Today's Chuck Norris Fact:
Chuck Norris has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game UNO.
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Just the other day I was remembering a previous trip to Oklahoma, in which my parents got tickets for all of us (me, them, and the kids) to go to Discoveryland and see their production of the musical Oklahoma!. I was thrilled of course; as much because I had NEVER seen the entire thing all the way through. I've sung most of the songs at some time or other in my life, me being where I'm from, and Oklahoma! being the kind of well-known musical that it is. Many of the songs are staples of any showtunes repertoire: Oh What a Beautiful Morning, People Will Say We're In Love, I Cain't Say No, Surrey with the Fringe on Top, and of course, Oklahoma, incidentally the state song of Oklahoma, which guarantees regular performances. (There are probably only a handful of songs that get the same amount of exposure within the borders of the Sooner State as Oklahoma, and those would most likely be Happy Birthday, Amazing GraceThe Star-Spangled Banner, and Boomer Sooner.) So since we were going to be in Oklahoma, I jumped at the chance to take the kids and see it.
It was wonderful! I can see why it has lasted so long. Now, while I thoroughly enjoyed it because it's a pretty good musical, I enjoyed it that much more because it's about my beautiful home state. When Oklahoma! first debutted, the real-life Oklahoma was in the midst of a serious PR problem. Most of you probably don't know too much about Oklahoma's history, but in the 30s, when the Dust Bowl drove thousands upon thousands of Okies to hit the Mother Road for greener pastures (literally) in California, Oklahoma was seen as the lowest, foulest, most ignorant, most desolate place in America. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, did nothing to dispel this notion, already deep-seeded, for the rest of the nation. In California, where the thousands headed during the worst of the Dust Bowl, they were respected about as much as Mexicans and blacks. In fact, many theatres reserved the balcony "for Niggers and Okies", and some even maintained separate bathrooms (seriously!). Yes, even the term "Okie", which so many of my brothers and sisters back home wear with great pride, began as a term very much like "nigger" remains to this day. Kind of adds a new meaning to the refrain, "I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee." It's obviously a classic case of a sociocultural group using a pejorative term against those who created it, and turning it into a badge of honor. Unfortunately, most of my fellow Okies don't realize whence the term originated.
So the powerful and wealthy in Oklahoma fought back, in one of the few ways they knew how; after World War II, they hired Jim Tatum to coach football at the University of Oklahoma in 1946. When Tatum bolted a year later, they hired Charles Burnham "Bud" Wilkinson, the man destined to lead Oklahoma football into a new era, and bring the state of Oklahoma to a new prominence in the eyes of America. True, it was funded by big oilmen and state politicians through "booster funds" that were all under the table and never truly revealed. But it served its purpose; by 1950, the University of Oklahoma had won the first of its seven national championships, and the Sooner State became something other than a land of filthy dunces at the mercy of the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Okies had something to feel proud about again.
Another factor in the great PR transformation was Oklahoma!, which debutted in 1943. Oscar Hammerstein teamed with Richard Rodgers to adapt the Lynn Riggs folk play Green Grow the Lilacs, based on Riggs' life in Oklahoma. Oklahoma! became the longest-running Broadway play to that point in history, lasting five years and 2,212 performances. The US touring production ran for 10-1/2 years and visited all 50 states. Perhaps in gratitude to the musical's assistance in transforming the national perception of Oklahoma, perhaps because it's a great song that fits the state very well, Oklahoma was named the state song by the Oklahoma State Legislature in 1953. The musical is licensed over 600 times for various performances throughout the world every year, and it still brings them in on Broadway; its most recent run of Broadway performances ended in February 2003. It was the first musical to receive a commemorative postage stamp, and it has been translated into a dozen languages.
Bearing all this in mind, it was also very special to get to take my kids to see it, as well. I knew Katie would like it, because she loves dance and musical theatre. I worried that Connor would be bored by it, though. Katie did enjoy most of it, even though she was not wearing her contacts and had to squint through most of it. Connor enjoyed some of the scenes, as well, mostly the scenes with Curly (The Good Guy) fighting Jud (The Bad Guy). But then, we reached the crux of the performance, and everything changed.
That's right, they sang Oklahoma. Suddenly, magically, it was as though my children's eyes were opened to something they had never expected. They had both heard the song many, many times. They simply knew it as part of my "football music"; I have a CD of the Pride of Oklahoma, OU's marching band, playing it along with other OU fight songs. They'd probably heard that song 300-400 times in their lives at that point, and Katie even knew most of the words. They knew (because I'd told them) that it was the Oklahoma state song. So of course, their eyes lit up when it began, and they grinned like crazy through the entire song. And when the cast fired it up and sang it again, they grinned even wider! Katie beamed at me, and Connor turned his head to me, and with his huge grinning face, whispered excitedly to me, "Dad!!! It's the football music!!!" I held them both close, and lightly wept, grinning as broadly as either of them.
I had shared a great experience with my kids, and had magically, inexplicably, for that one single moment, shared my Oklahoma blood with them both. They both showed true, they both passed the test. That was one of the proudest, happiest moments of my life as their father, and I'll never forget it.
Thanks for reading along.
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