I’ve lived in Iowa for almost 28 years.
        And honestly, I don’t remember ever hearing the term, “Corn Sweating.”
     That sounds crazy, especially since I spent 7.5 years working part-time at a seed corn production site.
       I know about corn drying down as it gets closer to harvest, but “Corn Sweating” seems like a new term for me.
       I was sharing this news with Debbie the other day and she seemed surprised that I had never heard the term, “Corn Sweating.”
       “Maybe I have, I just don’t remember,” I replied.
      According to information on the internet, corn sweating is a natural process where corn draws in water, then releases it into the air through evaporation.
      One fellow said, “That is great for the corn, but when more than 90 million acres of the crop across the country sweats, it releases a lot of moisture into the air, and it makes it more humid.
    According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service, sweating corn can contribute between 3,500 and 5,000 gallons of water per acre to the atmosphere over the course of one to two days. A typical swimming pool contains 18,000 – 20,000 gallons of water.
     I guess that is the reason that it is so humid in Iowa and the Midwest. It’s all the corn grown here sweating like a hog at the county fair.
     That reminds me that I have been photographing hogs at the county fair for 29 years (three times at the Iowa County Fair and 26 times at the Poweshiek County Fair), as of this last week in Grinnell.
     Somehow, I pull it off each year and take pride in capturing some great hog photos with the kids and their prize-winning banners through the years.
      Some of these 4-H’ers and FFA kids spend hours getting their animals ready for the county and Iowa State Fair.
    I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to showcase these youngsters and their prize-winning animals for my readers.
      Back to humidity.
      Growing up in Tulsa it was humid and hot in the summertime.
       I remember many summer days when the temperatures were in the low 100s.
     The hottest I remember was 109. I think a few years ago I read on the news that it reached 114 in Tulsa.
       Toss in the high humidity and that makes for a heck of hot day.
       My folks didn’t get an AC until I was about 10-years-old. They bought a 400 BTU Frigidaire window AC.
       My mom had a rule when I was a kid that it had to be 92 or higher before she would turn on the AC. It ran most of the summer.
      At night, we’d shut the AC off and open the windows. Our house had an attic fan that kept us cool in the evening and night time hours.
       Sometimes we’d have a blanket on by morning.
      Debbie and I took a trip to my native state of Oklahoma in early June to attend a cousin reunion in Tulsa.
      She always keeps an eye on the sky and before we got out of Iowa on the trip, she was warning me of possible storms and tornados during our stay there.
       And that was what happened. Our first night in the motel, she woke me around 1:30 a.m. and asked that I get dressed in case we had to move to a lower floor. It was pouring rain outside and flooding in parts of Tulsa as she watched the storm coverage on the television.
       “Where is this,” she asked, pointing to the map of Tulsa on the television.
       “Right here where we are at,” I replied.
       Thankful there were no tornados in Tulsa that morning, just heavy rain and strong winds.
It rained again the second night during our four-day stay. The storm caused the power at the motel to go out for a couple hours.
     Lots of towns across the country in numerous states are experiencing heavy rains, flooding and weather events this summer.
       North Carolina and Hurricane Helene last fall and the flooding in Texas that caused much destruction and lost lives earlier this month are two of the major weather events.
    My prayers go out to all these families affected by these storms and to the many volunteers who are spending countless hours helping folks put their lives back together.
      In fact, this week, a church youth group from Montezuma traveled to North Carolina to help with cleanup of storm damage from last fall.
       They can all use our prayers and financial support.
     I encourage you all in these tough times to look for the positives and find ways to be difference makers in the lives of others.
       Prayer is a good place to start!
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

        I judged 4-H photography at the Washington County Fair on Saturday, July 12.
        This was my third time judging at the WCF and my 13th year since 2012 to judge 4-H photography.
      I have judged in Washington, Iowa, Benton, Poweshiek, Johnson, Polk (Iowa State Fair), Linn, Mahaska, Marion, Warren, Keokuk and Davis counties through the years.
     There were just more than 400 photos entered this year at the WCF and judged. I was one of five photography judges.
       It was a good day as I handed out a number of purple ribbons for some nice photos. My beef photo I gave a purple ribbon to won the best beef award this year. I believe the Washington County Beef Producers hands out that award. I had one, maybe, two photos advance to the Iowa State Fair.
         I handed out several red ribbons and many blue ribbons.
        I typically give red ribbons to out of focus photos or those without a subject or goal. Sometimes a 4-H’er will take a photo of a sunset or sunrise and it ends up being a brush pile or row of trees with no focus or subject.
       I try to suggest they find a fence or fence post with barbwire or something within the brushy area that they can focus on.
        I always explain that a red ribbon is not a negative, but to give a 4-H member an opportunity to learn and improve.
