OKLAHOMA! (I will watch this musical sometime)

Yesterday Nancy and I went to Oklahoma City to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. It is a massive museum with a maze of displays and lots of stuff. You could easily stay there all day. They had an interesting photography display on cowgirls and the history of their performances and performance clothes. There was also more western paintings and sculptures, a recreated historic town, art and clothing made by American Indians including a beautiful display of beaded gauntlets, and lots of stuff on cowboys - brands, roping gear, bridles, explanations of rodeo events, and more. There was tons of stuff there. Nancy and I ate lunch at the cafe and enjoyed the buffet, especially the bread pudding.

Next we went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum to commemorate the April 1995 bombing of a federal building that also housed two daycares. 168 people were killed as a large portion of the nine floor building collapsed including 19 small children and many more wounded bc two crazy guys blew up a building in retaliation to the raid on the Branch Dividian Compound in Waco, Texas. New York City would do well to make a memorial and museum for 9-11 as moving as this one. I cried many many times in the museum listening to the survivors and families of those who died recount the events. The stories from the rescue workers were just as moving and their stories were similar to the ones I heard while in NY. All the rescuers had to do was mention that something was needed and everyone came together to donate supplies and helping hands. A cooking conference in town was canceled but all those people stayed and cooked meals for the workers. They had mini-memorials with photos for each person who died. I was the last one to leave the museum and my eyes were really red.

Though I have been told more than once that I am as nurturing as a brillo pad (a comment that at the time I resented), I have realized that I am more of a tough love kind of person. A reason why I work so well with high schoolers and not kindergarteners. I find that I can empathize (sympathize?) with a lot of people and situations. Shhh don't tell anyone that I am a softy. That home family makeover show always makes me cry bc those people really deserve something better. I cry in movies. OK city and NYC make me cry bc those people didn't deserve to die that way and so many people acted heroically and went above and beyond the call of duty to try to make things better.

Today Nancy and I went to the Oklahoma History Museum a museum dedicated solely to the history of Oklahoma which, incidentally, is very interesting. Oklahoma was of course inhabited by American Indians and then more indians were shoved into is as they were displaced (273 different indian tribes were sent to the Oklahoma territory). Then came the land rush - and Oklahoma was inhabited practically overnight. The museum included exhibits about all of this and basically anything that happened in OK and anyone famous from OK. What a cool idea. Did you know that Sonic drive-ins originated in OK? The heart and lung machine and first heart and lung transplants originated in OK. There was stuff about civil rights heroes, athletes, singers, astronauts, etc. I think every state should make one of these bc what a way to proclaim the greatness of your state?

Tomorrow I am on my way to Hot Springs, Arkansas to couchsurf (Bill jokingly said it was going to snow and I shot him a death look) and then on to Louisiana.