15 years, has it been that long?

Yes it has...........

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April 19, 1995



I've been there........to that very spot. Some guy with a beef, killed 168 people, but..........no one he was mad at. Useless........murder.

I've said that anyone who visits here will go there. Have to apologize to my nephew for not taking him. But my brother went, he felt the power of that place.

I felt it on my first visit as well and on the next and the next. As you walk through, hearing, seeing, feeling all the stories from that day, you find the one thing that strikes you. Maybe there is a picture that really grabs you. Maybe the story about the shoes, the guy who walked in and gave shoes to help with those who lost their own, then walked out bare-footed. Or the stories of the children, perfectly innocent, suddenly taken with no warning. Or yours may be the one about the nurse, who came back in and back again, helping, until she was overcome herself and died. Mine was the bloodline. Having never been one with the courage to give blood, I read a story that tells of the people who waited in line for up to 8 hours to give blood. These Okies. I've done a little wandering during my life and as I approach my 7th year in this place, I wonder about many things. What I have learned about these people that seems to be very different than others I have known. They are a friendly lot. Can't say I've met people who seem so accepting, en masse, than I've met here. Seems everyday, I see someone with a t-shirt concerning giving blood and even where I work has the Oklahoma Blood Center in about every 45 days. Nobody says anything to me. It's just something they do. They don't expect anything from newcomers, I've not heard once, "You're not from here are you?" Heard that almost daily from somewhere else I spent a couple of years. These cowboys and ranchers and the like, who love their country music, who seem to produce more than their share of famous people can seem a bit judgemental. When you read the papers, you see the firm, hardcase, conservative line of the majority, but you won't see it anywhere else. When someone, anyone needs something, they are there. For each other and for you. They may not care for the black leather or the tattoos or the long whiskers, but they will never say anything and it won't stop them from doing their best to help out. I've often wondered why I am here. I'm not likely to ever leave, but I wonder why they let me stay. It's not like I fit in.
What was he thinking? That day when he took his rented moving truck and parked in front of that federal building in Oklahoma City. He couldn't have realized that you can't blow something apart that holds so tightly together. Sure the building went down and many lost their lives, but that spirit, the spirit that brought so many out here barely a hundred years ago, very much lives in the heart of the home that I now, proudly, call my own.