TJ Class of '68     NEWSLETTER                                                           04/10/10
         
         

Wow.  I woke up this morning and realized it was time AGAIN for my bi-monthly NEWSLETTER.  I don't think I have very much to add but we'll see by the end of this venture. 

MAIL CALL

from Cherlyn Hebert in Houston
Just wanted to give a brief report on my trip to Israel.  We stayed 4 days in Tiberias and took day-trips from there.  One was to the Dead Sea, where a bunch of us got out and floated.  I've seen pictures of parts of the Dead Sea that have white sand and crystal clear blue water.  Unfortunately, we were taken to an area that looked more like Galveston.  As soon as you stepped into the water, it was all mud and very difficult to navigate.  You had to just inch your way along because you could easily fall into a hole.  I finally was able to get out far enough to float. The hardest part was getting back on your feet.  I felt very much like a turtle on its back.  I finally was able to hold onto another lady in the group and stand up.  All in all, I guess it falls into the "glad I did it but don't ever need to do it again" category.
Then, we moved for 4 more days in Jerusalem.  Our guide was a Messianic Jew, so our sightseeing was interspersed with a lot of reading and teaching from the Bible.  It was all very interesting, but I thought my head was going to explode at times trying to keep up with all the Middle Eastern history he was telling us.  We got to visit the Western Wall and leave a prayer if we wanted.  Our trip ended appropriately in what is called the Garden Tomb.  The guides there are careful not to proclaim it as "the" tomb Jesus was buried in" as it might or might not be.  We were told to use it as a visualization of what it would have looked like.  That was the most meaningful time for me.  Such a feeling of peace all around. 
Then, as we left and headed back to the bus, my camera was stolen along with more than 500 pictures on it.  Welcome back to the Real World, I guess.  I have to admit it was my fault. I made it way too easy for the thief, leaving my camera in an outside pocket of my purse, with the strap conveniently hanging out.  I didn't miss it until that night but finally remembered a street vendor coming up behind me trying to sell me bookmarks and know that's when it happened.  Oh well, another lesson reinforced. 
Now, I'm off on March 28 on a one-week Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, my first one from there.  We'll be on the same cruise that Jane Lippincott and her husband were on because we're taking the Voyager of the Seas, also with the same ports of call.  I've had several friends/relatives who have been on this ship, and they really love it.  I am really looking forward to this trip as a week of relaxation and enjoyment.  I'll drop another line when I get back from there. 

from Hugh LeBaron (Student Activities Director at TJ)
I reached my seventy-first birthday last year and decided I am old enought to write my autobiography to please my kids and grandkids who have been urging me to write it.  Actually, I have been at it for over a year and it has been a trip down memory lane.  Being verbose, it took over three hundred pages to get to 1963 so I am breaking it up into two volumes.  My childhood years were spent in the nine hundred block of thirteenth street in Port Arthur during the 1940's.  I recall the floods we had in those days before Port Arthur installed an improved drainage system and the plagues of mosquitoes that tormented us.  I also remember those pleasant family gatherings on the front porch every Sunday afternoon after church.  Those were simpler days but we had to deal with the affects of world war.
I have begun the second volume and have been reminiscing about my days at Thomas Jefferson and recalling what a wonderful place it was to the in the 1960s before the world turned upside down on us.  I don't expect to publish it but to turn it over to my children to use as they see proper.

(You can see a couple of Mr. LeBaron's TJ memories in the section I REMEMBER WHEN).
 

from Pamela Flohr in Seabrook
I hope you remember my brother and classmate, Lloyd Flohr.  His grandchildren, ages 3 and 5, lost everything when their house burned down.  They live in Ohio.  Even though they lost everything, we are so grateful they did not get hurt.   We would appreciate donations of any kind--financial or otherwise.  You may contact me at my e-mail address flohrp@aol.com or contact Linda DeCuir McFadden.  She will relay the message to me.

Thanks and God Bless. 

from Paula Iles (TJ '69)
I always enjoy reading the news and the updates from your class.  I just wish our Class of '69 would get going on a site of their own!  I have been in touch recently with Pat (Dionne) Dombek ('69).  She now lives in Nashville.  She works for the college there.  Pat still sings with bands occasionally and did a gig in Beaumont last year and is invited back.  Scott Brittain in the in the band, also.  She told me that another of our '69 classmates, Ricky Hamilton, recently passed away.  I remember singing in Assembly doing the Mamas and the Papas song "California Dreamin" with Pat, Clifford Higgs, Ricky, and Shery Donaldson.  Pat and I are the only remaining members of that group as Shery, Clifford, and Ricky have all three passed away.  Sad.   I ws also wondering if anyone knows the whereabouts of Jan Campbell who was in the Hussars.  If so, contact Linda with your info.  I'm sure she will pass it along to me.  I hope that some of these names of my classmates spark a memory in your minds even though we were behind you in age and grade.

