March 2022

March 2022

Chef Kevin Lee

Competitor and Entrepreneur

Cristi Twenter, Woman of the Year Quiet Kismet: Songs and Stories of Surviving Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum

“The trouble is you think you have time.” - Buddha It’s been well over a year now since my stem cell transplants. I’ve gained back the 50 pounds I had lost. Every morning I swallow a handful of pills and every week I go to Mercy for chemo. I’m doing well. How could this ever become normal - but it has.

I wish I could say that having the “Big C” has given me a newfound profound appreciation for time - and I don’t waste any of it, but that’s not true. I just finished watching all 236 episodes of Friends. You know, I’d do it again. I haven’t taken up noble causes like volunteering and philanthropy or pursued a deeper dive into religion.

For me, it’s an inside job. I have made peace with a lot of my issues. I have a gratitude that I have not had before. I say “I love you” more than I ever have. I enjoy the relationships I have. And I worry less - or maybe the same amount, but now with less intensity.

The world will keep turning whether a certain issue goes my way or not - and will eventually turn without me. I’m also less self-critical than I have ever been, maybe some of this is my age. Maybe it’s therapy. Or 30 plus years of sobriety.

Perhaps it’s all those things - and the cancer.

Maybe my situation has allowed me to focus more clearly on the time I am blessed with. Yeah, I’m going with that.

Dave Miller Publisher & Back40 Design President

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Features 8

Cristi Twenter, Edmond Chamber Woman of the Year

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Local Eats: Paradise Rolled Ice Cream

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Chef Kevin Lee: Competitor and Entrepreneur

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Quiet Kismet: Songs and Stories of Surviving

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Find-A-Grave with Geri

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Darkside Gardener

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Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum

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Custom Craft of Heartland Pens

Business 22

Downtown Edmond Business Association

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Paper Arts

Columns 7

In Other Words With Dave

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Louise Tucker Jones

Cover photo courtesy of Food Network.

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Edmond Outlook is a publication of Back40 Design, Inc.

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© 2022 Back40 Design, Inc.

PUBLISHER Dave Miller l EDITOR Jennay Wangen l ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Angie Clemens Byers l GRAPHIC DESIGN Adrian Townsend, Anne Richardson PHOTOGRAPHY Marshall Hawkins www.sundancephotographyokc.com l DISTRIBUTION Edmond Outlook is delivered FREE by direct-mail to over 50,000 Edmond area homes.

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FEATURELOOK

Cristi Twenter, Edmond Chamber Woman of the Year

The Edmond Chamber of Commerce recognized Cristi Twenter as 2021 Prosperity Bank’s Woman of the Year.

Cristi is the Executive Director of Edmond Mobile Meals, a nonprofit organization that serves more than 200 meals to homebound elderly and disabled clients daily. “The award is so well deserved,” explains Sherry Jordan, Edmond Chamber of Commerce President. “She has done extraordinary and inspirational work with Edmond Mobile Meals since she began 8 years ago. She demonstrates leadership within her organization and has worked to make Edmond Mobile Meals sustainable for years to come.”

What do you find most rewarding about what you do?

I get to be a part of the lives of Edmond’s seniors and know that what we do makes a real impact in their lives. I believe our EMM staff, Chef Toni Washington & Assistant Director Cati Stanila feel the same way.

What is Mobile Meals most important challenge at this time?

In 2022, we are facing a rapidly increasing demand for our service. We’ve seen a 14% increase in the number of clients we are serving in the last year. Our priority is making sure any senior in Edmond who needs our service is enrolled immediately. Forty percent of our clients are unable to contribute anything toward the cost of their daily meals. We are working hard to make sure Edmond Mobile Meals is here and ready to serve those who need us in this community.

How does the program get funded?

We receive grants, private donations, and client contributions. We hold fundraising campaigns and partner with local businesses while also working on having an endowment fund sustain the program in the future with Oklahoma City Community Foundation.

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How many active volunteers does the program have?

We have around 400 active volunteers. Daily, we have 5 or 6 volunteers in the kitchen helping Chef Toni and at least 15 volunteers to deliver the meals across 100 square miles of Edmond. We also have special groups of volunteers who help with weekend meal preparation, office assistance, and an incredible baking team that makes all the desserts we serve.

What are the benefits of volunteering for Edmond Mobile Meals?

