Senior Superlatives Revisited

Let me say it up front, I have no objection to the Senior Superlatives as they appear in the yearbook. In fact, some of my favorite people are in the bunch --- Brenda, Kaye, Donna Kyker, Doris, Sylvia, and Bo. It's just that this is where I show my ignorance on some of this stuff.

How were they chosen? I'm assuming we voted for them but I don't remember. How were they nominated? Did we nominate different people for each selection or were they nominated for us (as in the office telling us "Here's the only people you can vote for")? I am assuming grades were considered, which explains why I didn't make any of the ballots. :)

What if we were to vote on some of them now, like:

Best Looking, or the ones to look least their age.
Most Successful. Actually I think we have all achieved this one in some ways, each in our own little way.
Most Dependable, and no, I'm not going to crack a Depends joke, but the temptation sure is there. :)
Most Athletic, or the ones who can run the farthest without gasping for breath.

And some new ones:

Most Grandkids.
Earliest to Retire.
Most Wrinkles.
Most Natural Teeth.
Least Amount of Grey.

Surely I qualify for that wrinkles thing, and yes, I deliberately left off "Biggest Difference in Weight Now Versus Weight Then". I got that one in the bag!

Merry Christmas to My Home Town

I love Christmas, always have and always will. I don't care for the commercialization of it, or the Political Correctness side of it, but I usually ignore those. I like the warmth of the festivities and the Church services and people actually seeming like they're going out of their way to be nice to one another. Okay, so I'm a dreamer. I'm George Bailey running down the middle of my own Bedford Falls, but that is me.

At one time I thought I had every reason not to like it. One year my grandfather died on the 22nd and was buried on the 26th and there was more than a handful of years when I was a kid that Christmas was something someone else got to enjoy, and in the AF at times I was half a world away from my family --- but even with all that, things weren't always bad.

My oldest son was born at 1am on the 26th after his mom spent all day Christmas day in the labor room... and even after all that pain even she admitted it was a terrific Christmas. I have a grandson who was born on the 28th, so he didn't miss it by much either. Then there are the times I wouldn't trade for love nor money... like when Sarah was 2 and gave me a Coke for Christmas... just a simple can of soda she wrapped and labeled herself and the look on her face was priceless when I opened it, or the look on any of their faces when we have nailed it and got exactly what they wanted.

Ah heck, I know you guys all have the same type memories, the ones that make you smile as soon as you think of them. Those wonderful and special times with your parents or your kids or your grand kids. Moments that nobody can take away from you. That's what I wish for you all this Christmas, the closeness of your families and special friends. I hope you laugh a little more often, sing a little louder and love a little deeper.

Merry Christmas folks and think of me when you sing Silent Night.

A Little Fix-up

I've taken a few minutes and made some long overdue changes.

First and foremost I've moved the Tagboard and Guestbook back up near the top of the side bar. The Tagboard goes a long way with keeping the chatter going back and forth and by constantly adding the newer stuff on top of it, it was out of sight. This way we won't have to dig so far to find it.

Second, I've changed the way it looks when you add comments. The page is no longer a popup, it opens up the post on the active window and you can comment below it. This way you can see the post you are commenting on. I'm still looking for a way to identify who commented without opening the comments section. I had that feature before they changed the code on here and I keep searching for a way to do it with this set up.

Third, and this is for the other site. I realized the other day that the Add Your Information submission form wasn't working over on loudonhighalumni.com and I've fixed it. I'm not sure how long it's been broken, but it's probably been that way for several months. (I should test more often). Anyway, if you or anyone you know tried to add their information to that site and had issues, you can do that now. And another shameless plug... but I'm still hoping all of you do add your info sooner or later. :)

Beatle Boots

The other day I was in a store and saw a pair of Beatle boots. They don't call them that anymore, but that's what they were. Black, shiney, squared toes and sipped up the side. I know because I went through a couple of pair of them. Always the same size, color and style. Did I have imagination or what?

Okay, so my imagination was limited --- limited by what everyone else was wearing. Which brings to mind a scary thought or two. First, we weren't any different than our kids/grandkids are and if the military hadn't come knocking I might still be wearing Beatle boots!!!

Don't laugh, that's not that far fetched of a notion. I still have the same hair style I had freshman year and always have had, except for 6 months or so after I retired from the Air Force when I went through what I called my Stephen Segal phase.

Spooky, huh?

Have You Adjusted

Have you kept up with the world? Back in "the day", our generation really didn't usher in all that much. The transistor radio of course, and Beatle haircuts and the escalation of FM radio stations, and maybe a few others I forgot about. I think our changes were more societal types --- the man on the moon, three assassinations, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war, along with flower power, free love and social drugs.

Since then, or at least the last decade or so, the changes have been more wide spread. So, have you kept up?

Obviously if you are reading this you most likely have a computer, or at least access to one. But do you use it more than 3 times a week?

Do you own a microwave?

Do you have an iPod, or something like it?

Do you have a cell phone? (I think most of us would say yes to that)

Do you have any piercings? For the guys the ears would be enough for a yes, but for the ladies it would have to be somewhere else or more than one in your ears.

Do you have a tattoo? And no, I'm not going to ask what it is or where it is.

Do you jog?

Do you ride a bicycle? Do you wear a helmet when you ride it?

Do you have a motorcycle?

Do you recycle or go green in some other way?

Are you or have you ever tried to be a vegetarian?.

Do you have a HDTV?

Do you have a GPS system in your vehicle?

So, have you adjusted?

Two New Pics of My Home Town

This is one of the most intriguing looks at Loudon I have ever seen.....



............ and this one is one of the saddest looking.

Loudon License Plates

My grandson Owen is visiting this week and today we took him and two other little ones out to lunch. We picked a spot in Fishers, Indiana called Loon Lake Lodge. The reason I bring all that up is I pulled into a parking space right beside a car with Loudon license plates, and as usual when I see Loudon plates I start to wonder if I knew who they were.

At times like this I don't give Loudon enough credit. I sometimes forget that I am only familiar with a portion of the county so odds are pretty good that I would not know who it was, but hey, it's fun to play the game.

It was a black Jag so I thought it was most likely from around Tellico, but there again I'm probably selling Loudon short. Inside the restaurant I looked around and thought the most likely people to be driving it were the ones at the table behind us and I looked the "Grandma and Grandpa" over pretty good, but they didn't look that familiar to me. They looked to be about our age, give or take a few years.

They left just before us and I was right, they got in the Jag, and while I'm sure I did not know them, it was fun for awhile thinking that I might.

Rides

Larry Lankford had a VW. A few times he would come by the house and pick up Allen, Wayne and me and give us a ride to school. One day he had some others with him. We had 7 or 8 guys in the car that morning. Things were a little crowded but we made it. One of the reasons I remember it was the radio was playing the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which was a good driving song. Do you remember there were some songs that sounded better when you were driving around?

Senior year Allen and Wayne had a brand new Duster. It was supposed to be shared between the two of them but Allen ended up driving it more. There were a few nervous rides in that car too. One in particular I remember was down river road. They both had a way of making the road feel a lot more narrow that it was.

One day after class Freddy Lindsey asked us if we wanted to ride to Knoxville with him. I was only one who said yes. I remember that trip because it was the one and only time I had to be corrected while living with the McNabbs. All their Mom said was I wasn't supposed to go anywhere without asking first.

One day I ended up riding around Lenoir City with Bobby Oody. I don't remember anything else about it except there was one other person in the car with us. What I do remember is coming down the hill toward Highway 11 so fast that at one point we were airborne when we hit the bump a cross street made.

Then a time or two we got beer from the little beer joint south of Philadelphia and took the back roads over toward Corinth and Piney. After one of those rides I got the "sniff test" when I got home. You know, when your Mom leans close to you and says something like, "Have you been drinkin' beer?", to which you're usually foolish enough to say no when it's fairly obvious you have been.

Ah, the teen years. They were great.

Clyde and the Frogman

Did you know Clyde and the Frogman? That's what I called Clyde Wagner and Frog Williams, the two custodians at the school. They were there everyday but were almost invisible most of the time. I had the pleasure of working with them after school and on weekends for two school years.

I had nothing but respect for Clyde who was almost an anachronism with his flat top haircut. He taught me to get there early, do it right the first time, and take responsibility for what I did whether it was right or wrong.

Frog worked hard too, but in some ways he was just the opposite of Clyde. He didn't mind us clowining around as long as we got the job done. He usually pretended to be gruff and mean but he really wasn't. He made things fun most of the time.

They were just as much a part of my high school life as you guys were.

Another Step Toward Old-Manhood

Today I was shocked to take another step toward old-manhood, and I didn't even see it coming. I was working at my desk and I absentmindedly reached up to scratch one of those little insignificant itches... you know, one of the thousands you get that aren't associated with anything except maybe your skin drying out or something. Anyway, it was just below my neck, about even with my collar bone and dead center of the open collar of my shirt. I lightly scratched at it no more than twice and kept doing what I was doing.

