Oklahoma Town Signs and Water Towers...

Fingerprints are unique to every individual. While all fingerprints are in some ways similar, no two people have identical sets.

Oklahoma cities and towns have unique identifying landmarks. While traveling around the state of my birth, I have collected photographs of city and town signs. While all of the signs are similar in that they give names to the town sites, they differ markedly in style and design. Over the past three years, I have collected more than 150 photographs of Oklahoma city and town signs. I now have 140 of these city and town signs ready for viewing by the readers. Click on this link and take a look.

Likewise, almost every city and town in Oklahoma has a water tower or two. Many have more than two. This link will take the lurker to 93 Oklahoma city/town water towers.

This is an ongoing project for me. As I collect and process the hotographs of signs and water towers, I will add them to this collection. Oklahoma residents may enjoy viewing these photographs. Hopefully others will as well. Enjoy...

77 Oklahoma County Seats...

I'm an Okie by birth and by choice. Oklahoma history and geography is a passion of mine. In 1993, I went on a tour through all 77 Oklahoma counties in one trip. I called the trip, "Tour de 77 Oklahoma Counties." The trip was eight days in length and I covered 2,953 miles. I traveled through the 77 counties in a 1977 Oldsmobile. On the trip, I collected a sample of soils and a sample of rocks from each county. When I returned home, I made a display of the soils.

Recently, 13 years after my "Tour de 77 Counties, I traveled through the 77 Oklahoma counties again. The purpose of my trip this time was to collect photographs of the 77 Oklahoma county courthouses. I didn't travel to all the counties in one trip this time. Rather, I took several shorter, out and back, trips. Although the trips were shorter, I covered more miles (about 3,500 miles). From June of 2005 to June of 2006, I collected photographs of county courthouses. To verify that I had actually made the entire trip, I photographed myself in front of each courthouse. Here is the album that I created which shows each of the 77 Oklahoma county courthouses.

I'm not the world's best photographer, I may be the world's worst. Several of my photos are very poor. I apologize for that. I hope to eventually return to the counties and obtain better photos for my collection.

My "Indian Way" Grandchildren

I'm 65 yrs old and have no grandchildren. There's not much I can do about it. None of my three children are married. There are times when I think I'll never see grandchildren of my own. If it turns out that I never have grandchildren, all is not lost because I have three sisters who have grandchildren. I'll just borrow my siblings' grandchildren (in Native American fashion) and enjoy them as I would my own, --if I had some.

Among the Cheyenne, as is true for most Native Americans, there is a tradition that one's siblings' grandchildren are his grandchildren.

My oldest sister (who is two years younger me), Mary John Carter, has eight wonderful grandchildren. So "Indian way" (or by Native American tradition), her grandchildren are my grandchildren... Her grandchildren live in Catoosa, OK; Dumas, TX; and Gallatin, TN.

Every year in June, Mary hosts a Cousin's Camp at her home in Hammon, OK. All of her grandchildren go to her house and spend a week doing all sorts of interesting and delightful activities. This year was special. One of our sisters, Jane Ann Bowen, our parents, John and Loy Flick, and I joined in the fun. We had a wonderful time doing activities with the children. Here's a pictorial account of the Carter Cousin's Camp of 2006. Am I proud of my "Indian way" grandchildren? You bet your boots, I am!!

Brotherhood of Catfish... er...men...

While driving through Staples, TX (southeast of Austin) a couple of weeks ago, I ran across this interesting sign.

Brotherhood of Catfishermen? Hmmm... Wonder what they talk about when they are picking up trash along the 2-mile stretch? Maybe they spin wild tales about how large that their most recent catch was...

Still Flickering, albeit lightly...

Long time, no messages posted... I wrote my last post on this blogsite back in March. August is almost here. Many events, including a major surgery for my wife and some personal illness, coupled with common garden variety neglect contributed to lack of posting messages. I'm still around. Meanwhile, I've been engaged in all sorts of good discussions on BaptistLife.Com. Join me there...