Dear Duchess

See the photo of "My Bud" to the left? That is my favorite NW Oklahoman, J. L. "Bud" Clark. My human beings tell me that I get to see him while we are back in NW Oklahoma for a couple of weeks or so. BOW WOW ... WOW!

When Sadie Sadie and myself went on strike, NW Okie has let me take over the OkieLegacy Twitter site!

I have quite a few dog followers since I have taken control. Just a few of my dog friends are Napoleon the Pug, Bentley B, Sharkey & Francesca (my favorite) and their DailyWag & Blog, and many other dogs and their humans. I just love this tweeting and twitter stuff, but the Facebook is great, too.

We have added a NEW Domain name to our list of domains. It is mcgillsisters.us (Preserving Pioneer Prairie News) on our iWeb (Mac) site. While we were adding that domain name, we went ahead and added org, net, com domain name extensions using "mcgillsisters," but those other names aren't pointing to any DNS at this time. We just wanted to reserve those names for McGill Sisters later use.

This is a special remembrance day in Oklahoma and especially in OKC. It was 14 years ago today that the bombing of the Murray building in downtown OKC took place, at 9:01 a.m. Fourteen years ago Duchess the Pug wasn't even a twinkle in the eye of her mother. BUT ... NW Okie was in Alva and her sister was in OKC, living in a 39th Street apartment.

I guess the thunderous noise and vibrations were felt all over OKC on that day that shocked the Nation. Do you remember where you were that day?

Oklahoma lost the greatest "political cartoonist" this week. Some of you might remember him . He did the political cartoons for The Daily Oklahoman starting in 1950. His name was Jim Lange.

NW Okie's Dad, Gene McGill, has several autographed politcal cartoons that Lange had done in the 1960s of Gene during his courting days of the Democrats away from Governor Edmondson's control of the party.

I need to pull those cartoons out and scan to share with you all. NOW ... where did NW Okie pack those political cartoons away? After NW OKie gets through her personal business in Oklahoma this April, I will nudge her to bring those cartoons out for a showing.

That is about it for now. Did I leave anything out? Oh Yeah! Thursday and Friday of this week we had our final blast of Winter here in Southwest Colorado. I think! It did not accumulate to much North of Bayfield, but the higher elevations did get a few inches more than we did. They were reporting that Saturday it may drop 8 to 14 inches of snow around Ouray, Colorado.

Our Saturday turned out partly cloudy and temperatures in the mid-50s. That was while you NW Okahomans were experiencing tornadic winds clocked at 80mph around 5:00 p.m., Saturday afternoon. We heard that storm spawned out around the Fairvalley and East of Freedom and moved East towards Alva and Avard.

NW Okie and her sister own a Fairvalley ranch next to the old Fairvalley townsite. My human being's youngest son got some video of that storm yesterday. As soon as we get a copy we will put up on our YouTube.com OkieLegacy website.

How did yesterdays tornadic storm affect you? If you are on Facebook and connected to Valarie Case's, you might want to check out her photos of Woods County's tornado storm clouds. They are great!
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Lookin Back ... To the Future!

Mike says, "It was actually April 28, 2000 in the 3rd Volume and 17th Issue (see Archives) where the name changed to The Okie Legacy. I was in DC. Where were you?

That next week Okie was busy welcoming Cindy's new filly colt, Chestnut Starz, (born April 29, 2000) as well as helping locate the final resting place of a WWII German POW's that died in McAlester and was buried in Oklahoma for Vernon Dennis.

NW Okie was helping Vernon Dennis search for a German POW, Paul Kurt Leonhardt, that was buried at Ft. McAlester, Oklahoma. A nephew of Leonhardt was wanting to see if he could locate his uncle's gravesite.

Some comments in the following Vol #3, Iss #5 of Transition from Heart to Heart Journal: LW said, "Really like your new site format and M.Wags contribution. I have nothing to say about the Super Bowl: don't want to jinx either side. As to the Super Bowl... Looks like Baltimore Ravens ran away with the game from the NY!

