Oklahoma Ozarks



  Dad’s visiting a client today so I’m riding along, in the southeast Oklahoma Ozarks.

  A winter storm rolled through Tulsa all day yesterday and this February morning, with sleet, thunder and lightning, a not too common weather combination.  As we drove south the sleet slowly began to peter out and by the time we turned east and off of the four-lane roads they were dry, but the sky remained heavy, the sparse beginnings of fog patching the fields where cold pockets of air reached the warm earth.

  We passed through small to medium hamlets, only seemingly big compared to what amounted to incorporated crossroads with names defining them as towns.  By small Indian smoke shops and casinos named Duck Creek and One Fire, through McAlester, with its many iron buffalo statues; the main highway through The Nations.

 
  After even a few months living on the edge of the Los Angles megalopolis I find it refreshing to renew my acquaintance with the real heartland of America.  Where people are judged by their character and deeds and generally not by their appearance or accoutrements, because everyone knows, or at least knows about, everyone else.  Where the wealthiest and the poorest likely drive the same model of truck, shop at the same stores and wears the same labels, by choice and not because of fashion or available cash, and definitely, By Guns and God, not because of government dictate.

  A shop girl at the store we visited talked about the fact that the area she lives in nearby, recently referred to as The Black Hole, finally got cell reception; that they had several local elementary schools but had to drive thirty miles to attend High School, and that her Mom was so happy that now she could rely on cell service should she have an auto breakdown.  The big Silverado outside has knobby tires, a big black cattle guard on the front, and a sticker on the back window proudly exclaiming, “You’ve Just Been Passed By A GIRL.”  She talked about the area towns like they were neighborhoods in the city.  Places named: Tuskahoma, Talihina, Nashoba, Snow, and Yanush.

  The town has one pharmacy and two gas stations.  One station has a deli and pizza, twenty feet of fishing tackle, and a ten foot long wall of pictures featuring a pre-teen Rodeo Queen, hunters with bears draped over logs or deer in pick-up beds, husky bib-overall wearing fishermen hoisting massive catfish and a six-year old hefting a nine pound largemouth bass.  Both gas stations also have a full grocery store.  Available in town are two pizza places and four diners, all along a one mile stretch of winding ridge-top road surrounded by hollers and hillsides covered in trees, half of which retain their green leaves and the rest bare for the winter.

  Our diner of choice has a lunch buffet consisting of homemade bean soup, stewed cabbage, breaded slices of zucchini, mashed potatoes, white gravy, and fried chicken, with full salad bar and for dessert, custard and German chocolate cake.  Being so far into southeast Oklahoma, the drink choices were coffee or tea, sweet or un-sweet, but mainly the sweet, of course.

  As you approach the outskirts of town a road sign claiming two local legends reads, “Home of Tater and Jo Decker, Cowboy Hall of Fame.”  Stories include numerous Bigfoot sightings in the area over the years, and just last year a black bear was shot within a mile of town.