Dr. Drummond - so refreshing

 I took my mom to have cataract surgery in Stillwater by Dr. Drummond.  What I experienced was way beyond expectations.  While waiting for mom and before the surgery I was wondering around the office when Dr. Drummond spotted me.  I had not met him before and certainly we did not know each other.  Well, I should say we possibly could have met before at Charles Codding's funeral a few months back when he hosted the celebration of a great life.  If we had met neither of us remembered.

Anyway, he did not know I was the son of his patient and since there were other surgeries going on he could not have known that I was even related to one of his patients.  He took the initiative to introduce himself and then proceeded to inform me as he learned my name that he was the doctor for my mom.  He assured me she was a good patient and that he would take care of mom.

The second encounter was even more impressive.  After the surgery and after mom was settled in her room he came in an sat down in a chair.  He expressed that everything went perfect and then talked us through the recovery process and how to handle medications, etc..  Then! He asked about the family and what mom's kids did and where they were.  He asked about my kids and what they did.  He shared about his family and of course we made some connections in folks we each shared friendships with.  We even have some common relatives.  I made the comment, "you are the most customer focused and have the nicest bed side manner I have ever seen".   His response was even greater, he said, "I am in the service business and my clients are most important".  You would have thought I was at Chick-fil-et or the Apple computer store.  No wonder he LOVED his job, he loved his clients.

I don't know about you but since Joe Rash of Shidler and Cecil Snyder (our family doctor from Winfield, Kansas), Mr. Cornutt (Otasco store) or Wendal Andrews (old time Shidler banker) customer service or client service has been a dying characteristic in business and everywhere else.

Well what do you learn in the Osage?

• Did I mention that Dr. Drummond grew up in the Osage (Hominy and I don't mean the food)?  
• How you treat people is your choice, not your personality.
• Treat folks how you want to be treated.  If you are treated badly perhaps you should check out home plate.
• For all you folks looking for a spouse, the person you are interested in is going to treat you how they treat the waiter, the waitress, their mother or their father.  You have been warned.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Peanuts in a coke

You are not going to believe it but I was visiting with some friends of mine who are in their 50's and they never heard of peanuts in a coke!  I thought everyone knew about putting a package of salty peanuts in a coke bottle (glass in my day) then drank and ate at the same time.  Yes, you do put the entire bag of peanuts in the bottle at one time unless it got too full then you would add as there was space.  Sweet and salty at the same time!  Oh, how good!  Ask Larry Travis, he remembers.

I could not believe it.  Now this has nothing to do with mentos in a bottle of coke and it is not a joke to see if you get fizz up your nose.  What you get is a great drink and peanuts at the same time.

Now if that does not shake you up try this one.  Some folks have never heard of having a Coke or Pepsi with a Moon Pie!  What is going on in this world?  Are kids missing out on the joys of small pleasure because they have too many electronic toys?  Jimminie Christmas, what is this world coming too?  I bet kids can't even go on long bike rides or walk up and down the creek catching crawdads.

OK,  maybe I need to explain catching crawdads in the creek or along a mud hole or around a pond.    These creatures look like mini-lobsters but more brown or opaque.  They burrow down in the mud and are easy to catch as long as you don't let those front pincher's get you first.  The easiest way is to put a piece of bacon on a string and lay it down near the crawdad.  They will latch onto it and you got one.

Now what do you do once you get a few?  Some folks snap off the tales and cook them and eat 'em.  Some folks put them in a boil, whole, then snap off the tails and eat the meat out of the tail and some folks even suck the stuff out of the head.  I never could do that.  At my house we used crawdads for fish bait to catch catfish.  Now I am going to assume you know catfish don't have anything to do with cats other than they have whiskers like a cat.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• A little sugar and salt make a tasty treat
• Kids are missing out by not living in the country
• Kids don't need fancy toys and in fact if you give them nothing they will become creative and think up things to do.  Kinda like Eddie Harris and me but that might worry a parent!

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Frito Chili pie and Taco in a bag

It always amazes how some folks think they have something brand new like "tacos in a bag".  Over 40 years ago you could go to the Dixie Dog in Shidler and get a Frito Chili Pie or in todays speak, Taco in a Bag.  Even Al Gore knew that (that was a joke).

