Alva Review-Courier -

After our group at the remote Shady Brook Cafe had waited on our food orders for more than an hour, we were becoming more than a little tired of the delay. The small talk among our members had dried up, and we didn’t particularly enjoy the e...

Some people enjoy the somewhat harmless activity known as “the art of storytelling.” It’s also sometimes known as “getting creative with the facts.” Other persons become suspicious at hearing a differing account, and object strongly to any variation...

One of the activities that Patti and I enjoy at our two modest homes is feeding “critters.” If you’ve ever read the story of Johnny Appleseed (actual name John Chapman), he was an easterner who traveled throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio plant...

One of Alva’s most colorful personalities from the past century is the one and only Robert R. Brown. In the past, when mentioning his name, everyone that knew him always said all three components of his cognomen (i,e, “Robert” “R” “Brown”). But today...

Though the ancient philosopher and teacher Socrates is long gone, variations of the pedagogical technique known as the “Socratic Method of Teaching” might still be encountered in institutions of higher education today, most notably in law sch...

Ah, to be back in the old classroom again, listening to old Professor Droning Onanon explaining some of the finer points of western civilization – occasionally referencing an ancient Greek teacher and philosopher named “Socrates” [470 BC - 399 BC.]...

Oh to be able to say precisely the right thing at just the right time. That is to say, one would be able to reply to an insult with a real zinger that puts the resident smart aleck in his place. And at the same time, the zinger would not be so...

My next contact with former inmates from the Alva German POW camp occurred when their 50-year reunion was held in Alva in 1995 at the Sirloin Stockade (now a closed Mexican restaurant.) Stan Almgren was the owner/manager at the time. Roughly...

In the fall semester of 1944 at Northwestern State College in Alva, Oklahoma, an 18-year-old coed named Phyllis Stout was surprised to see long lines of German prisoners of war marching past Shockley Hall (now Vinson Hall) on the east side of the NWO...

My sister used to be an avid collector of autographs from musical performers. In her teenage years, Sandy (a/k/a “Sis”) used to be very good at being first in line for signatures after a thrilling (to her) operatic performance. (I never did make any...

Some celebrities are very personable and approachable. One of the best at accommodating autograph hounds was “the King” of golf, Arnold Palmer. Unfortunately, he passed from this life a short while ago in 2016. During his playing days, Palmer was fam...

Perhaps ten years before his Pinehurst victory, I “met” Payne Stewart while attending one of the Colonial golf tournaments in Fort Worth, Texas. I was in a crowd of several hundred people, watching a foursome of golfers play the ninth hole, when one...

It is human nature to harbor a desire to be around great people, and to keep lasting mementos of the experience. One way of accomplishing that goal is to collect a notable person’s “John Henry” on paper. But the difficulty of doing so tends to vary...

In the late ‘60s, mass enrollment at Northwestern Oklahoma State College was done by having all its university professors grouped by discipline in the Student Center Ballroom. Then they were to personally sign students into their classes, o...

If the reader will allow for a small digression, while news of World War II in Europe and North Africa was being covered by Walter Cronkite, Northwestern Oklahoma State University had one of its very own covering the war in the Pacific theater. Soft...

During World War II, Walter Cronkite became a preeminent war correspondent and covered many major military engagements up close and personal. However, he did not always content himself just to be an observer and reporter of the conflicts. At times...

War correspondents of World War II often received minimal military training, both as to martial techniques and military procedure and protocol. They were more or less a kind of “civilian military misfit.” Correspondent personnel wore officers’ unifo...

When Walter Cronkite was ten years old, the Cronkite family moved from Kansas City to Houston, Texas. Some of the South’s cultural conventions of the time shocked the former mid-westerner. The mistreatment of African Americans was quite d...

Depending on a person’s preferred news source, one might conclude that the other person is one of the well-informed and “right minded” persons. But if he favors the opposite party, he might easily think that he’s dealing with a deranged mental...

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, targeted girls in an approaching car would be most impressed when the established honking ritual was accomplished with flair and grace. The feminine description often given for this supreme result was “the living end.” But it wa...

During the ‘50s and ‘60s, our family home was situated on “the main drag” in Hugoton, Kansas, which naturally enough was named “Main Street.” The street was also the principal north/south highway through the town, and intersected another east/west h...

As was true of the vast majority of pre-teens, my siblings and I spent a great deal of time trying to avoid disciplinary issues with our mother, and naturally we compared notes with fellow classmates. I was particularly impressed with one classmate...

Where our mother’s wrath over our misbehavior was concerned, it was totally a different matter from the way Dad dealt with it. She would not give warnings, but would merely state in matter of fact terms that we had earned a spanking, and that we w...

Every new generation has to learn disciplinary basics, such as any time mothers refer to a child with both first and middle names, they are usually in a GREAT deal of trouble. And in our own family’s situation, there would absolutely be no mercy r...

There is nothing so appreciated by the general public as a well-behaved child. But things become less than peachy when nearby Junior begins to test appropriate limits. Or more to the point, we have trouble putting up with someone else’s “lovely child...