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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Charles Biggs

Publisher

Tulsa Beacon

Swimming opportunities have changed over 50 years

Tulsa Beacon

When I grew up, I loved to go swimming. I learned to swim at the Olympic-sized outdoor pool at McClure Park (near 11th street and Memorial Drive). It was two blocks from the house where I grew up and it only cost a quarter to go swimming back in the 1960s. McClure Park has a…

‘Facts’ can change when it comes to climate scientists

Tulsa Beacon

“Science changes all the time.” That’s a quote from secularist Bill Nye, the “science guy.” If that is true, and it is, why must the public blindly accept anything put forward by the scientific community? Remember when Obama said “the science is settled” on human-cause “climate change (global warming)? Naturalnews.com deftly points out that before…

Barbecue has been tasty with a Weber or a Kingsford grill

Tulsa Beacon

One of the best gifts I ever got was when my kids bought me a Kingsford charcoal grill. For decades, I used had cooked on a Weber 22-inch kettle grill. I think that was a gift from my good friends, Scott and Marsha Grindle. I replaced the grill on that model at least three times…

High school proms have changed a lot in the past 45 years

Tulsa Beacon

Forty-five years ago (ouch), I graduated from Nathan Hale High School. I spent three wonderful years at the best school in town with the sharpest teachers and the finest friends you could ever ask for. Make that, “for which you could ever ask,” We will have our class of ’72 45th reunion July 22-24 here…

Rehabilitation, Ritalin, video games and other topics

Tulsa Beacon

Someone sent me a copy of a letter to the editor written by Ken Huber of Tawas City, Michigan. Tawas City sits aside Lake Huron in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and has a population of about 2,000 and a total area of about 2.2 square miles. And a whole lot of common sense. Mr….

We don’t see television shows like The Rifleman anymore

Tulsa Beacon

One of my favorite shows growing up was The Rifleman, starring the late Chuck Connors. It was set in the Old West and every episode was a morality play. The good guys always won. Filmed in black and white, The Rifleman had a five-year run on ABC that began in 1958. The setting was a…

Irish eyes have to keep smiling with these kinds of jokes

Tulsa Beacon

When I was a student at Nathan Hale High School, I had a weekend job as a pizza cook at Irish Mike Clancy’s Pizza Parlor on Mingo Road just north of 11th Street. Back in the late 1960s, there wasn’t a pizza parlor on every corner. Irish Mike was a former pro wrestler who was…

Public education has changed a lot in the last 50 years

Tulsa Beacon

When I was a child, the fall semester at school started the Tuesday after Labor Day and the spring semester ended the Friday before Memorial Day. Back then, when I went to Burbank Elementary, Bell Junior High and Nathan Hale High School, we got two weeks of vacation at Christmas and we were off on…

Will double-digit inflation affect college football games?

Tulsa Beacon

Will inflation, especially high gas prices, affect college football attendance this season? Oklahoma always sells out their home games. But as far as I can tell, the cheapest seats would be in the endzones and cost about $65-150 in games like UTEP and  Kent State and $175-$370 for games like Oklahoma State. If you are…

Would a manned spaceflight to Mars be a workable idea?

Tulsa Beacon

Should we go to Mars? Is a manned spaceflight to Mars even possible? If we go, could we get our astronauts back safely? How much would it cost? I spoke with former U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who was head of the Space Agency NASA during the Trump Administration about this topic. Bridenstine, a Navy pilot,…