Yes, we have made fun of Steve Lackmeyer on occasion. The Oklahoman's downtown beat writer has been the butt of jokes about a grown man wearing Bricktown-themed pajamas and Devon tower inspired erections. Today, though, we're putting aside the snark because Steve did us a huge favor.
Steve is the director of RetroMetroOKC, a new history project that launched about a week ago. For people obsessed with the history of this area, like founders of obscure local social blogs, it is a GaryEnglandsend. As part of my recent series on Oklahomans doing cool things (see this article for the first post), Steve agreed to do a Q&A about the new website, what the project has in store, and how our readers can help it to be even better. Check it out:
Q: The mission statement of your project is: "Retro Metro OKC is dedicated to educating the community and its visitors about local history by collecting, preserving, displaying and interpreting materials reflecting the heritage of Oklahoma City." How did your group come together and decide that an endeavor like this needed to happen?
A:It started with a lot of coffee. I'm good friends with Doug Loudenback, who has the popular history blog www.dougdawg.blogspot.com. I went to high school with Buddy Johnson, the archivist who runs the Oklahoma Room at the downtown library. Buddy had spent some time talking with assistant city planner A.J. Kirkpatrick about the need to better preserve and tell our city's history. I was having similar discussions with Doug and Blair Humphreys. A.J. Kirkpatrick had a friend, Marc Weinmeister, who shared our vision, and, well.... it started with a lot of coffee. Within a few months we had added another dozen or so people with the diverse talent needed to pull this off.
Q: What kinds of materials have you put together and what are you hoping to add?