I have been so blessed in my life to make friends with some of the most amazing people and one of them is Ralph Campbell, a Tennessee born college administrator who I met as a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
         I don’t remember how I met Ralph, or Mr. C, as he was known by, but he had quite an impact on my life. Mr. C was an assistant registrar at MU and I often stopped to visit with him during the school day in the register’s office located in Jesse Hall, the main administration building on campus. His desk was an extra-large table, similar to a library table.
        One day, I recall, stopping at his office to visit.
        “I seem to be scoring just below average on my algebra tests,” I told him.
        Mr. C jointed down the number 26 on a sticky note and showed it to me.
       “Do you know what this means,” he asked.
       “No,” I replied.
     “This is the average ACT score of students at the University of Missouri-Columbia,” he said. “If you are scoring below average, then you are still in some pretty tall cotton.”
       Algebra was a struggle for me in college. After dropping the course twice, once at MU and another time at Columbia College, where I took a summer class, I went on to take a non-credit entry level algebra course at MU.
      After failing the first test, I was talking with some other students when the head of the math department overheard me and suggested that I drop the course, saying that I would fail.
       I told her that I was going to keep going and if I failed, I would fail trying. 
     I spent hours being tutored by a friend from church and also attending tutoring sessions twice a week offered by the math department. I earned an A on the next test.
       I went on to pass the non-credit course and then passed the regular algebra course with a C grade.
      I wouldn’t have accomplished it without the hand of God guiding me to the right people like Mr. C and a few miracles along the way.
     Another time, I remember needing a new pair of tennis shoes. When Mr. C learned about it, he told his church and they took up an offering and gave me $100 for a new pair of shoes. I remember he called me and woke me up one morning to tell me about the new shoes. I had been up half the night studying and was sleeping in a bit. I met him later that day on campus and he gave me the check.
      At the end of the 1995 school year, Mr. C took an administrative job with the University of Central Florida in St. Petersburg. That next spring, a friend of mine who I met while living in Ashland, Mo., a small town south of Columbia where I lived while in college, paid to fly us to Tampa to spend a few days with Mr. C in the Sunshine state.
    While there, we toured a pirate ship used in the “Mutiny on the Bounty” movie, attended a St. Louis Cardinals spring game, I believe with the KC Royals. We also visited an aquarium in Tampa and ate oysters on the half shell at a Florida restaurant named Shells. The place had peanut shells all over the floor.
      That was the last time I saw Mr. C.
    As the years passed, I lost touch. I had tried to find him a couple times, but with him not being on Facebook, I ran out of options.
       The house phone rang late last week and it was Mr. C looking for me.
       “It this the J.O. Parker who went to the University of Missouri?” he asked. “This is Ralph Campbell.”
       He rattled off his phone number and asked me to give him a call.
      Debbie texted me and asked if I knew a Campbell from the University of Missouri-Columbia. I wrote back to say that I knew a Ralph Campbell who worked in the registrar’s office when I was a student there.
       I was surprised to receive his call.
      When I got home, I sat down in the comfy chair and called him. I asked him how he found me and he said his son looked me up on the internet and he googled my telephone number.
      We spent about 30 minutes catching up. He asked about the camper on my old Chevrolet S-10 that I once owned.
       “I sold that truck in 2010,” I told him.
      He used to tease me about buying a camper for the truck when I was a student at Missouri. Actually, my mom bought it for me. It was a nice addition to my truck.
      Mr. C. spent a number of years in college administration at FCU and a Bible college before retiring a few years ago and moving to Lebanon, Tenn., just outside of Nashville. He said Lebanon is about 10 miles from where he was born and raised. And at age 81, he still works part-time at a local car auction where he drives cars during the auctions.
       “I drive cars all day,” he said.
       He said it was one of the top four auto auctions in the country.
     I told him about where life had taken me in the last 30 years in the newspaper business and about meeting my wife, Debbie, at the Iowa State Fair, our books and the work we do to this day.
       He wanted a copy of my newspaper and I told him I would send it soon. I think I will toss in our books on the Iowa State Fair and the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion.
       It was so good to reconnect and share our life’s journeys.
       I am so thankful for all the people in my life and the many blessings that have come my way. Thanks Mr. C for being a part of all of that.
        Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

       Iowa has many wonderful and unique attractions and oddities worth checking out.
As Iowans or in my case, a transplanted Iowan, there are many attractions that make great day trips or weekend jaunts.