How many things can you think of that someone thought was new and it was actually on its way around AGAIN in popularity?  Well here are a few things I remember and please add to the list:

•   Short skirts - 1968 to 1971

•   Short shorts for girls 1970 to about 1973

•   Frito Pie 1965 to????

•   Wide lapel men's suits - this is one of my favorites because I remember the first time I saw Uncle Snyd in a suit and his suit was about 40 years old but it was in style in the late 1960's.  He had purchased the suit before WWII.  Uncle Snyd is the one I wrote about who was in Japanese prison camps and the Death March in the Philippines.  The other amazing thing about his suit is that it fit after 40 years.  Who can say that?

•   Paisley neck ties have come and gone several times

•   How about stacked heals/high heels?  1970's and now 2010's

•   Long hair on guys was 1960's 

•   Short hair on guys was 1980's and 2000's

•   Shag carpet 1960's and we have seen it again in 2000's 

•   What I call puke green from the 60's and back in the 2000's, oops, someone may like it, sorry.

•   Glass bottles have gone and come back (recyclable)

•   Cloth diapers

The list goes on and on and there is really not much new although we might argue about some of the details but when it comes to eating Tacos out of a bag, you have got to be kidding me if you think that is new!

What do you learn in the Osage?

•   Don’t throw it away because what is not in style today will be in style in the future

•   Except those polyester leisure suits may never come back even though they are not biodegradable

•   If it does not come back then it may really be a collectible, like that Roy Rogers lunch box

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Cleaning erasers

I don't know what was so great about it but if you were chosen to clean the erasers it was a big deal.  I always wanted to be chosen and generally it seemed a contest on who had the best behavior each week.    I especially liked it when we upgraded from those black and white felt erasers to those long spongy erasers with cow hide on one side and a sponge on the other.

Once a week Mrs. Shumate would select a couple of us to go out and clean the erasers.  Basically you would take all of the erasers then head outside and get down on your hands and knees and then pound the erasers on the sidewalk.  If you were creative you would make chalk drawings on the sidewalk while you got chalk everywhere.  It would make your hands real dry and get in your nose and all over your face.  It was fun and of course you got to visit with one of your friends.  I think the girls got to clean erasers more than the guys because Mrs. Shumate did not trust us to behave.

Thinking back on it, I suspect today if we still had chalk boards and erasers it would be deemed an environmental hazard or a health risk and everyone would be delegated to wearing a mask and probably we would have to out-source it to some company who would charge an "arm and a leg" to clean erasers.   Plus they would have to drive to the school, pick them up in a hermetically sealed bag to protect against contamination, haul them off to an off site location where there would be all kinds of environmental protection, put in some expensive machine to be cleaned, then packaged and hauled back to the school where an invoice and an accountant or a CPA would have to be employed to take care of the expense.  Are you like me and think sometimes the EPA over reacts and does not count the environmental hazard they create to protect us from an environmental problem?  KISS - keep it simple stupid - has a lot of common sense.

Now I am not saying we don't have environmental problems, which we absolutely do, but I am saying that by the time you figure out all the CRAP or GRAP (Governmental Regulation and Policing) we have spent more environmental hazard than what we gained.

Just to let you know I really am in favor of protecting the environment.  Let me give you some examples of good GRAP.  When I was a kid and I dare say today it is worse, there are thousands of miles of abandoned pipe laying across the pastures in the Osage plus hundreds of thousands of pounds of cement left abandoned plus what really burns me up is when I see a beer can or whiskey bottle or Styrofoam cup thrown out the car window.  Or how about those cigarette butts?  I contend that the cigarette smoker threw the wrong butt out the window.  Get IT?

I love my wife's approach to training.  If you throw something out the car window, she will stop and let you go pick it up regardless of how big a hurry she is in.

Now back to Erasers.  The great thing about erasers was:

• I got out of the building and outside
• It was an honor to be chosen
• Work was fun
• I never got sick from chalk dust.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• everyone has a responsibility to take care of the environment
• if you mess it up, then you should clean it up
• if you are gonna throw a butt off of a building make sure it is your butt and not the cigarette

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Shoot'n in the Osage or Duck hunting

Eddy Harris and myself a number of years ago

First off, I will have to tell you if you are a PETA (by the way isn't that a type of bread?) person you need to exit right now and probably just never read my blogs.  It will not hurt my feelings and I don't mean to hurt yours.

