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Pat Brantley (Ross)

Wayne, maybe I can save up my bottle caps and join you on the orient express.  I have always wanted to take that journey.  My younger daughter went to Australia and did the backpacking, skydiving, bungee jumping thing.  Her former love is now a big time engineering supervisor in Canberra.  He is a great guy and loves raising his children in Australia.  He is french and said he would never raise his kids in France.

Beau, keep the tin foil antennae adjusted so you can send updates.  

My best friend is going to Prague for a month to take care of her grandchildren while her son and his wife travel elsewhere.  Got another friend who is in Germany doing the same thing right now.  

Isn't this all amazing for our oak forest minds?  Some kids had to travel all the way to Dallas to visit grandparents when we were young.  

Beau Wann, Jr.

Hey myne fyne wyne frynes ! ! ! Hey Ho way to go Wayne...wow, the travel channel is squat comparred to WTL travels. Thanks for including us on your trips. Shoot, you can go on all these great trips, we can stay home and save money, and you can give us a slide show...how cool is that! You did take pictures didnt you? I just know you went skinny dippin on some of those deserted beaches. Mind if I block that thought out of my head? And yes we did miss you on the forum!

I'm eager to head your way and sip a cool one on the boat dock and sample the seafood offin the barby. Shucks, I've been trying to breathe through my ears and eyeballs and anything else I can for years. Problem has subsided. Onliest (east texas for only) thing is, the nebulizer/albuterol treatments every 4 hours and the prednisone has managed to kill my taste buds, bud.

Thanksgiving, my most favorite day of the year, was a tasteless bummer! It either has no taste, or tastes like salt....causing my sweet tooth, bout the onliest tooth I have left, to rear it's sweet head. I cant really taste what I'm tasting (that didnt sound right did it! well, you know what I mean), but I can taste the sugar or salt! I guess it could be all mental...ME MENTAL? I dont think so!

We are snowed in up here in the mountains of Chappell Hill, so probably wont be able to head that way till spring thaw. I managed to get Pegasus up the treacherous mountain road to shangrila! Goter covered up now and nibbling on hay!

Just yesterday morn, I was out on the tractor, early sunrise, in a tshirt and jeans, when a norther blew in. Took the hat offin my punkin head, and bout blew me offin the tractor. (Hat is somewhere near bellville by now. No matter, hat was about 5 years old and in need of replacing. Hope some little critters find it and make a home outin it.)

Had to shuterdown, and run for the house. By the time I got there, there was an inch of frost on my beard. Wind blowing so hard, had to shove the freezer up against the back door to keeper shut.

Ol Jack, aka stinky, aka Pepe la pew, was snickering about my plight, until I threw his ass out the door. Laugh at me will you! Then my beloved showed up and let him in. He ignored me pretty much all day! GOOD ! ! !

The wind just howled all day up here on mount shangrila! Midday, I slid down the mountain and went into town, Brenham, to get some Christmas lights and some vittles!

When I got back, I gave Stinky and Stupor some milk bones, and Stinky forgave me for throwing him out in the storm. Stupor just stood there grinnin, milk bone in mouth, droolin...That ol boy is a puzzelment! ! !

That wind is just moida up this high! Took all nafteroon, till dark, to put up 250 ft of lights! the wind would catch a string of em and just take off with em....good thing I tied em to Stinkys collar. He weighs about 90 pounds, almost too light, but fortunatly when a gust of wind caught the lights and pulled him along the ground, the fence stopped any further progress. I could see how thankful Stinky was to have that new fence....Anyway, finally got all the lights up and you can see the lights from 290, yaaaaaa! ! ! So yall drive by...and stop on in! Ok, lessee if I still have my internet connection...

Beau Wann, Jr.

hey Pat, I got tinfoil everywhere...even got a tinfoil hat and some old rabbit ears....BJ, you live in NEW YORK? I could have sworn you lived in New Braunfels....yeah I know, "runs with sissors, doesnt pay attention...etc"  When you coming back to Texas? 

Ok, my fingers are hurting...so got to sign off...hey Teddie, when you and Fran gonna head this away? Jimmy Hilsher, come on by! Gate open? Someones home!

