|
I opened my presentation to the 35 plus attendees at the Marengo Methodist Church Women of Faith luncheon last week with a story about my dad.
“My dad loved to visit and no one was a stranger to him,” I told the gathering. I went on to talk about a trip Dad and I took together in June 1989 to the Grand Canyon. “My dad would stop and talk to anyone,” I said. I said it used to drive me crazy that he could talk to a total stranger. “Now, I do the same thing,” I said. “No one is a stranger to me.” I was invited to the luncheon to talk about my postcard collection by a former co-worker at Marengo Publishing Company (MPC). It was a honor to be there. I ended up sharing a little bit about my life and how I met Debbie, all mixed with dos and don’ts of collecting postcards. This is the fourth time since March 2022 that I have shared about my postcard collection. I have spoken at the English Valleys History Center in North English, the Genealogical Society of Linn County in Cedar Rapids and the Poweshiek County Historical and Genealogical Society in Montezuma. This was by far the largest group I have spoken to about postcards. After I mentioned my name, several of the ladies indicated that they knew me. I am sure it is because of my newspaper column, which is published in newspapers in Iowa and Benton counties along with the Poweshiek County CR. After my one-hour presentation, several asked questions. I also brought 10 of my three-ring binders of postcards for attendees to check out. One lady wanted to have her photo taken with me, saying I was a celebrity. I don’t consider myself a celebrity, but I do appreciate the attention and give God the honor for pulling me out of my shell and opening the door to life’s wonderful possibilities. Another lady said she enjoyed listening to me and that it would have been OK if I had talked for another hour. I definitely have the gift of gab. I also shared about the four books that Debbie and I have self-published – “An ABC Photo Album of the Iowa State Fair,” “Family Reunion – Midwest Old Threshers,” and Debbie’s two novels in the Hope Series, “The Auctioneer,” and “Moving On.” I announced that Debbie, who was with me in Marengo, had just ordered a proof of book three, “Attempting Redemption.” She did all the work on book three, except for proofreading, including designing her own cover. For the first two books, we hired a cover designer. Once she approves the book, she will order copies to sell. Her goal is to have the book out by the end of June or early July. She also has a novella she has written entitled “Mister Christmas.” Plans are to release that book in the fall and hopes are to release book four in the Hope Series in the fall as well. We will announce the release of book three and have plans in the works to hold a book signing event in Montezuma. And thinking about books and writing, we plan to host the All-Iowa Writers’ Conference on Sept. 16 in Brooklyn. This will be our 11th conference and the first since 2019 due to Covid. Debbie is busy working on the lineup and for those who plan to attend, it will be a day filled with lots of wit and wisdom. I’m thankful for every opportunity and open door. I love sharing stories, covering and writing community news and talking about God and life. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.
0 Comments
Friday, May 19 started out like any day of the week.
