Gas Prices

We’ve been buying gas since the early 1960s when it was about 25¢ per gallon.  As we have all seen during the ensuing years, gas has grown more costly, but in general unless you’ve had to run a fleet or commute long distances the cost impact on our personal budgets has been relatively inconsequential.  In fact, that 25¢ gallon of gas would only cost an inflation adjusted $2.10 if the market weren’t skewed as it is now.

Perhaps the most troublesome periods were during the 1973-4 Arab Oil Embargoes and the 1978 Carter Administration cock-up when there were periods we couldn’t buy as much gas as we wanted at any price.  I was pretty lucky to be driving a small displacement sports car with a big gas tank during those periods so the impact on me personally was minimal.  Additionally, I was traveling a great deal on company business during the Embargo, so it was more the rental car agencies problem than mine. 

As a result of those experiences, many of us started paying attention to gas mileage when purchasing cars.  The Japanese smartly filled the good gas mileage void that, for some odd reason, Detroit automakers largely ignored.  The result of that dopey corporate decision lost them a huge market share which they never recovered. 

The gas price signs in the accompanying picture are a reasonably good illustration of the prices we’ve paid over the past 50-years or so.  Seems to me we paid about $1/gallon or a bit more for almost 20-years during the 1980s and 1990s.  That provided enough time for folks to forget what it was like to have troubles with our gas supplies and for the FBG people to buy all those gas-guzzling SUVs.  Things really didn’t start getting out of hand until the late nineties or a bit later.

Since the arrival of my family I’ve been driving sports sedans, usually foreign made, which are also thrifty fuel users.  And now after a lifetime of lots of travel, I’m content to stay close to home….so, once again fuel market upsets are of little consequence.  An electric car might do, but not one of those dumb things they’re building now.

Thank you God.

Good-bye, Pop

I never met Pop except by mail, yet I had heard his name nearly all my life. He was a 25-year old Army pilot for a while and a small town doctor a lot longer. Pop was one of about 250,000 young men who flew Army Air Force planes into battle in the skies over Europe and elsewhere during WWII. Thousands of his fellow pilots and their crews didn’t come home, but Pop and his crew did.

Pop was very special to me because he flew the B-17s that carried my father aboard in the nose as one of the crew and brought him home safely. Had he failed to do that I might not have come into existence. He was a favorite comrade of my father’s and they remained life-long friends until Dad passed away some years ago.

They weren’t shot down, but they did have several forced landings due to damage and one flak shell passed through their wing on its way to explode at a higher altitude. Otherwise, their tour of missions in the weeks before D-Day was without event. However, 43 planes in their particular 60-plane unit were shot down during those same weeks; 430 young men lost.

Lost, they always said. Whether they were killed or captured was never known for quite a time after a mission and even then the Germans only reported those that were taken prisoner—about half of them. The rest…MIA, most of them were actually KIA, but that was never reported at the time.

Shortly after Dad died, I wrote Pop a letter asking him to tell me about my father as a young man. Dad was always Dad to me, the big guy who not only nurtured and protected me, but could also get awfully angry with me; yes, and me with him. I never knew him as a kid, but Pop did. Dad always seemed a bit naïve to me, especially as our new world started blossoming into what it would become during the sixties…flower power and all. Pop confirmed my observation.

He didn’t write a letter…his hands were too shaky. So, he made me a tape and spoke on a variety of topics for most of an hour. What a treasure. I’ve come to love all these men, but especially this one. My friend Pop died last December at age 92, the last surviving member of Dad’s crew.

God bless you old friend…say Hi to Dad for me.

Many of them looked like children when they first went to war, and some of them no doubt could have been called children. Veteran pilot Ernest K. Gann encountered many of them at Goose Bay, Labrador, on their way to England, and saw, as he wrote in his classic book Fate is the Hunter, earnest young men with peach fuzz beards…brave aerial children who would go down in flame and history as the Eighth Air Force.” But because aerial warfare is, to say the least, a ripening experience, once they flew a few combat missions they were children no longer. As Gann put it, “the innocence was gone from their eyes.” In age, however, they were still absurdly young and but little removed from childhood. Most were in combat before the age of twenty-two; some, such as gunner Miller, were as young as seventeen, and the few graybeards among them who were twenty-five or older were known more often than not to their fellow crewmembers as “Dad” or “The Old Man,” ...or, Pop.