My beloved is finally going to retire either this June, or August, whichever is the most advantageous money wise!   I always miss her when she's gone, but thankfully there is so much to do here, I dont have much time to think about it till she comes home. Then I remember just how much I love her and miss her when she's at work!

Everytime 2nd tuesday is over, I remember just how much I miss all yall and look forward to next 2nd tuesday!

Oh yeah, I believe I was signing off cause my fingers hurt...that mean ol arthritis...that arthr is the meanest one of them ol ritis boys...

Your frien and brother in classmate-

Beauregard Cephus R E Lee T Magillicuty

Beau Wann, Jr.

Hmmm, looks like the tinfoil is woikin, still got my connection....Gonna try to put up our mail box today. Got to dig a hole and concrete and stuff...could be fun...first gotta bundle up...by the time I am bundled up, I look like the kid from the Christmas Story, then I gotta go pee...

I've already put 4 nails in the virgin walls...I'm keeping track of em...I hate putting nails in the walls, cause it always leaves a hole when you take it out!  

I swear, I'm freezing to death...I might  just not put up that ol mail box till spring...we aint got to have no stinkin mail...

Signed up to receive the Houston Chronicle up here on mount shangrila...they were suppose to start it yesterday, but as of today, no paper. I knew they werent going to get it here!  Just like most bidnesses today, they want your money, but dont want to earn it!  Poop on em I allus say! 

Ok, freezing to death, and fangers (east texas for fingers) are reaally hoiting....see ya...

Beau Wann, Jr.

Wellllllll....Hello there ! It's me again, charmin chatty chauncey chatworth....Thats a great movie, Being There, with Peter Sellers. Me thinks it was his last movie. If you havent seen it, see it! 

It's 3:30 AM high up in the clouds on Mount Shangrila. But then it almost always seems like it's 3:30 AM. Well, it was 330, now it's 4:15. Seems Ol Stinky, aka Pepe LaPew, has to bark at this time every day.  Then he goes out and pees on whatever I've left out.   I've learned not to leave anything out that I should ever want to hold in my hands anymore no how!

Not quite as cold this morn as yesterday, but still damp and drippy and somewhat cold.  I guess I never noticed the humidity down in the flatland city as I do here this high up. Dont need rain, just dew doin its stuff! the 50 pounds of rye grass I put out is about 50% sprouted. I love the emerald green it produces.

Got our dinning room table set up a week or so ago. Found a solid teak 6 or 7 foot table at the antique mall a year ago. Been waiting a year to finally use it. What a great find.  When I say solid, the top is 3 to 4 inches thick, and the carriage is even thicker. It was made in 1870 by scottish craftsmen in India for a British Tea company plantation. This thing is so heavy, I can barely lift one end.

Found a mate for it, a shorter version, to use for a desk.  Of all the things I wanted to set up, those were the two. Dont much care about any of the rest of the junque! Found a storage chest made in 1840, of solid teak. Been looking it over for a secret drawer or compartment I know is there somewhere!

If any of yall are interested in old artifacts from INDJA, (british for India), there is a place on 34th street close to Shepherd, rat across from where the old firestation use to be where we had all those parties. Down from Lynn Pruitts parents drive in, The Walking Chicken! Remember that place. It was green, and just down from Bill Mraz ballroom, next to the old Top Hat Lounge, that is still there under a different name.

Children, owners of the Bill Mraz ballroom were in the process of renovating the place, when it burned to the ground. All the pictures and memorabilla burned with it. So sad to lose that part of history!

Anyway, the antique place is called Bungalo Antiques. Nice folks there. Has just about anything you could actually want to have in your apartment in New York.

got my eye on a set of Yeti Warrior Helmets. They are identified as water carriers, but I know different. Ol Sasquatch hisownself probably designed em!

We are almost totally out of the rent house, just cleaning left to do. then have to empty one more storage, small climate controlled storage, then we be through. Well, all except for the antique booth at the old Northwest Mall. gonna look for a small booth down on the square in Brenham ifin it's not too pricey!

