Gary Holt:
CLASS OF 1971
East High SchoolClass of 1971
Nashville, TN
Gary's Story
Life
Pets: Two medium size black labs (Lizzie & Dixie), three sweet cats (Princess,Paws & Sweetie, one turtle dove (Bird), three orphaned baby flying squirrels (Jonathan, Josh & Matthew), two ground hogs and twenty chickens (brown & green egg laying types) one miniature Chinese Gray rooster named Big-Little. I've always loved to ride motorcycles but it was impractical while raising four children. The Headmaster at the school where I taught coerced me into riding. He had two bikes and we would ride all over middle Tennessee together. Ten years ago a Brentwood Academy parent traded an older Honda motorcycle for an older car that I had. I was as excited as when my parents gave me my first Murray Bicycle in the third grade. I don't have leathers but occasionally I wear my son-in-laws fireman pants when its really cold. Cool, huh.
Presently I'm recovering from the loss of my wife. We were married thirty years and raised four wonderful children. We also have three wonderful grandchildren by my daughter. My wife graduated from this life to Heaven on Oct. 2, 2007. To be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus. I miss her so much that my heart aches. Grieving at this level is the hardest trial I've faced in my lifetime. God has been so good to me by sending so many friends to metaphorically body surf me through these last five months. Over a thousand friends came to the funeral & visitation, hundreds have sent cards, e-mails, phone calls and several have taken me out to eat. I've been encouraged to journal or in todays jargon blog my thoughts and feelings as often as I can. I finally decided to join Classmates for that reason. Shalom!
School
As a tenth grade boy, I thought Rita Brown hung the moon. To me she was quite, dignified, mysterious and beautiful. She and her boyfriend broke up and she asked me to fill in as her date to either at the prom or homecoming dance.
Ms. Sutherland inspired me through our singing in Chorus. We learned the Hallelujah Chorus and other great songs. Coach Wilson (HS FF Def. Coach, Biology teacher), Ms. Berry (HS Math Teacher), Coach Echco...Expand for more
ls (Jr.High FF&BB&Track coach), Mrs. Clark (Jr. High English teacher) and Mr. Newman (Jr. High shop teacher) were my favorite teachers. I also had a great deal of respect for Hilary Martin. He gave me some of his famous love licks one day. Bless his soul, Tony Parrish let me drive his blue Mustang (Hurst 4 in the floor) hot rod and yes his car took me against my will, the long way to Nashville Photo service through Shelby Park. Well, after getting to the park on that beautiful day, the car wanted to take in a little sun. Well, when we returned Mr. Martin was standing out back and asked where I'd been. He was kind and gave me a choice of his love licks or staying after school in his waiting room. I took the licks.
One evening Oprah invited me to her house to plan the upcoming dance. We were the student body president and vice president. She decided to play a trick on her parents. I think it was 1968 when the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with Sidney Portea was released. This was 1970. Oprah didn't tell her parents who or why I was coming. She just said a friend was coming over to visit. When I arrived, her dad opened the door and I thought he was turning white for a minute. Then her stepmom came to the door and the same thing happened. They were cordial and I sat down in the living room. Oprah let her parents sweat for about ten minutes before going in the kitchen and explaining the reason for our meeting. Oprah was a fun loving girl with a big heart for others.
I also remember when almost the whole school decided to have a sitin on the front lawn of the school to protest Mr. Harris taking two cheerleaders off the squad to even up the white/black ratio. He would not talk to anyone after his decision so the school leaders decided to walk out. He did make a change and put the girls back on the squad. I think we ended up with a larger squad that year.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end. Shalom. If I can think of more stories, I'll try and post them. If you remember something that happened that was interesting or funny, e-mail me. Stay tuned.
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