LHHS CLASS OF 1965 SPOTLIGHT

OCTOBER 2006

Randy Catterton

Moose Frank, Bob Wilson, and Randy Catterton

Randy and Brian Surratt 2000

Randy and Laquita McMillan 2000

Randy and Dian Freeman 2000

QUESTIONS

1.  What do you remember about your last day at LHHS?

The last actual day at the high school that I remember was the morning following the last night of the “senior boys campout”.  As many of you probably remember, because you were there, most of the senior boys camped out on the vacant lot across the street from the high school during the last week of our senior year.  Because none of us paid a whole lot of attention to hygiene during that week, by the end of the week, we were pretty knarly.  I remember a large group of us walking across the street to the school and being greeted by Mr. Anderson or Mr. Fountain “or both and instructed that we were not going to be able to enter the school again until we had gone home, bathed and put on clean clothing.  I don’t believe the rejection really caused us any psychology damage because we were all so exhausted from a week-long party that an extra hour or two that morning was well received.  The last actual activity from Lake Highlands that I remember was the all night party.  The party was at some country cub in Richardson .  My main recollection was that after partying all night; Jim Reynolds (Peefar to all of us who know and love him) decided that this was the perfect time to head fro Miami , Florida .  We literally went home and loaded my brand new 1965 Mercury Caliente with our stuff and headed for Southern Flor8ida .  I fell asleep in the back seat and the next thing I remembered was awakening to screeching tires as Peefar was fishtailing his way through a construction site in the western part of Mississippi .  As I raised my head, I realized there were also blinking lights on the car behind us.  A not so friendly Mississippi highway patrolman pulled us over.  To this day, I do not know why the guy did not put us both in jail.  I think that Peefar had still not totally partied himself out the night before and made some no so complimentary comments about the racist State of Mississippi .

2.  What did you do in the summer of ’65?

As stated above, Peefar and I headed to Miami immediately after the all night party.  We stayed with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother who were living in Florida at that time.  Peefar got a job at an Italian restaurant waiting tables and I had my first job as an assistant to an assistant grounds keeper on a country club country club golf course.  Neither of us particularly liked the jobs; and in our second week in Florida , we both got a job at the same McDonalds in Miami Beach .  At that time, McDonalds did not have in-door seating and the window to the public was a screen that would be raised and lowered as we took money in and handed out the food.  Peefar returned to Texas after two or three more weeks in Florida and I remained until the end of the summer.  It was really a great time.  I worked a split shift so that I could go to the beach with my cousins at the crack of dawn.  At 10:30 a.m., I would go to McDonalds, which was only a few miles from the beach area and work the lunch hour.  I would then return to the beach about 2:30 p.m. and then return to McDonalds for the dinner shift from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.  I got a lot of sun that year.

3.  What did you the next school year?

The following year, I attended North Texas State University (now University of North Texas ).  I commuted from my parents home in Lake Highlands; however, I spent most of my time at the apartment that Peefar and David Schoppe shared or in the apartment that Jim (Moose) Frank, Slick Wilson, and Joe Hodge shared, both at the University City Apartments in Denton .    Talk about a contrast!  They are both so anal, David and Peefar’s apartment was always spotless.  Moose, Slick, and Joe’s apartment was so filthy that the apartment complex thought it easier to burn it to the ground than try and clean.

Because of some very serious partying during the fall semester, a large number of Wildcats didn’t make it into the spring semester.  In the later part of the spring of 1966, Peefar and I each got a job with the City of Dallas working on and around White Rock Lake .  By the end of the summer, Peefar was the trash truck driver and I was his helper.  Moose also got a job there with us during the summer of 1966.  When I see some of you, I will tell you some of the stories that involved our daily schedule while working the trash truck.  To give you a hint, it resulted in a very serious car wreck at the end of that summer and my decision to join the United States Marine Corps.

4.  College?

As stated above, I started at North Texas .  After the car wreck that I referred to above, I joined the Marine Corps.  After completing military service, I attended El Centro Junior College for a couple of semesters and returned to North Texas to finish out my undergraduate degree in 1971.  I attended the University of Texas school of Law in Austin and graduated in December, 1973.

