Jennifer Johnston Smith

"Goin' to the Chapel" ... or in our case, Judge's chambers....

Hearing about how some of us met and married our spouses has been really interesting, so Yahn and I thought we would relate the details of our wedding.... I have good money here that says it is probably the strangest courtship and wedding story of anyone in the class. If yours was more bizarre ... then come sit by me and let's talk!!! BTW, if I had had good money then ... to cover all the bets I'm sure were made on how long our marriage would last ... we would be quite comfortably fixed here in our "golden" years....

I've shared various details about our life and journeys together (and one really cherished story about a date) in diverse places on the blog. (See particularly on the "main" blog, "Well, Durn ... I'm Thankful...", published November 17, 2007, "Close Encounters of the Bobcat Kind..." published September 13, 2007 and "Where in the World is the Class of '63?", published August 17, 2007. Also see the "Yahn Smith" post under "Show and Tell", published January 8, 2008.) And now in the spirit of candor evidenced so wonderfully by Joe Don and Sheila ... and because it's a really good story ... I'll share with you all the tale of how Yahn and I actually met, and the circumstances ... and others ... attending our wedding.

In February 1967 I was in Colorado Springs when I ran into a friend. Naturally we wanted to catch up a bit, but she was on her way to meet other friends for lunch. She asked me to join her group, and I assented ... and it was then that I met Yahn. (See his comment on our meeting to the post "And Then Scheherazade TOTALLY Lost Her Head...", published November 29, 2007.)

In the "Close Encounters ..." post, I alluded to Yahn attending Colorado College and living in a "residence hall" in Colorado Springs. And that was true ... he did take some classes at CC.... However, I neglected to mention that the "residence hall" was on the grounds of the private Emory John Brady psychiatric facility ... yep, a mental hospital. In the '60s it became, if not commonplace at least not terribly unusual, for affluent parents to sometimes "park" their unruly teenaged children in mental institutions (see the movie "Girl, Interrupted"). This is what had happened to Yahn after his first year at Western State College in Gunnison, where he and his friends there had sometimes taken the idea of "PAR-TAY" to an extreme level. Shortly after signing Yahn into the hospital (remember, the age of majority then was 21), his father was transferred to Randolph AFB in San Antonio, and as they would no longer be resident in the state, Tanner and Lorita (Yahn's parents) signed court commitment papers, making Yahn a ward of his psychiatrist, Dr. Gilbert O. Horn, "until further order of the Court." So, de facto and de jure, Dr. Horn had total control of Yahn's life (in loco parentis ... and don't get me started on "loco" parents) during the more than two years he was at Brady's. Some years later Dr. Horn was charged with 19 counts of gross negligence and blatant malpractice by the Colorado State board which governed psychiatrists.... But I digress....

Anyhoo, Yahn and I began dating, with the usual scenario being that I would drive down from Denver on Saturday, pick him up at the hospital, go to lunch, to a movie, dancing, (cheap) dinner, (cheap) whatever ... as long as I checked him back into the hospital no later than midnight. I would then find a quiet street, park my Mustang and sleep in the back seat ... the memory of those contortions still hurts), then visit with him at the hospital until late afternoon on Sunday before returning to Denver.

After more than a year of this, one day in mid-May 1968, during his regular weekly session with Yahn, Dr. Horn remarked that we seemed to be quite serious about each other ... and did we want to go ahead and get married? Well, duh!!! We had sooooo been looking forward to the day Yahn would be released and we could do just that ... and now Dr. Horn just casually dropped this opportunity into our laps! (I would be remiss if I did not say that one reason we rushed to take up Dr. Horn's offer instead of just waiting for Yahn's release is that at that time we had no intimation or real hope that Yahn would be released anytime soon ... he had really good insurance. which the hospital just loved to milk... and I had no legal standing to try to help him secure his release ... could in fact have been prosecuted for even trying.... But the marriage would give me legal standing as a spouse.)

We sprang into action to bring this miracle about before the end of May ... sorry, notwithstanding the urgency of the circumstances, I just absolutely refused to be a June bride ... and we only had about two weeks left in May to get the blood tests (remember those?), license, arrange for the ceremony to be performed, etc. Our next hurdle was to find a judge who would marry us in his chambers, since neither of us wanted a religious ceremony. And wonder of wonders, we did find a judge who agreed to marry us after court on Friday, May 31 ... the start of a long Memorial Day weekend (that was before they officially made "Memorial Day" the last Monday in May). But somehow we managed to put it all together.

