Donelson High School

RE: What a day

2010-04-26T16:16:15-04:00

I think it was our junior year Richard Johnson and i decided to skip school one day. Being my parents both worked my house was an ideal location to hide. Foolish me decided to call Richard's house that morning to confirm our plan. After a couple of rings Richard's mother answers and i asked for Richard. After consumating our devious intentions we proceded to accomplish our task. Because he and i both were well perceived by the administration we never expected them to call home and confirm our absense was health related, foolish again. After receiving the call and informing the office that Richard was indeed supposed to be in school she asked if i too was missing. Confirming my absense she informed them she would have the problem solved immediately. As we drove from my house to the light at the intersection of Lakeland DR. and Donelson Pike we met Mrs. Johnson head on. The end of the story is she carried Richard to school I went back home. Richard was diciplined both at school and at home, I never was asked about the absense and Richard mother from that point on thought I was a bad influence on her son. I guess she was probably right. Fortunately years later she forgave me.

Alaska

2010-04-26T15:54:06-04:00

My husband and I took a cruise to Alaska last August. It was a life dream for me and represented the 49th state I had visited. Everyone who had ever been told me it was fabulous and they were right. Each day the views were more beautiful than the day before. Finally, the only way I could describe it was WOW. I took over a thousand pictures. We plan to go back to visit the interior and take our children and grandchildren. First, we have to go to Hawaii, my 50th state to visit. We are planning that trip for 2011 to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

To read more, go to my blog: wandaoholt.blogspot.com

RE: "Libby"

2010-02-23T07:28:43-04:00

Had the opportunity to be an extra in a Movie shot here in Nashville in 2009 scheduled for release in 2010. Its called Black, White and Blues staring Michael Clark Duncan (big black guy in green mile) and Tom Skeritt. Was pretty cool to see these guys are people too and to see how a movie is actually made. I enjoyed the day and got paid to boot!

===JIM===

RE: "Libby"

2010-02-23T05:45:54-04:00

Uhhh....... anyone else? Now, there I go being "ostentatious" again. I'm sure I'll catch hell for it....

billy

RE: Favorite Teachers......

2010-02-07T09:14:33-04:00

Hmmm Billy, wonder why you avoided Mrs Johnson? Never thought about it but did they keep you from having her class because she was your mom?

Ah there were a lot of good teachers and folks there, these were just a few of the favorites as I am sure we all had.

===JIM===

RE: Africa

2010-02-06T20:13:56-04:00

Travel Story:

My first wife, Alison, and I packed up our bicycles in cardboard boxes and they were our "luggage" on a flight to London. We bought "Brit-Rail" passes for a week (I think back then the passes were about $80 apiece). We could roll our bikes into the baggage car of any "Brit Rail" train, lock them up, and then go up to the passenger cars, diner car, etc.

Our first leg was from London to Oxford on bikes (about 80 miles) our first day out (in the cold drizzling rain against a headwind!). Then we caught a train to Swansea, Wales and stayed overnight at a "Bed and Breakfast" (B&B). We got on a "ferry" from Swansea across the Irish Sea to Cork, Ireland. From Cork we biked to "St. Anne's Hill" near Blarney Castle.

No. I did NOT kiss the Blarney Stone! T'wer no need for me to!

Henry Benagh was living on St. Anne's Hill, picking potatoes ("spuds") by day, and playing Irish Fiddle in the Pubs by night. He was lighting at night with lamp oil and heating with blocks of compressed peat that cost the US equivalent of $4 apiece. One block would keep you warm all night. We followed Henry around to various Pubs where he and other local musicians would play. He was known as "Tennessee Henry," and he was quite good.

Then we went up the east coast of Ireland by bike, camping along the way, and we eventually caught another ferry back over to Fishguard, England. Then caught a train up to Edinburgh, Scotland. We were starving so we ate some meat pies at the train station while waiting to board the train. Once in Edinburgh we road bikes out to a campground where we pitched a two-person tent.

I woke up about midnight with the worst case of food poisoning I'd ever had. I barely made it out of my sleeping bag and out of the tent (I'm sure I looked like a bannana that had been squeezed violently out of it's peeling). I crawled into the weeds and barfed prodiguously. I woke up several camper neighbors whom I could hear muttering, "What the bloody hell...!).

