Miscellany

I recently received the following message from Roger Howard, a friend in the Class of '63 at Dulles High School.  I was unaware that Sugar Land's Main Street Bridge and Lonnie Green Park were geocache sites.  I was also unaware that Annette Williamson Wise (DHS '64) has a work in the Smithsonian.  Thanks, Roger.
 

Chuck,

  

I participate in a pastime called geocaching, basically a worldwide scavenger hunt using GPS devices to find hidden objects and record those finds. One such is a magnetic key holder located in Sugar Land on the metal bridge on Main Street. The reason I am passing along the info in the cache description (shown below in brackets) is the depiction of Annette Williamson's artistic endeavors for the City. Although this may be old news to you, it was information of which I was unaware.

[This cache is hidden on the foot bridge attached to the painted Main Street Bridge in Old Sugar Land. I've driven on this bridge countless times since I've lived in the Land of Sugar; however, I recently visited the attached foot bridge. The bridge is over the waterway from Cleveland Lake into Oyster Creek near the old Imperial Sugar Char House. I can't find much information on the Internet about this bridge that has a black & white pictorial history of Sugar Land. I found a little bit about the local artist: Annette Williamson Wise, who was a native Texan and passed-away in 2011. For our nation's Bicentennial Celebration in 1976 she designed Sugar Land's Commemorative Bicentennial Coin which can be found in The Smithsonian. The fire hydrants she painted in Old Sugar Land as a part of the celebration were featured in the July 1977 issue of Firehouse Magazine. Her fire hydrant painting of Benjamin Franklin was one of nine chosen across the nation to be published in a book about America's Bicentennial Celebration. Enjoy the view from the foot bridge, the photo op from the painted bridge, and the 1940s cottage-style homes in the neighborhood we fondly call “Old Sugar Land.” Lonnie Green Park is at the east end of First Street (at Wood Street) -- a small park along Oyster Creek (actually, Cleveland Lake) with a playground, park benches, picnic tables AND a geocache dedicated to the park's namesake.]

Roger

Here's a Google Street View of the bridge.

  

Roberta Cooke Prater is a graduate of Dulles High School (I'm not sure which year), and she's a long-time teacher at the school.  I can't recall the details, but she inherited Mr. Billie Wright's paddle, which is a cherished Viking relic.  Roberta posted a photo of it on Facebook, which appears below.  (Thank you, Roberta.)

I wonder who Sandra was.

  

I feel a little regret when looking at that paddle.  Mr. Wright never gave me any swats, so I'm not a member of the brotherhood.  One of my good friends and classmates rode Mr. Wright's bus, which went out toward Fresno and Arcola.  He said Mr. Wright had a routine he used on football players.  He'd give them a swat (we called them 'licks' back then) on game day to get 'em fired up for the game.  I'm sure that motivational tool is no longer in use.