This past weekend I was in Tulsa with Kristen visiting my sister and her husband. On Saturday we decided to go to the Philbrook (an art 
museum). The original purpose for the property was a home for the Philbrooks who were in the oil industry. They designed the house and gardens in 1926 and spent something like 1.2 million dollars on the land, construction, landscaping and furnishing of the home. Several years later the home was gifted to the art community for a museum. They have some beautiful gardens there. One of the side gardens was full of vegetables that the museum donates to the food bank in Tulsa. It was a fun way to design a vegetable garden. They had these gourd vines crawling up terraces that were situated over benches. The gourds were hanging down and it was just a pretty display.
Once we were done walking around t
he garden we went back inside the museum and looked out the window to see a guy climb up one of the terraces and pulling two gourds down. He handed them to his mom. Now, just in case you think this is okay, let me assure you, it’s not. They have guards walking around to make sure people don’t disturb the statues, plants and vegetables. I also think it’s important to mention that the window we’re looking through is a HUGE floor to ceiling window that’s tinted so we can see out, but they can’t see in. Okay, back to the story…
So this mom and her son are walking when a guard starts coming towards them…this is when we all took seats to watch the confrontation. The guard was casually walking towards them saying something, and they picked up their pace and headed towards a corner of the garden that connects with a fence outside. When they reappeared, they were gourd-less. The guard finally reached them, we almost starting cheering until we surmised the guard was simply letting people know it was time for the building to close. Confused at how easily the gourd thieves gave up they bounty we continued to watch, finally realizing they had put the gourds on the other side of the fence and were going to pick them up on their way out.
We booked it outside to see if our theory was correct and there sitting outside the fence were two gourds. We turned around the saw the gourd thieves walking towards the parking lot, car keys in hand. We all looked at each other thinking, “what should we do?” We didn’t want to leave the gourds there and let them get away with stealing, neither did we have time to find a guard. So, in a quick decision I ran towards the gourds, picked them up and ducked around a corner of the fence, fairly out of sight of traffic leaving the building. Nate stood by keeping a look out for the thieves, while Val and Kristen headed back towards the car. It felt like a movie…wish it could have been captured on film. I carefully placed a gourd on the other side of the fence and then using that one-hand then the other method I walked it down to the ground and shoved it out of reach. I was just walking the second gourd down when I hear a whistling noise. Assuming it was Nathan’s way of warning me to get out of there, I quickened my pace. Satisfied both gourds were out of reach, I ran back towards Nathan. I made it to him as the thieves were driving up in their truck. We casually walked back towards our car until we got around the concrete fence, then ran to the car, got in as quickly at possible, and exited the grounds.
Hearts pounding we all exchanged looks of, “did that really just happen?” Then we all started laughing, wishing we had gotten video, or at least photos, yet very glad to be away from the gourd thieves!!
