Tonkawa - Behind the scenes I

For our regular go-around design team warm-up, Nicholas asked everyone to reveal nicknames they've been known by for better or worse. In the photo, there's Ken, Audrey, Michelle, Clayton, and Edward contemplating whether they'll fess-up while I record their monikers for posterity. We discovered that in our group there is a Boompa, Breezy, Amburger-hamburger, Red-thunder, Laundry, Clam-chowder, Rag-mop, and Trany-pop-switch-techstyle-fatty-handrail-90-grinder to name just a few.


Experts with a t-square and tape measure, Gordon, Fernando, Audrey, and Irene (behind the camera) measured our wall down to the 1/8th of an inch. The resulting dimensions: 15 feet tall by 124 feet and 7/8ths of an inch long.


Anna, a daughter of the Tonkawa Daylight Donuts owner, is also one of the youngest members of the mural design team. Here she's seen hard at work on one her many remarkable short stories describing what we should put in the mural. Below are few excerpts from her ongoing series...
"Draw a mermaid listening to loud music and she dance everywhere!"
"Draw five people treasure hunting and then draw other people and then they end up seeing each other and when they get tired they say to each other - Are you ok? Nobody should be enemies"
"Draw kids drinking coffee and write Don't drink coffee it makes you shorter. I tried it once."


Pancakes had to wait as a 93 year old Max Carr described his technique for delivering the Sunday paper from the cockpit of his airplane to farms in Kay County in the 1930's.


No one could have predicted that priming the wall was destined to become a roller vs. roller showdown. But when President of Northern Oklahoma College, Dr. Stacy (left) arrived with his wife Dr. Stacy and their grandson, it was on. He faced off against all comers (photographer Ken - Clam chowder - Crowder is seen being bested here) and not only out painted them, but did it while wearing a suit and tie. The wall was primed in no time, and just like Tom Sawyer, I hardly had to paint a lick.


Amber and Nicholas studying volumes of the 1960-70's Tonkawa News at the newspaper office.