REMEMBERING CHS '51 ON MEMORIAL DAY, 2017

"A time to pause, remember, and remind 

ourselves of those those we met early 

on the trail of life...

       ...and walked with in our springtimes."

                    -----MIL

"Many places I have been...many sorrows

      I have seen...but I don't regret, nor will

      I forget all those who took the road with me."

                          ----UNKNOWN

CHS Class '51, May 1951





Class of '51, Reunion 1981

IN MEMORY OF:

Jimmy Abernethy

Jimmy Blair

Don Campbell

Zeno Crosswhite

Bruce Davis

Geraldine Edwards

Billy Harwell

Billy Hasty

Thomasina Ingram Murrell

Charlotte Kelly

Marlene Lancaster

Donald Mardis

Robert Roberts

Jerry Roberts

R.G. Snipes

Pat Thompson

James Timmons

Jimmy Whatley

Bobby Wilhite

Jo Ann Williams

Sherman Williams

Noel Dougherty

Vera Lou Priddy

Engle Southard

Dorothy Trigg

Dixie Sanderson

Jerry Crook

Wanda King Snipes

John Thorn Marshall

Rita Gayle Delaney

Charles Mason

Marcia Stebbins
Earl Riley
Jackie Pearce

**************************

SOME TEACHERS.....

Ms. Tennyson, Ms. Bledsoe, Ms. Ballou,  Dr. Gaddis

     Ms. Holloway, Ms. Broiles, Mr. McDougal, 

Ms. Jenkins, Mr. Elms, Ms. Macfarland, Mrs.. Martin

Ms. Buchanan, Ms. Atchley, Mr. Stockton, 

    Mr. Norman, Ms. Barton, Ms. Clarke, Mr. Norman

Mrs. Putnam, Dewey Miller, Coach Brock, Mr. Moser

Mr. Barton, Beloved Senorite Dora Russell, 

    Dave St. Clair, Ms. Bayless, Coach Harmon...

Mr. Hudson....

*********************

"Every one of them was dear to my heart."

                      ----Jimmy Blair, 1995

http://milmoore.blogspot.com/2012/06/mr-elms.html

http://milmoore.blogspot.com/2012/07/dora-m-russell-beloved-spanish-teacher.html

A PENCHANT FOR PASTRIES

A PENCHANT FOR PASTRIES

      YOU CAN'T  EVEN IMAGINE WHAT YOUR

              TASTE BUDS WILL EXPERIENCE!

                   *******************************

   

It is not widely known

          but I will tell 

you private personal stuff

     about breakfast food

The man in the white coat 

           charging big bucks

(with all those diplomas

        on his wall, and a 

      cute nurse)

was saying: "Don't eat

         too many carbs...

     but he warned, be careful 

not to

     run low on carbs, either."

It was the second part 

     of his advice

that really stuck with me.

So....I like danishes. and in a real

      sense, my diet requires 

them

Some say: "Spell Danishes

     with a little "d."

We have tried them all...

     "sweet rolls," pastries,

donuts,  bear-claws,

    croissants,  and danishes....

from....Smiths, Albertsons,

     Savory Fare, Whole Foods,

Starbucks, Dunkins Donuts...

Not to forget that neat little

            mustard-colored

donut shoppe on the corner

that went out of business.

But...(and sit down for this)---

     The most beautiful, 

flavorful, delicious, delightful,

     "melt-in-your-mouth,"

pastry 

       I have ever run across 

was brought to me by BE.

Only ONE of 'em....

      but ONE was enough!

She just happened to 

      "stumble onto it"

   when out with the girls.

For you see---and you must 

    understand a basic truth---

Men, when out coffee-drinking

     with their buddies,

          and discussing sports 

and duck-hunting, will know

     the best coffee and donuts.

at the cheapest places.

"Meet you at Ed's Donuts

       thirty minnits, okay?"

Now women (we all know)

      are the ones with class,

grace, and style (and that's why 

           we are drawn to them,

isn't it?

Well, If there is a suave, fancy,

     debonair, 

"Place-to-be-seen-type-Place"

       for coffee and repartee

within a hundred miles---

      

they will find it.