Eddy, my cousin and closest neighbor, spent a lot of time figur'n things out.  We basically could solve any problem if you just gave us a little time and all the resources available on a farm and ranch.  For example:  We did not like those giant ant hills of red ants so we decided we could burn them out.  So we reduced the amount of available diesel fuel for tractors and poured it down the ant hill/hole.  That was probably adequate to do the job but we thought fire would be an added feature.  Back in those days you had these Diamond matches that you could strike on about anything and get a fire.  You probably can still get them but I would bet the government has done something to regulate them so they are not as good as they use to be.  Sounds like this guy, me, is getting cynical about government help.  Is that what they call an oxymoron, GOVERNMENT HELP?  Anyway we took a box of matches and lit up the diesel and the ant hill.  It seemed to work pretty good and it created a lot of smoke.  That reminds me we also ran and got a sheet one time and tried to make smoke signals but that is probably another story.

OK, back to solving problems and Duck hunting.  I have told you before about how we solved that lack of ability to catch fish, use dynamite.  If you don't remember go look in the Archie's of my blog and you can read about it.  Also we solved some excessive cat problems.  I hope you have forgiven me for that story as well.  Anyway, one day Ed and I and I am not sure but I think Jon Tanny was in on this one, we got out the six shooter (that is a revolver or pistol) and the rifle (30 ought 6) 306 and plenty of shells and we went duck hunting.  Some might say we went shooting but for us we were about 14 years old and we went hunting.  We took off to Tanny Olsen's ranch where as I had always heard there were over 200 ponds.  I never counted them but there were a bunch.  We went sneaking up on pond damns to find ducks, turtles and if nothing else a can or rock to shoot at.  I would have to tell you we did not hit much of nothing with the pistol.  But the rifle was pretty cool.  We were on what we called the Strike AX land and we found a pretty good sized pond.  I would say it was over 100 yards wide.  There was one duck on the pond that day and we started taking turns shooting at that duck.  Of course we missed it a lot but it was kind enough to just swim back and forth as we shot at it.  It was kind of like at the fair where you would shoot at those tin ducks with a BB gun.  Finally the bullets stopped skipping off the water (very dangerous if someone would have been on the other side of the pond) because Eddy hit the duck.

We ran as fast as we could to recover our kill.  I held that duck up and there was a hole through it bigger than a silver dollar and I don't mean one of those Susan B. Anthony jobs.  We laughed our heads off.  Great times and great memories.

Well what do you learn in the Osage?

• with a little time and resource a couple of farm boys can solve any problem
• memories are powerful in that they lift your spirits when you think of the positive ones
• bad memories are like GOVERNMENT HELP, they are not worth remembering

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Hop Scotch

Hop Scotch on a sidewalk 

 Now you may not remember this but during those growing up years we did not have cell phones or texting but we had baseball, alligators (old story I wrote), basketball if it was cold or rainy (it was not an option if the weather was good) and HOP SCOTCH.  Hop Scotch was a game played on the cement (yes, dangerous) where someone would draw out a picture like the one above using chalk.  Usually it was about 10 to 20 squares but could be as big as you wanted.
The way it worked is everyone had a rock and you would throw it and whatever square it landed on you had to not step on the square.  Also when you started you had to jump from row to row but if there were two numbers in the row you planted both feet but if there was one number you had to skip on one foot and the worst would be if the rock was on the single numbered row and you had to totally skip the row.  Each round consisted of when everyone had successfully Hop Scotched through the numbers without a mistake.  If you made a mistake you were out.  The next round would start after another rock was tossed and another square was eliminated.

This was a pretty good game and the girls loved it as they seemed to be the best.  I really liked the game but was rather big and clumsy for my age and probably never won as far as I remember.  Now the smaller guys who were more athletic could be competitive with the girls.

The thing about these games is everyone of every age participated and it was expected that you would get along and not fight or get in arguments.  And of course every game there were mostly losers and one winner.

So what do you learn in the Osage from this little game?

