Debbie and I love being an aunt and uncle and supporting our nephews and family.
And last week took the cake as all three of our nephews were in the limelight. Our youngest nephew, Peyton, a sophomore at Montezuma High School, was inducted into the National Honor Society. Our middle nephew, Sawyer, a 2022 graduate of Montezuma High School, graduated from the John Deere Tech program at Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) in Calmar. And our oldest nephew, Gavin, a 2021 graduate of Montezuma High School, completed his BS Degree in Agricultural Business with a minor in Entrepreneurship from Iowa State University in three years. It all started on Wednesday evening, May 8, as Debbie and I attended the NHS induction at the Montezuma High School. We are so proud of Peyton and his work ethic and good grades in school. On Thursday, May 9, we headed northeast to Calmar to attend two ceremonies. The first, which was held at the NICC campus, was focused on the 24 young men graduating from the John Deere Tech program. These young men not only learn to use a wrench, they learn to use a computer. Afterwards, we enjoyed a luncheon and a tour of the facilities. The young men learn everything John Deere from working on engines to fixing planters, tractors, combines, plows and anything John Deere. According to the John Deere website, there are 24 John Deere Tech programs spread out across the country with the only Iowa location in Calmar. That evening, the family enjoyed pizza at Mabe’s, a Decorah institution located a short 10 miles from Calmar. We then attended a campus-wide NICC graduation that evening at the Center for Faith and Life on the campus of Luther College. It was a beautiful ceremony. While some of the family returned to Montezuma that evening, Debbie and I stayed the night in Decorah and returned home on Friday, May 10. We followed Sawyer home as he is moving back after two years. He will work at Van Wall John Deere in Grinnell beginning in June. It was up and at it at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 11 to get ready for a trip to Ames to attend commencement exercises at Hilton Coliseum for Gavin. Debbie was up shortly after 4 a.m. to feed the animals and I followed suit more than an hour later. I’m thankful she does all that work getting us ready to go. If it was left up to me, we might have gotten there when it was over. Gavin’s graduation started at 9 a.m. and included both the School of Business and the School of Agriculture in one ceremony. It took just more than two hours to hand out diplomas to more than 900 graduates. That was one of three ceremonies being held that day at Hilton Coliseum. Gavin is going to work for Farm Bureau Insurance and is working to build his goat meat business, Boer Certified. I tried the goat sticks and they are pretty good. I’ve heard the goat brats are good grilled. After the ISU ceremony, we enjoyed lunch at a nice restaurant in nearby Boone. And that evening, we returned to the Des Moines area for a graduation celebration supper for the entire family. I’m sure we put more than 500 miles on our Suburban over a four day period, and every minute we spent and mile we drove was worth it Several times tears welled up in my eyes and I’m sure Debbie was touched as well as we watched these young men graduate and be honored for their hard work. Our three nephews spent many days out our house as youngsters under Debbie’s care. I remember making several trips to Sam’s Club and purchasing school supplies as Debbie held summer school for several years. She’d open the garage door on nice days and the boys would color or paint what they saw first. And sometimes that would be deer in our yard. There was playtime, rest time and study time. It all made a difference as she played a big part in their lives that started when they were still in diapers. And as proud of our nephews as we are, we know that the future is looking bright for these young men as they find their place in life and go on and do great things in the world. Outside of a relationship with God, there is nothing more important than family. This Oklahoma boy is proud of my Iowa family and my lovely bride while planting my roots in this fine state. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.
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Beginning this weekend, numerous area high schools and many trade schools, colleges and universities will hold graduations.
