PROUD TO BE OKIES FROM OKAY

The Lady Mustangs volleyball team from Okay, Oklahoma, made this MeMe and Gramps proud last week when they showed, "championship caliber class" at their game with Metro Christian. Our grand daughter Lindsey Allen plays for the Lady Mustangs. They mourned with the girls on the opposing team by wearing the number 7 on their arms in honor of Laura Lester who was killed along with her parents and a sister in an airplane accident a week before the game. They also presented the opposing team a bouquet of flowers and a sympathy card to let them know that they appreciated that they took "time out of their healing" as quoted by Coach Clark, to play the Okay Lady Mustangs in their scheduled game. Coach Clark of the Lady Mustangs said that they might be competitors on the court but we are all humans and the girls all needed to come together at that time, showing love and sympathy for the girls on the Metro Christian team because of the loss of their teammate and friend.Lindsey has always showed love and compassion for people. We are proud of her and her teammates for showering the entire team and coaching staff of Metro Christian with the sympathetic gestures that they did. I'm sure it was a shock to that team to be honored in such a way, honoring Laura Lester's prior contribution to her team on the event of her death.Metro Christian's school is sixty miles from Okay, but I know they will always remember the heartfelt compassion that the Okay, Oklahoma, Lady Mustang volleyball team showed to them at the time of their mourning. I am so proud of Lindsey and her team. They made it known that competition took a back seat to love and compassion when they proved themselves to the community as girls with sterling character. Now that's what I call true class.Lindsey, the entire team of Lady Mustangs and Coach Clark proved that the attitudes of true athletes is in the respectful and caring way they treat their opponents.We are so proud of them for showing maturity beyond their years and character that their parents and grandparents will crow about for years.
Congratulations, Lady Mustangs, you proved yourselves to be real ladies.

DR. PEPPER BAPTISM

Class, manners, courage, politeness and gentlemanliness are just bred into some people. Yes, family training is involved in the equation also. Kids act and react the way their parents and grandparents act and react. That's called experience, learning from good and bad examples set for them.
There's another more contemporary term related to a teenager who has class, manners, courage, politeness and gentlemanliness. It's called COOLNESS.
Our grandson Jess is what everyone calls cool. It's universally known what that words signifies. Even two year old kids know that descriptive term and use it in their limited vocabularies. Jesse proved his total coolness in an experience he had with his other grandparents, Freda and Bob.
What was reported to me very energetically by the grandparents was a story that they were excited to share with anyone and everyone who would listen, and rightfully so. Freda is the one who labeled Jesse's actions as really cool ,with good manners, she said. Actually both grandparents were kind of awe-struck at Jesse's calm, cool reaction to an unfortunate accident.
It seems that Freda had taken Jesse to an appointment with the dermatologist, an adventure in itself, which involved being misinformed of the location of the doctor's office, waiting an hour a the wrong office, then waiting another hour at the appropriate office. Then after being handed a prescription they made their way to the pharmacy, only to be informed there that they had the wrong colored slip, that they needed a pink one. Back they went to get the right colored slip. Needless to say, Freda and Jesse were both beginning to experience some displeasure at the way the day was beginning. However, it eventually worked out and they called Grandpa Bob to meet them for breakfast because 17 year old Jesse was starving.
They met at restaurant and ordered their drinks, coffee for Freda since Bob had arrived earlier and already had his coffee. Ice water was also ordered for the senior citizens and Dr. Pepper for the teenager. Soon after, the waitress brought the drinks to the table, a huge glass of Dr. Pepper, one steaming cup of coffee and two glasses of ice water.
Immediately the baptism began as the entire contents of the tray must have slid off because all of the beverages from the tray hit Jesse in the chest, ending up in his lap. There he sat, soaked in 28 ounces of Dr. Pepper, the contents of two full glasses of ice water and one cup of hot coffee.
Now, most teenagers become embarrassed at being the center of a spectacle, but not Jessee. His other grandparents proudly related to us that he sat there drenched in the liquids and the only remark he calmly made was, "Ohhhh, that's cold."
There was no outburst of anger, no look of disgust for the waitress and no foul mouthed language.
He became more the center of attention as everyone began to soak up the lake of beverages on him and two inches on the floor around him, but he still remained calm and cool, the Rock of Gibraltar. He did comment that his feet were swimming in the inch of liquid inside of his shoes. From the chest down, not an inch of his body, his shirt, his pants, his shoes and socks were dry, yet Jesse ate his breakfast in gentle conversation with his grand parents.
Grandpa Bob did comment that he suggested that the cute waitress put her arm around Jesse to keep him warm after the patient young man made his first gentle complaint of, "I'm cold.," but Jesse refused her offer.
The waitress paid for Jesse's breakfast, and rightfully so. She should have, and he was grateful for that. He went home to shower and change clothes before going back to school.
The waitress confessed that this was the first time she had spilled anything on anyone in all her 13 years of being a waitress. I know that she is still telling the story about the handsome, nice, cool, calm and collected teenage boy whom she baptized with the entire contents of a beverage tray. She will tell the story for years to come about how lucky she was that the object of the accident was a young, handsome gentleman.
When I asked him if I would write a story about his experience he told me yes, but he added that the steaming hot coffee also burned his arm. That was the first negative, factual comment from his mouth about the situation .
Anyone else would have been mad and incensed. Not Jesse. He's COOL. You know what that means, it means he's got superior character that makes his loving parents and grandparents proud.
Keep it up, Jesse. your coolness continues to shine forth.