Remember the Broadway musical and movie Oklahoma!? This story has almost nothing to do with either except that it takes place in Oklahoma.
When I started to hit the bestseller lists, Little, Brown assigned me a very sharp PR person named Holly Wilkinson. Her grandfather was Bud Wilkinson, the legendary Oklahoma University football coach. Bud Wilkinson won three national championships. He was the Nick Saban of his day. Holly told me that. Several times, actually.
She was always trying to trick me into visiting bookstores in Oklahoma. Finally, she just wore me down.
So I headed out to Oklahoma with Holly. As it happened, an old buddy of mine from St. Patrick’s High School lived somewhere in the Sooner State. Danny Boudreau had been a wild man when I knew him as a kid in Newburgh. I figured he was probably working on oil rigs, but I was pretty sure he’d be doing something completely off the charts. As it turned out, he was.
My first night in Oklahoma, I got back to the hotel late after a book signing. I called the phone number I had gotten for wildcatter Danny.
I got a recording.
The woman on the line sounded very official and impressive. I was stunned by what she had to say. I was flabbergasted. “This is the office of Daniel Boudreau, justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.” And I’m thinking, This is crazy. Poor Oklahoma. Poor Sooners. Way to fool ’em, Danny.
The next day, the two of us met for lunch. Danny wasn’t Danny anymore. He no longer looked away when he talked to you. Nor did he lay his head down sideways on the table while he ate (which he’d done at my parents’ house one night when we were little kids). He was confident; he was well spoken; he was humorous; he was a great guy. Still, I kind of missed Newburgh Danny.