Mike Rogers and an Ungrateful Duck

My friend, Mike Rogers, told me a very story about his attempt to rescue a duck that was being chased by a dog.

"Rosie and I were on our way to church yesterday when a little black duck ran out in front of us with a large German shepherd chasing it. I swerved off the road and gave chase as the duck, the shepherd and I ran over the hill behind Slick Lowhorn's building on the Tennessee Road.

The duck went under some tree roots and before the dog could get him I caught up and slapped the canine on his rear end, Startled the dog ran off and the duck started climbing back up the steep hill when I caught up to him and snatched him to safety. Holding "Daffy" to my chest I looked down at him and said, "I guess I saved your life." Immediately, he reached up and bit me on my lip!! (very ungrateful}

I took him back to the car and handed him to Rosie and she held him untill we arrived at church. He was quiet calm now until I reached down to take him from Rosie and he bit me again. As I carried him down to the creek the ungrateful bird turned his head towards me but I made sure to keep my distance. When I sat him down on the ground next to the creek he turned towards me again, then looked at the water, wagged his tail and jumped in swimming off to another day.

All is well that ends well!"

J.H. McKinley was Bozo Texino

Pleasanton City Cemetery in Atascosa County, Texas is where Clinton County, Kentucky native J.H. McKinley lies buried. Born at Cartwright on March 25, 1893, he was an early-20th-century train man who was also a railroad car graffiti artist, someone who marked up freight cars with pictures and messages in text.

For a long time the identity of Bozo Texino remained at least semi-anonymous. The mythical character McKinley created began leaving his hobo chalk-drawn graffiti/artwork on the sides of boxcars from Maine to California as early as 1919. In the photo you can see his graphic signature and the simple bust of a pipe-smoking character in a peaked hat with an infinity-shaped brim. In 1939, he told a reporter he had adorned a quarter-million or so boxcars since bringing Bozo Texino.

James Herbert McKinley worked for Missouri Pacific, first as a fireman then later as a locomotive engineer. He was known to sometimes wear a checkered shirt, a bow-tie and a derby hat with his denim railroad overalls and is remembered by his peers as one of the wildest engineers who ever worked for Missouri-Pacific.

As I mentioned, Bozo Texino's identity wasn’t exactly a secret. For more than 25 years he wrote a humor column called “Bozo Texino Sez” for Missouri-Pacific magazine and occasionally would write a piece in Albany's New Era newspaper.

"When I was a teenager," he wrote in 1953, "and used to climb the steep grade from the foot of the 76 Falls, I didn't know that some day I'd go to the top of the falls in a boat. When I used to swiim in the 7-foot swimming hole on Ind­ian Creek I didn't know that some day it would be a 77-foot swimming hole. No one could have ever made me believe that some day I'd catch a fish 100-foot above Aunt Ann Ellen Grider's chimney.

Born March 25, 1893, McKinley left Clinton County when he was barely 17 and moved to San Antonio. In 1914 he was hired to work on the San Antonio, Uvaloe and Gulf Railroad, then two years later on the IGN. Both of those railroad companies were eventually bought by Missouri-Pacific. McKinley was promoted to engineer in 1928, but it was his penchant for humor that made him well known and admired through­out that part of the country.

"I remember when very few people trusted a bank and buried their money under the hearth in front of an open fire­place or under a haystack," he wrote in 1954. "Ev­erybody trusted and loved one another and nobody would tell a lie until they started trading coon dogs."

James Herbert McKinley was the son of Charles Ellis and Rachel Neathery McKinkey. He died in Pleasanton, Texas, just outside San Antonio, on February 26, 1967. Several of his relatives live in Clinton County.

Miracles and Wonders

"Miracles"

In 2009, my son, J.D., came back from an outing with his nana with a pair of steel-toed boots. I wondered aloud why and he simply said he had always wanted a pair. "Well, I suppose that's a good enough reason," I said. And then, the very next morning, the real reason showed up.

I dropped the boys off at school and after J.D. had exited the car from the backseat, I slowly began to pull away from the curb. I had no sooner began to do that when suddenly the back door opened. I applied the brake and before telling me that he had forgotten his baseball practice gear, J.D. very calmly said, "Pull up!" When I asked why, he said - again very calmly - "Pull up Dad, the tire's on my foot!" I panicked, of course, but he just laughed and said, "It's okay, I wore my steel-toed boots this morning!" 

J.D.'s size 12 foot could have easily been broken or crushed had it not been for those steel-toed boots he just brought home the night before. I asked him if he had said, "Nana, I need to buy a pair of steel-toed boots because in the morning my dad is going to run over my foot!"

"...and wonders"

During one of my on-air shifts, I was distracted by the telephone and forgot to put Fox News on the air. As a song played, I just happen to glance at the clock and realized it was news time, so I hung up the phone and ran back to the control room. Just as I started to switch to the news, I heard a line in the song say, "Just one more day." When I switched to the news, at that very instant, I heard the announcer say, "Just one more day." I thought, "Huh?"

That sort of thing has happened to me more than once. The first time was when this lady from a record company was on the phone talking to me about a song, and in her comments she said the word "wonderful." At the same exact moment, over the monitor I heard the word "wonderful" in a song that was playing on the air. I lost track of the conversation trying to sort things out.

There is absolutely nothing more beautiful and amazing than the miracle and wonder of Easter. Fannie Crosby said it best in 1880 when she wrote, "Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard."

Because of the wonders of His immeasurable passion, the unimaginable sacrifice when Jesus died on the cross and His glorious resurrection, the miracles of grace raise a man (or woman) to a life that never ends.

Happy Easter!

(Photo by Charley Neal)