And so, we were married ... with my father and his wife and six mental patients in attendance at our wedding!!!! Because the (other) mental patients weren't allowed to have any significant sums of money (they might buy a bus ticket and escape, you understand), our wedding gifts ran to beer can cigarette lighters, ashtrays and coasters made in occupational therapy (OT) at the hospital, things like that....

Our "honeymoon" consisted of one night at the Denver Hilton ... the most we could afford ... and when we arrived to check in, all we had was one suitcase that clanked because there was nothing in it but two bottles of cheap champagne. Yahn had never checked into a hotel before, and he has never been any good at filling out forms (as he will attest), so when he went to register at the hotel, his mind "blanked". After a loooooong pause, he turned to me and said in front of the desk clerk and manager: "Should I put 'Mr. and Mrs.', or what?" I almost died of embarrassment as the hotel personnel exchanged smirks. I told him to do that ... then Yahn wrote down what looked, in his handwriting, like Mr. and Mrs. JOHN SMITH. Raised eyebrows to go with the smirks. He blanked again on the next line ... and after another looooong pause, he said "What's our address?" The smirks were almost ear to ear ... and the eyebrows hit the hairline.... I said "Give me the card" and filled it out ... I was an interesting shade of fuscia by then, I'm sure. (You must remember that in those days it was illegal in many states for unmarried people of the opposite sex to share a hotel room together. We were actually expecting a visit by the house detective all night ... but it never happened.)

In honor of our nuptials, Dr. Horn actually let Yahn be away from the hospital from Friday noon through the weekend, but I had to return him (sort of like a library book) promptly at the stroke of noon on Monday!!! O bliss!!!! This pattern continued for the next few weeks, until Yahn was duly released from the hospital just over two months later ... without our having to take legal action ... and we were really able to begin our life as husband and wife. Conventional wisdom about marrying a mental patient (or me ... grin) to the contrary, we'll celebrate our 40th anniversary this year.

And amid all the beer can cigarette lighters, etc. ... I have one "gift" ... souvenir ... whatever ... that I still treasure ... and that I'll bet no one else in the class has. I have a letter from Dr. Horn (subsequent charges notwithstanding), stating unequivocally that my husband was sane enough to make the decision to marry me!!!!

Yahn and Jennifer at their wedding, May 31, 1968. Jennifer's father Keith is behind them.

)O(

Sheila Davis Martinez

At some point in January 1963, a gypsy drifted through town and sprinkled wanderlust dust into the air. I took a deep breath and was hooked! I couldn't get out of Childress fast enough. Of course, I graduated, but showing up for the ceremony took a lot of curiosity...was I really going to graduate?? Mentally, I was gone from my life in Childress months before we graduated.

That summer, I went to school at Amarillo Jr College, then came back home for a few days before heading out to fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor at the University of Texas in Austin. There were probably a thousand schools that would have been a better pick for me, but my heart was set on UT ever since the 3rd grade when I heard Jimmy Wilcoxson talking about their great football team. Like a football team was going to make or break me! LOL! Jimmy, this is all your fault! I thought he was the smartest boy in school until I realized it was really JoeDon.

I wish I could say that I went to school, made good grades, graduated and went to Medical school. The real story is that I went to UT, got real stupid, got pregnant, then got married.

Life has a way of kicking you in the butt to get your attention. The marriage lasted long enough for me to have 2 children to raise. Barry and his family have been a strong part of my life and I am eternally grateful for their open arms and generosity. Sandra and Robin came from that marriage.

Before we divorced in 69, Barry and I moved to San Antonio which is where I met Webb Wilcox a couple of years later. The kids and I moved to Port Aransas to run a hotel on the beach in the summer of 72. Webb followed, asking me to marry him. We married in 73.

Good times. We lived on the beach for several years, then eventually put our shoes back on and moved back to civilization. I have to tell you, it was hard to learn to wear shoes again. I loved living on the beach.

While Webb and I were trying to raise my two older children to be decent citizens, we started with our second family...Jessica, Ben and Kayte....all born within 2 years of each other. Talk about insanity! LOL...It has been a fun ride and I wouldn't trade one second of it for any other choice that I might have had.

