Ghost Writers In The Sky

“An old cowboy went riding out, one dark and windy day. Along a ridge, he stood and saw a “mighty” herd of red eyed cows, plowing through the ragged sky, and coming his way.” “He heard “one” call his name!” “If you want to save your soul from hell and riding forever on these plains; then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride’, trying to catch the devil’s herd, across these endless skies!”

“Country” living was really quite special and beautiful. The farmer’s life is one of Godly roots, hard-hard-work, no “pay”, endless skies and possibilities, wonderment, and gloriously “warm”, spirit, family, friends, and neighbors. Rich in values, heart, and “otherworldly” stories; poor in everything else, not that any of that still matters. I was being sarcastic and a skosh ironic, contrastingly towards today’s standards and “climate”.

“There’s a full moon over Tulsa, I hope that it’s shinin’ on you.” The holidays are now upon us, and I feel a story by a warm crackling fire with a heaping full amount of hot chocolate in my dark roasted coffee, just the right touch. A smidge of sweet and savory memories to warm the cochleas of our ears and the cockles of our hearts. “The nights are getting cold in Cherokee County; there’s a Blue Northern passin’ through.” This is my dad’s story and it started on the dry desolate plains of the mid-west, early forties. Other interesting information from the census bureau regarding 1940’s fast facts:

• Marvel Comics introduces superhero Captain America in March 1941.
• After approximately 14 years, carving at Mount Rushmore concludes in October 1941.
• Diarist Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the “Achterhuis” on July 6, 1942, in Amsterdam.
• Walt Disney wins a 1943 Academy Award for his animated short film Der Fuehrer’s Face.
• Band leader Alton Glenn Miller disappears while enroute to Paris, France, December 15, 1944.
• Department stores begin selling Tupperware in 1946.
• Charles Yeager becomes the first man to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 ft.
• NASCAR holds its first modified stock car race in Daytona Beach, FL, in 1948.
• George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949.

Meanwhile, in dad’s (red) neck (“redneck” being an offensive word for name-calling someone, essentially, shaming a person for working out in the sun) of the world, the forties roared as opposed to the nautical reference but just as turbulent; metaphorically speaking. Another hateful term slung my father’s direction; “Oakey”, meaning a person of no intellect (dad was learning trigonometry in grammar school), education, or proper upbringing, or manners. Worst being called trash or etc. associated with the actual garbage, lowest socio-economic status for a white person. Too many derogatory terms to keep track of and better yet, do like our elders; “If you got nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.” Sheesh, people living in glass houses, throwing rocks. What happened to the golden rule? Sent away, along with my father, from his beloved grandparents, on a journey westward bound and gagged, and most assuredly against his will.

“Sailors call the latitudes between 40 and 50 degrees south of the equator the Roaring Forties.” Not to get too off topic, did you know; “The circulation of wind in the atmosphere is driven by the rotation of the Earth and incoming energy from the sun.” “Wind circulates in each hemisphere in three distinct cells, which help transport energy and heat from the equator to the poles.” “The winds are driven by energy from the sun at the surface as warm air rises and cold air sinks.”

“The Roaring Forties in the Northern Hemisphere don’t pack the same punch or wallop, that they do in the Southern Hemisphere;” in more ways than one. “This is because the large land masses of North America, Europe, and Asia obstruct the airstream, whereas, in the southern hemisphere, there is less land to break the wind in South America, Australia, and New Zealand.” If you’ve ever felt the wind chill through you, or the wind whip, or survived a historic sandstorm, then you know what this means.

“While the Roaring Forties may be fierce, 10 degrees south are even stronger gale-force winds called the Furious Fifties.” “And 10 degrees south of the Furious Fifties lie the Screaming Sixties!” “We can thank the intrepid sailors of yore for these wildly descriptive terms.” And much like the winds, my father’s destiny ran tandem and “gone” (“done went”; southern expression for the word and meaning “left”) with the wind. I have so many “southern expressions”, that it would take another day of writing, and laughing to translate them all. Would be nice, with a pink lemonade on the front porch. Swinging along with unforgettable, epic tales of twists and turns. Oh, and the food! Even though, I no longer eat red meat or pork or dairy, soy, or gluten; I have some recipes that will melt your face, so good!

