story by Frank Hughes

Folks did ya ever just lay there in your bed and listen? Now I’m one of the all time worst listeners, I’d rather be yakk’n!

But let me tell ya somethin. When I was a little fella, just sprout’n up, and it was too hot ta sleep … well I’d listen! August in Oklahoma! Folks it was so hot today that the tar in the cracks of the road had done melt’d. I know it had, cause I’d been chew’n it like gum for most of the day! Now I wouldn’t recommend chew’n road tar as an everyday activity, but in a pinch it makes a purty good chew. Once ya get over the taste … it ain’t half bad! The road tar today had a funny twang to it. I think I seen Elvoy and his team of mules pass’n by this morn’n … they may have added a little flavor’n to the tar!
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story by Frank Hughes

Game’n … I know nowadays when folks think of games, they figger you is talk’n about gett’n the ol puter out and play’n one of them online button push’n things. Well I ain’t talk’n about noth’n of the kind! I’m talk’n about real games, the kind that kids play’d outside in the good ol sunshine or in some cases under a moon lit sky.

The small town I was rear’d in had a short supply of a lot of things … money, swimm’n pools, playgrounds and rich folks. So all us kids had ta get by with our imaginations. We could make a game out of about anything. Now we had some of the usual ball games … we play’d baseball a lot! Football was also very big. Any empty pasture or vacant lot could be turn’d into a ball field. Basketball was play’d wherever we could find somethin ta shoot the ball through. We didn’t need no umpires or referees. Heckfire, we figger’d if ya wasn’t bleed’n too bad … ya didn’t get foul’d! Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

I was just think’n the other day. Yeah … I can do it ever so’s often. Seems like I been dodg’n one thing or the other most of my days. I knows all about duck’n and dodg’n. My little brother Denny was always chunk’n somethin or other my ways. BB’s, rocks, sticks …! Now let me tell ya right off … I weren’t one of them there speed demons. But when I has to … I can move pretty good!

I remembers back in them there ol days me and brother was lay’n in the front room floor, mind’n our own business. Daddy was lay’n on the couch. Everything was just peachy … then it start’d! Denny look’d at me kinda cockey’d. That was all it took … I pok’d him in the eye! Denny squalls like he’s about ta give up the ghost right then and there. Daddy say’s, You boys settle down … I’m watch’n Gunsmoke!!! Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Now this story starts out like one of them Norman Rockafella paint’ns. Me and my little brother decides to go fish’n on a bright summer day. We grab our poles and a good tin can and start digg’n up the back yard. We dig us up enough worms to get the job done and head out for the Bingham place north of our little town. Mr and Mrs Bingham was fine folks, they attended the same little church we did and they had a great big deep pond on their property. We jump’d on our bikes and head’d out … so here we are sitt’n on that pond bank on a summer day.

What more could two youngsters ask for … seems like everything was right with the world. Except them dang fish weren’t bit’n! Now all grown folks knows that the attention span of two 10 year ol boys weren’t no more that 32 seconds on a good day! So I start look’n for something ta get into … and that’s when I notic’d them horses! Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Folks this is something everyone ought to know somthin about, work’n … now I know there is gett’n ta be more and more of us folks here round about that seem to have plum forgot how ta do it! Now when I was runn’n around as a young fella most of the folks I know’d knew all about work’n. So at an early age I figger’d out real quick that if I was gonna have any spend’n and runn’n around money I was gonna have ta work for it.

I can honestly say I can’t remember ever ask’n my father for money. Ya see I was afraid ta ask him, it wasn’t because he wouldn’t have gave it to me if’n he could. It was because I was afraid it would embarrass him if he didn’t have it! I knew we never had no extra money for foolishness. So I mow’d grass, dug ditches, haul’d hay, just about any job I could find ta make me a little cash money. Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Let me start this off by say’n first, I like most critters … it’s just that over the years I’ve had my fair share of troubles with some of em! I know there’s lots of folks around that just couldn’t get along without their varmits. I’ve seen full grown folks talk’n to some critter like it was their rich uncle … just coo’n and gah-gah’n all over the poor thing! Don’t get me wrong, I like a good ol dog or three lay’n around the place. And a good ol cat sleep’n and eat’n is fine and dandy!