Airline Molestation - The Brain Trust - STILL !

Video posted today.

Other videos of this treatment of children are beginning to surface on Youtube. One LINK from Drudge goes to an interesting Blog that is apparently being hosted by the TSA itself, tasked with a public relations job to try and explain these kinds of things from their prospective. It's author has taken the screen name of Blogger Bob. Sounds condescending to my old ears, how about yours? Why not Security Sue or Patty Patdown or Grif Grope?

The problem with poorly qualified management, as many of us old duffers know, is that the organizations under their supervision tend to wander in pointless or dumb directions. Lower level supervisors usually take the blame, if the higher managers can make it stick. There is very little incentive in those kinds of organizations for lower level managers to take initiative; for them, there is only a downside. Given the factors in this case, I would not be at all surprised to see several possible responses from TSA management: 1-Ban all pictures in the security area; 2-Criminalize criticism; 3-Intimidate. I think they are already doing some of these things.

Note: I usually don't place links to outside sites in this blog. The reason being, I don't have any control of those outside sites and I dislike dead links. Let's see how long these links remain active...I'll check back to test them.

Adios

Sesquicentennial

Big word. Means 150th anniversary and today is the Sesquicentennial of the start of the American Civil War. About 600,000 Americans died during the period 1861 to 1865, until the end at Appomattox. The losses were roughly equal on each side, mostly due to illness, Cholera frequently, poor sanitation.

As a kid, I was always curious about why we Texans, a special subset of Southerners, didn’t think too highly of Yankees. Yes, there was that Civil War business, but that was a long time ago. We did have one Yankee family move in next to us when I was about 10; the boy was younger, pasty-looking and talked funny…not much fun as a playmate. His mom yelled at us running across her lawn—the same lawn we had been running across long before she moved in!

And then there were the firecrackers…she bitched at that, too. Just to break her in, late one night I lit a time delay (fuse in a cigarette) cherry bomb and set it on her bedroom window sill. When it went off later I was in the shower, my alibi secure.

We moved to the East Side shortly after that and I continued growing up there. Our American History classes whizzed by the Civil War, taking no more than a week to set some names and dates in our heads for the weekly tests, then it was on to Reconstruction. For most of my life the Civil War was just a huge conflagration about which I knew little and until the arrival of the Internet I never had much interest in the topic.

Dad told me that great grandpa had fought in it, been in 14-battles, sired 19-children, and was deemed a “substantial citizen” of his County. He got that information from a couple of pages in a circa 1950 compilation of old local newspaper articles where great grandpa got a 2-page spread. Later, I discovered that the 2-page spread was actually his obituary and that his newspaperman cousin had written it. His cousin had served with great grandpa in the same Company—46-years earlier. That knowledge came later.

The only picture of great grandpa that found its way down our family branch was the old man above on the right. His younger picture and those of his families came from a distant (Internet) cousin in whose family branch more information had descended. She sent them to me, and the hunt was on…what exactly had he done during the Civil War?

Part of my youthful curiosity about why, to this day, Southerners and Northerners thought and acted so differently from one another was stimulated by why my ggrandpa gone to war at all. He worked on a farm, owned no slaves, nor did his family, and lived far enough West that very little of his every day life was impacted in any substantial way by the Argument. Yet, 4-months after the day we mark today, he was part of a Regiment organized in northern Arkansas tasked with opposing any Yankee thrust that might come from St. Louis or Springfield.

He never left a single word about his experience in his own hand, but others told the story in different works. Putting things together has been my challenge and pleasure. And in the effort, a far better understanding of at least the part of the Civil War my folks participated in has been the result.

