Notes From Oklahoma

This post comes from Oklahoma, where we are now, visiting. We’re staying in my mother Wenonah’s house in Oklahoma City. It’s so peaceful here by the lake. We brought more furniture and arranged for TV and internet service so we don’t feel so isolated. It’s sad to be here where my mother spent so much time, I also feel closer to her here, and there’s some comfort to that. I can still see her sitting there by the window, listening to the radio and looking out at the birds and squirrels playing in the trees.

 

 

We made a trip to Ada, visited with my daughter and her family there, and also with other family and friends, and we visited the Chickasaw Nation headquarters.

 

It’s hot here, not the dry Colorado heat that we’re used to, but a humid heat that weighs on you like heavy blanket. I’ve been running a couple of times though, and it wasn’t too bad. The air is cool, and there’s more oxygen in the air here. That kind of makes up for the humidity.

 

We spent a quiet 4^th of July watching TV, but one item in the news reminded me of one of Pauls Valley’s claims to fame, the host to the International Championship Watermelon Seed Spitting Championships. I remember visiting Pauls Valley as a boy, and getting instructions from my cousin Phillip on the fine points of watermelon seed spitting.  

 

This year contestants travelled from as far away as Oklahoma City to compete, but the  championship was won by Darren Jennings, a Pauls Valley native, with a winning spit measuring over 34 feet.