Since I started this I've tried to think of something to say about the Chieftain. There must be something that we can say about our school newspaper.
As I remember, there really wasn't that much 'news' in it. Some sanitized stuff that was okayed by the office and a whole lot of gossip in that ugly old memeographed print. I may be wrong, but in my mind's eye I can see Wayne Poole cranking on that machine, I'm not sure if it was the Chieftain or not though.
I would dare say that at one time or another every pop song from '66 to '70 appeared somewhere in those pages, "dedicated" to someone or other. Some songs made it a bunch of times. I enjoyed scanning through it just as everybody else did, trying to figure out who a.b. was when they dedicated "I' m A Believer" to y.z., or who the d.e. was that was seen holding hands with w.x. It usually wasn't all that hard to figure out. :) I honestly don't remember ever being in the Chieftain.
Do they still make it? I bet it's a damn site easier to put together now than it was back then.
Does anyone have any Chieftain stories to share? Does anyone still have a copy of it somewhere? Kathey, you kept a list of locker combinations, is there an old Chieftain in there someplace too? It would be fun to look at if there were.
While I'm on that subject, if anyone has anything they might want to share, get it to me and I'll get it on here one way or another.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
A Look at the Old Place
For those of you who still live there these pictures may not seem like that big of a deal, but to me they are. It's my first up close look at the school in a number of years. Thanks Kathey!
In the picture on the left, it still looks like it did 40 years ago. The building's a blooming antique. But someone has done a good job in keeping it up.
In the middle picture I can see they moved the flagpole out front, which actually makes sense when you think about it. Why was it in the back of the school in the first place?
The picture on the right is a bit of an irritant. We asked for baseball way back when. I'm glad someone finally added it.
This old building has no doubt been thru the wars, but as the saying goes, it's in pretty good shape for the shape that it's in.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Class of '70 by the Numbers
First of all this is all in fun. Please don’t take offense.
My transcripts say there were 129 of us but the yearbook has 128. Who is missing?
I’ve noticed that relatively small number of 128 (or 129 or whatever it is) broke down something like this….
70 girls and 58 guys
3 Allen – one was a first name
2 Barr
2 Bright
2 Delaney
2 Faulkner
2 Gray
2 Green
2 Guider
2 Hamilton
2 Henry
2 Jones
2 Knox
2 McKee
2 McNabb
2 Poole
2 Presley
4 Russell
2 Schrimsher
2 Stafford
2 Thomas
3 Watson
3 Williams… counting Ann who graduated as Trout.
Oh, and 8 that started with Mc
The funny part about all that, like Lynette and myself, I don’t think they were all related just because they had the same last name.
There were also….
3 Ann
4 Brenda
4 Debbie or Deborah
4 Donna
3 Doug
2 Edward or Eddie
2 Gail
2 Gary
2 Jackie – a he and a she
5 James or Jimmy
3 Janice or Janis
2 Janie
2 Jean or Jeanie
3 Joe and a Billy Jo
2 John
2 Cathey or Kathey
3 Larry
3 Mary and a Mary Ann
6 Mike or Michael
2 Pat or Patsy who were girls and a Pat who was a guy
3 Peggie or Peggy
2 Sharon although one went by Sherry
5 Sue or Susan
2 Wayne
Okay, when I compiled most of this, it was 2am and I was suffering from a bad case of heartburn. I couldn’t sleep and nothing I took worked, so I sat here til my eyes and brain became fuzzy. Anyway, when my brain was the fuzziest I also noticed there was a pattern to how we sat for our pictures.
Of the guys, 10 faced right, 22 were center and 26 faced left.
Of the girls, 21 faced right, 32 were center and 17 faced left.
Why is that almost reversed? A quirk of the photographer? It’s no doubt meaningless, but it is interesting in a strange sort of way. I guess I’ve spend too many years trying to make sense of numbers.
My transcripts say there were 129 of us but the yearbook has 128. Who is missing?
I’ve noticed that relatively small number of 128 (or 129 or whatever it is) broke down something like this….
70 girls and 58 guys
3 Allen – one was a first name
2 Barr
2 Bright
2 Delaney
2 Faulkner
2 Gray
2 Green
2 Guider
2 Hamilton
2 Henry
2 Jones
2 Knox
2 McKee
2 McNabb
2 Poole
2 Presley
4 Russell
2 Schrimsher
2 Stafford
2 Thomas
3 Watson
3 Williams… counting Ann who graduated as Trout.
Oh, and 8 that started with Mc
The funny part about all that, like Lynette and myself, I don’t think they were all related just because they had the same last name.
There were also….
3 Ann
4 Brenda
4 Debbie or Deborah
4 Donna
3 Doug
2 Edward or Eddie
2 Gail
2 Gary
2 Jackie – a he and a she
5 James or Jimmy
3 Janice or Janis
2 Janie
2 Jean or Jeanie
3 Joe and a Billy Jo
2 John
2 Cathey or Kathey
3 Larry
3 Mary and a Mary Ann
6 Mike or Michael
2 Pat or Patsy who were girls and a Pat who was a guy
3 Peggie or Peggy
2 Sharon although one went by Sherry
5 Sue or Susan
2 Wayne
Okay, when I compiled most of this, it was 2am and I was suffering from a bad case of heartburn. I couldn’t sleep and nothing I took worked, so I sat here til my eyes and brain became fuzzy. Anyway, when my brain was the fuzziest I also noticed there was a pattern to how we sat for our pictures.
Of the guys, 10 faced right, 22 were center and 26 faced left.
Of the girls, 21 faced right, 32 were center and 17 faced left.
Why is that almost reversed? A quirk of the photographer? It’s no doubt meaningless, but it is interesting in a strange sort of way. I guess I’ve spend too many years trying to make sense of numbers.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Another Shameless Plug for the Alumni Site
This is starting to take off.... a little. :) Since I made the change to include a page for each year, the site gets more views and more participation.
So far we've had input for the following years:
1970 - 3, Sharon, Kathey, and me.
1997 - 1
1998 - 2
1999 - 3
2001 - 4
2002 - 1
In Memory - 1 for '69, 13 for '70 and 2 for '71
Again, that's not the numbers Google or Yahoo pull in, but it's a start. I figured I'd get more participation for the 90s and 2000s since computers are so much a part of this generation's life, but I will expand in the other direction too if anyone writes in and says they're from the 50s or 40s even.
Please consider adding your information, and those of your family if they went to Loudon High. I will even add the ones who don't have a computer if they give me the information. If you read some of the entries, you will see they can be as factual or as whimsical as you want. I'm not asking anyone to share anything personal that they don't want to share, but there are still ways of letting people know you're still around and still kicking.
You also don't have to take the email option, but it's still a choice. If you're worried that I will read any emails, don't be. First of all I have enough email of my own to worry about and secondly I couldn't even if I did want to. I can't see inside those email boxes any more than I can see inside any of the ones you may have now. All I do is create them.
The point is, this site and the alumni site are only going to be as strong as the participation they get. I can only do so much by myself, and like I've said a hundred times, I don't want either of them to be MY site, I want both of them to be OUR sites.
Think about joining in.... or just do it without thinking if that's what it takes. :)
www.loudonhighalumni.com
So far we've had input for the following years:
1970 - 3, Sharon, Kathey, and me.
1997 - 1
1998 - 2
1999 - 3
2001 - 4
2002 - 1
In Memory - 1 for '69, 13 for '70 and 2 for '71
Again, that's not the numbers Google or Yahoo pull in, but it's a start. I figured I'd get more participation for the 90s and 2000s since computers are so much a part of this generation's life, but I will expand in the other direction too if anyone writes in and says they're from the 50s or 40s even.
Please consider adding your information, and those of your family if they went to Loudon High. I will even add the ones who don't have a computer if they give me the information. If you read some of the entries, you will see they can be as factual or as whimsical as you want. I'm not asking anyone to share anything personal that they don't want to share, but there are still ways of letting people know you're still around and still kicking.
You also don't have to take the email option, but it's still a choice. If you're worried that I will read any emails, don't be. First of all I have enough email of my own to worry about and secondly I couldn't even if I did want to. I can't see inside those email boxes any more than I can see inside any of the ones you may have now. All I do is create them.
The point is, this site and the alumni site are only going to be as strong as the participation they get. I can only do so much by myself, and like I've said a hundred times, I don't want either of them to be MY site, I want both of them to be OUR sites.
Think about joining in.... or just do it without thinking if that's what it takes. :)
www.loudonhighalumni.com
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Psycho-Babble
Friday afternoon as I drove home from work I got more and more irritated. The first irritant was that when I left for work that morning at 6, it was 50 degrees, and on the way home at 4 it was 25 degrees and blustery, and I had forgotten my heavy coat.
The biggest irritation however, was on the radio. Normally I listen to satellite radio and have for several years, but when there are reasons, (weather, traffic, or whatever) I’ll flip on a local station. As I waited for a traffic update on a talk station I had to sit through several minutes of a psychologist trying to tell people how to fix their problems.
What I found so irritating was what he was saying about memories. During the section of the program I caught he said basically two things that bothered me. First, tears of joy are not tears of joy at all; they are tears of sadness or regret. When our grandkids hug our neck or we see an old friend or something like that and we laugh and tear up at the same time, it’s our subconscious being both happy and sad. Happy for what we’re going through, but sad because we’re no longer young and the time to experience these things is limited.
The same with memories, when we look back at our childhood or think about old friends, we subconsciously gloss over the aches and pains so that all that is left is the feel good, happy stuff. I’m obviously not a psychologist, and no disrespect to old friends or classmates who may have chosen that profession, but to me that’s a bunch of B.S.
I’ve taken enough psychology to know one thing. Size does not fit all. Where most of us do follow some general traits, you can’t paint it all with one broad brush. We each deviate enough to make us unique. If that were not true, there would be no need for psychologists, they would dispense counseling out of a vending machine like they do soda.
I firmly believe that aging, and events such as 911, have gotten me closer to my memories. I most certainly do remember the aches and pains of being a teenager - all the tears and fears and uncertainty of the world, and war, which lay waiting. What was I going to do, how was I going to fit in, what would become of… me? I remember the frustration and angst of dating and the volatility of some events that sometimes strained friendships.
But I choose not to dwell on those. I believe that if I made it through all that and still consider you all my friends, then that to me is true friendship. Besides, as I’ve said several times, we all went through it together. Who better to understand how I felt, or feel, than you guys? We all may not live the same lives, have the same jobs, enjoy the same pleasures, or move in the same circle of society, but we all most certainly do have a bond. Good or bad, it's there, and in that respect we are brothers and sisters.
The biggest irritation however, was on the radio. Normally I listen to satellite radio and have for several years, but when there are reasons, (weather, traffic, or whatever) I’ll flip on a local station. As I waited for a traffic update on a talk station I had to sit through several minutes of a psychologist trying to tell people how to fix their problems.
What I found so irritating was what he was saying about memories. During the section of the program I caught he said basically two things that bothered me. First, tears of joy are not tears of joy at all; they are tears of sadness or regret. When our grandkids hug our neck or we see an old friend or something like that and we laugh and tear up at the same time, it’s our subconscious being both happy and sad. Happy for what we’re going through, but sad because we’re no longer young and the time to experience these things is limited.
