Rusty Fleming on Grand Lake, Oklahoma

How High’s the Water Momma?

2011-04-30T06:35:00.001-07:00

As I set here and pound out this column at shortly after 10am on Wednesday, the correct answer is 750.74’ and the latest prediction is for a crest later this afternoon of 752.20’. It’s been a while since we had a high water event of this magnitude and time dulls the memory of the destruction and heart ache associated with it. There’s always also a lot of frustration and accusations about the GRDA’s management of the lake in times like these.

Life was never described as being fair and that certainly rings true when it comes to managing flood waters. The residents of Miami, Oklahoma, and other communities upstream, always seem to get the short end of the stick in times like these. As inconvenienced as some lake front property owners consider themselves to be when they can’t get to their docks, that pale in comparison to having two feet of running water in one’s living room or kitchen. And the question which begs to be asked is, “Why is the wellbeing of communities downstream seemingly more important than those upstream?” I can only ponder that the decision to flood Van Buren, Arkansas would be a human initiated decision while what takes place upstream is considered to be an act of God.

Regardless of which end of this proverbial stick you happen to occupy, the management of heavy rains, and their associated run-off in the Grand Lake watershed, is an extremely complex issue. Most of us are mainly concerned with how it affects our own lives, but the Corps of Engineers is charged with managing a system, as opposed to a pond, a stream or one particular lake.

In the case of Grand Lake, they have to consider the contributions of the water inflow from not only the Neosho River, but also the Spring and Elk. It then passes on South through Lake Hudson and the rest of the system and eventually ends up in the Arkansas above Van Buren. And guess what? Those people downstream think their stuff on Lake Hudson, or any other lake or river in the system, is just as important the stuff we treasure here on Grand Lake, or further upstream. But it gets more complicated by the minute and especially when heavy rains are wide spread as they have been over the past week.

You see, were not the only system which eventually winds up in the Arkansas. If memory serves me correctly, the Cimarron River dumps into the Canadian River, and both Canadian Rivers, both North and South, eventually dump into the Arkansas, which eventually finds its way to the Mighty Mississippi. What is eventually finding its way to Van Buren is the sum of the rivers and that’s what makes managing flood waters so difficult.

As popular as it has become to blame the federal government for most of our difficulties in this life, I can’t think of any group we might identify who could or would do it better. I can’t imagine a herd of applicants coming forward to take over a mission this complex and with damn few Atta boys and even less financial rewards. It is what it is and that is an extremely complicated problem with few equations which would please all the affected parties.

Perhaps our state legislature could step forward and ban rainfall in excess of two inches in any given week in any contiguous five county area. That’s obviously tongue-in-cheek, but they’ve spent time on issues they have much less control over than rainfall, so why not? Don’t you feel better now?

I think I’ll opt for praying for sunshine and some Godly intervention for some folks upstream who are deserving of a break. And in a few dry months, we’ll be praying for some rain…….AGAIN.

See Ya’Around the Pond!

The Grand Lake Galaxy: The Playground of Shirley Webb!

2010-12-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

The Grand Lake Galaxy: The Playground of Shirley Webb!

Sometime in the late eighties, while being in the very early stages of the newspaper business, I was traveling through the Rocky Mountains. I stole the phrase, “Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire,” which appeared on the front of one of the Rocky Mountain area newspapers, and customized it for use on Grand Lake in a fledgling newspaper entitled The Grand River Chronicle. And from that day forward, the phrase “Voice of the Grand Lake Empire,” appeared on every edition of The Chronicle while I was at the helm.

But with the passing of our dear friend, Shirley Webb this past week, it caused me to reflect back on this lake which has attracted so many really special people over the years, regardless of what one might call it. Even though many who visit this column will have never had the privilege of knowing or hearing of Shirley Webb, they will still recognize the characteristics of those who have made this lake a unique experience by those who came before them.

If you take a look at some of the key players, who over the years have made this a truly special place, the one thing they seem to share is that of being self made. Or, as the guy at the end of the bar has been known to say, “They threw away the pattern when they completed that one,” or “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.” I’m thinking of people like Carlos Langston, Gene Gregg, Mr. Davis, John Mullen, Joe Harwood, Terry Frost, the Howsers, Denny Cresap and especially Shirley Webb.

They influenced what our lake has become by bringing us in order, Port Carlos Marina and a modern day approach to marina & boat maintenance, a sprawling resort now known as Tera Miranda which once was simply known as the airport, a step to the next level in the Shangri-La Resort at the tip of Monkey Island highlighted by the historic governor’s conference in the seventies, a shoot-from-the-hip operator and gambler who just keeps on keepin’ on with enviable success, a political science major who took a wrong turn after college which led him to arguably being the largest commercial operator on Grand Lake, the father of the rebirth of the Cherokee Yacht Club and the introduction of game changing events like Welcome Back Weekend and the Christmas Boat Parade, the builder of a super marina, the undisputed beer king of Grand Lake with that very special knack for promotions, which is no more and the bubbly blonde, who partnered with her hubby to bring Grand Lake its very own boat line, a Margarita machine with a reputation far and wide and a zest for life few would ever experience.

There was no offered degree, or field of study available, to train Shirley Webb for what she would bring to the world in her seventy-five plus years on the planet. Her assets, as I believe she would have listed them in their order of importance, would read like this: Mother, wife, grandmother, perhaps great grandmother, jokester, promoter of a good time would be had by all, including, but not limited to those horse races in Hot Springs, group dinner outings at area restaurants and yacht clubs, the selling of boats as a sport and pass time and wiggling one’s toes in the sand of a warmer place in the winter, college and professional football….watching and wagering, golf and much, much more. And all along the way, whatever she was inclined to do, she drew people into life-long relationships as dear friends of a special sort. For me, it started at the 1989 Tulsa, Boat, Sport & Travel Show….and I was sucked in just like so many others.

It was the first ever boat show edition for a publication I help found, The Grand River Chronicle. It afforded us a great opportunity to meet potential advertisers for our new pub and Shirley Webb, AKA Grand Lake Boat Sales, was just that operating out of Hammerhead Marina. Shirley never met a stranger, and immediately offered me a frozen margarita. I figured if this lady of the boat brand had given me a drink, some positive results from our “New Advertisers Campaign” might be forthcoming following the boat show. Little did I know the margarita offering was almost a registered trade mark of Webbcraft Boats. Shirley probably only served up 5,000 or so of those drinks at the ’89 boat show so it easy to see how I might feel special.

Shirley went on to become the first full page advertiser in The Chronicle. She occupied a back page position, which year-after-year was sought after by some of the Johnny-come-lately big boys, but as long as Shirley wanted it, it was hers. Sometimes old Marines are known to be faithful. And nobody served as her advertising representative but yours truly…..partly by choice, but mostly because she would send anybody else we assigned to the task back to our office with a simple message, “Send the big boy out here if he wants our ad.” And it always remained one of my most enjoyable stops of the week until they shut down Webbcraft and sold the dealership in the early nineties.

I can best describe Shirley’s status on my beloved pond in a number of ways, but the most telling might go like this: Any number of people could talk crap about Bill Webb, Shirley’s husband of some 50 plus years, regarding his boat sales and manufacturing techniques or on any number of other fronts, but if one negative word was uttered about Queen Shirley, there was going to be Hell to pay.

Shirley embraced friends, family and causes alike. She was always active in charity fund raisers. There were no social bounds when it came to her wide circle of friends….rich, poor and in between. And if they ever needed anything she could be counted on.

Shirley’s complete obituary can be found on our web site this week, as well as a photo gallery, but when I read one of those I always think, is that all there is? And in Shirley’s case there was so much more. With her selection of Grand Lake to spend some of the finer times in her life playing and working, while all the time humming a tune or two with that winning smile on her face, perhaps it time to promote our lake from empire to galaxy.

Just like a good Scotch, multi-overtime sporting events, fine cusine and more, Shirley Webb will always remain one of Grand Lake’s self made pioneers and not forgotten.

See Ya’ Around the Pond!!

http://www.grandlakenewsonline.com/

2010-12-17T06:44:00.001-08:00

Have Habitable Structures All But Been Forgotten?

2010-11-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

As we head into the third year of waiting on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to pass judgment on the proposed Shoreline Management Plan, submitted by GRDA in September of 2008, any discussion about the fate of habitable structures has all but disappeared. By GRDA definition, a habitable structure is any enclosed dock which could be potentially inhabited by humans with bathroom facilities.

When the Shoreline Management Plan was submitted to the feds, the section on these structures remained blank and the authority said study of this issue was still underway. An addendum was to be filed when their study was completed and a policy established. We’re still waiting.

A look back at what’s transpired so far makes the ongoing silence even more deafening. The authority contracted with the University of Oklahoma to do a lake wide environmental impact study on the potential ill affects of these structures. The study is dated October 1, 2008. The results of the study were presented to the full GRDA board of directors in late 2008. The recommendations authored by Randall L. Kolar, Ph.D., P.E., and Russell C. Dutnell, P.E. School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, were as follows:

In summary, then, the following itemizes our recommendations to GRDA based on the outcomes of this study:
1.require all wastes from structures to receive at least secondary wastewater treatment before being discharged;
2.require structures and boats to have holding tanks that are not susceptible to rupture or leakage due to a catastrophic weather event;
3.require automatic shut-off valves on all lines between the shore and habitable structures;
4.develop and implement a comprehensive, lake-wide monitoring and modeling program that routinely tracks major water quality variables;
5.institute a program to collect data on physical properties of the lake, e.g., bathymetry;
6.consider a special license fee whose proceeds go toward construction and maintenance of an adequate number of pumpout stations in order to avoid boats dumping their wastes;
7.critically review monitoring data annually to identify potential water quality problems;
8.use newly-collected data to update modeling results every three years;
9.make changes to the shoreline management plan based on updated modeling and monitoring observa¬tion

Following their presentation, the board held a lengthy discussion about habitable structures on Grand Lake and directed their staff to develop a set of rules to address these structures and to include how to cover the additional cost of assuring compliance by those having these kinds of structures. Chairmanships of that same board have come and gone over the past two years, yet these rules and the determination of a policy has never made it back as an agenda item for board consideration.

Throughout the development of the shoreline management plan, we were told over and over about how the FERC did not look favorably on these structures citing their potential damage to water quality and the environment. If the authority is waiting for a response from the feds with respect to the submitted shoreline management plan before addressing this issue, perhaps in some way it’s understandable.
Or is this is just another example of being intimidated by the FERC? Either way, the public deserves an update as to the status of this issue. Or better yet, might we suggest chief executive officer Kevin Easley sponsor the placement of this issue on the board agenda as a first step towards the establishment of a set of rules and a policy governing these structures?

See Ya Around the Pond!

A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name!

2010-07-08T05:43:00.001-07:00

One of the real unique qualities about this Grand Lake we know and love are the characters we run across that make it just that. Not all dreams are embedded in becoming a millionaire, selling high end real estate or the luxury boats we find on Grand Lake. Many of these characters I find so fascinating are small business operators who cherish their dreams just as much as the big dogs. And that renders the old marketing cliché from the Big Dog brand of clothes, “If you can’t run with big dogs, stay on the porch,” obsolete.

Dreams are dreams, long hours are long hours and commitment is commitment and a better mouse trap, as they say, is just that. The Celebrity Café, located in Langley near the second junction of highways 82 & 28, where you turn to head across the Pensacola Dam and to Disney, is a dream in progress. A place where most of the clientele are called by their first names.

The Celebrity Café adventure, and it is just that, is a dream being nurtured by the Harvey family, who hail from nearby Spavinaw, by way of California when the patriarch of the family retired and relocated here. The ring leader of this family affair is Amanda, a vertically challenged bubbly blond filled with enthusiasm and energy, who never met a stranger and loves people.

Amanda is joined by her brother James and sister-in-law Marlene. In addition to the Harveys, the team includes Lou, who does just about everything, Samantha, who waits tables, Sandy, who handles the drive thru window and Buck, who does the cooking.

The backbone of the business is provide by James who has a long history baking pastries of all types including donuts, sweet rolls and a lot more, but his sausage rolls and biscuits are the house specialty and are prepared daily. And if you’re not there by ten or so to get yours, just forget about it. A variety of traditional breakfast items are on the menu as well. My personal choice is the “Build your own Omelets” option. From the beginning, their primary focus has been catering to the breakfast crowd opening at the crack of dawn at 5:00 a.m. and closing promptly at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday through Sunday. But they now have ventured into providing lunch, extending their hours till 2:00 p.m.featuring Philly Steak and Chicken sandwiches along with the usual burgers and side dishes of potato and macaroni salad.

