I recently celebrated a milestone in my life. 
        Saturday, March 21 marked one year since I had colon cancer surgery at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines.
         As of my last check, I remain cancer free.
         A couple weeks ago, I started thinking of ways to celebrate this milestone.
         One idea that popped into my mind was a family cook out. 
         I was a little hesitant, due to some health issues that I’m currently experiencing in my back. I mentioned my idea to Debbie, who encouraged to move forward with the celebration.
         It all started to come together a week ago when we picked up supplies for the cookout.
       Because my back issues are causing me to not be as mobile, the entire family worked together to make sure my celebration happened.
      My middle nephew and his finance retrived my Blackstone grill from the back of the camper at my mother-in-law’s house, brought it to my house and put it together. After doing some yard work for us, he grilled the burgers and hot dogs. He even cleaned everything up afterwards.
        Debbie did a quick cleaning of the house. We pulled out some extra chairs and mother nature helped out by giving us an extra warm evening. 
        All 10 of us gathered in the living and around the grill in the garage to visit.
       Once the food was ready, we all moved into the living and enjoyed the hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and salads. 
        Desserts included homemade cinnamon rolls, bars, and birthday cake left from an earlier celebration.
        They were paired with my surprise for the family - a batch of Wheeler’s homemade ice cream.
      Throughout the evening, we reminisced about my cancer surgery and recovery. I spend ten days and nights in the hospital and Debbie was right there by my side the entire time.
        It was a very scary ordeal. I am very thankful for all who prayed for and supported me during that time and continue to support me today.
         While celebrating the milestone, Debbie and I have enjoyed some great NCAA basketball games. 
        In the first round of the tournament, Iowa State won easily over Tenneesee State, 108-74, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with a nearly 20-point victory over Kentucky. And Iowa took down last year’s champion, Florida, to also advance.
         There is no way to watch all the games, but it was fun to watch Nebraska’s victory over Vanderbilt.
         We are looking forward the Iowa versus Nebraska match up.
        We have also enjoyed watching the Iowa and Oklahoma women’s basketball teams take care of business this weekend.
        It’s always fun to watch those tasked with the important job of running out with their brooms to clean up the court after players take a tumble.
       And we are also making sure to watch the Oklahoma Sooners softball team as they start conference play. The Sooners have already hit 127 home runs this season, setting the SEC single-season home run record in just 32 games, passing the previous record of 121. The team is averaging 3.8 homers per game and has surpassed 100 home runs faster than any team in NCAA history. 
       We have been lucky enough to watch the Sooners play in person in the past and hope to get the chance to see them again soon.
        If you get a chance, be sure to catch one of their games on television. 
       Life can be a challenge at times. I encourage you to keep a smile on your face, stay positive and be kind to others. Also, pray for our country and your loved one.
       Be sure to enjoy life and all that God has given you.
       Remember that Good Things are Happening, every day and always.

        I was resting in the Lazy Boy chair the other day and Debbie asked me if I needed anything to eat.
        A bacon sandwich sounds good, I told her.
       With my back issues, Debbie has been doing double duty of late making sure I’m well taken care of and well fed.
        Anyway, she asked about cooking the bacon in the oven. It sounded good to me. I typically fry my bacon, but cooking it the oven is just fine.
        I enjoyed the bacon feast before taking a nap.
        While eating the bacon I was reminded of a dear friend who I met in the early 1980s.
        I worked at Skaggs Alpha Beta as a night janitor at 51st and Memorial in Tulsa for about 2.5 years. I swept and mopped grocery aisles, cleaned toilets and helped strip and wax floors.
          I worked alongside a stocking crew, that stocked shelves during the night time hours.
          The store also featured a full bakery and deli that served breakfast and lunch.
          It was in 1981 that I met Jane Walker, who went by Mama Jane.
          She was a former restaurant owner in Broken Arrow, a Tulsa suburb.
          After closing her restaurant, she went to work at Skaggs, working in the deli.
          We became friends and during my last morning break at 4 a.m., I would head to the kitchen and snatch a few pieces of bacon that she was cooking in the oven for the morning breakfast.
