Terry Hopkins Archives

July 12, 2014

What’s Going On Here?

From time to time, I’ll go back looking at directories of photos I’ve run before to see if I missed anything. When I hit one containing photos of Terry Hopkins and Brad Brune smoking cigars on the riverfront and swapping lies, I was about to skip to the next one.

This thumbnail jumped out at me, though. What in the world is in this photo? What is that arm doing? What is he pointing to and why? Click on it to make it larger.

When I blew it up, it all became clear. Terry, whose dad had been in the sign business, was feeling where the lettering for Lang Jewelers had been scraped off the window when it closed after being in business since 1916. The buildings on the west side of Main street reflected just like I was shooting directly at them.

I’d like to call it art, but I have to confess to accident instead.

February 19, 2014

20 Cases of Bean Dip

I don’t know if I’d call it the Class of 1965’s finest hour, but what happened during a Christmas food drive stuck out in some students’ memories 10 and 20 years later.

When it came to for people to come up with their memories of Central High School for the 10th reunion, Lee Dahringer listed “20 cases of bean dip.” Louie Ervin also listed the canned food drive (along with Twirp Week, baseball, football, student council and Tiger Den).

Treasure trove of 65 students

I’m assuming this is the infamous food drive because I don’t see anyone from the Class of 64, but there’s a smattering of the Class of ’66 lurking around.

I’m pretty sure that’s Joni Tickel in the dark sweater in the foregound (Wife Lila wasn’t quite as sure), with Carole Rapp behind her. I see Louie Ervin, Lonnie Blackwood, David Hahs, Betsy Ringland, Charlie Baldwin and Jackie Knehans among the group.

What was the story of the bean dip?

I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the whole story, but as I recall, there was a contest to see which class could bring in the most canned goods to distribute to the needy. Whoever set up the contest must have not thought about the devious devils in the Class of ’65 because the rules (if there were any) were extremely lax.

At the last minute, some folks showed up with 20 cases – 20 cases, not cans – of bean dip they had purchased cheaply. (Or knowing these guys, the cases may have fallen off a truck.)

That was more than enough to seal the deal for the Class of ’65. It wasn’t what I would consider a classy move since bean dip may not have been the highest priority for hungry families, but it won the contest.

I see Charlie Duncan, Jim Feldmier, Brad Wilson, Ron Marshall, Jim Lorberg, Walter Stafford and Tom Holt in the mix.

Halls were packed

The halls were packed. Faithful Reader Terry Hopkins, ’66, is more or less in the middle of the melee.

Ranked right up the with The Hearse

For the 20th reunion, Pat Sommers listed his CHS memories: “The Dances, Senior Skip Day, Wimpy’s, school plays, canned food drives, Debate trips, Mr. Chapman, Kennedy’s death, and the dress-up day when Randy, Mike, Paul David, Phil and I brought the Hearse to school!!”

I think I can pull Ken Trowbridge and Steven Crowe out of this crowd, along with Craig Brinkman.

Click on the photos to make them larger and add your own IDs, plus correct my errors.

February 11, 2014

Manager Terry Crass

The 1966 Girardot said Terry Crass had been manager of the football, basketball and track teams. He also served on the student council, was treasurer of his homeroom, was in the Thanksgiving play, was a member of the Varsity club and was selected as an Outstanding Senior.

Who is he working on?

I sent a copy of this photo to Terry Hopkins, but he didn’t get back with me in a timely manner. (Translation: not in 10 minutes.)

The fellow looks too short to be a basketball player and too light for football, so I’m going to guess he was on the track team. Of course, players in those days weren’t the monsters they field in high school days, so my suppositions could be wrong.

UPDATE: 15 seconds before I was going to push the PUBLISH button, Terry came though with this cryptic answer: Terry Crass and Larry Johnson…

December 31, 2013January 1, 2014

Birds on the Beach

Wife Lila sent me a text this morning: “Can you be spontaneous? Put your pants on and come to the beach to take pictures.”

I’m glad she sent it at mid-morning on New Year’s Eve. The last time she got one of those “spontaneous” urges, I found myself at Lake Worth Beach on New Year’s Day 2010 confirming that, yes, indeed, that bright light in the sky pulls itself out of the ocean at ye god o’clock in the morning. As much as I hate to admit it, she and I took some really nice photos that day. (That’s Lila’s shot above, by the way.)

She wanted promo photos

She wanted photos of her and Neighbor Jacqie/Bill Jackson wearing reunion T-shirts to promote the Class of ’66 Florida February Extravaganza. What would be better to make people with frozen nose hairs envious than by posting New Year’s Eve beach photos? (You can click on the photos to make them larger.)

Here’s an announcement she put up on the ’66 Facebook page: Classmate Jane McKeown Neumeyer will be in Sarasota, FL during February, so we are planning another luncheon. So far, the details consist of the date… February 6, 2014 … at a restaurant in or near Sarasota. For more information as it becomes available, keep checking Terry Hopkins’ website.

She’s become a Class of ’66er

Several years back, she and some of her Central High School Class of 1966 grads (and a few stragglers from other classes) started getting together for lunch once a month in cape. She always made it a point to go when she was in town. When she realized how many Cape folks had moved down to the Sunshine State, she and her Florida cohorts decided to start meeting down here.

Here is an account of their first get-together: The original Florida group members; Lila Perry Steinhoff, Jane Rudert McMahan, Bill (Jacqie) Jackson, and Terry Hopkins met for an inaugural lunch at Dunedin on the west coast of Florida in July. It was a fantastic day with friends, food and so many memories and stories. We talked and laughed for more than four hours and decided we had to do it again. Once we put the word out on Facebook and on the 60s’ email list, we started picking up more classmates.

After months of planning and juggling of time schedules, the logistics finally settled and… those living in, visiting, or driving to the Tampa, Florida, area met for lunch at the Thirsty Marlin in Palm Harbor, Florida, on September 9. It was a pretty fantastic day. There was a lot of laughter and memories were shared and stories swapped. Attendees were Jane McMahan, Lila Steinhoff, Bill Askew, Jesse James and wife Margaret, Bill (Jacqie) Jackson, Don Wareing and wife Peggy, Mike Riley and wife Sheila, and Mike Heron.

You can see videos and still photos of the group on Terry’s page.

Florida Pigeon

The beach is usually the domain of seagulls, but this morning a contingent of what Wife Lila thought were Florida pigeons had moved in. She thought that because, even though the temps were in the mid-70s, they were all puffed up and some were huddling in deep footprints in the sand.

Bigger than average gull

This was a bigger than average gull and one with a slightly different color than I’m used to seeing.

Speaking of gulls….

I wasn’t really happy with what I had shot of the T-shirted couple so far. That’s when I turned and spotted a young woman hauling her surfboard to the water. I walked up, said, “Could we borrow you and your board for a minute?”

With only a second’s hesitation, Rachel tucked herself between the old geezers and I made a photo that should entice at least a few members of the Class of 66 to come down.

I sent Rachael a thank-you email, a copy of the photo and some words of wisdom: “I hate to tell you this, but you’re going to look like these folks in a blink of an eye. Enjoy life while you can.”