      I have been known to give a 4-H’er a blue ribbon for a photo that has some focus issues. I tend to lean more toward the positive side and honor 4-H’ers for their efforts, even if there is some focus or structure issues.
      For instance, one young 4-H’er entered a photo of her ballet shoes. It was mostly out of focus. I awarded her a blue ribbon because I liked her effort. She was trying something new and that was what I liked about her photo.
      That reminds me of a time some years ago when I was giving photo tips to Poweshiek County 4-H’ers prior to the county fair.
     We had gathered at the Drake Community Library meeting room and area 4-H members brought their photos and I visited with each one about their county fair entries.
     There was one young fellow from Jasper County who was in a Grinnell 4-H Club that participated. He showed me a photo of a herd of cows.
        I asked him what was his subject.
        He said the cows.
        All these cows were in a field and there was no focus or subject.
        So, I suggested that he return and take a close up of one cow.
        He did and it went on to win a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair.
       Thankfully, I didn’t hand out any white ribbons this year. A white ribbon is awarded to those entries that do not meet the average standard.
       According to 4-H info on white ribbons, the level of accomplishment is less than expected. Extremely poor workmanship or little thought is given to the exhibit.
        I have handed out white ribbons on a few occasions, but most certainty don’t like to do so.
4-H is a wonderful organization that is making a difference in young people’s lives and I’m happy to play a small role in helping them learn and grow.
       I was not in 4-H, but did enjoy being in Cub Scouts, Webelos and Boy Scouts as a youngster. I attended Boy Scout camp for five years, 1972 – 1976, at Camp Garland near Locust Grove, Okla.
         Locust Grove is about 50 miles east of Tulsa.
         While on my recent trip to Oklahoma, Debbie and I drove by the camp.
         The entrance seems to have changed.
         It’s been many years since I’ve been there and I might have been at a different part of the camp.
      When I was in Boy Scouts, my troop spent a week at camp the second week of June. We enjoyed the shooting range, archery range, swimming pool, canoe races in Spring Creek, the mess hall, snack bar, flag raising and outdoor chapel.
        These days, the camp caters to Scouts, non-scout groups and families for camping adventures.
        One of my favorite memories of camp was attending chapel each morning.
         I liked to eat, but did not enjoy being on mess duty.
       And other time I went on a five-mile hike outside of the camp for a merit badge and was awarded with many blisters on my feet for not having the proper hiking boots and socks.
       The group I was with then built makeshift tents for an overnight adventure, only to have them destroyed in a wind and rain storm that evening.
        My sleeping bag was soaked and I had to let it dry out before being able to use it again.
        Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

        I bought my first batch of sweet corn in Montezuma late last week.
Bud Doane, who sells sweetcorn and watermelon in the old Subway parking lot in town, had 2.5 dozen ears left when I arrived, so I bought it all for $20.
       I gave most of the corn to family members and a half dozen ears to our neighbor to the north. I cooked the remaining four ears of corn for Debbie and me on Sunday evening, lathering it up with butter and salt.
        It was so good!
     My mom sometimes cooked sweet corn when I was kid growing up in Oklahoma. She had a yellow Tupperware Butter Hugger with a salt shaker that we used to spread butter on our corn. The butter hugger was a popular Tupperware item back in the day. I may still have my mom’s in our kitchen.
       In the late 1960s and early 70s, my folks and another couple from our church in Tulsa grew a huge garden on a spot of land on the east side of Tulsa.
        My dad spent hours working in the garden after a shift at his factory job.
      He’d haul his Montgomery Ward Rototiller in the back of his 1967 Chevrolet C-10 pickup to the garden where he plowed the earth and hoed the weeds.
      The two families grew a large assortment of vegetables including sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, okra, beets, cabbage, onions, carrots, radishes, zucchini, squash, lettuce and more.
Fourth of July
       Besides enjoying sweet corn, Debbie and I attended Fourth of July parades and festivities in Grinnell and Montezuma last week where I took photos.
       The Grinnell parade, held on July 4, drew upwards to 100 entries, including one fellow with a toilet stool float advertising his plumbing and drain cleaning business.
     A couple people commented to me about the toilet stool float, saying it was one of their favorites. A member of the Malcom Fire Department also sprayed kids along the parade route. There was plenty of candy being tossed to parade attendees along the route.
      Debbie and I enjoyed a hamburger cookout with the family that evening, followed by a nice fireworks display hosted by our middle nephew, Sawyer.
        The best part of the Fourth of July holiday is spending time with family.
Montezuma also held a nice parade on Saturday with more than 80 entries. There were kids’ bouncy games and a number of food options and vendors selling their wares after the parade. The Montezuma Lions Club also served their famous chicken BBQ meal with the fixings.
       The Lions fire up the charcoal grill pits across from the Montezuma Memorial Hall at 4 a.m. Volunteers and club members cook more than 800 chicken halves.
