Author: Randall Murphy

The Jones Boys pictured left to right; Lloyd, Wes, Frank, Bill, Earl (Early 1980’s)

From Descendants of Ransom Jones

I have been asked to write the history of my life as I remember it. Going back as far as I can remember, we lived at Vinita Oklahoma. The only thing I can remember that happened there was when an old red faced lady who liked me baked a cake for my birthday. She brought it over to our house. It had cracked peppermint candy on top and white frosting. I said something about the cake and everyone in the room laughed at me. It hurt my feelings so I hid behind the door and cried. I guess I was overly sensitive then.

The next thing I remember at 3 years old was that we were living in Chelsea, OK, just east of the cemetery. It was a 2-story house. I remember going to Uncle Harvey?s house, which was a short distance from our house. We had to cross a creek that had a small walk bridge. I liked to go to Aunt Sadie?s house because she gave me brown sugar lumps. It wasn?t candy, but it was the next best thing. We lived in Chelsea about 2 years. We moved from Chelsea to Pryor Oklahoma. This farm was about 4 miles north of Pryor going towards Adair. I recall Dad saying that when he sold the cotton crop, he would buy us a toy of some kind. I don?t remember ever having a toy before so we were really looking forward to the day. Dad remembered his word and brought us a little red wagon. Lois and I had a lot of fun with that wagon.

Dad farmed quite a lot of land on this rented place raising cotton, corn, oats, and milking several cows. In the summer it was hoeing cotton, corn or cultivating the soil. Everyone in the family worked in the fields. In the fall the cotton was ready to pick so Mom made the little kids cotton sacks made out of burlap. We had to pick along beside her. My older brothers and sisters got into a contest to see who could pick the most cotton. Johnny was picking more than the rest of us so somebody got curious and started to watch him. They discovered he was putting crawdad mounds in with his cotton sack and weighing them.

One day Earl and I were walking down the road toward our house when the rural mail carrier came by and stopped to pick us up. He was driving a Model A ford. Earl go on one running board and I got on the other. We he got to our house, I didn?t give the car time to come to a complete stop and stepped off the running board too soon and was pitched over in the bar ditch and knocked completely out. Now you know why I act the way I do.

Dad rented this place called the McSpadden place. Clem McSpadden one of the family members that owned the place became a state representative or senator. One year on this place we raised sorghum cane. When the cane reached maturity, my older brother would go along the rows and strip the blades off the cane stalks. Then they cut the stalks and hauled them to the neighbor?s house. The mule went around in a circle and turned the mill which squeezed the juice out of the cane. It was cooked and skimmed until it became sorghum.

One time Earl and Johnny went out after the cows some distance from the house, when a young bull attacked Earl. The bull threw Earl into the air and about that time Johnny put the little dog after him. That probably saved Earl?s life. The dog got the bulls attention and that gave them time to get away.

During that time of the great depression, things were hard and hardly anyone had any money. Dad went to work for the WPA. He only worked a few days when a foreman made a remark about Roosevelt feeding him. Dad, being a staunch republican, told the foreman that Roosevelt wasn?t feeding him because he was working for what he got. Next day he was out of a job. He always thought it was probably the because of his remark to the foreman about Roosevelt.

I don?t remember much about the depression and all the hard times. I guess I was too young to understand what was going on. I remember we ate a lot of biscuits and gravy. One time Mom made biscuits out of wheat shorts. It was ground wheat with most of the bran taken out of it. I don?t know if we were that hard up or just ran out of flour. But we usually fed the wheat shorts of the pigs and cows.

We didn?t have a Jesus-Name church to attend so sometimes we went to a community church. I don?t know what was preached but I remember that Uncle John Huckaby teaching Sunday school class. He was a Baptist.

