We want to thank the employees who helped in the taking of the “Now” photos.

We hope you enjoy these images.

On April 20, PSO employees joined other volunteers and repaired 16 homes for deserving owners in the neighborhoods surrounding Burroughs Elementary.

I made my first trip to the Midwest recently. One night, I went to dinner at a restaurant with four friends. We were all on our best behavior.

I glanced at the menu and ordered a rock steak. How different could it be from something I would get in Southwestern Oklahoma? Yet, the waitress never asked how I wanted it cooked. That should have been my first clue.

When my dinner arrived, the piece of beef was served on a hot black stone. The meat sizzled somewhat like a Mexican fajita platter, but not quite as loud.

The beef was red and shaped like a pyramid. This meal does not look to be the right shape or color of beef back in Southwestern Oklahoma.

I know I have not seen much of the world, and I certainly had never been inside a Midwestern restaurant before. So I’m thinking to myself, ‘Don’t say anything about this foreign looking piece of meat. Just go with it.’

I cut a sliver off the edge and tasted it. Not only was the inside of the meat more red than the outside, it was actually cold to the taste. That should have been my final and most concerning clue.

At home, at any Oklahoma restaurant, if we had encountered this kind of meal, some would have immediately sent it back. But no, not me.

I sliced off more small pieces, and ate them. Still thinking I could not say anything or call attention to my meal, for fear of showing off my inexperience.

After I had forced down about a third or more of my dinner, I mentioned how the bottom of the steak was actually cooking pretty well on the hot stone. At this point, someone suggested that I turn the meat so it might heat up on the other sides, as well. Well that made perfect sense. So I turned it a couple of times and, finally, the meat started to taste better. We finished our meals and returned to the hotel.

Back in my room, I found a menu from the very restaurant that we just visited. It pays to read a menu listing, fully, instead of spotting an item and ordering without a second thought.

To my amazement the menu was quite clear. The rock steak is a “cook at your table” meal on a hot, black Finnish firestone. My piece of beef was red inside and out because it was raw…uncooked!

I had just consumed a raw, uncooked piece of meat. Now I’m thinking: I’m going to get E. coli! I’m going to get seriously sick.

Fortunately, that did not happen. After dodging that culinary bullet, I’m left thinking: how stupid. Why didn’t I read the menu? Why did I not ask the waitress for guidance? The reason is I was afraid to show my cluelessness and, by doing so, I ruined a perfectly great piece of beef.

Ha-ha. Now I’ve got to go back sometime and really enjoy the “rock steak,” cooked the way it was intended.

The first ice storm I worked was tough — tough working conditions, tough driving conditions, and tough living. I slept on a cot for several nights. I was part of crew (with Bubba Harjo and Randy Price) sent to Leavenworth, Kansas, to restore power after an ice storm in 1984. At that age — 21 — I was glad to be there, I suppose.

When I look at these photos from PSO’s beginning 100 years ago, I look at the large crews and think about the technology and territory they had to cover.

In the 1920s, each crew had eight to 10 men. Mules pulled wagons full of equipment to repair lines outside of town. I don’t figure they would have taken many vehicles outside the city limits.

Changes in technology — from mules and wagons to trucks, computers and GPS — means we’re working smarter and more safely today.

Now, we have crews of three or four linemen who do more work in one shift than a crew with 1920s technology could have accomplished over days.

PSO linemen drive bucket trucks from the flat land to the hills and the far tips of two mountain ranges that are part of PSO’s McAlester District. We use high-powered spotlights and trucks to patrol lines for problems after dark. It beats patrolling the lines on foot and using a lantern to spot trouble.

Take a close look at some of the photos of field crews from the 1920s and 1940s. They didn’t wear hard hats or have much PPE (personal protective equipment). Our crews wear hard hats, fire-retardant shirts, rubber sleeves and gloves, safety glasses, and steel-toed boots with soles rated to withstand electrical hazards.

We have excellent safety practices in place today that weren’t in the industry in the 1920s. These practices and equipment allow line mechanics to work as safely and as quickly as possible to restore power after storms.

We’ve learned a lot in the 100 years PSO has been serving Oklahoma. Still, I say a lot of prayers for our crews. It’s dangerous work.

I love my job. Not only do I work outside in the glorious fresh air taking care of the urban forest. I also get to experience good community works, especially when corporate citizens and nonprofits get together.

This past weekend, PSO collaborated with Tulsa’s Up With Trees to make it possible to donate trees to nonprofits and the public, in certain cases. The donations area the result of a tree grant from Houston-based Apache Corp. For the rest of this spring, PSO will store the 55,000 trees along the Arkansas River Bank in West Tulsa at its Tulsa Power Station. There’s plenty of room on the power plant property, and we are proud to be part of this community outreach.

Flowering crape myrtles in deep pink, watermelon and white; Kwanzan cherry, harvest gold crabapple; medium shade Cleveland select pear, golden raintree and large shade buy oak, Northern red oak and swamp white oak are now ready for pick up.

Up With Trees, PSO and community volunteers will distribute the trees to nonprofits, faith-based groups and government agencies during special weekend giveaways for a donation.

What a deal for everyone! Trees are available on Saturdays and Wednesdays at the PSO power plant pickup facility from noon to 2 p.m., at 3600 S. Elwood, exiting 41st street off of Highway 75.

Email trees@upwithtrees.org or call (918) 610-TREE (8733) with questions or for more information on how to get an application for a tree.

PSO participated in Community Helper Day at South Tulsa Baptist, handing out Louie the Lightning Bug coloring books and, from what we heard, PSO and Louie were the talk of the day at the center.

Actually, I think the teachers enjoyed it as much as the kids. We showed the teachers and students some of our utility work tools, an underground truck with a track hoe and a bucket truck.

Of course the bucket truck was a huge hit.Click to view slideshow.

Guest blog post by John Harper, PSO Vice President of External Affairs

One of the fascinating things about celebrating PSO’s 100th anniversary this year is to look through some of the archives around the PSO building. Ran across an envelope of photos of the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. My curiosity was stirred up because I went to that Fair as a 10-year-old boy.

I traveled with my parents and two brothers in a white 1963 Chevrolet Bel Aire station wagon from Denver, truly a ride to “See the USA in Your Chevrolet.” I think I really just dated myself as an OUF… Old Utility Fossil.

Later, another World’s Fair treasure appeared in the form of a 1964 company magazine and, low and behold, there was a photograph of a Mrs. G. E. Faire and audio-animatronic star, seated in the General Electric Pavilion. She was dressed like Aunt Bea from Mayberry and held a copy of that old PSO magazine in her hands.

We are not sure who staged this little prank, but it did reveal something we all probably know. Dedicated, customer-driven employees have always walked the halls and driven the trucks of PSO. Now, we understand that many were often witty and fun-filled employees.

So, I’m extending an invitation to any PSO employee — or customer, for that matter — to share any funny stories or unusual incidents while interacting with PSO or working at PSO. The information will help chronicle what it has been to like to work at PSO and how our involvement with our customers is remembered.

We are looking forward to some real good belly laughs!

The dinner was attended by the exchange students host families and other dignitaries including former Tulsa mayor Roger Randle and his wife (both Peace Corp volunteers in Brazil in their early lives). The 10 students are a part of a 40-student cadre drawn from more than 17,000 high school student applicants in Brazil. Their study program targeted community volunteering and social service.

“It’s a goodwill program between Brazil and the United States and an example of citizen diplomacy,” Harper said,  “The idea that all Americans have the right and responsibility to help shape U.S.-foreign relations themselves, one handshake at a time.”Click to view slideshow.