The Shade Tree Okie (Home)

‘My Life of Change Has Never Changed’! Contents:

• Birth to mid 60’s
• Mid 60’s to early 70’s
• Early 70’s to late 70’s
• Late 70’s to Mid 2000’s

I’ve had a beautiful life…

You know most of my life I’ve liked myself but obviously not always! 

Relatively speaking I’ve known people who really didn’t like themselves, didn’t like how they look, didn’t really like their friends, didn’t like how their friends looked, and we’re unwilling to own up to it so therefore essentially unwilling or unable to change…. except for maybe short periods of time in their life! 

I think the true character of a person is someone who likes themselves and like most of the people in their life (their so-called friends) and is still looking to change their life which in turn changes EVERYTHING.

To enjoy a forever changing life and friends I really feel one must be willing and capable of changing their deep-down attitude and perspective about life and about others! If the changes turn out for the better cool if it doesn’t then change again! 

A change in your life in turn changes you and your friends in your life which in turn changes EVERYTHING and if not for the better what a pity…. 

Over the days, weeks, months, years of my life I’ve changed a lot of things! Mostly my mind and my secular work! 

I’ve never changed my religion nor my wife! I explored a lot of religions and philosophies, but none satisfied my desire to know why we’re here and why we exist except ONE. None introduced me by name to God. I liked this Gods personality when is reflected in his name Jehovah which means 

‘He Causes To Become’. 

I think I’ve gotten pretty good at changing – don’t know if it’s true or not but I honestly feel like I changed my genetic make-up slowly but surely by doing what I did and liking who I was no matter where I was at or who I was with. 

I was always willing to risk losing who I am by taking the risk of changing! 

I’ve somehow allowed change to happen for me no matter what others may have thought of me even though I didn’t want others to dislike me for taking the risk of change and as expected, some did… 

I think when others watched me in life the feelings ran from what a fake to you know he’s pretty cool and I was OK with both assessments because I felt like you can actually fake it till it’s real or at least until it’s real to you! When you make a change and it works out at least as well as expected and sometimes even better we tend to think ‘hey that’s pretty cool’!

So as an overview, I decided to list by time periods several changes I have experienced in employment and where I’ve I lived. 

So here’s what I’ve done in life! The many changes I’ve experienced. Each of these events will to some degree or another be covered in the story of my life! Some already have been!

Not all changes have been earth shattering but certainly some have been – at the time though many were heart thumping changes for this country kid who has always considered himself fresh off the farm from the sticks of Oklahoma! 

For instance: When I went to Vietnam none of my friends were smoking pot when I came back almost all of them was some were still in the military and yet they had adopted an anti-Vietnam attitude and so getting high with them was not fun for me they had changed their view of me and I could feel it in my bones… I didn’t feel as welcome with them and their new friends as I once did For instqnce: When I went to Vietnam none of my friends were smoking pot when I came back almost all of them was

Some were still in the military and yet they had adopted an anti-Vietnam attitude and so getting high with them was not fun for me they had changed their view of me and I could feel it in my bones… I didn’t feel as welcome with them and their new friends as I once did 

I’ve tried to sum-up each change & event in as few words as coherently possible! At the end of the list I ask a favor of you so enjoy.

Birth to mid 60’s (lived two places Hill Top & Farmhouse)

• Born living in ‘the hill top house’ near Vitoskey’s, Casey’s & Walkers – some places and people you just move away from! 
• Moved to ‘the farmhouse’ & like the hilltop house had an Indian graveyard in our front yard! Lived by Roberts family & creek nation church & stomp ground – my first 18 years of life I lived a few feet from a Indian graveyard; coincidence or not that’s odd.
• With a steady influx of family & friends clung to dry land farming (beef, milk cows, pigs, chickens, gardens & crops) as long as possible – did so out of both necessity and loyalty to family. Grew up & lived up to my name Rock (what my Dad called me) and ‘Rocky’ (what my mom usually called me) and ‘Rocky Dale’ (what my mom when upset called me). 
• Gentle broke Indian ponies for Johnny Bears family! Bear family sold ponies to families that wanted a horse for their kids to raise, ride & play with – bugged the poor man to death between one horse assignment and the next! 
• Attended by bus (10-15 mile 30 to 45 min bus ride) grade school Sunrise Grade School (country school w/no town nearby) and then went to high school at Springhill High School Pharaoh Oklahoma by bus (15 to 20 mile .75 to 1.5 hr bus ride) – walking at least a mile to the school bus stop and riding school buses was so much a part of my life. Allowed me lots of time to dream up and plot mischief!
• Construction work on Interstate 40 between Okemah and Henrietta! – fired for pranks like tossing a garden snake in the cab of a dump truck! 
• Southwestern State Oklahoma University. Weatherford Oklahoma (SWOSU). Journalism major! – endured English classes but loved writing! Was introduced to photography and the Air Force by means of a program called ROTC!
• Plumbing for my dad Okemah Plumbing (off & on for years)  with short stints at Okemah lumberyard! – dirty shitty job!

