When we moved to Fairview, Oklahoma in 1969, our Oklahoma House of Representative member was Art F. Bower, a Republican, and president of the Farmer and Merchants National Bank of Fairview. His wife Mary was the UMC organist.
Mary was 57, silver-haired beauty who had a musical touch at that old organ. So why am I describing Mary when it is Art that influenced me so much?
By way of background, in 197o, “ecology’ was a hot-button subject. “In spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson, Wisconsin Democrat, created Earth Day as a way to force this issue onto the national agenda. Twenty million Americans demonstrated in different U.S. cities, and it worked!” www.epa.gov
In the Oklahoma legislature, on March 1, 1971, a concurrent resolution of the House of Representatives was passed expressing legislative intent that East Central State College be designated as the Oklahoma State Environmental Center. Needless to say, I was aware of the congressional actions, but oblivious to the Oklahoma resolution until Mr. Bower, Art, stopped me in church one Sunday and handed me a little, green plastic pin in the shape of Oklahoma. In white letters was the word ECOLOGY. As he gave it to me, he said something to the effect, “this is a subject I think you would be interested in.”
That’s all it took for me to follow up on the suggestion. At that time, the only source of information was the library, so I checked out the few books available but mostly read magazines since that’s where the latest information was at that time. The magazine that made the biggest impact was LIFE.
January 30, 1970 issue of LIFE pictures a Snow Monkey on the cover with the headline, “”ECOLOGY BECOMES EVERYBODY’S ISSUE.” This magazine and the accompanying pictures became my “powerpoint.”
Fairview Mothers’ Club was the social club of the local social elite. The wives of bankers, prominent farmers, business leaders, etc. were members. I was never asked to join as I was “only” a teacher, but I was asked to give a lesson. Using the pictures and telling the story of the necessity of caring for the environment, I must have made an impression, because I was asked to give the same lesson again–to another group. I think I probably gave at least 5 presentations, maybe more about environment but it was giving the lesson to fellow teacher groups/organizations that led me to the next phase of my “speakings.”