The same with memories, when we look back at our childhood or think about old friends, we subconsciously gloss over the aches and pains so that all that is left is the feel good, happy stuff. I’m obviously not a psychologist, and no disrespect to old friends or classmates who may have chosen that profession, but to me that’s a bunch of B.S.
I’ve taken enough psychology to know one thing. Size does not fit all. Where most of us do follow some general traits, you can’t paint it all with one broad brush. We each deviate enough to make us unique. If that were not true, there would be no need for psychologists, they would dispense counseling out of a vending machine like they do soda.
I firmly believe that aging, and events such as 911, have gotten me closer to my memories. I most certainly do remember the aches and pains of being a teenager - all the tears and fears and uncertainty of the world, and war, which lay waiting. What was I going to do, how was I going to fit in, what would become of… me? I remember the frustration and angst of dating and the volatility of some events that sometimes strained friendships.
But I choose not to dwell on those. I believe that if I made it through all that and still consider you all my friends, then that to me is true friendship. Besides, as I’ve said several times, we all went through it together. Who better to understand how I felt, or feel, than you guys? We all may not live the same lives, have the same jobs, enjoy the same pleasures, or move in the same circle of society, but we all most certainly do have a bond. Good or bad, it's there, and in that respect we are brothers and sisters.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Thud!
I was watching a news type show on TV one night, I don't recall which one, and I don't remember the particulars of the story, but it was something about an accident somewhere in the south caused by a drunk driver. I want to say it was somewhere in the Carolinas, but it might have been Tennessee or Georgia or one of the others.
Anyway, this young couple were on their first date and got hit by a drunk driver. The girl ended up in the hospital for a time in pretty bad shape. Now, I'm not making light of any of this, I realize it was a bad situation that just as easily could have turned tragic, but they are interviewing this kid, and I'm sitting there shaking my head, because right in front of me was someone so close to me 40 years ago that I had to smile.
He was saying stuff like all he could think of was the old Tim McGraw song, "Don't Take the Girl". and how he sat there every night wishing it was him instead of her and he was going to stay by her side for the rest of her life if that's what it took. He loved her that much!
Okay, a sad story and he is to be commended for his devotion and compassion, but in the back of my mind I'm saying, "It was your first date! What do you know about her? What are you going to do when she gets on her feet and decides to move on?" He's sitting there, talking like he's planning his whole future, and he hasn't the slightest idea if she feels that way or not.
Nobody falls quicker and farther than a young southern boy. I know, I was one. They walk around with their hearts on their sleeve waiting for some young girl to smile at them, and as soon as she does, Thud!! He's head over heels.
When I was a freshman I carried a particular girl's books to class every day right after lunch. Just her books mind you, some other guy was walking her to class, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking she will see what I'm doing and that's all it will take, she'll be mine forever. Okay, so I exaggerate a little bit, but not much!
There's a couple I fell for like that. Hook, line and sinker. I don't know that she has ever seen this blog, but if she does and she remembers it too, "Sorry. Hope I didn't embarrass you or anything like that."
I'm not exactly apologizing for it. I couldn't have controlled it even if I wanted to. I don't know if it was the age, the time, the hormones or what, but I'd have had more luck trying to stop the tides. I got better, eventually. I know every guy didn't act that way, but most did. Some of them were able to think things through a little more clearly and save themselves any embarrassment, but not me.
I didn't have "Don't Take the Girl", but I did have.....
Oh, I'm beginning to think, that man has never found,
The words that could make you want me.
That has the right amount of letters, just the right sound,
That could make you hear, make you see, that you are driving me out of my mind.
*sigh*
I wonder if the people who write songs like that know they're writing an ode for lovesick teenage boys? :)
Anyway, this young couple were on their first date and got hit by a drunk driver. The girl ended up in the hospital for a time in pretty bad shape. Now, I'm not making light of any of this, I realize it was a bad situation that just as easily could have turned tragic, but they are interviewing this kid, and I'm sitting there shaking my head, because right in front of me was someone so close to me 40 years ago that I had to smile.
He was saying stuff like all he could think of was the old Tim McGraw song, "Don't Take the Girl". and how he sat there every night wishing it was him instead of her and he was going to stay by her side for the rest of her life if that's what it took. He loved her that much!
Okay, a sad story and he is to be commended for his devotion and compassion, but in the back of my mind I'm saying, "It was your first date! What do you know about her? What are you going to do when she gets on her feet and decides to move on?" He's sitting there, talking like he's planning his whole future, and he hasn't the slightest idea if she feels that way or not.
Nobody falls quicker and farther than a young southern boy. I know, I was one. They walk around with their hearts on their sleeve waiting for some young girl to smile at them, and as soon as she does, Thud!! He's head over heels.
When I was a freshman I carried a particular girl's books to class every day right after lunch. Just her books mind you, some other guy was walking her to class, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking she will see what I'm doing and that's all it will take, she'll be mine forever. Okay, so I exaggerate a little bit, but not much!
There's a couple I fell for like that. Hook, line and sinker. I don't know that she has ever seen this blog, but if she does and she remembers it too, "Sorry. Hope I didn't embarrass you or anything like that."
I'm not exactly apologizing for it. I couldn't have controlled it even if I wanted to. I don't know if it was the age, the time, the hormones or what, but I'd have had more luck trying to stop the tides. I got better, eventually. I know every guy didn't act that way, but most did. Some of them were able to think things through a little more clearly and save themselves any embarrassment, but not me.
I didn't have "Don't Take the Girl", but I did have.....
Oh, I'm beginning to think, that man has never found,
The words that could make you want me.
That has the right amount of letters, just the right sound,
That could make you hear, make you see, that you are driving me out of my mind.
*sigh*
I wonder if the people who write songs like that know they're writing an ode for lovesick teenage boys? :)
Monday, November 20, 2006
Days Off
Alright, help me out here. We had two weeks off at Christmas, and the Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving off, and that was it, right?
No fall break, no spring break.
I guess you could count fair day as a day off, since they let you go if you wanted to, which was dumb because the alternative was to stay at school all day. Let me see here, I can either go to the fair, or stay at school all day. Touch choice, that. :)
Brenda mentioned before that we got some time off during semester tests, but I don’t really remember that. I must have had reason to be more anxious about my tests. :)
Anyway, that was it, right? No time other than a few snow days here and there. And while you wanted at least a few of those, you didn’t want too many. I can remember a few times in junior high when we went half days on Saturday to make up for the days we missed because of snow.
No fall break, no spring break.
I guess you could count fair day as a day off, since they let you go if you wanted to, which was dumb because the alternative was to stay at school all day. Let me see here, I can either go to the fair, or stay at school all day. Touch choice, that. :)
Brenda mentioned before that we got some time off during semester tests, but I don’t really remember that. I must have had reason to be more anxious about my tests. :)
Anyway, that was it, right? No time other than a few snow days here and there. And while you wanted at least a few of those, you didn’t want too many. I can remember a few times in junior high when we went half days on Saturday to make up for the days we missed because of snow.
Hog Rotten Taters
I know we've talked about the cafeteria before, but it really was an important place. Call it a combination of the times and me being a bit "backward", but it was a place I learned to like a lot of things I'd never eaten before.
Tuna for one. We had it in grade school but I always "traded" it for something else.
Broccoli and cauliflower, which still taste a lot alike to me.
Asparagus, which I dearly love, and au gratin potatoes, which someone, I think it was Wayne McNabb, called “Hog Rotten Taters”, partly in fun, partly because he didn’t like them.
I guess the most popular thing we had was barbeque, which is more like what we call a Sloppy Joe these days. Even though I lived in Memphis for awhile, I’m still not real big on barbeque. Memphis bills itself as the “Barbeque capitol of the world”, but I always found the restaurants far too smoky and smelly for my taste. But if you do ever find yourself over that way, stop in at a place called The Rendezvous. It’s a little place and it’s in an alley, but their dry rub barbeque is really tasty, even to me.
Anyway, I thought the food in the cafeteria was good, and the ladies who cooked and served it were really nice. I remember if you were near the end of the lunch period and they had a lot of something left over, you might end up with a double helping of mashed potatoes or something. But you also ran the risk of not being able to get something else, like the barbeque.
Tuna for one. We had it in grade school but I always "traded" it for something else.
Broccoli and cauliflower, which still taste a lot alike to me.
Asparagus, which I dearly love, and au gratin potatoes, which someone, I think it was Wayne McNabb, called “Hog Rotten Taters”, partly in fun, partly because he didn’t like them.
I guess the most popular thing we had was barbeque, which is more like what we call a Sloppy Joe these days. Even though I lived in Memphis for awhile, I’m still not real big on barbeque. Memphis bills itself as the “Barbeque capitol of the world”, but I always found the restaurants far too smoky and smelly for my taste. But if you do ever find yourself over that way, stop in at a place called The Rendezvous. It’s a little place and it’s in an alley, but their dry rub barbeque is really tasty, even to me.
Anyway, I thought the food in the cafeteria was good, and the ladies who cooked and served it were really nice. I remember if you were near the end of the lunch period and they had a lot of something left over, you might end up with a double helping of mashed potatoes or something. But you also ran the risk of not being able to get something else, like the barbeque.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Alumni Site Gets A Makeover
I have made some changes to www.loudonhighalumni.com. Hopefully, they are for the better. I tried to make it more informative and fun. Please take a look at it. As (or if) it begins to fill up I think it will be a pretty good site.
It goes without saying that I would like you guys to send in your stuff, and since it's for the entire school, you can even send in your spouse's stuff if they went there... hint... hint... Donna, Brenda, Darlene, Delphia.... :)
Of course I'm joking.... just a little. :)
Hope you all enjoy it.
It goes without saying that I would like you guys to send in your stuff, and since it's for the entire school, you can even send in your spouse's stuff if they went there... hint... hint... Donna, Brenda, Darlene, Delphia.... :)
Of course I'm joking.... just a little. :)
Hope you all enjoy it.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Elections
Since Tuesday was Election Day I got to thinking about the voting we did in school. Every year we voted for class officers and a homecoming queen, and then senior year there were the superlatives to vote for.
There are similarities and differences between the voting we did back then and the voting we did Tuesday.... ummmm.... we did vote, didn't we? :)
Anyway the biggest difference I can think of is that back then we all voted. 100% participation. Now it's a big deal if they get half of the people to vote.
I guess another difference was we liked all the candidates back then, whereas now we have at least a little distrust of everybody running.
Another difference was that back then one candidate didn't try to look good by telling us how bad the other one was, nor did they whine and demand a recount when they lost.
We also weren’t lumped into things like blue states and red states and ridiculed for not voting the way someone else did.
I guess one thing that is the same is we don’t always know how someone got on the ballot. I suppose they were asked, or volunteered or whatever, but there is always a little head scratching as we try to figure out how a particular person got picked for this or that office. I suppose there are qualifications for running for judge just like there was for running for homecoming queen, but I guess the qualifications for being elected homecoming queen are a little more obvious.
Anyway, I’m not begrudging anybody their office or position, then or now. I wasn’t interested in any of the class positions, and you couldn’t pay me to run for office. In the immortal words of Lyndon Johnson, “If nominated I will not run and if elected I will not serve.” Besides, I would have looked ridiculous in an evening gown. :)
There are similarities and differences between the voting we did back then and the voting we did Tuesday.... ummmm.... we did vote, didn't we? :)
Anyway the biggest difference I can think of is that back then we all voted. 100% participation. Now it's a big deal if they get half of the people to vote.
