Christmas Candy

It has to do something with how you are raised but mom's Christmas fudge was the best ever.  Every year mom  would fill the house with the smell of chocolate and the truth is Debbie helped her every year.  They would cook up a storm during the holidays.  It always seemed to start with Thanksgiving and then it was just continued through Christmas.

Like I said my favorite was the milk chocolate fudge filled excessively with pecans, from Uncle Don Lane's of course.  For some reason they never cooked the divinity with pecans but I sure loved it as well.  But they also made Uncle Bill's candy which was almost like a praline filled with pecans but better.  Man!, that was good eat'n!

It is funny how things change over time but back in the "good old days"  we did not have those little pretzels shaped like folding your hands across your chest.  Try doing that and you will see what I mean.  In fact if you did not know it that is where the design came from and it was done by the Amish to symbolize prayer.  Anyway, what we did have was the large pretzels and straight pretzels.  Now during the Christmas season as I remember it Debbie came up with the idea of dipping those pretzels in chocolate and again, that was some good eat'n.  

Another interesting adventure that came along later in life and has nothing to do with our topic was my good buddies Joe Bowie and Rollin Nash and I decided we should diversify and get into the Auntie Anne's Pretzel business.  We thought it was a great idea and a great product so we purchased eight stores in Oklahoma.  In fact I went to Pretzel University in Pennsylvania where Auntie Anne's home office is.  And you should know there really is an Auntie Anne and I really did make pretzels.  This was a great learning opportunity for a lawyer (Rollin), an investment advisor (Joe) and a computer geek (me).  We learned you should never purchase a company that you are not going to be intimately involved in on a day to day basis.  In fact we learned a lot about what not to do when you diversify into things you know nothing about but that is another story.

Well back to the story of Christmas Candy.  I don't know what it is about Christmas Candy that makes Christmas so special or if it is Christmas that makes Christmas Candy so special.   But I do know one thing and that is memories of Christmas are special.  Mom and Debbie made the warmest and merriest house in the Osage.  They still do today and I am thankful for them both.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Christmas is more than a holiday
• Candy does not make a holiday
• Christ made Christmas
• Mom and Debbie made memories, good ones

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

"37 years" Ain't it great

four wonderful girls in my life, Kathryn, Shouna, Wynter, MOM/Opal

I cannot help but take the time to tell you what Shouna has put up with over 37 years as of December 21st.  First off lets give a time line or outline:
  * Married just before my last semester at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK
 * Moved to Dallas to work for EDS/Ross Perot
 * Moved to Chicago suburbs to work downtown for EDS
    - got into Amway like almost everyone we knew
 * Had first and favorite girl child in Chicago, Wynter
 * Moved to Oklahoma City to be close to family and worked for what became Fiserv
 * Had oldest son, Chase, now a fireman in Edmond
 * Moved to Colorado for one year while at Fiserv
 * Moved to OKC
 * Moved to Dallas for one year for Fiserv
    - had youngest son, Preston (that is three total)
 * Started company (VAR for IBM) --some good some bad
 * Four years later back to Fiserv
 * While in the data processing business started buying real estate and investing
    - built and owned a chain of day care centers  (early 80's - bad idea)
    - bought more real estate (bad idea - early 80's)
    - "the fat lady sang in Oklahoma and just about everything closed down" 1980's
    - bought land and built a farm/ The Pumpkin Patch in north Edmond (while working for Fiserv)
    - built first house (one of three for our family but who knows how many for others)
    - started a development company and built Clifford Farms in north Edmond
    - started an ATM / money machine leasing company
    - started an armored car company (bad idea)
    - started a meat processing company (bad idea)
    - built lots of houses and more developments
    - lost millions invested  in a development company and started over
    - built more houses and developments to try to recover
    - bought Auntie Anne's Pretzel stores for an investment in Oklahoma (8 stores)
    - built more houses
    - moved two more times
    - built a 2.5 acre garden around our house
    - started numerous companies, some good ideas and some bad
 * Founded a non-profit to serve adults with special needs
 * taught Sunday School for 35 years
 * Finally slowed down and closed almost every company to focus on helping others with their financial planning and retirement planning.

