This is simply a word picture of something I often experienced as a boy. As often happens I didn’t know how much I loved these things until I realized they no longer shared my world. Steam Engines: At the mid-century point of the 20th Century hundreds of awesome black behemoths roamed...
As part of the business of our moving into a “Retirement Condo Community” (It is mid-April 2012 as I write this) we have been taking inventory of the tangible “driftwood” that has piled up on the shores of our lives over the years and disposing of things that were once useful...
When I was an Assistant Superintendent for Instruction in one of the larger city schools in Ohio (way back in the early `80's) it was quite common for consultants and universities to schedule workshops and even offer courses that purported to tell we "leaders in Education" what was coming down the...
Along about 1967 the tsunami of money from the Federal Government to “Education” that was created by the nerve shattering “beep-beep-beeping” of the world’s first space vehicle had reached its crest and was receding. It was Russia’s vehicle. . . and it was called “Sputnik” or fellow traveler. Those beeps were...
If you picture a valley as a bowl or a long trough between lines of mountains, Caney is not in a valley. But Urban S. Gibbs, a patriarch who had the stern, unforgiving look of John Brown, was President of our bank and keeper of Caney’s money. He called his bank...
In the “dark ages” of mid-twentieth century life was pretty much an “assume your own risk” proposition whether at work, at home, or at play. There was no OSHA, no safety requirements for toys, games, child seats, helmets and so on, and very few rules or laws dealing with personal behavior...
The Great Bermuda Short Scandal In today’s society a person would have to appear in public almost as uncovered as a new-born babe to get arrested on a charge of indecent exposure. That was not the case as the 20th Century rolled past the halfway mark on its road to another...
Spend 36 years in “The Vineyards of Education” and unless you were somehow completely insensible to your surroundings you will have a truckload of incidents, some humorous, others poignant, and a few (although too many) tragic, lurking in your memory. I began my career in September of 1957 as a band...
In the first few years after “The War” every American wanted either something they had been denied during “The War” or something they’d never had. We teen agers were no exception. There were, of course, some fads that came and went, such as boys insisting on a pair of boots –...
New Year’s Day, 1954 found me bundling up the few belongings the Army allowed me to have into my reasonably nice looking 1948 “Kaiser.” “Kaiser” being one of the several new car company start-ups that bloomed and died in the years following “The War.” I was officially a tuba player in...
In December, 1994 we were living in St. Charles MO. I was working on an irregular basis as a “temp” paralegal for a large law firm in downtown St. Louis and as a substitute teacher in two suburban school districts. Anne worked as a secretary at The Jewish Center for the...
On October 4th, 1957, my first year as a teacher and one day after my 25th birthday, we were "treated" to a beeping sound being sent from space by a man-made satellite. The first of the many that now roam about the earth. It was called "Sputnik," and, God forbid, it...
All science classes in the small-town high school from which I graduated were taught by a poor soul whom, for out of respect for his memory, I will not name. Consider him “Mr. X.” Mr. X became infamous for the total anarchy that reigned in his classroom. This unfortunate man had...
In the 1930’s, Central Oklahoma would have made any film director looking for an “On Location” site for a movie depicting the seven plagues of Ancient Egypt drool with desire. Most of Oklahoma, after enduring the destruction of the Dust Bowl, foreclosures on family farms and double-digit unemployment had one...
Forgive? I have much more to be forgiven for than to forgive. The years between 1950 and 1979 are filled with things I did to hurt other people. It wasn’t deliberate or malicious but that doesn’t excuse the fact that I did hurt people, sometimes severely. I either didn’t know or...
Life is made up of achievement, failure, frustration, fulfillment, ecstasy and agony: and in my 79 years I have both sampled and sometimes dwelled too long in every one of them. That is as it should be. I would find it impossible to say which among the thousands of joyful moments,...
There are some things we did in our lives that we may wish we had done differently, but there is a good probability that if we got a second chance we would not do them differently. Why? Because the motivation to do what we did the first time is firmly grounded...
During the darker days of “The War” (to the “elders” of today’s society that always means “WWII.”) gasoline was stringently rationed. Drivers were issued “A,” “B,” or “C” decals to put onto their windshields and a rationing book filled with coupons that could be redeemed only on a week by week...
Wishing one could go back in time and relive some part of one’s life is tempting, but with a little reflection it is easy to see that changin perhaps even a small decision or action is loaded with unintended, life changing consequences. The poet Robert Frost made this point clearly in...
A couple of miles west of my home town, Caney KS, after crossing an old iron truss bridge spanning the muddy Caney River on a narrow asphalt country road there was a crossroads. To the north the road ran a few miles and then fizzled out. To the south it turned into...
