Chickasha, Oklahoma
November 6, 2022
The day started out with a beautiful sunrise:
This was another "quite a day."
I had noticed the day before a gift shop in Cawker City. It was closed but after I emailed with the couple who own it, they agreed to meet me at 930 am to let me buy some stickers. Their gift shop was awesome with a real skeleton, a wall of "butts," a leg lamp and more. I talked with the fellow for a good 30 minutes, starting with that I had noticed a VCU sticker on a car outside. Turns out the couple moved to Cawker City from Richmond after he had driven around the country during Covid. After arriving in Oklahoma he was diagnosed with phase 4 pancreatic cancer for which he is undergoing chemotherapy. He has a great attitude which has to help. I thought of my friends Sharon and Brian and how we lost Sharon way too young to the same cancer. Brian called her "relentlessly optimistic." I have always thought that was such a wonderful way of remembering her. She was such a fan of my wanderabout.
I then went back to the lake and played a few holes on the town's golf course -- carpeting greens. Another first for me. But it was way too windy.
Spent some time in Downs and had lunch at the local kitchen in the grocery store. Premade hamburgers are a thing out here. Not good, but not bad. Probably unhealthy but it beats going hungry.
Visited Tipton which I knew about from the "Slice of Paradise" film. I sensed the town has its struggles but with a post office, a grocery store, a school and a golf course -- well, it has the bones to a good hometown. Went by its golf course -- probably the nicest of the sand green courses I have seen. I played one hole -- it was windy and a bit cold. Plus I can't afford to hurt my back anymore. Another par. I really enjoyed the sign for the course where they have displayed the years the high school golf team has won the Kansas state sand green championship.
Next I was off to the geodetic center of North America. The historical sign discussing this location is in Osborne which is some 20 miles from the actual center. And the center is on private land. So other than learning that when I Google told me I had arrived (after driving an unmaintained road for 10 miles), it was a successful side trip. I took the liberty of clipping a photo of the sign and the marker from the Internet -- I thought that was ok given the effort I put in.
If it is not clear from the map, this area of Kansas is uber rural -- I call it remote. Distances between towns of 400 people are measured in tens of miles. There is a lot of farmland and a lot of cattle. You can see for miles, although it is not completely flat.
I forgot to mention that the fellow at the gift store in Cawker City told me that the population in rural Kansas peaked in the 1890s. That is hard for me to digest.
One other "I forgot to mention." Near (relatively speaking) Downs is a town named Smith Center. If you are like me, you hear those two words and you think of the Dean Dome in Chapel Hell. I met a couple at the ball of twine who were from there. I laughed and told them about Chapel Hill's Smith Center and they were both aware of the "linkage." Kind of funny that Dean Smith was from Kansas.
As a Wahoo, I deemed a visit to Smith Center would be inappropriate so I have no first-hand knowledge of the place.
But I do have first-hand knowledge of the next three towns I visited -- Waldo, Paradise and Plainville. Of course I had to visit Waldo to know where it is. It is a sad place with abandoned houses and lifeless streets. I took photos of the post office; it was in such disrepair that I was sure it had been closed down. But no, it is still open two hours a day. I was definitely affected by what I saw here. I hurt. There were two images of the cartoon Waldo which told me that in spite of the status of the physical Waldo, there was, or least had been recently, a sense of humor. But I still hurt.
Paradise came next. It may have been at some point but not now. The school was closed down, although I saw a couple of dads with their kids who had used the town gym. I peaked in the window and it looked like the basketball court floor was shiny and still in good shape. On the slideshow, you'll see photos of boards with track and field records on them. Even as I write this, I shake my head trying to comprehend what it must be like to grow up someplace that has seen its best days in the rear view mirror. I saw a young boy -- probably seven or eight years old walking in the street. What must it be like to grow up with the past all around you? I paint a sad picture but I bet his parents do their best to give him a good upbringing. Does he have a chance at a great education and opportunities to develop his talents? And if he does, won't he just end up leaving town for the proverbial greener pastures?
Plainville was my stopping point for the day. With a name like "Plainville" I just had to visit. Obviously named for the Great Plains, the town of a bit over 1000 people had a spirit about it. The high school football team was playing in the state playoffs that night. I sensed from the trucks and men I saw that oil field work is important to the economy. The teenagers working at the DQ were friendly and appeared hard working. I spent the night at the town's lake just outside of town.
I forgot that I also drove through a town named Ashland, whose high school team -- the Blue Jays -- was also playing in the football playoffs. Ashland has a nine-hole golf course with grass greens.
I love the idea of nine-hole golf courses. I might just have to wanderabout at some point and play as many of them as I can. Something 'everyman" about these courses in these small towns. Nothing fancy, just a place to compete and drink beer with your buds. Out in Oregon they call it "pasture golf." That is clearly what many of these small town courses are.
I grew up in a town of at the time was 10,000 maybe 12,000 people. Well-educated parents were the norm. There was a degree of affluence mixed in with a strong dose of middle class professionals. I was lacking for outdoor activities -- golf, tennis, basketball -- there were multiple facilities to do all those and more. Yet, I couldn't wait to get out of there. I did not realize how good I had it.
So many sights, so many photos. I went with a slideshow. Not sure why I chose the Tams as the soundtrack.
Yorumlar