As the calendar turns to May, spring sports — weather permitting — are in full swing and soon the tractors will be rolling as field preparation begins and planting will soon follow.
Last week, Cheryl and I made a quick (and long) trip to Houston, Texas where our 30-year-old daughter, Chelsey, was having her first baby. Married to Robby Gonzales last June, Chelsey is a third grade teacher at Parker Elementary in Spring, a north suburb of Houston.
We took turns driving and covered the 1,108-mile distance in 18 hours (from 3:30 p.m. on Monday to 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday). Just over 11 hours later, at 8:41 p.m. on April 23, Knox Matthew Gonzales arrived exactly three weeks ahead of his projected due date of May 14.
Interesting that Chelsey’s godmother, Carol Olson Garmer, has her birthday on April 23, as does godfather Mike Traphagen. That’s quite a coincidence!
Everything turned out fine and I left Cheryl behind — with Robby, Chelsey and Knox for another week to help out with the new routine in Spring — and made the return trip to Minnesota on my own, which turned out to be an adventure.
I left Spring about 5 p.m. on Saturday and, with the aid of a GPS, traveled some 350 miles to Paris, Texas — in the northeast corner of the huge state and stayed overnight with Cheryl’s sister Barb and her husband Dean Johnson, who grew up on farm just north of Dundee. There was more traffic on that trip than I like, but the GPS helped me maneuver some interstate changes east and north of Dallas. I went through Greenville, where Barb and Dean used to live, and passed through Commerce, Texas — where Texas A & M, Commerce is now located. The college used to be called East Texas State and former Vikings quarterback Wade Wilson, who recently passed away, played his collegiate football there. Commerce is a small town, much smaller than either Greenville or Paris.
I left Paris a few minutes after 10 a.m. and was following the GPS instructions, which indicated I might make in home by 10:26 p.m. Not bad, but here’s what happened at McAlister, Oklahoma. Thinking that I would like to try making it my own, I discarded the voice of the GPS and set on my own wanting to see Muskogee — made famous by Merle’s Haggard legendary 1968 county classic “Okie From Muksogee.” The GPS kept hollering at me to take a U Turn and turn around, which I ignored (you can’t do U-Turns on four lanes). I made it through Muskogee and kept going north (and east), but jeepers it was taking a long time to get out of Oklahoma.
Finally, I saw a sign which said Commerce. No, I hadn’t backtracked to Commerce, Texas. This was Commerce, Oklahoma — a small old-style village up in the northeast corner of the state, about 15 miles from the Kansas border and about the same from the Missouri state line, not far from Joplin where the terrible tornado struck on May 22, 2011.
The current population of Commerce (2010 census) is 2,473. In 1950, the town’s population was 2,422 — nearly the same — when home-town hero Mickey Mantle was breaking into the minor leagues with the Joplin Miners of the Class C Western Association (having a great all-around year with the bat (.383 average, 26 home runs, 136 RBIs). After floundering as a minor league shortstop, the athletic Mantle — who also starred in basketball and football at Commerce High School — was moved to the outfield and became a Hall-of-Famer for the New York Yankees as one of the all-time greats.
It was disappointing to see any mention — signs or statues — of Mantle anywhere in the little town. The high school, a one-story tin-roofed building, simply said: Commerce High School. There was a softball game going on and a sign there listed quite a few All-State girls’ softball players. The water tower read: Commerce, Home of the Tigers (with some foot paws).
Finally, I saw a monument on main street by the Chamber of Commerce building. But the picture and plaque was all about William C. Campbell, the towns’ constable, who was killed in April of 1934 by Henry Methvin — an associate of Bonnie and Clyde’s — following a bank robbery.
There was nothing about Mantle. Finally, as I was leaving town, I noticed that the main highway (North 69) which brought me into Commerce was named Mickey Mantle Boulevard. That was the only indication I saw about Mantle having live there in the 30s and 40s.
After coming up through the east side of Kansas, I crossed the Missouri River just north of Kansas City and then faced a major disappointment when I-29 north of St. Joseph was still closed and the signs had me a take a long detour all the way to Maryville, Missouri.
Not wanting to return to I-29 and another possible detour near Omaha, I took Highway 71 all the way home through Iowa. That was a long trip, passing through many towns — including seeing the Hereford Statue at the city park in Audubon. But as the night grew longer and longer, I was thinking maybe — just maybe — I should have listened to the voice of the GPS all the way and made it home many hours sooner.
