Loose Strings From The Past

Category: The Pioneer Man

  • BARN CAT

    One morning in 2013, Ken was doing his outside chores and discovered a stray cat and a litter of kittens under a workbench in the barn.  He fed her, and the kittens thrived.  As the kittens grew older, the mother cat began to take them outside.  One morning there was only one kitten.  Ken searched…

  • A Story by Ken Standifer

    My grandmother was Allie Mae Owen Standifer Cope.  She married J.J. Standifer on Oct. 6, 1909.  In 1922, J.J. was burned in an explosion at a gas station near Henryetta, OK.  He ran through the flames and turned off the valve to the gas line.  His clothes and boots were burned from his body.  He…

  • CAT SKINNERS

    Ken came in the door and announced, “I hired a cat skinner.” I had no idea what he meant.  I was certain he was not going to skin cats and sell the pelts. “You did what?” “I hired a cat skinner, a dozer operator.” We had moved to Abilene.  Ken and his dad had bought…

  • JALOPIES

    In 1948, Ken paid $75 for a 1929 Ford Model A two- door sedan.  He paid for it on a weekly basis of $15 per week. He drove the car to school and to work.  He worked at the Palace Theatre in Breckenridge.  One of his duties was to change the marquee and lock the…

  • THE PIONEER MAN’S TOYS

    The Pioneer Man usually has a project in progress.  He stays busy.  He also has fun endeavors and some of them involve vehicles, both old and new. He is the proud owner of a 1931 Model A-400 sedan convertible.  The A-400 was manufactured during the Great Depression.  It targeted the middle to high income customer. …

  • CROSS COUNTRY BUS RIDE

    The evening news has reported yet another predator trying to pick up a child walking home from school.  This is occurring regularly.  In the last month, two men actually got out of their vehicles and grabbed a child.  Fortunately, both children got away and ran to safety. In the forties, I stood beside a major…

  • BOISTEROUS BOYS

    My mother-in-law was a nervous woman.  It was no wonder.  She gave birth to six children in an eleven year period.  Her second son, Gene, and my husband, Ken, who was born four years later, did their share of mischief to cause her anxiety.  To say they were creative in finding things to do is…

  • THE PIONEER MAN

    A popular cartoonist of the thirties and forties often used the theme, “Born Thirty Years Too Soon.”  In the late sixties a friend remarked that Ken was born thirty years too late.  The person said that Ken would have either saddled his horse and rode west or he would have put his family in a…