Vegas and Fourche Valley School

We just got back from seven days in Vegas. It was our son Corey's idea, but he and Kinley, our daughter, arranged it so that it was the four of us going, so Barbara and I jumped right on that. We have not been on a real trip involving our immediate family only in a long, long time. Barbara and I decided it was truly our "trip of a lifetime," even though we stopped using that term a long time ago in our travels. It really was a wonderful trip. Corey took over the driving, since, being a city boy now, he handled that a lot better than I could, very few U turns, and I think Barbara and Kinley breathed a little easier, with me not driving. I think that circle of life thing started its downward turn on me on that trip. After going through the metal detector at Hoover Dam, a man came down and asked us all if anybody had picked up an extra wallet. I checked in my pocket, and I had two. The man also had an extra item left by somebody, and I had to speak up, "Uh, Here's the wallet. and that extra bag is mine."  Checking in at the airport, Barb handed me my boarding pass and luggage reciepts, then we all got separated and put in different lines. When I tried to show my boarding pass, I was informed it was a luggage receipt, and my boarding pass was gone. I got pulled out of line. I finally saw Corey in the distance, hollered to him to find Barbara and get my boarding pass. He saw Her way down at the far end of the room, hollered to her to bring my pass. While she was looking for it, I finally dug it out of my back pocket. I always seem to manufacture up a panic attack at airports. I later overheard Barbara telling Kinley, "I always have to keep him right at my side in airports."  At the Denver airport, waiting to load, I discovered a whole bunch of the people around me were also Arkies. While I was going on excitedly about that, Corey took me aside and told me, " Uh, Dad, that's because we're all boarding a plane to Little Rock." I fear my children are now a little worried about their parent's next trip to some far flung corner of the world. We've got enough flyer miles saved up for the next one, and are trying to pick out a destination. Corey will probably be giving me that little speech about  "Uh, Dad, I think it's about time to ease up on the globe trotting a little - - -" Oh, well, I've heard it before, and it didn't work then either.
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Fourche Valley School

      I have never had any regrets that I went to a small school like Fourche Valley School, small in terms of students, but one of the larger districts in the state. There were lots of mountains and few people. Two icons of Fourche Valley that quickly come to mind were the Lowes. Mr. Lowe was the superintendent and principal. Normally, dealing with the principal was a negative, and I had lots of dealings. However, in the long run, I realize, he had a way of turning my associations with him into a positive thing. Winnie Lowe, I well remember, had a deep voice that could sound like rolling thunder coming across the room when one messed up, and it could make one shrink down in one’s desk, becoming as invisible as possible. But she had a way of teaching us to be the best person we could be. Neither taught me in a classroom very often, except possibly short term. But I remember them so well, it seems like they did. They had three daughters who each became doctors in one form or another, and each is leaving a very large footprint on our country. I am sure genetics were involved, but as I said, just being around Winnie Lowe brought out the very best. One great thing about small schools, we dealt with the entire faculty on a daily basis, and I am a better person for it. My class, the Class of 1962, was made up of twelve students. Nine lived in Fourche Valley, three lived across South Fourche Mountain near Aly and Chula.

     There was no quick and easy route from Aly to Fourche Valley School. Mr. Mabry drove the Aly bus, many miles on rough dirt roads through the mountains. Few from the south side of Fourche Mountain participated in school sports, in those days. Just too far. Too complicated.

      Shelton Dishongh spotted it early. Although my class had a pretty good crop of boys for a basketball team, It was the girls who were awesome. He was our class sponsor in the seventh grade, and he was also the coach. He took us to the gym, one day, and we played, girls vs. boys. The girls beat us like a rented mule. Just wore us out. We boys never quite recovered from that, and it never got better.

     We five boys were the starting team, as seniors, early on, then we began to get a lot of help from the likes of Dobbie Wilson. We were 16-9, but it was the girls who won the District Tournament, and played in the State Tournament at Parkin. I asked our teacher, Ruby Singleton, single but courting heavily at that time, if she was going to Parkin. She said, "You never know!" I said, " I meant, are you going TO Parkin. Not going Parking."  She flushed bright red. We loved to make her do that.

     Jack Larry Gillum and Monty Dishongh were the ladie's men. Larry started chasing the girl's early, before I even knew "for why."  and, they chased him back. Monty never needed to chase, they chased him. Jackie Aikman didn't seem to think about the ladies much in high school.  Butch Garner was committed to the love of his life early, and never varied. I, myself, I had tons of romantic entanglements in high school. But only in my head. Nobody else ever knew about them.

     Jackie Aikman didn't rag the teachers much. He was very well behaved, compared to the rest of us. But one day in typing, he messed up. Miss Gussie Lofland, already sick of the whole lot of us for the day, set in on Jack. "Jackie Aikman, you're just as bad as the others! You're just sneaky! You're a snake in the grass!" Well, the name "snake" stuck, at least during high school. "Snake" Aikman."

     About the time I was ready to go off to college, I began to realize that was a very large crop of "easy to look at" girls coming up, 3 or 4 years back. That was about where my maturity level wound up, anyway. (I spent 25 years teaching ninth and tenth grade students.) Anyway, getting back to the crop. Jackie and Monty later picked a plumb from that crop, as did Butch, early. By the time that fully hit me, (I have always been slow to catch on) I was gone, off to college. If I had stayed in Fourche Valley two more years, I probably would have never left. The love of my life, when I finally found her, was in that age group. Four years younger.