Been lax in replacing the SD card in my game camera. Finally replaced it yesterday, and found 506 pictures on it. Mostly deer and whoever goes up and down the mountain pass.  It did record several coyotes, and a black panther. My beloved says it is just a black cat, but I'm stickin to small black panther.  It also recorded the "night of the black and white stinky kitty fiasco"...It clearly shows me running...for the truck, whilst Diane is down on the ground shining her flashlight into the bushes where ol stupid stinky pepe la pew ran chasing the stinky kitties.  

I knew that if anything was going to get stinky back, it would be the sound of the truck doors opening. Sure nuff, he came stumbling through the bushes all blurry eyed and stinkin. Man, he looked sad! He looked even sadder when I drove off without him. (Diane had him securely in hand).

We finally got the smell off him with all the home remedies and other things we tried. I'm thinking the tomato juice really doesnt work, and dont know who started that one. Must have been someone that didnt like tomato juice!  We didnt have any, but had V8, and speghetti sauce that we dumped on him, much to his displeasure. He really wound up smelling like a skunk that worked in the speghetti warehouse.

Pet smart has stuff that works.

Ok, guess I'll try to go back to sleep, yeah right. Already had two cups O Joe this morn, while Pepe and Stupor are sawing logs.

Ok, yall dont be strangers!   Traveling west, we're just one valley west of the Brazos river, and traveling east, we're the third valley east of Chappell Hill.

Happy Trails...

Your frien and brother in classmate

Chatty Chauncey Chatworth Cephus Ebeneezer R E Lee T Magillicuty

Larry Reid '63

Love Wayne Lake's motto "Adventure before Dementia" but I can tell you after over 50 years of experience that Dementia is also an Adventure. 

Lloyd Pond

It was the fall of 1953 and we needed a new car. Any car new or used would be better than the 1946 Chevy pickup that had been serving as the primary mode of transportation. Dad took it to work everyday. My sisters and I walked to school. Mother and Big Mom walked to Wintergrad's grocery store or to the B&W meat market. On Sunday, all of us would squeeze into the pickup cab and go to Garden Oaks Baptist Church. Yes three adults and four children can fit into that pickup cab. Today's trucks are wider and if they have a bench seat it would be easier. But that truck cab was narrow. It even had fenders and running boards. The bed of the truck was a flat bed with stakes around the bed holding the electrician's tools, wire, conduits and lumber scraps that dad used every dad. It was painted an atrocious sea foam green and so, "that's how we rolled" in those days.   We parked the truck on the street over by the park, maybe to save the girls the embarrassment of being seen in such a rattle trap. I did not mind. I got to ride in the middle straddling the gear shift on the floor, and I soon learned to work the "H" pattern gears for Dad. The truck starter was a foot operated pedal on the right side of the gas pedal and Dad expertly could push both pedals at the same time, pull out the choke knob and start the truck. The mechanism sort of made a slow deep gargling noise and then, the engine would catch, and zoom we were off in a cloud of smoke. Down Shepherd Drive, we would count the neon arrow shaped Beer signs, much to Mother's dismay, past the newly constructed Sear's store. That store was so fancy and modern, Santa Claus came there in December so we could tell him what we wanted for Christmas and have our picture taken with him! On past the Garden Oaks Theater/Drug Store/Shoe Store/Post Office. Then down we would speed under the railroad track bridge and chug up,the other side to arrive at the church. Oh, did I mention, the air conditioner? Yes the truck's windshield could be cranked open so that you got a breeze right in your face! 
Dad had bought a new car in 1951, but we had a wreck in it returning from a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa in the valley, so it had been about two years with the pickup. I suspect that  Mother's Gaynell pregnancy was the event that made the new car mandatory.
So I was very surprised on Saturday when Dad and I, after driving downtown to  String Bean Baskett's Texaco station on South Main to fill up the truck's gas tank, pulled into Dow Motor Company. Dad ranted and raved and haggled with them for hours trying to make the deal for an end of year 1953 Chevy station wagon with a fold down third seat. You might think an eight going on nine year old boy would be bored with the situation. But I was entranced by the car that sat in the center of the show room, a sports car! A car that could only carry two people! The first Corvette. It only came in white, the body was fiberglass and the color was part off the epoxy molding process. The interior was red, probably vinyl, though I remember leather. The headlights were recessed into the front fenders and covered with a chrome mesh. I loved everything about it and sat in it pretending to drive it at the Indy 500 or the Le Mans for as long as the sales man would let me. 
Late in the afternoon, the deal done, Dad and I sat in the new station wagon ready to drive home. The last hour we had both waited for the car to be made ready. Dad had lost all patience after the negotiations and the long wait. We pulled out of the garage, the car stalled at the first corner and would not restart. Out of gas! Dad was so mad! But finally, tank full, we drove home to a very excited family.  Dad may have been driving the station wagon but I was driving the Vette.

