Mryon started high school at Amarillo High, which is in Amarillo. Then, midway through his Junior year, he switched to a school in Jenks, OK -- which is in Oklahoma -- allegedly to play baseball and football. At least that was the explanation my dad, Fredo, offered up, but even back then it made zero sense. Now it makes less than zero sense.
Nobody knows why Myron was sent off to Jenks, OK. A lot of people still remember it -- even though it happened more than 20 years ago -- and still bring it up. The commentary is always the same. Like “that was really odd”. Or “he must have been a good athlete [he wasn’t. Was he an ath-hole? Prolly]”. Or “Fredo’s explanations were all very vague.” Or “It happened so quick. Myron was here one day and then, all of a sudden, he was gone”. And other tales.
Just the other day, a friend I used to play softball and T-Ball with back in Hansford county, mentioned it to me. Without me asking.
So I decided the next Episode woukd be about Jenks, OK. Plus, we are entering football season, with two a days in full swing.
By the way, my friend comes from Rodeo Royalty I mentioned in an earlier Episode -- “Hotlips Hooligans“. I hope to have an ongoing series called The Rodeo Royalties, telling some of these stories. Believe me, a lot happens in the Rodeo world that the rest of us civilians never hear about. Someone once told me that Rodeo folks are just like other people -- just more so.
But First a Word from Ourselves
I have now added voiceovers to all Episodes -- except Motion Picture Mama, because that’s just a short video of my adorable self when I was around 12 months old . . . and adorable. The voiceovers are a full 9 hours, 10 minutes and 30 seconds, give or take, all in my certified 100% human voice. I hope to include voiceovers in all future Episodes, and I guess we’ll just have to see how that works out, now won’t we.
Also, on another side note. I have been trying out some of the old Polaroid cameras. You can get some really raw and real photos. The cameras are available on places like E-bay and new film is being made for some of them.
Anyway, here’s a selfie I took. I call it My Selfie Shtick.
Image courtesy of PFFK#7
A Brake in the Action
Freshly cut brake lines!
I previously told you the story of Myron being accused of cutting brake lines at a wedding reception in Amarillo. The wedding party included several people from Jenks, OK. Myron went to high school in 2002 - 2003 his Junior and Senior years -- to play baseball and football -- for some totally unkown reason. Most of the Jenks, OK, guests were Myron’s football teammates.
At this wedding reception, Myron had gotten into a loud shouting match at the bar with one of these teammates. Apparently it was pretty heated, though.
I asked someone who was in earshot what happened. She told me (a) the entire Jenks, OK, football team hated Myron and (b) they accused Myron of throwing games. I defended Myron at the time, but now I believe he probably did throw some games or at least had a hand in throwing them. I will explain why I believe that shortly.
Anway, the next morning, the Jenks, OK, teammate that Myron was fighting with got to his car, started it up, pressed the brakes. Instead of being firm and responsive, they were squishy. The brake lines had been cut. By someone. Yet again, I defended Myron at the time, but now I believe he did it.
Getting Jenky With It
Jenks, OK, is a suburb of Tulsa, where I am told nothing good ever happens. Jenks was not part of Texas back then and is in fact 360 miles away from Amarillo. So, how did Myron end up at a High School 360 miles away in Oklahoma? In his Junior and Senior years. To play baseball and football?
Here is what I know and what I think happened. There are still a bunch of missing gaps, because the only 3 or 4 people who know the real story aren’t telling it.
Jenks, OK, back then had a good reputation for churning out football players who get scholarships to some of the better Oklahoma based Universities. Not the “other” ones like Oklahoma Baptist -- oh wait, I better not upset the Baptists -- where Myron ended up attending but never graduating. Myron went 0 for 3 in the graduating from college stats, as it turns out. I think that is worthy of some kind of award. I mean, I can see not graduating from one or even two colleges. But three? That takes some dedication and has to be a World Record. In fact, some (like me) might go so far as to say Myron excels at failing.
So, Jenks had a good football program. Go Trojans! The coach was Coach Allan Trimble. He was in his thirties and had a good reputation in OK. During his 22 seasons, he led the team to 13 state championships. From 1996 - 2006, Jenks, OK, won state in every year, except one.
Anyone care to guess what year Jenks, OK, did not win state?
Coach Trimble, who was a celebrated football coach in Oklahoma, died at the age of 56 in 2019.
Nobody in Texas had really heard him, though.
And, besides, if you want to have a good shot at a football scholarship, you’d pick Texas over Oklahoma. Myron started High School at Amarillo High, so did my sister(?) -- which is odd because I went to Tascosa and did pretty well there, everybody says so.
Either way, both Tascosa and Amarillo High were division 1-A schools. Both had big athletic programs. Both had talented football coaches and teams. Also, big stadiums (stadia?). Tascosa’s was bigger, of course. It was called the Big Dick Bivens Stadium.