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Happy late B-D Texas and Early San Jacinto Day 

From Bum, Being Texan
Dear Friends,

Last year, I wrote a small piece about what it means to me to be a Texan. My friends know it means about damned near everything. Anyway, this fella asked me to reprint what I'd wrote and I didn't have it. So I set out to think about rewriting something. I considered writing about all the great things I love about Texas. There are way too many things to list. I can't even begin to do it justice. Lemme let you in on my short list.

It starts with The Window at Big Bend, which in and of itself is proof of God. It goes to Lake Sam Rayburn where my Granddad taught me more about life than fishin, and enough about fishin to last a lifetime. I can talk about Tyler, and Longview, and Odessa and Cisco, and Abilene and Poteet and every place in between. Every little part of Texas feels special. Every person who ever flew over the Lone Star thinks of Bandera or Victoria or Manor or wherever they call "home" as the best little part of the best state.

So I got to thinkin about it, and here's what I really want to say. Last year, I talked about all the great places and great heroes who make Texas what it is. I talked about Willie and Waylon and Michael Dell and Michael DeBakey and my Dad and LBJ and Denton Cooley. I talked about everybody that came to mind. It took me sitting here tonight reading this stack of emails and thinkin' about where I've been and what I've done since the last time I wrote on this occasion to remind me what it is about Texas that is really great.

You see, this last month or so I finally went to Europe for the first time. I hadn't ever been, and didn't too much want to. But you know all my damned friends are always talking about "the time they went to Europe." So, I finally went. It was a hell of a trip to be sure. All they did when they saw me was say the same thing, before they'd ever met me. "Hey cowboy, we love Texas." I guess the hat tipped em off. But let me tell you what, they all came up with a smile on their faces. You know why? They knew for damned sure that I was gonna be nice to em. They knew it cause they knew I was from Texas. They knew something that hadn't even hit me. They knew Texans, even though they'd never met one.

That's when it occurred to me. Do you know what is great about Texas? Do you know why when my friend Beverly and I were trekking across country to see 15 baseball games we got sick and had to come home after 8? Do you know why every time I cross the border I say, "Lord, please don't let me die in _____"?

Do you know why children in Japan can look at a picture of the great State and know exactly what it is about the same time they can tell a rhombus from a trapezoid? I can tell you that right quick. You. The same spirit that made 186 men cross that line in the sand in San Antonio damned near 165 years ago is still in you today. Why else would my friend send me William Barrett Travis' plea for help in an email just a week ago, or why would Charles Stenciled ask me to reprint a Texas Independence column from a year ago? 
What would make my friend Elizabeth say, "I don't know if I can marry a man who doesn't love Texas like I do?" Why in the hell are 1,000 people coming to my house this weekend to celebrate a holiday for what used to be a nation that is now a state? Because the spirit that made that nation is the spirit that burned in every person who founded this great place we call Texas, and they passed it on through blood or sweat to every one of us.

You see, that spirit that made Texas what it is, is alive in all of us, even if we can't stand next to a cannon to prove it, and it's our responsibility to keep that fire burning. Every person who ever put a "Native Texan" or an "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast a could" sticker on his car understands. Anyone who ever hung a map of Texas on their wall or flew a Lone Star flag on their porch knows what I mean.

My Dad's buddy Bill has an old saying. He says that some people were forged of a hotter fire. Well, that's what it is to be Texan. To be forged of a hotter fire. 
To know that part of Colorado was Texas. That part of New Mexico was Texas. That part of Oklahoma was Texas. Yep. Talk all you want. Part of what you got was what we gave you. To look at a picture of Idaho or Istanbul and say, "what the Hell is that?" when you know that anyone in Idaho or Istanbul who sees a picture of Texas knows damned good and well what it is. It isn't the shape, it isn't the state, it's the state of mind. You're what makes Texas.

The fact that you would take 15 minutes out of your day to read this, because that's what Texas means to you, that's what makes Texas what it is. The fact that when you see the guy in front of you litter you honk and think, "Sonofabitch. Littering on MY highway."

When was the last time you went to a person's house in New York and you saw a big map of New York on their wall? That was never. When did you ever drive through Oklahoma and see their flag waving on four businesses in a row? Can you even tell me what the flag in Louisiana looks like? I damned sure can't.