• There are always people with more and less talent than you (except I think I was the least talented every time on this game)
• Learn to enjoy the adventure as that was more important than winning although I would have loved to have been a winner.  Perhaps that is why I am very competitive today and if so then it was a good thing to lose even if it was most of the time or all of the time.
• Learn to get along and stay in line, take your turn, don't complain, respect one another, etc....

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Teach by Example

There are many ways to teach but here are two:

• Teach others by what you do
• Teach others by what you don't do

There are more theories and philosophies out there than you can shake a stick at but one thing for sure is that there are folks watching you.  When I was about 8 years old the Surgeon General of the US came out with a warning that Cigarette Smoking can Kill you.  Suddenly it was on every pack of cigarettes and it was all over the newspapers and TV.  Literally that day my mom quit smoking.  We use to see cigarette butts in the ash trays with red lipstick on them everyday.  I suppose most young folks don't know or have never seen ashtrays lying around the house especially with bright red lipstick on them.  Mom always said she NEVER quit wanting a cigarette but she NEVER picked up one again.    She taught a great lesson without saying a word.  She taught many things without words:

• common sense
• discipline
• commitment
• your actions speak louder than words
• caring about others
• love

I had to ask her why she quit because she did not tell us, she just quit.  Her actions taught both ways, by doing and what she was not doing.

Now let's take this a step further on the logic trail.  If everyone knows it is bad and it is written on the label and you do it anyway, who is responsible?  you or the company?

Let's assume you think it is the company because they pushed cigarettes or even put something in there making it addicting.  Well when you were in the Army the government gave you cigarettes when in combat.  Are they responsible?  If your parents allowed you to smoke then are they responsibile?  When you go to the store you pick up up the package with the label on it and you took your money out of your pocket and purchased it, who was responsible?  If that is not enough to make you realize who is responsible then lets change the topic.

First I have to say I am not a drinker but I don't think the Bible says not to drink.  It says don't do it in excess and if you don't believe me try reading it and prove me wrong.  Now I will have to tell you on rare occasion I have drank a little wine but that is about the end of it.  OK, so back to the point.  Doesn't the same logic of responsibility no matter which way you believe (the company or you are responsible) apply to drinking.  What I mean is if you believe companies make you smoke then companies make you drink.  Companies make you drive. Companies make you eat.  Or?  Parents make you go to school.  Parents make yo get dressed.  Parents tell you right and wrong.  Parents smoke in front of you or drink in front of you.  Parents watch bad movies and use bad language in front of you.  Who is responsible for you?

Well here is what I learned in the Osage?

• I am responsible for my actions, good or bad
• I can be disciplined or not, my choice
• I can be what I want to be if I decide I want to be

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

How do we teach? by example

There is an important lesson here:


A man was walking down the street when he was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless man who asked him for a couple of dollars for dinner. The man took out his wallet, extracted ten dollars and asked,

"If I give you this money, will you buy some beer with it instead of
dinner?"

"No, I had to stop drinking years ago," the homeless man replied.

"Will you use it to go fishing instead of buying food?" the man asked.

"No, I don't waste time fishing," the homeless man said. "I need to spend
all my time trying to stay alive."

"Will you spend this on hunting instead of food?" the man asked.

"Are you NUTS!" replied the homeless man. "I haven't hunted in years!"

"Well," said the man, "I'm not going to give you money.   Instead, I'm going to take you home for a shower and a terrific dinner cooked by my wife."

The homeless man was astounded. "Won't your wife be furious with you for doing that?

The man replied, "That's okay. It's important for her to see what a man
looks like after he has given up drinking, fishing and hunting ."

Well if you are like me you laughed out loud.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Sometimes you should be thankful for what you got
• It may look greener on the other side of the fence but you had better be careful in what you wish for
•  Live longer by laughing at yourself and don't get your underwear in a wad

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Sometimes you need a little change

Gravel road by the Jacques

Well when I was growing up living one mile north and 3 west of Grainola past Vea Harris's house I use to say, "I am not ever gonna live on a gravel road again and won't be back until it was paved".  It is sad when a person has to eat their words but I guess that is the case.

