50 years is half of a century, Picking on Kinky, Tooara!

Thinking back 50 years ago is really hard to do, but some things do come to mind, i.e. no computers, no DVD's, no CD's, no cell phones, $.25 gasoline, $1.00 prime time movies, $15.00 hotel rooms, no e-mail, no war, etc. But this weekend a very surreal thing has happened that brought back all sorts of memories, all good I might add, and that is the class reunion of my 1957(we are celebrating it in September 06 because the reunion is also to honor the Championship football team)senior class. This has been a weird experience since most of the people, with a few exceptions, I have actually not seen during those 50 years. So, even though we had name tags on it didn't seem to matter to my memory, I just didn't recognize them. It turned out to be something like being in the twilight zone. I finally gave up on trying to remember people and just said, "Okay who are you and where have you been?" People would come up to me, re-introduce themselves and then start telling a story of something I did 50 years ago. One lady came up and said,"I was in typing class with you and she started telling the story of how I use to be such a smart elec with the typing teacher, and make her leave the room crying." She also said that one day I was typing(manual typewriters back then)one day and threw the carriage back so hard it flew off of the typewriter and crashed into the wall. Funny thing is I do remember doing that and I explained to her that I remember being a smart elec and actually I still am. So, that is the way the evening went and it was real interesting to see former classmates after 50 years, even though after this weekend I probably will go another 50 years before I see them again. The very few(2) that I see now, infrequently, will continue but I am sure the others will fade off into wherever they go and I will fade off into wherever I go, and that will be it. But, one thing I do know is that the 50's happened to be a great time in history and these times will never be replaced or repeated. When I think about not seeing these people for this length of time and really not even knowing their whereabouts or what they were doing in life it made me wonder why this happens, etc. But, I guess the simple answer is that after high school we go off into the world, with different interests, meet new people, establish a family and then lose touch. While I know that at the end of this weekend, we will all go back to where we came from and what we were doing, and not see each other again until the next reunion, there are a few that I would like to have a friendship with now. They both live in Texas, but that is easier said than done, since they live so far from the great South Plains. But, maybe it will happen by phone or e-mail and hopefully we have revived old friendships into the modern world. Tonight we will have the conclusion dinner of this reunion and I will report back to some of my final observations. But, one thing I would point out now is that, for sure, I have seen more different models of hearing aides than I have ever seen in one room. Since I need one real bad myself I am hoping I can get some ideas on helping my hearing, and others around me are wishing me luck.

As part of this reunion I created a new event for the weekend, called the '56 Wildcat Triathlon and invited all of my classmates to take part with me. This would have been a very large 65-69 age group(about 120)to say the least. It started in Ransom Canyon Lake at 6:45 a.m. with a 1 mile swim, then the bike headed to the old home town of Littlefeld on Hiway 84, for 48 miles then the run was 7 miles into the main street of Littlefield(pop 6500 and shrinking)with the finish line at the City Barbershop(the barber that owns it cut our flatops in '56 and is still cutting hair). My finishing time was 5:18 hours, while all my classmates were invited I was the only one that competed, so I finished both first and last. The encouraging thing was there were 3 of my former classmates waiting at the finish line, so that was a glad happening. Oh well, maybe on the next reunion more will participate.

Well my candidate for Governor, the Kinkyman, is receiving huge criticism from his opponents. What this means is that he is making a dent in this election to the point that he is now being taken seriously. So, typical of the Democrats and Republicans they are dipping into their millions to do everthing they can to discredit the Kinkyman. The big guys created a new industry, called Opposition Research, that goes back into a persons history to find anything bad they can about the candidate. In this case they have gone back as far as 30 years to find things that might make Kinky look bad. Fact is, this is one of the reasons regular citizens don't run for office. If you do, and you start to threaten the system as Kinky has, you're going to be attacked. Heaven knows I felt this same thing, on a very small arena, when I announced I would run for the USAT board. One of my so-called friends(no longer)did his best to throw trash on me and about me, only to have it back fire on him and his candidate. So, there is justice out there and hopefully the Perry/Bell slime campaign will back fire on them. Remember, Harry S. Truman, remember Minnesota!! Long live the ordinary citizen running for office!!!

Well for right now the thoughts of organizing the association for armadillos and racoons(TooAra-The Organization of Armadillos-Racoons of America) in the canyon area has come to a stand still. It seems that they are more content with the area and the residents are feeling the same. Their attack on the yards, looking for grub worms has ceased and they are back to eating whatever they use to eat before the grub worm epidemic. Fact is, the last one I saw had a big grin on his face. We are happy for them!!!

Off to other causes!!

greerman