Any House Will Do” Margie Keane share another one of her adven

By Margie Keane

ACROSS

1 Hertz 4 __ Saxon 9 Female lead singers 14 Wallop 15 Root vegetables 16 Construct 17 Stage of life 18 Lulls 19 Spiteful 20 Most recent 22 Asian nation 24 Movie __ 25 Restaurant 27 Island 31 Ceases 32 Sepals of a flower 33 Dickens’Tiny __ 34 Separate 36 Adios 38 Strong 40 National capital 42 Speed by 43 Male deer (pl.) 44 Lubricate 45 Sharpen a razor 47 Pixies 51 Otherwise 53 Cereal ingredient 54 Female 55 Midwestern state 57 Japanese tree 59 Eastern religion 62 Hiker’s trail marker 65 Twitch 66 Brownish yellow 67 Exceed 68 Vane direction 69 Poles 70 Run down 71 Scarlet

DOWN

1 Substitute 2 Common bird 3 Worried 4 The alphabet 5 Orderly 6 Harden 7 Long-term memory 8 Change into bone 9 Prefix ten 10 Iranian’s neighbor 11 Ex-serviceman 12 Parody 13 Pigpen 21 Synthetic 23 Tyrannosaurus ____ 25 Barrow 26 Alternative (abbr.) 28 Mix 29 In __ of (instead of) 30 Flightless bird 32 Food container 35 Brand of dispensable candy 36 Request 37 Work out the details 38 Mr. Donahue 39 Fats 40 Electron, for example 41 American College of Physicians (abbr.) 42 Unhappiness 43 Brassiere 45 South by west 46 Outlines 48 Man’s title 49 Laud 50 Cut a piece 52 Bedspread feather 56 Not yours 57 Ill __ 58 Merely 59 Owns 60 Pixy 61 BB association 63 Hatchet 64 Sorbet

On one of our trips from Connecticut to California we happened to drive by Henryetta, Oklahoma and I saw a sign that said “Welcome to the Birth place of Troy Aikman. ‘Stop and pay a visit to his Homestead’

For those of you who don’t follow football, Troy Aikman was a famous quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. I am a big Cowboy fan as is my son in law, Bruce and I thought it would be fun to find some Aikman trivia for him. We stopped at a gas station and I asked the woman in charge if she could tell us how to get to Troy Aikman’s homestead but she had no idea who he was or where he lived.

Not to be denied, I suggested we go to a liquor store that I spotted down the road, surely there would be some good old boys hanging out who could help us, but instead we met two women – one was the owner, a hefty woman about sixty with bleached blond hair done up in a bee hive. She gave me a disdainful look through her cat’s eye glasses and uttered a “HUMPH.” The other woman, younger and skinny jumped up and started telling us how we could “jest foller this road two blocks, then make a turn on New Lake Road ‘and keep a follerin’ for a ways more and then I forget the name of the road you turn on but you’ll probably find it.”

I said “We’re not from around here, we’re from California and I’m not sure the roads or landmarks that are familiar to you will help us, but we thank you any way.”

Mizz cat’s eyes drew herself up to a full huff and announced, “Well if ya’all are from California, yall should to know all about Troy, he was born in California, came here when he was just a baby.”

“Gee, I didn’t know that,” I said, trying to ingratiate myself. Do you know him?”

“Know him! I guess I do! Troy was just another kid to me, used to cut his hair for him all the time.”

I got the feeling that either she didn’t like him or was unimpressed by his fame.

About then a big burly man in farmer overalls came in and the skinny woman jumped up and ran over to him. “Hey, Leroy, you live up by the old Aikman place, can ya tell these folks how to get there?

“Not really,” he replied, I don’t pay no attention to road signs, I just drive ’til I get to my home.”

“Well, couldn’t they foller you home?” she asked.

“Well, sure”, the big man said”

“Great”, says the skinny woman.

“But I ain’t goin” right home,” says the burly fella

“How long you folks gonna be in town? I could drive ya there in the mornin’, offered the skinny woman.

Tom, who had remained quiet through all of this, started pushing me toward the car and said, “we’re leaving at four in the morning but thank you for your effort. It’s been swell talking with you.”

We jumped in our car and sped off. A little way down the road Tom pulled up in front of an old farm house and said, “Give me the camera.” He stepped out of the car, took a picture of the old home, then turned to me and said, “You can send this to Bruce, This is now Troy Aikman’s homestead!” I didn’t send Bruce the picture – I sent him this story and a picture I took of Miss Cat’s Eye and the skinny woman.

Margie Keane

By Juan Sacelli

a poet cannot be a christian a muslim, buddhist, Jew for those are old I’s in which everything seen is obscene a poet cannot be a capitalist marxist, theorist, socialist for those are old I’s in which every scene which is foreseen is still unseen a poet is neither theist nor atheist but classless and massless a poet writes no fiction and no facts but shuns both fact-shuns and fic-shuns both found and profound until the facts are fitted with a deference into a difference a poet ends her poem not before he has ended but before you have ended and before we have begun