And the students at Tascosa were much smarter and better looking. Also, nicer. And friendlier. I made a lot of friends there among a bunch of different groups, including the kids with Mohawks, who I met when I got put into detention for starting a fight with someone who totally deserved it. I was fascinated with the Mohawk kids and kept asking them all kinds of questions. Like how they got them to stay up (lots of hair-do gel, nowadays called “product”). Or how they kept them straight when they went to bed. And stuff like that.
I knew the kid who got killed in a hit and run by some school bullies in the parking lot of a the IHOP in 1997. His name was Brian Denke, and he was a really nice kid. I felt bad for his family. The person who killed him got 10 years probation. None of his other accomplices were tried. There is a movie about it called Bomb City. I couldn’t watch it.
I Thought this Story was About Trojans
Not Mohawks
OK, back to Jenks, OK.
It’s early 2002, maybe January or February. I am living in Fort Worth and working in Dallas.
My dad, Fredo, calls. I was having a salad from this really good local deli in Fort Worth called Yogi’s -- you know, like the Berra.
FREDO
“We are sending Myron to Jenks, OK, to finish up High School. They have a good football program.”
ME
“Ummm, what? You’re sending Myron to Jinks, in Oklahoma. What is that? Where is that?”
FREDO
“It’s a High School in Jenks, nearby Tulsa. The coach has won the state the last 6 years and a lot of their football players get scholarship to top schools.”
ME
“What’s wrong with Amarillo High? They have a really good program.”
FREDO
“The coach doesn’t like Myron [oh, what a surprise?], so Myron’s skills are not being used.”
That in itself was funny. Myron was a terrible athlete. He maybe could have been a good one, but he is lazy, undisciplined and believes too much in short-cuts. And steroids.
The conversation continued.
ME
“I think that’s a bad idea. Texas is a much better football state than Oklahoma. He’s only 17. Tulsa is kinda sketch, isn’t it? Where is he going to live?”
FREDO
“We’ll get him an apartment.”
FREDO -- Later Phone Call
“Myron and another transfer student will live together.”
FREDO -- Even Later Phone Call
“He’ll live with the Coach.”
ME
“The Coach? That’s against the rules in Texas. He’ll be disqualified.”
FREDO
“The rules in Oklahoma are different.”
Side note: Through all my research and Nancy Drew activity, I can tell you all the rules in Oklahoma are different, and not in a good way. Texas records are quite good. You can find most things, except what gets scrubbed from the internet. Oklahoma’s are not.
Back to Jenks.
Sending Myron to Jenks was not bad enough, however, as they made me go to a few of Myron’s games and then to his graduation. They even made my Grandmother go to a few. It was a long freaking drive. Amarillo to Jenks is over 5 hours -- probably longer back then. Strangely enough, Fort Worth to Jenks is a bit shorter -- around 4 hours -- because of the highways.
When I went to the first game, I looked around and thought I was in the warm-up bleachers not the actual stadium. I was wrong. This was a small school compared to Tascosa. How was this even division 1, I thought.
Over the years, the story got more and more vague and the rational changed. Literally no one who heard about Myron going to play football in Jenks, OK, had any idea why. My Aunt Ju Ju said not too long ago that sending Myron to Jenks made no sense and that Fredo could never come up with a good explanation. It just happened, and then it was forgotten. Except by me, and everyone else who heard about it.
Seriously, the number of people who heard of this story and then mentioned it to me years later continues to grow. I will be talking to someone from Amarillo or Hansford county and they will pop out with an unsolicited comment about Myron going to Jenks, OK. It’s like the whole freaked out state knows, while my family pretends it never happened.
Then there are the alternative explanations. Some think Myron was shipped out of Amarillo to avoid some kind of heat. S ome think Mryon was involved in gambling, sports betting and throwing games. Some think Myron was dealing roids.
My cousin is a Texas Ranger. Do not mess with Texas Rangers. They are all very serious and hard working. My cousin always has the smart answer on everything -- usually served up with well-placed quip to put one in one’s place. She once said Myron going to Jenks sounded like a classic case of getting across state lines.
So what really happened?
Tulsa Time Out
Based on the following set of fantastic facts as recounted below, here is what I know and what I suspect.
In February 2002, Myron filed a lawsuit against a driver for an accident. Because Myron was 17 at the time Fredo filed alongside as what is known as Next Friend. The case was settled in 2004 which included getting a 1099. So, there must have been some payment.
I did not know much about this. Fredo mentioned it one or two times and said was Myron was hit by a drunk driver, and it screwed up his leg. So he couldn’t play football anymore.
Around this time, they shipped Myron off to Jenks, OK, so he could play football and baseball.