I crawled back into the tent and back into my sleeping bag. Poor Alison woke me up about a half hour later, crying, holding her stomach, and saying, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" (the poor dear).

I was lying there feeling like a dish rag that had been wrung out completely dry, and I said, "Alison, you're going to throw up violently for a very long time without stopping."

The poor dear launched out of her sleeping bag and out into the night like a torpedo wearing flannel jammies. I could hear the poor thing wretching in the distance. She also woke up some neighboring campers and I could hear them muttering in the darkness, "Flippin drunks!" (We weren't, believe me, we weren't!).

Poor Alison eventually crawled back into the tent. We staggered back into Edinburgh the next morning (pushing our bikes, we couldn't ride), and got another B&B where we holed up for about 24 hours sleeping off a major overdose of Botulism or something. We eventually got out and walked down the street to a market where we bought two bannanas (how fitting) and two Coca-Colas. We managed to eat and hold it down. We visited Edinburgh Castle and a few places, but we looked and felt like Night of the Living Dead.

After awhile we figured out we were going to live, and found a train heading further north to Inverness. We had to bike up to Loch Ness from there, and we found another campground right on Loch Ness. I remember going to the bath house and seeing graffitti that said, "Pink Floyd Lives." We didn't see the Loch Ness Monster, so we biked back into Inverness and caught a train back down south to London. We made it just in time to catch our flight back to the US.

Hoo doggie! Do not, I repeat, do NOT eat meat pies at a train station anywhere in Great Britain. Or maybe it's OK now.... I think Louis Pasteur's work has been discovered there by now!

Billy

RE: Mrs. Gentry

2010-02-06T19:22:11-04:00

Yeah, Susan,

Ms. Gentry was a character. She would lose her glasses and be looking all over for them and someone would say, "Ms. Gentry, they're on top of your head."

Her husband, Dr. Gentry, was one of the world's foremost authorities on salamanders. Remember Bruce Anderson? Bruce and Dr. Gentry would go salamander hunting in the creeks and caves of Middle Tennessee. They found several unidentified salamanders and I think Bruce even got a citation in one of Dr. Gentry's journal articles.

I wonder if there are now "salamandaris gentrii" or a "salamandaris andersonii" scurrying about in the frigid springs and creeks? I guess I could Google it and find out!

billy

RE: Favorite Teachers......

2010-02-06T19:14:31-04:00

Yeah Randy,

I learned more Spanish from Mr. Gaines in less than one year than I learned French in college in four years.

I liked Mrs. Woods, Ms. Hurt (typing), Mr. Francis, Coach Karabasz, Mr. Cass, Coach Ellis, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Thacker, Bob Binkley,...... and on and on.

I avoided Ms. Johnson.....

billy

RE: The Day the Earth Stood Still

2010-02-06T19:04:22-04:00

Gort! Clatoo baradda nicto!

RE: "Libby"

2010-02-06T12:59:02-04:00

I got to meet some "music legends," too. David "Pinto" Bean lived across the street from me on Cumberland Circle. His folks knew Boyd Adams, a race car driver at the Nashville Speedway. Boyd opened a limousine service near the "S-Curves" of Lebanon Road, and he needed drivers. I joined Boyd's "Drive-U-Service," as a moon-light job and picked up a roaring $5 an hour, plus tips (not everyone tipped).

One afternoon they called me and asked me to take a limo over to the Nashville Jet Center. I stood there in my little black suit watching the sky to the North, and I saw a silver glimmer of an airplane come over Todd's Knob (just behind Donelson Shopping Center), and it came straight in and landed, and rolled up right in front of me. It was a large two-engine propeller craft like a Cherokee. The door opened and this stocky little, sandy haired guy climbed out. He walked straight over to me, took off his sunglasses, made direct eye contact with piercing blue eyes, reached and took my hand in his thick little muscular hand, and said, "Hi. I'm John Denver. What's your name?" I said, "Billy Johnson." He said, "Hi, Billy Johnson. Will you take me and my crew out to Brentwood. We'll be in town for a couple of weeks and we rented a house out there."