Pat Brantley (Ross)

I remember mike Persia Chevrolet with the Chevy Impala convertible.  It had red leather upholstery.  I thought that car was in my future.  Silly me.  I did get to drive mike Collins corvette (needed both feet pushing the clutch in to shift gears.  I also got to have james holcolmbe's Chevy 409 for a Sadie Hawkins dance.  I think I took a new guy who had just transferred in.  His name was Stanley.  He was embarrassed that I had borrowed a muscle car for the dance.  I don't remember why mike Collins loaned me his car, but it was fun. 

Linda Bradley (Barnes)

Thanks, Lloyd, I really enjoyed going back to 1953 with you.  Good days indeed!  I really liked the drive

down Shepherd Drive and the sites you recalled! 

Susan (Suzi) Smith '66 (McMillian)

Wonderful view of the past, Lloyd.  Thanks for sharing.  

Steve Puckett '65

The famous Persia jingle:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOMAtYsFb2s   Mike Persia was originally from New Orleans and took over the old Downtown Chevrolet site. 

He had dealerships in at least New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio.

Lloyd Pond

Remember the old joke..... River Oaks Boulevard is the only street that has a country club at each end? Well thinking about the old Shepherd Drive , I realized that River Oaks Blvd. and Garden Oaks Blvd. both share that distinction.... The old Pine Forest  Country Club was at one end and Garden Oaks Elementary School at the other. I read the school was renovated recently for millions and millions. Weird how cost go up up up. Mike Persia selling a car for $2800 now I guess, you would pay $28000. I never thought that I would live in a million dollar house, yet, if you are looking for a 2 bedroom 1 bath fixer upper, better be emptying the piggy bank. 

Merry Christmas friends

Lloyd

Jackie Crowe (Finch)

Lloyd, wonderful to hear from you!!  We were all getting concerned.  And we definately missed you and Ferrell at our 50th Class Reunion.  Y'all come to Houston when you can and we'll get our group together.

Hugs,

J

Jackie Crowe (Finch)

Houston Gang -

Next Fuddrucker gathering is tomorrow - Tuesday, December 9 - 6:00 p.m. 

Jackie Crowe (Finch)

Please keep Butch Ginder and his wife, Lynn, in your prayers.  News from Jimmie Lee ----

Butch's wife has been going through quite a bit.  I talked with him for a while at the reunion and his wife was in the hospital at that time because of an infection she developed in her foot,  She had been going through quite a bit before all that.  I just heard from him a couple of days ago and this was the status on his wife at this time:

Well, I have bad news. I took her to emergency room at Memorial Hermann in the Woodlands. They kept her that evening and she had a heart attack and they had to revive her. She was on a ventilator for over a week.  After she was removed fron the vent they decided to do surgery on her foot to remove the plates in hopes of getting rid of the infection.  The surgeon said there was no way to fix her foot and that amputation was the only option.  So Wednesday they amputated her foot just below the knee.

She is recovering from that surgery now and will have to go to rehab after that. Hopefully she can get into a prosthesis and learn how to walk again so she can have some kind of quailty of life.  She has been sick so long that she is very weak now.  Butch

Henny Banning

BUTCH, YOU AND YOUR WIFE ARE IN MY PRAYERS...when the time comes for prosthetics,  Please look into MULENBERG PROSTHEtics...On La Branch...They have been around for  years, good reputation.