I rustled out of bed just after 5:15 a.m., showered and prepared for the workday. Arriving at work just before 6:30 a.m., I pulled into a parking spot behind the office. I shut off my van, which had run great, entered the building and clocked in for the workday. Our morning meeting started at 6:40 a.m. It was at least 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes after arriving at work, when someone looked out the warehouse door during our morning meeting and noticed a vehicle on fire. As some of the employees headed outside, I followed suit. Within a few moments, I realized that my van was on fire. Inside the van were a few personal items along with my glasses and New Balance shoes. I was one of five employees that day who had volunteered to participate in the Poweshiek County Extension Ag Safety Day in Montezuma. I brought my New Balance shoes to change into to make standing all day more comfortable. After the Grinnell Fire Department put out the fire, I looked and the entire front of the van was melted. The licenses plate, the headlights, grill and even most of the dash were a melted mass of plastic. Everything plastic was melted off the engine, including one of the valve covers. I may have been in shock, I don’t know. One of the office employees gave me hug as I stood there looking at the van wondering what was next. What do I do? Management decided to send me home, which was a good move. I hitched a ride with the crew headed to Montezuma for safety day. By days end, I had contacted the local bank and Chevrolet dealer about another vehicle. I connected with Teen Challenge/Sheepgate and donated what was left of the 2004 Mercury. It was my mom’s van and Debbie and I took possession of it in October 2010 as was the wishes of my parents following their earlier deaths. It served us well and had 227,000 plus miles on it. Many have asked what happened and I don’t know the cause of the fire. The Grinnell FD Chief said he wasn’t going to try and find a cause. What I am most thankful for is no one was hurt. No other vehicles in the parking lot were damaged. And the fire didn’t happen while I was driving or sitting in the van. That is a good thing. Debbie and I and our oldest nephew returned to my work later in the day and retrieved a couple items out of the back of the van. Debbie found my glasses case, which was tucked in front of the center console. She had just bought the $3 glasses case on Amazon a few weeks earlier. The case was somewhat melted, but the glasses were fine. My New Balance shoes didn’t fare as well as debris from the fire had melted on them. They went to the trash can. That evening, the telephone rang and it was Ron Hensel, aka Ron the Barber in Montezuma, on the other end of the line. He called to ask if it would be OK if he set up a fund drive to help us get another vehicle. Humbled, I of course said yes and thanked him for what he was doing. He opened the account with $200. He posted a picture of our burnt van and asked others to help. He spoke of my years of writing stories and taking photos of various events around Poweshiek County. “J.O. had liability Insurance on his van but by it being an older vehicle and totaled, he could use Poweshiek County residents help,” Ron wrote in his post. “Many pictures and stories he's given us, maybe we can give a little something back.” In addition, a week later, a co-worker of mine opened a Go Fund Me account seeking funds. It was a big help. Thanks to the generosity of so many, we were able to purchase a 2005 Chevrolet Suburban from Vannoy Chevrolet in Montezuma on June 9. Capra Bank in Montezuma was a big help in keeping track of the fundraiser and Montezuma State Bank helped us with a small vehicle loan to purchase the Suburban. It’s older, but has low miles and has been well taken care of. It will serve Debbie and I well for a number of years. So many stepped up to make a difference. Ron did a great job keeping folks updated and then shared a photo of our newer ride. One lady sent us a card in the mail and talked about the time I wrote a story on her business. She included a nice donation. Others thanked me for all I have done in telling people’s stories. One man handed me a donation at a community event and thanked me for all I have done. Another young lady posted on Facebook about me being the best photographer at the Poweshiek County Fair. “I remember being stressed after the rabbit show after I didn't do as good as I wanted and J.O. was going to take a picture and I replied with, "But I didn't win." He calmly stated, "It's still important. You worked for it." Those words have always been in my mind since. I'm glad that he is appreciated by everyone in Poweshiek County!” Talk about beauty from the ashes. In closing, the success that I have enjoyed in community journalism would not be possible without people supporting the paper and allowing me to tell their stories. Debbie also plays an important part in my life. She is my resident proofreader. I bounce ideas off her and she gives me story ideas and helps in so many ways. She gets me up and ready to go each and every day. I’m so thankful for all she does to make life better for both of us. I’m so blessed! Life to me is about giving to others and Debbie and I are most thankful for everyone who gave and made a difference in our lives. It is so much appreciated and will never be forgotten. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. Graduations at most high schools, colleges, tech schools, junior colleges and other learning institutions are in the books for 2023.
