343-OddsnEndsA

Pete Meador April 3, 2005

"One afternoon during the spring of our senior year, a bunch of us were hanging around Stanley's one Saturday afternoon. Among those there were Ken Cone and Vic Plunk. They had recently chipped in together to buy an old Army Air Corps trainer....I think they paid $100 for it. It had a front seat, a back seat, and a sliding canopy. They had both been taking flying lessons, but I'm not sure either had a license yet.They kept the plane at Vic's farm. The topic of conversation somehow turned to the idea of Ken an Vic flying over Stanley's and dropping a few water bombs. After awhile the idea took hold...maybe on a dare....and Ken and Vic jumped in a car and drove off. About an hour later the plane appeared in the distance and was soon circling over Stanley's. I think they were probably at an altitude of 500 feet. Since the plane was a trainer, it had controls in both the front and back seat. I don't remember who was the pilot and who was the "bombardier". They made a pass over Stanley's and a brightly colored water-filled balloon came out of the cockpit. Those of us on the ground were laughing and trying to predict where it would hit. In a few seconds it hit the ground in the vacant lot behind Stanley's. SPLAT! The sound of the impact was very loud and it left a small, balloon-sized crater in the ground. Several of us on the ground looked at each other and suddenly realized that a water dropped from 500 feet would have a tremendous impact that could, if it struck a windshield or a person, result in very serious damage or injury. We started waving at Vic and Ken and yelling for them to stop. Obviously, they could not hear us. The next balloon came out of the cockpit. SPLAT! It landed in the middle of the side street next to Stanley's. It hit about ten yards from a lady who had just gotten out of her parked car. She was holding a small child in her arms. She didn't realize what had happened and did not react. Some of us were really starting to panic. Then the third balloon came out of the cockpit. SPLAT! It also landed in the side street, just behind an Amarillo Police car that was driving by. Since it hit behind the car, the police officer didn't see it, and he didn't pay any attention to our antics on the ground. The bombing run was over and the plane flew away. Ken and Vic came back later. We told them what happened on the ground. As best I remember, we were all just damned relieved that no one got hurt. As Paul Harvey would say....and that's the rest of the story. The reason I remember this so vividly is that...after the first water bomb hit...I was so afraid that someone would get hurt............"

Ron Mayberry has a slightly different story on who was the "bombardier",- Robert McKenzie. So far Vic Plunk, has zipped his lips.

Members of class of 1958 I remember being there included, Betty Askew Howell, Joe Ted Davidson, Jim Ann Farley, Alan Roberson (subbing for Sandie Davis Roberson who had to babysit the triplets), Allee Curtis Bass, Bob Bass, Eva Jo Miller Sudbury. Sorry if I forgot someone, but the memory is failing.

"Jim did a great job in recounting how Amarillo High School played a big part in his life. First his happy days attending the school and then on that Sunday morning in March, 1970, when it burned. As he watched the smoke from the steps of the First Presbyterian Church at 11th & Harrison, he knew he wanted to be a part of the rebuilding of Amarillo High. He knew he could as the architectural firm he worked for had just completed Caprock High School and he knew they would get the bid to rebuild Amarillo High. They did not get the bid and although he had a bright future with the company, he resigned and joined the firm that did get the bid. As a result,he had a major part in the design and building of the "new" Amarillo High. The change of jobs also afforded him the opportunity to work with James Wilson, who later became his partner, as they set up their own very successful company, W-D Architects. Jim confided that this was only the second time he had been in the AHS auditorium, the first being when it was under construction.

When you come to Amarillo, you can see evidence that Jim was here. Just look at Northwest Texas Hospital, Harrington Cancer Center, A couple of Libraries, Puckett Elementary, Texas Tech School of Pharmacy. Jim designed the BSA Hospice facility(at the old St Anthony's Hospital) that is such a great place for families to spend time with their loved ones in their last days. He was there wth his own mom and many of us have spent time there with our loved ones. The building really works for it's purpose and it's clear Jim is proud of it. Many other structures in Amarillo have been touched by Jim's talent, love, and sweat.. Jim has been honored in the architectural field so many times I couldn't begin to enumerate them, mainly because they didn't write them down for the attendees.

