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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE O F T H E STATE O F OKLAHOMA

OKLAHOMA

Vol. 41, No. 6

November-December 1991

THE RANCH THAT FRANK BUILT Will Rogers once said Woolaroc "is the most unique place in the United States." Now a new book lends credence to the claim. By Jeanne M. Deulin, photographs by Jerry Poppenhouse

THE ANTIQUE MALL ODYSSEY

16

Shopping malls have finally caught up with the past, making bargain-hunting for antiques and collectibles the newest way to get malled. By Suzette Brmer,photographs by Scotr Andenen

A COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS

23

Sometimes twelve gifts in twelve days isn't all it's cracked up to be. By Baxter Black, i/lustration by Keuin Garrison

THE WELL-CONSIDERED BOOKSTORE

30

This is one bookstore where the joys of reading aren't reserved for the intellect alone. From the fragrant air to the polished floor underneath, Full Circle engages all your senses. By R a w Manh, photographs by Joseph Mills

KEEPING CHRISTMAS

34 T4 7 3

L a n d runs m a d e central Oklahoma a ~ l a cwhere e dozens ofcultures biended. Ahundred years later, German, Mexican, and British traditions still

thrive. By Kman Goff-Parker,

photographs by b y m i W. Mame/

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i3'pr3

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Page 24

ONE ON ONE IN SHORT LETTERS OMNIBUS 0' Cedar Tree, by Barbara Palmer PORTFOLIO Photographing Life FOOD T h e End 0' Main, by Rebecca L. Martin WEEKENDER Making Merry, by Barbara Palmer ARTS T h e Creation Windows, by Tern'L. D a m w ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR A guide to what's happening

Page 20

4 5 6 7 24 43 45 47 49

COVER: Morning at Kerr Plaza in downtown Oklahoma City. Photograph by Tommy Evans. Inside front cover: Spring Creek at Martin Nature Center in Oklahoma City. Photograph by Tommy Evans. Back cover: Canoes on Lower Mountain Fork River in Beavers Bend State Park. Photograph by David Vinyard. November-December 1991

3

OKLAHOMA

mDM

I year and from forty to fifty-two edito-

I' Introductions 1 9

I

m the party guest you can't get rid of. T h e man who came to dinner. I didn't plan it that way. When I crossed the Arkansas border last January and slipped a homemade tape of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" (from a 1950s studio recording with Nelson Eddy as Curly) into my cassette player, I thought I'd b e leaving in May. I'd c o m e t o $ teach journalism for a semester at OU, a break from 3 twenty-two years in newsrooms as a reporter and editor. By spring, I knew I wouldn't b e leaving in May. I extended my leave of ab-

:

job back East and spent the summer teaching and advis. ing the Oklahoma Daily. One thing led to another: the friendliness of Sooners, a fascination with Oklahoma culture and history, the exhilaration of new back roads to explore, the first time I saw a buffalo-and, no small factor, a job offer I couldn't resist. I'm the first publisher in the thirtyfive year history of Oklahoma Today. Before retiring this summer after twelve years as editor-in-chief, Sue Carter had seen her role evolve. Besides the editorial content, Sue oversaw marketing, production, circulation, and staff supervision. She was a de facto publisher. As its longtime readers know, Sue Carter nurtured the magazine into an outstanding travel and tourism publication. It grew from four to six issues a

rial pages an issue. Numerous awards for editorial excellence came its way, including being named magazine of the year in 1991 by the Regional Publishers Association. But why the need for a publisher? T h e chief reason is the magazine is going to introduce advertising in 1992. For the magazine to grow, it needs more financial support. Advertising will give readers an even better editorial product-more editorial pages, eventually more issues a year. What kind of advertising? Appropriate, tasteful, and not a distraction from the editorial content. Oklahoma Today is unique as a chronicle of t h e state's culture and history as well as a lively guide to its present. It is also pictorially beautiful. A d v e r t i s i n g won't d i s t u r b Oklahoma Today 's aesthetic identity. As publisher, I'll seek to accommod a t e advertisers without forgetting that readers come first. Oklahoma Today's ethical standards are high. T h e ethical standards will remain high. Should an advertiser innocently suggest that a twelve-page spread on fertilizer would sure look good around a full-color ad for his chain of farm stores, there's Jeanne Devlin to help me maintain those standards. Jeanne joined Oklahoma Today as managing editor in 1989 after a varied career in journalism, teaching, and private industry, including time spent as a llSA Today correspondent and a vice president of advertising for P e n t e Games, the one-time Stillwater manufacturer of the upscale board game. As a reporter and editor for the NmsPress in Stillwater, s h e won numerous Continued on page 6

David Walters, Governor

@

Published by the Oklahoma

Tourism and Recreation Department

Berl Schwartz

Publisher Jeanne M. Devlln,

Editor Felton Suoud. Suoud D e s ~ g n Inc., ,

Art Direction Barbara Palmer. Associate Editor Steve Rice, M a r k M A d Sales Melanie Mayberry, Circulation Manager Llsa Breckenridge, Administrative Assistant Pam Poston, Subscription Services Pam Fox, Accounting Steffie Corcoran, Copy Editor

Conhibuting Editors Burkhard Bilger, M. Scott Carter. Ralph Marsh, and Michael Wallls

Tourism and Recreation Directors James C. Thomas, Amng Esctufrve Dtmctor Davld Davles, Dcpury Dfnaor T o m Creider, Parks Krlstlna S. Marek, PIunningandDcvl/opmmt Kathleen Marks, T r d a n d Tounsm Mike Moccia, Admtnfstruhe S m m T o m Rich, Rerorrs Berl Schwartz, ORIahoma Today

Tourism and Recreation Commission Lt. Gov. Jack Mlldren, Chairnun Sweet Pea Abernathy J. Patrick Bark C. Coleman Davls Llnda k Epperley Charles S. Givens Henry A. Meyer, I11 Ray H . Quackenbush Michael D. T ~ p p s

Oklahoma Today (ISSN 0030-1892) IS publ~shedblmonthly tn January. March, Mav. July. September and November by the Oklahoma Tounsm and Recreatton Department, 401 W~llRogers Bldg P 0 Box 53384. Oklahoma C~ty,OK 73152 (405) 521-24% or (800) 652-6552. Subscnpunn prlces $13 50Iyr In U S.. $18 501yr. fore~gn. U S copyr~ght0 1991 by ObIahoma Today maganne Reproducuon In whole or In pan w~rhoutpcrmlsslon IS prohrb~redThe magazine a nor rcspons~blefor unsol~c~td rnater~alfor edltonal cons~derat~on.

.

Pnntedar P e n 1

P

T&

Second-class postage pa~dat Oklahoma Clry, OK and enay offices Postmaster Send address changes add~t~onal to Oklahoma T& C~rculanon.P 0 Box 53384, Oklahoma C~ty,OK 73152

Oklahoma TODAY

Tradition

on Tape

vous at Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum. There, they encountered the Cherokee buckbrush baskets of Ella Mae Blackbear. Life suddenly veered in a new direction. "I kept thinking 'this is really great' and wondering if any films had been made about Cherokee baskets," recalls Swearingen. Research turned up a few written accounts, but no films, no videos, no slides of any kind. T h e Swearingens

Scott Swearingen is an Oklahoman born and bred, but he managed to reach adulthood having never attended a powwow or seen Indian crafts. Until 1981, his image of an American Indian was the Lone Ranger's stoic sidekick. Tonto. His historic perspective w a s much better. "I just $ remember Oklahoma history being presented (in fifth grade) as if the place was kind of empty and nothing happened here until the land run," says Swearingen. Years went by. H e moved to California only to return to . .-. - .hEr Tulsa in 1981 to raise a family and, hopeGig-..1 fully, to continue Osage nbbonwork by the [ate Geotgeann Robinson. making nature documentaries with his wife, Sheila. couldn't believe their luck. Flora and fauna it might have re"Here was something that seemed mained, too, had someone not asked the really gorgeous to us, something extraorcouple to document the annual Rendezdinary," explains Scott Swearingen, "and

it was kind of an unexplored area." Their reaction? "Gosh, we ought to make a tape about this." Their tape on Ella Mae Blackbear took a year and a half to finish. It follows the basketmaker as she gathers buckbrush, collects plants for dyes, and, finally, weaves the grass into the forms she learned at her mother's side; running parallel with Blackbear's story is the story of Cherokee basketry. By the time the Blackbear tape was a wrap, the Swearingens had another in the works on Knokovtee Scott, a Creek shellworker, as well as enough other ideas to keep tape rolling into the 21st century. T e n years later, four tapes form the Native American Master Artists Video Series. ( T h e third tape is on Osage ribbonwork, the fourth on Native American music.) Work has commenced on a powwow video. Swearingen sees no end in sight: "This has opened up a whole other world to me. It is fascinating to me that Oklahoma could have the most vibrant, diverse living Native American culture in the country-by far-and I was able to grow up and get all the way through high school and go to Oklahoma State and not have the slightest idea about it." His videos may ensure a different truth for the next generation. Tapes are $34.95 each, plus $2.50 for shipping and handling. For information, call (918) 585-8849. -JMD

'C 1

C I

Chrome for Christmas

When Jeanette Koenig and J. Don Cook put the pieces together for "Route 66," an Oklahoma City gallery and gift store, they started with a couple of guidelines. It had to be totally unpredictable, and it had to be totally eclectic. Something, in fact, like Route 66, the highway where you never know what lies around the next curve. In the store's case, this may be a lamp with a fuschia-andturquoise-painted cowboy boot as a base, a neon armchair, stacks of Route 66 tshirts, a cowhide-backed jacket, or a flamingo fashioned from a shovel. Given that, when Koenig set about creating a gift basket to sell to Route 66 aficionados, using an actual basket was pretty much out of the question. (Too September-October 1991

predictable.) Instead, Koenig fills vintage Cadillac hubcaps with a melange of Route 66 souvenirs emphasizing Oklahoma. (A deluxe version holds a handpainted Route 66 watch by Oklahoma City artist T i m Ozment.) T h e design of the '60s-era Cadillac hubcaps make them perfectly suited to serve as a party tray, explains Koenig. T h e chrome center, for example, could hold salsa or cocktail sauce, and one could fill the surrounding valley with shrimp on ice or tortilla chips. Apart from the fact that the hubcaps are an icon of the road, they are right in line with another of the store's guiding principles: using available and recycled materials. "Artists have always used

magnet,-a bag of red dirt, and a guidebook.Price: $40 and up. what's available," says Koenig. "We wanted something that could be thrown away unless someone found a use for it." Kind of like Route 66. T o order the gift hubcap, call (405) 848-61 66. -BP

5

Continuedfrom page 4 awards, including one in 1989 for the second-best lifestyle section of its size from the National Newspaper Association. As managing editor of Oklahoma Today, she was largely responsible for editorial development in the last two years. After two issues as acting editor, Jeanne becomes editor with my appointment as publisher. She was kind enough to lend me this space-her space resuming in January. . Having been an editor, I know what editors want from publishers: to be left alone, Greta-Garbo style (except, of course, when they need something, like more staff). And having been an editor, I intend to be the kind of publisher I've always admired: the kind who keeps abreast of every facet of the magazine, who asks questions, settles disputes, and takes final responsibility, but who lets people do their jobs. T h e nicest thing a publisher ever said to me was he was looking for an editor who'd "write his name across the paper." (Then he hired somebody else.) Write your name, Jeanne. Jeanne and I have similar goals. We want to retain and improve the editorial quality. We are dedicated to Oklahoma Today's emphasis on good writing. We want to experiment. For example, we've talked about an occasional short story to showcase Oklahoma's phenomenal pool of talented fiction writers. We want to explore issues, like the wild horse article featured in July. We want more stories about Oklahomansfamous, offbeat, or just plain interesting. And we want more humor. After all, this is still the land of Will Rogers. Speaking of which, what did I do when I went back East in August? In a Pennsylvania antique shop, I found and bought a first edition of Will Rogers: Ambassador of Good Will, Prince of Wit and Wisdom, by P.J. O'Brien, "with an appreciation by Lowell Thomas," a 1935 biography published by T h e John A. Winston Co. And I took my family to New York City to see-what else-"The Will

Army National Guard, in Oklahoma City. This museum is one of the finest, if not the finest, non-regular military museums in the nation. Thousands of -Berl Schwartz Oklahomans and others served with the 45th in World War 11, the Korean War, and now Desert Storm. (Bed Schwam, 44, has been WashingTed L. Maloy ton bureau chief of United Press InternaGreater Houston Area Chapter, tional, which included supervising White 45th Infantry Association House correspondentHelen Thomas;he was Houston, Texas editor of the York Daily Record when Pennsylvania publishers named it the best Just heard on "Jeopardy" that newspaper in the state in 1989; managing editor of the award-winning Knoxville "Howdy Folks" is the official poem of News-Sentinel in Tennessee; assistant t h e state of Oklahoma. As native managing editor of Scripps Howard News Oklahomans, we didn't know we had Service, which included running the such a poem. Would you be so kind as Olympicbureaufor the newspaper chain at to forward a copy to us. Thanks much. Oberia Harris the 1984 Games in Los Angeles; a reporter San Diego, California who covered Congress, state, and local governmentfor the Louisville Times of Kentucky, and who as a cubforthe PhilaGlad to oblige. "Howdy Folks, " by delphia Bulletin wrote about music and interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono. David Randobh Milsten, was written in He served last spring as thefint McMahon 1938 and describes the happenings at the Centennial Profasor of Journalism at the dedication of the Will Rogers Memorial at Univetsity of Oklahoma and continues as Claremore on November 4, 1938. The an adjunct instructor in the School of poem, which has been set to music, is writJournalism. He likes baseball, antique ten through the eyes of WillRogets. In 1941, hunting, andhebing raise his ten-year-old the eighteenth legislature of Oklahoma twin daughters, with his wije, Alice, an adoptedit as thestatepoem.It can befound in the Directory of Oklahoma, which is attorney.) availablefrom the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, 200 Northeast 18th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73105. Rogers Follies" on Broadway. Let me know if you want to tape my version of "Oklahoma" with Nelson Eddy as Curly.

