To the Bible Belt and Back

Is calling Oklahoma a "plains state" more accurate than "bible belt"? I think their state slogan is "Native America" or "the real Native America", which is certainly cooler and better than either previously mentioned descriptors.

I used to take my camera on wanderings around Brooklyn and snap pictures of the massive churches and cathedrals that speckle the borough once known as "the borough of churches". Now, Brooklyn may still have many houses of worship, but it's the east coast, it's one of the most worldly places on earth, and no one would ever mistake it for something referred to as "the bible belt."

Oklahoma is a place that lives up to that descriptive title.

There are churches dotting the landscape, which is fine and dandy, but this metropolis, if Oklahoma City can be called a metropolis, is wildly sprawling and spread out. I believe that along with Houston, OKC is one of the two cities with a metro population above a million people with a population density less than 1000 people per-square mile.

Driving around the city has this effect: lots of space---building or strip mall---lots of space---building or strip mall---you get the idea.

I only bring it up because the churches represent the most dynamic buildings residents get to look at. Not all of them, of course. Here's a set that catches my attention every time we visit, and only this trip did I take a picture:

It's a former strip mall that went under and was bought out by the Victory church organization. It's very peculiar.

Anyway...

My father-in-law Ron and my brother-in-law Peter were having birthdays a week apart book-ending Labor Day weekend. Since Pete was turning the big Three-Oh there was to be a party bus celebration. Corrie and I were coming to town, as was the youngest of their siblings, Stephanie, in from Austin with her boyfriend Michael. Mary, Corrie's middle sister, was the organizer of said party bus, and with Corrie coming to town, we were able to peel Rob, the eldest of the Dolman siblings, away from his own life and come out with us.

Robbie and I looked around the mostly full bus early on, as we chugged water the entire time, and joked that we were easily the oldest heads on the bus. I also finally got to meet Jake, Mary's boyfriend. He's been around for a while, but I always seem to miss him.

It was very nice to have all five siblings together---Rob, Corrie, Peter, Mary, and Stephanie---and after examining memory banks, we realized that it was the first time all five had been together for three consecutive days since our Mexico wedding seven years ago.

Another awesome surprise for Ron (that we were able to keep a lid on) was Carol's brother, Pete, was going to be driving in from Buffalo, NY, on his new Harley.

Corrie and I arrived in Oklahoma City after lunch local time, were picked up by Ron, grabbed some food, and met Peter at the spring company where he is the young spring-king in making. Having grown up in the spring factory watching Ron work for a number of years, Peter took to it like the mechanical genius he is, and seems likely being groomed for the eventual takeover in a decades time. I love talking to experts in any field, and spring-making is definitely one. Peter didn't go to college for mechanical engineering, but knows wire and metal so well that he can explain why an engineer's specs won't work in practice every single time it's the case.

After seeing all the cool stuff Peter and the spring company are working on, we headed back to the Dolman house to meet with the Daniel and Lola, the growing-up-so-fast pair that helped me realize the reality of "Uncle Pat". We'd only have a few minutes to hang out since they were headed to a family reunion on their mom's side of the family.

Friday was a traditional family favorite for dinner, with everyone hanging out next to the oil cauldrons. The name escapes my memory, but, from what I do what remember, it was a Swedish deal they picked up while in the military: vats of oil are set to low in those electric pancake griddles, seasoned with garlic and anchovies, and the meat and vegetables are put inside. After a few minutes, while the food cooks, people chat and visit, eventually spooning the cooked goodies over sliced French bread, the seasoned oil making the bread taste great.

It was quite good, but I may have had grease sweats for a few hours.

Saturday was fajitas and then off to Pete and Sherri's to get ready for the bus.

Then the bus. We visited a handful of bars while also being able to drink on the bus, but, as I said earlier, Robbie and I kept to the water. Kids were getting on pretty well around us as we tried to talk about office dynamics, kids, and education. Corrie was busy documenting the whole thing with her camera and talking with her sisters and their friends. Rob and I were the grey-beards excitedly talking about adult things.

I did get a chance to talk with Cece, a friend of Mary and Steph's, and the family as well, whom I met originally in 2004 at the Farm. She was smart kid, like Mary and Steph, back then, and now she's doing well with a cute daughter and a nice gig at a veterinarians.

We even got to see Joey, Corrie's lone friend from high school, and our host back when we visited Chicago in 2009.

Sunday was another family favorite dinner: pizza. See, they do pizza in a special manner. Carol makes four or five extra-large pizza-dough shells, and everyone gets to use whatever toppings they want on their little sections. Pizzas go into the over one at a time, and you can nosh on your own quarter when it finally cools. This is a pretty neat way to let everyone do what they want.

And the next day my time was all done. Uncle Pete Brown left on his Harley at six am Monday, and I left after a late breakfast. The flight was direct (always appreciated), my seat partner was a gruff good ol' boy who wouldn't move his elbow for a plane crash. I read pretty much the entire flight, trying to finish Mo Yan's Life and Death are Wearing Me Out.

The cabbie wouldn't tell me the price from LAX back to Long Beach until I got in, and once he $80, I jumped out of the moving car. Eventually he heeded my command, "You better pull this car over," and after trying to catch a shuttle home, I settled on taking the subway. At 4:00 on the 405 from LAX to Long Beach? The trains were faster than any car or van could possibly be.

Corrie remained in OKC, then headed west to the Farm, then headed south-east to Austin, and is due home tomorrow.

Trips to Oklahoma City are a surreal experience for me. Seeing the family is always so much fun...