OKIE QUALITIES

OKIE ATTRIBUTES

There are wonderful stories around about the generosity of Okies. Nine-nine percent of us are compassionate and kind. Gramps had a funny experience with two men one time that proved there are always misshapen apples in every barrel.
Gramps called the guy who always sold fire wood to us, always stacked it neatly in the wood rack in the back yard and was always very gracious. The man proudly said that he had a regular job and didn't need to sell wood any longer, but his uncle had wood to sell. He gladly gave Gramps the cell phone number of his uncle.
The uncle answered his phone promptly. Gramps told him the story, that the uncle's nephew said to call him and order some wood. The uncle's answer was kind of strange for a guy who made his living selling wood. He said, "Will you call me back in thirty minutes? My brother is cooking me breakfast." Hum, we thought, that must really be a close family. He didn't even ask for Gramp's name or phone number. We thought his brother must really be a gourmet cook for a businessman to be so nonchalant about making money.
After about thirty minutes the man called Gramps, probably got the number from his recent calls listing on his cell phone, and quoted Gramps a price for a rick of wood. It was the same price as his nephew, our old wood supplier. The uncle said he would be at our house in 15 minutes with the wood.
Sure enough, he arrived with another man, probably his brother who had cooked such an appealing breakfast for him that he couldn't wait to eat. They started unloading the wood. Gramps commented to them that he is recovering from cancer and chemotherapy and could they bring a little bit of the wood up to the porch where Gramps could easily access it during the snow storm that was predicted.
The uncle sternly said, "We don't carry no wood for that price."
Evidently the gracious and kind gene that most Okies have was not present in his side of the family. There wasn't an obvious ounce of compassion in his eyes or in his voice.
Gramps offered to pay the men a little more money, and they agreed to bring some up to the porch. They were willing to help an older gentleman who was recovering from a devastating illness and chemotherapy, but it was going to cost him some money. These guys are in the 1% of Okies who aren't compassionate and kind.
We asked God to bless the men but decided that the man will certainly not get any more business from us.
It kind of reminded me of our grandchilden's story about their mother buying them a pygmy goat for a pet. The seller assured our daughter-in-law that the goat was certainly a male. The grandkids had a ball with the fat goat until two weeks later when it birthed twin babies. Uh-huh, the former owner had gotten rid of the pregnant goat under the auspices of it being a male. Of course, by the time she birthed the twin babies the children were already attached to it. No chance of returning it then. I'm sure the former owner counted on that. No compassion and kindness there, either, and a few ounces of dishonesty. The goat did provide some entertainment, though. It routinely jumped up on the lawn furniture and hopped onto the trampoline and had a good time jumping. All was not lost since that was a sight to behold.
Gramps heard a court case one time where one of the witnesses worked at a chicken plant. The witness had a rare professional title. He was a chicken sexer. He stood in the plant and picked up the baby chicks and separated the roosters from the hens. Now, how do you figure he could do that? He spent all his work days chicken sexing. That's a profession we all want our kids to strive for, chicken sexing.
Anyway, our daughter-in-law and her sister who was with her when she bought the goat could have benefited from some lessons in goat sexing. Just a minute, that doesn't sound quite right. That could be taken kind of as a back hills Okie perversion. What I really meant is they could have been taught to tell the difference between a small male goat and a female goat and they wouldn't have been so easily deceived.
The uncle who sold Gramps the wood needs some lessons in Okie kindness and the lady who sold the pregnant pygmy goat to our grandkids' mom need some lessons in Okie honesty.
However, even with those experiences, we're still proud to be Okies from Muskogee where we still fly Old Glory at the courthouse and where most people don't try to cheat weak and recovering grandpas by demanding more money for a simple feat of carrying a few armloads of firewood 25 feet, and where ladies don't pawn off a pregnant goat onto an unsuspecting mom who wants to buy a pet for her children.
Actually, how many people do you know who are creative enough to buy pygmy goats as pets for their children? See, we are unique people in Oklahoma.