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

Wayne,

Who was there?

David Simpson

Steve, we don't yell. We bloviate!

David Simpson

I Read the news today oh boy. About a lucky man who made the grade. My song for the moment. Ok seriously, (ticker tape clicking). I read that the City of Mesquite was trying to put together a package for a commercial complex that would include a new baseball stadium with a new team that would play in the Atlantic League of Professional baseball. This is the best Independent league there is and comparable to “AA” affiliate ball. My son played for York Revolution in that league after being released from the Pirates AA team and helped carry them to their second league title. Pete Incaviglia coaches the Sugar Land team. Why is this important? Kids!

Marty. From 90-95 I coached and sponsored a Mens class c/b team called the Mesquite Merchants. We averaged 14 qualifying tourneys a year with 2 leagues and States. Somewhere around 70 ballgames each summer. Don’t know how many divorces we averaged. We had some very good teams. So slo pitch softball was where I started umping. Took about three years of dealing with jerks and thugs before I put softball in my rear view mirror. The game and players had changed too much from 1995. Went over to baseball both as a Coach and umpire and never looked back.

Lowell. The York Revolution was actually the guinea pig team this year using the automated laser for balls and strikes. MLB worked the deal with them. I don’t like it at all. In my opinion, it misses some things and handicap's the pitcher. It sanitizes the game. Once you have developed a strike zone, it’s yours. One of my absolutes was to keep the same strike zone from the 1^st inning to the 9th as well as the next game. That way Coaches know what to expect from you the next time they have you behind the plate. I would even tell catchers what I wanted and what I expected from them. That usually made them work harder for me. Can’t handicap umpires, just train them better. Handicap parents. They are so awful they are running young umpires off. Plate umpiring is purely spacial and requires continuity. Umpires also love bang, bang plays with emphasis added. No machines please. Besides old umpires will tell you with a straight face that they have never missed a pitch in their life. I’ll tell ya’ll about one I did miss though. I had the plate in an 11 yr old tournament Championship with Bobby Witts (ex Ranger) DBat team and a Dallas Tigers team. Bobby brought his son (#1 pick this year in MLB) in to close out the game. The kid got two quick outs and had thrown all fastballs to this point. He had two strikes on the last batter and then threw a slider that started about 10 inches off the plate and broke right over the middle of the plate. I bellowed “ball” emphasis added, stood up and thought to myself, Well, you just called the most perfect pitch an eleven year old could throw a ball. I peeked over at Bobby and he was grinning at me. He knew I missed it and I knew I missed it. Fortunately, Bobby had him throw it again and I didn’t miss it a second time. That kid is now a millionaire.

Hull. I had an asst. G.M. tell me someone had done a study and the very best umps averaged 92%ish and the bad ones averaged 86%ish so yes some of the elite umps grade better. The problem MLB umps face these days are the pitchers are infinitely better and throwing a wider assortment of pitches than in the past. It’s got to be tough to think about seeing 350 plus pitches in one game knowing you are going to see superior movement on just about every pitch. That is also why it is the greatest game in the World. As far as expert knowledge, level temperament, and common sense, I have to defer to “Meatloaf” who famously said “Two out Three Ain’t Bad”.

Lastly, a question. Have ya’ll ever heard of a baseball game with too many strikeouts? I had a JV game at Sachse with a new umpire that I was asked to evaluate for TASO. I put him at the plate and he was calling nearly everything both pitchers threw strikes. Pitches in the dirt, pitches over there head and pitches 10-12 inches off the plate all ended up being strikes. I was trying to hide in the field and I knew this was going to be a disaster and I was part of it. The coaches were zombies at this point. We were supposed to play 7 innings and I realized in the 6^th that no one had even made it to second base and it was 0-0. We ended up playing 11 innings, which just prolonged my agony and my afternoon, until we got a winner. I asked the scorekeeper how many strikeouts there was in the game and she replied 23 for them and 21 for us. 44 of the 63 outs made in this games were strikeouts. I don’t think they ever found his body.   

Ron Knight

Wayne and Steve

RE: First Friday

Wayne thank you for going to First Friday. I feel sure you were welcomed and invited back. It takes initiative such as yours to make the first step to get there. Then it takes spreading the word to others that this is something that happens every month ( and has for nearly 40 years) and is just a wonderful time to causally get together with folks from our RHS class as well as other RHS classes and friends/relatives of those classes to build something for more of us to want to attend!!

