Tony Smith

I was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma and grew up in the Oklahoma City area. Ponca City was home of once famous E.W. Marland who was owner of what became Conoco Oil Company. Marland also later became governor of the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma was a wonderful state to grow up in. There was plenty of room to play baseball and ride horses, which we spent a lot of time doing as kids growing up. We never had much as youngsters growing up, but what we did have was love from our parents and grandparents. They always wanted the best for us. My brother and sister and I were more fortunate than most I guess. Some kids may be rich moneywise, but never get loved on and cared for the way we did. Since I was a young boy I have had a love for writing and making people smile and stop to think about life. I try to write books that people will enjoy and that they can learn from and make use of in their life in some meaningful way. I worked for AAA in Michigan for twenty two years in construction as a project manager and eventually decided to get back to my roots to be closer to family in Oklahoma. We moved shortly after dad passed away from lung cancer. Dad was a smoker for many years, and worked in a steel plant. It think all of that eventually caught up with him. I still miss him to this very day and he has been gone for over ten years now. I will be laying in bed at night trying to fall asleep and hear him in my mind giving some more of his very wise and caring words. It's funny but I also smell the cigarettes that took his life. It was a hard sell to get my sweet, precious wife to move back to the Sooner state of Oklahoma but I eventually did around 2013 when I retired after having a heart attack. We have been married now for almost 40 years, and I can say they have been the best years of my life. She has made a difference in my life for sure. She is my very best friend in this life. You know it is true what they say, that we live life forwards but learn it in reverse. The more I live the more I learn the less I really knew about life when I was younger. Growing older gives you a perspective you could not see before. GOD has been good to me over the years and blessed me with a loving family and friends. My goal in life is to truly make a difference in the lives of others and to serve the GOD who made me. At the end of my life I believe I will have been a success if people can say that I served and love GOD and made a difference in their lives.