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. 

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Bob Davidson

David,

I could read all of the messages with little effort and it was kind of fun.  Thinking about it, two things came to mind.  Maybe it's from my many years ago time teaching and reading student essays -- and my current experience dealing with client-generated documents.  The other idea is that good proofreaders would have a much less relaxed responose. 

David Cordell

Lance,

I think Steve was needling me about my social (media) distancing from Tommy. I acknowledge that you and Steve have somwhat the same effect on me. You are both creative thinkers, but sometimes I can't figure out what the hell you're talking about.

Steve,

My response: Some people are just lucky, I guess.

Jerry May

David's  bar stories reminded me of one:

Tom and Frank are drinking buddies. Going to the same "watering hole" daily was their routine.

One day they decided to go to another establishment, recommended by others.

After several  "beefeater" martinis, both.....well on their way to inebriation, Tom said: "You know Frank, after 

all these years... maybe we should  think more about our families. I mean this booze also ages you! Look at those two guys across the bar.., how old they are? That's us in ten years!" 
Incredously, Frank looks at him and says: "What do you mean? That's a mirror! It is us!!"

Bob Fleming

An Open Letter to My Classmates -

It has been exactly 30 days since County Judge Lina Hidalgo declared a quarantine (stay at home order) for residents of  Harris County.

It took some time for me to get over the shock since I unconsciously assumed that quarantine was for people who were't like me (you know - Okies, Cuban/Haitian entrants, homeless people, HIV positive people, and the like).  I guess we are all vagrants now.

The signs of my deterioration are evident even to me and I ask for your help.  To wit -

1.  My son-in-law's father has been on his own throughout this time as his wife is in San Antonio helping their daughter with young children with special needs.  Jim is bald but has now determined to grow his fringe in the manner of Benjamin Franklin   Hair down to his shoulders, wire rims, etc.  Good progress is being made.  I told him that perhaps he could do for Benjamin Franklin what Harold Holbrook did for Mark Twain and Lin Manuel-Miranda did for the Founding Fathers.  My wife tells me that the scaries part of this whole thing, is that her husband believes this to be a good idea.

2.  I babysit regularly and my three year old is a huge fan of Thomas the Train and his friends Gordon,Percy, Toby, and Emily and he vigorously demands that we watch their videos along with anything I can find on dump trucks, excavators, and trash trucks.  I confess that last Saturday night - the kids were long gone - I found myself alone and watching Thomas gthe Train cartoons on my computer.  I also walk around during daylight hours  singing the Garbage Truck Song which I know share with you.  Garbage Trucks! Garbage  Trucks!/They ride all over town/Putting Cans Up and Down/Garbage Trucks!

3.  I am among a group of four men who still report to our local coffee shop, place a to go order, and then sit in the street in our lawn chairs talking to each other.  We do maintain social distance.  In addition, there is a group of four of us that talk to each other on the phone either every single day or every other day.  As you know, it is a sign of distress among men of our age to talk to each other that much.  First of all we really have nothing to say to each other and have never talked to each other this much our whole lives long.

A number of us actually think we can solve world problems.  Two among us have decided to save pro football which we believe to be in long-term decline.  One thinks the answer is technological and is looking at an upgrade in equipment and the other thinks that the rules of the game can be tweaked to insure safety and has undertaken a comparative study of the rules of Australian rules football, six-man football, and Canadian football.  We are now all engaged in the study.  (Somehow we take for granted that someone will actually pay attention to our efforts.)

On the postive side, I have read a lot of books and have managed to undertake a fitness regimen and have lost some significant wight.  Neither have I resorted to binge watching 20 years of Law and Order re-runs.

4.   Unfortunately, the latest sign is determinative.  When I retired five years ago, I got the usual advice to write a book, get a masters degree in a subject I liked, become a world traveler and/or adventurer, etc.  All things that are beyond my interest, energy, or capacity and which I would have down at a younger age - If I Could, Which I Can't. 

One good friend though shared advice which I believe was priceless since I could both understand it and do It.  He said I would be successful in retirement if i could - Bathe Every Day, Shave no less than Every Other Day, and Put on Clean Clothes Every Day.  That's my speed for sure, I thought.

I am sorry to report to you that in the last week or so I have completely failed that test!!

Therefore, I ask you to please contact Sharyn Schreiber from our class and her husband and ask them to be on call  since I know them both to be excellent therapists.  Also would you please contact Mike Twichell, Pat Cowlishaw, Randy Combs, and Glen Messmer since I have Some Reason to Think that they Might Maybe organize an intervention on my behalf should it be necessary.

For now, I am trying to rally.  Oh wait, Law and Order is on!

Sincerely yours.

Lowell Tuttle

If you guys are going to run with some cornball jokes...I will try to load this one here...This from Pam Russel Taylor...

A suspected Covid-19 male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. A young student female nurse appears and gives him a partial sponge bath.
"Nurse,"' he mumbles from behind the mask, "are my testicles black?"
Embarrassed, the young nurse replies, "I don't know, Sir. I'm only here to wash your upper body and feet."
He struggles to ask again, "Nurse, please check for me. Are my testicles black?"
Concerned that he might elevate his blood pressure and heart rate from worrying about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and
pulls back the covers.
She raises his gown, holds his manhood in one hand and his testicles gently in the other.
She looks very closely and says, "There's nothing wrong with them, Sir. They look fine."
The man slowly pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her, and says very slowly,
"Thank you very much. That was wonderful. Now listen very,
very, closely:
"Are - my - test - results - back?"

