The numerous moves that my family made when I was in school were because of the profession that my father followed in the “oil patch.” He moved where the work was and where his rigs were sent to operate. Every city that we moved to, my family was either the only family in town or one of numerous families in town that had located there because of the oil field drilling industry. For example, in Madisonville, my father was drilling a wildcat well (only drilling in the area) and my sister and I were only students enrolled in that school that were there because of the drilling industry. In Snyder, we were only two of hundreds of students that were there because of the oil boom.

When I got to Big Lake, because of my past experiences, I knew what it felt like to be unwelcome in some communities and schools and had often heard locals blame oil field people for causing their school districts to over flow with students that caused problems. They often had to set up temporary buildings and other facilities, which of course cost money. More often than not, people associated with the drilling industry were often not welcome. Not only that --- some teachers and administrators did little to help students and often had a tendency to make it harder. Especially, when transferring in the middle of the year, different classes and/or subjects would have to be taken that you did not have in the previous school. Although, I never failed a class, I had to make special efforts many times to achieve that. My experience had been that generally, there was no flexibility shown or special efforts made to help students from an educational point of view or otherwise.

All of this had been my experience before coming to Big Lake.

Big Lake turned out to be most friendly place of all the places that I had ever lived. That was true for me in 1952 and I still feel the same way today in 2003. I especially remember an English teacher; a Miss Kelso who made special efforts to get me caught up in her class. In my previous school, we were studying literature but in Big Lake the class was studying grammar. She spent a lot of extra time with me and was able to drill into my head how to diagram sentences. This was the 1st time that a teacher ever did anything to help me in a transition from one school to another. Unfortunately, Miss Kelso got married that next summer and did not return to teach in Big Lake the following year. Not only were the teachers of RCHS helpful and friendly ------ the students were the greatest people that I had ever been associated with. I knew a few students that I had gone to school with at other places that helped -- Robert Sewell and Jimmy Colley from Kermit. In the first few weeks in Big Lake I was also invited to visit in several homes including three families that had men on the school board ----- Boze Hartgrove Sr., W. T. Mills, and Billy Boyd. It became quickly obvious to me that Big Lake was where I wished I had been able to go to school all of my life.

I had also always wanted to become active in sports but had never really had the opportunity to do so. Because we moved so much, I had only been able to participate in one school sponsored sport team. When I was in the 8th grade in Post, Texas, I made the Junior High School football team and was the starting fullback on offense and an outside linebacker on defense. I was looking forward to playing at the high school level the next year as a freshman but when school was out we moved to Snyder --- so that ended that.

In Snyder, an oil boom was going on and hundreds of students were there that had not been there the previous year. I signed up to tryout for the football team along with many other new students. Snyder had a limited number of football uniforms and equipment and you had to wait your turn ---- that is when equipment was available. Not many people ever got a tryout and I was one who did not get a chance. Had I been given the opportunity I might have made the team and if I had, I would have been able to play with Grant Geoff who later became a long term football coach at Baylor Univeristy. At that time Geoff was the starting center and co-capt. of the team. Again, we moved rather quickly when school was out, so even had I made the team I would not have been back the next year.

Basically, in those days my mentality was ----- so what if I don’t make the team, we will be moving anyway. The only whipping I ever remember getting from my father was when he overheard me telling another kid that it did not make any difference if I got in trouble ----- that we would be moving soon anyway and I would just start over.

When I got to Big Lake, when some of the members of the football team found out that I moved there from Farmington, New Mexico, they asked me if I knew Raymond Smithhart? (He had lived in Big Lake before I moved there.) I told them that I had met him and that he was a co-capt of their football team and was projected to be all-state that year in New Mexico. Those who had asked about him just laughed and said that when he lived in Big Lake he could not even make the starting team.

Shortly afterwards, Frank Horton, the football coach invited me to come out and scrimmage with the RCHS football team. I did not accept the invitation ---- I guess I thought if Smithhart could not make the team, what chance would I have! I later second guessed that decision and wished that I had accepted the invitation. That was one of the few times in my life that I did not “go for it” and I often looked back at that experience when I was trying to decide if I should make a decision to do something.

I did go out for the track team and tried to run the quarter. I played on the “B” team in basketball and I also, tried to throw the discus. After placing 4th in district with the discus I was surprised when I was awarded with a RCHS letter jacket.

My mother convinced my father not to move from Big Lake until I graduated from high school so I was able to finish school there. We lived in Big Lake longer than any other place while I was in public school.