The 2002 Jenks, OK, yearbook references Myron on the baseball team -- that would have been the spring. He was standing in the back row. Don’t they put the weaker players in the back row?
Fast forward to the fall of 2002, the beginning of Myron’s senior year, he is on the football team. Again, seated in the back row.
Myron had no student photo in the yearbook. At the end, however, was this ad. Myron is on the very left of the picture, front row, with dyed white hair . . . for some reason. Hannibal told me the entire team bleached their hair like that. Guess not.
Here is that picture.
Poker Face
Am I the only one who thinks it is odd that Myron never seems to end up in school yearbooks? He also has a history of disguising himself. It is almost (i.e., fully) as if someone is out to get him, so he has to hide his experience.
In 2014 or so, he grew this giant Duck Dynasty type of beard. That is odd for Myron, seeing as how is so so precious. This one time, at fat camp, he even used up all my expensive imported face cream -- and bragged about it. He’s like a chick sometimes. Well, I guess that’s why “they” say he is the other female psychopath in my family.
When my Grandmother died, I couldn’t go to the funeral, and it broke my heart. However, I did watch the live feed as it was happening. The camera is positioned straight down the aisle between the right and left set of pews. So, you can see everyone going in and going out. I listened in and watched the congregation filing out at the end. There’s Myron, as soon as he gets to the camera, he looks over, sees it, and puts his had up in front of his face to avoid being seen. I recorded that part.
Anyway, Myron did tell me a few things about his time at Jenks. Here are a few examples.
He said he had been running an online poker ring and that, one night, someone hacked his account and stole his massive winnings. He also said he was running a sports book. Those things are illegal in Texas, but apparently not in Oklahoma.
He also said a couple in the apartment next to him were murdered and the killers were really after him, but went to the wrong door. I looked for a record or newspaper report of that, but couldn’t find anything. So, it is probably not true.
The there was the roids. He once sent me a vial of this stuff called Clenbuterol -- also known as Clen. Body builders use it to shed extra body fat before a competition. I tried it and I was nauseous for a whole week.
The Reason for the Season?
There have long been rumors of betting rings on high school football, especially in Texas and Oklahoma where high school football is big. There was a case a few years ago in Canadian, TX, which is on the Texas / Oklahoma border. A football player died and was later found in a drain culvert, with no explanation for his death. The rumor was this player refused to throw games and eventually quit the team. A former team member, who transferred in -- and allegedly lived with the coach -- was quoted as saying he was brought in to throw games.
So, the question is, was Myron shipped out to Jenks, OK, to throw games? Or maybe just provide some dud ‘roids.? Or cause other trouble?
I don’t know. I think so. Why do I think that -- other than Myron admitting to gambling and doing ‘roids?
Remember I mentioned that the Jenks Trojans won state from 1996 - 2006 in all but one year?
Any guess as to what year?
Say it. Say it.
There is a lesson in this tree? And a low-hanging one at that. That lesson is The Hanbook’s What Changed Rule, i.e., when things start going awry, ask youself “what changed?” That will usually be your answer.
A Jenkster’s Paradise
Just to give you an idea of the type of folks who live in Jenks, OK, check out a few pages from the 1965 yearbook which I found on Ancestry. Here we are looking at the species known as 7th graders.
I actually think this is an art work in Tryptich format. So, I colored it, and made it look more like an artwork.
Image source Ancestry. Remixed by PFFK#7
If there was an Oklahoma Impressionist school, this “artist” would fit right in. You know, a rural cousin to urban street art, with some zinging commentary. Even better, it is a tryptich -- presented in three panels.
So, when you carefully study this art work, you will discover some hard truths. For example, I have it on good authority that Sheryl Kersten is deformed; Debra White is a witch; Kim Frankfarther is a creep; Gary Tattershall was put together by Dr. Frankenstein, apparently; and both Michell Burgess and Jayne Clifton are the devil. As for Rebecca Hunt, Julia Dooly, Roberta Burden and David Drake, why, they all have pig noses and one of them says “oink”.
There is more, but I’ll leave that to you to explore further.
This is so deliciously vicious. I laugh every time I look at it. I can see this 7th grader sitting in class, bored to stone by Medusa, inking up her yearbook -- and not being nice about it -- then quietly cackling to herself in her head. I’m not sure who I feel more sorry for -- the kids who got the drawing and names or the ones who didn’t. In other words, were the ones who escaped just so shy or non-descript that they never got noticed? Or did the artist feel sorry for them? I, for one, would want the ink. If everybody likes you, after all, you are probably on the wrong track.
By the way, I figured out who the artist was. I did this by looking up the kid who is called “my man”. Turns out he later married the artist after high school. I think they got divorced a few years later. Gee, I wonder why?
What I can’t figure out, though, is how this yearbook ended up with the Ancestry Company. Sure glad it did.
