Fixing the tractor

I must have been about 12 or 13 years old when our Ford tractor just was not working right.  Dad told me to take it apart and don't lose any of the parts.  He wanted to see if I could find the problem.  Now at 13 that was more than a great deal.  Number one, what was important was that Dad trusted me to do what he said even though he knew I had never tore a motor apart or at least a tractor motor.  Now that I think about it we had an old lawnmower motor which Dad said I could have and I took it apart a few years earlier.   Second, he did not even seem concerned that I would screw it up (term meaning mess things up).  Third, he knew that I would be learning by doing.  Such a novel idea which even today I believe is the best way to learn and I also believe that is why country folks can critically think better than book smarts.  But of course I am just a dumb country boy who fell off the wagon one too many times.

Back to that tractor.  Sure enough once I got it apart, not knowing what words expressed what each part was and there were a lot, I found the problem.  Inside that old tractor where the pistons go up and down was a cylinder with an insert called a sleeve.  The sleeve was cracked from top to bottom and then shattered along the bottom which I assumed was causing the loss of pressure and therefore loss of power.  Now I wish it were that easy but of course not.  I don't remember how much a new sleeve cost but the problem when you live in the country is you just don't drop everything and run to the store.  I don't know about you but if we run out of milk or eggs we go to the store and get them right now but when we were on the farm (come to think of it this is not a good example) we just went without until there were a significant number of needs to warrant a trip to the store.  Back to the bad example:  we had cows and chickens and could get milk and eggs anytime we wanted so it was a bad example.  Well, all the tractor parts were in Ark City, Kansas which was about 55 miles from our house and since I only needed the one part I took off to get it.  

When I got home the sleeve did not fit the cylinder but only by a fraction.  I was sick with worry about what I was going to do but Dad came to my rescue.  He said put it in the freezer, yes the freezer.  Knowing what Dad was thinking I knew the sleeve would shrink enough to slide right in and it did, kinda.  The problem is the house is about 100 yards from the barn and the temperature was over 90 outside and over 100 in that barn and I did not cover it to keep it from unfreezing (thawing).  So about the time I got it half way down the cylinder it was big enough that it was stuck and I mean hard.  I figured Dad would kill me for this one (not literally for you lawyers or liberals).  But he just laughed and we tried a few things to get it down in the cylinder or to get it out, neither worked.  I broke it so off to Ark City (Arkansas City for you non-locals) to get another one.

This time I put it in the freezer for a few hours, wrapped it in towels, ran like crazy to the barn, dropped it in the hole/cylinder and boom I was in business.  Next I just had to get all the parts back in place.  It never happened but the tractor worked great for many years and those extra parts just went into the bin where we kept extra bolts and stuff for whatever need arises.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Sometimes you have to trust a person and allow them to fail or even succeed on their own
• I learned that book smarts has nothing to do with street smarts and I will bet on the street smarts person every time
• Preparation and planning are important elements if you want to obtain some wealth so prepare and plan (call me for financial planning because that is what we do for a living)

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Amazing story of someone who lived through a tornado

This story to my surprise came from Randy Thurman who is one of the two founders of Retirement Investment Advisors.  I work with Randy and Joe Bowie where we provide personalized financial planning for folks like you.  Check out our web site and we would love to help you plan for your future www.TheRetirementPath.com

Ok, here is Randy's story:
Randy Thurman 

We were wiped out by the tornado. In a blink of an eye, we lost every material possession we had. Our story was on the front page of the Capital Hill Beacon with the headline, “Divine Providence.” It certainly was. I survived with minor abrasions; Pati had a nasty cut on her arm and another on her back. Levi didn’t have a scratch on him.
I started the day thinking: I really need some time off. . . I came home after work and started watching the weather. It appeared the tornado would miss us when it turned and it was too late to leave. It was loud. Like continuous thunder without the crackles. Pati, Levi and Myself huddled close in the corner of our bedroom closet. The noise increased. Pati played a children’s tape for Levi, so he wouldn’t remember the sound. It got louder, the windows exploded, a loud crash (an 8” diameter tree was thrown through our bedroom wall). Things started hitting our closet wall . . . like a thrashing machine, then, suddenly, we were outside. Totally outside. Not a wall left. Just us, a blanket and an F5 tornado.
Pati and I were covering Levi and things were hitting me in the back of the head. I yelled to her, get the blanket over my head, she said I’m trying (can you imagine trying to control a blanket in a 300 mph wind). She grabbed the blanket and held it over my head. It is then, we think, something hit her in the arm.
When we came out from under the blanket all our walls, our carpet, toothpicks, etc. were gone. Even our neighborhood was gone. Pati, in a very calm, slow and low keyed voice said, “Randy, no need to panic, but I have a bad cut on my arm and I need your shirt.” My shirt was off in a nanosecond.
The row of houses on our block was totally destroyed. Although the floor plans were almost exactly the same, built by the same homebuilder, the residents took shelter in different parts of their house. No one was killed on our block because each person was in the only place they could have been to survive. Another miracle.
It’s been quite a challenge but things are much better now. A friend of Pati’s asked Levi if he liked his new home. He thought for a second and said, “Yes I do. This one has a roof on it.”
Perhaps Levi said it best when the next night he said, “We prayed hard, God protected us and a big wind blew our house away.” That about sums it up.

