"Oklahoma is the cultural center of the Universe." - Hoyt Axton

I saw the above quote on Pinterest, and I had to see what ole Hoyt was talking about. So Cowboy and I experienced a little Oklahoma culture today.  Hugo, Oklahoma culture, that is.  (If you don't know who Hoyt Axton was, look him up on YouTube.  He sang some good country songs, and wrote some great ones).

Hugo is known as Circus City, because for a long time it was winter quarters for several circus performers.  According to Wikipedia, it is located in a cultural area of Oklahoma called Little Dixie, because it was settled by Native Americans, African Americans and European Americans from the Southeastern U.S.

We spent a very busy day in Hugo, and I have more pictures than I've ever put in a blog post before, so here we go.

As you can see, this is Angie's Circus City Diner.  This was our first stop, because after the 90 minute drive from our RV camp, we were hungry.  Besides, I had read that they had a great exhibit of circus memorablia there.  We weren't disappointed with the food or the exhibits.

But, honestly, one of the things I loved best about this diner was that I saw several people bow their heads and pray before their meals.  Made me feel right at home!

Once we were full from our early lunch, we felt fortified enough for our second stop, the Frisco Depot Museum.  This one was special to us because our son-in-law, and his daddy, and one of our good friends work for a railroad.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

So here's several shots of the entrance.  I like the sculptures in front of the building, of the elephant and the buffalo, representing both the circus influence as well as the western heritage of the area.  Can you tell what a gray and gloomy day it's been?  It rained all morning and well into the afternoon.

The exhibits were varied.  Here's an old post office window and post boxes.

Cowboy Tim said this shoeshine chair looked awfully flimsy.  But I guess it's light weight made it easier to move around when business got slow in one area.

This is just a small portion of a huge miniature circus display.

And these are just a small portion of the model trains that we saw.

I'm always fascinated with old telephone switchboards, because my mom went to work for Bell Telephone in 1946, just after she graduated high school.  She had to lie about her age, because she was only 16 at the time.

This is for my youngest grandgirl, because she loves old typewriters and old telephones and such.

And here's an old moonshine still that was confiscated from somewhere in the nearby hills.  

See, I told you Hugo was full of culture!

An old schoolroom exhibit.

There were a lot of things that were in cases behind glass, and the glare was so bad that I didn't even try to photograph most of those things.  But Tim thought this old high school football helmet was pretty cool.

And I liked this white buffalo.  The high school team is known as the Hugo Buffaloes.

This was kind of interesting.  

This entire exhibit of barber shop furnishings came from Glen Rose, Texas.

Tim took this one...an ancient set of golf clubs.  These days he doesn't ride his horses as much as he used to, so he spends a lot of time playing golf.  He loves golf.  He volunteered as a Marshall at the Colonial Golf Tournament last month, fulfilling a long time dream of his.  Should I start calling him "GolfBoy Tim"?? Maybe not.

I know this is really fuzzy, but I had to include it.  It is a railroad employee's paycheck for $0.14.  Fourteen cents.  Think about that next time you complain about high prices.

The glare is awful on this one.  The sign says "Choctaw Prayer Drum."  Made me so thankful that I can pray to my Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere.  And I don't need to bang a drum to get His attention.  In fact, I don't even need to speak out loud.  He hears my every word, spoken, whispered, or simply thought in my head.  We worship such an awesome God!

Do you know about the Harvey House Restaurants? Fred Harvey opened restaurants in railroad depots all across the country, and the waitresses who worked in his restaurants lived on property and were chaperoned like the proper young ladies they were.  There's an old Judy Garland movie called The Harvey Girls.  Watch it sometime if you ever get the chance.

A picture of a picture.  This is the Harvey House back in the day.

This is the way it looks today.

I did not realize that Fred Harvey had a "much sough-after" Cole Slaw recipe, but I figured I'd better have it if it's that famous.  And now, I'm sharing it with YOU!  Just because I love you all!

 I love that it doesn't include mayonnaise.

This was not the end of our day.  After a quick stop at Wal-Mart, we went to the Mount Olivet Cemetery, which has a section called Showmen's Rest.  But that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.  So, you've been forewarned.  If you don't like cemeteries, you can skip tomorrow's post.  But it really is fascinating.  Or are we just weird?

Don't answer that.

It's been a very long day, and I am more than ready for my bed.

More tomorrow.