ON TO TULSA U.S.66 PART 21

I crossed into the Texas Panhandle and the land was as flat as a billiard  table.  Amarillo only major town.   After about four hours, crossed the line into Oklahoma.  There was a blue sign with OKLAHOMA painted on it and also a yellow star.  I did not need the sign to tell me, the road told me.  Narrower and a little bumpy.  Bless their hearts, they try.  I used to make my California friends mad when I told them when the Okies left Oklahoma during the dust bowl in the thirties.and went to California to pick fruit,  it raised the IQ level in both states.  I went through Texola and saw where some prangster had climbed the water tower and painted SEXOLA instead of its real name.  An hour or so later, I came to Clinton, a fairly nice little town.  The home of POP HICK'S restaurant .  Great food and had alot of business.  About a mile East of Clinton, I stopped and parked the car at the side of the road.  The old  MORTON'S SALT sign was the que.  Now, the time travel thing kicked into gear again; in one year, myself and two little boys, and Bob Kinnard and his father, Ray,  would camp beside the road right where I was standing.  I was 14 yrs old then.  Ray worked with my Father and when my Dad learned Ray was going East to see relatives in June, my Dad offered Ray money to take me along and drop me off in Tulsa.  That is how that trip  came about.  I would have a wonderful Summer with Grandma Bertha and Aunt Mildred, in whose eyes I could do no wrong, and Carl and Edith would also have a wonderful Summer without me.  That June night in 1953 was one for the memory books.  We all slept on sleeping bags because it was too hot to get in them.  A Summer breeze was blowing and that old salt sign squeeked in the wind.  It sounded like someone trying to play a flute and failing.  That was not enough, the Mosquitoes had a field day.....all of them told their relitives about some good white meat on the road..and they all came.  That still was not enough, some kids drove by and threw a burning paper  sack filled with firecrackers at us and Ray Kinnard was up and attem in one second.  That was the second fastest move I had ever seen.  The first fastest was when my Dad went onto the front porch at night and peed off the porch.  He was part Indian and claimed there was an electricity that came up from the ground.  When he headed for front door, I knew what he was going to do and I headed for back door.  I snuck down the driveway and simulated the neighbor lady's voice and said  "Well, Carl, what are you doing?"   That move of putting it back in beat Ray Kinnard.  He was furious with me and probably had alot to do with his pawning me off to Grandma for the Summer,  (to be continued)