Since I brought up her age I would like to remind you Larry, her oldest son, is 61 and Debbie, her only daughter, is 59 and her favorite son, me, is 58. So you go figure out how she can be 37.
As a side note and major update, Sally and Darrell are recovering from the tornado damage. Just last Friday they hauled off 20 loads of debris. Can you explain to me why we don't spell debris - debree? Anyway, there is still a bunch of stuff to haul off and that did not include the trees which are piled high all over the place. And another note which I got from Darrell that just gets me POed (Put Out) is that Darrell was talking to FEMA and they basically don't do anything for his family because Darrell and Sally were responsible enough to purchase insurance. If they did not have insurance and filled out all the paperwork and qualified financially they could get a loan from the tax payers at 6% interest but if they did not have insurance and did not qualify they could get a loan from the tax payers (the government) for 4% interest. Now the way Darrell tells it and I agree is that if you are not responsible enough to purchase insurance and not good at your finances so that you do not qualify financially due to bad credit you can get a subsidized loan from the government. Kind of reminds me of Robin Hood, steel from the middle class and give to the poor. Notice I did not say the rich. WOW, no wonder we have so much problems.
Well again back to the story. It was a delight to see Larry (newly retired) along with Sally (newly retired) and Bill (newly retired) and Mom (not so newly retired) all in one location. Debbie and I were the only ones not retired not to include the other younger relatives. We sat around eating too much and telling stories all day. That is what you do at reunions, tell stories. The good and bad of that is you find that what you thought was the story was wrong. For example: Sally was riding a horse and someone threw a fire cracker under the horse which got spooked. Sally blamed it on me and of course I was innocent but Bill admitted that it was probably him. Another story that was different, depending on who was telling it, was about Paul Kelly and Paul Jones working for the Mullendors and all of us hauling hay. As it turned out there were a lot more people who went to high school with all of us that worked on those hay crews and worked for one of the two Pauls. I really did not remember that Paul Kelly was one of the managers at the ranch but I read the book and Paul was mentioned and Bill Snyder told how Paul Jones scarred him to death flying him to one of the fields only to intentionally put the plane in a power stall and then just as the rocks started getting really large got the plane started and pulled out before hitting the ground. Now you may not believe it but I am confident that Paul liked scarring people as he did the same thing to me. Paul Jones has ADHD times two would be my medical opinion which I am not qualified to give but he was a heck of a lot of fun to work with.
Just one side note on Paul Jones. I remember him having what I think was a Bronco pickup that he souped up the engine and it went over 136 miles an hour. The reason I remember that is, it was told, that a Highway Patrolman was clocking it between Pawhuska and Shidler and he verified the speed. Weren't those days great!
Does anyone recall Johnny Payne outrunning a cop? Surely not?
So what do you learn from the Osage:
- People and friendships are forever
- What we remember is the good and as we get older we make it gooder (yes that is a word)
- We don't need the government to bail out everyone who does not take responsibility
- But there are those who do need help and as a personal citizen with free choice let's always help our neighbor rebuild - do the right thing because it is the right thing to do
- Get together often and let's see everyone at the reunion Sept 30 and Oct 1 this year
Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com
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