Denison High School, Class of `59  (1999)        As remembered by Vaughn Oliver

Y2K, give me a break. Get a life! What about Y60? That was a year to be concerned about, but
in our astute wisdom we rushed right through. We now had seen the Fifties come and go. After
the fact, we knew about WWII and Korea; parents and relatives thought these years were
important. Then we had a US President that had been born in our town. It did not seem to
make any difference to our way of life that a poor railroad family, in Denison, gave life to a
President of the United States. We were here and went to grade school. We went to Peabody,
Houston, Lamar and Central; this was a big town with four movie theaters, Rialto, State, Rio, 
and Subrba. Saturday was a quarter; 9¢ admissions, 6¢ drink and 10¢ popcorn. That was from 
2¢ pop bottles. Paper routes were another source of income, other kids and social 
communications. The town got smaller and we started to Junior High. The K&W Root beer stand, 
cherry bombs in the restrooms, wadded up sheets of paper in the study hall lamp fixtures, 
smoking cigarets, paddling punishment just for squirting water(small water guns) on classmates, 
blue ivy in Mrs Pennington's Algebra class, being thrown out of class for wearing blue jeans 
wrong-side out, no bermuda shorts, snakes eating mice in Biology, memorization and recital of 
Rudyard Kipling's ‘The Valley of Death', the hamburger shop across from Central(15¢ burgers), 
King Cong, The Thing, This Ole House by Rose Mary Cluney, gas powered model airplanes launched 
from fire escapes, ice balls thrown at cars in July, dancing at the end of school parties, smoke 
bombs in empty lockers, stock pile of spit wads (preparation for the big battle), and the 
Principle counseling with parents of students accused of some of the above. Life was fun, but we 
did not recognize it.

We moved on to the new high school and are the first Sophomore Class. Cars, Buddy Holly,
Elvis Presley, cops, racing, Jax Beer 25¢, bootleggers, across the river to Sam & Ruth's (great
barbeque), pool hall, skipping school, stealing hubcaps, changing brakes with two broke wrists, 
water bombs on strings across power lines to drop on cars, cherry bombs from the railroad trestle 
on the Loy Lake Road on cars (one driver stopped and fired shots from a pistol), fist fights 
behind the band hall, 49-0, Gone with the Wind, being pant's in the hall way, drag racing in 
front of the school (Ford beat the Mercury), bumpers pulling off the VW Bug en route to the porch, 
Denison Dam spillway flooding over, changing the red lamp on the water tower with a 300-watt 
white bulb (some night), having a student picked up at school by the Highway Patrol(`50 Chevy 
pipes and many tickets), drag strip at Gunter, chasing cars with a starter pistol (firing blanks), 
four on a motorcycle with no lights(at night), hitch hiking to Sherman to talk with a girl, 
driving to  Gainesville in a tornado condition thunderstorm, driving to Shreveport (fixed 
`55 Chevy on return trip), midnight ride to Bonham, blew out a motor in ‘57 Mercury on the 
Bells Highway, captured a metal-police-school-sign, the hamburger shop down from Peabody(25¢ 
burgers), drunken Prom night party,.... ................... ....

We left our homes and city to meet the next challenges.  Many trails, many stories, some went to
the great beyond, but did we make a difference? Yes, we each have a part, we carry on, we do
our thing. The Eighties Ladies are Nineties Nannas, but looking forward. We talked about the
older generation that saw covered wagons and moon landings and marveled at the changes they
saw. Now we are in a position that Mr. is comfortable, and we have seen, been a part of, and
continue to use the world around us. We contributed, we saw, and we conquered; without us the
world misses a generation, our Geronimo attitude. We are not the Baby Boomers, we are the
parents of the X Generation. To reminisce is fine to relive good memories, but only for brief

glimpses. As we know from before, the next hill, another opportunity, or just an `itch' is where 
it is at. We continue to move and will someday sit on the porch of the old folks home in a 
rocking chair with the radios blaring Rock-and-Roll. Then it is someone else's turn, our history 
is set, Be Proud.

Things seen, so far:
8-Track, cassette, CD's
Beta, VHS, DVD
Microwave, Mr Coffee
Wool jackets, Down jackets, Thinsulate, GoreTex
AM Radios, AM/FM, AM/FM/Cassette, AM/FM/CD
Large home TV, Color TV, Small portable color TV, Flat Screen TV, Cable, Satellite
Full Service Filling Stations, Help-Yourself Gas Stations, Food Mart Stations
Down Town Stores, Malls, Mega-Malls
Radio Soap Operas, Saturday afternoon movie serials, TV Soaps, Prime Time TV Soaps
Civil rights, Kennedy Assassination, MLK Assassination
George Wallace shot, Gerald Ford shot at,  Ronald Regan shot
Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Persian Gulf
Sputnik, Earth Orbit, Moon Landings
Woodstock, Berlin Wall, USSR collapses
Only companies had computers, PC in every house
Party Line rotary dial, touch tone, cordless, cell phone

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