I have never been able to hold a daily newspaper. The routine does not agree with me. It becomes a chore, like floors that must be swept away.
In addition, I am not good in this area. My few attempts produce dull entrances that read: “Hot Day. Making Sun Tea. ”
On the other hand, I find a great joy to sit outside under the pumped sun and read with a notebook and a pen at hand. Large surface thoughts.
Or that’s what I imagined.
I came across this note that I made years ago: “What am I causing what people think of Garbanzo beans?”
What inspired me to write this?
It is not an extent of the imagination a deep thought. It is indicative, however, of a person (me) who looks in admiration in front of the birds moving in shrubs and wonders: “How can they do this without sowing in the eyes?”
With a well -deserved sense of humility, I left for Oklahoma City recently to attend a conference on the history of Oklahoma women.
(Real deep thought: the road to hell paved with good intentions is a garden path compared to the Turner Turnpike. Why don’t we have high-speed rail service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City?)
The conference was organized by Jennifer LynchPioneer Woman Museum Director of Pioneer Woman Museum. It was filled with young historians – teachers, students, professionals and history enthusiasts. I was on a panel on the first activists of Oklahoma and I talked about Kate BarnardA burning political reformer. Author Rilla Ascertain talk about Angie Debothe first state historian, and Ruth BrownA white librarian from Bartlesville dismissed in 1950 for his civil rights activities.
Autumn BrownDeputy professor at Oklahoma State University, made an opening speech on Clara LuperA black history teacher at Oklahoma City. In the 1950s, Luper took his class to New York. They traveled a north route and for the first time, the black students sat in a pharmacy counter and drank a coke. Also for the first time, they ate a meal inside a restaurant instead of receiving it in a paper bag through the rear door. They brought back the separate southern road. The journey has changed life. Until then, they supposed that the whole country was separated.
Back in Oklahoma City, Luper and the Youth Council of NAACP organized the historic sit-in of the Katz pharmacy in 1958. Luper, who died in 2011, was commemorated for its pioneering leadership in the American movement of civil rights.
I am not a pioneer pioneer in anything, but I know the value of books, history and teachers. They can inform, inspire and guide. These are the roots of the base.
This is why I help plan the bookstore’s birthday parties this month for Barnard – free celebrations that will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the first elected woman at the State Office. (Fyi: The second woman elected to the State Bureau was that of Tulsa Norma Eagleton In 1979, as a commissioner for society.) Barnard was an intrepid social activist who defended, above all, public education and the well-being of children. She said, “A child is the greatest resource in the state.”
Barnard’s historic anniversary is the nominal reason for the parties, but an underlying mission is to celebrate history, books and community participation. Barnard’s work of life embodies all of this. The free and open games will take place on May 24 in two independent bookstores of Tulsa, Oak Tree Books, 2812 E. 15th St., and Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer St. Élu, elected officials, past and present, will pass. Back, Michael Wallis,, Excited Krehbiel And other writers will be there to sign copies of their books.
I mentioned the anniversary events of the bookstore at the Conference of the History of Women, hoping that others would organize similar Kate birthday parties of a simple and popular community activism. Sunu KodumpharaHistory professor at the Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, sent me an email: “In these times when we live, it gives me great comfort to remind me that the community still exists, and it is our strength.”