Robert Rozell:
CLASS OF 1977
Eden High SchoolClass of 1977
Eden, TX
Groom High SchoolClass of 1977
Groom, TX
Robert's Story
It is hard to believe it has been over 30 years since I lived in Texas. After high school, I went to Texas Tech and the Hanes family moved to Red Oak, Tx. I met and married my wife Patricia when her family were visiting the Hanes on one of my summer breaks. She lived in Guymon, OK and I made many trips back and forth from Lubbock. After we married, I worked for Swift Independent in Guymon, OK for 7 years and for a small telephone company, PTCI, for 16 years. My job there entailed regulatory work and some high level negotiations as well as some specialized accounting practices.
Since my wife's parents had moved from Guymon, she was ready to leave as well because it was limiting in a number of ways. I was offered a job in consulting in Tulsa and spent a year working at something I hated with people I grew quickly to dislike. That led me to work with another small telephone company, BTC Broadband in a Tulsa suburb. I have spent 9 years here and was named President and CEO of the company in 2010.
My wife and I are very happy here in Tulsa in 2013. Her parents live a relatively short distance away in Perry. Our children are now both grown. Our son, Ross, is a Marine stationed at Quantico and has a technical specialty involving computers and networking. He is married and planning to get out of the military at the end of the year. Our daughter, Caitlyn is now back home and unfortunately going through a divorce.
High school was such a long time ago, but I can remember a lot of things like they happened yesterday. Mostly my failings, but also some of the small things that go into having friends going through shared experiences.
Like the time in 8th grade when we had gone down to the library as a class and I didn't hear Mrs. Peek "shouting" at me to stop on the way back to class. She was so mad she turned about 6 shades of red! The class took my side saying they didn't hear her either and she backed down from sending me to the Principal. Then they all told me after class that they had heard her, but just wanted to mess with her a little. That made me feel good, but I swear to this day I did not hear that woman!
Our high school English teacher Mrs B., who was about half crazy (surely she isn't still around?). We could always get out of doing classwork if we asked her about her cats. She would spend more than half the class telling us the soap opera of the kitties. It seemed like Julio did that more than anyone. I never remember anyone objecting though we probably learned a lot less of the English language than we should have.
There was the year I took Vocational Agriculture with the rest of the guys and had to raise pigs as a project. I could keep a mean log book, but I really wasn't into the pig thing. Rob McIntosh and I did it together. One Friday before a home football game, the pigs got out and Rob and I were out chasing them on foot trying to get them rounded up. I was running as fast as I could go watching for the cut a pig was going to make and caught a literal clothesline across my neck. It laid me out cold and it was a minute or so before I could breathe! Finally I managed to get off the ground and was able to help Rob finish the roundup. I had to answer more than a few questions of why I had a line across my neck that evening as we were dressing for the football game. There really isn't a good cover story for that. It didn't help that Rob was there with the right one.
I remember the different sports that rolled along one after the other from two a days for football, to basketball, track, tennis, and anything else that popped up. I remember the highs from the wins and the disappointments from the losses. Then there were the different characters we had for coaches over the years. I wouldn't have traded a minute of it other than I wish I had not broken my jaw in that final football game of our senior year. We still could have pulled that game out. Also, eating through a straw was never a good thing!
Then there was the time I was in the school play and got mad when I was accused of something I didn't think I really did. It was something really petty and not a big deal, but I walked off the stage and never went back. I don't remember who the stand in was for me, but I heard he did a really great job on extremely short notice (I'm not so sure it wasn't the dress rehearsal when I left). That taught me a lesson in humility and I was really glad my idiocy did not ruin the play. I apologize for my actions decades too late.
There were, of course, all of you who might find this interesting enough to actually read, at least the ones who are still around. The guys whom I considered friends like Mike, Scott, Jesse, Rob, Charlie, Lynn, Craig, and about a dozen others, including the guy we called Carasco for some reason. I know that wasn't his name, but that is too deeply entrenched to be sure of his real name. Benny, I think. They may never have thought of me as a friend, but I hope they did at least occasionally despite the ups and downs of high school.
Then there were the girls. Jackie and Janet Connelly were among the cool girls I never felt good enough to approach, but they were also friendly and engaging in social settings or on trips for either basketball, track, or academic competitions. Tonya was much the same, very pretty, intelligent, cool, and way out of my league. Sarah was all of those things as well and made the mistake of holding my hand one time in 8th grade and I had a crush on her well after I moved hundreds of miles away after high school. I'm sure it was as much of a pain for her as it was painful for me. I understand she married Scott. My hope is that they are happy and well. Then there was Sherrill and Shari from the class ahead of us that tried to keep me sane when it looked like I might go off the deep end. Thank you for that.
Life in high school was so easy in some ways and so hard in others. There have been times when any of us probably would have given anything to go back and relive it. To fix what we did wrong and to do what we did right even better. I certainly couldn't do that because the life I have lived has been truly blessed with a wife that can put up with me and two wonderful kids that she raised while I was pursuing my career. I do feel bad about that, but it was part of the life path. I would enjoy seeing all of you again. 2012 was 35 years since I have seen most of the class. We should try to have a reunion.