Perched from this porch, an expansive view lies before us this Holiday. We can see for miles and miles away into the future and behind us far from the past. “Away out there, they gotta name for rain and wind and fire and here’s the story, with jingle, given to me to remember and share; “The rain is Tess, the fire’s Joe, and they call the wind, Mariah.” “Before I knew Mariah’s name (and way before the famous diva of today was born with her angelic voice) and heard her wail and whining, I had a girl and she had me and the sun was always shining.” “But, then one day, I left my girl; I left her far behind me, and now I’m lost, so lost, not even God can find me.”

God took my father, his mother and stepfather, and three little sisters out of the plains of Oklahoma and Texas, hauled “everything” in the back of a pickup truck with a pig. Probably better company too (the pig). Eventually, Arizona bound, and university driven, led my father straight into engineering. Got a state job and one thing led to another; first headed a project out in California, surveying the wickedly treacherous roads of Truckee (should be called Trickee), then onto Oroville (the dam), (Spanish for gold town).

Contracted to work the infamous Donner Pass Road. You heard that right, and yes, the exact location to the Donner Reed Party, that wasn’t a party at all! From one extreme to another my father’s life swayed to and fro in the snow and through the trees and with the breeze. From learning to speak Spanish fluently, loving the culinary art and skills of Mexican cuisine, losing his entire paycheck to the casinos, engineering and surveying the famous roads, a run in with a bear, to a near death experience involving his vehicle’s tires uncontrollably spinning on black ice down the cliff; a sheer jagged cliff side about a foot from plunging over the edge of Earth and possibly time itself.

Luckily, his scream from shock of being in such close proximity to a bear, scared the beast off. Bears aren’t what they have been deemed and while on his morning jaunt out for breakfast, curiosity bound; the bear investigated my father’s trash bin, likely searching for remnants to the mysteriously delicious smelling, heavenly, huevos ranchero. In fact, most are big rambunctious dogs, just ask Grizzly Adams, whom my father resembled whilst working on the mountain side. Quick sidenote, whilst in a black-ice spin, turn towards the spin. I know it sounds backwards, but that’s the sage wisdom while trying not to panic while spinning out-of-control. Regarding the black ice, statistical odds of morbid probability, narrow escapes from death and death traps alike, divinity, and the history pertaining to Truckee; there’s much to discuss and “unpack”.

“Truckee’s existence began in 1863 as Gray’s Station, named for Joseph Gray’s Roadhouse on the trans-Sierra wagon road.” It was renamed Truckee after a Paiute chief. “The first Europeans who came to cross the Sierra Nevada encountered his tribe.” “The friendly chief rode toward them yelling, “Tro-kay!”, which is Paiute for ‘Everything is all right’.” Sounds friendly enough and if you’ve ever visited, it’s picturesque, legendary, and mysteriously spooky. Oh, and freezing; always cold! Last time I was there, spent the weekend in President Nixon’s families fishing cabin. Mind you, this cabin was two stories and probably close to 5000 square feet. Still spooky and I didn’t stay long! Ever feel like you’re being watched? Whelp, travel to Truckee and “see” for yourself!

“The Donner Party ordeal is arguably Truckee’s most famous historical event.” “In 1846, a group of settlers from Illinois, originally known as the Donner-Reed Party but now usually referred to as the Donner Party, became snowbound in early fall as a result of several trail mishaps, poor decision-making, and an early onset of winter that year.” “Choosing multiple times to take shortcuts to save distance compared to the traditional Oregon Trail, coupled with infighting, a disastrous crossing of the Utah salt flats, and the attempt to use the pass near the Truckee River (now Donner Pass) all caused delays in their journey.” ~ Wikipedia

“Finally, a large, early blizzard brought the remaining settlers to a halt at the edge of what is now Donner Lake, about 1,200 feet (370 m) below the steep granite summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains and 90 miles (140 km) east of their final destination, Sutter’s Fort (near Sacramento).” Also, exactly where my father was “stationed” during the several months (2 years) it took to survey. “Several attempts at carting their few remaining wagons, oxen, and supplies over the summit (sometimes by pulling them up by rope) proved impossible due to freezing conditions and a lack of any preexisting trail.” “The party returned, broken in spirit and short of supplies, to the edge of Donner Lake.” ~ Wikipedia

“During the hard winter the travelers endured starvation and were later found to have practiced cannibalism.” “Fifteen members constructed makeshift snowshoes and set out for Sutter’s Fort in the late fall but were thwarted by freezing weather and disorientation.” “Only seven survived: two were lost, and six died.” I was told by my father a true hero emerged, frozen in the snow with his arm propped up, to show any survivors the “right” way. “Of the original 87 settlers in the Donner-Reed party, 48 survived the ordeal. The Donner Memorial State Park is dedicated to the settlers and is located at the East End of Donner Lake.”

