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HOLIDAY TRADITIONS
Fun with the family a key part of local Christmas celebrations
TIMELESS TALES
Christmas classics make holiday reading a joy
PATCHWORK AS ART
Form of uniquely American quilting alive and well in Tahlequah
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE
Back in 1970, famous meteorite rocked the world near Hulbert
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Some of you might be surprised to see the Winter 2024 edition of Tahlequah Grapevine in circulation so early in December. Last year, the online version was available before 2023 rolled into 2024, but the print version of the magazine wasn’t on the stands until early January. That handicapped us – and for that matter, our readers and advertisers – in one important way: We couldn’t offer Christmas-themed features, because they would be irrelevant by the time Grapevine came out.
This year, we were determined to produce a holiday version of our quarterly magazine, and thanks to the hard work of our ad staff, writers, page designer and printer, we were able to expedite it and give everyone something to peruse during breaks while decorating, cooking, or digesting. Because of the necessarily early deadline, we had to scrap a couple of plans. An “ugly sweater” display we had considered in 2023 was again shelved. But it’s still on the back burner for 2025.
The plan is to have the winter edition in 2025 come out even earlier – right before Thanksgiving, in fact, which will be of great value to advertisers who want to promote seasonal shopping opportunities.
But advertisers and readers alike already know the value of Grapevine, whatever the season. The magazine was very popular when we produced it nearly 20 years ago. The revamped version – and this is the eighth edition – has attracted thousands of sets of eyeballs, first in the online version, and then in the magazine that is delivered to subscribers in our newspaper. Copies are also available at our office, for those who don’t subscribe but buy individual editions from vendors.
We are confident you’ll enjoy the holiday installment of the Grapevine, featuring four terrific pieces by former TDP employees: Nancy Garber, Greg Combs, Dana Eversole and Pam Moore. We’re already talking about the March 2025 edition, and we’d love to hear your ideas. You know how to find us!
HEATHER RUOTOLO Publisher
hruotolo@tahlequahdailypress.com
KIM POINDEXTER
Executive Editor
kpoindexter@tahlequahdailypress.com
MOONDANCE PHOTOGRAPHY
Cover Photography
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Greg Combs
Dana Eversole
Nancy Garber
Pam Moore
JAY JUDAH
Graphic Designer
© 2024 Tahlequah Daily Press Tahlequah Grapevine is a quarterly magazine published by the Tahlequah Daily Press. The contents of this magazine are fully protect-ed by copyright and cannot be reproduced without express permission from CNHI, LLC. Note
- Kim Poindexter, Executive Editor
Kim Poindexter has been a member of the TDP news team since 1985. She is in the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame and received the 2022 Oklahoma Press Association Beachy Musselman Award. She has won more than 200 journalism awards on the national and state levels, both individually and as part of the team for TDP, which has been named CNHI’s Best Newspaper for five consecutive years. For her work in 2023, she was named OPA Editorial Writer of the Year, and by CNHI, Columnist of the Year. She and her husband, Chris, a facilities engineer, have an adult son, Cole, and a daughter-in-law, Dani.
By Dana Eversole
In 1992, Barbra Cook bought a Christmas quilt. She started a tradition by having each family member sleep one night under the quilt; then she would embroider the year on the edge of the quilt.
“2024 marks 33 years of Christmas dreams for our family, from Tulsa to Verdigris and back to Tahlequah,” Cook said.
Holiday traditions come in many forms and are passed down from generation to generation. It could involve favorite foods or activities.
“Joe and I get together with my sister and our niece and nephew and make snacks, gumbo and homemade beignets on Christmas Eve and watch a classic Christmas movie, like ‘Gremlins,’” said Dr. Suzanne Farmer, Northeastern State University professor of history.
Dr. Kyle Vareberg, NSU assistant professor of communication, grew up in North Dakota, where it was almost always freezing during Christmas.
“Growing up, we always had T-bone steaks on Christmas Eve. We went to Christmas Eve service and then the moment we got home, dad fired up the grill. [It was] dark out; didn’t matter; minus 25 with wind-
Dr. Dana Eversole is a professor of Media Studies and chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Northeastern State University, where she begins her 36th year this fall. Eversole worked as news editor for the Daily Press for two years before taking the job at NSU. She has been a stringer throughout the years for the Press. During her tenure at the Press, she won many awards, including a Sweepstakes award for investigative reporting from the Oklahoma Associated Press. She was recently named Oklahoma Outstanding Journalism Educator by the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists. Eversole is serving her second term on the Tahlequah School Board.
chill. Still cooked those steaks,” he said.