When you prepare a meal for someone who otherwise wouldn’t have it, or meet the recipient face to face, it brings such a pure joy of knowing that your simple act of kindness truly made their day.

What does it take to become a volunteer?

Interested volunteers can visit our website to complete a simple application and background check to get started. No cooking experience is required to volunteer in our kitchen.

Delivery volunteers must be 18 years old and must have a valid driver’s license and auto insurance. Children and teens under 18 are welcome to deliver with an adult.

Are there other ways readers can help Mobile Meals fulfill its mission?

Donations are always needed. Readers can do that through our website. Participation in fundraising events, such as our upcoming Golf Tournament, is a great way to engage. Readers can follow us on social media and share our stories and posts to help spread awareness of our program. We’re also happy to come speak with civic, work or church groups who might want to learn more about getting involved.

To learn more, go to edmondmobilemeals.org.

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FOODLOOK

Shari Ferris, owner

Paradise Rolled Ice Cream

By Laura Beam Welcome to paradise…how can you be anything but happy when you’re greeted with those three words? That’s exactly the cheerful vibe and sense of anticipation that Paradise Rolled Ice Cream in Edmond wants you to feel the minute you walk in the door. And it works!

Sun-washed walls and beachy decor invite you to decompress and delight in a sweet indulgence that’s worth every calorie and carb. Taking a vacation from your diet for a minute or watching the kids’ faces light up as the pros concoct a dreamy treat just for them – it’s a great escape we all need once in a while. Owner, teacher, beach-lover and ice cream enthusiast Shari Ferris says, “This is my happy place. When I can’t be on a beach, I bring the beach to Edmond.”

Roll With It! There’s something about the structure of the luscious, rolled ribbons of ice cream that enhances the way you eat and enjoy it. It stays frozen longer, looks decadent and eats in silky, portioned bites that allow you to taste all the flavors.

A small amount of lactose-free, flavored milk is poured onto a stainless steel surface chilled to -27 degrees. Select mix-ins are added and the mixture is smeared quickly with a spatula until creamy. “When it’s like a wet snowball, you section it into wide strips and roll them,” Ferris explains. The cylindrical rolls are placed upright in a cup and finished with toppings.

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Watching the process is half the fun. Kids stare, mesmerized by the artistic treat taking shape before them.

They especially love blowing out the flaming marshmallow like a birthday candle before it tops their s’mores ice cream.

Living the Dream Paradise owner Ferris has been teaching school in Oklahoma for 25 years, discovering her true calling was in special education halfway through her tenure. Having always dreamt of owning an ice cream store, she dove in seven months ago and opened Paradise. “I want it to be a unique experience, a gathering place,” she says. Here, guests enjoy a fun game of Corn Hole, Tic Tac Toe, Mancala or Connect Four while satisfying their sweet tooth.

Destination: Flavor Deciding on your selection is serious business. Start with nine ice cream flavors, from the classics, to cheesecake, key lime, butter pecan and more. Choose mix-ins like cinnamon roll, brownie, bacon or a dozen others. Finish with cookie, candy, nut or fruit toppings. It’s exciting to make your own masterpiece. There are no wrong answers here!

The house specialty creations are as much fun to peruse as they are to eat…well almost! The Shark Bite is a refreshing mix of mango, Tajin and pineapple. The Jabacon Me Crazy infuses chocolate ice cream with bacon and maple syrup, decked out with salted caramel and wafer sticks. One of the highlights is ‘Another One,’ famously crafted by Ferris’ grandson, Brason.

Vanilla ice cream and Oreos are topped with Swedish Fish and a cherry. “Once you have one, you’ll have to have another one,” he says. This one will make a kid out of anyone!

Visit 309 S. Bryant Ave. (corner of 2nd & Bryant), Monday - Saturday, 3-9pm. Ask about birthday parties and job opportunities for friendly people passionate about ice cream!

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FEATURELOOK

Chef Kevin Lee

Competitor and Entrepreneur

By Amy Dee Stephens Kevin Lee never dreamed he would become a chef, much less a winning competitor on television food shows—but sometimes a part-time job is life changing.