I guess another difference was we liked all the candidates back then, whereas now we have at least a little distrust of everybody running.
Another difference was that back then one candidate didn't try to look good by telling us how bad the other one was, nor did they whine and demand a recount when they lost.
We also weren’t lumped into things like blue states and red states and ridiculed for not voting the way someone else did.
I guess one thing that is the same is we don’t always know how someone got on the ballot. I suppose they were asked, or volunteered or whatever, but there is always a little head scratching as we try to figure out how a particular person got picked for this or that office. I suppose there are qualifications for running for judge just like there was for running for homecoming queen, but I guess the qualifications for being elected homecoming queen are a little more obvious.
Anyway, I’m not begrudging anybody their office or position, then or now. I wasn’t interested in any of the class positions, and you couldn’t pay me to run for office. In the immortal words of Lyndon Johnson, “If nominated I will not run and if elected I will not serve.” Besides, I would have looked ridiculous in an evening gown. :)
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Holy Fuzzy Flying Things, Batman!
I saw this on the internet and just had to comment.
'Hazards dated Oct. 4, 2006, lists "bats in the building daily, dead and alive,"'
In the high school!! And they weren't talking about the biology lab or the baseball equipment!!
I'm not trying to make light of an obviously serious situation, but I've never heard of too many buildings invested with bats. Rats yes, but not bats. At one point I thought it was a joke, after all I was reading it on Halloween.
I will admit there were days I thought it was a deep dark dungeon, but I never dreamed there would be bats flying around.
Where do you think the bats hide?
'Hazards dated Oct. 4, 2006, lists "bats in the building daily, dead and alive,"'
In the high school!! And they weren't talking about the biology lab or the baseball equipment!!
I'm not trying to make light of an obviously serious situation, but I've never heard of too many buildings invested with bats. Rats yes, but not bats. At one point I thought it was a joke, after all I was reading it on Halloween.
I will admit there were days I thought it was a deep dark dungeon, but I never dreamed there would be bats flying around.
Where do you think the bats hide?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
100
This is post number 100 to this blog. Eight months ago I had no idea it would go this far, but I was willing to go along for the ride.
Thanks to you guys it has, and I appreciate you. All of you have contributed stories and ideas and comments and pictures and emails and, well, the list goes on. There are people who look at this thing almost daily, and believe me I still spend a lot of time thinking up things that I haven't already covered. :)
The original idea was to get people together and share a few memories and laughs and maybe provide just a little bit of escape from the daily grind. I think that for a dirty dozen or so we've done that, and those are just the ones who have put down their name or sent an email.
I see stats on every visit to this blog, the machines not the people, but I can pretty much tell who is who by the time of day they visit. And in there, among the visits by the ones I can guess at are ones I have no idea about. The ones who visit occasionally from Oklahoma or Miami haven't said much yet, but they will.
I'm not usually an optimist by nature, but about this thing I am. This time next year there will be a lot more of us who regularly visit here.
Thanks to you guys it has, and I appreciate you. All of you have contributed stories and ideas and comments and pictures and emails and, well, the list goes on. There are people who look at this thing almost daily, and believe me I still spend a lot of time thinking up things that I haven't already covered. :)
The original idea was to get people together and share a few memories and laughs and maybe provide just a little bit of escape from the daily grind. I think that for a dirty dozen or so we've done that, and those are just the ones who have put down their name or sent an email.
I see stats on every visit to this blog, the machines not the people, but I can pretty much tell who is who by the time of day they visit. And in there, among the visits by the ones I can guess at are ones I have no idea about. The ones who visit occasionally from Oklahoma or Miami haven't said much yet, but they will.
I'm not usually an optimist by nature, but about this thing I am. This time next year there will be a lot more of us who regularly visit here.
Age Spots
I realize we're all a few years older than we were in school, but I have a question. Do you really feel older? I'm not talking about physically, I know there are differences there, but what about mentally?
I don't. Mentally I feel just like I did in high school. Obviously the hair is almost all grey, there are a lot of wrinkles, especially around my eyes, and what I used to think was a few freckles congregating on my arm turned out to be an age spot, but that's all physical and I think the physical side changes much quicker than the mental side.
Some of us age more gracefully than others. My wife for example is 52 and doesn't have a grey hair on her head, I on the other hand look my age, but I don't feel my age. I like to think my younger kids have kept me on my toes, and maybe they have. I still love to cut up and laugh and joke and horse play just like I did in high school.
The other night the football team for my kid's high school was in a playoff game and it was raining and windy with the temperature around 40. I didn't go. They did, and I would have too when I was in high school, but I stayed in where it was warm. Older also means wiser. :)
I don't. Mentally I feel just like I did in high school. Obviously the hair is almost all grey, there are a lot of wrinkles, especially around my eyes, and what I used to think was a few freckles congregating on my arm turned out to be an age spot, but that's all physical and I think the physical side changes much quicker than the mental side.
Some of us age more gracefully than others. My wife for example is 52 and doesn't have a grey hair on her head, I on the other hand look my age, but I don't feel my age. I like to think my younger kids have kept me on my toes, and maybe they have. I still love to cut up and laugh and joke and horse play just like I did in high school.
The other night the football team for my kid's high school was in a playoff game and it was raining and windy with the temperature around 40. I didn't go. They did, and I would have too when I was in high school, but I stayed in where it was warm. Older also means wiser. :)
Monday, October 23, 2006
It's Not too Early to Start Making Plans
I'm still shaking my head about Brenda having to sit in the principal's office. She, and a few others always gave me the impression of being quiet and shy, too shy to ever be sent to the office. Sorry Brenda, I'm not trying to embarrass you.
Did you ever think you had someone pegged a certain way only to find out later, either before or after graduation, that you really didn't know them at all? Obviously there are some situations where that surprise can be in a bad way, but I guess what got me thinking about this was the times that you caught yourself thinking, "Huh, they are so nice!"
Kaye Collis Gordon is another one, and no Kaye, I'm not picking on you either. During high school I thought Kaye was very nice and friendly, but I didn't run in her circle nor she in mine, so I really didn't know her. Twenty years later when we bumped into each other in Memphis I got to see just how nice she is. Her family and mine had several get togethers and they were fun.
Even in a school as small as ours it was hard to really know everybody. I'm betting that if we all really thought about it, we have one or two nagging little wishes about knowing someone better back then.
Delphia mentioned in an email recently that we really need a 40th and I totally agree. Several of us have talked about getting together even if there is no reunion and we can do that too. I'm not sure what all I can do, but I will help either way. The internet makes it easier for those of us farther away to pitch in and do stuff like mailing and stuff like that. I'm still trying to get an email list together. I officially have 20 addresses, but 4 or 5 of them have not responded to my emails, so they're still sort of in limbo. But looking on the bright side, that's 20 in 6 months, so that makes 40 in a year and there's about 3 and half years until we would have a reunion, so there's time. :) Okay, so I'm stretching it some. :)
Anyway, any ideas? I vote for more than just a one night get together. Let's make a weekend out of it. Friday night casual, Saturday night a little more formal, and either Sunday or Saturday brunch or picnic someplace. What do you think?
Did you ever think you had someone pegged a certain way only to find out later, either before or after graduation, that you really didn't know them at all? Obviously there are some situations where that surprise can be in a bad way, but I guess what got me thinking about this was the times that you caught yourself thinking, "Huh, they are so nice!"
Kaye Collis Gordon is another one, and no Kaye, I'm not picking on you either. During high school I thought Kaye was very nice and friendly, but I didn't run in her circle nor she in mine, so I really didn't know her. Twenty years later when we bumped into each other in Memphis I got to see just how nice she is. Her family and mine had several get togethers and they were fun.
Even in a school as small as ours it was hard to really know everybody. I'm betting that if we all really thought about it, we have one or two nagging little wishes about knowing someone better back then.
Delphia mentioned in an email recently that we really need a 40th and I totally agree. Several of us have talked about getting together even if there is no reunion and we can do that too. I'm not sure what all I can do, but I will help either way. The internet makes it easier for those of us farther away to pitch in and do stuff like mailing and stuff like that. I'm still trying to get an email list together. I officially have 20 addresses, but 4 or 5 of them have not responded to my emails, so they're still sort of in limbo. But looking on the bright side, that's 20 in 6 months, so that makes 40 in a year and there's about 3 and half years until we would have a reunion, so there's time. :) Okay, so I'm stretching it some. :)
Anyway, any ideas? I vote for more than just a one night get together. Let's make a weekend out of it. Friday night casual, Saturday night a little more formal, and either Sunday or Saturday brunch or picnic someplace. What do you think?
Monday, October 16, 2006
My Feel Good Letter
In an earlier post I mentioned the money, or lack of it, we had back in high school and I also mentioned the letter you can get from Social Security that details your annual salary. I call it my feel good letter, because when I complain about what I make now I can look back at this letter and say "My God, how did we get by on that?" Well, I got my feel good letter today and it's funny to wonder how we got by on so little.
In 1967 I made $257. I was 15 and sitting on top of the world. What was I ever going to do with that much money? In '68 I went up to a whopping $363, or just short of a dollar a day. In 1969 it skyrocketed to $543, and in '70 it went thru the ceiling at $1,364 (I got a job at Maramont). I make more in a month now than I did in those 4 years combined.
I guess you could argue that yes, I made a lot less then, but things also cost a lot less then too. That's a good point. 25 cents a gallon for gas, cigarettes 20-25 cents a pack. And you could also argue that I didn't have to worry about rent or anything like that during those years, and that would also be true. I can remember when I first got married in 1972, I could take $10 on pay day and fill up the car and buy a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer.
But the point I guess is how did we get by on so little back then and how does so much spread so thin now? I make as much in a year now as I made the entire decade of the 70s. At first glance that sounds like a lot, but it's not. We do okay, but we still have to balance a budget, just as I'm sure the rest of you do.
I guess that's life though, but for a little while at least the feel good letter is going to keep me smiling.
In 1967 I made $257. I was 15 and sitting on top of the world. What was I ever going to do with that much money? In '68 I went up to a whopping $363, or just short of a dollar a day. In 1969 it skyrocketed to $543, and in '70 it went thru the ceiling at $1,364 (I got a job at Maramont). I make more in a month now than I did in those 4 years combined.
I guess you could argue that yes, I made a lot less then, but things also cost a lot less then too. That's a good point. 25 cents a gallon for gas, cigarettes 20-25 cents a pack. And you could also argue that I didn't have to worry about rent or anything like that during those years, and that would also be true. I can remember when I first got married in 1972, I could take $10 on pay day and fill up the car and buy a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer.
But the point I guess is how did we get by on so little back then and how does so much spread so thin now? I make as much in a year now as I made the entire decade of the 70s. At first glance that sounds like a lot, but it's not. We do okay, but we still have to balance a budget, just as I'm sure the rest of you do.
I guess that's life though, but for a little while at least the feel good letter is going to keep me smiling.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Friday Night Football
It’s Friday and we’re getting the first signs of winter here, nighttime temperatures into the 30s and the wind crisp and cold out of the north. It actually snowed a little yesterday. So what does this cold snap bring to mind? Football!