Although the food is very good, the real stars of this joint are the people. So just why were they motivated to start a small restaurant with a seating capacity of a mere twenty and possibly twelve more if you count the small patio seating outsie? Amanda, with a twinkle in her eye and says, “We wanted to provide the locals in the community an affordable place to eat and it’s really very interesting. You meet all different kinds of people and they all have a story.” She added, “We have regulars who show up here every day for breakfast like Willie, who we surprised with a little birthday party to celebrate turning 93 last week and Tony Berend, who we call splits. It’s fun.” Before I could inquire as to how Berend, a welder, got the nickname of slits, she quickly explained how he had done the splits the first he came in the restaurant and casually asked, “Ever see a guy my age do that?” Splits has stuck ever since.

Unique it is and you’ll probably come away with a story. We know we did and those orders can be called in to 782-2288.

See Ya’ Around the Pond!

What a Country!!

2010-07-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

As we Americans prepare to celebrate another anniversary of our “Declaration of Independence” in 1776, the contents are most likely the furthest thing from our minds. The family outings, fireworks displays and other recreational activities we will take part in has become, at least to most Americans, what this holiday has come to represent. And perhaps that in itself is the greatest testimony about this awesome country. It’s now been well over sixty years since the end of World War II, and perhaps the last time American men and woman perceived the sacrifices they had just endured really made a difference in the preservation of our way of life. Few remain alive today who can recall the moving of our country’s Declaration of Independence from its shrine, for safe keeping following the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. It was placed between to acid-free sheets of Manila paper. The documents were then carefully wrapped in a container of all-rag neutral millboard and placed in a specially designed bronze container. It was transported under heavy guard to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for safe keeping through out the war. Until 9/11, I just wonder how many of my generation, or later, had ever considered that any of our national treasures could be threatened, much less that our way of life could be altered or changed in a permanent way. If, on this Fourth of July, I lived in northern California, I would insist my family board a boat to view the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge. I would hope the bridge had remained as it was in 1967, when I passed beneath it aboard the U.S.S. Gordon, a troop carrier, in route to Viet Nam. I still recall my surprise at the gun installations which remained from World War II, when for a time following the attack on Pearl Harbor an invasion of our shores was not out of the question. This American boy had never even dreamed that our fathers and grandfathers must have had thoughts of defending our nation right here in the U.S. of A. If I could, I would make sure all of our families understood the price which has been paid for our very way of life. There’s just more to this holiday than a cold beer and a dip in the lake. The “Fab-Five” of our ancestors was called the “Committee of Five.” Some pretty heavy hitters….John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Their charge was to write the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote it for the most part, Franklin tinkered with it, and John Hancock, the President of the Congress, was the first to sign it. The rest, as they say, is history. In this day in time, when we are constantly bombarded with criticism of our country from the left and the right, perhaps a look at our roots might be in order. If that famous Committee of Five were to check in with us today, I would suggest to you they would be amused. I doubt our struggles with the economy, the deficit, terrorism and wars in two foreign locations would hold a candle to forming a new nation. A task which included taking on the most powerful nation in the world. They succeeded in spite of insurmountable odds that few gave them a chance of overcoming. On this Fourth of July, as the jets come screaming over Duck Creek and we celebrate the anniversary of what has become the greatest country in the world; let’s not forget to ponder how it all came to be and the price which was paid. The Fab-Five dealt with consequences worse than losing an election and a cushy way of life of today’s politicos. As the fireworks fill the sky over Grand Lake with a spectacular sight, on this special holiday weekend, let’s all give thanks for this great nation, founded by great people who entrusted its care to future generations……just like us! Have a safe and happy holiday. See Ya’ Around the Pond!!

The Simple Sign Read......

2010-06-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 20 Million Dollar Project State Highways from Three Directions and Railroads Where Rails, Water & Highways Meet Come to Langley for Business Lots & Home Sites See Clifford Bogle, Town Site Owner And that’s how a town, generated by the construction of the Pensacola Dam in the late thirties, got its start. There was little room for argument as to who the town father was. A short time after I had discarded my corporate soldier status in the metroplex for the lure of Grand Lake, I met my first Bogle. Aunt Edith, as she was called, ventured into my first Grand Lake enterprise and introduced herself. She matter-of-factly informed me this was Bogle country, and if you shook a bush, if a rabbit didn’t run out a Bogle would. I have never forgotten that first Bogle encounter, the twinkle in her eye and the sheer enjoyment she seemed to get from life itself. Somewhere along the way, I met Cliff Bogle. I later would learn of the history and folklore surrounding the man who all would agree birthed Langley at the West end of the Pensacola Dam. We lost Cliff in July of 1998 at the tender age of 94, and with him a lot of history and testimony to a life gone by. During 1988, in conjunction with Langley Day and the annual birthday celebration of the Pensacola Dam, The Grand River Chronicle, now known as The Chronicle of Grand Lake, did a feature on Cliff and his contributions to the Grand Lake area. It read like this……….. And Now for the Rest of the Story! The first lot was deeded in Langley on February 11, 1928. The name of the sellers on the document read Clifford and Reba Bogle. With that first sale, Langley was born, and Cliff Bogle became the father of a town. He donated lots in the town for churches, the post office and even took it upon himself to buy a gasoline powered generator to give the town its first taste of electric power. He traveled to Arkansas to buy the 36’ poles which would support the town’s power lines. He recalled, “We had to dig the holes by hand and peel the pine bark off the poles.” As Cliff and Reba reflect back on those early boom days in Langley, it’s as if it were yesterday. Cliff talked about how he had the town plotted by George C. Campbell, a registered professional engineer from Bartlesville, how he planned for Main Street to run right onto the dam, how the west end of the dam was relocated to the north by approximately 1-1/2 blocks from where it was originally designated, thus leaving Main Street to the south. Some say the west end was moved to an enable a Chicago financier or an unnamed politician to make some big bucks from property holdings. Cliff Comments, “I was just a farm boy who didn’t know anything about politics. If I knew what I know now, I could have stopped it.” He recalls how the first grocer was a Mr. Richardson, the first medical doctor was Dr. Friedline and the second was Doc Finley. How Dr. Turner was the town dentist, the Pruitts had the first café and how Harvey Romigh had the pharmacy and dry goods store. Bogle originally bought the 120 acres, which included the town site, from a local family in a financial bind in 1925. The six years prior to selling that first town lot, the land was planted in cotton. In those days, the Bogle family famed a lot of cotton acres. According to the town’s founder the average yield was about one bale per acre and an average bale weighed between 800 and 1,000 pounds. The cotton was usually taken to John Willey’s cotton gin in Ketchum. Cliff refelected back on those times when he said, “I got enough seed from the cotton to trade John for the ginning plus plant next years crop and help feed my daddy’s cattle through the winter.” From time-to-time, he would just store his cotton until prices were right to sell. Cliff Bogle’s roots go back to Virginia where his grandfather was a Methodist preacher. The elder Bogle moved the family to Council Bluff, Kansas and on to Afton in the 1880’s where he founded the First Methodist Church. Cliff recalls, “Granddad had a one horse buggy he would drive down this direction, far out into the sticks, and then he would travel on foot to reach the people. It made no difference to him, black, white or Indian. He would baptize them in the river.” Granddad later moved onto Bristow and founded another First Methodist Church, but Cliff’s father remained in this area to raise a family of ten children. One of the more successful boom businesses birthed by the town was Edith’s Pig Stand. It was owned and operated by one Bogle’s sisters Edith Jerome. Some well known local citizens received their first business exposure there like Norma Riley of Norma’s Real Estate and Dorthy Clary, the town clerk. Another prominent business was Cliff’s Drive-In operated by the Bogles for over twenty years. There was also a movie house where Dollie’s Lounge now stands. As the Bogles Look back at it all, they say they would make a few changes in their town plans. They would include some zoning in the town’s rules, but when you consider this guy had never built a town before, he did a lot of things right. They were certainly simpler times which generated a town, by a river, that would eventually be home to the Pensacola Dam and a magnificent lake that we enjoy today. See Ya’ Around the Pond!

Some Memorial Day Thoughts

2010-05-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

If I have ever grown up, which is doubted by many, credit needs to be extended to three major influences in my life. My parents were a major influence with respect to those things we learn during our youth many call the formative years. They implanted values that have proven their worth throughout my life. The Bell System provided me with my first real experience in the corporate world, but the entity which probably influenced my life the most is the United States Marine Corps. As your typical near “Baby-boomer,” who never wanted for much of anything throughout the first twenty-two years of life, I didn’t perceived my enlistment in the Marine Corps as much more of an obstacle that anything else I had encountered in my short life. I was in for a rather abrupt introduction to life in the corps. My drill instructor really didn’t care who my daddy was, whether our family was poverty stricken, embedded in the upper middle class or wealthy. All he was interested in doing was breaking me and my fellow recruits down to zero resistance and then molding us into Marines. Until he completed the task at hand, we were known as slime balls, pukes and several unprintable names, but never a United States Marine until we graduated from boot camp. We had been transformed from a value of nothing in the all knowing eyes of our drill instructor to a valued asset of our country. And the common thread which now bound us together was simply this; the goal of the group always exceeded the value of the individual. I have always felt the lessons I learned as a leatherneck have served me well throughout my life. The emphasis on commitment, loyalty to others, discipline and sacrifice are not taught in any college classroom I’m aware of. I know of no better way to come to realize what a great nation this is than to spend some time in a far away place where the things we take for granted are unheard of. My time in Corps was well spent with a return on investment which is difficult to calculate by today’s standards or lack there of. But one thing that is easily embraced is the importance of those who came before us and paid the ultimate sacrifice for the way of life we enjoy today. Regardless of the branch of service, we owe a great deal of gratitude to all of our veterans who answered the call, but on this holiday, at least a moment of silence, to those who gave their lives to preserve the greatest nation on the planet. The number of Americans who saw action on D-Day to initiate the liberation of Europe or stormed the beaches at Iwo Jima, Guadal Canal, Saipan and many other distant places is dwindling. Many of today’s now generation perceive the scenes portrayed in the “Saving of Private Ryan” as merely a Hollywood production to sell movie goers tickets for a profit. The real stars of those portrayed scenes are receiving orders for a different campaign in a different locale at a rapid rate. We can’t acknowledge their contributions soon enough. We can now add places like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan to the many places that have placed our troops in harms way. The lives surrendered there are of no less importance than those given in any other war. It warms my heart to see the outpouring of support for our service personnel in the way of internet posts and other ways of showing support for a thankless job once again well done. For those currently embracing the mumblings of some politicians and talking heads about isolationism, perhaps a chat with a Pearl Harbor vet, while there still are some, might be in order. Or perhaps a cruise beneath the Golden Gate Bridge to view the gun positions installed to protect from a possible Pacific invasion just might open some eyes. On this holiday, originally intended to honor the loss of life on both sides during the Civil War and later expanded to include much, much more, let’s take time for a well deserved salute, American style. For me, my Marine Corps roots are special and I can still remember the incessant laughing of my uncle Kermit, a USMC veteran of the invasions at Iwo Jima and Guadal Canal, when I proudly told him I had enlisted in the Corps. Perhaps I was just destined to serve in an organization which was born in a tavern a year prior to the Declaration of Independence. Just goes to show you that not all ideas conceived in a bar are bad. Perhaps I’ll visit Tun Tavern in Philadelphia someday……If only those walls could talk. And I’ll raise my glass of Scotch, of course, and proclaim to all those present or who have frequented the tavern in the past. “Here’s to checks for wars, written by politicians and cashed by the men and women wearing the uniform of the United States of America.” See Ya’ Around the Pond!!

A Lake Event Born in Florida…..Judy Florida That Is!