5.  Were any other Wildcats with you?

See answer above.

6.  Military service?

See answer above.

7.  Did you ever get married?  More than once?

I got married a lot.  Seriously, I have been married three times and have three lovely ex-wives.  Actually, I get along well with all my ex-wives.  But at the present time, I am happily and permanently single.

8.  Children?

I have three great children.  My son, Bryan, is 37 (soon to be 38).  My daughter, Britton, is 34 and my late in life son, Christopher, will be 16 in November.  I have one grandson, Sam, age 4.

9.  What did you do for a living for the first ten years after LHHS?

As I said in earlier answers, I have worked at a McDonalds, for the City of Dallas , for the City of Austin (mowing the grass around the city cemetery), for a Home Furniture Company delivering furniture, and a s bill collector for one of my father’s finance companies in Dallas while I was going to school at El Centro .  I began practicing law after graduation from UT Austin in 1973.  My first job was in New Mexico in a small town called Truth or Consequences (for real, the name of the tow was Truth or Consequences).  I was only there one year and moved back to Texas , finding a job with a law firm in Fort Worth .  I remained with that firm for 19 years.  During those 19 years, I was primarily involved with trial work in the area of family law.  In 1993, I became judge of the 231^st District Court in Fort Worth and have remained there to this date.

10.  What did you do for the second ten years?

See Number 9 above.

11.  Where do you live?  (city and state)

Fort Worth , Texas

12.  What do you do now?

State District Judge by profession.  My hobbies are severely restricted.  The only serious hobby that have had other than laying around swimming pools, drinking beer, and listening to music is motorcycling.  In 2001, a friend of mine talked me into taking a motorcycle course and I became addicted almost immediately.

13.  Do you stay in contact with any LH classmates?

I continue to have contact with a number of LH classmates, including Moose, Slick, David Schoppe, and others.  I have remained extremely close to Peefar, Nancy Rew Lundsford, and Joe Hodge.

14.  If you could change anything about your high school experience, what would it be?

In view of the fact that I survived my high school years and am alive to talk about it today, I would not change anything.  Honestly, my high school experience was wonderful.  The friends that I made, the times in which we lived during those four years, the opportunities that have now opened for me I believe, at least indirectly, are connected to my high school years.

15.  As you approach retirement age…are you ready?

No.  I seriously doubt that I will retire unless my health forces me to do so.  Before becoming a judge, I thoroughly enjoyed practicing law, and the job I currently have is the best that I could have asked for.  Besides, I have divorced so many times, I can’t afford to retire.

16.  In your opinion, what is that “certain something” that has kept so many of our class so connected for so long?

This response may sound overly serious; however, I believe the world as we knew it during our high school years significantly changed in the late 60s and 70s.  When we were in Lake Highlands, there were no drugs other than beer that I knew of.  At my home at least, we didn’t lock our doors.  In fact, I would sometimes awaken to find that some of my friends had been sleeping in the pool room.  There may have been some fights that occurred (at least I heard rumor to that effect), but they were not the type of violent things that we are seeing today.  The beginning of the change may have been as early as 1963 with President Kennedy’s assassination and with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the late 60s.  Things began to change drastically.  Drugs became a major issue.  The Vietnam War had the country turned upside down, and technology began to change faster than most people could keep up with.

If you remember, we didn’t actually have our first reunion until 1980, 15 years after we graduated.  I think that many of us started remembering the wonderful times and the wonderful friends that we had at Lake Highlands and a concerted effort was made to get back together.  From the first reunion in 1980, I think we realized that we share a tremendous amount of common values, goals, expectations, and obviously shared experiences that came from a high school that was as small as ours, but in a city the size of Dallas.

17.  If David Wise would share his “Wayback Machine” and take you to 1962, would you go?

Probably not.  As I mentioned earlier, I was lucky to have lived through it the first time.

18.  Anything you want to ramble about…

I have probably rambled enough that I have put most of the readers to sleep.

Thanks all of you and good luck to you.  I hope to see a lot of you very soon.