It took years to get the ball rolling but the Texas County landscape would soon have a good sized body of water provided by the Corps of Engineers. It was to provide all the usual things a lake would, especially high-paying government jobs and money flowing through local businesses. As the construction wore on, conditions kept getting dryer and dryer. Just as dollars were not flowing into the local economy, water wasn’t flowing into the Lake…
Back in the day, local TV news was important, especially the weather forecast, here in Tornado Alley. One Weatherman here in the place where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide developed a great gimmick to get kids to watch the forecast. The gimmick? The chance to hear your name on TV and get a drawing from the weatherman himself! The weatherman was the legendary Don Woods and the gimmick was the equally legendary Gusty, the little drawing he did twice daily for 35 years.
He drew in kids to watch for their chance to win a Gusty drawing, but they also learned a little about the weather. This was Don Woods goal. He also created a bond of trust between his viewer and himself that was only part of his legacy.
The Spring of 1954, somewhere in northwestern Oklahoma. A group of upstart high schoolers form a marching band to represent their school at sporting events after the school could no longer send along the official band. From there, small gestures from folks in town made the idea work. A story worthy of a Hallmark movie, but packed with lessons how to make things happen!
Everyone who knows me, knows I am fascinated with Ozark Giraffe style homes. I’ve made note of a few that have fallen to the progress of time in the past few weeks. Here’s a bonus episode with my tribute to the peculiar little houses that dot the Ozarks!
This time around I let an old friend tell the tale of his parent’s whirlwind wedding that involved a ring locked in a bank vault over the Thanksgiving holiday, a Billy Graham Crusade and a potential court-martial. It may sound crazy but it’s kind of par for the course for the family of Neal Hallford.
Within the Realm 