It was a dark and stormy afternoon. Rain beat against the deck. Lightning flashed and thunder rattled the windows. Within the dining room, four women sat around an antique dining table, sipping coffee and munching chocolate. They spoke in hushed voices, almost as if they were afraid they would be overheard although they were the […]
Jun 6, 2025
Fierce Winds
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This is a dark, rainy morning. Tornado warnings are out for parts of Oklahoma. Yesterday, parts of Texas experienced some pretty wicked storms. Usually, I wake up to the sound of doves calling, robins chirping, and the neighborhood woodpecker drumming out his breakfast of bugs. But not this morning. This morning I woke to the […]
May 20, 2025
Wicked Weather
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I’ve never seen such a wicked hailstorm as there was Sunday night. It wasn’t just a gentle rattle or two, but hunks of ice that mingled with a carpet of leaves blown off trees until leaves and hail covered the ground and the street. Sara, Nemo, and I spent part of the night in the […]
May 3, 2025
Looking Back
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This is the second and final installment of my May 5, 1985 Daily Press article about the tornado which destroyed Peggs, Oklahoma on May 2, 1920. In 1920, Walter Neel lived with his parents, brothers and sisters on the Gid Morgan farm, two and a fourth miles southeast of Peggs. The storm went a mile […]
May 2, 2025
A Look Back
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Each year I re-print the story of the Peggs tornado that I wrote for The Tahlequah Daily Press in 1985. This story is important because it is a part of our history. It is a sad story, but it is also full of human compassion and courage. We should not forget the many whose lives […]
Apr 5, 2025
Rainy Morning
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Lightning shivers across the the room and rain pounds harder. How much rain have we had this week? I’m not sure because my rain gauge broke and I haven’t yet replaced it. We’ve had a lot of rain and I’m grateful. And, true to April’s whimsical nature, there is a possibility of snow, Sunday. The […]