What do you learn from such an amazing story?

• Not every story turns out this good but God's plans are bigger than us
• Faith is an integral part of a happy fulfilling life
• Even country folks not from the Osage are hard workers and have strong character

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Tornadoes and the Osage

I remember telling dad that I wished I could see a tornado and boy that was the wrong thing to say.  He jumped all over me as if I saw one it might mean that someone around us was going to be hurt.  Of course I never considered the consequences of seeing one but I sure loved watching those storms roll across the prairie of the Osage.

I am sure many of you have watched the sky boil searching for a funnel cloud.  The amazing thing was the weathermen did not know where a tornado was forming and there certainly were no storm chasers.  I do believe that when farmers hear there is a tornado coming they step outside and look up rather than go hide. Storm watching was great fun to me and I loved feeling the change in temperature and the winds surging down on us as the front rolled in.  The open prairie allowed you to get a great view for many miles of what was coming and of course mom and dad listened to the weathermen while we sat on the porch and watched.  Sure enough as soon as they thought it was close we would head for the cellar.  If you don't remember we had an underground cellar made of bricks where we stored the potatoes and other canned goods for food during the winter.  Maybe I just don't remember but I don't recall worrying about black widow spiders and brown recluse spiders or snakes in the cellar.  Our biggest worry was that the potatoes were strung across the floor of the cellar to dry out and stay preserved for eating later in the winter months.  We had to move them around to get in the cellar as there were hundreds and hundreds of pounds of potatoes in the cellar.

There were only two tornadoes that I remember hitting a house and one was on a hill going to Pawhuska where a house was completely wiped out and the other was one that hit by Tanny and Nanny Olsen's house.  We went over to Tanny's house and it was absolutely amazing.  Tanny and Nanny (yes that is their names) sat in their chairs in what was a walkout basement or room in their house and watched as the tornado came down the creek toward the house (west to east).  The tornado picked up one barn and literally threw it across the creek where it was smashed up against the trees.  Next it came to a barn filled with wheat and it sucked all the wheat out of the barn while picking up the barn and sitting it back down on the foundation but turned on its foundation about a foot or two.  As I recall there was another barn that was emptied of corn or some grain but it was a round metal grainary which was not damaged at all.  Then the tornado came toward the house where it jumped over the house with zero damage and went up on the hill by the stock pens and across the prairie.

Anyway if you don't know it Debbie, my sister, and her son Richard Crow build storm cellars for above and below ground.  The name of their company is Ground Zero out of Perry, Oklahoma.  Yes, that is a plug for them.

I think I could have been a storm chaser had we had the technology in the "good old days".

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• One person's beauty is another person's disaster
• The furry of a storm/torando is preceeded by a beauty all its own
• I learned to take with me in life good memories and to discard the bad

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

How far did I travel and how to get to school?

I know everyone has heard from their parents especially in the Osage, "we walked 5 miles to school barefoot and up hill both ways to school".  At least that is how I remember mom saying it (maybe a little different).  Anyway I was thinking about this subject and what I want my kids to know about my parents and their parents and what it was like growing up and going to school.

My favorite story is about their grandfather, Clifford Woodrow Olson, who was born in Anoka, Minnesota in about 1916.  He lived in the country and they walked to school most of the time but also road horses to school on occasion.  But the best part was dad made his own snow skis and skied to school in the winter.  Sometimes Grandad Olson would hitch up the horses and sleigh, yes sleigh, and take them to school on a sleigh.  Mom still has the sleigh bells.  Dad also had snow shoes for the deep snow in winter.  Now that is a pretty good contrast to hear in Oklahoma where when we get an inch of snow we let school out due to the disaster.  What a joke.