A typical Friday in high school shared at least one thing in common with a typical Friday now – I can’t wait to get the day over with and get on with my weekend – but after school I would hurry home and eat and hurry back to the football field to see who I could hook up with.
I can remember games when it was so cold everybody was bundled up, including the cheerleaders, and the two most popular spots were the concession stand getting coffee or the restroom to get in out of the cold. Of course that cold was relative. It was cold to us but someone from North Dakota or Alaska would probably laugh at us.
But it was cold, and it was fun. Sometimes, it almost seemed like the colder, the better. The crowd always seemed to get into it more when it was cold. Maybe it was a way to stay warm. Who wanted to sit down on cold bleachers?
I can remember one game when this leather-lunged, half-drunk guy sitting behind me yelled some of the most obscene cheers I’ve ever heard. I still remember one of them word for word.
I also remember a fight or two, but the then new high school didn’t seem to have as many of those as the old field up on the hill. I remember one game with Lenoir City at the old high school when there had to have been eight or ten guys going at it behind the bleachers.
The games were also “rumor central” where you would run into people you sometimes didn’t see during the week and caught up on who was doing what, or sometimes even who was doing who.
I still see the kids running around like we did back then, so it must be just as much fun to them as it was to us. Why didn’t we ever think to take off our shirts when it was 35 degrees and paint ourselves red and white?? :)
A typical Friday in high school shared at least one thing in common with a typical Friday now – I can’t wait to get the day over with and get on with my weekend – but after school I would hurry home and eat and hurry back to the football field to see who I could hook up with.
I can remember games when it was so cold everybody was bundled up, including the cheerleaders, and the two most popular spots were the concession stand getting coffee or the restroom to get in out of the cold. Of course that cold was relative. It was cold to us but someone from North Dakota or Alaska would probably laugh at us.
But it was cold, and it was fun. Sometimes, it almost seemed like the colder, the better. The crowd always seemed to get into it more when it was cold. Maybe it was a way to stay warm. Who wanted to sit down on cold bleachers?
I can remember one game when this leather-lunged, half-drunk guy sitting behind me yelled some of the most obscene cheers I’ve ever heard. I still remember one of them word for word.
I also remember a fight or two, but the then new high school didn’t seem to have as many of those as the old field up on the hill. I remember one game with Lenoir City at the old high school when there had to have been eight or ten guys going at it behind the bleachers.
The games were also “rumor central” where you would run into people you sometimes didn’t see during the week and caught up on who was doing what, or sometimes even who was doing who.
I still see the kids running around like we did back then, so it must be just as much fun to them as it was to us. Why didn’t we ever think to take off our shirts when it was 35 degrees and paint ourselves red and white?? :)
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Homecoming
Homecoming. Technically we had four. Do you remember any of them? Am I wrong or was the only things that happened during homecoming the football game and voting for the Homecoming Queen, oh, and a parade, I almost forgot the parade. There was a parade, right? Do you remember who you voted for? I remember voting for Doris my senior year, I don’t recall the others. Heck, I don’t even remember who ran.
One of the traps of nostalgia is that things somehow seem “better” when you think back to years ago, but I don’t always think that’s true. Sure, some things, a lot in fact, were better back then in their own way, and I guess getting involved with a site like this is trying to relive them to a degree, but they were not always better.
One of those is Homecoming. These days, at least at my kid’s schools, they have a Homecoming Week. Each day is a different theme and they dress or do different things, or eat specific foods in the cafeteria; there’s a powder puff football game for the girls on Thursday night before the big game on Friday; and, there’s a dance at the school on Saturday night. To me that makes Homecoming more important, more reasons for someone to actually “come home.” Why not party all week instead of just one night?
One of the traps of nostalgia is that things somehow seem “better” when you think back to years ago, but I don’t always think that’s true. Sure, some things, a lot in fact, were better back then in their own way, and I guess getting involved with a site like this is trying to relive them to a degree, but they were not always better.
One of those is Homecoming. These days, at least at my kid’s schools, they have a Homecoming Week. Each day is a different theme and they dress or do different things, or eat specific foods in the cafeteria; there’s a powder puff football game for the girls on Thursday night before the big game on Friday; and, there’s a dance at the school on Saturday night. To me that makes Homecoming more important, more reasons for someone to actually “come home.” Why not party all week instead of just one night?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Corporal Punishment
Did you ever get punished in school? I did. :) I wasn't a bad kid. I was just a kid who pushed the limits from time to time. Not as bad as some but worse than some others. It was sort of funny how punishment changed from our freshman year to our senior year. I recall a couple of guys getting paddlings during freshman year, but by the time senior year rolled around, punishment had changed to more of an administrative type.
Anything from doing extra work to explusions to just plain threats. I remember once Miss McCall was given me another go 'round for being out of class or smoking in the bathroom or something like that and she mentioned the word "expel" and I said something like "That would be like a day off, huh?" She didn't mention it again after letting me sit in the office for about an hour.
It was funny when you sat in the office. Everybody who saw you sitting there knew you were in trouble for something. I'm not sure now whether they were trying to humiliate me by having me sit there, or sending a message to those that saw me. Sort of an advertisement. Maybe it was a little of both.
This showed up again several years later when we were relocating from California to South Carolina. My oldest son was 13 and one of the forms he brought home at the beginning of the school year said that the school system administered corporal punishment unless there was a note from the parents saying not to. Corporal punishment was unheard of in California. My son said, "You're going to write the note, right?" And of course I said, "No. If you deserve it, you'll get it." "They're not going to spank me," he grumbled. Guess what? They did, and it was the last time he was ever in trouble at school. I'm sure his maturing had a lot to do with it, but I think the "attention getter" did too.
Anything from doing extra work to explusions to just plain threats. I remember once Miss McCall was given me another go 'round for being out of class or smoking in the bathroom or something like that and she mentioned the word "expel" and I said something like "That would be like a day off, huh?" She didn't mention it again after letting me sit in the office for about an hour.
It was funny when you sat in the office. Everybody who saw you sitting there knew you were in trouble for something. I'm not sure now whether they were trying to humiliate me by having me sit there, or sending a message to those that saw me. Sort of an advertisement. Maybe it was a little of both.
This showed up again several years later when we were relocating from California to South Carolina. My oldest son was 13 and one of the forms he brought home at the beginning of the school year said that the school system administered corporal punishment unless there was a note from the parents saying not to. Corporal punishment was unheard of in California. My son said, "You're going to write the note, right?" And of course I said, "No. If you deserve it, you'll get it." "They're not going to spank me," he grumbled. Guess what? They did, and it was the last time he was ever in trouble at school. I'm sure his maturing had a lot to do with it, but I think the "attention getter" did too.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
A Memorial
Allen McNabb
1952-2006.
Anyone who got to know him liked him. He had a way of saying what was on his mind, but he did it in such a way that you had to laugh. I've known him and Wayne all my life, in fact I spent the last two years of high school living with the McNabb family, and was probably closer to the two of them than I was to anybody else my entire life. I'll miss him.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Our Sister Site
We have a sister site of sorts. Some of you have already looked at it, but if you haven't been there since Tuesday night then you won't know that it's been updated. The site is www.loudonhighalumni.com. Go and give it a look. I would like to see all of you as devoted to it as you have been to this blog. It's not just for our class, it's for everybody, but I am depending on you guys to spearhead it do some degree.Google has bought blogger.com. I have no idea what that means in the long term, but in preparation for maybe one day having to shell out bucks for this site, I'm trying to scout around for other places to maybe host this blog one day. I am NOT giving up on this blog. It will continue as long as someone comes to it, but if I have to pull it, why not pull it to a site I control?
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, let me know, but I think you will really like the other site... I hope so anyway. :)
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Another Sign of the Times
I was searching through the Knoxville Sentinal website today and found out that a couple of weeks ago, Rev. J. Bazzel Mull passed. I know that's not really news to those of you who still live around there, and I don't want to sound rude or crude, but I thought he already had. I know that must sound terrible, but he seemed so old when I was a kid. I guess every adult seems old when you're growing up.
I remember once hearing my mom tell someone she was 39 and that sounded so old to me. I must have been around 10 at the time, so 39 seemed light years away. Now 39 almost seems light years ago.
But I guess Rev. Mull, along with Cas Walker was probably the closest thing there was to icons when I was a kid. Everybody knew who you were talking about when you said their names even if they did have the hokiest television programs I've ever seen.
Ain't that right, Miss Mull?
I remember once hearing my mom tell someone she was 39 and that sounded so old to me. I must have been around 10 at the time, so 39 seemed light years away. Now 39 almost seems light years ago.
But I guess Rev. Mull, along with Cas Walker was probably the closest thing there was to icons when I was a kid. Everybody knew who you were talking about when you said their names even if they did have the hokiest television programs I've ever seen.
Ain't that right, Miss Mull?
Saturday, September 16, 2006
A Sign of the Times?
I realize I've been away for a long time, and every now and then I run across something that proves just how long it's been. I saw this story in the paper the other day:
"The "Battle of the Bridge" between Loudon and Lenoir City last Friday may have been the last between the rival high schools. Football coaches for each team confirmed that the teams are considering ending the series. "
I know that now they're in different divisions, and Lenior City probaby has nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing Loudon. If they win it's against a smaller school so it doesn't mean as much, and if they lose, well, they lost to a smaller school and it impacts them more. That's too bad.
More than any other school, Lenior City was the one you loved to beat and hated to lose to. Most years it was THE game of the year, the high school version of Tennessee and Alabama, or at least it is to me. It's sad to see it end.
"The "Battle of the Bridge" between Loudon and Lenoir City last Friday may have been the last between the rival high schools. Football coaches for each team confirmed that the teams are considering ending the series. "
I know that now they're in different divisions, and Lenior City probaby has nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing Loudon. If they win it's against a smaller school so it doesn't mean as much, and if they lose, well, they lost to a smaller school and it impacts them more. That's too bad.
More than any other school, Lenior City was the one you loved to beat and hated to lose to. Most years it was THE game of the year, the high school version of Tennessee and Alabama, or at least it is to me. It's sad to see it end.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Sometimes It Might Look Like I've Given Up...
.... but I haven't. Just like everybody else, this time of year gets really hectic in our house. School starts up and there's all these things to attend and do. Classes, clubs, teams, field trips, fund raisers, you know the drill. Of course, since the kids are in different schools that means that sometimes these things conflict and you have to be in two or three places at once. Then you have to crack the whip about homework and bedtime and chores and TV and phone and computer and video games and making a list of boys your 13yo will NEVER date. Ahhh... who said parenting was easy? :)
What does this have to do with this blog? Nothing, except taking precedence over it. :)
I'm just letting y'all know I'm still out here and kicking and will still keep posting as time permits. In fact, this might be a good time for someone to send in pictures or stories. I can still cut and paste. :)
What does this have to do with this blog? Nothing, except taking precedence over it. :)
I'm just letting y'all know I'm still out here and kicking and will still keep posting as time permits. In fact, this might be a good time for someone to send in pictures or stories. I can still cut and paste. :)
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
A Story
Okay, a little prelude here. First and foremost this is all in fun, and the last thing I want to do is make anyone mad, so if I get so much as a little odd comment, I will remove this post. Many, many moons ago in a course I was taking we were given a list of names of everyone in the class and instructed to write a story using those names, with the only rule being it could not be derogatory or demeaning to anyone. I have to say it was a lot easier with 20-30 names than with 129, but see how many you can find. I have used homonyms, synonyms, misspellings, fractured English, you name it; but I ended up with this story.
