I don’t drink coffee, but my dad and mom did and my brother does to this day. I guess I am the odd ball out.
       I will drink coffee if it is loaded with sugar and creamer, but I haven’t done that for years. I much prefer cold drinks, even on cold days and nights.
       Back in the day, it would be nothing for me to enjoy a 16-ounce bottle of Pepsi at 4 a.m. or 6 p.m. Today, my favorite drink is unsweet iced tea. I drink it by the gallon. Well, not all in one day. But I drink a lot of it.
      I remember as a kid in elementary school once joining my dad and the other men in his Sunday School department at the First Baptist Church in Tulsa. The men always enjoyed a cup of coffee or two after the Bible lesson and I wanted to be there with my dad.
      I poured a cup of coffee and then added sugar and creamer. There I was, a little man, sipping on my cup of coffee along with my dad and the other men.
      In spite of that and many other experiences, I never gained a taste for coffee or any kind of hot drink. 
     My mom had an Corning Ware Electric Blue Cornflower Coffee Pot. Many households back in the day had one and I’m sure still do to this day. That coffee pot lasted for years. They don’t make appliances like that these days.
     We carried it with us on our family camping and fishing trips and August vacations. I can still see my mom frying fish and potatoes in an iron skillet on the Coleman camp stove while a pot of coffee brewed nearby. If there was no electricity, she took the insides of the pot out and made brewed coffee the old-fashioned way on the camp stove.
     In my teen years, my family enjoyed Sunday lunch at the Eastside Café on Admiral on the north edge of Tulsa. It was a greasy spoon that served good food, especially the onion rings and fired chicken, and plenty of hot coffee. I always enjoyed eating at the Eastside Café as I got to drink a cold Pepsi with my meal.
     It didn’t matter how the long the line was to get in the café, my family stayed put in the booth until my dad was finished drinking a pot of coffee. The waitress would come around with the pot of coffee and he would motion her over to fill his cup. It took him awhile, too. Finally, once Dad had his fill, it was time to leave.
     I don’t know how I got off on the subject of coffee, but it sure does stir up a lot of good memories. Maybe it was driving past a Starbucks during a recent trip to Ankeny with Debbie to pick up supplies at Sam’s Club and Tractor Supply. I noticed that folks were lined up in the drive-through like traffic in New York City.
     People like their coffee and are willing to sit in their SUVs and sports cars for hours and pay big bucks for it.        According to statistic on the subject, almost 50 percent of Americans who buy coffee outside the home do so at a drive-through. Another statistic I found on coffee noted that specialty coffee sales are increasing 20 percent every year. No wonder Starbucks is doing so well as our the sales of Keurigs and expresso machines for coffee drinkers.
     Even in small towns coffee houses are quite popular these days. Brooklyn and Montezuma both support local coffee houses and Grinnell has two coffee joints, including a drive-through on Highway 146. They all seem to be doing quite well.
     And of course, the local convenience stores, eateries, farm stores and other small-town haunts are favorite stops for locals to enjoy a hot cup of coffee and chew the fat during an afternoon break. I can visit with the best of them, but forget the coffee. I would much rather enjoy a pizza and have a glass of iced tea.
     I leave you with the following coffee-drinking stats from urbanbeancoffee.com:
• 64 percent of American adults currently consume coffee every day.
• More than 150 million Americans drink about 400 million cups of coffee per day or more than 140 billion cups per year.
• 79 percent of Americans prepare coffee at home.
• 35 percent of coffee consumers usually drink black coffee.
• The average U.S. Coffee drinker consumes 3.1 cups per day.
     An Internet search on the coffee drinking will provide you with the above stats and enough more to write a book.
     I leave you with this, enjoy a cup of coffee and I’ll enjoy the memories while drinking a cup of iced cold tea.
    Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

       When March rolls around, a craziness takes over the Parker house and the family television set.
       It’s basketball and March Madness.
      Debbie and I both enjoy and love the game. To be truthful, I think Debbie loves it a little bit more than I do, even though I can be up pacing around in the living room during a game.
      She analysis the games, serves as a referee, calls missed fouls and comments on the players, coaches and fans. She is in tune with the action!
      If I am at work or running an errand and ask for an update on a game Debbie is watching, I not only get the score, I get the play-by-play breakdown and detailed explanation of what is going in the game. And she takes the time to type it and send it in a text.