I finally did go out for football and played my junior and senior year for RCHS. I also, made the basketball team and ran on the mile relay team for two years. My senior year when I was elected co-capt of the RCHS football team with Donald Meroney was at that time the highlight of my life. We won district over McCamey and bi-district over Ozona in basketball when I was a senior and we won the district track meet when I was a junior. I ran on the mile relay team with Donald Meroney, Jerry Thompson, and Eddie Compton. We also, won the Ozona track meet my junior year in a very close race with Junction and Wink. Going into the final mile relay event we had to finish 3rd to win the meet. We were all very concerned, especially Coach Whisnant because Junction had Bennett Ragsdale and Horse Fly Muir both excellent quarter milers and Wink had Danny Villerrell. Well, we managed to finish 3rd and won the meet thanks primarily to Eddie Compton who ran his best quarter mile of the year. Later at the district track meet the mile relay team had to finish 1st in order to beat Wink. We had already finished behind Wink earlier at Ozona in the mile relay, so we knew our work was cut out for us. We won the race and the district meet when all of us was able to run our best overall race of the year My senior year I played with Boze Hartgrove, Howard Johnson, Bill Boggs, and Charles Martin in basketball. We lost to Merkel in Lubbock at the regional tournment that year.

When I was a junior we had a good RCHS football team but somehow we never really got it together. We again lost to Iraan for --- I don’t remember how many years in a row. Frank Horton was so disappointed in us that during half time at the Iraan game he decided not to come into the dressing room. We did play much better in the second half but Iraan still won. At the end of the year Frank Horton retired as the football coach and did not coach when I was a senior. I remember being very disappointed when he did not return as the football coach.

During my senior year at RCHS we were projected to finish last in our district. We actually went 6 and 4 and I think finished 3rd or 4th. Charlie Dixon and McCamey won district. We also beat the dreaded Iraan team and oh, how I wished Frank Horton had still been coaching to enjoy that. Iraan was the last game of the season and I remember thinking this would probably be my last football game ever. I also remember Howard Johnson, a freshman quarterback playing defensive back, making a game saving tackle on their star running back. (It was either Bobby Locker or Gary Monroe – I do not remember for sure.) Actually, Johnson’s tackle took the running back out of the game and Iraan was never a threat afterwards. It was a great feeling and experience for the entire team. I will never forget that game ------ Jackie Holmes picked up a lot of yardage over the 6 hole.

When I moved to Big Lake in 1952 I probably was not behind my class from an educational point of view but I was at least 2 years behind socially. I don’t think I had ever had a date and remember that up to then the hardest thing I ever had to do was ask a girl out for a school banquet. I may have caught up a little bit by my senior year but social events were always the most challenging issues that I dealt with in those days. I never did learn to dance and of course that did not help. Before the 1st RCHS banquet that I ever went to, I remember that I did not know how to tie a necktie. My father had already gone to work and I was not happy with my mother’s instructions about how to do it. I solved this by getting Coach Whisnant to tie it for me. I did not untie the knot for two years and I also bought a bow tie.

During the summer after my junior year --- Robert Sewell, Ralph Way, Boze Hartgrove, and I went to Huntsville, Texas to a baseball camp on the campus of Sam Houston University. I think the camp lasted about two weeks. We all had a great time together --- played two or three baseball games a day. I remember it being extremely hot and I drank as many cokes as I had money to buy. I remember Robert Sewell insisting that we attend church on Sunday. Robert eventually became a minister but even then he was leading people to worship God and to attend church regularly. One night, the school sponsored a baseball scorecard keeping contest at a baseball game between Sam Houston College and some other college team with the winner to receive a baseball signed by the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. At the end of the game we all turned in our scorecard and it was later revealed that six or seven people had tied for 1st place. Two of the people in the group that had tied were Robert Sewell and me. In a drawing for the baseball ---- Robert Sewell won and received the ball from Eddie Dyer who had been the Cardinal manager in 1946 with they won the World Series. Since I had been a Cardinal baseball fan all my life I was disappointed not to have won but I tried my best not to show it.

The next December, at an RCHS Christmas party in the high school auditorium when we all were exchanging gifts ----- Robert Sewell gave me the baseball. To this day I have never received a gift that I prize more. This ball had the autograph of my favorite player, Enos Slaughter who later became a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Other players who autographed the ball included Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst who both were later elected to the Hall of Fame. To someone like me this was a priceless gift. I have never forgotten the gift and I still have it. I would not sell it for any amount of money! I have talked to Robert several times this year (2003) and I hope to see him again in 2004 for our 50th year class anniversary reunion when I will thank him again for the baseball.

