IT’S ALL ABOUT TOWNs

Phil Johnson.

“Print has its limitations,” commented Phil Johnson; phone book publisher in a recent interview.

“There have been years where telephone directories revenue and page count have fallen a devastating twenty to even thirty plus percent in large metropolitan markets.” Phil is a second-generation directory guy. His father, Ken Johnson was a leader in the industry; according to Phil; now 60. He and his wife, Karen, spent their lives crisscrossing the country working in the business.

Phil publishes several rural phone books in the area; but saw the handwriting on the wall relative to printed media. “I have been fortunate because the shift from print to online media has been much slower in rural markets; maybe a point or two a year.” “I had the dream years ago to take everything online.” He said; “I understand the need of such publications being in print in small rural areas; where Internet connections can be spotty; but I wanted to marry print and online media; to allow customers to connect and find what they are looking for in whatever way is familiar or easier for them.”

Years of note taking and seven years of planning; a year and a half of site building later; his online ‘community’ quietly launched earlier this year. The site It’s All About Town:  is already gaining traction, with thousands of hits since it’s appearance in late May of this year. The new website;  exists under his parent company, Showcase America. “I know the name sounds high falutin’; but so far we are just a small operation.” A small operation – with big dreams of spreading into other markets.

“I would encourage people to set It’s All About Town as their home page.”

“There are lots of online niche markets, in larger cities like Tulsa. My chief developer, Brian McCullough, founded and built http://tulsafood.com/ and countless others you would recognize. This website; It’s All About Town, covers all of Pittsburg and McIntosh Counties, is the first market to be launched. Phil hopes it will be a valuable interactive link to showcase local businesses, community groups, attractions and events all over the greater Lake Eufaula area.”

“The idea did occur to me years ago; but at that time; the tools just weren’t there, or if they were, they were deadly, deadly expensive. You had to write the code for everything. To put up such a website ten years ago would have cost, what, a hundred thousand dollars or so? I still have invested a lot of money in this, even with all the tools.”

“The site already covers 2,480 local businesses; over five thousand pages of information, and countless links. The thing I liked about printed directories is that they are ubiquitous; they are in every home and business – and the thing I still like about directories is that they don’t blast out advertising like other media; where on TV for instance you might get five minutes of advertising and then eight minutes of scheduled programming before the next advertising barrage. It seems like everywhere you go, you get hit with advertising; it’s everywhere!”

“Directories are something you invite in. It sets quietly wherever you put it, and waits for you to pick it up when you are looking for something.”

“On my website; I have published a number of graphs about how people are using the Internet; what’s trending up and down. Ratings and reviews top the list in helping people decide who gets their business – and it’s even more powerful when that good word comes from a neighbor. Anyone who owns a business or works in advertising will tell you that positive reviews and ratings equal sales. New research shows six or seven positive reviews will work, and fewer if they are recent and credible. I have built reviews and ratings into my website. Local people can go in and rate local businesses.”

Just now, the site requires a user to sign up; user name and email address;  in order to rate or review, but Phil is seriously considering changing that. He would be moderating postings and reviews, to weed out malicious content.

Phil’s Photoshoped image.

Phil commented about this picture on his site; “No, this is not my office. Do you recognize this building? It’s that old gas station on South Main Street in McAlester. I just went into Adobe Photoshop and added my sign (Notice the sign post is a telephone pole).  “I have always loved that building. It is so cool, and such a fine piece of Americana.”

He and his wife Karen run their operations out of their farm located between Okemah and Bristow, where he is active in the community. “On my front page I do run articles and news of local interest, which will soon include full texts of McAlester Matters articles, along with a link to the website.”

Phil is also involved with the Bristow Chamber of Commerce, and is currently the president of the organization. “The city only has about 6,800 residents, with several feeder communities that come and shop and so forth. Anyway, Bristow has a really cool old railroad depot. The Eastern Flier is a railroad company based in Colorado, and recently did some inaugural passenger train service there this past year. They, and other specialty railroads, do this Polar Express Train Ride in various cities around the United States and at least one in England that I know about around Christmas. A couple of weeks ago it became official that Bristow would be hosting the Polar Express this year. It’s a big thing; Warner Brothers Studios is even involved.”