2010-05-18T06:03:00.000-07:00

Up until now, only one Grand Laker had been certified as having an influence on the weather surrounding a Grand Lake event. Former Cherokee Yacht Club and Hammerhead Marina owner Terry Frost had long claimed a direct line to “Mother Nature” when it came to arranging the weather for events like “Welcome Back Weekend” and “The Christmas Boat Parade.” Well, move over Terry and make room for Judy on one of those bar stools reserved for official Grand Lake weather manipulators. It didn’t look like Florida’s new concocted event at Harbors View Marina this weekend, The Burning of the Sox, was headed anywhere but for a total wash out. All day Saturday, as the rains fell, Judy kept posting on Facebook, the marina’s web site and every other way she could think of that the skies would part and a good time would be had by all. And as if commanded by Queen Judy, the skies parted and a good time was had by all in attendance. Grand Lake’s version of the Burning of the Sox really didn’t come from the state of Florida as the title to this column might suggest, but it certainly was created in the mind of one Judy Florida. This Harbors View Marina Manager, who is one the best Grand Lake success stories I’ve had the privilege of witnessing, actually borrowed the idea from one of her Marina Association pals, Al Walker. Walker is the long-time owner and operator of Number 9 Marina on Lake Eufaula. Walker has been hosting a Burning of the Sox event there for at least the last several years. Of course the real purpose of the event is a good ‘ol time, but it’s billed as saying goodbye to one’s sox and getting into those flip-flops and more casual footwear associated with warmer weather and fun filled times at the lake Throw in a big bonfire, some dogs, some complimentary beverages and you have an old fashioned kick-off party for the summer season. In spite of the threatening weather, close to a hundred people turned out for the inaugural version of the Burning of the Sox. The food fare was as previously mentioned and live music was also provided by Soul-D Out. And in the Grand Lake factoid department; one of the members of the band was self proclaimed rock star Rick Huskey, who used to play occasionally around the lake with the Lion Tamers, but in reality supports his lifestyle with a chiropractic practice and commercial real estate interests. And a special thanks to recent OSU graduate, and daughter of Phil and Tamra Carrott, Stephanie Hillman, who helped me fight of crimson & creamers like Matt Starcevich. But the real story is Judy Florida and how fortunate Marina International is to have her orchestrating their operation here on Grand Lake. The first time I met this dynamo she had been recruited to Grand Lake from Colorado, to run Hookers Sports Bar, located at the Cherokee Yacht Club, for none other than the previously mentioned weather guru, Terry Frost. Judy lead the charge in making the club one of the best run establishments of its type on Grand Lake and perhaps some of that weather expertise rubbed off on her along the way. And dealing with grand sized egos, drunks, people of virtually every personality type and a demanding schedule taught her the people and management skills she still uses today with some creativity built in for good measure. I’ve know Judy for at least twenty years and to see her blossom as a Grand Lake customer service specialist is truly one of the more magical of Grand Lake stories. If I ever knew this gals educational background, it is long since forgotten, but if there has ever been an example of what hard work, commitment and dedication can bring about, this is it. When Judy would serve me my scotch & soda in the early nineties, which she always call a doosoo, if someone had suggested in a few short years she would be managing a marina and have served as president of the Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and the Oklahoma Marina Association, my response might have been less than printable. Since I’ve ceased to me amazed, I have but one question for my old friend, “What’s next Judy?” See Ya’ Around the Pond!

The Death of a Grand Salesman

2010-05-07T07:26:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, May 2nd, as I was on the golf practice range at The Coves, a siren wailed in the background. As it turned out, it was responding to a call from the home of Coves resident Mike Morrison, who had suffered a massive heart attack. In spite of efforts to revive him by those first on the scene, and emergency responders, Mike was pronounced dead and a huge void had been created for his family and anyone who had come to know “The Bear.” Mike’s funeral was the following Wednesday and was as unique as the life the man had lead. Although I had become acquainted with Mike on the golf course, and for anyone who has ever played or socialized with him in any manner, that was an experience in itself, I learned a lot more about the real Mike Morrison after the fact. Some men are physically large and cast the expected large shadow when they block certain rays of sunlight on the first tee. Then there are those who cast a much larger shadow because of a presence that reaches far beyond poundage, height or girth. That, in a nutshell, was Mike Morrison. The king of the one liner, the lover of life to its fullest, the owner of that infectious smile and a twinkle in the eye, and most of all, a people person to the max. As I sat there in the Cleora United Methodist Church, I listened as friend after friend recounted their experiences which had endeared Mike to each of them. But the comments by his brother Steve, who resides in Hickory North Carolina, and his son Rob, who calls Oklahoma City home, were the most revealing. Steve recounted how Mike had been recognized as an All American high school tight end, which was destined to play for his beloved Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas. How a serious knee injury derailed that dream, and along with the untimely death of his father, leads him back to Little Rock, where he assumed the role of father and mentor for Steve and his two younger brothers, who all ended up participating in Razorback athletic programs. And in his spare time, while attending the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and earning his degree in Business Administration, he was recognized as golf All American in 1967-68. It was almost as though he was describing a team…..Team Morrison with an undisputed captain….and that captain was now gone. Rob’s comments gave testimony to a Mike Morrison which many of us had never seen. The father and husband, the brother, the friend, the companion, the patriarch and the ultimate family man. And Rob also assured his mother, Gigi, and the love of Mike’s life for nearly forty-three years, the family would be there for her. Professionally, Mike was a salesman through and through. The art of salesmanship had been instilled in him at an early age while traveling on road trips with his father, who was a representative for Elgin Watches. Mike’s dad had been recognized as Elgin’s Salesman of the Year on more than one occasion. And Mike was, as they say, “Was a chip off the old block.” Mike had been a sales representative for various furniture lines for over forty years. He had been recognized as Salesman of the Year by several different companies, with the most recent being this year. But as old marketeer, I always believed the perception of your clientele was much more important than the number of plaques on the wall. For me, the testimony given by Bill Mathis, of Mathis Brother’s Furniture and both brothers were in attendance, spoke volumes about Mike’s stature in his profession. This character did cast a large shadow in so many ways? As I mentioned, the service for Mike was unique. A Catholic’s services in a Methodist Church, testimonials about mooning, shank instruction, how to build the world’s largest drink from a fifth of whiskey and a two liter bottle of mixer, when told to cut it down to one a day and a slide presentation accompanied by Frank Sinatra crooning out “I Did It My Way.” And so he did. Personally, for me I will miss the bantering back and forth the most. But hearing Mike once describes my latest affliction of the shanks as being similar to football was priceless when he said. “Your game reminds me of a wishbone quarterback pitching out to the trailing halfback!” I will always cherish that memory. Jim Gray described those experiences as jabs, but others might describe it in other terms. But Mike also cared deeply about people. My most memorable experience was the day he asked me to introduce him to my son, Jay, who is a teacher and coach. I thought OMG, what could he possibly be going to say? They had a great conversation about coaching, gastric by-pass surgery, being diabetic and about the limitations of having me as his father. He listened intently to what Jay had to say, offered up some experiences of his own and added another notch in his gun of friendship. For the family and friends of Mike Morrison, the void will be enormous, but I feel certain Mike would encourage them to move on, cherish the memories and Grand Times orchestrated by “The Bear” and continue living life to its fullest. As one of Mike’s brothers said, Pat I think, “Gigi, you are a Saint!” Thanks for the ride “Big Mike.” I only hope that Bear’s Den Three is in heaven, where pars and birdies abound, bogies hardly ever happen and doubles are not allowed. But I have to admit some concerns I have about the entrance interview with St. Peter. I can only imagine what your opening line might have been with a guy with a name such as that. But I’m convinced that by the time the ultimate sales call had ended, he had asked for sale and had St. Peter’s name on the dotted line. So long “Big Mike.” See Ya’ Around the Pond!!

Grand Lake to www.360grandlake.com, Come in!

2010-04-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Grand Lake, she is a changin’ from this old timer’s point of view. As with our society in general, the massive strides in technology utilized on Grand Lake since my arrival in 1976 have been mind boggling. When I founded The Chronicle of Grand Lake in 1988, ads were constructed on something called layout sheets utilizing some bold type, border tape for effects and perhaps a graphic or photo if you really wanted to go high dollar, And with the advent of what was called in the industry, four color or processed color, a client could take advantage of a dynamic presentation, but color separations had to be done by a specialty lab, at a hefty price, and provided to the printer in advance. Those layout pages, required to generate our newspaper, were then delivered to ‘ol Bob Bellatti in Nowata, Oklahoma, each Thursday for printing. Back in those days, a camera shot would be taken of the layout page, a plate burned from the camera shot negative and placed on the press with the end result being the printed page. A lot has certainly changed and I might say for the better. You see, in those days a bag phone was about as techie as it got. The strides in the newspaper business are but a reflection of the far reaching impact technology has had on American business. Now, everything is digitized, color photos are readied for print by merely clicking the ok button on any number of desk top publishing programs and layout sheets, plate cameras and more are but a thing of the distant past. The send button has replaced those lovely weekly trips to Nowata. But what has happened with cell phone technology and the massive growth of on-line services have dwarfed what I experienced in the publishing business. The information explosion, as it was called in those prehistoric days when I was with the Bell System, included whispers from Bell Labs about cell service, envisioned individual work stations equipped with some farfetched thing called electronic mail, computers would have access to company records and something called networking was in the developmental stages. We commoners new this crap these geeks were talking about in New Jersey was but a figment of their imagination. Let’s fast-forward to 2010 on Grand Lake. One of the publications here on the pond, The Grand Lake Business Journal, is only available on-line and not even offered in the print version. Although the name implies it’s only for businesses, its real strength lies in local news. As soon as an event or news item takes place, it’s posted on-line right then. There’s no waiting till the next publication date to stay abreast of what’s going on. This approach is quite a deviation from the norm. The Chronicle of Grand Lake, under the direction of Brian and Sue Ruth, has continued with, what I would call the standard approach to presenting their product in the printed format for the publication’s readership. But they too have an on-line version of the publication. When the current week’s issue hits the streets, it’s also available via the web. But there’s more and it’s call 360grandlake. www.360grandlake.com What was it we heard as kids growing up watching Superman on Saturday mornings? “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s Superman!” In the case of 360grandlake, it not a newspaper, it’s not a magazine; it’s a directory of services and information not seen before on Grand Lake. Now me and the Lake Bum like it because it provides us a forum for us to spout off our opinions on their site and maintain our egos at their current large sizes. Our famous, or infamous, opinions and thoughts can be found under the Grand Splash tab. Rather appropriate for “Big Splashers” like us. But for a change, it’s not just all about us…even if it should be!!! This 360 deal was birthed in Wichita, Kansas, by probably some geek like guy similar to those I referred to from Bell Labs. It started out as an on-line business directory by category of business. Then some of those businesses wanted to offer specials to their customers in the way of coupons so that was incorporated. That generated interest from customers who wanted to take advantage of “Deals” so the next step was to offer free subscriptions. I know you Grand Lakers are a bright bunch and have probably already figured out that as a subscriber you get e-mail notification of specials offered by any of the pages on 360 you subscribe to. Me and The Bum are partial to The Pier 13 page. Not only do you receive notification of booze and wine, or was that whine, specials, you get a reason to go see the lovely Miss Tiffany and a dose of her positive thinking Grand Lake style and the importance of being fit. As you can see, that fitness part falls on deaf ears when it comes to yours truly and The Bum. But there’s more. The promotional page can serve as a client’s web site, but if the business or person already has a functional web site, it is capable of directing viewers to that location. And there’s stuff like cross marketing you’ll just have to check out with the super-gals running this deal. Bringing 360 to Grand Lake was the brain child of Michelle Robertson, the former super-sales princess at The Chronicle and KITO Radio before that. Trust me; this gal could sell ice water to an Eskimo, as demonstrated by the number of business clients she has already signed up. She also happens to be the granddaughter of Grand Lake legendary icon Carlos Langston. You know, the one the marina is named for and floated down the Arkansas with something called the Oklahoma Navy with a couple of guys named Nigh and Clinton. You might say the bloodline knows a little bit about success and the promotion of Grand Lake. As a personal testimony, I recall sponsoring her calf at the Jay County Fair, after I fell for what had to be one of her first sales pitches. Joining Michelle in her techie endeavor is Tammi Longacre, who many of you business people know from her ad production days at The Chronicle. She is involved in the promotional page design portion, web page design and other graphics oriented activities. They make quite a team. So just how far has technology really come on Grand Lake? We probably need look no further than one of our lake’s major operators, who got his start pumping gas and fixing boats for Elmer Bomar, at Bomar’s Marina on Duck Creek, to serve as a barometer. In those days, Joe Harwood couldn’t be convinced of the importance of crawling out of a boat bilge to take any kind of call on an old rotary dial plain black phone. And now, the same guy who refused to carry a cell phone for years, conducts, business, answers e-mails and scheduled his entire work-week on a I-phone. Throw in some Facebook, Twitter and much, much more and you truly do have an information explosion. The times they are a changing Grand Lake. Check out 360grandlake and pay particular attention to the Grand Splash tab as it’s the most important. Just kidding, but I do think you’ll find it an interesting site. See Ya’ Around the Pond!!

