When I was first out of college I took a job in Nowata, Oklahoma. I trapped nuisance beavers and coyotes for the US Department of Agriculture. My wife and I got married not long after I took that job. We didn’t have a single friend or family member for a good hundred miles when we moved to Nowata, but it didn’t take long to make new friends.
One place a guy like me can make friends is at the feed store or parts store. I made a lot of friends because I always needed feed or parts. One mechanic friend in Bartlesville, Brian and Vickie Madden had children about the same ages as my daughter. Austin their boy is a little older than my daughter. Olivia, their daughter used to come over and play with our daughter Hope. We sold my wife’s good barrel horse to Olivia when we retired him.
This weekend Austin and his wife came to visit her relatives near Poteau. They wanted to drive around in the mountains while they were here. Austin planned it all out according to his satellite imagery on his phone. They ended up in one of the roughest and remote places in all of the Kiamichi mountain range- what we call the Poteau mountains. To make matters worse their car broke down way out in the boonies.
Somehow Austin was able to send a text message to his mom Vickie. Vickie knew we lived down in this area so she called me. Then she sent me a pin of where they were, sure enough Austin was broke down just above where Buck Matthews’ place is. Buck floats horses teeth and I’ve been to his place many times.
I met up with Buck, he was towing them out. So I let them get around me on the narrow road. We stopped by the nudist colony sign to visit. Buck and I teased them they ought to get their picture made by it. I wanted to tease both of them pretty good, but decided to be polite.
Brian and Vickie met us on the side of the highway north of Waldron, Arkansas. They brought a trailer with a winch. It didn’t take long and they had the car loaded up and were ready to make a four hour drive back home.
I hadn’t seen them in several years. An awful lot of good memories came back after they left. Brain Madden even fixed my dad’s tractor one time. It will take a few years before I forget helping out the lost Nowataians up on the mountain by the nudist camp, never a dull minute around here for sure.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
Get Local News!
