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No Worries
Photo by Wikimedia.org – Wikimedia Commons – Exchange
Do you have anything to worry about in the world we live in today? The United States stock market started off the year with some severe rattling in the old pipes. The US owes a ton of money to China and China is starting to hiccup a bit. The big “C” in command of the second largest economy of the world will never admit that their economy is starting to flail and flounder. The hot glowing embers are starting to cool. The demand for production is starting to wane and they just can’t keep the old furnace purring like it used to. The wood pile is running out and it seems there is no where for the fellows on “C” street to turn to chop more wood.
There are legitimate concerns about employment, lack of leadership, rising pollution, extreme weather patterns causing crop failure, lack of water, and wars in the world we live in. Thousands are dying everyday in our world from starvation. It seems like there are more earthquakes than ever before; and not just those associated with the ground. Recession and depression seem to want to pop their ugly heads above the sand more and more. Where do we turn and what can we do to stomp all of our troubles away? Is it all just a hopeless mess of quicksand?
The out of control mess we are faced with did not happen overnight and things certainly won’t be fixed by tomorrow morning. But there is hope if you trust in the LORD. We don’t have to worry, because GOD said he would see us through no matter what we are going through or what trials we come up against in this world. Take a look at Psalm 37: 18,19, 29 – NIV of the Bible for some encouraging words from the creator of all.
“The blameless spend their days under the LORD’S care, and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.”
So don’t look down at the quicksand, look up and grab hold of the hand that can pull you out and set you on dry ground. No worries, just keep walking and he’ll see you through to the other side with plenty of hope.
Oklahoma City Times
A few weeks ago I had a chance to travel to the central part of Oklahoma to do some research on a few books I have been working on. I had an opportunity to travel to Oklahoma City and Yukon. I went to elementary school and junior high in Oklahoma City and then we moved to Yukon where I went to high school.
Oklahoma City is the capitol of Oklahoma. Oklahoma in general is known as being one of the top 5 oil-producing states. On the capitol grounds today there is an active oil field with derricks near the state capitol building. Central Oklahoma also has more tornadoes per square mile than anywhere in the entire world. The conditions are just perfect for making tornadoes with the proximity to the warm Gulf Coast of Mexico and the cold air coming in from up north in Canada. That is a great mixture for tornadoes. I spent my fair share of time in underground storm shelters when I was younger and tornadoes were in the area.
Oklahoma City is famous for having the world’s largest stocker/feeder cattle market along with the well-known Cattlemen’s Cafe.
Since the beginning of “stockyards city” more than 102 million head of livestock have passed through the iron gates leading to the stockyards operation. The stockyards are located on Agnew Avenue and earned the nickname of “Packingtown”.
Stockyards City was founded in 1910 and was built to serve the United States as a primary source for meat processing and packing. With all of those cattle coming through the area I have to admit it does get to smelling kind of bad if you are downwind.
This is Cattlemen’s Restaurant which may not look like much on the outside. The food is some of the best in the world! Cattlemen’s is Oklahoma’s oldest continually operated restaurant and has been open since 1910. Cattlemen’s has been a gathering place for politicians, actresses, actors, singers, and many others over the decades. People like President Ronald Reagan, Gene Autry, John Wayne, country singer Reba McEntire, President George H.W. Bush, Toby Keith, Dr. Phil, Trisha Yearwood, Mayor Rudi Guiliani, Larry Hagman, and basketball great Bill Russell have all sampled the delicious food at Cattlemen’s.
I have been to Cattlemen’s a time or two in my life since my mom spent some time working there as a waitress when I was growing up. She would come home with loads of coins and dollar bills in her pockets from all of the tips since Cattlemen’s was usually a beehive of activity. The steaks are the best I have ever had. Maybe it’s because the beef is so fresh!!
After leaving Oklahoma City for the day I traveled west to Yukon a distance of about sixteen miles where I graduated from high school. The heart of Yukon is situated on historic Route 66. US Route 66 runs east to west from Chicago, through Missouri, Kansas, then Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eventually ends up at Santa Monica, California for a stretch of about 2448 miles altogether.
Traveling west on Route 66 on the left side of the road in downtown Yukon is the “Yukon Mill and Grain Company”. In 1903 the mill became the largest flour plant in the state of Oklahoma and the southwest. By the 1930’s the mill had the capacity of two thousand barrels a day of flour. The mill is still in operation today.