In recent years, Elf on a Shelf has become a family favorite across the country, including in Cherokee County.
Shawn Coffman, Great Expectations and Tahlequah Public Schools board member, said her elf, Wacky Walter, comes out a few weeks before Christmas.
“I call him Walter because when I was a child, I had an imaginary friend named Walter who did all the bad stuff,” said Coffman.
Walter has been known to Zip Line through Coffman’s
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living room, landing on the ceiling fan. He has shown up for eight years at Coffman’s house, doing all kinds of crazy things to keep neighborhood children amused.
NSU graduate Kerry White said the tradition he started will continue, no matter how old his children are.
“I started one with my kids when they were little, where I wrote a letter and left a different holiday-themed book for them from Santa every year. I still do it for them, no matter how old they get. I’ve given them ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘The Snow Queen,’ among others,” he said.
Jeremy and Cassie Friese, along with their two children, have established several traditions.
She said she puts a decorated tree in
every room of the house, along with one on the front porch.
“I love the decorations,” she said. I put them up early, but I take them all down the day after Christmas.”
The Frieses enjoy spending the day together.
“I get up and cook a big breakfast,” said Cassie. “We stay home on Christmas, and I fix waffles, pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon. We have a great day.”
Cassie said the children – Greyson, 13, and Grant, 7 – play all day.
When she and Jeremy were married in 2009, a family friend gave them a personalized ornament from Silver Dollar City. Cassie said she has continued that tradition.
“We started getting one every year. When Greyson was born in 2011, there were now three people on the ornament.,” she said.
In 2017, the Frieses were in the process of adopting their youngest son, Grant. They could not put his picture on any social media platform, so when they went to get that year’s ornament, the four of them were in old-fashioned pajamas with back flaps on them. An observer can only see the backs of the family on the ornament, and the women painting the names placed them on the back flaps of the pajamas.
“Our family always has a great time together on Christmas, and our traditions will continue,” said Cassie.
Christmas stories shape our earliest impressions of the holiday season. Even before they’ve learned about the birth of Jesus, most children have heard Clement C. Moore’s poem, “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” popularized in song by Gene Autry in the 1940s. What makes for a classic Christmas story?
Today, there are loads of Christmas books to choose from on booksellers’ and library shelves. Favorites come down to personal preference and can vary from year to year. But several online sources agree that Moore’s classic, first published anonymously as a poem in 1823, is “everyone’s favorite Christmastime rhyme,” and is still a popular choice for parents to read aloud during the holiday season, according to Valerie Reese, co-owner of Too Fond of Books in downtown Tahlequah.
It sits alongside other bestselling titles, like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” penned by Dr. Seuss in 1957, and “Polar Express,” winner of the 1986 Caldecott Medal for illustration. Each December, area children are invited to TFB to hear Sarah Burkhead Whittle, Northeastern State University College of Education librarian, read the classic aloud.
“In the past, people might have read one book at Christmas,” Reese said. “Nowadays, movies and shows influence the popularity of what they read, especially character-driven books.” Books about the Australian character Bluey are popular in December. Sierra Salem, TFB
By Nancy Garber
store manager and book buyer, says this is an example of interplay between cartoons and character-driven Christmas stories.
“Maybe it’s because of the novelty of it being warm and sunny, and characters swimming at Christmastime,” she said.
According to research and confirmed by local booksellers, “A Christmas Carol,” written by Charles Dickens in 1843, remains the most familiar and popular holiday novel. In fact, a special collector’s edition is available suitable for giving and is popular among those who decorate their homes with books.
Christmas is the most profitable time of year for bookstores. Many parents suggest books as a gift idea to family and friends, rather than toys or clothes, Salem noted. Often the popularity of a Christmas-themed book will surge when a movie version is released, as it creates a visual image that adds to reading enjoyment.
But in days gone by, owning books was a luxury. The Bible was often the only book found in a household, and time for reading was limited.
George Fulk, retired NSU professor and well-known local artist, recalled how books shaped his youth.
“My mom was too busy to have much time for reading to her kids, but I do remember, ‘’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,’” he said.
