The Old Cowboy earlier this morning had an old friend send me a message and ask why I had not mentioned the eldership in Ada, Oklahoma back in the years I was there. I know he asked me that, because it was a very good eldership. I thought it was an interesting question, and it made me think more about why those were such great days in the lfe of this young Christian. This was a group of men who knew what the job of being a Sheppard was all about. First they knew the Bible and each were active students and teachers. It’s true some were better in a classroom then others, however they were all active teachers in one form or another. This group of elders understood they were servants, and they were hands on, yet not overly so. They all had an open door if you wanted to talk, yet some times they didn’t wait for you to come to them. In the oilfields of Oklahoma you hear about men that have a firm hand, and an easy touch, and I think this describes this group of men For this then young cowboy and Christian they were friends to sit back and talk with about stuff, and most of all they were great examples for a young cowboy.

Now back to just a little more of my efforts to be a small market radio announcer and radio time salesman. Each day I would pretty well walk from one end of Main Street to the other walking in and out of stores talking with the business owners. One of the first places I introduced myself was to the folks at the Austin Morris Shoe and Saddle Shop on East Main. In that area when it came to western boots, shoe and boot repairs, hats, clothing, along with saddles and tack, that is where the cowboys went. Austin’s two sons Randy and Danny were calf ropers and members of the International Rodeo Association. Now I had a little experience with a rope in my hands from earlier years, and I found some great friends and a place to hide from work from time to time. Over the next couple of years that is where I met a lot of cowboys and some rodeo stock contractos. It would not be very long and they would be a factor in my constantly growing experiences.

With a good strong introduction to a large number of Nashville country music entertainers, and some success as a country music radio announcer, I had dreams of big market stardom. I sneaked off to Dallas, Texas to look for a big radio station to work with. Back a few years earlier while I was learning to be an broadcast engineer I had worked some at a couple of Dallas radio stations. So I put my application in at WBAP-AM and KBOX-AM the two big country music giants there, gave them my airchecks and waited for them to offer me a job. Well to make a long story short, that didn’t happen. So I turned my attention to Oklahoma City and the country music stations there, along with a couple of rock stations. In the end the only station that had any interest, and the only one to offer me a sales job was WNAD-AM in Norman, Oklahoma. So we packed up the kids and moved to Oklahoma City, and I started my sales job. It took about a month and I found selling advertising for a radio station that wasn’t very popular was almost impossible. The sales manager was a one time OU football player who’s only talent was a loud mouth, and the lady who managed the station liked him. Being a bit frustrated and tired of that mess I explained to him what kind of a total fool he was, and changed to being the morning drive announcer. I too started looking for another place to work. The program director was an old alcoholic rock jock and he didn’t like country music and you could tell by the way he programed the station. So about three months after moving to Oklahoma City, we had a stock trailer all loaded up and we were headed back to Ada, Oklahoma. That will be the next bit of the Coffman family story.