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A Very Merry Aqua Velva Christmas 

Tulsa Beacon

Everyone has certain smells they associate with Christmas: Grandma’s home-baked bread or the scent of a fresh-cut pine tree—or, as in my house, the scent of a newly erected cheap plastic Christmas tree.  But for me, the fragrance of Aqua Velva aftershave lotion and Christmas will always be connected. In the early ’70s, I was…

Football plus some horrendous traffic in a trip Dallas

Tulsa Beacon

I went to the Big 12 Championship game in Arlington, Texas, to watch Oklahoma play Baylor on December 7. I had never been to the AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, so I was curious about what it was like. I had seen the stadium on television many times. Of course, I have been…

Look for toys that are safe but bring your family together

Tulsa Beacon

I shouldn’t be alive. I’m serious.  As I was placing my grandson into his high-tech, tornado/nuclear proof car seat (you have to be a Ph.D. or under three years old to operate it, and I’m neither), I started thinking about the difference between the world I grew up in and his. If you’ve been reading…

Songs of Christmas evoke some sentimental memories

Tulsa Beacon

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music. I grew up singing Christmas carols at church (and at school back then) and they have stuck with me. I even learned on in Spanish – O Pueblecito de Belen (O Little Town of Bethlehem). Here are some of my favorite Christmas songs: – White…

A 68-year-old Christmas stocking adorns our Christmas tree

Tulsa Beacon

When we first had our kids, my wife wanted a real tree. I told her that wouldn’t be practical because the sap would run out of the tree and the floor would get sticky. She then reminded me that we had two sons, and everything in the house was already sticky. Once again, I had…

Capitalism is not the cause of environmental destruction

Tulsa Beacon

Speaking on November 25 in the European Parliament (EP), left wing politician Mick Wallace voiced a hopelessly misguided theme we will likely hear more of during the big UN climate conference being held in Madrid from Dec 2 – 13: ‘capitalism did it.’ According to people like Wallace, the main problem for the environment is…

I’m going to get my grandchildren toys for Christmas

Tulsa Beacon

My daughter told me not to buy any more toys for my 18-month-old granddaughter for Christmas. Right. I have only been a grandparent for 18 months and that is not a whole lot of time to spoil a granddaughter. And now, I have twice as much spoiling to do thanks to the birth of my…

The Bible says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh

Tulsa Beacon

We had a meltdown this week in the Moore family – not in our home but in the home of our grandsons, Titus the Honorable and Cohen the Goodhearted. It seems that when Titus got home from school one day last week, he discovered that his longtime pet, a Siamese fighting fish, had died. Titus…

Be thankful for those who have gone before and made us

Tulsa Beacon

My dear reader, please forgive my utilization of this flawed vehicle as a way to convey a message that would be better delivered in person.  As I struggle to compose these words, I am grappling with the unimaginable reality that earlier today my mother, Florene Finn Stovall, shuffled off this mortal coil and graduated to…

Here’s my list of some of the things I am thankful for

Tulsa Beacon

I love that America takes at least one day a year to give thanks. For me, that begins with thanks to God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Every good thing and every perfect is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Image if one of your children never thanked you for all that…