latest
Maybe it is the weather that is doing it, but I can’t seem to get all warmed up this spring. The news last week says we are a full and complete whole degree Fahrenheit warmer compared to just last year but I have to go by what is happening now. All respect to Al Gore, I am cold. I am starting to be concerned that the flowers I put out this past weekend will even grow. My sonin-law’s garden has been completely frozen out (and abandoned) so there went “that” particular little avenue of pleasure.
Read moreIt was 1955 when I first saw this Marine Sargent. He served on my ship’s security detail, the USS Lexington, a carrier that fought in WWII. But it was on a Greyhound bus out of San Diego, California that I noticed he was going my way— east to Oklahoma. I had noticed he was quite a bit older than I and being on Christmas leave he was wearing his WWII medals and they looked pretty impressive. Getting on the bus I noticed there was one other sailor on board from the Lexington. A young black man. Like me, the other sailor had the usual small number of medals like all of the newer guys wore. Such as me.
Read moreWayne is out of pocket this week so we are running one of his columns from the past.
Read moreFor many of us the end of this pandemic is at hand. And I say, “Praise the Lord.” Being cooped up and suffering through one of the coldest winters in history has also been hard on us. I am a guy who loves getting out and seeing my fellow man. Going to church and other community events is my wife’s and my life stream. I consider myself fortunate to live in the house I live in. A place where I raised my four children and spent much of my life. But as comfortable as my house is, I sure got tired of being cooped up. But like I say, now it is nice to be able to go to church and even go into a restaurant.
Read moreAre we, at last, in the final days of this great Pandemic? Some sources still run on about fresh outbreaks in scattered places, but the overall picture is good. Cases are declining. Each week hundreds of thousands are receiving their shots. Over. Millions have already had the dread disease while many others think the thing was a hoax. But as the number of those who have had COVID increase and the number of those vaccinated meld we approach something called herd immunity. Soon? Yes.
Read moreWhile news about wild partying keeps coming in from Miami Beach, Florida and other favorite spring-break places it was fairly calm here at 601 E. Lee Street in Allen last Sunday. Local activities mostly centered on comparing basketball bracket predictions and the awe and/or anguish that went with it.
Read moreDriving around Allen on my golf cart I see some green grass. Testing the waters so speak. Also, Fruitless Pears are about to bloom and light everything up with their colors. And some of our winter birds will be packing up and going back north with stories of a very cold time in Oklahoma. But nearly 50 inches of snow covered some parts of Colorado and Wyoming this past weekend. I-80 closed for a while as did I-25. But while the heavy snow tore down powerlines and made life hard for the folks up in that area, the temperatures stayed well above the dangerous temps we all suffered in February.
Read moreBack in the 1940s I went to a place we called Victor. Like so many places in rural Oklahoma, Victor has completely faded away. Oh, there are still a few people strung up and down Highway 270 just East of the Big Caston bridge but the only place left that I know is my Uncle Herman’s place. Herman was a brother to Dad. He operated a grocery-gas-station there. A pretty nice one, too. Did a good business. Victor had a school nearby and there was a church and Maxie Cemetery just south of the junction. My grandparents lived just north on Goat Ridge Road, and the road to Wolf Mountain.
Read more