My lights (and television and water) is back on after six bleak days and six very black nights! I know this aint news up in town, but out here around Hootentown it's all anybody is talking about these days.
For a week all we talked about was White River Electric and how maybe we ought to launch a investigation into the inner workings of that outfit, seeking answers to such questions as why do we lose our AC ever'time the wind blows from the north and why once we've lost it we can't talk to anybody about it down there in Branson. The Ozark branch of our co-op must be run by somebody with brains because when all the trees begin to crack and pop and power poles started going down the phone there was taken off the hook and ever'body packed up and went home.
Our problem out here at Hootentown began last Sunday right after Brother Ace Pennyhide prayed for the rain to stop down at the Temple. I'm not sayin' Ace caused it all by hisself, but some of the other Brothers down there are beginning to wonder if he might orter do a prayer of Clarification and maybe bring the rain back.
Once my house became colder on the inside then it was on the outside I took my

turkey an drove around the county lookin' for a warm spot, so as to git that old bird thawed up in time for Thanksgiving. That's when I learned about Pennyhide prayin' for the rain to stop and how ever'body around the county felt about what was happenin' to their trees and television entertainment. Up to this time I had laid all of the blame for my recent problems on the White River Valley Electric Co-op (For example, a tree had fell through my kitchen on Monday, reducing me to Kozy Kitten sandwiches morning, noon, and night; but most of Hootentown was blaming Pennyhide entirely and over along Ridge Road east of Oldfield the consensus of opinion seemed to be that Kansas was to blame.

Another view of Hooter's cabin