Henry Lynn Wilkerson wanted to be a farmer so he bought a large tract of land near Loudon. It was between farms owned by Allen McCallister and Arnold McNew and was bordered on one side by the river and on the other side by a two lane highway. He moved in with his wife, Blair, his 5 sons, Thomas, Dunkin, Julian, Mitchell and Wallace, and his daughter Lindsey. He liked the idea of being near the river so on crisp, sunny mornings he could rowe along in his boat in the bright sunshine and relive the memories of when he was a helmsman in the navy. He also liked to sit on the front porch in the evening and look out over the river as he listened to Elvis Presley, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Andy Williams and Ray Stevens on his stereo.
He divided his land into four sections. On part of it he wanted to grow something. He didn’t care what it was as long as it was green, even though he had never grown even as much as a rose before. He put a lowe fence around that section as a barrier to barr animals from getting in and eating what he grew. On the second section, near the river, he built a fish hatchery that was made up of several little pooles. He stocked it with fish common to the area, like catfish and bass, but he also added trout and imported fish too, like rudd from Europe. On the third section he planted trees. He thought he could sell the timber or make different wooden products to market. The woody landscape would also help protect his property and ward off the wind and rain. On the forth section he built his house, a barn and a couple of sheds, and being a good Christian he put a cross over the door of the house for good luck.
After a time he had moore work than his family could handle so he went to Knoxville to try and russell up someone to help him. He found two men, Nathan McCullough and Scott Schrimpsher.
“You can have the growing fields,” he said to Dunkin, “but listen carefully to Nathan son. He knows a lot more about farming than I do.” They divided the field in two parts, one large field for a cash crop and a little field for a family garden.
He put Julian over the wooded section and paired him up with Scott, who at one time had worked for a large lumber miller where he operated a tree bark skinner and one of the large board sanders. Julian turned out to be an excellent carver and set up one of the sheds to make ornamental wood letters for signs. Each order had the correct amount of letters and several rectangular pieces of finished wood called spacers, or blanks, to fit between the letters when making words. The boxes were checked just before shipping and if one of the spacers were missing, the boxes were labeled “Put in a blank and ship”.
He put Thomas in charge of the livestock. He got several cows and two bulls, a huge black Brahma bull called Ton, and a smaller one the boys nicknamed Little Ton. He also bought two horses; one was a quarter horse and the other a big gray Morgan he used for horseback ridings. He also bought a dog, a large Husky, to help herd the cattle. He liked the way the boy and dog tended to the livestock together. “That’s good son,” he told Thomas. “You did a fine job in training the dog to be a guider for the cattle.”
One evening he was talking with Wallace. “This has turned into a good farm. I hope you and your brothers carey on with it since you boys did a lot of the work. Without you boys this place wouldn’t be worth a plugged nickel son.”
Henry Lynn Wilkerson wanted to be a farmer so he bought a large tract of land near Loudon. It was between farms owned by Allen McCallister and Arnold McNew and was bordered on one side by the river and on the other side by a two lane highway. He moved in with his wife, Blair, his 5 sons, Thomas, Dunkin, Julian, Mitchell and Wallace, and his daughter Lindsey. He liked the idea of being near the river so on crisp, sunny mornings he could rowe along in his boat in the bright sunshine and relive the memories of when he was a helmsman in the navy. He also liked to sit on the front porch in the evening and look out over the river as he listened to Elvis Presley, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Andy Williams and Ray Stevens on his stereo.
He divided his land into four sections. On part of it he wanted to grow something. He didn’t care what it was as long as it was green, even though he had never grown even as much as a rose before. He put a lowe fence around that section as a barrier to barr animals from getting in and eating what he grew. On the second section, near the river, he built a fish hatchery that was made up of several little pooles. He stocked it with fish common to the area, like catfish and bass, but he also added trout and imported fish too, like rudd from Europe. On the third section he planted trees. He thought he could sell the timber or make different wooden products to market. The woody landscape would also help protect his property and ward off the wind and rain. On the forth section he built his house, a barn and a couple of sheds, and being a good Christian he put a cross over the door of the house for good luck.
After a time he had moore work than his family could handle so he went to Knoxville to try and russell up someone to help him. He found two men, Nathan McCullough and Scott Schrimpsher.
“You can have the growing fields,” he said to Dunkin, “but listen carefully to Nathan son. He knows a lot more about farming than I do.” They divided the field in two parts, one large field for a cash crop and a little field for a family garden.
He put Julian over the wooded section and paired him up with Scott, who at one time had worked for a large lumber miller where he operated a tree bark skinner and one of the large board sanders. Julian turned out to be an excellent carver and set up one of the sheds to make ornamental wood letters for signs. Each order had the correct amount of letters and several rectangular pieces of finished wood called spacers, or blanks, to fit between the letters when making words. The boxes were checked just before shipping and if one of the spacers were missing, the boxes were labeled “Put in a blank and ship”.
He put Thomas in charge of the livestock. He got several cows and two bulls, a huge black Brahma bull called Ton, and a smaller one the boys nicknamed Little Ton. He also bought two horses; one was a quarter horse and the other a big gray Morgan he used for horseback ridings. He also bought a dog, a large Husky, to help herd the cattle. He liked the way the boy and dog tended to the livestock together. “That’s good son,” he told Thomas. “You did a fine job in training the dog to be a guider for the cattle.”
One evening he was talking with Wallace. “This has turned into a good farm. I hope you and your brothers carey on with it since you boys did a lot of the work. Without you boys this place wouldn’t be worth a plugged nickel son.”
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Just What The Doctor Ordered
The blog is 6 months old now and it's been a lot of fun. My thanks to all who've contributed, suggested, visited and spread the word. I appreciate it all.
To me there’s an almost therapeutic part to all this. It's refreshing to go to a place where there's less bother, less worry, or a little less hub-bub. A place where you can clear you mind for a minute or two of the everyday drudgery and find a smile that might end up being your only smile for that entire day. When I lived in Monterey, California there was a place just below my apartment where a group of rocks extended out into the ocean. At low tide you could climb out on those rocks and the wind, waves and sea gulls were all you could hear; every other sound was erased, no traffic, no people, no worries. When you closed your eyes it was like you were in your own private little world and nothing else existed. It was my special place, a place to go when I needed to take a deep breath and unwind a little. My back porch. This place is a little like that; at least to me it is.
I’m not here every day, and usually when I am it's only for a few minutes at a time, but the rocks weren’t an all the time type thing either; stay a little too long there and you got trapped by the rising tide, stay a little too long here and I'd get nothing else done. :)
To me there’s an almost therapeutic part to all this. It's refreshing to go to a place where there's less bother, less worry, or a little less hub-bub. A place where you can clear you mind for a minute or two of the everyday drudgery and find a smile that might end up being your only smile for that entire day. When I lived in Monterey, California there was a place just below my apartment where a group of rocks extended out into the ocean. At low tide you could climb out on those rocks and the wind, waves and sea gulls were all you could hear; every other sound was erased, no traffic, no people, no worries. When you closed your eyes it was like you were in your own private little world and nothing else existed. It was my special place, a place to go when I needed to take a deep breath and unwind a little. My back porch. This place is a little like that; at least to me it is.
I’m not here every day, and usually when I am it's only for a few minutes at a time, but the rocks weren’t an all the time type thing either; stay a little too long there and you got trapped by the rising tide, stay a little too long here and I'd get nothing else done. :)
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Blog Updates via E-mail
Kathey asked me a couple of months ago if it was possible to receive the blog updates via email. I looked at several places and finally found one I think will work. It's offered by a site called FeedBlitz and I've tested it with several email addresses and it seems to work fine.
Simply put your email address into the slot at the top of the sidebar and click "Subscribe Me". You will then get a confirmation email that will have a link that you click on to complete the process. That's all there is to it! They create an account for you on their site that you can use to unsubscribe to the emails anytime you want (but hopefully you won't *** grin***).
Simply put your email address into the slot at the top of the sidebar and click "Subscribe Me". You will then get a confirmation email that will have a link that you click on to complete the process. That's all there is to it! They create an account for you on their site that you can use to unsubscribe to the emails anytime you want (but hopefully you won't *** grin***).
Friday, August 25, 2006
Some Things Never Change
My youngest son is a sophomore this year. The other night he was supposed to be studying, but I'm not sure a whole lot of studying was done because he spent most of the time on the telephone talking to his friends. They use the three way calling feature on the phone to have 8 or 10 kids on the phone at the same time. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but they've done it several times. Anyway, whenever I'd say something to him, he'd assure me that, yep, they were studing, but I'm not so sure about that. I wasn't exactly eavesdropping, but out of the bits and pieces of the conversation I heard, I don't recall a whole lot having to do with school work.
Anyway, some of the stuff I heard reminded me that while a lot of things are different between their generation and ours, a whole lot hasn't changed either. While there have been advancements like computers, video games, cell phones and Ipods, there doesn't seem to be much change in the human side of things.
They talked about how hard one teacher was compared to another one and what you could do in a particular class to get the teacher to get off the subject.
They talked about how the sports teams were doing or who they were going to meet up with at the game to pal around with.
They talked about how one kid's voice hasn't changed and how another one was already growing a moustache.
They talked about girls too. Which ones were hot, which ones were not, even a whisper a time or two when they talked about a particular one. I'm not going to try and guess what they were talking about, I may not want to know the details. Anyway, one of his friends seemed to be having a particularly hard time with it all. It seems he had asked a girl to a dance or something and she originally had said yes, but then changed her mind later and said no. Now that brings back memories. I wanted so much to get on the other extension and tell them they had better get used to it because that particular lane in the road of life is always going to be a bit rocky. :) I'm sure the young lady had a very good reason for doing it, but there are some things a teenage boy's mind just can't comprehend, especially when it might reinforce some doubts and an already fragile self opinion. Okay, so I'm taking the guy's side of things, but that's the side I know and have experience with. :)
They also talked about cars. When they were going to drive, whether they were going to get a new car or a used one and whether their parents expected them to get a job and pay something toward the gas and upkeep of it.
All in all, it sounded so familiar, and I had to smile a time or two. So, maybe I was eavesdropping after all. :)
Anyway, some of the stuff I heard reminded me that while a lot of things are different between their generation and ours, a whole lot hasn't changed either. While there have been advancements like computers, video games, cell phones and Ipods, there doesn't seem to be much change in the human side of things.
They talked about how hard one teacher was compared to another one and what you could do in a particular class to get the teacher to get off the subject.
They talked about how the sports teams were doing or who they were going to meet up with at the game to pal around with.
They talked about how one kid's voice hasn't changed and how another one was already growing a moustache.
They talked about girls too. Which ones were hot, which ones were not, even a whisper a time or two when they talked about a particular one. I'm not going to try and guess what they were talking about, I may not want to know the details. Anyway, one of his friends seemed to be having a particularly hard time with it all. It seems he had asked a girl to a dance or something and she originally had said yes, but then changed her mind later and said no. Now that brings back memories. I wanted so much to get on the other extension and tell them they had better get used to it because that particular lane in the road of life is always going to be a bit rocky. :) I'm sure the young lady had a very good reason for doing it, but there are some things a teenage boy's mind just can't comprehend, especially when it might reinforce some doubts and an already fragile self opinion. Okay, so I'm taking the guy's side of things, but that's the side I know and have experience with. :)
They also talked about cars. When they were going to drive, whether they were going to get a new car or a used one and whether their parents expected them to get a job and pay something toward the gas and upkeep of it.