What Goes Around, Comes Around!

2010-04-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

With little fanfare, a new basketball coach was hired at a special meeting of the Ketchum School board held March 24th. Granted, the hiring of a basketball coach at a 2A high school in rural northeastern Oklahoma probably won’t stop the presses in many places, but in this South Grand Lake school district it was significant news. It’s not every day a coaching legend like Larry Callison returns to resurrect a basketball program, which he molded into something very special from 1985 through the 1997 season. He was initially hired as the girl’s basketball coach, but was appointed to head up the boys program the following year. From the time the school had been formed until Larry Callison showed up, the Warriors had made two state tournament appearances with no state titles to show for their efforts. During Callison’s 12 year stint in Ketchum, he led the Warriors to seven “Big House” appearances with an unbelievable six in a row beginning with the ’90-91 campaign. And most importantly a State Championship in March of ’95. I can still remember clinching that first State Tournament appearance of the first Callison era. The entire area went bonkers….As the team returned from the Muskogee Civic Center , late on a Saturday night having captured the Consolation Championship over Leflore, cars lined Highway 85 all the way from “Two Mile Corner” into Ketchum. Pandemonium reined as the team bus entered the high school parking lot. As Holmes, McGlasson, Mouse, Cheezem, James, and yes Fleming, exited the bus into the arms of their cheering fans, the foundation of a dynasty was set into motion. When the Warriors returned home in March of 1997, having clinched their sixth straight trip to the State Tournament, it was just another Friday night in Ketchum. The expected had happened, as it had the previous five seasons, the Warriors were headed to another State Tournament appearance in the Callison era and our community’s complacency was never more apparent. But I can’t cast stones because I wasn’t there either. Callison resigned following that season and the Ketchum Warriors haven’t even sniffed a State Tournament appearance since. Callison continued his coaching career in places like Vian, Eufaula, Stillwell and even coached, one year in the virtually all black community of Boynton. For those detractors, who whispered the highly successful coach had just been blessed with some outstanding basketball talent, he went on to take six more teams to the State Tournament before his retirement two years ago. Callison, a young guy by my standards, 53, I think, has been feeling the itch to get back into coaching for sometime now. His youngest son, Grant, who referees a lot of high school games, would keep his Dad up-to-date on coaching vacancies where he might rekindle his career. When the Ketchum job opened up, I can only imagine how the wheels started to turn. The “Old Coach” talked to several of his long-time friends and former players in the community about the possibilities. He got every kind of advice from “Are you crazy” to “Hell yes.” Discussions with School Superintendent Rick Pool proved productive and as they say, the rest is history. The entire board is to be commended for taking a step in the right direction. During a golf outing this week at The Coves, compliments of Jim Gray, Coach Larr as some of his former players call him, looked back at that first year as Ketchum’s coach. “Personally, we were miserable at best. We had no friends here, had moved out of a new home in Gore and into a trailer here and we were just plain home sick.” The new coach added, “If it hadn’t been for the support of the people, like Joe and Janie Schumacher, I feel certain we would have returned to Gore.” But they didn’t and became deeply entrenched in the Grand Lake community. Callison still can’t believe that first team went undefeated in regular season play before being eliminated in the Area Tournament. “That was Preston Rash’s group. He’s still the best floor leader I ever coached. He along with Todd Coulston, Eric Mouse, Gary Sutton, Kevin McGlasson, Dandy Risman and others made up a team of tremendous overachievers. What a year that was.” That first year fanned the fires of basketball expectations on the shores of Grand Lake. In 1988, starters Eric Mouse and Kevin McGlasson were joined by Coy Cheezem, Gary James and two 6’5’ move ins, Jay Fleming and Derek Holmes to catapult the Warriors to their first State Tournament appearance since 1979. So, just what are ingredients Larry Joe Callison has use throughout his career that have brought about success? According to Coach Callison, you have to be in the right community with three key elements…kids, parents and a supportive administration. This humble coach describes his style like this; “I try to treat my players with respect, demand they play hard, feature team goals and emphasize fundamentals from the grade school level up.” That philosophy was successful once and many feel it will be again. But unlike when he arrived the first time, the Warriors have been in the midst of a nearly 13 year basketball depression. Although they hadn’t been to the State Tournament since 1979, there had been some solid coaching in the likes of Pete Evans and Pete Heisely. This time will be a more difficult challenge, but for those of us who know this coach well, we expect him to enjoy success again in Ketchum, Oklahoma. As my friend and fellow Poke fan, David Sturgeon, a vet in Cordell, Oklahoma likes to say, “You never wear tennis shoes to a butt kickin’ contest!” The tools for success have come home to roost. Welcome home Larry Joe! See Ya’ Around the Pond!

When There's No Appropriate Explanation

2010-03-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

It was a weekend that had a little bit of everything…disappointment, ecstasy and shock. The Ketchum Warriors ended their season Friday night when they fell in a close contest to Commerce in the class 2A Regionals. An exciting game with all the highs and lows which can only be manufactured in a high school, high stakes contest. Then it was on to Stillwater, Oklahoma, home of our beloved Cowboys. With grandson Jordan Fleming in tow, we headed to historic Gallagher-Iba Arena to watch the Cowboys take on the number one ranked Kansas Jayhawks. Even though the good guys were only five and one half point underdogs, I would guess few outside of the Cowboy locker room thought they had much of a chance to defeat the team many consider the favorite to win this year’s national championship. The hometown favorites played lights out basketball and led the mighty Hawks by as much as 19 points during the second half. And in site of the slowest five minutes to ever tick off a game clock, the Cowboys prevailed in one of the year’s biggest upsets in college basketball. As those final seconds melted off that slow moving game clock, Jordan, whose “Orange Blood” has been certified, turns to me and says, “PaPa my weekend just got better.” The next morning this happy band of Cowboy fans headed back to Grand Lake. We delivered number one grandson back to his parents, said our goodbyes and headed to the Grays Hollow compound in time to catch the evening news. Lots of Olympic coverage, comments on our unseasonably cool temperatures and a short clip on a plane crash in Bristow that had claimed two lives which had yet to be identified. Plane crashes didn’t used to get my attention, but over the years that has changed. Since so many of my pals are or were pilots, I now at least try to absorb the details and possible causes. I didn’t think much more about the crash until my cell phone rang the next morning. Before I even said hello, the caller ID revealed it was Hugh Hollowell and I knew it was way too cold to be talking about a golf game. Hugh was the messenger with the worst possible news. One of the youngsters in the crash in Bristow was the son of long-time Grand Lakers Art & Sylvia Couch. I was stunned, shocked and reminded of something I have written about over the years and will believe until I go to the grave……..Parents aren’t supposed to outlive their children. It’s been so long since I first met Art that I can’t even remember the circumstances, but you can bet we were sippin’ our beverage of choice and cussin’ and discussin’ whatever the weighty issues of the day were. I’ve never met a finer man. Art Couch is about humility, generosity, honesty, commitment, loyalty, family and any other word you can think of to describe the best of the best. It was never lost on me that a guy brought up in the rough and tumble construction business, where working hard and playing hard went hand in hand, always called his dad, who was W.N. Couch and founded W.N. Couch Utility Construction Company, “Daddy.” And while I don’t know Sylvia nearly as well as I know Art, I know if he picked her, she has many of the same qualities. It’s beyond reason that a tragedy of this magnitude would take their son Allen’s life at the tender age of 38. Services for Allen have been set for 11:00 am, Friday, March 5, 2010 at St. Pius X Catholic Church, located at 1727 S 75th E Avenue. I only met Allen on one occasion….it figures it would be at a chamber meeting considering how supportive W.N. Couch Utility Construction Company had been towards the organization. Allen leaves behind a wife and three young children. I’m a simple guy and during times like these I can’t help but ponder why things like this happen. And while I have my reasons, like surviving Vietnam and a bout with Lymphoma Cancer in 1984, to be buoyed by my faith, I can’t help but wonder how I would feel if I were a member of the Couch family at this very moment. Dealing with a tragedy like this is beyond comprehension. My observation over the years is that the real grieving process doesn’t set in for a while. All the activities required in a situation like this as in arrangements; the notification of family and friends and other details have loved ones operating mostly on adrenalin. Once that drug has worn off and the stark reality of what lies ahead has set in, the weight of finality of the situation has to become almost unbearable. We ask ourselves an ongoing question about what we can do to help our good friends and there is no good answer. A situation with no appropriate explanation! See Ya Around the Pond.

A Time Capsule Revisiting the 1989 Tulsa Boat Show!

2010-02-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

Our entire family has a lot of great memories associated with the founding of the Grand River Chronicle Newspaper….now known as the Chronicle of Grand Lake. Saint Paddy’s Day, 1988, marked the very first issue of the publication. We had little knowledge of how to run a newspaper, much less any realization the Tulsa Boat, Sport & Travel Show had concluded a short six weeks earlier. We had not a clue what an important role one event would play in the future of our fledgling publication. To say our first year was a struggle, would be a massive understatement, as we clawed to stay afloat. And as the temperatures of fall cooled, so did our advertising sales, which at best had been meager even in the summer months. As Christmas approached, there was little cheer to be found around our office location. The coming of spring seemed to be further away than we perceived our diminishing capital could possibly take us…but just about then, a glimmer of light appeared, just barely, at the end of the tunnel. Each week, I would check out Byron Hayes’ Grand Lake publications, The South Grand Laker and The Waterfront, and be amazed at the number of ads they contained for the time of the year. I was perusing an issue, and compiling a list of possible people to hound for an ad, which just might keep our humble ship afloat, when there it was…..An ad jumped out at me to reserve your space now in The Grand Lake Waterfront’s Boat Show edition. It hit me like a rock…What a novel and perhaps business saving idea. A short time later our first boat show adventure was on the drawing board. Thanks to many of you who are still around today, it was, at least by our standards, a whopping 32 page success. It not only represented our largest publication ever, but we had even sold enough space to venture into spot color for the very first time. The front page was a beautiful presentation of the Duck Creek Fireworks Show in breathtaking black and white, but the headline, proclaiming Grand Lake, “Oklahoma’s Vacation Destination,” jumped off the page in vivid blue ink. Man, we didn’t think it could get much better than this. We arrived at the show for VIP night with our heads held high and our chests stuck out as we anticipated the reaction from some of our critics to our never seen before work of art. The sucking sound, which few seemed to notice on that particular Monday night, was coming from yours truly when I saw The Grand Lake Waterfront in full living color. Russ Hogan’s Grandiose Tour Boat dominated the front page of the publication in eye-stopping maroon sails flowing in the Grand Lake breeze. This boat show rookie thought surely this had to be the worst moment the show could possibly offer, but trust me there was more to come. We were sharing a booth with legendary Grand Lakers Jerry and Bobbi Henson of Dripping Springs Marina fame, in some obscure location, far away from the big boats and the Grand Lake action on the upper level of what is now the QucikTrip Exposition Center. We spent our time force-feeding our papers to anyone who had lost their way and wandered by our location.. We only had two other distribution points for the whole joint, and since we only owned two wire racks we located them at what we felt were the highest traffic locations. And in spite of a lack of name recognition, things were going well. That was until Wednesday night when we returned to the lake for a night off. When we returned the next day, we were dismayed to find 50% of our racks, that is as in the number one, had been returned to our booth. Our booth mates informed us that publisher extraordinaire, Byron Hayes, had returned the rack to our booth with a message reportedly from his biggest advertisers. It seemed, at least according to this self appointed representative from the newspaper police, our publication wasn’t welcome in or around this advertiser’s space, which will remain anonymous. ‘Ol Sarge just stood there waiting for the impending explosion from a fellow jarhead. It was like a dagger to the heart, but as the deodorant commercial use to proclaim, “Never, never let ‘em see you sweat.” So we quickly moved the out-of-commission 50% of our distribution resources and commenced to press on. For the remainder of that 1989 boat show, we spent our time introducing ourselves and our publication to potential advertisers and making some good friends along the way. Shirley and Bill Webb, the founders of Webbcraft Boats in Collinsville, Oklahoma, toasted us with a Margarita and eventually became our first full page advertisers. Later, our investigative skills would uncover the fact they would toast anybody with a Margarita who happened by. Many others showed interest in this new Grand Lake marketing tool, and in spite of the emotional distress of the whole ordeal, and without ever throwing a punch at our distracters, The Grand River Chronicle was off and running. Following that 1989 boat show, things seemed to start happening for our publication in rapid fire order. Soon, the famed Duck Creek Cartel was even starting to warm up to the new kid on the pond. Not long after that, Bob Prince and South Grand Realty became our first real estate advertiser willing to take a gamble on the newest Grand Lake publication….And as they say, “The rest is history.” Unbelievably, this past week was the 21st anniversary of that boat show adventure which changed our lives forever and was the catalyst in launching a publication with a life of its own. The Tulsa, Boat, Sport & Travel Show has never had a shortage of critics, but count me as a huge supporter due to the role it played in the launching of what is known today as The Chronicle of Grand Lake. And I would be stunned if there are not a number of other Grand Lake businesses with similar accounts of how they got their start. As I look back on that first boat show experience, I don’t have a clue why show managers Fred and Randy Chrisman even gave us the time of day, but they did and I’ll never forget that. Over the years, the event has become more and more a part of the Grand Lake Master Marketing Plan. The presence of Grand Lake’s large contingent of boat dealers, developers, Realtors, resort operators, and others are there for a reason. There is still no better way to reach the largest number of people in the shortest period of time with the greatest chance for positive results in a festival-like atmosphere. For the most part, Grand Lakers never met a party they didn’t like….and if you can promote your business and products along the way it’s even better. See Ya’ Around the Pond!

