Ponca City, We love you

A Cross Country Marathon

My wife and I are back in Baltimore after a 26 hour drive straight through from Ponca City.  We had been postponing our trip for several weeks because there were two big events in Ponca City last weekend that we wanted to see.

On Saturday morning, the Museum at Standing Bear Park was dedicated.  A number of speakers got up to talk about the Museum including Carl Renfro, former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, Congressman Tom Cole who is a member of the Chickisaw Nation, Jim Gray from the Osage Nation and Charles Moncooyea of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe who had some very provocative remarks, but the highlight of the event for us was the flag ceremony with children of the tribes represented in the museum.  After the flag ceremony, we photographed four of the lovely princesses of the Native American Nations who happened to be walking up the sidewalk from the museum flanked on either side by the Native American Flags.  Take a look at the photo essay we made for the Standing Bear Dedication Ceremony.

Some people ask my wife and I why we make the 1300 mile trip between Baltimore and Ponca City several times a year by land instead of flying.  The main answer is that we don't like taking our shoes off.  Air travel has become so inconvenient and unpleasant, that we will do just about anything to avoid it.  It is much more convenient to pack up as much as we want in our trailor, leave when we feel like it and stop when we want to, than to drive over to Tulsa, catch a plane, be stuck in airports, and have to rent a car when we arrive. In addition, aside from the convenience and independence driving affords us, we spend half as much on gasoline as it would cost for two round trip airline tickets.

Long distance driving is really more like an athletic event than anything else - a marathon if you will.  It is not the physical demands of the trip that wear you down but the mental strain so we do everything we can to keep the trip stress free and to mentally prepare ourselves for the trip for several days in advance.

Of course, the most important thing is to be well rested.  On the day before our trip, we make sure and get a good night's sleep.  Most people assume that on the day of the trip, we would be up at dawn to travel but nothing could we further from the truth.  We have found that the optimum time of day to begin the trip is between 4 and 6 pm.  You are going to have to drive through a night to make a 26 hour trip, so you want to schedule your trip so you get your night driving out of the way at the beginning of the trip when you are at your best. 

I like to take a nap just before we leave and then drive straight through the night.  We usually stop at about 6 am and I take another one hour nap in the car to keep me going all day.  The only really difficult part of the trip is the last hour when we are coming into Baltimore and have to completely change our style of driving to keep up with the high-speed rush hour traffic.

I mentioned that there were two events we wanted to see before we left and the other was the appearance of "Riders in the Sky" at the Poncan Theatre on Friday night.  "Riders In The Sky is a Western music and comedy group which began performing 1977. They have won two Grammy Awards and have done music for major motion pictures, including Toy Story 2's "Woody's Roundup" and Pixar's short film, "For the Birds".

The group includes Ranger Doug ("The Idol of American Youth"), Woody Paul Chisman ("King of the Cowboy Fiddlers"), Too Slim ("a Righteous Tater"/"The Man of a Thousand Hats"), and Joey ("the Cowpolka King")."  I was most surprised when I went to their Wikipedia entry to find out that Chisman has a PhD in Nuclear Physics.

The group played a special concert in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Gene Autry's birth.  They were traveling to the city of Gene Autry on Saturday to play at the actual 100th anniversary celebrations so it was a tremndous honor to be able to host them on the eve of this special date.  Gene Autry set a special record on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame."  Stars on the walk are given in five categories:  motion pictures, radio, recording, television, and live theatre.  Gene Autry is the only celebrity to have a star in all five categories. Take a look at our photo essay for "Riders in the Sky" at the Poncan.

Annual Chili Cookoff at Lake Ponca

Take a look at our photo essay on the Annual Chili Cookoff at Lake Ponca.

Three Big Events last weekend

There is a lot to do around Ponca City.  We had three big events last weekend.  We started out at the Centennial Celebration in front of the Civic Center on Friday evening, then went to the Annual Arts Festival on Saturday.  We had enjoyed silent movie  organist Dennis James so much the previous week that we looked up his schedule on the internet and drove over to Miami, Oklahoma to catch him at another show on Sunday.  And I almost forgot that on Friday night at the same time as the Centennial Celebration, the Community Concert series had their first event of the season at the Poncan Theater.  After the Centennial Celebration, we drove down to the Poncan and snuck into the balcony and caught the last few numbers.

