Harry "Butch" Beggerly

We received news this morning that Harry “Butch” Beggerly, science teacher and coach at Welch High School, passed away this weekend after he was struck by lightening on a hunting trip in New Mexico. Our condolences to his family, friends, students, and athletes.

We’re working from the new office this week, and we’re still working on it, too. I have carpeted the studio room, and I can highly recommend carpet tiles. Didn’t even have to glue them down. Here’s a pic.

Studio Carpet

There’s been a bit of debate about what our building used to be. We know it was Webster’s Auto in the post-WWII years. Before that, though, has been the subject of  various opinions. We were originally led to believe it was Keener’s Store. The consensus seems to be that Keener’s is a few buildings down. Welch State Bank is currently remodeling it for use as office and conference space. We have a reprint of 1915 Welch Watchman paper, which includes the below picture of W. S. Dowell Dept. Store. From the looks of the ceiling and shelving, I believe that is our building. It’s not the greatest picture in the world, but it’s all we have so far.

W. S. Dowell Department Store

That’s it for now. More updates as we get things situated.

I have been somewhat quieter than usual lately. My blog, Twitter, and Facebook posts have been much less frequent than usual for the past month or so. And there has been a reason.

As of this morning, Wynn-Wynn Media is operating from 361 S. Commercial Street in Welch, Oklahoma, our hometown. By the way, that’s our shipping address only. The mailing address is PO Box 4, Welch, Oklahoma 74369. Our telephone numbers remain unchanged.

Jeane and I are both from Welch. Both of our parents still live here. In fact, her folks live on one side of the Baptist church and mine live on the other. We love this town, and we have always hoped we could come back here someday. That someday is now.

A couple months ago we made the decision that we would move back here for one main reason. Jeane’s parents are 83 and 86. Their minds are sharp as ever, but as they age, they need some physical help from time to time. They certainly aren’t disabled, but they are at the point that they need some occasional help. Their friends and neighbors have been invaluable to us over the last few years, driving them to doctors’ appointments, on shopping trips, and to run errands. But we recognize there’s a time when family has to do its job, and we’re thrilled that we are able to help out. Her parents have a huge old house, built in 1913, that has an upstairs that has been unused for years. We will live there, gradually remodeling our area. That way they’ll have someone with them at night, which is their most pressing need. We will be putting our home in Claremore on the market soon.

As for office space, we’re thrilled to have our own building on Welch’s main street! We are in a storefront that was Webster’s Auto when I was growing up. We’re still trying to learn what it was before that*.

New Office Ceiling

And that is the reason for much of my silence. I have been making moving preparations and working on our building (with the help of my parents and sister, who we can’t thank enough).

Wynn-Wynn Media began in 2001 in a small upstairs room of the tiny house we lived in. From there, we have lived in two other houses, each time running the business out of spare bedrooms. Next month, we will celebrate our eighth year of business. God has blessed us much in the ensuing years. We’re thrilled that Wynn-Wynn Media gets its own office space for its birthday.

We’ll post some pictures soon, but for now I will describe our space to you. It’s approximately 2,000 square feet of space. There are cement floors that we have refinished. The front area is all open space, and it is lined on each side with almost eight-feet-tall bookshelves and counters. This area is where Jeane and I both have our offices. The ceiling is covered with the original metal tiles, which have been repainted white. There is a private office in the back, which —after a bit of acoustic work—will become the new author interview training center and WynnCast studio, among other things. We have an ample store room, which is thrilling because we’ve always just squirreled office supplies away anywhere we could. We also have a bathroom with shower and a large warehouse/garage in the back. We will soon be adding a coffee counter, and there is a large loft area over the studio, store room, and bathroom that will become Jeane’s special project area.

We’re a bit blown away by the notion of finally having enough space for everything. It’s almost surreal to know we’ll have enough shelving for our library and all our project books. And we love that we are finally back home.

We ended up in Claremore because I was then working for a state university. When I joined Jeane in the business full time, we stayed in Claremore because of the availability of certain things, mainly high-speed Internet. We’ve loved Claremore. It’s a sweet community that’s close to Tulsa without being the metro. But we came to see that it placed us unnecessarily an hour away from our families. When I learned we could finally get the Internet connectivity we need to operate in Welch (thank you Rural iNet!), we decided the time was right. So, here we are, back to the home of our youth. We’ve always been Wildcats, and it’s good to be back among our old friends.

For those of you not familiar with Welch, Oklahoma, here’s a bit of info. It’s a community of approximately 600 persons in northeastern Oklahoma. It grew, like many a town, due to the railroad way back in the day, and it was named for a railroad man. It is in Craig County, which is just west of Ottawa County, which is the northeastern-most county in Oklahoma. We’re in what is known locally as the Four States, which consists of the NE corner of Oklahoma, the SE corner of Kansas, the SW corner of Missouri, and the NW corner or Arkansas. Of the five “countries” in Oklahoma, we’re still in Green Country. It’s a small town, with a great school, one of the best banks in the country, one Assembly of God, one Baptist, one Catholic, one Christian, and one Methodist church, a volunteer fire department, a convenience store, a grocery store, and a grain elevator, among other businesses. Additionally, it’s full of our old friends and a lot of just plain good people. And we love it!

All told, we’ll be better able to serve our clients and honor our parents, while being back where we’ve always wanted to be. Talk about a Wynn-Wynn!

Also, after almost five years, I recently resigned my pastorate. We enjoyed being used by God where we were, and I will be forever thankful for the opportunity to see people come to know Christ as a pastor. It was time for that chapter of our lives to come to a close. For now, we will be active and involved in a local church. I will not, however, be serving as a pastor.

*There seems to be some debate among townspeople at to whether our building was originally Keener’s General Store or not. We’ll be researching that. As an interesting side note, Jeane’s parents live in Keener’s former house.

And now, we’re off to lunch at the in-laws’. I think it’s Frito pie day.