I also joined the Groom page as well, just to see if I could see any of the group I went to elementary school with during my ear...Expand for more
ly years. I see a few of the names coming in here and getting registered in the guest book. Familiar names like Britten, Keel, Koetting,and Witt. It wasn't a charmed existence for me in Groom, but several people made it bearable at least, including Jay's mother.
Charlie Hall, the only person who spanned the two places, used to start off many of his phrases with, "Back in Groom....." and proceed to launch into a vivid description of how we used to do things in his fondly remembered birthplace and hometown. He took a lot of ribbing about that over the years, but it never stopped him from doing it or trying to drag me into it with him. He was proud of the place and probably rightly so. He was the son of a prominent and respected physician. Being the poor white trash of the town that had few minorities left me with different memories. I guess it didn't help that my mother, grandmother, and sisters abandoned me there with my grandfather and my uncle. Neither of whom was capable of running their own lives, much less mine. It was so bad for me there at times that I dreamed of making a ton of money so that I could go back and buy up the whole town and burn it to the ground. Later on, I was finally forced to leave that miserable home when my grandfather threw me out of the house after I came home from church and would no longer submit to him taking a belt to me for going. Sounds unbelievable now to even say it, but the man was drunk and when he was drunk he got crazy. In any event, I lived in the Boy Scout bus for 5 days and finished the school year and was then fortunate enough to get the opportunity to live with my scoutmaster/minister Roben Hanes and his family for many years while I finished school. That is when my charmed life really began since everything before that time was done just to survive.
Do I have any fond memories of Groom? Really just strange random ones here and there. There was Thomas Reed and Roger that hung out with me. Marshall, who probably ended up in prison and was smoking seriously by the time he was in 4th grade, and I going fishing in the Kuehler's stock ponds almost every day one summer. I was even learning to like catfish until Marshall's older brother and one of his friends were seining one of the ponds and either Marshall's brother or his friend got tangled up in some barbed wire on the bottom and drowned. I didn't fish again until 5 years ago and have never liked fish since and will not eat it as a rule. There was the little girl (I was never little as long as I can remember) who asked me to dance at some kind of mixer in the community building next to the Witt's house. I said no, only because I had never danced in my life and was afraid I would hurt her. She burst into tears and that really made me feel bad and I left immediately and really never went to another dance as long as I've lived. I remember playing football over at the neighbors' houses and basketball with Jay Witt on his driveway. There was the 7th grade football coach that went to the Big Texan and won something like $100 and a trophy for eating more steak than anyone else. It was some ridiculous amount, much more than the famous 72 oz steak. We used to kid him that he stopped on the way home from Amarillo and had dessert, three times.
Probably the best thing I remember and learned from Groom was that hard work would be necessary for me to get anywhere in life and that I couldn't count on anything being given to me. I forgot that a few times over the years, but it usually came back after I was slapped back to reality.
I know I was never missed by anyone when I left there and I never lost any sleep missing anything about it. For the most part, that was never the fault of the vast majority of the kids there. Oddly, Charlie was the only one I ever got into it with on a regular basis in Groom. Everyone else I got along with pretty well and eventually Charlie and I became friends in Eden. The possible exceptions to that were the huge twin brothers a couple of years older than us who were dunking smaller people at the rare birthday/swimming party that I was invited to in about 6th grade. I stopped it by taking them one at a time and dunking them until they nearly puked. Later, they caught me in the parking lot because I had no one to take me home and pounded my head against the pavement until I bled. You can say what you want about me, but I never picked on smaller people unless they were my very best friends and I tried to help anyone where I could against bullies. It was just the town and the fact I was born into a bad situation that made it miserable for me. I wish it well, although the fact that I40 bypassed it did more damage to it than I ever could have over the years.
I have recently lost over 100 pounds and now weigh less than I did in high school. What that really means is that I almost ate myself into an early grave and I don't have a whole lot to be proud of for losing it. It is interesting only because it points out another failure from my high school days. If I had worked half as hard in high school as I have had to work to lose this weight, I probably would have been a high school All American or something. I tended to take the path of least resistance back then as many people do. It was cheating myself and my teammates when I didn't give maximum effort in the training portion of the various sports. Yet another life lesson learned too late.
I have a few quick updates. It is now December 2015 and things are going relatively well. Shortly after I wrote this journal, I developed pretty severe anemia and couldn't walk 30 feet without being winded. That was a real comedown from walking about 12 miles per day a month or so before (6 in the morning and 6 in the evening). I took iron and changed my diet and it didn't help. Finally a blood transfusion got me back to a low normal level and functioning again. The root cause of that issue was never found, but searching for it let my doctors find another issue that is more severe. If I'm around in a year, I will share the details.
For now, I'm just trying to plan a trip to Scotland with a few of my friends. We have tee times on several of the most well known courses, but we are on a standby type of list for the Old Course at St Andrews. I have used a ton of air miles and will be flying first class on July 2nd for about 9 days. It should be a blast if I can remember how to hit a golf ball over 220 yards.
Good luck and, if I don't get to update or see you in the coming year, goodbye. It has been amazing knowing each of you.
Bob
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