Nothing gets in the way of a good blog posting like the holidays!
In the second part of a 2-part series, our Great Fall Break Road Trip led us to Checotah, Oklahoma, where Publisher Pam and I were given a warm and enthusiastic reception. Unbeknownst to us, Lloyd Jernigan, head of the Chamber, had arranged for us to meet a number of Checotah citizens at the Katy Depot Center, an original passenger station that now houses a small history center and museum.
Our biggest surprise was meeting a member of Paul Carr’s family, the baby of eight sisters. She was excited to receive a signed copy of my book and shared with us stories of Paul’s kindness to her. When she was little, she had a limp, and Paul used to carry her to school on his back. It wasn’t a short distance, either.
A classmate of Paul’s had other memories to tell us. She talked about how pleasant Paul was and how he was always smiling. He seemed older than his years, she said, and when there was a scuffle on the playground, he’d step in to set things right. He always wanted things to be fair.
We met a former teacher of Carrie Underwood, who told us: “that child came out of the womb singing”.
We met many kindred spirits at the train depot, drinking coffee, stamping our feet to keep warm, and taking a tour of the place. The ladies of the historical society invited us back in June for Old Settlers Day, so we are looking forward to seeing them again.
Then we headed down to McAlester Public Library. We met the woman in charge of purchasing, who pointed us in the direction of the librarian. Long story short, she was very excited about buying materials about Oklahoman and asked to be put on a standing order for anything published at Forty-Sixth Star Press.
It was a good day. We finished our road trip by eating some delicious Italian food at Krebs. Now we’ll have to plan a Spring Break Road Trip!
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