All in all, it sounded so familiar, and I had to smile a time or two. So, maybe I was eavesdropping after all. :)
Monday, August 21, 2006
Study Hall
Did you have a Study Hall? I had it every year. Did you like it or dread it? I enjoyed it for the most part. Did you actually study? Me either... usually. :)
It depended on the teacher "sentenced" to sit in Study Hall at that particular time whether it was a fun class or not. As I remember, some of the teachers acted like the class was drudgery for them and took it out on us, but for the most part it was a nice relaxing hour.
Some of my friends were only "Study Hall" friends. I didn't have any other classes or lunch with them, just Study Hall. My entire association with them for four years was in the class. Donnie Miller comes to mind as does Steve Knox and Joe Watson, and a whole host of people in other grades.
I've added other posts on this blog telling about two infamous notes I was involved with during Study Hall; one that got me in trouble with the office and one that (I think) had a hand in getting two people together. You know what they say about idle hands... :)
Also, if you look at the '70 yearbook there is evidence that it wasn't all fun and games in this class. Besides my portrait and the group picture on the back steps, the only other picture of me in the entire yearbook is one of me sitting at a table behind Joe Watson... studying! Image that. :)
It depended on the teacher "sentenced" to sit in Study Hall at that particular time whether it was a fun class or not. As I remember, some of the teachers acted like the class was drudgery for them and took it out on us, but for the most part it was a nice relaxing hour.
Some of my friends were only "Study Hall" friends. I didn't have any other classes or lunch with them, just Study Hall. My entire association with them for four years was in the class. Donnie Miller comes to mind as does Steve Knox and Joe Watson, and a whole host of people in other grades.
I've added other posts on this blog telling about two infamous notes I was involved with during Study Hall; one that got me in trouble with the office and one that (I think) had a hand in getting two people together. You know what they say about idle hands... :)
Also, if you look at the '70 yearbook there is evidence that it wasn't all fun and games in this class. Besides my portrait and the group picture on the back steps, the only other picture of me in the entire yearbook is one of me sitting at a table behind Joe Watson... studying! Image that. :)
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Rethinking Some Things
As I said a few days ago, I recently got a transcript of my grades and I've had to adjust a memory or two. There are some things I was remembering a tad differently than they actually happened.
For example, I thought I graduated with 21 credits, but I only counted 20 on my transcripts.
I thought I spent the entire sophomore year in Atlanta, but I spent a portion of it in Loudon because I pulled in some first semester grades from there.
For example, I thought I graduated with 21 credits, but I only counted 20 on my transcripts.
I thought I spent the entire sophomore year in Atlanta, but I spent a portion of it in Loudon because I pulled in some first semester grades from there.
I thought I had a class with BJ Stallings my junior year, but it was my freshman year. I have no idea why I was two years off.
I thought I had Miss Mize for two classes, but I had her for three; Journalism, American Government and Sociology. I think the last two only lasted a semester each, but either way, I didn't have her figured out as well as I thought because she dinged me on one of them. :)
I had PE three years and I thought it was just two. I made an A in it one year. How do you make an A in PE? I must have been better at Dodge Ball than I thought too. :)
I had Mr. Arp twice, I had forgotten World Geography. By the way, were Mr Arp and Mrs Arp related?
I had Industrial Arts one year and I thought I had it two. It felt like two.
I didn't take a single science related class after my sophomore year, which is a touch odd considering I worked a large portion of my life in meteorology.
I think my overall favorite class was Applied Math with Coach Dutton during senior year. Others I really liked were Miss Mize's classes and World History with Mr Arp during senior year, Science with Ms Stallings during freshman year and Biology with Mrs Marcus during sophomore year. The reason I enjoyed them so much was almost exclusively because of the people who took the classes with me. I liked Ms Stallings class because she was my favorite high school teacher.
I mentioned somewhere else in this blog that if I had it to do over again, I would try harder. I think my transcripts bear that out. My grades were never anywhere near outstanding, but there is a noticable drop between grade school grades and high school grades, and I think I know why. It was partly due to puberty and that little rebellion we all go through to some degree when we hit the teen years and we think we know more than most adults we come in contact with, and it was also due to the bad habit of doing just enough to get by, but mostly it was because high school was very social for me. Yes, I went to school to graduate, but a lot of the time that seemed to play second fiddle to being with my friends, dating, and the other forms of socializing.
But, at any rate, my number one job now is to make sure my 16 year old doesn't see those transcripts before he graduates, or else I'm going to have some explaining to do. :)
Sunday, August 13, 2006
It's Football Time in Tennessee
I saw in the paper where Loudon's first game is August 25th and the Volunteers start playing on September 2nd. I have always loved Loudon and Tennessee football.
The internet has allowed me to check the score of Loudon games for the past fifteen years or so. Late each Friday night I'll check the News Sentinal website for the scores. Up until the past few years, I could sometimes pick up an audio stream of the games over the internet. You can do that now, but there is a charge for it. Before the internet, every time I called my Mom or visited Loudon I always checked up on the football team. One of these days I'm going to time my visit and actually go to a game. I haven't been in a lot of years. Part of me is a little apprehensive of who I might recognize, but a bigger part of me is apprehensive about not recognizing anyone.
Whenever I think of Tennessee football I think of two things. When I was something like 12 or 13, I used to meet up with a bunch of other kids down at Bacon's Creamery and go to the Tennessee home games to sell ice cream sandwiches. I can't remember how much we charged for them, fifty cents I guess, but it was an all day job and hard work. I remember one game, I think it was Alabama but I'm not positive, but it was so cold that the stands were almost empty and the people that were there laughed when we tried to sell them ice cream. Anyway, we stopped trying to sell anything after half time and sat on the 50 yard line and watched the second half from the best seats in the house.
The second thing was John Ward. Armed Forces radio carries football games in season, and they used to just pipe in the home team's broadcast. Let me tell you something, when you're hunkered down in a hole or on some bleak and desolate island somewhere in the world that seems light years away from your family and friends and the game on the radio is Tennessee, when John Ward's voice boomed across the radio with, "It's football time in Tennessee!"; well, if that didn't put a big lump in your throat, there's something wrong.
The internet has allowed me to check the score of Loudon games for the past fifteen years or so. Late each Friday night I'll check the News Sentinal website for the scores. Up until the past few years, I could sometimes pick up an audio stream of the games over the internet. You can do that now, but there is a charge for it. Before the internet, every time I called my Mom or visited Loudon I always checked up on the football team. One of these days I'm going to time my visit and actually go to a game. I haven't been in a lot of years. Part of me is a little apprehensive of who I might recognize, but a bigger part of me is apprehensive about not recognizing anyone.
Whenever I think of Tennessee football I think of two things. When I was something like 12 or 13, I used to meet up with a bunch of other kids down at Bacon's Creamery and go to the Tennessee home games to sell ice cream sandwiches. I can't remember how much we charged for them, fifty cents I guess, but it was an all day job and hard work. I remember one game, I think it was Alabama but I'm not positive, but it was so cold that the stands were almost empty and the people that were there laughed when we tried to sell them ice cream. Anyway, we stopped trying to sell anything after half time and sat on the 50 yard line and watched the second half from the best seats in the house.
The second thing was John Ward. Armed Forces radio carries football games in season, and they used to just pipe in the home team's broadcast. Let me tell you something, when you're hunkered down in a hole or on some bleak and desolate island somewhere in the world that seems light years away from your family and friends and the game on the radio is Tennessee, when John Ward's voice boomed across the radio with, "It's football time in Tennessee!"; well, if that didn't put a big lump in your throat, there's something wrong.
Friday, August 11, 2006
More Memories
Kathey sent me an email yesterday that got me to thinking about some more things. Remember….
… having one phone, which had a rotary dial and a cord? And it wasn’t the spiral cord, it was straight, and it would get kinks in it until after awhile it was like trying to untangle a bale of wire. And you could dial any number in Loudon by dialing 8 and then the last 4 digits. It was referred to as GLendale 8.
… push mowers? I first started earning money when I was about 8. I mowed the old lady’s yard down the street for 50 cents, and I used a push mower. The kind that if you were really leaning into it and had a good rhythm going, a twig would get caught between the blade and the roller and stop the mower immediately, pushing the handle up into your middle.
… TV sets that only got 3 or maybe 4 channels? We hated it when something like a press conference would come on because all three channels carried it. And we were constantly moving the “rabbit ears” to try and get a better picture. Sometimes we were lucky enough to get a channel out of Asheville.
… keeping a bill at the grocery store? My grandmother paid her grocery “bill” something like once a month. Whenever she needed anything she would send us to the store and told us to tell the guy behind the counter to “put it on my bill”, and he would.
… actually “playing” with your friends instead of just sharing a joystick? I had friends all over town, and at one time or another I would go to each neighborhood and play. And when you were at your friend’s house, their parents had jurisdiction over you. My folks weren’t the only people to ever spank my butt.
… going to the lake in Lenior City? A swimming pool is nothing like swimming in the lake, or river, or for that matter Steekee Creek. Just past the high school, Steekee Road used to make a sharp left hand turn, go across a little culvert over the creek and then make a sharp right hand turn. When I was 10 or so, the water at that culvert was waist deep and we could play or catch crawdads. Then a hundred yards or so toward town a spring bubbled up out of the ground and was always ice cold, even in the heat of July and August.
… the old movie house up past the post office? I used to pass out flyers for the guy who owned it and he would let me watch the movie on Saturday free. And I know we’ve talked about the drive-in before, but all the hanky-panky aside, it was the best place to watch a movie. Either sit in the car or get out and sit on the hood when it was hot and muggy. It was always so cool and relaxing.
… Doctor Sam or Doctor Bill? My brother fell out of a tree once and almost bit his tongue completely off. Mom picked him up and ran down the street to the doctor’s office and the doctor actually sewed my brother’s tongue back on. The thing is, they left a pea sized gravel in there, and afterward you could actually see the little bump where the gravel was.
… the Jewel Tea man? Did he ever stop at your house? He stopped by my grandmother’s house maybe once a month. Or how about the insurance man that came to your house and collected the payment? There was a little pouch that hung on the wall that the insurance money was kept in. Or how about the mailman... usually Tater Watts... who would walk his route and stop and talk to almost everybody.
… sitting on the porch? I miss having a porch. As a grown up I’ve only had one house that had a porch of any size.
… the soda fountain at Richeson’s Drug Store? Two scoops of chocolate and a cherry coke. And speaking of Coke, if it came out of a vending machine, it was the little bottle, maybe 8 ounces. Did you ever put peanuts in one?
Thanks for the email Kathey. :)
… having one phone, which had a rotary dial and a cord? And it wasn’t the spiral cord, it was straight, and it would get kinks in it until after awhile it was like trying to untangle a bale of wire. And you could dial any number in Loudon by dialing 8 and then the last 4 digits. It was referred to as GLendale 8.
