I love sunshine and warm weather.
I will take it any day over the cold, snow, high winds and muddy roads of late. Being stuck in one’s driveway is not good, but much better than being stuck in a ditch. I’ve lived in Iowa long enough to understand that when the snow starts flying, it’s time to start flying home. The high winds can quickly shut off a country road with blowing snow. After a rough start to the new year, I’m thanking the weather Gods for the nice weather of late. I hope it lasts right into spring. I like it so much that I might even look at the spring seed catalog and think about ordering some seed and planting a garden. Or, I might just get my garden vegetables at the grocery store like I have done for the last umpteen years. Some family members and I attempted to plant a garden some years ago. My brother-in-law plowed a spot of land and several of us spent a spring Sunday afternoon planting all kinds of vegetables. We even planted a patch of okra, a southern favorite. Fried okra is almost as good a skillet of fried potatoes. Cut it, wash it, slice it, soak it in egg and milk and dip it in 1/3 flour and 2/3 cornmeal mixture and drop it in a skillet of hot grease until brown, and you are in for a treat. Anytime I’m in my native Oklahoma and stop at Ron’s Chili and Hamburgers in Tulsa, I always have a half order of okra with my chili cheeseburger. Top it off with a cold glass of ice tea and all is good in the world. My folks enjoyed planting gardens for years. They had a large garden in east Tulsa that they planted and tended to with family friends in the late 1960s – 70s. Later, after moving to their farm south of Tulsa in the early 1980s, they grew big gardens and my mom canned lots of vegetables and made butter and cream in a churn. When we lived in Tulsa, they always had a small garden plot in the backyard where they grew tomatoes, onions, lettuce and such. My dad always enjoyed a wilted lettuce salad for an afternoon snack. Mom would break up the lettuce, heat up a skillet of bacon grease and pour it over the lettuce. My dad loved it along with some fresh garden onions and a cup of coffee. Our garden venture wasn’t nearly as successful as my parents enjoyed back in the day. Another thing warmer weather brings is college softball. The 2024 season got underway this week on Feb. 8. Debbie and I are big fans of the OU Sooners, who have won seven national championships – 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023. We have gotten to see them play in Ames several times in recent years and hope to see them play this year at Kansas in Lawrence. We enjoy watching softball on television and someday we hope to attend the college world series of softball in Oklahoma City. Another spring and warm weather sport is fishing. I haven’t been fishing in years. This year would be a good time to try my hand at the sport again. When I was about age 10, my folks and I camped on Grand Lake located between Tulsa and Joplin, Mo. My dad and I went fishing and I caught a big one. I was so excited that I dropped my fishing rod before reeling in the fish. Dad stepped into the edge of the lake and grabbed my pole before the fish took off with it. It was a four plus pound carp. My mom cleaned and fried it and we enjoyed it, even though it was a bit bony. My dad loved to fish and could sit for hours on a river bank and wait for a bite. He and my mom fished most weekends after they got married in the late 1950s. One of their favorite spots was fishing below the dam at Oologah Lake northeast of Tulsa. Some years later, we often spent a week at Greenleaf Lake near Muskogee, Okla. They had a heated fishing dock, as they were called, and I would fish there for hours. Fishing docks are common in Oklahoma and are metal buildings anchored to the shoreline. They feature a large hole in the middle and are baited. It costs a few dollars to fish there and it was always well worth it. Our family enjoyed many fish fries through the years at the lake. Anyway, keep thinking spring and start planning for that fishing trip or vacation. It will be here sooner than you might think. One of my dreams is to fish at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri on a guided tour. Sure beats the cold and snow! Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.
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Memories of the good ole days of my youth, as I often remember them, flooded my mind and heart earlier this week after I learned that my Aunt Alice Faye Deese, 83, of Prairie Grove, Ark. had passed away.