A few minutes later I felt something else and looked down and I was bleeding like a stuck pig and it took forever to get it stopped. I kept holding Kleenex against it and it finally stopped after my trash can was half full of red spotted tissues. I put a band-aid on it for an hour or so but it didn't start up again, and I sat there feeling like Les Nessman with a band aid in such an odd place.

Weird.

Another New Feature on the Sidebar

Songs that take me back... to Loudon or to High School or because it reminds me of one of you. It will end up being everything from country to Glenn Miller.... gospel to Pink Floyd... but no rap. :)

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and I'd be curious to find out which ones we all agree on. Are there songs out there that take us all back?

Any requests? If you do let me know, and if I can find it I'll put it on here.

Did You Vote?

I won't be rude and ask who you voted for.  My family has a habit of irritating the pollsters.  They called several times before the election and wanted to know who we were voting for.... we told them that was our business. That's the way we were raised.  When I was a kid nobody would tell you who they voted for.

Anyway, this was my youngest son's first chance at voting and I have to admit I was proud of him  He really looked at how each candidate stacked up against his own believes and convictions and put a lot of thought into it.

Do you remember your first?  I do.  In 1972 I voted for George McGovern more as a vote against Richard Nixon than a vote for McGovern   Either way I lost.  Did you think your vote would change the world?  I did.  Ah, to be a young idealist again.

The Agony of the Feet

Besides the obvious --- wrinkles, grey hair, a few extra pounds ---  what is the strongest sign you might not be the youngster you used to be?  If I had to pick one thing, for me it would be my feet.

When I was a little kid I shucked my shoes in the spring and after a week of "toughening" I was ready to go everywhere barefoot.  From walking on hot pavement to running down a gravel road, my feet were tough enough to take me anywhere I wanted to go.

When I got older I could stay out all night running from this place to that, or trekking around the California desert or the Alaskan tundra while wearing anything from sandals to boots to moccasins to tennis shoes to nothing.

But now I'm ready to find a place to sit down after only a couple of hours at the mall or downtown and there is a benefit function at church each year that includes a lot of standing from 5pm to 2am that leaves my dogs barking long and loud. 

I think it's their way of telling me they're tired of hauling my fat butt around all the time and it's high time I started listening.

I think I'll go soak my feet.

Weather I Remember or Not

It's starting to get cooler here. The leaves on the trees along the street out front are a brilliant red, and for Friday night football you have to bundle up a little. Indiana reminds me more of home this time of year than any place I've lived since I left there. Now if it only had a few more hills. :)

Is the weather there the way I remember it? In junior high I can remember we missed so much school because of snow we had to go on Saturdays for half a day. Do you still get snows like that? However, I don't remember any significant snow during the entire four years of high school. Also, in the fall and spring it would start to rain early in the week and rain at least through the next weekend. Day after day of dab, dreary rain. It always felt so gloomy. Does it still do that?

I know it must still get foggy a lot. The river alone would see to that. I remember walking to high school one foggy morning and when I had crossed Carter Street and was almost in front of the school, I bent down and could see under the fog all the way to other other side of Steekee St. It was foggy from my waist up and clear below it. I have never seen anything like that, before or since.

It's funny how things like that stick in your mind when I can still see the faces of some of the people I went to school with but can't remember their name at all. It should be the other way around..

The Pep Bus

Sometimes my mind flits around from place to place until it lands on something. Today, it's pep buses.

I think I only rode the pep bus 4 times. Once to Kingston or Rockwood, once to Clinton (I think) and once each to Alcoa and Maryville.. We always drove to Lenoir City.

It has to be a much shorter trip now than it was almost 40 years ago. I think the Kingston/Rockwood trip was the longest, but I really didn't pay that much attention. I was too busy talking, just like everyone else. We went to Clinton through Knoxville, and I'm not sure about Alcoa/Maryville, but I think we went through Friendsville.

Anyway, going was always fun. The trip back depended on whether we won or not, which I think we did win 3 of them. They were loud too, even if we lost. But it was fun to just shoot the bull, usually about other people. I don't remember who it was with any certainty, but on one of the trips a couple in the back were having a great time with each other. Not by today's standards of course, but it was enough in a bus full of kids hungry for gossip.

Too bad we didn't have digital cameras... to take pictures of the games of course. :)

You Call Those Guys Friends?

High school friends are like no other. Some you knew for four years or less while others you knew since the first grade or before, and I don't care if you're one of those who's been to every reunion or one of those who cusses the thought of going to even one, there have been more than a few times in your life you have thought back to those years and smiled. Maybe even more so now that you're getting older.

I've said it before and I strongly believe it, the camaraderie that developed during high school is a lot like that between soldiers who fought side by side in a foxhole. Me may not have laid down our lives for each other, but we fought the sometimes hard fight against the system, the faculty, puberty and at times, each other.

What made your friends so unique was they could be both supporter and antagonist at the same time.

If you studied too hard..."What do you want to waste your time with that stuff?"
If you didn't study enough..."If you ain't gonna try any harder than that why don't you just quit and go work at the White Store or something?"

If you participated too much in class..."Why do you keep brown nosin' up to Miss Mize for?"
If you didn't participate enough..."You know, you can raise your hand sometimes too."

If you dated too much..."Oh, so you're gonna go with HER I guess!"
If you didn't date enough... "You know, I'm getting tired of draggin' your ass around every weekend."

If she wasn't what they considered attractive... "You asked who?!?!?"
If she was attractive... "Don't know why you want to go out with her, she'll dump you as soon as somebody better comes along."

If you went to too many games..."Is sports all you think of? It ain't like you're playin'."
If you didn't go to enough games... "What's wrong with goin' to the football game? We can go to Knoxville tomorrow night."

If you worked too much after school... "Skip work just this once. They won't miss you just this one time."
If you didn't work enough... "You better do somethin' to get some money, cuz you're gonna help pay for gas."

If they didn't want you to tag along... "Yes, I gotta date. You don't expect me to spend every weekend with you guys do you?"
If you didn't want them tagging along... "I won't say a word. You and her can be together and I'll go somewhere and get lost."

Talk about being fickle! But yes, I called them friends. They were still terrific, and I miss them. It would be so much fun to spend even one night sitting around having a few beers and talking about those days. Those were the days.

Peace and Quiet

As much as the faculty would like us to believe otherwise, we went to high school for social reasons more than anything else. There were people we saw there that we didn’t see anywhere else, so a good portion of the time that was the priority.

However, there were also times when you needed your space… a place to think without interruption or without someone trying to do our thinking for us. While I wouldn’t call 500-600 people a huge crowd, it was still hard to find such a place when you needed one. Here’s a few places I found.

The auditorium. Hardly anyone went there, so if you dodged a few people coming or going from band class, you could catch a few minutes of quiet solitude.

Under the overhang, just off the AG and Industrial Arts hallway. This was usually fairly secluded too and you could be outside even if it was raining, and it had facilities nearby to boot.

Outside the building, but away from the cafeteria and smoking areas. I spent a lunch hour every once in awhile walking around the building, either by myself or maybe one other person.

A New Feature

For a long time now I've toyed with the idea of putting the class video I made on YouTube, and I finally decided to take the plunge. It's on YouTube now and I also put it on the blog. Just think, now the whole world can see you. :)

Two Questions

We have all heard, and probably used, the expression “If I only knew then what I know now.” If you are like me you use it almost whimsically to mean there was a missed opportunity of some sort that I could have taken advantage of in some way "if I only knew then."

The antithesis of this then would have to be a line from “Against the Wind”, an old Bob Seger song that said, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.” This implies there has been some damage done or some pain suffered that I would just as soon not have had to deal with.

To me, the two lines define the high school years versus some of the years since. If I only knew then what I know now things would have been different with that girl or in that class or on a particular day or situation and fate would have smiled on me; while I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then would have saved me a lot of frustration, a few lonely nights and a big broken heart.  Maybe.

So when you look back, which is the longer list for you --- what you wished you knew or what you wished you didn't know?

Classes

Obviously we spent the most of our time in class, and I don't know about you, but I tend to remember the classes by who was in the class with me.  The funny thing is I can't remember no more than a handful of the classes and then only those who sat closest to me.

The class I remember most was Civics during senior year.  That was the only time in four years that I had Allen and Wayne McNabb and Doug Christian in the same class.  They were my closest friends throughout high school but that was the only time we were together.  I also remember Sharron and Janice Arden, Ann Russell and Steve Satterfield.  Coach Dutton was so laid back he really didn't give us a lot of grief over anything.

Biology was sophomore year and I remember Sandra Ward and Susan Jones at the table in front of me with Wayne McNabb sharing my table.  That was an okay class too.

Driver's Ed during senior year was also fun.  I remember Doris Russell and Bruce Lawson.  I think Donna was in that class too.. right?

History senior year was a hoot.  Kenny Parks, Steve Huff, Bonnie Fagg, Jane McCollister, Sue Burnette and Edward Watson were in there.