The Gray Area Celebrates a Seventieth Birthday

2010-01-31T13:08:00.000-08:00

Whenever we hear something referred to as a gray area, it instantly stirs thoughts of something which can’t be defined as black or white, right or wrong or be branded with any certainty. It doesn’t matter if the subject is politics, religion, sports or just our everyday walk through this life, gray area refers to something difficult to measure and evaluate. But the Gray area at The Coves Residential Development & Golf Club on Grand Lake is clearly the exception. For more years than most can remember, Lori Worley-Gray has been the face of The Coves regarding real estate activities and Jim Gray, along with his sidekick Zack Hamilton, have managed the golf club operation. But unlike when the sports anchor says something to the effect of “Same name but no relation,” it’s not true in this case. Gray & Gray has been a husband and wife team since the early eighties and with Zack and Jim almost joined at the hip with respect to the operation of the club’s pro shop, they might as well be brothers. But it’s Jim, alias the Silver Fox, who celebrated the “Big Seven O” on December 8th. We’ll chronicle the winding road which led the Silver Fox to Grand Lake in detail a little later, but the real story is how an educator/coach, car and real estate hawker, who happened to love golf, converted The Coves from an ordinary golf course to what it has become today. Not unlike the old sitcom Cheers, based on a neighborhood bar in Boston, where, as the theme song always proclaimed, “A place where everybody knows your name,” The Coves has embraced a similar atmosphere complete with golf. As the Silver Fox likes to say, “This is country club livin’ at its best, baby.” “Team Golf at this Grand Lake golf club has utilized a formula for success for many years. Hamilton can be defined as the detail man. If it comes to crunching tournament score numbers, posting a leader board, tracking inventories and the countless other tasks required to get the job done, he’s your man. But when it comes to making members feel welcome and that their particular concern or question of the day is the most important thing on Bird Island, the king of schmooze, Jim Gray, is your man. When a member hits their approach shot over the water to the difficult 18th green, it’s clearly visible from the clubhouse. The Silver Fox is almost always watching and typically greets the member with encouraging words and an offer to provide a beverage of choice. Regardless of an errant out-of-bounds tee shot, a ball squarely hit in the water hazard, or God forbid, the dreaded shank with devastating results, thanks to Jim Gray the main product the club offers is about to kick in……the fun and fellowship provided by the 19th hole. Golf in the Gray area didn’t come to him over night. If a person is truly a reflection of life’s experiences and lessons learned along the way, Jim must have been mentored by the best when it came to providing service. Those experiences and lessons can be traced back to his home town of Picayune, Mississippi, where the first shot fired at serving others came when Jim ran for president of his high school’s student body in 1958. A classmate helped with the election by coming up with the winning campaign slogan: “Jim Gray for President, The Gray Ghost Rides Again.” But the cornerstone of Jim’s success in the service sector was really learned at home. He credits his mother for instilling his caring attitude towards people and the enthusiasm he brings to work every day. But if it hadn’t been for the survival skills and rewards that could be harvested by taking a risk or two in this life, taught by his father, Jim Gray wouldn’t be on Grand Lake today. That may explain how an education major from William Carey College, who had a passion for coaching high school football and basketball, would venture out to expand his horizons into car sales, real estate marketing, convention sales and eventually find his calling in the golf business. On a lark, Jim came to Oklahoma at the urging of his long-time pal Mickey Barkley in 1981 to sell lots at the all new Coves Residential & Golf Club Development. Following eight months of parties and sales meetings presided over by Barkley, he moved on to Resort Convention sales at Shangri-la on Monkey Island. But unbeknownst to Barclay, his biggest contribution to Gray’s life was not exploring the party spots around Grand Lake or how to sell residential lots….It was the hiring of Lori Worley away from Monkey Island Realty to sell lots for Frates & Company on Bird Island, which led to a chance meeting with the future Mrs. Jim Gray. Jim recalls that chance encounter like this: “Yeah, I was sitting outside Barkley’s office reading the sports page, when she showed up at the old rock cabin which was the only structure here at the time. She was all decked out in a western pants and boots and I asked, ‘Where’d ya’ get those boots’?” She paid little attention and went in to see Barkley, who would later tell Gray to stay away from her to which he replied, “I will…until tonight.” And the rest has been history as this iconic Grand Lake couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on August 1, 2009. Gray moved on to Shangri-la Resort where he spent eight years in convention sales when one of those twists of fate would change his life forever. He was asked to serve on a committee to find a new golf pro for the resort. Jim reflects back on that life changing event and recalls it like this: “I helped recruit a young man, Rick Reed, who was an assistant pro at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Tulsa, to take the job at Shangri-la. In a sense I helped hire him, and to make a long story short, he hired me to work in the golf shop and gave me my start in golf.” To this day Jim speaks highly of his relationship with Reed, course Superintendant Milton Hale and the importance of making the acquaintance of one Zack Hamilton while working there. Zack was still an educator at the time, but this was the start of well document friendship, and partnership, which still flourishes at The Coves. And it was during the Shangri-la years that the “King of Schmooze” started collecting nick names. Richard Bell, who owns Allied Towers in Vinita and has been a member at Shangri-la for some thirty-five years, remembers Jim being called “Senator” due to his immaculate dress and sporty attire. Jim says he never denied being a clothes horse. It was also during those years that veteran Oklahoma entertainer Johnny Desmond dubbed Gray the “Silver Fox.” Desmond and Gray were frequent golfing companions who shared many memorable rounds on the famed Championship Blue Course. One night, following a round earlier in the day, and during a performance in the resorts prime years, Desmond acknowledged his golfing pal by saying, “The Silver Fox, gray in his hair and gold in his heart.” You know it stuck when it appears on a car’s vanity plate which most days can be found in the parking lot at the Coves pro shop. The Silver Fox became a mainstay at The Coves in 1999 and still recalls a conversation with the resorts major player. I said, “Well, Mr. Buford, what kind of contract do you have with your emloyees?” To which the Silver Fox recalls quite vividly the Buford reply. “If you do a good job for The Coves today, you get to come back tomorrow.” The Silver Fox deals in the people business and keeping the members happy is job number one. And it doesn’t hurt when the head pro treats the members more like friends than customers and has been know to say, “This is country club livin’ at its best, baby.”

Even a "Lake Bum" Deserves a Proper Burial!

2009-11-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

It’s now been three weeks since the current ownership of a local Grand Lake publication discontinued the column of one of the lake’s most notable characters, the Grand Lake Bum. Since there has been no explanation of the Bum’s demise, I can’t think of anyone more qualified than yours truly to eulogize one of Grand Lake’s more colorful personalities. You see, the Bum and I go way back….back to the good ‘ol days. As the founder of The Grand River Chronicle in 1988, I knew very little with respect to being a newspaper publisher, and some would ay I never learned a thing, but I knew one for thing for sure…I was a lake bum…a Grand Lake Bum. That was the phrase my old friend and former Grand Laker, Rue Morgan, who now resides in his home state of Florida, referred to those of us infected with Grand Lake fever and who headed to the lake every Friday night no matter what. Those were the days when the last stop on the way out of Tulsa was Fike’s Liquor at 51st & Lewis and we chattered back and forth on Citizen Band Radios all the way to the lake. There was Good Time Charley, the Do Drop Inn, the Rusty Nail, the Mighty Minute and more. Smokey Report: “Bring it on up to Bitter Creek.” Back door, front door and no cell phones, Face book, I Phones or Blackberries which hadn’t even been brought to the market place yet. The good ‘ol day, but I digress. Shortly after my pal Morgan had relocated to Florida, he called one day and proclaimed, “Man, I’ve run across something down here that would be perfect for Grand Lake.” He went on to explain there was a rogue publication circulated on the Florida beaches called “The Beach Bull” and its publisher was simply called the Beach Bum. It was adult caliber, complete with a centerfold, and the guy had to remain anonymous for self preservation. Simply put, there are few really original ideas, so we stole the concept and the Lake Bum was born….a product at least in our minds, of the oil boom days here on Grand Lake. We soon started publishing a somewhat underground publication called The Grand Slam, our version of the Beach Bull. Nobody was off limits to being slammed and the Lake Bum was the star of the show. The pub came complete with a warning label which read, “If you’re easily offended, turn to the next page.” The Bum was about weekly romances, beverage selection and consumption, the best party spots and the art of ridiculing any person seeing life any other way. He was the self proclaimed legal representative for Dripping Springs and the associated “Moon-Off,” Party Cove and Woodard Hollow. As I many times told those who criticized The Bum and demanded his identity, the Lake Bum is not a person, but a state of mind. Or should I say was? As with some other adventures of mine over the years, the Grand Slam provided more fun than profit and eventually bit the dust. But the Lake Bum, which in those early days I can now admit without being strung up was authored by me, had developed a following of sorts. We knew he was a little far out for some of our readers, but his popularity with many of our weekend friends couldn’t be denied so we elected to bring him to the pages of The Chronicle, subject to censorship. Over the years, the Lake Bum was authored by at least two other lake bums besides me and from time-to-time did generate a problem or two despite the warnings right there on page five. There are two instances the old publisher will remember forever. The first occurred on the annual anniversary date of the Supreme Court’s famous decision on abortion which is commonly referred to simply as Roe versus Wade. The Lake Bum observed, that on Grand Lake, Roe versus Wade simply represented one’s choice as related to your preference regarding fishing. One local church, the one I belong to incidently, promptly cancelled their weekly ad. The other instance related to lake level and the Lake Bum’s lack of concern for the flooding issues which occur annually in the Miami area as compared to the inconvenience for lake front property owners and boaters. The Lake Bum was virtually burned at the cross during a civic club meeting that week in Miami. The phone rang off the wall and I can’t say it was a fun week, but the Lake Bum’s column was closely monitored in the Miami area from that day forward. Make no mistake about it, the Lake Bum was an asset to our publication and there was a waiting list for the advertising space below his weekly column which endeared him to my heart. It was also an indication that advertisers believed the column to be extremely well read. And for the past ten year years or more, Mike Williams has been the life blood of the Lake Bum and even introduced political analysis into the bum’s field of expertise. The Lake Bum’s column, “As the Dock Turns,” was always intended to be Grand Lake’s version of satire and it was for many years, but that doesn’t mean that authoring such a column is easy. Williams is very well versed on Grand Lake issues and incorporated those and his political wit into the column. But the author has to be well read and have a natural curiosity and concern with where Grand Lake is headed to even make light of them while conveying a subliminal message at the same time. In short, authoring the column would not be for just anyone. But better a dead Lake Bum than a phony Lake Bum. So, just as the Lake Bum’s old yellow Scarab, glitzy watch, golden oil boom medallion, love of brown whiskey and one night stands are no longer in vogue and have given way to health foods and Merlot for the heart, maybe it’s just better he rest in peace. See Ya’ Around the Pond!

