It was great of Janice Huebel to forward the picture of the First Graduation class from St. Catherine's. I noticed a couple names were missing. I think the guy on the left is Kerry English and the guy in the center is Charles Kern. It's amazing what I can remember from years gone by, but now I walk into a room and can't remember what I came for. Thanks again for the blast from the past.
Published 4/13/07, contributed by Danny Landry
Well, the website jogged the OLD memory cells again. I remember the Robert E. Lee 6th grade class photo. I was on the top row far right. How did someone know that was me? I have not seen that picture in years. I can help you out with one of the UNKOWNS. The boy on the bottom row between Beth Ann Sutherlin and Irene Protas is Brian Arceneaux. We were best friends at Edison and TJ and I never knew we were in the same class at Lee. I never knew many of the TJ classmates in elementary school because, BELIEVE IT OR NOT ..., I attended St. James Catholic School in Port Arthur the first four years. I like to tell people that the first three years, I only attended school for half a day at a time. There were so many kids enrolled there that there was not enough room. I attended DeQueen in the fifth grade and had my first male teacher, Mr. Blevens. I never went to Woodrow Wilson. I remember the fifth grade teacher as Mrs. Destegier. (sp?) I hope Jeanette Havens remembers me. She was my SWEETIE!!! I even gave her a locket with her initials engraved on it. Can everyone say, "How cute" The ROMANCE didn't last. She gave the locket back to me at Edison. Oh well.
I think the first boy on the third row is Stanley ?? The other boy on the same row may be Steve ?? The other little girl on the top row may have appeared on THE LITTLE RASCALS!!! ha ha
Published 4/13/07, contributed by Sharon Lewis Forrest
Just reading the "I Remember When" section on the website - boy, does that bring back some memories! Wanted to tell Joel Levy that I went to kindergarten at Lee Elementary before moving to Travis Elementary for 1st - 6th grades. I was in Mrs. Peterson's class, too! That means we were in the same class! You are correct, her class was in front of the building with a kind of bay window thing. We all sat on assigned nursery rhyme characters on a rug in the room. Mine was Peter-Peter Pumpkin Easter! I got in trouble a lot for talking (imagine that???). I think many, many years later Nancy Decker and I determined that she was also in that class.
Somebody asked if we could still remember all our teachers ... I can, for sure! after kindergarten at Lee (Mrs. Peterson), at Travis I had
1st grade-Miss Yerby, 2nd grade-Miss Garren (sister to the Mrs. Gerren at Lee), 3rd-Miss Anderson, 4th-Miss Patricia Campbell, 5th-Mrs. Yvonne
Ton, 6th-Mrs. Knight.
Published 4/13/07, contributed by Cherilyn Hebert and Janette Light Norton
"I (Cherilyn Hebert) remember you (Jeanette) standing up in class (6th grade maybe?) and announcing that your mother had had your baby brother. Iam thinking his name is Robert or something like that, but that's also Diane Richmond's broy=ther's name so I might be confusing them"
(Actually, his name was Robert David, and it was 5th grade. He was the first boy after 3 girls in my family and I, the BABY, was 10 years old. He really surprised my mom and dad, but me even more because I lost my role in the family. As amny of you will remember, I kept trying to regain my position but was generally usuccessful.)
"And then another was when you wanted to be called Helen instead of Jeanette. I remember playing Red Rover at PE and when we called your name, we had to call 'Helen' instead of 'Jeanette'."
(Isn't this a hoot?? I have absolutely NO recall od this but I do remember - and still feel - the curse of being called by my middle name.
My brother is also called by HIS middle name.)
Published 4/13/07, contributed by Sharon Lewis Forrest
Just after our last reunion, I surveyed the men in our class about some of their school memories and thoughts. Their responses are both touching and insightful. Several of you have asked for the results. I'm trying to put them into an E_Z view format. Until then, it is noteworthy of how many long responses for our website come from the men who considered themselves non readers or - writers when in school. In a nutshell, literacy tests are invalid when they measure only one type of literacy (narrative). If we ever change the format and genres of our tests, we'll discover that many girls might lag in behind the boys. But then, everybody who responded already knew that. For almost an entire year, I worked with the responses and felt so close to home.
Janette
PS I loved Jenny Rhodes' story about the overseas birth of her son. I am wondering if anyone alse from Sam Houston or Thomas Edison has some great stories saved up? CHALLENGE.
