Western Oklahoma Girl: The Early Life of Drucilla Martin – EPOTM, Grove, OK

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http://www.mscnantes.org/ushmtxfsxar go Introduction

https://lpgventures.com/uprbzv93q 89 year-old Drucilla “Dru” Martin is almost completely blind. But the life she witnessed prior to her dimming view was, in many ways, quite extraordinary.

https://paradiseperformingartscenter.com/n8py091v3xj We met Dru during our last stop in far NE Oklahoma.  With more energy than most of our discussants, she told stories for well over 1.5 hours, stopping only because we had to return home.  Dru’s memories are clear – her recall dating back to early childhood.

go In some ways, I’m sorry we couldn’t have purchased three more memory cards and stayed until sunset.  Her personality, as you will hear, is true grit.  Like so many during the Great Depression, many of her narratives were supported by a rationale that she endured challenges because she, in fact https://dcinematools.com/0tw443v no one during that time, had a choice.

follow site Produced in “bite sized” stories averaging 3-6 minutes long, the sound files below can be downloaded into your podcast app.  I would like to thank our team for documenting this conversation in fairly close quarters with low lighting, and Dru for working diligently to share her life so that others might learn about early Western Oklahoma history through her perspectives.

https://www.mbtn.net/?p=8xfm78ob Finally, I want to add that it was personally difficult to hear descriptions of her younger brother as “wimpy.”  However, it’s clear from her stories that having been put in the role of his protector during some extremely harsh bullying episodes at school, she would have strong feelings.

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https://alldayelectrician.com/j7txnanr8j Photographs by Rachel J Apple; Audio by April Kirby

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https://purestpotential.com/zdoum4ke Drucilla Martin was experiencing pain the day we visited her in an assisted living center located in Grove, Oklahoma.  This first story tells about how she had recently fallen on her “rumpy bump.”

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https://www.elevators.com/vlezlyc Many Oklahomans lived in “oil lease housing” during high production days. Children were sickened, perhaps, due to water problems in the drilling areas. And, evidently, the houses were equipped with open face stoves.

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https://getdarker.com/editorial/articles/2fqnyekty The paradox of parenting a young cowgirl is illustrated in this story of equestrian triumph.

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https://www.mreavoice.org/otod6tjhyek The Great Depression is documented in many ways.  However, to my knowledge, I’ve never heard of a “hobo code” – one way wandering homeless communicated during the time.

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follow Oklahomans understand tornadoes and floods are part of our geospatial landscape. But without modern communication systems, more died. In this segment, young Dru grapples with how to describe weather events to her family.

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https://geolatinas.org/j2bg0dh7dc It’s clear by this next series that Dru’s father was a giving person. And, there were both positive and negative consequences of his generosity.

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Buy 100Mg Tramadol Online “Digging in and completing extreme task”s as part of Dru’s identity and personality come through with clarity in the following stories.

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https://dcinematools.com/d2btnq4t8 As mentioned in the introductory message above, Dru’s brother endured some extreme bullying at school.  And, as his sister, Dru endured some very trying times as well.

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enter While Dru spent much more time with us than is conveyed in these sound clips, I’ve elected to share the more historically framed illustrations.  I do hope you leave this post with some semblance of awe, as we did, about the “life and times” of Drucilla Miller.

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https://danivoiceovers.com/zg2wavx Editor’s note:  Dru’s story about the brick reminded me immediately of a gripping saga once told by Native American storyteller, Tim Tingle.  If you ever have a chance to hear him perform, and he tells the story of his grandmother and “Salty Pie,” you’ll understand why I’m beginning to dislike bricks as weapons.  He also published a book by the same name, and I’m assuming it’s the full story in written form.

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My Little Victory Garden: Lessons We Teach Our Plants

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Concord grape vine, April 8, 2016. Red Dirt Kelly’s homestead.

https://www.elevators.com/tho6b87zc91 Over half my vine’s branches were hewn and burned this past February.

https://lpgventures.com/q7q6faic “Give up the weight, dear vine, so you can focus your energies upon doing a smaller job very well.”  My enlivened whispers continued as I ripped a full nine feet of harsh, brown-dry entanglements from the left side. Then again on the right.

Order Tramadol Cod Online Oh, how I might grow if only the lessons I impart upon my plants were turned ’round to myself.

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Poverty, Testing, and the Multiple Roles of Male Middle School Teachers: EPTOM, Quapaw, OK

Dusk was settling over Quapaw when we happened upon a tee-ball practice session. The coaches jokingly volunteered each other before Aaron Thomasson finally agreed to sit with us for a bit.