Now you can imagine with that much flour being produced in a city with a population of about 23,000 that the school mascot had to in some way be related. This little fellow was our school mascot. I did spend a lot of time trying to explain to kids from other schools what a miller was. Many of them thought we were some sort of moths. Yukon was actually named after the Yukon Territory in Canada where there was a gold rush in the 1890’s. I think it would have been better to have a mascot like the “Golden Eagles”, or the “Golden Lions” or something that was a bit more explainable.
If you head further west on Route 66 and make a left on Highway 92 at the end of town and go down about a half mile or so you will see my old high school on the left hand side of the street. They have since converted it to a middle school. This old school is the school that the famous country singer, Garth Brooks also graduated from. Garth lived a few neighborhoods over from where we lived. He was in junior high school when I was in high school so I didn’t really know him. He was on the track team in Yukon and ended up going to Oklahoma State University on a track scholarship
If you continue traveling south on Highway 92 you will find this old water tower on the right hand side or west side of the street. After wrestling practice we had to run to the water tower and back from the high school. The round trip route was about 2 miles. Water was what we needed when we got back from that trip!
Highway 92 in Yukon was renamed Garth Brooks Boulevard in recent years to honor the favorite country singer. Garth is the most successful country entertainer of all time and is right next to Elvis Presley for all time album sales. The weather was beautiful on the day I spent there in Yukon and Oklahoma City. It was a great trip that brought back a lot of old memories that I hope to share more of with you in some of my upcoming books.
Ponca City Times
Yesterday I spent traveling to the north part of the state of Oklahoma to a small town called Ponca City which is located approximately twenty miles to the south of Kansas. Ponca is the city where I was born and I was there to do some research for a few of my books. This little city has a lot of interesting history associated with it and oil has been in the center of much of the history.
The statue above was dedicated in 1930 by E.W. Marland who was a millionaire oilman who pretty much put Ponca City on the map in a lot of ways. The theme of the statue was based upon the settling of the american west. It was dedicated on April 22, 1930 on the 41st anniversary of the land run of 1889 which opened Oklahoma territory to settlers. More than 40,000 people attended the unveiling of this 17 foot tall bronze statue weighing in at 12,000 pounds that cost more than $350,000 at the time. In today’s dollars it would have cost about 4.5 million dollars.
The plaque below that first step reads ” This monument was erected by E.W. Marland in appreciation of the heroic character of the woman who braved the dangers and endured the hardships incident to the daily life of the pioneer and homesteader in this country.”
This is a photograph of the home of E.W. Marland, the millionaire oilman who went on to become a U.S. Congressman and the 10th Governor of the state of Oklahoma. This mansion is listed on the National Register of Historical places and has almost 44,000 sf. It is roughly 80 feet by 185 feet and has four levels.
The mansion was built from 1925-1928 at a cost of 5.5 million dollars which in today’s dollars would equate to approximately 77.5 million dollars. There are 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, 7 fireplaces, and three kitchens and was designed by architect John Duncan Forsyth. The mansion has come to be known as the “Palace on the Prairie”.
E.W. Marland came to Ponca City pretty much broke and was living in a local motel. He used some of the last bit of his money to lease land from a Ponca Indian where he started to drill for oil. Things went really well for E.W. after that when in 1911 he hit his first gusher, and continued to find oil everywhere he drilled.
By 1922 E.W. was one of the richest men in the United States and controlled more than one tenth of the world’s oil resources. More than 1/3 of the population of Ponca City worked for Marland Oil Company. Mr. Marland was always very kind to his employees and pioneered employer paid insurance, eye care, and dental bills. He even built homes for many of his employees. There is a movie about the Marland story entitled “The Ends of the Earth” that is in production now staring Jennifer Lawrence.
This photo was taken of the old Poncan Theater which is still operational today. It was built in 1927 at a cost of $280,000 dollars which in today’s money would equate to approximately 6.5 million dollars. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic places and started out as a combination vaudeville/movie theater house. I used to go to this old movie theater as a young boy.
My dad tells a story of how when he was a teenager, they were giving away a bedroom set in a drawing and he ended up having the winning ticket that day. It turned out to be a pretty nice set complete with bed, mattress, night stands, and dresser drawers, that would probably be worth 4 to 5 thousand dollars today.
My day in Ponca City turned out to be a great day. The weather was fantastic and I got to take my mom and daughter with me. We also got to have lunch with a few of my cousins who I had not seen in a long time. I don’t believe it could have been a more enjoyable day!
CLOUD BURST
I snapped this photo of the cloud formation near my house last night in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. It hasn’t rained here in a while so I was glad for it to cool things off as it has been 99 degrees plus for the last several days here.
Settling In
Settling In
Gigantic Fish
Canadian Geese and Children
I had an opportunity to visit my daughter down in the southeastern part of Oklahoma yesterday. It was sure good to see her. What a great time we had! We were able to go to a local pond and do some fishing. She has been married now for about two months and we are all trying to get used to the idea of her being married.
She is our only one and now lives over a hundred miles from us. When she was younger her grandmother in Michigan had a good-sized pond on some property where we used to go fishing all the time. We would generally have a contest and make an official award at the end of the fishing season for whoever caught the biggest fish of the season. More often than not, she would be the one who was declared the winner.
We did not do too good to start the year off with as you can tell from the photo. Isn’t that a huge fish? It took the both of us to drag it to shore! We did catch four fish in a short amount of time, and then went off to a local restaurant for a nice lunch and some quality daddy daughter time together. We used to get together once a week for dinner to talk about life and how things were going when she got older so it was kind of nice to get to do that again.
Things are kind of different now that she got married and I guess it will take us all a while to kind of settle in to the new way of life. Her Italian mama is having a little rougher time than me I believe and trying to get used to her not living nearby, but I know things will get better for us all. It just takes some getting used to.
It was a beautiful day as far as the weather and after the ducks stopped bothering us for something to eat. The best part was just getting to be with my daughter again. It felt different though between us in a new kind of way. I know things can never be the same way they used to be between us and I don’t really think they are supposed to be. I think it’s all just a part of settling in for all of us!
Oklahoma Tornado Scare
Tornado Public Domain
It was a rough night here in the Tulsa area where I live. At about 5:30 pm I could hear the tornado sirens going off outside my living room window. My wife called me from her cell phone just then to tell me that they had spotted a half-mile wide tornado and to turn the weather channel on to see what was happening. I did as soon as I hung up with her. The big tornado was headed towards our house. She was traveling home from work and it looked like to me from what the weather man was saying she was headed right into the storm. I opened the patio door and the air seemed eerily still outside. Dark black clouds were starting to form to the north and west of where we lived. There was no rain, but the wind was picking up and I could tell it wouldn’t be long before a deluge would hit us.
My wife arrived within a thirty minute time span and as soon as she did I rushed to the car to meet her and we drove to a local theater to seek shelter. Others had the same idea and hurried into the front part of the theater area to take cover. We sat down at some tables near the front of the theater lounge area that had a view to the outside. The clouds started to get darker and darker, with some swirling upwards. Soon it started to rain and small pellets of hail started to fall in rapidity. The theater owner advised us then to take cover inside the hallways away from the windows or to go inside the auditorium area itself. We decided to take her advice and moved with the crowd into a more protected area. My wife and I grabbed each others hands and prayed that GOD would get us through this and that the storm would pass us by.
We waited in a hallway area just outside the auditorium area but we really didn’t know what was going on with the storm outside since we didn’t have a weather radio or cell phone to try to get weather information. We had to rely on others around us and no one seemed to know what was going on with the storm. The bad part of the storm eventually passed by and it started to rain heavily for an hour or more. Then it let up a bit at about 7:30 and we decided to head back to our house which is only about a block or so away from the theater.
The storm did eventually pass by and the rains stopped later in the evening. This morning I woke up to find that one person had lost their life in nearby Sand Springs in a trailer park. The trailer park was destroyed. The tornado had caused a gymnasium to collapse with fifty children nearly losing their lives. Fortunately they were all saved. Cars were flipped over and other businesses were damaged. More than 30 thousand people lost power here last night.
It could have been a lot worse for this area and has been in the past. I grew up in the Oklahoma City area so I am not unfamiliar with the weather patterns in Oklahoma. We were trained as youngsters in drills in elementary schools to take cover during a tornado. I got used to crawling under my desk for all of those drills. You either had a storm shelter underground or you knew a neighbor or friend who did. With wind speeds that can reach upwards of 260 mph you most certainly want to be in a very safe place. They say Oklahoma City is one of the most dangerous places to live on the planet since, it is in what is called “Tornado Alley”. Oklahoma City holds the record for the most tornadoes since 1890 at about 140. Since 1893 Oklahoma City has been struck 26 times by two or more tornadoes in the same day. The Tulsa area is in the same Tornado Alley.
My prayers go out to those who lost a family member in the aftermath of the first tornado here in Oklahoma this year. I also pray for those who might have been hurt, or had property damaged and had their lives overturned. I am thankful that there was not more loss of life or injuries and that my wife and I were safe last night. Last night reminded me that GOD is in control of everything in our lives, even the weather.
Tony A. Smith 