Married life, career development, retirement, and life in general turns a shy little dinosaur into a monster. No more Mr. Nice Guy!
I met my first wife, Carole Lee Goins, while performing in "The Mouse That Roared" at the Tulsa Little Theater in the fall of 1964. She had come to try outs with a friend. Because I was first introduced to the theater by a family friend, also Carol Goin, I was immediately attracted to Carole Goins. Carole was a redhead and her friend, I do not recall her name at all, was a blonde. I introduced myself, found that both were divorced, Carole with two daughters, Terry age eight and Cheryl age three, and the blonde was childless. Both girls got parts as "lady-in-waiting" to the Dutchess of Fendwick while I was assigned two parts; a student that was in the opening scene and as one of the soldiers, a speaking part, that was in all of the remaining scenes of the comedy.
Cheryl wanted to join the 4H CLub of her school but her mother would not take her so I got mad and said, "If you will not take her, I will!". So, I took Cheryl to her first 4H Club meeting and she and I loved what we learned about the 4H Clubs. After the meeting, the County Extension Agent collared me to find out What I might do to help these kids on their road to becoming productive adults. He determined that I should tour all of Tulsa County to discuss the weather and the ends and outs of weather forecasting by observation. After all, I had taken one semester of meteorology in college where I was a chemistry/physics major and was now working in the mechanical engineering field with Yuba Heat Transfer Corporation. After a successful lecture tour and one of the 4H boys winning first place in the County Fair with his weather science project. Later, the young man took second place in the State Fair for the same project. The County Agent arranged for a reporter to do an interview. The following is the transcript of the resulting newspaper article:
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Tulsa County 4-H Club members are getting valuable aid in their club weather projects from a Tulsa design draftsman who happens to be a "self-educated weather enthusiast." "I study the weather as much as I can, and make my own forecasts from weather information.", says Charles Tankersley, of 16709 E. First St. Tankersley works for Yuba Heat Transfer DIvision. He admits he's been interested in the weather for some time. He taught the 130 members of the Lynn Lane 4-H CLub here many aspects of weather forecasting "I PRESENT club programs covering the fundamentals of weather, tornados, weather maps and forecasting, and I have shown them many films.", he said. Among Tankersley's standing "props" is what he calls "a tornado machine." "Steam and air currents are used to create a small, visible tornado funnel in a specially constructed box.", he explained. "The 4-H youths are fascinated by it", he said, and pointed out that its construction is "simple enough that kids can make their own." "I want to give the kids something to do besides sitting at home and watching the television until they are sick of it.", the Tulsan explained. |
HE ENCOURAGES club members to make their own weather maps and forecasts by using the information from newspapers and television and studying the results. "Kids need something to do with their hands. I have seen these young people in 4-H develop sound attitudes and a sense of responsibility because of the projects. "They are creative. I feel a person who tries to be creative, whether it be rightly (successfully) or wrongly (unsuccessfully), is contributing something to life." Tankersley said he developed an interest in 4-H Club work two years ago. "My youngest daughter Cheryl, 11, was invited to 4-H by one of her friends, so I took her to the meeting and I liked what I saw. After that, I volunteered to take her to the meetings every time.", he said. ONE THING THAT impressed Tankersley about 4-H meetings was "the kids running the meetings themselves without being dictated to by parents and leaders. The kids were learning a lot." At the club meeting last fall, Tankersley met Derald Suffridge, Tulsa County extension youth agent. The draftsman expressed his long interest in weather and said he wished the 4-H members could have a weather project, too. He was quickly recruited by Suffridge as an adult leader for the project. |