           She was much older than me, but we had a deep friendship.
           I used to stop at her house in west Tulsa and visit, especially in the years since I worked at Skaggs. She had a cat named Princess who wouldn’t walk on the floor. She would jump from a lap to the back of a chair or piece of furniture.
           Jane was married in the late 1950s to a military man. I believe they lived in Germany for a short time. They had one son who was a couple years older than me. He lived for a time in Jane’s garage that had been converted into an apartment and later lived in a travel trailer parked in the driveway.
        Jane’s husband passed away at an early age and Jane never remarried. She said God gave her one husband and that is all.
            That is a different philosophy than some have about marriage.
           When stopping to visit at her home, I always found a chair while Jane set on the couch and crocheted. In fact, the couch was her bed.
           Hanging on the wall behind the couch was a piece of lattice with many photos of friends and family. It included my photo.
         We often talked about the goodness of God and just chatted about life. In continued to stay in close contact with Jane, even after I moved to Missouri to go back to school.
       In 1981 I purchase a new stereo, cassette tape deck, turntable and speakers. I wanted to buy an inexpensive stereo cabinet and it just happened that Skaggs had one for sale for $50. While pushing a broom in the pharmacy, Jane went walking past to get to a freezer in the back of the store. I said something to Jane about wanting that stereo cabinet.
            “How much is it,” Jane asked.
            “$50,” I replied.
            She said she would give me the money on Monday.
            I was really surprised she said that and during the weekend, wondered if it was really real.
When Monday rolled around, Jane handed me a crisp $50 bill.
          I was going to buy the stereo cabinet at the store I worked at, but they were out of them, so I went to another Skaggs in south Tulsa and bought one. It was $40 on sale there instead of $50.
           I bought it and offered the change back to Jane.
        She told me to use the money for something else, so I went to the Sound Warehouse, one of many record stores in Tulsa, and bought a new album.
         I bought the double disc “Platinum and Gold” by the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It had such songs as “Gimme Three Steps,” “Free Bird” “Saturday Night Special” “What’s Our Name” “Sweet Home Alabama” “Simple Man and more.
           It’s funny that as I get older the simple blessings I’ve been given can lead to a life full of memories that come back with the smells from a pan of oven-baked bacon.
Jane passed away in 2010 with what I believe was from the effects of Alzheimer’s.
           Thank you Jane for the memories.
           Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

In the late 1990s, while working at the North English Record, I heard about a new book, “A High Porch Picnic,” an autobiography of Hayden Fry, the legendary University of Iowa football coach.
         “A High Porch Picnic” is a Texas expression for an exceptionally good time. Based on Fry's glorious career as one of college football's most unique coaches, that's a good way to describe his life. Ranked 10th on the all-time collegiate list for Division 1 victories, Fry successfully combined his football coaching savvy with a down-home charm to make him one of the game's most colorful personalities.
           He was also known for painting the visitor’s locker room pink at Kinnick Stadium.
Hayden co-authored the book with long-time Iowa Hawkeye sports information director George Wine. The book details Fry’s 20-year career, 1979-1998, rebuilding the Hawkeyes, his coaching philosophy and personal life. I reached out to Wine and was able to secure an interview with him. Wine grew up in North English, where he graduated from high school. 
         It just happened that on the day of our interview, Fry was at the Coralville Mall near J.C. Penney signing autographs and Wine asked if would like to meet him. Of course, I said yes. There was no need to stand in the long lines that stretched outside the mall. Wine just took me up to the front of the line where he introduced me to Fry. I shook Fry’s hand and received a free signed copy of the book. The book covers Fry’s childhood days in Odessa, Texas, his time in the Southwest Conference and his 20-year tenure at the University of Iowa.
         Wine was inducted in the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. He died on June 5, 2012 at the age of 81.