Congratulations! The world is a better place because of you. You are valuable and have purpose on this earth. I hope that soaks down in your heart as you plan for your future in whatever direction you decide. It may be selecting a college or choosing a career or new job or who you will date and marry. Life is full of challenges and also failures. Many of the victories I have had in my life have come with a few failures along the way. When I returned to college at the University of Missouri-Columbia in my early 30s, I faced a myriad of challenges. I was a non-traditional student and my goal was to get into journalism school. I had barely passed high school English some 15 years earlier. Math was also not one of my strong points. I took a pre-college math test when I arrived in Columbia and the folks at the testing center encouraged me to return to high school. I had previously dropped out of college algebra twice when I was encouraged by the math department to take a non-credit pre-algebra course at MU to prepare more for the main course. I found a tutor to help me and I attended algebra tutoring courses through the math department a couple days a week. After finals in pre-algebra, I ended up with a “D” in the course. I needed a “C” to move on to college algebra. At the end of that school year, sometime around 1994, I paid a visit to the MU math department chair. I explained my situation and asked if there was anything I could do that summer to bring my grade up to a “C” so I could move on. “No,” the math chair said. “But let me talk to your instructor and see if we might have made a mistake on scoring your final.” A door of opportunity had just opened and I was about ready to walk inside. “What do I do?” I asked the math chair. “You stop at 11 a.m. next Tuesday and we will talk,” she said. My heart was about to jump out of my chest as I am thanking God for this open door. I was facing a set back and this door of opportunity was actually a set up for good things. Tuesday came and I showed up at the math chair’s office in the math building right on time. I knocked and no one said a thing. I knocked again and no one said anything. I could hear someone in the office, so I knocked again. This time, the math chair opened the door and wasted no time in telling me that a mistake in my test had been found and that I had passed the course. “You are going to have to work hard in algebra 10,” she told me as a big smile came across my face. Looking back, I don’t know if the math chair found a mistake or not. What matters is I never gave up and a door opened. I went on to take algebra 10 for credit and passed with a “C.” It took hours and hours of tutoring and working math problems to get it done. No matter the challenges you will face in life, here is my advice: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep on walking, no matter the outcome. Don’t doubt, just believe, even when facing a failure. Asking for help is not a weakness, but a strength. Failing a test doesn’t make you a failure, get up and try it again. See the positives in everything you do in life. Focus on your dreams and goals and keep chipping away at them. Hang around people who believe in you and encourage you to find ways to overcome obstacles. Doing for others is always a good thing. And the most important, show up on time. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. I love the story Debbie tells about playing softball for the Montezuma Bravettes during her eighth-grade year in junior high. The Bravettes were playing in a tournament for the now late Coach Denny Johnston.
Debbie 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 said she 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. Even though her softball career ended in high school, her love for the sport, especially the OU Sooners, continues to this day. And rightfully so. The Sooners are at the top of their game and are posed to win their school’s third straight national softball championship in 2023. OU has won six national championship in softball under head coach Patty Gasso since 2000, the first for the program. They won again in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2022. Our dream is to attend the College World Series sometime down the road. We had the opportunity to see the Sooners live in late March when they played in Ames. The ISU softball stadium was packed, mostly with Sooner fans who came from Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, Missouri and several other states. It was quite an experience and lots of fun. That was the fourth time we’ve seen them play at Iowa State University. With only one loss and a number one ranking all but one week during the 2023 regular season, the Sooners continue to march through the playoffs after winning the regular Big 12 season and overall Big 12 championship. OU run-ruled Hofstra and Missouri, my alum mater, and beat California, 16-3 in regional play to advance to the super regionals where they will take on Clemson Memorial Day weekend. They need one more game to tie and two more wins to break the 47-game win streak currently held by Arizona. The outcome is yet to be determined at the writing of this column. The winner advances to the College World Series at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. Action gets underway on Thursday, June 1. Heading into the Super Regionals, eight of the 16 teams have an OU influence through the coaching ranks. Debbie enjoys reading the stories about Gasso, who has coached the Sooners for 27 years, and her Christ-centered influence on the team. It’s typical after a game or series to see the Sooner players gather with their opponents at the pitcher’s mound for prayer and fellowship. We need more of that in this world, especially in sports. “We’re excited every time we get to come out and play, because that’s another opportunity to just glorify God, have fun and enjoy each other,” said OU junior third baseman Alyssa Brito. I watch a lot of softball during the regular season, which gets underway in February and continues into the second week of June. Debbie loves it and sometimes talks about how fun it would be to have a job associated with the sport. She’s glued to the television and watches hours of softball. She will watch teams play that she doesn’t care for if that is all that is on. All that matters is the game, the defense, the offense, the homeruns, the strikes, the double plays and so much more. Even on her birthday in late May, regional softball action was on the television and I couldn’t have drug her out of the house for a date for anything. There is a lot of craziness in this world, so it’s nice to enjoy softball and spend time together. That was the best birthday gift, along with a few slices of cake. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. I love cookies!