Aunt Alice was my mom’s younger sister and the fifth of seven children born to my grandparents, B.D. and Cloa Mae Horton. She was living in a Fayetteville care center at the time of her passing. She would have been 84 on Feb. 3. I last saw my Aunt Alice in June 2018 when Debbie and I enjoyed pizza with all my cousins and family at Jim’s Razorback Pizza, a local favorite in Fayetteville. Debbie and I had made the trip to Tulsa to attend my 40th high school reunion and we drove to Fayetteville on the way home to see everyone. Aunt Alice always talked about making the trip to Iowa, but the miles made it next to impossible. I was quite fond of Aunt Alice and spent a good deal of time around her and my late Uncle Ron, who I called Ronnie. Aunt Alice and Uncle Ron married on Feb. 4, 1972, in Tulsa. I was in sixth grade the year they married and along with my cousin Ray, pulled the carpet down the aisle during the ceremony. They had one son, Ronnie Lee, who lives near Fayetteville and is an insurance salesman in Farmington, Ark., not too far from Fayetteville. He is married and has four children, including a son in the military. Aunt Alice worked for the U.S. Jaycees at the organization’s headquarters in Tulsa for 18 years before her and Uncle Ron bought a 40 plus acre timber and poultry farm near Prairie Grove, Ark. They raised fryer chickens from late 1978 until 1991 in two large chicken houses for a number of different growers, the last being Tysons, on the farmstead. They raised 32,000 chickens at a time, 16,000 in each house. My Uncle Ron, who was paralyzed on his right side from an accident in his teen years, passed away from a lawn mower tractor rollover accident in July 1991. He was in his early 50s. When they lived in Tulsa, I had a key to their house and would go over and visit and stay a couple days. Uncle Ron loved to watch television, especially the Price is Right. He also was quite a bowler. He learned to do everything left handed and bowled on several leagues. My Aunt Alice taught me the sport of bowling at age 12. I bowled for many years in the 70s and 80s and returned to the sport for a couple years in 2015 – 17. Uncle Ron and Aunt Alice had a Tulsa Tribune evening newspaper route for several years in the early 1970s. One year, when my mom and Aunt Alice went to a family funeral in Southeast Missouri in the late 1970s, Uncle Ron and I were charged with throwing my 300 Tulsa World morning newspapers together for several days. We arrived at the newspaper route stop one morning and loaded my Uncle Ron’s AMC Rambler. We got the newspapers loaded in the backseat only to discover the back driver’s side tire was flat. We had to unload all the newspapers to change the tire. We laughed and laughed about it. Somehow we got all the papers delivered. After Uncle Ron and Aunt Alice moved to Arkansas in September 1978, I would travel to their home to visit and stay a couple days about once a month. I enjoyed Aunt Alice’s fried chicken meals and good company. When the chicken catchers would show up to haul the fully-grown chickens to be processed, my aunt would capture a few and process and pluck the feathers by hand for the supper table. She also made a good shrimp pizza, one of my favorites. And she and my Uncle J.W., my mom’s younger brother, made some of the best white gravy. We played hours of cut throat rummy, a game that used three decks of cards. There were runs and sets and the twos and jokers where wild. I know the game rules are written down somewhere in my house. On many of the trips to Arkansas, Uncle Ron and I would drive to Fayetteville the backway on what was called the Hogeye Road and go bowling. On occasion, we’d go fishing. Aunt Alice worked a number of years at the University of Arkansas. She enjoyed quilting and had a longarm quilting machine at her house. I had a quilt made for Debbie our first Christmas together in 2004. The ladies at Three Sisters in Montezuma pieced the quilt together and I sent it to my Aunt Alice, who quilted it for me. She put her name on the backside of the quilt. I will always cherish that. Aunt Alice graduated from Tulsa’s Central High School after my grandparents moved from Missouri to Tulsa. She lived in a mobile home on the same property with my Uncle J.W. and his wife, Lynette, in rural Coweta, Okla. in the 1960s. She later moved in with my grandparents when they lived in north Tulsa before buying a house in south Tulsa in the early 1970s, where she lived when she got married. When I was a little fellow in second grade, we took my Aunt Alice’s 1967 Chevrolet Impala to Southeast Missouri for a funeral. At the time, the Muskogee Turnpike was under construction. It runs southeast out of Tulsa to Muskogee. The road cut through a section of land on my Uncle J.W.’s homeplace. We came back three days later and it was late at night. We took the original detour across where the road was being built, only to find out that the detour had changed and Aunt Alice buried her car to the axles in the mud. We all got out and made our way up the road by foot to my Uncle J.W.’s place. My mom asked Uncle J.W. for a ride to Tulsa and he laughed and laughed and it made her mad. She threated to walk home if he didn’t give us a ride. It was 30 plus miles and that wouldn’t have worked. He took us to Tulsa and all was fine. I have lots of memories of spending time and holidays as a youngster with the family, especially my Aunt Alice. I loved her dearly and I’m going to miss her and the birthday and Christmas calls. She always called me on my birthday and sent Debbie and I a card at Christmas. There are a lot more stories I could share, but I leave you with this - keep the memories alive and take time for family! They are important. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. Outside of Christmases and birthdays, some of my best memories where my high school days in the late 1970s. On Friday nights, my dad and I would take his 1967 Chevrolet S-10 to the Chuckwagon drive in on north Sheridan in Tulsa and order wheel burgers, as they were called, and French fries for the family supper.
