If I had a Hammer, I would hammer in the morning

Its seems silly but I love that old song as it reminds me of 4-H Club in Shidler.  The first thing comes to mind is I was named King and Debbie Ware was named Queen and she is older than me.  I don't remember if I ever kissed her which was traditional when you are named queen and king but man I thought she was as good as it would ever get.  Just standing there made me nervous.  What a day.

The other thing it reminds me of is getting out of class for club meetings and traveling to 4-H events.  I think I never missed an event.  There was 4-H Roundup in Stillwater every year which is where I met Mike Synar who became president of the state 4-H organization and later became a U.S. Senator from Oklahoma.  I cannot say we ever agreed on anything but he was a focused and a successful Oklahoman by most folks standards.

The state Roundup is where I loved the large crowds that sang songs like the name of this story.  I really don't know the name of the song but the lyrics is what I loved.  I think it was the atmosphere of 5,000 students singing in the football stadium that was so inspiring.  Then there were several days of competition for public speaking, tractor driving and demonstrations and judging contests.  The best thing about Roundup for me was blind dates to dates with girls that thought I was a senior when I was actually only 13.  Man, I had fun.  Once a girl even allowed me to sneak a kiss.  Well, it was not so sneaky but it was a first.

Then there was the Osage County Livestock show where we showed our animals and competed in judging contests.  Now perhaps I should explain what that is.  A judging contest was where you look at four steers, four sheep and four hogs and decide what order they should place against each other relative to some quality guidelines on what make a better animal verses the other.  Now as a side note I tried to do that with some girls but they did not appreciate the concept of being judged and especially when I would start giving my reasoning.  I was a slow learner but I had fun.  OK back to the story.  After you placed the animals you were required to verbally give your reasons to a professional  who would also question your reasoning.  That person would then give you a score for getting the correct order and another score for your reasoning skills.  It was a stressful event but typically our Shidler boys team would do very well.   I believe AJ Jacques and Dean Mills and either Terry Smith or Dave Jacques or Danny McKeaver were on the team.  The team changed every year but personally I thought it was a great time.

Well I should go but when it was all said and done 4-H was a big part of growing up for me and it made a difference in my life and my life experiences.

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Quality of life depends on a good attitude
• Judging animals is OK but judging others is not especially when you are talking about hip size and fullness of chest and width of their loin.  Just don't judge period..... 
• If you have a song to sing, sing it in the morning, all over this land......

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com