fair to say that game only one thing on his mind and it's not said, "I've never seen a wrestler like owes much of the prominence it has losing. "God, yes, he's tough," says this kid. He's grown from scrawny to gained since World War I1 to Kurland's one. "He's so tough it's scary." awesome." exploits at Oklahoma A&M in the (This is a wrestler who once had a Wrestling, says Monday, looking 1940s and at the '48 and '52 Olympic gashed tongue sewn up while he sat on back, has, indeed, been good to him. games as basketball's "first seven- the mat so he could finish his match.) Standing on the platform in Seoul as footer." At Seoul, Monday won in overtime, "IAe Star-SpangItd Banner" was being Kurland grew up in the suburbs of ending the match in stunning fashion played: "I was thinking about the hard St. Louis. Understand, he tells you, by lifting Adlan Varaev of the Soviet work. I was thinking about the people this was during the Great Depression. Union two feet in the air, then driving who supported me." As he approached manhood, he saw him to the mat for the win. It couldn't few options to spending his life toiling . have surprised Varaev, for Monday had in a St. Louis factory or digging ditch- earlier won the revered sheepskin Basketball Pher es. Neither appealed to him. "We cloak, symbolic of the outstanding 1948 London Games: Center were beginning to see athletics as a wrestler, at the Tbilis tournament in 1952 Helsinki Games: Center way out of the factory system," he ' Bio: Cmup near St. huh, Mo.;p@d for Soviet Georgia. One American coach Okkzhoma A@M; worh'andplqed basketball recalls. termed that tournament as "probably for Phillips Petroleum Co.; ina'uctedinto basket- His coach at Jennings High School five times as tough" as the Olympics. ball Ml of fame. advised him to try out for Henry P. Monday, himself is tough enough. Today: 64; retm4 /king in BartlmilL. Iba. "I worked out for him for three I OLYMPIC HOPEFULS I I I continued from page 34 days. Then Mr. Iba said he wasn't sure feel the water better," he says. "And also a lot is just the mental aspect. if I could play basketball. I've got a pretty good mind and I'm entirely competitive." Too tall to be admitted to the armed Zedlia worries that "you almost have to be cocky" to win big services for World War I1 ("Slim, we these days. Upping his yardage might be easier, he figures. don't need you," a colonel told him), Kurland was considered to be too tall IICHELE SMITH to be a successful cager in terms of the way the game was played then. After pk?w for Ok Sm;~pkzm to~admedical schaol at 011. Iba's Aggies won back-to-back NCAA If Michele Smith was as tall as her arm length says she should be, she championships in '45 and '46 (the first would stand 6 feet dl. She's ae~ally,5 foot 10. This physical quirk of f$ee school to win successive titles), no one I+-,n L- at the Festival. "The longer your legs and arms," C-' doubted the importance of a big man lshe explains, "the further you can stride and playing center. explode off the mound." During Kurland's time with the I Folks knew early on Smith was something Cowboys, Iba developed a zone de- special as a pitcher-where most people's mo- fense that called for Kurland to posi- tion hitched, hers was fluid as a windmill rotat- ing. "My high school coach told me in the first tion himself 'under the basket and five minutes of watching my pitching motion block any shot that headed for the that if I didn't keep working and improving I hoop. It was called a "goal ten" de- was throwing away a full scholarship." Smith fense, and under the rules, any ball \ recalls. could be knocked away. "They talk Smith almost threw away her softball career, about these guys on television being Iwhen she ripped the trieep off her pitching arm great shot blockers," Kurland says. in an accident her freshman year. But she came "Hell, I blocked more shots than back the third anniversary of that operation: anyone." opening ceremonia for Festival '89. OU's coach, Bruce Drake, was infu- m riated by this. Based on his protests, Bio: 19; son of Ron adDonna King of Taka; studIRF busim management at he the modem goal-tending prohibition Unki~of Tuha; fibs sweqwfor TU Hum'canes. went on the books. Kurland recalls Fresh out of high school, Kevin King was ready to trade his soccer ball that Iba came to agree with Drake. for a baseball, when TU offered him a full-ride if he'd stay in town and "He was against anything that would play soccer for them instead. "I couldn't pass it up," says King. Uncertain give another team an unfair initially if he'd made the right choice, his decision looks better all the time. advantage." "I'd have played baseball at a junior colleg~ic * UP* T'mntl After college, Kurland went to work a ~ivisionI team and starting." for the Phillips Petroleum Co. and was Smooth at passing and trapping, King the star of its 66ers team. Because of attributes his own success in soccer to an uncanny ability to read the game. He's the war, it had been 12 years since the become so proficient in deciphering game I last Olympics when 1948 rolled strategy that, "I almost know what will around, and Kurland admits the Lon- happen next on the field." don games did not seem very impor- I tant then. The 1952 games in Helsinki took on more significance. "It was a DIO: LL; aaugmr 0~1nr.ana inn. nonnq nom OJ duntan; s~lurzauuuunnng at matter of personal satisfiction," he Unkdqof ORk&oma; mmh1988 Olympic ream. says, "to get into the Olympics that As a girl, Carolyn Koch tagged along when her dad visited the local gun year, then quit while I was on top." club, until one day a lady coach asked her if she'd like to try the sport h---lc a-A:A A-A nklahoma almost lost an Olympian. "I was not good WAYNE WkLLS in the beginning at all," Koch recalls. "I think they really worried about me. I couldn't hit 1972 Munich Games: Fmgk, 163 /bs. anything at all." Bio: Born in Wpst Tm;mod to Okkzboma The coach assured Koch if she could hit the Cit~in junior high sdrool; wmtestled for 011; target once, she could do it again. Today, Koch competed in .& 1968 Olympia in Me.&o City; hits 90 out of every 100 targets. Other differ- compktd /m s&oo/. ences between now and then: a $3,000, 12- Today: 42;practices Am and /kes in OkMo- gauge shotgun and the fact that everyone ma City. expects her to be great. "And I don't know if I'm as good as they think!'-Jeanne M, Devlin Oklahoma TODAY he freestyle wrestling competi- gest thing in my career was watching tion was completed fairly early in Ithe flag go up in '72." :1972 Olympic Games. And gold But the achievement had a cost. medalist Wayne Wells decided to He's endured knee and shoulder sur- leave Munich, West Germany, to take gery as well as having two discs re- a quick sightseeing tour of Europe moved from his vertebrae. Arthritis is with his family. He returned to Ger- now a constant companion. At the many to watch the Greco-Roman wres- time, though, athletes figure the inju- tling, arriving in time to play witness to ries are worth it, especially when the the lowest moment in the history of reward is an Olympic gold medal. "It the Olympic games. Palestinian terror- made me famous," he says. "I was a ists of the Black September ring broke big fish in a small pond for awhile." into the Olympic village and took sev- eral Israeli athletes hostage. When the MELINEMANNING MlMS I gunfire and explosions were over at the R~~~~w Munich airport, 11 Israelis were dead. 1968 Mexico City Games: 800 metets "It really didn't hit everybody until Bio: Born in Cleveland, Oho; attended Ten- the killings at the airport were an- nessee State Univmity; won sikw me& in women's 4x400 meter day race at 19 72 Mu- nounced," Wells remembers. "People nich tames,, mmbmofthe 1976 and 180 olrm- in the Olympic Village knew less than pic teams; attended graduate sdool at Oral most of the people in the rest of the Roberts Unkmity, Tulsa. world, certainly less than the people in Today: 41; a Tiha prison minisny; the United States." performs as a gospel singer. Wells considers his Olympic gold medal the peak of his wrestling career; ~delineManning Mims, just iMadeline Manning iMims single-handedb in fact he has been named as one of sack from a jazzercise class, still proved blacks could be more than spn'nten. the 100 best Olympians of all time by a looks fit enough to run 800 meters in bubblegum card company, which rec- under two minutes (she was the first never keep up this pace. Finally, the ognized him for his dominance in his American woman to do SO).Looking at home stretch. And the black woman weight class. her, it is hard to believe 21 years have starts to look like a sprinter as she The Texas-born Wells moved to passed since she shattered one of leaves the other runners far behind in Oklahoma City with his family when sport's long-standing racial stereotypes. her quest for the finish line. he was in the seventh grade. "I never She walks across the living room of her Perhaps the dominant image from even knew what an amateur wrestling home in Tulsa to punch a videocas- Mexico City is that of medal-winning match was until I was in the eighth sette into a player. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Car- grade," he says. "People still thought blacks could los standing with fists clinched in the Soon enough he was caught up in only be sprinters," she says as a picture black power sign, their heads bowed, the sport. At John Marshall High of the sombrero-shaped stadium in as "The Star-Spangled Banner" was School, he distinguished himself as Mexico City comes into focus. "They played. Mims says her friends' demon- one of the state's best wrestlers. While didn't think blacks could be distance stration was somewhat impromptu. at OU, he helped lead his team to two runners." In fact, the comments made "Tommie felt in his heart he should do Big Eight championships. Though col- by ABC's announcer prior to the finals it," she says. "He was very proud to be legiate and Olympic wrestling rules of the women's 800-meter race in 1968 a black American." "were a hundred miles apart then," stand as testament to the stereotype. Herself, Mims believes nothing was Wells nonetheless decided to take a On the tape one hears him discuss accidental in her rise from housing pro- shot at making the 1968 Olympic various contestants and their strengths jects in the ghetto of Cleveland to team, and he succeeded. He finished and accomplishments as the camera world prominence in track-and-field (a fourth in Mexico City; more impor- pans the line. But when the eventual member of four U.S. Olympic teams, tant, though, "I realized, hey, I can do champion's face is shown, all he says she served as the U.S. team chaplain at this," he says. A World Championship is, "And rounding out the field is Mad- Seoul in 1988). It was all part of God's followed in 1970 as Wells pursued eline Manning." Period. Nothing plan to use her, she says. wrestling while attending law school. more. Then, a pistol shot, a conde- Mims remembers well the day her Then he captured the Olympic cham- scending comment about how the stepfather said to her, "You're running pionship in Munich: "I guess the big- black woman leading the pack could pretty fast around here. Why don't you