I left Shidler for college at Weatherford, SWOSU and thought I would never want to come back.  I use to tell folks the only reason I went to Weatherford was because out of 56 in my graduating class I figured 21 went to OSU.  I don't remember anyone going to OU and they probably would have been stoned if they admitted it.  Rick Hill went to John Hopkin's University or somewhere like that but I am pretty sure it was and that blew me away.  I could not imagine or even think of something like that.  When Rick went there he raised the IQ in both states (that was a joke cause he was very bright, like a 20 watt bulb, sorry, another joke).  Debra Himbury also came up with a college I never heard of, Cottey College in Missouri, go figure that one out.  Anyway I am not sure what the truth is but I will give you a few choices:  1) I was going to play football, 2) they gave me a scholastic scholarship, 3) there was a girl there I was interested in, 4) I thought it was a great place to get an education.  The best thing that happened there or I should say there were two great things that happened there: 1) I met my wife, Shouna, and 2) I came to know the Lord personally.  What about my education?  I got one of those as well and luckily a job when I was done.

Well back to the point:  I wanted to leave those gravel roads and the Osage only to find myself where ever I went telling folks how great it was growing up in a small town with great folks.  Do you find yourself saying the same things?  I bragged on how few people I went to school with and how many sports I got to play and how beautiful the sky was and how great the grasslands were and how great my school teachers were and on and on.  I longed to get back HOME where life was little slower and people were closer to family than a stranger on a train riding to work in Chicago or driving in Dallas where folks used hand gestures because they liked your driving.  For a while I thought I was living in Indian Territory in Dallas and Chicago because they were always giving hand signals, get it?  After a few years of seeing the world and catching the airplane to a new city about four times a week I longed to see the sun ups and sun downs in the Great Plains.  I longed to see the white/gray dust of driving 70 miles an hour on gravel roads.  Fishing on the creek and lying under a big shade oak with giant acorns (not to be confused with Obama and ACORN).  One of my favorite comments when I moved home from Chicago by an Okie named Don Tharp was, "I hate this traffic".  We were driving through Kingfisher at the time.  I laughed myself silly.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

•  Things don't look as good in the rear view mirror after you have been gone a while, think about it.  Explanation:  folks are always leaving something only to find the real value was where they were.
• Things look great in the front view mirror when you are going to the Osage, go visit if you don't believe me
• Home is where your people are, make friends.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Growing up a little fast

My first grade picture

I was born a lot unhealthy and the doctors did not think I had much of a chance to grow up to a normal size.  I had lots of allergies and spent my first birthday in the hospital and by the second birthday I had my tonsils out and was allergic to milk and about everything else.  Now living on a dairy that was even more of a challenge as there was milk everywhere and a lot of it.  Of course I don’t remember much of that but that is the story I was told.  The interesting thing about those predictions from the doctors is that by the time I was in the second grade I was pushing five foot tall.  Everyone thought I was a giant.  By the time I was in the 8^th grade I was 6’2” and 205 lbs.  Still am, at least on the 6’2”.

Let me tell you the good and the bad about this:

·      In the first grade they put me in a high school chair which really hurt my feelings – I would have done anything to fit in one of those small chairs

·      When two people are talking, like Jon Tanny and Jimmy, and the teacher, Mrs. Snyder, tells them to be quiet you can assist the teacher by grabbing both behind the head then pressing their heads together in a swift and vibrant motion.  I banged their heads together.  It backfired on me, as Mrs. Snyder got mad at me.  I was just trying to help.

·      Everybody wants you on their team, even if you are slow and I don’t mean mentally.

·      The teachers and other adults treat you like you are a lot older than you are even when they know you are mentally young.  I even got charged at the movies a higher price because they did not believe I was so young.

·      Hugh Jones was the only person willing to fight me and he just loved getting beat up.  I guess that is why he is a great Marine, not because he liked getting beat up but he had an incredible amount of courage and tenacity.

·      People did not look down on me because I was taller and bigger than them.  That was a joke.

·      I got to drive a tractor and pickup somewhere around 9 years old.

·      Girls discovered me before I even was interested and in fact I am certain I could not even spell girls until the 8^th or 9^th grade. 

·      I got to play any and every sport I tried out for and even started in every sport.

None of that sounds so bad but what folks did not understand was I had a child’s mind in that big body.  I wanted to be like everyone else.