Finishing his project felt like he’d climbed a mountain, literally, and probably a few mountains, numerically. Now, smarter, wiser, and stealthier; he packed up his data, hopes, drafted plans, paved ambitions, blue-prints, mathematical equations, protractors, new tires, and dreams. He didn’t move to Beverly but settled amongst the trees in Sacramento. He moved into a one-bedroom, garden apartment, in downtown, Sacramento, called Capitol Towers. Capitol Towers has an Olympic-size pool and the notoriety of finding everlasting love; and on a beautiful summer day, he swam up to my mother and asked her out on a date. Three months later, he married a woman who looked exactly like Priscilla Presley (mum) and moved to a farm, just outside the city.

Marysville California was farmland between Sacramento and Oroville, just perfect for a previous cowboy’s budding family. This is where, yours truly, entered the picture. Briefly, since I have no memory what’s so ever of being there. “Marysville is a city in and the county seat of Yuba County, California, United States, located at the confluence of two rivers which drain the watersheds containing the most productive gold mining region in Northern California.” “As the depot for the Northern mines, it became an important early center of commerce, growing into one of the largest cities in California’s first decade of existence, before the gold was all mined.” “It is one of only 2 cities in California named after a woman who is not a Catholic saint, after a survivor of the Donner Party.” The irony, not, lost upon me.

“Marysville is located on the ancestral land of the Maidu (translated as man), who occupied the area for 10,000 years prior to the arrival of Jedediah Smith and trappers from the Hudson Bay Company in 1828, who were the first non-natives to explore the area.” “The primary religious tradition was known as the Kuksu cult.” “This central California religious system was based on a male secret society (of course).” “It was characterized by the Kuksu or “big head” dances.” There’s so much I could say here, but I’m being respectful to my father’s memory.

“Maidu elder Marie Potts says that the Maidu are traditionally a monotheistic (the doctrine or belief that there is only one God) people: “they greeted the sunrise with a prayer of thankfulness; at noon they stopped for meditation, and at sunset, they communed with Kadyapam and gave thanks for blessings throughout the day.” “A traditional spring celebration for the Maidu was the Bear Dance when the Maidu honored the bear coming out of hibernation.” “The bear’s hibernation and survival through the winter symbolized perseverance to the Maidu, who identified with the animal spiritually.” Beautiful customs, sentiments, people, and their land amongst these little-known towns and cities. Not what a person outside California would envision, and that’s what makes this land so sacred and majestic.

“Stories of K’odojapem/World-maker and Wepam/Trickster Coyote are particularly prominent in Maidu traditional narratives.” “The Maidu traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Maidu, Konkow, and Nisenan people of eastern Sacramento Valley and foothills in northeastern California.” “The Coyote mythos is one of the most popular among western Native American cultures, especially among indigenous peoples of California and the Great Basin.”

“According to Crow (and other Plains) tradition, Old Man Coyote impersonates the Creator: “Old Man Coyote took up a handful of mud and out of it made people”. Not the first time, I’ve heard almost verbatim the same story about California’s original inhabitants. “He also bestowed names on buffalo, deer, elk, antelopes, and bear.” “According to A. Hultkranz (recognized as a major authority on Native American religions and shamanism), the impersonation of Coyote as Creator is a result of a taboo, a mythic substitute to the religious notion of the Great Spirit whose name was too dangerous and/or sacred to use apart from or at special ceremonies.” We’ll talk Thunderbirds, totems, Bohemian Highway, golfing, whales, “other” secret hiding places, and “underground” societies, another day of writing and coasting along the California waves.

It’s not unusual to see coyotes, wolves, deer, bobcats, rabbits, birds, snakes, and other animals in these parts. Some shocking; like buzzards, giant white owls, possum, skunk, lizards, all sorts of critters out yonder. There are many words for a group of vultures. “A group of vultures may be a cast, committee, meal, vortex, venue, and even wake.” Definitely a sight that will wake you up! “Some sources state that a group of vultures circling in the air is called a kettle.” Oh, tea sounds good; I will boil the water.