     With the warmer weather we are experiencing of late, it’s time to think about a mini vacation or day trip touring our wonderful state and it’s many attractions, even the odd ones. Following are a few suggestions.
     For instance, Mason City, home of the Music Man, is also home to Rancho Deluxe Z: Junk Art Lot. The attraction features an off-beat sculpture garden, vintage signs, hubcaps, paintings and according to Roadside America, a Vietnam Memorial tucked into one corner.
        There’s hope for me yet!
       I am currently halfway through filling my fifth junk jar of goodies. There’s everything from keys to screws, pop bottle caps, bullet casings, buttons, washers, springs, old fuses and much more. My collection might make a unique junk jar art creation someday.
       Not too far from Mason City on the westside of I-35 is the town of Clear Lake, home of the Surf Ballroom, which is where Buddy Holly played his last gig in early February 1959. And just outside of town is the Buddy Holly plane crash site.
      Debbie and I visited the crash site 10-years ago while I was in town covering a high school playoff football game. It’s about a half-mile walk along a well-worn trail in a farm field. It’s quite a shrine to the late music icon.
     And located in western Iowa in the town of Audubon is Albert the Bull, a 45-ton, 28-foot-tall concrete replica of the perfect Hereford bull. Visitors can push a button and Albert will tell you his story. In 2018, Albert the Bull was featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Cenex.
     And closer to home is the Matchstick Marvels Museum in neighboring Gladbrook in Tama County. The museum features the world’s largest collection of tiny matchstick mega-art creations by Pat Acton. The museum, which is also Acton’s home, features the USS Iowa battleship, the U.S. Capitol, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Acton orders one million matchsticks at a time for his many creations.
      And close by in the town of Traer is the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum, which features more than 16,000 salt and pepper shakers. Debbie and I stopped to tour the museum a few years back, but it was closed that day. If you visit the museum, Roadside America recommends taking a peek in the “Slightly Risqué” closet of salt and pepper shakers.
     In Riverside, south of Iowa City, one can find the Star Trek Voyage Home Museum. The town is also the future Birthplace of James T. Kirk in 2228.
     The museum, which opened in 2008, features anything and everything Star Trek. There’s even cardboard stand-ups of Captain Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy for photo ops, and other starship models and much more.
And don’t forget to mark your calendar for June 27-29 to attend the 2024 Trekfest 39.
     And I can’t forget about the Villisca Ax Murder House and Museum in Villisca in the southwest part of the state. I’ve been there twice, but never toured the house. The house is where on June 10, 1912, Josiah Moore, his wife, Sarah, and six children, age 5 -12 where murdered with an ax. 
     Today, folks can tour the house for a few dollars and groups can even book the night in the murder house. That costs a lot more and isn’t anything I’m going to be doing in my life.
     A place I have always wanted to visit is the Museum of Traffic Control in Pella. The museum features more than 1,700 square feet of traffic control sights and sounds. There’s even an HO model railroad display in the center of the exhibit space.
     Another Iowa delight is the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend. Roadside America calls the Grotto a titanic landmark to religious devotion and dogged labor. 
     It was built by Paul Dobberstein, who as a young seminarian, fell gravely ill with pneumonia, and promised to build a shrine of precious stones to the Virgin Mary if she interceded for him. According to Roadside America, Dobberstein recovered and became a priest, and in 1898 was sent to West Bend from Germany, where he set out to build the shrine. It took him 14-years to complete the project.
     In Stanton, guests can find the Coffee Pot and Cup Water Towers. In 2015, the towers were taken down, but saved and mounted at ground level so coffee-lovers can pose for photos.
     And in Waukon, guests can find the Muffler Man and Long Horn Steer and Strawberry Point is home to a large strawberry statue. Burlington is home to Snake Alley and in Council Bluffs, one can visit the Squirrel Cage Jail, the largest revolving jail in the U.S., built in 1885. The three story jail no longer revolves, but I’m sure it is worth seeing.
     And there is so much more to offer in the Hawkeye State. I will share more in future columns. Enjoy the nice weather and be sure in the hustle and bustle of life to take time to enjoy each and every day.
      Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

       I love sunshine and warm weather.
       I will take it any day over the cold, snow, high winds and muddy roads of late.
       Being stuck in one’s driveway is not good, but much better than being stuck in a ditch.
      I’ve lived in Iowa long enough to understand that when the snow starts flying, it’s time to start flying home. The high winds can quickly shut off a country road with blowing snow.
