Life Activities & Ideas

Growing up, one of my favorite memories was walking out the back door to our farm house in the early morning, and hearing hundreds of meadowlarks singing in the north pasture. It was particularly heavenly when there was frost on the grass, the air crisp and cold, breath hanging in a mist. That sweet song…

Tuesday, September 19th, around 2:00 PM, I had an unsettling experience. Driving on FM 813, about three miles from US 287, I came upon a State Trooper SUV traveling 25-30 MPH, repeatedly weaving over the center line, then over the shoulder line. I felt the driver must have been impaired and called 911. I gave…

In my youth, I attended a typical country church about three miles from our farm. The old building had long pews, wood floors, high ceilings, and a raised platform in front, with space for a pulpit and choir. My earliest memories there are of fidgeting around on a hard pew, while the preacher droned on…

One of my interests (obsessions?) is with skilled practices of the past that have fallen into disuse, especially those related to agriculture from before the industrial revolution relieved us of doing everything by hand. I mentioned to my brother that I’d recently been researching the use of scythes and sickles for mowing and harvesting crops….

In Geary, Oklahoma, a town of twelve hundred souls, we had more than our share of entertainment businesses, including a theater with a balcony (previously designated for segregating black folk), which during my time, became a teenage “make-out” section. We had a hall, a meeting place, used for Friday night dances for the young and…

My mother’s father struggled in Arkansas as a poor but hard-working coal miner. My grandmother died soon after my mother was born. He raised her and her older brother as a single parent, never remarrying. I learned over time he’d left mining once his children were grown, working at various trades, including watch and clock…

I grew up in Western Oklahoma, where it was so arid we had little trouble with chiggers. When we went to visit relatives in Arkansas, it was another itchy story altogether and heaven for chiggers. We would have suffered hundreds of bites except for the wisdom of my mother and her poor but practical kinfolk….

I grew up “dirt poor” on a farm in western Oklahoma in the 1950s. Most of my clothes were handmade by my mother or hand-me-downs, except for the jeans we worked in. Nearly all our food was raised on our farm and cooked from scratch. Socks and underwear were Christmas presents, as well as fruit…

People tend to fall into two camps as far as their pets go – there are cat people and dog people. Some have both, but most have a definite opinion. In the past, cats and dogs, especially in rural areas, had practical working duties to earn their keep, but today most are kept as companions….

Sometime in the late 1950’s, my mother became, for better or worse, a health “nut”. At the time, my opinion was that it was something of a tragedy. No more store-bought white bread, fewer sweet treats, and honey instead of sugar. The list of no-no’s grew as time rolled on. It all started innocently enough….