Volunteers Rock!

There are so many ways that volunteers help us out here at the History Center. They give tours, they help us with work down in Collections, they tell their friends about the fun happenings here, they lend a hand when it's time to install exhibits, and sometimes they even give us the artifacts and stories that we put into our exhibits. This was the case with Another Hot Oklahoma Night.


Red, white & blue Scene outfit worn by Barbara Lopez DePriest when she was a Scene Dancer.

Upstairs in the Noble Gallery, we have a section devoted to the late '60s-early '70s dance show The Scene. When one of our lovely lady volunteers, Barbara, found out about this, she let us know that in her youth, she was one of the energetic teenagers who hopped and bopped on The Scene. In addition to getting her story, she donated her dance clothes, which are now on display, and some posters.


Ted Oney's hot rod in the Rockabilly section of Another Hot Oklahoma Night.

Curators David Davis and Matt Reed put together the portion of Another Hot Oklahoma Night focusing on '50s culture and Rockabilly. They spent a lot of time talking with our volunteers; interviewing the ones who were teenagers in that time period to get a first-hand account of what it was like to go cruisin' on a Friday night, roll up your t-shirt sleeves, and put on a leather jacket. Through their interviews with volunteers they met Ted Oney. Mr. Oney decided to lend us the hot rod he is rebuilding to put on display in that section of the exhibit. According to Mr. Oney, "Everybody cruised Main Street back then, because Main Street was a two-way street...go up and down the street to show off your car and spin your tires and things like that."

Volunteers like these are great resources for our curators, and all they're doing is talking about their lives! If you're interested in joining the fun of volunteering, contact Robbin Davis at rdavis@okhistory.org - we'd love to have you join!