I said, "Sure, man. Hop on in and I'll run you out there." I did. I got a $20 tip. Back then that was a lot!

Another time, I picked up Jimmy Buffet's crew at the airport the night before he did a concert. Jimmy flew in separately so I didn't get to meet him. The band flew on to somewhere else the morning after the concert, but Jimmy stayed in Nashville a couple of nights to get with some friends in Franklin. "Drive-U-Service" (DUS) called me late one night and asked me to pick up Jimmy the next morning at 5:00 a.m. to take him to the airport. I picked him up right on time. He got in the front seat with me instead of the back like they usually do. He looked over at me and said, "Hey man. You look bright and chipper for so early in the morning. How do you do it?" I said, "Probably the same way YOU do it, Mr. Buffett." To that he busted out laughing. We kept each other laughing all the way to Metro Airport. I let him out at the front door and he grabbed his overnight bag, said, "Bye Mr. Billy," and took off.

That was about it for famous people I encountered while driving for "DUS." Once there was this soap opera diva and her handmaiden, but I didn't watch soap operas and didn't know who the heck she was. So it was no thrill. They didn't seem too thrilled with me, either. All I know, it sure wasn't "Erica" from "All my Children." I'd have recognized HER (Beth used to watch All my Children and I watched it with her a few times).

famous times!

billy

RE: Favorite Teachers......

2010-02-02T21:52:22-04:00

Jim...

You mentioned Mr Jones. I never had him, but I recently heard a story about him from my wife's dad. Before teaching math at DHS, Mr Jones had been the head football coach at one of those directonal schools (North, West, etc). Well, one Friday night, his star player got kicked out of the game for fighting. At half time, Mr Jones had him change jerseys with another player and sent him back out to play the 2nd half. The ref caught him, and Mr Jones almost got fired. The superintendent of schools, Mr Moss, banned him from ever coaching in Davidson County again, and that's how he ended up with us.

Also, Mr Binkley....remember his 8 year old daughter recorded "I Want a Baby Brother for Christmas" around 1967 or 68. I think he actually wrote that song.

AND....who could ever forget Senor Gaines?!?!?

RE: "Libby"

2010-01-28T08:17:50-04:00

Now thats cool!!!!!

===JIM===

RE: Favorite Teachers......

2010-01-26T13:28:20-04:00

short and sweet, just like me.

RE: Favorite Teachers......

2010-01-26T13:18:39-04:00

Mike you are such a colorful writer! }:)

===JIM===

RE: Favorite Teachers......

2010-01-26T13:02:40-04:00

Eddie Pigue, Mrs Woods, Mr Binkley

RE: The Day the Earth Stood Still

2010-01-26T09:29:42-04:00

I remember 2 things very clearly about that movie. The weard background music and that space ship. The invisible door opening. Simple, but ahead of its time for sure.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

2010-01-26T00:54:47-04:00

This 1951 Black & White classic SiFi, released the year I was born, was my all time favorite for many years. The first time I saw it was in 1958 or 59. We had an old B&W tv and I was spell bound. At the time, this was one scarry movie. I always hoped that someday this movie would get re-made and brough up to modern times by someone like Spielberg, whom I felt could do the story justice and stay true to the original. When the new version came out, I had mixed feelings. I'm still partial to the original film.

Then came 2001: A Space Odyssey. A film that had to be watched several times to fully grasp. The visuals set the standard for all future movies in that genre. Arthur C. Clark's story and it's sequel, "2010:The Year We Make Contact" are pure genius.

In 1977 Star Wars took the lead, and captivated most everyone that saw it. It was great Saturday Afternoon SiFi. And once again, a film that set new standards in film making.

But, the true, edge-of-your-seat SiFi, was ALIEN. No other SiFi film had managed to truly bring hard core sifi to the silver screen. Oh, sure, there were all sorts of horror movies, and monsters from another world, but ALIEN made it real, made it believeable. If this movie didn't scar you to death the first time you saw it, then you were already dead.

