(From Book 1) As a kid in Norman, you knew that when it rained, it poured. I remember water gushing out of our new house's downspout so hard that it ripped up the Bermuda grass. Sometimes, the rain and hail would overwhelm the gutters, and sheets of water would come over the side. If you […]

(This Memory is from the Okie Boomer's reporting years in Texas) I must have seen a million Willie Nelson concerts when I was a reporter in Waco back in the 80s. It even feels like I knew him personally, because I interviewed so many people who did. Like Marge Lundy, who was one of those […]

(FIRST BOOK) I may have implied in the previous Memory that defensive players like me were never allowed to hit Dean Blevins because of the Pink Quarterback dress he always wore. That's not entirely true. I did pole-axe him one time in the meeting room. I wasn’t made a starter for Norman High until I […]

I’m driving back from town with take-away dinners. I slam on the brakes on our gravel road when I see a dead ferret in the road. Why? Because they pose a serious threat to our wildlife! And every year, Hunting and Fishing NZ stores host a contest that gives away $45,000 in goodies to customers […]

MORE Memories of an Okie Boomer (Book 2) When I was growing up, our family’s Thanksgiving ritual was more carefully planned and executed than the Battle of Normandy. A couple of weeks before Halloween, my Mom would buy a frozen turkey about the size of our German Shepherds and harder than a bowling ball. Then […]

Hobos used to be sort of like leprechauns in downtown Norman. We talked about them a lot, but nobody ever saw one. One time a guy told me that the awful smell at the annual Lion’s Club Carnival, held on the southwest corner of Main Street and the railroad tracks, was a Hobo who’d been […]

(First Memories Book) Most of my "Memories" are from when I was littler. But with brutal summer football practices approaching, now's the time to share this one... SURVIVING TWO-A-DAYS WAS AN ABSOLUTE MIRACLE Other than war, there is nothing more traumatic, more hellish for a young man, than Two-A-Day football practices. Especially in Oklahoma's brutal […]

(New Book) Before I started school, there was nothing, and I mean nothing, better than watching "Lunch with Ho-Ho" on KOCO Channel 5. When the theme song started, Pokey the Puppet would start wildly jumping all over the place. Jeanie the Boston terrier would chase her rubber ball into her doghouse. And then the fun […]

(From 'Memories 3') I spent a significant part of my childhood totally blind, with glowing red eyes and a blank expression. We have a drawer full of photos to prove it, somewhere. They’re probably at my oldest sister Lynn’s house. Or at Cathy’s. Or in somebody’s attic. But I know we kept all the old […]

(From 'Memories 3') ...Woe be it to thou and thy household, for a thousand generations, if there was no Cain’s coffee percolating away when Dad got home. I guess that was fair because most firemen were sort of addicted to cigarettes and coffee, maybe because they were so often sleep-deprived. When we kids would visit […]