      After a rough start to the new year, I’m thanking the weather Gods for the nice weather of late. I hope it lasts right into spring.
       I like it so much that I might even look at the spring seed catalog and think about ordering some seed and planting a garden. Or, I might just get my garden vegetables at the grocery store like I have done for the last umpteen years.
      Some family members and I attempted to plant a garden some years ago. My brother-in-law plowed a spot of land and several of us spent a spring Sunday afternoon planting all kinds of vegetables. We even planted a patch of okra, a southern favorite.
      Fried okra is almost as good a skillet of fried potatoes. Cut it, wash it, slice it, soak it in egg and milk and dip it in 1/3 flour and 2/3 cornmeal mixture and drop it in a skillet of hot grease until brown, and you are in for a treat.
      Anytime I’m in my native Oklahoma and stop at Ron’s Chili and Hamburgers in Tulsa, I always have a half order of okra with my chili cheeseburger. Top it off with a cold glass of ice tea and all is good in the world.
     My folks enjoyed planting gardens for years. They had a large garden in east Tulsa that they planted and tended to with family friends in the late 1960s – 70s. Later, after moving to their farm south of Tulsa in the early 1980s, they grew big gardens and my mom canned lots of vegetables and made butter and cream in a churn.
     When we lived in Tulsa, they always had a small garden plot in the backyard where they grew tomatoes, onions, lettuce and such. My dad always enjoyed a wilted lettuce salad for an afternoon snack. Mom would break up the lettuce, heat up a skillet of bacon grease and pour it over the lettuce. My dad loved it along with some fresh garden onions and a cup of coffee.
      Our garden venture wasn’t nearly as successful as my parents enjoyed back in the day. 
      Another thing warmer weather brings is college softball. The 2024 season got underway this week on Feb. 8.
     Debbie and I are big fans of the OU Sooners, who have won seven national championships – 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023. We have gotten to see them play in Ames several times in recent years and hope to see them play this year at Kansas in Lawrence.
    We enjoy watching softball on television and someday we hope to attend the college world series of softball in Oklahoma City.
     Another spring and warm weather sport is fishing. I haven’t been fishing in years. This year would be a good time to try my hand at the sport again.
      When I was about age 10, my folks and I camped on Grand Lake located between Tulsa and Joplin, Mo. My dad and I went fishing and I caught a big one. I was so excited that I dropped my fishing rod before reeling in the fish. Dad stepped into the edge of the lake and grabbed my pole before the fish took off with it. It was a four plus pound carp. My mom cleaned and fried it and we enjoyed it, even though it was a bit bony.
     My dad loved to fish and could sit for hours on a river bank and wait for a bite. He and my mom fished most weekends after they got married in the late 1950s. One of their favorite spots was fishing below the dam at Oologah Lake northeast of Tulsa.
     Some years later, we often spent a week at Greenleaf Lake near Muskogee, Okla. They had a heated fishing dock, as they were called, and I would fish there for hours. Fishing docks are common in Oklahoma and are metal buildings anchored to the shoreline. They feature a large hole in the middle and are baited. It costs a few dollars to fish there and it was always well worth it. Our family enjoyed many fish fries through the years at the lake.
     Anyway, keep thinking spring and start planning for that fishing trip or vacation. It will be here sooner than you might think.
     One of my dreams is to fish at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri on a guided tour.
     Sure beats the cold and snow!
     Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. 

       Memories of the good ole days of my youth, as I often remember them, flooded my mind and heart earlier this week after I learned that my Aunt Alice Faye Deese, 83, of Prairie Grove, Ark. had passed away.
       Aunt Alice was my mom’s younger sister and the fifth of seven children born to my grandparents, B.D. and Cloa Mae Horton. She was living in a Fayetteville care center at the time of her passing. She would have been 84 on Feb. 3.
       I last saw my Aunt Alice in June 2018 when Debbie and I enjoyed pizza with all my cousins and family at Jim’s Razorback Pizza, a local favorite in Fayetteville. Debbie and I had made the trip to Tulsa to attend my 40th high school reunion and we drove to Fayetteville on the way home to see everyone. Aunt Alice always talked about making the trip to Iowa, but the miles made it next to impossible. 
      I was quite fond of Aunt Alice and spent a good deal of time around her and my late Uncle Ron, who I called Ronnie. 
      Aunt Alice and Uncle Ron married on Feb. 4, 1972, in Tulsa. I was in sixth grade the year they married and along with my cousin Ray, pulled the carpet down the aisle during the ceremony.
