The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry to the forum.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

The news of monitors in  our newsrooms is startling!  Not enough minority ownership participation, they say!  SOCIALISM CREEP(!) I say!  Hear any Progressive out cry, anyone?

Don Chester

The problem with socialsim is that it it necessarily requires more government control of goods, services, and peoples lives.  Things are done for the collective.  By and large the government has to control the message from the media or else there will be significantly more unrest. It is a bit chilling to see a government agency in the doors of the media, but I am used to it, they have been looking over our shoulders and nudging and strongarming  Dr's for years and it is getting worse.

Janalu, I'm not sure I know what "I am" but I am in favor of less government, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility and pretty much individual freedom.  I'm probably closer to a fiscally conservative liberatarian than anything, and I hate to see the extremes that are happening in our country.

I can't stand the progressives spending and social engineering and I can't stand the conservative far right socially controlling policies. 

There just isn't a party out there for me at this time.

Lowell Tuttle

It is naive to believe that our "culture of politics" is not highly dependent on re-districting.  Many don't even know that the 17th amendment changed the way US Senators were elected.  Prior to the 17th amendment, US Sentors were elected by State Legistlatures.  Our "setup" is delaying the inevitable slide to socio-capitalistic future.  Hopefully, our strong economy can sustain that move.  We must encourage education.  That is the only effort that can produce positive results.  With education encouraged, we have a future.  Without it, we will be the Greeks, Romans, English, etc...I fear a future with moats, wire, toll roads, privacy bars, private security, etc...But, we will probably be sensitive.  Just not in the locker rooms and on Fox News.

Lowell Tuttle

I didn't mean "redistricting," I meant gerrymandering...

Also, the education I am talking about is the kind that IS going on at RHS.  I have been to the graduation ceremonies two of the past four years and I can tell you that there were ton's more NHS students than just about any other public school  It should be noted, however, that most of the RHS students were not like us.  There were like our new America.  Asian, African, middle Eastern, Hispanic.   It really sort of freaks me out the diversity of that school in this day and age.  But, reflecting, it freaks me out in a good way.

Steve Keene

A group of us took summer jobs digging ditches at Hall Sprinkler on Greenville south of Park.  I was a victim of harrassment and discrimination there.  We carpooled to save gas.  Thre group included Hull Barbee,Mike Twichell, Mike Nahkunst, Royce Herndon and several others(my memory fails me but speak up if you were with us).   We dropped Nahkunst off at Restland to dig graves and the rest of us went to Hall Sprinker.  We white guys were the summer help and were only allowed to use shovels, sledge hammers, axes or big iron turf tampers.  The crew chiefs and their assistants were all black or hispanic and worked fulltime all year.  They drove the trucks, kept us working, and drove the ditch digging equipment and did pipe fitting.  They didn,t consider us smart enough to do anything else despite the fact that we had more trig and geometry than anyone in authority there and could have saved them a fortune in material costs by redesigning their coverage areas.

We wprked with our shirts off and with my olive complexion I got really dark by the end of the summer.  One of the black crew chiefs was named Mr. Brown..  They made fun of me.  The big joke was that "Keene is blacker than Brown"   To this day I have a weakness in my muscles and a lack of desire every time I am presented with the opportunity to dig a ditch. .

Don Chester

Lowell

Emphasis on education is important but unless it comes from the parents of the child to make it a priority, the child will have little chance to achieve success. 

The degeneration of the nuclear family with the culture changes are a major problem in our society.

I have no idea how best to reverse the trend, but I do believe the efforts of the government to empower the single  parent have contributed to the unintended consequences of fewer and fewer two parent families.

The best recipe to become impoverished is to be a single teenager with a child.  It is sad.

Ron Knight

Steve, Mike Marks and I (Ron Knight) worked there (Hall Sprinkler) along with Sam Stevens the summers after Soph, Jr and Sr years. The fun started if you worked any overtime. George Hall lived in Richardson by North Jr High. I met Carl Barrett , half brother of Lee Trevino, there. I played golf with him. He told me he was Lee's brother and he COULD play golf. It wasn't until years later I ran into Lee and confirmed Carl was indeed his half brother. Lee said Carl was a better natural talent tha him, but the alcohol kept him from ever pursuing a pro career. GOOD TIMES...

