Barbara Winters:  

I don't know how those dumb questions they ask you are supposed to give any insight into your inner life. It's like asking "When did you stop beating your wife?" No real answer. After Edison I attended the University of Tulsa and graduated with a degree in secondary education with areas of concentration in frat boys and drinking beer. No, seriously it was speech/audio visual. They actually train you for that. While in college I worked at KWGS, the TU radio station and got a little experience which led to a part time job as a disc jockey at KAKC. A short-lived, part time job. After careful thought I decided I did not want to make my mark on the world in Top 40 radio or teaching high school misfits to thread a projector (my apologies to any misfits who might be reading this), and was lucky enough to get a job in advertising. I worked at Ackerman & McQueen Advertising in Tulsa until 1980, when I met my husband January 26 on a blind date. We married July 26, 1980. After that I went back to school and worked in the TU library for a while, until I was hired by Germaine Greer to work for her in the women's literature program because of my ability to get her materials from the British Museum library. Don't ever write off specialized knowledge or obscure skills. I had my daughter in 1990. We moved to Houston with the Amoco/British Petroleum merger in 2000. As a third-generation Tulsan the move was difficult to say the least. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming over the state line. It wasn't pretty. We have adjusted fairly well (that is to say I'm dealing with it and my husband hates it), and our life here has been good. I still visit Tulsa twice a year to check on my mother-in-law and my family. We have travelled a little. We had an adventure sailing with my husband's uncle through the Bahamas on his yacht. Not a glamour trip, but much more work and much more fun. Ask me and I'll tell you about the riot gun and the technical issues of rum smuggling. We've been to England to visit friends several times, and to Norway to visit a business colleague of my husband's and his family. This past year we took a cruise through the Inside Passage of Alaska, which was like going to another planet for me. I'm a beach person. But the beauty was indescribable. We took a side trip to Vancouver and enjoyed it very much, especially knowing that we were going back to another disgusting summer in Houston. Over Labor Day weekend we attended a family wedding in Carmel, CA and used the opportunity to take the famous 17 mile drive. Carmel is all they say it is. MY BRUSHES WITH FAME: (I have dropped these names so often floors all over Houston are scarred) As I mentioned, I worked for Germaine Greer. George Gobel walked by my desk and said "hi" when I was working at the ad agency. I met Michael Martin Murphy while covering the Miss Rodeo America pageant at Gilley's in Dallas I made eye contact with Mickey Gilley at the same affair while I was extracting my sling-heel pump from horse dung. I'm sure he was amused. I was not. While in college I met Pete Seeger when he performed at TU in Kendall Hall. The radio station was broadcasting the concert and he came back and said hello to everyone. I interviewed Shawn Phillips after his concert at the Tulsa 'Hockey Arena.' I saw Daryl Hall and John Oates backstage at the same show. When Steve Martin performed at TU he walked up to me (arrow through the head) and said "What are YOU laughing at?" At another Student Association sponsored show, Lily Tomlin called me a stupid little sh*t and told me to get out of the back stage area. I was carrying chairs! I was supposed to be there. I saw Christopher Walken in Sipes grocery store. I talked to Garth Brookes in Barnes & Noble in Tulsa. He's very friendly. I was shoved into a very crowded elevator in the Capitol Building with my face between Roger Mudd's shoulder blades. He's very tall. I served tea to the head of the British Museum Library, whose name escapes me at the moment. He's very snooty. I copy edited Robb Walsh's "Legends of Texas Barbecue" cookbook and history of cultural cooking. (My name's in the book! Check it out!) ZZ Top's Dusty Hill and Lyle Lovette live just a few miles from me. I have not seen either of them. My husband has seen Dusty Hill at the local barbecue place. My 15 minutes of fame? They have come in dribs and drabs, and would better be described in the old saying "fools names and fools faces ...." you know the one. I was in two commercials for l...Expand for more