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.

Steve Keene

That brings back memories of the RHS 1969 Prom.  After being rebuffed by the girls we asked to the Prom, Bill Sieling and I spent Prom Night fishing next to a bonfire on the shore of Lake Grapevine and crying in our cups. As I recall, the fish weren't biting either.

Note to Sandra:  Please add spellcheck to Message Forum.

Marsha Brown (Johnson)

Oh my prom story was way more exciting than yours!!! I won't bore you or make you laugh with the details but it was the only prom I ever went to and I'll never forget it. I'm sure my date, won't forget it either!!! It's a great story!!! I'm sorry, Steve, that the fish weren't biting either!! 

Mark Mauldin

Tommy,

Thanks for the golf posting. Looking forward to it.

Mark Mauldin

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Steve,

I hate to take credit for it, but the editor already has a spell check.  Look for the ABC icon with the green check mark.  Instant gratification and no more excuses.

Lowell Tuttle

Quisenberry was a pretty good coach who went on to a little fame as head of St. Marks football team.  I thought he was a good science teacher, inspiring to some kids in the class, but he picked on some and I was afraid of him. 

I have one question for the golf tournament.  Are you losers gonna play from the senior tees?

Russ Stovall

Coach Quisenberry was who really taught me how to run the hurdles in summer track.  Really liked him.  Almost went to St. Marks when he went over there.  Glad my dad said no thanks.  When I was the baseball coach at RHS he would come over and talk.

Lowell Tuttle

Just finished watching Billy Crystal 700 Sundays on HBO...Very good...

David Cordell

Was interested to read the comments about Coach Quisenberry. See note at the end of this letter.

April 25, 2007

Dear Mrs. Quisenberry,

I am writing because I found a newspaper clipping of Coach Quisenberry’s obituary while going through some of my mother’s papers after her recent death. Please accept my very belated respects. I am very sorry for your loss.

You probably don’t remember me, but your late husband was very important to me in my formative years. In the summer of 1965, I was in the process of transferring from St. Mark’s to Richardson. Coach Quisenberry was still at “Belt Line” at that time and ran a summer track and field program. I was thirteen years old, and I signed up for the program.

Some of my fondest memories of athletics are from that summer. When I look back at all the coaches I had, he was by far the most positive and supportive. In my experience, he was the only real model for what a coach should be. He helped me to push myself and strive to reach my potential, which extended far beyond athletic fields. Can there be any better reason for the existence of sports programs in schools?

I am certain that you and your children sacrificed greatly as Coach devoted so much of his time to the many athletes he coached. I’m certain that sometimes the very people who benefited most seemed terribly unappreciative. Please know, though, that he had a positive impact on a couple of generations of kids who went on to productive, albeit non-athletic, lives. I look back on him as one of the handful of people who have had a true influence on me. Thank you for sharing him.

Please pass along this letter to your children and grandchildren to express my appreciation and let them know how important a man he was. I will always regret not attending Coach’s funeral. I wish I had been able to show him the respect he deserved.

                                                                        Warmest regards,

Mrs. Quisenberry called me a week after I sent this letter to say how much she appreciated it. She told me that she had read it many times and had shared it with her children and grandchildren. And she said that, yes, she certainly did remember me, which made me very happy even if it wasn't true. I think she died a couple of years after Coach Quis.

I sometimes share this letter with my students and require them to write a thank you note to someone (other than a relative or current professor or employer) who was influential in their lives. The letters have to be composed in Word and then hand-written. They can't say that the letter is part of an assignment. Many of the letters are very touching. One particular student told me that he received a call from the woman he thanked, and that,  while crying, she told him it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

Tom Grimes

David,

That note you sent to Mrs. Quisenberry is why I have such admiration for you. And also, I like what you told your students. The part of my brain that should be devoted to that sort of thing never quite developed. And so I watch with much admiration those people who do have the social skills and presence of mind to show such graciousness.

I had a great weekend planned this weekend, which included going to the Arts District in Dallas. I've never been there and very much want to see it. I got a new car, a convertible. I was going to drive it around my old haunts in Dallas and Richardson with the top down. But, with news coming out about a "massive outbreak of tornadoes" (Yahoo! News), I canceled everything. I guess I'll try again later.