During his college days in Las Vegas, he ‘fell’ into a job as a prep cook, making terrible pay and working long hours, but he loved it. “I’d never thought of it as a career for a young guy,” Chef Kevin said, “although I enjoyed watching Emeril and Rachael Ray cooking on TV.” The cooking environment appealed to Chef Kevin, and now he’s approaching 20 years in the business. He compares his career to a team sport. “You are part of a team, going through the trenches with these folks every day, but the hours fly by.”

Okie Style Chef Although Kevin was raised in Norman, he spent time living along both coasts, in Korea, and as a sushi chef in Vegas for five years before moving to Edmond. His cousin told him that there was great opportunity and growth in OKC. Chef Kevin landed on a variety of competitive cooking shows, including Guy’s Grocery Games and Alex vs America, which both resulted in first place wins!

Chef Kevin says that getting selected for a competition is less about cooking and more about how your life story fits into their show theme.

For Chef Kevin, a major storyline is that the food culture in Oklahoma has a lot to offer, “Even if Oklahoma doesn’t get attention like New York and California. I want to show the country that we’re a small market, but we’re as good as any other city when it comes to food.”

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One result of Kevin’s string of television appearances was the opportunity to meet and share industry tips from the world’s top chefs. Of course, he will always treasure the moment he won against the famous Iron Chef, Alex Guarnaschelli.

The Secret Ingredient “Part of cooking competitively is staying calm and focused on the time limit and the rules of the game, but really, it’s just cooking, and I’ve been doing it for years,” Chef Kevin said. “I always learn when I’m cooking with other people, whether it’s a grandmother or a friend with a food tradition. I literally learned my favorite potato technique from a friend who uses a microwave– which I’d have never learned in a professional kitchen.”

In April, Chef Kevin is opening a restaurant in the metro, but instead of expensive fancy food, he created a menu of Oklahoma comfort food.

“Oklahoman’s love their fried chicken and sides, like macaroni and cheese, okra, coleslaw and homemade biscuits, but not a lot of places other than fastfood franchises have fried chicken. Now, people will be able to come to Birdie’s Fried Chicken for familystyle eating.”

He describes his Koreanstyle chicken as light, crispy, and twice-fried—because “fried-fried chicken is twice as good.” But while the batter is special, Chef Kevin says the real secret to his food is simplicity. “I’ve put my chef techniques into the food people crave the most when they are hungry.

Cooking simple food seems to be a dying art, but I don’t Chef Kevin Lee appearing feel like it’s boring at all. on The Food Network’s With a chef’s touch, Alex vs America. simple food can be elevated into a beautiful thing,” said Chef Kevin. “Cooking for people is like giving them a little happiness, and that makes me happy.”

To learn more, go to birdiesfc.com or follow @chefkleeokc on Instagram.

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FEATURELOOK

Bryan Mitschell & Dr. Tess Remy-Schumacher

Quiet Kismet

Songs and Stories of Surviving

By Amy Dee Stephens A songwriter is always looking for great stories to turn into music. Bryan Mitschell, a sound technician at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO), was on the hunt for songwriting material when he found a goldmine of human-experience stories at a homeless shelter.

The result led to a groundbreaking project in which Bryan interviewed homeless people and composed music from the stories. The album Quiet Kismet: Songs and Stories of Surviving Homelessness will be released in late March.

“I was volunteering computer services at a homeless shelter,” Bryan said, “and I started hearing individual life stories. Many of the people had normal lives before experiencing homelessness. I was guilty of thinking that all these peoples’ situations came from poor choices of their own doing. I now realize the insurmountable obstacles they face.”

Bryan approached his friend and colleague at UCO, Dr. Tess Remy-Schumacher, about producing songs from their stories.

“Because what if people from the homeless community could share their perspective through music and get paid for it?”

Bryan asked.

Dr. Tess is a world-acclaimed cellist who has championed 13 grants at UCO for student-based music albums in her role as a grant investigator for the university. “My purpose is to connect people with the community to make their lives 14

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better,” Dr. Tess said. “As a musician, I want to use music as part of the healing process.”

The homeless community was responsive, agreeing to record oral histories about their lives, for which they were compensated. Student research assistants working with Bryan sang and recorded the lead vocals. “The singers had to study the interviews and put themselves in the shoes of that person, to mentally live it,” Bryan said. “I hope the students walked away with a sense of empathy and community responsibility, because they lent a voice to someone who doesn’t have much of a voice.”

