Owen my friend
Just a side note: Owen told me stories of riding a skateboard down Hoosier Pass. Completely nuts! There was a group of them that would grab onto a car bumper to get pulled up the pass and then switchback all the way back down on their skateboards. Man, the stuff we got away with back then!
Owen lived for decades in a small house he rented by the Arkansas river in Vineland. No one knows how old the house was but it had been built by someone very early in the settlement of this area. Just a small two room house that had a kitchen added to it long ago. Built on the hillside, it was strategically placed to overlook the river bottom. This area is where the St. Charles River joins the Arkansas and had lots of evidence of old campsites, either Native or early Settlers.
Sadly, development crept it’s way east and the property was sold for a housing neighborhood. Owen invited his closest friends out for a farewell party. He spoke about the house as an old friend who had so dutifully provided shelter to anyone who passed this way. He cried at the thought of the house being torn down, this safe haven, this labor of love.
This is who Owen was. One who truly understood and loved a home.