Oklahoma Giveaway Winner!

Recently, I've been winning the bloggery! That's the blogger equivalent of the blogosphere lottery!

Recently a package arrived at my door from Parsley of Seasons of My Mind who had a postcard giveaway and has been badly biten by the Orange Conehead Alien bug. I sent her a postcard (or two) from the states near me and won! She sent a big envelope stuffed with Oklahoma-themed items in it!

While I've only been in Oklahoma twice in a quick drive-through on the Interstate, I do have some ties to Oklahoma - My mother's father side of the family moved there from Kentucky during the Civil War because their farm was a part of one of the battlefields during the "Confederate Invasion of Kentucky" in 1862. My maternal great-grandfather was a traveling minister, often riding miles on horseback to to give sermons - a life-calling that he passed on to many of his off-spring.

As I said, they moved west to escape the horrors of the Civil War and at precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 a cannon's boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw. Carried by all kinds of transportation - horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot - an estimated 100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip. There had been a number of previous land rushes in the Territory - but this was the big one.

Family legend has it, some of my relatives "jumped the gun" and were Sooners.

The only real link I have of that side of the family is this picture (here) plus some family legends and tales of my great-granny beheading chickens and plucking them for frying, making soap in a cast iron pot outside the rustic cabin she lived in, and a number of interesting stories of her calmly killing any number of rattlesnakes of totally unbelievable length.

I know a branch of the family moved into the Durant and Caddo areas of Oklahoma along the Native Americans Trail of Tears and the hardiest of this hardy lot went onwards north to the Vinita, Oklahoma area, perhaps a little too soon.

So it was with great interest I opened and looked at the items Parsley included in her marvelous giveaway...


An Oklahoma fun fact sheet,
a Deck of playing cards with an Indian Chief riding a war horse,
an Oklahoma state t-shirt (just the right size too!),
a Phascinating photobook about the Sooner State,
five Oklahoma Postcards!
a Genuine Oklahoma State Quarter,
a Key Ring with the state seal and explanation on the reverse,
a blue Dreamcatcher, ready to catch some Nyquil-induced nightmares,
a Pet Tornado (this is really cool!)
and finally, an Ada, Oklahoma shotglass explaining dreamcatchers
...all displayed on a way to cool for words, handstitched OCHA dishtowel along with a handmade OCHA greeting card!



A short video of the Pet Tornado, a 'snow globe'-like, tornado imitating device.

Thank you, Parsley!

:)