Updating the past: Here are two views of the Municipal Auditorium undergoing rehab, and to be re-named the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. The photos are a bit blurry, but maybe they will whet your appetite to see it up close and personal. The photo on the right depicts tiered balconies reminiscent of European opera houses and theaters.
The Tobin Center opens in September this year. The structure behind the familiar dome is called a screen and will shield some upward construction. On the back side, there will be an outdoor theater with terraces down to the river.
If you have been away from San Antonio for recent years, there is so much happening here. Some years ago, in the name of flood control, the US Army Corps of Engineers straightened the meandering San Antonio river south of town, then cemented the banks. Now the job to un-do that effort is pretty much completed, and we have thirteen miles of walkways and bike ways from downtown to the Mission reach—remember the San Jose, Espada, Concepcion, and Capistrano. There is an attempt to have these missions named a world heritage site.
Jeff memories: Who remembers Mrs. Hicks and her rose garden? Who remembers Shorty the gardener? Jeff kept a gardener for many years till Shorty or his successor retired. When Jeff went in for funding to hire a replacement, any number of other schools requested the same, so naturally, Shorty’s position was eliminated.
Does anyone remember how the various clubs would hold socials after school? Someone would hop in a car and drive down to Culebra and return to school with a five-gallon can of tamales, served along with cokes.
Who remembers Mr. Sprott explaining how to calculate how long it takes for a train leaving a station heading west at 50 miles an hour to meet a train heading east travelling at 60 miles an hour. If anyone sends the correct answer, I will tell you how far apart the stations were when they started out.
Lost classmates: Here is the last of the missing classmates.
Helen Ballard
Arnold Barnett
Betty Ann Barras
Bertha Benavidez
Sylvia Bennett
Kay Bowers
Marvelia Bowers
Dolores Bratton
Nancy Brode
Mildred Brown
If some of these were previously listed, its because my system for tracking failed me.
So far, we have one classmate found—or, pending verification, deceased. I don’t want to end on this note, but the durn blog has started to double space above and now has stopped and I cannot figure it out. So I am going to dinner.
jeffclassof54 
My first days in Algebra with Mr. Sprott were a big question mark. He called “a” apples and “b” bananas. I asked him why we could multiply a to b but we couldn’t add them. He answered, “Because then we would have a fruit salad”.