·      I wanted to be fast like Hugh Allen

·      I wanted to be smart like Jim Heath

·      I wanted to be funny like Jon Tanny

·      I wanted to be popular like so many

·      I wanted to be talented like Steve Chrisco

What is interesting is later on in life I learned that even smaller people wanted the same things and some of them wanted to be big and strong like me.  But what I chose to remember is that in Shidler pretty much everyone treated me well and allowed me to be clumsy and a silly kid just like everyone else.  They were, without exception, friends and supporters.  What I do remember is there were folks who had less talent, not as good looking and those who were extremely talented and great looking but everyone were a friend.  Maybe I just missed it because I did not care or was not smart enough to catch on but everyone was a friend with everyone.  If you were excluded it was because you chose to be excluded.

Maybe I am like Will Rogers but I don’t think so.  I think everyone liked everyone; we never met a person we did not like.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

·      What you think others think of you is not what others think of you?  You better ponder and read that again and again.

·      What you think of others is not as important as how you treat others.

·      If you kick your dog when no one is around you are a scumbag and YOU and your dog know it.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Schools of the Osage - Part 2- by Dorothy McKeever Yelton

Part 2:  The history of our great home area as described so well by Dorothy McKeever Yelton

My husband's brother, Charley, born in 1920, started to school at Cooper.  That school was located across the road from Dee Phillips Store and then to the east next to the next road going north, about a half block.  I only saw foundation cement blocks when I lived in that area.  When Cooper School closed, Charley went to Lyman.  When Lyman closed, he went to Webb City.  I remember the school bus stopped at the Vinnedge School to let off kids and then pick them up in the afternoon.  It was a grade school and was located just west of the Phillips office there at the Vinnedge Camp.  There were 12 grades at the Hilltop School.  It was a pretty big white school building, one story.  It really had a good gym floor.  There were teacherages located west of the school for the teachers to live in.  Phillips had a Camp up there but I don't remember the name of the Camp.  Wilson's and Dodson's lived there.  I think there were five houses in that Camp.  There was a road going up to the school on the east side of the hill from the road going down to Big Beaver.

I started to school in 1930 in Broken Arrow, OK, and transferred to Haycreek School, located at the south end of Webb City in 1933 when I was in the third grade.  Mr. Etchison was my teacher.  He came there from the Lyman School.  My brother started first grade in Broken Arrow and then to Webb City.  There was a one room white building used for the first grade on the west side of the Haycreek School playground on the other side of the wire fence.  Ms. Hunter was his teacher.

My cousin, Jane Harvey Payne, started to school in Apperson.  The Felty's were the teachers.  Then she rode her horse to Denoya to school which was about three or four miles.  Denoya was originally named Whizbang.  Then she went to Burbank School where she graduated from high school.  That is another school that had a good gym floor.  Jane drove the school bus while attending Burbank School.  The Apperson School land is partly on my brother and sister-in-law's land in Apperson now.  His widow, Eleanor, still lives there.  She attended Carter Nine School.  Holton Payne attended Little Beaver School and then on to Webb City.  Then he went to Shidler School when the high school was transferred,  He graduated from Shidler.

I went to Webb City School in my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.  Then in my 6th at Hilltop, in my 7th at Big Beaver, and then back to Webb City for my 8th through 12th grades.  Webb City School only had two school buses and each one made two and three trips each morning and evening.  After everyone was in school, one bus took the kids that were going to go to Jr. College over to the Shidler High School where they took their classes.  They returned in the afternoon before the buses made they regular trips.

The gym for Webb City and Shidler Schools was almost in the middle of the school.  It was also used as an auditorium.  You went in the front door and straight ahead to the gym.  I played basketball in my days and was in the Band, 4-H Club, and editor of the Driller newspaper.

Gypsy Camp was about 3/4 mile west of the Vinnedge Camp.  It was sort of on a hill and was a long Camp.  The Reese's, Miller's, Fickinger's, Overman's, Marshall's and more lived there.  It was owned by a different company than Phillips.  Seems like it was Magnolia.  I never knew of a school being there.  Everyone living in that Camp put a red light bulb in the front porch light at Christmas time.  Sometimes it was green or blue.  You could see those lights from wasy off.  It was pretty.

Haycreek School had second and third grades.  Lyman School was  in Lyman west of the Skelly Camp, northwest of Webb City next to the Kay County line.  Cooper was about three miles west of Webb City.