       The local club has been serving the chicken BBQ for years and the money raised benefits community organizations, scholarships and other events and good causes.
        The annual Montezuma Fireworks display was on hold due to the heavy rains that evening, but did get underway around 10 p.m. Those in attendance said it was a great show.
          Since my cancer surgery in March, I’m thankful to be able to continue covering community events.
        I’m slowly getting my J.O. mojo back, and will soon be going full-speed ahead. I appreciate the many kinds words and thoughts I have received throughout this ordeal. It’s much appreciated.
4-H photography
        I’m judging 4-H photography at the Washington County Fair on Saturday, July 12. This is the 13th year that I have judged 4-H photography. The only year I missed was 2014.
      I remember my first judging experience at the Southern Iowa Fair in Oskaloosa in 2012. I was quite nervous that first time and had to ask for help from some of the other judges on a few occasions.
        The one area that all 4-H’ers can improve on is their project writeups. Taking time to fill out the writeups makes for a better overall experience.
       As for photography, it’s a place where 4-H’ers can share their thoughts about a photo they entered and what drew them to that subject or photo opportunity.
       A few times, I’ve had 4-H’ers who not only filled out the writeups, but they also wrote a separate story about each photo.
        Some tips when taking photos include being aware of the background and trees and brush growing out of people’s heads, making sure your photos are in focus, trying different angles, taking photos from above and from underneath, framing your subject in a window or between two trees, learning to get close to your subject and learning to shoot in manual if you have a DSLR camera. 
Poweshiek County Fair
       The Poweshiek County Fair gets underway on July 12 with conference judging, the bull riding event and county fair queen contest.
        This year’s fair, which is held on July 12 and July 15 – 20, will be my 26th to cover. It starts with the dog show and open class judging on Tuesday, July 15 and ends with the cattle and swine shows on Saturday with a few wrap up events on Sunday, July 20.
        I enjoy being at the county fair and taking photos and writing stories about 4-H’ers and FFA members. It’s one of my favorite times of the year as a community journalist.
        I’ve taken a lot of photos through the years and am now taking photos of kids who I photographed their parents years ago.
       Come on out to the fair and enjoy some good food, good company and watch a show while you are there.
        Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

        If the Guinness Book of World Records had a “stuff” category, we’d win in a landslide.
       We are not hoarders, we just have “stuff” that has been piling up for years. This includes items from two estates – my parents and Debbie’s grandparents.
      After my parents’ estate auction in April 2011, we rented a big moving van to bring “stuff” to Iowa from Oklahoma. Most of those items, including family photos, are still in the garage.
     We’ve sold some of the items through the years via garage sales or online through Facebook. These included an older riding lawnmower, books, toys, television stand, furniture, a quilt rack and household goodies. But there is much more tucked away in our garage and house. One year, we held at least five garage sales.
       A week or so ago, we started the process of decluttering for what seems like the umpteenth time.
      Our goal is to be able to get our Suburban into the garage when a storm brews up. Right now, it’s next to impossible.
     With the help of our oldest nephew, Gavin, we are going to have an online decluttering auction at the Parker house this summer.
       Gavin is owner of Hometown Treasurers, a Montezuma-based business that holds auctions for area folks.
We are currently just over halfway through the garage going through items. In places, plastic tubs and boxes are four deep. 
       And to be honest, it feels good.
     Outside of getting our vehicle inside, just having a sense of organization and being able to find things without sending out the search and rescue team, is calming.
      A few years back, we took part in a decluttering exercise. It was 2017 and the goal was to get rid of 2017 items from Jan. 1 – Dec. 31.
      We made it, but not by much.
      I ended up cleaning out the kitchen junk drawers to meet the goal. There must have been 50 or more ink pens that didn’t work. They all went into the trash.
      And if you are like me, “stuff” seems to sprout legs and walk away.
       “I laid it right there last week,” you try to reason while searching for whatever it is you are looking for.
       Somehow it ended up on the floor under a stack of unread mail or pile of laundry in another room.
       “How did it end up there?” you wonder.
       Sometimes it is a challenge to find the salt and pepper shakers at supper time.
      Debbie seems to know where I put things and while I’m in a panic, she calmingly knows right where I left it and will get it for me.
       It is good to have someone on your side when in a panic or any life situation.
       I admit, it is hard to get rid of things.
     We are doing good. I’ve only pulled one item back out of the auction since we started – a John Deere fire ring that I bought in Oklahoma some years back. I consider that a small victory.
      My hope to have it welded to a tractor or semitruck rim and set up a fire ring in our backyard.
      I also found a nice embossed ice tea pitcher with animals in my parent’s items. My plan is to enter it in the Heritage Division at the Iowa State Fair this year.