David Cordell

Steve Keene

David and Crew,

I awoke this morning and it was such a beautiful day.  I took off driving since I had been cooped up here so long.  The weather was great and I just kept driving and driving.  I suddenly realized where I was, not too far from the homes of Tommy and Terry.  I made a business call in Buda, Texas.  Then I remembered that the NFL draft was on tonight and I wanted some barbecue to eat while I watched.  

I decided to help out an old friend who has recently fallen on hard times.  Here is a picture of me buying barbecue at his place.

Hull Barbee

Steve ............. I love County Line BBQ ....... did you happen to see our old friend? Next time , get some for me and I'll drive down to get it !!!!!!

David Cordell

Count me in.

Meanwhile.....

Are we thinking a ripe banana, or a green banana is best....

Steve Keene

David

Corny jokes, huh?

A couple of days ago I learned that diarrhea was hereditary.  Yup, I found out it runs in your jeans.

The other day I googled cigarette lighters, and all they had was 13978 matches.

Hull Barbee

Steve ........... did you see another one of our outstanding football players went in the first round of the draft ......... I was doing my best to research how many were drafted from Texas !!!!!!!!

Steve Keene

Hull

Yeah.  They said he was a reach.  I can't wait for Jordan Brooks to be the same kind of reach Patrick Mahomes was.

Steve Keene

Hull and David,

I contacted our friend in Austin and he says he would like to get together on the patio for a barbecue dinner.  He will call Eddy, Jimmy, Randy C., Bobby, Terry and Sarah to join us, too.

David Cordell

My wife has been whining about all of my "stuff", and she is on a tear to do some spring cleaning. She contends that I haven't used or even looked at much of my stuff for years, as if that were a valid reason for overwhelming our already burgeoning landfills. Anyway, in my feigned effort to comply, I started to go through some things, and I came across my Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity rush booklet from 1971 that included photos of my good friend, Brother Steve Keene.

On the far right in the photo below is Whitney Campbell, a Highland Park HS alum and a certifiable, world-class wild man. Here's an example of his activities.

Whitney grabbed three of those bags that the cleaners hang your shirts in. He went down into the fraternity house basement where the furnace is. He found an outlet for natural gas and used it to fill up each bag, tying them off as he progressed. Then he tied the three together in a sort of doughnut. Then he tightly twisted a long piece of toilet paper and attached it to the doughnut, sort of like a tail of a kite.

Then he went up to the balcony. He lit the loose end of the tail/fuse with a lighter, and let the whole thing float away. Imagine what the motorists on Lamar Avenue thought when the fireball erupted overhead!

Ahhh. Those were the days! 

Some of you will recognize Judy Troth and Cyndy Powell in the photo below.

The photo below is my favorite. It looks like Steve is being drawn into a three-way, and not the good kind. As I look at Steve's date, I'm wondering what junior high school she attended at the time. On a sad note, I think the fellow with his arm around Steve died in a wreck in his Corvette in our junior year.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Looks like a nice party!  Was it a kegger?    DUH!

A match party, huh?  Is that the kind where you are "matched" with a date you don't know?

Jerry May

If this was after Day 6, I'd hate to see what novel ideas they have now!

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

Steve Keene

David,

That's digging pretty deep to the days when my face was clean cut and you had the mustache trying to look like Errol Flynn.   You have turned out to be quite the raconteur.  Cyndy sure was cute.  Now, why did I not keep that going?   Her Folks were rich and she had the big ranch at Utopia.  My kids could have been movie stars.

David Cordell

Cute video, Jerry. Clever.

Ladies, don't read what follows because it might offend your feminine sensibilities.

^

^

^

Guys, am I the only one who watched Jerry's video and said to himself, "That dude is facing the wrong way"?

Steve Keene

David,

You probably were cuz that was two girls.

David Cordell

Steve,

You might want to see an eye doctor because one of those girls had a beard.

Steve Keene

David,

I remember the start of dove season at the Pike House.  Whitney was shooting birds off the power line off the back stair landing.

Ron Knight

Happy Birthday to my old friend from back at Heights Elementary and fellow resident on Newberry,

the good Doctor Bob Cederberg. Stay safe and healthy!!

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Steve,

Was your friend, Whitney, using a BB gun?  I can't imagine that he was firing a gun in the city limits!

Also, you asked me on that other site if I had noticed that all the positions of the Dems are the exact opposite postions of the Repubs, and the answer is "Yes!"   It is pitiful, isn't it?  I imagine that our Almighty looks down on their actions and sighs, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

They are taking our country in completely the wrong direction, all for the sake of retaining their power, and regardless of how much harm they are doing to the one place on Earth that is the place everyone else seems to be trying to get to, as a new home.  Our freedom is everything!  Yet they want to eliminate our freedoms with governmental control on practically every issue.  And they scoff at the Almighty as a silly nuisance and former pacifier idea for the 'little people,' the unenlightened.  I believe it was Ted Turner who scoffed that way too, once upon a time.