The Website

      On a day with temps hovering around freezing, I made my way to the Wichita Falls Country Club to attend the first meeting of the year. The Wichita County Historical Commission's current president, Robert, complimented us on our presence in temperatures that we are not accustomed to experiencing. He made our frozen toes and noses worthwhile with his show-and-tell of atlatl stones and spearheads found on his farm. I studied the pictures he provided us, promising myself that the next time I traipsed through the countryside I would pay more attention to where my boots stepped.
   
     During lunch, I sat next to Becky, who spoke about her wish to finish Louise's and Mary's books. My ears perked up when she added that a book about the county's historical markers was on her wish list. As she mentioned it, I thought, could I? Could I have the time to volunteer for the marker book project? I sat at the table chewing my lunch, kind of like a cow sitting on the prairie grass chewing her cud, pondering, mulling over the thought. (Cows do look pensive when they do that, and I felt that way, pensive, with each bite of steamed broccoli.) My ruminating led to the development of a site for the commission and the first step toward a book about the markers of the county.
   
     By the time the first week of our journey passed, Becky had sent by email several newsletters and other documents to upload to the newly-established web site, wichitacountyhistoricalcommission.org.
   
     One of the documents Becky sent me showed images of women in the history of Wichita County. The text asked, "Do you know who these women are?" I recognized too few, I confess.
     "Do we need to add a link or something that will tell the public the names of the women?" I asked Becky at our first meeting yesterday.
     "They can come to the Museum to find out!"
     "That's one way. So who are they?"
     "I'll show you. Follow me. They are all up in the ladies restroom."
     Ladies restroom? That's where you put them? In a restroom? I complained bitterly. Great women of history should not be in a restroom!
     "It's not a restroom," said Lita, "It's an anteroom."
     The exhibit of women in the history of Wichita County charmed me. I wanted to know more about each one. I learned about Virginia Claire, a pilot, and saw the ever-famous photograph of Jimmie Kolp waving from her airplane. Becky expressed her interest in adding to the exhibit in the anteroom.
     "You'll run out of wall space, I am sure!"
   
     Happy with the idea that the website would provide the public with information about each marker, access to past newsletters and their relevant articles and information about history, plus other documents of interest, we planned to present it to the commission at February's meeting. We spoke about taking a couple of iPads with us to show the members the site, and an itemized list of the cost for the commission, and that they would approve of it all.
   
     We felt the excitement of embarking on a worthwhile project.

     The map shows Wichita County and the locations of some of the historical markers, the territory upon which I will trek to find and photograph the markers. 

      Courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission's atlas.