Around Town

By John Bill Martin Staff Writer When you stand in front of a classroom of children for 57 years as I so enjoyably did, you encounter all sorts of questions, mostly about your personal life and sometimes about whatever topic we might have been discussing in class.

Staff Writer One of the first things I learned in Bible School as a youngster in rural Hughes County was that a parable is an earthly story with a Heavenly meaning. And some 70-80 years later, I know of no time in our Nation’s proud history when all of us could use more Heavenly meanings.

By John Martin Staff Writer When you stop and ponder this awesome and orderly universe that God has placed us in, some very remarkable facts become evident.

One of the advantages of growing old is all that knowledge that one accumulates. Most of it I can’t remember but I am lucky that to have fellow 1953 Holdenville High School buddy Eddie Mills to remind me.

I am the oldest of six siblings and usually have as many jobs as I do retirements. My youngest sister Paula Dunlap is the other teacher in our gang as she recently retired as Director of Special Services at Harrah and has stayed retired.

My late father had pretty traditional views when it came to politics. As one who survived the Great Depression, he thought Franklin D. Roosevelt was sent by a Protestant (probably Baptist) God to help poor, of whom we were among the poorest, people survive.

He was getting old and paunchy And his hair was falling fast, And he sat around the Legion, Telling stories of the past. Of a war that he once fought in And the deeds that he had done, In his exploits with his buddies; They were heroes, every one.

Here’s a little factoid for automotive buffs or just to dazzle your friends about one of the creature comforts that we take for granted, unless it doesn’t work. The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Max, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner.

With school starting again (for the third time without me in the classroom after 57 years), most teachers (and parents) begin to seek Divine Guidance as our little darlings come out of their summer hibernation. Which brings up this quiz concerning the traditional hymns sung in most churches.

This is certainly not anything new, but is worthy of a repeat if you’ve seen it before. It is an actual obituary notice printed in the London Times in the 1950s. Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.