From the Polar Express website.

“I posted this article on Sunday afternoon and noted it on It’s All About Town and my Facebook site. Roughly thirty hours later I checked my stats, and the site already had over 22,000 hits. Thirteen hundred people had read that story, and then gone on and explored more of my site. I noticed on Facebook this morning that there were 165 shares of that Facebook link to my site with thousands of people clicking on the Polar Express website to look at pictures and buy tickets.”

“As you know, those are numbers you don’t usually see.” Phil built his site to also enable clubs or community groups to have their own presence there, and link to other community websites from around the area. “There isn’t a day or a week that goes by that I don’t learn about another group or website that I want to link to It’s All About Town. I already include obituaries and other life transitions on my site; because that’s what many people are interested in; but I built this site to be a reflection of, and resource for the communities I serve.”

“I invite churches, youth organizations, and schools to post their activities and events on the site.” Plans are already being made to upgrade It’s All About Town to a newer version;  itsallabouttown.com version 2.0, which should be making it’s debut this December or January, according to Phil.

“I want my site to connect the local communities together in ways that matter. I have zero interest in covering traffic accidents or arrests. I will leave it for others to cover that.”

WEBSITE LINK: http://www.itsallabouttown.com/

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OH GIVE ME A HOME…

Original cover.

Bill and Christine Verner moved from town years ago and built a rambling ranch house on a small spread of land.

According to Christine; they never intended to raise anything but cattle and their seven kids there; which now age from 53 to 42.

Plans change. They adopted a baby buffalo years ago; and called him Ben. “If you take a calf before it begins taking milk from it’s mother, and bottle feed it yourself you can settle it down, but not much. It will still be a wild animal.”

One of their gates.

They took it to a McAlester High School game in that first year, as a mascot. “Go Buffs;” can be seen all over town, as well as statues of buffalo; as McAlester is “Home Of The Buffs”. Christine is also a huge fan of exotic animals and has been to Africa to take photos of them to use as subjects in some of her paintings.

Christine’s painting.

She is a well known local artist; who still teaches classes to her grandchildren and anyone who shows promise.

‘A Summer Storm’ by Christine Verner.

I arrived at their ranch which is located West of town; past Indian Nation Turnpike; about a mile past Coal Creek, and could see two buffalo in a corral on the left side of the road. No one was home yet. I was ten minutes early of my scheduled appointment with Christine and daughter Melissa; so I decided to take some photos of the animals before they arrived. A lucky break; the fenced pasture next door to the buffalo was empty so I climbed in.

The buffalo were barely moving, but their distance and angle wasn’t good. I walked deeper into the pasture for a better shot. It wasn’t until walking over a ridge, I discovered that I had inadvertently gotten into a pasture with a Texas Long Horn. I moved slowly and took a few  shots of the nervous buffalo and left.

Ben was the first of the buffalo; but the Verners began raising them; as well as antelope, deer, ostriches, emu, and cougars. They opened their ranch to local schools for field trips and built a picnic building near a pond on their property with a full kitchen for the groups to use. At the height of their collecting they had around 100 buffalo; but at some point the government began taking exotic animal licenses away from citizens due to mallings; and animals escaping in other parts of the country.

They would sell off their herd and other exotic animals. They located a buyer for the buffalo in Kansas; and were upset to discover that the group was offering the buffalo up for hunters to shoot them for sport; and charging $1,500 for the opportunity.

Bill and Christine refused to sell Ben; and four cows that had escaped into a back pasture. All four cows hid in the woods through the winter. Two of them died in birthing; and the other two had live birth.  Many years pass.

These two buffalo are the only ones left.

When they pass on; McAlester; “Home Of The Buffs” will no longer have  a buffalo. Ironically “You don’t have to have an exotic animal license to raise buffalo anymore; ” Christine said; “because you can eat them.”

