OkieMan

Latino extraordinaire

Let’s just call her Julie. A 21-year-old Latina who was born in America to Mexican immigrants. She is now enrolled in a nearby four-year university on her way to becoming an interpreter for the deaf and blind. She should graduate in 2025 with a BA degree. And is bilingual. Fluent in both English andContinue reading “Latino extraordinaire ”

Not so beautiful dreamer.

Where do they come from? I have the craziest dreams and have no idea where they come from or what prompts such whacky scenarios. Is it wishful thinking or watching too many Roadrunner cartoons. Or maybe from reading too many Mad Magazines back in my misspent adolescence. One dream I had it was dark andContinue reading “Not so beautiful dreamer. ”

With a dill pickle on the side.

So, you work with what you got. In my early days of learning to cook, improvisation was the key. If you do not have the correct items as specified on a recipe, then improvise. Right? Well I would try to come close to the recipe as possible. That was my mantra as a 12-year-old. Continue reading “With a dill pickle on the side. ”

Hey boy, give me a bale of hay

Summer 1961. It was summer break between my junior and senior year of high school and a friend and I were way up in northern California working on a cattle ranch. The ranch was approximately 40-miles south from the Oregon/California border and approximately 700-miles north from Los Angeles. Ranch was somewhere between metropolitan Weed andContinue reading “Hey boy, give me a bale of hay”

I will take another slice with pepperoni.

A Pizza Story. I first began to visit this place when I was in junior high in the late 1950s. I would ride with my friend and his parents. They called it pizza. The restaurant was called Deluca’s. But they mostly had pizza and some other ordinary pastas and salads. The pizza was in aContinue reading “I will take another slice with pepperoni.”

He wore his glasses on the end of his nose.

Walter the genius boy. It was fall 1963 and I had just transferred from a junior college in Los Angeles. Transferring to a small private college in Oklahoma City. I did this in part to get out of L A plus my cousin, a recent grad of this small school, thought it could work forContinue reading “He wore his glasses on the end of his nose.”

The medicine store

A bottle of Dr. Good. My grandmother lived in Wilson, Oklahoma. Next door to the towns pharmacist and his family. If my memory serves me their name was Pfeffer. Pfeffer’s Drug store on Main Street in Wilson. A modest store with soda fountain, drugs, sundries, and paperback books and magazines. When I was in collegeContinue reading “The medicine store”

Shakey’s pizza went down

It was a Saturday June 8, 1974. I had just gone on the air at radio station KXXO in Tulsa. My shift started just before six PM. The news services teletypes were clicking and dinging . Weather was the big news at the moment. So my shift started out just reading weather bulletins. The fullContinue reading “Shakey’s pizza went down”

Overnight listening

Do I have a hobby? If you want to call it that. My hobby goes way back long before the internet. Long long before Apps that play a gazillion radio stations on my iPhone around the world. Long before ‘Tune-in Radio.’ When we had moved from Hawaii in 1974 back to the mainland it hasContinue reading “Overnight listening”

Book report

Book Report No courtroom drama. No arguing attorneys. Just banter, bluster, and bereavement. I would call this where “Friday Night Lights’ meets “News from Lake Wobegon.” But yet it is writings from the famed attorney author, John Grisham. It goes something like this, former football jocks return to hometown to pay respects to their belovedContinue reading “Book report”