Do You Remember

Do you remember May 31, 1961? It was a Wednesday, just like today, exactly 45 years ago. At 7:30pm we were supposed to meet on the Hudson Street side of the Hirsch Memorial Youth Center and form into two lines. At 8:00pm we were to march into the auditorium and remain standing until Mr. McKenzie sat down.

A total of 474 Fair Park 1961 classmates were soon to stand individually when our name was called, receive our Fair Park diploma, move the tassel from the right to the left side of our cap, and thus officially end our “high school” days. Little did we know that as soon as we completed this event somewhere in the cosmos someone hit the Fast Forward button on the time machine. As the result, we are now looking around and wondering, “How did 45 years pass so quickly?” I know this may stretch credibility, but its the only way I can explain how I look 63 in the mirror and still feel 18 in my mind.

Happy 45th my friends, and many thanks to Jackie Johnny Jones for reminding me of this milestone.

Fair Park Nebula 1961 - What it Symbolizes

In 2003 I was experimenting with some photo editing software trying to add special effects to various photos. I found one editing tool that darkens an object but highlights its edges. The photo I was using was one I had taken of Fair Park High School during a trip I made to Shreveport in November 1999. I liked the photo showing only the highlighted edges on the darkened school building and thought it might be interesting to transfer that image to a photo of the universe showing only stars in the background. I figured that would make the building look like it was suspended in time and space. However, I couldn't find a photo of space that would work well with the school. I did find instructions for creating my own star field background so I did that instead. It turned out to be just what I wanted. When I pasted the school image into the star field background I liked the look, but thought it still needed something more.

Somewhere in the whole process I read that a nebula is composed of gaseous cloud-like matter containing many different elements. The various components in a nebula are in constant motion, and never configured quite the same way at any given point in time. I realized that is very similar to any group including the Fair Park Class of 1961. We are not static, but rather an ever changing group. That line of thought led me to add “Fair Park gold” nebula clouds to the image to represent the Class of 1961. Clouds seemed appropriate because James 4:14 notes, ". . . For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." I selected the title “Fair Park Nebula 1961” as the name for the photo since 1961 would have been the only time the gold colored nebula clouds representing our class would have been in the specific configuration shown in the image.

My next line of thought became where the gold clouds may have journeyed since 1961. Certainly in 1961 our destinations were unwritten stories and the possibilities were as expansive as our abilities and opportunities permitted. Back then our future was a bright attractive destination that bid us come and see what it had to offer. Thus was born the idea of including the brighter stars and the spiral galaxy as representing possible destinations. For your info, the spiral galaxy in the photo is called the M81 Spiral Galaxy. Astronomers believe it has over 250 billion stars in it. I figured that many destinations should be enough, even for the Class of 1961.

Finally, Fair Park Nebula 1961 asks that you mentally acknowledge you have made your journey out into the universe and have now come full circle. You have now returned, or soon will return, to the starting point of your journey to review where you’ve been. Your field of vision is much greater now than in 1961. The journey is not yet over, but we can now see the whole, not just the part, and it’s a time to reflect on the places we've been, the sights we’ve seen, compare our journey and experiences with other Class of 1961 travelers, and rejoice in the blessings of life that have been ours.

If you want to view a full page size image of the photo just click on the photo (and then the icon if one appears at the bottom right of the photo). Use the Back command to return to the article text. By the way, if you look directly at the gold colored clouds for a minute or two you may seem them begin to move. I know they aren't really moving, but it sure looks like it to me.

Reunion Announcement Mailed on May 9, 2006, and Now Available On Line

The announcement letter and registration form for our 45th year reunion were mailed on Tuesday, May 9. If you didn't receive a copy that probably means your home address info in the alumni records was outdated, or missing. The easiest way to update your info is click on the Email Me link located in the LINKS section of this blog page.

I have also posted a copy of the reunion announcement and registration form on the Reunion page of the class website. If you plan to attend the reunion (and we hope you do) print a copy of the registration form (be sure all lines of the form prints), complete it, and send it to Camilla Fulco Doughty at the address shown on the form. If you can't print a copy let me know and we'll send you a hardcopy.

Group Photo at Reunion

Camilla asked me to post the following info to the blog page . . .

There will be a formal group photo taken at the reunion and the photographer will require each of us to pay on site that evening $10.00 if we plan to pick it up ourselves in Shreveport, or $12.00 total for photo, shipping and handling if we do not plan on picking it up---thanks ---

Camilla

Fair Park 1943

Thanks to Jackie Johnny Jones for this old post card photo that he found online. The card is postmarked 1943, the year most of us were born.