     I’ve been entering antique items in the Iowa State Fair for more than 15 years. I won a sweepstakes ribbon a few years ago for an antique Will Rogers clock Debbie bought me on Ebay. It was made by the United Clock Company in the 1940s.
    Will Rogers, who died in a plane crash in Point Barrow, Alaska on Aug. 15, 1935, was considered Oklahoma’s native son. He is also the namesake for my high school in Tulsa.
      And while we are cleaning, I might find a few more collectables to enter in the state fair. And I’m sure there are some important papers or photos that got tucked away on a shelf that will reappear.
       While searching for decluttering tips online, I found a number of helpful hints and rules on how and what to do first and how to toss and what to keep.
       I don’t know if there is any right or wrong way.
      For Debbie and me, we have two tubs – one for keep and one for discard. And the trash can is close by to toss things that need to go.
     By the time we get done, the Parker house is going to be decluttered and as my friend, Ron the Barber would say, looking good.
      The key challenge will be keeping it that way.
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

          It’s always good when I get a chance to return to my hometown of Tulsa, Okla.
      It’s amazing how much that place has changed since I left to return to college at the University of Missouri-Columbia in August 1992.
         That was the case earlier this month when Debbie and I made the 500 plus mile trek to the Sooner state to attend a cousin reunion in Tulsa.
      The idea of holding reunion was mentioned by a cousin at the funeral of my Aunt Alice Deese of Fayetteville, Ark., and formerly of nearby Prairie Grove, Ark., in January 2024.
         My cousin mentioned that we have to quit meeting like this.
       Sometime around Christmas 2024, I reached out to my cousin Ronnie, who lives near Fayetteville, Ark., and is the son of my Aunt Alice, about hosting a reunion.
         My mom’s maiden name is Horton.
       My cousin Ronnie put out the word to all the cousins earlier this year about holding a reunion and the response was better than expected.
        We found a restaurant to meet at in Tulsa and set the reunion for Saturday, June 7.
        It was a great event and we all had a chance to reconnect.
       My cousin Dana, who is from February to September older than me and lives in Houston, Texas, made the trek to Tulsa to attend. I haven’t seen Dana since the 1980s. Dana’s brother, cousin Ray was there, bringing his sense of humor and always cracking jokes.
      We also invited a few cousins from my grandmother’s side of the family and three of the four Jackson girls stopped at the reunion.
      We left Iowa on June 5 and drove from Montezuma to Tulsa.
     We spent June 6 touring the McFarlin mansion, which I wrote about in last week’s column, visiting a long-time friend and driving by my boyhood home.
     That evening, we joined friends, John and Sandy, at the Texas Roadhouse for good food and catching up. We last saw John and Sandy in March 2016 during a trip to Branson.
      John, who was born in Iowa and grew up in Riverside, Calif., played a big role in my life. In the early 1980s, John had moved to Tulsa for a fresh start in life.
      We met at a newspaper delivery stop in Tulsa and have been friends for more than 40 years. We worked together for the Newspaper Printing Corporation as district managers. Our job was to make sure the Tulsa newspapers were delivered on time.
      We had weight loss bet in February 1983. The person who lost the most weight in two months would receive $50. I won with 39 pounds lost to John’s 26.
     He didn’t have the money, later giving me his camera, a Konica FP-1. That led to me going back to community college and then MU where I earned a BS degree in Agricultural Journalism (photojournalism) at the age of 38 in 1997.
      We were able to see my brother, Tom, and enjoyed visiting, telling jokes and eating out on Sunday evening.
      And Debbie and I made a stop at the cemetery in Broken Arrow, Okla., to visit the graves of my parents and family members.
      We also visited a long-time friend of mine, Rob and his wife, Diane, at their new home in south Tulsa. They also have a cabin on Spring Creek about 50 miles east of Tulsa near Locust Grove, Okla.
     We left Tulsa on Monday, June 9 and made a stop at Rob and Diane’s cabin, and then on to Fayetteville, Ark. to visit with my Aunt Lynette, who is in a nursing home there. And we visited my cousin Ronnie’s insurance office in the Fayetteville suburb of Farmington, Ark.
    After a night in Springdale, we headed north and northeast through Neosho, Monett, Springfield and Lebanon, Mo., where we visited an antique mall and the Shepard of the Hills Outlet Mall.
    We also connected with Eric, a college friend of mine at MU. He is a photography and art teacher at Lebanon High School. Eric is always gracious to meet with Debbie and me when we are in town.
      We enjoy the Lake of the Ozarks area, but staying there during the summer months is next to impossible. We opted instead to stay the night in Columbia, Mo. that evening.
      On Wednesday, June 11, we drove about 40 miles east of Columbia on I-70 to Williamsburg, Mo., to visit the Crane Country Store. I used to make the trek there on occasion when in college as the store features a deli with fresh-made deli sandwiches, cold drinks and an array of Carhartt wear and other clothing, hunting and household items.