I'm down here in crappy little San Marcos where we don't do museums...or restaurants with tablecloths. Although, I did attend a dedication for the donation of papers and artifacts by Bill Whitliff to Texas State University. He's the producer of the "Lonesome Dove" TV series. I sat through his speech and, at the very end, he said that he wanted to introduce the cast of the original 1989 Lonesome Dove production. Lo and behold, there in the back of the room were Blue Duck, Dish Boggett and Jasper Fant. Thomas Haden Church was in the group, although he wasn't in the series. He has a ranch nearby. He goes to a Starbucks most mornings just off I-35 and harrasses the undergraduate girls who work there. I hear the stories when they show up for class. Anyway, I guess he showed up to horse around with his fellow actors. Regretfully, that's been the extent of my exposure to the fine arts in quite some time. (Even the friggin swimming pig at Acquarena Springs is long gone...what used to be one slim thread in the performing arts down here.) As I said, I was hoping Dallas, this weekend, would feed my need for the aesthetic. A dashed hope. Enjoy the hail, David!

Royce Herndon

Greetings, All...

I'm happy to let you know that the recent demise of Pizza Villa is only temporary. My brother Scott is helping David and Lynn Roberts Rose (all class of '71) with the purchase, renovation, and reopening by the end of May. Service will be take-out only, and they are seeking photos and stories related to the place to decorate the interior. Anything you have to share will be appreciated. You can send attachments to me at royce@encore-performance.com.

Best,

Royce

Mark Mauldin

Mr Grimes,

So good to hear from you. Hope all is well. My wife and I did the arts district about a month ago. They had a "freebie" night" with all the museums open at night for free with food trucks galore and entertainment scattered about. It was a lot of fun. We took our 14 year old step-son and he had a great time though he got bored quickly. You'll enjoy it a lot

Mauldin

Tom Grimes

Mark,

I didn't get up there this past weekend because I had a bad allergy attack. I could barely function. And the threat of Armageddon weather-wise also kept me down here. I'm going to Santa Fe next week for a break and will do museum stuff there.

I enjoy reading your posts and those of the others.

On the whole, I wish I lived up there. I don't like the Austin area...at all. I never felt comfortable in Austin. Which was good because my grades were so low at RHS that UT-Austin would only admit me provisionally. I had to make at least a C average for one academic year to be admitted with full status. Not being sure I could manage that, and only wanting 30 undergraduate hours so that I could qualify for free training as a Braniff commercial pilot, I went to the only place that would admit me at the time, the University of Arkansas. As a high school student, I lived next door to the American Airlines chief pilot...a French expatriate by the name of Rene Levy. He got me interested in commercial aviation and, one time, let me fly with him in the jumpseat of an AA jet going from Love to La Guardia in NYC and back. So I decided to be a commercial pilot and to try to take advantage of Braniff's free pilot training program. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't get admitted to UT because I enjoyed Fayetteville, AR far better. (Of course, I got interested in the subjects that are covered in college. Going to class every day was like going to the movies: It was pure entertainment. I couldn't wait to get out of bed every morning to go to class. And so I decided to get an undergraduate degree and not become an airline pilot.)

Cheers, Mark!

TG

Tom Grimes

David (Cordell),

You mentioned that you're part Italian..right? Well here's a story for you. I found this out from my sister this afternoon.

My grandfather Grimes (born in 1865) was a Scot. But he had an olive complexion and a big hooked nose. He was always known as "the little Italian," little because he was 5 ft 3 in and looked Mediterranian. He explained the olive complexion as being due to the Roman invasion of Scotland in 800 BC (or whenever). The Roman occupiers imported Roman women so that the troops would have someone to play cards with, checkers; things of that nature. And out of that happy circmstance arose Ethelbert Grimes in 1865, he claimed.