We’d all sit around the kitchen table eating, visiting and watching Dukes of Hazard and Dallas on television. We always ate and prayed together at the kitchen table. My mom was a great cook. I enjoyed lots of fried chicken meals, fish fries and home raised fresh foods from the garden at the kitchen table. During the summer months, I sat on a chair at the kitchen table and helped my mom snap and can green beans and use a tomato spaghetti strainer to smash tomatoes for canning. My folks weren’t too tough on me, but they expected me to follow the rules and to behave. When I was in fourth grade and said a cuss word at school, my mom somehow found out. We all gathered in the kitchen and my folks made me say the cuss word, spell the word then I got a spanking. Anytime I got into a scuffle or trouble at school and got swats, I got a double dose at home. I’m thankful for all of it. I’ve always been a talker and friendly sort of person. My mom once told me that the dean of boys at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa called her because I was talking too much in class. It upset my mom and she let him have it. “You have all those students standing outside smoking cigarettes instead of going class and you’re worried about my son talking too much,” she told the dean. I don’t know what came from all that, but I appreciate my mom standing up for me like that. I don’t know what made me think about my family and growing up days and the kitchen table. Maybe it’s because I miss my mom and dad. They were good people who grew up with nothing and took what they had, worked hard, saved and enjoyed a wonderful life together. I remember my mom telling me the story of when she first came to Tulsa in the 1950s after high school in Van Buren, Mo. She had to catch a bus to work and the bus stop was by a local ice cream dairy. “I was so poor that I didn’t have a nickel for an ice cream cone,” she said. My dad, who grew up east of Tulsa in the Verdigris River bottoms, dug ditches and chased golf balls in the drink at one of Tulsa’s country clubs before getting a job in the early 1950s at Gaso Pumps. The company specialized in building oil pumps used to move crude oil across the ground after it was drilled. My dad was in charge of building the pumps. I always enjoyed stopping to visit with my dad at the factory on his lunch hour and he’d show me around and introduce me to his co-workers. He spent nearly 40-years at the company before retiring in March 1993. Dad loved the old way of life and no one was a stranger. One of his favorite pastimes was being outside working in the yard pulling weeds and later at the family farm where he raised cattle and tended to a garden with Mom. When people would ask him how many cattle he had, my dad would always tell them, “Under 100.” He always enjoyed spending an afternoon visiting with the many characters and folks who he grew up around in the river bottoms. When I was a kid, those trips didn’t have the same meaning as they did when I got older. Some of these folks had the most comfy chairs and when we’d visit it didn’t take me long to fall asleep until it was time to go. In the 1970s, my mom and I threw the Tulsa World newspapers together for five years and four of those years we threw the Tulsa Tribune evening newspaper. We delivered more than 400 papers on Sunday mornings. Often times, my dad and brother helped on Sunday mornings. I’ve spent most of my life in the newspaper business from being a carrier to working in circulation and then returning to school and becoming an editor, reporter and photographer. I wouldn’t trade the experiences and the people I have met along the way for anything in the world. I learned a lot about the value of hard work, giving my best, doing good to others, trusting God, following my dreams and doing the right thing in life. I’m so thankful that many of those life lessons and good memories happened around the kitchen table in my boyhood home. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. I strongly dislike winter!
