Larry Hale Throws Down Tennis Gauntlet

Larry Hale has thrown down the tennis gauntlet. He is going to beseech upon Dave Beerman, Beerman Family Tennis Center, to join him in a men's doubles match, challenging Rodney James and his current men's doubles partner, Lex Taylor, in a doubles tennis dual. Losers buy beer, I guess. Larry proposes the week of April 8 through April 11 for this showdown of tennis titans.
Larry has provided a little history, saying that, in the 1959 Polk County High School Singles Championship, he defeated Lex Taylor. We have no reason to doubt his story. As of this writing, I know very little about Lex Taylor, such as where he went to school? Is he a 1959 graduate?
We will use the website blog to keep everyone updated.

Rodney James Wins Gold In Senior Olympics

Rodney James has again this year participated in the Senior Olympic Games, winning two gold medals in tennis. His partner for mixed doubles was Wanda Crocker, and his partner for men's doubles was Lex Taylor. Congratulations to Rodney and his partners.
In past years he has had similar success in the Senior Olympics, winning medals in tennis, the javelin and shot putt. In past years, his mixed doubles partner was Josie Womble, wife of our very own George Womble. They won one gold medal and two silvers by combining their talents.
Photographs may be available later, if the Senior Olympics officials are willing to share.

Dave Amsler and His Wife, Susan, Visit Lakeland

 

Lunch at Olive Garden
From left: Reed Robinson (Jimmy Musso's friend), Jimmy Musso, Rodney James, Susan Amsler, Dave Amsler.  The photo shows Susan and David.

David and Susan stopped through Lakeland on their way to visit Tommy and DeLinda Kennington.  Reed, Jimmy, and Rodney met them for lunch.

Dr. Richard (Rickey) Schneider and His Wife, Molly, Visit Lakeland

 

Dr. Richard (Rickey) Schneider and his wife, Molly, recently visited Lakeland. Dr. Schneider has been practicing gastroenterology and teaching gastroenterology to young medical students at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee for many years.

Rickey is the male with the trim waistline (3rd from left) in the photo. From left to right are Rodney James, Mollie James, Rickey Schneider, and Molly Schneider. The two dogs are half brothers and are Miniature Maltese. Rodney is holding Josh (belongs to Allan and Annette Davis) and Mollie is holding Percy (belongs to Rodney and Mollie).

More On The Fire That Destroyed Hugh Turbeville's Art Collection And Army/Navy Business

The Ledger has published yet another article about Hugh Turbeville's art collection, which was lost to fire. Not only did this fire destroy Hugh's 38 years of collecting valuable art, it also devastated wildlife artist, Robert Butler, because the loss represents 25% of his life's work. If you would like to read more, please follow the link below.

More On Devastating Loss of Hugh Turbeville's Art Collection

James Elbon's Movie Career

A number of classmates have asked about James Elbon's role in movie making. So, I asked him. He has held several job titles such as assistant producer, art assistant, videograhpher, and some duties related to sound. The most enjoyable so far, according to James, is art assistant. This entails preparing the various scenes for shooting. James's newest endeavor is a horror film called Zombotomy. Here is a link to the auditions website for this production. Zombotomy

If you google "James Elbon" (with quotation marks) you will find all sorts of information.

If you aspire to be the next Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts, James may have just the contact to launch your career on its way to stardom.

LHS Classmate's Lakeland Business and Art Collection Lost in Fire

 

 A fire this afternoon, February 10, 2008, destroyed the building housing LHS classmate Hugh Turbeville's Army/Navy store. Also lost in the fire was Hugh's extensive collection of art. Those of you who attended the Friday night session of the last class reunion at Hugh's Garden Club building will remember seeing these wonderful art pieces. No lives were lost and no one was injured; however, the loss of this art collection is a genuine tragedy

If you wish to read the article in The Ledger, please follow the links below.

Fire Destroys Building in Downtown Lakeland
A Second Article on Fire

Butch & Sue Moody Buy New Home in Blackwater Oaks

On a happier note than the previous blog article, Butch and Sue Moody have bought a new home in a development called Blackwater Oaks.  It is between Lakeland and Mulberry, but closer to Mulberry and near Sheppard Road.  I will post more details when they are available.

Butch and Sue need to sell their home, which is located just off US-98 South in Lakeland, so if you know of anyone looking, please let Butch and Sue know.

LHS Class of 1959 Goes High-Tech

The LHS Class of 1959 has gone more high-tech.  To facilitate communication with classmates, who do not have Internet access or use email, we have enlisted the services of www.callemall.com.  This website will accept and store a calling list in several formats, one being Excel.  The list must contain the 10-digit phone number in the first column and the recipient’s name in the second column.  The user or customer can then call a toll-free number and record the message to be broadcast.  The message can be sent immediately or scheduled for a future time and date.

We recently used www.callemall.com in an attempt to notify 66 local classmates of the upcoming class get together at Mary Futch’s home on March 8, 2008.  Fifty-nine of the calls were successful in that either someone answered the phone or an answering machine recorded the message.  We identified two invalid numbers, one for Jim Arnold and one for Martha Jo Bridges Chambers.  The system was unable to call Rose Varnadore Makos, for some reason.  There were three no-answers (Judy Taylor McDaniel, Betty Jean Kennedy Bettag, and Lana Turner Mahoney) after four attempts (system limit), and Yvonne Johnson’s phone was busy during all four attempts.

Since the calling list is stored at www.callemall.com, future notifications to these persons will take less than one minute, and the list can be edited online, if necessary.