Anyway the other thing that was really cool is how they made the snow skis.  They would pick wood with a straight grain in it and then boil the wood until it became limber at which time they would shape it like a ski then allow it to dry in the new shape.  After it was dry they would sand and wax the ski and attach the apparatus that attached to your shoes.  I doubt I would ever get over weight if I walked or skied to school everyday.

Now mom, Opal Wanetta Olson, was born and raised in Oklahoma.  She lived in what is now the Bob Jackson house one mile west and about a quarter mile north from Grainola.  She was part of a large family that lived on the hill and they walked to school everyday.  She lived like everyone else through the depression and farming was not a hobby but a way of life for everyone in the family.  They had a giant garden and lots of farm animals and not a lot of money.  Mom use to tell us how they would get a new pair of shoes each year as in ONE pair.  Kathryn, can you imagine one pair a year and not those high heals?  Interestingly enough the Lane sisters and two brothers never had a weight problem.  Mom is 83 years old and walks about 5 miles a day, NOW.  Maybe I should do that?

Then there was Debbie-Larry-Gary (that is what mom called me when you was a little frustrated with me) who road the bus to school and we lived one mile north and three west of Grainola (population 36 not counting dogs and cats).  Bob Scott was our driver until we consolidated to Shidler in the 8th grade and then Don Conner was our bus driver.  Because Shidler had the largest school district in the state and we were the farthest house on the route I road the bus over one hour each way to school.  I really did not mind it and I thought it was better than walking to Shidler which was about 16 miles to school.  I learned to enjoy seeing everyone on the bus each day and driving the back roads to pick everyone up.

The most memorable trip was when we lost a bus tire and got stranded not to far from Leb Custer's house.  Bob sent two of the guys to get help and we watched a storm rolling through while we waited.  What was so interesting is that there was  a tornado north of us that we watched for a long time.  We thought it was a few miles north of us.  My dad was a couple of miles north of us and he thought the tornado was a couple of miles south of him.  Wow!  We were surprised to find that out.

I guess I just loved the adventure.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Enjoy every peace of the pie or in plain English, enjoy the journey
• Riding the bus is like looking at people, there is something going on all the time on the inside and the outside
• Seek and ye shall find adventure in everything you do and YOU make it what you want in life

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

When I was a little boy? Things have not changed much.

I don't know what got it started but it might have been Vea Harris and her Iris garden or my mom and dad who loved to garden or when we built our new house and they landscaped around the house.  

Whatever was the cause I am not sure but when I was about 8 years old I started saving my money so I could buy flower seeds to plant around the house.  Zenias were my favorite especially the old fashioned variety which had those huge flowers in all kinds of colors.  Marigolds were also a favorite as you could almost never have trouble growing them.  There is something special about growing things and I was particularly enamored with growing rhubarb so mom could make dad and me a pie.  I always wondered if anyone else caught the same disease as me but I have since found out that at least one person has and that is Paula Jones (class of 69 I believe) who actually writes a newsletter for her garden club down in Texas.  But of course everyone knows we grow everything better in the Osage.

Well here I am today and the only difference is that I spend more money planting and growing.  My wife, Shouna, enjoys the garden as well and quit frankly she spends more time in it than I do.  Have you ever heard, "the difference between the men and the boys is the price of their toys"?  Well I think that is true in this case.  

Well if any of you Shidlerites, Web Cityites, Grainolaites, Forakerites or Burbankites get a chance to come by I would love to show you our garden.  Give me a call or email and we will work out a time.

By the way has anyone figured out how to find Boug's pickles anywhere besides Atwoods?  I ran out and need more and in fact have worked with someone on putting them in their store in Edmond if I can get them.

So what did I learn in the Osage?

• Find something you love and do it
• Share what you love with others
• Work is a great recipe for a bad attitude so get outside and do something

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Who was your hero?

As it turned out I lost everything I wrote on this one and lost it.  Sorry for the confusion.

Anyway we all have heroes and some are huge but most are small events in a person life based on something someone said or did that made a difference.  Most of the time those "Heroes" don't even know they are heroes.  So here is a short list but let me make sure you know this is a short list of probably a hundred folks who made a difference in my life.  One last thing, when I say made a difference it might just mean that something they did inspired me and you might not call them heroes although I am going to stick with that definition.  One qualification I do have is that it was a positive influence.