On Saturday my wife and I went to the annual Arts Festival at Soldani Mansion.  There were about 60 artists selling their work. Dave May led an auction for the pieces that had been produced during the quick draw event at the Fine Arts Festival. 

My wife and I finally had a chance to meet Native American Artist Jeanne Rorex Bridges, an award-winning artist of Cherokee ancestry. We have admired her work at the Gilcrease Museum for several years and it was a real treat to meet her at the Festival. She lives on a hill in rural eastern Oklahoma, part of the farm and ranch land where she was raised. Here she paints and runs her successful art business with her husband James. Jeanne’s work has become nationally known, winning many awards in Native American art shows. For several years, she has incorporated paintings depicting the shared history of Southeastern Indians and African Americans with her Native American work. The story of Crossing Bok Chitto was a perfect fit for her first illustrated book." 

On Friday evening we brought out our lawn chairs and sat down right in front for the Oklahoma Centennial Celebration in front of the Civic Center in Ponca City.  Highlights of the program were an hour of music by Les Gilliam and Cordelia Clapp signing "Oklahoma Rising." The show was put on my Ponca City Main Street and featured Mayor Homer Nicholson, Larry Buck talking about Centennial Plaza, and the President of Ponca City Main Street, Phil Bandy.

"Les Gilliam's concerts of cowboy, western swing, country and/or gospel music include fascinating stories about the songs and the artists who performed them. His country dances feature great western swing music and fun activities for the audience. He always includes original songs and humorous material, adding a touch of nostalgia and good ole fashion patriotism." 

I especially enjoyed Les' stories about Woody Guthrie, Patti Page and the Page Milk Company, and Gene Autry's five stars on Hollywood's walk of fame. Les was born in Gene Autry, Oklahoma and had just returned from a celebration in California of the 100th anniversary of Autry's birth.

We really liked seeing Cordelia Clapp at last years Centennial Program when she signed a thrilling version of "God Bless America" with the musical accompaniment of Celine Dion. This year she presented her interpretation of "Oklahoma Rising" in Native American sign language.  Clapp is a registered nurse who was born in Sells, Arizona, to a full-blooded Pawnee Indian mother and a full-blooded Spanish father.  Growing up Clapp had the chance to live on numerous reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. She taught herself the Native signing of “God Bless America” after 9/11 in hopes that sharing the Native American culture with others would help heal the hearts of Americans. She has opened numerous conferences nationwide with her signing, dressed in full Native American regalia. 

On Sunday we made a day trip to Miami Oklahoma to see Dennis James perform on the Mighty Wurlitzer in the Coleman Theater which is even more beautiful than the Poncan Theater. We drove over to the Gilcrease Museum for their wonderful brunch, then up to Miami for a 230 pm show. The show we saw at the Coleman was "It" with Clara Bow.  Dennis James the organist got up and explained that "it" was a term  coined by English romance novelist and screenwriter Elinor Glyn to describe actress Clara Bow.  Glyn had written a best-seller of the day that popularized the word "it" as a euphemism for sex-appeal. The story revolved around Bow as a salesgirl in a department story and her romance with the boss's son. The movie was very entertaining.  After Dennis' show, the manager of the theater gave us a private two hour tour of the theater.  What a treat.

The Coleman Theatre was built by George L. Coleman Sr., a magnate who made his fortune in zinc around the turn of the century. Coleman wanted to give something back to the community of Miami so in 1929 he had the theatre built for $600,000. Some say his motives might not have been completely altruistic since by providing entertainment for his workers he kept them out of bars. The exterior architecture of the theatre is Spanish Mission Revival. There are Terra cotta gargoyles and other hand-carved figures on the exterior of the building. The interior of the theatre is in Louis XV style and includes gold leaf trim, silk damask panels, stained glass panels, a carved mahogany staircase and decorative plaster moldings and railings.

