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True to the suggestions
sent along from my publisher I am trying to do things necessary to promote
my book, “How To Keep Up With The Joneses,” and I'm beginning to think the
authors are all of Jones descendants in the anthology they sent me. I've
never seen so many ways they work to get their books before the public. In
fact there are so many ideas I'm having to do just a few at a time else I
would be lost with too much to do.
An unusually beautiful
day in Oklahoma allowed me to take my daughter and mother with me while I
followed instructions for placing a small plastic, covered flyer with
merchants around and about where I will be giving a presentation, in this
case, March 10, at the Heritage Center on main street, Newkirk, Oklahoma. My
husband printed off three colored copies of the front and back cover of the
book. He then took than and had it covered with a good, strong clear
plastic so it will stand alone in a window.
Karen Dye at the Center
seemed pleased with the appearance of the flyer and said she would save it
after she takes it out of the window and put it back for the talk I'm to
give in September.
The next stop was at the
local library. As I walked up to the door a tall lean cowboy stepped up and
stood aside while he held the door for me. This was a nice thing to
experience. The small town ways of yesteryear were alive and well I could
see. Frankly I had almost forgotten what a pleasant, gentlemanly gesture
this was. When I said to him, “What a nice thing to do, I didn't know there
were gentlemen left in this world!” he only smiled in the slow stoic way I
remembered of these men when I was a child. Now I know that in this day and
time many women are put off by these older customs but I am not. My tired
arms, too, at this age will say, thank you to anyone who can pull a heavy
glass door open so easily.
The librarian was
friendly and spoke easily about the love her friend, whose parents worked
there, had for the old Indian School, Chilocco. She was pleased to know
there was a bus tour planned. We chatted briefly about my short presentation
after the tour I planned and how I was going to try to tie in the various
facets of culture which made up the area around the town and at Chilocco
during and around 1920. Many German residents in the outer regions of
grasslands had farms and ranches. There was even a Lutheran Church, I
learned, where all spoke German until the Federal Government dictated this
no longer be practiced. It reminded me a bit of the punishment Native
American students received when they spoke their own language at Chilocco.
Of course, someone might argue this was necessary to further a stronger
unity among Americans else we would have been in the situation compared to
residents around the Bible history of the Tower of Babel, whose tradesmen
could no longer communicate with each other in order to do their building
work. Sometimes the punishment seemed a bit harsh though but that is another
story.
After leaving the
library I crossed the street to enter the small quilting shop. My reasoning
on this was that more older women might be going in there to purchase fabric
for their quilts. If I could catch their attention certainly, some
discussion would be made about the tour. There is a pipeline of information
between the residents in small towns. Very little misses their attention and
those of us who have been there know this is the most successful
advertisement. The plus side of this visit was that I did get to enjoy the
many beautiful patterns, colors and order of display in the large variety of
fabrics for quilt
making.
After our business was
finished Mother treated us to a dessert at Perkins Restaurant and this ended
a perfect afternoon. |
