Monday, September 24, 2007
Will Rogers World Airport
I love our "little" airport -- from the fact that it's named for Will Rogers, who died in a plane crash, to the fact that a caricature of ol' Will hisself standin' on top of the globe with a lasso looped around it is its symbol, to "Amelia Earhart Lane," an airport street named for somebody who infamously disappeared on a plane trip, (Oklahoma City also has a small public airport called Wiley Post Airport, who died with Will Rogers in a plane crash), to the the airport shuttles, which are called "Giddy-Up" (pdf) to the huge art out on the "driveway" into the place that are huge Indian arrows, to the big round hay bales in pastures just off the runways, to the oil pumpjacks here and there, to the "Official Oklahoma Cow Tipping Team" T-shirts you can buy in the stores, to the big pix of famous and prominent Oklahomans all over the terminal walls.
Says "home" to me, and I dig it.
--ER
Says "home" to me, and I dig it.
--ER
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I love that airport, too, for all the reasons you mentioned, and because it's so dang easy to navigate through.
Crystal
Crystal
# posted by 
: 11:34 PM
: 11:34 PM
I love it when they plan airports like that. It also really makes travellers from other places feel like they're really in another state. Most of the airports in California are so generic you could plop them down just about anywhere.
Don't worry about that one comma, my mom writes sentences like that with NO commas! ;)
Don't worry about that one comma, my mom writes sentences like that with NO commas! ;)
# posted by : 9:20 AM
: 9:20 AM
Me too! Like Frenzied said, any airport that lets you know where you are. I also like the ones in Boise, Idaho, and Eugene, Oregon.
Last on the list: Nashville. Granted it's been more than a few years since I last went through there, but it was incredibly dark and gloomy. Yuck.
Last on the list: Nashville. Granted it's been more than a few years since I last went through there, but it was incredibly dark and gloomy. Yuck.
A Steve Fossett food court soon to come, based on those other choices in nomenclature?
Sorry.
Do the depictions of famous Oklahomans include Roger Miller? I'm suspecting that they don't include The Flaming Lips, even though they're selling more records right now that most other bands...
Sorry.
Do the depictions of famous Oklahomans include Roger Miller? I'm suspecting that they don't include The Flaming Lips, even though they're selling more records right now that most other bands...
ER does love his nostalgia.
Welcome home, dude.
RB said: "Do the depictions of famous Oklahomans include Roger Miller? I'm suspecting that they don't include The Flaming Lips....."
Roger Miller has a permenant display in the City Art Center in OKC and a State sponsored museum in his home town of Erick.
The Flaming Lips have a street named after them in the Brick Town (tourist section) of downtown OKC.
As for the airport, last time I was out there it was all plywood tunnels and detours. I used to be able to park next to the baggage door or by the ticket area,(hell in 1966 I could get out of a cab walk 10 feet give up my bag, and walk 50 feet, up a ramp and into the plane, all in about 5 minutes) now the nearest parking space space is two hundred yards away. It is only easy to use in comparison to the complete lack of utility of say DFW, or Denver, or any D.C. area airport. Say where's the light rail we were promised 20 years ago out to the AP from downtown?
Oh yes, vetoed by our own congressmen, one of whom is now a senator.
Welcome home, dude.
RB said: "Do the depictions of famous Oklahomans include Roger Miller? I'm suspecting that they don't include The Flaming Lips....."
Roger Miller has a permenant display in the City Art Center in OKC and a State sponsored museum in his home town of Erick.
The Flaming Lips have a street named after them in the Brick Town (tourist section) of downtown OKC.
As for the airport, last time I was out there it was all plywood tunnels and detours. I used to be able to park next to the baggage door or by the ticket area,(hell in 1966 I could get out of a cab walk 10 feet give up my bag, and walk 50 feet, up a ramp and into the plane, all in about 5 minutes) now the nearest parking space space is two hundred yards away. It is only easy to use in comparison to the complete lack of utility of say DFW, or Denver, or any D.C. area airport. Say where's the light rail we were promised 20 years ago out to the AP from downtown?
Oh yes, vetoed by our own congressmen, one of whom is now a senator.
I know I'm homesick when the thought of the OKC airport makes me sigh. I can actually smell the baggage claim area. Sick, I know. When I was a kid, it took me forever to figure out those ginormous sculptures were arrows. I'm so used to flying into that airport that when I flew home to Texas from SF last May, I was momentarily disoriented. I was expecting the OKC airport.
Does is bug any other native Okies when flight attendants refer to Oklahoma City as "Oak City"? I lived in OKC for the better part of 27 years, and I never heard it called that.
Now I'm all homesick, and I'm supposed to be studying for a theology exam. Crap.
Does is bug any other native Okies when flight attendants refer to Oklahoma City as "Oak City"? I lived in OKC for the better part of 27 years, and I never heard it called that.
Now I'm all homesick, and I'm supposed to be studying for a theology exam. Crap.
# posted by : 9:43 PM
: 9:43 PM
Howdy LeeAnn!
Ha, I noticed the "Oak City" thing this trip. I think it's OK. Kinda like being a Cherokee Indian in Tahlequah: You can tell who the stranger is by whether he-she refers to "Native Americans." You can tell someone ain't from 'round here by whether they refer to "Oak City." It being a benign thing, what the hey?
I'd sure like to know more about yer theology studies ... being's as how I'm wantin' to go that route myself real bad ...
Ha, I noticed the "Oak City" thing this trip. I think it's OK. Kinda like being a Cherokee Indian in Tahlequah: You can tell who the stranger is by whether he-she refers to "Native Americans." You can tell someone ain't from 'round here by whether they refer to "Oak City." It being a benign thing, what the hey?
I'd sure like to know more about yer theology studies ... being's as how I'm wantin' to go that route myself real bad ...
Drlobo: If nostalgia and romanticism and soft-heartedness are sins, I am chasin' a greased pig to hell. :-)
If you're not care ER, you are going to end up like me. All of those are on the sure path to cynicism. Ain't nothin worse than a ex-soft hearted failed romantic longing for past glories.
I usually slip into the Muhammad Ahta Cafe before catching my plane out of Will Rogers "World" Airport. The "World" in the title always amuses me since it's hard to get a plane that goes more than 250 miles away.
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