Hashtag Hastings

You know what they say, when one school closes, another school gets …

I was going to say competition, but it crossed my mind that might only apply to the students, and I would guess, mostly females. When the Hastings School closed, Waurika girls got competition. The basketball team, on the other hand, got a little better.

My mom was one of the girls offering competition. She was also a star basketball player, number 33. She liked the number so much, she picked the boy with number 33 to be her boyfriend. Just kidding. No, she did pick him to be her boyfriend, but not because of his number. She picked him because, according to her, “The first time their eyes locked, she knew he was the one.” Funny thing is, according to my dad’s book, the first time he saw her, he thought what a spoiled brat.

I suppose they were both correct. After all, my mom got her way, as she seemed accustomed to, and he turned out to be “the one.” The really did seem to be a match made in heaven, mostly due to my dad wanting to satisfy her every whim, and doing whatever he could to make it happen. That match began and ended at the very house where my brother and I have been staying when in Oklahoma. Their last breath, both of them, although eleven months apart, was taken just feet away from where they had their first kiss 60 years earlier, in Hastings, Oklahoma.

I have a deep affection for this place, and the sentimentalist that I am, I can’t see how it could be any other way. Therefore, I plan to memorialize it somehow, do something, I’m just not sure yet of what, but when I do, it will be at hashtaghastings.com. If you would like to be notified of this and of other posts I publish, or to just show your support, please enter your email address below and then click “Follow.”

And if you do, I thank you! 🙂