(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 […]

(First Memories Book) I was probably eight or nine years old when we made our first "expedition" all the way from Norman to Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City. If memory serves, it was a 9,000 mile journey that took about three months.I was either with Steve, or my cousins, or all of them, and […]

(First Memories Book) Somewhere along the way, my Dad found an old, lever-action Daisy BB gun.  It didn't have much power. Even so, I'm sure Dad had trepidation about giving it to me. But it was free, and free was good back in the day.  So, after I promised to never shoot at birds or dogs […]

(First Memories Book) I died and went to heaven when the Ryans, our long-time family friends, bought a working farm in Tucson. Even though vacations were only for “rich people”, somehow that summer we had enough money to go see their new Ponderosa. Partner, from dawn to dark thirty every single day, I was doing […]

(First Memories Book) Okie moms knew way more than doctors. Bad tummy? Dry toast and flat 7 Up if you were puking. Chicken noodle soup with Saltine crackers if not. Fever? A cool, wet washrag draped over your forehead. An aspirin hidden in a spoonful of grape jelly. And a mug of honey & lemon juice […]

(First Memories Book) If you grew up in Oklahoma in the Sixties, you HAD to watch the Foreman Scotty Show every day after school. It was the law. The half-hour show featured Foreman Scotty, Xavier T. Willard, Cannonball and a whole mess of screaming kids. If you were lucky, one day you got to be […]

(First Memories Book) It's been 60 years or so, but I still remember that ginormous Tennessee Walking Horse. We were at my Aunt Mackie's house on West 24th, back when that was wayyy out of town. I was maybe four or five, and probably about three feet tall. The Tennessee Walker was the biggest thing […]