Literally, have seen seven swans the size of roundtables swimming. In groups, called a bevy or a wedge in flight. “The swan is part of many myths and legends from around the globe.” “According to one popular tale, when beautiful women wore a magical coat made of the skin of swans (eww), they would transform into swans.” “Such a maiden would have to marry any man who discovered the magic coat; otherwise, she would have to obey the man’s will.” Yikes! And in Ancient Greece, a young woman need worry about encountering Zues, transformed into a swan of seduction. Lots to be wary of back then.

Keep your eyes peeled open, because if you blink, you’ll miss the entire town. Whilst out on the prairie, there’s much to see and do. Dad worked for Water Resources on the new plans for a dam the likes the world has never seen. Not naturally made, of course, but oh so impressive of human feats. Dad embraced his next, new challenge, and quickly went to work; while my mother was busy looking after two toddlers and me in the pipeline, on the way, a few years to come, down the road, and over the hill. Oh, and two Samoyed’s named Tasha and Zar-Bar. White clouds of fluff and smiles; the dogs, and the clouds. His once loyal steed, “Shadow”, traded in for a Dodge white van, no seat belts to be had.

“Oroville Dam is an Earth fill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley.” “At 770 feet (235 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. and serves mainly for water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control.” “The dam impounds Lake Oroville, the second largest man-made lake in the state of California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre-feet (1.1 trillion US gallons; 4.3 trillion litres).” ~ Wikipedia

“Lake Oroville, is also immense, the second biggest in the state.” “It’s part of the California State Water Project, one of the largest water storage and delivery systems in the U.S. that supplies water to more than 20 million people and hundreds of thousands of acres of irrigated farmland.” “The reservoir is also used to generate electricity with over 800 megawatts of capacity.”

“Finally, the dam also keeps a reserve volume empty during the wet season.” “In case of major flooding (see February 2017 for further reference) upstream, it can store floodwaters and release them gradually over time, reducing the potential damage downstream.” This coming from the man who never drank water; didn’t like the “taste”. Opted for flavored coffee and cream, or a diet sprite to quench his thirst in his later, retired days.

“Since its completion in 1968, the Oroville Dam has allocated the flow of the Feather River from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the State Water Project’s California Aqueduct, which provides a major supply of water for irrigation in the San Joaquin Valley as well as municipal and industrial water supplies to coastal Southern California and has prevented large amounts of flood damage to the area (more than $1.3 billion between the years of 1987 and 1999).”

“Oroville Dam was designed to withstand the strongest possible earthquake for the region and was fitted with hundreds of instruments that serve to measure water pressure and settlement of the earth fill used in its construction, earning it the nickname “the dam that talks back”. I love a good dam joke, but what’s not funny; an earthquake.”(It is believed that a M_L 5.7 earthquake in the Oroville area in 1975 was caused by induced seismicity from the weight of the Oroville Dam and reservoir on a local fault line.)” “The embankment was finally topped out on October 6, 1967, with the last of 155 million tons (140.6 million t) of material that took over 40,000 train trips to transport.” 

“On May 4, 1968, Oroville Dam was officially dedicated by the state of California.” “Among the notable figures present were California governor Ronald Reagan, who spoke, Chief Justice (formerly California governor) Earl Warren, Senator Thomas Kuchel, and California Representative Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson.” This wouldn’t be the last time my father and Ronald Reagan would meet but might have been the first.

At least the dam ran strong up until recently, “In February 2017, the main and emergency spillways threatened to fail, leading to the evacuation of 188,000 people living near the dam.” “After deterioration of the main spillway largely stabilized and the water level of the dam’s reservoir dropped below the top of the emergency spillway, the evacuation order was lifted.” Back then, the family packed up, still no move to Beverly Hills, but the wholesome happy farm moved back to the city of Sacramento once more. I was then born into the best home and life for five straight years.

