Peace in the Face of Addiction
My mom’s addiction was my fault, and I just hated myself. Kylie, age 10 The family secret of hidden addiction is more common than you think. Children in one out of four households are living with addicted grownups! Oklahoma now has a successful intervention program, proven to break the cycle and help children deal with…
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Rock Star Herb Magley
Several times a week, he loads up his Fender speaker system and his wireless head mic and travels to adoring audiences around Oklahoma. They can’t get enough of him. They don’t want his shows to end. They line up afterward to talk to him. Herb is not a rock musician. Herb has figured out how…
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Coffee the Old-Fashioned Way
Looking for that coffee shop that feels like your friend’s living room? Then the Engles family invites you to visit their second home at the Last Drop Coffee Shop. Stan and Fiona Engle, along with their grown daughter, Elizabeth, opened Last Drop five years ago in a 1952 Howard Johnson Restaurant that sat empty for…
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New Zealand to Guthrie: A Bootmaker’s Journey
For Flora Knight, making cowboy boots from scratch satisfies her interests in old-timey handcrafts and beautiful artwork. It’s a career steeped in tradition, and Flora moved from New Zealand to Guthrie, Oklahoma in her late twenties to train under some of the most respected boot makers in America. “I love shoes, and the smell of…
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Clifford Lewis: Atomic Veteran
Few people have witnessed the explosion of an atomic bomb, but Clifford Lewis distinctly remembers seeing the “explosion of color with a mushroom cloud.” It was 1962, and he was part of Operation Dominic, a series of top-secret tests conducted by the U.S. military. “I watched them drop the bomb out in the Pacific Ocean…
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Thank You, Amelia Earhart, an All-Okie Film
Award-winning filmmaker, Al Mertens, has just wrapped up post-production on Thank You, Amelia Earhart, a feature-length film made entirely by Oklahomans––perhaps the state’s first. “From cast to crew, it was nothing but us Okies,” Mertens said. “Our state had every ounce of talent we needed. Mary Buss is our incredible lead actress, our crew included…
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Cosplay for Charity
As a child, Angela (Fae) Mullens enjoyed playing dress up. By junior high, she was altering thrift store clothing and sewing costumes. Fae was a married adult before she learned about the cosplay (costumed play) community, but now, she’s turned her hobby into a community service, recreating beloved characters to entertain at charity events or…
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The Crafted House
A two-story concrete structure stands out amongst the sea of wooden houses along the east side of the University of Central Oklahoma campus. The modern-looking house with its curved roof is the brainchild of architect, George Winters. “Smaller houses are needed in Edmond,” Winters said. “I don’t build homes for a living, but I wanted…
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Finding Lichen
Hundreds of Species Discovered Remember learning about lichen—that mossy-looking stuff that grows on trees? Probably not, because until recently, lichens barely received mention in high school biology. Now, thanks to the work of Dr. Sheila Strawn, much more is known about lichen and its roles in Oklahoma ecology. Not only has she discovered hundreds of…
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