I started to school while we lived there. I was only five years old. I had a teacher who was the meanest woman I had ever encountered. All I remember is every time I looked back at my sisters she gave me a hard slap across the face and she would pull on your hair. She told me one day to write the alphabet. I hadn?t been taught A from Z, so I looked at what the neighbor was during. They were writing In cursive. I tried to write like she did. It looked like one big long M. I was so scared of this teacher I hid nearly every morning. They found me every time. Someone said she was a drunk. Two of my sisters sometimes helped her teach. The deepest snow came that winter. It was as deep as the cow?s knee, Probably about 14 inches deep. It kept me out of school and for that I was glad.
One day some neighbor boys and some of my brothers were throwing rocks from an over pass. One man stopped his car and gave chase. He caught Earl and brought him to the house. I don?t remember what took place but I bet he got punished.

One morning the older boys were going out to milk the cows. Two of them got in a fight. Dad was harnessing a team so he took the lines and used them to part the boys. They came apart pretty fast. I think it was Emitt and Wess.
I think it was the summer of 1936 we had a dry year. The only crop that did any good was cotton. The same year there was an epidemic of grasshoppers. What the grasshoppers didn?t get the dry weather did. The government supplied us with poison to kill the grasshoppers.

About December of that year we moved from Pryor to Barnsdall. That was about 1937. We rented a farm from Ed and Opel Chorette. She was an Osage Indian. This farm is now under Birch Lake near Barnsdall. Opel?s name was Javine before she married. Shortly after we moved there I came down with rheumatic fever. I got to the place where I couldn?t walk. I think it was caused by strep throat.

I guess there wasn?t enough land on this farm so Dad and some of my older brothers cleared brush and trees so they could farm 5 more acres.

We had a creek between our house and town. There was no bridge so we had to ford the creek. When we moved to this house it wasn?t big enough so my folks cut a hole in the ceiling and put a stairway and floored the attic. They also put in a small slider window. We also sheet rocked the walls. One day Earl and Rachel were fighting and Rachel threw Earl through the wall and made a hole the size of Earl.

Everyone in the country burned wood for heating and cooking. The Chorettes had a cutoff saw powered by a belt from the rear wheel of their pickup. All the neighbors helped cut enough wood for everyone. It sure saved a lot of hard work. One point I want to mention. The Chorettes from whom we rented our farm namely Opel was an Osage Indian. Even in hard times they lived in luxury. They received royalties from the oil produced in Osage county. They bought new cars and pickups every now and then. They also had a wind charger that that produced power to keep some wet cell batteries charged. They used the power for a large radio. It was so fancy it looked like those music players in restaurants. I am not sure but I think they ran some lights off the batteries.

We made a living on this farm, which had about 160 acres. We raised corn mostly, but sometimes other crops. We fed the corn to the hogs, the mules, and ground some to put in the cows feed. We milked the cows and separated the cream from the milk. Mixed blue john with the wheat shorts and fed that to the hogs. Butchered some for our meat and sold some of them. Sold calves for veal. We sold the cream to the cream station to make butter. We raised our own chickens in an incubator the eggs had to be turned everyday till they hatched. We put an X on one side so we could tell when all of them had been turned. We exchanged the eggs at the grocery for staples. We raised a large garden and canned almost everything in the way of vegetables. We raised butter beans and black eyed peas. When the beans were dried we would pick them in cotton sacks and beat the sacks with clubs to get the beans and peas out of the hulls. Then you pour the beans and peas in a tub of water and the hulls will come to the top when you shake the tubs. Then you take the hulls off the top and pour the beans into a bucket. The wind blows away the chaff. We bought only staples because we grew everything else.

At noon we usually took an hour to eat dinner and listen to the Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys on the old battery radio. On Saturday night it was the Grand Ole Opra featuring Roy Acuff singing the Great Speckled Bird, Smoke on the Water land and Sea (not sure if this is the actually the real name of the song)Wabash Cannonball. Minnie Pearl was also popular at that time.

I also remember when President Roosevelt gave a speech and Dad would mock him. Dad thought he was too much of a socialist. Roosevelt said ?I don?t like war, my sons don?t like war, and Eleanor doesn?t like war. I promise you your sons will not fight on foreign soil.?

