Oklahoma One and Two - Text
This recording, made in August 1999 by Rena Cook at Oklahoma State University, is of a married couple in their early forties. He is a sheet metal worker, a resident of Stillwater Oklahoma, has lived in Dallas, Texas, and Alexandria, Virginia. She is a business manager by profession, and although born in Stuttgart, West Germany, has lived almost all her life in Stillwater, with one year in Texas and another four years in Coyle, Oklahoma. They both read the Rainbow Passage and their conversation describes their wedding in buckskins in front of a teepee. They also talk of the many animals they have given shelter to on their farm and of their effort to live in harmony with Nature. She is of Indian ancestry, though both are Caucasian. Recording is 4:51 in length.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
Man (M): I was born in Nebraska, in Cambridge, but grew up in Cushing, Oklahoma. I live in—south of Stillwater.
Woman (W): I was born in Stuttgart, West Germany, raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, an’ currently we live in Cool—Coyle, Oklahoma.
M: Well, we got married on the fourth of July last year. And I’d just had my back broken about a—oh, ‘bout a year before. And, uh, I—we got married out in the middle of a cow pasture in front of a tepee, wearin’ buckskins, uh—it was hot—(laughs) it was real hot, uh, pretty much soaked m’ buckskins plum through, an’ I think she did, too, but, uh, it jus’, it was a fun thing. We’d both been married before and jus’ wanted to be a little different. Yeah, we play baseball. We have a baseball game out there every fourth of July. Uh, jus’ kind of a family thing, an’ all family friends, everybody comes out. It’s just a ongoing yearly thing that we always do.
W: The bridesmaids were my daughter, Kirk’s two nieces. The Groomsmen, best man, were Kirk’s nephew Jared, who actually pulled the round bale of hay off Kirk when he broke his back, an’ my two sons. Made it kind of special t’ have family there.
M: She wouldn’t let me put ‘em in, uh, camouflage—that’s what I was gonna have ‘em dressin’ (laughs) in, but we kinda had to—
W” We did compromise on that. They had their (laughs) black Wranglers, n’ black shirt with a bit of camouflage shoulder patches (laughs) shoes n’ shirt—shirts (laughs).
M: We’ve always tried to kinda get back to livin’ with the land. Uh, Don and I both enjoy doin’ for ourselves, makin’ for ourselves, uh, you know, it’s real easy go to town an’ buy a bar of soap, but it’s a lot funner to make one, an’ what happens if you can’t go n’ buy one someday? You know. I mean, you never know. An’ we enjoy it. I mean, you know, we—we do a lot a—of our own food preservation—we put up canned goods, uh, dried what-have-yous—uh, you know, it jus—we—we’ve always enjoyed that an’ as far as the Indian influence, uh, you know, that—that’s how they used to live, they kinda lived with it instead a’, you know, kind of a coexistence type thing. An—and it—it’s jus’ always been something we’ve both been interested in.
W. My grandmother was Shoshone. Um, I had the full buckskin dress—uh, uh—
M: I married a squaw? (Laughs.) If I’d known that, we’d never done this (laughs).
W: His was more of a frontiersman outfit. Mine was, uh, long dress, full leggings, knee-length moccasins. I have a spinning wheel. Two looms. We like to, uh, tan the hides and, uh, make our own buckskin outfits. We hunt, uh, both with recurve and long bow.
M: Uh, we raise Limousine cows, uh, got horses, uh, five or six dogs, bunch a’ cats, I’ve—Donna’s had a rehab license for birds of prey an’ things like that. We—We get ‘em from Vet Med up here—OSU—an—and, uh, let’s see, we raise three different kinds a’ quail, two different kinds of pheasants, uh, we’ve got fallow deer that we raise, uh, angora goat, we’ve raised—I had a mountain lion out there for about eighteen months, I raised her, uh, you name it, we’ve probably had it, any—any walking’ or flyin’ critter, we’ve probably—probably—
W. Peacocks n’ turkeys—
M: And, uh, guineas—whatever—we kind a’ take in all kinds a’ misfits . . .
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY SANDRA LINDBERG 24 APRIL, 2008.