Please research this company...I am available if you want me to go by there for their literature...etc.  However you may want to do this --- which I understand.

  With prayers and our thoughts...Henny (713-806-6895)

We worked w/the above mentioned company often...

Greg Smith

Just catching up on the forum, and read Wayne Lake's travelogue about New Zealand. Linda and I spent six weeks "down under" last spring. Three weeks in Australia, three weeks in New Zealand, and loved every minute. I would describe both as a pre-OSHA version of the US. It seems that everyone is engaged in some vigorous and dangerous activity, Rugby and Australian Rules Football being the most prominent. Australia has only 24 million people in an area as big as the US, so there are many, many places where there very few people. New Zealand has only 4.5 million people, so again there are many sparsely populated areas. Both have spectacular but different scenery and a wondrous variety of wildlife.

In Australia we actually saw a live duck-billed platypus in Tasmania. Koalas in trees in the wild. Wombats, wallabies, echidnas, emus, dingoes, lots more. Kangaroos were everywhere, all across the continent. Beautiful birds. Learned a lot of history, heard many versions of the convict settling of Australia. Decided that Melbourne was our favorite city. Went to the Barossa Valley for a tour of several wineries (the first of several such stops). Toured a million-acre cattle station (ranch) near Alice Springs. Got to ride a camel (take your fly mask). Got to see many strange reptiles and have a python wrap itself around each of us at a reptile center in Alice Springs. Had shrimp on the barbee. Saw it rain on Uluru. Learned a lot about Aboriginal culture and how to find food and water in the Outback (good luck to us if we were ever stuck there). Learned how to interpret Aboriginal art. Got to SCUBA dive on the Great Barrier Reef (even if an inbound typhoon made the boat ride out and back pretty rough). Hiked through Daintree National Forest, the oldest living rain forest on earth, where there were some really strange plants, animals and insects. Climbed the bridge in Sydney, and tried (unsuccessfully) to throw a boomerang and get it to return. 

I could not agree more with Wayne's enthusiastic and accurate descriptions about New Zealand. We landed in Auckland, met a Maori prince who introduced us to Maori and New Zealand culture and history. Took the ferry out to eat dinner in a small suburb that turned out to be Lorde's hometown. Saw the bubbling volcanic lakes in Rotorua. Ate lunch in a very interesting family's home in a neighboring town where we also got to participate in some Maori agility and hunting training. Then down to the South Island. Bobsledding and jet boating in Queensland. Saw the bridge where bungee jumping was invented. Ate lunch at an organic milk farm. Then taking a ride through the Lord of the Rings mountains to the west coast. Boat ride around Milford Sound. Then a ride up the west coast across the Haast Pass. A typhoon had come through the day before and there was wide-spread destruction. Spent the night in a town (and hotel) with no electricity. Took a helicopter ride to the top of the Franz Joseph Glacier, and saw Mount Cook from the air. Stopped at several places to hike and sightsee, including the Pancake Rocks. Saw a great many interesting small towns and pubs. My favorite one-lane bridge in New Zealand was the one with the railroad track running down the middle. I think that the train always has the right-of-way. Stopped at a working sheep station and got to watch dogs herding the sheep. Then back across the island, over Arthur Pass to the east coast and Christchurch, which still has a long way to go to recover from the 2011 earthquake. Downtown shops still operate primarily out of converted metal shipping containers. Back to the North Island and Wellington where we got to see the ANZAC Memorial tribute at dawn commemorating the slaughter at Gallipoli in WW2. Also toured the houses of congress and the FX studio that created all of the special effects for the Lord of the Rings movies and many others. Then three days of relaxing at Paihia and the Bay of Islands before starting the 36 hour journey home.

We already have reservations for Antarctica - got to get to that seventh continent before we get old.

By the way, we saw the "Adventure before Dementia" sticker on a suitcase in Australia, and that immediately became our new motto as well.