David Cordell

Ha! If you want to see diversity, visit me in the Naveen Jindal (an Indian alumnus) School of Management at UT Dallas. On my side of the hallway, the faculty members are as follows: Jewish, Chinese, me (insert your own modifier), Chinese, Indian, Russian, Chinese, African-American, Oklahoman. (The Oklahoman has a Stanford PhD, which is almost as good as being Chinese.) I used to be in charge of a couple of labs, and I bet I hired twenty Muslim grad students. Hindus, atheists, Muslims, Christians, Jews--there is a veritable plethora of religions and non-religions around here.  

By the way, my youngest son's semi-fiance is Hispanic. My late son's very close friend when he was in early elementary school in Clear Lake was Reggie McNair, son of black astronaut Ron McNair who died in the Challenger accident. Not sure that that says anything about me, except that if I was teaching bigotry, I did a very poor job of it.

Steve K, I worked at Hall Sprinker for one summer. It was Steve Alford's father who was the connection. I think he was VP there. The crews I was on were all headed by black men. The only house I remember was on Lakeside, across from Turtle Creek. All of us college-bound white guys ended up talking in ebonics by the end of the summer. I drank lots of Big Gulps and got the best tan that my ghost-skin would allow. Now I go to the dermatologist every few months to see about recurring basal carcinoma. Let's see.. for $1.60 an hour....hmmm.

Does any of the foregoing offend anyone? If so, get over it!

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

To Holly - SPOILER ALERT - I am no longer a spring chicken and my high kick days are over (I only practice karate principles in my mind).  I can still punch with power and deliver a mean elbow strike to the jaw to anyone whose intentions are less than honorable (like that is going to happen). 

To Lance on MARRIAGE - I always thought women invented marriage, it doesn't seem to be something that comes natural to men.  But, on further consideration, perhaps you are right, it wasn't a woman after all that invented marriage, must be a man.  History records that women were considered only part of the package deal of property and not really contributors to the contract of marriage except to provide children and chores associated with maintenance.  Cold blooded, but true.  We women have only been allowed our own credit rating (mine was hard fought for after my first marriage ended), since the 70's.  Only 100 years ago we women were not 'smart enough' to vote.   We come a long way baby indeed.   My own marriage started off as a partnership, it still is, proud to say.

To Don Chester:  You are right about parents setting the example for their kids on education.  We are in trouble these days when a large chunk of the popluation thinks the earth is bigger than the sun.  (I read recently the percentage was around 24%.)  The media and some pundants scoff at science and belittle meaningful data as bunk, no wonder.  My dad set the example in our house, he subscribed to Scienfiic American and built his own telescope in the garage in his free time.  He joined Toastmasters and read history books on the weekends.  I get my love of reading, history and science from him.  We could start by celebrating scolars like we do athletes, cheer them on with pom poms and marching bands.  I heard something funny on John Boy and Billy this morning.  The North Koreans had a news flash that they landed a man on the sun, they avoided the burning rays only because he flew under the cover of night.....It is s joke of course, but it goes to show that the gullible masses might fall for this if not for a proper education.  Read more here:  http://www.policymic.com/articles/80001/did-north-korea-really-claim-to-land-a-man-on-the-sun-here-s-the-full-story

Last a funny story from the past:  For those who took driver's ed the summer we all turned 16.  I did, and it scarred me for years...seriously.  Not the bad film, (You know the one with all the blood and gore) I could handle that, it was the instructor.  I can't remember his name, older gentlemen, perhaps in the 60's at the time (older - get the joke - same age as us), anyway, he had a brake on his side of the car, his own private torture device.  He used it to extreme if you made the slightest mistake.  For me, it was my failure to glance in the rear view mirror before turning.  He hit the brake hard, very hard, we came to a screaching halt in traffic on Belt Line.  There were two boys in the back seat, not wearing seat belts (they were optional then).  Mr., Whoever He Was, shouted, "No, No, No, Honey!".  'Honey' was still politically correct.  There was silence in the car after his exclamation at me, but then you heard the clicking of the seat belts.....After two weeks with this guy I gave up driving for two years.  Seriously.

Bruce Anderson

David Cordell

Bruce said: your Oklahoman reference (as if they were another class or ethnic culture).

David says: Duh!

David Cordell

The great thing about being"in charge" of the website is that I can edit everything. I bet you thought the previous  post was from Holly.

