Bobcat Treasure: Jade ... Candles ... and Auld Lang Syne ....

Carved Lavender and Green Jadeite Lidded Vase with Flowers and Birds

Jade ("yu" in Chinese) refers to a fine, lustrous stone, produced over eons by the natural force of rivers running through and over mountains. It exists in a variety of warm, rich colors, and is usually skillfully carved by masters to enhance its luster and increase its beauty and value. For more than 6000 years it has been considered among the most valuable of all precious stones, and is revered as sacred throughout Chinese society. It is also prized by other diverse cultures, including but not limited to Mesoamerican (Maya, Inca, Aztec), Korean, Burmese (Khmer), Brazilian, Canadian, Japanese, Indian and Scandinavian. It is extraordinarily tough and generally impervious to breakage, disintegration or decay.

The ancient Chinese believed jade embodied the qualities of nobility, perfection, constancy and immortality, and represented a symbolic link between man and the spiritual world ... the essence of heaven and earth, and a tangible manifestation of the Chinese belief in eternal life after death.

Thus it seems that jade is a perfect symbol of our enduring link with former classmates and others no longer of this world who touched us or affected our lives in our youth ... an appropriate touchstone as we remember and honor their lives here on the blog. And so I give you jade ....

Julia Ann Stamps Cole - Engaged, Senior play. Julia married Wayne Cole. She was a homemaker and had two children. She was 42 when she died of a heart attack. (Information obtained from Julia's mother, Katherine Stamps.)

Billy Sarrels - DE student. Billy lived in Amarillo, where he worked for Baldwin Trucking Company. He was married with two sons, and now has two grandsons. He died of a heart attack at age 44. (Information obtained from Billy's mother, Mrs. Dalton Sarrels.) Billy and I attended the same Sunday School and church for years. I last saw him in Denver, Colorado in the late 1960s when he recognized me on the street and we had a brief "catch-up" conversation. (For other "Close Encounters of the Bobcat Kind ...", see post dated September 13, 2007.)

Tommy Catherall - Sense of humor, good bookkeeper. Died January 9, 2006. Tommy lived in Wichita Falls for many years. I am awaiting more information from Raenell and will update when it is received.

Paula Leach Schubarth - Only solitaire in CHS, gymnastics team. September 1, 1945 - May 2002, age 57. Paula had three children and numerous grandchildren. She was raising her granddaughter Riley at the time of her death. I last saw Paula the weekend before she died, and many times over the months following diagnosis of the cancer which took her life. (For other memories of Paula see the blog post and comments under Joyeaux Anniversaire, Cher Paula, September 2, 2007 and Judy Smith Johnson's comment under The Spirit of the Season, December 6, 2007.)

Frances Martin Wadley - Broken leg, DE. September 2, 1944 - April 6, 2007, age 62. Frances (sometimes "Franny") worked at the old Childress Hospital during high school, and later at Childress Regional Medical Center for 23 years. She was living in Amarillo and working at Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital until her final illness. She had one son, one daughter and four grandchildren. (Information obtained from Johnson Funeral Home website.) I remember Frances at our Junior-Senior Banquet (Senior year) in her beautiful dress, cast and wheelchair.

James Roy Austin - President of Junior Hereford Breeders Association. February 8, 1945 - May 5, 2007, age 62, of cancer. James Roy remained in Childress after graduation. His obituary noted he was "a cowboy who farmed and was appreciated for his laid-back disposition and dry sense of humor." (Information obtained from Johnson Funeral Home website.) To our knowledge, James Roy never married and had no children. James Roy and his sister Mary Ann and I sometimes played together as children ... always cowboys and Indians, and JR was always the cowboy, so Mary Ann and I bit the dust a lot.

Johnny McConnell - Golf team and blue ford. December 31, 1944 - October 1, 2007, age 63, of cancer. Johnny lived in Spring, Texas and worked in the Houston area for many years. He was married to Jackie (whom he met at Texas Tech) for 40 years, and had two sons and two grandsons. Johnny was actually the first boy outside my family who ever kissed me, chastely on the cheek, as a result of playing "Spin the Bottle" at a wiener roast for the gang held at his house when we were in fifth grade. (See the blog post and comments under John(ny) R. McConnell, October 2, 2007.)

Although they did not graduate with us, we also want to remember former classmates who were in our class for a while, of whose deaths we have been informed.

Dewayne Barber - Worked for the railroad and was a federal Inspector when he died May 11, 2000 in Weatherford, Texas. (Information obtained from Roland Bruce, CHS Class of 1962.)

Evelyn Trent Griffin - Married to "Dub" Griffin, five children. Evelyn worked for a time at Childress Hospital. (Information from JoAnn Neel Lathram. I have attempted to contact those members of Evelyn's family who still reside in Childress, thus far without success.) I remember starting first grade with Evelyn at the Kirkland School, where Lorena Hollomon taught us that year. (Many of us also remember the wonderful Mrs. Hollomon when she taught third grade at Childress Elementary School.) Later, Evelyn's mother Thelma sponsored our Camp Fire Girls troop one year, for which I am sure she deserved a medal, if not sainthood.