… push mowers? I first started earning money when I was about 8. I mowed the old lady’s yard down the street for 50 cents, and I used a push mower. The kind that if you were really leaning into it and had a good rhythm going, a twig would get caught between the blade and the roller and stop the mower immediately, pushing the handle up into your middle.
… TV sets that only got 3 or maybe 4 channels? We hated it when something like a press conference would come on because all three channels carried it. And we were constantly moving the “rabbit ears” to try and get a better picture. Sometimes we were lucky enough to get a channel out of Asheville.
… keeping a bill at the grocery store? My grandmother paid her grocery “bill” something like once a month. Whenever she needed anything she would send us to the store and told us to tell the guy behind the counter to “put it on my bill”, and he would.
… actually “playing” with your friends instead of just sharing a joystick? I had friends all over town, and at one time or another I would go to each neighborhood and play. And when you were at your friend’s house, their parents had jurisdiction over you. My folks weren’t the only people to ever spank my butt.
… going to the lake in Lenior City? A swimming pool is nothing like swimming in the lake, or river, or for that matter Steekee Creek. Just past the high school, Steekee Road used to make a sharp left hand turn, go across a little culvert over the creek and then make a sharp right hand turn. When I was 10 or so, the water at that culvert was waist deep and we could play or catch crawdads. Then a hundred yards or so toward town a spring bubbled up out of the ground and was always ice cold, even in the heat of July and August.
… the old movie house up past the post office? I used to pass out flyers for the guy who owned it and he would let me watch the movie on Saturday free. And I know we’ve talked about the drive-in before, but all the hanky-panky aside, it was the best place to watch a movie. Either sit in the car or get out and sit on the hood when it was hot and muggy. It was always so cool and relaxing.
… Doctor Sam or Doctor Bill? My brother fell out of a tree once and almost bit his tongue completely off. Mom picked him up and ran down the street to the doctor’s office and the doctor actually sewed my brother’s tongue back on. The thing is, they left a pea sized gravel in there, and afterward you could actually see the little bump where the gravel was.
… the Jewel Tea man? Did he ever stop at your house? He stopped by my grandmother’s house maybe once a month. Or how about the insurance man that came to your house and collected the payment? There was a little pouch that hung on the wall that the insurance money was kept in. Or how about the mailman... usually Tater Watts... who would walk his route and stop and talk to almost everybody.
… sitting on the porch? I miss having a porch. As a grown up I’ve only had one house that had a porch of any size.
… the soda fountain at Richeson’s Drug Store? Two scoops of chocolate and a cherry coke. And speaking of Coke, if it came out of a vending machine, it was the little bottle, maybe 8 ounces. Did you ever put peanuts in one?
Thanks for the email Kathey. :)
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The Me Then and the Me Now
My 13 year old is one of the most inquisitive people I know. She is sincerely interested in things like my past, her family tree and where I grew up, much more than any of my other kids. She genuinely enjoys going to Loudon, it’s one of her favorite places. She likes the way the town looks, its surroundings and the people. She likes it when everybody waves as we drive around, “And they don’t even know who I am”, she says. She is, in no small part, responsible for what I’ve put on this site, because she always wants to know so much about things that it keeps me thinking about them too. Anyway, in answering her questions, I’ve put together two people, me then and me now.
The me then was painfully thin. The me now is painfully… well... not so thin.
The me then smoked. The me now only smokes when he’s grilling something.
My Walter Mitty world back then included daydreams about her, or her, or maybe even her. My Walter Mitty world now includes daydreams about winning the Powerball, actually finishing a round of golf under par, and catching the world’s first 25 pound largemouth bass.
The me then struggled in school. The me now struggles through more things than I care to admit.
The me then walked almost everyplace he went (in town). The me now only walks for exercise.
The me then went to a restaurant or café maybe once every other month. The me now goes to one at least once a week. Back then when my mom said it was supper time, we all gathered around the table. Now when my wife says its supper time, the kids run to jump in the van.
The me then went to football and basketball games to socialize and watch the team play. The me now goes to basketball and baseball and football and soccer and kick ball and volleyball (and I know I’m forgetting something) to watch my kids play.
The me then went to church mostly because I had to. The me now goes to church because, well, I have to. Back then it was duress, now its part of the plan.
The me then wanted to drive a fast and sporty car (and did too, for awhile). The me now just wants a vehicle that is easy to get in and out of.
The me then dreamed of living in a huge house so everybody would have their own space. The me now wished I’d bought one with less space. It’s going to feel awfully empty in a couple of years.
The me then missed you guys when I left to join the Air Force. The me now still does.
The me then was painfully thin. The me now is painfully… well... not so thin.
The me then smoked. The me now only smokes when he’s grilling something.
My Walter Mitty world back then included daydreams about her, or her, or maybe even her. My Walter Mitty world now includes daydreams about winning the Powerball, actually finishing a round of golf under par, and catching the world’s first 25 pound largemouth bass.
The me then struggled in school. The me now struggles through more things than I care to admit.
The me then walked almost everyplace he went (in town). The me now only walks for exercise.
The me then went to a restaurant or café maybe once every other month. The me now goes to one at least once a week. Back then when my mom said it was supper time, we all gathered around the table. Now when my wife says its supper time, the kids run to jump in the van.
The me then went to football and basketball games to socialize and watch the team play. The me now goes to basketball and baseball and football and soccer and kick ball and volleyball (and I know I’m forgetting something) to watch my kids play.
The me then went to church mostly because I had to. The me now goes to church because, well, I have to. Back then it was duress, now its part of the plan.
The me then wanted to drive a fast and sporty car (and did too, for awhile). The me now just wants a vehicle that is easy to get in and out of.
The me then dreamed of living in a huge house so everybody would have their own space. The me now wished I’d bought one with less space. It’s going to feel awfully empty in a couple of years.
The me then missed you guys when I left to join the Air Force. The me now still does.
Friday, August 04, 2006
The Top Memories
When I was thinking about the post for graduation I started putting together a list of my top memories... or at least the ones I don't mind sharing :) How many can you come up with? (Some of these are mentioned in previous posts)
Graduation has to be first I think. After all, it was the ultimate goal, right? Well, wasn't it?
The football championship. That was a great ride for a football crazy town. I remember being in the stands near the end of the championship game and one guy getting mad when they scored the last safety because he had bet the score would be 28-0, just like the two previous games.
The walk-out that wasn't. I don't remember what brought it about or who instigated it or anything else about it, but I do remember gathering in the main hall because there was going to be a "demonstration". Nobody did anything. We were such a radical bunch. ;)
The sign that didn't work. I think this was related to the football championship when the class before us tried to horn in on our party, so to speak. They put a sign on the billboard on Highway 11 just east of the school that was supposed to drop down at some predetermined time. I have no idea what the sign said because nothing ever happened. I think the guys who put up that sign must have organized the demonstration. :)
The driver's ed car thru the cafeteria window. RL, right? This is one of those stories that seems to get a little more added to it with each retelling. Truthfully I can just barely remember it happening, but you have to admit, it's the stuff of which legends are made. :)
The senior trip to Six Flags. What a waste. When you consider that we went and came back the same day, and had to drive all the way to Atlanta, that left us with what... 30 minutes to actually do something while we were there?? Okay, so I'm being a little facetious, but when you think of it 30 odd years later and all you remember is the bus ride, well, it couldn't have been all that great.
The annual trip to the fair. To me this was more fun than the senior trip. At least we were there long enough to do something. :) I also remember once trying to impress someone I was with. We got on one of those spinning rides that rotated like a ferris wheel while the caged seat would also spin upside down. Well I impressed her alright. I didn't take the pencils out of my pocket and as we went head over heels the pencils went bouncing all over the inside of the cage. I'm lucky I didn't put her eye out.
The fight. I'm not going to mention both names because one guy cheated, or at least in my mind he did. Larry Lankford got into a shouting match once with this particular guy. If any of you remember Larry, you'll recall he was usually pretty mellow, so it would really take something to antagonize him. At any rate the two of them agreed to a fight after school and when Larry got outside this guy came up with a blank pistol from somewhere and before anyone knew what was happening he put it right up to Larry's eyes and pulled the trigger. Needless to say it blinded Larry and as he's trying to get the powder out of his eyes, the creep starts punching him. The rest of us broke it up at that point. Some guys are natural born a-holes.
Disco-teen! Can you dance? Can you do it on TV? I missed it. I probably wouldn't have danced anyway, but it was my one shot in life to be on TV. :) I'm sure TVland is all the better for me not getting it. :)
Patriotic Youth Day. I can't remember all of it except there were things going on all over the school. People were singing in the auditorium, racing down at the football track, arts and crafts in a lot of the classrooms, all kinds of things. Other schools even showed up. It was a fun time
But, the little memories are probably our favorite. I know they are mine. We all have memories that we recall more than any other. They probably wouldn't make any difference to anybody else, even the others who were involved, but we remember them. It might be a day in study hall when you sat and chatted with someone you didn't really know that much about but you both opened up a little and suddenly you had a new friend. Or a smile from a certain someone at just the right time. Or someone stopping you in the hall and talking with you when you could have sworn that person didn't even know you existed. Yep, sometimes the little ones are the best ones.
Graduation has to be first I think. After all, it was the ultimate goal, right? Well, wasn't it?
The football championship. That was a great ride for a football crazy town. I remember being in the stands near the end of the championship game and one guy getting mad when they scored the last safety because he had bet the score would be 28-0, just like the two previous games.
The walk-out that wasn't. I don't remember what brought it about or who instigated it or anything else about it, but I do remember gathering in the main hall because there was going to be a "demonstration". Nobody did anything. We were such a radical bunch. ;)
The sign that didn't work. I think this was related to the football championship when the class before us tried to horn in on our party, so to speak. They put a sign on the billboard on Highway 11 just east of the school that was supposed to drop down at some predetermined time. I have no idea what the sign said because nothing ever happened. I think the guys who put up that sign must have organized the demonstration. :)
The driver's ed car thru the cafeteria window. RL, right? This is one of those stories that seems to get a little more added to it with each retelling. Truthfully I can just barely remember it happening, but you have to admit, it's the stuff of which legends are made. :)
The senior trip to Six Flags. What a waste. When you consider that we went and came back the same day, and had to drive all the way to Atlanta, that left us with what... 30 minutes to actually do something while we were there?? Okay, so I'm being a little facetious, but when you think of it 30 odd years later and all you remember is the bus ride, well, it couldn't have been all that great.
The annual trip to the fair. To me this was more fun than the senior trip. At least we were there long enough to do something. :) I also remember once trying to impress someone I was with. We got on one of those spinning rides that rotated like a ferris wheel while the caged seat would also spin upside down. Well I impressed her alright. I didn't take the pencils out of my pocket and as we went head over heels the pencils went bouncing all over the inside of the cage. I'm lucky I didn't put her eye out.
The fight. I'm not going to mention both names because one guy cheated, or at least in my mind he did. Larry Lankford got into a shouting match once with this particular guy. If any of you remember Larry, you'll recall he was usually pretty mellow, so it would really take something to antagonize him. At any rate the two of them agreed to a fight after school and when Larry got outside this guy came up with a blank pistol from somewhere and before anyone knew what was happening he put it right up to Larry's eyes and pulled the trigger. Needless to say it blinded Larry and as he's trying to get the powder out of his eyes, the creep starts punching him. The rest of us broke it up at that point. Some guys are natural born a-holes.
