Jim Priest is CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma and can be reached at jpriest@okgoodwill.org. THE IMPORTANCE OF READING We are a family of readers.

Have you ever walked down the sidewalk, determined to be friendly and cheerful that particular day, and looked up to see someone coming toward you, but you couldn’t figure out whether to say “Good morning, sir” or Good morning, miss?” Bluntly put, you couldn’t tell if you were speaking to a male or a female.

It’s February Again February just kinda sneaks up on us and I know it seems like it will last forever. That may be part of the reason “they” chopped off a few days to reduce the time we have to wait on Spring. The good memories I have of my brother Gerald and me enjoying those days may have to do with those times we grabbed our .22s and headed for the woods. He loved to head for the Buck Creek Bottoms on days like this and, of course, so did I.

The plight of the average American is about the same. We would have more if we had saved more.

Call for Information for Hughes County Residents, I am compiling a list of organizations and people that provide services to Hughes county. At some point I will put the list in the newspaper.

I had a great visit on Saturday with my longtime friend Gene Sims (HHS – 1952). His family owned the C.A. Sims Grocery on North Oak for many years. In fact, I used to take my empty coke bottles and sell them there for 2¢ each and buy penny candy.

Jim Priest is CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma and can be reached at jpriest@okgoodwill.org. New Year’s Resolve Years ago I taught a Sunday School class in December on the topic of setting goals for the new year.

Recently a man we know died in his nineties, after serving in the military until he retired and then had a long career as a police officer until retirement again. Jimmy covered his beat not in a patrol car or on foot, but on the back of a horse. At one point, he became a training officer for young police cadets, teaching young men and women how to do their job with the help of their faithful, four-footed companion.

An answer to the 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s written inquiry, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” has been printed in newspapers throughout the nation. One of the most beloved Christmas stories traces its origins to a picturesque street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood.

An 8th grade education in 1895 (Note: I promised Christine Provence, my 10-1112 grade English teacher at Holdenville High School, that I would run this column every year. She liked it better than any of the seemingly endless papers I wrote in her classes).