Oklahoma Centennial Kickoff

In OTU #12, we mentioned that the State of Oklahoma is approaching its 100th anniversary as a state in the union. Our city of Tulsa was given the honor of beginning the year-long celebration on November 16th, the 99th anniversary of statehood.

I wasn't sure if Tulsa was going to be able to pull it off in a tasteful way. I was afraid it was going to resemble some of the tacky Super Bowl halftime shows that I've seen. I have to admit, they did a great job that was not only entertaining but honored the better parts of our history.

The kickoff celebration included three nights of fireworks, the Oklahoma Marathon, the Route 66 Marathon and Classic Car show, a Centennial Parade, numerous historical exhibitions, as well as concerts by Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood. There were other events throughout the city as well.

For me, the best part was the Centennial Gala Fireworks and Laser show that took place downtown on Saturday night, November 18th. A highly coordinated show of music, fireworks from the rooftops of at least 4 buildings, lasers, film projection on the sides of several buildings, and more. This beat anything that I had seen before. Even better than the shows at DisneyWorld!

If you're interested, here's a 4 1/2 minute video that I put together of that show. It's not the best editing job I've ever done, but I wanted to put something here. It's in Quicktime format.
You can find the video at http://www.tu-newman.org/ontheu/OKCentennialKickoff.mov

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