FIVE YEARS GO SO FAST!

2011 - Early March

Five years ago today, Mona and I arrived to start work at Elk City Golf & C.C. Coincidentally, it was a Friday as well. We had driven a U'Haul truck (the largest we could find), a car and a pick up truck (Mona's sister and mother accompanied us in our journey to Oklahoma).

Time is relative to the moment and the people you spend time with. For instance, your kid grows to being five in "no time", but, if someone happens to be sentenced to a five year term, I bet time is very, very slow! Or, if you are in a two hour boring meeting, is not the same as spending time watching a good movie... in fact, "a minute" is different for the person inside a bathroom and the person waiting to use it. To us, it has been like the person inside, time flies! Sixty months, 262 weeks, 1827 days... and not one minute has gone slow.

2012

Coincidentally it was also a Friday back in 2011 when Mona and I arrived in Sayre where Ann Cowan had helped us find a decent place to live before we before finding the home we bought in Elk City. We arrived almost like Gypsies: too many things crammed into the biggest U-Haul truck I could rent, two cars (one, full of stuff that we pulled with the truck, and one that Mona drove), and a pick up truck driven by Mona's sister, also full of stuff.

2013

We arrived about 11:00 a.m. to Sayre where we met Brad Spitzer, his wife Dayva and his son Drew Spitzer. Ann Cowan had asked Brad to help me hire someone to unload the U-Haul truck. Brad decided that it would be best if he and Drew did that, and in no time, the truck was unloaded. This was the first of many pleasant surprises we would find in our new job. Here you have a member of the club you will work at, whom you have never met helping you unload a truck full of tons of junk - usable or not.

Five hours later, we drove to Elk City to see where I would be setting up to work, met other people, including Joyce Ellis, who introduced herself to me and who wanted me to go and meet her husband James just across the street, and, the trend continued: friendly, welcoming people. We started learning a little local history and the character of Elk City.

2014

Being the "memory keeper" I am, I drove to the highest point of the golf course and took the picture I posted on top left. At that moment, I knew inside me, that this was not only a new place to work, but it would be a special place. The artificial green was not meant to "lie" about the dormant grass, it was meant to show that this place is taken care of... daily and with pride. From the start, we were more than welcomed, we were "received", which is so much better for the soul! 

2015

First of course by those who were in charge of the hiring, in this case, Ann Cowan and Joe Wynn, both of whom had gone out of their way to help us find a decent place to live, by all board members, including the man I would be replacing, Cory Smith, who not only did everything to help me get settled and make things easy for me, but whose calm and professionalism gave me a preview of the rest of the package we had just opened. All of this together, I am 100% sure, set some precedent with the rest of the membership whom, as we started meeting, made us feel as welcome as if we had always lived here, which in turn, has made our lives so much easier and enjoyable!

On top of that, we've had the pleasure of playing this "Diamond in The Rough" for all this time! Life is great! 

Mona and I thank you for all you have done for us and our families over these five years, and our only hope is that we somehow, with actions, more than with words, let you know how we are grateful for the opportunity you gave us. Whether we are here another year, five or ten, or forever, these first five with you have been some of the best ever. THANK Y'ALL!