Most that know me know I’m a child of the 80’s. I love 80’s memorabilia and especially music. When news broke that Michael Jackson was dead, I was as shocked as everyone else. Seeing it on Indonesian TV was a little surreal.
I’m not going to talk about “omg he was innocent” or “he molested children and nobody should care” or get into any of that. I liked his heyday music and that’s that. I have one particular memory I want to share.
I was riding down to Houston in late March of 2001 with Mark Moreland, on the way to Wrestlemania 17. We were in Mom’s old Explorer (RIP) and ‘Billie Jean’ came on the CD player. Like always, I bopped my head to the music, Mark seemed light-years away as he did school work in the passenger seat. The song played on.
People always told me, be careful of what you do…don’t go around breaking young girl’s hearts.
EE-HEE
When the ‘EE-HEE’ hit, Mark and I both sang it aloud, completely unaware that the other was going to do it. We had a good laugh about it, but I think about that from time to time. His music tied a generation together. May he find the peace in death he could not find in life.
Rhys Martin was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1981. In 2009, he sold everything he owned and left the country, living out of a backpack for ten months. He discovered a passion for photography while traveling throughout Southeast Asia and Europe.
After returning home, he looked at his home town and Oklahoma heritage with fresh eyes. When he began to explore his home state, Rhys turned his attention to historic Route 66. As he became familiar with the iconic highway, he began to truly appreciate Oklahoma’s place along the Mother Road. He has traveled all 2,400 miles of Route 66, from Chicago to Los Angeles. He has also driven many miles on rural Oklahoma highways to explore the fading Main Streets of our small towns. Rhys has a desire to find and share the unique qualities of the Sooner State with the rest of the world.
Cloudless Lens Photography has been featured in several publications including This Land, Route 66 Magazine, Nimrod Journal, Inbound Asia Magazine, The Oklahoman, and the Tulsa World. In 2018 he published his first book, Lost Restaurants of Tulsa.
Rhys loves to connect with people and share his experiences; ask him about enjoyable day trips from Tulsa, locations along Route 66, and good diners or burger joints along the way.
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Rhys' Pieces 