The Oak Grove High School that I went to was located in a two and a half story building. The grade school occupied the four rooms on the first floor. The high school occupied three rooms on the second floor with a wood working shop, music room, classroom and rest rooms in the basement. There were 23 in my graduating class.

When we were seniors, a group of boys and girls skipped school one afternoon and went to the matinee at the Folly Burlesque at 12th and Central in Kansas City. After the show started, we heard someone clapping and yelling behind us. I looked back and there was the Oak Grove Methodist preacher.

I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my mom I’d seen the preacher at the Follies. My mother was a devout Methodist and never missed a Sunday at church. After wanting to know what I was doing skipping school, she allowed as how, if I had in fact seen the preacher, he was just getting material for a sermon. I explained if he was getting material for a sermon he sure was enjoying his work.

Ten or twelve years later, my cousin’s baby died, and the family asked that same preacher to come back to Oak Grove to preach the funeral. My mother was introducing him to several people, including some of his former church members. He had been gone several years. When she got to me the Reverend said, “Oh, I remember Jack.” He had forgotten the names of some of his best parishioners, but he never forgot the one who caught him whooping and hollering at the Follies. ——— Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075.