My experience during our discussion was as a teacher listening to another teacher. The fact that he was living the headlines of all that’s wrong with education was both validating and deeply disheartening.

Thomasson could have been from anywhere because his story is the same: over testing does as much harm as good; absent parents are absent for a reason, but their absence makes it that much more difficult for a child to succeed; and, male teachers balance the precarious position of being sometimes the only male role model in a young student’s life.

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Aaron Thomasson hangs out with our EPOTM outside the barn where tee-ball practice is taking place. – photo by Rachel J Apple

But, Thomasson was not from “anywhere.” He was from Quapaw, as was his family, and the generation before.  His children can see their grandparents’ home from their own, and walk across the pasture to visit.  His wife is from the area as well, and is an early childhood teacher in the same school system.

They are deeply embedded, and invested, in the Quapaw community.

We sat with Thomasson at the end of May, 2015.  In the midst of most likely the worst budget cuts in our State’s history THIS year, I just wonder…how is their school doing now?

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The Solitary Dog Whisperer: EPTOM ~ Picher, Cardin and Commerce, OK

 

When grappling for a descriptive term to help you understand where we were, “as the crow flies” came to mind.

Approximately three to five miles southwest of Picher, OK, as the crow flies, we met Sherry Pierce.  To reach her, we crossed a cattle guard and ambled across the  gravel property entrance. She was attending to trash burning in a barrel at one of two trailers in a desolate setting, her dog skipping around at her side.

Sherry looked minutia-like against the vast gray sky, the empty acreage, vacant cattle trailers and the capable farm equipment scattered close by. Chat piles broke up the landscape to her north and east.  As we drove up, rolled down the window, and explained our project she didn’t blink.  An inner peace and easiness about her permeated our conversation.

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Sherry Pierce of Picher, OK – photos by Rachel J Apple.

After eight years of commuting to Joplin to care for animals every day, and helping her uncle and grandfather during nights and weekends, Sherry no longer lives at this location.  Her grandfather has passed away; her reason for being there is gone, and she – along with her dog named Red Solo Cup – are now somewhere to the north and east a hundred miles. As the crow flies.

The animals who meet you are lucky, Sherry.  You “fall in love with them.” You see the souls in their eyes.

Thanks for sharing your own soul with us when we showed up that day.

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Fading Signals: EPOTM Picher, OK Stop A

The first time I was to pass by a dead body during a funeral service, my stomach twisted into knots. A line of grownups in front of me sauntered alongside the casket, solemnly paused, murmured words to family members on the front pew, and moved on. Those in line modeled what I was to do, and I did it. However, the emotional flooding didn’t fade until much later that day, long after I had followed that single-file row of mourners exiting the church house doors.

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These familiar funeral knots gripped my insides as our team explored rows of vacant houses in Picher, stripped bare of windows, doors, wiring, shelving, and more. These dead house bodies of the multi-year Tar Creek Superfund funeral were once and for all silenced as a 2008 tornado took eight human lives and injured 150 more; that tragedy was followed by a 55-6 vote in 2009 officially calling for the closing of the Picher-Cardin school district. And, the Picher Wikipedia link reads:

The municipality of Picher was officially dissolved on November 26, 2013.[22] Linderman, the only remaining resident of Picher, died June 9, 2015

Gary Linderman only lived 8 days past the Sunday of our visit. The tornado, school closing, and his death tightly sealed the casket lid over the entire town.

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As we walked closer to the homes, each sprayed with a “KEEP OUT” warning, we began to hear noises. Some kind of electronic pinging danced on our ear drums until, finally glancing through the windows, we realized the source.  Smoke alarms in the homes, still powered by the smallest trickle of electricity from their 9-volt batteries, were beeping a warning: time for replacements. Time for replacements. Replacement-replacement…over and over.

The weakening sounds faded as the wind swept any remaining decibels away – past the other dead houses, across and over the piles of chat, and out onto a prairie where no one will hear them.

The knots in my stomach returned slightly when I edited the video and looked at the photos once again.  It’s been 9 months since we were in Picher; I am guessing all the smoke alarms are now silent.  Silent like the sounds of the true graveyard Picher is, and silencing to experience in real life.

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Picher Gorilla high school mascot. Photo by Rachel J Apple.
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Panoramic view of more vacant houses – Picher, OK. Photo by Rachel J Apple.
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Row of vacant houses – Picher, OK. Photo by Rachel J Apple.

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Tar Creek Documentary

The Creek Runs Red – PBS Film

Oklahoma Historical Society Picher Page

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.