Burl Bales - Sooner Born and Sooner Bred

Burl Bales (no middle name) , my father,  and his twin brother Murl were born on December 19, 1906 at Nebo in Indian Territory.  Nebo is somewhere near Lawton, Oklahoma.   Most of his early life was spent near Konawa, Oklahoma.   Although he never lived in Oklahoma after 1923, he was an Okie through and through.     He professed not to care for football, but he took great joy in seeing the Sooners beat the Longhorns.   I remember him singing a little song:

“I’m a Sooner born

And a Sooner bred

And when I die, I’ll be a Sooner Dead

Oh, dad gum.”

When he was about nine, they left Oklahoma briefly and moved by covered wagon to Pearsall, Texas (near Uvalde).    Then they decided to return to Oklahoma.   I recall a story Grandpa Bales told me about 1946 or 47.   We were sitting on the front porch of the farm house where he and Grandma were living near Hico.   He said that he remembered the trip to Pearsall and that the wagon came right by the place where he was living at that point some 30 or 35 years later.

Daddy and Murl were inseparable throughout their lives.   They never lived far from each other.   They both farmed at one time.  They even jointly owned a farm at one point.  They later became union carpenters and often worked as partners on construction jobs.  It was not until the death of Murl in the late eighties that they were separated.  I think Murl’s death was harder on Daddy than the death of my mother.

By their own admission they were spoiled.  Twins were a novelty so it was somewhat tempting for people to make over them.  They played tricks on teachers, often switching seats in class.  Later they would switch girl friends when they were dating.  I’m sure that must have backfired on them more than once. 

Even though they looked alike, they were totally opposites in temperament.  I never had trouble telling them apart.  Burl had a ruddy complexion, and a short fuse.  While Murl could get angry if the occasion demanded it, he tended to have much more patient, and was not as quick to react to negative circumstances.  Murl was one of the finest men I have ever known. They loved each other deeply, but it didn’t take much to get them into an argument.  I remember driving to Texas after Murl’s death.  I woke up the first morning after I got there, and I knew something was not quite right.  I was awake and it was quiet.  Usually when I arrived for a visit, I would be awakened by an argument going on between the two of them in the next room. It was something of  a ritual that usually started their day.