MAIL CALL
from Jerry Miller in Bacliff, TX
Aug. 28
The cooler mornings are a relief but it is still hot working on the Battleship TEXAS. When the weather was in the upper 90's, the deck registered 187 degrees. I was in the bottom of the ship changing a couple of dewatering pumps last Saturday. After working 3 hours down there I didn't have a dry spot on me.
But, this will be my last Texas summer. My wife, Carole, and I have booked our first gig as park host volunteers. I will quit TPWD as of April 30, 2016 and head out as full timers in our fifth wheel trailer the next day. Our first gig as park hosts will be at Washington Monument State Park in Boonsboro, MD. We will be there from May 16th to Sept. 6th. Then, we will stay a week in Lancaster, PA before staying north of Detroit for about a week to go across the border to visit a distant cousin who lives outside of Toronto. On our way back to Texas, we will make a stop in Nashville to see relatives and maybe stops in Branson, MO and Little Rock. I hope to be volunteering here at San Jacinto Battlegrounds for the winter.
Keep up the good work. It keeps all of us up to date about the other classmates.
squaredancer50@gmail.com
from Elizabeth (Liz) Hall Burns in Prosper, TX
Aug. 28
I haven't been receiving email announcements of updates on the website anymore so I haven't checked our website out in quite awhile. I took a look tonight and was glad to see that it is still going strong. I am completely retired now after teaching online for TTU for three years. We are having a great time living in Prosper, playing golf and taking a few trips. We will visit Washington DC in October as tourists for the first time. All other trips have been business with very limited sightseeing. In December, we will head to the Carribean for 8 days on Silverseas cruise. We are really looking forward to that.
Elizabeth.hall@ttu.edu
Linda Louise Davis in Au Sable Forks, NY
Aug. 30
We just visit our home in San Antonio now and we have put it on the market but, we are in the Adirondacks in Au Sable Forks, NY most always. It is so so much fun to be in contact with all of our high school buddies!!!! We are about 10 minutes from Lake Placid and just love it up here!!! Felicia (Hiatt) and David Petit are traveling around up here on the East coast right now and, if it works out, we will have lunch or something together for the first time since high school!!! Betty (Bernauer) and Ron Waedemon came up for a nice visit and it was so much fun. Thanks to you and Mike for keeping us up on the classmate news.
lfitzpatrick13@gmail.com
from Jimmy Bean in Bellingham, WA
I am still walking! I am in Bellingham, Washington at this
moment. I might try to make the 50th reunion.
beanjim62@gmail.com
(Oh my heavens! We have been “looking” for you for YEARS! Glad you aren't considered MISSING anymore. We sure hope it works out and you do come to our 50th reunion.)
Retired Person's Perspective:
1. I'm not saying let's go kill all the stupid people. I'm just saying let's remove all the warning labels and let the problem work itself out.
2. I changed my car horn to gunshot sounds. People move out of the way much faster now.
3. You can tell a lot about a woman's mood just by her hands. If they are holding a gun, she's probably irked.
4. Gone are the days when girls cooked like their mothers. Now, they drink like their fathers.
5. You know that tingly little feeling you get when you really like someone you've just met? That's common sense leaving your body.
6. I don't like making plans for the day. Because then the word "premeditated" gets thrown around in the courtroom.
7. I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes 1,500 days in a row.
8. I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.
9. Dear paranoid people who check behind shower curtains for murderers. If you find one, what's your plan?
10. Everyone has a right to be stupid. Politicians just abuse the privilege.
"Guess I'm just getting old and cranky"
"Old age is no place for sissies."
WEBSITE DONATIONS
from Lynn Eldridge Gill in memory of Janette Light Norton
I am so sorry that Janette didn't make it long enough for her transplants. May she rest in peace.
from Cherlyn Hebert in memory of Janette Light Norton
I was on vacation when I read the news about Janette's recent passing. It was truly heartbreaking for me, since I had been hoping and praying she would get the transplants she needed to be able to resume the life she deserved to live.
I visited with her husband, Richard the other day and asked if there was any memorial set up for her. He suggested our TJHS '68 website fund, which I agree with because I know Janette loved keeping up with her PA friends. She got so much love and support via cards and texts and e-mails from classmates who knew she was sick by reading about it on the website.
WEBSITE HELP
Mike has done a wonderful job installing new soft wear purchased with your donations. The soft wear he gets is to help make surfing our website easier. Please contact Mike or I if you are trying to view something and you can't make it work. Mike knows technical “stuff”. If you want an easier explanation from a TECHNO DUMMY, contact ME! I only talk first grade!
NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT
Murphy and I were in Wiergate putting corn in the deer feeders when I received a call from Dad's assisted living. The ambulance was on the way to bring him to the hospital in Beaumont. He wasn't responding to them and it looked like a TIA. Well, whatever it was made him sleep on and off for 22 hours except when I made him open his mouth to spoon feed him like a toddler. 4 EKG's were run, (in ambulance, in ER, in hospital room twice), CAT scan of the head, multiple blood tests, blah, blah, blah! He snored for hours while I tried to get comfortable. The hospitalist, (young, snotty, rude and abrupt dr), stepped into the room about a foot and didn't even acknowledge my dad. He said, “Your dad has tested POSITIVE for METHAMPHETAMINES!!! Whatever he is on he needs to get off of it!” What the heck. My dad at 99 is a Drug Addict! When we returned the next day to his assisted living, I wheeled him in and announced, “Well, Mr. Dan is back from DRUG REHAB. He only had to stay overnight.” None of the other nine residents there are on any BAD drugs, so he couldn't have taken theirs by mistake. When we got back we checked with the pharmacist and he insinuated that a couple of his meds together caused the POSITIVE result. I sure didn't know METH caused you to SLEEP. All the Breaking Bad shows showed them CRAZY!
I picked up my sister for a few days of visiting us in Lumberton. She lives in an assisted living in Humble and we took in a day of soccer watching my two grand girls in Atascocita that is only 5 miles from where she lives. Then, we headed home. The next day we headed to mass and then took off to 
an ASTROS game. We were actually on the game tron and on tv the next day on the MLB channel. We wore BEARDS that they handed out before we got to our seats. The ace pitcher wears a heavy beard and it was to show him support. It was so much fun. With her dementia, my sister didn't always get what was going on. She told me 7 (seven) times how badly she felt for the “player” sitting on the chair next to us at ground level because he got PULLED and wasn't playing. HE WAS THE BALL BOY! Murphy and my brother, niece, nephew and grand nephew were also sitting with us! It was a great day since the three of us siblings were together. Thanks a million for a wonderful, kind friend who gave us tickets. The day was priceless.
Murphy is so excited that it is now OCTOBER and edging closer to deer season. It IS a nice break when he is gone for a few days at a time. (insert smile here)
It gives me time for retail therapy, visiting classmates and having lunches, catching up on old movies on the TCM network, etc. But, before the season starts we are going on a 4 day cruise to Cozumel leaving out of Galveston. It will be a needed get away. It has been a tough summer.
I told ya'll in the last NEWSLETTER that I couldn't wait to see my oldest granddaughter play volleyball on the 7th grade team for Henderson Middle School in Hardin Jefferson ISD (Sour Lake/ Nome/ China area). Well, the week of tryouts she severely sprain her ankle playing in a soccer tournament and had to wear a boot for 3 ½ weeks. So, she missed the rest of the tryouts and also two weeks of practice and two weeks of games! Boo Hoo. She did play this week in West Orange but only played part of the second game. The starters are already meshing together.
My other granddaughter is still favoring her broken toe during her soccer games. I guess it just takes time. It has been 6 weeks since her accident. Geez.
SUPPORT
Aug. 28
update on Jerry Miller's prostate cancer issue:
As for me and the cancer... The Dr. says everything is going well. Too soon to say for sure. I went to Texas Oncology for a second opinion and the Dr. there said that my Dr. was doing the right treatment. So, other than hot flashes, I'm doing well.
My brother, Glenn (class of '70), lost his current wife to cancer earlier this month.
squaredancer50@gmail.com
Aug. 28
update on Carolyn Bigler Hebert (wife of Alfred Hebert)
I am home now but very weak. We have been researching the disease that I have. Apparently I have had it for many years and just now being diagnosed. My neurologist up here is very smart. He said we need to get to the bottom of this...meaning all the ER visits with slurred speech and weakness.
Like MS there is no cure for this disease that attacks the muscles much like muscular dystrophy. I am on Mestonin which helps but not enough.
My diagnosis is http://myasthenia.org which is a bit scary.
hawaiistomnd@hotmail.com
Sept. 8
from Dianne Dupre in Groves
Please keep my daughter, Maggie, in your prayers tomorrow as she begins chemo for her lupus. I am going with her and Mike to Baptist tomorrow. She is very nervous but I know this will work to bring my baby back to feeling good again. Thank you all!
(Dianne may be found on Face Book)
from Pat Trahan Knox in Beaumont
Sept. 14
Got in to Fondren today at 3:00 p.m. The X-rays showed very little arthritis and a relatively "healthy" knee. The Dr. gave me an order for an MRI. Now, if I can get someone here to do it for me, Ray and I can bring the disk back to him on Wednesday. He only sees patients on Mondays and Wednesdays. He said the pain I'm feeling could be an additional meniscus tear and some highly inflamed tendons. I hope we can adhere to this schedule. At least he didn't make me wait 3 weeks to order an MRI!! I loved the Dr. and impressed with Fondren. Ray had his rotator cuff surgery there several years ago. Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes. Hope to know more soon.
