Steve Chrisco

Steve had a level of sophistication, courage and blunt talent like no other.  I personally was lucky in that I met Steve even before I moved to Shidler High School.  The first time I ran into Steve was in Peewee baseball at the Shidler ball field during the summer.  Truth is I really did not know him but I knew of him because his pitching was off the charts.  He scared me to death with his fast ball.  In fact Rick Cottle and Steve were hot pitchers.  As a Grainola Grubber I had never seen a ball come at me so fast.  I don't think I ever got a hit off of Steve.  So when I graduated from Grainola and went to Shidler I got to experience "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would have said.  By the way do you know that Paul Harvey was from Oklahoma?

The old ball park

The rest of the story is Steve was an Icon in that he could do about anything.  He had the courage to try new things and say things that I would never say.  I remember he could play quarterback and lead the basketball team and make the craziest shots in basketball and pitch a curve or fastball better than anyone and he even played in the band during halftime.  He played Elvis better than Elvis.  He sang and danced like no other.  The girls loved him and I just marveled at the talent.  But there is one thing I know that almost none of you know about Steve and I am going to tell you about it.

Class of 1971 (Steve is in the middle to the right of John Payne in the black hat)

I will have to tell you I saw myself as a shy person who just loved life and enjoyed other folks courage.  Well Steve showed me courage like no other one night when he and a few of my buddies were staying at our house on Beaver Creek.  Steve reached into his pocket late that night and pulled out a cigarette lighter and then proceeded to show us a scientific fact. As a side note, just to let you know we were 8th graders at the time so our level of sophistication was very mature.  As Steve lit the lighter he passed a lot of gas which he lit and I saw something new to me.  A ball of fire exploded and it burnt the hair off his butt!  WOW!  As you can imagine all of us wanted to experience such a feat.  We must have farted for an hour while each took turns with the lighter.  Then Steve taught us that if you take Right Guard, the newest in deodorant at the time, and put the lighter to it you had a torch!  You could say that Steve en LIGHTENED us that evening.

For years to come I watched Steve keep us all entertained.  He had a band called the Roustabouts (I think that was the name) or at least he was part of the band.  At any time he was the star of the party and a joy to watch.  Great memories.

Well I have to say thanks to Steve for being such a big part of our class at dear old Shidler High.  

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com