Madelon Hart Fisher letter on Carter Nine

 

I am always delighted to receive letters like the one from Madelon Hart Fisher who grew up in the Osage.  In fact I am going to ask anyone who reads my blog to please write me a letter including pictures that you are willing for me to include in my blog or book.  And Yes, I am planning on another book but this one is going to be your stories.  I would ask that you write as many stories as you like knowing that they may not get published or saved for later and that you are not going to get any compensation other than knowing you shared your story and it might get published on the blog or in a book.  I know all of you have great stories and I want to hear them, so please write:

send to 

    Gary Olson 

    12501 Dutch Forest Place

    Edmond, OK 73013

I know many of you personally and it would be an honor for me to have you participate.  Here are just a few things you might consider but the list is endless:

    what I remember about my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches, etc....

    who was the biggest impact on my life and why

    what unusual thing happened as an adult or child or while in college (all must be reasonably PG)

    what were my greatest fears and why

    what was it like being in the military and why I served 

    what was your biggest mistake in life, or biggest success or both

    what wisdom would you want to share

    the list goes on and on but you get the picture

Now back to Carter Nine and Madelon:  (you could write about your home town and what you remember about it just like Madelon and don't forget to tell a little about where you are now and just your life story.)  One more thing:  try to make each story one or two pages and feel free to give multiple stories and if you have to, make it long).

Carter Nine:

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• things change
• little things mean a lot and memories are what make relationships
• invest in others and they will invest in you

thanks for listening,

gary

gary@thepioneerman.com

you are welcome to send your story email to gary@mylifelegacy.co

Dick and June Johnson - Dee and the Twins and little sis (Jan) (and I can't remember the names but there is an older son? and Marvin?)

There are cornerstones of a building and there are cornerstones of a community and the Johnsons are certainly one of those.  I stopped by not too long ago (BEFORE COVID) and Mrs. Johnson came out and we talked for a long time about the kids and what everyone was doing.  Mr. Johnson was on his tractor mowing.  Now I know they are in their 90's and still gardening and keeping the place in shape.  I wish everyone had the pride they do.  That is probably what keeps them going, staying active.  But what was most amazing is their minds were clear as a bell ringing in your ear.  They still live in the house cattycorner from the old Dale's Feed Seed and Grain Storage commonly known as the grocery store, not to be confused with the grain elevator operations further south by the railroad tracks.   The same store we traded eggs for groceries at and the one with the outhouse we turned over every Halloween.

I suppose we all lose track of old friends and neighbors but my memory of the Johnsons is anchored in Dee and the Twins and Marvin.  Why?  Well let me tell you why.  I think everyone in the family were extraordinarily smart and especially those twins and I hear Jan was too.  But what stands out is that I was at their house one time and the boys (Dee and the twins) were eating white bread with the old fashioned mustard spread all over it and made into a two sliced sandwich!  You gotta be kidding me!  Yea!  Who would have thought of that?  Something seemed really wrong with that.  But once you tried it, it was not so bad especially when you are young and growing and hungry.  

The other thing I remember is how they always knew all the answers no matter the topic.  I bet none of them ever missed a question on a test.  I never knew but I bet they had perfect scores on the ACT and SAT tests.  

It is funny but I really never knew what Mr. Johnson did for a living other than farming and I really don't remember them having any farm land although Dee stuck around and bought some land including our old homestead on Beaver Creek and farmed and raised cattle.  

Well, what I have to say about the Johnsons is that they were very kind hearted folks and easy to talk to and always willing to share a little bread and mustard.  People were important to them.

So, what do you learn in the Osage?

• don't get grossed out about something you have not tried, like mustard sandwiches
• hard work and good folks go together
• Pride in keeping things looking good is good pride and the Johnsons should be proud

Thanks for listening,

gary

gary@mylifelegacy.co

Olaf Olson and what I found

 