Accordingly my dear wife 

            brought me 

from one of her occasions

     with the girls---

a marvelously-crafted pastry!

It was a tender, flaky, cream cheese

      filled---criss-crossed with 

sugary strips, tantalizingly-tempting,

            French confection

From LE CHANTILLY!

I mean, this place is so awesomely

      and appropriately classy

that they don't even pronounce

      their whole name.

They leave the "ILLY" off,

      and just say: LE CHANTEE."

Wow!

And as befitting such an

     extraordinaire 

coffee shoppe, there is an

       readily-discernible  air 

as I said

    of stylishness there...

These pastries are so delightful

     that next year we are foregoing

         our overseas trip, and

buying several sacks of French

         goodies,

and loading up on old 

          John Wayne movies!

Did I say: "Plenty of decaf?"

**************

Mil

21 MAY 17

     

          

THE ONLY BIRTHDAY PARTY

When I was a 

      little kid

there in that wonderful

      town of Clovis

full of fine people.

      on the 

east side of NM

       pert-near in Texas

it seemed like 

      there were birthday

parties galore

all the time

and they were good ones

    tho' nobody came

pulling barbecuers behind 

     their pickups

and there were none

      at bump-car places

like the Texas kids had

      with later pizzas

all costing five hundred bucks

but they were good little 

      parties, costing maybe two

bucks, with Koolade

      and cookies

at Joe Bert's and Mary Lou's

      and Audrey's  and 

Bobby Joe's and who can

      recall them all

and I got good at hitting 

      Collin's and Campbell's

milk bottles with clothes-pins

     dropped from above

and no good at pinning on

     the donkey's tail

blind-folded

Somehow, since my parents

     were trying to eke out

a living in those WWII times

     the years came and 

went and I never once

     had a birthday party

and I was secretly a little

      sad  and envious

But, MY TIME CAME!

It wasn't a big party

     and there were no milk

bottles anymore

      or clothes pins

(we have a dryer),,,,

My grown kids all came 

     from eight hundred-

fifty miles, just for 

      me

and a few others came

      and Bri played 

his guitar

Thus BE saw to it that 

     I had a birthday party

before it was too late

It was my eightieth 

     with one candle for

each eighty years

     and it was a grand

occasion

and I saved the candle.

************

Mil

9 May 17

THE ROADRUNNER ON MY COOBER PEDY

Some meticulously observant souls

     who seem to 

miss nothing with their 

     roving eyes

Have written Mil, saying

     "What is that 

Roadrunner Pin

      doing there

on yore Coober Pedy?"

"It's not an Aussie Bird,"

       they say.

"Did you win it, some way?"

      they ask.

"Well," I could say---

     (using "Poetic License,"

which some call "plain-old-

      lying,")

...something like 

      "I outran coupla hunnert

older people in a Marathon!"

"Whaddaya think of them 

       apples?"

But I'll level with ya.

I awarded it to myself

      for the time when

KOB RADIO had a 

      "NAME OUR RADIO

TRAFFIC CHASE CAR,"

    contest, on the air!

and I won, with

      "ROADRUNNER."

Larry, the radio host, and

      fellow honchos 

took me out to dinner at

      The Gin Mill.

A good dinner it was too

     with my regaling

and hob-nobbing (with) those

       important radio guys....

But I needed something 

      tangible 

to remind myself of 

      my greatness...

and so----

THE ROADRUNNER PIN.

Good thing too, as 

    FAME 

is very fleeting.

*************************************

BY MIL  

30 APRIL 17

MY FAVORITE SIGN OF SPRING

Our whole world is filled

     each spring 

with hundreds of signs of

     this season

A thick tablet would be

     needed just to

list them all

But just to pick a small

     example----

there is a little spread down

     South in Texas---somewhere

north of Capricorn

      aptly and beautifully

named "Wild Peach"

and oh, the beauty of ten-feet-tall

     tomato plants

greens, lettuces, herbs, and that 

     basil-patch-to-die for....

cucumbers,  squash,  artichokes,

      Kentucky Wonders and peas---

all planted in warm March 

     and growing big by May...

