Dust Devil Dreams and Visions

OKLAHOMA CITY – We are deep into the Dog Days of Summer. The star Sirius seems to be taking a grip on our sunbaked landscape. Just go outside (if you live away from the cities) and just look … up! It’s quite breathtaking taking in the night sky, with its stars and satellites and who-knows-what-all spinning around in the infinite. It’s hot. Damn hot. But oddly gloomy out there. It’s like that feeling when you are cringing, waiting for the proverbial other “shoe” to drop. It’s a stinky, size 14 shoe that is just filthy. That shoe. We have dimwitted dullards running the Punch n’ Judy shitshow and it just makes me nauseous. And to top it off, Kate Bush’s 37-year old hit “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)” is back on the charts. It’s a rage with all the kids, with my own son telling me this morning that it’s “stuck in his head.” Say what? A Kate Bush song released when I was 13 years old? We have the most recent season of Stranger Things to thank for that, I reckon. What I’d love ...

  THE LAST RIDE OAK HILL, W. Va. – It is early morning. A weekday, here in Oak Hill, West Virginia, a city I knew little about before arriving at the Boy Scouts campsite located nearby. Having driving nearly half-way across the country to work as a volunteer with my son’s BSA troop, based in Oklahoma City, I like to do a little exploring on my own. As I drove out of the Summit Bechtel Reserve campsite, I took Highway 19 north and passed the Skyline Drive-In on the west side of the road. Upon first appearance it looked closed, abandoned and insignificant. But upon closer inspection, I am reminded that this was where country-music legend Hank Williams spent his last moments. It is known as Hank’s Last Ride. For fans, coming to Oak Hill, West Virginia is part of a pilgrimage, from Hank’s hometown of Montgomery, Alabama to Oak Hill. As I stood in the parking lot of the Skyline on a warm, early July day, I thought about Hank Williams and how prior to his death, he had lived in S...