By Steve Graf    

While I was growing up, my parents fully supported my athletic career. But they also believed in hard work and understood that free time for a teenage boy was not a good thing. To say my teenage years were structured would be an understatement.

While they never kept me from playing whatever sport I wanted to play, they had a rule that if I was not playing a sport, I had to get a job after school and on Saturdays. Note — our family was in no way desperate for money as my dad was superintendent for an oil drilling company.

They wanted me to understand the benefits of a good work ethic. At the age of 10 my first job outside the family ranch was picking up trash on the mornings following all the baseball games the night before.

They believed that many of life’s lessons were learned through working. Personally, I understood early in my childhood what a good work ethic was while growing up on a cattle ranch where there’s never a shortage of things to do.

Jobs included, but were not limited to, building barns, vaccinating cattle, building fences and hauling hay. Owning a cattle ranch is a seven day a week job that requires a lot of commitment and dedication. It’s like raising kids; every day someone must do a head count while making sure they are fed.

My last three years of high school, I had a job that I really enjoyed, working at Foxworth-Galbreath Lumber Yard. While I played three sports — football, baseball and track — it was during basketball season that I worked at the lumber yard after school.

I learned a lot from that experience, like how important it is to be on time. It was good that I answered to someone who held me accountable. I learned about the different grades of lumber and plywood as well as inventory control and how a lumber yard is managed.

This also gave me a sense of independence as the job provided money for dating and gas. It taught me how to be responsible and how important people skills are in order to work with others. It also motivated me to continue my education and get a degree.

These are lessons that many of today’s younger generation have not mastered. Many of today’s youth have no idea what it’s like to work for what they have. To answer to someone else who doesn’t accept excuses for being late or not doing the job right.

Every job I ever had, and I’ve had my share, taught me something. In high school and college, I not only worked at a lumber yard, but I also worked construction with Brown & Root, unloaded box trucks for a shipping company at 4 a.m. each day, lined fields and kept the books for Dixie Youth games every night and was an engineer’s assistant for the Texas Highway Department.

Each one of these job opportunities taught me a lot. But the most important lesson I learned was accountability, which is an important ingredient for being successful in life. So, if you’re looking for a purpose in life, maybe you need to get a job!

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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Pulling up to the gas pump has started to feel less like a routine stop and more like a scene straight out of a horror movie. You swipe your card, start fueling up, and suddenly—there it is—the total climbing faster than you can look away. At $100 and still rising, it’s the kind of moment that makes you question every decision that led you to that pump. The real twist? No jump scare soundtrack needed—just the quiet panic of watching the numbers roll. And honestly, the caption says it best: “Based on a true story.”

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Language is an art—and marriage is the gallery where half the paintings are hung upside down. Words have two lives: denotation (the dictionary version) and connotation (the emotional baggage they bring to the party). The trouble starts when two people bring different baggage handlers.

“Five minutes.”

In the male dictionary, that phrase is a stopwatch: exactly 300 seconds. In the female dictionary, it’s a flexible time zone that expands to accommodate eyeliner, the perfect earrings, and a last-minute dishwasher triage. So when the husband asks, “When will you be ready?” and the wife says, “Five minutes,” the husband hears a sprint; the wife hears a scenic detour. Either way, the car ride will include an argument about whether “on time” is a suggestion or a felony.

“Nothing.”

When a man says he’s thinking “nothing,” he’s not being evasive—he’s blissfully blank. His mental whiteboard is clean; life is a hammock and the brain is on vacation. When a woman says “nothing,” it’s a covert operations briefing: plans, feelings, timelines, and a five-year contingency plan all wrapped in two syllables. If your wife says “nothing,” consider it a red flag, a smoke signal, and a call to the nearest counselor—preferably one who accepts emergency margaritas.

The sigh.

A man’s sigh is a victory horn: lawn mowed, fish filleted, deer rack admired—mission accomplished. A woman’s sigh is a forensic report: it catalogs your idiocy, timestamps it, and files it under “Do Not Repeat.” Keep making her sigh and you’ll graduate from “nothing” to “we need to talk” faster than you can say “remote control.”

“Go ahead.”

For men, “go ahead” is a green light, a verbal thumbs-up. For women, it’s a dare wrapped in sarcasm: “Go ahead—explain why buying that thing is a brilliant idea.” If she says “go ahead” about the expensive purchase, treat it like a landmine: do not, under any circumstances, step on it.

Words trip us up because we’re using the same language with different subtitles. That’s why marriage counselors get paid—either that or they’re masochists who enjoy listening to couples argue about the semantics of socks.

And then there’s the one place where subtitles aren’t needed: the message of love and forgiveness. The Bible puts it simply: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Even in the messiest gallery of human communication, that message hangs in plain view—no translation required.

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Each year on April 1, pranksters around the world embrace a day dedicated to practical jokes, hoaxes and harmless mischief. While the exact origins of April Fools’ Day remain debated, historians trace its roots back several centuries.

One popular theory links the tradition to 16th-century France. When the country shifted from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 under Pope Gregory XIII, New Year’s Day moved from late March to January 1. Those who continued celebrating the old New Year in early spring were reportedly mocked as “April fools.”