Well I am sure I left a lot out and let me tell you there were lots of ups and downs both emotionally and financially but the one thing that never changed is Shouna.  She has always been:
    * flexible (had to in order to live with me),
    * supportive of everything I did (she always worked side by side in every endeavor),
    *  prayed for me when I thought it could not get worse and it did get worse,
    *  was patient when I was like my dad and had no patience (still that way),
    *  raised our children to be Godly children and then spouses,
    *  reminded me to remember Christ had it a lot worse than me when I would focus on my problems,
    * and most of all she loved me in spite of my faults.

It don't get any better than that.

What do you learn in the Osage?
 * If you find a good one keep her
 * If you think you have a bad one look in the mirror first
 * Rough times are not near so rough when you know you have a partner who is behind you all the way

And one last thing which will get me in trouble.  As the old timer who had a three legged pig once said when a city folk asked him what happened to his pig and he replied, "he was such a good pig I did not want to eat him all at one time".

So one more for "what did you learn in the Osage?"
   *If you get a good pig, KEEP HER.

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com

Throw pillows

I remember when throw pillows came to our house and now I wonder how many children are having emotional problems today because of it. You see I thought throw pillows were to be thrown. Remember what Helen Head and Mrs. steabler and all those English teachers taught us about word tenses and how to speak clearly and then along comes THROW PILLOWS. that threw me for loop, get it?

You guessed it! We threw those pillows at each other and beat each other over the head. When we were done we had thrown them down. And then the wrath of my mother and probably yours came down because we were doing what we were supposed to do with THROW PILLOWS. MAN, I WAS CONFUSED FOR YEARS. can someone explain to me how come a person can be in trouble for taking action which was implied by the name of the pillow introduced by my very own mother? I trusted her beyond a shadow of a doubt. Why would she buy THROW PILLOWS to sit there?

Now all that psychology we learned did not mean a hill of beans because if my mom or dad told me to do something I knew the consequences. So when I assumed by good logic that THROW PILLOWS meant I could use them as weapons against my brother and sister I was in deep trouble. No excuses, just poor judgement in assuming throw pillows meant what it was designed for.

Is that an oxymoron?

So what do your learn in the Osage?

* just because it seems correct it may not be
* physics work - for each action there is an equal and opposite action, like throw a throw pillow and a swat on the bottom comes back
* logic does not always work but common sense would have saved me, I knew better
* There is no excuse for bad behavior

Thanks for your time.
Gary@thepioneerman.com
P.s. Steve Broughton wants to know what was Grainola's mascot and does anyone know of someone who has a Grainola class ring as he is collecting them.

Pecan Pie

Well I told you about picking up pecans and cleaning them so now I want to share with you my Mom's Pecan Pie.  Mom has always been a great cook and her Pecan Pie is about as good as it gets.  I will say that Elaine Davis, my sister in law, is pretty dang good at pecan pie making.  She adds a little Cherokee flavoring to it.

So here it is:
 4 tablespoons melted butter (the real thing)
3 eggs - not those cheap little things but big ones
1 cup white syrup (Karo is what I like)
1 cup white sugar (Cains was what we always had)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/4 cups pecans (Mom likes her chopped)
  some folks like them whole

Beat eggs slightly ( do I need to explain)
add rest of ingredients- mix well
Stir in pecans

Bake 375 degrees 40 to 50 minutes

It may kill you but you will die happy.

What did you learn from the Osage?

• Thanksgiving and Christmas are made for Pecan Pie
• Work brings great rewards (pick pecans and get PIE)
• Has anyone asked you what's a PIEWAY?
• about a pound or two

Thanks for listening,

Merry Christmas and bologna on that political correctness CRAP

gary@thepioneerman.com