Monthly Archives: July 2014

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: There’s a vineyard? Where?

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One thing about my job I enjoy is bringing stories to people about places in Oklahoma that most don’t realize are there. Many don’t know that Oklahoma used to have a growing vineyard and wine industry back before statehood and prohibition. But prohibition changed that and the industry died on the vine.

Even with the repeal of prohibition, it still took nearly 40 years for the industry to reemerge into the burgeoning wine industry it is today. Unfortunately, many people are unaware that we even have vineyards in our state. But the Oklahoma Agritourism Department is changing that for the better.

In this week’s blog, we look at how Oklahoma Agritourism is putting Oklahoma’s wine industry on the map. Hopefully it will help interest you into touring an Oklahoma vineyard near you.
Alisa Hines

Oklahoma Wine Trails from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.

Every Point on the Map

EPOTM: Mounds, OK

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_DSC0298“Bull?  How’d you get that name?”

We were loading our equipment into the car while Bull and Bobby were sitting outside a convenience store in Mounds. Bobby needed a smoke.

“Aw…here we go…”  Bull acted put out while at the same time positioning himself to tell the short version of a story he clearly treasured.  “I used to be in the service, and while I was stationed in Germany we’d sometimes leave the base and ride in the European rodeos.  Well, I always did pretty good but one time I won the whole thing.”

“What do you mean, ‘The WHOLE thing?'”

“I earned the title of European Rodeo Champion…the WHOLE thing.  And that’s when the boys started calling me Bull.”

I glanced at Bobby who was almost halfway through this first cigarette.  We made eye contact and he slightly nodded his head as if to say, “Yup.  It’s the truth.”  I looked back at Bull.  He looked down at the ground, for a minute, then re-engaged Bobby in their lighthearted joke-talk.

“So,” I thought to myself, “Inside they’re camera shy and do everything they can to stay out out of the conversation.  But out here, the bench is their turf, and I’m looking at a bona fide rodeo champ.” Continue reading EPOTM: Mounds, OK →

27 Hats

Would you like a warm up?

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photo (2)Would you like a warm up? It’s one of the greatest questions posed by the dining service industry in this fine land of ours. If you look broadly across the blessing of the English language landscape, you may find it to be that, and so much more.

One of my fondest early memories in life is going to breakfast with my dad on Saturday mornings to a small diner in an even smaller town. Quinlan, Texas, won’t make the list of Every Point on the Map given it’s proximity south of the Red River, and its a shame in some ways, for Quinlan in the early 70’s was vintage “good people” country.

I have an old friend who likes to say “denial is more than a river in Egypt”. Amen to that, but I would add that the Red River, likewise, is more than just a boundary between Oklahoma and that neighbor to its south.
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Which brings us to today’s topic. Where does any of this fit within the genre of “27 hats”, you might ask? Well, topper 12 of 27, save one, is from Red River, the resort town in New Mexico, not the tributary to our south. It has been the selected hat for this post for almost a month now, but as I told our friend RDK in an email after writing the similarly themed post on 11 of 27, I’ve been finding myself at a loss for words. And, likewise, this morning, I concur that it’s OK.

Red River, New Mexico, at least for me, for many years was a place of mythical legend. I had never been there. Continue reading Would you like a warm up? →

Every Point on the Map

EPOTM: Boley, OK

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The bar stools in Pookie’s restaurant have born much more than the weight of those who have sat and eaten “burgers made with love” years on end.

They have born the weight of conversations about Boley exchanged by their occupants.

About the school closing three years ago.

About how to help people feel safe even when there is an occasional prison escapee in the area.

About whether Willie Williams’ bucking bull will be of such quality to draw a premium price at sale, and how they need good counselors at the substance abuse treatment center down the road.

About how the history of their community is best told by some of the oldest, and how they wish those elders were present to talk about Boley instead.

About how good last year’s rodeo was, or about planning the next one.

Willie and Tyrone

About their town’s dwindling population, and “what kind of ideas can we come up with” to encourage the “young folks to move back and raise their families.”

Those bar stools have stood as silent witnesses Continue reading EPOTM: Boley, OK →