Poker News

Oklahoma Johnny Hale

Carol, once again we are driving from Las Vegas, Nevada to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are traveling down old route 66-”The main street of America”-but now they call It I-40.

We are traveling back to Tulsa, Oklahoma-remember the song?-”Take me back to Tulsa?”-to make arrangements for my # 78 birthday poker party.

I remember the first time I traveled on “The main street of America.” It was when I was about ten years old riding down old route 66. The Hale family was on its way to the land of milk and honey-California!

John Steinbeck, wrote about this in his best seller—”The Grapes of Wrath” The Hale family was not in the book-nor in the movie-but we lived through it and we did make the trip from Oklahoma to California-but we came by way of Las Vegas. Times were a little tough back in Oklahoma. Dad owned a little-nowdays you would call it a 7/11-with groceries and gas. Bread was two loaves for eight cents, and gas was nine cents a gallon.

In those days it was the “Jot um down grocery”-yes, just like the 7/11 of today, Dad sold gas-and, well, just about everything. On page 28 of my book, “The Gentleman Gambler,” you will find a picture of my dad’s store.

The jot um down was just that-no one had the money to pay dad-so they would just tell him to “jot it down”-charge it on credit to their account.

Well, one day dad and mother gathered the Hale family around them and took us all out into the back yard. Then dad built a fire-he just took all of his account books of the amounts of money that people owed to him and put them all into the fire. The accounts of all the folks that owed us money went up in that fire!

Dad explained to us that the folks that owed him were good people-but that they would never be able to repay him for the credit that he had extended to them. So dad forgave all of the people that owed him-and told the family to load up everything- we will go west to California.

Old route 66 was very busy as the people from Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, and all of the surrounding states had to pull up stakes and leave the old home country and head out west to California.

I remember the song of the day, “Hey, Arkie have you seen Okie?-Tell him Tex has got a job for him out in California.”

I also remember seeing pieces of the old wooden planks-that in years before were used to pave the road, so that the heavy wagons of the forty-niners-gold rush days would not bury up in the deep, hot sands of the desert.

Back in those days when I was young-yes, we had air conditioning way back then-we called it “four forty” air conditioning- four windows down at forty miles and hour and you could not hear anything but the wind.

Now Carol, we are riding along at seventy miles per hour. Your little car is so quiet-with air conditioning and music. We can talk and be very comfortable.

“Oklahoma Johnny” Poker Tip of the Week: Poker and life are a lot the same-You have to think you can do it! You have to think you can win. You have to think your way into, “Yes, I can do it!” Get properly focused and you’ll be surprised at the power of your mind. Your mind is very strong and if you use it, you can do it!

A football team or tennis star has a coach that helps motivate the athlete to victory. You do not have a coach at the poker table-You have to be your own coach and motivate yourself. Don’t accept any excuses for failure-You can get it done!! Until next time, remember to STAY LUCKY!!!

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