Blog 56

REMEMBERING CRES:
Rich Kaufman and Marcia Pittman have reported that Cres McFall
passed away on June 6^th in California. Rich had some contact with Cres’ daughter, who speculated that Cres died of a broken heart, following the death of his wife a month earlier. If you are into FaceBook, which I am not, there are some postings and, I understand, a nice tribute to Cres by his daughter, Lauren.

Thinking back, I remember Cres as the drum major of the band. I recall that he chose Principia as his college, because I had never heard of it. I looked it up to discover it is a Christian Scientist school in Illinois.

I don’t remember that Cres ever attended a reunion from the 30^th forward, so I never saw him after graduation. However, I had a bit of correspondence over the years.

Cres missed one reunion because he was attending Olympic trials to see his daughter in synchronized swimming. That may have been the first year synchronized swimming was added as a sport, but memory is rusted. The next reunion, Cres and family were in Greece (I think) as the daughter had made the team. My last contact was at our 53^rd reunion. Cres was visiting his four brothers in New Braunfels. He had promised to drive out to the party at Enchanted Springs Ranch with one of his brothers, but he did not show.

I encourage any of you with memories of Cres to post them here.

The Mid-termer, Part 1
Way back when, those born after September 1 and before February 1 could start school in January, referred to as mid-term. We were called mid-termers and had three options twelve years later as high school seniors:

(a) we could leave school after the fall term, which Connie Mayes and others did;

(b) we could post (stay in school) and graduate the following May, as Carl David Voekel, Tommy Turner and others did;

(c) we could go to summer school and take two credits, just enough to finish a term early, as Patricia Padgett, Jeanine Kliefoth, and many others did, including yours truly. For grins, over the next couple of posts, I will include a photo of these sophomore mid-termers in January, 1951. Here is the first photo. I hope it brings back memories. We were all definitely that young once.

Front row: Ignacia Arocha, Dixie Lee Burd, Dagmar Kilgast, Carl David Voekel, Patsy Brannen, Richard Cummings

Second row: Dorothy Crawford, Neal Hunt, William Miller, Jon Kay Littrell, Nancy Peel, Jim Bob Miller

Third row: Ruby Jane Rhodes, Tommy Turner, Willam Nanez, Connie Mayes, Allen Wilson, John Bennet

Fourth row: Jo An Reeves, Elliot Bilhartz, Pat Conahue, Michael Thompson, Mary Ann Koennig