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On May 25,1961 we became Graduates of Clear Creek High School, League City, Galveston CO, TX at last, just twenty days after Alan Shepard became the first American in space and gasoline was $.15 a gallon. It was the start of a journey of a lifetime, our lifetime. We saw Alan Shepard and many other astronauts move into our hometowns. We remember where we were when the President of the United States was assassinated in our state; two days later we witnessed his assailant on live television shot and killed before our eyes. In a few short moments a man from Texas was President and Camelot became the Great Society. We saw a war in South East Asia play out in our living rooms at supper time, the Civil Rights Movement, political turmoil, the sexual revolution, and anybody make Woodstock?
Three of our neighbors were killed in a launch pad fire at Cape Kennedy; two and a half years later “Houston” was the first word spoken from another heavenly body by a father of a child in our own school system. In 1973, we had marriages, a few divorces and now the shock that this class like all others is mortal, one of our members died. To add to the tapestry of our lives the President of our country resigns from office in disgrace. And gasoline is over a dollar a gallon.
In May of 1980 Mt Helens violently erupts and shows the massive irresistible force of nature. This same year an actor is elected President of the United States and six residents of our no longer small school district and a schoolteacher from New Hampshire are lost in the first in-flight mishap of the Space Program. We see another Texas President, and then in the next decade something we read about in history, a President impeached. And gas is near two dollars a gallon
And then another Texas man is elected President of our country. An airliner is flown in to a building in New York and as we watch a second is flown in to its twin. The world is now in a state none of us could have imagined in 1961. Another spacecraft and crew are lost in reentry over east Texas. In 2005 a major U.S. city is destroyed before our eyes by a force of nature. And gas goes over four dollars a gallon.
In all this time Jimmy Taylor and Sharon Hardy kept pulling this class back together. They are gone now so we have to do it on our own.
The Shuttle Discovery has made two successful returns to space and the 45th reunion is now warm memories of all those that attended. Sharon and Jimmy are smiling and looking forward to the next one. And gas is has gone over three dollars a gallon, again.
In 2008 we again saw a major city ravaged by a hurricane. This time it was a city and area that we all know well. Some of watched it closer than others, the more distance the more you got to see. Those of us here had to wait a few days, sometimes a week or more to get power restored so we could see beyond our own neighborhood. When a metropolitan area size of Houston loses power it just short of chaos, traffic signals are more important than we think. A lot more. Stations cannot pump fuel, refineries do not make fuel, and we burn fuel in generators to cool our refrigerators and driving around to find more fuel. 1961 all over again just a whole lot more people use to AC, PCs and a lot of other conveniences we have be come use to. Which leads up to this
And gas was $3.75
Time to start trimming up
Now we are only less than three short years away from the BIG 50th reunion. So start allowing time in 2010 to come to the Clear Creek Area for your class reunion. Maybe you can drive here in a hydrogen fueled auto.