Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3-D

The deepest look into the universe ever achieved by mankind.

Death of Joseph H. Zmek

Graveside services for Joseph H. Zmek, Father of classmate Patty Zmek Primm and Uncle of classmate Don Zmek, will be held at 10:00 am, Monday, September 21, 2009, in the Centuries Memorial Park with Rev. Lance Alexander and Kerry D. Tarvin officiating. The family will be receiving guests for visitation at Centuries Memorial Funeral Home Sunday, September 20, 2009 from 4-6 pm.

Mr. Zmek was born May 29, 1911 in Cleveland, Ohio to the late Joe and Anna Pekarek Zmek and was called home September 17, 2009 at The Grace Home in Shreveport, Louisiana following a courageous battle with cancer.

Please keep the Zmek family in your prayers. Home address info is available for Patty and Don, but no email addresses. The full obituary and Guest Book for Mr. Zmek is available by clicking on his name in the title line of this posting.

Update on Johnny Newberry

I received this updated info on Johnny.

Sunday - Johnny still has not been sent to Houston. He is still home and is still "testing". He is to have a "procedure" this Thursday that is supposed to be the final one before the big decision if he will be going or not.

Shirley Baldwin Chandler

Shirley Baldwin Chandler sent this note for posting on the blog. If you are interested in Shirley's offer contact her directly. If you need her email addresses its in the Email Directory available in the Class Directory page.

In going through some of my "stuff" I came across some books that were written by Sandra Canfield. Sandra also wrote under another name, Karen Keast. Sandra was C. K. Canfield's wife. I thought I should email C. K. and ask him about the books, but as far as I know he does not have an email address. I would like to offer these books to a classmate that remembers Sandra and has not read her books. I have three books by Sandra, Tigers By Night, Dark Journey, and Night Moves, and I have two copies of this book. I have four by Karen Keast, Night Spice, The Surprise of His Life, A Tender Silence, and Notorious. If you would put this on the blog and ask if anyone would like to have the books to get in touch with me. I will mail them to them. The first person to contact me would get them.

Johnny Newberry

Classmate Johnny Newberry has entered the VA Hospital in Houston for heart related surgery. No details are available at this time, but will be posted as they become available. Please keep him in your prayers.

A Hubert Humphreys Vignette

John Cole provided the following in remembrance of Fair Park history teacher Hubert Humphreys.

Upon learning about the death of history teacher Hubert Humphreys I couldn't help but remember a brief encounter back in 1961. It was getting close to time for finals and we were all looking forward to graduation. One day Mr. Humphreys called me up to his desk after class dismissal. He was looking nervously down at his grade book. He looked up at me and back down and was clearly searching for the right words. Finally he looked up and said, "John, do you ever pray?" I was knocked back and said, "Mr. Humphreys, do I NEED to pray?" After a brief pause he told me that he was assigned the job of organizing the Baccalaureate services for the Seniors and was asking if I would say the invocation (or maybe it was the benediction). When I realized this wasn't about grades or graduation I would have agreed to anything. I thought about this incident and reminded him of it every time I saw him at class reunions.

Flies On The Butter

I heard a song about 10 years ago that had lyrics so poignant that I found them online and saved them to my computer. That's where they've been ever since until they showed up this morning. Hope they make you smile thinking of at least some of your own experiences growing up in the south.