Vet's Day 2009

2009-11-11T07:03:00.000-08:00

Fleming, John H., USMC, 2257213, Vietnam from March of ‘67 thru March of ‘68....11th Marines, First Marine Division. The thirty days prior to arriving in beautiful Southeast Asia, I spent 30 days crossing the pacific in the heart of Hurricane season with 5,000 of my closest friends...3,500 soldiers and 1500 jarheads. I learned a lot aboard ship starting with a near race riot over major issues like cutting in the chow line. It’s not often the Marine Corps birthday and Vet’s Day fall back-to-back and it certainly stirs some thoughts. I suppose it’s no surprise than an Okie, who had seen too many John Wayne flicks, that loves his country and his beverage of choice would be drawn to a branch of the service founded in Tun’s Tavern in Philadelphia in 1775. Please note that is the year before the signing of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But I digress. Many of the lessons I learned, while serving as a surveyor and observer overlooking “Happy Valley,” just west of Da Nang, were never taught at any stateside institution. Many had to do with leadership, facing up to one’s responsibilities, the importance of loyalty to your fellow Marines, an understanding of pulling together to accomplish a mission and some others not suitable for print. But perhaps the most important lesson I learned was respective to post Korea warfare. That’s where old fat politicians, Republicans or Democrats, It makes no difference, write checks young men are expected to cash. And they do with a commitment rarely found in any other segment of our society today. On this special day, I salute those who have given so much in defense of our country. To the “Greatest Generation,” who had the guts and determination to overcome insurmountable odds to preserve the American way of life, we can’t thank you enough. There are very few left who witnessed the bloodbath generated by the invasion of Europe on “D” Day. If it weren’t for flicks like “Saving Private Ryan” or a documentary on the History Channel, there would be little knowledge of what took place during the dark days of Word War II. For the Marines, there were the bloody battles on “Hell Hole” islands like Saipan, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and more. These were places where there were more casualties in a given hour than have occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan combined to date, But whether a vet was a member of the “Greatest Generation” or just making good on some politician’s check, we owe them big time. So when I pick up The Tulsa World and read where one of Oklahoma’s finest has placed a hold on a bill addressing the needs of veterans, as OSU head football coach Mike Gundy once said, “It makes me want to puke.” Senator Coburn had little concern about how we were going to pay for troop deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan when he voted in favor of those political checks. But now he’s blocking a bill, based on costs, that pale in comparison to trillions of dollars allocated to those conflicts. Perhaps we could do away with the insurance for Coburn and his pals to offset some of the costs of the proposed benefits for our vets. In an era where abusing the National Guard and our all volunteer armed services personnel with multiple tours of duty has become the order of the day, do we not at least owe them the best care possible? Semper Fidelis

It’s time for the politicians to step up to the plate!

2009-09-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, September 14th, was the deadline for filing comments on the recommended changes by the FERC staff related to the Shoreline Management Plan submitted by GRDA months ago. The GRDA response was a good one and I have to apologize for previous comments I made in an anticipated “Roll Over” by the authority staff. The response objects strongly to the two primary points which most Grand Lakers found most objectionable….reclassification of areas around Grove and Monkey Island to sensitive, which would prohibit any development in those areas and the re-zoning of the multiple purpose areas as defined in the plan. There were other minor changes suggested in the GRDA response as related to water quality monitoring when they pointed out the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and DEQ should be included in these activities in addition to the resource agencies named. In summary, there were 14 recommended changes and GRDA pretty much accepted eleven of them. In most negotiations, conceding eleven out of fourteen points would be a deal maker, but will it be in this case? The entire GRDA response is available through a link being provided on the Grand Lakers United Enterprise website, www.grandglue.com. . If you review the document, it becomes very obvious how much weight the resource agencies have at FERC. In an effort to neutralize some of this power, GLUE filed a “Motion to Intervene” with FERC yesterday. GLUE, the organization I’ve been actively involved with throughout the entire SMP process, is using the Duncan-Allen Law Firm, with offices in Kansas City and Washington, who has a proven record interacting with federal agencies. A Motion to Intervene makes GLUE an official party to the proceeding. It grants the citizens based group equal status with the resource agencies and any other interveners. We will be able to seek out clarification, methodology and reasoning behind some or all of these recommendations. We could potentially take it as far as our funding would allow. The important thing is that we’ve recruited several other lake organizations to join in our efforts. That list includes GLUE, the Grand Lake Association, the Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, the Grove Area Chamber of Commerce, the City of Grove, the Oklahoma Marina Association, the Grand Lake Marina Association, the Grand Lake Boaters Association, the Chronicle of Grand Lake Newspaper and the Grand Lake Business Journal. The feds will be made fully aware of the wide spread interest in the outcome of this negotiation. No where are the stakes higher than in Grove. Last week, Representative Cox met with city planners and developers with an interest in future growth in the Grove area. City official had adopted a proclamation opposing the FERC recommended changes that would essentially shut down any waterfront development within the city limits of Grove, but weren’t sure where to turn next. At the urging of Dr. Cox they joined in the GLUE intervention and filed their proclamation with FERC accordingly. The wheels have certainly been placed in motion to protect potential development of the Grove economy. Throughout this process, Representative Dan Boren and both Senators Inhofe and Coburn have been kept updated on these proceedings. In my opinion, the time has come to solicit the support of our elected officials in supporting what’s best for the future of Grand Lake. I would like to ask each of you to encourage our elected representatives to get involved in bringing this long, drawn out process to a reasonable conclusion. We can’t just hope for their support. We need letters, e-mails and phone calls. Grand Lakers are an affluent group as a whole and many of your have a history of significant political contributions….Isn’t it time for a little pay back?

The FERC Hammer Has Arrived!

2009-08-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

It’s been a quiet several months since GRDA submitted their proposed Shoreline Management Plan to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Initially, the FERC posed a list of ten questions to the authority for additional information and clarification. That resulted in a 204 page response by GRDA. Some of my GRDA contacts were even of the belief that FERC had more issues with the proposed habitable structure situation on Grand Lake than they did with the proposed SMP. With the arrival last week of what the feds describe as an environmental assessment of the proposed plan, it’s now obvious nothing could be further from the truth. The FERC generated document is 90 pages in length, but the really disturbing information starts on about page 66. Over the next couple of days, I’ll be sifting through the document page-by-page, but my initial take is as follows: FERC places a great deal of weight on the wildlife demands and their perceived expertise. Their opinions and recommendations seem to take precedence over all other stakeholder groups. If there’s no data or study information in place, FERC is suggesting GRDA use wildlife findings. There doesn’t appear to be any evidence of equal shareholder status when it comes to wildlife interests. The responsible growth zone is about to change with the FERC recommending sub categories to more clearly define residential only and commercial development allowed areas…much like the original plan pushed by the FERC recommended consulting firm, Kleinschmidt & Associates. FERC wants more area defined as sensitive to serve as fish and wildlife habitat. They recommend areas suitable for development around Grove and on the West side of Monkey Island be reclassified as sensitive. That will certainly have a major impact on those areas as related to development. They raise the dock density issue as one needing to be revisited. And you guessed it, they recommend the wildlife representative would be best suited to do this and possibly submit recommendations. This potentially could shut down areas of the lake to the installation of any additional docks. If past performance is any indication, GRDA senior staff will roll over for FERC and just tell the public they had no choice. There is a thirty day window for public comment. If Easley and the GRDA board shows no inclination, which I doubt they will, to fight this to the end, Grand Lake needs a plan to turn up the heat. If that includes the petitioning the governor for more proactive board members and management personnel, so be it. Representative Cox is more than a little upset about the Grove area anti-development recommendations and I expect him to be a significant player in charting a future for Grand Lake to benefit all Oklahomans. When we established GLUE, we said we wouldn’t ask you for your participation until absolutely necessary. We’re in the process of defining what our strategy might include, but letters to the FERC and a petition effort are certainly ones to be considered as well as the involvement of our elected officials. Public comments on the FERC proposals will be accepted until September 14th. We’ll provide more details as they become available. The specific FERC staff recommendations are as follows: B. Proposed SMP With Staff-Recommended Modifications After evaluating the proposed SMP, and comments from resource agencies andother interested parties, we consider a number of changes to the plan to be necessary orappropriate. Specifically, the following modifications are recommended in the Environmental Analysis section. Prohibit dredging activities in Wildlife Management areas. Develop, in consultation with FWS, USGS, and Oklahoma DWC, a provision for standardizing sediment sampling, sediment analysis for heavy metals and other constituents as determined to be necessary, and the use of the analysis results in the dredging application and permitting process at Grand Lake, to protect water quality. Develop provisions for water quality monitoring in coves where “heavy boating” use occurs. The provisions would identify what constitutes heavy boating use in coves, the timing for initiating monitoring and the water quality parameters to be monitored, and the frequency and duration of monitoring. The provisions should be developed in consultation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC. Develop provisions for water quality monitoring in coves where “heavy boating” use occurs. The provisions would identify what constitutes heavy boating use in coves, the timing for initiating monitoring and the water quality parameters to be monitored, and the frequency and duration of monitoring. The provisions should be developed in consultation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC. Require site-specific planning and analysis prior to new activities or vegetation management within all areas FWS or Oklahoma DWC have identified as sensitive. This would specifically include evaluations of and-mitigation for effects on wetlands or other habitat for threatened, endangered, or sensitive species. Develop, in consultation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC, provisions for quantifying the effects of permitted vegetation removal in all SMC areas and mitigating these effects through the enhancement or protection of riparian vegetation in other areas. Within Responsible Growth-Wetlands Inventory, Stewardship, and Wildlife Management areas, and in all areas FWS or Oklahoma DWC have identified as sensitive, maintain a 35-foot-wide riparian-forest buffer similar to the areas’ naturally occurring vegetation. In areas where GRDA does not have jurisdiction over a full 35-foot buffer, maintain the maximum buffer within its jurisdiction and, as a component of the public education program, encourage adjacent landowners to maintain riparian forest characteristics in the remaining buffer width. Classify as Stewardship those areas in Wolf Creek, Carey Bay, andMonkey Island that contain wetland resources similar to those found in Drowning Creek, Duck Creek, and Horse Creek. In consultation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC, develop provisions, to be included in the SMP, for: (1) identifying existing wetlands potentially affected by proposed shoreline activities and evaluating their functions and values; (2) assessing the probable effects of proposed activities on wetlands; and (3) addressing adverse effects on wetlands, from permitted activities, through appropriate mitigation. To account for the mitigation of any wetlands impacts, GRDA should be required to annually file with the Commission, at the same time it files its annual fish and waterfowl management report, a wetland mitigation report providing detailed descriptions of: (1) the status of any planned, ongoing, and completed mitigation measures; and (2) documentation of any consultation on wetland mitigation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC. In consultation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC, develop provisions, to be included in the SMP, for: (1) identifying existing wildlife habitats potentially affected by proposed shoreline activities and evaluating their functions and values; (2) assessing the probable effects of proposed activities on wildlife habitats; (3) addressing adverse effects on wildlife habitats, from permitted activities, through appropriate mitigation. To account for the mitigation of any wetlands impacts, GRDA should be required to annually file with the Commission, at the same time it files its annual fish and waterfowl management report, a wildlife mitigation report providing detailed descriptions of: (1) the status of any planned, ongoing, and completed mitigation measures; and (2) documentation of any consultation on wildlife mitigation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC. Develop, in consultation with FWS and Oklahoma DWC, provisions for:(1) identifying wildlife habitats potentially affected by proposed shoreline activities and evaluating their functions and values; (2) assessing the probable effects of proposed activities on wildlife habitats; (3) addressing adverse effects on wildlife habitats, from permitted activities, through appropriate mitigation; ad (5) providing an annual wildlife mitigation report. Implement GRDA’s proposed annual surveys for bald eagle nesting activity and include appropriate consideration of this information during implementation of the SMP, and adherence to FWS’s national bald eagle management guidelines. Revise the SMP to include information regarding measures to coordinate the SMP and recreation management plan, and associated management and monitoring measures, including provisions for monitoring boating-use density at the project, and coordinating future updates of the recreation management plan and SMP. Revise the SMP to include sub-classifications and/or reclassification of the shoreline areas designated as Responsible Growth, to differentiate between more limited development (i.e., residential) and more intense development (i.e., multi-purpose/commercial), and to identify existing public recreational access areas and future proposed public recreational access areas at the project. File a monitoring report with any proposed changes to the SMP, every 6 years, for Commission approval, after consultation with FWS, Oklahoma DWC, and interested stakeholders, beginning 6 years from the issuance of any order approving the SMP. File, for Commission approval, any proposed change to the approved shoreline management classifications. See Ya’ Around the Pond!!

