| 04/07/09 08:31 PM |
#288
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Steve Landers
OK I have been e-nagged enough, sorry I took so long but this is serious work for me, I may have to take a couple of weeks off.
But you all are forewarned if you pick on me and hurt my feelings I will show up for the reunion
In shorts and wearing a T-shirt 3 sizes too small – that threat held off the Russians invading for years
(and everyone thought that Ronald Regan won the cold war)
Guess I should start at the beginning, first there was this big bang – oops wrong beginning
1. Born at the old Freeport Hospital in beautiful downtown Freeport, most of you guys should remember the old hospital it was just down the street from the Catholic School. I know that most of the rest of you were born at the old Dow Hospital but my Dad worked for the phone company (the old Ma Bell) so we went to the ‘other’ hospital.
2. Started out living in Lake Jackson (117 Gardenia), I have since learned to live with that shame, but moved to the City in 1959 (1738 West Tenth Street). I am sure the family wanted to be nearer more shopping and entertainment opportunities. And if you really want to read something amazing, the telephone number for the Gardenia address was CY7-7747 – for all of you that are suffering Old-timers disease the CY was for Cypress.
And you better believe I’m showing off. Started school at Lake Jackson Primary, I think that may be Elizabeth Ney now days
3. Jane Long Elementary --Trauma for me – uprooted from neighborhood and school, left friends
behind and thrown in with complete strangers. This trauma took me almost thirty minutes to get over.
4. Then Freeport Junior High School – ate lunch in the cafeteria the first day of Seventh Grade and never again, I don’t think it was the food just didn’t like standing in line. My oldest went to
the same building but it was call “middle” or “intermediate” school. And NO I never did slide down the fire escapes probably too much of a coward, I was absolutely sure that Mr. Sandlin would be waiting for me at the bottom. I was in math class in the “A” building when John Kennedy was killed. I remember gym class and showers then after we only got one little towel to dry off with. To this day I religiously buy the biggest towels I can find. Miss Quinn’s art class in 8th grade. Mrs. Lea for 8th grade English. Earnest Clark for band. Quit band and the end of eighth grade much to my Mothers consternation. After that Things get real cloudy. My other two kids went to the new Freeport Intermediate on the west end of Fourth.
5. Brazosport High School. With virtually all the buildings we used forty years ago gone it is truly a new place. My oldest graduated from the old buildings, the second graduated with most of the new stuff built and my youngest will be a Senior this coming fall. I remember when Robert Kitchen got locked in the bathroom (Slade locked all the boys bathrooms before lunch so the boys couldn’t smoke) and passed notes written on brown paper towels under the door and out the back window until James Slade ‘released’ him late in the day. I’ve wondered if he had to get an excuse for the classes he missed. Our senior year I had first period English so would park my car in the teachers parking lot on the Second street side, then drive to Mr. Mack’s shop class second period then drive to P.E. third period. Gary Griffin would be getting out of his PE class then and drive my car to his third period English class, we thought that was cool driving to class and it worked great until Mr. Slade caught Gary parking in the teachers parking lot. And the lunch crowd – Jimmy Harrison, Jon Cook, Kevin Kemp, HL Ammons sure there were a couple of more but you other guys can burn up your brain cells trying to remember (I don’t have any to spare).
6. First Date – since she intends to attend I will not embarrass her by name, I am amazed she
didn’t become a nun, after me for a first date. I should not be amazed at just how silliy a 17 year old can be on a first date, and there were high confusion and anxiety factors involved. After all these years I don’t think anything has changed. The second date (with another prospective attendee) wasn’t much better, I think I talked about cars all evening. At that time that was probably all I could talk about. After all me and Gary Griffin could identify any model of any make of any car from 200 yards at night through fog by smell alone. And the one girl in the class of ’69 that actually effected my life. We never dated or even had serious conversations but she still is …. well …better leave that one alone.
7. WORK --All us guys have to talk about our jobs, after all it defines us as much as our families. Mine is pretty darn nifty, spending somebody else’s money is fun, it’s a great job, just a terrible way to make a living. The only problem is when my telephone rings on Tuesday, I get to come home in August. And all the traveling all the rest of you get to do is great but when I get home, Angleton is as far north as I go – any further and it might be Yankee held territory. When I lived at Surfside I measured my time off by how long I could go without crossing the bridge. There is currently a trend in business to work at home –I do just the opposite, I live at work. I currently am in Pascagoula, Mississippi and will be here into the summer. I have been lucky in that most of my oilfield time had been spent on the Gulf Coast and not much in places where beheadings are scheduled for the lunch break. A lot of it has been spent deep in the swamps of south Louisiana, but there are some good benefits to that also. People and food are wonderful and yes I do eat some crawfish but I prefer to eat my food not wrestle with it. Have spent a lot of time in New Orleans and it is a truly unique place with unique people but it ain’t home. My favorite oilfield spot in Louisiana is Laffite, on the southwest side of New Orleans. It is on the end of a thirty mile dead end road so you have to be going there not passing through. And it is deep in the swamps, this is where they shoot the swamp scenes for movies. With great places to eat and beautiful scenery it is another great place to VISIT. Have ventured out of the oilfield several times, I owned the water slide at Surfside for five seasons, enjoyed the job but it was hard work and very long hours, and it definitely was not the same as going to the beach forty years ago. I got into the “lighted beer mug business” no I did not stutter on that one. We really made beer mugs that light up – hard to lose your beer that way. And with a company name of GeeWiz you know that it was a fun place to work.
