Stories
The story of
the Stevenson family
I was about 10 when the Stevenson family moved into the little house across the street from us in Neosho.
Neosho is a rather quiet town. It still has about 6,000 people just as during the years when I grew up there between the ages of 6 and 18. So when you got some excitement, it was in sharp contrast to everyday life.
The Stevensons were exciting. They lived across the street from us on Valley Street (see photo of our house at left). The oldest of the three boys, David, left high school when he was something like 15, entered the University of Chicago and by the age of 18 or so he had already graduated. That was already heroic!
Bill, the youngest of the boys was my age and we used to try to make rocket ships from homemade gunpowder and other such "scientific" experiments. I don't remember much scientific success, but it was fun.
Even their dog was exciting. He was a ferocious German shephard more fitted for a farm than for city living. They called him "tribucks" after the price they had paid for him.
The family moved out to a farm east of town and I used to go out to visit, where I got the thrill of driving a tractor and hunting rabbits and getting a feel for working the land.
The father had been a test pilot after World War II and yearned for adventure. So after a few years, the family sold the farm and set off on an adventure. With the Cold War heating up and the country testing atomic and hydrogen bombs, the family set forth for Colorado with geiger counters to prospect for uranium ore.
And they found uranium and struck it rich. With the sale of their mine, they bought an airplane, a couple of big cadillac cars and a house trailor.
And then tragedy struck. The oldest son, David, who was so brilliant, was arrested and imprisoned for safe-cracking. The middle son, George, crashed one of the cadillacs and was killed (I can't remember if other kids died with him). Then the father, who was using the airplane to run a small freight airline, crashed the plane and died. Bill and his mother were left alone with the remaining cadillac and house trailor.
By now I had left the sleepy little town of Neosho and gone off to New York to find my own excitement, and so I lost touch with Bill and his mother.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme