Category Archives: random
Divided Loyalties
Sooners or Cowboys? In Oklahoma, one is often expected to take one side or the other in the rivalry between its two largest institutions of higher education: the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU). I am bemused … Continue reading
Normal School
Traditional teacher preparation has cratered in Oklahoma, which saddens me since I and the 2,663 students I taught from 1989 to 2017 benefited so much from my choice to major in education back in 1986. When I enrolled at the … Continue reading
Landscaping Lamentations
The green thumbs of the former owners of Meador Manor should be stained red, given the poisonous and polluting species they planted. In the early 1990s, they completely reworked the yard, and admittedly it looked good when I bought the … Continue reading
The Elastic Heart of Youth
The elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Almost all of my childhood belongings were sold off over time in garage sales, given to younger … Continue reading
Before Jurassic Park came Farwells
I first visited Farwells Dinosaur Park in 1970, when I was four years old. For almost 40 years, it was one of the more bizarre tourist attractions near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. My parents had bought a tiny one-bedroom cabin on … Continue reading














