It was 95º last week. And here it is October. But I knew that it had been hot like this in the past. In 1953 on this date 70 years ago the high was 104º! I reminisced in my mind about this. Yes, while the world seems to be suffering from global warming, here in Oklahoma the weather does what it will. In 1953 I was 18 and as such often was available to help out on neighborly chores. Back then just as it is now, people were hoping summer was about done. But alas, this is Oklahoma.

The media hadn’t made us aware of global warming over in Stonewall. But Gene Winton, who owned a nice spread just south of Stonewall knew what dry weather and blowing dust did to a nice cattle ranch. His grass was long-gone, and he only had a few square bales of hay left. Now, his water was about all gone. Two of his ponds had gone dry. His big pond (I called it a lake) was low and worrying him. Thanks to numerous trips to the sale barn the numbers of the herd were greatly decreased, but his nervous survivors remained very thirsty. And they had come to expect the supply of Gene’s hay to continue to be served up. You know how cows are.

The Winton’s also owned a little spot down Highway 3 just north of Tupelo and there was some water left on that place. Gene decided to take all his surviving cows he had left down there, then drain and clean out his big Stonewall Pond and hope that some day it might go to raining again. After all, we know that pessimistic cowmen are always sure that it will eventually rain. Well, some are. I was drafted to play cowboy that day with Gene’s two sons, Joe and Wylie, and we got the small herd moved. That’s how I remembered that in 1953 on September 30 it was 104º.

Later, Gene went right to work with several of us helping him round up and remove the Stonewall pond’s fairly large surviving family of fish. We seined, grappled and netted. No method was disallowed. Gene eventually pumped that out and soon the fish were the center of numerous fish frys or new homes. The next time I was out there he was down in the bottom of that old lake on his dozer, digging, reshaping and making the hole that had been his best pond a lot deeper.

I learned the next week that the digging was over. Gene had gone so deep he had scraped into an unknown water table. He hit a spring. While we all still suffered from the hot dry dust storms of September 1954, the red sun and ugly skies, Gene had a brand-new big puddle of water that seemed to rise a bit every day. It was time to go back down the road and bring the small group of migrant cows home. The hungry, thirsty cattle wasted no time getting over to the fresh spring water that now partially filled the old pond. I think they could smell that water. Meanwhile, Gene’s old dozer sat off to the side sort of looking happy itself. Well, that’s just my own opinion.

A lot of other stockmen and farmers were left out in the dry winds to scan the skies and hope and pray for rain, but I think everyone was happy for Gene Winton’s newfound blue clear water. Paying no attention, Oklahoma’s drought continued on through 1953 and was holding on real tight when I exited Oklahoma in 1954 for military service. That was a long time ago.

Gene and his family are all gone now. But I know that little lake is still full of blue clear water. The kind that cows like to go out and wade in on days like we have been seeing. Global warming? I know the oceans are said to be rising, backing up into the Mississippi’s exit into the Gulf, endangering New Orleans’ supply of fresh drinking water. I know that some low Islands in the Pacific are nearly underwater and as best we can determine we have too much carbon in our air. But I think if Gene Winton was alive this Fall he might say: “You think this is hot?”

But I say, be calm. Fall is now upon us. And be sure and go to church this Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com