Webb and I divorced after 15 years of marital bliss. Since then, I have lived in Wimberley, TX, San Marcos TX and Austin..with a very brief stint in Dallas working for a fashion designer. At some point in this time frame, I went back to school to study fashion design/entreprenurial business management. One year and I was done with school...forever. Not done with learning, but done with that mode of education.

I would like to say that I own my own business, but to be honest, it owns me. For the last 10 years I have worked as a seamstress/fashion designer doing bridal designs and alterations, exotic dancewear, costuming, anything I could draw, cut and get under that sewing machine needle. Since I have a difficulty with idle time, I generally pair my sewing business with other types of income. I have been a barmaid, bartender, house mom for strip clubs, lingerie retail, and the school district lets me drive a school bus! Whoa..what is up with that!!?

Right now, I am delivering pizza...fun job, working in a boutique in one of the clubs, and also driving a school bus for Lake Travis ISD. I also have a little business making/selling soaps, lotions and candles.

My wonderful children are Sandra Foglia who lives in San Marcos with her 3 boys, Andrew, Luke and Francis, ages 11, 16, 20. Sandra works for Texas State University in the Dance Department. All of the boys are in school. Andrew at TX STate, Luke is in HS and Fran in in MS.

Robin Knight lives in Phoenix, is married to Lili. Robin is in his last 5 months of Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency. Lili is a med transcriptionist. They do lots of things like marathons, Boston Terrier rescue shelter adoptive parents, and are trying to adopt a child from China.

Jessica Wilcox has 2 boys, Caleb 12, Aaron 4, lives out here in Lakeway. She is in her last rotation of nursing school. She is a great kid.

Ben lives out here in Lakeway, too. He works as a cook for one of the Irish Sport Pubs in town.

Kayte, my youngest is in school at Texas State studying nutrition. She worked for Continental Airlines as a flight attendant before 9-11, then decided that college was a better path.

Well, that's all folks. Some more of the good, bad and not so ugly. For the record, I love Childress and am very thankful that it was my home for so many years. Great place to learn about life. Great friends.

Raenell Wynn Smith

Proud graduate of Childress High School Class of 1963....

Just a little bit about me and my family. Jim Smith and I married in 1964; April 5th we will have been married 44 years. We still live in Childress and raised our children here, after a few journeys to Houston, Amarillo and California.

We have three children, none of whom reside in Childress. Our oldest is our daughter Kelley; she and her husband Bobby live in Katy, Texas. She has one son, Tyler, who is now age 22. Our second child, Todd, lives in Richmond, Texas. He has two sons, Mark (age 23) and Janson (age 16), who live in a suburb of Denver. Our youngest son, Jeff, and his wife Lauri live in Amarillo. They have given us two beautiful granddaughters, ages 14 and 15, and a grandson, age 12. Jim and I have been blessed with wonderful grandchildren and enjoy them so much whenever possible.

Jim works for the City of Childress and manages the airport here. He loves to sing and play base guitar for the "Red River Boys", in First Baptist Church, fish and work in the yard. I am employed at the hospital here in Childress and have been for 30 years in June. I am the Medical Records and Transcription Department Coordinator/Supervisor. I started out as a transcriptionist, then moved to being a pharmacy tech, then took the position of Transcription Supervisor, and for the past five years have been over the entire Medical Records Department. My hobbies are reading, working alongside Jim in the yard, and traveling to see my kids and grandkids as often as we can.

Jim and I love to go to Branson, our favorite getaway place, and go there at least one week out of every year. Sometimes we try to work in an extra long weekend here and there. We like to travel by car as Jim doesn't like to fly, but we see some beautiful country and just enjoy what God has for us to see in this beautiful country we live in.

We're both looking toward retirement within the year (we hope) and look forward to doing more traveling and enjoying our grandkids as much as possible.

I wrote these two poems when Paula passed away (May 13, 2002) and thought you all might enjoy them. The first one reflects my feelings for "The Nine". I can hardly wait until March 16th so Jennifer, Linda Kay, JoAnn and I can make more memories in Paris and London that we can recall and share with each other in the future.

Like Sisters

We were like sisters, you and I.
We shared so much, we laughed, we cried.
We talked about our dreams, our hurts, our fears -
Our children, grandchildren and high school years.

Oh! What special times we had.
Some were good and some were bad;
But in the midst of all we shared,
We always knew how much we cared.

The Journey

My friend....