We use to have between 30-40 (more during the holidays) each month show when you include spouses and significant others. I just personally think that it would be great to rekindle that casual time together after our 50th Reunion to bring back "FIRST FRIDAY" to it's former glory! Let's face the reality that we cannot be sure everyone we saw at the 50th Reunion will be around at the next Reunion in say 5 years. What I liked about First Friday was that I was always sure when it was and where I could see old friends. Again, I can't stress enough that it starts with YOU and you help spread the word.

I am sorry if I sound like a commercial for First Friday, but I just love the concept that there is a time and place each month that we know we can gather again and see each other. When I began coming to First Friday(1982) I was living in Norman,OK at the time, but I knew I would see old friends and catch up with them and what was going on in their lives. I would say if we were to build upon First Friday again what a great venue it could be for our classmates that are out of town to know that they could plan a trip back to Dallas on a First Friday weekend and get to see so many friends again. I, for one, would plan my trips to Dallas to reflect a First Friday visit! I am thinking of  Bob and Francis Brown, Hollis Heyn, Sandra and Danny Ringo, David and Karen Seidler, Glenn Messmer, Jan Alexander, Bruce and Karen Anderson,  Russ Stovall, Steve Keene, Ed Norton, Tommy, David, etc... and everyone else you can think of!

Former regular First Friday attendees were Sam Stevens and wife Sheree, Tom Knutson and wife Peggy, Bill Brown and wife Candy, Brenda and Craig Dickey, Lana Bates and her husband, Lila Bates, Sammy Keith Kelly, Guy Connelly and wife, me and so many more of the 1967 and 1966 classes as well as the 1970 class of RHS.  Like I said, it was not uncommon to have 30-40 attendees. There are so many more that would come and go as well.

Contact Peggy (Tom Knutson) Moore @ 214- 693-1431 for info. Hope to see you there!

Hull Barbee

David .......... I was in a game similar to your strikeout game .......... Lubbock Monterrey was playing Midland High in a Regional series that the winner would go to State......... each team got to pick an umpire and the third was assigned ...... I had worked with one of the chosen ones and I was chosen as well but the one assigned I never knew. I was plate on the first game and my friend plated the second game. All went smooth and both teams won a game. Here comes the unknown........... game was tight and very little scoring but lots of strikeouts........... every curveball each pitcher threw was called a strike because the ball crossed the plate but hit the dirt every time. His reasoning was it was in the strike zone when it crossed the front of the plate. By the 6th inning each coach and each teams fans were going crazy. My friend and I met during the bottom of the 6th and said we've got to get this guy out of there. We met with both coaches and they agreed so I told him we were changing positions and told him to go to third base and I went behind the plate. I knew we were going to be in trouble with TASO but also knew we'd need a police escort out of town no matter which team won. So everyone agreed except the bad ump and we finished the game with both coaches thanking us even though one lost ........ TASO indeed called me and I explained the situation......... the complaint filed against me was dismissed and nothing more came of it.  They said that was the first time that had ever happened but I was glad to get out of there ....... and we did indeed have a police escort out of town. 

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Just returned from a big, fancy wedding of my brother's daughter, Meredith, to her handsome and accomplished groom, at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas.  Quite an experience, since I had never been to a large "soiree" at the Adolphus ballroom.  I was excited and big-eyed to see the room's huge, pretty chandeliers, crystal champagne flutes, Adolphus china and fine silverware, gorgeous flowers everywhere, as well as enjoying the beautifully performing string quartet, then later, the band named Blind Date---very funky and very loud!  Even so, it was fun to watch the "youngsters" get down with agile flexibility and interesting moves I had not witnessed lately, in the venues I sometimes visit, with Charles & other couples.  Brought back funny memories of our younger days of dancing in clubs to rock bands, or even disco music a little later on.

The food was delicious, and the wine, champagne, or cocktails were flowing till the wee hours as Blind Date continued to rattle the rafters, while we older folks retreated to the outer rooms to talk together and retain our current hearing ranges, as our ears were ringing a bit--- our heads were experiencing some faint dizziness.

The youngsters continued to dance after the clocks were set back, due to daylight savings time, which was "a piece of cake" for them!  The party poopers went to their rooms to kick off the fancy, pinching, uncomfortable shoes, then jumped into their cushy beds with relieved sighs of delight!

Wayne Gary

Steve, Ron

Peggy and her husband, Bill Brown and his wife, Lana Bates '70 and a retired police officer from class of 70.

David Cordell

Steve, funny sign. It's something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it?

Lance, is that galvanized tub a verson of a baptismal font?

Russ Stovall

Wayne what time does First Friday meet?