The popular choice, as a father, was “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
“We liked it because the Grinch changes from a nasty person to a nice person.” He appreciated the emphasis on being kind to others, “which is the true spirit of Christmas.”
Among Fulk’s all-time favorites is “A Christmas Carol,” for the same reasons reviewers deem it a classic.
“Besides the ‘love one another’ theme, it also emphasizes that people can change for the better,” he said.
Tiffany Pettus Rozell, Cherokee County election board secretary, said her mother used to read aloud “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” to her children. Written as a short story in 1971 for McCall’s magazine by Barbara Robinson, it was later expanded into a novel.
“I’ve shared this story with my oldest, who is 15, and now that the twins are 10, we’re reading it and plan to see the movie in the next few weeks,” she said.
The first Christmas after her mother passed away, Tiffany wasn’t quite ready to introduce the story.
“But this year, it brings happy memories,” she said. “Grief is so strange, but I’m thankful to be able to bring her love of books to my kiddos and honor her memory with one of my favorite childhood memories.”
Nancy Combs Geiger, a counselor at Tahlequah Middle School, said reading has always been an important part of the holidays in her family. Among her favorite Christmas books and stories were “The Nutcracker” and “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
“On Christmas Eve, my brother and I heard stories about Santa navigating the globe, bringing girls and boys lots of gifts, and about families and their Christmas celebrations. As an adult, I’ve carried on the reading traditions,” she said. “My son, 12 years old, reads ‘’Twas the Night Before Christmas’ aloud every Christmas Eve, from next to the Christmas tree. My kids have always enjoyed hearing ‘The Polar Express’ at school during the holidays and watching the movie after. Another one of our favorites is ‘Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown.’”
But Christmas books are not just for children.
“Last year, my book club read an Agatha Christie Christmas mystery just before the holiday, ‘Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.’ It was a great read, and we met to discuss it while sitting by the Christmas tree, dressed in our festive sweaters and attire,” she said.
This article would not be complete without mentioning my own daughter, Ginny Poe, who was introduced to “Baby’s First Christmas” at age 6 months. The Christmas she was 3, my sister gave her an illustrated version of “Silent Night” that played music and featured a little light depicting the star of Bethlehem. That, Ginny said, was her favorite childhood Christmas read, and it remains on our bookshelf today.
Ginny’s own children, ages 3 and 1, are enchanted by a collection of Christmas books featuring the Sesame Street character, Elmo.
“They read these books all year long. They won’t let us put them away!” Poe said.
Timeless stories, heartwarming messages, vivid descriptions are what define a Christmas classic. It’s also safe to say, if references to the story permeate the popular culture or if a toddler asks to hear the story year-round, it’s a classic.
Sarah Burkhead Whittle reads to children of all ages at Too Fond of Books. The December favorite is Polar Express, considered a classic Christmas story and a bestseller.
Tahlequah Public Library displays a variety of seasonal children’s books, including stories about Hanukkah. All photos by Nancy M. Garber
Local prize-winning quiltmaker Diann Barrick doesn’t just embrace her crazy; she celebrates it.
“People say quilters must be crazy,” said Barrick. “They take perfectly good fabric, cut it up, and sew it back together again. They do this for hours on end. It makes no sense.”
It certainly appears so, since that’s what all quilters are doing – tearing fabric apart and putting it back together, just in a different order. It’s more complex than this, since today’s quilters have their own creative processes and purposes in mind when they take scissors to cloth.
Tahlequah is home to many kinds of quilters, each producing their own versions of the original patchwork quilt. Patchwork, so important in early times to keep loved ones warm at night, has reached the height of fine art. Patchwork quilting, now recognized worldwide as a uniquely American art form, enjoyed a revival during the COVID era, when quilters were locked away with their fabric stashes.
The International Quilt Festival, held each fall in Houston, Texas, is the major league of the quilt world, and this year boasted more than 700 vendors and 1,100 quilts. Quilters from around the world compete for substantial cash prizes. This year’s winner was a small, thread-painted still life with portraits of cats quilted into the background. Submitted by Chen Jing of Beijing, China, “Still Life” is an original design that features a three-dimensional gilt picture frame,
By Pam Moore
in July 1982 and serving nearly a decade. She then worked eight years as victim-witness coordinator for the 27th Prosecutional District.
also served as subject matter expert for the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office for Victims of Crime until her retirement in 2016.
all made from fabric machine-stitched with gold threads. The quilt, an original design, is about 20 inches by 24 inches, and won $12,500 for Best of Show.
