Those Were the Days: This and That cont.

Posted

12. Coach Mac and Ben Hogan (pro golfer) oversaw P.T. (Physical training) at the Ft. Worth Army Base during WWll. They were roommates in the barracks and remained friends even after the end of the war. Coach Mac even taught Ben how to play ping pong. Unfortunately, Ben was a very competitive person and broke several paddles during his “training!”

13. TWTD. Charlotte Parker and Harold Lewis dated each other beginning in junior high, and James Hawkins and Janice Smithheislir started that young. Both couples married right out of high school and stayed married throughout their lifetimes. Charlotte introduced Janice to James. These two couples hold the record for the longest true loves in our class of ‘54.

14. TWTD. Did you know that the community of Phillips Gust outside of Borger) had the best bar-be-que, all-you-can-eat, family-style restaurant in the panhandle during the ‘50s?

15. There were no pheasants, prairie chickens, wolves, bobcats, cougars, bears, pronghorn sheep, bison, armadillos, and very few quail, doves, coyotes, or fish in the Panhandle of Texas in the first half of the 20th century. But had gophers, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, and homed frogs that thrived, and there were tons of rabbits!

16. In 1954, John Cantrell, Jerry McNaughton, Robert Fleming, Bill Russell, Carl Blonkvist, and D. I. Wilkerson went to the Pampa Swimming Pool one night skinny-dipping. Police caught them, except for John Cantrell, who climbed over the 8-foot concrete block wall and ran buck naked home.

17. Smith’s Shoe Store had an x-ray machine that would show your foot inside a shoe, but medical professionals were afraid it might be harmful to have it done to your feet. So, Mr. Smith got rid of it.

18. My mom, Mrs. Ellen Griffin, taught 3rd grade for many years in Pampa at Johnson Elementary School, went back to college at West Texas State to finish her degree in 1959. She graduated on May 28th, and I graduated from Rice University on June 2nd of that same year. Mom was a very talented lady, teaching herself to play the piano; she was a Bible scholar, teaching a lady’s class at the First Baptist Church for 40 years. Back in those years, teachers were highly respected, and students learned and loved their efforts, not like today.