#130 - Kurt Rovenstine - Last of the Col-Hi Wildcasts 1982

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As we approach our 40th year, I interview friends from my graduating class of 1982, The College High Wildcats. This class held the distinction of being the last graduating class of College High School before the name was changed to Bartlesville High School.  Sooner High School and College High were combined into one school called Bartlesville High School.

In this episode, I visit with Col-Hi Wildcat, Kurt Rovenstine, we talk about his nomadic life right after high school, life as a pastor in Johnson City, KS, memories of the high school football games, the challenge in band that helped him decide to discontinue the trumpet, and his favorite line from Cool Runnings movie that sums up his approach to life.  And of course the advice he would give his 18-year-old self.

You can contact Kurt at krovenstine@gmail.com or on Facebook.

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Transcript

Narrator: 0:01

Welcome to the Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982 podcast brought to you by Deetsoman Productions

Chris Hayes: 0:14

you know, you go to college and you're on this all star team. So I would tell myself that, really don't listen to that voice inside your head that tells you you're not good enough. And probably the other thing I would tell myself is get more sleep.

Amy Wallen: 0:30

Not everyone's gonna like you, but try to make them want to. ...still working on that one.

Kent Hudson: 0:37

People say, Well, I'm not going to have kids yet, because it's not the right time, or I'm not gonna get married yet. It's not the right time. Well, if you keep moving the goalposts and life, there's never gonna be the right time. So enjoy your life.

John Hensley: 0:49

Do what you love for a living. Figure out a way to make that work. Don't Don't do something because that's what you're supposed to do, because it's gonna be something that makes you happy.

Mark Thompson: 1:02

I think going to Landers for lunch, sitting around Jeff Blair's Mustang II and listening to his tape of PINK FLOYD'S THE WALL.

Kurt Rovenstine: 1:27

One of my favorite lines in a movie is from Cool Runnings. And there's a young man who wants to get a gold medal. And he had a coach that cheated to win. And this young man asked why he cheated, you know, to win. And in the course of that conversation you know, he said he wanted to get the gold, you know, he had to get the gold medal. But he came to the realization that if you're not enough, without the gold medal, you're never going to be enough with a gold medal. And I think that's I mean that to me, that's I love that.

Scott Townsend: 2:09

Hey, this is Scott Townsend. Welcome back to the last of the call. Hi, Wildcats. 1982 podcast. And today I've got with me. Kurt Rovenstein. Kurt, what's going on, man?

Kurt Rovenstine: 2:22

Scott, it's not, not a lot. It's good to be with you. Thanks for doing this. This has been a lot of fun to watch parts and pieces as time allows. So

Scott Townsend: 2:31

yeah, well, great. I'm glad to have you on today. And so what did you have for breakfast this morning?

Kurt Rovenstine: 2:38

Breakfast I had, we do an open house every year. And we had lots of Christmas cookies. Probably too many. So we had leftovers. So for the next three or four days, I'm going to have Christmas sugar cookies for breakfast. But then my wife makes me a smoothie with you know, all the healthy stuff for the middle of the day. So that helps kind of balance that out. Yeah, can't do that all the time. But it's Christmas, right?

Scott Townsend: 3:06

No. Yeah. You know, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. No rules. No rules. This hands off. So what's it like? Well, how old you know? 57 58

Kurt Rovenstine: 3:18

58

Scott Townsend: 3:19

Yeah. So you know, getting old's not for sissys.

Kurt Rovenstine: 3:25

It's crazy. I mean, do you still feel like you're in high school, sometimes? I mean, just like oh, I can do that. Or yeah, just feel young and you're not the old person yet.

Scott Townsend: 3:35

Right? I'm mentally I still see myself probably around 25-26 Something like that, you know, but then I look in the mirror like, Oh my God. Yeah.

Kurt Rovenstine: 3:47

26 doesn't look good on me.

Scott Townsend: 3:51

And I got these bags under my eyes, you know, and I heard that if you put Preparation H on them, it'll shrink up the bags.

Kurt Rovenstine: 4:02

Really! Not gonna try that. I'm okay with bags under my eyes.

Scott Townsend: 4:11

If that's the remedy.

Kurt Rovenstine: 4:14

No, yeah,

Scott Townsend: 4:15

yeah. The things we do. Yeah, exactly....to try and look younger. So what are you been up to the last 39 years? Where are you? We're Where are you coming?

Kurt Rovenstine: 4:24

We're currently living in a town by the name of Johnson, southwest Kansas. We're about 15 minutes from Colorado border and about 40 miles from the Oklahoma border. Farm and country milk country. A lot of dairies out here. Good weather for that. But I'm pastoring a church here in the little town about the church. The town was about 1000 people about 2000 and in County, flat as can be and as I think I told you this before, but it's a place where if your dog runs way you can watch him for three days. So it's it's that flat. Yeah. So it's a nice, nice community, we love the people and the weather here is perfect except for the wind, and where the wind blows all the time. So, but but we like it. Glad to be been here about nine years.

Scott Townsend: 5:19

So how big is the church? How many people

Kurt Rovenstine: 5:23

pre COVID or post COVID?

Scott Townsend: 5:25

Yeah

Kurt Rovenstine: 5:26

It's nuts.

Scott Townsend: 5:29

Yeah, post, let's go post COVID. Because all bets are off after

Kurt Rovenstine: 5:33

We're running in the 80s, give or take on a good Sunday, we'll get 100. Around 80 Probably is kind of where we're, we're settling back in that may be the new norm. I don't know.

Scott Townsend: 5:47

That's good as US TV, do you guys do live streaming or anything?

Kurt Rovenstine: 5:52

We don't live stream, I record pre, you know, pre service and then upload it, we'd go to Facebook and YouTube. I just had more control that way. When you're, you know, always hear, "Well, sorry about the live stream going down mid service last week, we you know, something happened with our internet or camera."

Scott Townsend: 6:16

Right.

Kurt Rovenstine: 6:16

I can upload it and have it there. If something goes wrong, it's on their end not mine. So I just do the sermon and, and announcements, maybe our worship leader, occasionally we'll put a song on or something, but you know, trying to find that place where not giving them too much so that if they want the full experience, it's here, but not, you know, not making light of people's continued caution in the midst of of COVID that, you know, still is, you know, still still a pain,

Scott Townsend: 6:50

right? Family?

Kurt Rovenstine: 6:54

Yep two girls. One lives in Washington State in Bellevue. And the other one is in Bartlesville. Bartlesville daughter has a couple of grandkids we love to come down and visit as often as we can. One is two and a half the other one will be one at the end of January. So

Scott Townsend: 7:16

girl, you're you're brand new at the grandfather thing.

Kurt Rovenstine: 7:21

Yeah, given given it a shot, think we'll keep 'em. I remember that first day going into hospital and, you know, you pick up this kid that, you know, your your daughter had, there's no way and if you're still thinking we're 26 How, how was my daughter old enough? But you just go this, this child's perfect. You know, everybody kind of I'm sure believes that. But it's something you don't understand until it happens to you.

Scott Townsend: 8:08

Right. They wouldn't let us go to the hospital. Yeah. They. So for three days afterwards, rumor had at that there was another Townsend in Bartlesville but we couldn't go see. And so

Kurt Rovenstine: 8:23

verify or deny.

Scott Townsend: 8:27

It was weird.

Kurt Rovenstine: 8:30

Yeah. Well, in my profession that has been one of the great frustrations of this whole thing. I mean, I've I've counseled families, as they've watched loved ones, you know, pass that they couldn't go and see and actually just lost a cousin. And his parents were in the hospital. And I think they were able to make some connection, but you know, it's just, it's just unfortunate, and, you know, right or wrong, it's tough. Right. Do that. And same thing with grandkids or, you know, somebody that's just in for a normal procedure to be able to go in and encourage them, pray with them, talk with them, help them you know, through that is not available. So. Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 9:18

Crazy. So, yeah, some bring us up to speed. I don't think you and I've talked in the last word.

Kurt Rovenstine: 9:25

Well, I think I occasionally when we run through Bartlesville I think I ran into you outside of Walmart once...

Scott Townsend: 9:31

yeah.

Kurt Rovenstine: 9:32

And I actually, you used to work at United, right?

Scott Townsend: 9:36

Right.

