Only 24 Hours From Tulsa - Alcott Elementary, Big Daddy's, Philbrook, Discoveryland!

[UKDEB]

Index to previous instalments

Thursday, 29th July

I wake at 6am, but don’t manage to rouse myself until 7:00. Susan is already up. We have to make a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up EB’s prescription following his attempts to scare us all half to death yesterday, and I take the opportunity to pick up some die-cast Disney Pixar ‘Sheriff’ cars which I need for an exciting engagement scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Following a quick trip back home to administer EB’s eye drops, we head out to Alcott Elementary School where Susan has been Librarian for 23 years and where we’ve arranged to meet two of her friends and colleagues. Lucille, the School Counseller, is already here as we arrive. Alona, Susan’s assistant, joins us soon afterwards. We spend a good hour chatting, laughing and looking around the library. We’re pleased to get to see Orchard House, the remodelled dolls’ house we’ve heard so much about in emails from Susan.

The fifth graders have been working on the house given to Susan by one of her former students (of 35 years previous!). She built it for her daughters and had spent so many hours building and decorating it she didn't have the heart to throw it away when they grew up, even though it had become dilapidated and raggedy through years of play. When she learned from the librarian at the school where she volunteers that Susan was still in a school library she sent word asking if she would like to have the house. It looked to Susan very much like Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's childhood home and the place where she wrote Little Women. Since Miss Alcott is the school's namesake it seemed the thing to do to remodel the house to represent her home. The children work in teams, missing their playground time for a week at a time. Almost every student in 5th grade signed up to work and the boys are as eager for their turn as the girls. The children wallpapered, installed floors and even made lots of the period furniture. As well as the photos we took in-situ, I’m including some Susan has emailed to us as each subsequent group of 5th graders adds enhancements. If you're wondering about the colour choices, it's brown with a green front door because Orchard House is brown with a green front door. The kids take the responsibility of accurate representation seriously.

In May of this year, the decision was taken to close Alcott at the end of the academic year in June. It was included at the last minute in the plan to consolidate the District. The other schools affected at least had some warning—in fact 4 schools slated to close in the plan as it was originally announced managed to make a strong enough case that they got to stay open. Alcott School was disadvantaged by not being one of those included in the original plan. The staff was put on notice just one week before the Board meeting that sealed its fate and so wasn’t given an equal opportunity to fight its corner. Naturally, it was very upsetting for all involved, not least Susan who had dragged the little library out of a cafeteria setting and overseen a fairly remarkable evolution resulting in the excellent facility you see here. I’m pleased to report that at the end of the summer break, Susan will report as Librarian to a new school—the first on the list of three preferences she gave the personnel department. She’s happy to be going to this school for several reasons, not least because it’s one of only a half dozen Tulsa schools that run on a year round schedule. That means 3 weeks off at the end of each quarter and luckily that first break includes the entire two weeks we’ll be in Oklahoma this year, so she won’t have to buy back days to be off with us. Orchard House will also find a home there.

 

[UKDEB]

Alona has to return home, but the rest of us make the short trip to Big Daddy’s BBQ for a greatly anticipated lunch stop. I ride with Lucille in her smart Acura—an unashamed indulgence to herself of which I wholeheartedly approve.

Big Daddy, aka Johnnie Ball, sold his first barbecue from a stand close to the restaurant where we are today. Susan would take it home to Scott who loved it, requested it and sometimes drove across town just to get it. In a rare moment acknowledging his days were numbered, Scott declared that if he had more time he’d back Big Daddy and get him into a restaurant. He said the world needed to taste this man’s food. It was in the year after Scott died that Big Daddy opened his first restaurant out near Tulsa Airport. A couple of years later, a Quik Trip building became available in the old neighbourhood a mile down the street from the original little stand. This is the one that meant the most to Big Daddy. Then a third restaurant opened on the Main Street of Jenks amongst the pricey antique stores, fancy tea rooms and upscale cafes. And now there’s one in Broken Arrow, too. Somewhere Scott’s smiling.

But less about the history; what about the food? Oh my! The food! I still daydream about it. Mmmmm… Big Daddy’s BBQ. Oops! There I go again! [For those who don’t know, BBQ in this neck of the woods is slow-smoked meat. What we in the UK and those in the northern United States call ‘barbecuing’ is referred to in the South and out West as ‘grilling’.] I order pulled pork on a loaded potato. The potatoes are seasoned and smoked. Mine comes with cheese, bacon bits, butter and ranch dressing. Matt has the ‘Pulled Pork Dinner’ with potato salad and barbecue beans, Susan a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw, and Lucille a loaded potato with ribs. The Boudain (Creole sausage) isn't something you'd normally expect to find on an Oklahoma restaurant menu and Susan's keen for Matt and me to try it. Lucille is originally from Louisiana which lends a further significance to the experience. This is a Boudain Blanc and is what we’d know as white pudding, but containing rice rather than bread or oatmeal. Boudin Rouge is akin to black pudding.