The only good thing about winter is the cold kills the bugs. After this last week’s two rounds of snow and cold snap, I might put up with the bugs. I’m ready for spring. The original forecast was for two to four inches of snow during the early part of last week. That turned into nearly 20-inches of the white stuff. Topped off with upwards to 40 mph winds causing blowing and drifting snow and deep freeze temperatures, it was a storm that I would rather forget. Schools, businesses, restaurants and community activities all across the county and the state were either cancelled or closed due to the snowstorms and cold weather. There were hundreds of wrecks and vehicles in the ditches and overturned semis dotted the Interstates and highways across the state. It may be weeks before officials and others get it all cleaned up. Thankfully, our home heater continued working and we didn’t lose our electricity during last week’s storms. I know that wasn’t the case for others. Thanks to the many volunteer firemen, ambulance drivers, police and sheriff deputies, other emergency personal, electrical linemen, county road’s department employees, home repairmen, good old boys driving snowplows and so many others who stayed the course to keep us all safe. I missed three days of work due to the winter storms. If I can’t get there safely, I’m staying home. I didn’t have much of a choice. I couldn’t even get out of my driveway, let alone go to work. All this nasty snowy weather reminds of a story from back in the day. Seems like it was early December 1975. I had just gotten my driver’s license a couple months earlier. I was in the tenth grade at the time. My folks had gone to visit with my dad’s grandmother in Barnsdall, Okla., a small town 40-miles north of Tulsa. I stayed home to attend choir practice at the First Baptist Church in downtown Tulsa that late Sunday afternoon. While at choir practice, a sleet and snowstorm hit Tulsa. I was driving my dad’s old work car, a 1959 Chevrolet Impala. It was a good car, but the defroster quit working and it was hard to see a foot in front of me. There I was, trying to make a decision about what to do. My parents taught me that if I had troubles to drive a certain route home. I decided to head home, driving with my head stuck out the window to see the road all the while sleet and snow was pelting my face. The windshield wipers were slipping back and forth, but it was doing no good without a defroster. I made it about three miles toward home when all of a sudden my folks came to my rescue. I was never so glad to see them. I moved over and my dad slid under the steering wheel and got us home safely. I remember the time in the late 1990s when I working for the North English Record. It was a cold, icy winter day. A semitruck loaded with hogs had slid off the road east of South English and some of the critters had broken out of their traveling confinement and were roaming about on Highway 22. I’m thinking, “What a great photo opportunity.” I took the company GEO Metro and headed south and then east toward the accident scene. The roads were icy and awful and I’m thankful I didn’t slide into the ditch. I should have stayed home. Well, I got some great photos and one of them won a state newspaper spot photography award. I’ll probably never do that again. If that where today, Debbie (my voice of reason) would have something to say about it if I gave it any thought. I’m thankful for her wisdom, common sense and love. I’m a blessed man. And, the warmer weather will be here sooner than you think. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. Growing up in Tulsa, Okla., we used to get lots of ice storms and some decent sized snowfalls on occasion.
I remember one early March when we got dumped on with 14-inches of snow. It paralyzed the city for three days. That was very unusual for that much snow during that time of the year in the Sooner state. Back in the day there were no plows in Tulsa and I don’t think that has changed. The city didn’t clean off residential side streets and most residents didn’t clean their driveways or sidewalks. The morning commute on my paper route or to school was crunch, crunch and crunch. Most weather fronts didn’t last more than three or four days and the temperatures went above freezing and the snow and ice turned to slush. On occasion, the temperatures could drop to five degrees or so below zero. It typically only lasted a few days. I remember a big snowstorm that hit in January 1977, my junior year in high school. The snow started falling on a Saturday evening just after dark and by early Sunday morning, there were eight or so inches of the white stuff on ground. And the wind, it was blowing hard. That made delivering the big Sunday newspaper on our paper routes quite a chore. With the wind, snow and cold, my dad drove his truck and my mom and I would take turns delivering newspapers one block at a time. I think we delivered our last paper around 10 a.m. We were usually done by 7 a.m. on Sunday mornings. I’ve witnessed a number ice storms and remember as a kid more than once pulling my old metal sled loaded with Tulsa World newspapers down the street as I trudged through front yards to keep from falling on my backside. I’ve also slid down a few driveways on my backside due to ice. And in December 1983, the temperatures hovered around 10-degrees for a high for about a two week period. Then it warmed up and was in the 60s on Christmas Day. I took plenty of tumbles on icy sidewalks as youngster, but thankfully, I never broke any bones in the process. Here in Iowa, the culture around snow is much different. Good ole boys love pushing snow in their four-wheel drives and going ice fishing for supper. What’s a foot or two of snow? A lot in my mind, but to some Iowans, it’s time to get out the snow blower and take a spin with the kids on their snowmobiles. Or maybe firing up the grill and inviting the friends over for a steak or hamburger cookout and some cold brews. When I first moved to Iowa in the late 1990s and was living in North English, I heard about an ice fishing derby on Lake Iowa. I never heard of ice fishing growing up in Oklahoma. I got up early and made my way to the lake. There were ice fishing huts dotted across the lake and people walking on the frozen water like it was Sunday afternoon stroll. “These people are nuts,” I said while shaking my head and wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into living in Iowa. I decided to return home and go back to bed. Some years later, I covered ice fishing derbies twice on Diamond Lake near Montezuma. Going against my better judgement, I actually walked on the frozen water to get a few photos. One fellow said the ice was 14-inches thick. Not enough in my mind! One fellow I was photographing was grilling hamburgers while fishing and he gave me one. At least the fish were frozen and fresh. Seems like it was around 2007. Debbie and I had driven to Tulsa to see my folks for a couple days. We were driving my mother-in-law’s car. I heard reports of a weather front headed our way. Going against conventional wisdom, namely that of my wife, I decided to head home to Iowa. Halfway between Tulsa and Joplin, Mo., we ran into an icy front and the further we got, the worse it got. Debbie wanted me to stop in Joplin, but I wanted to head north. I was thinking Kansas City. We got close to Nevada, Mo. and a truck went flying past us, slide into the ditch and spun around several times in a farm field before coming to a rest. I’m surprised they didn’t flip over. “Are you ready to stop now?” Debbie asked. “Yes,” I replied as we pulled into a motel for the evening. The parking lot was a sheet of ice. I leave you with this – stay safe my friends in this nasty weather. Don’t go out unless you have to and make sure you are stocked up on the essentials – milk, bread, butter and a couple steaks and a few pounds of hamburger meat just in case the boys come over. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. When it comes to college football bowl games, back in the day it seemed to be a lot simpler than it is these days.