It’s a special time of the year when high school seniors prepare for the future and reach their dreams. And for college graduates, many will complete internships or enter the workforce in their chosen field. Some will continue their educational pursuits. I remember when I graduated from high school in May 1978 and opted to enter the workforce. I trained in the printing trade in a high school vocational program and during the last semester of my senior year, I took an English course in the morning and then went to a job at a print shop a few miles away where I ran a letterpress (the old lead type). My job was printing three-to-a-page business checks using a press called a “Jumping Jack.” I continued in the printing business for almost a year after graduation before pursuing a different direction. I held other jobs including working as a custodian at the an all-night grocery and drug store, setting up double wide mobile homes with my uncle and working at a factory that made sieves used to move steel cables in cranes. I spent 7.5 years working for the circulation department with the Tulsa newspapers and a couple years selling and delivering waterbeds and oak furniture made in Tulsa. I returned to college in my late 20s after winning a camera in a weight loss bet with a co-worker a few years earlier. I started studying photography in 1987 at a community college in Claremore, Okla., a community about 30 miles northeast of Tulsa. After earning my AAS Degree in Graphic Technology (photography) in 1991, I decided to continue my educational pursuits. I left Tulsa in August 1992 after being accepted at the University of Missouri-Columbia. After graduating from MU at age 38 with my BS Degree in Agricultural Journalism in December 1997, some 19-years after high school, I moved to Iowa and began my community journalism journey. I have shared many stories in this column through the years of overcoming challenges and setbacks while working my way through college. I spent hours and hours being tutored in algebra and math. It took me three tries to get into journalism school. Thanks to hours of tutoring, guidance and studying, I passed the required 100-question grammar test with a score of 82 on the third try. I needed an 80 to pass. I remember the day well. It was my 36th birthday and while I and the other students, all a dozen or so years younger than me, waited to take the test, I found a place of solace at the other end of the building where I started to pray. I walked back and forth on the sidewalk praying. Every so often, someone would walk by and I’d stop praying and greet them. I then would go back to my business of building my faith. While praying, I told God that I might not understand it all, but that I believed I belonged in that (journalism) school and that I was going to get in. I’m glad I didn’t give up and let my past failures dictate my future. Through my life experiences, I have garnered a bit of wisdom that I believe will help you on your life journey. Here they are: • You will make mistakes. Don’t let a mistake define you. I’ve missed it more times than I’ve ever gotten it right. If you fail, get up, knock the dust off your hands and feet, forget the blame game and get on with life. • You will hear the word “no” many times in your life. It will come from family, co-workers, well-meaning trusted advisors, neighbors, friends and an assortment of other places. Don’t let “no” be the final word or end to a dream. Don’t quit. It’s like running water that hits a rock. It doesn’t stop, it goes over or around the rock and keeps flowing. • Be kind to others. Treat others as you would want to be treated. It’s something that I’ve taken to heart my entire life. It’s some of the best advice my momma ever gave me. • Hold the door open for others. Don’t forget to say thank you or send a “real” thank you card through the mail. • Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Knowledge is power. No matter your age, you don’t know it all. • Treat your elders with respect. Learn from them. They have years of wisdom. • Take time to meet and get to know your neighbors and others around you. There are people who will cross your life path and are there to help you be successful. • Don’t pay much attention to the news or believe all the doom and gloom and propaganda on social media. I heard a story once of a car dealer in Arkansas. Sales had been slow for months. He challenged his employees to turn off the evening bad news and ignore the bad reports about the economy. Employees started speaking and praying good things over their business and before long, sales at the car dealership rocketed. It works! • It’s okay to turn off social media and live life. I need to do that more. Take an afternoon drive, call a friend, spend time with your significate other, work a puzzle, start a hobby, clean out the garage or go fishing. • It is always better to give than receive. Do something good for a neighbor, a friend or even a stranger. Buy a gift card or some movie passes and give them away. Purchasing a sack of groceries for a family in need is a great way to give to others. Pay it forward! • Volunteer your time to help others. Make life better for others and your life will be better. • No matter where life takes you, don’t forget about where you came from. Your family and friends love and believe in you. • Slow down, pray and be thankful. You don’t have to do it all in one day or an afternoon. Take a vacation or day off and live life. • Take ownership of your mistakes and learn from them. Don’t give up, keep on walking. • Don’t be afraid to make a change in life. It’s never too late no matter your age to start over or try something new. • Some of the best wisdom I heard was from a friend – “People will forget everything about you, except how you made them feel.” • And lastly, don’t be late to work. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. It’s kind of ironic how life comes full circle.