Sharing a Blog Article

As most of you probably know when it comes to using computers there are usually several different ways to do just about everything. All these options can be confusing, but each way usually has advantages and disadvantages.

I recently became aware of a classmate's efforts to share a Fair Park blog article with another person. In looking at the different ways you can do that I initially thought why not just give the other person the web address for our class website and tell them to click on the link to the Blog web page. However, I realized that depending on their computer skills you may have to also provide some detailed guidance to get them to the specific article in the blog that you want them to read.

A second option is to try copying and pasting the article into an email. However, you may wind up including more copied material in the email than you intended unless you know how to delete the copied material you didn't want.

A third way is to use the Email Post feature that is part of each blog article. Just go to the blog article you want to share and click on the envelope icon with the arrow on it at the bottom right of the article (see below). Then follow the instructions that appear. The person you send the email to will receive a message from you with whatever comments you wish to make and a link that they can click on to go directly to the article that you are emailing from.

ADDENDUM - 5/22/2006

I have just discovered a fourth way to share a blog article and it may be the best way of all. Notice that at the bottom of every blog article there is a line of text that shows who posted the article and the day and date of the posting. If you move your mouse cursor over the day and date a hand icon will appear along with a little popup box indicating this is a permanent link. Right click your mouse on the day and date line and choose Copy Shortcut. Then go to the email you plan to send and choose Edit/Paste from the menu line to paste the shortcut into the body of the email. You may have to put your cursor at the end of the shortcut and press the spacebar once to make the link activate. You'll recognize when that happens because the text will change colors and a line may appear underneath the shortcut. Add any comments you want to the email and send it. When the recipient clicks on the shortcut link it will open to the article you want to share with them. Send yourself a test email to see how easy this works.

May 2006 Update

Rather than trying to summarize everything that went on this past month let me ask you to read the 10 blog articles posted below during April. In this first posting for May I will cover a couple of things that came in recently.

• Betty Molcany Barber emailed me a day or so ago to ask if we could try another "do you know where these people are" effort. Hopefully this will ensure as many of our "missing" classmates as possible are contacted about the reunion. Betty mentioned classmate James Hay as an example of how people know things that might be helpful in finding "missing" classmates. She recalled that years ago James was taking down a television antenna and the antenna fell on him causing him to become permanently disabled. After his wife Mary Jo Lacobee died in 1995 James went to live with a daughter in Waskom, TX. Betty hopes that her memory of this type information might prompt others to pass along anything they may know about how to contact James, or at least illustrate the type things we may know about "missing" classmates that could help find them.
  
  With that being said, I will toss the ball to everyone reading this update. Do you have any information/memories regarding any of our "missing" classmates that might help locate them? A current list of the 172 "missing" classmates is on the What's New page of our web site. Review that list and if you have anything at all please email it to Jerry Cook who is handling the reunion mailing list. Please include me on the CC: line of your email so that I can have the info for our alumni records.
  
  
• This may be old news to some of you, but I learned recently that classmate Judy Turnbow Quinn has remarried. Her husband's name is David Sykes. Congratulations to both Judy and David. I have changed Judy's married name in the classmate directory to reflect the change. Judy and David are still in Shreveport and Judy can still be reached at her same email address.
  
  
• Joanie Stockard told me recenty that things are finally returning to normal at her house.You may recall her house in the Lake Charles area had lots of damage from hurricane Rita last fall. Joanie said she wants to find the time to write a short story about this experience and how long and difficult the process is to get your life back to normal after something like this happens. I'll pass that along when Joanie is able to get it pulled together.
  
  
• At least two of our classmates, Sonny Hedges and Johnny Newberry, celebrated birthdays on April 27th. Thanks to Jackie Johnny Jones for this info. He found this tidbit at Reunion.Com.
  
  
• One of the things the Reunion Committee is doing to honor our classmates who have passed on is prepare a display with the names and senior class photos (if available) posted on the display. Betty Molcany Barber's husband, RD, sent me a photo of what the display will look like. When you see the finished project I believe you will find it to be a very tastefully done tribute.
  
  
• We had several email address changes during April. Check your updated QED (email directory) for those.
  
  
• My note on the subject line of the April QED email reminding folks to check the blog page of our web site for the April Update report was puzzling to some of you. If you were puzzled I hope the follow up note I sent to everyone in the middle of April cleared up any confusion.
  
  
• Camilla told me the hardcopy letter announcing the specifics of the reunion will be mailed very soon.

That's it for now. I hope May is a wonderful month for you. Drop me a note if you think of anything you believe would be of interest to others.