I am the youngest of four children (three boys and one girl) to two Dust Bowl Okies who migrated to the Central Valley in California. My mother, Nell, was memorialized in a famous Merle Haggard song “Okie from Muskogee” released in 1969. Well, maybe Merle was not singing about my mom, but she is an Okie from Muskogee. As was the norm in those days, my mom was a homemaker. I don’t recall her being a great cook. She made up for it by having a good heart, of which I too often took advantage. For some transgression it would be “go to your room.” No time limit, and within 15 minutes she would b more...

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