From my years at Forest Hill Elementary School

• Keith Stanton -- One of my earliest "best friends". Our favorite past-time, in the second grade anyway, was drawing what we called "little rascals" ... cartoons of army tanks which always managed an incredible shot at hitting a nearly hidden "plunger", exploding notebook paper full stores of TNT, and thereby totally destroying the much larger enemy tanks which were positioned conveniently above the explosives within the cartoon.

From my years at Scarborough Middle School

• Jamin Hoffman -- Jamin and I participated in the Program for Academically Talented Students (PATS) in Mobile, Alabama, and although we attended different schools (until we both ended up at USM) I did manage to run into him occasionally -- and particularly at Honor Band functions. Jamin is now the Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Ballet Company Orchestra, as well as the Operations Manager of the Ballet -- in charge of everything from the "roof to the rats".

  One day, I'm going to have to think about talking to Jamin (and Brian and Dennis) about attempting a PATS reunion. I wonder where Mr. Moody and Ms. Busby are now?

• Dennis Rackard -- Dennis and I carpooled to the University of South Alabama, each Wednesday, for several years while in the PATS program. Dennis is the best Saxophone player to have graduated from Shaw High School, and went on to a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of South Alabama. He is now a Civil Engineer for the Air Force and lives in Fort Walton Beach Florida.

From my years at John Shaw High School

• Angelique Beyers Cunningham (ABC) -- Angie was the Valedictorian of the John S. Shaw class of 1979, the younger sister of my older sister's first husband, and my Senior Prom date. Kinky, huh? She was awarded the prestigious "most hair loss" certificate at the Shaw 20 year reunion. See her photos from the reunion: Page 1 or Page 2
• Kenny Lambert -- Kenny sat behind me in Advanced-placement Math, was an officer in the National Honor Society, and is on the steering committee for the Shaw '79 reunion (14 August 1999 at the Admiral Semmes in down-town Mobile) -- though he claimed to have only "swept out the hangar" for the family get-together at the Battleship park. Kenny graduated with a Dentistry degree and has a practice in Mobile. He was awarded a certificate for the "most unchanged" at the 20 Year reunion.
  The word for today is Mammalons:

  Each anterior tooth grows from tooth buds. These three tooth buds fuse to form our permanent teeth. Anterior teeth have three points on them when they first erupt. These points are called the Mammalons. Within one or two years the points of the Mammalons wear away, but the internal structure is still present.

• Edwin Bobston Cleverdon III -- Edwin and I were in and out of bands together while in High School. Visited occasionally while in College, but I hurt his feelings terribly at a Hattiesburg Pizza Hut ... and we've not spoken much since. Naturally, now he's famous. My not-so-subtle challenge to him, that day long ago, to write some better music subliminally motivated him, instead, to get a law degree and go to work for the most feared government agency in the so-called free world :^)
  I agonize over words spoken in haste for 20 years, and then Edwin says "Chill, dude!"
  I guess I can start "getting over it", now :^)

• Brian Timothy Hughes -- Brian is the namesake of my youngest son, Timothy. We hung out together, played some Chess, played some music, philosophized. Good friend.

• John Root -- Always on the periphery of my high school circle of friends, I finally heard from Root in March of 2002. He's now living as a programmer in Pasadena. Yo! Edwin or Brian, you "got your ears on?" John has kept in touch with Alexander, Shoquist and Zorker. Maybe we can get him to walk in front of one of the live Jaguar WebCams sometime :^)

• Mark Hughes -- Mark and I also played a lot of Chess and philosophized. For a while there, Mark was probably my best friend ... but his family moved to Las Vegas and we lost touch.

• Tony Curtis Smith -- Tony and I were in and out of bands together while in High School. Visited occasionally while I was in College ... woah! deja vu!

From my years at USM

• Curtis Anderson -- Curtis and I were both in Computer Science (at one time). Somehow I managed to exchange COBOL textbooks with him. I think I still have his copy.

• James Warren Brown -- James and I "jammed" a lot while in College. Shared a trailer. Played a lot of Pinochle. Good friend. Sometime during the USM era, Joni and I began calling him "Jimi", as in Hendrix. It almost stuck. Now, we call his son that :^) James is now in a supervisory position at Peavey Electronics and performs with the Dirty Dogs in and around Meridian, Mississippi.

• Joe Dumas -- I knew of Joe's reputation as a Chess player since we both attended High School in Mobile, Alabama. After we both were awarded Presidential Scholarships to the University of Southern Mississippi, we happened to cross paths at a Freshman orientation. Naturally, I had my Chess board in my dorm room, and challenged him to a game. As I recall, I played e4, he responded with e6, and I played e5?!

  The rest is history, or would be if I could find the move list. Somehow, I managed to hold on to the e5 pawn, slowing his development, and eventually accepted his resignation.
  My tournament record against Joe is 0-0-3, but he routinely trounced me in Blitz. Joe was board #2 on the USM Chess Team on which I was board #3.

• Robert Hyatt -- Hyatt would occasionally attend Chess Club meetings on Wednesday nights, where he, Gower, Zaremba and Dumas would team up for some really interesting Siamese Chess. I can only recall playing against Blitz (the program) once.

• Elizabeth Bourquin Kennedy -- "Liz" is the namesake of my Daughter, Elizabeth, though neither Liz probably realizes that. I still have her copy of "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" I borrowed in 1979. I wonder if she wants it back? As I recall, she was reluctant to loan it to me because folks who borrow books from her seldom ... uhh ...

• Joni Devitt Maloy -- Joni achieved second place in the USM Freshman Math competition (1979-1980). She seemed genuinely interested in doing Calculus homework together, so I married her.

• Dr. Joe B. Thrash -- At one time I wanted to be Joe Thrash when I grew up. Teaching Calculus to attentive students ... it just didn't get any better than that!

• Mark Zaremba -- Mark was board #1 on the USM Chess Team. As in the "Bond Hall Invitational" in which I beat J. Dumas, I somehow managed to pull out a win against Mark at the "Elam Arms Invitational" -- the first time we played. It was a strange game. Aware of the prowess of my opponent, I traded whenever I could, but no pawns ever left the board. Mark brought his King to the center, navigating a stonewall of pawns, in hopes of controlling the middle. After I inadvertently mated him, Mark, Joe and I laughed uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes. I never came close to beating him again.

From my years at Eglin Air Force Base

• Herb Spies -- Head of the systems group at the Freeman Math Lab where I worked as a Co-op student. Herb was active in the local Apple users group, and I had an Apple II with (eventually) an Alpha Centauri synthesizer, so we had at least one thing in common :^)
• Bob Kent -- Bob was my occasional room-mate while we were co-op'ing. I can't remember ever losing to him at Chess, though he could out bench-press me any day of the week -- one-handed, probably. Last I heard, Kent was on the fast-track to a 4.0 at FSU.