Our trip (continued)

Friday afternoon, after we had finished looking at the model trains, we walked east up Oklahoma Street, stopping in at one of the shops which cater to tourists. I was very thirsty and just happened to see a sign indicating that the shop sold cold drinks. We went inside and browsed around, and I inquired about the cold drinks. They had some canned soft drinks, and I asked for a Dr. Pepper. I was handed a can of dr. Pepper and gave the clerk a one dollar bill, a fair exchange since I was quite thirsty. My first choice of drink, in that situation, would have been a Gatorade or a similar “sports drink,” but I was not particular.

We walked outside the store and sat down at a table with two chairs. Jan mentioned that there were several gift items in the store and that my mother has a birthday coming up soon (October 21). After I finished my Dr. Pepper, we went back into the store, and I looked around for a while. I settled on a wooden Chinese dragon carved from wood. It is about a foot long and has a tongue which when glued in place extends a couple of inches from its mouth. If it could come to life, I’m sure it would be a real fire-breather.

We put our purchase in the car and drove on in search of the banjo museum which was on up the street. It turns out the museum was closed on that day. We returned to our rooms at the Redstone. The Redstone is a pretty nice place to stay. B & Bs are everywhere in Guthrie. There are just a couple of disadvantages with the Redstone. First, the rooms have no telephones, but what with everyone having cell phones these days, that’s no big deal. Secondly, the Redstone is not hooked up to cable. Our TV was able to pick up a signal from a CBS affiliate, so I watched the CBS Evening News. (My preference is NBC Nightly News, but I could not seem to get a good signal for the NBC station.)

We had our evening meal at a restaurant by the name of Granny Had One. I’m not sure what the reference is to, but judging from the illustration accompanying the name, it might be a wood-burning stove. Whatever it was, we had a great meal there. We both had the chicken special. It was something like chicken Montreal, but that may not be exactly the correct name. It was chicken something with the second word being the name of a city starting with M. It was smothered in a sweet sauce (dark) with pecans on top.

Jan and I do not watch a lot of television, but Friday nights is our big TV night. There are two shows, both on PBS, that we try to not miss on Friday. The first is NOW with David Broncaccio. The second is Bill Moyers Journal. Moyers’s program dealt with the shooting in the Unitarian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and the possible relation to hate speech on right-wing talk radio/TV. One parishioner was killed and others were wounded. It turns out that the shooter had books by right-wing fanatics at his residence.

The following is a description of “Rage on the Radio” copied from the Moyers website:

What happens when America's airwaves fill with hate? BILL MOYERS JOURNAL takes a tough look at the hostile industry of "Shock Jock" media with a hard-hitting examination of its effects on our nation's political discourse. The JOURNAL traveled to Knoxville, where a recent shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church has left the pastor asking what role hateful speech from popular right-wing media personalities may have played in the tragedy. "A lot of people are hurling insults from the safety of television studios, the safety of radio studio, the safety of cyberspace," says Rev. Chris Buice, "So that's a void in our community — the chance to be in the same room and to have these exchanges and remember the humanity of the person on the other side."

The program can be viewed on the Internet by clicking on the following link:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09122008/profile.html.

This brings me to the end of Friday. The next day, despite the weather, (a tropical depression was moving through the state), we drove to Oklahoma City. I will pick it up there when next I post something to this blog.