The Norman Transcript

Opinion

Discussion

February 10, 2013

Night in the woods is a great experience

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Editor, The Transcript:

Obviously, if cedar trees used much water, they wouldn’t flourish in these drought-stricken areas. A person’s average bath or shower uses about 40 to 50 gallons.

The average American household of four uses about 400 gallons of water per day with up to 50 percent of that being outside watering (watering the lawn, maintaining swimming pools and washing the cars, driveways and sidewalks).

When I was a kid, my father would take me outside of town on winter nights and we would find a group of cedar trees. Gently, parting the limbs and peering into the inner branches, we would observe all of the beautiful sleeping birds.

I can recall being horrified to discover that some of them didn’t have heads. It turns out that many birds tuck their heads under their wings when they sleep ... I can still remember the sharp, cold night air and the smells of the night.

The strong pungent aroma from having my face in cedar trees and the scratches I would get from the jagged foliage would accompany me home and into my bed.

I have since taken my son and grandkids out with me so that they could view the sleeping beauties themselves. It was a great experience and my memories of it can’t be eradicated, but what can be eradicated is the opportunities for future generations to be able to be at peace with planet Earth, if only for a night.

Fresh air, exercise and beautiful things. Video games are one thing. This was much better.

ROY NEHER

Norman

For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Opinion
  • Johnson analyzed issue well

    Editor, The Transcript: I would like to thank Jim Johnson for his thoughtful, thorough and sensible analysis of the gun situation in our country.  He has made a meaningful contribution to what one hopes will become a civilized ...

    May 24, 2013

  • New faces on the bench

    Cleveland County is one step closer to getting another district judge. House members overwhelmingly approved the legislation moving a vacant seat from Seminole County in eastern Oklahoma to Cleveland County....

    May 24, 2013

  • The randomness of it all

    A drive through the fringe streets of the damaged areas in Moore and south Oklahoma City this week shows the randomness of Monday’s tornado. Homes that appear to have little or no damage stand next to ones that are ready to be pushed over....

    May 24, 2013

  • Diana Frost letter correction

    Letter correction: A letter to the editor from Diana Frost, originally published in March 2012, was inadvertently published again in Sunday’s paper. The Transcript apologizes for the error....

    May 23, 2013

  • Teachers should be proud

    Editor, The Transcript: He walked by the camera in his red OU T-shirt, splattered with dirt, hair disheveled, and cuts on his face. He told the reporter about helping rescue people from the rubble of the tornado. He spoke of his experience ...

    May 23, 2013

  • Misinformation clouds global warming

    Next spring I will again have to update my lecture on global warming. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is now rising above the 400 ppm level for the first time in perhaps 5 million years — a scenario humans have never experienced. In my Geology ...

    May 23, 2013

  • The Oklahoma standard

    The sight of hundreds of young student volunteers walking across Moore’s Fourth Street interstate overpass had to be uplifting to the city’s tornado victims. They carried rakes, brooms and trash bags. A few had children’s red wagons. There ...

    May 23, 2013

  • Roman Catholic Church too busy to respond with hate

    Editor, The Transcript: Diana Frost’s letter of May 19 concerning the Roman Catholic Church was so unreasonable that it almost defies response. Still, one of her many accusations must be addressed....

    May 22, 2013

  • There’s no answer for ‘Why?’

    Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. Pictures were on the walls and memories were in every room. But in seconds, those joys of life were reduced to a concrete slab by a rage of nature that man will never fully understand....

    May 22, 2013

  • Moore’s amazing resilience

    Our hearts, already heavy from Sunday’s deadly tornado in far eastern Cleveland County, sunk even further Monday afternoon as we watched the tornado rip through Moore. The monster storm that hit Monday followed nearly the same path as the ...

    May 22, 2013