Generally, I believe that ggrandpa and his mates saw the Union Army advancing on them from Springfield as an invasion of their country. Great grandpa’s grandfather had been a frontier soldier of the Revolution and had lived in the neighborhood until great grandpa was about 15. The old man’s frontier tales were a staple of my great grandfather’s childhood and were written down by a cousin, also a resident of the same neighborhood.

I am reminded of George Harrison’s lost verse.

Adios

1961 CLAN Prank

We were fortunate to attend school in a period before a need for metal detectors, campus cops, or drug testing. There were no school shootings, nor any fear of them...they didn't happen and had not been a part of our society at any time before ours.

Pranks, on the other hand, were a regular part of our days and some of them really rose to a point of high creativity. Others were more naughty than clever, but nonetheless funny to those in on the gag. One of the more famous pranks of early EHHS is the picture accompanying this piece. Published not once, but twice in the 1961 Clan, it has enjoyed a half-century long cult status amongst those in on the gag and some of their friends.

Although I've known the picture for years, I didn't notice the protruding center digit until it was pointed out by a '61 correspondent. There have been at least 2 names assigned to the digit's owner, one of which was offered by a participant in that day's photo call. The eye witness account gives credit to David Teague for the momentary spasm.

These kinds of things were often tried in both the CLAN and TARTAN publications and were usually caught by the faculty sponsor. However, in this case the CLAN sponsor was an Ivy League grad, so maybe she wasn't quite ready to ride herd on some rowdy young Texans. You would also have to consider that someone on the CLAN editorial staff was in on the deal, but no one has claimed credit from that group.

Adios

The Saga of Harold M. Snow

When I entered EHHS for the first time, Fall 1960, there was one particular football player who seemed to have the whole package…Kip Miller.  Even as a Junior in his first varsity season, Kip was already known as a star on the team.  As a 16-year old youngster, Kip was a self-confident, handsome kid who was dating one the beauties of his class, Carol Warkentin.

Kip had something of an entourage around him in the locker room and it was probably there that I first heard the name of the legendary, Harold M. Snow.  The coach would call Harold’s name during roll call and Kip would answer “here” for him and those around Kip would snicker.  That went on for a few days before it slowly died out.  Although it was clear that there was an inside joke going on, I never knew the story until recently.

In his 50^th reunion bio, William R. Kantz, a member of the EHHS first graduating Class of 1960 confessed his part in starting the gag.  It goes like this:

“I attended three schools in Arkansas, one in Commerce, TX and William James, Poly, Handley and EHHS -- Plus four years of summer school. This provided a large pool of girls to date. I also had a Rep. as a Bad Boy, a wild child and a little bit dangerous. This was a plus when dating girls from other schools. In 1957, Harold M. Snow was created as a protection while dating girls from other schools.

“The Saga of Harold M. Snow!  In the school year of 1958, Handley's last year as a high school, I made a motion at a Vulture's meeting that stated: It would be a good joke to have the school office girls slip Grade and Attendance cards into the school files.  This task was accomplished in the name of Harold M. Snow.  The whole thing was just for fun and to screw with EHHS new staff and teachers.  It really was funny to hear his name called out in every class and one of our club members answer for him.  By the third week the staff and teachers were going nuts trying to find him.  The school went serious, and we went silent. -- Until Now!

William R. Kantz  (2010)
P.S.  The M. stands for Melvin”

From a reunion questionnaire: What has surprised you about your life since leaving EHHS back in 1960?

That I have made it this far and that God has assigned angels to protect me.

Gus' note: This is one of those rare stories where a prank had marvelous "legs" reaching over 50-years now. Probably unknown to these perps, their prank became something of an urban legend for at least 3-classes that followed them at EHHS. For those who never heard of Harold M. Snow, know that the sense of humor and creativity shown in his design and execution is pure 1950s--carefree, exuberant, fearless, and creative. It was a great time to be a kid.

