On the Oklahoma Front

Things are going at a little slower pace here in Bixby, OK. Dad is continuing his recovery from his surgery, gaining strength and stamina every day. While Joanette is up there in Montana, having the time of her life, I am here at Dad’s house doing whatever he and Janet ask me to. Mostly driving them to the store or Dr. appointments or church. Over the years it has always been my brother, John that has been able to “be there” when our parents needed something. Well, I guess now it is my turn, and I am happy that I am able to be here for them!

On Saturday Oct 12th Dad and I went for a little road trip. My long lost, recently found, friend from Jr. High school, Harley Thomas, had told me that he and his wife. Kerry, were going to be at a marching band competition in Beggs, OK. Since it is only about a 30 min trip from Dad and Janet’s to the Beggs High school stadium I decided to go and watch some of the competition. Harley had been the band director for many years before passing the torch on to his son, Harley Jr. When I told Dad where I wanted to go he said that he would like to go to Bristow, OK to see an old friend before heading to Beggs.

We made the trip to Bristow but since Dad couldn’t find the old friend’s phone number so we decided to drive by the church where he was the pastor. When we arrived at the church we found that there was a funeral going on so we decided that it would be best to save that reunion for another day. Many years ago Dad and my first step-mother, Sylvia bought 40 acres near Beggs, where they planned to build their retirement home. Well, life has a way of changing our plans. Sylvia passed away suddenly in 1977 and Dad ended up selling the land. At his point we headed toward the 40 acres for another trip down memory lane. There was not a lot to see since the weeds along the fence row had grown so tall that you could not really see the land. The trips down memory lane don’t always need to be seen to bring back the flood of memories.

The trip to the school took us just a few minutes, but finding how to get to the stadium was another story. When we finally found where to park I let Harley know where we were and in a couple of minutes he found us and we went to watch a few of the marching bands. I don’t know a whole lot about marching bands, but it was quite fascinating seeing all those kids out there playing and marching with such precision. I was impressed, especially with the band from Broken Bow, where Harley lives.

It was great to see Harley and Kerry again, and the band competition very entertaining, but we had had a pretty long day and I figured that I needed to get Dad back to the house so he could relax. Janet and Goober were glad to have us back home!

Here we are back home with Goober on Dad’s lap and me working a little ancestry.