Oklahoma ranks #43 in peacefulness in the nation

In the April 17, 2011 edition of  The Oklahoman, there was an article about how our flyover state ranks #43 in the nation for peacefulness according to the United States Peace Index which was compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace.  The Institute defines peace as the absence of violence.  To find the absence of violence,  it looks at each state and measures the number of homicides, violent crimes, jailed populations, number of police officers and availability of small arms.

If you watch any television at all in the Oklahoma City area, you will be struck by the number of weekend gun shows that go on in Oklahoma City.  The advertisements are always full of the sounds of gun shots and there is a desperate, urgent quality to the message:  load up, stock up, you never know when the "bad guys" will invade your home. 

So when I came downstairs this morning after my ride on the exercise bicycle, I was only half surprised when my husband said, "Look on page 5A of this morning's Oklahoman."  (18Apr2011)  My husband had once met the man who died in a shoot-out at a bar in Medicine Park.  My husband doesn't hang out at bars.  He was only acquainted with him because he had had dealings with Mr. Taylor at Fort Sill.

Around here if we hear gunshots, we don't notify any authorities, we just look out the window. Gunfire is that common around here.  To be fair, we do live in a rural area and there is a lot of hunting and target shooting.  Still.  One of our neighbors drives around with a gun beside him on the passenger seat and another neighbor walks around with a pistol strapped to his thigh.

Number 43 in the nation?  I'm just surprised we weren't #50.

Dwelling in the Land of Memories

  (Source of picture)

Snowed in again today.  If you are along in years, winter is definitely a time for remembering.  Memories come unbidden as easily as snow seems to be coming to southwestern Oklahoma lately.

This morning, for unknown reasons, I was thinking of smudge pots.  I told my husband I am glad smudge pots were still around when I was little.  I remember coming home from my paternal grandparents' house at night time.  There was an area on Portland in Oklahoma City that seemed to always need repairing. 

My father would put the brakes on "Betsy," our Ford.  Slowly we passed lighted smudge pots lining the road to show where the repairs were being made.  No flashing lights or caution signs, just glimmering flames lining the road warning drivers away from the dangerous area.

I'm sure the smudge pots contributed to air pollution, but, still, I'm glad I was around at the same time they were. 

Scissors-And-Paste

I have a calendar by Jeffery Kacirk called "Forgotten English."   I really enjoy it because there is a new "forgotten" word everyday.  For instance, today's word is "assishness."  Actually I think I have used this word in the 21st century, in fact just last night.

My example:  The report on Oklahoma City's Channel 9 last night stating that the recent mass shooting in Tucson could increase gun sales reflects the fact that a large segment of our society has reached a new level of assishness.   Assishness was originally found in a 1611 book by John Florio and also sir James Murray's New English Dictionary published in 1888.  It means stupidity or blockishness.

But, once again, I've gone off topic.  Yesterday's word is the one I wish to focus on.  The word(s) is(are) "scissors-and-paste."  In 1769 the Reverend James Granger published the Biographical History of England.  The book had blank areas which readers could add pictures and text of their own, making this book to be one of the first interactive examples of media.  Apparently the practice became so widespread that by 1889, the New York Tribune began printing pictures of celebrities separately with blank pages on the back so that the "Grangerites" could use them without cutting up readable print.

Of course, I  had to Google the Reverend James Granger and found a whole web site devoted to him.  He was an avid print collector and an Anglican vicar of Shiplake, near Oxford, England.  He is considered to be the spiritual father of present day historical picture libraries.

We carry on Grangerism in our own ways today by scrapbooking.  Another more advanced application and perhaps truer to Grangerism is the crafting of altered books.  This video below is one I found on YouTube and it is an excellent example of an altered book and what an altered book is.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that "scissors-and-paste" has carried over into our computer age with "cut-and-paste."  The more things change the more things stay the same.

"Come Take a Ride in my Airship!"

This blog is called “Life in a Flyover State.”  You must have known, at some point, a posting would appear about airplanes.   Growing up, we lived not far from Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.  In fact, the elementary school I attended -- New Hope School -- was torn down when the land on which it was sitting was purchased by the FAA Administration.  Airplanes have been a big part of my life.  Airplanes are what put food on the table for my family.  My dad worked at FAA.  There once was a hill where people would go to watch the airplanes land and take off.  What can I say?  It was a simpler time and we were easily amused.


We now live in a time of brightly digitized colors.  I still remember when our neighbors got a color TV.  They were the first ones that I knew to have a color television set.   It was the year that one of President Johnson’s daughters, either Lynda Bird or Luci, got married.  We were invited over to view the hoopla surrounding the wedding in color.  Oh, and the Wizard of Oz?  I never knew that when Dorothy, Toto and the house slammed down in the Land of Oz, everything turned to beautiful colors when she opened the door until we bought our own color television set.  The color film used in the 1960s now seems garish and dated.  


When I think of my ancestors I think of them growing up in black and white or sepia tones, but, of course, I know that isn’t true which brings me to this little piece.  All the pictures in the film are real, either taken by me or in my possession, it’s just how they are used that is the fiction.


Airplanes were a curiosity at the turn of the 20th century.  Birds and kites, and maybe the occasional hot air balloon were the only things that were flying high in the sky during that time.  Now we are accustomed to satellites, airplanes, jets, helicopters and space shuttles leaving earth’s surface.  In fact we are so accustomed to flying that I will always remember the eerie quiet that filled the skies in the three days following Sep. 11, 2001. 


Old photographs have been passed down to me from both sides of my family tree.  The lightning shots and single shot of an airport (ca 1916) were taken by my maternal grandfather while he lived in Omaha, Nebraska.  He dearly loved his camera.


The picture of the group of people standing around an airplane in a pasture is from my paternal side of the family tree.  The picture includes my great grandfather.  This picture was taken close to Grand Summit, Cowley County, KS.  The house shot is of my great grandfather’s house in Grand Summit.   


The motion shots were filmed by me in the 21st century in Oklahoma.  The strange light photographs are actually of the moon and Venus taken by me last year (2009).  I didn’t realize I had my camera on an incorrect setting, but I liked the outcome anyway!


The song, “Come Take a Trip in my Airship” by J. W. Myers was recorded on a wax cylinder in 1904.  It is in the public domain and can be found at www.archive.org.


Airplanes flying overhead were so rare between 1900 and 1920 that a sighting of one would be written about in newspapers. The article clip shown in the film is from the July 2, 1919 Emporia Gazette which can be found at www.genealogybank.com.   In full, it reads:

“Airplane Flew Over Emporia.  An airplane flew over town about 8 o’clock yesterday evening.  It came from the east and was seen over Melvern before it came to Emporia, according to Santa Fe officials.  The pilot flew near the ground while he went over Emporia but did not stop.”

When researching my family tree, I actively try to imagine what it must have been like for my ancestors when they walked this earth.  This little film is a result of my imaginings.