For readers who live away from Kingfisher County and have missed a beautiful spring, we provide this report: Many area small grain fields are changing color day by day, losing the deep green color that made the area so beautiful through April. The fields are beginning their race to harvest. A month from now there will be few unharvested fields left across the county. Bermuda lawns are beginning to grow with the advent of warmer night time temperatures. Bermuda begins to grow when overnight temperatures don’t dip below 50 degrees, we have been told by agronomists. Lawnmowers have already been humming, many of them just to clear off the weeds and cold weather grasses that have sprung up ahead of the bermudagrass. We dump the clippings from our grass catcher over the fence into our horse pasture. Gracie, our mare, turns up her nose when the offering consists mostly weeds. J.J., our gelding who is on sabbatical leave with a bird-dog field trial professional handler, probably would eat the clippings if he were around. He’s less picky – and more piggy. Gracie probably would have gotten the birddog “gig” if she weren’t almost 30 years old. She is smoother gaited, but she’s officially retired. She has earned being put out to pasture; she was our first horse that preferred to stay under us rather than dump us on the dirt.

Recalling a successful career

Larry Boyle of Kingfisher dropped by for a visit recently. Larry, now 86, is a retired oilfield pumper who spent more than 30 years in the field. He retired only seven years ago. When we asked him who he worked for over the years, he replied: “Lucy (his late wife) and the kids.” Larry and Lucy had seven children, all of whom grew to become successful adults. Asked if he had lived all his life in Kingfisher, he got us again, answering, “Not yet.” He has been a Kingfisher resident for 60 years. Larry quips that every time he and Lucy had another child, he took on more oil wells to pump. He considers his family, which now includes 28 grandchildren and 33 great grandchildren, as his greatest accomplishment. He is also pleased that four sons and one grandson have followed in his footsteps, working in the oilfields. He is also pleased that he has all his fingers and toes after working all those years in an industry that can be dangerous, holding up both hands for us to verify all 10 fingers were there.

Oil company folks come to our rescue

Have you ever noticed that working people are usually kind and helpful? That was impressed on us again this last week when our “mature” pickup truck died on the S.H. 33 underpass while we were driving to work. A pickup truck with an oilfield emblem on the side stopped behind us. Wanting to get the pickup out of the way before it created a traffic hazard, we walked back and asked the driver of the truck if it would be possible for him to push our truck out of the underpass. He did better than that. He had a tow rope. The driver pulled his truck in front of us and his passenger, another pleasant young man quickly hooked us up. They pulled our vehicle off the highway and to the parking lot by C. Everett Murphy’s old law office on Sixth Street. We asked the driver if he was a mechanic and he admitted he knew about motors. We told him what the truck had been doing and asked if he had any idea what the cause of its stalling might be. “Alternator,” he promptly advised, then asked us if we needed his cell phone to call someone. Then he said if we would “pop the hood” he would look at it. We declined with thanks for the offer. We figured he had work to do that was more important than “messing with” an old guy’s pickup truck. Besides J&E Auto Shop was less than a block away. We walked there where owner Jose Torres met us and we explained our situation. He drove us in his vehicle to where we were stalled and gave us a “jump” so we could drive the truck to his shop where he put his diagnostic equipment to work and quickly determined that the alternator had gone out, just like our Good Samaritan had diagnosed. He agreed to replace the part and we walked on to work. About an hour later he called to say our truck was ready to drive. It drives as good as new…if you can say that about a 22-year-old truck. We’re thankful the problem happened at home rather than between here and Oklahoma City where we made several trips recently to visit our daughter, Ellyn, while she was in the hospital after surgery. We’re also happy for the experience, getting to realize (once again) how many good people live here.

We failed to get the name of the fellows who helped us get our vehicle out of traffic. If you read this, know that you are appreciated.

We report this to emphasize that the influx of oil industry workers is largely made up of good citizens, who are willing to help their fellow man.