President Arnold called the meeting to order promptly at 12:00. David Hartman started the meeting off with his usual thoughtful invocation. Cara Sauceda led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance and continued the theme of the week, honoring our country by singing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”. Afterwards, we walked around and said “hello” to our fellow Rotarians.
David Kelley introduced his guest, Joe Schaffer, who is the co-owner of Next Level Golf… and a potential new member! President Arnold introduced his wife, Tomi Oliver as his lunch date.
For birthdays this week we celebrated Danny Steed (6/1) and Andy Kocher (6/2). Danny chose the gift from Star Bright Cleaners and Andy chose Sports Clips… even though he is already helping David build a fence to celebrate Andy’s birthday.
For the Sunshine report, David Hartman shared a message from Benay that Walter Coppage is recovering well from his hip surgery and John Deason is doing well and undergoing his 4th of 6 chemotherapy treatments. Please remember to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Prior to the official brag bucket, President Arnold called on visiting Rotarian, Larry Petrash, to allow him to finish his announcement from the previous week. Larry’s announcement was a big brag and high praises for our own Stacie Cook, who sang The Star-Spangled Banner at a veteran’s dinner in Mineral Wells an did an amazing job.
For the other brags, we had 3 members who threw down some cash for their shout outs. Cara Sauceda bragged on her son’s basketball team that she and Dallas coached. They were a player pool team that lost their first game by a mercy rule but ended up making the playoffs and winning their first playoff game. Jake Munholland bragged that both of his sons were recognized for multiple awards at their end of year award ceremonies, his oldest son, Jax, tried out for a new competitive team with coaches from MSU, and was one of the 16 selected out of the 31 kids that tried out, and Jax also was the only 6th grade clarinet player for the Barwise band that was selected to skip 7th grade band and play in the 8th grade “Honors” band, which is the top band at Barwise. James Hughes gave a shout out to all the effort that everyone put in working the flags for Memorial Day. He told a story of one of the residents on his route, Mr. Patel, coming out of his house to take a video of his flag. When James asked him what he was doing, he said that this was his first ever American flag, and he was incredibly proud to have it on display. This is just one of the many reasons that make those early mornings worth it.
David Hartman introduced our speaker for the week, Dr. Robert Parkey, who he originally met through his work with Hospice of Wichita Falls, when he was wearing suits and bow ties. Over time, he noticed Dr. Parkey starting to dress in dress more and more in traditional western attire. He knew that he enjoyed the music and poems of old cowboys, but figured he was just dressing the part for his performances. However, after Dr. Parkey left Hospice, David realized the suit and ties were Dr. Parkey’s avatar and the western wear were who Dr. Parkey really was.
Dr. Parkey started out his program by stating that his fascination for western wear and cowboy culture stims from his family history. Both of his parents’ families moved to Texas in the 1880’s from Tennessee. He said that it was the Chisolm Trail and Western Trail that drew his families to the area. His mother’s family settled on the Avis Ranch, which was out towards Jolly and Henrietta and his father’s family started the Parkey Ranch, which was in Archer County. He said that his family still owns parts of the original ranches to this day. He shared one of his favorite quotes from T.S. Eliot “We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.” This quote resonated with him as he continued to look back on his family history. He picked up his guitar as he continued with his history lesson. The first song that he played for the group was titled “Cows Around” and the lyrics were an homage to all the wonderful JOYS that come with having cows around. He then performed a song that he had written about his own family history, titled Mankins, TX 1888. The song describes what he imagined life was like for his family as they settled into life on the ranch and started branding and selling their own cattle. He sang that his family was thankful for their cowboy way of life and Texas Beef! He continued the history lesson by teaching us about how Texas cowboy heritage grew from the influences from the Spanish vaqueros and Anglo-Saxon herders. Then he performed a “Night Herding Song” about the efforts of the herders to keep the “little dogies” moving slow to avoid a stampede while on a cattle drive. Throughout the performance, Dr. Parkey continued to share cowboy history mixed in with his songs and poems. He continued with performances of “Chisolm Trail”, “Prairie Light Show”, “Still Here”, “Purt Near Perkins” and several others.
When Dr. Parkey laid down his guitar, President Arnold presented him with the speaker’s gift, which was a book that will be sent in McNeil Middle School.
We concluded the meeting with the Four Way Test and President Arnold rang the bell to close the meeting at 12:58.