The experiences that I had at RCHS in 1952, 1953, and 1954 and all the friends that I made will never be forgotten and those times rank up there as some of the best times of my life. Those experiences that I had shaped my life forever. I was extremely fortunately to have had great coaches, teachers, and friends. Many of those people I have not seen since 1954, many others I have seen only once or twice, but they had a lifetime influence on me.

After school was out in 1954, shortly thereafter my parents moved to Midland, Texas.

I attended Texas A&M after high school and made the freshman team as the starting catcher and gave serious consideration to walking on to try to make Bear Bryant’s football team. The biggest reason that I went to college was due to W. T. Mills pushing and encouraging me to go. He came to see his son, Gene Clay Mills numerous times at A&M during the year that I was there and he always included me with his families activities. W. T. Mills was one of the most influential people in my life at this time and continually gave me encouragement and tried to work out financial issues that I had at school. Had it not been for him I likely would have never started college. He and his family were wonderful to me. Although I will never know for sure ----- I am pretty sure that W.T. was somehow responsible for getting me in Hart Hall, the A&M athletic dorm and for helping me to get employment at College Station. It seemed that every time he came to visit something would get better in my life.

In 1955, I also played baseball in the summer Ban Johnson Baseball League for Lyons, Kansas. I went up there with Cam Castleman from Oklahoma. I had met him at A&M. He was a pitcher on the freshman baseball team. I also, worked for a short time in Midland for McAden Heating and Air Conditioning a company owned by the father of Winston McAden, RCHS class of 1953.

In 1956 I joined the Army with a friend of mine ------ Lonnie Howard. I had known Lonnie since I was in the 4th grade in Kermit, Texas. We had also gone to school together in Post, Texas in the 8th grade. We joined on the “buddy system” but after going to basic training in Fort Ord, California and to military police school in Fort Gordon, Georgia ----- Lonnie went to Korea and I went to Berlin, Germany. So much for the buddy system!!!

While in Berlin I played two baseball seasons and two footballs seasons for the Berlin Bears Army Command Level teams. Both years our football team was the runner-up champion in Europe. Believe it or not I started 24 games as an offensive guard and inside linebacker. I weighed about 185-190 pounds. That was up from 155 pounds in my RCHS days. It turned out that Iraan in high school was not my last football game. In baseball I played well enough to get invited to the New York Giant Minor League Spring Training Camp in Sanford, Florida after leaving the Army.

After graduating as the honor graduate in the Berlin NCO Academy in 1958 I considered pursuing an appointment to West Point. The Berlin Commanding General and the NCO School Commander offered to assist me if I wanted to try for an appointment. They both were West Point grads and gave me a lot encouragement to consider the Army as a career. I decided against all of this. I really did not see myself as a career soldier. I have never regretted that decision.

My military experience was really great. A lot of U.S. and European travel, making of life time friends, participating in sports, serving as a Military Policeman in the divided city of Berlin (split up among Russia, France, England and the U.S.), and no wars! Had I been involved in a war I am sure this would not have been so enjoyable.

I got out of the Army in December 1958 just in time for Christmas. Early the following year after a visit to Big Lake and Texon I went to Sanford, Florida to New York Giants Minor League Camp. One of the Giants' chief scouts, Carl Hubball thought I was not big enough to be a catcher so two weeks later I went to Waycross, Georgia to Minor League Camp of the Milwaukee Braves. I was signed to a minor league contract by Earl Halstead. I had originally met him through Snipe Conley in Big Lake/Texon. Snipe was a long time resident of Texon and earlier in his life had been an all-star spitball pitcher in the Texas League for Dallas. Snipe came to all the RCHS games and was a big supporter of the school. He and Curtis Barbee, the father of Mary Ann Barbee Meroney both of Texon, especially supported me in my pursuit of baseball as a career. I had met Halstead in Alpine, Texas at a baseball school sponsored by Sur Ross College and the Alpine Cowboys in 1953-1954. Before graduation he offered an opportunity for me to play baseball in the Sooner State League in Oklahoma. I gave very serious consideration to this but following my parents advice, I declined to continue high school.

After signing in 1959 with Halstead and the Braves minor league system I was on the roster of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Midland, Texas. When I finally got my pink slip, I was told that I should go home and get a real day job because I could not hit the curve ball. That ended my professional baseball career and got that out of my system. This was perhaps my biggest disappointment because for as long as I could remember my ambition was to be a major league baseball player. I always dreamed about playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. This was back in time when each major league had only eight teams and St. Louis was the closest major league city to Texas. Sometimes at night when the weather was just so you could pick up radio station KOMA (I think) in St. Louis and listen to the broadcast of the Cardinal games.