Over time, the tradition of playful deception spread across Europe and eventually to North America. Newspapers, radio stations and television networks have long joined the fun, publishing elaborate hoaxes on April 1.

In 1957, the BBC famously aired a segment about Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees — a prank that reportedly fooled thousands of viewers. Tech companies have also embraced the tradition, occasionally announcing outlandish fake products to entertain audiences.

While April Fools’ Day is generally lighthearted, experts advise keeping pranks safe and harmless. The best April 1 jokes are those that leave everyone laughing — not confused or hurt.

Today, social media amplifies the reach of April Fools’ jokes, allowing pranks to travel worldwide in seconds. From fake celebrity announcements to imaginary product launches, April 1 continues to blur the line between fact and fiction.

So as the calendar turns, readers may want to double-check headlines, confirm surprising announcements and approach the day with a healthy dose of skepticism.

After all, on April 1, not everything is quite what it seems.

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People have dreamed about coasting back to Earth from great heights from at least the 1470s when Italian Francesco di Giorgio Martini designed a cone-shaped canopy parachute. It is the oldest known design for a parachute. In 1485, Leonardo da Vinci designed a pyramid-shaped parachute. For the following 300 years, several inventors, including Frenchman Louis-Sebastien Lenormand in 1783, jumped from trees to test their own parachutes, but none of their designs really worked as expected.

In 1797, André-Jacques Garnerin attached a parachute he designed to a hydrogen balloon in a test in Paris, France. When the balloon reached an altitude of about 3,200 feet, Garnerin parachuted safely back to the ground and became the first person to design and test a parachute capable of slowing a person’s fall from a high altitude. Two years later, his wife became the first female parachutist. In 1802, Garnerin made a safe parachute jump in a demonstration in England from an altitude of 8,000 feet. 101 years later, in December 1903, the Wright Brothers made history with the first powered, controlled, and sustained flight in a heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In the following years, human flight became popular. Pilots were seen as heroes and daredevils. Pilots understood that if their airplanes failed during flight, the chances of survival were slim. They recognized the need for a way to escape from a doomed aircraft and saw the life-saving potential of parachutes. On March 1, 1912, during an exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri, parachutist Albert Berry jumped from an airplane flown by another pilot at an altitude of 1,500 feet. He made a safe landing and became the first person to successfully parachute from a moving airplane.

Parachutes eventually became standard equipment for airplane pilots after World War I. They worked well for pilots of propeller driven aircraft and jet aircraft up to a point. On October 14, 1947, Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager flew an experimental Bell X-1 jet around 785 miles per hour and became the first human to break the sound barrier. Eight years later, in February 1955, test pilot George Smith was flying an experimental jet over the Pacific Ocean when the jet malfunctioned. Unable to regain control, George had to bail out. The only problem was that he was flying faster than the speed of sound and no one had ever ejected from an aircraft traveling at that speed. George knew that staying in the jet meant certain death, so he made the split-second decision and ejected. The force of the wind hitting him knocked him unconscious, but his parachute automatically opened. He landed in the water near a fishing boat crewed by a former U.S. Navy rescue expert. George remained unconscious for five days. When he awoke, he was blind in both eyes. George’s recovery required numerous surgeries and a seven-month hospital stay.

The U.S. Air Force immediately began working to solve the problem of parachuting from a supersonic jet. After seven years of testing, Air Force scientists created an escape capsule for a supersonic jet. On March 21, 1962, a flyer with the call sign “Yogi” ejected from a jet flying at about 870 miles per hour, 1.3 times the speed of sound. The parachute on the capsule opened as expected. Yogi landed successfully and became the first flyer to safely parachute from a jet traveling at supersonic speed. But Yogi was no ordinary human. He was not human. The flyer with the call sign “Yogi” was a two-year-old black bear.

 

Sources:

1. “First parachute jump is made over Paris,” March 4, 2010, History.com, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-22/the-first-parachutist.

2. “March 1, 1912, This Day in Aviation, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/albert-berry/.

3. “February 26, 1955,” This Day in Aviation, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/george-franklin-smith/.

4. “March 21, 1962,” This Day in Aviation, accessed March 22, 2026, https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/21-march-1962/.

5. David Cenciotti, “A bear named ‘Yogi’ was ejected from a USAF B-58 to test the Hustler’s escape capsule on this day in 1962,” March 21, 2016, The Aviationist, accessed March 22, 2026, https://theaviationist.com/2016/03/21/b-58-ejects-yogi-bear/.

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Robert Bob Lee
September 10, 1949 — March 28, 2026
Services: Wednesday, April 1 at 10:00 a.m. at O.E. Price Cemetery in Logansport

Reginald Renigh Elam
09/02/1957 – 03/25/2026
Visitation: Friday April 3 2:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Jenkins Funeral Home Chapel
Services: Saturday April 4 at 11:00 a.m. at Benevolent Cemetery

Twyla Arnetta Johnson
10/30/1970 – 03/20/2026
Services: April 4 at 1:00 p.m. at Jenkins Funeral Home Chapel

DeSoto Parish Journal publishes paid obituaries – unlimited words and a photo, as well as unlimited access – $95. Contact your funeral provider or billvance.erg@gmail.com. (Notice of Deaths shown above are FREE of charge. You may email them to billvance.erg@gmail.com

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