#oklahoma things

me, an ex-Oklahoman: man I wish I could turn down the volume on my emergency weather radio's tornado siren.

When I lived in Oklahoma and would see a confederate flag there on occasion I would sometimes think "come the fuck on, you weren't even a state yet!" which... is true. However despite living there for several years I did not learn til recently that Oklahoma (then referred to as Indian Territory or as the Cherokee Nation, Choctaw Nation, etc depending on location) was the site of plenty of Civil War action as the Union and Confederacy fought over the territory, and that some indigenous nations fought with the Union while others such as the Cherokee (initially, and some factions til the end) sided with the Confederacy, and that some Cherokee had owned plantations and slaves on the east coast and brought them along on the Trail of Tears, and that the rights and citizenship of those descended from these eventually-freed enslaved people are still a fraught issue. Not a person, place, or thing in this country untouched by some facet of slavery and antiblackness and their long shadow / enduring presence

whenever the pigeon museum post gets notes people are like "omg op where's the pigeon museum?!? i need to go to the pigeon museum!!" and well i'm pleased to tell you the pigeon museum is in oklahoma & this post has been a trap to get you to come to the wretched state of oklahoma

god i'm leaving oklahoma in a month and genuinely sort of distraught i'm going to miss the pigeon museum so fucking much. i'm going to have to start grabbing feral pigeons at random just to cope

The thing about oklahoma is that if you take an old state highway heading away from the cities it's actually beautiful and green with rolling valleys and little creeks-- but then there's an oil well. and a walmart, even way out here. and here they're widening the road. and there's another oil well.