Stephen Ray Puckett

Sorry. I had Ms Laningham, the typing teacher.  She was a sweetie, thankfully.  As far as I recall, it seemed she and Mr Roth (band/orchestra) were the only teachers that talked to me as an individual.  Maybe they were overworked or I didn't respond correctly.

Roger Felton

Great Stephen...you get Mrs Sweetie and I get Mr Spitball.  That's life, I guess.

Dorothy Fowler (Montgomery)

I had Miss Brackett. She made the boys sit on one side of the room and the girls sit on the other. When we were seniors, I asked her if we could please sit together. She thought for a minute and said "I guess it will be ok". Roger, did Mrs. Spitball do anything to form you into the person you now are? Are did she show you what you did not want to be? Glad you still have that wonderful sense of humor.

Anita Marbury (Marbury)

I had Mrs. Edwards and remember her as unfriendly.

James Larry when did the HR get taken away? I don't recall. Help.  Sounds like a good story,

Talley Hudson

I had Mrs. Edwards and was scared to death of her.  After graduation I saw her at UT, but it turned out it was her twin sister.  Who knew there were two of them?  Actually, her twin was quite friendly.

Roger Felton

Gee, Dorothy, I don't know how I got like this.  I think I remember Mama saying she dropped me a couple of times.

I think I remember Mrs. Brackett.  The boys sat on one side and the girls sat on the other.  What a hoot.  Nowadays the boys and girls just sit on each other.  No wonder kids can't learn anything.

You know, a bent sense of humor is a curse.  In public, Beverly never admits she knows me.  When I was a radio announcer, my comments were always getting me in trouble with the boneheaded Sheriff (Hey, I was kidding when I said he walked on his knuckles and had a fondness for bananas).

But ya gotta be able to chuckle once in a while or else life can get pretty boring.  Never lose that smile of yours.

James King

Sweetie,

I think Mrs. Edwards HR was removed at midterm 11th grade.  I was placed in Mrs. Gaugler's HR.

Roger Felton

I think people like Mrs Edwards get a little Cujo for a reason.  They say old teachers never die, they just lose their principals.  Old Principals never die, they just lose their faculties.  I think back in '65, when a teacher got a little hollow between the ears, they just shipped 'em out to pasture.  These days they promote them to School Superintendent.

Sandy Spears (Koslosky-Siddall)

You guys are too funny. I don't even remember who I had for any homeroom - maybe the art teacher one year? Did it change each year?

Only disliked 2 teachers (Olson and Birchett). Like to remember the good ones but all of them made me want to be a good teacher. Loved Mrs, Denton, Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Vann who actually "taught" me 2 years of algebra in one. They understood that I wasn't stupid, just extremely ADD before there was a label. I can remember sitting on the front row and taking my watch apart to see how it worked in Mrs. Denton's class. She just redirected me - also a term not used at that time but the good ones knew how. That's how they could handle some of those silly boys - and you know who you are! :-)

Roger Felton

Birchett....so that's how it was spelled.  The way my buddies pronounced it I thought it would have been spelled different.  Sandy, I never knew you had ADD.  You really took your watch apart?  Amazing.  I couldn't take a yoyo apart but I could write an entire book report in homeroom.

Your ADD kinda explains why I when I rode down Saxon Dr. backwards on Cornell's white horse with that 5' chicken snake wrapped around my neck, I couldn't get your attention.  Lord knows I tried...lol

Thomas William Wade

Home Room? I think that was before lunch. Explains why I don't remember it.

Roger Felton

Me too, Tommy.  Total blank.  But I do remember it was as pointless as a dress on a boar hog.  If they had replaced the desks with hammocks I might have gotten more benefit from homeroom.

Sandy Spears (Koslosky-Siddall)

Yeah, Tommy, homeroom gave me a chance to either be on time for first period or to finish homework! 

Roger you did what on that horse? Who's horse was it?

Roger Felton

That was Cornell Bray's horse, Charlie (charlie horse, get it?)  He would ride it over to our house and I'd tear around the neighborhood on him.  Cornell went to Waltrip but was a grade or so behind us.  His family owned all that land on the other side of Brickhouse Gully.  That's where we kept our peacocks, exotic pigeons, chickens, snakes, turtles, raccoons, red fox, bobcat, chipmunks, horses, cows and his sister's black panther cub.  Quite a menagerie.  Most were quite tame...except the rattlesnakes and the copperheads.  Never could get them to fetch.  There was also a retarded monkey running around there, too, but he laid down in the grass one day looking up at the sky during a torrential rainstorm and drowned.  Poor lil guy.  I wish I knew if you were interested in animals...coulda taken you over to our "zoo".  Just a few minutes from your house.

Thomas William Wade

Roger, was that a palomino, or maybe a bay mare. Sounds familiar. Could be the one I rode with only a rope halter,. Put her in a gallop and she tried to take us both into a barb wire fence. Till then it was fun.