Flatlander said, "Oakie -- New HTML format of your newsletter looks great!"
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Insight Into Grandma

This week's letter from John McClure to Miss Constance Warwick takes us back to March 3rd, 1904, Quincy, Ill. It is postmarked Quincy, Ill., Mar. 4 2-PM 1904 and addressed to Miss Constance Warwick, Alva, Okla.

Dear Connie, I received your letter day before yesterday, and will answer so you will get it Saturday.

Three letters a month. Some terrible. Say, Connie, read that letter again, and see if you did not forget to answer some questions. I believe you did. I was disappointed.

It has been cold today. some snow fell last night. Was real sorry that Nellie had to run away from home. Why did you not tell me how that dialogue came of.

I would like to accepted your kind invitation. Say who is Grace. I believe she is a new one on me. Where is B. Knox now. You had better come to Q'cy. Take S. H. instead of making so many air castles.

I suppose getting married will be your next air castle. Better not. I and B. quit writing as friends.

It was nice that we can, better we should. I am going into dictation now in a few days. Won't I be happy. I have not got that letter that you sent to Altona, but think I will. When are you going to St. Louis.Mebby I will go. You girls surely do work those fellows. You must want to be old maids.

Well as it is 11 o'clock I will close. This is quite a mix up, but the quality of the writing will make up for it. The fellow also. I will try and do better next time.

Answer the question I asked in the last part of my letter. WRite soon. I demand 31 letters this month for my spiritual welfare. Your Friend, J. C. Mc, 524 North 9th ST., Q'cy, Ill.
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Mysterious Wildbird Is Pine Siskin

In last weeks newsletter we had some videos of our Junco's and a mysterious wildbird that we were trying to identify. Thanks goes out to Jim Barker and Ellis Raymer who helped us identify this particular wildbird as a "Pine Siskin." I knew Jim would know 'cause he seems to know a lot about birds and other things.

Jim says, "I viewed your "bird feeder" video and I think your mystery bird is a Pine Siskin. At first I thought it was a fox sparrow because it appeared to be dark in color, but I think that was due to the lighting. Also, since it appears to be smaller than the juncos, I lean strongly toward the Pine Siskin ID.

Ellis says, "I am with Jim and the pine siskin."

The Pine Siskin from last week must have spread the word that they had found a gold mine of seeds, because this week we spotted over two dozen Siskin's feeding on the seeds laid out on the top of the patio table. NW Okie was not quick enough to get a shot of that occurence, though.

We are going to be gone for a couple weeks or so while back in NW Oklahoma. Will the birds and squirrels find another feeding ground while we are away? Probably!
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Chickadee & Pine Siskin In SW Colorado Mtns

Here is a link to another video of the Pine Siskin that NW Okie put up on her YouTube.com site at this URL: Pine Siskin video. Notice the video of a couple of chickadee's at the beginning of the video.

This week's video shows a couple of Chickadee's stealing a few bites of wildbird seeds we laid out on a patio table and in our bird feeders. The Chickadee's did not feed alongside the Siskin's and Junco's, though. The Chickadee's would wait until the other birds were off doing their feeding elsewhere, then grab a few seeds and fly off themselves.


The Chickadee males, females and juveniles are similar in appearance. They have a light gray tail and back, a white belly and cheeks, and a black "cap", chin and throat. Their bill, legs and feet are dark or black, and they have white and black streaks on their buff-colored wings. They reach a length of 4.75 to 5.75 inches and have a wingspread of 7.5 to 8.5 inches.

They weigh about 0.33 of an ounce. Their call is a chick-a-de-dee-dee or dee-dee-dee. They also produce a whistled fee-bee-ee, fee-bee, or coming with a high first note followed by descending notes. They will respond to imitated calls. Black-capped chickadees are also known as back-capped tit, black-capped titmouse, common chickadee, long-tailed chickadee, Oregon chickadee and Yukon chickadee.
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Pine Siskin In SW Colorado Mtns

Here is some information I found online about the Pine Siskin -- "Pine Siskins typically irrupt in the west every other winter, but the pattern is much less reliable in the east. Siskins routinely visit feeders in the mountainous west in large numbers and only show minimal irruption patterns there. The large numbers of siskins in the east this winter are most likely due to a shortage of their typical winter food supplies in the forests of Canada." -- birds.cornell.edu

We also found another video of a flock of Pine Siskin's on YouTube.com at phidgtwz on YouTube.com.