There is a cave on the place we visited frequently. We always thought it was a hide out for old outlaws. I haven?t visited this place since Birch Lake was filled. It may be covered up with water by now.

We always had a watermelon patch. On this place we could see the patch from our house. We could see our neighbor boys stealing watermelons. Sometimes we would find a melon with only one end gone and it was coyotes doing the damage.

Birch Creek ran close to our house and fields. There was a nice swimming hole close to our field. We always worked hard but there was always time to take a dip in the swimming hole.

I began working with the animals about the time my brothers went in the service. I was milking the cows at about 10 years old. When Wess left home, that left only Earl and I to do the milking. Earl had to milk 6 cows and I had 4 to milk. I told Dad I wasn?t going to milk 4 cows because that was just too many. Dad had just come in from the field and still had his horse whip in his hand. I saw what was coming and tried to out run him. He could run as fast as I could. He thrashed me a few licks with the whip. I started milking and told Earl that he didn?t care if he killed a fellow. He was just an old fool. He was just outside and heard everything. He cut a water sprout and by the time he got through with me I was glad to do the milking.

I was 11 years old when dad had me cultivating the corn with an old mule named Jack and a double shovel. That?s a one horse cultivator with 2 sweeps. I would have to rest a little at the end of each row.

WW11 was going on at this time. 3 of my brothers were in the service. That left Earl, Rachel, Dad and I to do all the farming. I guess the stress of it got to Dad because he came down with high blood pressure and had to stay in bed for a while.

Money was kind of scarce at this time, so Earl began to trap to earn a little money. I would go along to help him carry the furs home. Usually it was opossums and skunks. Earl would shoot it through the head before it could spray. One night Earl wanted to check out a persimmon grove to see if there were any opossums. We found a nice big one, so Earl went up the tree to shake him down and left me on the ground to catch him. That thing looked so mean I let go of him and he ran away. Earl was so mad because he was worth 75 cents. Skunks were worth $1.50.

Earl and I had to sleep in the attic where Orpha had an old trunk stored. In this trunk Orpha had a lot of keep sakes including cigars given away when someone had a baby or got married. Sometimes when Earl and I went to get the cows he would bring cigars cut in two. We would smoke them until they were all gone. Then we smoked cob pipes, grape vine stems, corn silk, coffee and brown paper sacks.

We fished a lot as a pastime. Mom really liked to fish. She liked to catch perch. She hardly ever caught one too little to keep. She would gut them cut the heads and tail off and fry them whole. Mom could sit there for hours with her cane pole, cork and live bait.

Usually I wasn?t prone to fighting, but one time a boy at school made me mad enough to fight. Our elementary school got out 30 minutes before the high school, so we had a wait for high school to get out. While waiting, Jerry Hope and I were teasing each other about a girl that neither one of us liked. I got the best of him by writing her a note pretending it was from him. He and another boy began to chase me. I thought it was funny but he wasn?t amused. When he caught me he hit me square in the nose. I managed to punch him in the mouth and loosened one of his teeth. We fought off and on for almost 30 minutes. Earl thought I did pretty good since the boy was bigger than I was. I know he made a lasting impression on me, especially my nose.

When we moved to Barnsdall, there were no Jesus name churches so my folks and Gilbert Raymond started a church in an old store front building. One time Earl and I slipped out of church on Halloween night and joined up with a gang of boys turning over toilets. That was a common practice in the old days. We came up to one outhouse and a man jumped out at us and we ran like scared rabbits.

On the 4th of July , Dad would give us a quarter to buy fireworks. It would buy enough fireworks to last all day. It was fun to stick a firecracker in a fresh pile of cow manure and light the fuse. It would splatter it 30 feet in all directions. Dad usually bought a case of pop and we made homemade ice cream.