Journalism was fun too.  Ann Hunt and Janice Hughes put up with most of my stale jokes, and of course Miss Mize was there to highlight the whole day.

Which do you remember?

What Did You Look For?

My daughter mentioned a boy at school the other day, in as little detail as possible, of course. There are some things a teenage girl doesn't talk about with her Dad and boys probably top that list. The only thing is, most of the ones I know about aren't exactly what I would call dashing, at least to me they're not. And like most things, it got me to thinking about when we were in school.

Why did you pick who you picked to date? Was it their looks? clothes? charm? social standing? brains? Or maybe it was the way they smiled or made you laugh or the way they treated you? Was it because they were in the upper classes? Have their own car? If you ever really put your finger on it let me know, because I have no idea.

I guess like most teenage boys I looked for "cute" and I will admit to a little shallowness in that she had to pass the "friends" test. There was no way you wanted to give the guys something to laugh at you about, especially when it came to who you wanted to date.

There was another shallowness too. Most guys were looking for that 'ideal' girl, the perfect one. Girls on the other hand seemed to be more realistic. They knew most guys came with at least some extra baggage so they didn't set their sights too high, they could adjust, and most of them ended up with a nice guy anyway.

I obviously can't speak for every guy. I was no great prize, but I remember one girl I was trying to impress, and the guy who seemed to have the inside track wasn't any more of a prize than I was. Talk about a bruised ego. After a while she got wise and didn't end up with either one of us.

So, why did you pick who you picked to date?

A Nice Surprise

My daughter and her family were here visiting for the past ten days and they left this morning for LA (as in Lower Alabama) after making a stop in Atlanta.  Her husband, Tony, is being reassigned from Hawaii to Ft Rucker to be a training pilot.  Talk about your culture shock!!  Just kidding.  They were there before and they like it pretty well, plus he's locked into a 3 year tour without the worry of going back to Iraq.

Anyway, at about 1:30 this afternoon my cellphone rings and it's her.  "Dad," she said, "guess where we are?"  Where?  "We're right outside your old high school!" (Did I say she was sentimental like me?).  Anyway, she then proceeded to  drive around  town and tell me some of the things she saw.  It's been about 15 years since she was there, so she was enjoying herself.

It made a sad day a little brighter.  I'm going to miss them... especially the two little girls, but she knew just the right way to take some of the sad away.  :)

The Few and the Many

It was only four years, there were really just a few of us and it was so long ago --- why is it so indelibly etched in our memory?

I've said it before and I'll say it again --- we became men and women together.  It is not exactly the same type of bond men in battle have, but we will always carry that with us... good or bad... happy or sad.  When I ask my older kids where do they consider 'home' to be, (and they each lived in 4 or 5 places) they always say the place they spent their high school years.

There were so few of us, but the sweetness of it is that the number of memories can be multiplied that many times and depending on who we sit and talk to, there are that many different memories.  I didn't circulate with everyone, none of us did, but when I look at our yearbook I can remember something about everybody I see.  Some class or event or even just an encounter, but I can still sit down with them and say "Hey, remember when?"

I bet you can too.

The People I Knew

As Freshmen there were 153 of us.

As Sophomores there were 150 of us.

As Juniors there were 123 of us.

As Seniors there were 129 of us.

That is a lot of coming and going.  Where they went and where they came from varies a lot.  Some graduated early, while others from the Junior class joined us by graduating early.  Some moved away while others moved in.  Some changed schools while at least 2 that I know of quit.

In fact, it seems that when I think about it, quitting was a viable option for some.  Whether they needed to in order to work or just wanted to, it was an option some chose.  I don't think people quit school as much today as they did back then.  Maybe I'm wrong.

I do know that it was an option I thought about very early in our Junior year, and one that I may have chosen had I stayed in Atlanta --- but the McNabb family was kind enough to offer me a place to stay and the rest, as they say, is history.  I don't even want to think about what my life would have been like had I actually quit.

Crushes and Something New

I watched 'Sixteen Candles' again the other night. It's a nice movie and Molly Ringwald was a cutie back then. Anyway, it got me thinking about when I was a freshman and the crush I had on one or two junior/senior girls --- girls that would never give me the time of day. But I couldn't help it. They were so pretty and mature and ... well.... stacked. :) So that's what leads us to this week's question. I know I can't be the only one who daydreamed about certain juniors or seniors.

The 'something new' is something I wrote. I got an idea for a story several years ago but it took this blog and talking with you folks to really get it off the ground, so you could say it's been a work in progress off and on for a couple of years. It's in 3 parts and part 1 was supposed to have two more chapters in it for character development and to balance it with the other two parts, but I took them out so you could get into the 'meat' of the story quicker. I'm not a writer, but I had fun with it. I hope you guys enjoy it at least a little. I think you'll find some things you will recognize. To save the story to your computer, right click on the link to the story and choose "Save target as" or "Save link". Or heck, as far as that goes click here to do the same thing. That way you won't have to download it each time. Enjoy.

How I Made a Small Place Even Smaller

We get into these discussions sometimes about where this and that was, and I read your comments and it occurs to me that there are places I went fairly often that some of you didn't, and vice-versa. Whether it was because of family or friends or the location of our homes, it appears we all had our 'range'.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've been in Madisonville in my entire life, and I didn't go to Greenback or Vonore that much more often. My range, not counting ball games, was basically Sweetwater to Knoxville and near Midway to almost Jackson.

On the map at the top (you can click on it to make it bigger), the black line around Loudon was where I spent probably 75% of my time. The green line was were I was maybe 15% of the time and the blue line was where I was 10% or less of the time. No wonder it seemed so small.

How Are Jobs?

I live in a small town just north of Indianapolis called Noblesville , or as some of the locals say --- Nobletucky. The town comes by the nickname honestly --- there are a lot of people around here with southern roots.

As part of my job I am required to verify the identity of the people I do things for, and like so many other places, we have a bank of questions we can ask them and compare their answers to what they previously submitted. One of those questions is "Where were you born?" Obviously places in Indiana are the most common, but there are a boatload of people who were born in Knoxville or Johnson City or Nashville or Oak Ridge. I even ran into one from Sweetwater. They are all around our age and when I asked them how long they lived down there they all say the same thing... anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years because their Dad moved up here to find work.

Is it still that bad? I know it was when we graduated. I can remember driving around Knoxville with Allen McNabb and stopping at lots of places to fill out applications. We didn't even get a callback for an interview. I was lucky enough to have a job at Maramount until I joined the USAF, but so much for trying to move up.

Oh, and it goes without saying that now that you know where I live, all of you are very welcome to stop by anytime you're close by)

Even More Questions From a Wondering Mind

What was the name of the store in Knoxville that was sort of like a Wall Mart? I seem to remember parking in back of it and I think the building was green, but I may be wrong (I was only there at night).

Going south out of town, what is the name of the big farm on the left between Loudon an Philadelphia?

How about the one on the right?

What was the name of the small, white, cinder block store in west end Loudon? It was on the right about a 50 yards short of the traffic light at Highland Avenue.

What are the team name and colors for Lenior City? Rockwood? Kingston? Alcoa?

How many people were in our graduating class? How many started out in our freshman class?

Did we have fire drills?

Where did we go on our senior trip?

What were the name of the little hamburgers sold in the concession stand?

If you didn’t want to go to Cole’s, where was the next closest Drive In?

Name the stores that were along the store front across old 72 from the courthouse? As I remember there were four.

Rain on a Hot Tin Roof

My mom in law is visiting so the AC is turned off since she gets cold at anything below 80, but then she’s almost 90 so she has earned a perk or two in her life. Anyway, it brings to mind when we were kids and had to put up with living without air conditioning, even though at the time we didn’t know it was all that bad. I still cannot believe that as a kid I would run all day then come home and try to fall asleep in a hot house, and sometimes that hot house had a tin roof with precious little – if any -- insulation. It was almost like trying to sleep in a toaster oven.

When I was real young I shared a bed with my brother and we always fought over the window. There were many nights we sat on the porch with all the windows and doors flung open to let the house “cool off” before we went to bed, and even then it was still pretty toasty inside, and you would lay there waiting for some breeze, no matter how slight, to come through the window.

Rain was better, even if a little of it blew in the window, but we did not want a thunderstorm, especially when we stayed with my grandmother. The world stopped at Grandma’s during a thunderstorm. The windows were closed and we were not allowed anywhere near them. No TV, no radio, no phone. We could not touch a thing, especially if it was electrical, and we had to be very, very quite. It was almost like noise was a lightening rod.

But even with all that there are times I miss it. I still love the sound of rain on a tin roof. Imagine, we had soothing sounds to lull us to sleep long before they started putting them in a radios. There was a new house built near Memphis just before we left there. It has a wrap around porch and a tin roof. I’m sure it also has about 2 feet of insulation, which probably muffles the sound a lot, but it is still a tin roof. What a lucky guy.

