Rocket Science - Shidler Style

I have had the extreme pleasure of getting together with David and Jaki McCollum and Martha Berman McNeese for lunch at Louie's in Edmond.  David is not as skinny as he used to be and neither am I for that matter.  Marsha is as delightful as I could ever remember.  You see they were both about 5 years older than me and I just remember Martha as that pretty girl at the soda counter at Berman's Drug Store.  Well we got to talk a lot about our love for Shidler, the Osage, Denoya and all the folks that made up the community.

We all agreed that when the movie theatre burned down it was a sign of what was to become for Shidler where old businesses and a lot of history moved away.  But what was encouraging was the memories of what those old buildings, teachers and lessons of the Osage did to us and for us.

Marsha talked about riding on the oil well pumps and we joked that the reason people should not do that today is they were not raised riding on those pumps and just did not know how to do it.  I do have to say it is dangerous but just about everyone I knew had tried it.  Janis Harris and I laughed about the same thing a few weeks earlier.  By the way she also falsely accused Eddy (her brother) and Jon Tanny and I of mischief.  We will all pause and pray for her forgiveness of false accusations.

Anyway David who has a perfect memory, so don't argue the facts with him, talked about climbing the water tower only to find the staircase secured at the top with just one strand of wire.  The realization of the near death experience invited him and his accomplices to add wiring to secure the stairs.  Now the great thing was they painted on the tower not realizing that when you get back down to earth those letters are dramatically smaller than when you are standing there painting.  Criag Lotz put a scare into them as they heard a voice calling out to them asking what were they doing.  Of course as most of us would do, they assumed it was Charlie Doty, the local police authority, and it scared the c__p out of them.  But instead it was Craig, the Crescent Pharmacist today, who was standing down there yelling.

But back to that rocket science.  Delores Van Camp the valedictorian of 1965, who was just smarter than a whip, wrote a math/engineering and computer language  book and worked on the space program or maybe it was rockets.  She was also one of the first female PHD's in electrical engineering in the country and worked for the Pentagon and the Navel Academy and prior to that she worked at Los Alamos.  If that does not make you proud of Shidler and all those teachers and doesn't it make you wish teachers could teach and inspire without fear from over government regulations.  In those days the students feared the teacher not the teacher feared the students, the government, the documentation, and just all the bullcrap.  I am not sorry for for saying that but Thank YOU DeLores Van Camp for one more person inspired in the Osage who became successful.  You inspire us to reach new heights, kind of like a ROCKET.  Hum, think, think!

I don't  know about you but I am 58 years old and inspired to keep on keeping on.  This reminds me of a story to end this.

When my dad was 87 and two days before he went to the hospital which was the beginning of the end of a great life he came to our house west of Edmond.  At that time he and mom lived in Perkins, OK and we lived on a farm between Penn and May on 178th St in North Edmond commonly known as "The Pumpkin Patch".  Well dad was like the great Winston Churchill, he NEVER NEVER QUIT.  You see that morning he decided he was going to get my gas weed eater and go weed eat around our place, 80 ACRES! HOW RIDICULOUS!  I told him he was not going to do that because I would be embarrassed to have an 87 year old man out weed eating my place and if someone saw him I would be in trouble for abuse or something.  He stuck out his tongue at me and said, "Piss on You" and he went to work.

Well I don't know about you but what the Osage had to teach me was and is amazing:

•  If you are like me you have not done a great job of keeping those old friends connected but I challenge you to enjoy and rekindle those relationships
• Things are not what this life is about but those experiences and what you give back to others is what you will be remembered for, think about it and leave a legacy
• You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it, including being a rocket scientist

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com