I had my Sirius XM station tuned to Yacht Rock on Thursday and as I listened intently to a Fleetwood Mac song, my thoughts completely changed when the group Chicago came on.
As Peter Cetera, the lead singer of Chicago, belted out the famous line: Saturday, in the park, I think it was the 4th of July, I got to thinking about next year’s (2020) annual Freedomfest here in Yukon.
You see, next year, the 4th of July is going to fall on a Saturday, and we will all be celebrating in the park, spending time with our families, listening to an orchestra and watching one of the largest fireworks shows in the state. My thoughts are to try and figure out how to get the group Chicago to perform at the Gazebo.
I noticed a while back that Chicago was out on tour with Styx and I think the closest they came to playing in Oklahoma was Dallas. I think we just might have a shot at landing them here in Yukon, Oklahoma since they are Garth Brooks fans and the theme of them being here is absolutely perfect.
It is worth a shot and I am going to make a few calls to some of the promoters I know and see what it would take. How cool would it be to hear Chicago perform Saturday in the Park in our hometown on the 4th of July? E-mail or call me and let me know what you think!
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I had several readers call me this week and asked me if I knew that world famous realtor Lee Kieffer was still around! I guess my column last week sounded like Lee had already left the building! Not so.
Jody Harlan called and I explained to her that what I was trying to say was how much I missed working every week with Lee Kieffer and her weekly advertising. I love Lee Kieffer and hope to do a feature story about her many years of professionalism, sales ability and what she means to Yukon.
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How many of you remember Delmar Daniels? How many of you remember Delmar’s sidekicks Eddie and Virgil? How many of you remember Delmar’s daughter Becky or son Danny? For many years, Delmar, Eddie and Virgil (three characters) could be found on Main Street in downtown Yukon at Delmar’s Texaco.
I can remember walking inside the front lobby of that filling station to buy a Coke or a candy bar and here it came! Delmar would start lining me out about politics and the local news. It was always the way Delmar saw it and he loved to give me a hard time.
Danny would always get me off to the side and let me know what was going on at the police department and of course the one-and-only beauty Becky, who cut my hair for years at her shop on Main Street.
One year, I told Delmar that I was going to run him a Merry Christmas ad in the paper on page 3, so that he could send holiday greetings to all of his long-time customers. I told Delmar the price of the ad, he agreed and I proceeded to get him, Virgil and Eddie standing together for the photo. I told these three characters to smile, smirk or something that would really make this ad pop!
I got back to the office and it hit me that I would play a little joke on Delmar that he would get a lot of feedback from all the newspaper readers. The ad carried that famous photo and the holiday message:
“Merry Christmas from Three Wise Men.”
A few days later I drove in to get gas at Delmar’s place, walked into his lobby and he called me exactly the name I thought he would call me-then busted out laughing like crazy! Delmar said he had more people stop in and thank him for making Christmas funny and had more phone calls than you can imagine.
He said Clarence Wright stopped in and said, “Delmar it looked more like three wise asses than three wise men!”
I recently saw the sidewalk construction crew removing the longstanding sign poles that for years carried Delmar’s Texaco sign. I think it would be fitting to have that old sign in my garage or game room at home. I bet there are a lot of Yukon guys that feel the same way and would be honored to have it their homes! Send me an email about your favorite Delmar’s Texaco memory.
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This week, I talked with Ray Dyer from the El Reno Tribune. Ray is our Oklahoma Press Association president and does a really good job for our industry. I mentioned to Ray that we needed to work on a joint venture (no, not marijuana) regarding the re-opening of the Frontier Dodge dealership that was wiped-out by that May tornado.
Ray and I talked about a statewide special newspaper that would bring people into Canadian County and help Frontier get the word out. Stay tuned. Someone in Yukon might win a new truck!
Thanks so much for reading. I will see you next Saturday. Would you like a Progress?
