Sylvester Holmes:  

Hi, I am the same person today as in high school except for these kids. I don't think my kids could survive Metro. We were industrious. We traversed an entire city, by bus, car, even hitch-hiking. I told my kids about Vashon and that I attended school with two heavyweight champs and I told them about the Petty Boys, Lemuel Steeples, Oliver Nelson, Kim and Michael Lacosta, Norman Oldham, Antoine Jamison, Charles Triplett, the Mitchell family, Linda Wallace, Dianne Lyle, Myron Jackson, I told them about the biggest guy at Vashon who was also the smartest and the most gentle guy you could meet and how this gentle giant went to Mizzou and transformed himsef into one the school's greatest offensive lineman and from there went on to block for Earl Campbell and the Houston Oilers, Mo Towns. I told them about my friend, Jimmie Edwards, and how he helped me pass the bar - I still owe you, Jimmie - and how he gave me everything he had, all the books he had which he could have sold for hundreds of dollars yet he gave them to a former classmate who didn't have a clue how to pass the bar and how one day soon we will hear about him on the federal bench. I told them about Lemuel Steeples and Harold Petty, boxers extraordinaire. I told them about Wayman Mickens and Johnnie Gains and how we exemplified excellence in our concert and Marching Bands. I told them about the best high school trumpet line with Dianne Lyle, William Vincent, Myron Jackson, Clebo, Chester Marks, Henry Williams and about our drum majors Plez Holmes and Jim Collier. I told them about a kid named Steve Kirby who despite not even playing in the high school band became one of the world's great jazz musicians. I told them about Julie Ritchie and how an F in English turned out to be a true blessing. I told them about the state basketball championship in 1971 and about Lamont Turner, Roscoe Simmons and Jimmy Clark and how Lamont Turner's son, Loren Wood, starred at Arizona and the NBA. And how that was made possible by Ron Coleman and a young Floyd Irons who himself was barely out of high school when he coached the freshman team and my friends U. Clayburn (Dobbins) and Joseph Simmons. I told them about the most beautiful and talented teenagers in the world, the Vashon majorettes. I told them these young ladies were so beautiful and so talented they were like Lena Horne, Halle Berry and Cleopatra rolled into one. I told them about Mattie Houston, Joyce Acon, Karen Blount and Lavern James and how talent, beauty and charm can take you far in this world. That no matter how beautiful you are, if you can combine it with a little humility and compassion you can only start to compare yourself to a Vashon Majorette. I told them that you define your environment. It doesn't have to define you, that a school may have a reputation for violence and negativity but it can produce kids so gentle and nice and good, like Kathleen Foster. In all my travels I have never met anyone more genuine and more wholesome than she. I have never seen her angry or upset and interestingly no matter how hard I try I can never pull a fast one on her. She never lets anything get past. I tol...Expand for more