Patricia Sowders:  

(Couldn't figure out how to get in with my original logon, sigh, so I had to make a 2nd account, this one) Hi, I'm Pat Hauldren, aka Sowders, graduated from Quinlan HS 1973, now living in Grand Prairie, TX. I'm looking for some old friends, Mary McPherson (Starks?) in particular, also from Quinlan HS. (was Pat Gregory, briefly) Attended several high schools: Quinlan, Rockwall, & Milby. Rockwall was Jr High, then a Freshman at what was then our brand new Rockwall High School. I played tuba in the band and Mr. Nash was our band teacher. (I wanted to play saxophone, but they only had an opening for tuba. That shows you how much I wanted to learn music and instruments! So I made a deal with Mr. Nash--he had to teach me every single other instrument while I was playing tuba. Blackmail LOL. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to keep his end of the bargain, and being the teenager that I was, I quit band (sad about it now) out of spite. (Now one of my bucket lists is to play an instrument again, perhaps perform in a local civic band.). My sophomore year we moved to Houston and I attended Milby High, the same school my step-father attended. Oy! It was/is old, but I enjoyed it. I was in the French Club and I remember taking art, but I guess I never made it to the Art Club cuz I'm not in the picture. My memories of high school are a bit spotty. I had Mrs. Jaimeson (sp) for French and she helped me get bit by the travel bug. I decided I would major in linguistics and study at the Sorbonne. (I never made it to France .... yet.) I had two good girlfriends at Milby but darn if I can remember their names. One was very tall, the other had transferred from a Catholic School. If you know who you are, give me a shout :) Then we moved AGAIN, this time to Quinlan. We lived on Lake Tawakoni. Back then, Quinlan had 1 HS and our graduating class was a whopping 50 students! The only class I needed to actually graduate was English 4, with Mrs. Kirkman, remember her? But because we had no extra car, I had to ride the school bus, so I took a full day of classes Sr Yr. Classes I never would have thought to take, like typing II and shorthand, which I was surprised to learn that I enjoyed. It was like learning a secret code. In fact, I got my first job in Dallas because I knew shorthand and could type (not great typer, but OK) at Linz Jewelers downtown Dallas. My Dad got a job in Dallas the last third of my Sr yr, so we moved to Dallas and I had to drive from East Dallas to Quinlan to finish school in a '65 Bonneville. (Loved that car, white with red interior and real wood paneling). I thought I was just too cool listening to KZEW on the way to school just like a grownup driving to work haha. Those were the days. LOL Then, of course, graduated. I found a job right off and learned that office work was NOT my thing. Talk about boring! And I hate to be bored. I made more money working at Jack In The Box at night, Texas Instruments during the day, and then paid my own way at Eastfield. There, an English teacher liked my writing and invited me to an invitation only writing group. I didn't realize then that it was a very special group and now I am just flabbergasted how naive (and ignorant LOL) I was then. Anyway, I got bit by the writing bug big time then (I always wrote, but never thought of it as a career). But my step-dad argued against becoming a writer. Kinda smart of him because he sure wasn't going to support me while I took 20 years to sel...Expand for more