Letters

I'm sitting here reading an article on "The Return of the Wild Horse" (JulyAugust 1991), and I like the idea of adopting a wild horse. How does one find information on this?

Brenda Parmley Ripley The adoption program in Oklahoma is handled by the Bureau of Land Management office in Moore. That telephone number is (918) 794-9624.

Missing from your story on "Remingtonland" (March-April 1991) was a reference to the national 45th Infantrv Division Museum. Oklahoma

Ron Wood was incomctLy identified as Scott McCutchen on page 27 of the JulyAugust '91 issue. In the September-October '91 issue, the profile of violin maker Tauno Ekonen should read string instmments by baroqueera craftsmen like Antonio Stradivarius have been converted to meet modern orchestral standards. We regret the editing mror. Readers have also been curious as to the locations of thephotographsin "A Tour on the Prairie." They are:pages 22 and23, WashingtonIrving Cove at Lake Keystone; pages 24 and 25, near Ingalls, south of S.H. 51; pages 26 and 27, northeast of Noman; insetphoto,page 27, Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma TODAY

0' Cedar Tree

Bringing Rome afamily tradition

G

rowingup,asfarafieldas I had ever gone looking for a Christmas tree was the Lions Club tree lot along Highway 75 in Bartlesville. My father, though, was a Missouri farm boy who grew up cutting down Christmas trees from the back pasture. He left the farm and moved to Oklahoma to work as a chemist for an oil company, but he retained some country ways. For instance, the winter the blue spruce at the side of our house needed trimming, we skipped the tree lot and used the six-foot top of the tree. In our suburban neighborhood, that caused me excruciating embarrassment; I thought it roughly comparable to dragging in the birdbath to use as an end table. I know better now. My husband's mother, Betty Bonham Palmer, grew up on a farm near Keota in Haskell County. Along with her brother Griff and her father, each year on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, she went bumping along in a wagon up the mountain behind the pasture and the pond to cut down a red cedar Christmas tree. I don't remember exactly when or how we struck upon the idea of blending our families' memories and traditions. Yet now we travel every December to "Granddad's Mountain" to cut our Christmas trees. We've done it for five years now, and something about it must be deeply satisfying, because it's three hours down 1-40 for my family, and my husband's sister and her family come up from Texas when they can. We meet in Muskogee and head southeast, carrying thermoses full of hot chocolate through December's olive September-October 1991

drab landscape. W e pass through Stigler and Keota, past the sandstone farmhouse where Betty grew up and the cemetery where her parents are buried. There is a gas well at the foot of the mountain that some might think an eyesore, but Betty points out the tidy brick homes her old neighbors have bought with their royalties. v,

2 d

&

B -

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A thicket of trees just a few hundred yards from the fence line is the spot that is almost sure to yield our final Christmas trees. T h e cedars there are shielded from the wind and grow even and plump. But we don't look there first. We walk along the road that once carried the wagon and then cut across high grass to where little draws carry what's left of the fall rains down the side of the mountain. On the slope, we race from tree to tree, stopping to deliberate, our muffled shouts surprising in the still-

ness.0urdoglikewisecrashesthrough

the woods, nearly delirious with the smells of the country. Later we'll walk more slowly, and 1'11 ask, as I do every year, to hear the names of Granddad Bonham's cows and dogs. Most of the cows' names began with "Miz" and have a rural charm, but the dogs' names are where Mr. Bonham's wit shone. Terpsichore was a spirited dog named for the Muse of the dance; another dog answered to Florence Josephine. T w o troublemakers he called Little Devil and Worse. I missed knowing him, but hearing the names he gave his dogs, I know I would have liked him. Our separate households have their own agendas when we get out our work gloves and hacksaws. My in-laws go for size, choosing huge trees with great, spreading branches that fill the corner of their family room and permanently block the back door for the holiday season. T h e y are purists when it comes to decorating the cedar. No lights. All the decorations made by one of their children or grandchildren. T h e y allow themselves, however, to throw tinsel on by the handful, which I appreciate hugely, having been taught the tedious strand-by-strand method. At dusk, we tie our tree (from the first tree patch: conical, tall, not too wide) on top of our car, stuffing extra branches for garlands into the hatchback. T h e biting, spicy smell of red cedar will linger in our car for days. Tomorrow or the next day, we'll decorate our tree, throwing on handfuls of tinsel. Then I'll go back and rearrange the tinsel, a strand at a time. -Barbara Palmer

7

0I;laRQC

.\

The ranch that Frank built inspires a new book.

W Cowboys, outlaws, Indians, and banking tycoons mingled at the annual Cow Thieves and Outlaws Reunion at Woolaroc. Guns were checked at the gate.

hen Joe Williams got the go ahead in 1990to do a book on Woolaroc, the elegant country playground of Phillips Petroleum founder Frank Phillips near Bartlesville, he knew one thing had to happen for the book to rine true: he had to 1 understand Frank Phillips. T o argue that Woolaroc was to be about a place, not a man, was to miss the point entirely. "Frank is Woolaroc," Williams explains simply. If Joe Williams could grasp what made an oil baron build a plush retreat so he could impress presidents, bankers, and movie stars only to then run ads in the Bartlesville newspaper offering locals free Sunday tours of it (led no less by Uncle Frank himself on horseback), he could probably depict Woolaroc in print as Frank Phillips had seen the place. Williams could see only one way to do this: "I tried to become Uncle Frank," he says a mite sheepishly. "Seriously. My wife would probably say at times that I succeeded." As a concept, it wasn't as outlandish as it might sound. Through the years, Williams had more than once donned hat, chaps, gun, and the trademark wire-rimmed glasses of Uncle Frank in order to portray the oil man at civic affairs in and around Bartlesville. H e had read what he could about Phillips, including Tulsan Michael Wallis's biography Oil Man. And, like many an Oklahoman, the first buffalo Joe Williams had ever seen was at the ranch that Frank built. Though they never knew each other, Joe Williams and Frank Phillips went way back. It didn't hurt, either, says Williams, "that I'm thin and, frankly, balding." But writing a book was not performing a short skit in front of a tolerant charity crowd. Over the next year, getting into Uncle Frank's character became something of an obsession with Joe Williams. T h e Bartlesville writer hunkered down in the basement archives of the Phillips's log lodge at Woolaroc like a soldier in a bunker. There, he pored over old photographs of Woolaroc regulars such as Will Rogers, Wiley Post, and Paw--

Phillips's thank you one year: this hat and chaps.

By Jeanne M. Devlin Photographs by Jerry Poppenhouse from the book Woolaroc

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F r ~ n kPhi//$.s irrwsttd in the origiacll Ili//do!-f-;lsto/jlIHotel it].Vm York Cih. 11 2/11thf hotd E V N b~ roke, Phi//ips z ~ l / k m NWN)' ~ i ffour h ~llf//t-.Sh~~Pd (ille/nd~/ier.s

.fi.o111it.~fN~r~ou.r .z,hirh hetng ill t h Ililo/c~ro(. 7i1p Roon~.He r/l//ed the I;lrc~~~de/ier.r, ~

lodge, the 111ostr x p r ~ ~ s c.h~~~dr/iers i~lf 1'11 the totr~~tly. ~ P C ~ / I I Sthq)' Y uerc the S M I I I qf hir

itr'e.r.st~~~e~~t'.r

r(jt16r11. Oklahoma 'I'ODAY

I n P h i l l i p s ' s day, Woolaroc was a self-contained ranch, with its own smokehouse, hen house, livery stables, dairy cattle, vegetable garden, and slaughterhouse.For a time, it produced its own brands of sausage and bottled water. The water was shipped by the case to Phillips's New York oftice.

Oklahoma 'TODAY

Frank Phillips had two loves: riding horses and sitting on the porch of his lodge. Phillips patterned the lodge after the rustic El Tovar Hotel by the Grand Canyon, and he once told World War I1 correspondent Ernie Pyle it was a "perfect example of selfishness." "To think that I built that whole lake and dam and waterfall so I could sit here on the porch and look at it," marveled Phillips.

nee Bill. He perused hundreds of newspaper clips kept by Paul Endacott, a former president of Phillips Petroleum and one of Frank's golden boys from the oil patch days. H e took the time to decipher the daily business journals of Phillips's bi-coastal comings and goings kept by Uncle Frank's personal secretary and mistress Sidney Fern Butler. And he read a wealth of personal correspondence between Phillips and the likes of auto magnate Henry Ford, big game hunter Osa Johnson, and Woolaroc guest Elliott Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the process, Joe Williams found epistles and photographs that no one had found before, including the only photograph known to exist of the Phillips family (five brothers, a sister, and Frank's mother, Lucinda, at Woolaroc). "It's a great photograph," crows Williams. There were other coups, including an intriguing correspondence between Frank Phillips and Nancy Cooper Russell, the widow of Western artist Charles Russell. Those letters indicate that Woolaroc just missed acquiring the entire collection of Charles Russell's work. "In 1940," explains Williams, "Frank offered $100,000 to Nancy Russell for the entire collection. It wasn't accepted. She was asking $250,000, an amount far out of line to Frank. In typical Frank Phillips fashion, he withdrew the offer and came back with a lower figure of $80,000. She refused." Nancy Russell died in May of 1940. T h e collection was still unsold. Ultimately it was auctioned off piecemeal in 1941 by a California probate court. It brought $40,000. Frank Phillips didn't learn of the court sale, until it was a done deal. As a result, Woolaroc's Western art museum, while the home of six Russell paintings and fourteen bronzes, never became the world-class memorial to Russell that Frank Phillips envisioned. As for the value of the collection-that-got-away, Williams points out that the Russell painting When Meat Was Plenty acquired at a cost of $1,000 by Phillips for Woolaroc is now worth an estimated $2 million. And Williams dug deeper into Woolaroc's past.

I

Buffi~lu(lnd white fi~llowdeer

November-December 1991

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H e tracked down Sara Jane, one of Frank's two foster daughters, and Frank's sister, Lura, who now lives in a Tulsa nursing home. He spent many an hour in the Bartlesville office of Paul Endacott, listening to the older man's colorful memories of Frank Phillips, including one recollection of a 1926 business trip which Phillips asked Endacott measurements of out the west rusticininterior of the El Tovar Hotel to bymake the Grand Canyon.

Phillips wanted to pattern the interior of his new Woolaroc lodge-especially the balcony-after the El Tovar. "Endacott recalls going into a small Navajo log hut covered with blankets on the wall and seeing only one other person besides the Indian clerk-Frank Phillips," says Williams. Endacott saw Phillips give the clerk $1,400 for a mound of Navajo blankets and rugs. " 'I thought he was squandering a lot of money for I was only making $190 a month,' " Endacott told Williams. Today, many of the blankets still drape chairs in the lodge and are worth at least $25,000. Good as the anecdotes he gathered for the book were, Williams says - his best insights into Frank Phillips came while sitting alone in a twig ' ~ u N ~ O r ' ' chair on the front porch of the pine lodge Phillips built on the 3,600-acre ranch and wildlife refuge in 1925."It's a place where you can hear your heart beat," says Williams. It was also Frank's favorite place on the spread. From the porch, the pristine waters of Clyde Lake twinkle below and the rolling hills of the Osage cascade out of sight. Buffalo roaming the Oklahoma 'I'ODAY

Some 2,000 animals once roamed Woolarocfrom yaks to black swans to camels. Phillips gave up on camels, reindeer, and exotics that couldn't survive Oklahoma's climate. Nonetheless, some 700 animals remain. Among them: buffalo, mustangs, Sika and fallow deer, Brahmas, yaks, and llamas. The ranch's eighty-three longhorn cattle are from the oldest, purest string of longhorns in the world.