Kurt Rovenstine: 9:37

I was driving by United once and I saw you getting out of your car and okay, no clue who I was. So let that one go. But we we left Bartlesville I married a girl that I met at Bartlesville Wesleyan College at that time. She's from Wyoming. We went to California for a year. We lived in Wyoming, worked with her father for four or five years in the greenhouse business and then got back into ministry, which has been where I've, I've, my career has been, for the most part. Then lived in Lawrence, Kansas for five years. For several years, and then short stint in Bartlesville, before we we came out here, but yeah, kind of been been around the world, but not as bad as it used to be for pastors. I mean, used to be every 4 years, you'd be ready to go. You go to camp and conference with your trailer packed, wondering where they're going to, if it was your turn, you just said we're going to get we're going somewhere else, we don't know where it is. Oh, but that's changed a little bit. The last 10 years, I've been a part of an organization that my dad started, called Bibles for China. And I'll be taking over the role of president in that organization, as my dad is kind of stepping away from that. And we distribute Bibles in the rural parts of China, to through the registered church, to those who, you know, live on, you know, couple 100 to $500 a year, you know, couldn't afford them If, if we weren't providing that for them at the beginning of that it was really cool to be able to now we can't go in anymore. China's changed a lot of policies, but at the very beginning of this to be able to give people Bibles that didn't have one since the Cultural Revolution, you know, or, or had we seen some of the printed Bibles where they just would share a Bible and they'd write a write a page and then share it, write a page. We saw some of those those. It's been really rewarding to be able to do that. So but other than that, yeah, just just just living life, enjoying grandkids.

Scott Townsend: 12:09

Living the dream,

Kurt Rovenstine: 12:10

Living the dream. Absolutely. Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 12:13

How did you get out to Johnson? Johnson City, say,

Kurt Rovenstine: 12:16

Johnson City Yeah. Not. Not the county. Oh, yeah. I just said, you know, denominationally, a church came open the district, and it said, Hey, we've got a church out here that could fit and kind of, yeah, that's how that's how that happens. Yeah, we're part of the Wesleyan denomination. So the higher ups often give a lot of direction in that regard.

Scott Townsend: 12:43

Oh, man, shifting gears just a second. What was life like for you growing up in Bartlesville? Seems like I remember you playing the trumpet was that a trumpet?

Kurt Rovenstine: 12:53

It was the trumpet.

Scott Townsend: 12:54

And you had a brother Mickey?

Kurt Rovenstine: 12:57

Yeah, Mick was a little younger, older brother, Nate was a couple years older than me. Alan was the oldest he was the real trumpet player. I stopped have an interest in the trumpet when in junior high we had challenges. You played right?

Scott Townsend: 13:14

Yeah. Yeah.

Kurt Rovenstine: 13:16

You may have been a part of this story. Okay, this is this was this. This changed my life forever. I don't remember the teacher's name, but

Scott Townsend: 13:24

Tanzy?

Kurt Rovenstine: 13:25

I think that was it. Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 13:28

Kermit Tanzy.

Kurt Rovenstine: 13:30

Could have been. We had so you could have challenges, right? So, you can challenge three chairs up, you know, that was as far as you go, you know, ninth chair couldn't challenge first character, right. So I was setting that third chair, and I challenged chair number one. And the the story was you could never drop more than three because only three challenge. You know, you can only challenge up three. So somebody challenged for my spot three places back. I didn't worry about that one. Because I know I couldn't go any further than six. I was concentrating on first chair. Well, I lost both. So I moved back. You know, after after I lost my challenge to first chair to chair number six. And there was somebody sitting there and they looked at me like this is my chair. I go back to nine. Somebody was sitting there and so this is my chair. I go back to 12 and that chair was empty. So everyone challenged up three that place was filled. And I go back to 12 and I look up at the director and I kind of shrug my shoulders like wait, I thought I could only go down three and he just does. Okay, I'm done. I didn't like it that much anyway, like this. This catastrophic drop.

Scott Townsend: 14:51

Yeah. Wow. Nice. Wow.

Kurt Rovenstine: 14:55

So we started having fun back there and you know, 11 12 and 13 Just enjoying band.

Scott Townsend: 15:02

Did you grow up in Bartlesville?

Kurt Rovenstine: 15:05

We moved there when we're in seventh grade when I was moving into seventh grade that that summer so Salina, Kansas is where, where we lived, Dad came to work at the Bartlesville Wesleyan College, what's now OKWU. So I liked Bartlesville, Bartlesville is a good place to live, good friends. You know, most of the folks I hung out with were were church friends. So John Snuck and Russ Gonzales who was from sooner, Brent McIntosh the Mueller, of all the Mueller clan. Mueller construction and Realty. Those folks were the people I hung out with. So yeah, it was a good place to live, so

Scott Townsend: 15:55

What are some of your favorite memories of College High?

