The stories behind Oklahoma - Red Dirt Ready

• Red Dirt Ready: Oklahoma's Storm-Night Biomedical Rescue Song — Oklahoma - Red Dirt Ready follows a biomedical technician reaching a flooded rural clinic during a storm.

Lyrics

The Pager cracked at half past five

Rain was hammering the county line

A clinic passed a

Cimarron Lost his blood warmer before dawn

I grab my case and a thermos of coffee

Call Ruth, said keep that back room ready

The highway ran red under thunderheads

But a town like this won't leave folks waiting

Tulane water weeping low

Every mile said you already know

Oklahoma

hold the door I'm bringing what that little clinic's waiting for

Through the storm and the open land

With a test light, spare parts, and a steady hand

When the night gets hard and the power runs thin

We show up, we fix it

We start again from the courthouse

Square to the panhandle sky

Oklahoma

Nobody's left behind

At mile mark of 40 the creek broke

Wide a rancher waved me through

From the other side

He pulled my truck with a rust red chain

And sent his boy for a generator in the rain

Inside the nurses had candles lit

A newborn's chart on the counter set I checked

each fuse, heard the motor hum

And watched three tired faces turn toward the sun

Boots on top, mud by the sink

One good repair can change what people think

Oklahoma,

hold the door I'm bringing what that little clinic's waiting for

Through the storm and the open land

With a test light, spare parts, and a steady hand

When the night gets hard and the power runs thin

We show up, we fix it, we start again

From the courthouse square to the panhandle sky

Oklahoma,

nobody's left behind

By morning the clouds broke over red dirt fields

The prairie breathed and the old machine healed

Ruth put her hand on my shoulder and said something things run on

more than wires and lead it's the farmer the nurse the mechanic next

door the quiet kind of courage we were raised for Oklahoma

hold the door we're stronger than the storms that rattle every

porch across the grass and the open land there's a

helping hand where a helping hand can stand when the night gets

hard and the power runs thin we

We show up, we fix it, we start again

From the courthouse square to the panhandle sky

Oklahoma,

nobody's left behind

Nobody's left behind

Red dirt, red morning white

Oklahoma

We're still right