Today you've taken a journey, one on which I cannot go.
But Heaven is sweeter today. I know this to be so.
We talked about this journey, though some things we did not know
We spoke of expectations; of seeing loved ones we missed so.

We spoke of how you'd get there, the road on which you'd go.
You knew someone was waiting; the way for you he'd show.
Today you took that journey on which I could not go.
But Heaven is sweeter today; this I truly know.

Nicki Sooter Wilcoxson and Jim Wilcoxson

Jim and I would have a hard time telling our stories separately. For the most part our stories have intertwined since we were 15 years old, and now we have been married for 43 years. Jim says we are enmeshed and, yes, that is true so here we tell our story rather than our stories. We, too, will focus on the good and save the bad and the ugly for another day, but we will say that in part it probably has taken all of the good, some of that bad, and a little of the ugly, to give us a true appreciation for the really good we have today.

Jim and I left Lubbock in 1968 after graduating from Tech. We have been in Amarillo ever since except for a one year move to Booker, Texas where Jim enjoyed his first year of coaching. After many years in the golf business, Jim “found” himself, returned to WTAMU, finished his degree and got his teacher's certificate so he could pursue his goal of coaching girl’s basketball which he did for the next 20 years. He enjoyed a very successful career, winning two state titles with the Lady Raiders of Randall High School in 1992 and 1998. In 2004 he became the 135th member of the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame. I took a more straight forward path and spent 33 years in the school system here in Amarillo first as a classroom teacher, then as a school librarian, and finally retiring as an instructional technology specialist where I worked with teachers and staff development. We have two great daughters, Kim and Jami. Kim and her husband, Vince, and our grandson, Cole who is 8, live in Flower Mound. Jami along with her husband Dorsey, stepson, Hart who is 14, and her son, Jordie who is 12, live here in Amarillo. Our grandsons continue to serve as a constant source of joy to us and we could spend hours telling you how cute, smart, and talented they are, but we will restrain ourselves unless you ask. We don't travel very much except around Texas mostly watching grandsons play baseball, but we are open to some new adventures so we have been to New York City and St. Thomas among other great places and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Both sets of our parents have died over the past 5 years. We do still have ties to Childress as we still have the Wilcoxson home there.

The story of how we first met has been a source of amusement in our family for years. Stepping back to that time in 1960, when my parents dragged me kicking and screaming from our home in Muleshoe to our new home in Childress, they stopped in at the Highway Cafe that very first night in town for dinner. Sitting in the booth across from my family was a man who sold insurance that my dad had previously met on a trip to Childress . Sitting with this insurance man was his son. Introductions were made and I was grossed out that my parents had introduced me to a BOY FROM CHILDRESS! Would the horror of that day never end! I suppose I was a bit dramatic. That was the night I met Jim Wilcoxson and the rest is history. My mother loved to tell that story until the day she died. That was how I met my "BFF". By the way, Jim has never told his side of the story about that night—Ummm….

Our story was previously published as a part of two posts on our blog:

Best Friends Forever (BFF) August 16, 2007

Where in the World is......The Class of '63 August 17, 2007

Joe D Hopkins

After graduation I attended Trinidad State JC in Trinidad CO where I was exposed as having one of the first known cases of "white man's disease" on the basketball court. For those of you who do not recall, that means, "can't run, jump or shoot very well!" I then went to Texas Tech for one year with grades ranging from a-b-c-d-f, with the A in PE. I dropped out after the one semester went home to work for the Railroad and wait to be drafted. Something possessed me to join the USMC Reserves so I drove to Amarillo to accomplish this and upon returning to C the next day found my draft notice in the mail. That is how I became a draft dodging Hollywood Marine Corp Reservist.

I then took this act to Houston, married Diane Mock and finally finished my degree at U of H in 01/1970. Along the way I managed to make Diane so miserable that she asked for a divorce and rightfully so. That will be my last comment on my marital exploits, other than to say that I have been married, for the last time, to Anne, since 1994. Along the way I became the proud father of two daughters, Ashley, born in 1974 and Whitney, born in 1985. I have 3 grandchildren, Will, Sam and Lily, ages 8, 6 and 3.5 respectively. They live in Boerne and Ashley and her Husband, Bobby, both graduated from Texas A & M. Whitney just finished at UT and lives in Austin.

