Saturday, May 14, 2011

In a Nutshell

Akron OH, Bird Island OK, Sapulpa OK, Lancaster CA, Spavinaw OK, French Lick IN, St. Louis MO, Afton OK. . .

That was the parade of 15 visitors who marched into Afton Station this cloudy, chilly Saturday. There were also surprise visits from Betty W., Tattoo Man (who brought visiting California friends to see the Station), and Reuben and Colleen Tipton (who came to tell me of a great vintage car video and also told me that they planted many acres of corn on their farm outside Afton, so it looks like we'll be getting more of their unreal, magnificent corn this summer!!)

Betty W. brought me beautiful roses from her own garden. Nothing like the perfume coming from fresh cut roses to obliterate the "gas station" smell of ancient leaking oil, I always say!
The young couple from Sapulpa live just a few houses down from the now closed Frankoma Pottery factory and showroom. How sad that the iconic business is permanently closed and will be selling off everything next week.

This gentleman, Dr. Howell, is a historian working for the newspaper that covers the Vinita-Grove-Afton area. I've read many of his wonderfully-researched articles in the past few years. He is also the former Tulsa Superintendent of Schools. He was spending Saturday researching Afton and had previously never visited the Station. So good to meet him, and I look forward to seeing him again and hearing his stories of the "old days" in this area.



The husband and wife from Akron, OH are fortunate enough to be about a quarter of the way through a 3 month tour of Route 66 and other destinations in their RV. They are in absolutely NO hurry. In fact, they visited us around noon. At 3:30, when Ron M. and I left to drive home, we passed the winery that's 14 miles down the road from us and their car was there! That's s-l-o-w! They're missing nothing. I'm so jealous!




A young couple from Afton stopped in. She's the Principal of Afton Elementary School and he's a local agriculturalist. We need more enthusiastic young folks like these in Afton. We even discussed the possibility of having a parade! Between our old cars and the kids in the grade school we'd have a pretty good start!



Ron M. wandered outside and found this little doggie who had been left to wait in the Jeep while his people, the Sapulpa couple, were inside. On such a cool windy day, I'm sure he was as happy as could be to just hang out in the car for a while.


On the way out of town, Ron M. and I stopped for our very first Shaved Ice from the new stand. He had cherry and I had pina colada. That stuff is going to be GREAT on a hot summer day. Even today, it was refreshing!




I may have forgotten some details, but I'm hurrying so I can watch a special Route 66 edition of the TV show "Discover Oklahoma".

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