While taking a writing course at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I did an essay paper on a story I found in an August 1972 National Geographic entitled “North with the Wheat Harvest” written by Noel Grove with photos by Jim Sugar. During the 1971 harvest season, Grove and Sugar followed the Max Louder family of Mankato, Kan. on their annual wheat harvest path from Texas to Montana. The story peaked my interest, namely because of my love for combines and farming. I first got interested in farming and old tractors in my mid to late 20s when my dad and I would attend the Oklahoma Steam and Gas Engine Show in Pawnee the first weekend of May. Pawnee is northwest of Tulsa and is home to the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum. Gordon William Lillie, know professionally as Pawnee Bill, was a performer and American showman who specialized in Wild West Shows. He had a short partnership with William “Buffalo” Bill Cody of Iowa in 1908. In 1888, Pawnee Bill and his wife, May, launched their own Wild West Show, which was called “Pawnee Bill’s Historic Wild West.” After struggling financially that first year, Lillie regrouped and changed the show to “Pawnee Bill’s Historical Wild West Indian Museum and Encampment Show.” It went on to become a success. There’s a lot more on Pawnee Bill, too much to share in this column. Pawnee is about 60 miles from Pawhaska, Okla., home of the Pioneer Woman and also the movie site for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It was at the Oklahoma Steam and Gas Engine Show that I started photographing old tractors and steam engines, the early beginnings of where I am today in life. I was going to the community college at the time taking photography courses. I always enjoyed photographing the old tractors. My dad loved to find a bargain and had a nice collection of old horse-drawn cultivator seats. I remember at one show we attended, my dad found an old cultivator seat he was interested in buying. He asked the seller how much it was. “$15,” the seller told my dad. That was too much for my dad’s liking, so he’d walk around the grounds, then go back and ask someone else about the cultivator seat. I think after several tries, he got the price down to around $10, so he bought it. I liked that about my dad. If he found something he liked, he’d work the price down or leave it for someone else. I have a number of my dad’s cultivator seats in my antique collection, so I might have that seat. After graduating from MU, I landed in North English, Iowa at the Record newspaper. It was there that I learned of Noel Grove, who I had earlier wrote a paper based on one of his stories. Grove grew up in South English and recalled roaming the Iowa countryside around the family farm. He graduated in 1959 from McPherson College in McPherson, Kan., where he majored in English. After college, he taught English and speech at Inman High School in McPherson and worked as a reporter and wire editor at the McPherson Daily Sentinel. He also worked as a reporter and night editor at the Hutchinson Daily News. He joined the National Geographic magazine staff in 1969, where he went on to head the environmental department, a division created for him by then editor Wilbur Garrett. Grove wrote 28 bylined articles for the magazine, contributed several chapters to National Geographic books and was the author of eight published books and more. In 1990, he helped found the Society of Environmental Journalists, a non-profit national journalism organization for journalists who reported on environmental topics. Grove wrote the book, “Anyone But Duane” and published it in October 2008. It is a true-to-life book about multiple murders that happened in June 1965 when Duane Pope, a classmate of Grove’s at McPherson College, committed a robbery and murders at the Farmers State Bank in Big Springs, Neb., leaving three dead and one severely injured. Pope, 81, remains in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. I learned about the book a couple years ago while visiting the English Valleys History Center in North English. I never met Grove, who passed away in January 2022 at his home in Virginia, but it’s nice to have the connection to his work through my own writing. I look forward to reading his book, maybe in retirement. First on the agenda is reading my wife’s second, third and fourth books. At least I have good intentions. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. My dad could chew the fat with the best of them.
No one was a stranger to him. He loved to talk and had the uncanny ability to find folks to visit with who grew up in his neck of the woods east of Tulsa. It was the sticks to me near the Verdigris River. I went with my dad several times to visit the good ole folks of his boyhood days. I always found a comfy chair and quickly fell asleep while my dad visited. He’d nudge me from my slumber and off we’d go to another neighbor’s place. It kind of bothered me some when I was younger that he’d talk to anyone. A lot has changed for me since those days. Time has a way of changing one’s perspective in life. Dad and I took some good trips together in the late 1980s and early 1990s to Northeastern Oklahoma, Western Kansas and the Grand Canyon. We also enjoyed going fishing. My dad loved to fish below the dam at Oologah Lake northeast of Tulsa. And once I moved to Iowa, my dad and mom enjoyed traveling here to visit me a couple times a year. In 2003, we took a trip to Rochester, Minn., with stops at the Little Brown Church, the World’s Smallest Church in Festina, the Bily Clock Museum in Spillville and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Burr Oak. We also stopped at the Mayo Clinic where I took a photo of my mom in front of the hospital sign. In 1948, when my mom was age 12, she fell sick. My grandparents were poor and didn’t have a car. My grandpa made a bed on the plow and carried my mom to see the doctor using his tractor. The doctor told my grandparents that he wanted to try one medicine. If it didn’t cure my mom, he wanted to carry her to the Mayo Clinic. My grandparents said they couldn’t afford that. The doctor said he’d cover the bill. He gave my mom a shot of penicillin and it cured her and there was no need to make the trip to the Mayo. We also visited the Spam Museum in Austin, Minn., before heading south along Highway 169 to Ames and then across Highway 30 toward home. My dad always wore a ball camp, usually advertising Gaso Pump, except on Sunday mornings. He spent nearly 40-years of his life working at Gaso Pump Mfg., a company in west Tulsa that built large pumps used to move crude oil through pipelines after it was out of the well. When not wearing a hat, he’d spread some hair grease on his head and always had a comb nearby. When he wore his Sunday best, he’d wrap his billfold and comb in paper towels to keep the grease from work from getting