From 1970 until 1994 I worked in the corporate sector and for a couple of small companies in the D/FW area. Jobs ranged rom sales rep to sales manager to management, in the courier, bus and armored car industries. My political incorrectness, lack of tact and stubborness did not endear me to upper management so I changed jobs more times than I would have liked. I also beat my head against the wall trying to make a business I bought successful in Denton TX. This was an office supply, furniture store and computer store. I learned that I need to have a great passion about what I am doing in order to make it successful. I did not in this case and closed this down in 1990 and was able to pay off all of my secured debt and 98% of the unsecured debt.

Anne and I married in 1994 and immediately moved to Sydney Australia with her employer, American Express. Anne is from the Detroit area and in her early career she and I had met at one of their functions. She promptly moved to Memphis and we stayed in touch until she came back to Dallas in 1992. I was in the midst of blowing up another good career opportunity with Loomis Armored Car. I got that done in 1993 and was about to get back in the courier business when her opportunity to move to Sydney came around. We were engaged and married and off to Australia we went for a great 2 year adventure, followed by 2 years in Salt Lake City and back to Australia for another 18 months.

We came back to the Dallas area in mid 2000 and moved about 2 miles from James Claude Holton where we stayed for 5 years. I had learned a new field in Sydney, as a retained recruiter and as a counselor in the career transition field (teaching displaced employees how to do resumes, job search and interview, by now on which I was quite an expert)! Anne retired from American Express in 2004 and wound up taking a job with AAA automotive group in Dearborn Mi. Her mom, who is 79, still lives in this area as do 2 of her 3 brothers. I was able to transfer with my latest employer, USIS, a government contractor that conducts security clearance investigations for the Federal government.

How is that for a 45 year summary? I obviously left out much of the good, the bad and the ugly. I am more comfortable in my skin that ever before, thanks to my renewed faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have been blessed with more second chances than the law allows and I did not deserve even one second pass.

I will always feel drawn to Childress and to people I have grown up with. I have never made friends like the ones I have from Childress.

Joe D.

Linda Key Rothwell

Walter and I got married the day after graduation. We had two daughters. Tinese, our youngest died in 1980. Tammy Neighbors lives in Karnack, Tx. We have two grandchildren, Nicole and Craig and 2 1/2 great grandchildren, Jocelyn, Christian and the new one will be here in August.

Walter is from the class of '62 we met at school. We just knew who each other were until one fateful night when Scherry Snider, class of '62, was to spend the night with me. After the football game, Scherry and I went to the Teen Canteen at the Womens Department Club. Walter was there and she told him it would be nice if he took us home so my mother didn't have to get out to come get us. At the time, I was living in town. My dad was building our new house at Kirkland so we lived in town for 3 months. Walter said I snookered him because he thought I was a town girl. He never thought he would have to drive 15 miles to pick me up and take me home. Of course, gas was at the highest 15 cents a gallon. He could get a dollars worth of gas and make it all week. Oh for those prices again!

Walter was stationed at Fort Knox from 1962-1963. Frankfurt Germany 1963-64 then we moved to Butzback, Germany until 1966. He was in the 3rd Armored Division. In Frankfurt, we lived about 6 blocks from downtown on the sixth floor (no elevator). We had one room and had to share the bathroom with 12 other people who lived on that floor. If you wanted a bath you put 20 phennings in the machine and waited. I found out you had to guard your bath water or someone would steal it!From Germany we went back to Fort Knox until 1967. Walter went to Korea and Tammy and I went back to Childress for the year. Our youngest was born a month after he left. He did get to come back on leave when she was 6 months old. Then we went back to Germany in 1968, this time to Erlangen, 4th Armored Division. We were until late 69 and he had to go to Vietnam. The girls and I came back to Childress during his tour there. I worked at the Office Supply for the first time while he was gone this time. After Vietnam, Walter went to Ft Dix for 6 months, then went to Ft. Sill from 1971-72. 1972-73 he went back to Korea, the girls and I stayed in Lawton. I had a job and Tammy was in school. It was close enough to get to Childress for the weekend. In 1973, he came back to Ft Sill we stayed there until 1976. In '76 we went back to Germany. This time to Mannhiem. At least here I finally got the germans to understand myGerman. In 1979 we went to Ft Riley Kansas. We were there until he retired in 1982.

When Walter retired from the army in 1982, we moved back to Childress. I worked at the Childress Office Supply until I went to work at the Farmers Coop Gin. I retired September 1, 2007. We plan on traveling now that we are both retired. We have a trailer and just travel at our leisure.

