LFS: The Storyteller

--> ©1992 by LeeZard "Mickey wasn't known as a baseball player when he was growin' up here." It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in the cramped storefront office that serves as the Commerce, Oklahoma, Police Department. The sergeant on duty was a precious link to my boyhood hero's past.  "Mick was really a great football player in junior high school." Mickey Mantle's boyhood home in Commerce, OK I had driven to this small, dusty town in the northeast corner of Oklahoma to just experience the place where Mickey Mantle grew up. I don't know what I expected to find, but I was quite surprised at what I didn't find. The only business open on this lazy winter church-going Sunday was the 7-11. I was looking for anything that proclaimed this as, "Commerce, Oklahoma: Boyhood Home of Mickey Mantle!" To my shock, dismay and disappointment I could find no such treasure. In fact, except for the name ...

I love this essay - absolutely one of my favorite pieces. I first wrote it in 1992. Every once in awhile I go back and update "the list," most recently this week. ©1995 by LeeZard Most Americans don’t realize it but there’s a lot more to Oklahoma than tornadoes, oil wells, cattle and amber waves of grain. From the eerie white salt flats in the panhandle to its dramatic tall grass prairie, endless wheat fields and rolling green hills, the Sooner State is unique not only for its violent weather and physical qualities but also for its remarkable people. From 1991-1994, I made almost 100 business trips to America’s “Tornado Alley” to help the U.S. Department Of Energy establish a ten year multi-million dollar global warming research program. One of my tasks was to explain the project to people near our central research facility in rural Grant County, Oklahoma, just south of the Kansas State line. Sitting in cafes, general stores and ranch houses of many new found friends, I lea...