It was a BLAST!

There were 200+ people at the afternoon Homecoming Tea in the library at Parker High School on Friday. Lot's of old friends...REALLY old  friends!

Walter Shontz's boy LeRoy is now the Principal at the school. That's a shock every time I think of it.

They put some new people up on the Wall of Fame...it's fun to see everyone who has really made a mark in life...and it's just as fun to NOT be on the wall.

Ernie Vasarhely asked me when I had retired...Yeah Right! He said, "Well, I got to figuring it out one day, I had five houses I was renting and someone wanted to buy my business, so I sold it and have money coming in each month so I retired!" Many of those I graduated with ARE retired these days...poor, poor Bobby!

The Homecoming Game went into double overtime and WE won! It was so exciting! The other team was Sedona and I counted 17 people who came to root for them! Their kicker kicking the point after the ball just barely got to the lower crossarm and boomp! bounced back without going through!

So that meant the next time they had to run for the extra point, and they did and got it. Tied up at 14-14 at the end of the game. They made a touchdown, and we made a touchdown and then we reversed it and we made a touchdown and it was their turn and they made a touchdown. Then they went for two points and a win...AND WE STOPPED THEM! Hard on a old guy's heart I can tell ya.

Saturday a.m. was breakfast on the river at Badenock's. Good food, good company and right on the Colorado River. That's when Muggy Fuqua showed up.

I hadn't seen her in 41 years! I think we convinced her to come back next year. She lives in Flag and has decided it is just too cold on her getting older bones.

Got to go to a Swap Meet on the way up to the Dam after breakfast. Dickered with a gal for a glass cake plate and cover but didn't buy. Bought some stuff called Pulse a guy was selling...I'll try anything to lose a little weight!

I was met at the Dam by an armed guard, who every time I walked close to her she backed away. I finally got the idea she thought I might be THE ONE to grab her and throw her over the rail and blow up the Dam. You can't walk across the Dam. The Dam is closed from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. each day and has big screens between the columns...screening out what I don't know. There is also a barrier below the Dam on the river. If the Dam went so would the water source for the aqueducts that go to California and Arizona from Lake Havasu. That would be disastrous, because you can't rebuild that kind of dam in a day or two.

The Government is going to bulldoze Parker Dam Camp and the old home place in November, so I went and sat in front of House 86 on Parker Street and remembered my folks and friends and the good times we had there. Won't see it again...a few tears....I'm still made that no one told me about the Reunion they had recently for everyone who had lived at or went to school there. Well, you win some and lose some.

We had a Memorial Mass for Mr. Brennan, our English teacher. He made us memorize 50 words a week with their definitions. Those words pop out all the time in conversation ... even now. I always thought he and Mr. Laughlin were good fishermen but found out years later they just went to the River to drink beer! Scandalous! Well, and maybe fish a little.

After that there was an Irish Wake for him at the Elks Lodge. I skipped that and went to see Billie Dick who graduated 71 years ago! She's a little old now, but still in fairly good shape...however, you never know if someone is going to be there next year so I thought I better see her. I'm  still mad that they had a HUGE reunion at Parker Dam and no one told me about it.

Later there was a Rodeo Parade, Bar B Que, and Rodeo...haven't been to a live rodeo in MANY years. They kept talking about the stick horse races which I had never heard of. Just after the bucking broncos and the Brahma bulls, they put three white buckets on the field and kids between the ages of 2 and 6 road their STICK HORSES around the barrels ... and they timed them to the hundred of a second just like the big guys! I laughed for a half an hour while that was going on because the announcer announced it just like the big guys, "Oh no, the horse has stumbled and the rider is barely hanging on." "The rider's up now and just nicked the barrel on the inside." "This rider is up on Seabiscuit!" Fun, fun, fun...good family fun. My friend leaned over and said, "This way of life is threatened and won't be around long."

Just a bang up weekend.

I told everyone to call me Bobby here for a week before Homecoming so I'd get used to it...well, I was standing talking to Dinker Martin, Buni Hooper, Conkie Chavez, and Muggy Fuqua and we were all saying how Bomber Esquerra was so stuck up these days....I decided BOBBY wasn't so bad!

Sounds like we were all in the WAR together and got our nicknames there.

I come back from Parker each year feeling like I'm really part of this wonderful family.

But...it's back to Robert for a year!

If you have email addresses of anyone else who is an Alumnus of PHS, please give them to me so that I can put them on the distribution list. Thanx!

Bobby