The Never Ending Lake Level Issue Revisited!

2009-08-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

If you’re a veteran of Grand Lake, the Labor Day holiday doesn’t just signal the enjoyment of the last major holiday of the summer season. It also annually unveils one of our lake’s most talked about and discussed mysteries. Unless you’re oblivious to your surroundings, you probably are once again mystified as to why the lake is at its lowest level of the year. It has happened year-in and year-out since 1992 to allow for the seeding of Japanese millet in the mud flats to benefit migratory Ducks and Geese. What started out as a five year trial, lobbied for by people associated with wildlife conservation during the Grand River Dam Authority’s re-licensing in 1990, became a permanent part of the license in conjunction with an amended rule curve change in 1997. At best, a very poorly conceived plan was made worse by making it permanent without any independent analysis of its results. The track record of a program, which the wildlife people claim is to provide nourishment to migratory water foul while others believe it’s just a way of concentrating these birds for slaughter by hunters, is a disaster. Due to Oklahoma’s unpredictable weather, and did I say Japanese millet is not native to Oklahoma; the seeding effort has mostly resulted in failure over the past fifteen or so years. Either it was the oppressive Oklahoma heat wiping out the intended result or, sometime during the sixty day period the lake is maintained at the 741’ level for germination, a rising lake level from heavy fall rains would be the culprit. Some informed sources tell us it’s outdated mid eighties philosophy and there are better ways out there to address the well being of the migratory birds. Some have even told us the wildlife department is split on the issue. Grand Lake doesn’t even reside on a defined migratory flyway, but it’s annually one of the top fishing lakes in the nation as demonstrated by the number of bass fishing competitions year after year. The rub within the wildlife community is that while the program benefits the water fowl it’s detrimental to the current year’s spawned fish fry. The newly hatched crop of fish hide from predators in the plant growth along the shoreline of Grand Lake, but when the lake is rapidly dropped for millet seeding a by product is the destruction of some important fish fry habitat. So what make’s the ducks more important than Grand Lake’s other stakeholders? Isn’t it time to bring some common sense into the equation? If the humans on this lake have no status as stakeholders, let’s join up with the fish to put a merciful death to a bad idea and find a better way to deal with the ducks. So you say what now? As the executive director of Grand Lakers United Enterprise, I’ve been involved with working towards a solution to this problem over the past three years. We circulated and presented a petition with nearly 5,000 signatures to the Grand River Dam Authority and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to find an alternative to the existing millet seeding program. We were supported in this endeavor by many wildlife professionals. Our petition was requesting to raise the minimum Grand Lake level to an elevation of 742’, although 743” would even be better. The petition also focused on the positives of removing boating safety issues, dock problems for both commercial and residential lake users when the elevation is dropped and bringing about an alternative plan to really benefit migratory water fowl. Since that time, there has been some movement towards resolving the problem. The GRDA has amassed thousands of acres, which could be used for an off lake approach to addressing the needs of migratory waterfowl. Discussion from GRDA officials has been much easier to come by than any tangible results. We do know this; several months ago, representatives of the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Department submitted a plan to the authority to manage some of the acquired flood plane in lieu of the existing Millet seeding program. To our knowledge, the authority has not considered it a high enough of a priority to even generate a response. With the economic climate and associated decline in the sale of GRDA’s real love, the mighty kilowatt hour, it’s doubtful anything will happen in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the rate payer lobby is a much stronger, better financed and more vocal group than those of us who endure this ill-fated adventure annually as lowly lake enthusiasts. See Ya’ Around The Pond!!

Thanks For the Memories, Coach Callison

2009-07-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Each year, mid June is when the much anticipated Member/Guest Golf Tournament is hosted at the Coves Golf Club near Cleora and overlooking Grand Lake. Each participating member invites a guest to participate in the three day fun filled affair which features a practice round on Thursday and competitive rounds on Friday and Saturday. As a member at large, I took the opportunity to invite the coach of the 1995 state champion Ketchum Warriors’ basketball team, Larry Callison, as my guest. It not only would afford the opportunity to catch up with the most successful coach in Ketchum High School history, but he also is a pretty fair golfer and would enhance any chance our team might have. Renewing the connection with Callison took me back in time to the glory days of Ketchum boys’ basketball and a ride I’ll never forget. The Warriors went to the state tournament, hosted in what every small school basketball player simply refers to as the Big House in Oklahoma City, for an unbelievable seven straight years. Those seven remarkable years included two state runner-up teams and was capped off by that 1995 team’s state championship. The following week’s edition of The Chronicle proclaimed in a two inch headline, “State Champs.” I can still remember legendary Grand Laker Bud Raus waving a copy of that edition of The Chronicle in my face at Hookers and saying, “I guess this was a big deal to you.” To which I replied, “It sure as Hell was!” You see I was the play-by-play voice of the Ketchum Warriors on a 50,000 watt FM station, K-Grand based in Vinita, Oklahoma. The Warriors were the only class 2A school I’m aware of to have their games carried on a station that size which could be heard for well over a hundred mile radius. When the Warriors were gaining momentum in Callison’s early years, K-Grand would carry some of the play-off games and most definitely carried the state tournament appearances. Jack Lee owned the station in those days and Monkey Island’s Terry Davis was the chief engineer, disc jockey and on demand play-by-play guy. He asked me to join him on one of the broadcasts of a state tournament game and that lead to eventually doing every Ketchum game for about three years. My son Jay, who now is the head coach for Ketchum boys’ basketball team and played on Callison’s first team to appear in the state tournament in March of 1987, was my broadcast mate. That 1995 season was magical with the Warriors banishing just about every team they faced including wins over much larger schools like Vinita and Grove. They were the “Hoosiers” of Oklahoma. Two of their three loses that year came while playing in Tulsa’s Tournament of Champions with narrow loses to Tulsa McClain and Cleveland. They culminated the season with a pulsating win over Hooker from the far northwestern part Oklahoma. Hooker was by far a more talented team and I can still remember the excitement as those final seconds ticked away and my broadcast partner saying to me, “Now calm down old man. We’ve got this thing won.” It was a great moment and a great memory I’ll always cherish. That team was made up of some special kids. Whether you were in the Grand Lake area back then or not, some of the names will be familiar. Brandon Sharpe, Jason Farrar and Sean Ridley are still in the area. You might have bought a boat from Brandon at Arrowhead and Farrar and Ridley are working for many of you in the service sector. Jack and Patsy Kidwell’s son Joe is now some high powered CPA, Coach Callison’s son Jeremy, who lives in Claremore and works in the pharmaceutical field, was the leading scorer and Mark Robbins rounded out the major contributors. I can still remember broadcasting interviews from that victorious dressing room and asking Sharpe if this was the beginning of a dynasty for Ketchum basketball. Those of you who have come to know Brandon over the years won’t be surprised by his brash response, “Absolutely.” But except for the 1987 and 1988 seasons when 6’5” Jay Fleming and Derek Holmes were roaming the paint for the Warriors, Callison’s teams were small and quick. I use to kid the legendary coach about his team’s lack of size and how there must be something in Grand Lake’s water which limits height. A typical Callison team would press for four quarters, beat the opponent down the floor for easy scores and was made up of a band of over achievers. He kicked more than one player out of his gym who thought he was a superstar. It was his team and he did it his way. As a result, his players learned some lessons they would utilize throughout their lives about team work, competition, and how to win as well as lose….all with digity. But regardless of the level of play or the number of wins achieved by players and teams competing at the highest level year in and year out, there are always the critics. The coach, who was often quoted about the lofty rankings of his teams in major newspapers in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, was once even interviewed by legendary KRMG Radio morning host John Erling as the team was in route to yet another date in the Big House to compete for the state championship. Always humble, always accommodating and a class act in every sense of the word, but there was one thing he wasn’t and that was thick skinned. His decision to leave the Ketchum School System had little to do with wins and loses. In the end, the backbiting had more to do with the decision than any other factor. His critics whispered the talent pool had run dry and the only reason for his wild success had been players he had had the good fortune to coach. If some of those administrators and teachers had excelled in the execution of their job descriptions as well as Larry carried out the task of teaching winning hoops, it certainly would have been a blessing for thekids attending Ketchum High School. He simply moved on. Callison took three other teams to the state tournament and enjoyed success wherever he coached. As one of the players, Dandy Risman, who played on that very first Callison coached Ketchum team recently told me, “After that one year with Coach Callison, he became the barometer or measuring stick I used to evaluate all coaches, regardless of their sport.” The legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden is credited with having said, “There no limit to what we can accomplish, if we don’t care who gets the credit.” For those Callison detractors, who thought he was getting far too much credit, these last twelve years or so should serve as a reminder to be careful what you wish for. See ya’ Around the Pond!!

Independence Holiday Observations

2009-07-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

It’s not often a major holiday creates a four day much needed stimulus package for Grand Lake and all of Oklahoma, but officially that what just transpired over the last few days. Unofficially, it really was more like a week-long holiday as thousands had all ready started flocking to what I call the big pond as early as Wednesday, if a visit to Reasors for the right stuff at the right price was any indication. For me it was certainly Wednesday as that’s when my builder extraordinaire buddy, Jerry Hopper, now turned retail magnate at Jones Hardware in Ketchum, called to explain how busy he was. You see, he was so busy he couldn’t take time out from his nuts and bolts adventure to play golf with legendary Kansas Jayhawk and Chicago Bear’s running back Gayle Sayers. I fought it, claiming I was on the injured disabled list with a bad shoulder, but Hopper can be persistent if not down right irritating about getting his way. I finally agreed to take part in another one of those Grand Lake memory makers, but hey, why not share the wealth. I called Jeff Monical, a wayward Hawk who ended up in the appraisal business here on Grand Lake by way of Colorado. When I extended the invitation to this “Blueblood,” to say he was excited doesn’t do the event justice. Never mind that he had a house full of company from Iowa and Kansas in for the weekend, it’s not everyday a lifelong Hawkster gets the chance to spend a few hours with Gayle Sayers. Not a bad way to start a holiday weekend. A lot of small talk took place during our round, but for me the most revealing was when this NFL hall of fame running back ask our sidekick for the day and Kansas season ticket holder when he had graduated from KU. Monical never hesitated with his answer to this inquiring minds want to know question when he replied, “Well, that all depends on how you look at it. I spent eight years in Lawrence.” I’m not sure that sucker ever did answer that question exactly, but it sounds like he had a great time whileh e was there. Following our round of golf, we delivered Sayers to the home of Cobalt Boat founder Pack St.Clair’s home on Duck Creek. Pack, along with his pal John Novotny had orchestrated Sayer’s trip to Grand Lake and later that day had a viewing of some highlight videos, featuring some of the most revered moments in Hawk football history, scheduled. St.Clair was a senior wide receiver at KU when Sayers was a sophomore. Novotny and Sayers had a history as well since they had worked together raising funds for the KU Alumni Association in the past. It was a great start to the weekend and did I mention no Tiger fans were invited to that viewing party. And On a Sad Note We had our usual gang of kids, parents and their friends celebrating the holiday swimming from our dock and making preparation for the big foray into Duck Creek for the fireworks show later that evening when Bob Allred called. He had bad news in that he informed me that Elmer Harwood had passed away. Many knew Elmer as Joe Harwood’s dad and Haley Jo’s granddad, but the elder Harwood was a Grand Laker through and through. He hailed from Humboldt, Kansas, where he was in the concrete business until his retirement and then moved full time to Grand Lake. No one has to tell me, but I just know that Elmer was a member in good standing of Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation.” He was 91 years young. Elmer's obituary confirmedwhat I suspected above as follow: Elmer proudly served in World War II in General Patton's Third Army and earned all 5 battle stars of the European campaign. After the war he returned to Humboldt and continued to operate his own grocery store until he went to work for the Monarch Cement Company in 1959. He retired from the Monarch Cement Company in Aug. of 1979 after 20 years of service, and moved to Grand Lake. He and Marge became fixtures in the Grand Lake Community over the next 30 years. Elmer worked various jobs at Arrowhead Yacht Club and The Ketchum United Methodist Church almost up till the time of his passing. Guys like Elmer Harwood and Roe St.Clair, Pack’s dad, were enjoying Duck Creek and the Grand Lifestyle long before their boys, who were brought here as children, even had a clue. They in all likelihood helped Bill Bailey get the Duck Creek fireworks tradition off the ground…or would that be off the water. It just seems fitting that Elmer would be called home on the fourth of July. In reality, Elmer really never retired as he could be found doing whatever needed to be done around the Harwood holdings on Grand Lake. As I told Joe in an e-mail, there must be a bigger fireworks show needing attention in a higher place. His services are scheduled for this Wednesday, July 8th, at 1:00pm in Ketchum's First United Methodist Church. Here’s hoping you and yours had a safe and happy weekend doing what Grand Lake has become famous for……..making memories that will last a lifetime. See Ya’ Around the Pond

To Kill an American!

