Up From The Ashes

It has been over a week now since the school burned. The surrounding communities have been awesome on helping put our lives back together. The Jr. high should be ready for school Monday. My daughter Sarah is way excited about that. The rooms at the church are cramped to say the least. Balckmon-Mooring have worked long days since the fire and 7 day work weeks to get the jr. high functional. I know the teachers are ready to be back int there building too!

Seems to be some wrangling going on among a few folks to try and consolidate the Lockney and Floydada schools. I have mixed emotions about that. The Lockney-Floydada rivalry is still in effect. It's not near as bad as it used to be, but still alive. Lots of folks have stated their opposition to the consolidation in this way: "My kids aren't going to be Whirlwinds!". Others have had words that I won't repeat here.

A couple of things bother me on the subject of consolidation. Who's administration is going to run things? Where will the kids go to school? Will Lockney carry as many board members as Floydada? What will happen to the support staffs? What will happen to the teachers?

One of the things that really bothers me a bit is the superintendent situation in Floydada. No one seems to like him, and the board was split on re-newing his contract this year. His contract was re-newed by a vote of 4-3. Also, our district is debt free. All of our buildings are (were) in awesome shape. We have taken a great deal of pride in taking care of our buildings and keeping them as up to date as we can. We have a good fleet of buses. We have above average sports facilities. And we have grown our fund balance through all the upgrades.

I wonder what would happen if Floydada came to Lockney and went to school?

I kinda feel like they are trying to kick us while we're down!

WE ARE LOCKNEY! WE WILL OVERCOME!

Just some thoughts

Well, I guess I'm still trying to digest all the happenings of the week. The loss of our high school is weighing heavy on my mind. My prayers are with our kiddos and teachers. Just praying that they are able to put some sort of normalcy back in their days.

I can remember when the Methodist church burned in Quanah when I was a kid. I think it was 1975. I remember going to school that morning and driving by the church. Nothing left but a shell of a building, still smoldering. The building was one of the oldest buildings in Quanah at the time. When you're a kid, everything is big. That building seemed to stand like a skyscraper. I can remember going around that building a couple of days after it burned and picking up lead and glass from the stained glass windows it had. They held church services at the community building there in town for what seemed like an eternity. I think it took around 2 years to get the building built back. The library sits where the Methodist church used to be in Quanah.

Just a few months before I got on the fire department in Lockney, the Baptist church in Floydada burned. They had fire departments from Matador, Lockney, and Ralls there.

What is really cool about all this is how a community comes together after tragedy strikes. I have watched it happen several times. Tornadoes in Lubbock, Vernon and Wichita Falls. The church fires in Quanah and Floydada. The community just comes together, puts all differences aside and rebuilds. I have full confidence in Lockney that this will happen. I love my town!

Monday Morning

This is what daylight brought us Monday morning.

FIRE

I know most of you have heard about our loss here in Lockney Sunday night. Our High School burned to the ground. Most of ya'll also know that I am a volunteer fireman here in Lockney. We first got the call of a fire at the high school just after 11:00 pm Sunday night. We always get calls to fires at the hospital or nursing home here, most of the time, to find out it's a false alarm. This was not the case on Sunday night. When I walked out of the house, you could smell and see the smoke bellowing from that direction. Our high school and jr. high is connected so it was twice as scary. When we arrived on scene, we couldn't believe what was before our eyes. The second floor was pretty much engulfed in flames. Also when we arrived, there were several folks beginning to get all the keepsake stuff from the first floor. All the pictures, trophies, etc., were saved. We began our interior approach quickly, sending a team to the second floor to find things pretty much uncontrollable. We immediately began to save what we could. The Floydada Fire Department came over to assist. My friends from Floydada that were on the first truck leaving Floydada could see the flames from the city limits of Floydada. When they arrived, they did an awesome job keeping the fire from continuing down the hall into the jr. high. Only some minor smoke damage and water damage occurred in the jr. high. The High School Library was also spared of any fire damage but did receive some smoke and water damage. The science lab was also saved for the most part sustaining some fire damage and lots of smoke and water damage. The rest of the building was a total loss.

Unfortunately, we have learned that the fire was a product of arson. I will let you read or hear about that in the news.

The building was erected 1929. This years graduates would have been the 80th class to graduate from the building. Lots of history went up in the building.

I attended elementary school here before moving to Quanah. So there wasn't a lot of sentimental memories for me. At one point on Monday morning, we (the firefighters) were sitting in the new gymnasium that sits to the south of the high school across the street. While our chief was being interviewed by the Plainview newspaper, the reporter asked the question "how many of ya'll graduated from high school here?". As I looked around the room, out of around 18 fireman sitting there, there were only 3 of us that didn't attend school in the building.

I don't really know what's in store for our community for the days and weeks to come. I know that God is good! And I know something good will come of this!

Pray for us!

Reflecting On the Week

It has been a good week for me. The new year is going to be a good one. My week has been full of pleasant surprises. One of the funnest things this week for me was my Tuesday night with the girls. My friend Kurt brought his two younger kids by my house Tuesday night while he went to a Boy Scouts meeting. We had a Guitar Hero concert. All the kids got an instrument and sang. It was a hoot!!!

Something I don't do near enough of on here is ask for prayers. I have a couple of requests. Dee Copeland, A gentleman I wrote about in my early entries on here and he just turned 100 in October, fell over the holidays and broke his hip. He is in Covenant Hospital in Lubbock. I hear he's not doing real well. Hopefully I will get by to see him this weekend. One of my best friends, Jay Don Poindexter, has a brother-in-law that has a tumor that is attached to his kidneys and goes all the way back to his spine. His name is Johnny. Keep these two men in your prayers. Pray that God's will be done!

Old Friends Part 2

Well, Tuesday was some kinda day. After my old friend Lee Ann left a comment here, I went to the basketball games here in Lockney to find out we were playing Muleshoe. I looked across the way and there sat David Wood. Just to bring you all up to speed here, the Wood twins were 2 classes ahead of me in high school at Quanah. Don was the quarterback, and David was a receiver. They had 2 sisters, Kathy who I think was 3 classes ahead of me and Laurie was a year ahead of me. Their Dad was the head football coach and athletic director. They were good friends.

Don is the superintendent at Muleshoe and David is the head football coach and athletic director. Muleshoe won the class 2AA state championship. And David's son was the star quarterback.

It was really good to get to see them!

Old Friends

This blog not only has been a place for me to share and vent, but it has put me in contact with some old friends. I think we get too busy with our jobs, careers and families that we lose track of really good friends. I want to take a minute and remember a couple of friends that have made contact with me through this blog.

Shanny Stanley Cox was a friend from Tech. She dated one of my roommates and she and I went to a Christmas party together one time. If I remember right, she worked for Pat Walker in Lubbock while she was attending Tech. It was the Christmas party for Pat Walker that I attended with her while my roommate was home. It was at the old Tejas Winery south of Lubbock. It was loads of fun.

Lee Ann Goodnight Ray was really more of a friend to my sister Shellie. Her dad moved to Quanah in the early 80's to coach at Quanah. Lee Ann was an all star basketball player that played with my sister. They were loads of fun for me to watch.

There have been others that have commented anonymously, I appreciate all comments.

Happy New Year Everyone!