But the greatest thing of all, 

     fairly shouting out to my soul...

Spring! Spring! Spring! ...there

     in all of Wild Peaxh, every  year---

is the courageous little peach tree...

    now in its fourth year

with twenty-four peaches!

MIL, 8 MAY, '17

"LAGRIMA DE ORO"....R.I.P..

                           MY IRISH SHILLELAGH

It was dark midnight, and even after,

     and the old timer (me)

         was trying to sleep

He was hearing something as if

    from afar off...or was it 

just a dream?

It seemed like somewhere off in

    the universe, shovels were 

clanking against hard soil like

    a grave was being dug

to bury something

And I was sure that in my dream

    I had heard women's voices---

talking, not laughing but intent

    on doing a job

Were they perps and evil or just

     some run-of-the-mill-conspirators

          up to no good

We'd heard all of our lives about how

   awful conspirators are

This was all going on in my own backyard

    it sounded-like and suddenly I sat

        up in my bed...BOLT UPRIGHT!

Whatever perps there were, they were

     surreptitiously trying to be clandestine

diggers

I thew on my favorite robe over my black

     Fruit-of-the-Looms, grabbed my

          Irish SHILLELAGH and tippy-toed

 to the den door and carefully parted the 

     drapes...

Oh yes! Not twenty feet away, acrost the 

    cement block fence two 

sober-faced, beautiful women were 

    carefully and seriously digging 

in their own back lawn!

My, my, I knew it was our own dear

     neighbors...but up to no-good?

I eased out onto the ice-cold patio

    cement and said: "Don't shoot,

it's only me," with what little 

    humor I could muster.

And I looked over the fence and they

    had a little flashlight and seemed 

         to be digging a small grave

    of some kind with those shovels--

        there in the frozen grass

It was in fact our neighbor and her

    daughter...and the story

came out...Ann, the daughter, coming

    home after a late shift at work

          spied this little dead cat

     lying smack-in-the-middle of

         Lagrima de Oro, two streets

    south of us

And being a girl who adored little animals

     she tho't to give this little cat

          a decent burial...thus all the

digging and scraping sounds I had heard

Somewhat humorously to break the

    tension I had said: "What the heck 

        are you girls doing...half the 

neighborhood is up---do you see all

   the lights...and you can't just

       bury dead things in your 

backyard, they might stink, eventually."

They said: "Well, this pore little cat was

    just out for a stroll down the 

        middle of Lagrima de Oro,

   minding his own business when he

     got run over by prolly a speeding

drunk."

"We have given him an appropriate name---

      'LAGRIMA DE ORO,'which means

    'TEAR OF GOLD' in Spanish."

"Tomorrow we will mark the little grave

      with an epitaph of sorts:

   'Here lies Lagrima de Oro,

        .....never meant no harm...

            ...used up his ninth life.' "

------------

As I headed back to bed, with frozen feet,

    I thought to myself, 

I need more-peaceable nights at my age...

    First, it was that screaming skunk...

and now....Lagrima de Oro.

------------

BY MIL

22 APRIL 17

WHAT'S THIS FOR?

Most of the time

     men make it just fine

keeping the old home fires

      burning, so to speak

and wives are marvelous 

     adorable creatures to

have running the households

Men are oft the fixers, the repairers,

     the "do-it-yourself" guys

and the "go-to-guys" 

     when something is broken

That brings up a dilemma---

     "Fixing" means spare parts

and those have a way...

     of accumulating

Okay.

But what about, the ladies

     who think their guys

know everything...

     about stuff?

and they come out with 

      weird little things...

you know, er...

      like screws and nails

and gadgets and widgets---

stuff long-forgotten from

     some former appliance

or tricycle, or toaster, or---

      name it---

"Honey, where does this 

      thingie go?

It keeps turning up and is 

      in the way, and I'm

tired of seeing it."

"What's is for? Can you 

    put it back on?"

"Or should I toss it?"

From years of experience

     the cognoscenti husband

will answer:

"Keep it in the junk drawer,

     we'll need it

tomorrow."

(Never toss it.)

*****************

BY MIL

4 MAY 17