OKIE from Muskogee - photography

[eli griggs]

Earlier, as I listened to music on my iPhone, "Okie from Muskogee" played and it occurred to me, I don't ever remember even seeing one single image from that U.S. City.

If you have images to share, interesting things or places or people there, please share and describe what's happening in this famous little city that was the subject to such a well known song.

Cheers

 

[xkaes]

There must be a reason:

"A place where even squares can have a ball"

 

[Dave Ludwig]

Muskogee, OK: On the edge of town there are/were about a dozen old roadside fireworks stands scattered in a field on S. Main next to a sand and gravel co. I shot this about 8 years ago.

 

[DREW WILEY]

That was written by Merle Haggard after he got out of prison and was living in Bakersfield, which was the promised land to Oakies fleeing the dust bowl, and is still a trucker and Country-Western music hub. But if that was their promised land, I'd sure hate to see where they came from. Farm labor conditions were brutal (Steinbeck wasn't exaggerating, nor was Dorothea Lange the photographer), and to this day, Bakersfield has the worst air quality in California, and possibly the nation. But Kern County also holds the highest peak in the lower 48, plus Sequoia National Park with the largest trees on earth, rugged canyons twice as deep as Grand Canyon, and some of the most spectacular wildflower displays on the planet.

Merle was actually more like a Hippie in certain ways than the type of character painted by that song. He got his inspiration when Johnny Cash visited San Quentin Prison.

 

[eli griggs]

Muskogee, OK: On the edge of town there are/were about a dozen old roadside fireworks stands scattered in a field on S. Main next to a sand and gravel co. I shot this about 8 years ago.

View attachment 421759

A good place for setting off fireworks?

 

[mshchem]

Muskogee, OK: On the edge of town there are/were about a dozen old roadside fireworks stands scattered in a field on S. Main next to a sand and gravel co. I shot this about 8 years ago.

View attachment 421759

Great photo!

 

[mshchem]

That was written by Merle Haggard after he got out of prison and was living in Bakersfield, which was the promised land to Oakies fleeing the dust bowl, and is still a trucker and Country-Western music hub. But if that was their promised land, I'd sure hate to see where they came from. Farm labor conditions were brutal (Steinbeck wasn't exaggerating, nor was Dorothea Lange the photographer), and to this day, Bakersfield has the worst air quality in California, and possibly the nation. But Kern County also holds the highest peak in the lower 48, plus Sequoia National Park with the largest trees on earth, rugged canyons twice as deep as Grand Canyon, and some of the most spectacular wildflower displays on the planet.

Merle was actually more like a Hippie in certain ways than the type of character painted by that song. He got his inspiration when Johnny Cash visited San Quentin Prison.

I've been to Muir Woods, that's the extent of my Redwoods experience, it's "religious" or better a spiritual experience!

 

[DREW WILEY]

Muir Woods is right over the ridge from San Quentin. I never go there - too crowded. The last time I was there was over 39 yrs ago on the coldest rainiest day of the year. My young wife was taking a photo course in college and I let her shoot my 6x7 and taught her how to print. The print is still hanging on one of our walls - classic Brilliant Bromide.
The teacher had just made a big harangue about how horrible a film TMax was, then went on to praise my wife's print. Then he asked her which film she had used, and she replied "TMax".

But all the hills and ridges around Muir Woods I've been to many many times, often with the 8x10. But all of that is second growth redwoods - It was all logged in the 1880's era, every last tree except one stunted example not worth cutting. For what's left of large old-growth redwoods, one needs to go quite a bit further north, or further south to the
Santa Cruz mountains (where a hecka lotta Hippies once lived!).