Adios

Fast Times at Ridgemont High & the FBG

If you have read any of my FBG series then you may recall that I don’t like the FBGs, those born from 1955-1965; the 45 to 55 year olds of today.  Known also as Gen-X, these people have, in my opinion, excelled at little more than becoming a generation of whiners and worse.  I’ve combined my previous posts on this subject into a single document HERE.

I’m adding Fast Times at Ridgemont High to a couple of other films, (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off & Risky Business) that I think chronicle this generation of people pretty well.  I do like this 1982 film which was released when we were about 37; then again, who couldn’t have been smitten by Phoebe Cates’ part in it; in fact, that may have diverted my realization that this film fits in with the other FBG films and may be the best descriptive example of all.

The screenwriter actually went back to high school for a year in order to better understand that particular crop of youngsters before he wrote his script.  The result was a fairly accurate snapshot of teen life circa 1982, just before they started taking their places as young adults in our society.  At that time the 17-27 age group were born from 1955-1965…they were the FBGs.

Actually, this film is even more illustrative of that generation than are the other two.  It accurately depicts their after school and weekend jobs in local malls and their peculiar tribulations.  It may be the earliest film to depict that aspect of life, since the large regional malls were only built in the early to mid-1970s.

My recollection of 1982 for us was of outrageous interest rates, a dead housing market, the mid-west rust belt, huge unemployment numbers, an abandoned Gulf coast oil patch, the exodus of American manufacturing to foreign sites, and the first personal computers.

For the FBG youngsters, there were few substantial opportunities and AIDS made its appearance about then…that effectively sounded the last gasp of our Sexual Revolution period and, their music was synthesized crap.  All things considered, it wasn’t a great time to come of age, so I can sympathize with their unfortunate situation.

It was probably during those years that these people started turning their ire on us.  From their limited point of view, we had it all—nice homes, great music, fancy cars, new families, jobs or professions.  Many of them were our younger siblings.

Of course those years were difficult for us also, but in different ways.  I recall thinking that I was glad I wasn’t one of them.  I couldn’t have gotten excited about working in a fast-food joint, or trying to get involved with their music, or facing that job market as a young adult.

On the other hand, I employed a number of youngsters at that time and a couple of my in-laws were that age and from what I observed of them, they were lacking.  I didn’t see in them the spark that we had, nor did I see any sense of willingness to pay their dues and work up to better things.  They were in a hurry to achieve what we had achieved and for reasons I never quite knew, fully expected that they could skip the hard work.

Most of our government and business leaders are now FBGs.  How are they doing and what kind of people do you see?  Here is one of them who as an employee tangled with an Arby’s meat slicer and lost. A good guy you could trust? You decide.  

 Adios

1961 & 1962 Booster Club Brochures

1962

 

1961

Adios

Doers & Implementors

I'll admit it...I'm a Dilbert; one of those people who could do things--Wally's Implementor. If you are one of those yourself, then you're going to understand what I'm about to say....

Being an Implementor is a real life-long burden. Why? Because others quickly recognize those skills in you and seem amazingly adept at shifting their burdens to you, the Implementor. The real criminals in this equation are guys like Wally, who could do things himself but has discovered that life is much easier when you shift your work to Dilbert's stack. You see, guys like Dilbert cannot stand to let things drop, which is exactly what they should do in these cases.

Wife says I should feel flattered, but I just don't see upside. In fact, I admire Wally, the "Big Picture" guy in the comic strip above. Yes, the little bastard is a repugnant gnome; but guys like him seem to be able to skate through life free of responsibilities or the burden of having to do things. And at this end of life, aren't all we Wallys and Dilberts pretty much in the same buckets? So what was the payoff for the Dilberts?

Father-in-Law was a wonderful man and a very tall Wally. Every night before turning in he patrolled the house making sure all the doors were locked and secure. To assure himself further, he vigorously shook each door handle several times with his big hands. Mom (in-Law) took me aside once when we visited and asked if I could tighten the door handles...Dad had shaken them loose to the point they were about to fall out of the door and Dad, not being an Implementor, just didn't fix things.