     We didn’t eat there, but on the way back west, we stopped at Artichoke Annie’s Antique Mall in Millersburg, Mo., before heading north.
      I bought some postcards, a cigar box and a Pepsi glass and Debbie found a framed Wizard of Oz coloring book.
      We had planned to eat at Dairy Queen, but ended up at Pizza Hut in Macon, Mo. The food was awesome, especially the salad. A stop at Culver’s in Ottumwa for ice cream was in order before arriving home that evening.
     I’m so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate life with Debbie and catch up with family and friends, especially in light of having colon surgery in March and various other unwanted health issues in recent weeks and months.
      We hope to make the trek back to Tulsa in the near future.
      We hope you are taking time this summer to enjoy life and reconnect with family and friends.
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

​       My hometown of Tulsa was known as the “Oil Capital of the World” when I was a youngster. It was a designation born from the discovery of oil in November 1905 on the Glenn family farm south of Tulsa, which became known as Glenn Pool. 
         According to American Oil & Gas, the oilfield discovery launched a drilling boom that greatly exceeded the first Oklahoma oil well of 1897 in Bartlesvillle.
           At one time, Bartlesville was home to Phillips 66 Oil Company.
     The discovery of oil made headlines worldwide, attracting established exploration companies, new ventures and a host of service companies.
       “Soon, hundreds of Indian Territory wells produced so much oil the entire region was called the giant Glenn Pool,” noted the AOG.
         Today, that area and town is known as Glenpool.
       The discovery of oil helped develop the careers of men like Harry Sinclair, J. Paul Getty and others.
       One of those oilmen was Robert M. McFarlin (July 27, 1866 – Aug. 11, 1942), an American oilman, cattle rancher, philanthropist and businessman who is best known for amassing a fortune by drilling for oil near Glenpool with his nephew and son-in-law, James A. Chapman, noted Wikipedia.
       McFarlin, who was born in Ovilla, Texas, attended the Waxahachie’s Marvin College for two years before becoming a farmer in Vernon, Texas in 1888.
      He married Ida Barnard two years earlier in 1886.
     The couple had two daughters and one son. Their son, Robert Boger, who was born in 1891, died of typhoid fever at the age one month and 19 days.
     The couple moved from Texas to Norman, Okla., then in Oklahoma Territory, in 1890, where they worked as cattle farmers and operated a feed store.
       Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907.
     They farmed near Norman until a severe drought forced them to move their cattle to a ranch in Hughes County and the city of Holdenville in Oklahoma in 1901. They lived there until 1915, when the couple came to Tulsa.
    McFarlin and Chapman first partnered in 1903 to create the Holdenville Oil and Gas Company, which owned 10 acres in the middle of the Glenn Pool oil field.
       In 1912, the two founded the McMan Oil Company after the discovery of oil in the Cushing Oil Field (about 50-miles west of Tulsa). They duo later sold the business to Magnolia Petroleum Company in 1916 for $39 million.
      In 1918, the St. Louis-based company of Barnett, Hayes & Barnett built a five-story office building for McFarlin at 11 E. 5th St. in downtown Tulsa. The building, which is still in use to this day, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 6, 1979.
      That same year, McFarlin and Chapman organized the McMan Oil and Gas Company, which engaged in the production of oil and gas and the manufacturing of casing-head gas products.
The company was sold in 1922 to the Dixie Oil Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of Indiana, for $20 million.
      In 1910, McFarlin, Harry Sinclair and some others organized the Exchange National Bank of Tulsa, which later became the National Bank of Tulsa and is now the Bank of Oklahoma.
    Also in 1918, McFarlin built an 8,500 square foot home at 1610 Carson near downtown Tulsa and the Arkansas river.
     Today, that home is owned by Karen C. and her son, Nathan, and is used as an event center for weddings, corporate and business gatherings, family functions and more.
     The mother and son duo own and manage numerous rental properties throughout the Tulsa metroplex. 
      I attended elementary and junior high school with Karen and have kept in touch with her through the years. In fact, Karen was the realtor that sold my boyhood home in July 2010.
      Debbie and I were in Tulsa, June 5 – 9, for a cousin reunion on my mom’s side of the family and to visit with friends. Karen gave us a tour of the home and showed us the work she and Nathan have done on the mansion since purchasing it three years ago.
      The property features the main house and two carriage houses and a large swimming pool built some years later.
     Constructed in the Prairie Italian Renaissance style, the mansion was built of reinforced concrete column and beam construction with clay block interior walls.
      As we toured the mansion, Karen explained the restoration work that had been completed. It’s an amazing home with a beautiful spiral staircase.
   At one point, the home served as a photography studio with a prominent Tulsa photographer.
     The home is decorated with a mixture of period and modern furniture and artwork. The third floor of the home serves as a bridal suite.