Roger Felton

Nah, Tommy, nothing that fancy.  Charlie was a white quarter horse (male).  Really fast in the quarter mile so we'd race from Georgi Ln. at Mangum down to Cornell's house...me on Charlie, Cornell on his sister's horse and his older brother, Vannoy, on his horse, Lightning.  Charlie was a good horse but liked to try to kick you in the butt with his right rear hoof just as you started to get on.  He could raise that leg clear up to the top of the saddle fender.  One time he kicked me clear over his back and I landed in Mom's oleander bushes.  Smelled like a girl for the rest of the day.

They sold that land and it's now a bunch of apartments.  The families all moved to Brenham and bought a bunch of land.  Charlie was pampered and lived to the ripe old age of 47 (very ancient for a horse).  Cornell told me that he noticed Charlie hadn't moved for about 3 days...when he walked out to the pasture to check on him he found he had died standing up! 

I was thinking that was a pretty cool way to go...standing up...cause nobody ever does it.  But, if I did that, Beverly wouldn't notice for 3 days either.  She'd still be barking out orders and I'd still not be paying much attention.

Lillian Suzanne Vickers (Bilodeau)

Roger, you should write a tongue-in-cheek column for the editorial section. I'm still laughing at the Charlie horse story. I wonder if it says something about me that I get my jolly's from reading the banter of 50 year high schoolers, golden year Rams, 65ers? I can't think of a good way to refer to us. Tommy should be able to come up with something snappy.

      I'm glad y'all have the memory cells to dredge up those wonderful stories. I was always too much of an air head to keep anything stored away.

Suzanne Vickers Bilodeau

Arletta Parnell (Glankler)

I had Mrs. Wilburn for homeroom, but I can't remember if it was at Black or Waltrip.  I remember when you was talking she would call out your name, and raise her left eyebrow real high without budgeing the right one. I thought that was so cool, so I preactised untill I could do it.  But I can only do my right eyebrow.  My kids would see my eyebrow raise when I called them by their first and middle names.  They knew then, "Oh hell I am in BIG trouble!" I had Mrs. Lanningham for typing too, but I dropped it and took spanish instead.  I was glad later in life when I lived in South America for 8 yrs.  French was also easy to learn, but I learned that by living in Madagascar for many years.  You all have great minds to remember so much.

Thomas William Wade

Suzanne, I like The 65ers. It isn't nearly as offensive as some of the things I've been called, and it makes me feel a little younger at the same time.

Sandy Spears (Koslosky-Siddall)

Hey, Rog, yeah, I love animals. Married a cowboy and raised quarter horses for about 15 years but then we divorced. I had already quit riding due to arthur-itis (as my gradndfather called it),  Made my knees hurt. Now my thumbs hurt. How does that fit on the evolutionary scale? Hmmm.

Tommy, you're right - 65ers sounds good. Good thinking Suzanne.

Roger Felton

Hey, I vote for the 65 ers, too.  Makes me feel like a spring chicken and awfully glad I didn't graduate four years later.

Sandy, I am so sorry you have that painful joint problem.  I've been spared so far.  Your granddad's pronunciation reminds of the lady that told her sister she had been in bed with "Arthur Itis".  Sis quickly replied, "Well, if he's any good, send him over to my house".

Thomas William Wade

Sandy, there is an old Appaclcian home remedy for that. Soak a box of white raisins in white whiskey (shine) for several days, drain the whiskey, save the raisins. Eat a handful of the raisins each day. No personal testimonial, but it should, at least, help when it acts up. For immediate relief, from more severe attacks, ditch the raisins and drink the whiskey. 

Dorothy Fowler (Montgomery)

Arletta, Mrs. Wilburn was at Black. I'm not sure who you had at Waltrip butww were assigned in alphabetical order.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Big doin's at Waltrip recently.  Things there certainly are different from when I went there!

http://abc13.com/news/red-stag-deer-runs-loose-outside-high-school-in-ne-houston/1016367/

Red stag deer runs loose outside Waltrip High School in NW Houston

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Red-Stag-caught-at-Houston-high-school-6549601.php?cmpid=fb-mobile

Exotic stag caught at Houston high school

PS.  No, I didn't get washed away in the recent flooding on the East Coast.  We got 6 inches in a few days and lost power for almost 3 days but are otherwise OK.  Areas a few miles away got 15 inches or so.  Parts south of us got 20+ inches, places like South Carolina.  We all know how bad that can be.  We're now shopping for a backup generator...

Lillian Suzanne Vickers (Bilodeau)

Thomas and all,

I'm partial to 65'ers as well, because we will forever sound younger than we really are.

I have heard that you should soak the white raisins in either gin or vodka; not sure which. Either one comes in flavors so you would have a really good snack. If it doesn't cure you, at least you won't care. I have some arthritis as well, so having been reminded of this remedy, I will probably give it a try.

Does anyone remember the art teacher that got married our senior year and invited all of her students. I believe her name was Mrs. Petty. She had been married and widowed in her early 20's and the man she married in our senior year was going to be a missionary to (I think) Africa. Her engagement ring had 3 emeralds signifiying the children he hoped they would have. The wedding ring had two diamonds, from his mother's ring, that represented her and him. They were flanking a large sapphire that he said represented God. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen. It was at Second Baptist (?) downtown on Main St. in the chapel with a two story stained glass window that was lit by the sunset. That was definitely a girl memory.