         That reminds me of a few other sports personalities from our area. Mace Brown, the son of a custodian at North English schools, enjoyed a long major league baseball career. After graduating from North English, Brown attended the University of Iowa on a track scholarship, starting in 1927. He left college to pursue professional baseball, beginning his career in 1930. He was a prominent pitcher for the Pittsburg Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. He appeared in major league baseball largely as a relief pitcher over 10 seasons. Brown posted a 76-57 record with a 3.46 ERA and 44 saves in 387 appearances (55 as a starter).
          Brown became known as one of the first full-time relief specialists in the Major Leagues. In 1938, he led the Pirates with 15 wins (all in relief), led the National League with 51 games pitched, and became the first reliever to play the All-Star Game. In 1943, with the Red Sox, Brown also led the American League in games pitched with 49.
      Brown was born May 21, 1909 in North English and died on March 24, 2002 in Greensboro, N.C.
         Following his playing career, Brown served as a coach and North Carolina based scout for the Red Sox organization from 1947-1989. He was the major league pitching coach for the 1965 Red Sox team serving on the staff of manager Billy Herman. As a spring training coach for the Red Sox, Brown worked with both the pitchers and catchers. Among the later was Carlton Fisk who credited Mace with teaching him technical and leadership skills that stayed with him throughout his career. He was 92 when he died. 
      Another area major league baseball pitcher with Iowa and Poweshiek County ties was Jackie Collum, who was born in Victor, and graduated from Newburg High School. He played for eight different teams - St. Louis Cardinals (2 times), Cincinnati Red Legs, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians - between the 1951 and 1962 seasons.. Collum served in WW2 with the United States Army Air Forces in the Pacific Theater of Operations where he was stationed in the Philippians. Following the war, he returned home and married Betty Bells on Feb. 28, 1948. 
        He pursued his major league dreams after going 24-2 in 1948 for Class A St. Joseph Cardinals of the West League. Primarily a reliefer, Collum also served in starting roles. Collum’s most productive season came with Cincinnati in 1955 when he recorded numbers and wins, earned run average 3.63 and complete games, 5, while pitching 134 innings. His last major league season was 1962 with stints playing for the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians. 
          Following his baseball career, Collum worked in the automotive business and was owner of Grinnell Pioneer Oil. The building is located on the Southwest side at 4th and West Streets and dates back to the 1920s when it was associated with a local farmers’ cooperative. One of the services they provided was selling gasoline. The building was expanded in 1931 in a more traditional filling station as selling fuel became a more prominent part of the operation. The building attained its present appearance in 1937 when the service bays and brick veneer were added. It attained its original name, Pioneer Oil Company, throughout its time as a service station even though it became affiliated with Mobil Gas in 1936. That affiliation ended in 1962. During WW2, it became an inspection center under the wartime tire rationing program. The service station ceased operation around 2004. Later, the building was repurposed into the mobile wash and watch, an automotive detailing business. It was also home to Candyland Café. It currently is home to Maria’s Fresh Mex. I’m not sure what is located in the old filling station garage bays.
         A more recent ball player with Montezuma ties was Jamie Arendt, a 1990 Montezuma graduate and five sport athlete, who played minor league baseball while attending Central College. His brother, Brad, a 1989 Montezuma graduate, who played football at Central College has two sons, Jayson and Bryan, both who play baseball.
       Jayson plays and performs on the Savanah Banana Texas Tailgaters entertainment baseball team based in Savanah, Ga. He recently tried out for America’s Got Talent, where he made it to the second round. His younger brother, Bryan, is currently attending training camp and will suit up and play major league baseball with the Oakland Athletics this year. The brothers were raised in North Carolina and attended and played for the University of North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks.
         And another minor league ball player with Montezuma ties is Rich Grife. As a player in the mid-1990s, Grife, a right-handed pitcher, was a minor league pitcher for the Burlington Indians and Watertown Indians, as well as the Columbus Red Stixx and Sioux City Explorers. He went on serve as the head baseball coach for the Marshalltown Community College.
         If you know of others who played professional sports from Poweshiek County and the surrounding area, send me a note and I will share their stories. 
        Editor’s note: Much of the information for this column came courtesy of Wikipedia and other baseball internet sources.

