Published 8/03/07, contributed by Linda Olivier Meyer
I remember in Mr. Rowland's homeroom that we would plan poster parties. We all got together at my house a couple of times and my dad was so impressed because Mr. Rowland showed up and visited.
Published 8/03/07, contributed by Richard James
Looking through some of those old photos really took me back. I was very surprised to see the Lee Elem. operetta cast picture. Class Photos page 2. Some of the ladies in our class are just as cute now as they were then. I was the giant 'Blunderbuss' seated in the front row just to the left of the cow. I remember being very angry at that cow because I had a serious crush on Linda Olivier and was so tickled to be seated next to her. Then along came that cow and got between us. I don't remember who the cow was only that they came between us and ruined my plot.
Published 8/18/07, contributed by Betty Bernauer Waedemon
Recently I was reading the entries by classmates and got to thinking how lucky we were to grow up in a place and a
time when school spirit was so important. I have visited with many friends that grew up in large cities and did not experience the same feeling
of community which we had. The school rivalries that we enjoyed in our district were legendary. Many of you probably remember Randy Lee, who
played football for PNG and graduated in 1968. He played with Ron (Waedemon) at Rice and has remained a very close friend of ours. We have
had an ongoing argument about the last time TJ and PNG played for district and TJ won at the very last minute. Randy has argued that TJ cheated
and the officials gave us the game. We have listened to this for 39 years. At Randy's fathers funeral, someone brought a newspaper article of
the game (mind you this was a very yellowed clipping from 1968) to settle the argument once and for all with Ron. Only in Port Arthur and Port
Neches would this rivalry still be living on (and at a funeral). We were with Randy Lee 2 weeks ago, and he was telling all of our Rice friends
about how "huge" Ron would abuse "skinny" Ricky Duplantis (he played for PNG) in basketball games between TJ and PNG. I can remember sitting
in the stands at Lamar in my Hussar uniform and crying when we lost our last game. These are great memories. We are lucky to have grown up
in Port Arthur. It may not be beautiful, it does have ferocious mosquitoes, it is unbearably hot, it has incomparable pollution (never heard
that word while there), but it was a great place to grow up.
Published 10/27/07, from Robert Sandoval
There have not been many 'Remember When's recently. One recurring memory is about Donnie Wade, may he rest in peace. I knew him in later years and was a summer roommate of his here in Houston when I had enough of college and temporarily dropped out.
Luckily, headlines and newstories of DaNang and the HoChiMinh trail convinced me that college wasn't so bad. Anyway, in Mrs. Aber's ninth
grade history class at Woodrow, she could detect any contraband foodstuff for at least four rows back. During the middle of one of her animated
lectures you hear "Brother Wade...Brother Wade....Is that a chaw in your mouth???" Sure enough old Woodpecker Wade would turn somewhat redder.
"Brother Wade, you know where it belongs." Without another word he would get up from his prone position in the one-piece desk, walk to the
wastebasket, and deposit a wad of bazooka about half the size of a bigmac, No big issue was made, but it happened more than once. Woodpecker
Wade was every educators worst nightmare but a lot of fun. Both Mrs. Aber, (from Mississippi I think), and Donnie Wade were unforgettable.
I had the pleasure of being friends throughout with some really intelligent students and with some who never knew until the day before
graduation whether they would make it or not. I realize now those were some of the best years of my life.
Published 11/09/07, from Gilsey Viator
I had another fond memory of T.J. classes. I remember Mike Soileau and I solving all of the world's problems and laughing a lot. I don't remember the class though?? Mike, do you remember what class we had together? We didn't blow spitballs on the teacher like Randy Landry and I did but we sure had fun...