His last project and in my humble opinion his greatest achievement thus far (I believe his work continues on, as above, so below, and just like a Willie Nelson song on the road again and back again), career wise, was working for the government, computerizing fingerprints into a massive database, and aiding in the creation of a “digital era”. My dad was a believer in Gnosticism, and that knowledge would take humanity out of perpetual darkness and into the much-needed light. “Gnosticism is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects.” “These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.” “Viewing material existence as flawed or evil.” I imagine their views would be much the same pertaining to the virtual world we live in.

This project took everything out of my father, and I saw his once vibrant self, deteriorate before me over many years. Not that I can say with 100% certainty, that his work endeavors were to blame (they weren’t), but my father took joy and pride in his work, and once that purpose was served or was no longer the case: everything else in his life rapidly disintegrated. Just like a partial print sitting in a storage box, filed with hundreds of thousands of others, labeled cold case. Waiting for the “light” of day or you and I to stumble over in the dark.

“A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger.” “The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science.” “Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfaces such as glass or metal.” “Human fingerprints are detailed, nearly unique, difficult to alter, and durable over the life of an individual, making them suitable as long-term markers of human identity.” “They may be employed by police or other authorities to identify individuals who wish to conceal their identity, or to identify people who are incapacitated or deceased and thus unable to identify themselves, as in the aftermath of a natural disaster.”

“Before computerization, manual filing systems were used in large fingerprint repositories.” “A fingerprint classification system groups fingerprints according to their characteristics and therefore helps in the matching of a fingerprint against a large database of fingerprints.” “A query fingerprint that needs to be matched can therefore be compared with a subset of fingerprints in an existing database.” “Early classification systems were based on the general ridge patterns, including the presence or absence of circular patterns, of several or all fingers.” “This allowed the filing and retrieval of paper records in large collections based on friction ridge patterns alone.”

“The fingerprinting movement was launched in earnest in the latter part of the second half of the 19th Century.” “There is evidence of hand printing and fingerprinting dating all the way back to the building of the pyramids, and there is reason to believe that the Chinese culture used fingerprints as signatures on official documents back in 3 B.C.”

“Although there are hundreds of reported techniques for fingerprint detection, many of these are only of academic interest and there are only around 20 really effective methods which are currently in use in the more advanced fingerprint laboratories around the world.” “Some of these techniques, such as ninhydrin, diazafluorenone and vacuum metal deposition, show great sensitivity and are used operationally.” “Some fingerprint reagents are specific, for example ninhydrin or diazafluorenone reacting with amino acids.” “Fingerprints can for example be visualized in 3D and without chemicals by the use of infrared lasers.” “A technique proposed in 2007 aims to identify an individual’s ethnicity, sex, and dietary patterns.”(Diddy did it!) We’ve come a long way; haven’t we? And I wasn’t just referring to this story.

“Fingerprints collected at a crime scene, or on items of evidence from a crime, have been used in forensic science to identify suspects, victims and other persons who touched a surface.” This was my father’s objective; catch the predator and make the world safer. He was a justice for all, kind of guy! His first predator he helped capture, was Richard Ramirez. “Richard Ramirez, the infamous Night Stalker, used a pentagram as his calling card.” Ramirez died in jail 2013; he actually outlived my father.

“Forensic science is a combination of two different Latin words: forensis and science.” “The former, forensic, relates to a discussion or examination performed in public.” “Because trials in the ancient world were typically held in public, it carries a strong judicial connotation.” “The second is science, which is derived from the Latin word for ‘knowledge’ and is today closely tied to the scientific method, a systematic way of acquiring knowledge.” “Taken together forensic science means the use of the scientific methods and processes for crime solving.” My father’s brain worked much like a computer, which made for hilarious social situations, and lively debates in life, about life, and all matters pertaining to, “said” life matters.

“More crimes have been solved through fingerprint identification than by any other means.” “The general knowledge that fingerprints help solve crimes has also prompted individuals to wear gloves while they commit crimes to make an effort to wipe away the telltale evidence.” “What criminals may not know is that gloves with textured finger surfaces can themselves be identified.” “This is because the finger surface texturing is typically random in pattern, meaning that the pattern will not be exactly the same for another finger on that glove or for another glove, as with fingerprints.” “If the gloves are found in the possession of a suspect and the glove prints can be identified to a particular finger of a glove, this situation can actually be more incriminating than the presence of fingerprints, because it shows intent to cover up the crime on the part of the defendant.”