     Among McFarlin’s many philanthropic gifts and charitable endeavors where $600,000 in 1924 for the Methodist Episcopal Church in Norman, $600,000 in 1925 for the McFarlin Auditorium at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, and $300,000 in 1929 to build the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa.
       McFarlin was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1935.
    There is so much history from my boyhood home and it was such a treat to tour the mansion of one of the founding oilmen in Tulsa.
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.
   Editor’s note: Much of the information for this article came from sources such as American Oil & Gas, Wikipedia, Oklahoma Hall of Fame, Oklahoma Historical Society, information on the McFarlin Mansion and other sources.

         The 2025 College World Series of Softball has come to an end, at least for Debbie and me.
         Our beloved OU Sooners ended their championship run on Monday in a 3-2 loss to Texas Tech in the semi-final round.
       And in an odd twist of fate, before the game was over, Chris Plank, the voice of Sooner softball, announced that the Texas Tech bus had pulled around to load the team.
        At that point, Oklahoma was still down 2-0.
       That quickly changed in the top of the seventh inning with one on base and two strikes and two outs, when Sooner ace Abby Dayton hit a two-run homerun to tie the game up.
         The homerun seemed to breathe new life into the team.
         However, the Sooners couldn’t hold on as Texas Tech scored in the bottom of the seventh  which led to a Texas verses Texas Tech championship series that started on Wednesday, June 5.
        Having lost in the double elimination softball game to Texas, 4-2, a couple days earlier, the Sooner’s backs were against the wall.
     They had previously beat Tennessee in the seventh inning in the first game of the championship series, 4-3, on Ella Parker three-run homerun.
      They needed to beat Texas Tech twice Monday night to advance to the championship series.
        They finished the regular season as SEC champs and made it to the championship game against Texas A&M, only to have the game canceled due to weather.
       Games often get delayed due to weather, but that is the first time I’ve heard of game being completely canceled, especially a championship game.
       “Just extremely proud of this team, who they are, first, and what they do second,” OU Coach Patty Gasso told Sports Illustrated after the game. “One of my favorite years of all time, I must say.”
       No other college softball team, even UCLA, has won four straight championships. The Sooners have won six championships in eight years and eight championships overall – 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. They also finished runners-up in 2019.
         The Sooners were the reigning national champions for 1,453 days.
         The team is young and if they stay together, I predict they will back next year.
       It’s been a bucket-list goal of ours to attend the world series or even watch a game in Norman.
          Tickets are hard to come by of late, and for good reason.
       We saw the Sooners during four different series over several years at Iowa State University a few years back and in March 2024, we traveled to Lawrence, Kan. to watch them take on the Jawhawks.
        We met Iowa’s Paige Lowary, a Dallas Center Grimes alumni, at an ISU game. Lowary started her college career at Missouri before transferring to OU her junior and senior years.
           We got to see her 2017 championship ring and have our photo taken together.
           We’ve met families of several OU Sooner players through the years.
           As part of his announcing duties, Plank has a third-inning shoutout to all the Sooner fans around the nation and even the world.
           Debbie turns our names in before each game through social media and most times, he will say, “J.O. and Debbie in Iowa” or sometimes “J.O. and Debbie in Montezuma.”
       I’ve had friends in Oklahoma send me a message after hearing our names on the broadcast.
            When I was in the hospital in late March, Debbie turned our names during a game only to have Plank pause a moment to recognized me and wish me well.
            “In the hospital in Des Moines,” he said. “I hope he is alright.”
            That was thoughtful and nice to be recognized in that way.
            Of course, I would have preferred to be somewhere else beside the hospital.
            Before long, it will be time for Sooner football and I hope they have a better 2025 than the last few years. In the meantime, Debbie and I will try and watch some of the professional softball games. There are several Sooner alumni on various teams.
           And OU Softball Coach Gasso is the head coach of the USA Olympic Softball team. It will fun to watch that team play and develop.
          Softball on any level is a family and Debbie and I are excited to keep our radar tuned to OU, but also pro players and our local teams.
          Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

        Since I learned of my cancer ordeal in early March and now undergoing chemo, I’ve spent a lot of time in the red Lazy Boy chair in our living room taking naps, watching television, talking on the telephone  and spending time on social media.
        It’s really Debbie’s chair as my Lazy Boy, also red, broke more than a year ago.
        It needs a new chair lift mechanism.
        We just need to haul the chair to Homemakers Furniture in Des Moines, where we bought both chairs in 2014, to have it fixed.
       Sometimes when I get up to take a restroom break, grab a bite to eat or fix supper, Debbie will ask to set in the chair. Of course, I’m always willing since it really is her chair. She’s just gracious enough to let me use it.
      Getting my chair fixed has moved up the ladder of important things to do as of last week. That’s because I retired from my day job last week on May 20.