My goal after being released by the Braves was to find a job and get back in college. I got a job in Midland and enrolled in night school at Odessa College. Also, in 1959 I met again, a former classmate of mine from Kermit, Texas ---- Janiece Harralson. We went to school together in the 4th and 5th grade in Kermit and again in Snyder in the 9th grade. Our fathers at times had worked together on drilling rigs in the Keystone oil field in the Kermit area and later in Snyder, Texas oil boom. In 1959 Janiece worked for Shell Oil Company in Midland. She had been recruited by Shell from Portales, New Mexico where she attended college for two years.

In 1960, in the best decision I ever made and the best thing that ever happened to me, Janiece Harralson and I got married in Odessa, Texas. Brother Lightfoot who was the former pastor of the 1st Baptist Church in Big Lake married us. On our marriage day we had a little problem because Lighfoot did not show up for the ceremony. We called him when it became apparent that he was not going to be there on time and he hurriedly came. Also, just before the wedding, Janiece saw Mr. and Mrs. Billy Boyd from Big Lake who was visiting the church in Odessa. She invited them to stay for the wedding and they did. Sometimes it is a small world.

Janiece’s parents had moved to Big Lake in 1955 just after my parents moved to Midland. Janiece was going to college but lived in Big Lake with her family during the summer of 1955. She worked as a secretary at the 1st Baptist Church and also for a lawyer at the Big Lake Courthouse. During that summer she met and made friends with many of the same people that I had earlier met and known in Big Lake. That is how she knew Mr. and Mrs. Boyd. She also, remembered Robert Sewell from our elementary school days in Kermit and remembers him singing in church at a White Bible ceremony in Big Lake that summer.

Until 1962, Janiece and I both worked and I continued to attend night school at Odessa College. In 1962, we both quit our jobs and moved to Fort Worth, Texas. We both went back to work as soon as possible and I enrolled in night school at TCU. In 1963 I started going to school full time and in 1964 attended both night school and regular day classes at TCU. During this time our first child, a son --- Kerry Kyle Keener was born in 1963 and I finally graduated with a business degree with emphasis in Personnel and Industrial Relations in 1964. Better late than never I guess ----- 10 years after high school graduation.

W. T. Mills may have helped me get to college but I would have never graduated without the insistence, assistance, and encouragement of Janiece. She did whatever it took to get us through some real tough times. We got through all of this on a shoestring and I could not have ever done this alone.

After graduation we moved to Dallas and I went to work for Gardner-Denver Company, an oil field equipment manufacturer as an Employment Manager. After we moved to Dallas our second child, a daughter ---- Kristal Kimberly Keener was born. Through 1972, I held numerous Personnel, Human Resource, and Labor Relations positions with Gardner-Denver. Much of my responsibility had to do with labor-management negotiations, grievances, arbitrations, and union relationships. I negotiated primarily with the United Steelworkers of America.

In 1972, I transferred to Pryor, Oklahoma (near Tulsa) with Gardner-Denver as Personnel & Industrial Relations Director. This was a start-up, new manufacturing facility which was primarily a ductile iron foundry. I continue to work in HR and Industrial Relations and was involved in several union organization drives and collective bargaining negotiations with the Steelworkers.

In 1976, I left Gardner-Denver and moved to Wichita Falls, Texas. I accepted a position as Senior Corporate HR & Labor Relations Director with the Wilson Companies that was owned by Dana Corporation from Toledo, Ohio and later by Continental Emsco & LTV in Dallas. I negotiated several collective bargaining agreements with the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinist & Aerospace Workers.

Janiece had continued to go back to college every chance that she got and in 1981, the same year our son graduated from high school, she earned a degree and graduated from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. This was a monumental event given the moves that we had made, our family lifestyle, the many colleges that she attended, and represented a lot of sweat, blood, and tears on her part. Janiece would have graduate at least two or three years earlier if we had stayed in Oklahoma. Both of us obtained college degrees in rather unusual ways and neither one of us recommends how we did it for others. We both know however, that without the other neither one of us would have likely graduated from college.

In 1984, I accepted a similar HR Director position with Continental Emsco & LTV in Houston after we closed the Wichita Falls operations. I was responsible for eleven locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Washington State and the United Kingdom and Singapore. I negotiated collective bargaining agreements with the Steelworkers, Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Patternmakers, and the International Association of Molders.

