“A true educator acts as a facilitator to learning.” Lexico.com Starting out as a freshman in college and growing through seven graduate institutions, I recently calculated that during those years I had endured at least 45 different professors, scholars, instructors, lecturers, or teachers. I don’t remember most of their names…

It was one of the smallest towns in Alberta, Canada, and it was Sunday morning — time to go to church. My weekend host invited me to go along to…

Back when Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic were guests in every home. — When I was a boy, Sundays were for going to church and Saturdays were for going to the library. My mother saw to it that I participated (religiously) in both activities. I cannot ascertain all the distinct values that I received from either experience, but I do remember reading all…

He’s long-gone, but I remember him well. The cruel telephone announced one day that my father had died. He died without pain or suffering in the middle of the day, and the sun was shining when he breathed his last breath. Daddy was a preacher who started preaching when he…

If you are a 12 year old boy. — Summertime in Enid, Oklahoma was a time for fun if you were 12 years old and had a good friend like Dean Wilmoth. You were limited only by your imagination and the economic realities of the Great Depression. I was sitting on the front steps of our house when Dean…

This is the old version. — When I was a boy, Saturday night was bath night. Preparation for the ritual was elaborate. First, the old wood-burning stove had to be encouraged or threatened to produce heat. This was no small feat. That big, black, iron monster sat there in perpetual defiance to your best efforts. Sometimes…

But it still screems the big and bad things out. — When I was a kid, they made us memorize things. I hated the discipline. I remember being forced to memorize THE HIGHWAYMAN, a long piece of verse. As soon as I passed the test, I laid the poem aside and was glad to get rid of it. Years later by…

My wealth is not in a bank. It’s in a friendship. — Today is the birthday of the first friend that I ever had. I met him in September of 1936 in Enid, Oklahoma. We went to different schools, but we went to the same church where my father was pastor. We were both 10 years old. …

One boy’s story. — It was a detective kind of day. Mystery, intrigue, and even dark crime were everywhere. Innocent looking people masked deep secrets of heinous behavior. It was up to us to rip off the masks and expose the perpetrators. Lieutenant Dean Wilmoth, age 11, was in charge of this crime detail…