David Cordell

Really, thanks, Holly. That was very sweet. I think I will reproduce it and paper the walls of my sons' bedrooms.

Donald Dilmore

I remember taking Driver's Ed. from Coach Broom.  He whacked my right leg when he thought I was going to stop at the yield sign at the traffic circle at Belt Line and Coit.  I still hate traffic circles.  One of the films got to me.  The photos of accident scenes didn't bother me as much as the monotone voice of one of the victims recounting, in graphic detail, the experience of being in an accident.

Traffic circles aren't as bad, though, as having the car one is driving (actually my director's car) catch fire in the tunnel under Boston harbor at rush hour.  It happened just as I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  Actually my boss asked me to drive him to the airport (Logan) so he could fly home to visit his gravely ill mother.  On the way to the airport he told me about all the work he had done on his car.  It was "good for another 80,000 miles".  80,000 quickly became 8.  I dropped him off at the airport, drove back to the tunnel, navigated through the narrowing of about 6 lanes to 2 lanes and thought I was home free.  It became a very long evening.

Don

Lowell Tuttle

I was younger than most of our class and had to driver's ed outside the school program.  My dad was Executive VP of AAA Dallas.  He was involved in setting up driver's training for the 10% discount on insurance in Texas and making drivers training part of the deal.  One of his colleagues testifying at Texas Legislature was an old crotchidy coach teacher from Crozier Tech.  Later, when I signed up for driver training thru Greenhill School, I was the teacher's pet, setting up the projector, running errands.  The classroom was the big domed auditorium at SMU.  I passed.  Then, I did the 6 and 6 driving part.  He was the top driver training expert and I was under scrutiny the whole time.  We had to drive from Walnut Hill to downtown Dallas on Central expressway getting off and on every exit.  They were only 10 feet long then.  Every VW in Dallas had a dent in the back.  So, the story ends with me getting my license and on the first solo trip driving my sister to the skating rink.  As she got out of the car, she spilled a coke on ly lap and I lost attention and rolled into the car in front of me.  Accident on the first day of driving.

Bob Brown

I too worked for Hall Sprinkler during the summer. My crew chief was a big black man named Sonny and he loved having his white Richardson boys to work for him during the summer. He smoked this big cigar and it was always a race to the middle between the the lit part and his chewing.  Our crew took an end of summer picture which I have saved and still have great memories of that summer.  I can still dig a good trench with a shooter and swing a mean sledge hammer. 

Steve Keene

ROOTS.......That's the proposed name of the novel that I could write about the sprinkler job on Lakeside and Beverly Drive.  I have never axed so many roots out of a ditch  before or since in my life.

DRIVER'S ED FINAL EXAM

I had the same older gentlemen for driver's ed.  At the end of the course he took us to OWENS SPRING CREEK FARM and we pulled around to watch the hogs in a chute.  The hogs  were lined up and a great big black man in a white coat would get them in the right position just outside an inward facing flap door that led to the buchering floor inside the plant.  He wore a big white neoprene apron and carried a sharp long knive in a scabbard.  When the hog was situated correctly he pulled the knife and slit it's jugular vein and blood squirted all over him and shot out approximately 10 to 15 feet in our direction.  We boys acted like we relished tthe spectacle in a masculine show of bravado and the girls practically fainted.  The instructor said "SEE, That's what going to happen to you if you speed and have an accident".  It made quite an impression.

Steve Keene

The Great and Mighty David Cordell

You never really get to know a man until you become his roommate upstairs at the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity house at the University of Texas in Austin in a room about the size of a large walk-in closet.  I am sorry as a mere mortal to say, he walked among the clouds in that setting, too.  He needed to, to get over my dirty laundry!

Lowell Tuttle

Did you guys know Rick Theberge? (Steve and David.)

Don Chester

Tommy, I'm 1/8 Cherokee , so I feel offended by the Indian jokes, well not so much.

Holly obviously has a crush on David, who knew.

As for ditches, I started digging them with my Dad the plumber when I was about 12 yrs old and went forward from there.  I can still handle a shovel and I do a fair amount of digging for my wife's gardening, but the thrill is gone.still it is good exercise.