​

We say goodbye to Lucille and set off on our next adventure. Our destination is Philbrook Museum of Art housed in the glorious Italian Renaissance style villa home of oilman Waite Philips, brother of Frank whose homes we visited yesterday.

From the museum’s website:

Villa Philbrook was a child of the Twenties. World War I was over. Women could vote. It was a time of flappers, rumble seats, prohibition, bootleggers and five-cent Cokes. More than that, in Tulsa, the Twenties smelled of oil and resounded with money. In 1926 Edward Buehler Delk (1885–1956), a Kansas City architect, was hired to design an Italian Renaissance villa on 23 acres by oilman Waite Phillips. Delk skillfully interpreted Renaissance styles in the most fashionable manner of the day and was hired in a burst of commissions with three major projects at once: Villa Philbrook, Villa Philmonte and the Philtower office building.

This impressive home was completed in 1927. Friends say that the Phillipses built the villa as a place where their two children could entertain friends. When they moved in, daughter Helen was sixteen, son Elliott was ten. In 1938 Waite Phillips surprised Tulsans with the announcement of his gift of the 72-room mansion and surrounding 23 acres of grounds as an art center for the city of Tulsa. The vision first made possible by Waite and Genevieve Phillips is now one of America's finest art museums. The integrity of the original residence remains intact while later additions to the facility and gardens complete this classic Tulsa attraction.

It’s impossible to overstate the splendour of the Philbrook villa and grounds. Even without the outstanding art collection, itinerant exhibitions, numerous educational programmes, classy restaurant and well-stocked shop, it would be a must-see destination in Tulsa. We take our time soaking up the majesty of the place, both inside and out. As difficult as it is to believe that this was once a family home, the really mind-boggling fact is that it was given away after just 11 years of such use.

[At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I find the philanthropic tendencies of these accidental millionaires both fascinating and humbling. Waite Phillips is no exception and believed in sharing his wealth with people outside his family. In this spirit, he offered 35,857 acres of his Philmont Ranch to the Boy Scouts of America in 1938 to serve as a national wilderness camping area. The area was named Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout Camp (after Phillips' name and the Scout slogan "Do a Good Turn Daily"). Fees for the first summer were set at $1 per week per camper, and 189 Scouts from Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma arrived for the first experience at a national backcountry Scout camp. After observing the enthusiastic response of the first Scout campers, Phillips augmented his original gift in 1941 with an addition that included his best camping land, the Villa Philmonte, and the headquarters of the farming and ranching operation. The second gift was made so that "many, rather than few" could enjoy his rich and beautiful land. Phillips was quoted in the Tulsa Daily World saying: "That ranch represents an ideal of my youth... and has meant a lot to my son and his pals. Now I want to make it available to other boys... I'd be selfish to hold it for my individual use." The property, now totaling 127,395 acres, was renamed Philmont Scout Ranch. Phillips realized that the cost for maintaining and developing the property could not and should not be derived entirely from camper fees. As an endowment he included in the gift his 23-story Philtower Building in Tulsa, Oklahoma.]

 

[UKDEB]

 

[UKDEB]

It’s now late afternoon and we have to collect Susan’s car from Surfside Autos before our evening’s activity, so we bid a reluctant farewell to Philbrook. We make a flying visit to Ted’s Pipe Shoppe in the upscale Utica Square shopping district for Matt to purchase some cigars. Utica Square got bumped from yesterday’s itinerary, but it takes just a few seconds for me to register that it’s my kind of place and we discuss the possibility of returning tomorrow.

Having picked up Susan’s car, we follow as she picks her way through the rush-hour traffic taking us via some of the city's landmarks for photo opportunities. The car temperature gauge registers 100 degrees.

Following a short stop at home to feed and medicate the pets, we’re back in the car for the journey to Discoveryland! in Sand Springs. Discoveryland! is the national home of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Nightly shows are performed in an outdoor amphitheatre (are amphitheatres outdoors by definition?) complete with cowboys on horseback, wagons and a real surrey with the fringe on top!