Kurt Rovenstine: 15:59

I don't you know, I thought about that. I think the thing I remember the things I remember most are centered around the football games Friday night football games. I don't know why. I mean, I, I I just kind of went to school to go to school because that's what you had to do. I didn't can probably didn't connect as much as I should have. In fact, I know I did. But But I love the football games. I've got lots of memories of, you know, specific plays and specific games where I don't you guys would, you know, kickoff returns for touchdowns. And remember Matt Newman one time on a kickoff. I think Matt was I think he was probably a junior at that time. But he was playing kickoff coverage. And he went down and he just leveled the guy and the guy was looking, just watching how excited he was coming off the field just you know, doing slapping people on the head. And of course I was you know 140 and skinnier than I am now that that look ed fun. And I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I remember one basketball game when I went to school. I don't know why.

Scott Townsend: 17:21

Yeah, I don't either. We were talking about basketball with Donnie Donnie was on. I don't remember that much about basketball at all. I remember. Bruno, I've told the story before. I was like, you know, super tall when I was in high school. So Bruno wants to see me after school and he has a basketball and he says so here's let me see what you can do with this. You know? So I'm dribbling around there stumbling around. Pretty soon after about five minutes goes here. Just give me the ball back. Well.

Kurt Rovenstine: 17:57

Thanks for coming in

Scott Townsend: 17:59

I'll see you later.

Kurt Rovenstine: 18:01

Yeah, I played one year, or was on the team one year. And it a similar kind of response. He said, You know, you you're never going to play but if you want to be a practice, dummy, basically what he said, Huh? Okay, I'll be I'll be that for a year, but I didn't I didn't play after that. I don't know. At that point, if I lost interest, but you know, I do remember. What year was it that Col-Hi and sooner had that? Like six overtime? Game? That was crazy. It was down at the old gymnasium at Phillips

Scott Townsend: 18:39

Oh, yeah, no, no,

Kurt Rovenstine: 18:41

I don't like I may not even have been in high school yet. It was older guys, but they had like, you know, that was I think that was a record for a while, just like six or seven over times. But maybe the only basketball game. I remember.

Scott Townsend: 18:58

I'll have to post that in the comments under the video on Facebook. So if anybody knows who that was? Yeah, I'm sure someone out there does. What song? What song takes you back to College High?

Kurt Rovenstine: 19:10

Anything Boston. Yeah. I love Boston when I was in high school about the only you know, and then there's some pop music it was on the radio ever was Well, I remember but you know, Boston was was my I mean, and and then Commodores, I think probably to, loved the Commodores.

Scott Townsend: 19:30

The. So you I was looking through the yearbook. And you were taking there was a picture of you. You're taking a college course in high school. Right? What was that all about?

Kurt Rovenstine: 19:42

So in my senior between my Well I think that was my senior year obviously. I thought I wanted to maybe go into business of some sort. At that point. I knew I was probably going to be a preacher but it was one of those. You God tells you what you're going to do. And you, you tell him what you're going to do. And He lets you do it for a while until you get that straightened out. So I was just taking some, I think it was accounting one and two, I took, you know, first semester and second semester. So it was, it was it was enjoyable, so fun to be out there. Of course, my dad worked on campus, so I was out there all the time. So it wasn't like it was any new experience it was he what college was like? Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 20:31

Well, ready to take a break. I think we need to take a break.

Kurt Rovenstine: 20:35

Sure.

Scott Townsend: 20:36

Want to take a break. We can take a break. All right, so we'll be back with Kurt Rovenstine, right after this.

Narrator: 20:54

thank you for listening to the last of the Col-Hi Wildcats. 1982 podcast

Scott Townsend: 21:09

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Kurt Rovenstine: 22:48

What's that about? Huh? So the I look at that picture and I think I should have listened to Tony Brock. He was he caught me in the hallway one day. I was walking to a class he was walking the other way. He made a sarcastic comment about my beard. And he didn't know what he's talking about. This beard is awesome. I looked at that picture and I thought you know what? He was right. Should have come off before that picture.