While living there, a funny thing happened during the rainy season, we had to park on the town side of the creek in case we needed to go to town. I guess we were getting low on groceries so Mom wanted someone to take a bushel of eggs to town to trade for some staples. One of my cousins got in the rumble seat to hold the eggs. They made a fast run to make it through the mud and the basket of eggs turned upside down and they broke everywhere. What a mess!

Sometimes when it rained on a school day, we would cross the creek on a log. It wasn?t a big creek, but it was scary to us kids.

Most of the fond memories happened when we lived on this place. In the late summer of 1943, we moved from Barnsdall to Sperry, Oklahoma, on a small farm about 1 mile east of Sperry. A place called mile corner. This is where Bird and Hominy Creek ran together. Most of the boys in town came to mile corner in the summer to swim. We had a watermelon patch nearby, so the boys would help themselves to watermelons. Dad didn?t care if they got a few of them because we raised a lot of them. Earl wanted to have a little fun so he took Dad?s old shotgun and he and I lain in the grass and waited for the boys in the weeds under the apple tree. We didn?t have to wait long for them. He they came naked as a jay bird since they were skinny dipping. One boy got two and about the time they raised up Earl shot the gun over their heads. All but one boy ran and fell down over the creek bank which was about 9 feet high. One boy was so scared he just stood there. About all of them were still around so I won?t name any names.

Dad went to work for Spartan Aircraft after we moved to Sperry. I?m not sure what year (maybe around 1944). Earl worked for Jim Hughes pulling oil wells and operating a bull dozer to dig slush pits. Earl enlisted in the Navy about 6 months before the war ended. That left Dad and I to do the farming. We planted a small field of corn across the creek between Bird and Hominy Creek. It was about 5 acres. I cultivated it and Lois and I cut the weeds. I still have a scar here Lois cut my thumb with a hoe. About the time the corn was ripe, Dad sent me over there to get roasting ears. The corn was called White Silver Mine. When I got there to the corn field I discovered that someone?s cows had tore up the whole field of corn. There was not one ear left. He found out who owned the cows but he wouldn?t force the man to pay damages.

When we first moved to this place there was a bad accident on highway 11, about ? mile east of Sperry. Two cars hit head on killing everyone. Two men in a model A were burned to a crisp. I think the other driver was Jess Dourghty(?). Only the torso was left of the 2 men in the Model A. I was only 12 years old and it was on my mind constantly for about a year. I will never forget it.

During the rainy season, Bird Creek and Hominy Creek were prone to flooding. When it flooded, we would drive the cattle up the highway to higher ground. We had to do this about 3 times while we lived there. Sometimes I would be in school when it rained. The creek would get up and the cows would be stranded on the other side. I would swim the old mare across and drive the cows back home. Sometimes it would wash me downstream about 100 feet. I had to figure out how far upstream to start so I would come out where the path crossed. Then I would round up all the cows and push them back across.

Most of what we ate was things we grew in our garden or the hogs we raised and butchered. We canned all the vegetables we ate. Also we butchered as many as 4 hogs at a time. We would take a steel barrel, fill it up with water, build a fire under it and scald the hogs and then scrape all the hair off them. They were gutted, quartered and salted down to cure. Later the salt was washed off and they were hung in the smoke house to cure with hickory wood. It would keep months after it was cured.

While Dad was working at Spartan, he managed to save enough money to make a down payment on 50 acres on some land on Osage Drive, about a quarter of a mile west of Sperry. In the process of moving it fell my lot to haul the chickens to the new place. We decided the best way was to put poultry wire over the wagon box to keep the chickens from flying out. When I started to town those crazy chickens started to squawk and were making this awful racket, so instead of taking the short way, I took the long way so the town kids wouldn?t make fun of me.

We raised cotton, corn and a very large garden the first year on this place. The next year we raised oats and corn. We contracted Orvil and Wayne Barton to cut the oats with his grain binder. We put the grain bundles in shocks and later Dad hired Mr. Green to thrash the grain with his thrashing machine.

