Looking Back ......more

That summer in Oklahoma was like a graduation present from my parents for completing Grade School. I suspect that in today's world you would never send your 13 year old child , boy or girl on a three Bus trip across country.

But 1959 was a simpler time ...and a harder time as well. I remember constantly looking out the windows , taking in as much of the scenery as I could ...I enjoyed the different stops , I especially remembered Salt Lake city and seeing the Mormon Temple there ...and wondering where the lake was.

From Oklahoma City to Muldrow was a few hours drive it was night and there was a fierce storm lighting our way , on one occasion I know I saw a lightning bolt hit so close to the bus that the pavement was bone dry when the bus raced over it.

Late that night my Uncle peeked into the bus and shouted my name , and I left the bus an onto a summers adventure in the land of my Mothers birth.

My uncles name was Mel , he was the town barber in Muldrow , he smelled of hair tonic and shaving cream, had a twinkle in his eye , and an easy way with conversation. His wife was my mothers Sisters , Aunt Alice , Aunt Alice is still alive , the last of four children born in the hard times of hard scrabble , storm tossed , Oklahoma. She looks alot like my mother , younger , and less weary , My mother had two boys , Alice and Mel had no children.

Muldrow Oklahoma is a small town , a very small town , my mother had one Brother Otis who had nine children and one brother James who had two children , then two more . Several of Otis Children were close to my age and we spent that summer adjusting to being teenagers.

There are a few memories from that summer , driving a tractor , poisonus snakes , foul tasting well water , catfishing at night watching a tornado head our way. That summer I found how how blessed I was living in Oregon.

Mel and Alice were pretty comfortable , with no children and a corner on the Barber shop trade , they lived well within their means. Otis was a different story , likable , but indifferent to work , Otis was an inconsistent provider. The children lived a hard life , those things I took for granted like candy bars , and bottled cokes were rare treats for his kids. There was occasional Ice Cream but it was handmade , and the hand making was difficult work.

And there was more ...there was a poverty of education , I must have sounded like an Ivy league professor to those nieces and nephews and they didn't care much for professors ...they were disdainful and untrusting of education , preferring the " street " smarts of a city that had few streets.

And by their standards I must have been quite a nerd , struggling with hay bales , driving the tractor into the pond, and putting a hole in a 50 gallon oil drum while target practicing for a planned squirrel hunt.

The Squirrel hunt turned out to be a turning point , they had armed me with a 22 while they carried shotguns, they knew I would be at a disadvantage with the single shot rifle, yet when it was over I had two squirrels to my credit and the three cousins that adventured out with me had none.

I have to thank my dad for that ...he was a very good hunter and taught my brother and I how to shoot and shoot well . We trained on a single shot 22 and learned to make one shot the right shot.