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Plenty of air and plenty of room …
Plenty of heart and plenty of hope …

These well known lyrics of the Oklahoma! song by Rodgers and Hammerstein capture the two sides of Oklahoma that make it great: nature and people.

In the same way the Oklahoma Centennial celebrates the awesome richness of the Oklahoma’s nature, and the history, culture, and achievements of its wonderful people.

As novelist Edna Ferber once said, “Almost anything can happen in Oklahoma. Almost everything has.” From the state’s early history, with land runs, frontier settlement, the oil boom, and the depression, to more recent history, Oklahomans are showing their leadership in many fields, and are looking forward with confidence to their future.

Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!

According to Wikipedia, Halloween did not become a holiday in the United States until the 19th century, when the migration of nearly two million Irish following the Irish Potato Famine brought the holiday to the United States.

Halloween is in fact believed to have originated in Ireland, where pre-Christian Celts had an autumn festival, called Samhain. That night the division between the world of the living and the otherworld was blurred so spirits of the dead and inhabitants from the underworld were able to walk free on the earth.

Also Scottish emigration from the British Isles, primarily to Canada before 1870 and to the United States thereafter, brought the Scottish version of the holiday to each country.

Halloween is now the United States’ second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for home and yard decorations: jack-o’-lanterns, scarecrows, witches, orange and purple string lights, foam tombstones and gargoyles contribute to this unique holiday climate.

Happy Halloween!

To celebrate Oklahoma’s Centennial, this is Michael Hardeman’s first book, with 85 pages of great Oklahoma images.

Some of Oklahoma’s most scenic landmarks—such as the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains, the Great Salt Plains, Turner Falls, and Red Rock Canyon—as well as more intimate views of this remarkable state, are collected in this special book.

Oklahoma Wonder and Light is published by Mountain Trail Press and is also available at Amazon.com. Better yet, you could join Michael at one of these book signing events:

* Thursday, May 24 6:30 at Full Circle Bookstore, Oklahoma City;
* Friday, May 25 2:00 at Border’s Books & Music, 8015 S. Yale Tulsa, OK;
* Saturday, May 26 1:00 at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, OK.

For additional details, please see Michael Hardeman website.

Miss Oklahoma Lauren Nelson from Lawton, Oklahoma has been crowned Miss America 2007.

This year the Miss America Organization has chosen the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) as its National Platform. Miss America 2007 will be the official National Goodwill Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network as she raises funds and awareness for CMN and the Miss America Organization.

Nelson, age 20, is a student at the University of Central Oklahoma. Her personal platform issue is Be NetSmart – Protecting Kids Online. Her scholastic ambition is to obtain a Master’s Degree in Musical Theatre and her career ambition is to become a Broadway performer. With the title, Nelson won a $50,000 scholarship to continue her education.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
[from the U.S. Declaration of Independence]

Independence Day, also called the Fourth of July, celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

The Declaration of Independence is the document in which the Thirteen Colonies in North America declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained the causes of their resolution.

The Declaration’s draft was written by Thomas Jefferson, with revisions from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. The final version was ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.

A very informative article on the Declaration of Independence is published by Wikipedia. The painting shown here is John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence (United States Capitol, Washington D.C.).