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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Charles Biggs

Publisher

Tulsa Beacon

A billion reasons why Oklahoma needs fiscal discipline

Tulsa Beacon

Oklahoma is taking in a lot of tax money. In fact, during the last year, the state has gotten so much extra money, it has as much as a billion dollars in the Rainy Day Fund (and other accounts). That’s a billion with a “B.” Gov. Kevin Stitt, to his credit, wants to sit tight…

I never bought a motorcycle and never played football

Tulsa Beacon

Football fever is in the air. I almost played football when I was in the sixth grade at Burbank Elementary School. I went to the first practice and was shown how to get into a three-point stance on the offensive line. “Block the guy on the other side,” the coach barked. I did block him….

This is what I did to lose about 40 pounds in 5 months

Tulsa Beacon

I’ve lost about 40 pounds since March 1. Hurray! This is the most weight I have ever lost in one season. When I was 21, I lost 35 pounds at my summer job, which was delivering furniture for Manhattan Furniture. I wasn’t trying to lose weight that summer but it happened. About 10 years or…

It’s a challenge trying to be a long-distance Grandpa

Tulsa Beacon

I never met one set of my grandparents, my mother’s parents, the late Amos Whitten Rogers and Elizabeth Mae Rogers of West Virginia. Believe it or not, they were both born in 1875 – 144 years ago! They had 11 children, who were born from 1895 through 1917. My mother was born in 1911. She…

Covering the police department can be quite a challenge

Tulsa Beacon

Early in my career as a journalist, I was assigned as a “late night police reporter.” I worked for a big daily newspaper that came out in the mornings. That shift typically was from 3 p.m. to midnight. The newspaper had three staggered editions and the last one – the one that went to people…

Some college courses make you want to scratch your head

Tulsa Beacon

When I was at The University of Oklahoma, I took Theory of Basketball, Theory of Baseball, Theory of Wrestling, Theory of Track and Field and, of course, Theory of Football. I was a journalism major and I thought I wanted to be a sportswriter, so I took these courses. All but Theory of Wrestling were…

Democrat hopefuls racing to get as far left as possible

Tulsa Beacon

Just when you thought national politics couldn’t get any worse, it does. The Democrat debates are a series of desperate candidates trying to outdo each other in making promises that they can’t keep. They are overtly trying to buy votes and the sad fact is – it might just work. One Democrat wants the federal…

What happened to those theaters Tulsa used to have?

Tulsa Beacon

When I was a kid growing up in Tulsa, going to a movie was a big deal. I grew up near McClure Park (11th street and Memorial Drive) and we were close to the Admiral Twin Drive-in. The park and the drive-in are still there. When the Crosstown Expressway (I-244) was built, we were afraid…

I have a special privilege that cannot be diminished

Tulsa Beacon

I admit that I grew up under privilege. No, it wasn’t because my family had wealth. We didn’t. My Father, the late Harley Biggs, Sr., was a barber who took home about $100 a week back in the 1960s in Tulsa. My mother passed away in 1959 and Dad had to raise five young boys…

Some of the best vacations are just not that complicated

Tulsa Beacon

When I was a kid, we didn’t have much money and so we never took a real summer vacation. Sometimes, usually on the Fourth of July or over the Labor Day weekend, we would drive over to Conway, Arkansas, to visit family members and go crappie fishing. When Susan and I started having kids, we…