My grandfather Olaf came to America in 1887 at the ripe old age of 16!  yep, 16.... What I did not know is that he was 94 years old when he passed in 1964 when I was 12 years old and he was married in 1903 to Mary Katherine Fustrum at Dwight, Kansas then to Anoka, Minnesota in 1905 where he had a dairy and grew sweet potatoes.  My Dad was born in Anoka and here is the most unusual thing ever:  dad's birth certificate and his legal name his entire life was "the 6th son of Olaf and Mary Olson".  Dad found out his real legal name when he was 84 years old.  Dad went to school during the winter on a sleigh pulled by a horse with sleigh bells from Sweden.  We still have those bells today or I should say, my nephew Richard Crow has them in his office (Ground Zero Storm Shelters)  in Perry, Oklahoma.  When he did not ride the sleigh in winter he skied to school on skis he and Uncle Olie (Rollien) made by hand.  They boiled the wood in water and shaped the wood into skis.  One pair of those skis is located in Minnesota with my cousin David.  Another strange thing I learned was when there was a giant party at Don Conner's house with a giant bond fire and everyone came from all around to ICE SKATE!  For the first time I learned that my dad had a pair of strap on ice skates and could skate.  Don had a large lake behind his house where we had the party.  I think my dad was about 16 when they moved to Wamego, Kansas where he ultimately graduated high school.

Grandad moved to America because his father told him if he stayed in Sweden he would raise potatoes and become an alcoholic because taxes were too high and you would never be able to get ahead.  America was the land of opportunity.  Grandpa didn't know anyone here and none of his relatives were here but as he made some money he paid for the trans-Atlantic voyage of most of his brothers and sisters.  Now I don't know about you but I cannot imagine letting one of my kids leave me for ever at the age of 16, no matter what the circumstances were.  That is correct, grandad never saw his father or mother again.  Two sisters moved to the Seattle area and the only brother I knew moved to Kansas near Cedar Vale and lived with the Johnson family who were relatives.  He was an expert stone mason.  Actually I think there were two brothers but just not sure.

Grandad was my buddy and I tried to spend every Saturday with him.  We would sit by his pot bellied stove and play checkers and eat cinnamon rolls and drink Nehi pop (strawberry and grape).  Of course Granddad would drink coffee which he drank from a saucer and he smoked a pipe which I loved the smell of.  I loved the way he would smoke his pipe and blow his mustache when he released the smoke.  Sweet memories.

Well, thanks for listening and What do you learn in the Osage?

• Family is more important than any money
• Time given to a child pays back for a life time
• Cinnamon rolls are still my favorite food group

Thanks for listening,

gary

gary@thepioneerman.com

Another Most Embarrassing Moment

 

Another most embarrassing moment or two:

 

When I was working for EDS/Ross Perot in Chicago from 1975 to 1980 we had a contract with Central National Bank which was just west of Northern Trust in downtown Chicago.  Northern Trust was on the northeast corner and we were on the northwest corner and the L-train was between us.  In fact, my office was at eye level with the train which I remember being on the 3^rd floor of the CNB building and very noisy.  Conveniently enough there was a Burger King on the bottom floor, so I ate there often.  We were about one block east of First National Bank of Chicago and a couple of blocks from Continental Bank which failed due to Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma in 1982 (July 5^th as I recall).  We were in the shadow of the Sears Building a few blocks south and one west and I walked by it every day from the train station.  We originally lived in Palatine in the suburbs and later Elk Grove Village.  OK, you get the idea.

There were four of us who moved from Dallas to be on this team:  Janet Green who was from back east and Eileen Kanoff from New York City, David Goldenberg from New York and of course myself.  The two girls ASSUMED that since I was from the Oklahoma I must be a chauvinist and a bigot which could be no further from the truth.  In fact they thought we still had wild Indians and virtually no roads and were basically like the Beverly Hillbillies.  Well, I could not resist the opportunity to fulfill their assumptions!  Every time they would walk by my cubical and I was talking to Shouna on the phone I would say something like this, “Now Shouna, I want those floors cleaned before I get home.”  They would through stuff at me and literally think it was true.  Shouna was on the other end laughing and saying I bet Janet or Eileen was walking by.  Once Janet got mad at me for opening the door for her.  I expressed to her that I would stand there all day if necessary and she finally gave in but of course she had to give me a lesson on how she could open her own doors.  After some period of time they finally figured out I was not what they thought although they did call me cowboy and ornery rather than Gary.  They were entertainment for me and visa versa.

Now to the embarrassing part:  Janet just went crazy laughing as I came out of the restroom with toilet paper hanging out the back of my slacks.  What she never knew was that I was playing her once again. 

Now my next embarrassing moment and it was for real:  Bob and Nancy Scott invited Shouna and I over for dinner.  They were pretty uptown folks and Bob was my boss, kind of, on the team that developed the demand deposit system for CNB and in fact for all of EDS at the time.  We had banking customers all over the US and in fact Iran as well.  I worked on the Iran deal while in Dallas and of course you can read the book on that event.  “On Wings of Eagles” by Ken Follett.  While eating with Bob and Nancy we were having our salad and it included some of those little round red tomatoes.  Now I don’t know about you but when I was a kid we never had those kind of tomatoes.  I was trying to figure out how I was going to eat it and finally I figured I would just put in my mouth and bite it.   WRONG!!  It did not work!  That thing exploded and went everywhere.  Whew!  You get the picture, don’t you?

