Patricia High Smith

After graduating from HPHS, and being arrested for vandalizm* on graduation night, I went on to K-State. I met my husband, Steve, there, and we were married in 1963. We have two great kids (both Texas A&M grads---whoop!) and three wonderful grandchildren. Our children and spouses all live within 30 minutes of us, and none of the grandchildren are teenagers yet, so life is good.

Steve was in ROTC in college, so we let the Air Force move us for the first 5 or 6 moves (TX, OK, AK, Germany). We live in Silsbee, TX now, and it was our 17th move. We have been here 34 years, so you know we were busy moving around at first. I often say that Steve was kidnappped from a Gypsy camp by a nice, unassuming Kansas farm couple.

Silsbee is on the southern edge of the Piney Woods and about 50 miles from the gulf. It doesn't seem "Texasy", until you hear someone talk. Our terraine is more like Louisiana, and we are only 30 miles from there. We have 4 seasons: Mosquito, Love bug, Gnat, and Roach.

I retired from teaching elementary school in 1998, and my husband retired the next day. We have traveled a lot, but we have as much fun staying here, going up to our lake house to swim and do water sports (we quit fishing a few years ago).

Since Steve is from a small farm in Ottawa, KS, he decided to buy a tractor a few years ago in order to get back to his roots. We now have a small farm to go under the tractor. We still are gypsies, in that we go from home to home working hard and playing gently.

I am an Elder in the church (really!). I am in charge of "property", which means electrical, plumbing, flood control, etc. My number-one helper is Steve. We are busy maintaining our little church when we are in town. I also play Bridge, and have never been very proficient in it, but I love my card-playing friends. We take field trips throughout the year, and that's fun.

*Now that this is going to be preserved for posterity, I had better explain the "arrest". At about 5 AM, the morning after graduation, four of us newly-graduated seniors were spotted by a police cruiser on top of my car tearing down some of those little triangular-shaped flags at a filling station. They took us to the police station and just talked to us. They were very nice. The other "hoodlems" involved were Jackie Olson, Hilde Wanke, and George Mills. I haven't seen Jackie or George since that morning, so I hope they're still not grounded.

I can't believe that the class of '61 has gotten this OLD!!!!! I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

I was informed that I needed to edit my profile again. Does everyone do it? I would like to hear more from classmates. Update: Our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson are moving to the Chicago area for 2 years. I believe that June (Boaz) and John Clair will be a stop on the way for us when we go visit. We are going to miss the kids so much, because they have been here for more than 20 years...

Did anyone find out who chopped down Mrs. Basket's rubber tree? I'll bet it was someone from the class of '62......Later: I have heard that it was Roger Welch, but Kermit Hollinghead got blamed for it. I also heard that Jerry Freeman chopped it down the next year. Is that correct?

I have another school story: On May 5, 1961, Capt. Alan B. Shephard was the first man to go up into space. I didn't want to miss any of that history. I was in first period Art class when he was going to splash down. I snuck out of art (not too hard to do), and went down to the cafeteria where there was the only TV set that I knew of. I watched the splash-down with the janitors and cafeteria ladies. I also watched my back for any administrators who may be looking for a stray student.