Wayne Lake

Lloyd, enjoyed your story and I admire your detailed memory, it sounds like you had a very typical family life whereby we thought we were poor and everybody else was rich. I know I did as our house on  Sherwood Lane was on blocks and I wished it was on a slab like the more well to do folks like my friends in Brookwoods and Oak Forest.  

Sometimes, I can’t seem to remember what I had for breakfast but that pounding drum beat from the Mike Persia TV ad is still in my head after reading Pat’s comment and seeing the picture posted by Steve. Actually, I did not know they sold new cars until I was almost grown.

Pat, I do remember that the Oak Forest rumor was that James Holcolmb’s dad bought that ‘64? Chevy Impala 409 4 speed stick shift on the floor SS car for him for passing 8^th grade math after the 3^rd or 4^th attempt and how he could make it fly. Although James raced a kid (who?) on foot for 50’ one night along T.C. Jester and the barefoot runner beat him as I recall.

Whatever happened to the likes James and Doyle Cummins, they both seemed bigger than life to me back then. I do remember one night at the drive in when Doyle made some disparaging remarks about Gordon Hammett’s glasses, he told Doyle to grab his lips with each hand and pull’em over his big ol’ pumpkin head (I think Doyle had a way with words back then that could piss off the pope). Surprisingly, Doyle did not beat the crap out of Gordon which I thought for sure would follow.   Did Doyle even go to Waltrip, I don’t remember ever seeing him at school.

Greg, after reading about your adventures to Australia and NZ, I feel like to need to go down under again and do more.

Keep the stories coming, it brings back some fond memories to one who can’t remember much……………

Progress is sloooooow and my fixer upper in AP, headed to Lake Wobegon MN for the holidays on the 16^th returning to TX after the New Year.  

Still lovin’ the new digs when I sit on the back porch each evening swatting skeeters, sipping rum n’ coke with a good shot of fresh lime off my tree out front, seeing dolphins out back and hearing osprey screech but I sure wish I could see the finish line,

wtl

Beau Wann, Jr.

Hey Wayne...James Holcomb passed away about 5 or more years ago. I was talking to the mechanic that worked on my cars a few years back, David, there on Judiway across from the park. Someone beat Holcomb up, and put him in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. I always thought he was much older than I, always looked like a full growed (east texas for grown) man all the while I was growing up. But, truth is stranger than fiction, he was actually younger than I. Go figure!

David mentioned he went hunting with James and Doyle Cummings, but I dont recall what else he said about him. Remember "Dangerous Dan"? 
Thats all I knew him by. Suppose to be a pretty bad dude back then. But Dan and James and Doyle hung around together.

In my humble opinion, the  53 Chevy was about the best car made, as far as sturdy and indistructibility.  I rode with Gary Marberry a time or two in his 53, and that car took some abuse, but never faltered.
My dad had the 53 fourdoor power glide, with airconditioning. Dont know why he got rid of it. My dad was an inpulse buyer. If he liked it, he bought it. When he disliked it, he got rid of it. He also had a 53 chevy truck.

The Theissens had a 53 chevy that Tonda and Sheila drove from time to time, methinks! David David had a 55 or 56 Buick that was a hauler. It was 3 speed standard on the column! David wound up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I saw him back in about 80. I hope he fared well, as I hope everyone does.

There's an ol boy up here, just past the light at 290 and chappell Hill, that has a dozen or more classic cars. One is a 56 chevy convertible. Looks brand gnu. I havent stopped to gawk, just passed by and drooled!

Didnt make it to fudds, wimped out on my friends. Just too exhausted after a days work of trying to make some semblence of order out of this mess.  Jimmy Hilshire came by for a few minutes. Made my day. Always glad to see Jimmy.  So Jimmy was our first visitor...yeaaaaa! ! !

Ok, lets see if my connection is still up.

see ya....

Teddie Jordan

Greg, after reading your's and Wayne's travelouges I feel even more in love with those two countries. I was around a few Aussies in my business career and I can tell you they drink with vengeance, but are a load of fun, and as a group they see the world much as we do. And I've been around them when Brits were also present, and they are unmerciful in their haranguing of the Brits, but it sure is fun to watch and listen to.

