Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Mystery woman

A fellow I knew back in high school, Fred Stone, contacted me a few months ago after one of his nieces happened to run across my blog. Since then, Fred and I have exchanged many e-mails renewing old acquaintance and catching up on happenings of the last fifty-mppfh years. He was one year behind me in school and in those days we attended the same church youth group.

This week he sent me this photo from 1958 of our high school’s science club (click on the photo to make it larger):


Between us, we can name every person but one in the photograph. Standing, from left to right, are Wayne Riley, Marshall Tyson, moi, Mr. Steelman (the science teacher), Bruce Hornell, and John Paul Norvell. Seated, from right to left (just to be different), are Richard Stone, Mary Elizabeth North, Fred (no relation to Richard), Glenda Geyer, and someone neither Fred nor I can identify.

Unless someone can tell us her name, she must forever remain The Mystery Woman.

His guess was Mitzi Gaynor.

That Fred is such a card.

This is my 900th post.

Update, August 13, 2013: Stop the presses! From a year and a half into the future (from this post’s perspective), Fred Stone just informed me that our Mystery Woman is no longer a mystery! Someone has identified her as Betty Jean Shetter, a name I actually remember from high school. I don’t know why neither of us recognized her. All’s well that ends well, though. And I have now written 1,235 posts. --RWP

10 comments:

  1. Mystery is the spice of life...

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  2. Congratulations on the blogging milestone!

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  3. Thank you, Jeannelle! It was nothing, really.

    Except that it was.

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  4. Congratulations on 900 posts!

    Do you have a year book?

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  5. 900! That's great going Robert! Have you thought of writing a book? Oh that's right, you already did :-)

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  6. Theanne, I do not have a yearbook, but that is a great idea. Maybe someone Fred knows does.

    Katherine, keep your eyes peeled for number 901....

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  7. i was in a high school science club in 1958>>>that is the day we bought our chevy impla with three lights at the back in a swervy design<><>i was also a star in tennis in high school

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  8. P.S. to Theanne - I found an online copy of my high school yearbook from the year I was a Senior, but the Science Club photo was in the "Activities" section with lots of other club photos and had no caption except "Mr. N.O. Steelman, Sponsor" -- too bad.

    Putz - I don't know quite how to respond.

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  9. Fred Stone had tried to comment on this post himself a couple of days ago (note date) but was prevented somehow by Blogger. So he sent me an e-mail instead. In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, here it is:

    "I tried to comment on Mystery Woman but was required to divulge and join more than I cared to. I don't remember all that the first time I commented years ago.? Here is what I would have said.

    Mystery Woman has been identified as Betty Jean Shetter. Her name was found in a clipping from the Mansfield News of an article accompanying the photo. Fred was not trying to be a card, but only trying to remember by word association, Mitzi Tidwell, whose lips he had kissed at that tender age. Mistaken identity twice."

    Thank you, Fred Stone of Lake Whitney on the Bosque (BOS-key) River, Texas! Long may she wave. Betty Jean Shetter, I mean. And Texas, too.

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...