Terry Trimble:  

It's been quite a ride! I was born in Haynesville, LA. While still a baby we moved to San Antonio, TX where I lived through my soph. year in high school. That was long enough to be brainwashed with everything that makes a Texan a Texan. There's a sense of pride and heritage like no other and I consider myself a Texan to this day! We lived on Willard Dr. within walking distance of Woodlawn Hills Elementary where I attended '57 -'63. Teachers (from memory) were Ms. Langsford, Hernandez, Paschal, Calabria, Heath, and Boone. I used to take Sweet Peas that my mom grew to Ms. Paschal and got a little teacher's pet status. I also remember Raymond Garcia, the janitor. He organized a baseball team for the boys and I believe it was all volunteer! What a guy! I used to stop by the Ice House on the way and get a "Banana Split", like a banana shaped Twinky. I remember always stopping and putting my hand over my heart while the flag was being raised, girls hanging upside down on the monkey bars (I ALWAYS covered my eyes!), Weekly Reader, Mexican food Wednes., Fish Fri. and Junior Symphony Orchestra (Thanks to which I can still name a lot of classical pieces!). Speaking of Mexican food, I used to swap my bologna sandwich to some Latino for their homemade Mexican lunch. We both thought we had died and gone to heaven! Longfellow JHS was a walk, bicycle ride or mom on bad weather days. The last year I got an old Cushman Husky motorscooter which I painted bright red. I had Ms. Shepherd (Bubbles!) for home room. I remember playing bombardment in the gym, licks from coach for sitting on the radiator, crushes on Linda, Leslie, Elizabeth, ..... My first kiss attended another school. I started doing majic for a hobby. I did birthday parties around town, a show at North Star Mall, and a TV show. I still have the pay ledger my mom kept. I did the talent show at school. Linda Gillum was my assistant. I pulled a white rat out of a burning tumbler, flowers out of a burning pan, then did a fire eating routine. During tryouts I got too much lighter fluid on my torches and fire was dripping on to the stage! Can you believe what they let us do back then? While waiting for my act, I bent over and ripped my pants. Linda sewed 'em up and I ripped 'em again. She sewed 'em with double stitches and we made it through! Now that's an assistant! Mr. Montoya continued my music education and made band fun! I learned so much from Mr. Bender's science class. My science project was to test the effect of G forces on pill bugs. I built a two stage rocket (Estes or Century). Come the big day to launch it was little windy. Ok, it was way too windy! Right off the pad it weathervaned and took off horizontally. I never saw it again! My backup experiment came from our garden. I wish Mr. Bender was here today to teach the scientific method to some of the so-called scientists. Somehow they just skip a few of the steps and declare something like "global warming", evolution, etc. fact. They even have a new term now, "Settled science". Did you know that a big headline of my weekly reader in elementary school was "Global Cooling: The Next Ice Age"! Where are you Mr. Bender?!! How would you like to be a teacher and be remembered 40 or 50 years later? Boy Scout troop 327 meetings were at University Park Baptist Church with Mr. Strawn (the DI!). Next door, UP Drugstore had a whole basket of frys for 25 cents that was to die for! Oh yeh, don't forget mexican food Wednes. with cheese enchaladas, a bowl of chili topped with Fritos, and Junior Mints for a chaser! I don't really remember a whole lot about my one year at Thom. Jefferson HS. Some of the things I remember from that time period were Lassos, pep rallies, and football games. Wood shop was great. So was "pool hopping" in the middle of the night, parking in Inspiration Hills, and small grocery stores that would sell you beer. The high diving boards at the Balconies Heights pool were neat along with 10 cent cones at the Woodlawn Hills pool concession. I'm probably still digging the grease out of my arteries from the Lotta Burger! I'd ride the Rocket (the largest roller coaster in the Southwest) with my hands in the air and it was so cool. I worked at the Milam Creamery and we got to have the "damaged" ice cream. Ok, so I was clumsy and dropped a lot. We moved to Blytheville, AR during the summer of '66 between my soph. and jr. year. It's a tough time to be uprooted and it's even tougher going from a big city to a small town. They were not the 2 best years of my life. There were a lot of things to get in to in a big city and God may have been trying to save my life. Who knows? I enjoyed machine shop with Mr. Musick. He was a cool dude and a great teacher! I learned a lot. Mr. Matthews and I worked side by side at Hayes Grocery so he understood when I fell asleep in his morning math class. I also worked some at Roy French's Barbeque and started taking flying lessons at the local airport. My older brother was a pilot for Eastern Airlines. I think he could sense that things weren't going all that great for me. So for my "graduation present" he flew me up to New York where he was based and showed me the city in a big way. He then put me on the Eastern shuttle and flew me down to DC for more of the same. It was a turning point in my life and showed me there was a whole world waiting for me if I wanted it bad enough. I left home the day after graduation and never returned except to visit. For those of you in Blytheville that lived on the fringes and accepted me as one of your own, thanks. For others that gave me a smile and treated me with kindness, I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better. For the rest ..... While in New York I got offered a summer job working at a baking company in East Orange, NJ. I worked the graveyard shift, hard work but good union wages. I lived on my own, made my own way, saw more of NYC, and even got scuba certified. I then headed for Florida College along with a few other BHS'ers. We were me...Expand for more