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November-December 1991

At Woolaroc parties Frank would toast guests with glasses of milk, then ask how they liked the taste of buffalo milk. As his guests reeled from the experience, a straight-faced Frank would offer them another novelty-a

chance

to see a buffalo milked. The hitch: buffalos could only be milked after midnight. Woolaroc nights found Frank tucked in bed while sheepish city slickers stood by the barn waiting for their demonstration.

tallgrass prairie are a common sight. "He liked looking out and surveying all of his land," says Williams. "And it wax all his land as far as he could see." T h e porch offered a vantage point for Phillips to survey where he came from and just how far he had gone. What is now known as Woolaroc actually abuts the site of Well No. 8 that launched Phillips Petroleum. T h e view takes in the lake Phillips built just for the pleasure of looking at it from his front porch, as well as the woods and rocks from which Woolaroc (Wood-lake-rocks)gets its name. In the end, Williams came to the conclusion that Frank Phillips may have died in 1950, but he left Woolaroc's spirit intact. In that, Uncle Frank's Woolaroc differs from the wealthy playpens of the Newport Rich of Rhode Island or the Hollywood Rich of Beverly Hills. Those tycoons built their mansions, sequestered them behind high gates and even higher fences, and only let the masses in when inheritance taxes and the Great Depression made it clear the only way their mansions could survive was by leaving them to paying tourists and the velvet ropes that keep the masses from coming too close even after one is gone. Frank, on the other hand, like a boy with a new baseball card, had always been willing to show his ranch to anyone. Six years before he died, Frank Phillips left Woolaroc to his private foundation. After that it was not unusual for visitors to Woolaroc to come upon Uncle Frank sitting on the porch at dusk or to have Uncle Frank stop a child to chat. Woolaroc was still Woolaroc, you see. When Williams finally realized Frank Phillips got as big a kick out of impressing a local child with his buffalo herd as he did a Wall Street banker, his book fell into place. What was supposed to be a 144-page book, became a 192-page tome that is as beautiful as the ranch that Frank

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14

Oklahoma '1'OI)AY

loved. T h e extra pages of the book have gone to show-and-tell-outlaw tales, favorite pranks, heart-stopping pieces of art, and the recollections of insiders-just as if Uncle Frank were still giving the tour. And that is as it should be, says Joe Williams. Because in the end, though Woolaroc gave Phillips much joy, watching others enjoy it, it could be argued, gave him even more. Jeanne M. Dmlin is editor of Oklahoma Today. Jerry Poppenhouse, a photographer for the P h i l l ~ s Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, was thephotographerfor the book Woolaroc.

T Woolaroc

Getting

There

Woolarocis /ocatedfourteen miles

southwest of Bart/esvi//eon S.H. 123-fo~-fve miles northwest of Tu/sa on S.H. 123. Besides the Westernart museum with its 10,000 works of art (amongthem Russel/., Remingtons, and Morans), the wildlife refge, and the Phi//$s's /og lodge, visiton wiflfind nature trai/s,gift shops, concessions,a stone barn wid a petting zoo, anda Y-Indian Guide Center. Woo/arocis open 10 a.m. to 5p.m. six akys a week,fifg-twoweeks a year. It is dosed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.Admission is $3, $2 for senior citizens. (Inkeeping with Frank Phi//ips'smownedsoft spot for childmn,them is no admissionfor those undersixteenyears of age.) For more infonnationon Woolaroc,ca// (918)336-0307. The book Woolaroc, wrinen and duigned by Joe Wi//iamr,is avai/abfe for$40p/us $4.50 for shipping and hand/ingchalgesf m n ~Joe Wi//iams Communications,P.O. Box 924, Bart/esvil/e,OK 74005. (Proceeds benefit the Frank Phi//$s Foundation.) For more information on the book, call (918)3-36-2267.

November-December 1991

I

.

The

DYMEY "Whenthe vims of restlessness begins to

takepossession of a wayward man, and the

road away from here seems broad and straight

and sweet, the victim must3fstfind in AimseF

a good and suficient reasonforgoing."

-John Steinbeck

I

Where our intrepid writer hits twentynine malls in five days and returns home

with a truckload of treasure-

and a new addiction.

that the case, how long would it take me to get to the Canadian border to escape the fury of my editor's wrath? "Oh well," I rationalized, "how much do I really need to know to go shopping for a week?" This trip would be much easier to swallow, I decided, if one of my objectives was to do all my Christmas shopping in one big buying belch. "Will that be fifties or twenties?" asked the cashier, surly from the heat. "I don't care if it's deutsche marks," I told him. "Just let me out of here." Cash in hand and buoyed by a full tank of gas, Tulsa was soon in my rearview mirror. T h e road was calling my name. I didn't have a plandidn't want one, quite frankly. Only a map, a few clothes, and a question mark that I drew in the dust on my dashboard. Aquestion that I hoped to answer at the end of my journey.

was running late. It was high noon on a cloudy summer Monday, and I was supposed to be in Stillwater at that very moment having lunch with my friend, Virginia Thomas, who had agreed to act as captain on my maiden voyage for this story. I was, instead, stuck between cars in 105degree heat at a drive-in bank in downtown Tulsa. And it seemed that everything at the cashier's window was moving in Sartrian o you know slo-mo fashion on that day. "No J what the key to Exit, T h e Sequel," they would have called it. collecting is, dear?" Virginia As I squirmed impatiently, "Headvases" were mass producedin the late 1940s, until asked me later tuning the radio to distract my- florists f o u n d t k were too shallow andstoppedbuyingthem. that day over a lunch of turkey self, it occurred to me that I was charging headlong into virgin territory. No stranger to flea sandwiches, lemon spritzer, and oatmeal cookies. "Buy what markets and, shall we say, "previously owned" merchan- you like--even if you don't have room for it. Eventually, dise, I had to admit to myself that in my vocabulary "antiques" you'll find a place for it." "Hmm," I replied. Her philosophy had a Zen quality verged on being a foreign word. about it that appealed to me, though Eric, my betrothed, T h e line moved forward. And my anxiety grew. What questions would I ask these people? What if there would later find it a little troubling. With that, we headed for the Antique Mall of Stillwater. wasn't that much to report? What if there was no story?Were "The Mall of Them All," the business card proudly proIn Guthrie,you'llfindboth King's Antiques andthe 89'erMall on one claimed, with the italics to back it up. Virginia introduced me block, and a third mall, Dee's Antiques and Collectibles, with ten to its proprietors, Ed and Arlene Brooks, and then left me to vendors, a block south. November-December 1991

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fend for myself. One look at the Brooks' expectant faces, and I decided to call a spade a spade. "Look," I began awkwardly, "I'm going to be very honest with you. I don't know anything about antiques or antique malls, and that's why I wanted to start here. If that's okay with you." Ed, more than happy to let his wife do the honors, disappeared into the back room. Arlene, a fiftyish woman who came up to my shoulder, smiled warmly and chirped, "1'11 do what I can." One step higher on the collecting food chain than flea markets, Arlene explained, antique malls are open six to seven days a week, all year round, with booths filled with everything from tiny, rare salt spoons to massive antique furniture. Malls may appear interchangeable, but booths are as individual as their owners; as such, they draw everyone from the simply curious to the most profligate of collectors. (The Brooks once had a caravan of Japanese collectors pull up with U-Hauls; the visitors walked the mall pointing at their vehicles items, then piled andtheir droveselections away.) Make into

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a serving bowl, I wondered how it would look next to that platter I bought in San Francisco last fall. Or what about that salt and pepper set in the shape of a cow jumping over a moon? Wouldn't that be a cool gift for my friend who recently moved into a new apartment? Like a grownup Wonderland, the whimsical, seductive charm of the antique mall seemed to rub off on anyone who touched anything. "Suzette!" called Virginia from another room. "Look at this chair! Isn't it just precious?" A few hours later, I emerged relatively unscathed. My undoing: a ($1.00) pair of high heels (to assuage my weakness for vintage clothing), a glazed 3 m Mexican pottery dish ($1.00), and a refrigerator bowl ($7.50). I had priced nearly everything in the place. This would be useful in the days to come.

lDI

ay two in Stillwater dawned under a torrential downpour, forwhich I had come unprepared, of course. And I was running far behind schedule as I am, sad to say, not an early riser. Armed with theAntiqueBuyerSGuide no mistake, there are people who will Arlene had given me the day before, drive, fly, crawl on all fours if need be to I went in search of a Stillwater woman find so much as a cracked porcelain by the name of Shelley Kulick, a thimble like Grandma used to have. woman who is said to have visited This has also been substantiated by the every antique mall in a 500-mile raBrooks' guest book, which is filled with dius. By the time I reached her office, addresses from all over the world. "The the rain had rendered my windshield book got so big," Ed would tell me wipers practically useless. "I should later, "we had to discontinue it." get combat pay for this," I grumbled There was another interesting dyto myself as I sloshed up to the door of namic to this equation, I learned in her office. Stillwater: shopping antique malls can "I don't really know if I can help be extraordinarily addictive. ("How did at the Anadarko you," Kulick told me tentatively as I You get this stuff home?" my mys- AntigueMaflpresides oe,ert/lebooth o f 0 wiped beads of rain off my legs and tified fiancee would later inquire.) It uendors&cia/izjnain Western andNatie,e face, "but I can try." started small, I admit. when Arlene America; artand;o//ectib/es. I pulled out my soggy map and had sensed I had absorbed all I could in showed her the towns I had already marked with a yellow one outing, the conversation tapered off, and I went in highlighter. She inspected it curiously and thoughtfully, search of Virginia. Climbing the stairs to the second floor, I like a seasoned navigator charting a course for the Gold gave myself a pep talk: My Christmas shopping could wait. Coast. She took my highlighter and methodically went to At least a dozen malls lay down the road. T h e caveat lasted work. "Did you know about Blackwell or Elk City or Noble about as long as it took me to top the stairs and spy a display ...," she asked, circling towns at a dizzying speed. In less or of Fiesta dinnerware perched like an exotic, multi-colored than two minutes, the buyers' guide was rendered obsolete. bird in the corner. It appears antique malls are growing geometrically in numThat is when I like to believe it all began. Yesiree, I was ber all over the state. Kulick made it clear that even the most hooked like a fish. Fiesta dinnerware aside, perhaps hunasup-to-the-minute information was dated almost as soon dreds of pieces of glassware filled this particular boothsometimes before-it came off the press. Time was not some interesting, some useful, some even ugly. And although I refrained from buying any Fiesta, the point was: the virus going to be a luxury on this trip. By 2 p.m. the rain had stopped, and I was standing at the had taken hold. T h e search had begun. Gingerly picking up

18

Oklahoma TODAY

cash register of the Country Time Mini Mall in Ponca City bombarding the owner, Janice Allen, with my nowstandard questions ("Do you take credit cards? Checks?"). That done, I began to notice things, in particular glassware, that I had seen the day before in Stillwater. My handy "price guide" in my head, I began to contrast and compare. Hmmm, interesting. And fun. T h e temptation to linger was strong, but the sound of the clock ticking was stronger yet. I went to thank Janice Allen and to ask if Ponca City had another antique mall. She gave me directions to the Pioneer Antique Mall. Before I could leave, however, she introduced me to Shirley Hollingsworth, one of her vendors and an eighteen-year veteran of flea markets and antique malls. "This is the woman," Allen said decisively, "that you need to talk to." And she was right. "Garage sales started the whole mess," Hollingsworth said, as we sat down for coffee at a local deli. "Then it went to flea markets, and now it's antique malls." Hollingsworth dismissed the idea that a poor economy has given rise to antique malls. "The system of 'waste not, want not' started in the pioneer days," she said. "People were frugal, and they just didn't throw things away." Antique malls could also be an indication that the greening ofAmerica has reached Oklahoma. Antique malls are considered a retail answer to the question of how to recycle things other than pop cans and newspapers. They are a more organized version of garage sales, a more dependable outlet than estate sales, and a less stressful alternative to auctions. It doesn't hurt that malls make good sense for vendors, too. "With a flea market," said Hollingsworth, "you have to tag it, pack it up, take it to the place, unpack, display it, watch over it, packit up, take it home. Flea markets are a lot ofwork." At Poston's Victorian Villagein J d s , meno deaiers share 7,000squarefeet with a flower shop and an interior design business. November-December 1991

