We headed south to Dallas for the Christmas holiday, a delightful 660-mile drive. Our preferred route to the metroplex these days is west on the Nebraska 92 through Yutan, Mead, and Wahoo, south on U.S. 77 to I-80, westward on the 80 to York, Nebraska, south on U.S. 81 to Salina, Kansas, south on I-135 to Wichita, Kansas, and south on I-35 to Dallas, easy enough for about ten hours of a sometimes interesting drive.

 The roll on the 35 through Oklahoma is like time travel for me. I lived in Stillwater from 1961-64, three years of junior high school drama as a Stillwater Pioneer. This time we detoured off the 35 and took a side trip through Stillwater looking for my old junior high and the two-story asbestos shingle-wrapped apartment where we lived. No luck on either front, not even a hint of what was once there. Too bad. However, the cruise down the 35, north to south, was more productive. For each town we drove past, or sign for a place, I can relive basketball seasons and locations where the mighty Pioneers played road games between 1962 and 1963: Ponca City, Enid, Perry, Guthrie, Oklahoma City, and Cushing. I even shot hoops and played pick-up games at the Langston University gym during those years.

We enjoyed our time with my sister Terry and Cousin Pia. Terry’s mobility is limited for now. She’s in a boot, the result of a car accident, not her fault, where she broke her foot—three fractures. We spent a very pleasant evening with my college friends Juan and Cheryl, reliving the days when we, and several others, lived in an old house near the North Texas State University campus in Denton. Then, it was on to the Cotton Bowl to watch Ohio State and Missouri try to place the crowd in a trance. It worked. The game ended at 14-3 Mizzou, but was only 3-0 Ohio State at the half. Good defense maybe. Inept offense, for sure. Pia is an Ohio State alum and she was mad at her Buckeyes for playing so poorly.

November 22, 2023 marked the 60^th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. Like many others, I recall exactly where I was when I first heard the news. I have visited Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository site many times over the years, thinking about how that day changed our country. I returned again this year on December 31. The tourist count was relatively low, but those who were there were doing the usual touristy things: pointing at the grassy knoll, speaking in hushed voices like they were in church, looking up at the book depository, strolling by the Dallas Courthouse (place where Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald), taking pictures everywhere, and standing on the X in the middle of Elm Street dodging traffic—the X marks the spot where the President’s limousine was located when the fatal shot hit him. While I did not risk my life to stand on the X, I was a tourist that day.