The songs cover the stories of runaway teens, abused children who never got a break, college-educated adults who lost their income, and more. “During Covid, many fantastic and successful musicians suddenly had no income. They faced terrible hardship and came close to homelessness, confirming my knowledge that there’s a thin border between being homeless and not being homeless,” Dr. Tess said.

“Many people cannot relate to homelessness, which is why these stories could potentially have a powerful, transforming effect,” Bryan said. “These people have emotions, goals and dreams, just like I do.”

The final album includes both the songs and segments of the original oral histories. The music is open to the public at two free concerts: UCO Jazz Lab on March 30 and the Academy of Contemporary Music Live Room in Oklahoma City on March 31. In the future, the music will be available on major streaming sites, with a portion of the proceeds going toward homeless initiatives.

“Music is such an elegant vehicle for philanthropy.

Someone can engage in charity by listening to a song, and the participants appreciated the opportunity to have their voices amplified,” Bryan said. “I hope this album acts as a conversation in which the listener feels like they sat in the room with this person and discovered their humanness.”

To learn more, go to bryanmitschell.com/community

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FEATURELOOK

Find-A-Grave with Geri

By Amy Dee Stephens Geraldine (Geri) Pfeiffer grew up near a cemetery in Florida.

As a child, she played among the tombstones and roller skated the paths for exercise. When Geri got a job working at a donut shop, she took an early-morning shortcut through the cemetery, rather than going around it. It held no fear for her.

“As an adult, I came to realize the importance of documenting gravestones to preserve ancestral history for future generations,” Geri said. “In my work with adoptees and foster children, I find that kids who are separated from their parents eventually, innately want to know about their birth family.”

In helping people research their family ancestry, Geri kept encountering the Find-A-Grave website, which is a catalog of over 210 million grave records. Find-A-Grave is a world-wide community-driven effort in which volunteers add gravestone photos, obituary information and GPS locations online.

“Preserving genealogical history is vital to individuals researching their family tree,” Geri said. “As headstones age, they disintegrate. Even marble wears away, so we lose that information unless it’s recorded. I decided to do my part by picking a cemetery to document.”

Geri Finds-Her-Cemetery So, Geri started with a small cemetery near her home on Waterloo Road. If she found a gravestone record on Find-AGrave that seemed incomplete or missing, she researched it to fill in the blanks. Then, she set her sight on Edmond’s oldest cemetery, Gracelawn.

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“When I started, there were over 10,000 graves, but only 6,400 had Find-A-Grave profiles,” Geri said. “Now, after two and a half years of work, it’s up to 10,380 profiles.”

Geri visits Gracelawn every single day, which accounts for the staggering number of records she has added. She has touched each of the 10,000 graves personally, at least twice, and cross-referenced her records with the cemetery’s interactive map. She looks closely at each tombstone for further clues, sometimes finding overlooked information on the back. Geri has even helped discover missing grave markers.

Geri Finds-Missing-Headstones In one instance, a family asked Geri to help locate a child from 1907 who had died of typhoid. The child was supposedly buried in Gracelawn, but no headstone was visible. Geri identified the likely location, and working with cemetery staff, Geri found the homemade stone buried 8-inches below the surface.

Geri is especially honored to have assisted in the placement of a missing headstone for Civil War veteran, Ephraim Rathbun. She identified Rathbun’s unmarked grave next to his wife. Unable to find any descendants, she learned that any U.S. Citizen can apply for a headstone if the veteran served before 1917. Digging through his hometown newspapers, she found proof of his burial at Gracelawn. “The cemetery staff allowed me to watch when the gravestone was placed,” Geri said happily. “It was very satisfying. Private Rathbun finally got his headstone after 97 years, 7 months, and 26 days.”

This year, Geri is embarking on her third and final round of verifying graves at Gracelawn. “That should take me about a year. Then, if I’m still able, I’d like to tackle Memorial Cemetery. There are about 40,000 people there, so that will probably take four or five years,” Geri said. “The time is worth it, because recording gravestones for future generations means that family ancestors and their lessons of humanity are not lost.”

Visit FindAGrave.com for more information.