aql JO uo!ss!w~ad ssa~dxaaql ~ n o q l !lunoas!p ~ 1ua3~ad I,'~laseuuoP s , 8 u q ~ L ~ a y-p!es , , aqs "'uoq 'a~nseans'ueur e Jaqloue s! yunls'uew auo,, gllas ~ , u o sPu!q~j! ual e ueql aJow aa!8 01 paMolle IOU ale sJauMo 'alnl 1e~auaP I E ~ M puv p s v .11ew a n b p u ~ ue IE 8u!188eq due op 01 13adxa IOU plnoys ,;le~!de~JO sladnq leql u1eaIo1 pue ' u a a ~ 438 3 ' l a u ~ oaql q1!~1eq301 101e Inoql!M dn uels ue3 noli Su!q~awoss,~!os ' x e ~sales aql a w p u! ~ s nI!l apew 1 .pasop I! alojaq eMeyuoL u! 11ew a q ~ pue as!pueq3~awaql 'du!llas JOJ a[q!suodsa~ale slaurno aqJ 01 Jaao I! l!elqO!q 01 salnu!w uaaljrj peq I -11ewauo 01 uaaq 'sa!l!lpn pue 'aDuelnsu! 'aseal Pu!pl!nq a q s~~ a ~ aox3d s a q ~ peq I 'wad SP:P peal q 3 1 e ~dw 'UMOP pa3001 I uaqM 1eql I .'ojIual a q L 'auo lsnfjo pealsu! ( ~ l e w e le) yaaM e sliep uaaas seM a 9 p a l ~ o u ylap!su! S ~ ~ I J O M S % U ! ~ ~ OliqH p a l ~ e ~ q l uo as 01 x!s le!lua~od%u!llas aaeq nod,, 'panu!~uos aqs ,,'os~v,,

vendor. Furthermore, if an item isn't priced-whatever the reason-it cannot be sold. I bought another piece of Mexican pottery($2), then headed back to Ponca City because the Pioneer Antique Mall closed at six. In fact, most of the malls closed at five or six o'clock, which didn't make my job any easier. Most of my remaining daylight hours were spent driving from one town to the next. Oklahoma is no Rhode Island, after all. At seven-thirty, after interviewing Pioneer's Dennis Conley and picking up yet another set of Mexican pottery bowls ($3), I pulled the car onto 1-35 South and tried to absorb everything I had learned that day. According to Conley, furniture, glassware, and kitchen collectibles remain the breadand-butter items of most antique malls for three reasons: workmanship, practicality, and affordability. Conley also believes that recyclingconcerns deserve credit for the increased popularity of antique malls, but he said it goes beyond that. "Antique malls are probably the best-kept secret in retail right now," Conley said. "It's more like a museum atmosphere where people see things from their childhood, and they want to pass on those memories." eleven the next morning, I was at the 89'er Antique Mall in Guthrie, having already visited with Elizabeth Mealer at King's Antique Mall next door. I thought I was making pretty good time until I bumped into Scott Andersen, the photographer for this story who was obviously way ahead of me. Within fifteen minutes, I was on the road. By day's end, I had been to seven antique malls including Guthrie, Kingfisher, Fairview, and Weatherford. Glassware, furniture, linens, fountain pens, opera glasses, vintage clothing, dolls, train sets, trinket upon trinket-I had sifted through 60,000 square feet of merchandise if I'd sifted through an inch. And I had not come away emptyhanded. Along the way, I had acquired a nasty blue English china habit (three November-December 1991

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cup and saucer sets, $2 to $5 a piece), an Old Roman platter ($7.50), and a cast-iron bed frame. That evening, I drove to Hinton to drop in on my childhood buddy, Anita Lambert, who, like everyone else on this trip, was not expecting me. I found her playing the piano between sets at a little church that was having its last night of Vacation Bible School. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, running down the aisle to hug me. "I can't believe you're here!" "Come with me," I said, pulling her along. "I've got a present for you." She followed me to my truck. I reached inside and pulled out one of the multiplying sacks on the floorboard. Inside were the two Mexican bowls fromPonca City. Sheexamined the bowls cautiously, as if they were precious, ancient artifacts, and I saw in her eyes the possibilities that crossed her mind like soldiers marching past an open window. I suddenly realized that the virus had onceagain been passed, from me to my friend. I called Eric later that night from Anita's house.

from all over," she observed. "They eat, they buy gas, they see other stores and stop." And as with anything else, she added, word-of-mouth is without a doubt the best advertising. "They'll say, 'Be sure and go through Duncan, they've got lots of good stuff.' " Indeed they do. I made it back home to Tulsa at 9 3 0 on Thursday nightif for nothing else but to unload the truck and sleep in my own bed. T h e next day would be my last on the road and would include Tulsa, Bartlesville, Dewey, Nowata, Claremore, and Jenks. I would learn on my Friday travels that no universal antique mall pricing system exists, save for Schroeder's Antique Price Guide. That may explain why the Mexican pottery I had been picking up for a nominal amount in rural Oklahoma was suddenly three times as high in my hometown. (But, I did, nonetheless, find eight great damask dinnernapkins ($1.25 each), a squarerefrigerator bowl ($3.00), and aperfect Hallcasserole dish ($5.00). Later that day, as I turned onto Riverside Drive from I-

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44, it occurred to m e through a

blur of exhaustion that I had, in fact, gotten more out of the trip than I had bargained for. One, value is only in the eye of the beholder. And two, we never truly own anything. We are merely renters in this life. I am still, by all accounts, a novice in the world of antiques n Thursday, the TheAntique Mall of Stillwater maintains an equal mix of and collectibles. Steuben, road see me d fumifure, co/lectibles, and Indian artifacts. Staffordshire, Royal Wanvick, like a winding, infiniteribbon, and I was tired. That antique Hull: they are fluffy, poofy-sounding words to someone malls are incredibly easy to find made the who's been raised on jelly jars and Tuppenvare glasses. My journey a little less taxing at this point. Most of the time, an mother, bless her heart, tried her darnedest to culture us address wasn't necessary, because the malls were usually urchins. But let's face it: with four kids in the house, my situated on the main street or major highway of a town, and parents' were happy to make it out alive. As far as furniture was concerned, if a couch could fall out of the back of a marked simply, "Antique Mall." O n this day, I blazed a trail through southwestern Okla- moving vehicle and stay in one piece, it could certainly stand homa, starting with Hobart, where I picked up a plaid platter up to our scrutiny. So when I landed in Stillwater on that ($3.50), a Staffordshire tea cup and saucer ($5), another unusually overcast day with my feeble knowledge of Fiesta refrigerator bowl ($6), and a set of plaid (yes, plaid) Blair ware, Depression glass, and Louis XIV, little did I know that dishes ($64), which are square (yes, square) in shape and my intrepid wanderings would prove far more enlightening very hard to find. Anadarko was next, where I found a Rock than any art appreciation course I could ever sleep through. Island Line toy train set ($20) for Eric, ostensibly to divert For there was history-somebody's history-behind every his attention from my own growing collection of wares. (An single object I came across. Dennis Conley was right. It was unsuccessful ploy, I might add.) And finally, I stopped in like a museum-a living museum-full of faint memories, Duncan at about three o'clock, where I met Nancy Clark of past lives, and unknown treasures. And I, as the wayward the Antique Marketplace. traveler, had a front row seat. Our conversation consisted of more than shop talk, with which I had been inundated for four days. We talked about the economic impact antique malls are having on the dead TulsanSuzette Brmer is afree-lance writer. Scott Andemen is a Midwest Cj4'. and dying main streets across the state. "It brings people free--/ancfphoto~a~herljvjngin "Hey, it's me," I said. "Hi, me," he said, "Where are you?" "In Hinton," I told him. "You're never gonna believe what I got today." "I'm afraid to ask," he replied.

0 22

Oklahoma TODAY

J

By Baxter Black

On the frst day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a ranch house in a dow-ry...

My true love gave to me

Twelve cows worth keeping Eleven cowboys griping, T e n down-ed fences, Nine chewers bummin Eight goats need-ing milkin Seven heifers calving, Six bankers praying, F-i-v-e heeler pups, Fo-u-r broken gate Three angry in-laws, Two-o leather glo And a ranch

house in a dow-ry.

Fired all the in-laws,

Hired m e a lawyer,

Sold off the herd bull,

Dozed down the outhouse,

Locked up the windmill,

Cussed out the bankers,

Chased off the goat herd,

F-o-u-n-d my other boot,

Grabbed me my rope,

And my horse,

And made it to the gate,

o-th-er fool!

Baxter BlacR is a cowboy humorist who appears regularly on Johny Carson's "Tonight Show" and NPR 's "MorningEdition."

AK Owen CuptudAmeritu's Moments. Y. O w e n l i v e d a photographer's dream: he was a camera for hire for magazines the likes of L i f , Snzithsonian, and Sports Illustrated. As such, he rappelled the north wall of the Grand Canyon, was shipwrecked in the Arctic -Circle, hobnobbed with Pope Paul, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and John Wayne, tracked guanaco through t h e Andes Mountains, and photographed the OU S o o n e r s u n d e r Bud Wilkinson. Looking back, Owen once said: "I wouldn't do anything different." Little wonder. Like his Life contemporaries Alfred Eisenstaedt and John Domonus, o w e n was Above, an A.Y. b o r n w i t h t h e Owen cover photo photographer's gift: He for Life. Right, a - could s e e a picture yOungA.Y. where no one else saw a thing. And he would go to any length to get that image on film. Over the years, this prompted Owen to hogtie himself to the bed of a truck in subzero temperatures so as to better shoot an oncoming eighteen-wheeler, to wheedle 1,800 feet of rope from a Life secretary so he could lower himself into the Grand Canyon, and to brave a Woodward tornado so he could send to his editor at Life a photo of a chicken that had dropped its feathers in fright. Says his wife, Daphyn, "A.Y.'s idea of a date was to climb a ladder to the top of a building under construction so h e could shoot photos and have me shade his lens." Ironically, Owen's most lasting images

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are not about the strange or the exotic, but the ordinary. T h e classic conflicts of life: man against man, man against nature, man against machine. "What I liked most," said Owen at the age of seventy-six, "was tying the grassroots of the country together in my photographs." N o o n e did it any better. A.Y. Owen at his best was to photographs what Norman Rockwell was to illustrations. For Owen, too, realized it is in the candid, simple moments that we reveal t h e most about our character. His own character was rooted deeply in Oklahoma. Born i n Cheyenne, he took his first photograph as a nine-year-old a t an Oklahoma City YMCA. T h o u g h ultimately he traversed t h e globe for his craft ("I guess there was a wanderlust in me"), he always made his home in Oklahoma City near his family. In fact, his eye for the photogenic side of his native state and its people landed both on many a Life cover in the '50s and '60s. Last year, when the first illness of his life finally forced him to put down his camera, it was at his Oklahoma City home that A.Y. Owen settled in to organize his life's work, which spills over two studios and many a book shelf. Retiring did not come easily. "A.Y.," says Daphyn, "always wanted just one more picture." --Jeanne M. Devlin

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A.Y. Owen died September 16, 1991. He wiff be missed.

Oklahoma TODAY

Ronald Reagan, the movie star, liked Owen's work so well he had the young photographer reassigned to his 18th AAF Motion PictureUnit. One of Owen's greatest disappointments: the 18th never made it overseas during World War II.Above, the 45th Infantry Division at Ft. Sill. John Wayne had this portrait brought to him in the hospital three days before he died; the Duke ultimately told his sons to use the photograph to cast the FranklinMint gold medallionthat bears his likeness. Shot on the set of "The Alamo," the photo was one of Owen's personal favorites.

November-December 1991

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Oklahoma TODAY

"Five months ago a phturo such as this would have shown at bast one man out of step," Owen typad after shooting this photograph in 1940. The key: drilling, lots of drilling. In his effort to illustrate the miserable conditions (ice, sleet, bonechilling cold) under which the 45th trained i n Lawton, Owen once pour4 a bucket of water over the head oi cartoonist Bill Maddin. Ice immediately formed. Ironically, Mauldin had been assuring his mother i n letters that he was dry and comfortable, and she bolievd him until she saw this photograph i n the 45th Division News. Nonetbeless, Mauldin and Owon botame fast frieads. In lator yoars the carg toonist would say: "A.Y. could always shoot them faster than Icould draw them."

November-December 1991

Owen had a knack for capturing the essence of the American character. Right, Governor "Alfalfa Bill" Murray waits outside the hospital for news of his sick wife. This candid shot i s the only one Murray allowed that day. "Boys With Thf r First Car," below, was so on target it made the 1957 Life article that accompanied it redundant. Proof of its timelessness: a French firm has bought rights to use the photo on a series of postcards. This picture of a soldier saying goodbye to his girl is classic Owen. "Iaways shot for the lead and the middle," Owen explained, "and an ending that would wrap it all up."

Oklahoma TODAY

Books fill Full Circle from floor to ceiline: There are S ~ O O Otitles at F;// c&: , l a m m k bookstores generally stock a mere 25,000 titles.