Anyone planning a reunion?

If there is, hopefully they’ve seen the response to some of the poll questions. I will be the first to admit that a sample size of 4 to 7 people is way yonder too small, but it does give a starting point.

When asked if they would attend a reunion that spanned 2 to 3 days, 75% said yes.

When asked what they would most like to do at the next reunion -- chat, dance, listen to music or have a few beers, 100% said sit and chat.

When given an option of where to have the reunion – at someone’s house, the school, clubhouse, restaurant/bar or a park, (people were allowed to vote for more than one venue) and the school and a clubhouse beat out the restaurant/bar and park, 75% to 50%

When asked how much they would be willing to spend per person, 75% went for the $50-$75 range while 25% went with the $25-$50 range. Since I was the 25%, it wouldn’t bother me at all to move up with the others to make it unanimous with $50-$75.

Again, hardly scientific polling, but should be interesting to someone planning a reunion. There is someone doing that….. isn’t there?

The Gamble

Let’s say you’re on the east end of the building, Miss Mize’s Journalism class for example, and the bell has just rung and your next class is English so you have to go to the end of the opposite hallway. Your locker is just outside Home Ec in the south hallway, so you think you have time for a couple of drags on a cigarette before rushing to the other class, or, if you don’t smoke maybe you think you can get away with a minute or two of "he-ing and she-ing" with your main squeeze. At any rate, now you have a dilemma. How are you going to cover that much ground in two or three minutes? Welcome to the gamble.

You can’t run. Running attracts the attention of every teacher there, plus that of a certain long legged office dweller that could probably walk faster than you could run.

You can’t cut through the library. This was about the only time Mrs. Goode came out of her office and if she doesn’t catch you running in the hallway she would definitely grab you for cutting through the library.

You might get away with cutting through Study Hall, but that depends on the teacher who had Study Hall duty that period, so that’s a double gamble.

That leaves you with that little garden courtyard thingy (or whatever it was called) between typing and Home Ec. That was the biggest gamble of all because then you had to depend on other students to open the door for you. Some of them didn’t want to get involved, some thought they might get in trouble for opening the door, and then some of them were actually your friends and all they did was laugh and keep going. Plus, there was no turning back, because you faced the same problem at the other door.

So, what did you do? You took your chances and hoped you came out a winner. Sometimes I didn’t.

For Brenda

I've never been to Lake Winnepesaukah, but Brenda said she's been and maybe some more of you have as well. I doubt it looked like this 40+ years ago, but it still might be worth a memory or two.

Last Night I Forgot to Say Something That Needs Repeating

I'm sorry, but I have always wanted to use that line. It was uttered once by a TV baseball announcer and it totally reflects the haphazard way my mind works at times. Anyway, enough of that. The point here is that in an earlier post I mentioned some things that I saw in other places that reminded me of Loudon and the other night another one popped into my head.

At my first Air Force assignment, at one of the major intersections outside the base, there was a hardware store and a drug store that were side by side. They also shared the same sign post, so their signs were side by side as well. On one side of the pole it said GAYLE Hardware, and on the other side it said CUNNINGHAM Drug Store. Okay, so the first name spelling is a little different, but you get the point.

Differences Between Here and There

There are several things I probably would not have seen or done and people I would never had met if I had stayed in Loudon.

1. Obviously at the top of the list would be Sue and the kids. Sue has a fault or two but she puts up with a lot more from me than I do from her. I honestly can not picture my life without her being in it. As for the kids, my pat answer when someone asks me how they are is "Perfect!" They're not of course, but to me they are so much better at this stage of their lives than I was at their age. I couldn't ask for better if I had walked into the kid's store and picked them off the shelf myself.
2. An earthquake, in fact several.
3. A hurricane, again several.
4. The green flash of light just as the last edge of the sun dips below the horizon.
5. The central coast of California from San Francisco to Morro Bay. I could not help but fall in love with it.
6. The northern lights.
7. A meteor shower made up of hundreds of meteors. So many that I cast a shadow.
8. Fighting a forest fire.
9. Niagara Falls.
10. The stretches of Route 66 before I-40 was complete.

With that being said though, there are other things I have missed by leaving, and where some of these may be trivial and small to some people, they aren't to me.

1. Having my kids go to the same schools I did and really know their cousins.
2. Having the kids grow up in a place out of the rat race and far from the maddening crowds.
3. Being there when friends and family needed something.
4. Not always having to choose between "going home" or "going to see the kids/grandkids". Heck, who knows, I may have actually had an honest to goodness vacation for once in my life.
5. Having family and friends from Loudon stop by my house. That's happened exactly three times in almost 38 years.
6. Watching the old bridge fall into the river.
7. Going to Redskin football games.
8. Ordering a hot dog and getting chili and slaw on it without asking.
9. Being someplace where folks wave when you drive by.
10. Being around people who talk like I do. :)

So Which Are We?

It is hard to write something after writing a memorial post about a passing classmate. You want to keep it light and fun on here, because common sense tells you that's what people want to read about most, but to be honest I'm not in a light and fun mood. I'm not exactly depressed either, so I guess I would call it more of a serious mood.

Each time someone I know passes, be they family or friend, I catch myself wondering to a degree whether they "died young". The funny part of it is the older I get, the more my definition of what "young" and "old" is changes too. Is 56 old? Personally I don't think so. I know I'm not going to match the lifespan of Methuselah, but I'm also not ready to start packing it in yet either, not by a long shot.

So when do we call ourselves old, or senior citizens? An email I got today thought we might be getting close, and I will agree that we are getting closer all the time, but when exactly does being old start? Heck, restaurants can't even decide. Some will give you the "senior citizen's discount" at 55, while other say 50 and still others say 60. AARP started baiting my mailbox with propaganda when I got within 6 months of turning 50.

So when then, do you become old? I cannot answer for everyone since obviously we are all at different stages of health, but for me I'm not going to be old until my head and my heart tell me I am. My body will whimper and moan sometimes when I overdo it in the yard, or lift something the wrong way, but my head tells it to stop complaining and I make an adjustment, and to me that is the key. My head knows I'm not old, but it also knows I'm not young anymore either and certain adjustments to my routine are necessary from time to time. So as long as I can make those adjustments, I'm not old.

Now, if I could just believe that well enough to get my waistline down to where I can make some adjustments to my belt, I'd be doing something. ;)

In Memory -- Bobby Jo Chumley

She always seemed happy with the same smile she has in this picture. Cute, bubbly and a little pixyish, she never failed to say hi or spend some time chatting, and she actually listened to what you had to say.

Go Rest High on That Mountain.

Another Sign

I've discovered another sign that I might be getting *ahem* older.  The week before last Sue went to California to visit her Mom and we took advantage of the opportunity to put my car in the shop for a few days and I drove hers.  During that time I didn't have my music with me, so I had to listen to her radio and I realized just how much commercial radio really does suck!  Pop is a combination of rap and people who sound like they all came off American Idol, the Eagles of the early 70s were closer to country than most of the stuff played on country stations these days, jazz and easy listening are almost nonexistent and the old rock they do play is cut up and truncated so as not to displace too many of their precious commercials.

Okay, one of the rules I made for myself when I post things here is that I would not climb on too many soapboxes, so I'll leave it at that for now.  I'll just say that I'm more and more of an oldies man, the music that starts in the 50s and goes through the early 80s.  I'm more comfortable with it.

There was a time we joked about the oldie goldie moldies, or what we used to call "skatin' rink" music... the bee bop stuff of the 50s, but now it sounds pretty darned good, and so does the 60s or 70s, the music we listened to.  Besides, a lot of it reminds me of you guys.  :)

Answers

I had a dumb idea today. I thought it might be fun to answer some of the things people wrote in my yearbook. Did we all write the same things when we signed? Special things to those we felt close to and short little greeting card type things for those we were at a loss for something to say to? Okay, so maybe I was the only one who did that. :)

So here goes. Let's see if this works.

Jane,
Nope, I haven't forgotten riding sleds down the hill and how could I forget the fun in History with you and Bonnie and Kenny and Steve?

Freddy,
Yeah, it did seem like we knew each other forever, although 500 years would be a bit of an exaggeration. I'll see you on the other side buddy.

Daniel,
You sang better than I did in the library. Mostly all I did was whistle.

John,
You are right. The four years went by way too quickly and they weren't bad at all. In fact they were great The almost 40 years since have passed a little too fast also.

Barbara,
Thanks for complimenting my drawing, even to the point of defending it. Even Picasso had his detractors :)

Peggy,
Yes, I know I managed to tick you off more than once, but I was never really more than a little irritated with you, and yes I changed my mind about being a bachelor all my life. That pledge lasted a whole two years. :)

Kaye,
Little did you know when you said keep in touch that I would show up on your doorstep in Memphis 20 years later! You had hardly changed a bit and I bet you still haven't changed all that much.

Wayne M,
I wasn't lazy. I was conserving energy. Later Bro.