Scott Townsend: 23:20

You mentioned this earlier, but who were some of your friends that you hung out with in high school? You mentioned Muellers and the OWU crowd.

Kurt Rovenstine: 23:30

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, I worked a lot. So when I when school was over once I stopped playing basketball for I think it's just a one year. I wasn't involved in many of the extracurriculars around school. So I I went to work. My cousin Les and I hung out, Les and Jeff. They were twins that lived there for a couple years, in fact Les is the my cousin that just passed this past week from COVID. But we we go, you know, to work and, and hang out on the roof...I roofed for my uncle. My uncle Joe. Yeah. So

Scott Townsend: 24:12

Joe Rovenstine.

Kurt Rovenstine: 24:14

Joe Rovenstine. Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 24:16

Mr. Progressive

Kurt Rovenstine: 24:18

Yeah. Our insurance guy. Shelter. Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 24:22

Sorry, Joe.

Kurt Rovenstine: 24:22

I didn't if I didn't correct that. I might have been in trouble. Hmm. So my work, you know, my work friends were people that probably hung out with more than

Scott Townsend: 24:35

so you worked on the roofing? A roofing crew?

Kurt Rovenstine: 24:37

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

Scott Townsend: 24:40

You ever fall?

Kurt Rovenstine: 24:42

Four times.

Scott Townsend: 24:44

Four times?

Kurt Rovenstine: 24:46

Yeah. Yeah, but never never. I mean, I every every time I was able to go back, you know, get back up on the roof and get after it. So you know, when you're up high and you're in a dangerous position, you're careful, because you know this is dangerous. When you're, you know, seven foot off the ground you do stuff you do. You fall and you go, Oh, that was dumb. I should. But so yeah, four different times have fallen one one time could have been hurt pretty bad. But the other times was just stupidity. And everybody looked at and said, That was dumb. Why did you do that? So I did have a my brother Mickey, you were talking about him, he worked with with us for a little bit. We, my uncle Joe was the kind of guy that if it was, if it was wet or cold, it didn't matter. was a day that it had snowed a couple of days before the sun had melted the south side, but there's North sides of the houses were still had a little snow on them. Mm hmm. So we are up there working on the front side. But as we got up, there was a little spot of ice and my brother stepped up onto the roof and his hammer fell out of his pouch, and fell right beside me. I was just getting ready to go up the ladder after him. And he yelled down and said, Hey, Kurt, can you can you get my hammer for me. And right at that time, he slid on that ice and fell down, his his tailbone hit the roof and then he bounced off and landed right beside me. He just looked over at me just, you know, quick as could be, said,"Nevermind, I'll get it." And then we go up on the roof, and we're pushing snow off the back. And you know, two or three guys start to slide down and say, Joe, this is stupid. We shouldn't be here. Why are we doing this? And then he slides almost at the bottom, he says, yes, it's time to go.

Scott Townsend: 26:45

Don't push it, you still stay in touch with any of your high school friends. I know, you haven't stayed in touch with me. So we must not have been that good of friends, but

Kurt Rovenstine: 26:53

not as good as I should, you know, you one of the things we You said we might talk about is regret. So, you know, when when you're in high school, you connect with people conditionally, because you're insecure in who you are, you know, if I could go back and just be a little more myself, and, and I, whether they like me, or don't like to me, you know, this is this is who I am. Right? I regret some of that not being able to connect with people on because I felt like they had standards that I couldn't keep and You know, and then you find out later, after having conversations with them, they were thinking the exact same thing you were.

Scott Townsend: 27:37

So yeah, that's one of the biggies from this project is I'm finding pretty much everybody was in the same boat, we all tried to act like we weren't, you know,

Kurt Rovenstine: 27:46

just just be yourself. And, and, you know, value, what you what you bring to, you know that to the table as far as contribution to conversation or activity or, or whatever the case might be. But, you know, working with kids, I was in youth ministry for a lot of years, it's still the same way, you know, kids just you just, it's takes a while for you to figure out who you are and how you're going to interact with people and live life. I just wish we could learn that earlier.

Scott Townsend: 28:17

I know, if you went up to one a high school student and said, Hey, let me just tell you right now, don't worry about what other people think. Just go over there. talk to that girl, if you want to talk to her, go over there and talk to that guy if you want to go talk to him, you know, you'll just be friends or whatever. It's just so much harder than that. You know, we make it so much harder. So

Kurt Rovenstine: 28:39

yeah, it's easy to say it's hard to do. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Townsend: 28:43

Have you been up to any of the reunions?