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Oklahoma TODAY

THE WELL-CONSIDERED

BOOKSTORE

Full Circle feels like a book lover's dream because that's what it is. It was in winter that first day, visiting in the city from the quiet of the hills. It was Northwest Oklahoma City concrete cold. Walking into the little nook snuggled into the southeast corner of the third floor of 50 Penn Place had the feeling, somehow, of coming home to a place I had not found before. A delicate young woman nodded pleasantly as she shredded a copy of the N m York Times Book Review for kindling, added split oak wood, and rebuilt the smoldery fire in the black marble fireplace. Her efforts spread warmth and a reassuring odor throughout the room. As I settled into a burgundy velvet chair beside the fireplace, wearing blue jeans and flannel shirt, sipping coffee laced with cinnamon, it seemed perfectly proper to indulge a secret love of the sounds of Shakespeare. My thoughts,from far where 1 abide, intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee. I t was indexed under zealous. Sonnet 27, page 1,920. Complete Concordance to Shakespeare. Price $65. My mind roamed further afield: Comic Books of America. High-Tech Handicapping in the Infonation Age. There was a great sale on travel books, a lighted world globe that cost $400, and a collection of country memories that cost $2. Out front, on the "front porch," sat a blackboard. Someone had handwritten on it in chalks of complementary colors just as Mrs. Harlan did in the second grade, triggering in me an inordinate desire to know everything ever written about Black History: Words of Desmond Tutu; Anthology of Af r i a n

By Ralph Marsh

November-December 1991

Short Stories; Aida, as told by Leontyne Price. Thirty-two-thousand titles gathered into three rooms and draped with the feeling that Santa F e would be thus if it could. T h e witchery of a wood fire started from theNm York Times Book Review. And a beautiful girl with auburn hair suspended near the ceiling on a ladder I could not see, stacking books as if she planned to read them.

Full Circle Bookstore is a seclude d glen for the spirits of the citybound. There is a sense here that the world, somehow, still is sane. Non-Nintendo. James Tolbert 111is an internationally recognized business genius whose accomplishments and honors will not fit outside a reference book. Jim Tolbert, on the other hand, is a sandy-haired, mildeyed, fifty-six-year-old Presbyterian Democrat. A scholar with four grown children and a wife. A compulsive reader who would have been an architect if he had had any talent ("nothing is fun if you have no talent") and a professor of history if h e could have made any money ("I could not provide the standard of living my wife wanted in that profession"). Instead, he went to Stanford for a master's degree in business administration. H e joined Selected Investments, and he has spent the rest of his life reorganizing distressed businesses. So it is that in the world according to others, James Tolbert 111wears a hard hat amid the crashing dreams of those who would be wealthy. Full Circle Bookstore was created by Jim Tolbert. It is the

Photographs by Joseph Mills

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world as he would have it be. H e spends his Saturdays there. it is time to go back to work so the book is not damaged. Researchers scour its stacks. Women decorating their Clerking. "So much of what I do professionally is in the abstract," he explained. "There is something very tangible rooms. "I want a blue book," she said, "where the middle word is 'box.' " about what we do here." T h e way Tolbert runs the place is a little different than On Saturday mornings that are not too busy, the clerk, Jim Tolbert, may step with you into the little back room where most. "I do all the initial buying and then try to review all you will disturb no one and you can look at the bookstore repurchases. I do a lot of it in airplanes, using catalogs. T h e he has created, much as one would discuss a painting with financial end is run out of my office downtown. T h e key is, an artist. "When you've spent a long time fantasizing about can you control your inventory? Ours is dependent on great depth. We once had a card for every something," Tolbert said, "it bebook. We marked it each time we comes very specific. I went to my sold an issue and repurchased when architect friends, and they transit came up zero. We are computerlated my word pictures into this. based now. We couldn't have Things have accumulated that 32,000 titles without t h e commake it a little more personal, a little more intimate. puter." T h e real key, however, is people. "It has accreted," he said. And it "Mary Anne Malone has been here has, like honey in a properly preprobably eight or nine years. Mary pared hive. Anne does book reviews on ChanT h e fireplace? Or more specifinel5. She has such enthusiasm and cally, its aroma? Funny winds circle 50 Penn Place Tower. Upon verve, she has developed a cult. People come here looking for her. completion, the fireplace let the S h e reads extensively and has smell of woodsmoke seep into the knowledge. People depend on her. room. T h e architect who designed Betty Jo Hill has been here almost it said he could fix it easily so it that long. Paula Campbell has a would not smoke at all. Leave it be, great feel for some areas of specialJim Tolbert told him. "I kind of ization. Indians of the southwest like the odor." region. South American literature. T h e ambience? "We have here And Mary a tradition. We are just as happy james~ ~wideb, bothfiction l andnon-~ ~ Wilkinson, ~ she is in~her middle to late 70s. She has worked with people who come in and stay w o n , that be says: "Zbadto own a bookstore." here a long time and has a followall day and treat us like a library instead of purchasing something, because the one thing ing because she is so gracious. Most of them were customers leads to the other. We make them comfortable with that. first before they came to work here." Held by that elusive feeling. There are lots of places to sit ...We will not censor anything that comes into this store unless it is pornographic. We sell a lot of best sellers, and we sell a lot of quality literature. The store has never been ordiMore poetry probably than any other place in the state...We nary. It was begun in Norman as a counter-culture bookstore will order anything anybody wants to order. T h e only re- by Mark McGee. It was called Wine and Roses. It was moved quirement we make of the buyer is that he come in and pick to Oklahoma City to 24th and Military, then to 42nd and it up. We have an out-of-state book hunter. He is very good. Western, next to the old VZD drugstore. "In 1977, I bought "It's a lot of fun for me," Tolbert said. "When somebody it from him because I had always wanted to own a bookfinds a book they can't find anywhere else. I say, 'Well, you store," said Tolbert. "It burned, and I opened it here in 1980. should have come here in the first place.' " It then had only the big central room. In 1987, I added this And so it is that Full Circle Book Store has about it all (Oklahoma) room." He paused. "The store at 42nd and Western was close," those working things a reader would have a bookstore be. And more. Harried people seek refuge there. Businessmen he said, "but it didn't get there." Full Circle Book Store is more than the sum total of all in three-piece suits hurry there on breaks as to a club: "No one here gets out alive!" T h e words rattle through the quiet. that has or will be said. Jim Tolbert spends much of his life promoting other organizations that seek those feelings to "No One Hen? Gets Out ALive?" which he has given shelter in his bookstore: immediate past "Yes." "That stack there by the window." And the businessman chairman of the Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities; sheds his coat and sits down to read, marking his place when chairman, executive committee, McGee Eye Institute;

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Oklahoma TODAY

Look Home'ward, t seems fitting that the

most intimate room at Full Circlethe room with the fireplace and the coffeepot-is where most of the "Oklahoma" books are stashed. The good news for browsers is that the staff keeps categories fluid. History books spill over into Indian studies; books by Oklahoma-born authors sit beside books by authors who may have lived in the stare for a short time, but got a good grasp of their material during their stay. Full Circle's selection of books on Oklahoma history, politics, biographies, and Native American subjects is outstanding, ranging from Angie Debo's seminal work on the Five Tribes to studies of the Dust Bowl migration's effect on Bakersfield, California. This reading list, however, embraces favorites that exude-for lack of a better word-Oklahomaness.There may be something here to remind you of home. C m m Oklahonta, by Jim Lehm, 1989. Expatriate Oklahomans, in particular, seem to get a kick out of the series on the adventures of OneEyed Mack. (Lehrer is co-host of the PBS UMacNeil-LehrerNewshour.") In C m n ,Mack, the lieutenant governor, is ferreting out an alleged Oklahoma Mafia. T h e plot is corny

and improbable and, the words of a former resident exiled ;o New Jersey. Certain elements, too, are quite timely. T h e "crown'Yn the title refers to the governor's determination ro finally top off the state capitol.

Images of lr Past: NOMan's Land, by Nancy Leonwd, 1989. Nancy Leonard fell in love with the starkness dOklahoma's Panhandle and the forthrightness of its residents while living six months of each year in Beaver. Over a period of ten years, Leonard visited with older residents and recorded their stories with a camera and tape recorder. T h e resulting book is part pictorial, pan personal history. Leonard's photographs are telling, and the text is edited unblinkingly, - . exhibiting - the same qualities found in her excellent blackand-white photographs: depth, shadin& and not a trace of gloss.

The Names: A Memoir, by N. Scott Motnoday, 1976. The pages of N. Scott Momaday's novels are so dense with ideas and meaning, even the most hungry reader is forced to slow down and chew a little bit. This, the story of Momaday's family, is the writer almost at play. It's his most factually based book, and fans of TheAncient ChiM and House Made of Dawn will recognize the raw material in his recollections. And when Momaday slips into stream of conscious-

president, Oklahoma Academy for State Goals; executive committee member, Oklahoma City Arts Council. H e was t h e first man chosen when alumni of his boyhood school, Casady, decided to name t h e graduate who has most demonstrated loyalty to t h e school, rendered service to his community, excelled in his profession, and achieved recognition on a local, state, national, or international level. But ..."Nothing in my life gives m e as much satisfaction as this store." And then, t h e long-held question. Jim T o l b e r t looks shocked. "Why, yes, it makes money. I am a business person." N e x t time I was there was a day in summer. I n from t h e woods seeking a n elusive book as needed as hammer to carpenter. Blistering concrete. Car horns cut the ear like torn November-December 1991

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like literaijazz.

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From Hillback to Boggy, by BonniS ' , 1991. Speer wrote this book based on the Depression-era recolle tions of her husband. less. Truth rings from every page, beginning on page one, where readers can almost taste the red dust blowing into the tent where the Speer family lives. T h e book tells a mostly hard-luck story as the Speers migrate east from western Oklahoma, reversing the classic California trek. There are no tidy endings in this book and precious little softness. When Speer writes, "Papa may not have always been right, but he was always boss," you know just what she means.

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Miss Pmny and Mr. Grubbs, by is^ ~ ~ EM, ~ ~ 1991. b E ~ ~,who/~ has written and illustrated ten children's books, left Oklahoma for New York soon after she graduated from OU. Her characters, though, could be your next-door neighbors in Ada, or in Bartlesville, where Ernst grew up. In Miss Penny, a middle-aged protagonist outwits her conniving neighbor by expanding her thinking. But as lovely as the message is, the real draws are the exquisitely detailed illustrations. Barbara Palmer

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metal. T h e woman clerk walked barefoot over cool polished oak and faded woolen throw rugs, hair hanging free so that it undulated with her steps. "Here it is," s h e said. "By Danney Goble. I t was with t h e other Oklahoma books."

Rabh

is afree-lante wn'ter who lives in Heae,ener. CilyphotograPhef. Mil/s is an

Full Circlea t Fifry Penn Place in Oklalioma City is on ~/ler~ the east end of th third h e I of the mall. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6p.m., except on Thundays, when it stays open until 8p.m. It i s closed Sundays. (405) 842-2900.

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,

By Kevan Goff-Parker

Photographs by Fred W. Marvel

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or Oklahoma children, Christmas trees are simple: they're magic. City lots fill with evergreens before the Thanksgiving turkey can turn into leftovers. Trees are selected, haggled over, and strapped to the top of the family car. T o children, some simply seem to spring up overnight in the living room or den. Grownups fuss endlessly over them. Innumerable electric lights are wound around their boughs. White-lace angels are lashed to their tops. Dainty blown glass bulbs and cookies you're not allowed to eat are painstakingly hung from their thick, sticky branches. Their smell is Christmas. Few historians agree on the date the first Christmas trce was erected. Most, however, trace its origins to the English habit of collecting greenery, which began in the British Isles in the second century B.C. T o ancient peoples, evergreens symbolized immortality. After all, the trees did remain green through the coldest winter, an accomplishment most folks attributed to supernatural powers. T h e first sighting of a Christmas tree was sometime after 700 A.D., when the English missionary Saint Boniface traveled to Geismar, Germany, to convert the Germanic Druids to Christianity. By felling the giant "Thunder Oak," Saint Boniface convinced the nature worshipers that the tree was not divine. T h e mammoth oak destroyed every shrub in its path, with the exception of a small fir sapling. A tactical genius, the missionary capitalized on the significance of the event, and the humble evergreen became the Christbaum or "Tree of the Christ Child." Subsequent Christmases in Germany were marked by the planting of a fir sapling. By the 1500s, German families were decorating indoor and outdoor evergreens with paper roses (symbolic of the Virgin Mary), apples, sugar, gilt, and wafers. T h e sixteenth-century Protestant reformer Martin Luther further enriched the Christmas tree legend by attaching

candles to his Christmas tree in an attempt to recreate the effect of stars he had seen twinkling amid evergreens one frosty winter's night. Germans were soon combining such ideas. T h e popularity of the "Christ tree" quickly spread throughout Western Europe-later it would be taken to America by the Pennsylvania Germans. By 1821, a Christmas tree was erected in England during a party for children in Queen Charlotte's court. Meanwhile, across the ocean, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recorded in his diary the first mention of a Christmas tree in the New World. What is said to have sealed the fate of the Christmas tree, however, is a moment in England in 1840. That is the day twenty-one-year-old Queen Victoria and her infant daughter, Pussy, were given a Christmas tree by Oklahoma TODAY

Victoria's beloved yet penniless husband, Germany's Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Prince Albert's sentimental gesture, which put the tree at the heart of Windsor Castle's Christmas Eve rituals, helped ensure that the Christmas tree became the unrivaled Christmas symbol of choice in merry 01' England. Sixteen years later, across the ocean, Massachusetts residents made Christmas a legal holiday, and President Franklin Pierce put a Christmas tree up in the White House. Soon Godey's Lady's Book was encouraging homemakers of the 1800s to make decorations for their trees. By the late 1800s' Americans had adopted the Christmas tree as their own. November-December 1991

Linda Kennedy Rosser, author of Chn's2ma.r in OHahoma, says that after the Land Run of April 22, 1889, when territorial lands were opened for settlement, what would one day be known as Oklahoma became a melting pot for settlers' Christmas traditions. "For early pioneers, the Christmas tree symbolized home when they didn't quite feel at home here," said Rosser. "The most prominent example of how pioneers celebrated with trees is that they didn't have individualized trees in the homes ...what was more common was the community tree. A common saying was, 'we're going to the Christmas tree.' " Tree-trimmings at local churches or schoolhouses brought 35

In the sixteenth century, monarchs spent more for lace than they did for their crown jewels, says lacemaker Virginia Lucas. And got a bargain. Lucas, who is eighty-one years of age and three-quarters English, shares her knowledge of the art of making bobbin lace at monthly meetings of the Lace Guild of Oklahoma. To make bobbin lace, a pattern i s marked in pins on a pillow. Thread is then worked around the pins, using multiple bobbins. Simple lace can be made with as few as twelve bobbinssome lacemakers have used as many as 1,200. Lacemaking machines were developed in England in the early part of the nineteenth century, putting lace within the reach (and on the Christmas trees) of common folk. Still, making lace by hand, says Lucas, is something anybody can learn to do. "It just takes a little patience." The Lace Guild of Oklahoma will decorate a tree with bobbin lace at the Kirkpatrick Treefest in Oklahoma City. For guild information, call Lucas at (405) 751-1 040.

people together to celebrate Christmas "like back in t h states." Parents would place gifts-mittens, scarfs, perhal a doll or train-addressed "from Santa" on the tree. What kind of tree it was depended on whether one live in Oklahoma or Indian territories. Pines, spruces, and firs gre. in eastern Indian Territory. But in western or central Okl; homa, more often than not, the lowly tumbleweed, blackjac oak, or mesquite bush nailed to a wooden stand won the plac of honor by default. "Families who don't have much mone have always been creative," Rosser observed. Pioneers hung popcorn and cranberry strands, paper chain and cornucopias filled with goodies on the tree. Straw an corncobs were also used for making ornaments. Says Rosse "Little blackjack oak branches nailed to a wooden stan suited them. Pioneers would wrap the branches in cotto batting and top them off with tin stars. Trees were sometime decorated with foil tinsel or 'icicles' made from tobacco plu wrappings." Wealthier families in Guthrie, McAlester, Oklahoma Citl and Shawnee had Christmas items and pine trees brought i by train. Still, most made their own decorations. Almost from day one, the settlers' trees reflected the owner's past. German immigrants used tabletop trees an made iced cookies. Western European immigrants hun hand-blown glass ornaments, which they brought from th old country, in the shapes of birds, fruits, and Santa faces. Rosser scoffs at the idea that Christmas trees were just fc children. Decorating a tree was an escape from the harshne: of prairie life. "There has always been this idea-dating bac to Pawnee Bill-that Christmas trees were for children, Rosser said. "I totally disagree. T h e Christmas tree is forth family. I t is the most universal symbol of Christmas i America. It transcends the purely religious and has become secular decoration symbolizing peace, life, and hope." Here, three ethnic groups-British, German, and Hi! panic-that call Oklahoma home share their traditions.

reat Britain native Jasmine Moran has a Christma memory that has haunted her for more than fift 'years. It is a memory of singing Christmas carols i a darkened bomb shelter in the English village c Hornchurch. T h e village, situated near a British fighter bas close to Epping Forest, had been attacked by Luftwaff bombers. And rhe five-year-old's songs mingled with th whistle of bombs and the wail of air raid sirens. "Christma was pretty austere during World War 11," said Moran, wh now lives in Seminole. "Food was difficult to get. We on1 Oklahoma TODAY

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en-,,. I..

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had two eggs a week, a half pound of butter, and two ounces of tea, but my mother tried to make it as fun as possible. She was a child at heart during Christmas. We had one tiny Norfolk pine in our garden. It was a tiny little tree, really, but we would decorate it with hand-made decorations like paper chains and crocheted angels and bells. "We never thought we were poor." In England, Christmas stockings were for decoration only, and gifts did not go under the tree. Instead, presents-fruits, nuts, and other goodies-went into a plain pillowcase that was placed by a child's bed by Father Christmas on Christmas Eve. Blackout regulations made it impossible to have Christmas tree lights, so, Moran says her family decorated its tabletop pine with small bars of chocolate, colored celluloid balls, and handblown glass and tin baubles. Yet another family tradition was the pulling of a Christmas firecracker-a French custom that gained popularity in Victorian England. Moran's mother always hung several of the small firecrackers on their tree with larger ones placed at the Christmas supper table. "(The firecracker) is shaped like a small bologna, made out of crepe paper, and fluted on both ends," Moran said. "Inside is a small toy like a whistle, neck charm, or puzzle. Paper cornucopias and lace ornaments were hutig 011 I i//ot.lantrees. There's also a paper hat, a motto (funny saying or joke), and sweets. When you pull it apart, a small amount of (explosives) goes off, and it pops. , "I still order them from overseas," Moran says. "It's difficult giving up your heritage." In 1953, Moran married a handsome Jewish U.S. Air Force officer with a keen interest in Oklahoma oil. Together they moved to Seminole. In that, Moran is typical of British immigrants. For more than three decades, most British immigrants to Oklahoma have been military brides or Brits looking for better jobs. In fact, by 1970, some 2,300 British and Irish-born immigrants called Oklahoma home. Their numbers, however, don't begin to reflect their influence. Most Oklahomans have some British ancestry, remembered or not. In fact, the British pioneer was considered to be the average newcomer to the Sooner State. Well before 1824, the year Fort Gibson was built, British fur traders, trappers, and soldiers could be found here. After the Civil War, more British immigrants set up shop in Indian Territory as railroad workers, coal miners, and farmers--oftentimes marrying Ameri-

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November-December 1991

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An Oklahoma Posadas At the Puerta de Oro, a Hispanic senior citizen's center in Oklahoma City, the nine days of the traditional Posadas are condensed into one night, December 16, and one location, the center's building on South Robinson. Luckily, the center has a lot of doors. "We all put our coats on, because it's cold," says director Anita Martinez. "We bring Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and go from door to door. All of the bad guys are on the inside and all of the good guys are on the outside." As it is traditionally done in Mexico, when Mary and Joseph are finally allowed in, "we have a big party." There is singing and a piiiata, along with tamales, Mexican bread, and hot chocolate. Visitors are welcome, says Martinez. The senior center also sells handmade piiiatas and tamales. (Martinez needs a day's notice for the tamales.) Call the center at (405) 636-0260.

can Indian women and acquiring rights to Indian land. Nearly 760 British and Irish immigrants staked claims i this region during the opening of the Unassigned Lands i 1889; many went on to farm near boom towns like Guthri and Oklahoma City. By 1900, there were 4,290 English, Iris1 Scots, and Welsh settled in the twin territories. Some of thes newcomers joined the healthy population of coal miners a ready in Indian Territory, while others farmed or set up sma businesses and joined the realm of white-collar workers. Great Britain's children in the new land had much in con mon. They were older than other residents; they had a tempted to homestead in at least three states; and they us1 ally married outside their nationality. Despite this apparer adaptability, they found life on the prairie to be lonely an uncertain. Unlike the Italians, the English did not congrt gate into communities. Their early Christmases were quie community affairs celebrated with neighbors of mixed origi~ After statehood, British-born immigrants and their childre became political forces to be reckoned with, particularly i Oklahoma City. But then the Great Depression and th deaths of older British immigrants in the '30s caused a fort percent drop in their numbers. It wasn't until the '40s, whe war brides like Moran arrived that their numbers swelle again. Today, war brides fill the ranks of the numerous Bri ish clubs throughout the state. It can be difficult to find specifically British Christmas tret in Oklahoma, but English or Victorian Christmas tree orni ments that have been handed down through the years a1 commonplace. "My English-born Oklahoma friends still car1 on our traditions," Moran said. "The English Christmas handed-down from generation to generation, and it sti means family and tradition to me."

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rma Tovar has made her home in Oklahoma since 197' And she is content here. But Oklahoma City is nc Mexico. And somehow Christmas always makes th; poignantly clear to Irma. "I am happy here," said Irm: as she expertly twirled tissue paper into a Mexican tree 01 nament, "but 1'11 always remember my Christmases i Mexico." Those memories center around her homeland's Posadz celebration-a nine-day fiesta in celebration of Christ's birtlIS I T h e Posadas (the spanish word for lodgings) recreates Joseph and Mary's search for lodging on the night of Jesus's birth. On December 16, Mexican families travel to nine pre-selected houses. Members of the crowd carry candles, images of the Virgin Mary riding a donkey, an angel, and St. Joseph.

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Oklahoma TODAY

At each home, they beg entrance by singing hymns and asking for a place where the Holy Family can rest. At the first eight houses, the wanderers are told the households are asleep, threatened with a beating, and turned away. At the ninth house, they find an altar, a recreated stable and manger, and welcome. They kneel, pray, and someone carefully places the holy figures beside the manger. Then that night's fiesta begins. T h e journey is repeated each of the next eight nights, with a new ninth house each night and a fiesta. At t h e fiestas, pifiatas hang from doorways. The youngest child in the group wins the honor of breaking the piiiata with a stick, and all the children rush to collect t h e sweets. Hot tamales are the food of choice. T h e revelers also enjoy fruit punch, fireworks, music, and dancing. Families in Mexico, says Irma Tovar, put their Christmas trees in wooden stands on December 16th; children share in t h e decorating. Mexican fam tri their ~r ?S ffaa?r?OnJorHrspanlcs to break open a ptiiata dunng each of Me nrne nights of the Posadar. trees with tissue paper flowers, blown-glass baubles, miniature sombreros and baskets filled with peanut candies, angels, white doves (symbolizing peace), bears, burros, sheep, horses, and camels. At the tree's base, the children build a tiny village using plastic or clay nativity figures-men, women, children, choir boys, the Three Wise Men, shepherds, the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and various barnyard animals. Baby Jesus is "kept in the closet" until December 24th, the final day of the Posadas. On Christmas Eve, the youngest child carries the doll (Baby Jesus), as the promenade travels to the final house and members sing a song asking for shelter. Admitted, the throng enters the room with the manger, and the Baby Jesus is rocked and prayed and serenaded before being placed in his rustic crib to sleep. Some piiiatas are saved for Christmas Eve. Tamales, hot chocolate, and sweet bread are served. T h e ensuing celebration lasts until families leave to attend midnight mass and, afterwards, open presents. Christmas day is spent feasting. No wonder most Hispanic immigrants echo Irma's feel-

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November-December 1991

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Like Mom Makes Them Eva Rodgers says her mother, Magdalena Riedel, is so used to being the authority on the making of pfefferkuchen that "she tells me when she dies, she'll come from heaven to tell me how to make it." PFEFFERKUCHEN 314 1 112 2

cup honey cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar stick butter large eggs Dash salt 6-8 cups flour 1 tablespoon cocoa 112 tablespoon cinnamon 112 teaspoon cardamom 114 teaspoon cloves Orange peel 5 grams *hirschhornsalz (carbonate of ammonia) and 5 grams *pottasche (potassium carbonate) OR 1 112 teaspoons baking powder Heat honey with sugar until sugar melts; do not boil. Add butter; cool. Add eggs, salt, and the other ingredients, dissolving hirschhornsalz and pottasche (or baking powder) in a little coffee. Knead the heavy dough and let rest (even overnight). Roll out and use cookie forms. Place on greased and floured cookie sheets, brush with sugar water, and bake in a preheated oven 300 to 325 degrees F. until brown. Let cool and glaze with powdered sugar and lemon juice. *Available at Nayphe's in Oklahoma City, (405)848-2002.