Sept. 23
I had my surgery and it went well, I'm told. It's extremely sore because the Dr. had to remove all of the broken and crumbled meniscus. I started therapy today and will go for one week. I also have exercises to do at home. The Dr. said it is extremely inflamed, even into the bone. I am so glad it's over and I will be thrilled when I can set the walker aside. Thanks for all your good wishes.
patknox@hotmail.com
from Jeanette Constantine Morgan in Groves
Sept. 1
I am just sitting here in the quietness of my house thinking how blessed we are and how good God has been to me and my family. We just came home today from M D Anderson Cancer Hospital where Denny had his right thyroid removed because of a very small nodule that was malignant they took everything out and from what the Dr. says he will not need radiation or chemo. How wonderful is that. Thank you sweet Jesus.
denandjune@yahoo.com
Amy Latiolais Kidder was scheduled to have a stint put in on Sept. 24. She had previously had an exam getting ready for knee surgery when the blockage was found. I don't know the results but I'm still trying to find out.
amyk77611@yahoo.com
Sept. 29
from Gloria (Phillips) about Ricky Bradley in Oklahoma.
We are at ER after all day at the Dr. office. We are waiting to be placed in an Immediate Care room at Baptist hospital. Ricky has a Bacterial Infection and will be placed in a ISOLATION room!
We thank you for all your prayers. Keep them coming.
Sept. 30
(update on Ricky)
We are so Blessed to have Jesus our Healer to go to ~ Thank you sweet friends & family for continuing to hold my husband up to God!! Ricks color in his face is much better today. He was awake most of the day. He is off of liquid diet & on heart healthy diet now. NOW FOR PRAYERS NEEDED. Rick still has CHILLS & FEVER. His CAT scan shows C Diff bacteria all over the walls of the intestines BUT NO TEARS OR HOLES IN INTESTINES. He still is fighting diarrhea. He is on Oral Vancomycin & Probiotics! I Praise God for each & everyone of YOU. Thank YOU for joining us in Prayer.
gbradley73064@yahoo.com
CONDOLENCES
We are so sad to have lost two classmates this soon:
RAYMOND ROY BLAKEMAN, Jr.
August 31, 1948 - June 27, 2015
(No obituary for Raymond has been found. Thanks to Dianna Cailler Lewis for giving me this information.)
KARLA ARNSBERG BURGE
February 19, 1950 -September 12, 2015
Pam McLeod
(death of her mother, Hulan Vera McLeod)
September 11, 2015
pamiefly@gmail.com
10416 Hwy 254
Graford, TX
76449
Jeanette Constantine Morgan
(death of her brother, Randy Constantine, class of '70)
September 8, 2015
denandjune@yahoo.com
3901 Hwy 366
Groves, TX 77619
Sept. 9
I am sure a lot of you have already seen and heard that my brother, Randy has passed away. His heart was just not strong enough to wait for the transplant. He had a massive heart attack Monday while being treated at the Medical Center. The ER staff there worked so hard to get him back with no success. They were so caring and comforting at this devastating time in my life as I watched my younger brother slip out of my life. He was an awesome person full of life who loved his family. He was always there for my parents, my myself and my siblings. He was like a dad to many of his nieces and nephews. I am so heart broken as we no longer will have that rock in our family. After my dad passed he took over for everything that my mom and family needed. Even though he often did not feel well he would never say no. The world has lost one hell of a good guy. Please keep my mom in your prayers as she says goodbye to another one of her children. May you rest in peace Randy I will forever love and miss you.
Sept. 11
I would like to thank everyone for all of the wonderful birthday wishes and condolences for the passing of my brother. It was not the best birthday because of his funeral being held on my birthday but it made it easier to make it through the day with all the love and care showed me during this trying time. Thank you, God for blessing me with so many wonderful friends and loving family.
Enoch “Skippy” Cole
(death of his mother, Ruth Cole)
enochcole59@yahoo.com
600 Sharon Lane
Alexandria, LA 71303
Obituaries for Mrs. McLeod, Randy and Mrs. Cole may be found in the OBITUARIES section at the top of the front page of the website. Classmate obituaries will be found in the MEMORIAL section listed at the top.
It has been a rough summer. This autumn season will be a NEW BEGINNING. Thanks for your support and prayers, also for all of the classmates listed. I get messages and texts telling me how much it means to them to be contacted by their fellow classmates. Your support is sincerely appreciated.
Stay in touch and contact a classmate,
Linda DeCuir McFadden
lindadmcfadden@yahoo.com
www.tjhs1968.com