In 1996, I left Continental Emsco & LTV to join Personix in Stafford, Texas as Senior Director of Human Resources. Personix was wholly owned subsidiary of Fiserv headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1997 I was promoted to Corporate Vice President of Human Resources. I had HR responsibilities for seven locations in Minnesota, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, and Connecticut. Personix was in a different industry and offered the combination of plastic / paper card services and personalized print / mail solutions, including credit and debit card manufacturing and personalization, high speed laser printing, complex fulfillment, mailing services, and electronic publication and distribution. Plastic cards are provided for the telecommunications, healthcare, financial, and the security card industry including Visa & MasterCards.

I retired from Personix in July 2001. Janiece retired at the same time from Shell Oil Company in Houston. She had gone back to work for Shell in 1984 when we moved to Houston and she got credit for all of her previous Shell work history.

While we were visiting our daughter and her husband and our grandchildren in Jackson, Mississippi in September 2001 the awful 9/11 event occurred. After the individual that I had hired to replace me in July was called back to active duty with the Marines, I elected to return to work for Personix shortly afterwards. He was a Major in the Marine reserves. In July 2002 I left again as an active employee but still continue a relationship with Personix as a Senior Human Resource Consultant.

I think all this means is that I am retired but am not sure. I do know that compensation is less than it once was!

Since July 23, 2002, Janiece and I have been traveling on a full-time basis in a 35’ Newmar 5th Wheel RV. We left Houston, on July 23, one day after Janiece’s birthday. We call our trip ---- The Great Escape. We went through Snyder and up to Lubbock then through New Mexico and to Durango, Colorado. We went on through Utah to Salt Lake City, up to Idaho and Wyoming, and then to Montana. At that point we decided to go on to Alaska by driving the Alcan Highway. We saw Fairbanks, Juneau, Denali, Anchorage, Homer, and Seward. When we returned from Alaska we drove the Cassier Highway instead of the Alcan Highway again. Coming and going to Alaska we went through British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory. We came back through Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and back to Texas. After staying in Houston for a week we went to Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and then back to Houston. All together we have driven about 29,000 thousand miles. It is our intention to leave again in mid April and visit Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, up the Eastern Seaboard to Nova Scotia.

In the next few months we hope to sell our home in Houston and relocate to another Texas location. We like Granbury a lot but a final decision has not been made. We have also considered Sun City in the Austin area and the Texas Hill Country in general. All we know is that where ever we finally move it will be somewhere in TEXAS.

In the last few days I have sent a letter to all of the 1954 RCHS Class that I can find trying to drum up interest in a 50th year reunion. Those in my class were Bill Boggs, Dale Calley, Adelia Reams Calley, Sue Carney Chaney, Pat Collum, Gene Dedeker, Barbara DeLay, Terry Farley, Harry Gohmert, Melvin Gryder, Jackie Holmes, Sandra McIntyre Holmes, Charles Martin, Fannie Lou McCurrin, Donald Meroney, Mary Ann Barbee Meroney, Johnny Montez, Danny Newbrough, Sandra Cope Ramsey, Robert Sewell, Sondra Thompson Smith, Ben Vandergriff, Jenny Pepper Wade, and Erwin Wooten.

I do not know how to contact Pat Collum, Barbara DeLay, and Fannie Lou McCurrin. I expect they have a different last name. If you have a post office address, telephone number, or email for any of them please send it to me.

The information I have on all the others may not be correct so please send any information about them also.

I have been to two RCHS school reunions since 1954 and have seen some in our class but many I have not seen since the Senior Trip to New Orleans. I really do hope we are able to have a 50th year anniversary to celebrate the occasion.

Big Lake, Reagan County, RCHS, and West Texas has been a big part of my life and I have many memories and stories from the 1950’s era. I remember the RCHS football, basketball, baseball, and track events and games ---- some like they were yesterday. I remember the RCHS banquets, parties, the friends and personal relationships, the teachers, and the many, many, great times that we all had.

I would love to spend some time with all the 1950 era RCHS people, especially the classes from 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1957.

I could probably continue this memo forever because I never seem to stop remembering all the good times during the 1950's and the experiences at RCHS.

I am indeed fortunate that I had the opportunity to live in Big Lake at a time in my life when I was growing up. My father instilled into me a work ethic, my mother is responsible for me being a Christian, and Janiece is my greatest companion, supporter, advisor, consultant, and friend. I can't imagine life without her! Other than those three --- Big Lake, Reagan County High School, the teachers, students, and my many friends from that area has been those most responsible for what I became as an adult.

Thank you all!
(Ken) Kenneth Keener
kenkeener@escapees.com
217 Rainbow Drive # 11759
Livingston, Texas 77399-2017
The above is a mail receiver --- I do not really live in Livingston, Texas.
281.658.1567