Allen,
You were a fair "brother" too. It's hard to believe that both of you are gone way, way too soon.


That's obviously not all of them, but I'll stop there. I don't know about you, but I think they read a little differently when you read them like you were going to answer them. They brought back more than a few great memories, a belly laugh or two and more than enough tears.

Poked and Prodded

Yesterday was my annual physical and I acquired a new pill --- other than that he said everything was hunky dory. My blood pressure, pulse, and EKG were all good. I jokingly asked him if he had anything he could give me for my looks and he said he couldn't perform miracles and could only offer blinders for the people around me to wear. Such a funny doctor I have.

Anyway, as I was driving home I had the strangest thought, and I hope it’s not too depressing. It occurred to me that since we are all now in the 55-57 year old range, we are most likely in the same age neighborhood as Mrs. Watkins, Mrs. Arp, Miss Mize, Mr. Alexander, and some of the other “older” teachers were when we were in school. I don’t mean this as a slam against them, everyone ages, it’s just that when you’re 17, 57 seems light years away.

If I close my eyes, and forget about the graying hair and god awfully deep wrinkles I have from the years I smoked, I honestly don’t feel any different now than I did then. Sometimes I’m a little stiff when I wake up some mornings, and I get a little short of breath quicker than before, but my mind sometimes thinks I’m still 17. I’m not in any danger of going bungee jumping or anything like that, but I refuse to act “old”, and I can better understand why Mrs. McCall seemd to have a bad day every now and again.

Loudon Has Been Googled!

This may be old news to some of you, but I thought it was a hoot. Google ran its camera truck up and down the narrow streets of Loudon, and now you can take a street tour of the whole town. If you don't know how, go to Google, then Maps and type in Loudon, TN. Zoom in to where you can see the city streets and click on the button at the top labeled "Street View", then just put the little guy where you want to look and, voila! there's my home town!

You can even see Donna's porch. :)

It's Funny What You Can Find on the Internet

I found these pictures without really trying. It's a new site for me called http://www.waymarking.com/, and it describes itself like this, "Waymarking.com will provide you with the tools to share and discover unique and interesting locations on the planet." Of course, after checking out unique places like the Grand Canyon, Wrigley Field, and other worldly locations, I had to get a little closer to home. Look familiar?

We Went to School 40 Years Too Early

We just got the kid's school schedule for next year. It is a bit different than ours. We went from August to May/June with time off at Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Years, Washington's/Lincoln's Birthday (or had it changed to President's day by then?) Did I forget any? If I did it couldn't have been more than a day or two.

Their schedule this year:
August 14 - School starts
October 7 - Faculty meeting (2-hour delay)
October 17 - Teacher's conference (no school)
October 23,24 - Fall Break
November 12 - Teacher work day (no school)
November 26 - 11:00 dismissal
November 27, 28 - Thanksgiving Break
December 2 - Faculty meeting (2-hour delay)
December 22 - Jan 4 - Christmas Break
January 16 - 12:40 dismissal
January 19 - MLK Day (no school)
February 3 - Faculty meeting (2-hour delay)
February 13 - No School <--- Doesn't say why
February 16 - President's Day (no school)
February 26 - Teacher workday (no school)
March 27 - Flex Day (If there are no lost days due to snow, no school this day)
March 30 - April 5 Spring Break
April 10 - Good Friday (flex day) (again, no snow days, no school)
April 14 - Faculty meeting (2-hour delay)
May 15 - Pro Dev (early dismissal)
May 25 - Memorial Day (no school)
June 5 - School ends

The flex days are not used as often as you might think in Indiana. So far in 7 years we've been up they have used the flex days 2 or 3 times. That adds up to 33 days off and 8 partial days.

With a schedule like that we wouldn't have had to cut near as much. :)

Frogs

Listening to all the stink the past few weeks about the government FEMA trailers being full of formaldehyde (pardon the pun), has gotten me thinking about biology.

Is that the same formaldehyde they used to preserve the worms and frogs we cut up in biology? Funny about some of the stuff they have discovered in the last 40 years that is bad for you. According to what they're saying on CNN it's a major health risk, so we really got a healthy dose of it when we were sticking the jar under other people's noses and saying, "Here, smell this!" Not to mention getting it on our hands.

I didn't mind doing it, even if the frogs were a little slimy. Besides, anybody who has ever been frog gigging knows what the inside of a frog looks like. It was one of the few A's I got in high school.

But that being said, anything that smells that bad and isn't used as catfish bait, shouldn't be left laying around anyway.

An Old Favorite

I used to have this taped to the inside of my locker. I "borrowed" it from one of the books in the library.

THREE ROOMS AND A PATH

In Nashville, every family boasts
Of five rooms and a bath.
But in my youth I never had
But three rooms and a path.

They built the outhouse on the brink
Of Tumblin Creek, and then
Each time I passed I had an urge
To push the outhouse in.

For weeks I fought this powerful urge,
And one day I was weak
I slipped out to the outhouse and
I pushed it in the creek.

That night my Dad called me aside
And all he had to say
Was "Do you know who pushed the house
Into the creek today?"

I told my Dad that it was I
He didn’t even chide
But then and there with a leather belt
Prepared to tan my hide.

"But Daddy" I said, "George Washington
Cut down the cherry tree
He told the truth and so his Pa
Let little George go free".

"But let me ask you something son"
My Dad said with a frown
"Was his Pa in the cherry tree
When little George cut it down?"

with apologies to Pek Gunn

I Couldn't Afford Gas Then Either

Yesterday I did not fill up my gas tank because I refused to spend that much money. After the frustration wore off it reminded me of high school when almost nobody could afford to fill their tank.

I didn’t drive that much in school, and didn’t get my first car until after we graduated, but I know the guys I rode with rarely filled their tank. A dollar or two at a time was usually the way it went. The price of gas is more now, but it was pure economics then too. We just didn’t have that much money to spend on gas and entertainment, even tho more times than not, simply driving around was our entertainment.

After I got married I was on an allowance of $10 every two weeks, and with that $10 I could buy a case of beer, a carton of cigarettes and fill the car up with gas. Ten bucks would not come close to covering either of those now.

Along the same lines was hitchhiking. I hitched to Lenoir City several times and to Sweetwater or Piney or Steekee a few times too. After joining the USAF, and before I got my own car, a friend and I hitched all over Southern California. After I got a car I picked up several people, male and female, hitching to different places. I remember once picking up a hiker near Memphis and he rode all the way to Southern California with me. I would neither hitch, nor pick up anyone hitching, anymore.

I think with the gas thing, we have come full circle.

Some of the Things I Carry With Me.

Some of the things, both good and bad, about Loudon that in some ways influence me even now..

Some of the good….

Rain on a tin roof
Ice cold buttermilk
Going fishing
Sitting on a front porch, usually in a swing
High school sports
Country ham… yes, I know. It has too much sodium, fat and cholesterol, but I love it.
The sound of a mourning dove
The smell of honeysuckle
Peace and quiet
Picking (and eating) blackberries along the road
Jumping into the creek or river from a rope swing. So what if it was muddy river water?
Ice cold watermelon
Going barefoot in the yard --- no way I could do the roads anymore.

And some of the not so good…..

Powdered milk
Powdered eggs
Lonely Sunday afternoons downtown
Snakes
Mowing yards for $1 a piece. Some of them were pretty big
Moving to Atlanta
People bumming cigarettes
Trying to go to sleep when it was still hot outside
3 TV channels
The far too many times the baseball field was empty
I can’t go to bed with the front door open

Friday Nights Are Different Now.

There are obviously a lot of ways to tell you are getting older. There are the usual ones like grey hair and more wrinkles and maybe a few extra pounds here or there, but there are some other ways too, and some of those vary by person.

Today is Friday, and I used to almost live for Friday night --- football games, basketball games, cruising, maybe a party. I can remember when I first joined the USAF I could do 3 or 4 things on a Friday night if I did them right. As the song says, at 17 you can’t see much past Friday night. They should change that to be between 15 and 25.

Anymore though, my Friday nights are a lot different. I said before I don’t watch much TV, but I do like to watch movies, and if I don’t have to take the kids anywhere or there is no work or social commitment, I like to find a movie on cable or DVD, and watch it as I lay there and fall asleep. I know it sounds silly or odd, but I like doing that, and it’s more for what it represents than for what it actually is.

It means I have nowhere else to be or nothing else to do, I don’t have to be up at any certain hour, and everything can wait until tomorrow. As long as the kids stick to what should be their agenda everything is quiet and peaceful in our house, and I can be lazy.

Just thinking about it makes me yawn. :)

Really Getting Started

Getting started takes on a whole new meaning when the subject turns from the first house or apartment to when the little people start showing up. A scant two years after verbally sparring with Miss Mize and Mrs Goode, there was this little person in my house who, in his own way, was a lot more demanding than they were.