     It starts in November with high school and college basketball, especially Iowa, Iowa State, OU and Missouri, my alum mater, and it gets more intense as the weeks roll along.
      And last year, we got to add in five trips to Wells Fargo to watch the Montezuma girls’ and boys’ play in their respective state tournaments. And I got to be on the sidelines with my camera covering all the games and capturing the intensity of it all. That was one of the highlights of my journalistic career.
     Beside basketball, I have to throw in college softball. We are both huge OU Sooner softball fans. They are fun to watch. Unfortunately, for some crazy unknown reason, the Sooners are only on television this spring for a handful of games. The number one team in the nation and 2021 National Champs and they are not on television. Whoever is in control of scheduling games for television needs their head examined.
     I didn’t play sports in school outside of my ninth grade year when I ran the mile for the Wilson Rebels. That’s a mascot name you might expect in the early 1970s at an Oklahoma junior high school.
     Anyway, my most memorable race was at a neighboring high school. There were five of us in the race – three ninth graders and two seventh grades. My mom was in the stands, which was a big morale booster for me.
      I laced up my Puma track shoes and put it into high gear on the old cinder track. I ran study in second place in my class until the last lap when I got passed. It didn’t stop me from kicking it into gear to finish the race. I was so proud of earning a third-place ribbon. In my mind, I all but won that race.
      I didn’t play football but did go out during spring drills in the tenth-grade to play my eleventh-grade year. At that time, Oklahoma high schools had spring drills.
     My good buddy, David, and I walked into the room and some of the players laughed. We didn’t care, we were there to play ball.
      Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for both of us. I was big, but not coordinated enough for the game. I tried my best to run the drills but was having a tough time. I kept falling down and the coaching staff sent me home to find another choice of activity.
       I also went out for basketball in the eighth grade but didn’t make the team. 
      Debbie played softball and pitched for the Bravettes in junior high. She tells the story of the time she was playing in a tournament for the now late Coach Denny Johnston.
      She hit the ball and took off for first base and was not going to be denied. The first baseman was blocking the bag and Debbie collided with her and ended up with a bloody nose, elbows and knees.
     “They took me out of the game and the person they put in my place went on to score and help win the game for Montezuma,” Debbie said.
     I hope we don’t have any bloody incidents watching a basketball game while yelling at the television. Well, at least it is fun!
     Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

      I was strolling through Facebook the other day when a post about National Old Day on the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion page caught my attention. They have old things there and I enjoy attending the reunion on Labor Day weekend and watching how old things work from back in the old days.
      Well, there’s a national day for about everything from, well, everything. So, I’m thinking National Old Day is a topic worth learning more about. I’m old, but not that old. I like old things and talking to old folks and even have some old traditions. 
     Anyway, after digging into this subject a bit more, I discovered that March 2, the day I was on Facebook, was National Old Stuff Day, not National Old Day. That puts a whole new spin on getting old.
      According to nationaltoday.com, National Old Stuff Day, is the day when people across the country clean out their closets and garages, rediscover old treasures and declutter their lives. Just in time for spring cleaning, National Old Stuff Day is a great opportunity to devote a day to tend to one’s closet, attic and other cluttered spaces that don’t get a lot of attention.
       Heck, my whole house needs a good decluttering. 
      And here’s the fun part, National Old Stuff Day is also about changing an old habit or trying a new activity. That’s a lot to tackle in one day – cleaning out your closet and garage and stopping eating potato chips.
Nationaltoday.com suggested folks get creative with new ways to organize, appreciate or get rid of ‘old stuff’ in their lives.
       I want to get this out of the way. I work two jobs – my day job and the newspaper. I don’t have a lot of time in the middle of the week to declutter my house. I like to take an afternoon nap because I’m getting older. That takes a lot of time.
     The biggest problem in our house, as I see it, is we need more storage space so when I declutter the bedroom closet, I have some place to put all the stuff in the closet that I want to keep, which is most of it. This opens up the bedroom closet for another truckload of stuff.  It’s good to have goals.
      We all understand about keeping stuff – you might need it one of these days. You can keep it for 29.5 years and never use it. But if you throw it out or donate it, three weeks later it’s a sure bet that you’ll be looking to replace whatever it is that you tossed out. If you keep whatever it is, you will never, ever need or use it.
