Comments:
Here is my story since I left I left DC: After HS, I came to Dallas to a Jr. college to play basketball. I walked into a much different world than I had grown up. I think the biggest city I had visited was Lubbock growing up. Dallas was a big city even then. I played on a nationally ranked JUCO team my Freshman year dominated by big, quick and very atheletic players , a majority of which were from NY City. We ended up winning 7th place at the National JUCO tourney. I was the back-up point guard and played some but learned a lot about BB, but more importanly I grew up alot. I also learned much about people from different cultures. My sophmore year I was the starter but on a much lesser team. The most important thing that happened in the Fall of my first year was that I had a blind date with a HS senior named Yvonne Baker and we are still together almost 40 years later. More about Yvonne later. From there I attended Un. of Tex at Arliington. I had a back injury that kept me from playing basketball my junior year but played my senior year. Yvonne and I got married on May 13, 1972. I graduated from UTA in 1973, and from there I attended SMU Law School and graduated from there in May of 1976, passed the bar exam in Nov. of 1976 and have been practicing law in Dallas ever since.
As noted above, our first child, Ashley was born in Aug of 1978, our second, Ryan was born in Dec of 1979 and our third child, Chandler was born In January of 1984. We have live in East Dallas ( about 10 minutes from downtown) ever since I graduated from SMU in an area known as Lakewood. Ashley and Ryan both attended the local elementary school here. Ryan met and became friends with a classmate named Rapheal
" Choo Choo" Freeman. Choo began to spend a lot of time with our family as his Mom was a young single lady, with two other kids, working two jobs to survive, not an uncommon circumstance in the inner city. Choo came to live with us permanently when he was 10 years old and his Mom had moved out of the neighborhood. We later became his legal guardians and he lived with us until he graduated from HS. Hed was drafted 36th overall by the Colorado Rockies in 1998 the year he graduated from HS and began his pro career. Yvonne had graduated from a christian private school, Dallas Christian School. We had grave concerns about th public junior high so we eventually moved all 4 of our kids to Dallas Christian by 1990.
Duriring the 80's , I was busy buidling my legal practice which is and and has been primarily a
business practice primarily representing small to medium size businesses with an emphasis in the estate planning and probarte area. I was one of the 3 founding partners in a small firm that in 1989 merged with a Austin based firm that wanted to expand into the Dallas legal market.
I have been a partner in that firm in the Dallas office since 1989. We currently have approximately 120 attorney with offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston and El Paso. ( I have reccently learned that one by partners in our Dallas offices is the brother-in-law to Reba Cooley, a 1970 DC graduate).
My life has had a lot of constants since I left Denver City in 1969: I have lived in one city, owned only two houses, had one profession at only 3 firms (for 33 years), been a member at only two churches and married to one woman for almost 37 years!
I h coached several youth basketball and baseball teams for my 3 boys and were huge supporters of them in school sports and activities.
Except for my careeer, our whole lives for the most part have been dedicated to our kids. We were fortunate that Yvonne was able to be a stay at home Mom and have day to day contact with them in the formative years of their lives.
Early in the 1980's I got into snow skiing. All of my kids learned to ski at an early age ( other than Choo). We enjoyed many family ski trips to Colorado and New Mexico. In the late 80's, my brother in law and a close friend started taking a
"Guys only" ski trip between Xmas and New Years.
Hard skiing from the moment the lifts opened until they closed for 5- -7 days. Unfortuantely, I managed to hit a tree skiing when I went off the edge on new years day in 1991. Fortunately it did not kill me! I did hit the tree with my head ( of course, no helmet) and was knocked unconscious. I ended up in a hospital in Denver for about 3 days while the doctors determined the extent of my injuries. I recuperated at home (in a hospital bed) for almost 4 months before I returned to work. I had a concussion, I damaged two nerves, a hearing nerve and my facial nerve, I broke a bone in my knee, my shoulder and damaged some vertebrae in my back. The only permanent loss was of my hearing in one ear as a result of the truama to my cocklear nerve. Because of the concussion, I have very little memory of what exactly happened, A good thing- I was back skiing two years later but a little more cautiously and more in the middle of the slope than the edge. A very scary time - I came face to face with my mortality.
In addition to skiing, I have been a jogger since I was in my 30's ( for health reasons plus stress relieve and some effort to hold down my weight).
However, last summer I began more serious training, training to run a half marathon which I did this past November. S
God has blessed my life beyond believe! My greatest blessing has been my wife, Yvonne.
I obviously married way over my head! She is the best: wife, mother and friend one can have. She is wondeful christian wife who has loved me and supported me all my life, including dropping out of college so that I could pursue my education. My 4 kids have been the joy of our lives. They have never given us any of the problems that are so prevalent in our society. Choo has been a special blessing in all of our lives. Choo was a fabulous HS athelete. His senior year in Hs, hebroke the Texas HS record for most touchdown passes in a career ( 50). That record has been broken since but he is still in the top 5. He was a nationally recruited football player and eventually signed with A &M but never went to college. Since he was drafted 36th overall by pro baseball and got a significant signing bonus, we decided that his best career choice to pursue that career. He did played a couple of years for the Rockies majopr league team but unfortuantely he sufferend a hip injury/ ailment that has probably ended his career in 2007.
As we are now empty nesters, Yvonne and I have begun to enjoy our grandchildren. As you can see from the pictures here, our daughter Ashley has two boys ( Parker (3) and Paxton ( 18 mos). Ryan has the twin girls, Berkley and Emory. Theywere born last April 14th, a day we will never forget since our daughter -in- law gave birth to then at 25 weeks and they were just over 1 LB.
They were in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Dallas for 18 weeks and 20 weeks. Needless rto say they were at significant risk. While they were given the best medical care possible, we are most thankful to God for taking care of them from the moment they were born to this very day- they are still small but are normal, healthy babies that are almost one year old.
Choo has two kids, Jalen ( 7) and Zailey ( 7 mos).
Will try to add some pictures of Choo and his kids.
Our youngest son, Chandler was married this past summer so no grandchildren yet. BTW, we love all our children's spouses dearly and are thankful for them in our lives!
I really look forward to seeing as many classmates as possible at the reunion. I really appreciate the hard work that so many of us have done toward organizing the reunion.