Clifton Stewart - Died November 21, 1966. Raenell has told me that she has seen a headstone for Clifton at Childress Cemetery, and it appears there is a military insignia on it, but there is no indication as to whether his death was service-related, and I did not find his name among those listed on the Vietnam War Memorial Wall.

Roy Wilks and Troy Wilks - The Wilks brothers were with us at least until Junior year at CHS. Roy died in Canada many years ago, and Troy in August 2000 in Fort Worth. Troy had two children. (Information from their father, Milton Wilks.)

There are educators we remember as well who no longer stand at the head of their longtime classrooms or walk the halls looking for mischief (sometimes I think our class generated more than its share). Unfortunately, I have less information about them than I do about classmates, and we certainly don't want to "bury" anyone who is still alive and kicking. Nevertheless, we do want to acknowledge Lorena Hollomon, Julia Pryor, Charlotte Sally and Ethyl Biggerstaff, all teachers at Childress Elementary School (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grades, respectively); Garland Terrell, junior high school coach and Principal at CHS beginning the year we started as Freshmen; A.B. Shaw, math and algebra teacher, who saved me more than once in his algebra class; Nellie Agnes Kennedy, Senior English and speech, many of whose poetry assignments I remember to this day; Frances Long and Agnes Hughes, home economics teachers; Clarence Darter, social studies and my put-upon but ultimately effective driver's ed teacher (see blog posts "Well Durn ... I'm Thankful..., November 17, 2007 and "The Zen of Studebaker Maintenance and the Tao of Tuffy Maddox...", August 30, 2007); Z.J. Harmon, distributive education; Charlene Reeves and LeRoy Reeves, English, and history and physical education, respectively; Mary Jane Heath, mathematics; Mary Maude Denny, typing; and Martha Wallin, commercial studies and The Bobcat annual staff sponsor. And this year we found an obituary notice for one of our well-remembered junior high school teachers:

Brownie Mitchell Kimbrough, Ph.D. - 92, of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, died Friday, May 4, 2007. Dr. Kimbrough was born in Childress on February 25, 1915 to William Brown and Annie May Handley Mitchell. Married Wade Kimbrough June 6, 1942.

Nicki and I have tried diligently to obtain as much information as we can for this post, but the passage of time has left many gaps and we would be most appreciative if any of you can supply more information in the form of comments to the blog or e-mails to us. If we have missed anyone who should be remembered here, we sincerely apologize. We will update this post as necessary. And we would likewise appreciate comments and memories ... and stories ... about these classmates or educators from you.

Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself. - Erasmus

The lighting of a candle to commemorate the death of a loved one or a friend is cross-cultural. It is seen as a sacred ritual in diverse religions and is incorporated in secular traditions as well. It can ease the path for healing and may represent hope for the future. It is also a potent symbol of the human spirit. The ritual of lighting a candle and watching the flickering flame may be soothing and bring peaceful reverie and contemplation. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (in his book Kuzari) explains that when a Jew sways back and forth in prayer (daven), the constant swaying motion is a reflection of the candle of his soul, which has been kindled and burns independently. In Eastern Orthodox church rituals, a candle symbolizes the individual soul which each person holds in his own hand. The extinguishing (or giving up) of the candle at the end of the service reminds that each person will have to surrender his soul to eternity at the end of his life.

In The Hundred Secret Senses, her bittersweet novel of the meaning of loyalty, sisterhood, fate, friendship, the supernatural and extraordinary love, Amy Tan wrote: "If people we love die, then they are lost only to our ordinary senses. If we remember, we can find them anytime with our hundred secret senses ... memory, seeing, hearing, feeling, all come together...." The book's protagonist, Olivia, learns "the world is not a place but the vastness of the soul. And the soul is nothing more than love, limitless, endless, all that moves us toward knowing what is true." The ability to use our secret senses to "connect" with those who have gone before us allows us to realize the infinite quality of time.

As 2007 ends and we begin what Nicki and I hope will be a bright and wonderful 2008, many of us will hear once again the haunting music and words of "Auld Lang Syne" (generally credited to Robert Burns, but having roots in older poems and folk songs):

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

and never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

and auld lang syne?

"Auld" means "old" and "auld lang syne" translates literally from Scots as "old long since" ... or idiomatically as "long long ago", or "days gone by". Our answer to the questions posed in the song is an emphatic "No" ... we should not forget who we once were, where we came from, and those who touched our lives so long ago, even as we move inexorably from past through present into future. So, we hope you will take a bit of time to reflect, and to light a literal or figurative candle for remembrance and "connection" ... and that you all will have a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.

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