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Lance,

My younger brother, Bryan, was a civil judge out in Wood County for quite a while, but is retired now and has moved to McKinney TX.  He had a lot of funny stories about the goings-on in that wild country out there.  There are cougars who roam around there too, chasing the deer, and one time, when the locals were gathered for a football game in their small stadium, a cougar was spotted up on a nearby ridge watching all the action going on at the game.  The ladies were all a'twitter about it, pointing at the critter & snapping pictures, while worrying about their pet poodles & kitties back in their yards at home.

Wayne Gary

Russ,

The First Friday gathers around 5:00 - 5:30.  Dec it will be a BJ's Restruant & Brewhouse in Plano on 75 between 15th and Plano Parkway in front of World Market.

Steve Keene

David,

Yep that horse trough is the baptismal.  However, once a year in early summer we used to baptize em at Waxahachie Lake to accomodate the casserole ladies who had a tendency to get stuck in the trough.  It is a delicate matter to ask them if you can anoint their sides with "annointing oil" to get them out of the trough.  On the casserole lady lake baptisms you have to have all hands on deck to be sure you can get them out frumunda.

We don't usually baptize animals like horses or goats in the trough.  I think that policy was initiated the day after one lady insisted on being baptized with her cat.  That cat managed to get "holy water" on 90% of the 800 people in attendance.

Wayne Gary

Lance, Sue

This morning as I was going to work  I saw an 8 point buck on the north side of Hwy 114 just east of Texan Trail just north of DFW airport.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Hey Sue!

Do you have a cat?

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Wayne,

The bucks are trotting around our neighborhood the last couple of weeks.  They are so oblivious to practically everything going on around them, having their noses in the air, sniffing out the ladies.  They are so love struck, or maybe I should say "hot to trot," that you have to watch out for them when driving, 'cause they'll run right out in front of our cars, after catching a sent on a breeze from across the street!  

I was driving down an ordinary residential street the other day, and a large buck was trotting down the side of the street, next to the curb.  I slowly drove along side him, thinking he might bolt at any minute, but he just kept trotting along at the same speed, ignoring my car, as I was 'even-steven' with him.  He never even looked my way, changed his speed, never acknowledged me or my car in any way.  It was really funny to me to see him in his little aura of 'one thought Charlie.'  He was completely in another world unto himself, absorbed and mezmerized.  I wondered if I tooted my horn he would even hear it or react to it, but I decided to let him have his dreamy, rendezvous anticipation mount more & more, without bothering him.  He seemed so enraptured.

Our neighborhood is full of doe and very young ones, but the males disappear for most of the year, to the outlying fields around here.  They only come this way at this particular time of the Fall season---just like clockwork!  Mother Nature is amazing and kinda predictable at times---pretty funny too!

Phil Huber

Dacid,

You mentioned a calculation you did for your class about   how many trips to the moon would it take with a stack of dollar bills.

I recently got back from a few days on  the Warren campaign bus and she was passing out free samples of these - it won't take nearly as many to reach to the moon with this new denomination that she plans to introduce to our currency - she's borrowing from Brazil and Bolivia.

Steve Keene

Phil

Are the round tipped things reaching for the TRILLION representing fingers in the pie?

Wayne Gary

Lance,

I think he just landed as he was heading toward Great Wolf Lodge to take a swin and nap.

Janalu

The buck must have been looking for love

Sue

You could always post a picture from high school days like we were all wearing at the reunion events.

David Cordell

Sent to me by a Forum poster.

Wayne Gary

Sue

Do you have any pets?  I cropped my better half (wife) out of the picture because she is somewhat private.

Holly Hobby

Ahem, edited version:  following my post earlier tonight was advice from a classmate, a man whose friendship, sense of humor and ever-ready-protectiveness I would be bereft without who only half-jokingly suggested I make clear the services for which I charge an hourly rate of $375. Lol

So as to leave nothing to the lascivious imagination:  my base rate for evidence based investigative intel (including investigative healthcare) and/or opposition research starts at $375./hr not including nor limited to:  offshore document collection via partnered proprietary international resource network; level 2-5 background investigation; level 6-7 adversary-specific background/ strategy investigation; adversary-specific psychological profile; adversary-specific vulnerability study; data mining (in conjunction with findings from background investigation to predict adversary(s) behavior; comprehensive analysis of business holdings (contracted through network of experts); strategical media placement;  raw data transcript analysis;  exhumation/digitization “expunged” documents; partnered criminal forensics (referral to odontology; cyber, accounting and path forensics);  travel expenses including mileage etc.    