on his clothes. Nowadays, like my dad, I’ll visit with most anyone. No one is a stranger to me. I’m a firm believer that strangers are only friends yet to be made. I love to visit and I appreciate my beautiful bride, Debbie, tolerating my need to talk to people. And that was the case this past weekend. Debbie and I traveled to the Ankeny Kirkendall Public Library on Saturday afternoon where we joined 60 some other authors at the Ankeny Author’s Fair. This is the first year the library had hosted the event since 2019. I spent a good part of the day going around meeting other authors, catching up with old friends and visiting with folks. People live some of the most interesting lives. I met fellow who had a fictional book based on 9-11. It was a story about the exchange of a large amount of bonds at a business in one of the twin towers. After the planes crashed into the buildings, the bonds and the person handling the transfer disappeared and all was consider lost in the tower’s rubble. That was until one of the bonds was cashed 10 years later in Switzerland. Another author wrote a novel about a person found murdered in the city park. The only identification on them was a bulletin from a local church. I also visited with a couple ladies from the Blue Ribbon Foundation who were there selling Iowa State Fair Cookbooks and another fellow who was a long-time postal employee turned bus driver and author. We enjoyed visiting for a few minutes to catch up. We were also able to book a second author to speak at our writers’ conference, which will be held on Sept. 21 in Montezuma, and were able to tell many others authors about our event. There were so many interesting people in attendance and I’m sure I could pull a few newspaper stories out of the event, if only they were local. I leave you with this. Enjoy life and never forget where you came from. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. Being a community journalist and having covered numerous youth activities, county fairs and school events, I’m often reminded about the importance of student and youth organizations such as 4-H and FFA.
I have witnessed first-hand and written many stories about young people in both organizations and how they have helped them become better students and find purpose in life. I have taken hundreds of photos of youngsters in both organizations and their winning pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, horses, chickens and dogs. These kids work hard and put in a lot of hours to become the best. One year I did a story on 4-H’er who participated in a 4-H feeder calf project where, after the fair, she raised her calf to market size. And earlier this year, I attended a work-related training session led by this same young lady, who is now married and has three children. And in November 2002, I was able to attend the FFA National Convention in Louisville, Ky., where I covered Montezuma, who had four teams there that year. And through the years, I have had the wonderful opportunity to be a 4-H photography judge. I enjoy helping young people be better at what they enjoy. I was not in 4-H or FFA, but did participate in Cub Scouts, Webelos and Boy Scouts through my school days in my native state of Oklahoma. I attended Boy Scout summer camp during the second week of June from 1972 – 1976 (sixth grade – 10th grade) at Camp Garland near Locust Grove, Okla., a small community about 50 miles east of Tulsa. I only attained a second class rank in Boy Scouts, but did garner more than a dozen merit badges. I don’t remember the year, but do remember the experience. I was working on hiking merit badge and had to join other Boy Scouts on a five-mile hike and overnight campout. My hiking boots didn’t fit too well and by the end of the hike both of my feet were covered with blisters. And to top that, we had to build a makeshift camp. Several Boy Scouts in my group stretched and tied a piece of tent canvas between several trees. A thunderstorm with rain and high winds rolled through that evening and knocked down our tent and soaked all of our sleeping bags. It took a day to dry out my sleeping bag. Another time, a morning storm blew through camp knocking down trees and I slept right through it all. I always put large rocks under my trunk to keep everything dry. Another year, my campmate had a broken arm. He got his cast wet and it stunk up our tent. Camp was a great experience as I enjoyed shooting 22 rifles at the range, participating in archery, making new friends, swimming in the pool and participating in camp activities. My first year of camp my parents gave me $3 spending money. I only spent $2 and when I gave my parents back the $1, they were surprised and let me keep it. Three dollars in 1972 was a lot of money. You can’t even buy a daily newspaper today for $3. Another organization I took part in was Royal Ambassadors or RA as it was called. It was a Christian-based organization based on the Boy Scout model for young boys who attended Southern Baptist Churches. The girls had their own organization and it was called GAs. My mom was a GA leader for lower elementary age youngsters for 25 years. Mr. Bruce Irvin, a prominent Tulsa architect and long-time member of the First Baptist Church, where my family attended, was the leader of the RAs. Each fall, Mr. Irvin, and a host of volunteers and all the RAs took a bus to the John Zink Ranch northwest of Tulsa where we hiked the rugged terrain, held a Bible study and ate hobo-style dinners. The meal consisted of hamburger meat, potatoes, carrots and onions mixed together and cooked in foil paper over hot coals. We topped it off with an apple with the core cut out and filled with red hots, which was also heated over the hot coals. The Zink Ranch featured a western town with a store where we all got to purchase candy and treats. I also camped at the Zink Ranch with my Boy Scout troop. One year, some of the Scouts decided to go snipe hunting. They lured me and a friend from the camp and asked us to hold a paper sack open on the ground and use a flashlight to lure the critters our way. The onery rascals would walk down the road aways and yell and make all kinds of noise. “The snipe are heading your way,” one of them would say. After a bit, my friend and I figured out that there was no such thing as a snipe. So, we left and went back to camp and found solace in our tent. A bit later here came the rest of the Scouts wondering where we had gone. We were sound asleep. I’m thankful for the opportunities life has given me and the opportunity to tell stories and take photos of area youth and their many successes. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. As we wrapped up the first Montezuma Area Business Fair on Saturday, April 6 at the Montezuma Schools, a young boy and son of one of our vendors, handed me a jar of maple syrup and thanked us for letting his family sell their projects.
