(BOOK 2!) I loved the 4th of July! Every year my Dad would buy a smallish bunch of firecrackers, smoke bombs, bottle rockets, Roman candles, sparklers, fountains and snakes.  And every year, my Dad, the Fireman or Fire Marshall, would give me The Speech. Thou shalt not: At this point, you are expecting me to […]

(FIRST BOOK!) The annual Lions’ Club Carnival always came to Norman in late April. It was tucked way back in the grotty, southwest corner of Main Street and the railroad tracks, and it must have attracted a million kids every year. Music and laughter and squeals of glee filled the air, along with the smells […]

(FIRST BOOK) I may have implied in the previous Memory that defensive players like me were never allowed to hit Dean Blevins because of the Pink Quarterback dress he always wore. That's not entirely true. I did pole-axe him one time in the meeting room. I wasn’t made a starter for Norman High until I […]

(FROM FIRST BOOK) If you played football at Norman High in the early Seventies, you had to behave on and off the field, or risk getting benched, a fate worse than death. But after our senior football season in the fall of 1973, we grew our hair long and thought we had a licence, if […]

(BOOK 2!) Back before global warming, every year or two Norman would get enough snow to close the schools. And there would be MASSIVE REJOICING on Nebraska Street, at least from the kids. The Moms, not so much. Because they knew what it meant for them. “MOM, WHERE ARE MY <<insert 900 things you needs […]

(BOOK 2!) As a kid, I idolized Norman High football players as they strutted around Norman in their NHS letter jackets. When I finally got mine in 1974, I wore it pretty much every minute of every day! Sure, the wool collar rubbed my neck raw. And the body was a size too big. And […]

(Book 2!) Or at least you should have, considering I caught a whale of a lot of fish when I was growing up, mainly at Lake Thunderbird, plus the occasional trips to ginormous Lake Texoma. After my Dad left the Fire Department, he bought a modest tri-hull boat with a small Evinrude motor. It didn’t […]

Never has it been so easy to find the PERFECT Christmas gift for the Baby Boomers that you love so dearly, thanks to Santa and all the elves at the North Pole and Amazon.com. Whether it's for your Mom or Dad, Aunt or Uncle, Gramps or Nana, if they are over 50-ish, these books are […]

(Book 2!) My Mom’s purse was a truly amazing thing.  Regardless of what happened—bike  crash, splinter, bee sting, broken zipper, starvation, boredom, bubonic plague, nuclear explosion—her purse held exactly what was needed. And Mom could retrieve whatever was needed in a heartbeat, even if she was cooking or driving or singing a hymn at Church, […]

(Book 2!) WHEN HALLOWEEN MEANT GHOSTS, HOBOS AND MIDGETS! Imagine letting your kids dress up in weird costumes and walk around the neighborhood, unsupervised and at night, collecting candy from complete strangers. What could possibly go wrong? But nothing ever did back in the day, when kids were safe, free was good, and none of […]