Oklahoma City

We had a sunny day for our downtown walk in OKC. I guess everyone begins at the Federal Building Memorial. We had seen pictures of the memorial, but couldn't visualize the before and after. The first thing we recognized was the field of chairs. The field is in the footprint of the original building. The chairs are arranged by floor and east/west location of the person who was killed. So there are 9 rows of chairs in columns of varying number (this is hard to explain) Then I noticed the small chairs. The children. Entering from the west, they aren't immediately apparent. The west side had fewer fatalities. But since the second floor was the daycare center, most of those chairs are smaller. There were also 3 children on the ground floor who came with parents for social security business. The pond on the north side of the field is where 5th St. used to be and where the truck was parked.

To actually talk about all of the scenes and settings would take more than a single blog. We passed on the museum, didn't need all of the details to mess with our overall sense of the place and time. The hurricane fence on the west side is covered with present day memorials and mementos from survivors. A wonderful ranger talked to us for quite some time about the other city buildings that were involved, a 16 block area. Maps on the grounds help to join the past and present. Why are so many people destructive? Whether it's a single death or 168, like at the Federal Building, what is the point?

From there we needed a change of pace and got that by walking south to Bricktown. We enjoyed the old buildings, the canal, the mosaics and other art. Middle of the afternoon was quiet except for the stadium where an early baseball game was going on. There are tributes to Oklahoma  playplayers of the past. Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench get the most attention. We talked about going in for the $5 lawn seating, but it was the last inning. Instead we walked across the street to a Sonic. I got my all-time-favorite summer drink, diet limeade....Yum! On our walk we saw historic hotels, glittering new skyscrapers, new construction, and an oasis park. Of course the Thunder support was everywhere, as it should be. OKC has minor league baseball and hockey teams in addition to their major league basketball team. They are located in Bricktown. Wish Dallas had been smart enough to keep their sports teams downtown.

We wanted to drive around a bit and found a very odd assortment of museums; Banjo, Railroad, Homing Pigeons, China Painters, Red Earth, Firefighters, Oklahoma Land Run, Telephone History, Women Pilots, it goes on. We decided on The 45th Infantry Division Museum, a state run museum. It has an amazing collection of artifacts from every era of American history. I really enjoyed the Bill Mauldin Room containing hundreds of his original cartoons from the 40's and 50's. He was on the staff of the 45th through Europe in WWII and continued to give a view of GI life long after. His characters were true and endearing. Russell couldn't get over the weapons collection, massive! We saw items we never knew existed in wonderful condition. The staff is very proud of their Hitler collection. They have towels, photos, and other household items from his homes and the bunker that was his final hideout. This is a well kept secret that we are very glad we took the time to discover.

As usual, my order of business is out of whack. I have not downloaded my pictures yet. I'll post them later.

The rest of this weekend is being devoted to family. Matt Felty is graduating from OU Law School tomorrow and we are here to show how proud we all are. We look forward to time with all of the Felty clan.