Sparkman said both his grandfathers were carpenters.
"My grandpa Sparkman worked for the railroad. He helped build and repair the wooden bridges from Van Buren to Coffeeville, Kan.," Sparkman said. "My other grandpa in the early 1950s, was one of the biggest home builders in Fort Smith, Ark."
"We always built our own barns and storage sheds. I was always right in the middle of it," Sparkman said.
"As a little kid I built forts and tree houses and one time I built a salt box for my dad. I spent a lot of time on it. It was a pretty fancy salt box back in its day. I put a metal top of it," Sparkman said.
Sparkman said he remembers building a chicken house with his grandfather.
"It was a pretty nice chicken house. Everything had to be level and square. It didn't matter if it was a chicken house or the house we lived in," Sparkman said. "What got me was how particular he was when we built the nests for the hens."
Sparkman said he like using the old hand tools.
"I still have the toolbox that my grandpa carried on the railroad. It is full of his old hand tools. It is pretty heavy and it means a lot to me," Sparkman said.
"I still have hand saws that are still sharp and I can almost cut as fast with it as you can with an electric saw," Sparkman said with a smile.
Sparkman said he sometimes pulls out the old hand tools and uses them on some little project around the house.
"What amazes me is they did everything by hand. When you compare their tools to the tools we have today those guys were masters at what they did. They were the real carpenters," Sparkman said.
"It is like those railroad bridges built out of those big timbers and stuff. That was pretty awesome," Sparkman said.
Sparkman said he and his wife, Tina, started their own remodeling company about 10 years ago.
"It is a small family business and we do mostly small remodeling jobs," Sparkman said.
"When we started my wife couldn't hammer a nail but now she can hang siding with the best of them," Sparkman said.
"Her big thing now is painting and she is really good at it. When we started this she didn't know end of the brush to use," Sparkman said with a laugh. "She knows more about painting then I do and I have been around it a long time."
"Tina and I have been married for 32 years. I got lucky and married my best friend," he said.
"We have two children, Kellie, and Jason, and eight grandchildren Kynleigh, Eli, Josh, Cason, Trevor, Micheal, Jamie, and Logan.
Sparkman said his family moved north of Muldrow from Rudy when he was 13 and he graduated from Roland High School in 1976.
"My big thing growing up was riding bulls and doing a little bit of roping but I was never good enough to win the big money," Sparkman said. "It was just semi pro rodeo stuff.
"Our big thing now is watching these grandkids play ball," Sparkman said.