Dad began selling off the land to pay off the mortgage. He first sold 5 acres to Houston and Ruth with a little 3 room house. When he finished selling off the land there was only 15 acres left. It wasn?t enough land left to do farming so I worked out for other farmers bailing hay, chopping corn and whatever else they needed.

One day Dad told Bill and I to take the wagon and team and pick up trash around the property. I found an old piece of barn tin so I told Bill to hold the lines so I could throw it on the wagon. When it hit the wagon, it scared the horses and they ran away. The wagon was completely destroyed and the old mare was injured till she couldn?t work anymore. Dad sold the old mare who we called Old ribbon to Lloyd who in turn raised a buckskin colt out of her. Before Ribbon was injured, we boys who had horses would ride them to school on the last day. We ran races on the football field. My old mare was part race horse so she was pretty fast. Only one horse could out run her in the hundred yard race. At that time she was sixteen years old

During the summer after the tenth grade, I worked for D H Refinery. I cut the grass and weeds around the storage tanks. The next 3 summers I worked for Oklahoma Tree Surgery. Between my eleventh and twelfth school I joined the National Guard. That following summer we went to Fort Sill for summer training. I graduated from high school in 1950 and that same year the Korean war broke out. The Oklahoma 45th Division was drafted into the regular army. We left for camp Polk LA September 2, 1950. It took us two days. The first day we camped at Paris Texas Airport. The second day, we made it to Camp Polk and immediately started our training. About March 1, 1951we got our orders for Hokido Japan. We drove our trucks to New Orleans to be loaded on ships for the trip to Hokido Japan. About a week later we boarded a ship named General John Pope for the trip to Japan. We left New Orleans and sailed south to Panama Canal, through the canal up the coast of Mexico to San Francisco. Here we took on 500 more troops and headed to Japan. On the way we ran into some really rough water, with the waves coming over the bow of the ship. Many of the boys got sea sick, but I stayed on top deck for hours at a time and I never got sick. We were 28 long days on the water.

We were stationed at Camp Crawford near Saporo Hokido. There were brick barracks with bathrooms and showers. There was a large field house, a PX, theater, golf course, and some other nice things. We were there for 3 weeks when 3 of us got to go to a resort for 3 days. The army ran a large hotel where the civilians did the work. There were hot mineral springs that bubbled up out of the ground. The Japanese bathed in the mineral water. I was taking pictures when my foot slipped and I almost fell into a hot spring. I lost my camera and film.

We only got to stay in the nice camp for about 6 weeks, then they moved us into squad tents in the field. We were there for about 5 months, then they moved us to Chitose Japan into some quanset huts. These were new and had everything Camp Crawford had.

While I was stationed in Japan, I began to drink and run with the boys. I was not trying to live for the Lord but I had never drank more than 1 beer in my whole life. While in Saporo one weekend, one of the guys from my unit and I were drinking so we decided to rent a pedal cab. We were feeling kind of drunk. I thought oh well no one knows what I am doing here, I might as well have a good time. About two weeks passed and I got a letter from Mom. She said ?Frank, I had a dream the other night. In this dream you were drunk and riding in some kind of carriage. That put the fear of God in me and I didn?t indulge in drinking anymore, till I got out of the service.

I don?t remember the exact date, but I think it was in December, we shipped out to Korea. About 4 or 5 days later we arrived in Inchon Korea. The water was too shallow to dock a ship so we boarded landing barges to take us to shore. There we were loaded on an old run down train with boarded up windows for the trip up close to front lines. The train stopped about 6 miles behind the front lines. I heard the long barreled artillery guns firing. I was kind of uneasy because it sounded closer. That night it was the coldest I have ever felt in my whole life. It was 10 degrees below zero .They loaded us on trucks to where our unit was camped. The advanced detail had pitched tents alongside the unit we were replacing. There was several inches of snow on the ground where they pitched the tents, and it had turned in to 2 inches of ice on the tent floor.

