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| Stinchcomb house before tornado |
A lot of us knew Sally Shumate who is the sister to Janie (Taos, New Mexico) and daughter to Mrs. Shumate who was my 4th, 5th and 6th grade teacher in Grainola. Sally was in the class of 68 and married a guy named Darrell Stinchcomb who was from Minco, Oklahoma. Now I have to tell you Darrell was on the national championship team from NEO in Miami, Oklahoma. Sure hope I got that right on the school.
Anyway the great thing is Darrel and Sally were safe in a "fraidy hole" or celler or storm shelter or tornado shelter if you want to call it that. They both stated how thankful they were in that they did not lose a child like the folks across the road who lost two. Both shared a strong faith in Christ had given them the strength to pickup and move on. Now that is what makes people in Oklahoma different. Sally and Darrell have always been positive thinkers and that just does not change with circumstances.
A great story that came out is Darrell found only a couple of sentimental things, his national championship ring, a national championship watch and his wallet. Sally said that a lady in Perry which I will estimate is 30 miles as the crow flies from Cashion found her Discover Card which was shredded except for the name on the card, Sally Stinchcomb. Pretty cool?
Here is some great things that did happen after the tornado. About 40 to 50 folks showed up to help go through the debree to locate anything that was salvagable which was barely nothing. Their son, Chris, had a bunch of friends from the Iguanna Grill in Oklahoma City show up to help and cook. Wow, what a deal. They were able to help pile things up and make a little avenue to get in and out of the drive way. Both vehicles were destroyed but get this: two different families showed up with vehicles to loan to Sally and Darrell. Another person showed up with a mobile home and said let us know when you don't need it. Lots of folks brought all kinds of food and water, gasoline to run the generator and the Red Cross brought shovels and all kinds of stuff to help dig in the debree.
Now here is an interesting thing to behold. The only remaining attached and in place fixture in the house on top of the slab is this toilet. If you look at the previous picture closely you will see it in the back ground. This is Darrell's thrown.
Well I have to tell you they were excited to see us and Sally hugged mom, Opal Olson, and cried and cried when we first got there. Friends are friends forever or they were not friends in the first place. Mom and Dad and our entire family as well as the Shumates never had a lot of money growing up but just about every weekend they came over and we played cards and other games and shared our lives and dreams together. Mom taught Sally and Janie how to sew and cook as I recall and Mrs. Shumate made me cherry pie and put up with me for three years of school. It was a fair trade and our families were close.
Just FYI, did you know the Shumates lived in the house where David and Jan Harris lived on Beaver Creek before David and Jan did a major overhaul of the house? As we use to say, "the Shumates were UP THE CREEK".
What do you learn in the Osage?
- You may have lost touch with true friends but the feelings are still there when you rediscover them so go find an old one and spend some time
- Always call when someone has a tragedy even if you don't know what to say, they just need to know you care. So even if you look dumb and don't know what to say, just listen.
- You will probably have more friends if you put down the remote, the iphone, the WII, or whatever and play a game where you can laugh and enteract with one another
- How about a game of 10 point pitch? Does anyone still know how to play?
gary@thepioneerman.com
If you would like to drop a line to Sally and Darrell I would suggest you just show up in Cashion or mail it to Cashion and it will find the right place. For you youngens "drop a line" means to write something on paper.
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