Disco-teen! Can you dance? Can you do it on TV? I missed it. I probably wouldn't have danced anyway, but it was my one shot in life to be on TV. :) I'm sure TVland is all the better for me not getting it. :)
Patriotic Youth Day. I can't remember all of it except there were things going on all over the school. People were singing in the auditorium, racing down at the football track, arts and crafts in a lot of the classrooms, all kinds of things. Other schools even showed up. It was a fun time
But, the little memories are probably our favorite. I know they are mine. We all have memories that we recall more than any other. They probably wouldn't make any difference to anybody else, even the others who were involved, but we remember them. It might be a day in study hall when you sat and chatted with someone you didn't really know that much about but you both opened up a little and suddenly you had a new friend. Or a smile from a certain someone at just the right time. Or someone stopping you in the hall and talking with you when you could have sworn that person didn't even know you existed. Yep, sometimes the little ones are the best ones.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Pictures of town
Someone passing through Loudon took pictures and posted them to the internet. This may be old hat to some of you, but I like finding things like this.
You know, it really isn't a bad looking old building.
My old record store! I understand they sell ice cream there now.
The old Five to Five, right? I believe this is a cafe or something now.
I'm told the post office is not here anymore either.
If I remember right, this one is up by the funeral home and used to be a cleaners at one time.
Without a doubt my favorite two of the set. If I'm not badly mistaken Kathey, the intersection next to the green awning is where you stood to take the pictures of the bridge. One of the things about Loudon that always amazed me, even when I was a kid, was on most late afternoons it would look like this and then on Saturday it would be bustling with people. I hope it's still that way. Don't tell me if it's not.
You know, it really isn't a bad looking old building.
My old record store! I understand they sell ice cream there now.
The old Five to Five, right? I believe this is a cafe or something now.
I'm told the post office is not here anymore either.
If I remember right, this one is up by the funeral home and used to be a cleaners at one time.
Without a doubt my favorite two of the set. If I'm not badly mistaken Kathey, the intersection next to the green awning is where you stood to take the pictures of the bridge. One of the things about Loudon that always amazed me, even when I was a kid, was on most late afternoons it would look like this and then on Saturday it would be bustling with people. I hope it's still that way. Don't tell me if it's not.
Graduation
I guess this would be one of the biggest memories for each of us, but to tell you the truth I barely remember it. I remember the day, but not the event. I was almost two people that day. Part of me was ecstatic and part of me was in a blue funk.
It was something I had dreamed of and hoped for several times during the 12 years that led up to it, but when it finally came, part of me wanted to push it back. While some of my friends were choosing a college to go to, or making plans to marry him or her, I had no idea what I was going to do. I guess in that regard the draft board did me a favor later that summer when my birthday was pulled in the lottery. At least I was forced to make some decisions about what I was going to do with my life.
The only things I remember of the event was all of us gathering in the main hallway beforehand, the playing of Pomp and Circumstance, and some stupid remark I made when they said one of the teachers was leaving. Like it really matter to me, right? But the remark was just an expression of my frustration as two very different feelings wrestled around inside me.
But I don't remember anything else about it. I assume they sat us alphabetically, which would mean Wayne Poole was on one side of me and Lynette was on the other side, but I'm not even sure about that. I don't recall any of the speakers or speeches, or my name being called, or walking across the stage, or who shook my hand. I assume there was lots of laughing and talking afterward, but I don't even remember that.
I do remember a lot of us going to a party afterward at Gordo's, and then going to another smaller one after that. Then later I remember standing on the front porch, at something like 2 or 3 in the morning, looking up at the stars and wondering, "What in the world am I going to do now?"
I wish I remembered more, and I wish I had taken pictures.
It was something I had dreamed of and hoped for several times during the 12 years that led up to it, but when it finally came, part of me wanted to push it back. While some of my friends were choosing a college to go to, or making plans to marry him or her, I had no idea what I was going to do. I guess in that regard the draft board did me a favor later that summer when my birthday was pulled in the lottery. At least I was forced to make some decisions about what I was going to do with my life.
The only things I remember of the event was all of us gathering in the main hallway beforehand, the playing of Pomp and Circumstance, and some stupid remark I made when they said one of the teachers was leaving. Like it really matter to me, right? But the remark was just an expression of my frustration as two very different feelings wrestled around inside me.
But I don't remember anything else about it. I assume they sat us alphabetically, which would mean Wayne Poole was on one side of me and Lynette was on the other side, but I'm not even sure about that. I don't recall any of the speakers or speeches, or my name being called, or walking across the stage, or who shook my hand. I assume there was lots of laughing and talking afterward, but I don't even remember that.
I do remember a lot of us going to a party afterward at Gordo's, and then going to another smaller one after that. Then later I remember standing on the front porch, at something like 2 or 3 in the morning, looking up at the stars and wondering, "What in the world am I going to do now?"
I wish I remembered more, and I wish I had taken pictures.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Do the class pictures have names?
The question has been asked if the pictures have names and the answer is yes they do. I did not add the names to the posts for a few reasons. First, I thought it might be more fun to try and guess who everybody is, and second, I thought most of us would know almost everybody anyway, so there was no need to name the pictures. But mostly I didn't add the names because it would have taken twice as long to post the pictures. So okay... call me lazy. :)
Anyway, as you hover your mouse over the picture, the file name is the last part of what pops up in the status bar at the lower left corner of the browser. For example, if you hover over my picture in the Junior year post, you'll see http:// photos1.blogger.com/3102/2210/1600/dougp3.jpg show up in the status bar. The last part is the name of the file. For the Junior, Sophomore, and Freshman pictures I used first name, first initial of the last name, and year as the naming convention (dougp3.jpg). In the Senior year section I used a combination of letters from the first and last name, so those will be a little harder to figure out. I would have used the same naming convention then, but I didn't know at the time I was going to do all four years. :)
I have looked at the pictures in Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Opera and they all showed the name in the status bar. I'm not sure if any Apple browsers do or not since I have no way to test for that.
One last note. Obviously there are sometimes I had to deviate a little on the name. For example, with Mike Stafford, Mike Schrimpsher and Mike Skinner, they can't all be named mikes, so there will be some variance for those with similar names. And lastly, there might be a typo in a name here or there, and if so I apologize. It wasn't intentional, and although Mrs. Miller tried, typing was never my strong suit.
Anyway, as you hover your mouse over the picture, the file name is the last part of what pops up in the status bar at the lower left corner of the browser. For example, if you hover over my picture in the Junior year post, you'll see http:// photos1.blogger.com/3102/2210/1600/dougp3.jpg show up in the status bar. The last part is the name of the file. For the Junior, Sophomore, and Freshman pictures I used first name, first initial of the last name, and year as the naming convention (dougp3.jpg). In the Senior year section I used a combination of letters from the first and last name, so those will be a little harder to figure out. I would have used the same naming convention then, but I didn't know at the time I was going to do all four years. :)
I have looked at the pictures in Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Opera and they all showed the name in the status bar. I'm not sure if any Apple browsers do or not since I have no way to test for that.
One last note. Obviously there are sometimes I had to deviate a little on the name. For example, with Mike Stafford, Mike Schrimpsher and Mike Skinner, they can't all be named mikes, so there will be some variance for those with similar names. And lastly, there might be a typo in a name here or there, and if so I apologize. It wasn't intentional, and although Mrs. Miller tried, typing was never my strong suit.
Happy Anniverary!
Somewhere near the end of August it will be 40 years since we entered high school. Can you believe it? Forty years. I can remember being both excited and nervous about it. I liked the idea of going to a brand new school, but I had also heard all the horror stories from my older brothers and friends of the things that happened during freshman "initiation".
I can still see the throng of people standing outside the front doors when I walked up. They were stacked almost back to the sidewalks along Highway 11, and school buses were dropping off more. Most of the faces were unfamiliar and that only added to my anxiety. Everyone seemed to be clustered into little groups, no doubt as moral support for each other, so I tried to find a little group of my own. I ended up with Wayne McNabb, Pat Lowe, Jabbo Lynn and Steve Knox. I had known Wayne and Pat for years, and all of us were incoming freshmen, and that served as a bond of sorts.
After that, it's a blur of finding out where we were supposed to be, getting assigned lockers and learning the combination, and learning our schedule and where the classrooms were; along with who was teaching it, and were they easy or strict. I think for the first couple of weeks, if I wasn't in class (or outside smoking), I was hanging around the big foyer near the front doors. I knew where everything was from there and sort of used it as a home base. After that time though, I was only in the foyer when I was going someplace since that's where the office was.
Next came learning who everybody else was, or at least the ones you had classes with, and slowly but surely the anxiety started to ease up and things began to calm down a bit and you could relax. Good thing too, because by then the classes were all going full swing and you actually had to study something.
After a month or so, it was almost like I had always known everybody. It was fun finding out things about the kids from the other grade schools like Philadelphia, Steekee, Davis and Jackson, and discovering that in a lot of ways, we were all alike. You found out who was a clown and who was serious, and who were the "smart" kids and which ones were nearer my level. :) I discovered I had "talents" of sorts. My bird whistle echoed perfectly in the library and study hall, I could make a new friend or two drawing pictures in science (and later biology), and since my handwriting looked "like a girl's", I could write excuses for my friends a few times when they forgot to bring one from home for whatever reason.
All in all they're some of my favorite memories.
I can still see the throng of people standing outside the front doors when I walked up. They were stacked almost back to the sidewalks along Highway 11, and school buses were dropping off more. Most of the faces were unfamiliar and that only added to my anxiety. Everyone seemed to be clustered into little groups, no doubt as moral support for each other, so I tried to find a little group of my own. I ended up with Wayne McNabb, Pat Lowe, Jabbo Lynn and Steve Knox. I had known Wayne and Pat for years, and all of us were incoming freshmen, and that served as a bond of sorts.
After that, it's a blur of finding out where we were supposed to be, getting assigned lockers and learning the combination, and learning our schedule and where the classrooms were; along with who was teaching it, and were they easy or strict. I think for the first couple of weeks, if I wasn't in class (or outside smoking), I was hanging around the big foyer near the front doors. I knew where everything was from there and sort of used it as a home base. After that time though, I was only in the foyer when I was going someplace since that's where the office was.
Next came learning who everybody else was, or at least the ones you had classes with, and slowly but surely the anxiety started to ease up and things began to calm down a bit and you could relax. Good thing too, because by then the classes were all going full swing and you actually had to study something.
After a month or so, it was almost like I had always known everybody. It was fun finding out things about the kids from the other grade schools like Philadelphia, Steekee, Davis and Jackson, and discovering that in a lot of ways, we were all alike. You found out who was a clown and who was serious, and who were the "smart" kids and which ones were nearer my level. :) I discovered I had "talents" of sorts. My bird whistle echoed perfectly in the library and study hall, I could make a new friend or two drawing pictures in science (and later biology), and since my handwriting looked "like a girl's", I could write excuses for my friends a few times when they forgot to bring one from home for whatever reason.
All in all they're some of my favorite memories.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Juniors -- One Step Away
Once again, here they are almost like they appeared in my yearbook. I did do some touch up on some of them, but by and large if they had signatures on them in the book, they do here too. It's still a great looking bunch of people. I really do miss you guys.
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