Neewollah and Bartlesville, Oct 29th – Nov 4th, 2016

So I was so excited about getting back to the Oklahoma/Kansas border for Halloween. I get to hand out candy at my sisters house plus I get to go to the Neewollah parade which I haven’t been to in 20 plus years.

Now the Neewollah parade is one of the largest Halloween parades in the country. Having just witnessed the Krewe of Boo parade in New Orleans I would say it even rivals it.  There were about 140 entries in the parade. It seems every high school marching band from about 200 miles came including three from Wichita.

I went to Junior College in Independence back in 1987 – 1989. Just fond memories of the town and have wanted to go back for Neewalloh for quite some time. They say there is 75,000 that show up for the parade. I’m not quite sure I believe that but there are a lot of people there. A fun time for the whole family. I managed to fill up all the memory on my camera taking pictures.

Now at my sisters she hadn’t decorated at all for Halloween. So I went down to Lowe’s and picked up a few items. An animated blow up spider. Some lights to project up on the house. I was lucky the items were marked down 50% and then for some reason the cashier took another 50% off. Got a great deal.

We made up 260 bags to hand out. It was such a joy to be at a house that has lots of Trick or Treators. That’ll be the one thing I miss at my old house. We ended up having just over 300 on the night. Without this disruption in my life I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to go back and visit Neewollah, be at my sisters for Halloween, and go to New Orleans the week before Halloween. Truly was a great Halloween and hardly missed my normal activities for the past 15 years.

Now lets see if I can get to Salem for next Halloween.

Some people probably think I didn’t need to buy anymore Halloween decorations. Well all that stuff was back in Denver.

 

Speaking of which on my way back to Denver I drove through Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Back 25 years ago I would come over here with one of the bank employees Nona Black’s son. He had friends over here and it wasn’t that far. Barely remember standing out on the highway and watching a drag race. Also, think I might have had a gun pulled on me over some argument. Most of the time over there was a daze because we’d pick up a case of Coors light before we left and it wouldn’t make the night typically. But the downtown has always been a ghost town for as long as I can remember. Until I drove through this time. You couldn’t find a parking place downtown.

Ree Drummond had just opened up the Mercantile in Pawhuska. So I stopped and took a look around. Didn’t get anything to eat and thought they didn’t have anything high end for sale. Most of it was touristy kitsch that I wasn’t interested in. But this was also the first week that the store has been opened. I’m sure down the road they will have quite a bit more stuff.

It’ll be interesting to see if she alone can turn around this city. Another building across the street is being gutted and I heard being turned into a hotel.  

Quite the change for a town that has been dormant for at least 30 years.

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