The town of Enid, Oklahoma is proud of their public art. Street after street, block after blocked is dotted with statues, sculptures and highly detailed murals celebrating the town and the people in it. But there's one mural in particular that reaches past local culture and into the collective madness that was the 80s. Behold the grandeur:
This eye-catching beauty was created by Enid artist Tox Murillo in 2020 and is packed with details about the often misunderstood decade. So just for fun, I thought I'd point out a few of my favorite touches in this magnum opus.
Song Lyrics
First up we've got the most famous phone number in music history as heard in the 1981 song "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone. There are multiple stories of the origins of the number but the general consensus is that the songwriter just made it up. For years unfortunate folks who happen to have that number in various area codes were on the receiving end of endless prank phone calls asking for "Jenny." If you dial 405-876-5309 or 918-876-5309 who would you get? I don't know but it's probably best to leave them alone.
Floating above E.T. and Eliot you'll see a red balloon with the number 99 one it as an homage 1983's "99 Luftballons" by German band Nena. The song is about a misunderstanding leading to an overzealous military reaction which is somewhat similar to what happens in E.T., right? (It's been awhile.)
To the right of the balloon are lyrics from the 1987 song "Beds Are Burning" by the Australian band Midnight Oil. It's about the poor treatment of Aboriginals by the Australian government. This being Oklahoma, it's not a far walk to relate it to the state's treatment of Indigenous peoples.
Copper Bones Key from Goonies
From the private collection of Chester Copperpot comes this spooky artifact from 1p85's The Goonies. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to do something useful but ended up springing a booby trap for the gang on their way to discovering One Eye'd Willie's treasure. The prop was so popular that you can know find replicas for sale all over the internet.
Anachronistic Yoda
My only (very minor) quibble with the artwork is this rendition of our boy Yoda. The reference photo the artist worked off of is from one of the prequels, which were well past the 1980s timeframe of the mural. In the 80s, Yoda was all Muppet but by the early 2000s he had morphed into Ass-Kicking CGI Superhero™️ as seen in this pose. Don't get me wrong though, I'll take any Yoda over no Yoda ten times out of ten.
Video Game Characters
I'm not a video game guy. In fact, my knowledge and interest in video games probably began and ended with these two guys. There were a few different designs of Pac-Man back in the day including the "Pie Chart" design and that weird one where he kind of looked like one of his ghost antagonists except with feet. The design seen here is definitely my favorite because it reminds me of an old gum ball machine I had as a kid.
And, or course, we get peak Mario in all his 8-bit glory. There have probably been a 100 Mario games since this one but none of them had anywhere near the cultural impact as this one.
And the rest...
I've only scratched the surface of the fun stuff going on in this artwork. Whether it's Daniel Striped Tiger or Skeletor or the Miyagi-Do logo, the talent of the artist comes across as much as the fun that we all had back then. The next time you find yourself in Enid, stop by and check it out.