"The only down side of the entire day was when Jim was looking around the commons area where all the awards and records are displayed. He found that, in 1992, someone beat his AHS record for the hurdles by 1/10th of a second. Too bad, Jim, Your record only lasted about 35 years.

Jim, you did us all proud. I know your mom and dad were so proud on this day. I wish they could have been here in the flesh to celebrate with you. Congratulations from all of the Class of '58."

Sunday News Globe Amarillo TX 17 April 1960

Orville Howard, Staff Writer

Two young rock climbers who have scaled nearly vertical in the Palo two Canyon are now eyeing the Colorado Rockies for their mountaineering craft. The 20-year-old youths are Geary McCauley of 1548 Fisk and Derrel Chandler of 1609 Palo Duro. Engaged in what has been termed the "world's most dangerous pastime," the young rock climbers started the spine-tiningking tactics last winter to try something new for "kicks." "We just got bored last winter with all the routine pleasures so we struck on the idea of rock climbing," Chandler said. Chandler said they had climbed every vertical cliff worth climbing in the Palo Duro Canyon and 'we plan to have some of those cliffs in Colorado behind us before summer time." Their newly Learned sport began about three months ago when they scaled a 40-foot cliff in the canyon. "We were oth scared to death of high places and cliffs at first, but after hanging around on ledges fro three months we have forgotten all about those fears," McCauley said, "In fact we just can't seem to find crags high enough around here anymore."

After reading up on the latest mountain climbing techniques the novice climbers purchased 500 feet of hemp rope, acquired a supply of pitons, (iron spikes), a couple of picks and started climbing. "We haven't gone into this sport blindly, " Chandlere reasoned, "because we're using about the same equipment and methods used by veteran mountain climbers the world over." Their major major cliimbing feat was accomplished when they launched an assualt on the Lighthouse, a lone shaley pinnacle rising more than 200 feet about a jagged, red clay base in Little Sunday Canyon. It towers several hundred feet above the canyon floor area.

In relating the Lighthouse climb, the youths explained that six different approaches to ascent were made before arriving at the summit. "We decided to divide the ascent into three major steps, with each one being a goal of about 65 feet up the sheer cliff," Chandler said. Using the 20-inch long pitons, Chandler took the lead, driving the pitons into the crumbling clay at every arm's length. With ropes secured about their waists, the leader would hook one leg about the piton while driving the next step... and so on up the vertical wall of clay. A safety line was secured to the lower man and a piton in case the leader lost balance. The first stop was a small footwide ledge about 60 feet high, But it wasn't gained with incident. "For a while we were trying to make the first landing with just one man going up at a time." Chandler said, "and that was the day William Robbins, who lives at 2015 Travis was with us."

"Robbins climbed to about 30 feet and accidently slipped amd fell to the base we were standing on" Chandler related. " He was rolling toward the big drop after hitting the base, but our ropes held and we pulled him back." Robbins was not serious injured he added. Chanler said a man's weight would easily snap a half-inch hemp rope on a 30-hill.

After climbing to within about 30 feet of the top, which slants outward, Chandler threw a weight attached to a fishing cord over the pinnacle top. McCauley then inched his way around the narrow ledge more that 100 feet off the ground and pulled the hemp rope over the top with the aid of the cord. Once the rope was secured over the top, scampering to to the summitt area began. The Amarillo youth's [ascent to] the top mushroomed outward at the top, which was was very crumbly and shaley and made climbing very difficult.

A large red flag was staked on the top of the Lighthouse.

"We generally use the repelling method of descending," Chanlder said. He explained this as using two strands of rope tied off at the summit and then looped about one's leg and tossed over the a shoulder. The Climber forces himself from the cliff wall and simultaneously releases his grip on the ropes until gravity pulls him back against the wall. This process is repeated until the climber reaches the cliff base.

Wile recalling their various mishaps, McCauley mentioned the cold February night they hiked three miles through the canyon in a snow storm. "We didnt get off the the cliff until after dark and it started snowing." McCauley said. We followed the creek in Little Sunday Canyon for three or four miles westward until we found pavement just below Capitol Peak - kinda cold and wet but otherwise ok."