July-August 1989 months over the summer. It's a good , place to relax. " 1984 Los Angeles Games: Fomard Though Tisdale's fame rests largely Bio: Born in Texas; mmd to Tulsa as a on his NBA and OU accomplishments, youngster; plqed basketball for OU; plqed he particularly is proud of the gold professionally for NBA's Indiana Pacers. medal he brought home from the 1984 Today: 25; Plqs for the Sacramento Kings of he NBA; operates a youth anti-dncgpmgram; Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Prior liva in Tulsa. to those games, television cameras fol- lowed Coach Bobby Knight after a .;lahomans recognize his face im- clash between OU and the University mediately. The smile almost al- of Indiana. The fiery-tempered, gray- ways is there. Wayman Tisdale, the haired Knight went straight to Tisdale remarkable front court player from and began talking to the Sooner star. Tulsa, is as responsible as anyone for Was he encouraging Tisdale to try out restoring basketball as a major sport in for the U.S. team Knight would coach Oklahoma. in the upcoming Olympics? "He sure Tisdale, who was born in Fort did," Tisdale says. Worth and moved to Tulsa as a young- Tisdale says winning the Olympic II ster, came out of tradition-rich Tulsa gold medal changed everybody on the Washington High School in the early team. "You run into people who still 1980s as one of the most highly-recruit- know you were a member of that ed prep basketball players in the na- team," he says. tion. Undoubtedly he could have played at any number of schools with FRANK LEWIS well-established, bi~-timehoops pro- Wrestler u/Z cow WVman uses ms 115aa/es Ifam grams. He decided to follow his older 1936 Berlin Games: Fmestyle, 158 I I2 lbs. ro tell kids: "Finish school andstay off dmgs." I brother, william, to OU. ill^ ~ ~ Bio:b Bornb in ~Pecos, Tms; mwed to Cushing had taken his Sooners to the National at age 8; began wresthng when a coad told him he was too small for basketball; wrestled at think about the Olympics? You could Invitational Tournament in 1981, but OkIahoma ABM; became oilman and ranch. be another Wilma Rudolph." By the no one was predicting OU-a football Today: 76; retired; living in Stilwater. time she was in high school, Mims was school, for heaven's sake-would de- a standout in track. Like Rudolph, she velop into a national basketball power. rank Lewis had an Olympic went to Tennessee State University to "Billy said he would give me the op- dream ever since he was a child. be coached by Edward Temple. She portunity to do some things no one It was not, however, to compete in the had something else in common with else would," Tisdale says. Tubbs was games. No, Lewis merely wanted to Rudolph as well: They both had over- true to his word, and Tisdale became be able to attend the Olympics as a come crippling childhood illnesses. an All-American, delighting Oklahoma spectator. As it happened, he was a Rudolph had polio; Mims, spinal fans with his athletic ability and sports- gold medalist at what was arguably the meningitis. manship on the court. most significant of Olympic Games. In 1967 at the Pan Am Games Mims After foregoing his senior year of eli- German dictator Adolph Hitler had met her idol. "I remember a woman gibility at OU, Tisdale was drafted by twisted the Nietzschean concept of coming up and putting her arm around the Indiana Pacers of the National Bas- "superman" into a credo of Germanic me and saying how much she admired ketball Association; he has spent the racial superiority. Hitler saw the 1936 my running," Mims says. "I remem- past few years establishing himself as a Berlin Olympics as an opportunity to ber thinking, maybe she thinks I'm journeyman NBA player. Earlier this prove the point. It didn't quite work supposed to know her." Later, much year, the Pacers traded him to the Sac- out for the Nazis, however, thanks to to her embarrassment, a teammate told ramento Kings. "I'm still getting used American athletes like Lewis and his her the woman with the compliment to being in California," he says. "Sac- famed teammate Jesse Owens. was none other than Rudolph. ramento is a good town to be in." Interviewing Lewis, one gathers he When Mims approached Rudolph What many people may not know, was the most reluctant of Olympic ath- and apologized for not recognizing her, however, is that Tisdale still calls Tul- letes. He quit wrestling after his soph- the retired sprinter shrugged it off and sa home, though he doesn't return as omore year in high school, despite responded: "Honey, it's not even often as he'd like. He stays at his Tul- winning a state title. "I'd had about me. It's about you right now." sa residence "about three or four enough," he remembers. He enrolled