FLIES ON THE BUTTER

Old tin roof, leaves in the gutter
A hole in the screen door big as your fist and flies on the butter
Mama baking sugar cookies, we were watching cartoons
Heard her holler from the kitchen which one of you young’uns wants to lick the spoon
Yellow jackets on the watermelon, honeysuckle in the air
Daddy turning on the sprinkler, us kids running through it in our underwear
Old dog napping on the front porch, his ear just a twitching
Fall asleep on Granddaddy's lap to the sound of his pocket watch ticking
Oh, oh, oh - Oh, oh, oh
It doesn't feel like it was all that long ago
Oh, oh, oh - Oh, oh, oh
You can dream about it every now and then
But you can't go home again
Me and my best friend Vickie, set up a backyard camp
Stole one of mama's mason jars, poked holes in the lid and made a firefly lamp
Me and Jimmy Monroe, sneaking down by the river
I'm still haunted by the taste of a kiss I didn't get 'cause he was too chicken liver
Oh, oh, oh - Oh, oh, oh
It doesn't feel like it was all that long ago
Oh, oh, oh - Oh, oh, oh
You can dream about it every now and then
But you can't go home again
There's a blacktop road, a faded yellow centerline
And it can take you back to the place, but it can't take you back in time
Oh, oh, oh - Oh, oh, oh
It doesn't feel like it was all that long ago
Oh, oh, oh - Oh, oh, oh
You can dream about it every now and then
But you can't go home again
Old tin roof, leaves in the gutter
A hole in the screen door big as your fist and flies on the butter

Stairway To Heaven

Have you ever heard "Stairway To Heaven" played on an acoustic guitar? If not you are in for a treat.

Death of Hubert D. Humphreys

Thanks to Helen Lindsay Rigg for letting me know about the death of former Fair Park history teacher Mr. Hubert D. Humphreys.

Hubert D. Humphreys (Professor Emeritus of LSU-S), age 86, died Friday, August 28, 2009 in Ollie Steele Burden Manor of Baton Rouge, LA. Services will be 11AM Saturday, September 5, 2009 from the chapel of Riser Funeral Home in Columbia. He was a native of Caldwell Parish, long time resident of Shreveport and he lived his last days of retirement in Baton Rouge.

During his working years, he spent 33 years as an educator in Louisiana. He started in Webster Parish High School then moved to Fair Park in Caddo. He joined the LSU-S faculty in 1967 as one of the Charter faculty members and served 17 years.

If you wish to leave a note in the Guest Book, or read the entire obituary, click on the title of this posting.

Changing Times

Recently I read a short article on the origin and history of the Internet. That article caused me to recall how and when I became involved in using computers and the Internet. I shared that article, and my own experiences, with some folks and invited them to let me know about their experiences. The responses I received were all interesting, and in many ways mirrored my own experience. However, one lady who was in a genealogy email group with me several years ago shared a rather unique experience that she had. Here is what she had to say.

I got my first computer around 1992. I don't even remember anything about it. My kids were on it more than me. My kids were learning how to use computers in school so they taught me about computers. My youngest son says, "Mom taught me when I was around 4 how to cut pictures out of magazines and paste them on posters. When I was older I taught Mom how to cut and paste on the computer."

An unusual thing happened in the late 90's when we had dial up Internet service with Net Zero. I was having trouble connecting to the Internet. After about 30 minutes of trying I decided to give up. It was just not worth my time. I went outside and there were 5 police cars sitting in my drive way. It scared me so bad because I had no idea why they were there. One of the officers came to me and said "Are you ok?" I told him yes and asked what was the problem. He said they had been getting 911 calls from my phone and no one would answer when they called back. Standard protocol was to come to the address and check it out. I told them I had not dialed 911. But they had to make sure that I was not just saying that because someone could have been forcing me to say that. I told him they were welcome to come in but the only people that were there were my sons. They came in and walked around and we discovered that when I was trying to connect to the Internet, Net Zero was dialing 911. I thanked them for checking on me and promised never to use Net Zero again, and I haven't.

I am now on DSL, and at any one time there may be 3 or 4 computers going. And now we get the Internet on the phone too. I don't know how I ever lived without my Blackberry. Now I get to play on the Internet while in bed without having a light on to disturb my husband. Funny how we can't live without things that didn't even exist when we were children.

August 2009 Address Updates

There were three address related changes received from classmates during August 2009.

• Joan Stockard provided her new email address.
• Sonny Hedges provided his email address and home address information.
• Betty Sims Rose provided her updated email address and home address information.

Thanks to these folks for helping keep their alumni address information current. This is especially important as we move ever closer to the time for our 50th year reunion. The updated email addresses for these folks is shown in the Class Email Directory dated 9/01/2009.