The spirit of Will Rogers January 15, 2006
Posted by Ron in Attractions, People.add a comment
Jay Clarke of UPI pays a visit to the Will Rogers Museum and the Route 66 town of Claremore, Okla.
There is this disquieting opening paragraph:
He was one of the great wits of the 20th century, a homey philosopher and the top box-office attraction of his time. Yet many people today don’t know his name, much less why he became so famous.
This is a shame. I’ll go one better and say that Will Rogers was the greatest humorist since Mark Twain. He’s like reading Dave Barry without the goofiness. Perhaps he’s fading from the American consciousness because he died more than 70 years ago. Perhaps it’s because there’s this wrongheaded notion that his writings came from an archaic era.
I find nothing archaic about these quotations:
A fool and his money are soon elected.
About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.
Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.
Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?
If you ever injected truth into politics, you have no politics.
Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States; they have not had one since Lincoln.
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.
The Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
There are hundreds of sayings like this. I find Rogers nearly as relevant now as he was then because our political leaders are doomed to repeat history. With his country wisdom and wry observational skills, no wonder Rogers was one of the most popular men in the country during his lifetime.
Big day in Chandler January 15, 2006
Posted by Ron in Attractions, Events, Preservation.1 comment so far
A bunch of local dignitaries showed up in Chandler, Okla., on Saturday for the “Arms Around the Armory” ceremonies, including state politicians, philanthropists and city officials.
But the day’s big stars were an enormous stone building and the most famous highway in the world, Route 66.
The first photo was from the groundbreaking ceremony for the future Route 66 Interpretive Center that will be housed in Chandler’s old National Guard Armory. The Armory will be used for more than a Route 66 attraction; it eventually will be a multipurpose facility for wedding receptions, gatherings and other community uses.
The second photo was from a hastily arranged ribbon-cutting on Route 66 itself, which curves in front of the Armory. It celebrated Oklahoma’s Route 66 recent designation as a state scenic highway. Efforts are under way to designate Route 66 in the Sooner State as a national scenic byway.
I love the Mother Road, but I was taken with the Armory. It was a Works Progress Administration project built in 1936-37 from hand-chiseled stone. The walls are 20 inches thick and can withstand a tornado. The first black man to serve in the Oklahoma National Guard, Burton “Lee Lee” Z. Lewis, was sworn in here. Lewis still lives in Chandler as a preacher.
When the local Guard unit moved into a new facility, the Armory fell into disrepair. The city council even considered tearing it down in the 1990s. But a group, Old Armory Restorers, was formed to preserve the building. The Oklahoma Route 66 Association later assisted with the Restorers’ efforts. It is hoped the Route 66 Intepretive Center will be open within a year after extensive renovations.
Indeed, the Armory needs work. Most of the windows are broken out, the wooden doors are rotting, pigeons fluttered about, and pencil-thin beams of sunlight streamed through holes in the roof. The local Guard brought an electrical generator so the building could have lights and heat during the indoor part of the ceremonies.
Yet little imagination was required to see how glorious the Armory was and still could be. Walking through the stone hallways, one felt secure in the building’s sturdy structure. You could almost feel the ghosts of all the Guardsmen that once clomped through there. One could imagine the music acts that once played on the tastefully designed main stage.
The excitement from the 200 or so people who attended was palpable, because they knew they were participating in the preservation of something historically important and giving it a second lease on life.
Chandler Mayor Carl Reherman, who once was mayor of Edmond, said he had been told by some residents that Chandler needed to quit living in the past. Reherman disagreed. “The past is our future,” he said Saturday. He added that he couldn’t tolerate the thought of losing a building like the Armory and the younger generation later asking, “Why didn’t you do something to keep that?”
Concluding the event was a blessing by a member of the Sac & Fox Indian tribe. After noting that Route 66 once was a stagecoach trail, he said this:
“Our history is important. Our future is our history.”