My abbreviated list of heroes and why or what they did:

• Vernon Snyder, Uncle Snyd, was an inspiration and he is really Bill and Suzie Snyder's uncle and not mine but that is what I called him.  Uncle Snyd was a WW II hero who was in the death march in the Philippines and four years in prisoner of war camp.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March  Uncle Snyd, short of giving his life, gave his eye sight due to starvation and no feeling in the bottom of his feet and his ability to drive or have a normal life so that YOU and I would be free.
• Andrew Glazebrook - another war hero who fought in WW I and when they refused to let him fight in WW II due to what was called smooth mouth (meaning he had lost all of his teach) he had surgery at his own expense and pain so he could fight again for YOU and ME.
• Lizzy Scott who was our school cook in Grainola who loved and served us everyday.  Of course it was her job but she did not act like it was a job and she served us with a smile and cooked with love.
• Beth Shumate who taught me 4th, 5th and 6th grade and who insisted on me writing clearly.  She hugged us because she loved us and she punished us and disciplined us when we were not.  She taught us to respect and love to learn and she taught us to laugh at ourselves.
• Gladys Snyder, Aunt Gladys, who taught me to love puzzles and math because she praised me (maybe she was just surprised and her expectations were low, just kidding) which made me want to do my best.
• Coach Gilbreth who encouraged me in the 7th grade that I should play football for him.  I did not really know anything about football but it made me think I could and I knew an adult wanted me to be on his team.  Because of him football became a passion.
• My Dad who taught me to work and most of all it was literally and figuratively his footsteps that I sought to duplicate.  I never wanted to disappoint him and I always wanted to take big steps to stay up with him.  He always said, "let's do something even if it is wrong".  I know that does not sound good but why sit on our butts and watch TV when there is something worth while we can do.
• Mom, who served and cooked and cleaned and motivated me to do my best.  I think she even ironed my underwear when I was a kid she was so insistent on being neat and clean.  She would always ask me if I was going to college or dig ditches or clean out sewer systems.  She knew by asking she was getting me to make a decision to chose a positive path at an early age.   She was a positive thinker.
• Jim Heath challenged me to read by his example and he made me laugh uncontrollably with his dry humor and remarks.  Does anyone remember the Girdle comment?
• Hugh Jones was my every day competition to be tough (he is a Marine) and he won but I loved the challenge.
• Jon Tanny Olsen because he was like an engineer who did not go to engineering school.  He could figure things out and he could solve problems.  He could fix anything and then he would laugh and never get too serious.  
• Denise Logue who put up with four boys in her class and was always a lady.
• Helen Head (let's be honest in that no matter how old she was we all called her old lady Head), she insisted on greatness in writing and thinking skills.  I think she forced us to think creatively.  When she would walk in the class and drop a ping pong ball and then say, "write a story on what you saw" she made us think outside the box.  Mrs. Head had a frog that jumped when you squeezed on an air ball attached and she made us write about it.  She made us write poetry which I actually grew to love.  She taught us to write and to think.
• Norman Voss, an Oklahoma Christian student in 1973, who challenged me to figure out what my belief system was relative to God and Christ.
• Paula Neal who hounded me and prayed for me all through college and made sure I came to know Christ as my personal savior.
• Ross Perot who was the owner of the first company I worked for in 1975.  He insisted on folks that had a great work ethic and he valued hard work and loyalty over brilliance  He demanded that doing what was right was more important than money.  He served and by serving he led.
• Joe Bowie, my partner, who loves Christ and believes in doing what is right no matter the consequences.

This list can go on and on.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Heroes are common people who do uncommon things without trying
• Leadership is serving by example
• Making a difference is easy if you just do the right thing most of the time

Thanks for listening and go thank one of your heroes,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Joe Curnutt - Otasco

I don't know about you but some things haunt you for life.  For me it was when I was about 9 years old and I needed a needle to air up my basketball.

I was next door getting my hair cut at Don's and I remembered I needed to get an air needle to air up my basketball.  Well I loved to go to the Otasco store and look around because they had everything a person could ever want.  They had toys and hammers and nails and bolts and v-belts for everything.  I thought it was about the coolest store ever and it was right down town Shidler.  I also remember that Joe Curnutt owned it and he had two kids, Buddy and Shirley.  Now if there were more family members than that I just missed it and I don't remember the first name of their mom either.  But I do remember that about every time we went to town dad needed to go see Joe Curnutt to get some bolts or something.  My favorite part was looking at the toys and in particular the toy farm equipment.

