Steve Maples

After High School I attended Texas Tech for 2 years (roomed with Kyle Wise for awhile, maybe that was where I was led astray), couldn't decide on a major, never went back. I worked for several years in the ag business, then was able to get in on the ground floor of the South Texas Nuclear Plant. They sent me to school to learn what they wanted me to know, that was nearly 25 years ago, been there ever since. Married my wife Nancy in 1983, we have 2 children (Chris, 1985 and Katherine, 1988), both have left home and life is peaceful again. Did I say peaceful, well maybe not - we have replaced the kids with a dog and he can be more trouble than the kids were.
Nancy is an accompanist for the middle school and high school choirs. She also plays the organ at the First Presbyterian Church.

At first I couldn't think of any, but soon the memories were flooding back! One of my favorites is when we set the trash on fire in Mrs. Burlesmith's Chemistry class. We had found some Potassium metal (this stuff catches fire when it dries out so it is stored in oil). We put some in one of the sinks in a lab table. All period it kept hissing and popping, but would never ignite. One of the girls, I think Julie Hrabal, lit a paperwad on fire and tossed it in the sink -- Kaboom! This stuff exploded and blew all over the countertop. Mrs. Burlesmith yelled and fussed, all the while scraping the mess into the trash can. The next day we were watching a film and started smelling smoke. Mrs. Burlesmith just knew someone was smoking in class. When she turned on the light to catch the culprit we found the trash can where she had put the potassium mess was on fire. Our fire extinguisher was empty so I went next door to coach Parchman's freshman biology class and asked If we could borrow his extinguisher because we had set our class on fire. Just then the bell rang and kids were everywhere wanting to see what was going on.