Riding away from the familiar

Details

Published on Wednesday, 03 October 2012 08:56

My dad's first real adventure started before he turned 18.

The high school dropout left his small town, his family and friends and went to North Carolina to work.

"It's funny but I lied about my age and told them I was 18, so they took me along."

He told me that he's always been adventurous, and I believe it. When I was just a child, we'd ride along in the truck exploring unfamiliar county roads. They were at least unfamiliar to me. But the further we went, just about the time I thought we may be getting lost, there'd be a familiar oak tree or bend in the road. And we'd be back home.

But there are no familiar roads in Mexico.

Read more...

Dr. Brad Park

Details

Published on Tuesday, 18 September 2012 15:35

Dr. Brad Park was born October 15, 1943 in Berkley, California to Margaret Elaine and Harland Oren Park. He passed away September 15, 2012 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at the age of 68 years and 11 months.

Read more...

Heaven just got themselves another flat-picker

Details

Published on Wednesday, 30 May 2012 11:22

By Derek Manning

Doc Watson died yesterday.

He was one of those guys who, when you heard him on the radio, you might not know right away who you were listening to, but you knew you were hearing someone who was really good at what he did.

What Doc did was play and sing North Carolina mountain music.

Read more...

What's Under My Hat: Debate at ‘The Big Screen’

Details

Published on Friday, 02 March 2012 14:57

By Monte Tucker

Howdy friends and neighbors.  I have a burning topic for debate.  There is a gentleman that frequents the board room at the local coffee shop in Sweetwater, OK (aka-“The Big Screen,” due to the fact that there’s a long, raised counter with stools that face several large bay windows that allow us convenience store caffeine connoisseur patrons to see all the current activity in and around the entire metro-plex of Sweetwater, newly upgraded to HD with surround sound.)

Anyway, to keep his true identity protected from un-solicited posts to his twitter account, I will refer to him simply as a “Benny Wayne.”

Okay, back to the meat of the issue at hand as well as to stir the ol’ pot of debate that could make it all the way to the Supreme Court for a ruling and final decision.

Have you ever been driving around rural America and looked across a hay field that has been recently baled by a large round baler?  And if so, have you noticed that probably 99.99% of those bales are still oriented just like they were when the baling process was complete and they were dumped or kicked out of the round baling machine?   

Read more...

What's Under My Hat: Safety first

Details

Published on Friday, 24 February 2012 16:18

By Monte Tucker

Howdy friends and neighbors.  I like mud! We’ll talk to you next week!  That’s it for this week’s column!  Ha, no, you know me; I couldn’t leave it with just that.

Oh man have you seen the latest on child safety that congress is about to come up with? Here’s the latest made up story I came up with.  At the high school basketball playoffs the other night during an intense girl’s game between Sayre and Mangum, I had to make my may to the concession stand for some popcorn and a cold Dr. Pepper.  That’s when I saw my good friend and his daughter come into the gym.  And, as many fathers do, he had his little girl up on his shoulders giving her a traditional “piggy back ride.”  That’s when it hit me and Sayre hit a three!

I can just imagine what would happen if a bunch of “do-gooder,” knot-headed liberal politicians witnessed what I just observed.  I’m positive they would run as fast as a camera could follow, jump on a private carbon-belching jet airplane and zoom into DC to start writing up all sorts of new “child safety laws” that pertain to traditional piggy back rides.  The first paragraph would, well, it would contain some language that gives a huge campaign contributor a grant for bamboo as a “green” alternative to aluminum for safety rails.  But the next chapter would contain the language that gives birth to a new governmental agency that would regulate and oversee licensing and permitting for piggy back rides.

Read more...

Letter to the Editor: Audit - Davis - 02/17/2012

Details

Published on Friday, 17 February 2012 14:34

Dear Editor,

Does Elk City require a state audit?  No.  Should Elk Citians want an audit?  Yes.  I am writing this editorial because this topic is dear to my heart just like our Elk City community is.  When I was elected as Commissioner of Ward 3, I spoke with my constituents and learned that there was not a lot of trust in Government, local or national.  I felt the same way as they did.  I wondered if all the proper processes and channels were being followed as required by our charter and state law.  After starting on the commission I requested financials in particular from some of our city’s profit centers.  In one instance, when the city was selling one of them, I was given three sets of numbers detailing its value.  This was not a small difference in value either.  In fact, the difference involved more than ten times the amount estimated for conduction of the state audit.  I feel this is unacceptable.  I think we finally got the right value together to properly evaluate this profit center to set a dollar amount when the commission voted unanimously to sell this system.   I hope we did.  Our employees were not hiding anything, but our processes and book keeping practices allowed for transactions to show in different places, thus making it hard to have accurate numbers.  Our constituents deserve better accountability of their money.

Read more...