{"id":332,"date":"2008-10-17T21:34:58","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T04:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/?p=332"},"modified":"2008-10-18T07:01:17","modified_gmt":"2008-10-18T14:01:17","slug":"doing-fine-in-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/?p=332","title":{"rendered":"Doing fine in Oklahoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Is it even possible to see the Oklahoma stateline marker and not start singing Oh, oh, oh, oh, <\/em>(oh, you know the rest)?<\/p>\n

After nearly 1000 miles of high desert, Oklahoma announces itself early.\u00a0 Green landscape starts to appear about 20 miles before\u00a0the stateline and\u00a0lone trees\u00a0begin to group together so that,\u00a0slowly,\u00a0the sight of them does not seem so foreign.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At noon today\u00a0I stopped in Groom, Texas.\u00a0 A small town, my only visible choice was a Dairy Queen with a lot of trucks parked outside.\u00a0 It turns out that this is\u00a0the<\/em> spot in Groom.\u00a0 I sat for over an hour watching as locals entered and greeted each other.\u00a0 I estimate that there were over 40 people eating their lunch at the Dairy Queen today and the warmth and camaraderie\u00a0was palpable.\u00a0 Sadly, they were mostly microphone shy,\u00a0but I found myself wishing\u00a0I were an insider in Groom.\u00a0\u00a0Good people.<\/p>\n

It must be added that Groom is also home of, by its own claim, the largest cross in the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 A sight that is notable, if incongruent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I made it to Elk City, Oklahoma and was at dinner when I met a man named Dennis and his wife.\u00a0\u00a0Although also microphone shy,\u00a0Dennis suggested that\u00a0I talk to\u00a0his sister Sherry and offered to call her to arrange a meeting.\u00a0 \u00a0Sherry Wright\u00a0was kind enough to put her plans aside and came to meet me\u00a0with her daughters Christina\u00a0and Brianna.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the thing about returning to\u00a0familiar scenery.\u00a0 It can lull you into a false sense of the expected.\u00a0 My interview and time with Sherry and her daughters was anything but expected.\u00a0 Sherry\u00a0is married and owns her own\u00a0trucking business.\u00a0 Born and raised in Elk City, she is\u00a0a passionate Obama supporter and speaks candidly of being blue in a red state.\u00a0 Her daughter Christine is 17 (18 in 6 days, she is quick to point out), articulate and pregnant.\u00a0 Their views on choice and this election are striking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Sherry speaks first)<\/p>\n

<\/object>
Sherry and Christine<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
\nMakin’ lazy circles in the sky<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it even possible to see the Oklahoma stateline marker and not start singing Oh, oh, oh, oh, (oh, you know the rest)? After nearly 1000 miles of high desert, Oklahoma announces itself early.\u00a0 Green landscape starts to appear about 20 miles before\u00a0the stateline and\u00a0lone trees\u00a0begin to group together so that,\u00a0slowly,\u00a0the sight of them does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2008\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}