Implementors know that most jobs like this one are 5 or 10-minutes of work that require 1-3 hours of preparation to find the tools, parts, and figure out how to do it. That's why we put these little jobs off until there are a number of them to do...it's the same 1-3 hours of prep time to do 1 or a half-dozen 5-minute jobs. Contractors call it Mob-DeMob.

Sorry, got to go. One of the pots is running, the shower drain is clogged with hair (again), one of the kitchen cabinet handles is loose, and the back door handle is about to fall off!

Adios

1962 Homecoming – EHHS 8 – Paschal 7

This was a big deal in 1962. The picture of Max Rhodes published in our yearbook was the icon for our season. Our sports program had just joined the "big boys" in 4A-5 two years earlier and this was our 3rd year competing in 4A (Texas' largest districts then). The first 2-seasons were lackluster, although we managed to hold our own in both seasons by not being blown completely off the field.

Like the Longhorns have always been the team to beat in Texas, Ft. Worth Paschal was the team to beat in Ft. Worth. It was a large, well established school of about 4000 students. EHHS was a small upstart by comparison having only 1250 students, a 2-year old 4A program and in 1962 entering its 3rd season in the league.

Paschal had gone pretty far in the Texas State playoffs in the previous 2-seasons, reaching the quarter or semifinals one or both of those years. Our Highlanders had shown well against Paschal both of those first 2 seasons, holding them to a 0-6 result in 1960 and to 2-14 in 1961 when Paschal fielded its best team. We weren't blown off the field either year.

Competing against a much larger school like Paschal exposed us to a team that had been chosen from a pool of talent that was almost 4-times larger than ours. With few exceptions that is why they were generally bigger, faster, and more skilled than were we.

But something came together that year that neither we nor the local sports press really understood. We put a good, if unremarkable team on the field that refused to lose. We had a heck of a time scoring points but we put together a defense that was one of the best in Texas that year. That's no hyperbole. Entering the playoffs at the end of the season we were undeniably one of the top 16 teams in the great State of Texas.

Even if our offense was anemic, in most of the games it was good enough to score at least one more point than the opposition. And that is how this game ended--a one point edge, 8-7, opened the door to the Highlanders' first district football championship 48-years ago. The difference was the fine hands of Max Rhodes who caught both the touchdown pass and the 2-point conversion. Bravo Max.

A few weeks later the Star-Telegram All District picks came out and are marked below on the program image. Those picks were striking in that even though we won, they lost, the pickers just couldn’t come to grips with the fact that after 2 seasons of competing well into the State playoffs, mighty Paschal had fallen to the upstart Highlander team. Goodness, if we had seen how talent starved we were according to the S-T picks, we might well have just turned around and gone home that night. But, in 1962 the Highlanders refused to lose.

Images of a special homecoming edition of the school paper are distributed around this post and show a number of interesting things; one of them being where the 1961 and 1962 Highlanders were attending school and some of them who had married just after graduation.

April 9, 2011 Update: Some terrific pictures contributed by a friend of ours,

Sis – Boom – Bah

National Honor Society – Part 3

 1959-60

Charter members of the EHHS National Honor Society appear to have been entirely members of the last Handley High School NHS before all the Handley high school classes were moved to EHHS.  The second picture shows that spring's inductees, some of whom would be the existing membership of the following year, 1960-61.  Included among them is Melany Burton, our Class of 1963's Gay Burton's older sister.

 

 1960-61

The picture above picture shows both the existing 1960-1961 members together with the new Spring 1961 inductees.  Note the red ! at far left marking Bobby Dillard in one of his trademark group picture crashes…he was not a member of NHS at this point, but would be inducted the next year.  Note also that whoever prepared the picture ID list for the Clan threw him off the list!  Dillard was known for his ability to work picture days into a day off from classes while he stood around waiting for the next photo op. 