(Earlier post): Breaking news:  don’t want to say I told 'em so but I told 'em so.  Hunt County had the wrong man in the deadly mass shooting. Just like every other high-profile homicide where I tried to tell ‘em they’d arrested an innocent man; just like I tried to tell RHS1969’s Abel and Cain it would a mistake to ignore my warning...once again…  boys will be boys annoyed by blondes smarter than they are. Rates start at $375./hr. (You know I'm kidding. You know I love both of you).

Holly Hobby

Janalu,

It's late (nothing new for me). Alarm set for 6:15 a.m. (nothing new for me) but couldn't resist reading few posts. Your's was great! Laughed out loud. Succinct.  Concise.  To the point:   "Sue, do you have a cat?"   Yeah Sue,  "do you have a cat?" Lol

Jan Alexander

Regarding this cat and mouse game that I suspect from this “Sue” character… I felt they were toying with the forum awhile back.  

As for me , I think it is disgusting and they are having fun at a lot of folk’s expense.  It is like reverse bullying at our age, which is despicable. It ruins the comradery that is supposed to be.    

AND arousing a sense of feeling unsafe or questionable mass shooting possibilities at a reunion event...was also dangerous.

Yes, we have bantered and bickered about differences of opinion on the forums but this pushes it over the line into really weird territory and gives me the creeps.

I suggest no one encourages this person or engages with them..  God speed, Sue … but go somewhere else for your playtime, or become authentic . 

Just my opinion.  I find no humor in it . 

The End.

Hull Barbee

Jan .......... well said ...... this hoax has gone far enough ...... no one can find a "Sue Daly " in any yearbooks ...... no one remembers her ......and I've asked a friend still in the RISD to see if they had any records of a "Sue Daly" being enrolled during our times in High School ........ imagine my surprise ...... they couldn't find her or her name anywhere......... and for those of you perpetuating this hoax , you should be ashamed ......... David and Sandra have both asked nicely , as well as Lance , for "Sue" to post a picture or tell where she lives or show us when she attended RHS ........ but we keep getting excuses from her about her shyness or privacy .......... it's crap and I for one am tired of it. I have no pull with David about this site  but would vote for the "Sue Daly " we have before us to be eliminated from this site .......... I'm reminded of an old country song entitled "A Boy Named Sue "............ I'm thinking that's exactly who this person is 

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Hull

I totally understand your reasoning and frustration about Sue, however, I think we are learning more and more about the lady, little by little, as she wishes to reveal herself.  You've know people who are like that in your life, haven't you?

I have a neighbor lady who is married to a man from India, and she told me he is a psychologist who works at Fort Hood nearby, counseling some of our returning soldiers when they return from Afghanistan and other countries.  I'm sure he has his hands full and is weary when he comes home in the evenings, which may explain why he seldom comes outside to shooze with his fellow neighbors.  His wife loves to cook, and is a very religious Christian lady, (I gathered that knowledge by accidentally receiving some of her mail, as our mailman goofs up our mailboxes from time to time, and I have gotten some of her mail.  She gets info from several differing religious affiliations, and appears to be a donor to some of those entities.  I also send her Christmas cards each year, & she sends me beautiful, meaningful cards in return, leading me to understand her deep faith.)  Her husband seems to stay home on Sundays, but I often see her leave in her car, nicely dressed, and then return a couple of hours later---again, suggesting to me that she often goes to a church on Sundays.  I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.)

The couple are sweet, quiet people, but are shy and private.  I enjoy having them as neighbors anyway, as they keep their yard neat, they used to have a little Corgi dog I liked, and they have a cute little granddaughter that I see swinging in their backyard from time to time, as her grandfather pushes her gently back and forth, wearing one of those long, nightshirt things, that men from India often wear.  I enjoy watching them, and chat over the fence with them occasionally, about the little girl, who is such a friendly, talkative little munchkin.  Her grandfather loves her visits and dotes on her.

Miss Sue just told us she has a cat, so that tells me some interesting bits about her, since people who enjoy cats are a certain type, I believe.  I have cats too, and I have also had many dogs, but cat people have to have patience and understanding, to be able to enjoy the feline mystique, so I believe I have a certain understanding of people of that ilk.  I also like wallabies and lemurs, but have never had the pleasure of owning either yet!  What does that say about me?  HA!

Sue maybe a little "catty" but I think we should be patient with her.  I think she is interesting!  She says she has never been married, so that tells me quite a bit!  She may be the wisest person on this forum!  HA!  She enjoys independence!