Oven-baked bacon and memories of my friend Jane

        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.