When you’re 20 and you find out you’re going to be a father I think the first reaction is always, “Holy Crap!” Then, depending on how long it takes you to get over that initial reaction, your chest sort of puffs out a little and you think more along the lines of, “Hey, I can do this.”

But since there’s no training manual to refer to, you find yourself going through the experience usually one mistake at a time. For example, her doctor was this crusty old guy who probably brought thousands of kids into this world, so when we asked that all important question of how long we could continue having sex while she was pregnant, his response was, “I don’t know, how kinky are you?” I think it was his way of saying, “Hey, there are other things that are a lot more important to worry about”, and he was right.

In late November or early December 1972, the doctor thought she was full term and decided to induce labor. After being plugged into an IV all day with no sign of a baby, they unplugged her and I took her home. Then, around 5 in the morning on Christmas day, she said it was time. He didn’t show up until 1 in the morning on the 26th. I really, really tried to hang in there with her the whole way, but along about 11 that night I needed a break. I know, what I was going through was nothing compared to what she was going through, but I still needed a break. I recall sitting in the waiting room sipping a coke and smoking a cigarette and the next thing I remember the nurse is nudging me awake saying, “You want to come see your new baby boy?”

When I walked into the room he was in an incubator to keep him warm and those big shiny eyes were looking right at me, and there is no way anyone can ever convince me that he didn't know who I was. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My mother in law and I had been having a friendly argument over what it would be --- a boy or a girl. I won.

We put his crib in the corner of our bedroom, and his outgrowing that crib is the reason we moved out of that little duplex. It would not be the last time we would make adjustments because of him.

Owner’s manual or not, things turned out okay I think. I know he taught me as much, if not more, than I taught him, and there were times I should have been leading him when it was actually the other way around. He’s a grown man now with a terrific wife and four kids of his own, but there is a part of me that will always think of him as my baby boy.

Getting Started

Donna mentioned her first color TV in the comments to the last post. To one degree or another, we all went through the joys and pains of setting up a household, whenever it was, after high school.

I will forever be indebted to a salesman at Levitz Furniture in San Bernardino, California. We were only a week or so away from getting married and didn't even have a bed. After trying several times to get a co-signer without any luck, he finally said, "Forget it, this will be my wedding gift to you," and he let me get the mattress, box springs and a Hollywood frame without a co-signer. The payment, $15 or $20 a month, I can't remember which, was significant in light of my $62 paycheck twice a month. Add that to the rent on a 3 room duplex of $30 a month, and you can see the budget was tight.

The rest of the furniture was a hodge-podge of things people gave us. Our living room had two couches, an old naugahyde recliner, an old chest we used as a coffee table and a small round, metal patio table we used as an end table beside the recliner. In the bedroom with the brand new bed was the dresser from her old bedroom back home, and in the kitchen was a red plastic top kitchen table with 4 matching chairs (remember those?) There were no pictures or anything on the walls.

Sometimes things were tough and money always seemed to be short and we openly wondered if things would ever get better, but now, when I look back at it, most of the memories are good ones.

Another TV Transition

I don't watch TV very much so this might be old news to some of you. One night as I was trying to go to sleep and Sue was watching the news, I heard a spot about the "digital transition." It seems, for whatever reason, next year TV stations will switch from an analog signal to a digital signal.


I have no idea whether I should be jumping up and down or cussing, but since I don't watch it that much my reaction is a bit more blase`.


However, it does conjure up a memory or two, which leads me to this picture. No, it's not a plug for 'The Guns of Will Sonnett', although I thought it was a good show, but instead it's about watching a color program on a black and white TV. Do you remember that, or were you one of the lucky ones who had a color TV all along?

I think it was Hollywood's way of telling us that it was time we upgraded our sets, but in those days we didn't stand in line to buy the latest upgrade like they do now, so it took some time. At our house it seemed to take forever, but since I was 8 before we got our first TV, I guess that was par for the course. I'm not complaining. Times were different then and money was tighter. It took our parents a year to make what most of us get in a month now, so things like TVs were not priorities.

Besides, they were supposed to last forever, right? Why else would they have tube testers in places like Richeson's Drug Store?

There is still a connection

I was happy to see last week's poll turn out the way it did. Most of you voted the same way I did and to me that demonstrates a bond between us even after almost 40 years. Maybe it was the place or time, I don't know, but it's obvious that in spite of how far we are removed from that time by age and location, we still share some things. We fought the same fights, felt the same feelings and dealt with the same issues and problems.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it now, we leaned on each other then as we entered adulthood and in some degrees we can support each other now.

I won't mention names, but I think I can guess who answered yes to all three questions. It' s no big deal if I'm wrong, but either way, they have my admiration.

Pitching Pennies

I think what Brenda is referring to in her comment on the last post is pitching pennies. I had forgotten all about that. I have no idea why they called it pitching pennies, because I never pitched a penny --- most times it was a quarter, although I have used nickels and dimes.

To play the game, you stood so far back from the wall and tossed your coin toward the base of it. The one who got their coin closest to the wall won all the coins that were tossed. The absolutely worst toss was one that hit the wall because it always seemed to bounce way back toward you. You could go through lunch money in no time at all. I think I lost much more than I won, so why play? I can't really answer that. Maybe because it was a guy thing; a way of showing you were the best at something. There was no way you could back down from a challenge.

It's funny how things have changed over the years. In high school a guy bragged at how good he was with the girls and at pitching pennies. For most of the time I was in the Air Force, or at least the first ten years, it was how good he was with the ladies and at shooting pool. Now they brag about women and doing things with a computer (or at least the guys I work with do).

It was like if they could show how good they were at pitching pennies, or shooting pool, or hacking computers, by default they were proving the other, when all the time the rest of us knew it was just so much BS. Because if they pitched pennies, or shot pool or hacked enough to be that good at it, they didn't have time to spend with girls. :)

Shirt Loops

I saw a shirt in a catalog today that had a loop on the back. You remember, the loop that used to be on the back of the shirt, on top of the pleat, right in the middle of the shoulder blades. I haven't seen one of those in years. I seem to remember, for a time at least, that loop was a trophy for a girl who was going with a guy. I could be wrong on this since I didn't lose any, but I recall a girl ripping the back of a guy's shirt trying to get that loop off. I can't recall who it was, and there's no way I can recall the year, but it happened just inside the door to the library.

That One

There are common threads that run through most of the posts on here. Coming of age is obviously the biggest one and takes in several areas, the most volatile of which was our first, sometimes fumbling, attempts at dating and romance.

I've heard it said that no matter where you go or how long you live, there will always be THAT one. The guy you girls wished would ask you out or the girl us guys dreamed would say yes if we asked her out.

This is a bit rhetorical, but did you ever go out with that one, that one that stood out from the others for reasons known only to you? If you did, was it what you thought it would be, and if you didn't, how many times has it crossed your mind over the years?

Just Thinking

Sometimes when I think of things to add here, other thoughts come to mind too. The latest one is that I've reach the point in my life where I know I'm not going to do anything anyone is going to remember outside my family and a few close friends. I am not going to cure cancer or step foot on the moon or bring about world peace, and I'm okay with that. However I do think that maybe, just maybe, one of my kids will, or one of their kids will, or someone else down the line will. The reason I say that is someone has been looking out for me all these years, so there must be some plan out there somewhere. Let me give you a few examples.

When I was a kid my brother and I got into a fight and he pushed a poker into my eye. A little to one side and a little harder and it would have gone through the socket, but it didn't.

A year or two later (I'm a slow learner) I got into a fight with the same brother and he broke a brick over my head, literally. (Slow learner = dense, thick skull) All I got was a big bump, but it could have been much worse.

Once I experimented with a paring knife and an electrical outlet. I stuck the knife into one of the little slots and ZAP! The first half inch of the blade was melted away, but thankfully I didn't feel a thing.

Another time we were playing baseball and no one had a bat so we improvised. We used a lead pipe. At one point I clearly remember thinking, "If that pipe slips out of his hand at the wrong time, it could come over here and hit me." Guess what? It slipped and if I had not put my arm up it would have hit my head.

Fast forward a few years. We were behind the baseball field, diving off the big white rocks into Steekee Creek. After one dive I became confused to the point I wasn't sure which way was up and I panicked. I actually thought I might drown, and probably would have if David Ridings had not grabbed my arm and helped me back to the rocks.

Then finally, in 1983, we were driving back to California from spending Christmas with Mom in Tennessee. I had my two oldest kids in the care with me and they were both asleep. I had been driving most of the day and now it was dark and I was fighting sleep myself. I was on Interstate 5 in California, dropping down out of the mountains near Bakersfield on a stretch of road called the Grapevine. At the bottom of the mountain there was a stretch where, at that time, opposing lanes of the interstate didn't have anything between them but a few lines of paint and plastic markers. I recall a diesel coming from the other direction about 50 yards in front of me and then the next thing I know I'm shaken awake by him passing us. I was never so scared in my life. If I had turned the wheel any while I dozed it would have been all over for all of us.

