(New Book!) One minute, I was running around Safeway’s aisles, catching the winning touchdown pass, launching my patented half-court hook shot, and sliding into second for a double. Then, somehow, I was hurled into the very tall L’eggs display at the end of the aisle. What happened next was sort of surreal, in slow motion […]

(New Book!) Mom was 18, and Dad was just 17. It’s said that he lied about his age to get married and to join the Navy before War II was over. Dad’s proposal was less than romantic: “If we’re married, and I get killed in the War, you’ll get my Navy pension.” So they quietly […]

(New Book!) The All-Star pitcher stares at home plate. His long-time nemesis stares back, crowding the plate with his size. The pitcher winds up and puts everything he has into a pitch aimed directly at the batter’s left ear hole. But, sadly, my pitch lands about five feet in front of Steve. My 10-year-old arm […]

(New Book) I loved the 4th of July! Every year, we’d buy a smallish bunch of firecrackers, smoke bombs, bottle rockets, fountains, snakes and one Roman candle.  And every year, my Dad, the Fireman, or Fire Marshall, would give The Speech. Thou shalt not: Throw lit firecrackers like hand grenades Shoot bottle rockets at Steve […]

(New Book!) Keep movin', movin', movin' Though they're disapprovin' Keep them dogies movin', Rawhide That was the greatest Cowboyin’ song in the history of the Wild West. And the best thing about the song was the bullwhip at the end.   Some tough hombre cracked his whip a whole bunch of times to let the dogies […]

(New Book!) In the Seventies, Dad’s cousin Sonny heard there was BIG money to be made in worms. A Co-op had been formed in Oklahoma City, and there were plans to have dozens if not hundreds of commercial worm growers. The ones who got in first would make the big money when the Co-op started […]

(First "Memories" Book) I’d been overseas a long spell, working in journalism and public relations, when the Y2K computer bug threatened to collapse the world’s economy.   It made me think about my heritage of blacksmiths and firemen, of cowboys and Indians ─ people who worked with their bare hands. In the photo, that’s my strapping great-grandfather, Charles L. Moore, and his son, my grandpa, George […]

(First Memories Book) 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 August heat, like when I played at Norman High School from 1971-1973. Back then, as a tiny Tiger, my two-a-day breakfast consisted of a big glass of Gatorade, a piece of dry toast, […]

(First Memories Book) As a public service to my fellow Okie Boomers, I offer this useful list of Okie-isms, mainly contributed by my Mom and my Dad's cousin, Sonny. Hootis (n):  \who-tiss\ Pretty much anything. My Dad, the shade tree mechanic, and Sonny often had this conversation while Dad was halfway under the car and […]

(First Memories Book) We had a mimosa tree in our front yard on Nebraska Street, and half a dozen in the back. Every summer, the locusts would sing their heads off as they tried to suck them dry. My next door neighbour, Eddie, and collected the old locust husks from the mimosa trees and fed […]