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…”