I’m not at cookie monster level, but I enjoy a tasty cookie ever so often. My favorites are peanut butter, chocolate chip, monster cookies and Oreos. I like Nutter Butter cookies, Vanilla Wafers and about anything Little Debbie, too, but I don’t buy them often. Most days, there’s usually a bag of cookies or package or Oreos on the kitchen counter. I often dig into the sweet treats, especially after work at my day job, or after supper. We enjoy pizza most Friday nights. The pizza joint has homemade cookies, too, and they are good. We usually pick up a dozen to enjoy throughout the week. Sometimes they don’t make it past Sunday. Debbie says she needs to install a cookie camera to see how many times I dip into the Oreo package. I admit, I sometimes eat more cookies than I should. They are good and not too many calories. I like cake as well. Back in the day, my mom made some of the most beautiful cakes. She made wedding, anniversary and birthday cakes for friends and family. Watching her make a cake was like watching a sculptor piece together an art project. She had a cupboard full of custom Wilton cake pans including many cartoon characters, Raggedy Ann and Andy, a guitar pan and even a grand piano. I have most of the cake pans that I got in the estate. I’ve thought about selling them, but haven’t brought myself to doing that. My mom designed her own cakes on occasion. She made the best icing, too. It was light and sweet, not the fluffy kind. My brother, Tom, followed in our mom’s footsteps and started making cakes a few years back. He made our parent’s 50th wedding anniversary cake in June 2007. It was a beautiful cake. He doesn’t make too many cakes these days, but he learned from one of the best. My mom had her own business cards. She called her cake business “Muffs.” I remember when I first met Debbie. I bought a Wilton heart cake pan. I had big aspirations, but never got around to making the cake for her. I did make her a regular cake using my mom’s recipe, courtesy of my brother. The cake tasted good with icing. It was the writing part where I needed help. I can write a story, but writing a message on cake using a tube of icing with a metal tip is much more difficult. I’m sure got an “A” for effort. At Christmas, my mom made fudge and old-fashioned divinity candy. Pecan divinity is one option for the sweet treat. I don’t remember my mom making pecan divinity, but maybe she did. There is an abundance of pecan stores in the Tulsa area. She had an antique cooking thermometer and I would watch as the divinity would boil on the stove. It had to be just the right temperature before pouring it in the pan. Beyond that, I don’t know a thing about making divinity. My mom also made a Jello cake. I called it the glass bottom boat cake. She used Gelatin and would mix in a half dozen different colors of Jello, all diced and stirred together. I was going to make a Jello cake for Christmas a few years ago, but never got around to it. I think the Jello has since expired. In Tulsa, there is Bama Pie Companies. The company, which was founded in 1927 and is still in business to this day, is located at 11th Street and Delaware, right on Route 66. The company was famous for their mini pecan pies. They also made biscuits for McDonalds. I checked the company website and learned they also make fruit-filled turnovers. Back in the day, they had a discount bake store right across the street from my junior high school. I would ride my bicycle there and pick up a dozen damaged mini pecan pies for a $1. No wonder I was a big kid in school. Too many pecan pies. Too many sweet treats. I better get on Amazon and look into buying a cookie camera. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. It was the Spring of 1970 and the last week of my fourth grade school year at Sidney Lanier Elementary School in Tulsa.