But I don’t go around dress’n up the dog like it was a five year old child. Most critters ta me is just that … a critter. I found out many years ago that me and most varmits just don’t think along the same lines. I manag’d to get attack’d by and molested by quite a number of Gods critters. I learn’d real quick that most of these critters … have teeths and claws … and they is real good at us’n em!

If’n you’re out squirrel hunt’n and ya just happen ta shoot ya a fat one, well make sure the critter is dead before you’s pick it up. For some ungodly reason that there squirrel was real upset … I don’t knows why! All I did was shoot him out of the top of a 75 foots pecan tree. But that little booger turned downright nasty … and let me tell ya that the same set of tooths that they use ta crack pecans … can be downright painful when theys sunk into your poor finger!! I’m here ta tell ya it ain’t no easy matter gett’n rid of a craz’d squirrel off’n your hand. The more ya shake him whiles you is scream’n and cry’n … just seems ta spur the nasty fella on! And all the time he’s eat’n on your finger … well them sharp rear feet is claw’n the hell outta your poor arm.

But maybe the worsest part of the whole thing is I look over at my little brother and he’s point’n a rifle at me … holler’n, “Hold still Frankie and I’ll shoot him off!!!!!!!” Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Now why in the world could someone write a story about a run-of-the-mill ordinary dinner plate? This plate was given to me by a friend of mine from my younger days. It came as quite a surprise. I was attending a school reunion at Fort Gibson Lake, Oklahoma. Dorothy Olansen Duncan walked up to me and informed me she had something I needed to see. Dorothy pulled out of a plastic bag, a dinner plate. I was stunned … ! She said she was at a garage sale in Owasso, Oklahoma when she found the dinner plate.

Painted on the plate was a scene from many years ago, a painting of the original Glenpool School. The original school was built in 1908. At the time the school was built it was the most expensive school ever erected in Oklahoma. The rich oil fields of Glenpool provided an abundance of money. It was said that the school was allotted 10,000 dollars for every student that attended. Ten thousand dollars in 1908 was a staggering sum! Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Here I go agin … reliv’n the past. But I need ta tell ya about a special fellow in my young grow’n up days. When ya is a small fella with the brain of a turnip, well, it seems like life is just full of surprises and excit’n things. It seems kind of odd now but back then one of the most excit’n places I knew of was right in our own house. Granpa’s Room!

My Grandpa lived with us for most of my first few years of sprout’n up. He had his own room and it was the most special’st place in the world to a 5 year old. It had a huge bed with a feather mattress on it. I used to jump in the middle of that thing and dang near disappear! Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Now as most folks know I usually write stories so people can have a smile or two in their day. Well this is going to be a little different, so if you are looking for a laugh … well you came to the wrong place! This is a story about a lady named Goldie. Let me begin by saying there was nothing real special about this lady, she wasn’t rich or famous. Goldie wasn’t a politician, so she never told you no lies … she was just your everyday fine woman. She was married at a young age, came from a fine Christian family and managed to love her husband for many years.

Goldie raised four children during the great depression, which was quite a chore for lots of people. Her husbands name was Charles, a very intelligent man who had one terrible fault, Charles was an alcoholic! Goldie managed to put up with his drinking binges and somehow kept their family together through the good and the bad. She mothered three sons, Dale, Floyd and Victor and one daughter Cleo.

Now this fine woman believed in the Holy Bible literally … prayers to God was Goldies passion. Continue reading →

story by Frank Hughes

Now first of ya got to understand about my daddy … my daddys loved fish’n, and bein so’s I was a chunk off his ol block, I lov’d fish’n too! We set off one afternoon for the Snyders ponds to do some fish’n … the Snyders had two big ol ponds on their place and them things was dug side by side with just a dirt dike between em.

We fish’d in the first pond for quite some time and done real good. Then we moved over to the next pond and did some more fish’n there … after some time passed my daddy tells me, Son, go over ta that other pond and get our stringer of fish … I’ll reel up all the poles, we had better be head’n home! My daddy called me son cause I was so bright … anyhow away I goes to get that stringer of fish.

As I come up on them fish I near as had a heart attack right there on the spot. Lay’n there with them fish is a big ol Copperheaded Rattle Moccasin … Continue reading →