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FEATURELOOK

Darkside Gardener

By Maggie Murdock Nichols

Aaron Cain, @DarksideGardener on Instagram, can be found maintaining the gardens of Edmond by day. Aaron has served as the Park Maintenance Crew Manager of the west side of Edmond for six years. He is responsible for 23 flowerbeds at Mitch, Penick, Meadow Lakes, Westborough, Kelly and Centennial Parks, as well as medians, trees, and parking lots throughout Edmond. Aaron also brings his work home with a variety of indoor plants, a backyard pollinator garden, and a vegetable garden that provides food for his family and friends.

Secrets from the Gardener According to Aaron, two factors largely contribute to a positive visitor experience: trash and trees. Aaron says, “My crew and I make sure the parks and parking lots are clear of any trash. We ensure there are no unsightly trees or dangling limbs on walking trails.” Aaron’s day-to-day role is tree and flower bed maintenance, irrigation and removal of invasive plants that compete for resources.

Flower beds offer pops of color that add to the experience but often aren’t appreciated at first glance. Aaron says, “It brings me a lot of joy when I see someone stop to admire the flowers or ask me a question about the plants while I’m working.” Aaron will often pull up a portion of the mature plant and encourage those interested to take it home and plant it. Aaron has years of experience planting in our climate.

His top flowering picks are Catmint, Basil, Rudbeckia, and Salvia.

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Primitive Trails at Mitch Park Aaron went above and beyond the boundaries of his job when he came upon the idea for Primitive Trails at Mitch Park.

Aaron kept grassy paths mowed to allow easy access for his crew but began to notice people venturing off the paved trails and ran with the idea.

The Primitive Trails offer off-trail adventures throughout Mitch Park. There are dozens of entrances to the trails. Some connect to the 3 miles of paved trails, and others loop around and wander, offering views of flower gardens, grassy fields, wooded areas and the OKC Bombing Memorial for Edmond victims. Newly designed wayfinding markers and maps for Mitch Park, including Primitive Trails, will be planted this Spring. Aaron hopes these trails inspire everyday exploration for Edmond citizens and visitors alike.

A friend to the smallest park visitors Aaron considers the native bee population when planning what to plant. He says mason and bumble bees are the workhorses when it comes to pollination. While honey bees are very important, native bees have a more significant impact on our local ecosystem and food system. Aaron says, “If the native bees are happy, the honey bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds will be happy, too.”

“I think about the whole experience, from the parking lot to the farthest edge of the trails. I try to have a plant that’s blooming almost year round at Mitch Park.” Aaron also works with the forestry department to incorporate specimen trees that add differential color and texture to the parks. “Ginkgo and Dawn Redwoods add a visual change with their vibrant gold leaves and variegated trunks. For that first sight of spring color, I use peach, crab apples, and pears. These really wow people, but also give an early food source for pollinators.”

Aaron cares for park visitors of all sizes, from humans to insects.

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BIZLOOK

Downtown Edmond Business Association

By Maria Veres

If you’ve enjoyed an outing in downtown Edmond, thank the Downtown Edmond Business Association. The all-volunteer organization works behind the scenes year round to make downtown an enticing destination for residents and visitors alike.

Preserving the Past, Investing in the Future Edmond has long been known for its attractive, inviting downtown area— and that hasn’t happened by accident.

Founded in 1969, the Downtown Edmond Business Association (DEBA) coordinates many events and activities

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that draw people to the area. “We have a lot going on every single month,” says Executive Director Stephanie Carel.

In recent years, DEBA has partnered with many local nonprofits, sponsoring fundraising events such as Valentine Candygrams and a Thanksgiving food drive. DEBA also sponsors VIBES, a popular event put on by Edmond Fine Arts Institute. VIBES is a celebration of arts and music, on the third Thursday evening every month from April through October. Through VIBES and other special events, DEBA works to make downtown a vibrant, family-friendly space for evening gatherings as well.

“The district has really turned into something special,” says Stephanie.

“People from all over the country and state love to come here.”

Downtown Edmond Arts Festival DEBA coordinates the beloved Downtown Edmond Arts Festival, a juried event featuring artists from around the nation. This year’s festival takes place April 29 – May 1. As always,

Friends and fur-friends enjoy downtown Edmond

admission is free, and guests can enjoy art, music, food trucks, and children’s activities.

The festival is eager for more volunteers to work in the children’s area or provide artist relief to allow exhibitors breaktime. If you’d like to volunteer, contact DEBA. Shifts range from all day to as little as an hour.