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ings-they love Oklahoma but miss the traditions of hom It is thought that Oklahoma's first Hispanic immigra were Mexican boys kidnapped during raids into Mexico Apaches, Kiowas, and Comanches. There are stories Mexicans in Oklahoma in a settlement in Beaver County a rumors of Mexican desperadoes camping near Pauls Valle Early settlements in Oklahoma followed the path o f t railroad, with Hispanics living near the tracks in Edmon Blackwell, Ardmore, Duncan, Oklahoma City, and Tuls Western Oklahoma's cotton expansion drew seasonal lab ers during harvest, and while most laborers returned to T e x or Mexico at the end of the season some sharecropped married American Indians and acquired land here. By 1920, more than 340 Mexicans lived in Pittsburg Coun drawn by work in the coal mines. T e n years later, despite depressed mining industry, that figure nearly tripled. Un the '30s, Hispanics found work in the lumber mills of sout eastern Oklahoma and in Bartlesville's oil fields. T h e De pression, however, forced many to leave the state. For thos who stayed, life was rough. Most Hispanics refused to accep charity, preferring instead to open small, if unpretentiou! businesses like the tamale cart or to work as gardeners. Language, culture, and economic status kept many first generation immigrants from mingling successfully wit Oklahoma's mostly Anglo society, but by the end of Worlc War 11, many second-generation Hispanics were marryin, Anglo spouses. In the postwar years, Oklahoma's Hispani population changed dramatically. T h e most decorated cultura group in World War 11, Mexican-Americans took advantag of the G.I. Bill to go to college and build businesses. It is estimated that 100,000 Hispanics now live in Okla homa, a fact which has caused ripples in the state they cal home. There is now an Oklahoma Hispanic newspaperVision-and L a Tremenda KZUE Radio in El Reno. Anc Little Flower Catholic Church and the Salvation Arm! Spanish Senior Center now stage Posadas and decorate tree: in traditional decorations at Christmas time. For many Hispanics, like Irma Tovar, life has changed dra. matically, yet more and more it recalls the flavors of yester. day. "We are all very excited about Christmas," said Tovar as her fingers nimbly brought another tissue flower to life.

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hether the Christmas tree was first the inspira tion of Martin Luther, St. Boniface, or Christianity mixed with the pagan ritual of Germanic Druids, Germany's tannenbaum has symbolized everlasting life for centuries. Oklahoma TODAY

It meant nothing less to the 5 million Germans vho fled political and economic hardships at lome from 1840 to 1899 and immigrated to imerica. While few traveled directly to Oklaloma and Indian territories in their slow, westvard push toward what they called the hinterand, some German families did settle here to vork for the railroads and mining companies. rhousands followed in the land runs that would ettle the area between 1889 and 1906. German-Oklahomans gathered in small con.entrations, most notably in Oklahoma, Blaine, nd Kingfisher counties. Germans from Russia, hiefly an agricultural people, trickled into the vestern half of Oklahoma Territory. By state~ood,about 4,100 Russian-German immigrants ived in Oklahoma. By 1910, the German-born bopulation had reached more than 10,000. Because German pioneers often failed to oncentrate into large ethnic communities, few liscernible signs remain of them in Oklahoma. h o n g the more obvious: their Christmas cusoms, including the use of greenery in the form ,fa table-top cedar or spruce in the home. Christiane Faris, chair of the modern language lepartment at Oklahoma City University, was born in Berlin, but she has lived in Oklahoma or more than twenty years. She is a member of Iklahoma's German-American Heritage Assoiation. "German settlers constituted the largest ;roup of white Europeans who came to Oklavorking, obedient, and somewhat educated. rhey came, they farmed, and they moved on. They had just he essentials during their first Christmas in Oklahoma Teritory and gave their children clothes, toys, and other handnade things." A German tree, says Faris, will ha1.e red or white candles, lpples, candy, paper chains, silvered and gilded walnuts, and straw decorations often shaped into birds and stars. Others mainstays: colorful glass ornaments; golden-winged angels, representing the German belief that the Infant Jesus mesjenger or Christkind comes to earth during Christmas-time; xnd pfefferkuchen, a flat gingerbread cookie decorated with Frosting. Pf4Jermeans pepper, and kuchen means cakes. In the :ookies, this translates into a frosted cookie spiced with ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Pfefferkuchen is said to include the spices necessary for a good life. "We shape the dough into stars, animals, hearts, or flowers. They are good for eating the ~ n t i r eholiday season," says Faris. Kevan Goff-Parker is a writer and editorfor the Oklahoma City public school administration. Fred W. Marvel is a photographer for the Oklahoma Tourism and Recmation Department. November-December 1991

...Or Let Ingrid Make Them You can buy pfefferkuchen at Ingrid's Kitchen, 2309 NW 36, in Oklahoma City. The German bakery is owned by Ingrid Quitz, who escaped from East Berlin i n 1 9 6 2 . The true German Christmas specialty, according to Quitz, is spekulatiuf--cookies made of spice dough and baked i n carved wooden molds. The spekulatiufareone German treat you won't find at Ingrid's, since the baker can't find an authentic mold.

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A GUIDETO WELL-DRESSED TREES

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a Candlelight Walk; this year, the walk he thing about traditions is will be December 10 and December 12 they are always evolving. Families adopt the ethnic tree- from 6-9 p.m. at the Kirkpatrick Center, 2100 N E 52, Oklahoma City. T h e trimming traditions of their exhibit of trees is open museum hours forefathers. Then the next generation Xovember 29 through January 4, 1992. melds those traditions with For more information, call (405) 427contemporary tree-trimming customs. T h e latest evolution: Oklahoma 5461.

communities have discovered the

crowd potential offered by the prover- 7

bial Christmas tree. Here's a sampling j

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of offerings around the state that star the humble (and not so humble) Christmas tree:

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Lyric Theater's Festival of the

Trees. T h e Lyric Theater Guild's tree

festival features ten lavishly decorated

trees, surrounded by enough booths

selling goodies to be deserving of its

name, a "Holiday Shopping Village."

Trees are trimmed by artists and

theater-lovers; trees are pre-sold.

Proceeds benefit Lyric Theater.

Festivities are set against a background of live carolers in the ballroom of the Oklahoma City Mamott Hotel, 3233 Northwest Expressway. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. November 17 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. November 18. Admission to the village is $3. For more information, call (405) 755-1410.

The Kirkpatrick Center's Holiday Treefest. T h e museum's treefest began as a means of educating Oklahomans about the ethnic diversity to be found within our borders. T h e result is as beautiful as it is educational. Ablaze with more than 40,000 lights and topped with some 5,000 ornaments, the forty-four trees include twenty ethnic trees, from Laos, Bolivia, Byzantium, China, Africa, Mexico, Greece, France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Scotland, Italy, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and England. Highlighting the treefest each year is

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November 23 through December 8 at the Philbrook, 2727 S. Rockford, Tulsa. For more information, call (918) 748-5335.

Bartlesville's Festival of the Trees. This festival is a textbook case of teamwork. T h e local arts council loans twenty-four, four-foot-tall artificial trees to twenty-one local arts groups, and in return the arts groups set up booths, decorate the trees, and put their creations up for sale. Proceeds benefit the local arts community. Opening night is at 6:30 on December 6 at the Bartlesville Museum, Sixth and Dewey; it includes hot chocolate, wassail, and a Christmas carol sing featuring local carolers and choral groups. Trees are on view from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. December 6 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. December 7. Admission is free. For information, call (918) 337-2787.

Stillwater's Festival of the Trees.

"TreeftbJ' Cand/e/ight" willbegin with gunfire provided by two OKCgun clubs. The noisemaking is a Gennan tradition.

The Philbrook Museum of Art's Festival of the Trees. Designed as an arts coalition fund-raising event and exhibit, the Philbrook's festival of trees combines elegance, ingenuity, and wit with plenty of artistic adventurism. Tulsa florists, interior designers, artists, and architects decorate trees that range from the avant garde to high-tech flash. T h e festival includes arts exhibitions, a sale of gift items, educational activities, and live entertainment. Trees are auctioned off at a party for museum patrons; proceeds benefit the museum. T h e festival is open museum hours

Through the years, Stillwater's annual tree auction has gained a reputation for its finger foods, themed trees, and feverish bidding that sometimes pits law partner against law partner and husband against wife. (Organizers have been known to nudge people within sight of each other to enhance bidding wars.) This year's theme is "An Evening in a Winter Wonderland"; fifteen trees will be decorated by local artists, floral designers, and arts supporters. Proceeds benefit the local Arts and Humanities Council. T h e by-invitation-only tree auction will be December 7; the public may view the trees that day from 4-6 p.m. Admission: $1. Both events will be at the Best Western Inn, 600 E. McElroy Road, Stillwater. For an auction invitation, call: (405) 377-8175.

--Kevan Goff-Parker

Oklahoma TODAY

The EndO'Main

Small-town caterer with big-cityplans.

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only, the restaurant in the front still supper for Miss America. And with a serves steak, shrimp, and Mexican food, fleet of nine vans, the company can cabut catering has become the mainstay t e r anywhere in t h e state-from just as planned. "It took off because no McAlester in southeastern Oklahoma one else was doing it," says daughter- to Beaver in the Panhandle. O n e of the company's strengths is its in-law Cheryl House. (Their stiffest loyal staff. Mary Bowers, head cook, has been with the House family for more than twenty years, and she knows the company's menu as well a s if s h e ' d authored it herself. In suiPly. fact, s h e creWatonga has ated dishes its share of valike sausage cant buildings, dressed in barbecue too. And the red sauce. At age brick structure at 2 1 0 E. M a i n seventy-six, Street, across Marie Lake s t i 11 c 0 n t r i b from an a u t o says Cheryl House. Above, roast beef, roast nrkty, and a frosted holiday /ram--baked ham topped with seasoned cream cheese. utes her spep a rt s s t 0 re, s e e m s like it cialties-musmight be one of them. N o sign on the competition was barbecue joints that tard potato salad and apple cobbler. building, no windows, only two heavy catered.) T h r e e years ago, when the And Glendola Spencer, another cook, wooden doors. But red-and-white vans H o u s e s retired, S t e v e a n d Cheryl has even contributed family to t h e business-her three daughters now parked outside act as an address might House bought T h e End 0' Main. work at End 0' Main. T h e arrangement T h e company got its start catering otherwise for T h e End 0' Main, a caseems to suit everyone. As Bowers says, tering company and sometime restau- dinners for the Greenfield Co-op south "We found a home and we're gonna rant based in downtown Watonga that of town, but credentials now include stay." Hawaiian luaus at an Oklahoma City does a million-dollar-a-year business. Not surprisingly, the source of the Jerryand Roberta House started T h e water park, horse sales, and banquets company's menu is family based, too. End 0' Main in 1974. For years they for three different governors (partisan Steve House was raised on the roast owned a restaurant that served mostly politics isn't a problem). T h e Houses burgers and other easy meals, but they have set the table for retired Adm. Wil- beef, fried chicken, and cornbread grew bored with the routine. They sold liam J. Crowe Jr.-then chairman of the dressing that form the mainstays of the the old place and bought the building Joint Chiefs of Staff-as well as a group menu. "My mom has always been a real downtown for a catering operation and of Russian dignitaries. Once, they even good cook," House says. Additions have been made through small restaurant. O n Saturday nights catered t h e wedding reception and

a k e a drive along Main Street in Watonga and you could be cruising any small thoroughfare in rural Oklahoma where small businesses dominate. Pass Fannie Russell's barbershop on w e s t Main and you'll find f an electrical supply shop. Howard Hursh !$ sells insurance next door, and the Watonga Republican has of-

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November-December 1991

t h e years. Marilyn Cook, who is in charge of making the salads, created the summer recipe for cole slaw, which has a vinaigrette instead of a cream dressing. Cheryl House and Mary Bowers played around in the kitchen and came up with a horseradish and cream cheese "frosting" for a holiday ham. "Everybody has brought something and added to this business," Steve House says. And everything save the pickles and the olives still is made from scratch. Says Bowers, "We pride ourselves in not taking restaurant shortcuts." N o cooking shortcuts but getting the meal where it needs to go is a well-orchestrated routine, especially when 7,500 people-more than the entire population of Watonga-need to be served in one day. I t falls to Steve House to buy what is needed, be it bulk grain for tabouli from Bishop Brothers in Bristow or cheese from the Watonga Cheese Factory down the street. Come curtain time, each person has a certain responsibility, whether cooking, packing, or transporting-or a little of all three. T h e kitchen had to be expanded about ten years ago, and one of its more impressive gadgets is the extra-large chicken fryer. Janie White can cook 200 pieces on it every fifteen minutes if need be. Once the food is ready, 250 insulated carriers are used to maintain the proper temperature during transport in the vans. Mileage to most towns in Oklahoma is kept by Cheryl House in a worn black notebook. Ask about a frequent stop, such as Enid, and the Houses know t h e mileaee bv, heart. somejobs are booked five years i n advance. Clients tend to be folks who want a buffet for a meeting or food for an informal gathering. Mary Bowers recalls once T h e End 0' Main catered a horse sale in Lone Wolf: "They had a tent for the horses, but we were outside." When the tables needed leveling on the rough ground, they used available materials: cow patties. It's a bit more fun, says Cheryl House, to cater fancy events like T h e ' 7

