Recruiting bloggers

Recruiting someone to write blogs is almost as exhausting as writing them. I spent most of one morning this week encouraging Heavenerites I thought would be good “candidates” to write them, and most of the afternoon and part of another morning answering the ones who replied to me.

We need more folks to write blogs and/or comment on the ones that are writing. Glen and I both are writing what we can, but would like to see more.

So far, I’ve emailed quite a few which I considered good choices for writing and given them the reasons I thought they would be. Some agreed, but others have been too busy.
• Ray Gaskin . He used to be a television broadcaster in Dallas and is now teaching journalism at Southeastern State University in Durant. I haven’t heard back from him.
• John Council . He already is on the Heavener Blogs list, but he has been involved in some type of neighborhood earthquake preparedness deal. He lives in southern California , so I understand the need for folks in that area to be as prepared as possible. I figured he would be a good choice, because he was a pilot in the marines and told me a story once before about landing in Japan and the air traffic controller was none other than Larry Wisdom, another Heavenerite.
• Roger Cagle. He is already on the blogging list. He lives in London and, like me, a ’65 grad. I thought he would be a good choice since he lives in another country and I know I would be interested in life over there. He said he had tried to log on, but he invitation has expired. I sent him another invitation.
• Jana Manifold. She lives in Heavener and works at the library there, so I figured she knows everyone in town and might have some good stories to share, but she is much too busy with projects going on at the library. I understand.
• Bill and Lynne Pitchford. Bill was very interested in re-starting Heavener On Line and Lynne has been very involved in the Class of ’66, so much so she compiled a book for the class reunion, much like I did for the Class of ’65, a few years back. Her’s was much more advanced than mine, though. I haven’t heard back from either of them.
• Anita Robertson Norman. Her dad owned the OTASCO store in Heavener, so I figure she has plenty of memories to share. She agreed, so I’ve put her name on the blogs list and already sent her an invitation. She just needs to start blogging.
• John Locke. He lived on West 2nd Street and went to Northeastern State University , like I did, plus he worked on the railroad, so I figured he might have plenty of stories to share, too. He said he wanted to think about it but would like to see what has been written. I sent him an invitation to blog, too, so he could read others that have been written.
Others, such as Colin Kelley, Chuck Hudlow , Bill Hinds and Craig Hall , have already written some. I encouraged them to do more blogging.
I have also tried to encourage other Heavenerites such as Jim Patterson (he works at the University of Texas-Arlington and has promised to write some); Mickey Wynn , who lives near New Orleans and survived the recent hurricane, Katrina; Bob Collins, who coached in Heavener and was a frequent contributor to HOL (he lives in Tulsa now and I haven’t gotten in touch with him just yet); Pat Burroughs , who lives in Heavener and was also a frequent contributor to HOL (her email address has changed so I need to get a new one); David Hinds (he too is a ’65 grad and lives in Chili. He already blogs and asked how his could be added to the Heavener blogging list.)
So, I’m not giving up, Glen.