There have been scores of great sifi and horror films released sense ALIEN. Television has shown them so much that you become numb to it all. I've seen so many that I'm not sure I could pick an all time favorite any more. Lord of the Rings, Mission to Mars, The Abyss, just to name a few. I love them all.

RE: "Libby"

2010-01-25T23:57:20-04:00

There are those of us who have good days and bad; then there are those of us who really have Great Luck; then there are those who are truly Blessed! Now, of course, you realize, you've got to come up with pictures. (ha,ha)

"Libby"

2010-01-25T22:38:49-04:00

In 1976 I worked as an associate producer for a TV show called "Almost Anything Goes". My boss lived in Nashville as well; Lions Head Condos off of White Bridge Road. Terri call me over one day to discuss my next show, I traveled 3 weeks of the month those days all over the country, hosting the Show. I pulled up in front of her condo, got out of my car, and an attractive girl holding a little dog said, "Hi, you must be Larry, I'm Libby" as in Olivia Newton John, the modeling, Please Mr. Please days. Aparantly Terri and she had been friends for a long time. So, I was cool, went in and talked for awhile, when she said, "Its a shame you don't have on shorts I would like to play tennis." Well its a good thing sewing was one of Terri's hobbies because a pair of scissors and about 2 minutes later I had shorts. No problem, lets go. We played tennis, talked, went swimming all for about 3 hours until Terri had to come out and drag me in to work. "Or just wake me up from a dream." We stayed in touch for a few years. Sweet person. Normal like all of us. I believe the pure surpise of meeting her was the thing I most remember.

Favorite Teachers......

2010-01-23T09:02:34-04:00

I guess we all had a favorite but there are others that were great as well. Its like your friends, you have a bestest but doesn’t mean you don’t still love others too.

These are not in any particular order for me. Of course being in Band MR Sain was my favorite <see post> But there were a number of others.

I never had Mr. Binkley but he was a great guy and even remembered my name and was helpful to me as well. I guess that just speaks to the kind of great guy he really was.

Mr. Bryson was a really funny guy when you got to know him. I had several of his classes and he was a good teacher and could be a friend when you needed it.

Mr. Francis.... geese what a mind <see post>. Thank you Mr. Francis.

Mrs. Johnson was Billy's mom and what a pretty lady. She was a great teacher but a hard one, at least on me. I must confess I always enjoyed her class though. What a smart lady and great teacher she was.

Oh boy, Mr. Jones, I never did figure him out but liked the guy for some weird reason. He could be a funny guy as well.

Ok here is where I show my weird side. Mr. Kirby I did like. I can remember him so well because I had a lot of science classes with him. I was in the Radio club as well which he presided over. I can never forget physics class with him and all the experiments that we would screw up. I can remember some of the guys pulling the little carts around the room like toys. Hooking the gas line to the water, filling it up then watch Mr. Kirby stick his match up to light it and water pour out on it! HAHAHAHA. Ah geese what memories I have of his classes.

Mr. Ragland of course was tough but I came to appreciate him more and more. Kind of gave you a glimpse of college level classes but deep down was a good person and teacher.

I enjoyed Mr. Milam, Mr. Welch, Coach Reeves, Mrs. White, Mr. Wise and Mrs. Woodruff too. I guess Mrs. Woodruff got me in more trouble than any other teacher as we seemed to clash but I still respected her.Coach Ellis was a friend as well in Rotary later in life. He taught me to swim at the old Cascades pool when he had the movie star look! Never had a class with him but none the less he was a great guy to me!

Mr. Zeeh was my home room teacher. What a lonesome soul he seemed to be. He always was a great guy to me too just kind of odd. I remember a few years back he called me out of the blue and left a message on the answering machine. I never did reach him back. Wish I had, just to talk to him again.

Of course who doesn’t respect, honor and revere Mr. Edwards’s memory. I know we made fun of him and mocked him back then (remember the 2% folks) but how many of us he influenced over the years is untold. What a man and administrator.

Funny how these folks really can affect you for the rest of your life and as you reflect on them how you should and could be to others as well. I know there were other simply great Teachers at DHS but these are the ones I had and remember. Thank you teachers!!! Each and everyone.