The number one and number two teams in the country went head-to-head on New Year’s Day for a chance to be named national champions. When that game ended, the season ended. Of course it’s not that way these days with the BCS National Championship format, which started in 1998. According to Wikipedia, the game was organized by a group known as the Bowl Championship Series, consisting of the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl, which sought to match the two highest-ranked teams in a championship game to determine the best team in the country at the end of the season. The participating teams were determined by averaging the results of the final weekly Coaches Poll, the Harris Poll of media, former players and coaches, and the average of six computer rankings. As with anything to do with sports, there are lots of pros and cons that will be argued and debated for years. Take for instance Florida State. I’m no fan of the Seminoles, but I thought that was a raw deal for them being undefeated and not making the cut. I’m glad I’m not calling the shots. Now this season there are two undefeated teams – Michigan and Washington and two one-loss teams, Alabama and Texas in the running for the championship. One of them is going to win it all. A change is once again on the horizon. The college football playoffs are going to a 12-team format to name a champion beginning at the end of the 2024 season. According to an article from the NCAA, the format will include the six highest-ranked conference champions, which will receive automatic bids. The top four teams will receive a first-round bye to the quarterfinals. Even in Iowa high school football, a team in each class has to play and win five games following the regular season to earn the championship trophy. And college basketball has a 64-team format with four additional teams given a chance to make the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. And of course, there’s the transfer portal for players who leave one school and play at another school. I remember a time if a player transferred to another school, they had to sit out a season. That’s not the case anymore as players are shuffling around like someone playing a game of poker. As one person I was visiting with recently said, the NCAA needs to get this under control. Debbie and I are firm believers that no player should be able to leave a team or school until the end of the season, including a bowl game. We were watching a game the other day and started talking about all the various sponsors of bowl games. Apparently, if you have enough money, a company or business can purchase the rights to a bowl game. According to info on the internet, the lower-tier bowl sponsorship games played in early-to-mid December cost between $375,000 and $500,000. The more prestigious games, like the New Year’s Day six bowls, can cost tens of millions of dollars each year. In some cases, according to one article, the title sponsor can also play a prominent role in the post-game festivities of their bowl game, and their products may even be incorporated into the trophy itself. For example, the victorious head coaches in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl are doused with coolers filled with French fries and mayonnaise. The Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl and the Cheez-It Bowl, both sponsored by brands of Kellogg’s, have similar traditions. Outside of the top four teams, this year, 80 teams played in 40 bowl games starting Dec. 16 and continuing into New Year’s Day. I looked up the names of the various bowl games and have listed them below for your reading enjoyment. Myrtle Beach Bowl, Cricket Celebration Bowl, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl, Isleta New Mexico Cure Bowl, Starco Brands LA Bowl hosted by Gronk, and the Radiance Technologies Independence bowl. Other bowls included the Famous Toastery Bowl, Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl, Roofclaim.com Boca Raton Bowl, Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla (Pirate Fest) Bowl, 76 Birmingham Bowl, Camellia Bowl, Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, 68 Ventures Bowl, SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl, EasyPost Hawaii Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl, SERVPRO First Responder Bowl, Guaranteed Rate Bowl, Military Bowl presented by GoBowling.com, Duke’s Mayo Bowl, DIRECTTV Holiday Bowl, TaxAct Texas Bowl, Wasabi Fenway Bowl, Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Valero Alamo Bowl, TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, TranPerfect Music City Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl, Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. Of course, there is the national championship bowl games at the Rose Bowl presented by Prudential and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. It’s interesting that the top two bowl games are sponsored by insurance companies. I will keep that in mind when getting insurance quotes. I hope you enjoyed a game or two this season. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. I always enjoy watching Christmas movies during the holidays.