Now I hear this afternoon from my sister that the little fellow was actually an Ashkenazi Jew. Recently discovered documents, backed up by DNA testing confirmed the truth. A truth he was hinding. When I was a child, I thought the little guy looked like an ancient Roman walking the streets of Rome. I used to imagine him wearing chariot gear and so forth...so Italian-looking was he. Now, I suppose I could imagine him walking the streets of Nazareth. (Come to think of it, my dad did look a bit like Leonard Bernstein....)

TG

Lowell Tuttle

Wow, I thought I had the oldest grandfather who was born on 12 25 1868...

Also, those of you who are planning to golf...I can't load the instruction video due to copyright rules, but there is an excellent one on utube by one of my form assistant pros, J C Anderson.  Just 1:05.  Go to J C anderson golf video and start now, as it may take a few months to master his technique.

Lowell Tuttle

Tom Grimes

Lowell,

The 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, who was born in 1790, still has two living grandsons. They're in their late 80s. But they're alive and walking around. There must be other people up and around as well who have grandparents or even parents who were born over a century ago. My grandfather was a commited bachelor, having spent most of his life in the Navy and having served in the Boxer Rebellion and the Spanish-American War. He married a 17-year old girl in 1908 (my grandmother) when he was in his 40s. (Hmmmm. That must have been...uh...interesting.)

TG

David Cordell

My Sicilian grandparents, Carmela Lucido and Vito Sparacio, 1920 and 1950

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Kudos to Judicial Watch for ferreting out some truth, for a change!

Tom Grimes

David,

Those photos. My god. That's a piece of the American story, vivdly visually portrayed. 

TG

David Cordell

Tom,

My grandmother came through Ellis Island as a child in 1907, and my grandfather came in 1912 at age 19. My grandfather worked in a shoe shop in Manhattan and on the line in an Edison factory in New Jersey, My grandmother was working as a seamstress when they met and married in 1920. They started a small corner grocery store and butcher shop in Newark, eventually selling it and moving in 1930 to St. Louis where they bought a bleach factory. My grandfather was forced to give up part of his ownership for "protection," but he was financially successful. They bought a five bedroom house for cash in the middle of the depression and lived there until my grandmother died during our senior year  at RHS. He died a couple of years later. They lived the American dream.

My mother was born before my grandfather was naturalized, so Italy considered her to have been born an Italian citizen, a fact that I revealed to her when she was about 80. Since she never renounced her Italian citizenship, I was also born an Italian citizen, and I have an Italian passport, which I reproduced in an earlier post.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

David,

Your photos are SO interesting, and your grandmother looks beautiful in her stylish dress of that era!  I can see a resemblance of your eyes and smile, in her eyes and smile.  Isn't heredity fascinating!  Have you ever been to Ellis Island to "look up" her name?  I hear it is a very interesting place.  Did your mother have duel citizenship, having been born in the U.S., but having a non-naturalized Italian father?  And you too, I assume you have duel citizenship?  That's a lucky bonus for you, I would say.

I've always been fascinated with my grandfather's name, Lafayette Jeanes, and his heritage line.  My aunt and I have investigated a little bit, and my aunt was able to trace our family line back to the mid 1700's, to South Carolina.  Probably, those folks were hired to work on rice plantations, for meager wages, & eventually, they moved over to Tennessee.  We located one fella named Pleasant Jeanes, a pleasant sounding name, don't you think?  And another relative, named Festus Jeanes, which makes me think of "Miss Kitty," and "Doc."  Sure wish I could have met them!  Bet they were characters!  I've often wondered if maybe they might have looked a bit like Jean Valjean! (Yes, I know he was just a fictional guy, but you just never really know what might have been!)  Lately I've had some crazy dreams about Vikings, because I've been watching that Viking series on HBO!  That "lead guy" has mesmerizing eyes!

David Cordell

Thanks, Janalu.

If you look at the 1950 photo,  it seems like Tessio and Clemenza are standing in the background.

In 2005 we visited my grandfather's hometown in Sicily, where my mother's cousin is a bishop, and we saw a traffic sign for the town of Corleone, which was where the fictional Godfather was from. We asked if we could go to that town to take some photos for our son Mark, a big Godfather fan. My cousin said we could take photos of buildings, but not people. Hmmm.

