Remember the Oklahoma state song: “Where the wind come sweeping down the plains”?
The last book I finished is set about an hour or so northwest of Tulsa, in an area that I was taught in grade school was part of the Great Plains. I already knew it; after all, I learned Oklahoma! before grade school. But when I made mention of the plains in the book, some little devil prompted me to ask Research Guy to verify it was, indeed, the plains.
His answer: No.
And he had state maps to back it up.
It’s like believing all your life that yellow is yellow, then suddenly being told it’s purple.
Not because I don’t trust Research Guy, but because when something gets in my brain, it won’t go away, I did a little Googling of my own and found out that I’m not the only one confused.
The official answer seems to be: Yes. No. Maybe.
About half the maps I found say it’s not in the plains. The other half say it is, unequivocally, or it’s the mixed-grass prairies of the plains. Can the mapmakers be trusted? Danged if I know, because one map says the tallgrass prairies of the plains don’t include Oklahoma, and I know for a fact there’s a large region north of here named the Tallgrass Prairie. (My town in the book is named Tallgrass.)
So I figure if I want to go on believing we’re in the Great Plains, I can. Since the “experts” can’t agree with each other, why should I have to?
Not The Plains? That’s plain wrong. Where is the wind gonna go sweeping? Glad Research Guy is on top of things.
I wanted to ask the experts, “Did you not listen to the state song?!? How could Rodgers and Hammerstein be wrong?”
And as you well know, the wind does sweep here. {{}}