Kurt Rovenstine: 28:45

Yeah. Well, I've been to two of them. And I'm not sure I think there was one I wasn't I have we had three I think maybe we did

Scott Townsend: 28:52

10 20 and 30 40 coming up next year.

Kurt Rovenstine: 28:56

So I missed one. I think that one in between I was at 10. And, and 30. I'm pretty sure that's what I had.

Scott Townsend: 29:04

So you do you plan on going to the 40?

Kurt Rovenstine: 29:07

I hope to you know, with this ministry with Bibles for China, we've not been able to be in China for Since COVID started. And if things open up, I hope to be able to go to China two or three times this coming year. And that would be one of the few things I think that would keep me from from doing that. So we'll just have to have to wait and see. Right. And then like you say, Scott, it's it's fun to sit down and talk with guys and gals that you went to school with and find out where they've been and like you said what, what they thought of high school and folks you thought had it all together. mm is insecure and you know, they reeled in their in their confidence. Just a as much as you did and your or their perceived competence as you did, right, in your incompetence, you know, so yeah, I enjoy that a lot.

Scott Townsend: 30:12

What? What's been your greatest accomplishment in the last 39? years? Um, you know, we've had many, many.

Kurt Rovenstine: 30:23

I'm just going through my journal before we started and tried to, you know, I don't have a journal.

Scott Townsend: 30:30

You were about to impress me there for a second. I was like, Oh, well,

Kurt Rovenstine: 30:33

I think, I think my, you know, my, my kids, my wife and I talk about that a lot. We just had, our girls were pretty incredible. And still are pretty incredible people and to watch them grow up and, and make good decisions about life and find husbands that, you know, are quality men and just live lives of integrity. They love, they love the Lord. And they have, you know, we just done well, and that that's satisfying, because I don't care what you say your greatest accomplishment is somebody always done something better. You know, it's the same game, you know, I think maybe maybe just learning to be who I am and being comfortable in my own skin and teaching my kids to be that way as well.

Scott Townsend: 31:24

I think yeah, that's cool.

Kurt Rovenstine: 31:26

So Mm hmm. So I think that that is probably been my, my greatest accomplishment is my wife and kids and investing in them as best I can.

Scott Townsend: 31:40

I know. We have one. Yeah. And, you know, what do you want for Father's Day? What do you want for Christmas, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, that we were able to keep you alive until you were 18. And you're, and you've turned out really well. And you've exceeded all of our expectations, and you have a beautiful wife, and you know, you got a great kid now that's, I don't need anything, man. Just, you know, I've said that before. I've just, you know, just just that alone? I can I can live on that for the rest of my life.

Kurt Rovenstine: 32:20

Yeah, pretty. Pretty good stuff. Good stuff. Yeah. And that's my perspective. And again, you know, if you, if you're just happy with what you have, and where you're at, in life, that that goes a long way, in helping you be successful in whatever you're doing. Because you're not grasping at things that are in the long term inconsequential. Yeah. So,

Scott Townsend: 32:49

you know, I think success, the definition of success is, whatever you define it as. So, for example you want to get married? Yeah, want to have kids, healthy grandkids, and in one, you know, there's a few goals, you know, a good job and all this stuff. And there's several goals that, you know, we all we all have in life. And, you know, once you attain, and Kent Hudson was kind of talking about this, and his Yeah, and Sandra Yeager, talking about, you know, always moving the goalposts always you swing to one brass ring, and then you go for the other brass ring. And, you know, you kind of like George of the Jungle, you know, go into the jungle. At some point, you know, you have to be okay with what you've got. And, yeah, you know, just be content. That's not to say that you don't want to try to do more maybe like, but for the most part be okay with what the success you've had up to this point, which is you. So, one of

Kurt Rovenstine: 33:57

my favorite lines in a movie is from Cool Runnings. I don't know if you've ever watched that movie,