Another site said, "Pine Siskin: Small finch with brown-streaked body. Wings have small patches of yellow and two white wing-bars. Tail is dark, notched, and has small yellow patches. Bill is slender and pointed. Forages on ground and in trees for seeds and insects. Flight is swift and high, travels in compact flocks.

The range and habitat of Pine Siskin is reported as follows, "Breeds from southern Alaska, Mackenzie, Quebec, and Newfoundland south to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Great Lakes region, and northern New England; wanders southward throughout the U.S. during winter. Preferred habitats include coniferous and deciduous forests, woodlands, parks, shade trees near human habitation, alder thickets, and brushy pastures." -- whatbird.wildbird.com.
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4-18-2009 Grosbeak & Squirrels

Our gray squirrel brought a friend to feed in our backyard this week. AND ... we saw our first Evening Grosbeak (wildbird) feeding on our patio table.

Duchess & Sadie Pug get teased a lot by the gray squirrel because all us pugs can do when the squirrels come to call is plaster our short little mugs up against the inside of the pation door. AND ... us pugs do not have much of a nose to smash. You know what I mean!

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A Guide To All About Birds

If you want to know about the Evening Grosbeak, we found this link for you at these links. Here is another link over at www.allaboutbirds.org.

The Evening Grosbeak is a large and brightly colored, a noticeable winter visitor to bird feeders during irruption years. When a flock settles down to feed, it can clean out a surprisingly large amount of sunflower seeds in a short time. Another name for the Evening Grosbeak is "Coccothraustes vespertinus."
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Louthan Family & Ashley, OK

Ila Marlatt Wessels says, "I am very interested in the Louthan family history. I have written a book about Ashley, Oklahoma area with pictures. It is 273 pages. I sell them for $20 which includes postage. My grandparents lived about l mile from the Louthan family.

"I also have written a book about Ingersoll. It is a larger book and sells for $25. I also have the cemetery book for Short Springs if you wish me to look anything up. I would like to hear from you." -- Ila Marlatt Wessels (gwessels@akslc.net)
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Is Your State Or Town Haunted?

Ellis sent us this link - theshadowlands.net - to check to see if your State or Town was listed as a haunted town.

Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio, Alaska, Maine, Oklahoma, Arizona, Maryland, Oregon, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Rhode Island, Colorado, Minnesota, South Carolina, Connecticut, Mississippi, South Dakota, Delaware, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, Montana, Texas, Georgia, Nebraska, Utah, Hawaii, Nevada, Vermont, Idaho, New Hampshire, Virginia, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, Indiana, New Mexico, West Virginia, Iowa, New York, Wisconsin, Kansas, North Carolina, Wyoming, Kentucky, North Dakota, District of Columbia.
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Jim Lange 1926-2009

The Daily Oklahoman reported, "Longtime Cartoonist, Jim Lange Dies -- The newspaper also said this about Jim Lange, "Lange retired in October, after a prodigious career as an editorial cartoonist for the daily newspaper in his adopted hometown.

From 1950, when he joined The Oklahoman at the age of 24, until recent years, Lange produced seven cartoons a week. At retirement, he was still drawing five a week. No one, not even Lange, knew exactly how many cartoons he had published over his career, but it probably exceeded 19,000.

"One of Lange’s favorite stories was how his wife, the former Helen Johnstone, prompted him to come to Oklahoma. She refused to marry him, he said, until he had a real job. So he began researching newspapers that had no full-time political cartoonists. Not knowing the protocol, he wrote to E.K. Gaylord, the editor and publisher. Gaylord personally negotiated the terms of Lange’s employment, which began Oct. 1, 1950.

