There was folder of old school papers from the first grade, and apparently everything made of paper that I touched with a pencil, crayon or finger paints from birth to six years of age was saved by my mom. It took up a quarter of a steamer trunk.

Which begs the question where did a family, based in Oklahoma and Kansas for the last 110 years, come up with a steamer trunk. Apparently the family tale of a distant relative arriving on the mayflower could be true. Probably not though because for one, if everyone who claims to have a relative on the Mayflower was correct, that boat would have sunk 30 minutes into its voyage.

Secondly, I'm almost positive that there has never been anyone in my distant family wealthy enough to own a steamer trunk and thirdly if they did come over on the mayflower they were stowing away and we all know how hard it is to stowaway if your dragging a steamer trunk around the deck. The captain would probably have gotten suspicious the third or fourth time he asked them if they needed help with their luggage.

Back to the abduction theory....

I started looking at these pictures (to the left here and above) that my mom had saved in the manila folder. See that's where it starts. Who's mom had a manila folder in 1959 and 60 in Elk City, Oklahoma? I'm betting none. Who had manila folders?

You are correct, those, we don't know anything about an alien space craft crashing in a field outside of Roswell, New Mexico, government guys.

So, I'm guessing that the "G" men took me from my parents and held me in some kind of X-Files daycare center where they questioned me using all the torture tools of that era. Which could account for some of my odd quirks, like when I can't think of what I am wanting to say and all that will come out of my mouth is the word "they" followed by a blank stare. Lucky for me they hadn't invented water boarding yet. But, I withstood it all, I never talked. Sadly it does appear that the sleep deprivation did yield some drawings of my original abductors shown in the top three pictures as well as a good depiction of my secondary abductors as you can see in the crayon on brown paper sketch below and to the right.

If you will notice there is a man in blue pants that looks remarkably like Mulder and the female in the middle is wearing the brown skirt and sleeves that is usually associated with Agent Scully. I can only assume that the shorter gentleman on the right is the Cigarette Smoking Man. I came to this decision after a closer inspection of the drawing indicates that those eight blue stripes are actually blue rubber bands which were a part of his "Snap Decision, Smoking Cessation Program". From what I remember I bet it didn't take, that dude was jonesin'.

I also found among about a thousand other items, a stick on name badge from the Foreman Scotty show. I lived and breathed the Foreman Scotty Show. It revolved around the Circle 4 Ranch and the exploits of the Foreman (Scotty), 3-D Danny (played by Danny Williams) and many others. There was a golden horseshoe to be had as well as a ride on "Woody" the wooden horse if it was your birthday.

That was the highlight of much of my early youth as evidenced by the fact that I kept it for over 40 years. I found the name badge and a picture of Foreman Scotty. My only regret is that is not autographed. I also found a picture of Ho Ho the clown from pretty much the same era.

Ho Ho was also a staple for kids watching TV in Oklahoma. In fact Ho Ho and Foreman Scotty were from competing stations in Oklahoma City. I'm almost positive that Foreman Scotty could have taken him in a fight though. The fight would never have happened, because Foreman Scotty exemplified friendship, fun and positive actions.

So .... we save the things that are important to us. Things that will be around forever, or until we throw them out.

That is what I did with some (not many) of the keepsakes this time around... just tossed them out.

I couldn't remember why they were important.

Sadly Foreman Scotty has since passed away.

I hope he knew while he was with us that what he did for the children of Oklahoma, what he devoted much of his life to, was important enough to be remembered and saved on a shelf in my den.