I usually catch a few Hallmark Christmas movies, but this year I haven’t watched many. However, I did watch “Christmas Vacation” a half-dozen times and “Elf” a couple times. One of my favorites is “It’s a Wonderful Life” staring James Stewart. I watched a portion of the movie on Christmas Day. What a classic with a powerful message. Another of my Christmas favorites is the “The Muppets Christmas Carol,” starring Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Tiny Tim, Rizzo the Rat and a host of Muppets. The movie has such a powerful message of love and seeing the best in others and in life. That reminds me as we all head into the new year of 2024, that the positives in life far outweigh the negatives. There is a lot of crazy stuff going on in our world these days from high gas and food prices, wars around the globe, political debates that seem to never end, families all across this country struggling to make ends meet and division, so much division, over a myriad of issues. There’s also lots of opinions and untruths floating across the airways that are not truthful. I encourage you to take what your see and hear with a grain of salt. Don’t let someone’s opinion cause you to waiver in the future. At the close of the movie when Ebenezer Scrooge has a change of heart after being visited by the spirts of Christmas past, Christmas present and the Christmas future, he sings, “Thankful Heart” “Life is like a journey Who knows when it ends? Yes, and if you need to know The measure of man You simply count his friends Stop and look around you The glory that you see Is born again each day Don’t let it slip away How precious life can be With a thankful heart that is wide awake I do make this promise Every breath I take Will be used now to sing your praise…” And I add this, to do good things onto others. I don’t know what the future has in store, but I know what I have in store for the future…a grateful and thankful heart to see the best in others and to be a difference maker in this world. I hope you will join me on this journey. It’s the best diet for a better new year. Sometimes in this world, especially on Facebook and social media, people often focus on the negative or look for the negative in others. I challenge you in the new year to find the positives each day in your life and in others. Don’t worry about what you can’t do or didn’t get done, instead, focus on what you did do or can do and do that. It might be something small that seems insignificant, but it’s not. Write down in a journal each day one good thing you did and each month or every two or three months, read what you wrote and think about all the ways you’ve made this world a better place for others. One good thing leads to another. It might be something as simple as letting someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store, donating to a worthy cause that helps others, helping a neighbor with a chore or task, volunteering your time or sending a letter to a member of the military or someone who needs to hear an uplifting word. I leave you with this. Blessings in the New Year to you and your family. Your dreams are possible in the new year! Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. Editor’s note: Portions of the words from the song “Thankful Heart” was used from “The Muppet Christmas Carol” soundtrack. Debbie and I, along with three other family members, made a trip to Ankeny on Sunday for some last minute Christmas shopping.
Our first stop was Sam’s Club for supplies, pet food and some holiday treats. As Debbie and I arrived at the back of the store, a large robotic floor cleaning machine made its way past us into the toilet paper section. We watched as several times the large floor machine would stop to re-adjust, blocking customers in the process, and then would keep on going. We said hello to one family and chuckled as they were briefly stuck between the paper towel section and the robotic cleaning machine, which had stopped again to re-adjust. “That machine has been chasing us around all day,” the fellow said with a chuckle. Keeping the store clean is a good idea, but using a robot so close to Christmas during a busy shopping day was probably not in the best interest of the all the customers. Sam’s Club is always busy, and Sunday was no exception. Anyway, it reminded me of a time in my days of youth when I decided to cut down my own Christmas tree. My Aunt Alice and now late Uncle Ronnie raised fryer chickens in two large chicken houses for Tysons on a spot of land near Fayetteville, Ark. They raised 32,000 chickens (16,000 in each house) at a time. The chicken houses were more than a football field long and included automatic waterers and feeders. It was a hilly area in northwest Arkansas and their farm included a ridge or plateau that was easily accessible by foot. I would sometime take my 22 rifle and shoot at critters on their farm. I took my hand saw and climbed up to the ridge and spotted a nice five-foot or so pine tree. I cut it down and dragged it off the ridge and the half-mile or so to my aunt and uncle’s home where I loaded it in the trunk of my old 1959 Chevrolet Impala. It was my dad’s old work car that I inherited while in high school. I drove it for several years. I loved that old car. I loaded the tree in the trunk and tied down the trunk lid as it would not shut completely for the trip back to Tulsa. That old tree was full of sap and not ideal for use as a Christmas tree. And the needles, my goodness, about half of them fell to the floor during the two weeks the tree was set up in the living room. I was living in my boyhood home at the time as my folks had moved to their farm south of Tulsa. Some years earlier, they had installed a light shag carpet that was on its last leg. There wasn’t a vacuum powerful enough to clean the needles up, so I had to get on my hands and knees and handpick them out of the carpet. It took me a couple hours to complete the task. “Never again,” I said to myself, knowing that the next Christmas tree I got was going to be coming from a local tree lot and not my uncle and aunt’s farm. Back to shopping, we found the day to be enjoyable and met some of the nicest