“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan
I have pondered this quote by Ronald Regan many times in my concern for the political direction of our great country. This week while visiting the small rural town of Carney, Oklahoma I realized that there is more to this quote than political direction. That more is “History”! How much have we heard in this political climate the charge that history is being erased or rewritten? Does that happen because of political ideology our out of ignorance?
How quickly we can easily forget history when it is ignored. Just this week I had occasion to pass through the little town of Carney, Oklahoma. As I often do when I have time and these days, I have a lot of it, I decided to stop in and check out what is there. The old buildings from a more prosperous time told the story of decline. Of the two newer buildings, one housed the police department along with city hall and the other the Senior Citizens Building.
What really caught my attention was the Park across the street from city hall with a statue of a doughboy and a flagpole displaying the Stars and Stripes and our Oklahoma Flag.
On closer inspection the doughboy statue which was set on a pedestal of stone works was sculptured in detail out of concrete. FYI, concrete is not a number one choice of sculpture material. For one, it is all but impossible to create a sculpture without a mold and even then, the fine details will be lost.
But this sculpture was different. I can only describe its likeness and detail as one like sand sculpture. After examining the sculpture and its detail along with a recent bronze plaque commemorating the brave troops of WWI known as Dough Boys completed by Claude Fisher in 1940. I noticed on the oppose end of the park a stone archway and just below another sculpture. It was a woman bowing against a native stone cross and on the cross was a granite marker that said, “Rock of Ages”.
Like the doughboy statue, this one was of concrete with detail as well, although it had damage on the hands and feet. It was impressive to say the least. The sculpturer of these two pieces had to be the same person. And I think I caught his message. When looking at the doughboy and the victory that resulted from WWI, I could not help but consider the great loss of life and the bloodshed that resulted in keeping our nation free. Then looking at the woman and the cross I could not help but realize a greater freedom that is available to us all that also came at a great price. The wiliness of Jesus to shed His blood on the cross that you and I could go free from the condemnation of sin.
I just had to know more about these sculptures and who it was that build them. I turned to the City Hall surely, they would know. The lady in charge was not young, but all she could do was shrug her shoulders and say, “I don’t know, I’ve never heard anyone say”. Disappointed I thought, surely someone at the Senior Citizens would know.
As I came through the door of the Senior Citizens, they were preparing for the noon meal and about 8-10 people all my age or older turned to look at me. I gave my name and where I was from and told how impressed I was of the sculptures in the park and would like to know more about them. They look astonished and turned to who was obviously the oldest of the group. Like the lady at city hall, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t believe anyone has ever said anything about them, there was more sculptures there at one time”.
I realized how quickly we lose our historical identity if we are not told. Obviously, the statues were built before any of those I asked were born. They were apparently just accepted as being there. And as the older generation died the history of the sculptures were not passed down about the one who made them.
How true that is in many aspects of our life. Moses warned in Deuteronomy 6:12; “Then beware lest you forget the Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” The “then” was all the good things that had happened because of what God had done in the past.
How true it is that if we fail to pass on to our children, they will be unable to pass on to their children the events of the past that has shaped us into who we are today – a people of greatness and freedom, a people who love God and acknowledge all that He has provided for us.
I don’t think any less of the people of Carney for their failure to know the history of the statues and their maker. I was not their fault after all it had not been passed down to them. I did find a little history about the sculptures from two webb sites.
One, the Oklahoma Historical Society reports in 1933 an unknown folk artist created two unusual concrete sculptures that still stand. Surveyed by Save Outdoor Sculpture, a joint project of Heritage Preservation and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a life-size figure of a World War I doughboy is situated in a park in the center of old downtown Carney, and “Rock of Ages,” a statue of a praying woman, is located nearby.
The second is waymarking.com. The writer stated, “I had the privilege of speaking with Claude Fisher’s son who told me how his father went about making the sculpture. It was Winter and his auto repair business was slow, so he had time to work on this sculpture. He first made a framework or skeleton using old metal car parts to form the structure of the legs, trunk, arms and head. Unlike working with wood or stone to cut away the unwanted parts, he had to build this from the inside out. Using the paper sacks that the cement came in, he gently formed a leg, and held it in place with wire. Then he would pour in the concrete and let it partially set. The trick was knowing when the concrete was set “enough” but not “too much” so he could begin sculpting to form the finished Doughboy. This is truly a work of art, fashioned by a man with amazing talent.
Indeed it is.