Local attorney and artist Kathy Tibbits is known for her colorful, always original, and highly textured quilts. A lifelong Tahlequah resident, Kathy prefers to work directly with materials shared by friends and fans. Curated from materials such as yarns, buttons, patches, and exotic fabrics from around the world, Kathy’s creations are a symphony of color and texture, inviting the viewer to linger and wonder at the complexity of her creations.
Her custom quilts use materials provided by the customer, mixed with some of Kathy’s stash-on-hand, making each quilt reflect the life of the owner. They are truly a gift of self, brought to life by the artist’s skill and vision. It is impossible to view one of Kathy’s quilts without fighting the desire to touch and feel the textures and light portrayed in her complex designs. Each one of Kathy’s quilts is truly narrative, reflecting her passion for art informed by the physical feel, emotion, and character of her materials. Kathy’s newest works are available at the local artist co-op gallery, Tahlequah Creates, on north Muskogee Avenue.
Bonnie Giese, retired Northeastern State University educator, moved to Tahlequah with her family in 1989. Bonnie, first a sewist of clothing for her family, began quilting in the 1990s. Like most new quilters, she worked on her dining room table because her sons occupied the bedrooms. After she retired in 2013, Bonnie was able to make space in a spare room to expand her fabric collection and produce even more quilts.
Bonnie estimates she has made more than 150 quilts. While she started with traditional and retail patterns from quilt shops, she recently began improvising her own original designs. It’s called “crumb quilting,” wherein Bonnie uses bits and bobs of past work to create blocks that are unique, with color as the key component.
“I cannot imagine not quilting; it is a passion for me,” said Bonnie. “I love the feel of the fabrics, the suspense of how the piece will look when finished with quilting and framed with binding.”
Local artist and quilter Diann Barrick has been quilting all her life, if you
I am not interested in the finished product, but rather I prefer the creative process; it is different each time.”
– Diann Barrick
count the handwork she learned as a child. Diann began her journey with quilts in 2000.
“I like the process, the Zen of quilting,” she said. “The act of creating takes me to another place. It is a meditative state.”
Diann selects the fabrics for color and contrast, value and hue.
“I am not interested in the finished product, but rather I prefer the creative process; it is different each time,” she said.
Diann shared some photos of two of her recently completed quilts with which she won a blue ribbon and second place at the Belle Point Quilt Show in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She described the blue-ribbon quilt, titled “Tilda’s Hen House.”
“I created this quilt from the pattern and fabrics by Norwegian designer Tone Finnegar,” said Barrick. “Tone’s Tilda fabrics, named for her daughter, are colorful, fun prints, small ditsy florals and plaids. This was a fun quilt to build.”
Her second-place quilt was challenging, taking more than 20 years to complete. She began this quilt, a paper-pieced design by Karen Stone, named “Cactus Flower (aka New York Beauty)” back in the late ‘90s. Paper
piecing is a method wherein the fabrics are sewn directly to a pattern printed on paper. This method is time-consuming and difficult, requiring many hours of work on the machine. The result is exceptionally precise: The points all match and the blocks fit perfectly inside the border.
Diann would work on it for a while and then put it away. Finally, her husband dared her to complete the quilt during the COVID era, so she did. “Cactus Flower” has been shown in quilt shows in Vian, Muskogee, Claremore, and lastly in Fort Smith’s Belle Point show. She said it always places when it is shown.
By Greg Combs
There must be obscure, little-known meteorites and a class of special or famous meteorites.
And so, in 2021, when Christie’s Auction House prepared to sell a partial slice of one such object, their description included the following caption:
“LOST CITY METEORITE – ONE OF THE MOST COVETED AMERICAN METEORITES.”
It went on to tell a brief history of the
The greater Hulbert area was rocked by a meteor, an exploding meteoroid, a deposit of meteorites and a thundering sonic boom the first week of January 1970.
meteorite’s arrival in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, a half-century earlier, describing the prize as “fabled” and calling it “one of the most sought-after American meteorites, etc.”
Allowing for an auctioneer’s right to embellish his goods, it seems this particular offering stood above the space rocks, dinosaur bones and other scientific items up for auction. One would expect more than “Need Meteorites? Call Christie’s”; however, this description had a serious note. So, how did this happen?