We took the place of the First Calvary Division, and they took our place in Hokido Japan. Our unit was camped about 18 miles north of the 38 parallel on the east side of Korea among some small mountains It was our job as a service battery to supply the firing battery and headquarters with much needed supplies, such as ammunition and food. My rank was staff Sergeant . I was over an ammo section, which consisted of 8 to 10 men. Our job was to supply the crews with gun ammo.

One day I was with one of my drivers delivering ammo, when we observed an American plane strafing an enemy bunker. I could see the tracer rounds as they hit the bunker.

Betty Grable and her troupe came over to entertain us. All of us couldn?t go so we drew straws to see who would go. I got to go so when we got to where the show was, the set was a small bald hill with a stage set up at the bottom. It made a natural theatre. Needless to say, it was very entertaining since we hadn?t seen an American woman in about a year.

One thing that happened that I am not very proud of, we found a human skeleton. We figured it was an enemy soldier. We took the skull and put it on a stick and placed it behind the steering wheel of Darrell Elliot?s truck. When he came to his truck, it was looking at him through the windshield. Later I got to thinking that was someone who lost their life in battle and deserved more respect. Darrell tied the skull to the front of his truck, until Captain Cox made him take it down.

One day Captain Cox gave us an order to have some trucks ready to go on a special detail at 8:00 am the next day. Our trucks were loaded with ammo so we as the guard on duty to wake us up early enough to unload the trucks. They forgot to wake us up so we were about 30 minutes late. That didn?t set well with the captain. He called William Tempe and I to the tent office. He came very close to reducing our rank but he changed his mind and gave us another chance.

We were called upon one day to help move one of the firing batteries. We had to go up this small mountain where a new road had just been made. The road was slick with ice and the convoy stalled out. Darrell Elliot?s truck began to slide toward the outer edge of the road. He was pulling a 105 mm How. And it was loaded with ammo. The captain was riding up front said to jump off and let it go. Everyone jumped off but Darrell and Little John Knowlton. Darrell managed to pull the truck away from the drop off, which was about 200 to 300 feet down. He was able to save all the equipment. Darrell got some kind of metal for his quick actions. Our truck was right behind his.

One time we passed this mine field and saw a South Korean soldier that had set off one of the mines. He was still alive but injured pretty bad.

I only had to stay in Korea about 5 months since most of my time was spent in Japan and the states. I left Korea about the middle May in 1952. I was discharged at Fort Sill on June 15, 1952. I got out a month and half early because of serving in a combat zone.
After service, I worked several different jobs the first three years. Safeway warehouse, W C Norris, DX Sunray and Douglas Aircraft. I worked there for 5 ? years. I started attending church at Sperry United Pentecost Church. This is where I met the love of my life Doris L. Griffith., the oldest and best looking of Chester and Mab;e Griffith?s kids. She had began attending church with Ruth and Houston Marrs. We dated about a year and were married Feb. 19, 1955. I got the Holy Ghost that same year in Sept. Also December of that same year Sharon was born to us. Rev. Gary Howard and I got the Holy Ghost in the same revival. Bro. Duke was preaching that revival. He was from Louisiana. C P Williams was pastor of the church. I attended Sperry United Pentecostal Church, but was visiting the Old First Apostolic Church.

An interesting point about the birth of Sharon, Shortl after Doris and I got married, Doris began to get sick to her stomach. I thought she had eaten some bad hamburger meat. I requested prayer for her at church. Mom pulled me aside and told me she was probably pregnant. Mom?s word came to pass 9 month later Sharon was born.

