Front row: Rene Gentry (deceased - Cancer) and
Mitchell Wells)
Second row: David Darling and Kenny Holdridge (deceased - cancer)
Third row: W. K. Stinson (deceased - heart attack) and Bill Lane
(deceased - cancer)
Fourth row: Donald Clary (deceased - cancer) and Ray Stevenson (status
unknown)
Sophomore picnic on the Mimbres River, May, 1945
WE GREW UP For those who have gone, Delbert was the first to go, Delbert gave us many challenges, Each of the departed left us with something, For we shared those cherished and formative days And what days they were!
Black Monday ushered the Great Depression of the Century, Pearl Harbor day! And the Great War of the Century was here. December the 8th. Inside the assembly hall the radio blared - In the assembly hall were our brothers and sisters, And at that very moment in the Phillipines, July 16th. August 15th. Days that molded the century. As seniors we welcomed back to class the vets, They had taken time out from DHS Through all this we learned and grew and developed, We coped with the pains We coped with old cars, synthetic tires, and rationing. We coped with the first date, Along the way we coped with learning to dance. We coped with learning to work. Florence sold tickets at the new El Rancho Theater. We learned to play. Those who had radios It was Fibber McGee and Molly, Bob Hope, and Red Skelton, And H. V. Kaltenborn's commentary, and then, But on Wednesday Morning We experienced the terrible pains of prejudice.
Since graduation each has taken a different path, That is the way it should be. But those fateful days, E-mail me if you have any
comments about this page.
by David Darling
We miss you.
Kiko the latest.
Kiko many smiles.
And each carried a bit
of us with them.
As we grew to
adulthood.
And our
first decade.
Each remembers how that news was heard.
We were seventh graders.
We clustered outside at the steps
South of the old high school.
"December seventh,
nineteen hundred and forty one, a date..."
We can all finish that
sentence.
Aunts and
uncles, cousins, friends, and our role models.
Each feeling the
immediacy much more acutely than we.
Bombs rained on our
fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins,
Future husbands, friends, and role
models.
We were entering our Junior year
And the
great new power of the century
Tore from the womb of science.
Mrs. McCan raced from the depot.
Skirt held high
to accommodate her stride.
Waiving THE TELEGRAM,
Tears streaming,
"It's over! It's over! It's over!"
Were days of our formative years,
Days that would change us all, forever.
John, Tom,
Goob, Mike, Rex,
And Charlie, and Richard, and Hank.
To fight the war.
But mostly we
coped.
Of gold stars
In the windows.
It was
hard for a town boy to date a farm girl
On 3 gallons of gas a week for
the family car!
And the first kiss,
Didn't we
Ciddy!
To the Big Bands on
78s,
To the Voiers, Collier, Oschell, Stockton combo,
And Pete
Valverde and Pete Dominguez and Forrest Delk.
Bobby cooked at the Whitehouse.
Kenny waited tables at the Manhattan.
Chewy worked the coal chute.
And Laura
wrapped packages at Meadow's drug.
(Tell us, Laura, how you came to be
so adept at wrapping packages!)
But those stories are best shared at
your tables.
Tuned in WOAI in San Antonio on Tuesday night.
Then
Henry Guerra and the news.
At 9:30 the Wrestling
Matches!
Miss Whitehill's icy stare
Acknowledged the homework left undone.
As Juniors we were finally permitted
To swim together
In the
"Municipal" swimming pool.
Crossed a
different bridge,
Climbed a different mountain,
Forded a different
stream.
That is the way it is.
And shared experiences of
our cherished, formative years,
Have entered our souls,
And we are
forever linked in spirit.
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