8. No matter what anyone tells you, I have not been abducted by aliens –- this month. And if anyone does not believe it, Elvis will be here Tuesday night (we play cards most Tuesdays) and you can ask him yourself. But I have to pick him up at the space ship by myself, the aliens are real skittish.
9. And then there are CHILDREN. Those wonderful bundles of joy that come running when you first get home and give you a big hug, full of giggles and smiles. She shows you the picture she drew and you can tell how proud she is of it. Then a few years roll by and that same wonderful, huggy, beautiful little light in your life rips your heart out, throws it on the ground and kicks it into the next county. Then you sit, lost, you wonder, what could have gone wrong, what did you do wrong, you have no ideas, and no direction to move in. Then she walks back in the room and calls you “Daddy” wants the car keys and the credit card and everything is great again. Have two of them like that and still have no clue of the reasons and rhymes. The Son moves ahead pretty steady and that worries me – Murphy’s law has to kick in some time soon. He will start University of Houston Law School next September and I keep telling him, “your job is going to school, not working”. But as a Cheerleading instructor at Katy and Rosenberg High Schools the distractions may overwhelm him. And yes I did name my children after British battleships
10. Grand children – a whole new ball game. My 26 year old, (the oldest) has a six year old son. And me and him is buddies. When I am home Cadien and me (oops “I”) are climbing trees, exploring creeks, and scurring up and down the river bank always on the lookout for alligators or aliens whichever comes first. He loves to spend the weekend with Grand Dad – so long as I keep him supplied with Go Karts, four wheelers, scooters, new bikes and swing sets – I don’t see a problem.
11. Don’t know if any of you guys have thought about it but you were all born in and graduated from High School in the LAST CENTURY, that makes you Bicentenarians , some of you teachers check the spelling of that one, and the lawyers can check to see it is legal in Texas.
12. Something I have wondered for years did we lose anyone to Viet Nam. If anyone has any info please pass it along.
13. Oh yea! Before the kids there was a marriage but that kinda wound down. If you guys need any other details Mary Jane Pratt probably has met my Ex by now and has more details than I do. It’s a girl thing. On second thought don’t call Mary Jane, I’m sure she couldn’t have found out anything worth repeating, absolutely I’m sure.
14. I have gone to a great deal of trouble to write this thing so there will be a pop test at the end of the period.
15.I bought my FIRST television in December of ought 8. All these years and I have never had cause to buy a television and the one I did buy was for my son. Yes I am bragging about that.
16. To all you guys and non-guys that make particular meals or dishes, or bake things, I DO NOT cook. First I am told you do not have to turn the stove on super, extra high heat to heat a can of soup, particularly if you are heating the soup in its own can, I am way too special to be waiting on a can of soup. Second ovens can cook pretty good if you let them, turning them on broil and putting your food in at the same time will probably not yield anything edible by humans. My children poke fun at me by telling me I would starve to death if the label ever fell off a can of Campbell’s soup – I wouldn’t have the instruction on how to cook it.
17. A couple of years back while trading e-mails with Kathy Harkreader I realized I would finally have to start acting like an adult, now that is scary. But I was beginning to figure it out on my own, Chuckie Cheese kept chasing me out of the ball pit. But we all could use a wakeup call from time to time about the way we see ourselves. We all change hopefully it's for the better.
18. Haven’t had a whole lot of health problems but did have an incident about a year ago that was a life changer, too long to tell here but ask me about my Husband-in-Law when you see me. But the incident made me look up and pay attention, there is a lot going on in all of our lives and we can let a lot of it slip past if we don’t get involved with our own families and lives.
19. And to top Tony Barnard’s story of giving Frank Cain a hard time in his drafting class I threw his grade/attendance book out of the window when he threw my project drawing in the trash because it was on the wrong kind of paper – quickly found myself outside of Mr. Slade’s office while we waited for my mother to arrive. Bad move on my part but I did get to turn in my project.
20. And to Kathy Harkreader, I do remember the dance lessons at the old Freeport Community building next to the levy. Sometime in Junior High I think. Some of my most awkward moments in life were spent here, like I was supposed to enjoy dancing with girls, what would be next. Had no idea the torture sessions had a name. “Guys and Dolls” yuuuuck!! But I still remember some of the foxtrot stuff though, look out Dancing with the Stars.
I know there are supposed to be twenty five of these silly things but I have embarrased enough people I QUIT. Now get out your pen and paper here comes the test.........
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