Sonny (Charles) Holloway and I went to Big Beaver School at the same time.  He was in the 8th and I was in the 7th.  It was a two room school with a stage in the lower grade room.  There was a large pull down wall that was in between the two rooms.  Mr. and Mrs. Ted Fisher were the teachers.  The bathroom was on outhouse out at the back fence behind the school.  Had a dirt basketball court, teeter totters, and swings.  The Music teacher came out from Newkirk.  One time, we tried learning to play the harmonica.  Sometimes Little Beaver School came over to visit Big Beaver School for different activities.  That is how I met JoAnne Payne.  The rest is history.

I have a sister-in-law, Mary Jackson Yelton, who rode a horse to school in Grainola in the 1930's.  The school had a shed and she kept her horse in there until she got out of school in the afternoon.

This has been a long description about the schools and the oilfield but maybe it will help you.  There were many people and oilfield camps everywhere.  Most people went to town on Saturday nights to sit on the sidewalk and talk to people they knew and to buy groceries for the next week.  There was also a movie theater in Shidler and Webb City.  The one at Shidler was the only one when I was in high school.  I did go to western movies at the theater in Webb City.  That building later became a grocery store for the Epley's, Dee Phillips, and the Clapps.

Hopefully, I will be at Homecoming in October 2012.  This is the 79th anniversary of the 1942 Class.  We have five left of our Webb City Class.  The other four besides me have health issues and may not get to attend Homecoming.

All for this time,

Thanks again to Dorothy,

So what did we learn in the Osage?

• Everyone is related
• Don't talk bad about anyone as everyone knows everyone and they may be family
• Our roots are deep in the Osage

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Dorothy McKeever Yelton 

Schools of the Osage by Dorothy McKeever Yelton

Nothing gets me more excited than to hear form a reader of the Shidler Review or of my blog.  Mrs. Yelton has written one of the most detailed letters and I am going to share it with you in parts.  
Part 1:

Hello Gary,

I received the Shidler Review dated July 19, 2012.  I read your article about the schools.  Very interesting.  I can tell that I am older than you by the info in the article.  I am now 88 and graduated from Webb City in 1942.  I went to schools in the Webb City area and Webb City.  I will just start off like I was talking to you about the different schools.

The brick schools at Webb City and Shidler were built alike.  I think Webb City was built first and Shidler came soon after.  Most of the oil production was in the Webb City area at the time.  They thought the oilfield would be centered around Cooper but it wasn't, so Cooper died.  Cooper was about three miles west of Webb City on that road between Webb City and Kaw City.  My grandparents, H.A.C. and Entis Owen moved from Douglas, Kansas, to Apperson around 1922.  He heard there was an oil boom down there and went.  His work turned out to be around Webb City so he moved his family to Webb City.  They lived across the road from Haycreek School in Webb City with seven children  They lived in a tent with a wooden floor until Phillips built the LaSarge Camp southeast of Webb City.  They bought their water by the barrel.  The kids all walked to school.  Then they moved to the house on the corner across the street west of the brick high school.  Entis Owen and family operated a cafe on Main St. while they lived there.  A tornado hit Webb City in 1928 and tore up the town and took the roof off the middle of the brick school.  I was in that house when the tornado hit.  I was four years old.  My brother was less than a year old.  My grandmother and mother put us each in a straight dining room chair and wrapped us in quilts including the chair so that we would not get hurt.  The two of them held the back door shut.  When it was over, I remember seeing Grandpa's car upside down in the yard and all of Mother's brother's rabbits laying dead in the yard.  That roof on the school was never replaced.  That area was always open to the sky with the cement floor.  They never used it for anything.