      After I took an early retirement offer from newspaper work in October 2015, I enjoyed more than a year break, outside of covering the Poweshiek County Fair and attending an occasional community event.
        I needed a job and learned that Bayer Crop Science (formerly Monsanto) east of Grinnell was hiring.
        I applied in early June 2017, but opted not to take the job. I had spent years working in an office and covering community events, so the idea of working in a warehouse or walking corn fields was not in my DNA at that time.
       As the summer wore on, so did my bank account and I decided apply again, this time in late August of 2017.
        I was hired and went to work on Aug. 29 that year.
       My first job was spent being trained and then working on the re-bag line. On the second day, I was sent to the green corn dump and it was there that I learned how to unload semitrucks loaded with seed corn.
       Having grown up in the big city, I didn’t know a thing about corn, outside of eating it for supper. 
       I knew nothing about the business, but I quickly learned thanks to a co-worker and now friend, Joe C. and others who worked alongside me.
       And over the course of the next 7.5 plus years, I spent time driving a forklift and hauling corn from the packaging room to warehouse and filling customer orders and much more. I helped with safety checks across the site and even published a newsletter for about five years. 
        I appreciate having the job and the learning opportunity.
        It’s been many moons since I first went to work.
       My first job started on Sept. 1, 1972 throwing Tulsa World newspapers with my mom. All my buddies had newspaper routes and I wanted one, too!
        My mom didn’t want me on the streets of Tulsa in the early morning hours by myself, so she joined me in the business.
       When I gave up my newspaper route in July 1977 (the summer between my junior and senior years in high school), Mom and I were throwing 400 newspaper a day.
         We had 300 morning newspaper and 100 in the evening tossing the Tulsa Tribune.
         My mom kept on throwing newspapers and I got job at Sears, which I’ve mentioned in an earlier column.
      Outside of that, when I was in 10th grade, I landed a Saturday morning job at a commercial refrigeration company on the northside of downtown Tulsa that installed freezers and coolers in grocery stores around Oklahoma and elsewhere. My job was to clean the storefront, the restrooms and the offices. And I also spent my summer that year working at a local eatery, which I mentioned in last week’s column.
        In retirement, the first order of business is getting through my chemo treatments. Once that is done on July 7, I’m going fishing.
         Being 65, I’m eligible to get a lifetime fishing license from the Iowa DNR.
         I’m going to continue doing newspaper work and writing this column.
         I’ve been thinking about writing a book. I have my book of columns and plan to publish a second edition of some of my earlier work.
        I’ve always wanted to write a book about what life would be like working on a threshing crew using steam engine power.
     I don’t really know where to start, but as authors have said in our yearly writer’s conference, write down what you are thinking and go from there.
          I’m looking forward to some great things in life on the horizon and retirement. 
          Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

​        I’ve been seeing a lot of ads on Facebook and social media about area youngsters looking for work from cleaning cars to mowing and trimming lawns and cleaning out garages full of old junk. One young fellow is selling and delivering ice and ice cream.
       I did have a lawn business a few years after high school and mowed about 10 yards. It was good work and kept gas in my tank.
     During the summer of my 10th grade year in high school, I worked at a 10-stool eatery a couple blocks from my house.
      There were two such eateries in my neighborhood, both a couple blocks from my boyhood home.
    They served good old-fashioned greasy southern food from cheeseburgers to chili and French fries and onion rings.
      These type of eateries were quite popular back in the day. Folks would often stand two or three deep waiting for a seat.
      I don’t recall the name of the eatery, but I do remember the experience. I was hired that summer to wash dishes and triple-breading chicken fried steaks for about $5 an hour.
       There was no dishwasher, so all the dishes had to be washed by hand.
       Every so often, I would lay a big board across the sink and set up shop. I had a large bowl of milk mixture and large bowl of flour with salt and pepper.
       I dipped the chicken fried steaks (cube steak) one at a time in the milk mixture then dipped it into the flour mixture. I did this three times and then laid the breaded chicken fried steak on a piece of wax paper. I would make a small stack and they would be placed in a large baggie and into the freezer.
       I would have to stop and clean the flour mixture off my hands because it go so thick on my fingers I couldn’t hardly use them.
       When a customer wanted a chicken fried steak, the cook would place the frozen piece of meat in the deep fryer and cook it to golden brown. Then cover it with some homemade gravy.
       I remember my folks visiting the eatery and I got to cook them supper. I really enjoyed that experience cooking on a grill.
       I used some of the money I made that summer to buy a CB radio from my neighbor across the street. Each week on Saturday, I paid him $5 until I got the radio paid for. I believe it was $50.
          I had several CB names from the “Snowman” to “Pork Chop.”
        The CB was stolen out of my car a few years later while I was working nights at a Tulsa grocery/drug store chain. I never did replace it.