And Lloyd, what a great job you did of taking us all right back to that time, and creating a perfect word picture of that stretch of our main street America that we all know so well. I've said it before, but we are all so lucky to have grown up in our own version of Mayberry, to have done so in the 50's and 60's, and to have been priviliged enough to be raised by what was truly America's greatest generation.

Beau, James Holcomb's dad did buy him that 62-63' Impala SS with the 409 and 4 speed, and man it was fast. that was the first of the big block Chevies. The first week James had the car he was taking the air cleaner off of the three, two barrel carburetors and accidently dropped a wing nut down the throat of one carb. He called the dealer and they said whatever he did don't try to start the car and have a wrecker bring it in. It ended up costing quite a bit of money for them to remove the manifold and head and retrieve the nut, and his dad was definitely not a happy camper. 

James, or Dickie as we mainly called him back then, and I met the first day of seventh grade at Black as we were seated in home room next to one another due to alphabetical seating. We quickly became friends and did a lot of things together. One of our favorite things to do was to get one of our parents to drive us out to the Friday night youth rodeo at Cy-Fair High school, "way out" on Hempstead Hwy. (Tommy Oakes and Tommy Smith went with us a few  times, and of course they were both characters too. It seems strange now to think that all three of them are gone.) I know that Dickie became known as a tough guy, but he truly wasn't, he was a lot of fun, and was truly a good soul deep down. He undoubtebly ended up running with the wrong crowd after he dropped out of Waltrip in his later years. He always had some learning difficulties and dropped behind a grade or two and was embarassed, so he just quit. He married a girl named Sandy from class of '65 I believe, became an electrician in his working years and was well liked and well thought of. I was sorry when I heard of his death from cancer, but understand that even being paralyzed he was active and deer hunted on a ranch down near Laredo and had at least some quality of life. He was tough that's for sure. Rest in peace Dickie!

And Wayne I thought we were the last family in Oak Forest to get a TV, and we probably were the last to get a window air conditioner!

Steve Puckett '65

We didn't have much when I was tiny.  Dad worked at the Washington Motors, the Hudson dealership on Washington Avenue close to Heights State Bank.  Dad loved those old Hudsons!   We lived in nearby trailers and renthouses but Dad had his newish Hudsons.  In 1952 we moved to our first house, on Chantilly a few houses away from Oak Forest Blvd.  We were coming up in the world!  Dad started selling houses in the new Mangum Manor. A few years later he was building them.  We had a big ceiling fan in the hallway.  It had big louvers that would open with a big rattling noise.  I remember laying in bed sweltering, turning the pillow over & over to try to find a cool side.  Eventually I would hear a big racket from the hall and then the blessed cool (well, cooler) air would wash over me.  Early on, the folks bought a window A/C unit because they hated the humid heat so much.  They put it in the living room.  Soon we found that we spent all of our time in the living room so in a short time we bought a 2nd one.  Life was good! 

Here's a photo of similar hall ceiling louvers.  Of course, we didn't have fire alarms back then!

Scotty Croom

i remember going to dickie's to ride his horse...met him at stevens...he lived next door to carleen smith..lost track of him in later years...he was one of a kind guy....

Beau Wann, Jr.

Anyone remember the name of the Mechanic that had his garage on judiway across from oak forest park?  His first name was David. Cant think of his wifes name either, maybe Wendy?  He did the mechanic work, and she the paper work and schedules........He knew the Brandts and Oaks and other folks that we knew. He wound up moving his garage over on old hempstead hwy somewhere between 18th street and Gessner maybe.   I let him work on my cars and trucks, after the warranty ran out, back when I kept a veehicle for 10 or 14 years.  I am just a idjified moron when it comes to working on cars. I sure use to love doing it though!  

Hey Teddie, you remember when you put a gnu transmission, or pulled the old one out on your FINE 55?   It was at the exxon station over on ella or tc jester. You were and stil are, such a trusting soul. you even let me help you work on it. Cant tell you how good you made me feel about myself, by just letting me be there whilst you worked on it.  