         I enjoy relaxing in the Lazy Boy chair and watching old television shows. The other day I was watching the first episode of the Andy Griffith Show, which aired on Oct. 3, 1960.
      In that show, Andy invites Aunt Bee to Mayberry to help raise Opie after the former housekeeper, Rose, gets married.
       In the early going, Opie struggles to accept Aunt Bee, as he missed the way Rose did things.
         Rose would play ball and fish with him and he wanted Aunt Bee to do the same. It wasn’t Aunt Bee’s thing. So, Andy tries to teach her how to play ball and fish, all with no success.
       They all go fishing together and Aunt Bee is holding her baited fishing line out of the water. When Opie questions what she is doing, Andy explains that where Aunt Bee is from, that is how people fish.
        So Opie and Andy encourage Aunt Bee to put her line in the water and when she does, she catches a fish.
         That leds to Aunt Bee deciding to leave until Opie realizes how much he needs her. It was the beginning of a family bond that touched hearts for generations.
Watching that show brought back a lot memory of camping and fishing trips I went on with my folks.
         My dad loved to fish and after my parents were married, they would spend most summer weekends at Lake Oologah northeast of Tulsa.
      My dad loved to fish off the rocky banks below the dam. I remember as a youngster watching Vietnamese families using cane poles and catching fish by the basketfuls.
         I would sleep in the back seat of my dad’s 1959 Chevrolet Impala, which later became my car in high school. On one fishing trip, I heard a commotion in the middle of the night. I learned later that my mom had gotten up and found a big snake hanging from a tree at our campsite.
        One of the most memorable fishing trip was in the summer of 1969 (not the Bryan Adams song).
        I was age 10. My mom was pregnant with my brother, Tom, who was born in October that year.
         We were camping at Grand Lake northeast of Tulsa at a campsite near the water.
        Dad and I went fishing and I snagged big ole fish. I got so excited that I started jumping up and down and then dropped my fishing pole before reeling in the fish.
        I was thankful as my dad reached down and grabbed my pole to keep the fish from getting away.
         Dad helped me reel the fish in, which was a four-pound carp.
        That’s not my favorite fish to eat as it’s boney and tough. But my mom gutted and skinned the fish and we all ate it.
         I couldn’t have been happier to enjoy fish and fried potatoes cooked in an iron skillet on a Coleman camp stove.
        Many years we camped and fished at Greenleaf Lake, a man-made lake near Braggs, Okla. Braggs is about a 12 miles from Muskogee, Okla.
         I’m sure you’ve heard the Merle Haggard song, “Okie from Muskogee.”
        The lake featured a heated dock, as many Oklahoma lakes had back in the day. Fisherman could enjoy fishing inside a bait dock. Some of the featured bait shops sold pizzas, deli sandwiches and cold drinks.
      For a few dollars, you could fish on the dock all day. On one particular trip, I caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 crappie.
          I cleaned some of them and we ate them for supper.
When I got older, I used to fish a lot with my friend, Rob. Everyone called him Rob Bob and he knew how to catch fish.
        His family had a large pond southeast of Tulsa near the town of Coweta. Rob’s dad had a 17-foot boat that folded in half. Large bolts with rubber plugs and wing nuts were used to seal the boat once it was open. We’d row out into the lake and fish.
         I caught my biggest bass, a 3.5 beauty, in that pond. That area now is a golf course.
I brought the fish home and cleaned it and my mom cooked it for me along with some fried potatoes.
      We used to swim there some until the time I got out of the water and saw a big snake swim past. That was end of that.
       Rob had an uncle who had an A-Frame house on Grand Lake.
       We’d fish off the family boat dock several times during the summer and enjoyed a deli sandwich and cold Pepsi’s.
        Those were some great trips and times of fellowship.
      When I worked for the newspaper in Tulsa, there was a fellow I worked with that lived north of town. He had a huge pond and I often fished there and would catch some nice bass. And when I was in college at the University of Missouri-Columbia, a family near where I lived let me fish their pond. I always caught a mess of fish.
        I have lots of great memories of fishing good times.
         I’m looking forward to trying my hand at fishing again. It’s been way too long.
        Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.