Stopping at Wichita Falls, Texas

      "OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain, And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet, When the wind comes right behind the rain.  OOOOk-lahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I, Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk makin' lazy circles in the sky."  Yup, I hummed this all day as we drove north to south through the whole state.

     It was a much prettier drive than I thought it would be.  Somehow I had in mind that the state was just flat and dry.  As we drove through the center of the state we saw lots of trees and a rolling hills.  I thought about how difficult it must have been to get wagons through this landscape - across dozens of creeks with high banks.  I looked up stage coach trails in Oklahoma and thought about how happy I was to be sitting on a well cushioned seat in a vehicle with shock absorbers and rubber tires.  Considering the amount of dust in the air, I was also very grateful to be in an enclosed, well ventilated truck.  

    All of this thinking about travel in the early days of the state led us both to wonder this:  How do kids these days learn about the Old West?  Saturday morning westerns and, later, adult westerns, had stories about cattle drives, cow towns, stage coach rides and robberies, round-ups, rodeos, stores with false fronts, hitching posts and boardwalks, homesteaders, water wars, cattle rustling, Texas Rangers, Wells Fargo shipments, and wagon trains.  The shows certainly glorified the West and presented one-sided views of interactions with the Native Americans.  However, they also showed us a life with which  kids growing up in Minnesota had no contact.  If you are over 50 you probably can rattle off a dozen shows with Western themes -- Roy Rogers, Annie Oakley, Lone Ranger, Gene Autrey, Red Rider, Maverick, Gunsmoke, Cimarron ... I can't remember all the ones that we thought of.  Can you add to my list?

     The picture that goes with this post is of my dad, Max, in 1942, here in Wichita Falls at Shepherd Field.  This is where he spent most of World War II as he worked in an Army finance unit.  Just before the war he was doing much the same job in Washington D.C. so I guess it made sense for him to continue after he was drafted.  My mother, who was 22 at the time, moved to Texas and they lived in married quarters.  These were very quickly built, tiny, wooden duplexes.  Forever after my mother would talk about how incredibly hot the summers were.  So in honor of my folks, here we are in Wichita Falls.  The weather is perfect, though.  Sunny and 78.  It was great to sit outside on our lawn chairs and enjoy the sun.