It was a kind gesture and much appreciated. Others also shared kind words and one gentleman stopped at our table and thanked us for keeping the business show going. Another one of our vendors, an Ames-based author, credited Debbie and me for publishing his first book. He now has six books. “The story in this book won first place in your writing contest and led to me publishing it,” he said while pointing to the book. He seemed so grateful to be there and was happy to reconnect with us after several years. It was a long and tiring week for Debbie and I and our oldest nephew, Gavin. Together, we hosted the show. We couldn’t have done the business fair without the help of our other two nephews, Peyton and Sawyer; family members, Carole and Jan and family friend, Abree. They helped carry in supplies, set up and take down tables and chairs, mark out the spots and put down painters tape, run the raffle table and many other things. I also want to thank the Montezuma Schools custodian staff for their assistance, activity director and school facilitator, Tim Burgess, and Paul Hawkins, transportation and maintenance supervisor, for allowing us to use the school and for their support. Also thanks to Doug and Stacy Helm and to Doug and Deb VerMeer for loaning us tables for the show. In February, we decided to put this show together after learning that the former Montezuma Business Boosters had joined forces with the Montezuma Community Development and that there would be no business show this year, which was typically held in late March. As Debbie and our nephew, Gavin, were talking about the business show, I said, “Why don’t we have our own show?” They agreed and it grew from there. The first order of business was securing the school for the show and getting the word out to vendors and the public. There were several hours spent creating and putting up flyers in businesses, libraries and stores in Montezuma, Brooklyn, Grinnell and other places. Time was also spent collecting raffle items for the show. There are so many generous people across Poweshiek County who made the raffle and the business show possible. Debbie kept vendors updated, gathered information on the businesses and posted vendor spotlights on our website and coordinated the show layout. We had a total of 43 vendors and area organizations who participated in the show. This show was a first for us and the first for our nephew, Gavin, who was marketing his goat meat business, Boer Certified, for the first time. He graduates from Iowa State in May and he has already hit the ground running. We are proud of him and all our nephews and family. We are talking about doing this show again next Spring. We love promoting the Montezuma community and all it has to offer. We have our writers’ conference in the fall, our montejournal.com website, our books and now the business fair. Things are looking great. In wrapping this up, there is one thing about life that I have learned. It’s easy to stand on the sidelines and find fault and complain about what could have or should have been done. So and so said this and you should have done this are common complaints. There are always things that can be done differently or better. The key is stepping out and doing something, even if it is new or out of your comfort zone. I would much rather look at the positives in life and learn and grow from there. That’s how you make a difference in this world and your community, all while building positive relationships along the way. And with that said, my hat goes off to the Iowa Lady Hawkeyes. What a fantastic season and one for the record books. What Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeye players have done to bring attention to our state and the game of basketball is a story that will be told for years. Thank you ladies! And thank you to Montezuma for supporting our business vendor show. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. Anytime we get a chance to see the OU Sooners softball team play is a good time.