Anyway, there has to be a plan of some sort out there someplace, because some One has been watching over me.

A New Toy

Hey, I found something new I thought some of you might like, if you're not already using it. It's a new browser called Flock. It bills itself as the "social" browser so if you are into Youtube and Facebook and MySpace and places like that, then you may find a reason to download it. The reason I'm giving it a whirl is it lets me add posts to this blog without signing into Blogger. To that end, if any of you want to add posts to this blog, I can give you the user ID and password again and you can do the same thing. It uses an editor that pops up, you type in what you want to say and click on the publish button and voila! the post is added.

Let me know if you want to give it a try (please) :)

They Come From All Over

This may end up being a bit boring, but it is what's on my mind today. I think I've mentioned before that I watch the hits coming into the blog. I can tell when someone has viewed it, but I can't tell exactly who. For example, here is the line for so far today:

Sunday 13-Apr-08..... 3 --- 2 --- 0 --- 2

The 3 is the page loads so far today, the next number (2) is the number of visitors, the 0 is the number of first time visitors and the next 2 is the number of returning visitors. So for today 2 people have connected to the blog, both have been to it before and one of those looked at 2 pages.

If I open today's line it will tell me where the hit originated from by IP address. Something like this -- 74.242.99.157 (BELLSOUTH.NET INC) Which is the IP address for a BellSouth server someplace.

As I said, I can't tell exactly who the person was, but sometimes I can make a good guess. For example, Brenda and Sylvia connect from work, so instead of BellSouth I see their company name, so I know it was them. Sandra is just about the only person who uses AOL, so I can usually tell when she's connected, and I think I can pick out Donna and Kathey, but I'm not sure.

There is one other piece of information I look at. It's called the referrer, which is the route the visitor used. If you come to the site directly from your PC, there is no referrer, but if someone comes to the site via a link, or through a search on Google or Yahoo, I see that, and in the case of searches, I can see what was searched for, and that does get interesting at times. For example, over the past 30 days these people visited the site:

Someone in Killeen, TX searched for Gordo Watson --- how many Gordos do you think there are in the world?
Someone in Richardson, TX searched for Vonore, TN
Someone in Mt Laurel, NJ searched for the Carmichael Inn
Someone in Chattanooga searched for Schrimpsher
Someone in Chicago searched for the Loudon Chair Factory
And people in Grand Rapids, MI, Sewanee, TN, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, CA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia searched for Loudon High School.

I will admit the Malaysia hit has me stumped the most, as does a fairly routine hit from the East Tennessee School for the Deaf. I know of no one connected with either place. Do any of you?

I'm not telling you this to make you think I'm spying on you. I'm not, so please don't stop coming to the blog. But it is interesting, at least to me, and lets me know how often the blog is being used.

Some left and, some stayed

By the end of high school we were all faced with a huge decision--- stay in Loudon or go some place else? Each of us made that decision as our circumstance dictated. School took some away, but some of those returned when they were finished, others did not. Jobs took others away, and when the jobs petered out, some of them came back to Loudon while others did not. A few others, like me, had our decision made for us by the military, and when their hitch was over, some came back to Loudon while others did not.

The reasons for staying away or coming back is as varied as the people who had to make the choice. Some saw nothing for them in Loudon, and some wanted to stay in a place familiar and good to raise their families. As I've stated before I firmly believe that if not for the draft, I would have stayed right there, with Maremont, because that was my goal --- latch on to a good job and progress up through the company. But, when I left, things begin to change and as my responsibilities changed my goals changed right along with them, and I ended up staying away.

As I've followed lead after lead to find our classmates, I have come up with a little list of those, that as far as I can tell, left Loudon and stayed away. I'm not absolutely sure if this is a complete list, and I'm not sure if someone hasn't moved away and back again more than once. For sake of discussion, "staying" means they're still within a 50 mile radius of Loudon. Those who left and stayed away include:

Doug Adkins
Sherry Bright
Kaye Collis
Sue Crisp
Brad Gray
Susan Johns
Jake Lane
Kenny Parks
Mike Stafford
Tony Woody
Me.

For the record, Freddy Lindsey and Allen McNabb would have been on this at the time of their passing.

All in all, that is a very small list (roughly just 10% of the class), even if there are a few others who I may be wrong about. Obviously, if anyone can help me update this list, I'd appreciate the help.

The Rites of Spring

Everybody has spring fever, or so it seems. It was marked in high school by staring out the window the entire time we were in Journalism or some other equally exciting class. Two of the big events at this time of year are spring break and the prom. I’m sure we’ve talked about these before, but I have never participated in either.

One of the guys here took his family to Florida last week for spring break. This past Monday morning he made the statement it was going to be his last time driving because it was too crowded and took too long to drive back. Well, duh! They were all snowbirds just like him.

Before we moved here, I had never lived anywhere spring break was popular. In the 7 years we have been here it seems like everybody wants to scurry off somewhere. I still don’t feel the urge. My young ones have never expressed a desire to go anywhere during this time either, and while it would be good to get out of the snow for awhile, we would just have to come back, and it would probably feel colder when we did. I noticed on the LHS website that they have a spring break scheduled. I hope they all have a good time.

The poll this week is based on something I wasn’t quite sure about. Can underclassmen attend the proms? If they can, then I suppose theoretically you could go to 4 of them. If they can’t, then it really shows how little I know about such things. My sons usually go by themselves. They say that way they can dance with whoever they want to. I guess they’re not a chip off the old block where that is concerned. I can’t dance well and I can't dance with just anybody, and even when I do it’s only after a few beers. :)

It's Not the Same Old Place

I am impressed by their space management, but it looks like some of the rooms are chopped up and smaller. It appears that at least some of the free standing lockers on the east end of the building are gone because now there is a classroom over the cafeteria in a space that was only used by lockers.

Another Look at Then and Now

When I looked at the LHS website the other day, one of the things that struck me was the curriculum changes. I know I’m going to miss a few of these, but we basically had:


English 1 – 4
Math
Applied math
Algebra 1-3?
Physics
Geometry
Trig
World History
US History
Civics
Science
Biology
Chemistry
Band
Industrial Arts
Drafting
Agriculture
PE
Typing
Bookkeeping
Shorthand
Home Ec
Journalism
Speech
Latin
Health
Driver’s Ed
General Business
Government
World Geography
Sociology


Now they have a few more.

English
Honors English
Applied Communications
Yearbook/Newspaper
Advanced Placement English
Visual Arts
General Music
Band
Chorus
Show Choir
Chorus Ensemble
Spanish
French
Weight Training
Care of Prevention of Injuries
Volleyball (credit)
Track and Field (credit)
Wellness
Driver’s Ed
NJROTC
Algebra
Geometry
Math for Tech
Pre-Calculus
Foundations
Math
Physical Science
Geology
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Anatomy and Physiology
Ecology
World History
US History
College Prep US History/Economics
US Government
Economics
AP US History/Economics
Sociology
ACT Test Ready
Mentoring
Office Assistant
Green House Management
Leadership Development
Agriscience
Turf Management
Wildlife Management
Livestock Management
Consumer Economics
Family and Consumer Science
Family Dynamics/Interpersonal Comm
Textiles and Clothing
Graphic Design
Clinical Internship
Rehab Therapy
Health Science
Medical Therapeutics
Anatomy and Physiology
Emergency Medical
Cooperative Methodology
Culinary Arts
Child Development
Early Childhood Ed
Keyboarding/Computers
Interactive Multimedia Design
Desktop Publishing
International Marketing and Business
Marketing and Management
Career Management Success
Auto Mechanics
Transportation Core
Automotive Suspension and Steering
Automotive Engine Performance
Automotive Brake Systems
Automotive Electronic Systems
Principles of Machining and Mftg
Principles of Engineering
Principles of Manufacturing
Manufacturing Applications
Construction Core
Carpentry
Electrical
Residential Construction

You might say we missed out.

I Am Not Really a Stalker

Although I will admit that sometimes I do feel like one. When beating the bushes for old classmates, or following leads you guys have given me, I have located a few people , and even though they don’t always respond, I’ve kept their location in mind. For example, Sunday afternoon I was looking at the LHS website just for grins and I noticed Arthur Kelso’s name was missing from the list of teachers. I hope wherever he is now, he’s doing well. That also brought to mind Debbie Husky who I had tracked to a particular site, and a quick look at her school’s site showed she had moved on too. Good luck to her also. Did I start looking at other school sites looking for them? No, I didn’t. I figure they’ve made their decision whether to participate or not. They are still welcome to join in, if and when they choose to, but I'm not doing the bloodhound work again, not just yet anyway.

When I approach someone about the sites, it’s to get their participation. If they respond to my email, I will answer them back as soon as I can in order to keep their interest up. After that I will only occasionally email them unless they email me more frequently. I figure this is just like school, some of us are a little on the quiet side.

