Don't get me wrong, but
Staff writer
Ah, Marion. I'm glad to be here.
Ah, Moving. I don't like ya at all.
I found out I have more stuff (and nonsense) than anyone should need. Thoreau said, "simplify, simplify." Would that I could.
I am no clotheshorse, certainly, as I laughingly but seriously told a lady who was showing me an apartment I might rent, the other day, here in Marion.
But I have enough clothes, at least for now. Certainly don't need a thing in that department.
Nor do I need any more books! I am a book nut, and keep buying them. I need to stop that.
A friend of mine in Arkansas City, Dotty, says she loves to move. She and her husband of 40 years, Mel, have moved 51 times, she said.
Dotty, I don't love it.
But Marion, I think you're OK, babe. (Oops, forgot you're a town, not a librarian
On April 18, one week before I began working here at the Record, I thought I must be in heaven: I was at Daisy Mae's Café in Ark City (my favorite eatery there) and an old black-and-white rodeo-cowboy movie, "Lusty Men," was on the big-screen TV, from Turner Classic Movies. The sound was turned "way down," but there were the late Robert Mitchum and the late Susan Hayward, two of my long-ago (and still) favorites.
But then I realized I was not yet in Marion, so it couldn't quite be paradise yet.
"Lusty Men" — think about it. If they made a film called that now, for the screen or for one of the "premium channels," HBO or Showtime, for instance, you can bet it would be much different than this Fifties oater.
The dialogue and the plot would be much different. Let's not even think about it.
Friday night I saw the sign at Burns, on my way back to Ark City to pick up some of my junk. It spoke of the Friday Night Specials at the Burns Cafe and Bakery.
So I drove west for a few blocks. There were a lot of cars parked outside the place, always a good sign, I think.
I stood in line for 35 minutes to be seated, but it was very well worth it. I had the ribs, with salad bar, potato, corn, roll, coffee, etc. (Etc. was a gilding of the lily with a huge slab of raisin cream pie. Mmmm!)
The ribs and the pie, in fact, everything, was as good as anything I've ever had.
The café is open in the evening only on Fridays, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, it's open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Stephen and Rachel Koehn run the place. It's probably familiar to most of you, but it was a great pleasure of discovery for me.
And I had the great pleasure (another one) of meeting a couple from El Dorado, the Whites, Leon and Ocella, who call themselves transplanted Okies. Originally from the Muskogee area, they've been in El Dorado for more than 41 years.
They knew many people I knew at El Dorado, where I had my first newspaper job, working for Rolla and Dave Clymer at the El Dorado Times, 1975-77, as sports editor and city reporter.
They knew Rolla and Dave, and also Bill Bidwell, longtime journalism and photojournalism instructor at Butler County Community College. Bill, unfortunately for all who knew him, died in January, at age 66. The Whites were very close friends of Bill's, and attended his funeral. I did not, and am ashamed I didn't. My only excuse is sloth, I guess. I meant to, and could have gotten off my job at The Arkansas City Traveler that day if I had asked.
I hate funerals, but that's no excuse. Most of us dislike them, but
Bidwell was my mentor at the Times. He worked there in the summers, "Helping out" and much more, training rookies such as I was.
He was a wonderful tutor/teacher/mentor. I started July 25, 1975, and thought I knew something about newspapers, having read some.
I didn't, not much, anyway. But Bidwell, Dave C. and Susan Shaw, among others at the Times, tried to take care of that problem, and did their darnedest.
I remember one headline Bill wrote for one of my/our sports pages. The New Orleans Super Dome had just opened, and there was an AP story saying that there was a problem with the "super screen" installed for the crowd, for replays and such.
Bill's head was "Super Dome's super screen won't give super view." I thought it was really good, and I've never forgotten it.
Another one I recall is more recent, from just a couple years ago, when Wake Forest beat the heck out of KU, by about 30 points, at Winston-Salem, the worst defeat of the now-departed Roy Williams's career at KU.
The Wichita Eagle headline said, "Forest Thump."
Headline writing is sometimes the hardest part of an editor's job, I've found. You want to be accurate, not have the say something that does not reflect the story, but at the same time, if you can be a little bit "funny," or clever, or punsy, what the heck — as long as it's not a head over a really serious, sad or tragic story.
Back to the Whites: Leon was commissioned as a fighter pilot in 1953, so is about ready for a golden anniversary celebration with his class. He had to bail out of his jet once, and spent the night in the ocean, near Cuba.
His wife and in-laws feared he would not be found and rescued, but he was.
They ran Reed Chevrolet in El Dorado from 1962 until 1975. Leon then worked for Dick Hatfield's auto agency in Augusta for six years, then worked many more years for Wichita dealerships.
Their son, Lee, 38, formerly owned the radio station in El Dorado. He and his wife lived in Portland, Ore., for some time, but the worsening economy, post 9/11, brought them back to Butler County.
Lee is now studying to be a lawyer, and his wife is studying to become a registered nurse. Both are doing that studying at Butler County Community College.
Anyhoo, as they say, it was a serendipitous Friday night stop. I was in this wonderful café for two hours, had a great meal and talked to this terrific couple for at least an hour.