And the Sooners didn’t disappoint on our recent trip to Lawrence, Kan. Thursday through Saturday, March 28-30, winning all three games in the series, 6-1, 17-0 and 7-3. We attended the first two of the three game series as we needed to head home for a Saturday evening family Easter meal with time to visit and catch up. We’d been planning this trip for sometime as Debbie had been checking since Christmas to see when single game tickets went on sale. They did on Feb. 20 and Debbie bought our tickets within the first hour. It didn’t take too long for all three games to be sold out. This was our fifth trip to see the Sooners play softball in recent years and our first time in Lawrence. The other four were at Iowa State University, a bit closer to home. We left Montezuma a bit later than planned and arrived at the ball diamond at the end of the third inning. It was OK as Debbie found the game on-line and we listened to OU announcer Chris Plank call the plays as we headed to the stadium. Chris does shoutouts of fans listening on air during the third inning of each game and Debbie sends our names in for most games via Twitter. So, we got to hear our names on the way to the game. Due to a toll road on I-70 just west of Kansas City to Topeka, we decided to take the backway from Kearney, Mo. across to Lawrence. It was a 60-mile stretch through winding two-lane roads, small towns, roundabouts and traffic lights. We did enjoy the scenery and saw some beautiful homes with big porches, fenced in pastures and scenic views. We hadn’t been at the game too long when a young lady offered us her seats. She directed us to the security person who guided us to a couple seats several rows from home plate. That was a nice gesture on her part. We had general admission tickets and could have found a seat, but decided to stand for a bit after arriving at the stadium late. The lady must have thought we had standing room only tickets and was being nice. There are some nice people in this world and we appreciated her kindness. At the Friday game, two older gentleman who were Kansas fans were seated behind us. They were not too happy with OU smoking Kansas, 17-0 in five innings. They were amazed at how many OU fans were at the game and they expressed displeasure with the Jayhawk pitching staff. The stadium was probably 2/3 OU fans to 1/3 KU fans. The two fellows made a number of other negative comments about the game before leaving in the fourth inning. It was fun listening to what they had to say. Later after the game, we saw the OU team signing autographs for young softball players and fans and meeting with family who were at the game. It was fun watching the young fans carefully carrying their newly signed softballs on the way to the parking lot while the team loaded the bus to head to the hotel. We enjoyed supper Friday night at Burgers by Biggs a few miles from our hotel. They had good food and good prices. If you find yourself in Lawrence, check the place out. And our hotel was a couple blocks from the stadium on Rock Chalk Drive. KU Soccer and tennis also has complexes in the area along with a recreation center. Lawrence, which is on the far western edge of Kansas City, is a lively college town with a vibrant and busy downtown. I found an antique mall I wanted to visit on Friday located in the heart of downtown, only to discover that parking was a nightmare. I drove three blocks and didn’t see any open spaces. And the parking spots all have meters. It reminds me of my growing up days in Tulsa and also in Columbia, Mo., while in college. Both towns have parking meters. We ended up skipping the antique mall. After lunch at Sonic, we drove through the KU campus and saw Allen Fieldhouse where the Jayhawks play basketball. It was a beautiful campus and town. Our trip included stops at antique stores in Platte City on I-29 and Lathrop, Mo. just off I-35 north of Kearney on the way home. I bought a few postcards and an old cigar box and Debbie found a few goodies from her growing up days. It’s nice to get away, even for a couple days, and time was well spent with each other. I hope you take time this spring, summer or fall to spend time with your family and enjoy the many blessings life has to offer. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. The Parker house has been filled with March Madness craziness of late.
Over the course of the last five days, Thursday to Monday, Debbie and I have watched all or part of at least a dozen or more basketball games. At times, we have had three or four games going at once while listening to another on the radio. There have been plenty of missed calls, nose punches, foul words, knock downs, great heart-stopping plays, last minute comebacks, flamboyant colorful coaches, know-it-all commentators and crazy fans who spent hundreds of dollars and traveled all over the country to watch college basketball. The craziness always starts with selection Sunday when the committee, whoever they are, sets up the games. We all complain about who is playing who and who got left out, but in the end, there are always some great games and upsets. This year’s tournament has been no exception! And every year we fill out on-line brackets, only to have them busted in the first round. As Debbie says, the experts don’t know what they are talking about. And for the Iowa teams, the Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark pulled out a nailbiter against West Virginia, rallying late on Monday night in the 64-54 win to advance to the Sweet 16. We are all rooting for and love Clark and the Hawkeyes. I kind of think a lot of basketball fans across this nation are rooting for the Hawkeyes. And what a great Iowa State women’s team. What a performance that was by freshman Audi Crooks scoring 40 points