I worked at Douglas Aircraft till 1960. It was July of that year when I was laid off. I never went back. The plant almost closed down that year. While employed there, we built the last of the B-47 bombers and the last of the rb66. They also had contracts for overhauling the b-47?s. The contracts ran out so a lot of us had to find another job. I began to look for another job. Jobs were very hard to come by, but I kept looking and hoping to find something. I had looked and looked for about 2 weeks without finding anything. One day I was driving home from job hunting and I felt impressed to go to the street department of Tulsa. I turned the car around and went down right then. Floyd Anderson said he had been trying to reach me. I went to work the next Monday. I always believed it was God speaking to me. I had worked there a couple of months when I was laid off before at Douglas.
Milton, my oldest son was born that same year September 12, 1960. During my employment at the City of Tulsa, I did about everything there was to do. I started cleaning streets with a broom and shovel, and from that I drove a dump truck, street sweeper, street flusher, we washed streets at that time. Then I graduated to heavy equipment such as gradalls, road graders, tractors backhoes, front end loaders, and etc. My longest time was on the gradall, it is similar to a backhoe. I corrected many drainage problems following a survey crew.

On May 30, 1984, it came the hardest rain ever in Tulsa. Large areas of Tulsa were flooded . Many houses were destroyed by flood waters. House trailors washed away. Many cars were so badly damaged you couldn?t tell the make or model. I was called out about 5:00 am to clear the street of debris. I have never seen anything to compare to what I saw. It rained about 12 inches.

Later a new dept. was formed to take care of the flooding and drainage problems. The work I was doing was transferred to this new department. So I transferred to this new department. The job didn?t pay much but I enjoyed working there. I had a good boss in this new department. I had a good boss in this department named Mary Summerfield. She was a very fair person. I retired from there in Jan of 1995 with 34 and ? years of service.

Brian got married in June of that year. He was called into the ministry a few years before he was married. He married Doretha Bourn, daughter of JJ Bourn of Houston Texas. He was the pastor of Irving United Pentecostal Church. Shortly after they married, they assisted Bro. Randy Keys in Modesto, CA. They had a son ,named Dillon, that was born while they helped Bro. Keys in California. He was 2 years when he developed a rare cancer. He was admitted to Denver Children?s Hospital where he spent a better part of a year and a half. Brian gave up being a pastor at Pueblo, CO to help take care of Dillion and was asked to assist Bro. Tommy Johnson at Colorado Springs. My wife and I made about 8 or 9 trips to Denver hospital to help take care Dillon. He seemed to be doing allright, in fact we thought he was cured. One month before his 5 year birthday he developed brain tumors and died 21 days later in Houston, Texas. We will miss Dillon Joseph Jones.

Brian and Doretha now have a new addition. His name is Bricen Grant Jones. He has his own little personality and can never take the place of Dillon. But he is very special to me. We have no bitterness since God knows best. We just leave that in God?s hands.

Doris and I just celebrated our 50th anniversary Feb 19. I was thankful that we got to celebrate our 5oth because I almost lost Doris in August of 2004. She had an electrical problem with her heart and they installed a pacemaker. I had to call 911 to take her to hospital.

We have two granddaughters besides the new grandson, who are very special to us. Caitlin Moore, who is Bob and Sharon?s daughter and Megan Jones, who is the daughter of Milton and Karen Jones. Doris and I are proud of them all. Then along came Brian?s daughter, JoAnna Jones. We also have 2 great grandsons, Jordin Moore and Spencer Johnson who are Caitlin?s sons.

Since writing my memories, I would like to add a little story. In the fall of 2004, I went deer hunting near Fairfax, Ok. I shot a small buck on top of a hill. Instead of the deer running on top, it went down the hillside. I had to drag the deer to the top of the hill. When I got to the top of the hill I couldn?t get my breath and my legs started cramping. I rested about 5 minutes and everything seemed better. Later I began to notice that when I exerted myself the same symptoms would appear. Later in June of 2005 I was told I had a bad heart valve. I was operated on June 28. 2005. My old valve was replaced with a bovine(cow) valve. The doctor said it was the worst he had ever seen in his 25 years experience . I had about 2 months recovery time and did very well. Bro. Howard is my pastor and he told the church that the first thing I said when I came out of it in recovery was Moo Moo since it was a cow valve.