people at the various stops along the way. Even the cashier at Wal-Mart was kind, talkative and did a great job. From all the pins on her hat and vest, I think she’d been working at Wal-Mart for a long time. In the electronic section, I asked a young lady who I thought was a Wal-Mart employee to help me with a price check. She didn’t work at the store, but did the check anyway. I took time to visit with her and a co-worker about cell phones and computers, which is what they were selling. And down the aisle, I greeted a couple stock boys and wished them a Merry Christmas. I even enjoyed a nice chat with a young lady in the Kohl’s checkout line. On the way home, we stopped at Culver’s in Newton. There was a family of four sitting at a booth waiting for their food. As we got ready to leave, I stopped briefly to say Merry Christmas. I think it was a surprise to them that someone would take time to greet them. I even sent well wishes and Merry Christmas to the good folks working behind the counter. Life is too precious not to take time to greet others, send them well wishes, hold the door open for someone or wait a second to let someone go ahead of you in the line. Enjoy the holidays and be sure and take time to do good unto others. Merry Christmas! Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. I don’t know about you, but to me it feels like Christmas is still months away.
It seems to be dragging its feet getting here. Maybe it has something to do with an earlier than usual Thanksgiving or the warmer weather of late. By the time you read this column, there will be 10 days left until Christmas. That’s forever to me. Tick, tock! Tick, tock – forever and ever and ever! Ten days is still plenty of time to get that last minute gift. I buy some gifts on-line, but this year, I’m going with some local made gifts. It’s nice to be able to support local. Anyway, I feel like a kid again this year. I can’t wait for Santa’s arrival. I have many wonderful Christmas memories. I’ve never gone without receiving Christmas gifts or gone hungry. Debbie and family makes sure Christmas is a special day for me and everyone. I remember as a kid getting up on Christmas morning and waking up the family. We had some of the most magical Christmases. I always enjoyed helping Dad get the decorations out of the garage attic, decorating the Christmas tree, stringing the lights and setting up the manger scene. At the request of my mom, Santa always placed an orange and apple in our stockings. We always had our photo taken holding them each year. Some years ago, I asked my mom about the reason for the orange and apple. She reminded me that her family was so poor, that some years the only Christmas gifts she and her siblings got was an orange and apple. Santa was happy to oblige her request as a reminder of her tough upbringing. One year, I was so excited about Christmas that I went to bed at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve so it would get here sooner. As I wrestled for sleep, someone knocked on my bedroom window. I peeled back the blind to discover Santa in our driveway giving me a cheery ho, ho, ho. I later learned that it was my dad. We had a gas lamp near the front porch of our Tulsa home and at Christmas, we placed an extra-large plastic Santa face decoration on it. The light from the lamp illuminated Santa. My dad had taken the plastic Santa face off one side of the gas lamp and held it in front of his face that night, teasing me. I’m sure he had enjoyed every minute of it. By 2 a.m., I’d had enough sleep, so I got everyone up and we opened gifts in the middle of night and then went back to bed. I always set out a cookie and glass of milk for Santa on Christmas Eve and it was always gone on Christmas morning. When I was 7, I got an Allstate train set from Sears and Roebuck. Santa brought it to me. And I received a Creepy Crawler set, too. For those who don’t remember or know, the Creepy Crawler set was a toy made by Mattel starting in 1964 that consisted of a series of die-case metal molds resembling various bug-like creatures. I’d pour a liquid chemical substance called “Plastic-Goop,” which came in assorted colors, to make the creatures in a heated burner. I tried fishing with them one year, but I had no luck. I sold the Creepy Crawler set at my parent’s estate auction, but I still have the train set complete in the box. It doesn’t work anymore. A few years ago, I was a hobby shop in Des Moines. I was talking to the fellow at the counter and he said to bring it in and he’d take a look at it. I think it needs a new transformer. Maybe this year I will dig it out and have it checked out. Most years, after we opened Christmas gifts at the Parker house, it was off to spend the day with my grandparents on my mom’s side. My grandma could put together a holiday feast for 20 or more in half the time most could cook a microwave meal. There was always enough food for an army. She had plenty of practice from cooking in schools and care centers in Missouri and Oklahoma for years. She and my grandpa also worked on the riverboats in the late 1960s and early 1970s on the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio rivers. She cooked the crew’s meals and grandpa did laundry, helped in the kitchen and kept the ship in tip top shape. On occasion, we visited my great-grandma on my dad’s side at Christmastime. His mother and father were both passed before I was born, so his grandmother was the family connection. Great-grandmother Minnie didn’t care too much for a tree. One year, we arrived at her house in Bartlesville, Okla. on Christmas Eve. Mom and I took her to a tree lot and bought a tree for $5. She put it up in the living room and decorated it that evening. The next morning, we got up, opened the gifts and my great-grandmother properly took the tree down and tossed it into the backyard for the birds to land on. We then ate breakfast. I hope you have a blessed Christmas and I encourage you to keep those memories alive. You might even try writing them down for future generations. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. I was running late and almost decided not to stop, but I’m glad I did.