David Cordell

Lowell, yes, Rick was in the pledge class before mine, but I think he was a couple of years older. Big bear of a guy but a lot of fun. I seem to recall his being arrested on the wrong side of the border, and there was concern that he may never have been seen again. You might want to ask him about that, but I may have the story wrong.

Tommy, a woman who cut my hair once said that she can buy land in Oklahoma cheaply because she is a member of a tribe. I listened politely, but was tempted to say, "You can buy land in Oklahoma cheaply because it's in Oklahoma." 

Actually, Tulsa is supposed to be a very nice city. I think lots of pro golfers have lived in Edmund. I'd also like to go to the minor league baseball park in Oklahoma City. Can't believe they have an NBA team there.

My family visited the site of the bombing at the Murrah Federal Building in OK City when there were still thousands of personal items attached to a chain link fence surrounding the site. This was before they installed the empty chairs display.Oddly, we took the kids to the top of the World Trade Center subsequently. After 9/11 we visited the WTC site again. Very unsettling. 

I have to say that Tommy and Steve K could always make me laugh. Very clever. I always felt badly that I wasn't a part of the Punography Limited group.

Steve, would you like to share how you creatively financed your living expenses during one particular semester at UT?

Steve Keene

David

What's the deal?  I point out the best in you and you ask me to reveal my sordid past.  Okay here goes But David, you are showing your age.  This was once a radical concept that has now become acceptable. Finding that I had no money to continue school and finance my other activites, I calculated that I need about 80 dollars a week to live.  Knowing I coulld take a summer job as a bell captain and repay my debts within the 30 day grace period you got before prosecution, I began kiting checks.  i told the story that I had a large business that required lots of cash and soon knew the grocery store managers all over Austin.  I began cashing a few and and covering them before they bounced and before the end of the semester I was writing the checks at least every other day all over town.  My credit with these guys was impeccable with an occasional slipup.  This was before computer and electronic immediate credit and debit bsnking.  At the end of the semester I went to a few of my most gullible store managers and explained that I would be out of twon for a month so I had to get the cash for my business to last till I returned.  Those checks bounced.  By July 4th I was back with the cash to cover the checks. 

I have since been gratified to see that the U.S. government has taken my concept and executed it on a grand scale.  Unfortunately, they have not provided the jobs to cover the bounced checks.

Holly

After reading your simpathetic response, I immediately realized how offended I still was.  I called Washington and asked how I could get in touch with the National Association for the Advancement of White People to seek relief, but was told that there was no such organization. I was told it would be racist for the government to support one class of people over the others.  Hello NAACP and LULAC. 

Knowing that the Democratic Party was the champion of all oppressed people, I called their national headquarters to get the number of some group who got government subsidies, tax exempt status and aid to educate young white laborers, ditch diggers and other whites who were discriminated against.These folks need financial help going to college and a step up over others who receive government help.!  I asked if Affirmative Action wasn't supposed to do that.  They explained that Affimative Action was only for minorities.  They did not believe me when I explained that Whites were now a minoirty in Texas.

I think the time may be right for starting a college fund for poor whites.  I would suggest the name United White College Fund.  I have found some potential corporate backers including one national waste management chain.  These "white trash" guys have asked me to keep their name confidential, but I can give you a hint.  I believe their national slogan is:  "Waste is a Terrible Thing to have to Mind".

David Cordell

Steve,

Sordid past?? Mais non, mon ami! As a finance professor, I admire clever financing techniques. When I look back on my college years, only a few events make me chuckle. That event, or series of events, makes me chuckle.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

I was out most of yesterday attending the planning meeting in Plano for the next reunion.  I want to thank David for inviting me and for supplying the refreshments.  I also enjoyed seeing and meeting some people again that I have not seen in decades.  It was a great group, equally represented with the seating split between almost equally with the girls on one side of the round table and the boys on the other (like lunch in elementary school, ha!)  Despite what seemed at first like split differences, we came together,  I am pleased to say that the it looks like the next reunion will be a great one and I for one am looking forward to attending and helping out with the planning and festivities.  

This morning I woke up early, eager to see who posted what on the message forum.  I mainly use an ipad to navigate the web which has a touch screen, for those you don't have one yet.  I have to say after reading a few of the posts, I had to wash my hands to cleanse the tosterterone off that was oozing from the screen.  Digging ditches, bouncing checks, political rantings, oh my!  Honestly guys, are you bragging or complaining?  A little birdie told me recently that a few of the gals out there are a bit shy of posting on here.  I can't imagine why, you guys are so friendly and the conversation is so light.  What in the world could the problem be????  This is after all just polite conversation, right??

