OOOOOklahoma

Listen carefully and you can hear me singing……

OOOOOKLAHOMA, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

The waving wheat can sure smell sweet, when the wind comes right behind the rain…..

OOOOOKLAHOMA….okay….that’s enough!

You get the picture…..oh….you don’t?  Well maybe this will help you:

See the plains of Oklahoma?   See the rain clouds?  Still don’t get it?  Well, try this.  Place your nose close to the next picture and take a deep, cleansing breath……………..inhale……

Smell that wonderful, clean, sweet Oklahoma air?  Ahhhh, this is really one of God’s greatest creations.

Photos were taken while I was working in the Oklahoma Panhandle this week.  For those of you that might not know what the “Panhandle” is, take out your Atlas and look at the state of Oklahoma.  Now see that little handle that is the upper left portion of Oklahoma…..looks like the handle on a pan….well that is the Panhandle.  That is where I worked this week.  This is incredibly unique country.  It is basically flat, flat, flat and pretty much tree challenged.  The only places you see trees are where people, over the past 100 years or so,  have planted them to shade their homes.  They say you can see the North Pole and the South Pole from parts of the Panhandle.  I haven’t seen them but there are old timers that claim they have.

I just struck me as so beautiful to see the waving wheat, ready for harvest, right next to the irrigated lush green fields of corn.  The farmers have this down to a science.  Growing and harvesting at the same time.

Of course in this old place you will see a lot of abandoned and dilapidated homes, schools and entire communities.  At one time there were schools about every 10 miles or so.  Well, if you had to walk to school you wouldn’t want to walk very far either, would you?

This old school and home are in what used to be Baker, OK.

I sat in front of these buildings and thought about the hundreds of children that roamed the halls and played on the playground of this old school.  All ages and classes in one building.  Imagine the basketball games played in the gym…  The house may have been the home of the principal as it was right across the road from the school.  Many of these schools actually had living quarters in the basement.  I know this because my Aunt & Uncle lived in an old school when I was young.  That is another post entirely.

As I close out this post (there is more to come about this trip) I have to included a photo of what I consider the only eyesore I encounter when in the Panhandle -

The Hog Farms!  I realize that they were necessary for the economy in this part of the country but boy do they stink when the wind is just right.  Fortunately the wind was blowing me the delightful smell of the wheat harvest on this particular trip.

Probably not a place you will list as a vacation spot to visit but still a beautiful creation of God.  Yes, that IS the Panhandle of Oklahoma.