The Grand “Fall Ball” is Underway!

It just gets better in spite f the lack of rain late in the season

All right Grand Lakers…let’s step back from the ledge for a moment, realize it is fall on the pond and ponder the beauty of this lake we have called home for the past forty-three years. As I sat on my perch overlooking Grays Hollow a few evenings ago, the waters were nearly calm, with a slight north breeze cooling the air hovering just above our lake of choice. The shad were schooling, which meant the Sand Bass couldn’t be far away. Tranquility to Grand Lake base, come in!

It’s times like these which truly make Grand Lake a very special place. And it’s never more pronounced than in the first few weekends immediately following the Labor Day holiday. It’s almost as though you were awakened to find your favorite weekend lake retreat had been magically relocated. Summer’s night-time sounds of fun and frolic have been replaced by the calls of owls, and soon the honking of geese will be heard from overhead as they wing their way to their winter homes……at least we hope so. And in the not too distant future, we’ll find ourselves before an open fire, longing for those warm summer days and a golf course accented by green, growing grass.

Personally, I can never decide if my favorite time is the “Spring-Fling” or the “Fall Ball.” The renewal taking center stage in March and April always proves to be miraculous, but the fall display of color in these Ozark foot hills is also truly spectacular. With the associated calm waters and pleasant temperatures, it’s hard to imagine a better time to be alive. A time to gaze out and truly ponder what’s important in this life we have chosen to lead. A time to reflect on where it is we have been and what we might have left to do. The changing of the seasons, at least for me, sends a strong signal with regards to our own mortality.

But reality is usually just an e-mail or phone call away. As I look back at this time on the calendar from years gone by, I’m reminded of the less than thirty days of Hell till the upcoming election. Of how tired I’ve become of the “You’re wrong, I’m right” mentality, or is that vice versa? How we will assail one another over political philosophies as though we were from different countries. Where snarls have replaced reason, and where bridges will be burned, which will be difficult to rebuild. But it’s the American way, right?

I’m often told how fortunate I am to live on this great lake. I’ve even had a friend repeatedly say over the years, “When I grow up, I want to be just like Rusty.”  But no matter where you live, or your chosen career path, reality is never too far away.

I can’t help but recall the run-up to the fall elections of ’96. My Dad, a life-long Democrat, who had plucked me from Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City to adopt me as his own, was seriously ill and would pass on before the election. He had raised me, taught me the difference between right and wrong, delivered a powerful message on how being lazy was not an option, been there every time I needed him and provided me some simple explanations that have never failed me throughout this life. To him, the son of a poor dirt farmer from Faxon, Oklahoma, politics was a simple choice and he explained it to me like this. “Son, it’s really simple. You can either give ‘em a hand, or you can give ‘em the back of your hand.”

In ’96, I was still the owner and publisher of The Chronicle of Grand Lake Newspaper. Our publication had long passed the stage of fearing the consequences of expressing our thoughts and opinions on the state-of-the-lake and other issues. A letter I received during that political run-up still resides in my memory bank today. The letter urged me to put my bias aside. It went on to council me on paying close attention to the author’s thoughts, since most of our readers were conservative. And if I elected to print the author’s letter of political advice and personal attack for my previously stated beliefs, “Please, no editorial comments to detract from my letter if you print it.”

I remember thinking at the time, I used to be naïve enough to think I determined the content of the publication. The reality and shortcomings of the political season is never far away….then or now.

Thank God for the “Fall Ball,” the geese, the ducks, the fish, golf and all the other things making sense out of this world we live in. Not much has changed over the past twenty-eight years.

See Ya’ Around the Pond!