against Maryland, who is coached by Brenda Frese, a former ISU player. The lady Cyclones season came to an end in a tough loss to number two Stanford, 87-81. What a great season for them. On the men’s side, the Iowa State Cyclones are like a runaway freight train, mowing down their opponents with Big 12 Tourney wins over Kansas State, Baylor and number one Houston. They opened tournament play with a 82-65 win over South Dakota State and a 67-56 win over Washington State to advance to the Sweet 16. On the other side of the state, Iowa is out of the NIT and ready to regroup for next year. And Oklahoma, my favorite team, declined an invitation to the NIT after being the first team out of the big dance. All I can say is that the Sooners should have accepted the invitation and moved forward in life. In my thoughts, it’s about the game, not being left out. Kansas is out after a tough season and Kentucky, Florida and so many other good teams have bit the dust this year. I love to watch the no names take a bite out of the big boys. And don’t forget to toss in Oklahoma softball, our favorite team, and their games against Baylor. It has been a weekend and more of sports craziness. This is the best time of the year for watching sports from NASCAR to golf and professional baseball, which gets underway soon. As for Debbie and I, we love to watch the Sooners play softball. They currently hold a 31-1 record this season and are three-time national champions. The Sooners fell in early March to a tough University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns softball team in their new stadium, Love’s Field, to end the team’s 71-game winning streak. The Sooners didn’t let the loss bother them as they have bounced back and heading into the next round of games at Kansas, hold a 13-game win streak and are perfect in the Big 12 conference. Last year, Debbie and I got to see the Sooners in Ames play against the ISU Cyclones. The stadium was packed and broke attendance records for two straight days. That was the fourth time we’ve seen the Sooners in Ames. I even got coach Patty Gasso’s autograph one year. I have been a Sooner football fan since I was in high school in the late 70s and a basketball fan since the days of Billy Tubbs in the 80s. I will never forget the national championship basketball game in 1988 between the Sooners and Kansas. The Sooners had won against Kansas twice in the regular season, but in the championship game, it was all Kansas and Danny Manning. They took it to the Sooners. When watching a Sooner football game, I’ve been known to pace about, talk to myself and talk to the television. I’ve watched some great Texas vs OU games in the Red River Rivalry and back in the day, there was nothing much better than the Sooners and the Cornhuskers going head-to-head in Norman and Lincoln. I remember one game when OU traveled to Lincoln. All the Husker kicker had to do was kick a field goal and Nebraska would win. He kicked the ball and hit the goalpost and the Sooners won. Another time, the Sooners, down seven points, scored 10 unanswered points in the last two minutes of a game to win 20-17. Enjoy the games and take time to breath and on occasion say hello to your family. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. The hum of water spinning in the dishwasher was music to my ears.
It had been more than two years since we last used the dishwasher. An ongoing leak put a stop to washing dishes the modern way in the Parker house. Sometime back, I noticed water had run on the kitchen floor. It even soaked a small kitchen rug. On occasion it ran through a hole in the floor to the utility room in the basement. The last time it was as if someone had dumped a bucket of water into our basement. The subfloor under the dishwasher showed signs of a leak. We had an appliance fellow come look at the dishwasher sometime back. He pulled the bottom panel off the machine and watched it run for a while. “There’s nothing wrong with it,” he assured us. “It’s not leaking.” We gave him a check, thanked him and I filled the dishwasher with dishes, thinking that it was one of life’s mysteries. That’s when the big leak happened. It was enough water that we had to take a bath towel and wipe off the washer and dryer in the basement. Thankfully it didn’t short either machine out. Since then, we’ve been washing dishes the old fashioned way, by hand. Neither Debbie nor I enjoyed the task of washing dishes. We often would let them pile up and spill onto the kitchen counter. Sometimes, we ran out of forks and spoons and had to wash dishes to eat supper. It didn’t help that I had a bad habit with good intentions of washing the dishes. I would fill the sink with hot water and dishes. I’d wash a few dishes and then leave the rest for later. Sometimes it would be the next day. It drove Debbie nuts as she uses the sink to fill her old milk jugs with water for the animals. At first, we thought the problem with our dishwasher was a clogged drain. Another fellow I visited with said it was the door seal. He even went into detail, telling me about an experience with a new dishwasher that he had purchased at one of the big box stores that leaked. Finally, we decided to call a different repairman earlier this month. He and another fellow showed up at our door on Monday a week ago. They looked the dishwasher over, checked the drain and tested the door seal. They discovered that the dishwasher wasn’t level and that water was possibly pouring out of the bottom of the door. They asked me if I saw water on the kitchen floor and told them yes. The dishwasher has two small wheels on the back to make it easy to move. To hopefully remedy the problem, the repairman took the wheels off to lower the dishwasher in the back and then leveled it up in