1961-62

 

This second picture shows only the existing 1961-1962 members.  There was another picture in that yearbook showing only the Spring 1962 inductees, which for the most part are those shown in the following 1963 members picture.

1962-63

 

This third picture shows the 49 existing 1962-1963 members.  They were, unless things changed in some subsequent years, the last Chapter 8752 NHS members to have been selected on the basis of their Character, Leadership, and Service in addition to Scholarship in accordance with the NHS founding principles.  Note that in the last row, just right of center that Bob Dillard is now pictured as an officially inducted member in good standing!

1963-64

This picture of the following year, 1963-64 NHS membership numbers 150...an increase of 200% in the membership of the previously exclusive NHS chapter at EHHS. Such was the result of Roy C. Johnson's decision to overrule Mrs. Dorothy Conway's structure of NHS; also note that Mrs. Conway is no longer associated with this group...the first time she was not the sponsor of this august organization since the school's founding.

1964-65

LAST 2 YEARS OF HANDLEY HIGH SCHOOL NHS MEMBERS

National Honor Society – Part 2

While most of the school clubs and sports were open to anyone who wanted to join, NHS was different—you had to be invited to be a member. Varsity sports teams were exclusive in that they had only a certain number of positions available and if more kids wanted to play than there were spots and equipment to accommodate them, then the coaches would pick those they thought the most capable and cut the rest. Straight forward enough.

NHS, by virtue of its exclusivity, was probably the most desirable of all the school clubs. The basic requirement was a 3.5 GPA, but even then, during the years we attended, grades alone were not enough…you still had to be invited to join by a faculty vote. Beyond that, I don’t have any knowledge of just how selection process worked; but I do know that the report card shown at right was not good enough for selection in 1961…causing some degree of irritation to its owner.

The third year, 1963, there was no induction ceremony. Rumor had it that Principal Roy C. Johnson had received substantial criticism from parents of young people who had the grades (a 3.5 GPA) but had been passed over for induction in May 1962; and Roy had caved in to the parent pressure. The 1962 & 1963 NHS invitation letters shown below provide evidence of a rift, most likely between Mr. Johnson and the faculty led by Mrs. Dorothy Conway, the well-regarded sponsor of NHS at EHHS since its inception.

Apparently at Mr. Johnson’s direction, the faculty was instructed to eliminate the traits of Character, Leadership, and Service from their selection of new candidates for NHS induction. However, there was a problem…those traits were the cornerstones of the NHS since its founding in 1921 and the NHS pin contained the letters, L, S, S, and C, which signify the 4 traits.

Mrs. Dorothy Conway, the NHS sponsor and one of the two school counselors, was a well regarded, refined woman, where Mr. Johnson was more of a rough-hewn sort. I can only imagine the exchange of words that must have taken place between them over this matter. For the 3-years we attended EHHS, Mrs. Conway was NHS, and set a splendid professional standard. They were both about 50 years of age at the time.

I think Mrs. Conway may have had the last word in this matter. Almost certainly, she was the author of the letters shown above. Note the very significant word deletions and changes between the 1962 and 1963 letters. Note also that the letter was held until 8-days before our graduation ceremony leaving no time for student protest.

The result was that a lot of new 1963/64 inductees were invited via an impersonal “Dear Student” form letter where in previous years, the form letter was at least somewhat personalized.

Before a haphazard school assembly new inductees were unceremoniously called to the stage, handed a pin, and made members of NHS, where in the years before 1963, the NHS induction ceremony was a very formal, scripted affair.

I never saw a list of the 1963/64 Highlander NHS inductees, so I have no idea how many there were, but from what I vaguely recall from the assembly, there were a lot of them.

However, 1964 Highlanders were the first generally recognized “baby boomer” class, so maybe in a sense this sad event was one precursor of the coming changes in public education.