"His first cartoon featured then Gov. Roy Turner. Before long the trademarks of Lange’s work began to appear, such as oil wells scattered in the background that identified scenes as Oklahoma. His most notable character was John Q. Public, Lange’s cartoon sidekick who represented the common citizen trying to understand the political maneuvers of the powerful."
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NW Oklahoma's Saturday Tornadic Winds

NewsOK.com also reported in their Sunday paper, ".....Woods County officials reported that storms toppled an antenna that stood several stories tall and also knocked down trees and power lines.

"The roof was stripped off at a salvage yard, and one wall was taken off a barn, but no injuries were reported, Alva Fire Chief Kirk Trekell said.

"The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area as the storms approached, but there was no confirmation that the damage was caused by a twister.

"Kathryn Eckhardt, a dispatcher at the Woods County sheriff’s office, said several homes had windows blown out and power lines knocked on top of them. Pea to quarter-size hail that fell on the area may have damaged wheat crops in the area, Trekell said."
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Other Saturday Storm Stories

Rod said, "Yes - we'd just left Alva after a play at NWOSU and the storm went through there about the time we got back to Jet. Pretty nasty stuff, from the looks of some of the photos here on FB (Facebook). Valarie Case has quite a few on the NW campus."
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Oklahoma Research & Twitter

Paul Ricketts (paul@thesunrideshigh.com) says, "Hi Linda, After seeing you on Twitter, I was interested to see your website and research. Whilst we live in Maryland, I’m researching my wife’s family in Oklahoma.

She is a Stewart, her parents live in Edmond but she has family at Midway Station near Mulhall and her great grand parents lived in Red Rock Township. We have direct lineages through the Stewart’s, Burright’s and Le Grande’s.

I realize that you are working on areas out to the NW of Oklahoma but we may have some common ground in terms of research.

As well as the specific family genealogy I am interested in cartography and migration throughout the US in general. Last week I checked out the map collections at NARA Archives II in College Park. They have quite a few maps of Oklahoma although most are fairly obscure government surveys. I’d be happy to see what they have in relation to Alva next time I go if it would be of interest."
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AHS Reunion In June

As to the Alva High School class reunion coming this June for the class of '59 ... Steve N. says, "My wife (Chris) and I will be attending the activities this June 5 & 6. We already have the motel reservations. You have asked for information on our "life & family". Do you want this in email or hard copy. I have some digital pictures I can send, or I could print them out and send them that way. What ever is best for you all.

"I have had very limited contact with people in Alva and our class over the last 50 yrs. I probably would not recognize many people! I cannot find my old year book to even look up the names I have forgotten. Do you happen to have a list of those that might attend?

"Fifty years is a long time and people can be quite different from what we remember of them back in the high school days. I have been an engineer with Philips Medical for over 20 years, and my wife is a Chiropractor and has been the vice president of a college, so this is a lot different than that guy who smoked out by the gym door and ran off to Dallas after his junior year."
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More Oklahoma Weekend Rain

Roy says, "Last night and this morning we added another 1-1/2 inches of rain to the inch we received last weekend here in Perry, Oklahoma and our gasoline prices have remained steady for a week! The Conoco and Phillips price for regular-unleaded has stayed at $1.92.9 while Sinclair has been cheaper (for a change) at $1.89.9! Interesting."
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NEW - Scrolling Okie Shouts

Did you see something NEW at the top of this weeks OkieLegacy newsletter? That would be something my NWOKTechie has developed, called "Okie Shouts."

The Okie Shouts scroll across the top of the page and my NWOKTechie is testing this message posting utility similar to classifieds, but that will not be moderated. They will appear at top of page in a scrolling fashion.

The Okie Shouts will able to accept email addresses. However, my NWOKTechie says, "I may disable this feature to keep from posting emails that can be harvested by screen scrapers of spammers. I tried to limit in the message text 100 char and no img or link to websites."

Do not reload the page after submitting an Okie Shout. Click on the Okie Legacy Logo to refresh and request a new page view otherwise you'll post a duplicate comment.
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