Following the Lighthouse climb, the two rock climbers launched an attack

on nearly every peak that presented a challenge and turned back on none.

Desperately Seeking Sister

By Bruce Beck

bbeck@amarillonet.com

Mary Lee Shumaker's voice thickens and catches as she thinks about the years she lost without her half-sister. "The worst thing someone can do is keep family information away from the kids," she said. She knows that experience herself. Divorcing parents don't always see how their actions will affect their children. A mother's most fervent wish may be that she hopes never to see her ex-husband's face again, while the father's desire might be to leave the past behind and start afresh. Shumaker, whose parents divorced in 1945 when she was 4 years old, lived out her parting parents' wishes, to her eternal regret. The divorce wasn't amicable. Her father dropped out of sight, and her mother didn't speak of him. Shumaker grew up without a father in her life, marrying at 20 and moving to Oregon.

Two years later, her father, W.A. "Dub" Owens, called her, she said, having obtained her phone number from relatives who had kept in touch. She heard from him several times over the years, talking to him on the phone but never meeting him in person. After about 10 years, Shumaker divorced and moved to Amarillo. "I never heard from him again," she said. In the ensuing years, however, she developed an interest in genealogy, and after her children were grown, she decided to see what she could learn about her father's side of the family. Her son, Justin, suggested she start with online obituaries. The last known place of residence Shumaker had for her father was Corpus Christi, so in August 2000, she accessed the Corpus Christi Caller-Times Web site. "And there it was," Shumaker said. "He had died in May 1997. It had the full obit and survivors." Using one of the many people searches available on the Internet, Shumaker found an e-mail address for one of the people listed in the obituary. So she e-mailed, saying she noticed in the obituary that there was a woman listed who would be her half-sister. A few days later, on Sept. 6, Elaine Birkhead sent Shumaker an e-mail from her home in McAllen. "The first couple of e-mails were pretty short," Shumaker said. "But I've kept every one. I was so thrilled when I found Elaine." As the two women got to know each other, Birkhead tried to fill in the information gaps for Shumaker about the man they both shared as a father. They also exchanged information and photos about themselves. Birkhead wrote that she was going to try to get Shumaker caught up on their father's story, titling the first such missive "Chapter 1' and the second "Chapter 2." She wrote, "At this rate, this could be longer than 'Gone With The Wind.' " One of Birkhead's e-mails revealed that 10 years earlier they had been closer than Shumaker could have dreamt. "In the early 1990s, Elaine worked for the economic development corporation in Corpus Christi, and she was going to a convention in Amarillo," Shumaker said. "My Dad never hid me from Elaine," she said, but he didn't give her Shumaker's address.

My father, Z. G. Weaver would have been a graduate of AHS in 1932 however he dropped out of school in the 11th grade to take a job providing much needed additional income for his family. When I began the 11th grade at AHS Dad began taking classes at night to receive his GED. He completed the work my senior year and I still have his diploma indicating that he was a graduate of the class of 1958. He visited with Principal R. B. Norman who attempted to convince Dad to participate in our graduation ceremony.Dad elected not to participate as he said it was my day and he did not want to interfere. I was not aware of this until several years later. I like to think that I would have been proud to walk across the stage with Dad but who can guess how an 18 year-old would react. I certainly know that if we could step back in time I would be very proud to share the moment with him.

Ron (Ronnie) Weaver 2005

LET’S LUNCH @ THE LIBRARY

Our speaker at Lunch @ the Library on April 12 will be Ron Cheyne. Ron has owned and operated Ron's Pharmacy at the same location on Pearl Street since 1970. He has done extensive studies of Diabetes and Hormone Replacement Therapy as well as other health issues. Ron is now an officer on the board of Texas Pharmaceutical Association. Genealogy is also one of Ron's interests, and he has traced his family back 7 or 8 generations so far. Ron has recently returned from a medical mission trip with a group from the Granbury Church of Christ. They travel every year to Casa de Esperanza, an orphanage, to provide some medical attention to the orphans. Ron also has a collection of Confederate era medical paraphernalia. He will be showing this at the next Tradesday on the lawn of the Tarleton Cultural Center on May 6. With this wide diversity, we should really enjoy listening to him.

Thanks, Mary Cheyne