I’ve said this several times before and I will repeat it often. I am not doing this to sell anything or pester anyone or get anything going with anyone other than as friends. There are no old romances, near misses or unfinished business that I want to dig up or start over. I am doing this because I want to bond once again with a bunch of people I felt close to and who have influenced my life a great deal,

Remaking a Classic.

Damn pink eye. It only added to the drugs I was already taking. Are any of you at that stage yet? Yesterday I remade an old classic rocker from the late 60s, White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. But instead of....

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all...

It has become....

One pill makes me sleepy, and one pill makes me pee,
And the last one that he gave me don't do anything for me....

Stand Up

I hate getting up in front of people. I didn't used to. All through high school I was a cut up or clown of just obnoxious, whichever way you want to look at it, then in the USAF I would brief auditoriums full of people all the time, once with then Secretary of Defense Casper Wienberger in attendance.

I remember in English a particular book report I gave for Mrs. Arp. It was a book called "The Prevalence of Nonsense", and it is still in circulation. It was a book about... well... nonsense, or the sometimes silly things people believe, and was one of the first of the "reference" type books that were the craze in the late 60s/early 70s.

I remember a science report, a biology report, something for Miss Mize in Journalism, and something I believe for Mr. Arp in American History. I remember doing them, but I had no style. As funny as I wanted to be, I wasn't. I may have gotten a giggle from time to time, usually when I stumbled over a word, but the real laughs went to others.

Pat Lowe. Pat had a very subtle sense of humor that popped up at unexpected times. He probably didn't like being up in front of the class, but he said more in a fairly short time than I could say all period. And it was funny. But that was if he wanted to do it. If he didn't want to do it, there was no way you could make him.

Edward Watson. Edward was the closest thing to a real comedian in the class. Everybody had days they could make you laugh, Edward did it all the time. I remember a report he gave once as Paul Harvey and another time his report turned into his rendition of Guitarzan. I don't think he considered anything off limits.

Allen McNabb made faces at different people around the room during his reports and if someone laughed he would go into his teacher impression and tell them to be quiet so he could finish his report. He was also a master at mocking the teacher under his breath as he walked back to his desk and say stuff that would get him kicked out of the class, if not out of school, if the teacher actually heard him.

Kenny Parks. We would sit along the back wall of history and talk most days, and if he was called on to answer a question or come up to the front to say something, he nailed it every time. I sat there wondering how he heard it all since we talked through most of it and I had no clue what the topic or the answer was. But not him, and if he bought a book to class I didn't see him open it very often.

There were a few others I didn't have the pleasure of having class with, so I'm sure I missed out on some of their original moments. Tony Woody, Mike Littleton and Jimmy Littlefield to name a few. I don't recall a class with Mike Skinner either, but I remember him from junior high school and he could get a classroom rolling too.

I miss those days.

Short Term Memory

The more and more I consider what to put in here, the more and more I realize that long term memory is not the real issue. The real issue is short term memory.

I can remember quite a bit from high school as if it happened yesterday. Sometimes in fact, something fresh will pop into my head early in the morning or when I'm driving somewhere, and I think it will make a good post. Later, when I sit down at the keyboard, nothing comes to mind except this nagging thought that I should have made a note.

As the Stones said, "What a drag it is getting old."

So, I'm still open to suggestions. Anything and everything will be considered, just drop me a line and if I can't remember it I'll let you know. otherwise you might be helping me clear out a cob web or two. It can be anything. For example the next time you want to rag your kids or grandkids about how baggy his pants are or how tight her top is, try to imagine your father or grandfather going after a pair of jeans back in the 60s and coming back from the store saying, "All they had to buy were these damned bell bottoms. I don't see how in the world kids wear this stuff."

Small Town Saturday Night

I bet it’s not 25 miles from Lenoir City to Sweetwater, and not much more than that from Midway to Greenback, but that little chunk of land is pretty much the extent of my travels when we went running around on Saturday night. Occasionally we might go to Knoxville, and I can remember going to Friendsville or Ten Mile or Vonore or Madisonville, but those were about the only deviations. Rarely did we go further south. I bet I haven’t been to Chattanooga 3 times in my life (not counting driving through)

That’s not a huge area I know, but at the time it was enough. Maybe it was limited, but I don’t remember ever being really bored. If there wasn’t something to do in one place, we went to another. Sometimes it might be as simple as stopping by the IGA in Philadelphia for a coke and bag of peanuts, or maybe watching what was showing at Cole’s for the umpteenth time, or driving up to the back door of the bar just across the Monroe County line for a couple of quarts of beer. (I can’t remember the name of the place, that group of brain cells has long since died) And on those times you could actually get a real date there was even more to do.

Anyway, if each of us threw in 50 cents for gas we could drive around all night, so the sky was the limit, or at least the county line was. :)

My Current Conundrum

What is too big of an age gap when dating in high school? My youngest is 15 and a freshman this year. In all the years prior to this she has never shown much interest in boys. The ones in her class were her friends, and that’s the way she always described them.

This year has been different. She has had two interests this year, or three if you count the one I told her that in no uncertain terms would I permit her to date him, especially after she told me he had a probation officer. I’m sure she meant juvenile officer, but either way, it was strikes one, two and three all at one time.

The latest guy poses a different problem, and the problem just might be me. He’s a junior and I want to say that it’s too much of an age difference. Am I being over protective? I keep going back to the difference between me as a freshman and me as a junior, and it was quite a difference. Granted, girls mature faster than boys (or at least that’s how it is in my house) so maybe she’s more mature than he is already, but I won’t know until I get a chance to get to know him a little.

So, the question remains, when it comes to dating in high school, how much of an age difference is too much of a difference?

A Match Made in.... Study Hall

The biggest restriction to adding posts to this blog is a self imposed rule that I won’t use names when there is even the least bit of doubt that the people involved might object. I want this to be a fun place and I want people to remember good memories, but not at the expense of causing anyone any embarrassment or discomfort. However, in school I was a prankster and sometimes that rule hamstrings what I can say here..

I’ve mentioned it before, but probably the most unique prank was one day in Study Hall when a couple of friends and I decided that a very quiet and shy guy and an equally quiet and shy girl would make a good couple. The trick would be to get them together, so since everyone said I “write like a girl”, I sent him a note and put her name on it while one of the other sent her a note and put the shy guy’s name on it. After that you sit back and watch the drama unfold.

The unique part to this is that the two actually dated a few times, although I honestly can’t say how long they dated or that our notes had anything to do with it, but I like to think the notes helped get it started.

Maybe if they’re at the next reunion I’ll ask them if they remember the notes.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

This morning there is about 2” of new snow on the ground, or just enough to make you pay attention on your drive into work since you have to watch out for some of those 4 wheel drive perverts who actually seem to drive faster on ice and snow to flaunt the rules of common sense and physics. Anyway, it actually had to “warm up” to snow. Today it’s 25 or so; yesterday morning it was 5 and the wind chill was around -25 ---the kind of cold that makes your skin hurt even on the short walk to the building from your car. For only the second time in my life, with living in Alaska being the first time, I wear gloves when I’m outside.

Now, I realize Loudon is in a little more temperate zone, and at 17 you feel invincible to even the common cold, but throughout most of high school I wore either a sweater or an Eisenhower jacket; one of those WWII OD green, wool jackets that stopped at the waist. That was it. No overcoat, gloves, boots, hat, or even an umbrella; just that sweater or jacket whether it was raining, snowing, fall, winter or spring, and even though I hoofed it everywhere.

And the thing is, I don’t remember a lot of other people bundling up either. To begin with, the lockers wouldn’t hold that much, and who wants to hang a wet umbrella in their locker to drip on the stack of old papers I had stashed in the bottom? That means I would have to clean the locker, and I’m a guy, so there is no way that was going to happen.

I think I was better in those days at prioritizing my worries.

Industrial Arts

There was something unique about the credits received for Industrial Arts, but it escapes me right now what it was. I think one year was worth either 1.5 or 2 credits because I think they it was half day of shop and a half day of class work.. I’ll have to look that up.

Anyway, it was a fun class partly because Mr. Caldwell always seemed to have some place else to go. I won’t say he was gone every day, but on a good many days there was something he needed to do in the main office or teacher’s lounge or some place like that, so we were frequently left on our own.

During one of his times away the guys got into a discussion about which shotgun shells were best. That ended up with them removing the shot from a couple of shells, clamping them into a vice and using and hammer and a screwdriver to set off the cap. The echoes were heard over half the school. The guys in Ag must have jumped out of their socks.

Another time a couple of the guys spent the time he was gone making different body parts out of wood, or the time someone removed several screws/nails from another student’s wood project so that when he began working on it, it fell apart.

There were few dull moments in Industrial Arts.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”

Mr. Dickens defines high school fairly well doesn’t he? No matter how much time I spend thinking about it, those years are the least definable of any other period in my life. I can remember good things and bad things. I can remember things that made me laugh and others that made me cry, and still others that made me do both at once.

I can absolutely say that overall I enjoyed it, but it was the uncertainty of it all that gave it some of its appeal.