Woody Guthrie, Gunsmoke and Me

Welcome to my hometown, Okemah, Oklahoma. It's also the hometown of folksinger Woody Guthrie. Woody and I were born in two different generations and it feels like two different towns. Okemah was an oil boomtown for a short time while Woody was growing up, but good things never last. The oil stopped flowing. The dust kept blowing, and Okemah was overran with hustlers and gamblers. In Woody's own words, Okemah was "busted, disgusted and not to be trusted". The Okemah I grew up in was none of these things. Most of the town watched shows like Gunsmoke and admired Marshal Matt Dillon. Children rode their bikes all day with no fear. No one ever locked their doors. A few things Woody and I did agree on: we both hated tornadoes, the dust and the talk of about the lynching that happened on the North Canadian bridge. Come with me as I write stories and poems about growing up in Oklahoma. Take a walk through some of Oklahoma's history.