 Talking now to daughter Melissa; the sixth of her seven children. “Mom raised all us kids and her grand kids.” We had a friend who lost her mom and mom raised her too. We all had ATV’s my dad got us one Christmas; my brother had a racing one; and we used to ride them through the fields. I was about eleven, maybe.

When I got a little older I hooked a wagon to it and squeezed about five of the grandkids in it and took them for rides around the pasture.”

“It’s definitely true about …buffalo roam. They were always breaking through the barbed wire fence when we had them over here in the (deeper) pasture.”

“They haven’t broken out up here.” (Near the road). “People were really interested in them. I mean, WHO ELSE HAS BUFFALO? Nobody in McAlester has buffalo.”

“Some smart butts would want to climb into the pin with them for pictures, and we had to tell them; “They’ll  charge you; and then they’ll kill you.”

“My sister Vicky and her first husband were riding ATV’s out in the pasture once wearing red; and the buffalo charged at them!  That was scary, but they got away. I was 15 or 16 at the time.”

“I hate to admit this in the interview, but buffalo meat is really lean; and delicious. It’s better for you than beef.  I’ve lived in town, and out here in the country, but I love it here. Everybody in my family except my sister Vicky lives on the ranch; 5,000 acres. We can all go to see each other without getting on the road. Vicky’s husband has a ranch in Kiowa and she lives there with him. They raise cows and horses.”

“Our land goes from highway 270 to 31 highway. Dad didn’t have that much at first. He leased a large portion of land and when the owner wanted to sell, and offered it to him; then some people from Kansas asked my dad if he wanted the land where my brother lives now; so little by little my dad got land. We can go by mule or (John Deere) Gators; Have you seen those?  They are so much fun!  We go through the pasture… The back side of the property is so pretty with the rolling hills.”

“Did you see the fence yet?”  The Verners have a fence made of metal plates on the property painted with large cartoon characters; mostly Looney Tunes.

“Dad really is a kid at heart; he really is. I remember him watching cartoons with us all the time; especially Looney Tunes.”

Galllery and Studio on the Right.

“Are you going over to mom’s gallery? Mom’s an amazing artist; she studied all over the United States and even studied art in France. My little nephew Nick can really draw and paint. His grandma on the other side paints too. He did the Yosemite Sam. That’s dad’s favorite. Mom teaches her grandchildren art three days a week during the Summer and on weekends when they are in school. I hope you can cover my mom’s art.” Melissa said; as I was leaving. “She doesn’t get the recognition she deserves.”

Christine collects bronzes.

The two story metal barn had beautiful knotty pine paneling. Christine was upstairs in her lesson area.

Click to enlarge.

Melissa was right; her mom has quite a collection of work in her gallery downstairs, and more upstairs. She collects bronze statues and western paintings too of her favorite artists. She has sold some of her work for thousands of dollars; but is so proud of a former student.  Some of his art sold for more.

“I have lived a charmed life.” she said; her blue eyes flashing; I have my kids, my grand kids, and my art.  I always say if I were to die tonight; I’d die happy.”

Long Way Home; Christine Verner.

“I met my husband, Bill, when I was 16.” Christine said.  ” I just thought he was the cutest thing!  We both went to McAlester High, but he was a little older than me and out of High School when we met. He is the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, but he was a cool cat… I married Fonzie but I ended up with John Wayne.”

I had contacted Christine’s husband, Bill Verner by phone before the interview. By all accounts; he is a hard man to reach. Now in his later seventies; he still remains busy with the day to day operations of his  massive businesses; “Big V Feeds” and overseeing the family’s cattle ranch.

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A BEAUTIFUL END

Original cover.

A year ago, April; the cancer death of the bass player; caused local band Oversoul to be shaken to their foundation. At the funeral; the three remaining members played one of their songs; “Changing Heaven”. Ten years the band had been playing together. The group which had experienced some level of success; all felt they couldn’t continue on anymore.

