ARLY

It was north of Chandler 1939,

My granddad with the blue killer eyes

Hughie Earp reading by kerosene lamp light

A shoot'em-up dime-store western,

Much to the surprise of the brown-

Eyed farm lad come courting,

Later to be my father

And recall to me that scene

Glimpsed through an opening door,

And even then he not fooled by such

Display of weakness for the word

In this known hardshod

Horse trader who still had

The first nickel he'd ever made,

This pale-eyed reader

Rocklike in washed out overalls

Whose livestock had a new windmill

While Arly carried water

Up the hill and longed for town.

In the photo I have of them, made

From a discarded negative after Grandpa died,

Hughie looks straight into the lens,

Arly wears a black church-going hat,

Her gaze gone out grimly away from his.

Arly daily carried the water

For the kitchen and table and bath

Up a hundred-yard slope

Of red-clay rocky Lincoln County hill

Silently by hand.

I remember a Sunday once

With whoops and chants

She gathered up her skirts

And showed us how the Sac and Fox danced.

                   -------------------

Taken from "Oklahoma Elegies, Chronicles and Family History"

by Wayne Pounds

Avery, Oklahoma...An Oklahoma Ghost Town

This is an interesting link. Avery, OK was located south of Cushing and northwest of Stroud. Hughie and Arlie Earp lived there during their early marriage because their first son Ernie Earp was born there in 1917.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPIscEZZjI

Happy Birthday Grandma!

"Leap Day" is February 29, which is an extra day added during a "Leap Year", making the year 366 days long - and not 365 - like a common year. Nearly every 4 years is a Leap Year in our modern Gregorian Calendar. Ever since Leap Years were first introduced over 2000 years ago with the transition from the Roman calendar to the Julian Calendar in 45 BCE (Before Common Era), Leap Day has been associated with age-old Leap Day traditions and folklore.

Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days to circle once around the Sun. If we didn't add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours every year.

One of the most popular traditions that has to do with Leap Day, is that women can propose to their boyfriends on this day! This day is also associated with traditional Sadie Hawkins parties where the ladies get to invite the men to a party, instead of vice versa.

One interesting statistic is: one out of every 1500 babies is born on Leap Day! These people have an actual birthday every four years! One such person was my beloved grandmother - Arlie Avenell Earp. Arlie, the daughter of William  and Mary  Neff Flatt,  was born February 29, 1896 near Meno, Major Co., Oklahoma Territory. That area was better known as the "Cherokee Strip." Four years later her family was living north of Stroud prior to the 1900 territory census.

 As a child I remember it was always a fun day...Grandma's actual birth day!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grandma. It was taken about 1941 in Chandler, OK.

Golden Anniversary 1967

I am posting a colored photograph of Hughie and Arlie taken at their reception in Jan., 1967. Color photography was a relatively new thing in 1967 and tended to fade. However, this photo has been well preserved as it shows the red of Grandma's dress, the stripes in Grandpa's suit, and the golden leaves on the cake, golden candles, and golden floral arrangement on the buffet.

Left click on the photo to see the details.