I watched from the playground as the sixth grade class walked the half mile to Bells Amusement Park at the fairgrounds in Tulsa. My elementary school was just a few blocks from the fairgrounds. It was a long tradition at Sidney Lanier to take the sixth grade class for a day of fun at Bells as they closed out a chapter in their education. In the fall, the class would be transitioning to middle school, or junior high as I called it. Two years quickly passed and during the Spring of 1972, I got my chance to spend the day at Bells. What a fun day I had with my classmates and good friend, David. I probably rode every ride, including the famous Zingo, a wooden roller coaster at the park. That may have been the first time I rode the roller coaster. Among the rides, the park featured the Phantasimorgana, Scramber, Himilaya, Ferris Wheel, Tilt-a-Whirl, White Lightning Log Ride, Bumper Cars, Wildcat and many other rides. On the south end of the park there were two nine-hole miniature golf courses. Bells was founded in 1951 by Robert Bell, who started with a miniature train around his Tulsa home in 1948, later offering children’s ride at one of Tulsa’s drive-in theaters. He opened Bells at the Tulsa Fairgrounds in March 1951. The amusement park remained in operation by the Bell family for 55-years through the 2006 season when the park lost its lease with the Fairgrounds. I’m sure city politics were involved. It was a sad ending to a popular Tulsa attraction that provided memories for many young people and families through the years. Bells was the place to visit on a Friday or Saturday night. There have been efforts in recent years to bring the park back, but nothing has materialized. There are a couple Facebook pages hosted by fans of the park that I follow and enjoy reading the many comments. The Tulsa State Fair, which starts on the fourth Thursday following Labor Day, was a popular event I attended with my family. Back in the day, all the older students at my elementary school received free tickets to the first Friday of the fair and a day out of school. Like the Iowa State Fair, the Tulsa fair runs for 11-days, only six weeks later than Iowa. The Tulsa State Fair features the Golden Driller, a 76-feet tall statue of an oil worker resting his hand on an oil drilling derrick. The driller man, as he is often called, took up permanent residence at the fairgrounds in April 1966. Debbie and I have attended the Tulsa fair a couple times since getting married. It’s not as large at the Iowa State Fair, but it’s still a good fair that has provided lots of memories through the years. I was thinking about the state fair and Bells the other day and it flooded my memory with the many August vacations the Parker family enjoyed. My dad, who spent nearly 40-years in factory that made huge pumps that moved crude oil through pipelines, would take three weeks off every August for a camping vacation. My dad had a 1967 Chevrolet pickup with a shell camper and walk-in door. My mom had three beds built in the back. We were able to store our luggage and camping gear under the beds. My brother slept on a homemade bed in the middle. We drove and camped, mostly staying in KOA Campgrounds. My mom cooked our meals on a Coleman cookstove and my dad would load and unload the camper. We enjoyed a great trip to see my mom’s uncle in Flint, Mich., then drove into Canada to visit Niagara Falls. We got to tour the Kellogg cereal plant on that trip. In 1974, we took a trip Nashville and our truck broke down in Dixon, Tenn. My mom had planned to attend the Grand Old Opry, which just opened in the new opry building, but was unable to as we spent all day at a gas station getting our truck fixed. My parents didn’t have a credit card and buying tickets online was not an option at that time. We’ve enjoyed many trips to Southeast Missouri to see family where my mom was born and raised and also Van Buren, Mo., on the Current River, where she attended high school. And I can’t forget about the trip to San Diego to see my mom’s cousin. We got to go to the ocean and visit Tijuana, Mexico. We enjoyed lots of great trips and I’m thankful for the memories. Summer is coming and it’s a good time to take the family on a vacation. It doesn’t have to be three weeks, it can be a day or two. Iowa offers lots of wonderful attractions, museum and camping offerings. There is always something to do these days to keep people busy working and dealing with life. The work will still be there when you get back. Enjoy your family and take time to thank God for your many blessings. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. |
Archives
November 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed