Remember summer firecrackers, bike races, and double features on a Saturday afternoon?
When author Stephen Joe Payne was working on organizing a Pawhuska All-School Reunion, those who had read his essays about his childhood in a small Western town in the 1950s and ‘60s encouraged him to take his collection of reminiscences and turn them into a book.
For the young at heart, Pawhuska Kids’ Stuff is sure to evoke a flood of memories of your own days gone by.
Praise for Pawhuska Kids’ Stuff
“Visit Pawhuska! Prepare to smile and laugh out loud. It’s really good medicine. Stroll the avenues and climb the hills. Let Stephen be your tour guide. Be prepared. Some of the hills are pretty steep. Then, at the end of the day, go back to the places that were special to you and take some time to be still. In the twilight, close your eyes and listen to the echoes-savor the moment. Remember the time…”
- Frank Hulse (Fellow Pawhuskan)
I can not say with certainty what creates such deep and lasting loyalty to a small Oklahoma town and its lone high school. I can speculate and I may be right; I may also be wrong. I think it is because of friendships. We formed them at some point and we have kept them. As we have moved further away in time and distance, we have formed new friendships and new loyalties. Our new loyalties are to new towns, colleges, the army, the navy, a ship, our company, fraternities, sororities and a host of other things. But the distance and time away seem to create a veil through which we look backwards and the veil lets us see things the way we want to more than the way they were.
Someone with whom we competed bitterly in first grade has become a friend as we matured and gained deeper values. We have forgotten that he or she made fun of us or maybe even hit us. Going back to Pawhuska gives us a physical place to reconnect and while we are there, seeing the same things together, an old building that was once the fabled Dairy Queen, looking up to see Whiting Hall and recall a bus filled with black musicians with a national hit In the Mood in a still de facto segregated south, remembering a white sports coat, pink carnation, and a girl in our arms, all these let us reflect on that friendship and deepen it. Our loyalty is really to each other but the physical and enduring metaphor for our loyalties and our loves is Pawhuska, and the lasting symbol of Pawhuska is not The Triangle Building; it is not the magnificent court house high up Grandview Hill. The lasting metaphor for our loyalties and loves is Pawhuska High School no matter what form it may take.
That is why, “We’re loyal to you Pawhuska High…”
About Stevie Joe Payne
As a young boy, he was known as "Stevie Joe."
Today, Stephen Joe Payne is an author, essayist, and motivational writer. He hails from Pawhuska, a small town in northeastern Oklahoma, where "he is rumored to have grown up, though he admits to being in a latter state of childhood."
Remember summer firecrackers, bike races, and double features on a Saturday afternoon?
As a young boy, he was known as "Stevie Joe."