      I love to go antiquing and have had dreams in the past about getting a call from the American Pickers to hit the road for some picking. I’m sure I could find some goodies to pick and also sure that is probably not going to happen.
     I have an old three-way antique lamp that was owned by Debbie’s grandmother. I found a new lightbulb socket for it at the hardware store in Grinnell. I’m going to replace the electric cord and clean the tarnish off of it and put it to use in our house. It’s a beautiful old antique lamp that deserves to be used.
     I also have lots of photos and other items such as my dad’s old handsaw collection that I want to keep. I also have a set of harnesses that my grandfather on my dad’s side used in the WPA (Works Progress Administration) days on his team of horses to help build roads in the Sooner state. I’ve thought about donating the set of harnesses to the Old Threshers Reunion or a horse museum. If there was a way that I could display them, I would keep the harnesses.
     I have some other small antiques and enjoy spending time looking for treasures. I have my ever growing postcard collection, a collection of old cigar boxes and some Pepsi memorabilia. I also have two shoeboxes filled with seed corn books, pop bottle openers, Old Threshers pinback buttons, old board games and an assortment of other smalls.
    It’s fun to look back on the old days and reflect on life in simpler times. Even with all the technology at hand, there’s something about stopping by your neighbors and visiting about old things and old times.
    My dad loved going back to the river bottoms east of Tulsa and visiting the old timers who he grew up around. And my mom loved going back and reliving memories of growing up in southeast Missouri. I enjoy it as well.
      Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

      Losing a parent, family member or even a friend can be a tough pill to swallow. It’s never easy. Even to this day, I still miss my mom and dad who died nine months apart.
        Losing a pet can also be tough and that was the case in our home late last month.
Debbie came into the house Sunday night a week ago and told me that Houdini, one of our outdoor cats that winters in the back garage, was acting like he didn’t feel good.
       “I think we are going to have to take him to the vet,” she told me as thoughts of what that was going to cost rolled through my head.
        In all seriousness, no matter the cost, I wouldn’t want any pet to suffer. We didn’t know what was causing the problem.
        Debbie decided to watch Houdini until Monday to see if his condition improved. 
We ended up taking him to the vet in Oskaloosa. I left my day job early so we could be there for the 2:45 p.m. appointment.
      At the vet, we learned that Houdini had a blocked bladder. Medical procedures and a three-day stay would be required. However, the vet was concerned with the condition of Houdini, that he might not make it through the ordeal.
      It was news we didn’t want to hear.
     Debbie was upset and I was upset because she was upset. My heart ached for her. I wanted to find a way to save the cat. I didn’t know what to do.
     The outdoor cats and all of our animals are her babies. She takes care of them every day. I only stop in on occasion and make a run to the farm store for a big bag of cat food or a sack of horse feed.
     We decided to have Houdini put down. It was tough decision, one that is never easy. But in the end, we felt it was the best plan.
     “It’s nothing you did,” the vet assured us several times as we talked about what to do.
     We were losing one of our best friends.
    We lost our Great Pyrenees dog, Jay, in July 2019. He was so loveable and part of the family for more than half of his 16-years on this earth. I would come home from work and Jay would put one of his big paws on my foot and rub on me while I petted him all over, including his belly. He was so loveable.
    Since our trip to the vet, Debbie has been talking about Houdini and how some of the other outdoor cats seem to miss him.
    “He was the center of attention,” she said.
   When Debbie and I first met, she had a beloved cat, Squirty. That cat was everything to her. I remember going to Debbie’s home when we were dating in 2004.
    As we sat on the sofa, Squirty jumped on me and dug his claws into my knee. That hurt.
    I don’t know if he was reminding me that Debbie was his or just leaving his mark on me. Squirty died in June 2007 while Debbie and I were in Branson with my parents as part of their 50th wedding anniversary celebration.
    I know losing Squirty was hard on her, but as with lots of things life, when someone or something dies or moves on, God brings along a simple reminder that love is everlasting.
   Our indoor cat, Smokey, came to live with us in December that year and is family and one the many reasons our pets are so important to us.
    Cherish the moments in life with your family and your pets.
    Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.