     They had one son, Ronnie Lee, who lives near Fayetteville and is an insurance salesman in Farmington, Ark., not too far from Fayetteville. He is married and has four children, including a son in the military.
      Aunt Alice worked for the U.S. Jaycees at the organization’s headquarters in Tulsa for 18 years before her and Uncle Ron bought a 40 plus acre timber and poultry farm near Prairie Grove, Ark.
      They raised fryer chickens from late 1978 until 1991 in two large chicken houses for a number of different growers, the last being Tysons, on the farmstead. They raised 32,000 chickens at a time, 16,000 in each house.
      My Uncle Ron, who was paralyzed on his right side from an accident in his teen years, passed away from a lawn mower tractor rollover accident in July 1991. He was in his early 50s.
     When they lived in Tulsa, I had a key to their house and would go over and visit and stay a couple days. Uncle Ron loved to watch television, especially the Price is Right. He also was quite a bowler. He learned to do everything left handed and bowled on several leagues. My Aunt Alice taught me the sport of bowling at age 12. I bowled for many years in the 70s and 80s and returned to the sport for a couple years in 2015 – 17.
     Uncle Ron and Aunt Alice had a Tulsa Tribune evening newspaper route for several years in the early 1970s. One year, when my mom and Aunt Alice went to a family funeral in Southeast Missouri in the late 1970s, Uncle Ron and I were charged with throwing my 300 Tulsa World morning newspapers together for several days.
      We arrived at the newspaper route stop one morning and loaded my Uncle Ron’s AMC Rambler. We got the newspapers loaded in the backseat only to discover the back driver’s side tire was flat. We had to unload all the newspapers to change the tire.
      We laughed and laughed about it. Somehow we got all the papers delivered.
      After Uncle Ron and Aunt Alice moved to Arkansas in September 1978, I would travel to their home to visit and stay a couple days about once a month. I enjoyed Aunt Alice’s fried chicken meals and good company.
     When the chicken catchers would show up to haul the fully-grown chickens to be processed, my aunt would capture a few and process and pluck the feathers by hand for the supper table.
      She also made a good shrimp pizza, one of my favorites. And she and my Uncle J.W., my mom’s younger brother, made some of the best white gravy.
     We played hours of cut throat rummy, a game that used three decks of cards. There were runs and sets and the twos and jokers where wild. I know the game rules are written down somewhere in my house.
     On many of the trips to Arkansas, Uncle Ron and I would drive to Fayetteville the backway on what was called the Hogeye Road and go bowling. On occasion, we’d go fishing.
     Aunt Alice worked a number of years at the University of Arkansas. She enjoyed quilting and had a longarm quilting machine at her house. I had a quilt made for Debbie our first Christmas together in 2004.    The ladies at Three Sisters in Montezuma pieced the quilt together and I sent it to my Aunt Alice, who quilted it for me. She put her name on the backside of the quilt. I will always cherish that.
     Aunt Alice graduated from Tulsa’s Central High School after my grandparents moved from Missouri to Tulsa. She lived in a mobile home on the same property with my Uncle J.W. and his wife, Lynette, in rural Coweta, Okla. in the 1960s. She later moved in with my grandparents when they lived in north Tulsa before buying a house in south Tulsa in the early 1970s, where she lived when she got married.
     When I was a little fellow in second grade, we took my Aunt Alice’s 1967 Chevrolet Impala to Southeast Missouri for a funeral. At the time, the Muskogee Turnpike was under construction. It runs southeast out of Tulsa to Muskogee. The road cut through a section of land on my Uncle J.W.’s homeplace.
       We came back three days later and it was late at night. We took the original detour across where the road was being built, only to find out that the detour had changed and Aunt Alice buried her car to the axles in the mud.
       We all got out and made our way up the road by foot to my Uncle J.W.’s place. My mom asked Uncle J.W. for a ride to Tulsa and he laughed and laughed and it made her mad. She threated to walk home if he didn’t give us a ride. It was 30 plus miles and that wouldn’t have worked. He took us to Tulsa and all was fine.
        I have lots of memories of spending time and holidays as a youngster with the family, especially my Aunt Alice. I loved her dearly and I’m going to miss her and the birthday and Christmas calls. She always called me on my birthday and sent Debbie and I a card at Christmas.
       There are a lot more stories I could share, but I leave you with this - keep the memories alive and take time for family! They are important.
         Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.