Songwriter Clark Conner.

Former band manager Dougo Sims, had a plan. He convinced them to put on one more “reunion” concert to benefit the family of base player Josh, who had left behind a grieving widow and two small children.

They would then start another band with the three existing members and a new bass player. The band was to be called A Beautiful End; in tribute to their lost member; and a reminder that beautiful ends are gateways to new beginnings.

New bass player “Monk” with former Oversoul members Jason (drums) Clark (guitar) and lead singer Dreaux.

 Rock 105, The Edge, The Cat, The Buzz. — Radio stations in London, in Oregon, and even Brazil began playing their songs. Their music can be heard for free on Spotify, and Reverbnation (the group has 15,917 fans on that site alone), and music downloads can be bought on Itunes, and Amazon.

Lead singer Dreaux is a Louisiana born Cajun. He works three 24 hour shifts a week driving ambulance.

Maybe it was partly because they have the support of their “over soul” base player looking out for the band; or maybe it’s because of advances in the Internet or Social Media; but since the re-branding; the group has begun to get more and more recognition for the quality of their work, and a growing fan base.

When you listen to their music;  and you will;  peal back the layers of pure sound; the expertise of musical locomotion. This band isn’t just four guys with some drums and guitars, playing around.

Durmmer Jason Simpson.

Songwriter Clark Conner has written some 71 songs for the group; and lead singer; Dreaux is beginning to write songs too. Clark and Dreaux both have music degrees; and are well versed in composition, theory, and musicianship.

Dreaux sings “All that’s left to take.”

The group is gaining universal appeal. It is no wonder why they seem so at home in their tattooed skin. The rock/alternative group wouldn’t be out of place on any stage in the world; and their music would be right at home on Seattle’s trendy alternative station 107.7 THE END.

END MUSIC: LIVE STREAMING WEBSITE

http://www.1077theend.com/Listen/11842397

A Beautiful End has to be one of  McAlester’s best kept secrets. The group once performed for a very enthusiastic  crowd of  over 3,000, but they were the cover band.

Their practice house is a donated shack owned by the local Redi-Mix cement company that base player “Monk” Lambert works for here.

It was donated to the band and moved to Free Road; where it rests on cinder blocks. Free Road is just outside the city limits.

I anticipated the experience to meet with band members Sunday night at the shack. I had seen the video A Beautiful End ; All That’s Left To Take;  so I knew they would be good;  but In fact, they far exceeded my expectations.

They all seemed bigger than life to me. Intelligent, witty, funny, personable; and extremely musical. Lead singer Dreaux Bryans’ voice alone; worth a ticket. They have everything. They are just not famous.

Below the cracking ceiling of the dilapidated shack they began to play. The walls and floor vibrated with the sound; as the amps and bodies began to heat up the 10×12 unconditioned room. The air began to take on a musky scent of cologne as everyone in the band moved in sync to the great; original music that was played.

Unforgettable; and local?   Why am I always so surprised by this unsuspecting Southeast Oklahoma town?

There seems to be a level of comradery in the group that extends to the audience. A Beautiful End  puts everything into their music; whether performing, or just practicing. The band has  made a little money through performing, and music downloads; yet none of them have ever seen even one paycheck for their efforts and years of work.  They also put in an average of 60 hours a week at regular jobs, aside from the long hours they put in with the band. All money made so far goes into new equipment and transportation, meals and accommodations to and from shows.

Dreaux and Clark.

I was saying my goodbyes and shaking everyone’s hands and surprised myself again by blurting out; “You guys are going to be famous someday!” It is something that might be said to any talented group;  but this time I meant it.

As I walked out into pitch country darkness; I took one last look at the shack, as their music; and yellow light poured through the open window. I thought of the shack; “What a beautiful end for the old house here too.” As for the band; I have a feeling their beginning has just begun.

Tour the house and hear; All That’s Left To Take:

Visit their official website for upcoming concert dates and locations:

http://www.abeautifulend.com/

I am also including their page on Reverbnation:

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