People on Sundays-Terror
Michael Watkins looks for customers for Terror on Tenth Street Haunted House in Oklahoma City on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009. By John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Michael Watkins stood at the corner of 10th and Virginia and waited for traffic. For now, he’s wearing a deranged clown costume and holding a plastic meat cleaver. This is his first year working the Terror on Tenth Street Haunted house. After a haunted tour, I stand outside talking to the cast that inhabits the small house on weekends. They talk about scaring people so badly they’ve had punches thrown, broken windows and people running out the front door. Malinda Frisch, who volunteers with her grandson, dresses up as Nurse Ratchett and Dr. Hatchet. “This is our favorite time of the year,” she says. This is beter than staying at home. This is our family time.”
Malinda Frisch poses in her costume outside the Terror on Tenth Street Haunted House in Oklahoma City on Sunday night. By John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
People on Sundays
Antonio Aguirre fulfills a promise as he and his family visit the National Shrine Infant Jesus of Prague at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Prague, Oklahoma on Sunday, August 2, 2009. By John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Antonio Aguirre promised he would do this. He stands in line after Mass with his daughter, Galilea, strapped into her car seat, waiting for his turn to approach the National Shrine Infant Jesus of Prague. Like other visitors to Mass at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church on Sunday, Antonio, who lives in Oklahoma City, wants a chance to touch the robes of the small Shrine. He stands at the front of the sanctuary for several minutes, bending his head close to his daughter. He gets Galilea out of her car seat and holds her up to the Shrine. A family member gently touches Galilea’s forehead and cheek with the tiny robes.
St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, located in Prague, Oklahoma, about an hour east of Oklahoma City, celebrated the 60th Anniversary of becoming a National Shrine on Sunday, August 2, 2009. There was Mass, a barbeque lunch, Novena Prayers, and outside, a small carnival with horseshoes, inflatable toys and volleyball games.
Inside the church, Antonio’s family moves aside, letting others take their turn. We quickly find a bilingual teenager to translate for us. “He says he promised he would bring the baby when she was two weeks old.” says the teenager as Antonio speaks in Spanish. “Promised who?” I ask. Nodding toward the shrine he says, “Him.”
-John Clanton
People On Sundays
Jay Miles holds his son Jay Jr., as they spend time together on the shores of Lake Hefner on Sunday, July 19, 2009. By John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Jay Miles relaxes on the trunk of his car under a shade tree. Behind him, sailboats take to the water at Lake Hefner. “We like the breeze. Don’t have to worry about the heat,” said Jay, who explains that the family visits shady spots at the lake almost every day. Jay and his wife Melydia talk about their car, a 1973 Impala that Jay is remodeling, about the boats, car shows in the summer, and about their young son, Jay Jr., who manages to crawl into the front seat as we talk.
-John Clanton
People on Sundays
Chad Johnson works out at Eastside Boxing in Oklahoma City on Sunday June 28, 2009. By John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Chad Johnson got a late start as a fighter. He trains at Eastside Boxing, a gym where trainers hope to change young people’s lives through boxing. Johnson, who works as a banker, is an amateur, but hopes someday to get 20 fights as a professional boxer. Sunday evening finds Chad alone at the gym near 36th and Lottie, working on a punching bag behind a window full of boxing trophies.
-John Clanton
People on Sundays
Michael Childs and his children at their home in Midwest City on Sunday, June 21, 2009. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Michael Childs is proud that three of his children have graduated from Midwest City High School. Proud that his youngest two are still there and on the honor roll for their grades. And, as he knocks on a wooden end table next to his chair, proud that he has no grandchildren. Natasha, Chris, Michael Jr., Casey and Ebony live with their father in a three bedroom house in Midwest City. He’s had full custody of them for the last six years. On Father’s Day, Childs took his children to church and they shared lunch. In the evening he straightened the house and prepared for another week at work while the kids did the dishes. “It’s tough sometimes. But I make the most of it.”
To see a Father’s Day slideshow click here.
