Tag: Muskogee

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Earnest Lights Over Muskogee

I’ve been ranting so much over SCOTUS lately, I thought I put out something a little lighter… This is a story I wrote years ago that I recently reworked, partly to remove some of Carl’s NSFW commentary on life.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Connors Junior College in the early 1970s was an interesting place as there was a large number of returning Vietnam veterans enrolled at the institution.  Carl was one of those.

I had started college at the University of Rhode Island.  My main motivation at the time was to avoid the Vietnam draft.  I did not have a clear picture as to my direction in life and thus was, at best, a very indifferent student.  When my birthday came up with a very high number in the draft lottery, the probability being drafted approached zero.  I dropped out of college.  With no real skills I started working as a factory hand in an injection molding plant in Cranston, Rhode Island.

My father around this time had been transferred overseas Continue reading “Earnest Lights Over Muskogee”

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Robin’s Snoopy Dance

snoopy_dancingThere is one very special thing about Robin — you almost never have to guess what she is feeling. Unless it is an environment like work where it is better to keep your mask on, to see her is to know where she is at emotionally.

She is also a little hyperactive. I bring this up because she has an adorable behavior that I have seen directed at me twice and at other folks a couple times. When she sees someone she really likes and cares about, and she has not seen them in a while her whole body smiles. Yes her face is all lit up, but her body goes into this little dance that I can only relate to what I have seen Snoopy do in the cartoons. She is happy all over, her whole body is smiling.

First time I came back to St. Louis after moving to Memphis for work she went into one that lasted about a minute. We went to New Orleans a while back and saw an old, dear friend of hers who she had not seen in years. That was another Snoopy dance of a minute or so.

I came home the other night after being gone just one night for a quick trip to Muskogee, by gawd, Oklahoma. She went into short Snoopy dance then. I cannot imagine a better homecoming.

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We Happened Upon Death

My mother’s birthday was going to fall in the middle of the week, so I decided to drive down to Muskogee for the weekend to celebrate it with her. Saturday, we drove to Tulsa, and we went shopping for her a birthday present. Afterwards we had lunch a Macaroni Grill. Since it was such a nice day I decided to take the slower way back to Muskogee rather than the turnpike.

As we were nearing her house traffic on US 69, a major artery, came to a stop. After a while we began to inch forward. I could see three ambulances near the intersection; two different fire department vehicles had passed us as well as a multitude of police vehicles.
Continue reading “We Happened Upon Death”