Roots

This weekend Seth and I found ourselves in McAlister, OK.  This is where Seth spent a good chunk of his childhood growing up.  We spent about an hour and a half driving around town and Seth pointed out all his old hang outs [which were mostly canals, wooded areas or soccer fields].  He also drove me by his old house which was something to see because he used to live inside the gates of a prison.  His dad was the Warden at Jackie Brannon.  He has so many fun stories surrounding this time in his life.  He rode his bike everywhere.  I got to see where he had his first kiss, where he used to watch prisoners mow his grass, how big his dad's garden used to be.  So many of these stories screamed small town honesty and trust.  I don't know if I will be able to let our kids ride there bikes anywhere other than our street and I don't know that I would just let them wander around the woods behind the cool kid in town's house.  It made me think about what things I didn't tell my parents when I was growing up and how things have changed so much since we were young exploring the world.  I wonder how much more it will change before we have kids that are doing their own exploring.

Loved this old theater. 

This is the old high school.  Seth told me stories about being bussed over there for advanced classes.  He discovered secret spiral staircases in the round sections of the front of the building.  He also explained that this is where he first realized he loved old buildings.

We drove through 'Old Town' which is the original part of town that backs up to the railroad tracks.  Most of these buildings had antique shops in them.  I am dying to come back and discover lost treasures.

McAlister is known for the prison rodeo that happens once a year.  They have a couple of these statues of prisoners riding a horse or a bull around town.  I am going to the rodeo this year, no question about it.

This was Seth's house growing up.  I have heard so many stories about this house, it felt so good to finally lay eyes on it.  We couldn't get very close to it because all the prison gates were closed.

This is a [not very good] picture of the state penitentary.  It was so interesting seeing this.  Jackie Brannon and it are actually separate prisons just basically on the same grounds.  Jackie Brannon is a minimum security prison where the inmates take care of chickens, tend to the gardens, and get to play baseball [inmates even took care of Seth's yard].  I think I found all of this so interesting because it was a huge part of Seth's life but something I knew nothing about when I was his age.  Seth always tells stories about his dad taking him and his friends on tours of the prison...I bet there is no better way to scare a kid into behaving.

This is a picture of the prison grounds from behind.  You can see the penitentary [the white structures in the background] and the grounds that the Jackie Brannon inmates take care of.

 This is the sunset from over the hills of the prison grounds.  Prisons have pretty sunsets too.

Seeing all these memorable places in Seth's life made me think about the memorable places in my life.  It made me realize how important it is to me to have roots.