The community of Miami raised $85,000 to bring "The Mighty Wurlitzer" home to the Coleman in 1996. The organ was restored by the J.T. Peterson Organ Company of Fort Worth, Texas who restored, refurbished, enhanced and completed the reinstallation of the organ.  We absolutely loved the sound that came out of a true pipe organ. The sound from the deepest registered shook your bones. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the community of Ponca City could get together to bring a pipe organ to the Ponca Theatre?

After the theatre tour we drove back to Tulsa for dinner at P.F. Chang's and then drove back back to Ponca City arriving about midnight.   What a nice day. Look at the photos we took at the Art Festival, the Centennial Celebration, and at the Coleman Theatre in Miami.

This weekend coming up we plan to go see "Annie get Your Gun" at Ponca Playhouse and go to the Annual Chili Cookoff out at Lake Ponca on Saturday.  The following weekend is the opening of the "Standing Bear Museum" and "Riders in the Sky" will be coming to Ponca City.

Whoever says there is nothing to do in a town of 25,000 is dead wrong.  There is so much to do, that you never get a chance to catch your breath.

Independence Day Celebration

Independence Day
Each year before the American Independence Day, the Fourth of July, retailers across the nation experience a surge in fireworks sales. The Fourth of July is a federal holiday celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Independence Day is commonly associated with parades, barbecues, picnics, baseball games, and various other public and private events celebrating the history and traditions of the U.S. Fireworks have been associated with the Fourth of July since 1777.

In many states, consumer fireworks are sold for personal use or as an alternative to a public show. Concerns about safety have led some states to ban fireworks or limit the sizes and types allowed, but illicit traffic from less restrictive border states is common.

Some of the most famous fireworks displays include Macy's - 4th of July Fireworks in New York and the Boston display on the Charles River esplanade. There are also many other spectacular displays in St. Louis, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario host one of the largest fireworks displays in the world over the Detroit River each year in celebration of both American Independence Day and Canada Day during the Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival.

If you missed the fireworks display at Lake Ponca, click on this link to enjoy a slideshow of the display.

Information Source:  Wikipedia

"Bruce in the USA" is coming to Ponca City on June 30

"Bruce in the USA" is coming to Ponca City on June 30
Mark your calendar for Saturday, June 30 because the world's best Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band "Bruce in the USA" is coming to Ponca City for the 4th of July holiday weekend and will be appearing at the Poncan Theatre for a two hour show starting at 7 pm.

My wife and I have seen this group twice now, both times appearing at Ram's Head in Annapolis Maryland.  The last time we saw them in 2005, we went backstage and met Matt Ryan and told him "I want to bring you to my hometown, Ponca City, Oklahoma for 4th of July weekend next year" and he said "Great, we'd love to, where's Ponca City?"

This group is good. Music critic Greg Matlby said "If Matt Ryan and his band, American Dream, took the stage at a Springsteen concert ...few people would be able to tell the difference."  Clarence Clemons himself, joined the band on stage in New York, claiming after the show that it was the greatest Tribute he’s ever seen.

Matt played the Springsteen character for eight years, in their full scale Las Vegas show. The great success with “Legends of Rock and Roll” evolved his character into the Bruce In the USA show. His amazing portrayal of “The Boss” (not to mention his jaw-dropping resemblance) is as close as you can get to see the real thing in concert. Bruce In the USA takes this genre of performance art to a whole new level making it the world’s #1 tribute to the E. Street Band’s legacy.

Vaudeville was at its peak when the Poncan Theatre was originally built and the theatre was designed for live performance so that makes it a great venue for live rock and roll. When my wife and I moved to Ponca City, we met with Dave May, manager of the Poncan Theatre, and told him we wanted to help bring more rock to Ponca City and make it available at an affordable price so we are pricing the tickets starting at $20 for the back balcony and going up to $35 for the prime seats in the front downstairs.

Support Ponca City and the local music scene, come out for a terrific 4th of July music holiday, enjoy yourself while listening to some of the best music of the past 35 years, and see a show you will never forget.  Call Dave May at the Poncan Theatre at 580-716-7016 and reserve your tickets now.  See you at the Poncan Theatre on Saturday, June 30.

Take a look at our slideshow of a recent "Bruce in the USA" show we attended in Towson Maryland.