I am not really sure why Gene Autry’s face is painted in the window of the boarded up building in downtown Muskogee – he wasn’t from here (but he was from Oklahoma) and he didn’t write or sing “Okie from Muskogee” (that was Merle Haggard) but there it was, so I had to stop.

Then it was on to Hugo a winter home to a number of well-known circuses and the home of the Mt Olivet Cemetery, and “Showman’s Rest.” An area of the cemetery, bordered by a parade of stone elephants, is dedicated to the folks that performed under the big top, complete with some eye-catching tombstones.  The kind that celebrate lives spent in such nontraditional careers as snake handling, tightrope walking and trapeze work.

If you happen to be in Hugo, then it’s just another hour to Paris to check out another cemetery oddity. Texas. Sure, it’s the home of Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson, and the title of the 1984 Wim Wender/Sam Shepard film – but it’s cemetery has a tombstone with Jesus sporting some might Texan footwear. And of course there’s that tower with the red cowboy hat. You can never forget where you are in Texas.

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