Grand National Quail Hunt, held in Enid on the first weekend of the hunting season. "They let me go wild with the menu," she says, and she gets to break out the china, the linens, and the silver chafing dishes. A typical buffet menu might include sliced baked ham with cherry sauce, glazed baby carrots, and pistachio mousse. T h e Houses are willing to grant that someone else might be able to offer recipes that taste as good as theirs do. Their edge, they say, is in creating dishes that can start out great in the Watonga kitchen and end up just as enjoyable on a buffet table in Lone Wolf. As Steve House says, "The nice thing about our peach mousse cake is that we can travel 300 miles with it, and it still tastes good." -Rebecca L. Martin

pimi%-1 GLAZED CARROTS 5

pounds whole baby carrots, frozen 112 pound butter (not margarine) 8 cups sugar Combine ingredients in large pot and bring to a boil on stove. No water is needed; a glaze is made from the butter, sugar, and water from the frozen carrots. Serves: 50. I

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The End 0'Ahin, 210 E. Main Street, Il'atonga, is openfor dinner on Saturday nighfsfrom 5 to 9:31),September to March. Rexrvatiofls are recommefzdedforlaw groups. For information, cab (40.5)6235279 or wn'teBndO, Main, P.O.Box IG8, Watonga, OK 73772. o9Muin a/so prepares /romeso/e mealsfordinnermcursionsaboardthe Watonga Chief; an oldpassenger train that makes an eight-mile tn$ along the North the Canadian River. Be ~elamedthis isn 'i Orient Ex~ress,but a train hat's served time running the rails. For reservations, call (40.5) 732-0556.

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Malung Merry

F o w wqsto m ~ e h s m o bn'jgk n WAGONER'S FASHIONABLE HOUSE TOUR Wagoner's Candlelight Home T o u r seems a tad short on, well, homes. This year, there are four-two territorial-era homes, a post-World War I1 home, and one that's spanking new. But when you factor in Nellie Harris and add the Oklahoma Historical Fashion Museum as a stop on t h e tour, you have the makings of an event that's become not only the centerpiece of Wagoner's holiday celebration, but one that brings in carloads and room is trans, edinto a castle Great Ha//, where knight\ buses full of visitors from At the OSU Mahigai Dinners, the Student Union Tulsa, M uskogee, and and ladies sing of cou@ iove. Things can get a bit racy, "ifyoucan ranslate French,"says an organi~r. Missouri. Harris, described by an acquaintance the Muskogee Phoenix-Times Democrat, gala." An 1859plaid taffeta gown plays as a "full-time riot," gives herself full after she noticed the contents of many a starring role, along with a brilliantly credit for pulling together the home of the attics of Muskogee's grand old colored Carmen Miranda dance costour and making it a community tradi- homes were being hauled to the dump. tume, one with "a long, long train." tion. Basically, she says, "I work like a "I was real grieved," she says. Espe- T h e dress was worn by Miranda in a dog." cially about t h e raccoon coats and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical. Harris put her hand to the home tour beaded dresses. T h e dance costume, Harris admits, after first helping pull together the Harris hit on the idea of a home tour isn't really Christmasy. "I get a big bang fashion museum-a collection of vin- a few years ago after touring ante- out of it," she says. "I do it just for my tage and antique clothing. (Wagoner has bellum mansions in the Deep South. own fun." yet another fashion museum, t h e "We have homes this nice in Wagoner," The lour December 5-7. Opening Original Oklahoma Historical Fashion she remembers thinking. "Why not evening is filed with festivities: community Museum, but that's another story.) stay home?" onthecouflhouselawn at ali&ted Harris collected rooms full of vintage T h e fashion museum, with Harris as Chffshnas~arade at8

in the local and antique clothing during her twenty- hostess, dresses for the holiday tours. dance the Twilight Twisters, three-year stint as the society editor at "We dig out all the furs and get real

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outline their swirly skirts with tiny white lkhts anddance on a flabedtmck), and az 10, after everyone'shada chance to tourthe homes and the museum, hymn-singing a t a localchurch. Formore information, callthe Wagoner Chamber of Commerce at (918) 485-341 4. MEDIEVAL MADRIGALS: A HEARTY PARTY

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n a nutshell, says Dr. Jerry McCoy, fourteenth-century celebrants entertained themselves by "drinking and smoking tobacco, hanging out and looking at the trees, and making animal noises." And singing and listening to madrigals. T h e Oklahoma State University professor should know. Each fall, McCoy teaches a class in which students learn to perform madrigals, an early form of music developed between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Madrigals are performed by small groups of singers and use themes drawn from medieval life-love relations, the conventions of chivalry, and the aforementioned animal noises. T h e singers are the heart of the Madrigal Dinners, a seventeen-yearold tradition held in Stillwater in early December to coincide with the winter solstice. T h e hugely successful dinners are a joint project among McCoy, the university horticulture department, and the Student Union. Last year, for each of seven nights, 350 guests attended the dinners. That's more than 2,400 guests, or enough wassail to fill a small castle moat. One reason for the dinners' popularity is the care to detail given to the event by its organizers. McCoy tends to the authenticity of the entertainment and provides guests with programs filled with lyrics and historical footnotes. T h e horticulture department decorates the ballroom with miles of cedar rope and other natural greenery. T h e OSU Student Union catering service prepares a period menu that typically includes wassail, date and nut bread, roast pork, stuffed fish, and plum pudding. 46

Perhaps most important is the fact that creators plan the event to encourage a sense of community among diners. Guests sit at assigned seats at long tables; one diner is appointed "Lord of the Board" and charged with making sure that everyone is served. Corporate toasts are made, communal merrymaking is encouraged, and by the end of the evening, when diners hold hands and sing "Silent Night," the atmosphere is more warm than awkward.

The Madn'gal Dinners will be December 5-11. For resenmion information, call (405) 744-5231. VISIONS O F SUGARPLUMS DANCE O N STAGE

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Sherbet-colored paint creates stripe parfaits; glossy brown paint shines o a chocolate torte. A gingerbread house brownies, cupcakes, and sprinkles ga lore fill the stage. As the bakers' ap pearance segues into the Hot Choco late, Tea, and Coffee dances, there ar certain to be some mouths watering. You can satisfy those cravings at th Ballet Theatre Guild's "Sugarplu Party," a tea party at Harwelden sion featuring old-fashioned sweets an costumed characters from the ballet.

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BalIetpe7fomances wiIIbe December 18 23 at 7p.m. andat 1p.m. on December21 and 23. For ticket information, call (918 585-2573. For infonnation on the pa^, call (918) 528-2575.

here are almost as many OPENING NIGHT: moments to love in A DOWNTOWN JAM Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" as there are n the mid-1980s, conventional annual productions of the classic holiwisdom held that nobody would day ballet: the icy, ethereal quality of come downtown in Oklahoma the hushed Snowflake Dance, the City after dark. T h e local city arts drama of the clash between the Mouse council threw a big New Year's Eve King and the gallant Nutcracker, a party downtown anyway and proved Christmas tree that grows and spins as the conventional wisdom wrong. the house around it flies away. Three-thousand revelers were exBut some hearts don't really begin to pected. Eighteen-thousand showed. beat fast until the second act, when the As a result, t h e first "Opening Sugarplum Fairy escorts Clara into the Night," was confusing, crowded, cold, "Kingdom of the Sweets," a luscious and, judging from the way the party has world of confection, spice, and choco- continued to grow, a blast. T h e event, late. Here, true fantasy begins. now in its fifth year, has grown from A hallmark of t h e T u l s a Ballet twelve venues to twenty. Theatre's annual Nutcracker producT h e celebration works like this: tions has always been to cast scads of downtown buildings lend their lobbies, scene-stealing small children as mice, parking garages, and auditoriums to rabbits, angels, toy soldiers, and other local bands, theater groups, clowns, extras. Beginning last year, a cadre of mimes, magicians, art exhibits, storypint-sized bakers was added to the tellers, and performance artists. sweets' sequence, appearing just as Partygoers buy a badge ($4 in advance, Clara settles into her throne-thirteen $5 at the event) that gives them adtiny chefs (a baker's dozen), ages four mission to all performances. Artistically to seven, parade before Clara, bearing speaking, everybody who is anybody is oversized sweets on gilded trays two there, and the event lets visitors sample feet across. T h e goodies are nearly as the local arts scene like grazers at a big as the bakers. holiday buffet. -Barbara Palmer Cincinnati designer Jay Depenbrock For information on where to buy badges, sculpted the sweets from styrofoam calI the Oklahoma City Arts Council, at and cardboard to be lightweight, then (405) 236-1426. piled on t h e artificial sweeteners.

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Oklahoma TODAY

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The Creation Windows

ExpmsingthTorah in gkrs

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window as the Beginning. T h e clear, handmade bevels represent the two kinds of light. T h e next band, made of dark blue-green glass and on which the Creation story is written in Hebrew in twenty-four-carat gold, represents that which disperses darkness. T h e third band, in which amethysts and emeralds are suspended, symbolizes t h e chaos o u t of which order was made. T h e designer also inlaid images of fish, birds, and plants into the windows' background, along with abstract forms. "Although I put a lot of recogKarchmer and four o t h e r nizable forms in there, my emponsors-Annette Friedlander, phasis is on the unrecognizable . Edward Barth, Linda Barth things, the feeling, the history," anovic, Milton Benjamin May, says Marrilyn. "The most imnd their families-adhered to a portant level (for the windows) ng-standing Jewish tradition to reach you is through your hen they commissioned the The imagery of the Creation windowsgoes bqondthat which is spiritual or intuitive side." akingofthechapelwindows readilyseen:angels,fish,andlandscapes/iebeneaththesurface. M a r r i l y n s a y s s h e w a s c o n memorials to family members scious of the fact that in designday celebration of Hanukkah, t h e ing and fabricating the windows, she gone before them. T o create the windows, the sponsors Jewish feast that marks the rededicat- was taking part in the very thing that turned to Gary and Marrilyn Adams of ion in 165 B.C. of t h e T e m p l e in the windows describe-reation. In the Drageon Gate Studios in Edmond. As Jerusalem after Judas Maccabaeus' creative process, you gather all your indesigner, Marrilyn, who is non-Jewish, victory over Antiochus IV. Literally the formation, and the unconscious takes first spent weeks immersing herself in "Festival of Dedication," Hanukkah is everything together and comes up with Jewish history and the Torah, the five also a festival of lights. One candle is lit a new product, says Marrilyn. In this books of Moses. She also studied the on the first night of the holiday, two on project, "I had a whole lot of things to collections at T h e Fenster Museum of the second, and so forth, for eight days. play with." T h e Creation windows include three Jewish Art in Tulsa. Her research con"God is the great mystery in all religlass panels, each of which depicts a gions," she adds. "What I really want, vinced her that stained glass was an ideal medium for telling the Creation different aspect of the Creation story. when people see my work, is for them story. "Light is very, very important in T h e central panel shows t h e first to experience awe and wonder about temple, scrolls of law, and Paradise. T h e life." the Jewish faith," she explains. -Terri L. Darrow first and third panels are dominated by Marrilyn found that the Jewish faith A sign in Rabbi David Packman's recognizes two kinds of light, a super- outlines of Adam and Eve, as a resynagogue appropn'ately bears a quotation in natural light and sunlight, the "light minder, says Rabbi David Packman, of Hebrmfrom Isaiah, ,'My HouseshallBe that separated the night from the day." man's part in God's plan. Thy House." Visiton are alwa-ys weIcome at One interpretation of the windows is his It is light, too, that breathes life into services on Fn'daI orto vim The stained glass. "When I'm working with to view the outermost band around each Creation windows. s one of the sponsors of T h e Creation windows in t h e Esther Greenberg Chapel at T e m p l e B'Nai Israel in orthwest ~ k l a h o m aCity, Alfred chmer had one major concern: H e not want common stained , ass windows. H e wanted 2 thing unique. H e wanted { e got what he wanted."I s thrilled with the outcome," ys Karchmer. "They are very n nique. T h e r e is such loration ...it's artwork that can e viewed as a painting or

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November-December 1991

glass, I'm working with light, controlling it, and producing a strong mystical quality." T h e Temple B'Nai Israel dedicated the windows on December 14, 1990, the second night of the annual eight-

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