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Yesterday afternoon and into the early evening, my parents, my mother-in-law, the Mrs., Ms. 8, and I attended the inaugural Chet Baker Festival in Yale, Oklahoma. The event was a pleasant little affair that took up a couple of blocks of downtown streets and offered a few food trucks and music from Tulsa. Some historical paraphernalia were on display, as well, as a relatively small group assembled alongside Baker's son and granddaughter to remember and celebrate one of Yale's storied native sons. It is a fine idea to see put into practice and one that my family and I hope to see continue for many years to come.

One of those lauded at the event was a local historian who had compiled a book of local stories. Her presence, and the general acclaim she received at the event, put me in mind of something. There is a tendency to associate scholarship with urban environments, and with some reason. Population density allows for the dedication of time and resources to scholarly endeavor and apparatus, after all, and the administrative influence that large population centers come to exert over their less-populated surroundings demands training which is facilitated by scholarly bodies. And even in the cases of such schools as the one at which I teach now, which are sizable but not situated amid grand cities and teeming masses, the influence of city life can be felt; schools may be sited where they are specifically to be away from the distractions of urban existence, but they will be close enough to cities that their faculty can access what there is to offer.

In neither case is there an association of the scholarly with the small town, and in the United States' traditional conception of small-town life, there will be some few people of a somewhat scholarly bent (the one or two lawyers the town has, the judge, the physician, the librarian, the schoolteacher, clergy-folk, and one older person who lives alone yet somehow serves as the town's children's benefactor), but "of a scholarly bent" is not the same as "a scholar," and those whose inclinations may be towards the erudite have day jobs that are other than those which focus on the development of new knowledge. To see what amounts to a town scholar at the festival in Yale, then, and to see her lauded for her efforts was refreshing--and it points up that there are, perhaps, more opportunities available for those of us in the humanities than might otherwise appear. For Yale, Oklahoma, is not the only small town that has storied native sons and daughters, and even without the presence of those so praised as Chet Baker or Jim Thorpe, there are things to find out and stories to collect and retell, and those of us who come from smaller places can do much to bring them to light.