Don Conner and it just can't happen today

 When you grow up in the largest school district in the state of Oklahoma there are some interesting facts you have to understand.

• When it is the largest does not mean it has the number of human beings.  As I have said in the past, I had 5 sometimes 6 in my first 7 years of school and we never had pre-school or kindergarten or even a day care center.
• The bus ride to school can take 30 minutes to get to Grainola even though it is only 4 miles from home to school.  And if you are going to Shidler for the last 5 grades (56 in that class) the bus ride is about 1 hour 15 minutes and we only lived 14 miles from the school.
• The bus driver, Don Conner, smoked a cigar every morning and evening ON THE BUS.  Actually, it smelled pretty good, but he always kept the window partially open.  Now I have to tell you that Bob Scott drove the bus a few of those years for Grainola and Lizzi (his wife) was the cook for the school.  Bob was also the janitor and kept the coal burning heaters going.
• Another thing about Don, and I am not sure what all is true, is he was an excellent shooter and competed nationally in skeet and clay.  My understanding is that he shot 498 out of 500 and still placed second nationally.  At least it is a good story.  Don and his wife and two kids, Ida and Joe, lived about 1 mile west as the crow flies from our house and they had about a 10-acre pond behind the house and a very cool porch / house and a great big barn.  One time the barn got hit by lightning or at least it exploded into flames from fermented hay and everyone around Grainola ran over there to save the house.  Joe went on to own the Fairfax Chief (newspaper).

Ok, back to Don and family.  I never knew if Don worked but he had some land which was leased to the Coopers and some of it was leased to mom and dad.  His wife did a lot of writing, particularly about the Osage Indians.  Joe and Ida were much older but Joe, who passed away in 2023, was my brother's age and became an Eagle Scout.  My mom was always proud of Joe as he was in the Boy Scout club that my mother led.  Don was always a little cranky at us kids on the bus but for some reason I liked him pretty good until one day he got mad at our dog for chasing the bus.  That always bothered me but he kept Bob and David Harris from picking on me so that made him pretty cool.

Well, what do you learn in the Osage?

• Smoking a cigar on the school bus was not going to kill us.
• Thinking Don was such a famous person gave me something to look up to.
• Sometimes not knowing the entire truth about someone is not all bad.
• We all need folks to look up to, that sets a good standard.  It might even make you want to smoke a cigar.

Thanks for listening,

Gary

gary.olson@finaciti.com

finaciti.com