Adios

National Honor Society – Part 1

During the first few years at EHHS, National Honor Society induction ceremonies were conducted during the second week in May, just before final exams and the end of the school year. For those who achieved high academic marks it was a time of some anxiety because not all those who had achieved the basic 3.5 GPA were invited to join NHS.
If you note the 4 letters in the pin, you see a C, S, L, and another S. The letters stood for the 4 characteristics upon which the NHS was founded; Character, Service, Leadership, and Scholarship.
A review of 1961 and 1962 NHS induction programs reveals what wasn’t obvious almost 50-years ago. Membership was limited to about 40 Seniors and 20 Juniors each year. About 20 Juniors and 20 Sophomores were inducted each Spring to replace the 40 graduating Seniors, leaving a standing membership of about 60 for the following year, 40 Seniors and 20 Juniors (prox).
The 1960-61 NHS membership consisted of only 23 Seniors—the school was very new then. This 1961 class was relatively small, about 224, compared to subsequent classes of about 289 (1962), 315 (1963), 350 in 1964 (the first official year of the baby boomers) and about 410 in 1965. (Note--the first EHHS Class of 1960 numbered about 145).
On May 10, 1961, the Highlander NHS chapter inducted 6 graduating Seniors, 41 Juniors, and 18 Sophomores.

The next year, on May 11, 1962, following the practice first established in 1961, the Highlander NHS chapter inducted 6 graduating Seniors, 21 Juniors, and 19 Sophomores.The lists accompanying this posting are taken from the original NHS induction programs. Another thing that was not obvious at the time was that the girls out numbered the boys by huge margins: 1960/61 – 67% girls; 1961/62 – 75% girls; 1962/63 - 56% girls.
Maybe the selection method was flawed but it did seem that the faculty committee was trying to even the numbers by 1963. On the other hand in the accompanying lists are a couple of lawyers, a judge, a former Ft. Worth mayor, a United States Congresswoman, and the subject of a Life Magazine cover, each of them former EHHS girls. There are also several doctors, professors, teachers, engineers, an artist, several very successful business people, and the author of the EHHS alma mater in these lists.

Adios

George Mitcham - James Willingham - Dub Graves - Susan Begley - Shelia Ward

These biographies were published in the 1962 Booster Club sports brochure. As I recall each of these men, the biographies were accurate...they were good guys, each of them. Dub Graves was the character of the bunch as is shown in the bio from the previous year brochure. I guess he or someone decided to straighten up the wording a bit for the subsequent year, 1962...the 1961 bio is an amusing read. It would appear that Graves and Mitcham may have played football together at Poly, but I don't recall them as being particularly close. Personality wise, Mitcham was a straight arrow; Willingham was all business with an upbeat manner; and Graves was a character.

The back cover lists all the 1962 4A-5 football games on the back and a couple of our lovely Highlanders on the front. Susan Begley would later that year become the 3rd winner of the Big E Beauty Pageant and the 1962 Homecoming Queen, while Shelia Ward, a 1964 Highlander, was one of the favorites of that class.

April 13, 2011 update: I guess I had a crush on one of these young ladies or maybe it was due to our not getting too many opportunities to effectively appraise figures back in those days...whatever the reason, I kept this clipping from the S-T that shows a Miss Mermaid publicity picture in which 3 of our contemporary Highlanders appeared. Sheila Ward ('64), Dianne Hardin ('63), and Pam Shear ('64) were contestants in the contest that Shelia won (hence, her picture on the Booster Club brochure above. As anyone can see, they were cuties. Excuse me, is that too un-PC?

Adios

Darla Houlihan & Roy C. Johnson

This is a good picture of Darla Houlihan, a 1962 Highlander and the very first winner of the Big E Beauty Pagent. Her mom was the school secretary during the first years of EHHS. The picture was printed on a letter size booklet put together by the Booster Club as a fund raiser at the beginning of each year. The back cover shows the composite 4A-5 (Ft. Worth ISD) football schedules for the 1961 football season.

Inside the booklet is this fairly comprehensive bio of Principal Roy C. Johnson. It's interesting in that it provides a glimpse of one man's growing to maturity in Texas during the Depression and WWII, including his work assignments in the FWISD from 1940-1963.
Adios