         When I was a senior in high school, I got a job at Sears and Roebuck a few miles from my boyhood home.
     My job was to retrieve large-ticket items such as fireplace screens, which were quite popular in the late 1970s, televisions, paint, vacuum cleaners and the such.
      One family came to pick up their new television and I went to the warehouse, only to discover the television was on the third shelf.
         Let me say that getting the television off the third tier of shelving by myself didn’t go well. In fact, my work experience during that brief six weeks in September and October 1978 at Sears didn’t end well as I was fired.
       I’ve been fired from a couple jobs through the years and I just chalked them up as a life experience.
        In high school, I learned to run a printing press through a vocational education program. In the late 1970s, lead type was still in use.
        I worked at a business in Tulsa, which is still there, that made wire line for printing press that was used to cut perforations in checks, forms and such.
        After a month I took a job, which happened to be next door, working for a check printing company. I ran a letterpress called a “Jumping Jack” and printed three-to-a-page business checks using lead type in a printing chase. 
        I’ve held a number of other jobs such as working as custodian at an all-night grocery/drug store. I worked a company in west Tulsa for a brief time in the early 80s that made sheaves for tackle and blocks on cranes. My job was to do stress tests on the welds.
       There have been lots of other jobs from selling and delivering furniture to working on cars through my own business.
       And I’ve thrown a lot of newspapers through the years, first with my mom and later on as a substitute news carrier. I have lots of great memories with many valuable lessons learned.
      My hat goes off to all these young people in the area and across the county who are looking for work and I hope it is the start of good things to come.
        Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.

        I miss my folks and often think of them and the impact they had on my life.
        That was the case on Mother’s Day.
        I grew up in a two-bedroom one-bath home in the Florence Park neighborhood about five miles from downtown Tulsa.
        We had a wooden white trellis on the northside of our home.
       My mom grew roses on the trellis that often grew on to the metal fencing that surrounded our backyard.
      Every Mother’s and Father’s Days, she’d pick freshly-grown roses and we’d all wear them to church.
      She and my dad wore one color in honor of their folks and by brother, Tom, and I wore a different color.
       Our home featured a fake chimney. 
      My folks built a round raised flower bed in the early 1970s in front of the chimney. They put a large round fencepost in the middle. They got some old hay rake tines and attached them to the top of the post and hung small potted plants on them.
      While they were digging, they found an old spoon in the dirt. I never did like that spoon and would not use it to eat. It was ugly and old. I finally resorted to using it in our kitchen grease container.
      Being from the south, we had a grease container on the stove. It was a small aluminum container not much bigger than a sauce pan. It had a strainer in it and a lid.
      Mom cooked lots bacon, fish, fried chicken, fried okra and potatoes for supper. We used lots of grease and when she was done, she’d pour the used grease into the grease container.
      I used that spoon to dip up bacon grease if I needed a spoonful or two for cooking fried potatoes or some pork chops. I used bacon grease a lot more than cooking oil.
     Some years later, my brother and his wife found the spoon in the kitchen drawer and framed it for me. I still have it and I still don’t use it.
      When the grease container got full, we’d pour it in a used oil container and wash it in the dishwasher.
      I used to house sit for friends. On more than one occasion, I stayed at the apartment of friends, John and Sandy. They were from Southern California and had moved to Tulsa in the early 1980s.
       I met John while throwing The Tulsa World newspaper after losing my job. We hit it off and became friends.
    One evening while staying at their apartment, I cooked a couple bacon sandwiches. I started looking for a grease container and found what I thought was one. It wasn’t
       It happened to be a kitchen utensil container.
       I poured the grease in there and left it on the stove.
      When they got home, I got a call from Sandy about finding grease in her utensil container.
I thought everyone had a grease container.
        My dad spent hours outside pulling weeds and tending to his small garden out back.
       The driveways between our neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Watson, to the south and our house were quite narrow the closer it got from our detached garages and the street. 
       Mr. Watson drove a big Ford LTD and when he would back down the driveway, he’d inch over in to the grass, making a big mud hole.
        My dad spent hours patching and watering that mud hole.
        I think Mr. Watson was oblivious to driving in the grass and the mud hole.
       I was quite young and my dad warned me about riding my bicycle through his mud hole.   Young Mr. Parker paid no attention and soon found what pushed my dad’s buttons.
        I got a good spanking and I never did that again.
        I had a large club house in the attic of our garage. I had carpet sample pieces that I nailed to the floor. I got them out the dumpster at the neighborhood carpet store. I also had a bean bag chair and a cot in my clubhouse.
       I had lights and a fan and would go up there to take a nap and on occasion, a friend would come over and hang out.
       Lots of great memories.
     Anytime I make the trek to Tulsa, I always enjoy driving by my boyhood home and reflecting on the good old days of grease cans, my clubhouse and mud holes. 
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.