Oklahoma TODAY at Oklahoma A&M to study petroleum Reich opened wide the eyes of the geology, resolute he would not take I young man from Cushing who hadn't part in grappling there. He had not done that much traveling. He saw Hit- been recruited by Ed Gallagher to ler at least every other day, and the wrestle for the school. "And, of course, dictator presented Lewis and other there were no scholarships." gold medalists with oak trees, which Eventually, however, he tried out Hitler believed symbolized the strong for the team. And he excelled under body of an athlete. Lewis' tree grows Gallagher. "Gallagher's palsy had got- at the Sigma Chi house in Stillwater. ten pretty bad by then," Lewis says, His Olympic experience did not al- demonstrating with shaking hand. "He ter his life very much. One thing would put his hand on your shoulder stands out in his memory, however: and tell you in a quiet voice to go out "They crowned all medalists in the and do your best. I got the feeling I stadium in Berlin. The stadium must wasn't wrest!ing for myself but for have held 100,000 to 110,000 people. him, and the school and the boys at It was quite something when they the fraternity house. I didn't want to played the National Anthem, with all let any of them down." Lewis won a those people there. I still feel a little national title in 1935. tingle whenever I hear 'TheStar-Span- He hadn't planned to try to make gfed Banner." the Olvm~icteam the next vear. ei- , . d . ther. But tryouts in Stillwater tempted I JESSE'J.W."MASHBURN I( him. From there to the gold medal ~~l~?yR~~~~ match he won in Berlin, he never lost a 1956 Melbourne Games: IrjOo-metw J.W. Mashburn has found being gou decision. ~i~:B~~ in seminole; t/rree-time NCAA medalist gives him an edge zn business. ~t took eight days to cross the champion in 400 metets; firee-time A// Ameri- member tic' and under the Third can; Drake Rehys Hall of Fame; mem- fifth grade, when he first raced to the ber 1952 Olym~icteam: attended OSU. Today: 54 jives in Oklahoma Cig; owns sound of a starter's gun. By seventh Frank hishas fond memories of Jesse Mashburn Entqrises, a development jnn. grade, he says, his coaches were telling Owm: 'Y had breaRfast with him every day. him he had an Olympics in him. By We wmboth eady risen." ien Jesse William Mashburn, or high school, he was proving them m J.W. as everyone calls him, got right, with the fastest time in the na- in from Shreveport, Louisiana, Friday tion in the 440-yard dash. "I began night, the first thing he did was head training for the Olympics back in ju- to his bedroom closet for his jogging nior high and high school," he suit and sneakers. confides. Old habits die hard. Never, did he consider quitting, "It's the best mental therapy in the even when his father was killed in his world," says Mashburn. "When I'm sophomore year of high school. Born stressed out, I can go out and run for fast, he says, he nonetheless worked a 30 to 40 minutes and feel like I've had little harder than his pals, running after eight hours of sleep." season's end, traveling the world in But then, running always did come search of places to compete. natural for Mashburn, who won his Today, his Olympic gold sits in a gold medal in 1956 running the second place of honor in his Oklahoma City leg of the 1600-meter relay for the home. Of all the medals he has won for U.S. "It was very emotional," he re- running, he says, it is his most calls of his Melbourne, Australia, vic- cherished. tory. "Probably the strongest memory is standing on the victor's stand with the American flag going up. You know ~>sketbaflP&er you're one of the few in the world who 1964 Tokyo Games: GuardFomard will ever make it there." Bio: Born in Shmtport, La.; faken to a churcir For him, the journey had begun in and phyed ball for Phillips Petmlnrm Co.

July-August 1989 41 bers exactly what was on his mind when he bent over so the gold medal learned to play basketball at age 9 back could be placed around his neck. He at the home in Tipton, and he loved it, had a teacher back in the bad old days played every day. "But I was actually a who always said Shipp would never better athlete in baseball," he says. In amount to anything. "When they put fact, he so impressed the birddog the medal on me, I thought, old lady, I scouts as a college freshman that he sure hope you're watching." received offers from the Yankees, Car- dinals, Browns and White Sox. But his W.K. Stratton, a business writer for mother wanted him to finish college, du Tulsa World, /ras written for Sports and since she had been responsible for Illustrated, Southern and Outside turning his life around, he obliged. magazines. David Koehui k a At Southeastern, he played for a leg- photographer bas& in Oklahoma City. end of roundball, the late Bloomer Sul- Rocky Widner lives in Sacnzmento, California, whm he r021tineb livan, one of the game's all-time photograph the Sa~amentoKings. Rakd winningest coaches. Notre Dame, OU in Stillwater, photographer Joan and Oklahoma A&M, among others, Hendenon noler*c&i?Lf &fh, Pi,hm: wanted him, but he wanted to play for Coach Sullivan. "In those days, South- eastern was sort of like the Boston Celtics. They beat everybody." After college, Shipp got drafted by the National Basketball Association's JW S&P mised the 1960 Ob'mPia New York Knicks. But he opted to go Getting twop&~rs;he lost out to the /ikes OfJqWest. with philips petroleum G.,s 6(jers. There In 1960, he tried out for the Olym- Oiympic Festival '89 wi// spdout basketba//atSoutheastentState Co/lqe;~0n6ed pic basketball team. "I got within two into nine Okkahoma towns. Hm's whto and plbyedbaafor Phil/i~sPeho~eUm players," he says. He also saw that he Today: 53; /ha in Kingston; tea& and jnd your sport of doice. assisa m'h /lig sL&oolfootbullteam. played well enough that he could Oklahoma City: Baseball, boxing, make it, and he started thinking about canoeinglkayaRing, diving, fencing, figure ne baby was born in a bar ditch 1964. That year, he joined a team that skating, gymnastics, he hockey, mlkr -in Louisiana with just about ev- included basketball greats Bill Bradley, sRating, ming, soft6a/l, spetdkating, cry disadvantage in the world working Walt Hazzard and Lany Brown. The syndmni~dm'mming, (mming will against him. The father was an alco- boy from Blue, Oklahoma, was the be Jub 18-20), tabk tennis, team handball, team's leading scorer as well as its cap- tennis, waterpolo, wk&thfn'ng, holic. The mother had tuberculosis. yaaiting, ex/ribition slow-pitd sofiball. tain. Shipp and Bradley were room- The baby himself was a pathetic thing, Normam: Amhery, basketba//, horribly premature, so small he fit in a mates, and Shipp recalls the future qcling, m& pentathlon, racquetbal/, shoebox. When he made it to the hos- senator from New Jersey would later indoor and outdoor shooting, volley&// pital, the doctors shook their heads and ask him why he never sought the rich- and cmonies and even& for disabkpd said they didn't see how he could sur- es Bradley found in professional bas- athktes. vive through the night. ketball after the 1964 games. "You Ednumd: Judo, soccer, taekwondo. Jerry Shipp made it, though. played as well as I did," Bradley told Midwest City: Badminton, bmbng. At the age of 2, he was taken to live him. Guthrie: Eqwhzn events. at a church home in Tipton. By the Ah, but Shipp had other things in stiflwater: Wrestling, time he turned 16, Shipp remembers, mind. He never forgot what education Lawton: Fiehi Hockey. El Reno: Outdoor shooting. "I was penitentiary bound." He hadn't did for him. When he was nearing 40 Years old, he left Phillips to look for a Yukon: Rkythmu gymmh. gotten into any trouble yet, other than For infomation call .$ze fatival ofice teaching and coaching job. He found doing poorly at school, but he knew in Oklahoma City at (405) 236-1989. how his mind was working, knew one in Kingston. He's been there ever (Okhhoma mi&& can call toll-free 1- where he was headed. since. 800-USA-OK89.) Tide& avaikabh at OK Then he was adopted, and every- "It was a great honor, representing WetOutlea, (405) 948-6800 or thingchanged. His new parents taught the United States," he says of his Myriad box ofice, (405) 236-2333. him the value of education. And there Olympic experience, and he remem-

42 Oklahoma TODAY Festival Dining Going For The Goodies. By Barbara Palmer

1940s. ("He rolled a hard six-two threes.") Early customers tended to be farmers who brought a few head of hogs and cattle into the city to sell at the stockyard, then stopped off for lunch at the horseshoe-shaped counter where they could keep an eye on the cattle prices posted overhead on a blackboard. In those days, pickup trucks were often backed up for blocks in line for the stockyards "and to eat here," Dadisman says. Today, customers are more likely to be gentleman ranchers or drivers haul- ing loads of cattle in eighteen- wheelers, Dadisman says. The blackboard with cattle prices and the lines of pickup trucks have disap- peared, but there's still a pleasant buzz of commerce in the air, even on a At Pink's Bar and Gd,umbre//a tabh provide a shaby spotfor hRfart, /tm& or dinner. Sunday. The Cattleman may be the only ur- f the energy expended by the on Wednesdays), burgers, Mexican ban restaurant in the state with butter- athletes competing in the dishes, sandwiches and freshly-baked milk on the menu. Other ranch Olympic Festival this summer chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cook- esoterica is found here, too, including makesyou hungry, here's a se- ies. The kitchen closes at 4 p.m.; calfs brains scrambled with eggs and lection of restaurants near festival cocktails are served until 7 p.m. The lamb fries. Prices are down to earth, events where you can find a winning restaurant is at 204 N. Robinson, (405) with daily lunch specials for under $5. meal. 235-4448. The restaurant is at 1309 S. Agnew, There are a passel of small restau- Near to the fairgrounds and close to (405) 236-0416. rants within walking distance of the the cowtown heart of Oklahoma City is The Greystone is a few miles north Myriad Convention Center in Oklaho- the Cattleman's Cafe, south of Inter- in Edmond and at least a world away. ma City-many in the city's under- state 40 in the heart of "Stockyards This 10,000-square-foot restaurant was ground concourse system. One popular City." If you're in the market for a pair converted from a residence four years luncheon spot is the Interurban City of handmade boots or a tooled leather ago, and the management has hung on Express a short-order, full-service ver- belt, you'll find them nearby. to some of the comforts of home, like sion of the locally renowned Interur- The original cafe opened in the the big-screen TV in the bar. Its an- ban restaurants in Norman and north 1920s, and owner Gennie Wade Dadis- tique furnishings lend the restaurant a Oklahoma City. The City Express man says her father, Gene Wade, won European air, and the menu is Conti- serves daily specials (Ray's Meat Loaf the restaurant in a crap game in the nental, with lamb, steak and seafood

July-August 1989 43 specialties. The wine list boasts 60 va- hour or two. It's especially appealing in tains lead into nvo tiny bedrooms ivith rieties, and five different kinds of the summer, because owner Stan Ion. tal~lesand cushions for Japanese- bread are baked daily. The restaurant, Clark keeps the air-conditioning down snle dining. open seven days a week, is at 1 North in the tundra range. \I'aiters there rec- Japanese eggrolls are ser\,ed Sooner Road, off 1-35, (405) 340-4400. ommend the cheeseburgers, chicken steamed or fried rvith a vincgan sauce Norman is a college town with its breast sandwiches and the rib-eye din- and other appetizers include tenipura own version of that college town sta- ners. The restaurant is open daily at and Japanese pickles, pucken mari- ple, the whole grains bakery and sand- 501 \1'. Elm, (405) 372-8896. nated cabbage. Especially good is wich shop. Lovelight has been baking Since the festival's equestrian lie~~rir-flo~~,a delicately-tla\.ored pork heavenly goodies like Wheatless \$'on- events take place at the Lazy 1: Arena cutlet sened \\-it11 sauteed carrots and ders and hlagic Brownies for 17 years. southeast of the state's original capital, onions over rice. llaily lunch specials Its deli menu takes freedom of choice it's appropriate to dine in Guthrie at are $2.95 and Fuji scnrs sushi xvith to its outer limits, with build-your-o\vn the Stables Cafe, housed in a build- one day's notice. 'I'he restaurant, at salads and sandwiches that let you ing that once was a livery stable. Since 203 Reed I'lace. opens for lunch from choose the ingredients yourself, down then, the building has been slowly but 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 5 to the last sprout. The bakery and res- steadily upgraded, first a bus station, p.m. to 10 p.m. Closed Sundays. (305) taurant are at 529 Buchanan, (405) 364- then a grocery store and now a rustic 732-3352. 2073. cafe. Barbecued ribs, shredded 'I'he staff at Salas llexican restau- .4t Pink's Bar and Grill a gently French-fried onions and chicken fried rant in I,a\vton don't doubt that tattered menu bears witness to the steak are specialties, and on Friday and they're part of a good thing. "E\.en- pop~llarity of the restaurant's sand- Saturday nights, the all-you-can-eat one kvho cats here says it's the best wiches and specials-and to its long barbecue buffet is $7.95. While yo~l're .\lcsican food they've c\.cr catcn," a hours. Pink's opens for breakfast each there, take time to look at the collec- lvaitress says. Iliviano Salas, a first- morning at 7:30 a.m.-8 a.m. on tions of vintage postcards framed on generation American, started the res- weekend-and closes at 2 a.m. The the walls. The cafe is at 223 LC'. Divi- taurant 36 years ago, and the Salas contents of its comfy interior seem al- sion Street and open from 10 a.m. to family has been bringing customers most haphazard-a mounted fish, 10 p.m. (405) 282-0893. back e\>cr since. One of their most stained-glass skylights, pink neon, bar Judy Van Cleave has been running notable creations is the E/ Presic/ot~tu stools upholstered in fake animal skin, the Hill Top Restaurant in Yukon for dinner, a $10 per person spectacular but it all somehow works together. just a year and a half, but she has some that takes an hour to eat. 'I'he dinner The same goes for the menu: blue formidable credentials as a cook: she includes tostados and checsc dip. corn tortilla enchiladas, eggs Benedict, cooked for her six children for years shrimp cocktail, guacamole, cheese na- beer bread and chili and other unex- and claims she never got tired of her chos. broiled steak, tacos, enchiladas. pected specials. Pink's is west of Cam- kitchen. Van Cleave calls her restau- tamales. rice and beans. Room for des- pus Corner at 607 W. Boyd, (405) rant "family-run and homesnle" and sert? 'l'n the sopapillas or homemade 366-7465. specializes in Southern-snle cooking. pralines. Salas restaurant is at 11 1 \Y. In Stillwater, another college town, l'he chicken fried steaks are grilled, Lee Roulevard, (405) 357-1600. a beer bar turned bar and restaurant the green-beans are seasoned with ba- Part of the secret of Hensley's res- named Eskimo Joe's has attained con and the mashed potatoes that taurant in 1.11 Reno has got to be Ruby, near-mythical proportions. It's ru- come smothered in pepper-flecked who makes the pies. including the un- mored that the Eskimo Joe t-shirt is cream gravy arc real. The Hill 'I'op paralleled peanut butter ones. Soone the second best-selling t-shirt in the opens for breakfast at 5:30 a.m. (om- (except for Ruby, who was out) work/ and it's true that you can hardly elettes and bluebern pancakes are fa- seemed to knoiv exactly how long go anvwhere in Oklahoma without vorites) and closes at 10 p.m. At the she'd been there, but it's been at least spotting a shirt bearing the bar's logo, a junction of 1-40 and S.H. 92, (405) since 1949, as far back as the payroll cartoon Eskimo and his trusty Husky 354-9580. records go. Hensley's serves steaks. dog. Joe's has expanded into a former Fuji Japanese Restaurant is chicken fried and othenvise, and other grocen store next to the restaurant to tucked away on a residential block countn-style dishes. Rolls are baked sell its extensive line of Joe-wear, near Air Depot Boule\.ard in Xlidwest fresh during each shift. Hensley's is at sweatshirts, t-shirts, running shorts, City, and the outlines of the frame 1-40 and <:ountry (:lub Road and is etc. home that it ~~sedto be are still open 24 ho~~rs.(405) 262-3535. Behind all this hoopla lies a bar and clear.'l'he country western m~~sic restaurant with a truly pleasant atmo- piped in over thc luncheon counter Bariurrr P'CIwer is cmistc~~tuditorjbr sphere for lunch or for whiling akvay an seerns incongruoils here; beaded cur- Oklahoma 'SOD.4Y.

- - .- -- 44 Oklahoma 1'01).4Y Gwst Isand Ranch A WorkingRanch Gets Dzlded Up By Diana Nelson Jones

\

The Whites' mid-life career switch ily there and told them about their They take their business personally, The family sometimes takes groups ranch. treating every guest like a house guest, to Enid, Oklahoma City and smaller "We told them they were welcome sharing family stories, listening as visi- towns in the region to show off local anytime they were in the United tors share theirs. White stayed up until rodeos and other events. White once States," Mrs. White recalls, laughing. 2 a.m. one night, in conversation with treated a German guest and his chil- "We weren't home three weeks when a 67-year-old Englishman named Per- dren to the Enid Shrine Circus when they showed up to play cowboys and cy. "He had been a foreign correspon- the wind was blowing heat and bugs Indians." dent, covered fighting in Beirut, knew were out in force. "I apologized," he Within months, another troupe of Hemingway," White says in his slow, says, "They said, 'Oh no, it's wonder- wide-eyed travelers arrived from Ger- rancher baritone. "It's not too often ful. We love it.' "I see our market as many. Eleven guests and the five- that an Oklahoma rancher gets to chat everyone who is taking a vacation any- member White clan occupied the with a guy like that." where in the world and who wants to family quarters for a week. Meals are concocted from family play cowboys and Indians," Mrs. In the meantime, friends had begun recipes. Morning biscuits are fat. The U'hite says. selling the couple on the idea of build- fruit is fresh. Eggs are made to order And some who don't. ing their ranch into a rough-cut resort. and the coffee flows like a river. For One weekend, a bridge club of 15 "It stayed on our minds, because lunch, the staff might serve corn with Oklahoma City women rented rooms agriculture was collapsing," White with jalapeiios and cream cheese, and and stayed in their housecoats night says. "A friend made us list the pros thick slices of ham on homemade and day, wanting nothing but food and and cons of opening a guest ranch. bread. Dinner may be topped off with quiet in which to play bridge. Another There were almost no cons. Of course, old-fashioned cream pie. guest, a secretary to a ranking official I would have opened a tamale stand if Guests fish from two lakes on the at the Pentagon, spent a weekend by I thought it would be cost-plus." island, swim in the pool and ride hors- the pool reading, ignoring all other ac- Because the response from Germany es morning and evening. Square danc- tivities. "I'm still telling everyone who had been great, the Whites surveyed ing, Indian dancing and is willing to listen what a great trip I 200 German travel agents with the idea country-western music fill the eve- had. Thank you for the absolutely out- and were stunned at the enthusiasm. nings. The occasional chuckwagon standing hospitality," she wrote back. Ironically, in 1985, they also proposed breakfast is White's specialty: "Camp- The Whites smile. "We didn't do their idea to banks and were stunned fire biscuits, a little sand and eggs." he anything but leave her alone." at the apathy. They couldn't get a says. bank loan so they liquidated some pos- Ranching is not easily given up, Diana Nehon Jones is a staff writer at sessions and got private financing. White says. It was "kinda hard" to the Tulsa Tribune. White bought a sawmill and built 10 turn the land into a public place, kind guest cottages and a 3,000-square-foot of hard to be easing out of the career lodge out of cedar, cottonwood, yellow he loved first. Thirteen-year-old Ry- pine and catalpa logs. land "talks about going into the cattle OLI.tDm. A farm-to-market road takes visitors business," and his father admits he -a to the ranch from Ames, but the enjoys six guestless months as a full- Getting Whites would rather romance you in, time rancher-from November There in their horse-drawn spring wagon or through March. "But it's not the kind trolley. The three-mile ride to the of future to leave for the kids." The Island Guest Ranch, 90 miles lodge is time enough to lose the bag- The Whites consider their venture northwest of Oklahoma City and 35 miles gage of modern' living. the kind of upbeat life they want now southwest of Enid, opens April I and The Wild West, Mrs. White be- and a perfect legacy for their children. closes September 30. Ten log cabins, with Ryland, the oldest, is assistant wran- mo q2reen-sized beds and a priwate bath, lieves, is "the magnet that has brought can be rentedfor $60 per day or $400 per gler, popping bubblegum as he saddles guests from so many places," countries week per person, including aN meah, as diverse as West Germany, Egypt, up one of the ranch's 30 horses for a riding, local rodeos and pmloa~, Israel, Guatemala, England and Japan. guest to ride. ateqthing except snacks. T2ere am And the Whites make friends fast. This is life on the ranch now, and special rates for children; planned kids They bound through doors to greet Ryland, Gretchen, 11, and Jordana, 9 activities and babsining are available. their guests. Their children help the all talk at once telling stories about Sri For reservations, a~riteCarl and .Way staff clear up and clean up. White Lankans, Venezuelans, Saudi Arabians White, Island Guest Ranch, Ames, OK jokes that he is mistaken for a janitor and a New Jersey guest who believed 73718 or call (4175) 7534574. half of the time. in the antlered jack rabbit on the wall.

46 Oklahoma TODAY Ghost Dance A desperate time, a desperate religion. By Barbara Palmer

ust as settlers had won the It would be hard to imagine a more food supply. In a few short years they battle for the Unassigned vulnerable people than the Plains Indi- had accomplished more than the Army Lands in the heart of Oklaho- ans in the latter part of the 19th had in 30 years of making war with the ma,J a powerful religion was spreading century. Indians. from tribe to tribe on the Great Plains. In 1875, General Philip Sheridan "For the sake of lasting peace, let Like seeds carried on the wind, it had summed up the sentiment of the them kill, skin and sell until the buffa- spread from Nevada to Wy- -- 10s are exterminated. Then oming and Montana, then 6--1 your prairies can be cover- south to Oklahoma to the $ p?q ed with speckled cattle Kiowa, Arapaho. Chey- b- and the festive cowboy." enne, Wichita. Pawnee and ' I Kill they had, millions of Caddo tribes. buffalo, and their disap- The religion was a new pearance had helped to flowering of an old prophe- bring Plains Indian warriors cy, a promise of the rejuve- straggling into Ft. Sill to nation of the earth. In 1888, surrender. it centered on the teachings In his report to the Bu- of Wovoka, a Paiute vision- reau of Ethnology, a Smith- ary who preached that if In- sonian researcher named dians would turn away from James Mooney, doing field the ways of whites, a new research in Oklahoma be- order would supernaturally tween 1890 and 1893, de- occur. scribed how the loss of the Whites would disappear, buffalo affected the Kiowa Wovoka promised. The I tribe: buffalo that had vanished "The change was so from the plains would re- swift and terrible in its ef- turn. The woods would be fects, that they could not full of game; the trees believe it was real. It would be full of birds. Wo- seemed to them like a voka predicted a resurrec- dream of sorrow, a super- tion of all those who had natural cloud of darkness to died at the hands of whites. Hardrng Brg Bow, m an eagle feather headdrts, wrth a paintzng dq~ctrng punish their derelictions, Because of that, whites the Ghost Dance, called the Feather Dance by the Kiowa ttibe. but which could be lifted called it the Ghost Dance. from them by prayer and The more desperate and destitute, U.S. Army in an address to the Texas sacrifice." the more a people have their collective Legislature, which was debating a bill "The old men," Mooney continued, backs up against the wall, the more that would have stopped the slaughter "told of years when the buffalo was vulnerable they are to messiahs, says of the buffalo on the plains of Texas. scarce, but never, since the begin- Dr. Edwin Wade, chief curator at the Buffalo hunters, Sheridan said ap- ning of the world, of a time when there Philbrook Art Museum in Tulsa. provingly, were destroying the Indian's was no buffalo."

July-August 1989 47 With the buffalo gone, the Indians knowledge and a repository for old sto- suffering, were victimized further be- were dependent on the federal govern- ries. Big Bow's father has told him cause of fear, says Wade. White soci- ment for food. about the shared visions of the Ghost ety in Oklahoma and elsewhere saw "We come in from our camps on Dance. the dance as a threat. issue day, to get our rations, only we For Big Bow, painting is not so In South Dakota, as the Ghost find little here. We carry that home, much a way to express himself, as a Dance spread, Army leaders feared the divide around among the people. It is way to record and preserve the tradi- dance would lead to a Sioux uprising. soon gone, and our women and chil- tions of his tribe. Reports that dancers believed the dren begin to cry with hunger and that Abstractions have no place on his shirts they wore during the dances makes our hearts feel bad," said Chief canvases. "I don't believe in modern were impenetrable to bullets fueled Big Bow, one of the Kiowa leaders. art," he says flatly. "It's not real." their fears. Finally, the annual Sun Dance, an Indian police went to arrest Chiet event that, according to one modern Sitting Bull, a medicine man and a Kiowa, had been like "all holidays When their Ghost Dance 1eader.on Standing Rock rolled into one " was outlawed. In Reservation in 1890; he resisted and 1888, soldiers came with bayonets to northern neighbors was killed. Troops brought a band of prevent the dance from taking place. brought word of a Sitting Bull's followers to a cavalry When their northern neighbors messiah and a new camp at Wounded Knee and were dis- brought word of a messiah and a new arming them when someone fired a world, there were many in the tribe world, there were shot. The Army massacred 200 Sioux ready to listen. many in the tribe men, women and children. In 1890, 3,000 Plains Indians gath- Newspapers brimmed with accounts ered and camped on the Washita Riv- ready to listen. of Wounded Knee. In Oklahoma, er. There, the tribe learned the Ghost "newspaper dispatches from Guthrie, Dance, called the Feather Dance by El Reno, and Oklahoma City were the tribe, Awh-mai-goon-gah in the Kio- Reality to Big Bow includes the filled with vivid accounts of war wa language, the Dance-with-clasped- power of the medicine bundles, sacred dances, scalping parties and imminent Hands. collections of revered objects passed outbreaks," all distorted, Mooney Dancers, both men and women, down from generation to generation. wrote. When federal agents investigat- wore eagle feathers in their hair, and In the old days, the bundles told war- ed the dance in Oklahoma, they deter- leaders twirled feathers before the eyes riors where their enemies were hiding, mined it was peaceful. of participants, bringing visions and "like C.B. radios," he says. Among the Kiowa tribe, not all were trances. Dancers painted the symbols He seems most at home with him- convinced that Wovoka's teachings they saw in their visions on clothing self handling the eagle fans that are were true. One Kiowa chief, Apiatan, and on their bodies using sacred paint part of the peyote religion, used to fan traveled to Nevada to visit Wovoka to made from earth carried from the west. cedar and sage smoke towards partici- see the messiah for himself. Apiatan The painted faces and symbols sur- pants, blessing them. His forebears re- was dismayed by the Paiute's appear- vive in paintings by Harding Big Bow. spected the power of eagle feathers, as ance: Wovoka lay under a dirty blanket The dancers' upstretched arms com- does Big Bow. He was brought up wearing dirty moccasins. Apiatan re- municate their yearning. In the broad among the old people, he says, and turned to Oklahoma to tell the Kiowas planes of Harding Big Bow's face, it's learned the old ways. Wovoka was a false prophet. possible to see the shadows of his The Ghost Dance, Big Bow says, Still, the dance persisted for at least great-grandfather, Chief Big Bow. was a bridge between the Sun Dance another decade. Big Bow says the last Big Bow lives in the area where he and the Native American Church. The medicine man to lead the Ghost grew up, near Carnegie and the site Native American Church, a denomina- Dance was Old Man Yellow Bear, soon where his ancestors first danced the tion incorporated in 1918, includes ele- after the turn of the century. Other Ghost Dance, in a big brick house ments of Christianity and ritualistic use sources say the Ghost Dance contin- without a telephone. Though he is of peyote in its doctrine. ued until 1916, when the Indian Agen- only 67, he counts himself as one who The Ghost Dance "was something cy forced the tribe to stop the dance by remembers. for them to lean on," he says. "Things withholding rations. Big Bow decided as a boy that he all around was changing, they knew it would paint after watching Kiowa was." - - painter Monroe Tsatoke sketch. Like One of the tragedies of the Ghost Barbara Palmer is assktant editor for Tsatoke, Big Bow is heir to ceremonial Dance was that its participants, already Oklahoma TODAY.

48 Oklahoma TODAY CALEN DAR

+July 21-23 Tan leather, dry meat, play stickball, stitch beads and more at Eagle Camp, where Indian life on the plains is recreated near Norman. (Don't miss the buffalo, roasted corn and fry bread.) +July 21-30 U.S. Olympic Festival '89 brings 4,000 of the nation's top athletes to Oklahoma to compete in 36 sports. Events will be at the OKC Myriad and locations in Norman, Edmond, Guthrie, Yukon, Midwest City, Stillwater, El Reno and Lawton. +July 22-Sept. 24 Look back at the works of Charles Banks Wilson, Oklahoma's Michelangelo (he painted the ceiling murals in the Capitol Rotunda) at a 300-work retrospec- tive at Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. +Aug. 17-19The cowhands come home to Freedom each year for a rodeo and Old Cowhand's Reunion. There's a free "feed" at the high school gym-smoked beef and all the trimmings.

10-Aug. 13 American Indian Realism with Don Baker, Goddard Center, Ardmore, (405) 226-0909 13-Sept. 3 Joe Goode, Jerry McMillan, Edward Ruscha, OK MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES Art Center, OKC, (405) 946-4477 21-Aug. 21 John Guthrie, Papercast Sculpture, Five Civilized July Tribes Museum, Muskogee, (918) 683-1701 1-31 Harold Scott Exhibit, Plains Indians and Pioneers 22-Sept. 24 An Oklahoma Portrait: Retrospective Exhibition of Museum, Woodward, (405) 256-6136 Charles Banks Wilson, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, 1-31 Exhibit: "Black Women: Achievements Against (918) 582-3122 the Odds," Seminole Nation Museum, Wewoka, 24-Sept. 17 Landscapes by Photographer Howard Bond, (405) 357-5580 Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton, (405) 353- I-Aug. 6 "The Duck Stamp Program: 50th Anniversary," 5675 OK Museum of Natural History, Norman, (405) 325-471 1 AUGUST 1-Aug. 21 Athletes: Photographs 1860-1986, OU Museum of 1-31 Ron Leatherwood, Watercolors, gains Indians and Art, Norman, (405) 325-3272 Pioneers Museum, Woodward, (405) 256-6136 1-Sept. 3 Michael Dwyer Drawings, Philbrook Museum of 1-31 "The Seminole Perspective in Art," Seminole Art, Tulsa, (918) 749-7941 Nation Museum, Wewoka, (405) 257-5580 1-Sept. 15 Movement in Time: Sculpture by Allan Houser, 6 Dedication Ceremonies, Cochise Bust, Indian Hall Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, (918) 582-3122. of Fame, Anadarko, (405) 247-3331 1-Nov. 30 "Uranium + Water: Electricity," Omniplex Science 7-Sept. 9 "VisionMakers," Bank of OK Tower, Tulsa, (405) Museum, OKC, (405) 4245545 521-2931 7-Aug. 13 "hly Other Eye: Photographs by Theodore 27-Oct. 15 "Of People and Places: The Floyd & Josephine Waddell," OK Museum of Art, OKC, (405) 840- Segal Collection of Photography," OK Museum of 2759 Art, OKC (405) 840-2759

July-August 1989 49 ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR I

1 4-6. 10-13, 17-20 "Blithe Spirit," Pollard Theatre. Guthne, (405) 282-2800 8-19 "Gypsy," Lyric Theatre, OKC, (405) 524-7111 18-20, 23-27 "The Odd Couple," Lawton Community Theater, MUSIC AND DANCE Lawton, (405) 355-1600 22-Sept. 2 "Sound of Music," Lyric Theatre, OKC, (405) JULY 534-71 11 1-Aug. 19 River City Music Show, NSU Playhouse, Tahlequah, (918) 456-551 1

6, 13, 20, 27 Concert in the Park, Hafer Park, Edmond, (405) I 359-4630 v 7 Twilight Concert, Chandler Park, Tulsa, (918) I 446-4622 RODEO AND HORSE EVENTS 11, 18, 25 Starlight Concert, River West Festival Park, River JULY Parks, Tulsa, (918) 582-0051 1-2 Roundup Club Powwow and Rodeo, Okmulgee, 18 Concert Under the Stars, Community Center, (918) 756-5375 Bartlesville, (918) 337-2787 1-30 Pari-Mutuel Horse Racing, Remington Park, AUGUST OKC, (405) 424-1000 8-9 "An American Portrait," Tulsa Ballet Theatre and 1-Aug. 31 Pari-Mutuel Horse Racing, Blue Ribbon Downs, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Performing Arts Center, Sallisaw, (918) 775-7771 Tulsa, (918) 596-71 11 49 Hunter-Jumper Horse Show, OKC, (405) 278-8900 13-15 Round-Up Club Rodeo, Rodeo Arena, Walters, (405) 875-2713 19-22 Elks Rodeo, Crystal Beach Arena, Woodward, (405) 256-4097 20-23 Int'l Roundup Club Cavalcade, Fairgrounds, DRAMA Pawhuska, (918) 287-3164 27-29 Wranglers Pioneer Rodeo, Fairview, (405) 227- 7385 JULY 27-29 Trail Riders Rodeo, Fairgrounds, Atoka, (405) 889- 1-3, 7-8 "Music Man," McLain Rogers Park Amphitheater, 7500 Clinton, (405) 323-2222 27-29 IPR4 Rodeo, Nowata, (918) 272-6656 1-23 OK Shakespearean Festival, SEOSU, Durant, 27-29 Green Country Rodeo, Fairgrounds, Miami, (918) (405) 924-0121 542-4443 1-Aug. 19 "Oklahoma!," Discoveryland!, Tulsa, (918) 245- 28-30 Rodeo, Rodeo Arena, Ketchum, (918) 782-2014 6552 29-30 Western OK Palomino Horse Sale, Heart of OK 1-Sept. 2 "Trail of Tears," Cherokee Heritage Center, Expo, Shawnee. (405) 275-7020 Tahlequah, (918) 456-6007 31-Aug. 5 Junior Quarter Horse World Finals, Expo Square, 2, 6-9, 13-16, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Pollard Theatre, Tulsa... 1918) , 744-1 113 20-22 Guthrie, (405) 282-2800 AUGUST 7-22 "Broadway Bound," Performing Arts Center, 3-5 Rodeo, Nance Park, Clinton, (405) 323-2222 Tulsa, (918) 596-7105 4-5 All Indian Rodeo, Caddo Co. Fairgrounds, 7-Aug. 26 "Eddie and the Ecclectics," Brady Theater, Anadarko, (405) 247-2448 Tulsa, (918) 747-9494 12 OK Pinto Horse Show, Expo Square, Tulsa, (918) 8-15 "The Perfect Party," Performing Arts Center, 627-2937 Tulsa, (918) 596-7105 12-13 OK Paint Horse Show, Expo Bldg., Purcell (405) 11-22 "Oliver!," Lyric Theatre, OKC, (405) 524-71 11 478-1599 13-16, 20-23 "The Sound of Music," Edmond Community 17-19 101 Ranch Rodeo, Ponca City Rodeo Grounds, Theatre, OKC, (405) 478-4452 Ponca City, (405) 767-8888 14-16, 19-23 "Quilten," Lawton Community Theater, Lawton, (405) 355-1600 19-22 "The Fantasticks," First Christian Church, Ada, (405) 332-7863 19-30 "The Wind in the Willows," OK Children's Theatre, OKC, (405) 682-7588 25-Aug. 5 "Annie Get Your Gun," Lyric Theatre, OKC, FAIRS AND FESTIVALS (405) 524-7 11 1 JULY ! 27-31 "The Odd Couple," Cabaret Supper Theater, Fort 1 Chukafalaya Celebration, Sulphur, (405) 622-3066 Sill, (405) 355-1600 1 Rising Star Festival, Lindsay, (405) 756-4321 28-Aug. 13 "Kiss Me Kate," Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, 1-2 Major Co. Threshing Bee, Fairview, (405) 227- (918) 596-7105 2265 1 1-4 Nat'l Huckleberry Festival, Town Square, Jay, AUGUST (918) 253-8698 3-13 "Will Rogers-Poet Lariat," Summerstage, Perform- 2-4 Blackberry Festival, Town Park, McLoud, (405) ing Arts Center, Tulsa, (918) 596-7105 964-3600

50 Oklahoma TODAY 5-8 Bluegrass and Gospel Music Festival, Powderhorn 1-2 Ponca City Grand Prix Sports Car Races, Ponca Park, Langley, (918) 253-8471 City, (405) 767-8888 7-8 Midsummer Night's Fair, Firehouse Art Center, 1-3 Quilt Show, Community Center, Grove, (918) 786- Norman, (405) 329-4523 3292 13-15 Cookson Jubilee, Cookson, (918) 457-4403 4 4th of July Celebration, City Park, Shattuck, (405) 14-15 Greenwood Jazz Festival, Greenwood Centre, 938-2701 Tulsa, (918) 582-6435 4 Family Fun Festival. Eldon Lyon Park, Bethany, 14-16 Summerfest, Woodring Airport, Enid, (405) 237- (405) 789-1256 2494 4 Spectacular in the Park, Riverview Park, Miami, 15 Int'l Brick.and Rolling Pin Festival, Stroud, (918) (918) 542-4481 968-3321 c 4 Honor America Day, Randlett Park, Anadarko, 22 Peach Festival, Stratford, (405) 759-3180 (405) 247-5661 AUGUST 4 July 4 Parade and Celebration. Fairgrounds, 2-5 Western Heritage Week, Ada, (405) 436-3032 Blackwell, (405) 363-4195 2-6 Grant's Bluegrass Festival, Hugo, (405) 326-5598 4 July 4th Celebration, Pennington Creek Park, 12 Watermelon Festival, Jefferson Davis Park, Rush Tishomingo, (405) 371-2175 Springs, (405) 476-2037 4 Fourth of July Celebration, Red Tornado Bowl, 18-19 Sapulpa Fest, Sapulpa, (918) 224-2125 Clinton, (405) 323-2720 23 Old Settlers Reunion and Fiddlers Contest, Vinita, 4 Fourth of July Celebration, Myriad Gardens, (918) 256-7133 OKC, (405) 236-1426 24-26 Oilfield Days Celebration, Healdton, (405) 229- 4 Fireworks Display, Ackley Park, Elk City, (405) 0900 225-0207 26 Sucker Day, Wetumka, (405) 452-3237 4 Fireworks Display, River Parks, Tulsa, (918) 582- 27 Texoma Fest, Lake Texoma State Resort, Durant, 005 1 (405) 920-0047 7-9 Nat'l Woodcarving Show, Kensington Galleria, 28-31 Grady County Free Fair, Chickasha, (405) 224- Tulsa, (918) 742-4284 2216 8-9 Air Show and Fly-In '89, Airport, Haskell, (918) 30-Sept. 3 World Series of Fiddling, Powderhorn Park, 482-3004 Langley, (405) 732-3964 13-15 World Organization of China Painters Show and Convention, Myriad Convention Center, OKC, (405) 521-1234 15 Noodling Contest, Grand Lake, Langley, (918) 782-2227 15 89ers Garden Party, Wynnewood, (405) 665-2291 INDIAN EVENTS 21-30 U.S. Olympic Festival '89, OKC Myriad and JULY central OK sites, (405) 236-1989 2-4 Quapaw Powwow, Miami, (918) 542-1995 22 Sand Castle Contest, River Parks, Tulsa, (918) 7-9 Tonkawa Powwow, Tonkawa, (405) 628-2543 582-0051 7-9 Sac and Fox Powwow, Stroud, (918) 968-3526 27 Bathtub Derby, Downtown, Atoka, (405) 889-2410 7-9 NW Oklahoma Indian Fair, Woodward, (405) 256- 28-29 Whole Hawg Day. Eufaula, (918) 689-3227 741 1 AUGUST 13-16 Otoe-Missouria Encampment, Campgrounds, Red 1 Grand Prix, State Capitol Park, OKC, (405) 521- Rock, (405) 7234419 2946 20-23 Int'l Cavalcade, Pawhuska, (918) 287-1208 5 Woolaroc Family Day, Bartlesville, (918) 336-0307 21-23 "Eagle Camp, Native American Living History," 5-6 Arcadia Lake Sailing Regatta, Edmond, (405) 341- Norman, (405) 321-7260 2808 28-30 Indian Hills Powwow, OKC, (405) 787-3959 5-6 All Night Singing, Konawa, (405) 925-3434 AUGUST 6 Anadarko's Birthday Celebration. Downtown, 4-6 Kihekah-Steh Powwow, Skiatook, (918) 396-3370 (405) 247-5661 7-12 Indian Exposition, Caddo Co. Fairgrounds, 10-13 Centennial Quilt Show, Lincoln Plaza, OKC, (405) Anadarko, (405) 247-5263 278-8900 12 St. Oakerhater Tribal Honor Dance, Roman Nose 12 Parade of Boats, Cookson, (918) 457-4403 State Park, Watonga, (405) 842-6636 15-Nov. 13 "Dinosaurs Alive!" OKC Zoo, OKC, (405) 424- 31-Sept. 4 Cherokee Nat'l Holiday, Tahlequah, (918) 456- 3344 067 1 17-19 Rodeo and Old Cowhand's Reunion, Freedom, (405) 528-3276 19 Spearfishing Contest, Grand Lake, Langley, (918) 782-2227 24-26 Old Timers Day, Miskelly State Park, Choctaw, (405) 390-2273 SPECIAL EVENTS JULY Although leinformation in this ca/endar is current, dates and 1 Little Sahara Sand Drags, Little Sahara State Park, detah may change without notice. P/ease ca// in advance Waynoka, (405) 824-1471 before attending events.

- July-August 1989 51