Anyway when I was in there looking around I found the needles and of course back then they did not package them so you had to have dynamite or a college education to open a package.  They just put a pile of them in a bin and you picked one out.  Back then they trusted folks which was a cool thing except for this very day.  You see I was young and no one was paying me much attention and those needles cost about 10 cents of which I was concerned about.   You see 10 cents could get you two packs of Wriggly Juicy Fruit Gum ( 5 pieces per pack) or a 16 oz. Pepsi or a Baby Ruth candy bar or Butter Finger.  Man, doesn't that make you want a pop and candy bar?  Well the problem was that I made a bad decision that day and I picked up that needle and I guess since folks were busy and I was a kid no one was paying attention so I finally just took off.  YES, I stole it.  I could not sleep that night.  It haunted me for years and of course I still cannot forget it because I knew it was wrong at the time.  Well I am sure Joe is in heaven and laughing at me but I really did need forgiveness for my error.  I knew that day I had sinned against God and Joe and his family.  I am a firm believer that that day made a difference in my life as I never wanted to steal again and I knew it did not make me feel good about who I was or what I wanted in life.

Now that brings me to today and I read an article of how crime was down but that is not the truth.  I can give you example after example of where crime is not only not down but up.  You see what is happening is that breaking the law is so cumbersome that the police don't or can't do anything because the courts are so burdened and the lawyers are so expensive that small crimes are not prosecuted.  Now let me describe small crimes.  My partner and I for about 5 years owned the Auntie Anne's Pretzel stores in Oklahoma (8 stores) and several times we were robbed by employees and could prove it.  One time we had about $8,000 stolen by the manager of a store and we had it on film.  The police told us that it was not worth their time as the courts would throw it out because the manager would just say that someone else stole the money and he did not see who took it.  You see the problem is the money was locked up and the manager was the only one with a key and we have a film of him putting the money in the locked room and leaving but there is no money in the room the next morning.

OK, if you are not convinced let me tell you another story.  I had a lawn mower stolen that was worth about $1500 and I found it (it was marked with my identity) at a local lawn repair place who was selling it for $250.  Of course the owner says he bought it and I asked, "who from" and of course he says he does not remember.  The police show me pictures of the person who stole it and the fact that this repiarman buys stolen lawn mowers every month from the same person who stole mine.  They explain to me that they can't do anything about it and the courts don't want to mess with this small stuff.

How about another story.  I have a friend who bought an airplane and the lady who sold it did not disclose a mortgage on the plane and the bank had not filed the mortgage for over two years.  She got the money and my partner wound up paying the bank almost $200k to keep his airplane and on top of that he is about $200k deep into legal fees trying to recover the money and the lady is off Scott-free (does anyone know where this term comes from?).  It pays to steel.  Net, net my partner has spent almost $600k to keep an airplane that originally cost him about $200k and the lady who sold it is not being prosecuted for fraud.

I have lots more stories just like this but the fact is people who steel air-needles or sell airplanes fraudulently should be prosecuted and there needs to be quick justice and consequences.  If my dad had known I guarantee I would have stood before Mr. Curnutt and apologized, paid for the needle and then I would have had consequences at home, without discussion or an attorney, and then a spanking and probably no dinner and extra chores.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Your self esteem  is dependent upon your integrity
• God sent Jesus so that we may be forgiven but we still must reconcile with fellow man 
• No one but you is responsible for YOUR bad actions regardless of circumstances or other folks actions
• We all need forgiveness and we all need to give grace to others

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

What was your favorite past time as a child?

This question was presented to me by my daughter, Wynter (what a great name), and the first thing that came to mind was collecting crystals along the old Midland Valley Railroad.  Well I don't know about you but that railroad was full of dreams and adventures for me.

I loved walking up and down those tracks looking for those almost clear but white crystals.  Billy Snyder and Kenny Kelsey were my mentors on this one as I admired their collections.  Billy had the most and the biggest collection including the biggest crystal which was about 2 inches cubed.  I could walk those rails for hours looking for railroad spikes and always worrying that when I took one that it might cause the train to derail.  I bet I had a hundred of those over the years.  Another great thing to do was get a penny smashed by the train.  That was a real collectors item as you typically could not find the penny after the train had passed.  All of these things together created a barter system where you could trade baseball cards, crystals, railroad spikes and smashed pennies.  Free enterprise was born in the Osage.

