(Book 2!) 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 […]

(Book 2!) 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 […]

(Book 2!) 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 […]

(Book 2!) 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) 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 […]