Passionate Origins

I drove to Tulsa, my hometown, on Saturday.  I have fewer and fewer reasons to go, reunions and funerals mostly, but I had a couple of things to take care of so I made the four-hour drive there and back in a day.

"Why don't you spend the night?  See some people?" encouraged Bill, assuring me that all would be well here.

"I don't really have people there anymore."

I drove through my old neighborhood, by the park where I did "Walk for Mankind" and by the house of the boy who gave me my first kiss.  (The last was coincidental, but the house was pretty terrific, which I did not appreciate at the time.)

And I went to Philbrook, which is one of Tulsa's museums.  It was the old Phillip's estate and I spent some time there in junior high and high school.   I didn't take refuge there nearly as often as I do at the Nelson, but its cool, hushed halls and high ceilings sheltered me on several occasions.  I hadn't realized it before, but the house, on twenty-three acres and with seventy-two rooms, was probably the first grand house that I ever saw and I wondered if it infected my spirit for good.

Villa Philbrook was designed by Kansas City architect Edward Beuhler Delk; the gardens were designed by the Kansas City firm Hare & Hare.  Funny, huh?  You can find a little more on the house itself here.