Scott Townsend: 34:03

a long time ago,

Kurt Rovenstine: 34:05

bobsled team from Jamaica. And there's a young man who wants to get a gold medal. And he because he wasn't able to make the Olympic team as a runner he's now doing with bobsled. And he had a coach that was coaching him that cheated to win. And this young man asked why he cheated, you know, to win. And in the course of that conversation, you know, he said he wanted to get the gold, you know, he had to get the gold medal. But he came to the realization that if you're not enough, without the gold medal, you're never going to be enough with a gold medal. And I think that's I mean, that's to me, I'd love that concept. Because if, if you're not okay, short of your goals, you know, or your achievements you're not going to be okay. with them. And so it's just that going back to those, you know, if we could get in the mind of those high school kids right now and just say, Hey, you're okay, just the way just being you. You're right. You don't have to do the stupid stuff everyone else is doing. You don't have to try to meet their standard, you want to be the best you can, there's nothing wrong. God gave you gifts and you need to, you know, you need to use them. You need to, you know, develop them. But if you're not okay. You know, before you achieve, you're not going to be okay. After. So I think that's probably, you know, I guess that that's probably the lifelong process for all of us.

Scott Townsend: 35:37

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you kind of answered my last question, or one of my last questions is, what advice would you give your 18 year old self? That sounds like there's something in there in the last five minutes that

Kurt Rovenstine: 35:49

have probably beside besides shaving that beard. I'm not even. That would be one. But yeah, just be be okay, who you are, and, and not worry about what other people think because they're, they're a lot like, you

Scott Townsend: 36:07

know, what's a this 2022 gonna be like? What are you looking forward to? What if you could look into the crystal ball?

Kurt Rovenstine: 36:16

I hope that we bring return to normalcy. You know, and I don't know what that is. But my wife and I were just talking about that. Just just this, I think it was yesterday, you know, have we have things fundamentally shifted? Are we still just in a, you know, an anomilaic kind of existence? So, because there's things you just keep putting off because of politics, COVID. You know, the turmoil in the world. And that does, do we bounce back? Or do we have to learn to live in the world we are. So you know, we talked earlier about and I don't know if that's just on the air off the air, but you know, people come into church, or stay at home, you know, is that the new normal? Or are they going to want to be, you know, in fellowship, and, you know, sitting in a chair or a pew. So, I just love to go back to some level of of what, you know, what we would what everybody would consider normal.

Scott Townsend: 37:24

So, it depends on how good the pastor is, you know? Yes,

Kurt Rovenstine: 37:29

thanks. Well, yeah, it's true that probably, you know, I tell people,

Scott Townsend: 37:36

I'm sure, I'm just kidding. But

Kurt Rovenstine: 37:38

But that's, you know, one of the things I have in a small community like this is when people ask the you know, what size my church is, like? I said, Well, I've got about, I have about 10% of my entire city coming to church. You know, so Bartlesville that'd be that'd be that'd be a whopper right? That'd

Scott Townsend: 37:58

be a whopper. Yeah, that'd be a mega church. So but anyway, yeah, I mean, the great thing

Kurt Rovenstine: 38:06

Hey Scott, I'm I'm happy just being myself

Scott Townsend: 38:09

There you go.

Kurt Rovenstine: 38:11

It's where God wants me it's what I'm doing. I did the best I can if it's not good enough for some. I just have to be the best I can and that's okay.

Scott Townsend: 38:19

Tell 'em to go suck eggs.

Kurt Rovenstine: 38:22

Oh, I've said that a lot.

Scott Townsend: 38:26

Alright, man, well, someone once again, if somebody wants to get in touch with you. What's the best way?

Kurt Rovenstine: 38:31

Email probably. krovenstine@gmail.com. Yeah, probably the easiest. I'm on Facebook, Instant message me. That's one where you don't have to really remember an address I guess you just go and find right do they'll do the instant message so what

Scott Townsend: 38:51

what final words to all the Wildcats out there listening? What what do you want to tell them?

Kurt Rovenstine: 38:56

Look forward to seeing you if you're at the 40th and and keep on being the last of the Wildcats that was that was really that was an honor to be able to be a part of that last class. So it was really cool. Yeah. Scott thanks.

Scott Townsend: 39:11

Alright man.

Kurt Rovenstine: 39:12

Appreciate you giving me a chance to come and share a little bit, hear about some of your life too.

Scott Townsend: 39:20

All right, well, for Kurt Rovenstine this is Scott Townsend. Thanks for watching listening to The Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982 podcast. Have a great day and we'll talk to you later.

Narrator: 39:59

The Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982 podcast is a Deetsoman Production. For more episodes visit the Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982 YouTube channel, listen on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.