A picture that ran in the Van Buren, AR newspaper, The Press Argus-Courier circa 1980s.
“Yup…Mayor, it looks like you have shit running into your ditch.” Actually, I am very sure I was much more professional than that. The mayor grabbed me– well me for my title, County Sanitarian – for a photo-op as he was trying to get some state funds to help with the repairs of a major, but busted sewer line in his town.
Another newspaper photo of me, this time from The Daily Oklahoman, the Oklahoma City newspaper. This is a little earlier than the one above, probably circa 1980, give or take a year. I, and many other folks, jogged regularly in the grass median of a minorly trafficked boulevard in the lower part of the northwest quadrant of Oklahoma City. A newspaper photographer had an assignment to photograph someone running on this well worn path. I showed up solely through serendipity, and had my ugly mug in the OKC paper.
It is hard to imagine now that I was ever that young, that skinny and tan guapo…
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
La la la la…
~~ From the 1968 hit by Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days
The song reached number one in the UK, Canadian and France. It reached number two in the US, behind Hey Jude. The song was produced by Paul McCarthy and is based on a turn of the century Russian romance song/drinking song. I just thought you might want to know…
And so it goes.
Those simpler times…
I did not know you were so famous.
A legend in my own mind… AND as County Sanitarian, I was occasionally on the old television.