But I bet my ass you can't drive 20 minutes from your house and not see a business that has a big Texas flag as part of its logo. If you haven't done business with someone called All Tex something or Lone Star somebody or other, or Texas such and such, you hadn't lived here for too long.

When you ask a man from New York what he is, he'll say a stockbroker, or an accountant, or an ad exec. When you ask a woman from California what she is, she'll tell you her last name or her major. Hell either of em might say "I'm a republican," or they might be a democrat. When you ask a Texan what they are, before they say, "I'm a Methodist," or "I'm a lawyer," or "I'm a Smith," they tell you they're a Texan. I got nothin' against all those other places, and Lord knows they've probably got some fine folks, but in your gut you know it just like I do, Texas is just a little different.

So tomorrow when you drive down the road and you see a person broken down on the side of the road, stop and help. When you are in a bar in California, buy a Californian a drink and tell him it's for Texas Independence Day. Remind the person in the cube next to you that he wouldn't be here enjoying this if it weren't for Sam Houston, and if he or she doesn't know the story, tell them.

When William Barrett Travis wrote in 1836 that he would never surrender and he would have Victory or Death, what he was really saying was that he and his men were forged of a hotter fire. They weren't your average every day men.

Well, that is what it means to be a Texan. It meant it then, and that's why it means it today. It means just what all those people North of the Red River accuse us of thinking it means. It means there's no mountain that we can't climb. It means that we can swim the Gulf in the winter. It means that Earl Campbell ran harder and Houston is bigger and Dallas is richer and Alpine is hotter and Stevie Ray was smoother and God vacations in Texas.

It means that come Hell or high water, when the chips are down and the Good Lord is watching, we're Texans by damned, and just like in 1836, that counts for something. So for today at least, when your chance comes around, go out and prove it. It's true because we believe it's true. If you are sitting wondering what the Hell I'm talking about, this ain't for you.

But if the first thing you are going to do when the Good Lord calls your number is find the men who sat in that tiny mission in San Antonio and shake their hands, then you're the reason I wrote this tonight, and this is for you. So until next time you hear from me, God Bless and Happy Texas Independence Day.

May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies and quick to make friends. But, rich or poor, quick or slow, may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward. 

Regards From Texas,

Bum Phillips

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NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT

I think my mom must be a cat!  She is certainly on her sixth life!  I took her to Friendswood last Sunday for Easter to see my brother's family.  She was good but still noticably weak.  She used the walker and oxygen and barely had breath to talk.  By Tuesday, it was a MIRACLE.  She was walking around in the apartment even without a cane.  Her voice is so much stronger.  She even has a smile on her face every once in awhile.  It is so good to see her happy and feeling alive again.  Thanks for the prayers and cards.  My sister's depression has lifted and she was able to go to an ACTS retreat this weekend.  Thanks, I'm sure to your prayers.  What would I do without all of you?  The sitter is working out great and is such a comfort to know that my parents are in good hands while we aren't there.  I am feeling a whole lot better with much less stress.  Thanks again for all the supporting words that I have received.

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SUPPORT

Kay Campbell Netherland is having surgery this week.  The surgeon will be performing a "colon resection".  Please keep her in your prayers.

 Kay Campbell Netherland
4119 Timberleaf Court
Pt. Arthur, TX 77642
(409)727-6062
d.netherland@sbcglobal.net 

Leo Foreman received great news from his doctors this week.  Even though he has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, after reviewing the latest test results, the doctor's changed his status from a Stage 4 (original findings) to a Stage 2!!!!  God is Good!  We are all so pleased with this news.  Keep him in your prayers and drop him a line.   

Leo Foreman
4648 Gulf Street
Groves, TX 77619
(409)962-9592
boo5550@aol.com 

David Williams is schduled to have a heart by-pass at the Heart Hospital in Austin.  More info when I learn more. 

David Williams
200 Winn Valley Dr.
Wimberly, TX 78676

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CONDOLENCES

Rodney Glenn Wigginton
(death of his mother)    Obituary
Simpson, LA
(I was not able to find a recent address for him.  You may view her obituary in the OBITUARIES section on the front page of our website)

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Okay, another NEWSLETTER put to bed.  I'm sure I will think of several items I wanted to mention AFTER I send this to Mike to publish.  Oh well.  I guess he could FIRE ME but I'm the boss.  Hee Hee.  Please send me ANYTHING to publish in my MAIL CALL.  I am depleted in that category. 

 

                                 Stay in touch and contact a classmate,
                                 Linda DeCuir McFadden
                                 lindadmcfadden@yahoo.com
                                 www.tjhs1968.com

 

 

 

                              

 



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