2009-06-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have already seen this since it's circulating out there in cyberspace, but it certainly seems appropriate for the Independence holiday. The Aussie seems to have a more clear understanding of our way of life and what our country truly represents than many in our own country. Enjoy!! You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!) 'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Belgian, Russian, or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan. An American may also be a Comanche,Oneida Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans. An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan.The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God. An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.. An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country! As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan ... The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America . Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists. So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Virginia Needs a Reliable Source of Information!

2009-06-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma’s most well known favorite son, Will Rogers, reportedly once said, “All I know is what I read in the paper.” As Monkey Island resident and Will Rogers historian Joe Carter will attest, Will had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek when he generated that famous quote. Based on a story appearing in print last week in a wannabe Grand Lake publication, not much has changed since Will made his observation about how trustworthy information in print just might be. Back in my days of publishing The Chronicle, now managing editor Mike Williams would keep me somewhat grounded by reminding me I wouldn’t make a wart on a real journalist’s backside, but I was a pretty decent storyteller. I always tried to remember that tidbit of unsolicited advice and I never forgot it. If I was attempting to be humorous, as with my last blog about the state of golf at the Coves Golf Club, taking liberties with the facts and quotes attributed to others may be acceptable, but if it were a serious topic, it should be treated as such and thoroughly researched. Grand Lake’s issues surrounding water quality are in no way humorous and should be treated as the most important factor related to our future. To suggest the elimination of 55 gallon drum septic tanks, the dumping of raw sewage by boats into our lake and that a frequent flushing of the lake from rainfall provided by Mother Nature has had a significant positive influence on our water quality is absurd. Then throw in an observation that we’re better off than we were ten years ago is at best questionable. The real story about this issue is clearly in our future and not in our past. As a sitting board member of the Grand Lake Water Watch Program, I’m sure all the volunteer citizen water monitors were glad to learn they had done some testing about ten years ago and the result of their efforts revealed there was too much wee-weeing going on in the back of Ketchum Cove. The Water Watch Program, is an offshoot from the Grand Lake Association, but was the brainchild of former GLA executive director, Cecille Bales and the Godfather of the program, Clif Younger. The organization has worked hand and hand with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for well over fifteen years and has been used as the “Poster Child” for other lakes and streams on how operate a water monitoring program. Each year, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board strives to generate a report known as the Beneficial Uses Management Program Report. The report, as the name suggests, presents data in a concise manner related to the beneficial uses of the waters of the lakes of Oklahoma for swimming, boating, consumption and much, much more. It can be found on the OWRB website, www.owrb.ok.gov/. If interested, a person, or writer God forbid, might want to start there before just making it up as you go just prior to deadline…..and I know something about deadlines. In the past year, a new organization, the Grand Lake Watershed Alliance Foundation, has been formed. It includes representatives from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. Their mission is to attack water quality issues from a broader perspective and has the potential to become a real influence on what really impacts the waters finding their way to Grand Lake. Their web site, http://www.glwaf.org/, will provide you much more information than allowed here. I’d like to encourage each to visit the site for educational purposes as well as perhaps joining this new citizen based foundation. With the formation of the GLWAF and the new commitment by the GRDA to water quality, the best is yet to come. The new Eco-systems building, being constructed at the west end of the Pensacola Dam, is being touted mainly as a visitor’s center, office space for the Eco-systems department and home to the Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, but its most important component gets little attention. There will be a state of the art water lab for testing the waters of Grand and Hudson lakes and agreements have been reached with both OU and OSU to provide technical assistance in this giant step forward. In short there’s a lot about water quality which remains an unknown, but not for long the way things are headed. But let me tell you what we can say with some authority. Based on the most recent environmental impact study, conducted by the University of Oklahoma and requested by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, what happens on Grand Lake’s shoreline and surface waters has little impact on the overall water quality. In other words Virginia, wee-weeing in the water, inadequate or obsolete septic tanks and houseboats and cruisers dumping sewage in the lake are factors, but pales when compared to the agricultural run-off and permitted sewage discharges being delivered into our lake daily by rivers and streams from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. It might best be described as flushing your toilet and observing less desirable water coming in than you flushed away……might want to think twice about flushing. Grand Lake serves as a great filter to the waters coming in from at least four states. A person needs only to drive across the Twin Bridges, then head south to Sailboat Bridge, head on to Monkey Island, make a quick stop at Tynan Bluff and end up at the Pensacola Dam to get the idea. Unless the observer is color blind, a story has just unfolded without a word being spoken. Although we don’t want to ignore the contributors to the water quality issues residing right here at home, the real work has to be done upstream. See Ya' Around the Pond!

The Coves: The Rest of the Story

2009-05-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

I recently scanned an article in The Chronicle about The Coves, but the contents were fairly commercialized and really didn’t tell the real story as I, and many old timer Grand Lakers may remember it. The story was authored by Bart Montgomery, a fine writer I personally hired when at the helm of The Chronicle, but at the time the real story was unfolding about The Coves Bart was just a pup in North Carolina. For you see, the real story of The Coves has always been about the players….and I’m not just talking about golfers. It was the early eighties, around ’82 or ’83 I think, and the Frates Company had just started construction of the Coves Golf Club & Development on the east side of Duck Creek. Roads were being cut in and the construction of the planned nine hole golf course was evident by the dust rising over what had previously been know as the Bird Island Gun Club. There were all kinds of rumors swirling locally about the project. Very reliable, I jest, lake sources were reporting that Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were big players in the project so there was no way it could fail. A special team of resort specialist salesmen sometimes referred to as hucksters and barkers were imported from Florida to sell the lots. Mickey Barkley was the leader of this band of brothers committed to getting the project off the ground and collecting some eye popping commissions along the way. To say they left their mark would be the understatement of the decade. On any given Saturday night, and you have to remember this was still in the days of “Liquor-by-the-Wink,” this band of brothers was sure to be found dinning and dancing the night away at Junior and Sue Bailey’s Lakeview Supper Club. Years later, after the club had burned to the ground and was being rebuilt by Junior’s nephew, Robert Rains, it was referred to as the H-I-S-T-O-R-I-C Lakeview Supper Club. I often wondered if the historic designation had anything to do with those Saturday nights and fun generated by Barkley and his crew. And by-the-way, that crew included current Coves golf pro and king of schmooze, Jim, the “Silver Fox,” Gray. Although plans for a gated lake community, with amenities like a club house, golf course, independent water & sewer system, security force, a set of strict covenants enforced by fellow property owners and more were trend setting in the eighties, most thought the development would crumble after the sale of waterfront lots were exhausted. You can count me among those self proclaimed experts who were eventually proven wrong. Even with the condition of the current economy, the development is going strong and the ongoing development occupying those secondary lots still amazes me, but success didn’t come without some growing pains. Following what memory tells me was at best a marginal start, the development was acquired by a group headed up Bob Buford. But make no mistake about it, this Kansas boy, who got his education at the Oklahoma State University and had been highly successful in the oil business and had a multitude of agricultural based holding in the sunflower state, was the leader of this group who made the development what it is today. But back to the players. Buford has always had a reputation as a shrewd business operator, but the guy is also, evidently, a pretty fair judge of people as in prospective members of The Coves team. Perhaps his most significant hire was Lori Worley to head up the real estate sales operation. Big Bob convinced her to abandon a successful gig on Monkey Island to bet on the come at The Coves. Over the years, Lori probably has only been exposed to one more effective sales pitch than that from Buford and Company. And that came from the “Silver Fox” when he romanced her into becoming Lori Worley Gray. Lori has been a mainstay at the development and is as responsible as anyone there for its unprecedented growth. She has virtually been involved, in one way or another, in every real estate transaction ever recorded at the develoment. And did I mention those secondary lots I didn’t think would sell in a million years? Her fingerprints can be found on each and every one of those sales. But it’s still the people who live and hangout on Bird Island who truly make it a special place. You talk about an American boiling pot and this is it Grand Lake style. There are doctors, lawyers, insurance professionals, building supplies gurus, truckers, construction magnates, educators, brokers, day traders, financial planners, printing contractors, furniture sales guys, utility professionals, builders, old retired publishers and just about anything else you can think of. There’s even one self proclaimed farmer who I’m pretty sure doubles as a political operative, if not a lobbyist, and there probably an elected official or two in there somewhere. There’s certainly a social scene based within The Coves, but for me it’s all about the golf and the renegades who participate in the gamesmanship associated with the endeavor of competitive rounds and gambling. I suppose there are some 200 plus members of the club, but there are some fifty or so what I would describe as hardcore golfers….and they come in all shapes, sizes, quality of game and types of personalities. Whether it’s the description of my shank by “Motor-Mouth” Mike Morrison, in his Razorback dialogue, as that of resembling an option pitchout from the wishbone football formation or from ex-cop Dan Brown as though he were giving me a ticket for passing in a school zone, it’s camaraderie at its best. My favorite part is sipping your drink of choice and settling up following the conclusion of the daily gathering simply referred to as the “Noon Group.” That forum is not just limited to golf because, as arrogant and egocentric as they might be, they all recognize their field of expertise probably resides in a different area than golf. My observations are that it breaks down like this ; Dow-Jones daily report – Cal Strickland, all inclusive politics and South Pacific Travels – Mike Lair, politics-at-large (Boren) – George McCreary, social observations - Darrel Wilson, Wine evaluation - Jim Gottardi, Texas insight – Jim Jay, score accounting – Fred Kidd, speed of play – Marshal Jim Wood and the list goes on. But administration and management is where the real strength of club stands out most. There’s Director of Competitive Teams, Pat Holderness, who is in charge of determining the makeup of teams for the “Noon Group.” This very complicated task is achieved by putting each individual’s ball in a bucket and tossing them in the air to determine which team a participant will be on. This science is based on ball proximity to one another. Pat appointed himself to this position. Perennial club champion and prankster Steve Downey heads up the rules committee of one, which is also a self appointed position, and is responsible for the current club policy on gimme puts. A man should certainly receive credit where credit is due. And one simple example of his expertise in the prankster department should provide you the drift. When “Motormouth” recently celebrated a birthday Coves style, the ever-thoughtful and sensitive Downey gave the old Razorback a dozen new Pro-V1 golf balls, or so it seemed. Later, when the box was opened, the birthday boy discovered 12 of the most beat up and defaced golf balls known to modern man. What a country! I’d certainly be remiss if proper credit wasn’t extended to Golf Dictator Mike Ballard. Ballard, who most concede is the Dave Peltz of The Coves, administers the men’s Friday Play-day and is personally responsible for important things like format selection, with his most popular selection being the “To Be Announced” variety. You can also thank him for those ridiculous pin placements on Fridays as well. But seriously, presidents of the men’s association come and go, but Mike is the glue that holds a really fun group together. And the guys in the pro shop are right there to help make it happen. I don’t know about you, but when I arrive at the course I’ve always got great expectations. That most recent tweak in the swing is about to be unveiled with almost unbelievable results. Golf Digest and Golf Channel here I come. Will I employ my semi conventional swing or will it be the stack and tilt today? There’s always a thousand variables surrounding a game of golf, but there’s one constant in determining what your mood will be when you head for home…and no, it’s not that brown bag in your locker. It’s the pro shop, stupid. The atmosphere in the club house can best be described as informal, friendly, accommodating and probably more importantly, like friends meeting friends. And now Ron and Sandy Miller are even serving up food. Zac Hamililton’s former life included a carreer in public education administration and has been known to call people to the principal’s office for a lack of attention to detail on a member-guest entry form or a illegible scorecard, but you can bet it was well earned. And when you head out the door, there’s always an encouraging word. You might have lost six bucks and a couple of skins, but in all likelihood your tax bracket will remain unchanged. As the “Silver Fox,” Jim Gray, likes to say, “Baby, this is country club living at its best.” Just proud to be a member of The Coves Golf Club, perhaps in good standing, and taking part in a grand life on a grand lake. See Ya’ Around the Pond!