Honoring His Honor

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead." I should have recalled this wise quote when Doug's secretary called me and informed me that the Beckham-Roger Mills County Bar Association would be hosting a dinner for Doug and nominating him for an award and that it was to be a surprise. My job was to get him and our family to the dinner without his suspecting anything. Gamely, I agreed to the conspiracy. Never mind the fact that I would somehow have to convince Doug that he must wear a suit and tie on a night that we had set aside to canvass door to door. In my mind, possible explanations for the fancy attire ran the gamut from "The suit makes you look official" to "You need to look good because you never know who might take your picture." I am definitely a rather lame and uninspired liar.
The situation was further complicated by the logistics of getting family members' schedules to cooperate. Week nights were ruled out because of distance and early work hours the next day, and Friday and Saturday nights were complicated by work schedules and of course football game attendance. Friday, September 24 was settled on, and then there was the possible problem of invitations. Keenan still gets his mail at our house, so if an invitation were to be sent to him, I would have to beat Doug to the mailbox every day so he would not spot the suspicious-looking envelope.
Making my conundrum worse, I decided that Doug needed a new suit for this affair. Since neither of us could take time away from the campaign to shop for one and since I would have to come up with a semi-plausible explanation for the new clothes, I decided to have Lauren buy the suit in Amarillo. I sent my credit card with her, and the plan would have worked flawlessly except for the fact that a very astute cashier realized that it is highly unlikely that such a young woman would be named Judy. Well, to make a long story short, we worked it out, and Lauren was not arrested for credit card fraud, and Doug got a new suit.
Well by this time, the "secret" had been shared with numerous people making the chance for a surprise dinner smaller and smaller. And then, one of the lawyers in charge of the dinner told Doug. In spite of the fact that I had wasted a great deal of creative deception and stealth on the project, I was relieved.
The dinner was wonderful. Of course, Shannon and Josh could not come from Georgia, but Lauren, Brandon, and Eli and Keenan and Carlie were all there along with many members of the bar and numerous friends. Doug received a Citation of Appreciation signed by Governor Brad Henry, Senator Tom Ivester, and Representative Purcy Walker. He was unanimously nominated by the Beckham-Roger Mills County Bar Association for the Oklahoma Bar Association Award for Judicial Excellence. It was truly an evening of respect and affirmation.