“This is one of Oklahoma’s favorite festivals,” says Stephanie. “We want people to come out and have fun.”

Follow Downtown Edmond Business Association on Facebook or Instagram. or you can learn more at www.downtownedmondok.com.

BIZLOOK

Paper Arts

By Maria Veres

Any time is a good time for a creative escape. Now in a larger location, Paper Arts is Edmond’s go-to spot for supplies, classes, and ready-made custom gifts.

A Haven for Crafters Paper Arts is more than a scrapbooking store. It’s a premier hometown art-supply source, offering everything from stamps to canvases to kids’ art materials. The space has plenty of room for events, and there’s even a shop dog, Baxter.

The inventory is chosen with care, featuring high-quality items you won’t find at box stores. New products come in often and move quickly. Owner Susan

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Foskin restocks 2-3 a week with new items. “If you see something you want, buy it now while it’s still here!” she says.

She can also special order items.

Part of the charm of paper crafts is camaraderie with other crafters, and Susan fosters these connections through classes, crop sessions, and special events. She also organizes children’s activities, including an upcoming kids’ camp this summer. On Tuesday afternoons, she hosts a Facebook Live class. During March, National Craft Month, she’ll offer several “drop-in-anddo” projects.

Meant to Be Susan’s love of crafting began with her grandmother, who kept homemade scrapbooks for each grandchild. As an adult, paper crafts became her outlet to relieve job stress. She and her husband frequently displayed at shows, and when two different companies asked to carry her work, Susan quit her corporate job to craft full-time.

Susan Foskin with shop dog Baxter

She tried twice to buy Paper Arts, but other people got there first. She managed the store for the previous owner, then finally purchased the store in 2018. “The timing ended up being perfect,” she says. She looks forward to sharing her love of crafting with the community for many years to come.

Visit Paper Arts at 221 South Santa Fe Avenue in Edmond and online at www.paperartsedmond.com.

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FEATURELOOK

Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum

By Lillian Myers Historic Route 66 is home to world-famous destinations and lesser-known gems like the Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum. For nearly 12 years, this roadside attraction has captured enthusiasts’ passion and motorcycle history.

1920’s Gas Station turned Museum The museum is housed in a former gas station built in the late 20s by John Seaba. Both the original building and its namesake have remained unchanged since its conception.

The iconic structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum houses over 125 vintage and classic motorcycles, as well as road racing, off-road, and meticulously restored antique cycles. Interesting finds include a 1972 Jawa Golden Sport and 1979 Triumph on display - still in their original dealer delivery crates. The museum also displays a ‘Hydra’ bike custom built and featured in the movie Captain America.

The founders and owners of the museum, Gerald Tims and Jerry Ries, put together their collection of motorcycles to provide a space for tourists, enthusiasts and locals to meet up and enjoy. The two have a lifelong interest in all types of motorcycles, so when the opportunity arose to put their collection together in a museum, they were excited to share their bikes with visitors. “This place brings back a lot of memories for people. They’ll come in and see a bike they first rode. Something clicks with them,” Jerry explains.

Jerry Ries

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Seaba Station Events In May and October, the museum takes advantage of its two-acre grounds to host a ‘Swap Meet’. The event brings in over 50 vendors who have motorcycle parts, gear and motorcycles for sale. The swap meets are open to the public and welcome over a thousand people, with some traveling from all over America. Eight motorcycles in the museum found their new home as exhibits at Seaba Station from the swap meets.

Seaba Station is happy to serve as a destination for a weekend ride, a place for car groups to meet, or a poker run for motorcycles and automotive clubs. There is no admission fee for visiting the museum, but donations are welcome. This roadside gem is a special place to a lot of people. Visitors are often transported back to a time of owning or riding their first motorcycle. To others, it’s simply another amazing stop on their Route 66 journey. If you haven’t visited, Jerry and Gerald invite you to stop by and kick some tires (don’t kick the tires).

To learn more, visit seabastation.com. The museum is located at 336992 East OK-66, Warwick, OK.

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ALOOKBACK

March Memories

By Louise Tucker Jones

Snow! Cold Snaps! Not my favorite weather! I prefer summer sunshine. But in truth, some of my sweetest memories took place in March snowstorms. My late husband, Carl and I were married at a little Army chapel during a snowstorm at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Two years later, we brought home our firstborn in a snowstorm. And a recent announcement on the local news saying kids might get too cold at a bus stop brought another “snow memory.”