the front. It’s been working great since. No water running on the floor or pouring into the basement. It’s nice to have some of the luxuries of life. I don’t take them for granted. I grew up in the 1960s and 70s with a dishwasher. My mom wanted one and somehow on a limited budget, bought one for our Tulsa home. It was a basic dishwasher and did a great job. It malfunctioned one year when a switch broke and the heating element stayed on. It melted the silverware basket and my mom had to toss it in the trash, silverware and all. She bought another dishwasher to replace the damaged one and it worked great. We also enjoyed having a washer and dryer and window air conditioner for those hot Oklahoma summers. I missed having a dishwasher when I moved to Missouri to go back to school. My duplex didn’t have a dishwasher. When I moved to Iowa, there was no dishwasher in my first apartment in Millersburg nor in North English when I lived on Main Street in a converted apartment. My first apartment in Montezuma didn’t have a dishwasher. The counter in that apartment was lower than standard. Washing dishes by hand was a guaranteed backache from stooping over. It wasn’t until I got married and lived in a small house with Debbie on Jefferson Street in Montezuma that I had a one again when someone gave us a portable dishwasher. The landlord let us plumb it into the house as a permanent fixture. After moving to the country, our house had an old dishwasher. It was a clunker and at times, I wanted to toss it out the door for the birds to land on. We replaced it with a new Maytag dishwasher in February 2015. I’m happy to have the dishwasher working again. I’ve washed three loads so far and it’s working great. I thank God every day for the many blessings and luxuries in life that I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy to this day. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. I was at the BGM Kiddie Carnival earlier this month to take some photos. I was milling about the large gathering of area youngsters and their parents when I noticed a young boy with a green tractor on his shirt.
“Do you like John Deere tractors,” I asked. “No,” the young lad replied. “Red tractors,” I asked. “No,” he said again. “How about blue tractors,” I asked a third time. “No,” he said. Puzzled, I waited while his mom whispered something to him before I asked what his favorite tractor was for a fourth time. “Orange,” he replied. “Alias Chalmers,” I said. “Yes,” he said. “Do you have an Alias Chalmers tractor,” I asked. “No, but my dad does,” the little fellow said as I smiled. I didn’t have a tractor as a young fellow growing up in the big city, but in junior high, I wanted a motorcycle. Atlas Cycle in Tulsa was a few blocks from my school and home. My friends Brain C. and David B. had motorcycles and I wanted one, too. They had newspaper routes and delivered papers on their motorcycles. Atlas Cycle had a Bridgestone 60cc motorcycle and I loved that bike, especially the dirt bike model for $250. That’s not much money these days, but to an eighth grader making $100 a month on a paper route in 1974, it was a lot money. I stopped at Atlas after school on occasion and would sit on the motorcycle and pretend I was riding the trails. I tried to convince my folks to let me buy it, but it was a no go. I even promised to leave it at my grandparents and only ride it there. My folks knew how much I wanted it, but their concerns regarding me getting hurt outweighed the cost of having the motorcycle. Looking back, it was all good. I may not have had a motorcycle, but I did have a number of bicycles through the years. I took piano lessons starting in second grade and by the fifth grade, I was taking weekly lessons at Mrs. Murry’s Piano School in west Tulsa. There was a resale store on West Edison just outside of downtown Tulsa a few miles from where I took my piano lessons. My mom stopped one day while I was taking my piano lesson and bought me a bicycle. I don’t remember the brand, but it was an ugly bicycle. I added a banana seat and sissy handlebars and it was still ugly. I rode that bicycle for a couple years before trading it in for a refurbished Schwinn Stringray bicycle. Mr. James was a local bicycle repair man who worked out of his garage a few blocks from my boyhood home. Stepping into his garage was like visiting a bicycle museum with bicycle parts hanging from large nails on the garage rafters to a variety of bicycles for sale. Mr. James would scour junkyards looking for Schwinn bicycle parts and he’d build bicycles from the ground up. I traded in the bicycle my parents bought me and even Mr. James said he’d never seen a bicycle so ugly. My first Stingray, a gold color model, cost $35. I added a newspaper basket on front that my aunt Alice bought me. During the spring of my seventh grade year, I didn’t lock my bicycle at school and someone stole it. It was a big school and unlocked bicycles were easy prey for a thief. I bought a second bicycle from Mr. James, a green colored version, and after the frame broke, I got another one, a yellow version. My bicycle had no fenders or a chain guard and I rode it delivering newspapers, going to school and hanging out with my friends. I’m thankful for the all the memories and experiences as a youngster. I’m also thankful for the all the opportunities that life has afforded me. I love talking to kids and I have taken lots of photos of youngsters and their prize-winning animals at the county fair, in school productions and at community events enjoying life. And I’ve been around long enough that I’m now photographing kids of kids who I photographed years ago. What a blessing! Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day. |
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