Published 11/25/07, from Billy Jordan
Most classmates probably remember that during our senior year integration occurred in the athletic divisions. The first sport to be integrated was basketball. TJ played the first game with Lincoln at Lincoln 's gym. The gym was packed with almost no room to step out of bounds and throw the ball in. Being at Lincoln 's gym, there was very few TJ people there. Both teams that year were good and the game was very close. In the last minute of the game, TJ was leading by a few points and I got a rebound under Lincoln 's goal and looked up the court to throw the ball. I was guarded by two Lincoln players that had me boxed in against the end line. As I was looking for someone to come and help, I saw Ron Waedemon and one of the Lincoln players at mid court get into a fight. All hell broke loose when that happened and a riot started. At least that was what I thought it was at the time. I got hit on the back of the head and the next thing I knew the Lincoln coach was leading me over to the bench through the crowd to where all of TJ's players and fans had gathered. Needless to say, the game was never completed and we were escorted to the locker room, told to grab our clothes and get on the bus. I believe the cheerleaders got on our bus, also. We got out of there quickly. It always amazed me how that event got hushed up and you never heard anything about it in the newspaper or anywhere else. In a couple of days we were told by Coach Williams to get on a bus as we were going to take a trip. We went back to Lincoln and sat down with their players in Lincoln 's cafeteria and talked out the issue. I never did find out from Ron what started the fight. When Lincoln came to TJ to play the second time that season, there were cops all around the gym. Also, no one was allowed to stand on the sidelines and they only let in those people that would fill seats, no standing room tickets. TJ won both of the Lincoln games that year but we could not beat PNG or we would have been District champs. Looking back to this event and where we are now with race relations, we have come a very long way.
Published 11/25/07 , from Janette Light Norton
While I was in Austin with my daughter, Jennifer, Diane Richmond sent me a wonderful gift: the program to the Greek Olympics, sponsored by the 4th grade classes (1960) of Sam Houston Elementary School . She also sent a picture of our wonderful and brilliant teacher that year, Mrs. Edna Jagoe. To this day, almost everything I really know, I can say that I first thought about it in Mrs. Jagoe's class. Test me. I'll bet Mike's name is in there somewhere--I know that Hal, Wes, Pete Huber, Peggy Fontenot, Terry Sue, Keith Tamplin, Diane, Cherlyn Hebert--our mothers and teachers worked hard for that day. And Wes DID make the greatest Zeus. I hope we didn't make him sick with that gold paint but, for us mortals, he cut quite an impressive figure on his throne.
Published 11/25/07 , from Diane Richmond Miller
Well, I don't have any photos of the Greek presentation, but I DO have the program from it. It has been in my mom's cedar chest for almost 50 years now! I also have the class picture from that year and a small picture of Mrs. Jagoe that someone took. I have sent you an invitation to view a web album that has these pictures in it so you can see them..
What I remember most about those Olympics was the teachers rubbing bronze colored paint on Wes Nielsen's body so he would look like Zeus. I also remember us needing purple robes to wear and instead of buying purple material, we dyed it ourselves. Why, I'll never know... maybe to add a touch of authenticity to it. I remember that we had the Olympics in that big side yard of the school. It seemed enormous to me at the time, but I don't think the area is as big I remember it through my 10 year old eyes.
Published 12/07/07, from Carole Oubre Reeves
I read Billy Jordan's story about the Lincoln basketball game. I remember it vividly. Terry Skaro and I were there, in our cheerleader uniforms of course, and after the fight broke out we had to sit in the stands until things calmed down and the police allowed us to leave. WELL, when we left the gym we were being pushed from behind by the Lincoln crowd. I remember turning around to say something and Terry QUICKLY grabbed my arm and pulled my head close to his and said DON'T YOU SAY A WORD!!!! He was afraid I was going to get us beat up or something. I don't know what his problem was :-).
Anyway, you're right Billy. Terry and I rode the school bus home with the basketball players. We had to leave Terry's car there and he (and I believe his dad) went to pick it up the next morning. I also remember someone threw a brick and it broke a police car windshield. I think the school bus made it okay. It was a very scary time. I have to say that was one night when you could cut the air with a knife it was so tense.
Ron, was it you or the other guy that started the fight???
Published 12/07/07, from Bill Horton
Here's an addition to Billy Jordan's story.
The TJ-Lincoln basketball game was held during final exams. I don't know if it was because of the finals or the game location, but there were very few
students from TJ at the game. David Williams and I had a math final in Mrs. Taylor's class the next day and we must have felt pretty confident about the
test because we were the only two students from that class at the game. When the melee broke out, we were escorted with the cheerleaders (Terry Skaro was
there) to the team bus and the irate crowd was punching us as we made our way. I think David and I made the two highest grades on the final.