Ogden Nash is one of my favorite poets.  He says in a few words what some take pages to get the point across.  Take this one:

The Porcupine

Any hound a porcupine nudges

can't be blamed for harboring grudges

I know of hound that laughed all winter

at a porcupine who sat on a splinter.

So I am going to take a few chances here, its all in fun and polite conversation right?

We went to school in a golden age, bursting with the birth of an incredible technology.  Our schools were funded by corporations eager to hire anyone who would step up to the plate to make it happen.  Our parents were on the recieving end of the massive growth and opportunity that was Richardson, Texas.  We benefited tremendously from that growth and change.  Our school system was one of the finest in the nation at that time.  Richardson was clean of air and water, almost free of crime, and the homes were all new.  We had some marvelous choices of courses to take at the high school, not to mention how we learned at the elementary level as well.  We lived in a lily white world, filled with little kid dreams that were rarely spoiled by poverty or violence.  Most of my friends were better off that just surviving, their parents were wealthy or were among a healthy middle class. 

From what I have seen you guys talk, your dads, or your friends dads set you up in jobs to teach you the hard lessons of life, which was a smart move on their part.  That being said, very few of us, if any, had to go home to a neighborhood in decline, nor did you ever worry about where the next meal was going to come from.  You were never separated from another group of people because of the color or your skin and told to drink from the selected water foundation, nor were you refused service at a resturant because of the color of your skin.  That all was going on while we enjoyed the fruits of Pleasantville USA.  Is it any wonder we have so many successful people in our class?  There were over 950 graduates, they got diplomas.  That is not happening at present, our schools produce way less percentage of graduates today. I honestly can't blame that on laziness, those kids have a signficant disadvantage.  We appear to be apathetic to the whole cause when we blame poverty and crime on laziness.  We expect them to turn out like us, when they don't have the same advantages we did.  It's like trying on someone else's glasses.  No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to see out of them.

So now that I have nudged the porcupine, I won't harbor any grudges, fire away.  And for the ladies out there,  come join us.  These are just words on a page, they can't hurt you unless you let them.  If you don't like what is said, ignore it, answering them only encourages them.  I for one would like to hear about some of your memories.

Steve Keene

Sandra

Your quill point is well taken.  The problem with written messages is that they have trouble capturing the subleties meant when read by some with black and white ideas.  One concept that sometimes escapes comprehension is that of "pulling one's leg".

I do have a serious issue to discuss with you concerning the website you created.  To begin with I want you to know you did a fantastic job and I am amazed by its simplicity coupled with its functionality and ease of use.  I have not found another reunion website that can begin to compare. I hope you will allow me to recommend you to colleagues of mine.  My one complaint is that the anonymous silhouette picture on the site looks too much like my actual silhouette these days:   slightly paunchy, drooped shoulders, wide face with beginning jowls, grayish complexion, somewhat overweight, etc.  For the sake of honesty I have tried to resist the temptation to post a more flattering picture of myself in earlier years like some of my classmates.  Could you find a way to trim up the silhouette and give it broad shoulders and a more exciting color?  That way, I am not totally responsible for the deceptive representation.

Steve

OKLAHOMA IN THE NEWS

Republican Congressman Cole from Oklahoma who sits on the Indian Affairs Committee introduces bill to change the name of the Washington Redskins.  The irony is that Oklahoma is a Choctaw word that means "redskinned people".  Any suggestions for what to rename Oklahoma?

I moved to Richardson in my sophmore year from Tulsa, Oklahoma where I lived for a year and went to Will Rogers High School.  My mother whose maiden name was Milligan was born in Ardmore, my Grandfather in Okmulgee, and my grandmother in Marietta.  My great grandfather was the black sheep in an Arkansas family that consisted of Judges, Lumber Mill Owners,Civil War Colonels and Cumberland Presbyterian Church founders and pastors at the Milligan Campground in Strawberry, Arkansas.  He moved to Oklahoma when he had an Indian Affair. As a result I am part Cherokee.  Knowing my history and the Irish and Indians, I must be a fifth Indian.