The first week of 1970 saw excitement in Cherokee County, but was otherwise unremarkable. There was some cause for optimism regarding what Kenny Rogers called “that old crazy Asian war,” and the tumultuous ‘60s seemed to be giving way to an improved decade. Little chance was given the underdog Chiefs in looming Super Bowl IV.
In the western Ozarks, snow was expected that first week in January. Books marched off the shelves at the Northeastern State College bookstore for the coming semester; the decade held promise for the area as Tahlequah grew to more than 9,000 souls; and with Downing Street widened and known as the “Four Lane,” change was in the air.
And that’s not all.
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory was engaged in a project designed to find all or pieces of meteorites. Overseen by the Smithsonian was the Prairie Meteorite Network, a series of 16 cameras set across the plains. Officials hoped to locate a landing by comparing photos of the streak of light and possible fireball of what are also know as shooting or falling stars. There were then too few samples to supply those who studied such things, thus the Christie’s offering of a slice of the “fabled” meteorite.
As people of Earth went about their
lives, a random rock flew through space after being hurled, forced or knocked from its peaceful residency as one of hundreds of millions of such objects in the Asteroid Belt. Located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, these objects are asteroids – ranging in size from a grain of sand to a big one 600 miles wide. Experts say asteroids are left over from the creation of our solar system. The one at hand was about the size of a large watermelon.
This traveller maintained speeds of more than 30,000 mph in flight. Not “flight,” really; it was basically being drawn into our sun unless pulled by one of the four planets orbiting between the Asteroid Belt and the sun. The pull of Mars was avoided first, as it was somewhere out on its 687-day orbit. Next came Earth, and that would be the end of the line. Gravity pulled this speeding gourd toward our world’s iron center, assuring the intruder would not pass Venus, avoid Mercury, or indeed, dive into the sun.
have been the fabled, sought after, Smithsonian-captured, coveted and valuable Hulbert Meteorite.
Nine seconds of light caught on three cameras would enable Prairie Network people to calculate the source of the shooting melon – as heated to 3,000 degrees – along with its past orbit and likely point of impact. They missed by 800 meters.
George Roberts, then an area landowner, recalls the search.
Christie’s Auction House, describing the Lost City Meteorite as “One of the most coveted American meteorites,” offered this slice for public auction in 2021.
In the western part of Cherokee County, the town of Hulbert was becoming known. No, not pertaining to the motoring public, but rather for pain and sorrow regarding the town’s heavy losses on the Vietnam battlefields. That deeply felt fact is, to this day not lost on survivors, area folks in general and many veterans.
Had “Lost City” not been the obvious choice, this would
“Not too much of a search by farmers and locals,” he said. “The authorities took charge of finding it. For years, suspected rocks were looked at and the meteor was on people’s minds.”
George told of once snagging a metal object with a box blade. It pulled up what looked to be a marker. A neighbor told him the government had marked where each piece of the meteorite had been found. He gave little credence to that, but did agree with the local understanding that one family had used a piece as a doorstop for years.
So, long story short, if it’ not too late. Being less than a cubic meter in size – about the size of a kitchen stove – the speeding asteroid is called a meteoroid. Tiny pebble meteoroids are consumed upon entering our atmosphere. Larger ones plunge to earth and get so hot they either disintegrate or explode, being visible at night, with the meteor leaving pieces to strike Earth, at which point each piece becomes a meteorite. Half are unseen daytime events. Most drop into the sea. Finds are rare. They have long been sliced for study.
At 8:14 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 3, 1970, for nine seconds against the darkened sky, the 37 remaining pounds of the visitor exploded in a fireball and deafening sonic boom. Within a week, several pieces were in possession of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory. As far as the Prairie Project, this was the sole success. A similar project in Europe had chased down none.
Quaint name, reputations on the line with the Prairie Project in need of success – the Lost City Meteorite checked the boxes. Today, the largest piece – 21.52 pounds – is displayed at the Smithsonian. Also today, the doorbell cam, surveillance cameras and Russian dash cams have replaced the Prairie Project.
There is no Lost City Finders Day, nor did the meteor strike put it on the map. There are still meteorites out there, buried along Fourteen-Mile Creek, or as grains of sand or propping up a door or two. Almost 55 years ago, this one rocked the world near Hulbert.
Need