 You gave me the simple task of putting needle bearings around something, and I had to use grease to get them to stick, standard practice ! !!     Of course dropping the whole shebang in the dirt, was not standard practice (well, standard for me of course)  or in the manual, but that's what I did.  But to your credit, you were calm as a cucumber.  Obviously I've never forgotten that.   Thank you...and sorry I dropped the needle bearings in the dirt!  I owe you big time ! ! !

Remember when Holcombe had his 409, and he would tape a 20 dollar bill to the dash, and let whoever, stand in the back seat and have his hand around the 20 but not touching it?    James would say, if you could grab the 20 when he hit the gas, you could have it. Dont know of anyone ever earning that 20. 

I remember racing, or trying to race Gordon Hammett on lang road one evening.  I had my big bad 80 horsepower 51 ford flathead V8. Dont know what kind of car Gordon had, but we revved em up, and poped the clutches, and Gordon took off, and I was still there....tore my rear U-joint off.  Drive shaft was just going around banging the street and undercarraige of the car.   Gordon towed me home. 

New U-joints cost 11 dollars, and I actually put them in mineownself...at least methinks thats how it went.    Well, that's how I'm gonna tell it until it is either confirmed, or the truth shows up, whichever comes first!

Hey Steve, we had one of those housees that your dad sold in mangum manor...Dont know really if your dad built it, but we moved from DuBarry to DeMilo and costa rica July of 58. It had central heating, but no air. We had one of those attic fans, and man I loved it. It had a 12 hour timer on it, and I would set it for 12!    We also had gardenias outside our windows, and the smell was just heavenly!   Not perzactly good for sinuses and allergies, but smelled wonderful just the same.   After a few years, we got window units, then after I left for the service, they had central Air installed!

Last to get a TV?    Looking back, that was a blessing, not having a TV. We got our first, an RCA 20 plus inch B and W when I was 8.  Only 2 channels back then, and looking back, that was 2 too many!    Watched Milk drop Mo, and Liberace, and Death Valley days, and the Curly Fox and Texas Ruby show, and Howdy Doody and Micky Mouse club.   

give me those simple old days anytime.   My over taxed bod and brain sure long for simple! ! !  Who'd a thunk we'd come this far! !   Never could see tomorrow, just the here and now! Oh well!

Well, lessee ifin my connection is still up...

Beau Wann, Jr.

Hmmm, looks like I'm still big and bad and nationwide...wifi woiking ok...

You know what I hate?   The night time...it seems to last all night and part of the day...I just love the sunshine...me and Stinky and Cooper been sitting out in it today....Been hurting extra bad last couple O days weeks months and years...the sun seems to help with my lungs and other stuff, at least that's how I'm gonna tell it!    

All  you boys and girls out there,    thank you for all the wonderful memories you helped to supply to my pea brain!  If I tell a memory and it is wrong, it is not meant to be a lie, just forgot how something actually was. Feel free to correct me, please!    So many memories and things I thought I'd never forget...my brain either has corrupted it, or I've forgotten....

Jimmy Hilshire was our first guest on the hill!   He didnt come in, but just wanted to stop and say hi!  What a fine fellow he!    Maybe next time he can sit on the porch and we can talk.   Had our first ever party, birthday party for my mother in law, my oldest son, and our grandaughter, last Saturday. All December birthdays!

Grandaughter and one of her friends found my year book and Dianes year book with Patrick Swayze in it.

They just hooted and hollared over the way us beautiful guys and gals wore our hair.    Of course they swooned over Buddy's picture!   

Sure hope my beloved gets home soon. I get lonesome settin up here on the hill by myself.  I know, we have dogs and cats, but they are just not good conversationalists. they listen well, but only say meow or ruff!
see ya...and love ya...keep those memories flowing! ! !

Pat Brantley (Ross)

I am sorry to hear about james Holcomb.  I knew he had learning problems.  his dad was in prison for something.  I always thought that was why james left school.  Sorry his life turned out to be so hard.  I often wonder about some of the kids we went to school with like Jeannie siever.  She was tormented by some girls.  Does anyone know about her?  I know she died, but I wanted to know if she was ever happy.