Yahn Smith

After graduating from Bossier High School (Louisiana) in 1964, he attended Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado and Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Following his marriage to Jennifer in 1968, he completed his undergraduate degree at the Art Institute of Dallas, and later obtained his
Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) at Syracuse University.

His first "real" job was working for a Yellow Pages-type company as an illustrator ... yes, someone actually draws those things in the YP. A couple of years later he became Art Director for what was then the Skaggs-Albertson chain, then worked for five years as Corporate Art Director for Packaging Corporation of America (a division of Tenneco). Yes, someone designs all those retail boxes and displays that go into stores. Among his national clients were Coppertone, Plough Inc., Jolly Rancher Candies, Montgomery Ward, American Beauty macaroni products, Fisher-Price toys, and others. In the summer of 1980, after an enlightening discussion with a clown and a wizard (see Jennifer's comment to "The Unexpected: The Miracle of the Blog", December 19, 2007), he began teaching at the Art Institute of Denver (one of the EDMC schools located all across the country). In September 1983 he transferred to the Art Institute of Houston, where he retired in 2003 as Chairman of both the Graphic Design and Animation Departments, having been with the schools 23 years.

For those who are new to the blog, Yahn and Jennifer live in Las Vegas. They have two daughters, Shannon and Chiara, and five grandchildren.

Along with the short biograpy of Yahn are two of his posters. one for a Mardi Gras in Houston and one for a Black and White Ball in 1982. Accompanying the posters is half of a HUGE mural done for a department store.

Carolyn 'Loter' Barlow

I married Jerry Don Barlow (Cee Vee/Paducah) and have been married 43 years. (His brother, Jimmy is married to Linda Holland, Sr. '64). We live near Wetumka, Ok, which is the southeastern part of the state and only 90 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We are right in 'amongst' the Indians and there's a Casino on every corner. Whoopee!
We have one son, Tyce Alen who just turned 41 Christmas. They have three of the most precious teenagers ever and so smart too boot; Kelsey 16, Brice 14 & Cami 13. Our daughter-in-law, Gina is Principal of the Indianola High School. They live near McAlester, Ok. which is 45 miles away and quite handy for Nana and Papaw. Tyce is Supervisor of the Maintenance Dept for the Oklahoma State Prison at McAlester and received the 2004 and 2006 Supervisor of the Year awards. He is very much a people person and never meets a stranger. Jerry and I are so proud of Tyce and his family, but isn't that the way it's suppose to be.
I worked 30 years for Oklahoma Natural Gas Company, a subsidiary of ONEOK, Inc at Holdenville and retired Jan. 2002 when I was 58. I always said the place would fall apart when I left and sure enough when I retired, they closed the office, sold the building and all that's there now is a parking lot for a bank. Now was I right? Ha! Jerry just retired last summer from the private prison at Holdenville so we are just setting back with our feet propped up. We live in the country and have a few cattle so that gives him something to do. For years I've made glass bead watch bands and ear rings. Also love working with wood making planters, lawn chairs and herb boxes. I really love to cook, so my friends and family call me Martha Stewart and are always asking what Martha whipped up today? I'm keeping busy and wonder how I ever kept everything done while I was working. Of course, I haven't slowed down any either.

I do have a funny of how I met Jerry. He and James Holton were friends. They were dragging Main on a Saturday night and Barbara Moore and I were in my red and white 55 Chevy doing the same. James pulled us over and they ended up getting in with us. I wasn't impressed with Jerry and was trying to get he and Barbara connected. Can't remember what I did, but something caused the cops to turn on their lights and take after us. My brother-in-law had a garage/wrecker serv. and cars were parked along the side of their lots. I took off for there and pulled in among the cars, turned off the lights and we scooted down so they didn't see us with their spot light. After a while they gave up and left. The next day Jerry called and kept on until I went out with him. That was 45 years ago and I've blamed James Holton ever since.
James was one of my very dearest friends and so funny. Once we went on a date (my one and only with a classmate) and I had to tell him it wasn't going to work because he was more like a brother to me, and that's how I felt about most of the guys in our class. James and I kept in touch for years when we would both be in Childress visiting our parents. It was great seeing his picture posted and from the look on his face,he was having a real 'Holton' moment.
I have so many fond memories of Childress and especially CHS and the close friendships we had. I will be sending some funny stories shortly. Take care and have a great day=CB