Then my grandparents moved to the Collect Camp about a mile west of town.  I lived with them there too until in 1934 when my Dad was hired by Phillips.  Jobs were hard to find during the Depression.  Grandma and Grandpa Owen moved from the Collect Camp to the east side of Big Bertha Camp.  That was probably in 1938.  Then they moved to the Pipeline Camp east of the No. 2 plant.  Then they moved to the west side of Big Bertha Camp.  Grandpa Owen retired while living there.  He was the district gauger for the whole field.  My Mother and Dad, Earl and Florence McKeever, lived in the Mid Kansas Camp north of Cooper when he started to work for Phillips in 1934.  We lived in a shotgun house with a tin roof and with gas lights.  My Dad was a relief pumper and then a pumper.  He always worked in the Cooper area.  We then moved to No. 3 Camp, just south of Hilltop and behind Turner's Store.  Then we moved to the west end of the north side of Clubb Camp.  There were ten houses in the Camp with five houses on each side with an oiled road down through the middle.The north side of the Camp went to Big Beaver School and the south side of the Camp went to Hilltop.  Then we moved to the north end of the College Camp east of Hilltop.  Then we moved to the middle of the south side of Clubb Camp.  I was old enough to ride the bus to Webb City by then.  Then we moved to the the south end of College Camp again.  My parents stayed there until my Dad retired in 1961.  They sold their house which they bought from Phillips to Dick Krohn in Webb City who moved it to Main St. in Webb City.  That house is still there today and people living in it.  It is across the street from where Krohn's mechanic shop was.  My in-laws, Clarence and Laura Yelton, lived in that house shortly after it was built.  I think one other family lived in it before they did.  One son, Albert, was born in that house in 1928 and a daughter, Sherileen, was born in that same house in 1935.  My brother, Floyd McKeever, and I were living in that house when we graduated from high school in Webb city.  I graduated in 1942 and he graduated in 1945.

Well you can see why her story excites me as she is a real historian of the area.  

What do you learn in the Osage?

• Our history runs deep
• Our lives are blessed by being there and being from there
• Honor, integrity and humility are cornerstones to the Osage

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com

Dogs at the farm and sex education

I am not sure you can call this a dog and definitely not a farm dog

I don't think there was any farm or ranch without a dog but the dog culture is dramatically different today vs. yesterday.  We always had a dog and our first, that I remember, was a cocker spaniel.  I forgot his name but he was a bouncy happy dog and I use to think the book, "Danial the Cocker Spanial" was about our dog.  Most of our dogs were collies, kinda like Lassie, and then there were a few German Shepherds and mutts (mixed breeds).  Now you are probably wondering why we had so many dogs.  Well that is the story.

It seemed to me that every year we would lose a dog due to natural causes.  For example when a dog would get in a fight with a coyote and the coyote won, it would die from natural causes.  If our dog got in a fight with a bobcat and died, it was from natural causes.  If our dog was at the neighbors house and got in a fight and died it was from natural causes.  If our dog got run over by a pickup or the school bus they died from natural causes.  Natural causes means:  naturally they died due to the situation, get it?Now in case you are not getting the idea what I am saying, dogs get in fights and it is natural or normal.  Most of the time they would just come home and lay around for a few days to heal then they would go back out on the hunt.

You see when you grow up on a farm dogs have lots of jobs and some of those jobs are dangerous, kinda like being a soldier.  Most of the time the dogs were used to gather cattle but sometimes they were used to keep the coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and any other varmint from getting the livestock or coming around the house.  Chickens attracted a lot of pests and almost everyone had chickens.  We had a bazillion, that means "a lot".    Anyway dogs were needed to protect the chickens and they were a great teaching tool.  You see when you have a dog and in particular a boy dog they have a tendency to go out at night and sometimes be gone for a few days.   That kinda of reminds me of some of my high school buddies, just kidding.

Dogs disappearing always gave opportunities for children to think of their first question about "the birds and the bees".  You see every child wants to know where their dog has gone.  I remember dad telling me our dog was hunting for a girl friend.  That of course begs the question, "why does he need a girl friend".  Sometimes we had girl dogs which attracted boy dogs which would come visiting and in a few months we had puppies.  On a farm we never needed the schools/teachers to tell us about sex.  It was every where.  There were cows and bulls, mares and studs, and rams and ewes, tom cats and female cats and the list goes on and on.  Sex was everywhere but the TV, not like today.  In fact, remember Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore?  They did not even sleep together on TV as they had separate beds.  Of course this brings up a very political question.  When and what is the responsibility of parents to teach their children?   It is very tempting to ask a bunch of questions on this topic.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• dogs teach sex education 
• fighting can kill you or your dog
• we don't need the TV to teach sex

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com