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April 2, 1999
A visiting minister spoke to one of our Perry Sunday school classes the other day, telling about a five-state regional program for the mentally retarded, which he serves as chaplain. To make the point that many of those unfortunate people retain a sense of humor and more wisdom than one might suspect, he told this little true story. One of them, a young adult male who could read but not write, was attending an overnight meeting away from his home, and it gave him the opportunity to spend a night in a motel for the first time in his life. At the registration desk, the clerk filled out a card and asked him to sign it. The young man looked at the line where he was to sign, and made an "X." But, before handing the card back, he hesitated a moment and looked at it studiously, then painstakingly drew a circle around his "X." The clerk said that he had never seen that kind of mark. "Well," the young man said, "this is my first night in a motel and I didn't want to use my real name."
Our friend, the actress Myrna Niles Hamman, is still getting roles in some of the nation's top network TV shows. Many of us saw her last month on the NBC soap opera, "Sunset Beach," and she is still frequently visible in a Polident commercial showing a group of three ladies around a swimming pool. Next up will be a small role in “The Practice," on Sunday night, April 18. This is one of the hottest shows on TV right now and it can be seen here on Oklahoma City channel 5 (ABC network). Myrna plays a court clerk and she will have a few lines of dialogue. David Kelley is the writer/producer. He also does "Ally McBeal," another top-rated show. He also did "Picket. Fences" before it went off the air last year. Myrna asked me to pass along hugs to everyone, so consider yourself hugged!
Finally got around to renewing my membership in the American Legion the other day. I first joined that worthy organization more than 50 years ago while still in the Army during World War II, but the local Ellis-Jirous post has been mostly inactive in recent years so it was easy for me to allow the membership to lapse. The present officers are working hard to breathe new life into the Legion here, and if you're eligible you should join up. Women also are needed to make the Perry Legion Auxiliary an active group once again. We congratulate the Morrison post and auxiliary for their uninterrupted effort in doing so much to serve veterans' families for many years, and we wish the Perry folks equal success. Incidentally, Debra Bales of Morrison serves as the president of district 4 American Legion auxiliary in Oklahoma.
Bill Atkinson, the man credited with building Midwest City, died the other day at the age of 92. His obituary was fairly long because he accomplished many things in his lifetime. His name is very familiar to residents of this area for a couple of reasons. In the years after World War II, home building in Midwest City was mushrooming and Bill Atkinson was in the middle of it. One of his unique ideas was to give a Shetland pony to the kids in each family that bought one of his offerings. Most of those ponies came from the Perry Carlile ranch, southwest of Perry. Later, Mr. Atkinson became the Democratic nominee for governor of Oklahoma but he lost the race to a virtual unknown, Henry Bellmon of Billings. Much has been written about the Shetland pony business and Mr. Atkinson's defeat by Mr. Bellmon, and perhaps a few nuggets about both remain to be told. That will have to come later because for today, we're out of space.