There’s a mystery about the soft, summer night, just after the sun goes down, before full darkness tiptoes through. Leaves stir with a passing breeze and flowers lift their heads to feel one last ray of the sun’s warmth. The rabbit who lives under my storage building gives last minute instructions to her nest of […]
Jun 7, 2022
Plants With a Past
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A couple of days ago, I planted a fern and a red shamrock in the back yard. There’s nothing unusual about that, except that these plants are a connection. The fern is descended from a fern in my mother’s yard. My sister-in-law Linda took a start from it and planted it in her yard. The […]
Jun 6, 2022
Remembering the Sacrifice
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This is D-Day. It happened in 1944, a lot of years ago, a hellish time for the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy. Thousands died, many miles from home; young men who stood between us and tyranny. Because of them, I am able to enjoy watching my grandchildren grow up in a free […]
May 16, 2022
Ancestors
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Yesterday was the annual Decoration Day at our ancestral cemetery. The weather cooperated with blue skies, sunshine (lots of sunshine) and an altogether lovely Oklahoma spring day. The cemetery is well-looked after, neat and serene. Decoration Day is an annual tradition dating back into history. My grandparents came to this very same spot, year after […]
May 3, 2022
Peggs Tornado, conclusion
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This is the second and final installment of my May 5, 1985 Daily Press article about the tornado which destroyed Peggs, Oklahoma on May 2, 1920. In 1920, Walter Neel lived with his parents, brothers and sisters on the Gid Morgan farm, two and a fourth miles southeast of Peggs. The storm went a […]
May 2, 2022
The Peggs Tornado, Part I
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Each year I re-print the story of the Peggs tornado that I wrote for The Tahlequah Daily Press in 1985. This story is important because it is a part of our history. It is a sad story, but it is also full of human compassion and courage. We should not forget the many whose lives […]