Does the system still work, better yet, did my father’s hard work matter or go for naught, all in vain, you ask? He liked Shakespeare. “Nearly 90% of prisoners were in state prisons.” “The total number of prisoners in 2019 was down 11% from the 2009 peak due to shrinking state and federal prison populations.” “Federal prison populations declined 16% in the same period and California and New York’s both decreased 23%.” “Arrests for drug abuse violations continued to outnumber arrests for assault and DUIs as of 2019.​” “Violent crime rates reached a 20-year low in 2014 and remained near that in 2019.”

Of course, everything has changed since the pandemic and my stats are surely outdated. I do believe the trend of what was, was headed in a better direction. Eternal optimist and hopeful Pollyanna, here. We’ll have to wait and ride this storm out to eventually calculate, tabulate, stipulate, speculate, originate, surmise, write, and estimate, the damages of noninsured liability with a comprehensive look at a later, to be a predetermined date. Which leads us too today, Christmas time.

Statistics seem cold and heartless, while the crimes feel fresh and agonizing. I want it noted, that while criminal justice seems an abandoned mine field, no phat paycheck or rewards/acknowledgements of any kind, or flatly neglected at times; that be an illusion. As many criminals are out there, there are plenty more justice seeking, truth seekers, police officers, doctors and nurses, teachers, servicemen and women, angels, and good Samaritans (“inhabitant of Samaria”), watchers, writers, and “helpers”, who seek for better, safer, healthier, and wiser ways. All of you countless individuals who work tirelessly for good without the glory, are the essential heroes. This time of year can be very strenuous and crime rates, hospitalizations, and senseless tragedies occur. If you haven’t been thanked or appreciated, please allow me to do so. I’m forever grateful, thank you, and God bless each of you!

“The solstice means “The sun stands still” in Latin.” “It marks a season change and happens when the sun’s zenith is at its furthest point from the equator.” Every year my dad and I would find the perfect Christmas tree, decorate it, tell stories about its origins, and all the magnanimous individuals who have made this time of year so special. “The phenomenon has been celebrated throughout history.” “Romans had a fete called Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the God of agriculture.” “The Druids who served a wide variety of roles in the ancient Celtic cultures celebrated the solstice.” “They decorated their temples with evergreen boughs to celebrate life.”

“Evergreen plants like the mistletoe are closely tied to Balder, the Viking Sun God.” “The plant was used as an arrow to kill him, fortunately, he was resurrected.” “His mother Frigga the Goddess of love was delighted and forbade anyone to use this plant as a weapon.” “She then encouraged people to kiss under the mistletoe to celebrate love.” “Ancient Egyptians believed that the solstice symbolized the triumph of life over death.” “Evergreens were thus the symbol of rebirth and joy.” “Did you ever think that you could trace the origins of the Christmas tree back to ancient Egypt?”

“The winter solstice played a very important role in pre-Christian cultures throughout Europe, especially in Scandinavia, where winter makes the days short and the nights very long.” “The Old Norse festival was known as “Jol”, though it is spelled in other ways.” “In modern English, the word is “Yule” and is synonymous with Christmas.” “For Christians, Christmas begins the movement of mankind from Darkness into Light.” “There were twelve days of celebration for the solstice.” “There became “Twelve Days of Christmas”.” “In the corners of millions of houses throughout the Christian world, one finds the modern version of the Vikings’ tree, (the Christmas tree) which remains green, reminding people that light will return.”

My father’s name is Noel, and I am honored to not only have known him, but to fill his size 14 shoes, walk the walk, and talk the talk, be his daughter, share his legacy, DNA, and tell his amazing stories, decorate the Christmas tree, and carry on the traditions. He was a genius, my teacher, mentor, best-friend, consultant, and now my dad ghost-writer. “He’ll fly a star ship across the universe divide and when he reaches the other side; I hope he finds a place to rest his spirit, if he can.” “Perhaps he may become a highwayman again.” One thing is certain for my motto song, reminding me of my dad; “You are the reason God made Oklahoma, and I’m sure missing you.”

Thank you for spending some time with us, this Holiday Season! Cheers, Blessings, and Warm Wishes from our house to yours. And bear hugs to the kids, who make this year and season sure magic. Love to all beings big and small, young, and ancient, furry, fluffy, slick, wrinkly, and smooth. In the voice of Bing Crosby, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. God be with you ~ Always

The End! More To Come ……