We arrive at 7pm in good time for the 7:30 pre-show and drop Susan at Will Call to pick up the tickets. She suggests that we head back towards the entrance to park so that we don’t get snarled up with everyone else leaving afterwards. This is precisely the kind of forethought to which I subscribe, but Matt thinks it’s unnecessary and throws one of his trademark faux strops, whining and moaning with every step of the walk back.

Susan picks up a programme as well as some complimentary souvenir fans which we’re undoubtedly going to need in this stifling heat. We stop for ice-creams in order to avoid the lines during the interval before heading into the auditorium to search out our seats. We’re surprised and thrilled to find that they’re right in the centre of the front row. We’re disappointed to discover that the usual Indian Dancing doesn’t appear to be part of tonight’s programme, but we do enjoy the pre-show in which the entire cast performs a singing and dancing tribute to the American cowboy.

Ahead of the main production, the audience is engaged in some interaction, including an invitation for those visiting from other states and countries to participate in some good ol’ yee-hah!s. Susan’s delighted that the two lone voices from England utterly trounce those representing Germany, Korea, Kenya and Japan.

 

[UKDEB]

This itinerary suggestion wasn’t top of our priority list in the planning stages, but Susan was very keen that it be included. Despite the fact that it’s a very long and hot evening, it completely holds its own amongst a list of activities that’s so far provided one high after another. There are a few problems with the sound system and the costumes are in dire need of replacing, but the outdoor setting works remarkably well, providing the perfect backdrop with the sound of crickets in the air and fireflies dancing around.

Ali Hakim, the Persian peddler is exceptionally well cast and puts in a stellar performance, but we all agree that the star is the girl in the role of Ado Annie. I suspect that Matt’s assessment may be based more on her physical attributes than her acting skills, not to mention the fact that she “caint say no”.

It’s by no means been a full house this evening and, as we head out around 11pm, we spy the car all on its lonesome in the distance. Feeling totally vindicated, Matt spares us no mercy, declaring that he’ll be making his own decisions from hereon in. Yeah. Let me know how that works out for you.

Back at home we set alarms for tomorrow morning’s early breakfast date with one of Tulsa’s most distinguished residents.

 

[irongirlof12]

Wow a fab day and a very full informative report, complete with a surrey with a fringe on top...yeehaa great stuff

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Fabulous photos .... I am enjoying every moment of your trip .... it makes a refreshing change to see parts of the USA we don't normally get to see. Thanks for sharing. Love the Oklahoma show photos and the Art Museum - what a stunning place.

 

[Boss Hogg]

I would've been happy if Annie had said "maybe"!

AND, I'd manage to forget about the parking debacle and the fact we parked it in Texas!

 

[tony64]

Did you come away with really red necks or just feel like one?

 

[mandymouse]

A lovely day Deb, and fab pics too, especially the Oklahoma show ones

 

[Claire L]

What a day! The art gallery was such a pretty building and the grounds looked stunning. Loved the Oklahoma setting

 

[Boss Hogg]

Did you come away with really red necks or just feel like one?

I'm happy with either mate But, that having been said and to dispel the myth I'm a total twonk , Philbrook was absolutely unbelievable. People talk about art collections and we know of places in Europe such as the Louvre (and I'm not suggesting that we're quite at that level) but Philbrook has such a wonderful collection of all sorts of items and is so well sorted, and for a city like Tulsa, it's such a find

 

[Tammy Stringer]

What a wonderful day Deb - you fitted so much in - including some rather delicious looking food.

The photos are incredible - what great sites to visit and then to top it off with an outdoor show like that - what a treat

Tam

 

[SusanEllen]

Debbie,
Thank you especially for the section of this report that pays tribute to the Alcott students who worked so faithfully to create their interpretation of Miss Alcott's Orchard House. The children would be delighted to know that people on the other side of the world have seen their handiwork and I assure you that the photos you chose from the dozens I sent you through the years happen to be ones of kids who would really and truly be thrilled to know they've made it to the Internet--look at those smiles and you'll know I'm right.

 

[Pugsly]

Sounds like another wonderful day, Deb.

Matt ... I'm disappointed - you parked in Texas and didn't stop in for a visit.

Susan ... sorry to hear about your school closing, but so thankful you've found a new home. I'm sure the students at your new school will appreciate you as much as your former students.

 

[Boss Hogg]

Matt ... I'm disappointed - you parked in Texas and didn't stop in for a visit.

I would've done Sharon, but I was wearing a Sooners shirt and was trying to hide from all those nasty Longhorn fans!