Another really great thing I learned is you could put your ear down on the rail and if the train was getting close enough you could hear the vibrations.  But let me tell you when that train did come it scared the crap out of me.  Now I always got in trouble for saying that but the word does fit and besides everyone seemed to use a much more definitive version of the same word without rebuke.  I use to say that shit, damn and crap were the three favorite words of most adults.  Now I will give you one example that I remember of a person who NEVER used an unkind or off color word and that was Charles Codding.  I suppose there were others like Kernny Graham, the pastor of the Grainola, Shidler, and Foraker United Methodist Church but we had an expectation of that.  Now one more divergent comment and that is how I was so amazed when Larry, Sally, Janie, Suzie, Billy, Kenny, Glen and a host of others graduated from high school and suddenly had a new vocabulary just like the other adults.  I guess that going to college is where they all learned those new words and how to most effectively use them.  Freedom of speech I think is what they called it.  I use to give them a hard time until I got educated as well.  It is funny but I guess most folks go through a phase like that as I have noticed none of them including me use those words too much anymore.  Oh well, back to the train.

I am not sure what year it was but the old Midland Valley stopped running and they sold the tracks and the railroad ties.  The great thing about it was we got paid 50 cents a piece to pick up those railroad ties.  Some folks used them for fence post and I really have no idea what happened to the rest as there were ten's of thousands to be picked up.  Anyway I use to love to think about where those rails would take me and how fun it would be to jump on and see where you would wind up.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Competitive nature was born in collecting crystals on the railroad
• The joy of adventure lives in the Osage
• Free enterprise will always exist even if the government takes over

Thanks for listening and thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

This story is dedicated to my kids who asked me about my favorite past time.

Sam Greenhaw - Kaw City and my shoes

Now I don't know how many of you even knew Sam but he left Shidler before he graduated and ultimately moved to Edmond where he opened a shoe repair shop.  When we moved to Edmond about 15 years ago we had to locate all new service providers as we use to live in Yukon/Mustang area.  Growing up like we did you always needed a boot repair or shoe repair store and I stumbled upon Sam.  His shop was about a half mile south of 2nd street in Edmond on Boulevard in an old red house that was particularly attractive.

It was several years after we moved to Edmond and we were regulars at Sam's but one day Shouna (my wife) was in there doing something and she saw a person she thought she recognized, Frank Ball.  She had met Frank probably one time during a high school reunion but she knew she knew him.  That was the day we found out Sam was from Shidler.  Frank and Sam were old friends from the Webb City and Shidler area.  They grew up together although I believe Sam was a bit older than Frank.  I also found out that Frank knew how to repair shoes and had a temporary shoe repair store in Chandler.  The reason I say temporary is not because it was there for  a short period of time but because what I learned was that Frank had a full time job and only opened his shoe repair store when he felt like it or when it was convenient.  Over the next several years I stopped by that store to see my old buddy and NOT ONE single time did I find his store open.  That is why I say temporary.  If you know Frank you know what I know and that is Frank is about as nice a guy as you will ever find and that he was relaxed about the shoe business.  Well anyway back to Sam.

After that incident I found myself wanting to visit with Sam and connect about how great Shidler and the Osage was.  He and I carried a common enthusiasm for our home.  Quit frankly Sam enjoyed more talking about Shidler and Web City than he did fixing shoes.  He was a delightful person but passed away a few years ago after being ill on and off for about a year.  I never knew any of his family so when I started finding his store closed every day for a couple of months I was worried.  In fact people were writing notes and putting  notes on his door plus his mail box was full to overflowing.  One time I even called the police to go check on him just to find he was sick and someone was taking care of his mail and helping folks recover their shoes which were left to be repaired.

Sam did not keep good records as he had boxes of shoes and you either had to know which ones were yours or he just knew which ones were yours.  Sadly enough one day I found a note saying Sam had passed and the store was being closed.  The note invited you to come by at certain times and pick up your shoes.

If you know anymore about Sam please drop me a note as I enjoyed visiting with him and becoming friends.  He died in about 2010.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Even when you have moved you took your love and passion with you
• There is a sense of pride folks carry around when you are from the Osage
•  Count your blessings and if you are from the Osage your glass is half full not half empty

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com