Mid 60’s to early 70’s (lived 6 places San Antonio TX, Denver Lowery AFB, Holloman AFB, Alamogordo NM, Vietnam, Okemah OK, Okmulgee OK) 

• Air Force photographer (Texas, Colorado, NM, Vietnam, Thailand & Bangkok – honeymoon in Hawaii) (Lackland Air Force Base, Lowery Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base, Tan Son Nhut Air Base Vietnam) – changed my life forever! 
• Attended NM State University College classes at that time at the Alamogordo High School 13th and Florida – Met my wife and your future Mom. Majored in psychology.
• Okmulgee State Tech! 2 yr tech school in industrial electronics, affiliate of OSU – loved the numbers, learned a lot, forgotten most of it! 
• HOLLY BORN
• Short stint Okmulgee Furniture store! Moving furniture! – Fired for befriending owners PTS Vietnam Viet son, backbreaking work and unappreciated!
• Okmulgee sports editor & newspaper paper photographer – often heavily edited by others, admired by associates, and scorned by a few! 

Early 70’s to late 70’s (lived dozens of places panhandle OK & TX w/home base Alamogordo NM Brunson Home, Socorro and Magdalina, Vermont Ave, Labrocita Canyon, Filipino Ave)

• Bendix-United Geophysical Corp Oil Exploration. Panhandle Okla/Texas. Vibrator equipment & vibercise box operator – Moved town to town, hotel to hotel, field to bar; Doodlebuggers drink a lot, cuss a lot and move a lot (OK more than a lot more like too much!
• Dynalectron. Cinetheodolite operator Stallion Range Camp near Socorro nm – strange town, strange people & strange job.
• CAMILLE BORN
• Ratscat (radar backscatter facility) Dynalectron & Real Eight White Sands Missile Range 
• Trapping from N tip Whites Sands to S tip lava flow (Malpais) – testing planes and bombs to make them as invisible and yet deadly as possible. Seldom lost a Ping-Pong game. 
• Again, attended NM State University Alamogordo but this time on the hill. – earned an associate degree in Psychology. 
• BASI (Beechcraft Aerospace Institute) drone tracking. Orogrande Range Camp! Korea / Iran (Semnan Range Iran) few days Egypt – grew up a lot away from home with strange work mates in a strange culture.

Late 70’s to Mid 2000’s (lived one place 1707 Alaska Ave) 

• Corn Construction – road tree clearing Cloudcroft, Mayhill, Ruidoso – Hard and dangerous work with good friends
• RUSTY BORN
• Roc’s Parking Lot Services Alamogordo NM (my first business as owner) – lots of time to dream and meditate about the good the bad and the ugly! 
• Bethel Coach Tours. Arranging tours to Branch facilities of JW’s around the world (from 1989 to today) – back to traveling except this time to the best places on earth with the finest people on earth!
• Sams Auto Sales corner 1st and White Sands Alamogordo – Learned a lot from Sam & honestly thought I would be better at it than I was! 
• Bought & operated from office in back of Alaska home a Cash Register Sales & Repair Alamogordo – boring!
• Developed a spreadsheet for bidding parking lot sweeping job! Started Bids-A-Lot for selling subscriptions to other sweeping companies – back to numbers, develop extensive spreadsheet and formula that much to my surprise actually worked as expected.
• Designed, organized & started Debri-Free a company to help others get into the contract sweeping business! Similar to a franchise! – great idea with great potential but failed due to lack of funds 
• Go Global Travel Canal Street Alamogordo New York Ave. then Coffee Crêpes and More + Go Global Travel New York Ave. downtown Alamogordo!  – found out not all people who travel are easy to deal with! Innovative enterprise which needed more of my attention than i gave and which mom hated
• Museum Bible Tours- conducting theocratic Bible Tours in museums around the world – easy and productive and fulfilling!

Now the favor! Can each of you pick a few events above that piques your interest so I can give those items, sooner verses later, more attention in future chapters of ‘My Life Story’.