-John Clanton
People on Sundays
Mark Yeager gets a picture of his daughter Lindsay following her performance as Cinderella at Family Theatre Warehouse in Oklahoma City on Sunday, June 14, 2009. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
“The Prince is having a ball!” Minutes before showtime, Mark Morris gathered his actors together for their traditional pep talk and prayer. The chant following the prayer changes before every show, but the words before Sunday’s matinee were picked by Dustin Boatright, who played the Prince. The young actors at Family Theatre Warehouse, in Oklahoma City, performed Cinderella for the last time this year. For Lindsay Yeager, who played Cinderella, this weekend’s shows were her first chance to play the lead character in a play. “It’s fun.” she says of the role, “I get picked on by them (the step-sisters) but then we have fun afterward.” As they prepared for the show to start in a room filled with costumes and hairspray, the actors told me that most of them would be back first thing in the morning to start working on Annie Get Your Gun during Music Theatre Camp.
Lindsay Yeager joins other actors in their pre-show ritual at Family Theatre Warehouse in Oklahoma City on Sunday. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
People On Sundays
Merl Childs displays his artwork in dowtown Oklahoma City on Sunday, June 7, 2009. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Merl Childs learned woodworking while serving 6 months in a federal prison. On Sunday, he set up a display of his work on a bench near the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum in Oklahoma City and started shaping crosses. Childs, who lives in Del City, has been making crosses for about a year and a half. He sits in the morning sun between a tour bus from Durant, Oklahoma and a fence filled with momentos. “I’m gonna be a famous artist someday.”
Merl Childs poses in Oklahoma City on Sunday, June 7, 2009. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
People on Sundays
Julie Keesee holds Jeremiah Payne as they worship at Word Church All Nations during services at a hotel in Oklahoma City on Sunday, April 19, 2009. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Outside a drab hotel in northwest Oklahoma City, hangs a yellow sign advertising a church. A laminated, paper sign is velcroed to their designated room on the second floor when church is in session. But Adam Payne, a member of the church who also leads the Thursday night group, reminds me, “It’s not about the building. It’s about the people you’re supposed to be with and what God has for you.”
A few Sundays ago, only 10 people gathered at the hotel room, but the services are beamed worldwide through podcasts and the group’s internet site. According to Payne, there are 50-75 people who rotate in and out of services, some attend other, bigger churches in addition to the smaller group. Before church begins, food is set out on a table in the kitchenette, coffee is brewed and members of the church sing happy birthday to one of the children. “It’s like a home church,” says Payne. “We all participate. You don’t always get that experience in a larger setting.”
Word Church All Nations meets at a hotel in Oklahoma City Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
-John Clanton
People on Sundays
James Colvin, who says he never wanted to be a preacher, thumbs open his bible to the pages of Theolossians as he talks about devils, God’s calling, desperation, unemployment, illegal immigrants and the ticket he got for solicitation on Saturday. “I am a child of God, that God has chosen,” he said, standing outside his home, a dilapidated RV, in the Buy For Less parking lot at Hefner and Penn in Oklahoma City.
James says he got a ticket for solicitation for “flying” his sign near the Toys ‘R Us store at Memorial and Penn in Oklahoma City on Saturday afternoon. He said the ticket would cost him $160, but without his tools or a job, Colvin doesn’t know how he’ll pay the ticket. He’s pawned his tools from construction work that he used to do and he’s trying to get home to California, where they pay people for recycling. In the mean time, he’ll have to show up in court to contest the ticket. James blames the government and the economy for his unemployment, but mostly he blames illegal immigrants who, he says, chased him off of job sites. “They hated me because of my love for Jesus Christ.”
James preaches to me about Jesus for nearly an hour. As I thank him for talking with me he says, “I don’t know if you’re here for good or if you’re here for evil, but it makes my day that you came.”
Since my work week begins on Sunday morning, I’m going to try to find a new subject each week and continue this photo column called ‘People on Sundays.’
-John Clanton
