When the Rafter E branded recently, a bunch of us went out to help. There’s a definite pecking order here, and it’s a badge of pride to have worked your way up the branding ladder. As a kid, you flank...

After all the abundant rainfall we have had in the last few weeks, the warmer summer temperatures have started to take hold. This brings me to the topic of this outdoor column — keeping the mosquito p...

Drawn by memories, many of us made visits to cemeteries over the Memorial Day holiday. I watch as members of my family pause by the graves of relatives they never knew. I hear what they say to their c...

Billy’s been a busy guy ever since he became the official town dog here. Sally had been the town dog until she passed away on Doc’s porch, and then Billy’s owner died just two weeks after that, so it ...

Don’t drink and boat. That’s the main push from www.boatus.org this summer. More than 50 percent of boating accidents involve alcohol. Its website tells us that balance is critical on a boat. Simply f...

Mrs. Doc brought them some ice cream, but Doc and Charles weren’t that interested. Charles is Doc’s 6-year-old grandson, and both Doc and Mrs. Doc have found it fascinating to view the world -- after ...

The fishing bug bit me early. When I was but a toddler, one morning my parents were still in bed, and I must have wanted to wet a hook. I pushed a chair up, they said, to unlock the chain on the front...

Did you ever notice that sometime when you get to thinking you have more questions than answers? We fancy ourselves as being pretty good at waging and winning wars. There seems to be a focus on our su...

I often describe grief as an ocean. There are many reasons I find this a very fitting description. At first, I was in the middle of a hurricane and couldn’t see the end. I was constantly tossed about ...

Here he came, Windy Wilson himself. Marched right up to the official round table of the World Dilemma Think Tank at the Mule Barn coffee shop. Windy whipped off his beat-up old Stetson, grinned and bo...

Like all my peers, I possess a personal collection of storm stories. Thank God few of us will have to embrace such fearful images as folks in Sulfur and Barnsdall will have to carry from the past week...

Doc hadn’t even finished loading his coffee with fake sugar before Steve piped up. “I think it’s disgusting and weird and unnatural and it should be outlawed!” the tall cowboy said, coming to rest at ...

Squirrel season begins Wednesday, and there is no shortage of the species. “I’ve been hunting squirrels for a year,” 13-year-old Ryker Ellis of Braggs said. “My stepdad, James Burk, introduced me to i...

On The Late Show, Matt Damon recently took the Steven Colbert Personality Questionnaire. One question asked, “What is your favorite smell?” He answered, “Bacon and coffee, first thing in the morning.”...

Feel that warmth? Right there on the back of your neck? Yep. That’s the one. Around here that means only one thing: time to cruise down to the Mule Barn coffee shop and get something hot to drink. Of ...

In the wee hours of most mornings, I will read a passage from a book professing to contain Mother Teresa’s essential teachings. It is now a wellworn paperback whose line spacing and print size are agr...

Turtles are on the move, migrating from their winter hibernation spots to areas more conducive for breeding and egg-laying. This migration often requires turtles to traverse roadways, putting them at ...

“Happy May Day!” said Delbert McLain, our self-appointed, undisputed and unpaid head of our non-existent chamber of commerce. He wears a tie. Here, in this town. ‘Nuf said. “By golly you’re right,” sa...

For bird enthusiasts, nothing beats the thrill of spotting a bird species in the wild and identifying it. It also can be quite a task to master that ability, but the digital age ushers in new tools fo...

I read that the Haskell County Historical Society was holding a meeting. It seems the goal is to reenergize the once vibrant historical society and its museum. Community organizations such as this are...