One story about Bob or two.  While he was in Dallas one time and I was still in Chicago the banking system crashed in the middle of the night.  Actually, that part happened often but this time Bob had me drive downtown in the middle of the night to fix the problem.  Basically, we had a Canadian check come through the system and it crashed the system.  We had a utility called IAMASUPERZAP (I am a super zap) that we were told if we ever got caught using it, I would be fired.  Bob told me to use it.  Now Bob was much older and probably one of the smartest system engineers in the US.  I told him NO.  He yelled and cursed me until I relented.  I fixed the problem and the banking system worked like a charm.  I was sure I would be fired but instead I think I became famous because folks from all over the US would call me to fix certain types of problems using IAMASUPERZAP.  I got so good at it that I could solve problems in my sleep.  Just ask Shouna.  Fun times.

 

Next time I will tell you about WAAPDASUT (waap da sut).

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• ·       Slice your cherry tomatoes before you put it in your mouth
• ·       The most fun you can have is: at someone else’s expense (don’t try it)
• ·       When you get cussed out, it is time to re-evaluate what you are doing.
• Thanks for listening,

Gary

gary@thepioneerman.com

He was tougher than nails and had the biggest heart

 

Clifford Olson, Dad and of course when I was young I called him Daddy.  It always amazed me how he could solve a problem and typically it was during the night.  He would take a problem and go to bed and in the mornings he would wake up and he would have the answer.  The real problem is he would wake up like a storm meaning he would be so focused on fixing what was broken or doing whatever was on his mind.  He was also funny in that he never got mad a me or any other person but he could use choice words at an object or situation (that means he could cuss a blue streak).  Let me give you a few ideas of what I am talking about when I say he was so tough as nails but had a big heart.

One time we were out cutting firewood as our house was mostly warmed by the fireplace and we burnt a lot of wood every year.  The tree fell the wrong direction and a limb flipped up and hit him in the ribs.  He could hardly breath so we took him to the house where he told mom to wrap him in those tan colored ace bandages.  He told her to pull them tight.  If you have ever had a broken rib you know that it feels better to have a tight wrap  around your chest.  It just makes it where you can breath a little easier.  I personally have experienced broken ribs and a punctured lung and it is not fun.  Well, after dad got wrapped up he turned to Larry and me and said Let's to back to work cutting wood.  We did and I would say he moved a little slower but we kept cutting wood.

On another occasion we were working on some farm equipment and he cut his hand.  the cut was almost a slice in that the back of his hand about two inches wide and an inch wide the skin was peeled back where you could see the tendons and muscle in his hand.  I took him to the house and he told Shouna (my wife) to pour hydrogen peroxide on it.  He just gritted his false teeth and told her to keep pouring.  Then we said we need to go to the doctor and get it sewn up.  He said just put that old skin back on and tape it down.  We did and he said, "let's go do something, even if it is wrong".  

Then there was the time before I was even born but I know the story.  He got his teeth kicked out by a mule.  Or I should say he got his mouth crushed by that mule.  The story is that it was a disaster and he had to go to Tulsa for a dental surgeon to repair everything.  He stayed with the relatives at Oologah after the surgery.  They removed all of his teeth and his mouth was infected so they had to scrape the top of his mouth and put new skin on the roof of his mouth.  He told me that the only pain killer he got was some whiskey before and after the surgery.  He said he paid one of my relatives a $1 to keep him supplied with ice that he could use to keep the swelling down and the pain at a minimum.  

Oh, there are more stories and I always wished I was that tough.  And now his heart.  I remember a time that he assisted a family that needed their clothes washer repaired.  He found the parts and made multiple trips to fix the machine and then mom purchased Christmas gifts for their three girls and they waived any charges.  

The stories go on and I don't believe that a person goes to heaven by doing good or works but Mom and Dad were poster children for good neighbors and good people.  Their hearts were always serving others.  They did believe in Christ just so you don't get the wrong idea.

Well, what do you Learn in the Osage?

• character of a man or woman shows
• You don't judge a person by their color or their tattoos (well maybe) 
• You do judge a person by their work ethic and their honesty
• But you don't judge a book by its cover

Thanks for listening,

gary

gary@thepioneerman.com