Alva Review-Courier -

Ever since the teacher raises issue has gotten hot and heavy, Mary Fallin has avoided any public limelight.

This is a continuation of the swap meet in Wichita last week. The first year for the swap meet at the Century II Convention center is history. The location of our spaces were a plus, along with a five-minute drive there opposed to a 15-minute drive to the old location. The down side was the parking sucks for the buyers with as much as a four-block walk to get in. The crowd was smaller than at the Coliseum, but maybe next year will be better. We got right into our spaces and escaped after the meet equally well.

I ran into several vendors that weren't coming back next year, but Phil and I will give it one more go. I really only saw a handful of Alva people but the way it is set up you could easily miss someone. I talked to Arden and he said the “pre war” at Chickasha was pretty good. I didn't run into anyone that went to Norman to the meet, so I don't know how it was.

While in the parking lot I met a man, Jim Whitcomb, from Shell Knob, Missouri. He was born at Quinlin, Oklahoma, but his family later moved to Udall, Kansas. On May 25, 1955, at 10:35 p.m. a tornado leveled the town. He was 12 years old at the time. They had two railroad cars left on the tracks so one of them was used for a makeshift hospital and the other for the dead (77). He said he had a board sticking in his head and other injuries, so they took him to the car with the dead people, until someone realized he was alive. He said he spent two weeks in a hospital getting better. I asked him what he did to get to retirement, he said he worked 36 years at Cessna before retiring to Missouri. Motorcycles came up in the conversation and he told me he had owned a Cushman Husky, and later an Indian Motorcycle. Neat bikes to own anytime in your life. His was the conversation I enjoyed the most at the show.

I saw where the mayor wants to develop an economic development committee to help Alva grow. Just wondering, but don't we have economic development people hired to do the development job for both Alva and Woods County? Looks like we can save the big bucks when we get the committee up and going. The economic development directors will no longer be needed because the committee members will be doing their jobs for them.

Cleo and I went to the show together for the first time in many years. She wanted to see Peter Rabbit and allowed that maybe I could be trusted with her in the dark, sitting close. I must have done good because she never hit me with her cane once! The show was okay, a bit silly, a bit romantic and entertaining for all ages.