It was Saturday morning, Dec. 2, and there were town Christmas celebrations going on in Montezuma and Brooklyn – at the same time. I’m good at being a community journalist, but I have yet figured out how to be in two places at once. Thankfully, Santa arrived in Montezuma at 8 a.m. and in Brooklyn at 11 a.m. That gave me time to cover Christmas Santa events in both towns. My first stop was the Montezuma Memorial Hall shortly after 8 a.m., where I captured a number of young people meeting Santa and sharing their Christmas gift list. There was also a Christmas breakfast and cookie decorating for kids and adults alike. After one hour, I headed to the Montezuma Methodist Church for photos of the Cookie Walk, before heading to Brooklyn. Kids Storytime and fun activities were planned at the Brooklyn Library from 9 – 10:30 a.m. I looked at my cell phone as I rolled into Brooklyn. It was edging toward 10:30 a.m. and I almost skipped it to wait for Santa’s arrival. I decided to stop at the library anyway and I’m glad I did. Kids where still there finishing up homemade Christmas ornaments as I worked my way around the library taking photos. About that time, Gracie Gerard, the third child of librarian Josh Gerard (see my story on Josh in this week’s issue) and his wife, Tracey, asked me if I wanted to make an ornament. I asked Gracie if she’d help me and she said, “yes.” I couldn’t pass that opportunity up. It brought back many of my own childhood memories. The first order of business was having my photo taken in the library community room. I hadn’t shaved in more than a week and was a bit gruffy looking. The older I have gotten, the less I like shaving, so I’ve been letting my beard grow for a week or so. I’ve had a beard a couple times in past years, but I’m not real interested in growing another one, at least not now. Anyway, while Gracie and I waited for the photo to print on a fancy cell phone printer, she helped me decorate my ornament with reindeer antlers. On the back, we put a big heart with green construction paper and red construction paper behind it. I wrote “Merry Christmas 2023” and “Jesus Loves You.” On the other side was my photo with trim on the edges. And Josh, the librarian, added a big red nose. J.O., the Red Nose Reindeer. I had my photo taken with Gracie as we held our ornaments that I posted on my Facebook page. I also thanked her for asking me to make an ornament and she said, “No problem.” I’m sure she had other things to do. Plus, she was acting in the production of “It’s A Wonderful Christmas Story,” a play her dad wrote and was directing. After a short nap at home Saturday afternoon, I returned to Montezuma and took a handful of photos at the soup supper held at the First Presbyterian Church. I also enjoyed a bowl of chili and conversation and good laugh with my friend, Boyd Sparks. And on Sunday, I returned to Brooklyn to attend the third and final production of “It’s A Wonderful Christmas Story,” which featured Gracie and cast of Brooklyn area residents. I was touched. Sometimes life can seem overwhelming during the holidays trying to figure out budgets, buying gifts for two dozen people, planning this and planning that, all while life and work rolls along. I’m thankful for my wife, Debbie, who handles most of the family Christmas buying while I take a nap. Anyway, as I have mentioned in the past, the Christmas season is a great time to give to others, volunteer to ring the Salvation Army bell, make a donation to a worthy cause, buy a neighbor a sack of groceries or fill their vehicle gas tank or give someone a gift card. You can’t go wrong doing something special to make the holidays better for others. What a wonderful time of the year to do good for all. I better get busy, I need to buy Debbie a Christmas gift or two. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. |
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