She also serves who only sits and waits
(With apologies to English poet John Milton, who actually wrote, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”) That often mis-quoted line came to me when I saw this frame from the December 28, 1966 College High Tournament that pitted the Central High School Tigers against Delta .
The cute girl sitting at the left of the scorers table is Lila Perry (Class of 66). This week marks the 45th year since we started dating. This is also her birthday week, which prompted Bill Hopkins to write on her Facebook wall, “I know that being married to a man several decades older than you can be stressful at times.” Bill has, obviously honed his survival skills over the years.
She’s a treasure. Our dates weren’t like most other couple’s dates. Going to a sporting event meant she was sitting in the stands or bleachers while I ran up and down the sidelines shooting pictures. While our classmates were paired up admiring the full moon from Cape Rock, we were in my basement darkroom processing film for the next day’s paper. I guess the orangish-yellowish safelight looked sort of like a full moon.
Instead of music, we listened to the police radio in my 1959 Buick LaSabre. Many an evening’s plans would get derailed when an interesting call came across the speaker. If you follow the link above, you’ll read of a few more of my transgressions.
It’s a wonder we were ever together long enough to have two great kids and a grandson. It’s amazing how much we all look alike.
The basketball bleacher shot was a good reminder to me of what a trooper she’s been to put up with my crazy lifestyle all these years.
Central High vs. Delta
The taller, six-seeded Tigers won 64-57 over the 11th-seeded Delta team, but The Missourian’s account the next day made it sound like a squeaker.
Delta played an aggressive game until the final minutes, when the Tigers bulled their way to layups. The Tigers went into the lead 56-66 as Terry Field connected with a free throw with 2:30 left.
From that point on, it was easy layups as Delta tried to get the ball and left the tall Tigers unguarded under the nets.
Both teams hit on 25 field goals and the Tigers made 14 of 24 charity tosses for the margin of victory. Delta made 7 of 15 and had only three chances from the free throw line in the last half. The lead changed hands 16 times and was tied nine times as the teams struggled.
Larry Johnson led the scoring with 23 points for the Tigers. Carl Eakins paced the Bobcats with 24 points and took game honors.
Cape Central High School Scoring
Field 12
Johnson 23
Blackiston 19
Kirkpatrick 6
Proctor 4
FG – 25
FT – 14 of 24
F – 11
Delta High School Scoring
Kight 7
Eakins 24
Below 8
Burnett 6
Cook 12
FG – 25
Ft – 7 of 12
F – 17
Gallery of photos from Cape Central vs. Delta
Click on any picture to make it larger, then click on the left or right size to move through the images.
I’m thinking we might have been approaching the end of the era of men’s thin neckties…they seemed real cool at the time!
Larry,
I think you might be right about the skinny ties. I have some hanging in the closet from the 70s that were so wide they did a great job of keeping my shirt clean.
I went though several necktie stages. When I was young, I wore one because I thought it added maturity and credibility. When I was a street shooter, I avoided them because I had enough stuff hanging around my neck.
When I became a director of photography in FL, management put out an edict that editorial folks would have to wear ties. I won a concession that my staffers would be exempt from the rule if my chief photographer and I would wear them in the office. We took one for the team, in other words.
When I moved over to the telecom world, I became a jeans and no-tie guy. My rationale was that sometimes I had to crawl under desks or above ceilings and that the the only outsiders I saw were techs or sales people. Techs don’t care what you wear and folks who are trying to sell you something aren’t going to give you a fashion critique.
I made one bad hire once. After the guy had been there about a week, he suggested that we should start wearing ties “to enhance our credibility.” I told him that credibility was something you earned, not wore. He didn’t last long in my department.
I went into an upper management budget hearing once wearing Khaki pants (I dressed up for the occasion) and no tie. Some of the other IT managers were wearing suits. My boss stopped me before we walked into the room and asked / suggested, “Do you want to go back and put a tie on?”
“If those guys see me wearing a tie, they’re going to think I’m trying to pull something slick. I’m OK with how I’m dressed.”
When we walked in, all the Top Dogs were dressed in polo shirts. My boss had forgotten the new Casual Friday standard.
My family has strict instructions not to plant me in a tie when the time comes. Lila asked if she should station someone at the door to snip off any tie worn by an attendee. I told her that wouldn’t be necessary. “There are some folks who are uncomfortable if they AREN’T wearing a useless piece of cloth around their neck. I wouldn’t want to impose my standards on them.”
Leading up to Oscar week … TCM shows only Oscar award winning movies. Right now, “They Were Expendable” is on – a 1945 John Ford movie starring John Wayne, Robert Montgomery, Ward Bond, Donna Reed (just to name a few). What a great movie!
You know, when lists of the “best movies ever” are compiled … it seems that a lot of my favorite movies never make the list. I guess that’s because so many of my favorite movies were created when I was a kid watching KFVS-TV Hollywood Matinee (that may not be the exact name – but it’s close).
Here are some of my favorite movies (I define favorite this way … when I see it come on TV – I stop whatever I’m doing and watch it … some of these movies I have seen dozens of times):
12 O’clock High – starring Gregory Peck
To Kill a Mockingbird – starring Gregory Peck
Since You Went Away – starring my favorite actress, Claudette Colbert
Charlie’s Aunt – starring Cary Grant
They Were Expendable
The Best Years of Our Lives
How Green Was My Valley
I’m a CHS graduate of 1964 – but in this case CHS is College High School. We hosted the Christmas Tournament for decades … until the school dissolved sometime in the 80’s/90’s.
Ken, I’m new to your web site. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy reading each new entry. Thanks again for your photos and stories.
Ken, I am new to your website and am enjoying it very much. I graduated Central High in 1970 but I had relatives attending Delta High School in the 60s. Two were basketball players and one was a cheerleader. I believe you have two different schools playing basketball with the Central Tigers here. If you will notice, some of the uniforms of the boys have Delta on the front of the uniform and some do not. Also there were not any African-American students attending Delta High School during the mid 60s. You have the names right for the scoring results. Those are Delta names.
Thanks for all the time you put into this website. It has been a conversation starter with my Dad, James Bowers. He is having some short term memory problems lately, but he still has a good recollection of older events and people. I ask him if he remembers when …. and he is off on a memory and I have a new insight to his life. Thanks.
Barbara,
I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself and I even happier that the accounts have provided a memory touchstone for your Dad. One of the things I always enjoyed was talking with old folks and now I are one.
If you go back into the archives, you’ll see that I warned everyone that I was sports challenged. I never played any team sports and I was working for the Central publications, the Jackson paper and the Missourian, so on any given night, I might shoot three different games.
A lot of the negatives were never labeled because I didn’t think they had any value once they appeared in the paper, so there are a lot of mystery shots. Don’t hesitate to point out any inaccuracies. (Or, if it’s easier, point out the accuracies.)
The scoring results came right out of The Missourian Google archives, so there’s a reasonable chance they are right.
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DONNA EAKER CLASS 1965
LONG AGO PEN FRIEND – CAN I FIND HER PLEASE ?
THANKYOU
LLOYD BLAKE
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
I always enjoy looking at your photos, Ken. Just happened on this piece and have a few corrections. We played Delta in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, but your photos presented above were from Cape Central vrs Jackson at Jackson. Top left in the photo of the crowd were of us waiting to play the next game in the conference pre-season tournament. But your date had a front row seat!
Your eagle eyes are noted. This is why I tried to never write sports cutlines.
For the record, I might have got the Delta part wrong, but I did correctly ID the Central team. That’s 50%. A baseball player with a 500 average would be rolling in dough.