Decades ago, I had children riding the bus to school. Thankfully, the bus stop was right in front of our home. On this cold, snowy day, I asked all the kids to

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stay close to our house or in the garage while waiting for the bus.

We lived at the bottom of a hill and I didn’t trust the traffic on such slick roads. As it turned out, the bus skidded on the icy downward slope of the street and ran into our mailbox—exactly where the neighborhood kids often gathered.

No one was hurt, but the bus was stuck until help arrived. No cell phones in those days so the driver called the school from our house then waited at my kitchen counter with a cup of coffee.

The kids either traipsed home or had snowball fights in our yard while waiting for another bus. Thankfully, we were the first stop on the route so no students were stranded.

It’s a fond memory since everyone was safe and the kids loved having some outside fun in the snow, as well a little delay in getting to school. When I look back on that day, I’m thankful the Lord gave me a little nudge to have the kids wait near my house, not at the street where they could have been hurt.

I’m also thankful for the “nudge” to marry my “soldier sweetheart” 56 years ago, just hours before he deployed overseas. And I’m eternally grateful for the Lord blessing us with Aaron, our St. Patrick’s Day baby boy. So I guess I’m a winter fan after all. At least, I love these March memories.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Louise Tucker Jones is an award-winning author, inspirational speaker & founder of Wives With Heavenly Husbands, a support group for widows.

LouiseTJ@cox.net or LouiseTuckerJones.com.

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FEATURELOOK

Michael “Shep” Walker

Custom Craft of Heartland Pens

By Maria Veres Pinecones, scrap wood, and automotive paint chips aren’t typical raw materials for art. But in the hands of Michael “Shep” Walker, they become things of beauty. A Navy veteran and longtime Edmond resident, Shep creates ballpoint and fountain pens in a variety of styles, each one unique.

Accidental Art When he’s not making pens, Shep works as a program manager for Long Wave, Inc., managing a ship-to-shore submarine communication system. Like many other Oklahomans, he found himself stuck at home during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and needed a way to occupy himself. He had recently purchased a lathe, and he tried creating several different items with it, including bowls, candle holders, and parts for birdhouses “I decided to turn a pen just to see what it was like,” he says. “And 450 pens later, here I am.”

After he outgrew his garage, he built a climate-controlled workshop in his backyard. It’s equipped with a lathe, drill press, plenty of storage space, and everything he needs to craft pens. There’s even a comfortable napping corner for his dog Millie, who keeps him company as he works.

Handcrafted with Care Each creation starts with a purchased kit, which includes metal parts such as the pen tip, clip, and a brass tube to hold 30

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ink. The kits range from basic to elaborate, and finding the perfect kit for every pen is part of Shep’s creative challenge.

The piece that will become the pen barrel is called a blank. It starts as a rectangular block, and Shep forms it into a rounded barrel on the lathe. He purchases some blanks ready-made, but he also makes his own from a wide variety of materials—wood, antlers, or organic materials like wildflower petals that he casts in polymer resin. Some of his most intriguing creations are made from Fordite, layers of automotive paint chips that form multicolored waves, stripes, or mosaic-style designs.

Pen making isn’t a hobby for impatient people. Each barrel goes through many steps of preparation. Wood and organic materials must be stabilized for several days to harden them and remove bacteria. Turning a barrel on the lathe involves many rounds of fine-sanding and polishing before the finished product emerges.

Gifts that Last a Lifetime Shep sells his pens at the Downtown Edmond Farmers’ Market and the Mitch Park festival, and he’ll be back for a second year at the 2022 Downtown Edmond Arts Festival.

He also takes custom orders for gifts, often using wood or other material with special significance to the recipient. For a retiring UCO professor, he made a pen from pinecones gathered on campus and dyed in Broncho colors. All pens come with a lifetime guarantee.

Shep prices his pens based on his costs for materials. They range from under $20 to over $100. But he’s not in it for the money. “When somebody buys a pen for a gift, then comes back and tells me how much the recipient liked it, that’s what it’s all about,” he says. “I like making something that people will appreciate.”

To learn more, go to heartlandpens.com.

1024 W Covell Rd., Edmond, OK 73003