I love you. I love you not.Me and Oklahoma. We go way back. The Gen X Poetry EmporiumI love you. I love you not.A sun-bleached Buick with a cracked dashboard.A Ford Taurus that smells like wet cigarettes.An El Camino with its own personal Jesus. Here, the...
Peculiar Roadside Attractions on Oklahoma Highway 81
There are numerous peculiar attractions along Oklahoma State Highway 81 north of Rush Springs, Oklahoma. I honestly have no idea what's going on in some of these pictures but they're quite entertaining. The glass balls on the pillars behind the crosses in this last...
ANEMAL Graffiti Tribute Is Chance Discovery in OKC
Across trains and bridges, rooftops and billboards, the graff writer purges his pent-up emotions. His tragic losses unravel in streams and clouds of colorful paint. The nozzle becomes a vehicle for his catharsis, and he might as well be cutting for the paint is a...
How To Play Clue During An Ice Storm Power Outage
Three days equals 72 hours, unless an ice storm knocks out your power and then three days equals 234 hours and you have to play CLUE for every single one of them. Because, umm, Parcheesi was not happening and the batteries to Operation were, of course, dead. Every few...
Oklahoma Ice Storm Pictures (Roses)
In early December we had another ice storm that killed our electricity and put us out of the house for six days. Here are some photos I shot in Teresa's garden at the start of the storm.
Carnival Birthday Party (With Pictures)
Back in July, I threw a carnival birthday party for my daughter Bridgette. We rented a dunk tank and a miniature pony for the kids to paint. Bridgy loved it all, but the dunk tank would have probably been enough! I underestimated how much the kids were going to like...
1962 Ford Fairlane 500 (Daily Photo)
A 1962 Ford Fairlane | 7.12.2015 | 13th and Broadway in Oklahoma City
How To Keep Dreaming When Your Hope Is Boiling In The Sun
I was 10-years-old and life unfolded like laundry on a line. We were sheets baked in the wind, our dreams heavy like wet, pilling blankets pinned to a wire. I was pulled taut between two poles, my mother, my father. Fastened in 15 different places -- to shame and...
A Daughter’s First Communion
It's a joy to share with you pictures of our daughter Bridgette's First Communion. It was one of the best days of my life as we celebrated her receiving the wine and the bread and the gift of everlasting life. In keeping with tradition, the first grade moms at...
Laura Nelson’s Grave (Lynching Victim)
At night in dreams he sees their souls rise Like dark geese into the Oklahoma skies Well this is a prayer for the souls of the departed --Springsteen Down an old dirt road in Okfuskee County is a gravel turn-out that bends in a half circle right by a stand of trees....
How To Leave A Legacy For Future Generations
The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don't see the results. --Fr. Henri Nouwen Every spring, wildflowers spill out across the rural routes of Eastern Oklahoma County. The roads Peebly, Luther, Dobbs, and my favorite,...
How To Prepare For Battle
In 1974, our family moved from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs. Our new house was a yellow split-level on London Lane in Southboro. The house next door was bright blue and there lived the family Barlass. Peggy was the youngest of four kids and lucky for me, we were in...