Yes, I am a dual citizen as are my wife and children. For my chidren, it means that they can work in any EU country without a green card. Don't think that will happen, but maybe.

I like the name Pleasant Jeanes. Since my maturation stopped in my teens, I naturally started thinking of suggestive first names to go with Jeanes, like Enya. I will never grow up.

Not sure about Vikings, but I always try not to look into their eyes.

Back to the Godfather, here is a photo of my Aunt Angie's wedding in about 1950. She was also my godmother and is still living. My Uncle Joe is on the far left. Italian enough? Love the hats!

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

"Enya Jeanes"---you guys!  Very funny!  Guess we never completely grow up!  Even the girls, it seems, never quit dressing "for the other girls, or ladies!"  But, to continue, I remember in elementary school, kids would ask me if I was related to Mr. Green Jeans, and I would say,"you betcha!" 

Wasn't there a girl in our our senior class, named Daye Ann Knight?  And in my daughter's Brownie scout troop, there was a Holly Busch!  Then there is the "always amusing," Ima Hogg," along with her sister "Yura!"  We could go on and on----remember "Yugo First?"  Laughter is the best medicine, they say!

As for David's family photos, they DO have a GODFATHER aura!  The second photo of Carmela & Vito, now you say that was taken in New Jersey?  Hmmmmm....verrrry innteresssting!!

Steve Keene

Don't forget Oliver Kloseoff, Tim Tashion, Bill Fold and Pete Moss.

David Cordell

I am attaching a couple of pages from MY trip book. The fact that Tommy and I have retained our respective books tells you something. That trip in 1967 was truly a life-changing experience for both of us, and it will always represent a bond between us. The first page is just the first day in Palermo. The second page is more interesting. It shows my expenditures. (No, I am not an accountant.) You will see the first column of numbers is my expense for lodging. Double it because Tommy was paying the same. Note that our Paris "hotel" was $2.36 --  The Hotel des Bain. Bathroom down the hall. Toilet paper was torn squares of newsprint stuck on a nail. Ah, Paris!

David Cordell

Phil Fielder sent a notice about RHS performance in the Academic Decathalon.

Texas Academic Decathlon
2014 State Competition
Large Schools

Rank Reg District School                                                       Score
1      10       Rockwall ISD Rockwall High School***                 51,005
2      5         Pearland ISD Pearland High School***                49,025
3     10        Rockwall ISD Rockwall-Heath High School          46,711
4      5         Clear Creek ISD Clear Lake High School             46,325
5      9          Irving ISD Nimitz High School***                           45,823
6      9          Coppell ISD Coppell High School                        44,195
7      7          Fort Bend ISD Clements High School***                 43,615
8      5          Pasadena ISD J. Frank Dobie High School            43,597
9      8          Arlington ISD Arlington High School***                42,826
10    7          Katy ISD Seven Lakes High School                     42,771
11    3          Corpus Christi ISD Richard King High School*** 42,392
12    7          Katy ISD James Taylor High School                   42,168
13   10         Richardson ISD Richardson High School           41,238
14   10         Richardson ISD J. J. Pearce High School            41,029
15   10         Plano ISD Plano East Senior High School           40,226
16    7          Fort Bend ISD Stephen F. Austin High School     40,116
17    9          Lewsville ISD Marcus High School                       39,986
18    2          El Paso ISD Coronado High School***                 38,994
19   10         Plano ISD Plano Senior High                                38,448
20    6          Klein ISD Klein Collins High School                       37,888
21    4          Northside ISD John Paul Stevens High School      37,878
22    9          Lewsville ISD Flower Mound High School               37,413
23    6          Klein ISD Klein High School***                                37,061
24   10         Garland ISD Garland High School                          36,962
25    4          Northside ISD Earl Warren High School***              36,882
26    1          Lubbock ISD Coronado High School***                   36,516
27   11         Keller ISD Keller High School***                              36,503
28    12        Dallas ISD Townview Science and Engineering***   33,094
*** Indicates Region Winner