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| The Class of 2018 |
Valedictorian of this year’s class was Kayla Justiss, and Salutatorian was Camden Boren. Winners of this year’s Devon Reece Freeman Scholarship were Clemente Aguayo and Logan Wicker, and the William “Bill” Blakely Scholarship was awarded to Mariann Rainey and Nolan Reeves.
Here is a list of the RCHS graduates of 2018 along with their scholastic accomplishments:
Thea Shae Abeita * Ivy Nicole Jolley *
Allison Marie Acebedo * Kayla Jo Justiss * Φ
Clemente Aguayo * AbiGail Leigh Meadows *
Camden Dee Boren * Φ Laurin Rhaye Mitchell
Morgan Taylor Bowers * Ainsleigh Lynn Nelson *
William Tristan Brooks ⱳ Isaiah Elijah Olvera
Johnathan Alfonso Castillo * ⱳ Paul David Pantoja * ⱳ
Jose Inocencio Chavira * ẟ Braxton Cole Parrott *
Tate McCoy Fullwood * ⱳ Parker Russell Payne *
Francisco Edward Garcia * ⱳ Mariann Dawn Rainey *
Caden Joe Garrett * Zachary Rangel * ⱳ
Diego Adrian Garza * ⱳ Nolan Wayne Reeves *
Iris Elaine Gonzalez* Logan Nicole Wicker
Arizona Cecelia Guevara *
* = WTC Associate’s Degree
ⱳ = TSTC Welding Certificate
ẟ = TSTC Drafting & Design
Φ = Phi Theta Kappa (WTC Honor Society)
These are the Top Ten finishers gradewise in order:
1. Kayla Justiss 6. Francisco Garcia
2. Camden Boren 7. Clemente Aguayo
3. Nolan Reeves 8. Mariann Rainey
4. Braxton Parrott 9. Parker Payne
5. Iris Gonzalez 10. Ivy Jolley
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| Clemente Aguayo and Logan Wicker are the recipients of this year's Devon Reece Freeman Scholarship. |
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RHS CLASS OF 1968 TO HOLD 50TH-YEAR REUNION SATURDAY
The
Roscoe High School Class of 1968—plus anyone else who attended in
surrounding years—will have a celebratory get-together at the Lumberyard
on Saturday, May 26, from 6:00pm till close.For more information contact Sharion McFaul Henley.
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TWO TONS OF STEEL AT LUMBERYARD FRIDAY
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| Two Tons of Steel |
The band got its start in San Antonio in the mid-nineties and is still one of that city's favorite bands, winning “Band of the Year” twelve times and the San Antonio Current’s “Best Country Band” ten times. They have released eight albums and appeared on the cover of Billboard magazine. Top singles include “Sedated,” “Hold Over Me,” “Your Kiss,” “Vegas,” and “Crazy Heart.” Albums include Gone and Jumpin’ Tonight.
For reservations and more information, contact the Lumberyard at 325-766-2457.
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MEMORIES OF LIFE IN ROSCOE DURING WORLD WAR II
(as told by Mary Edna Worthy to Tacy L. Ellis)
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| Downtown Roscoe during World War II. |
It was time for school to start in Roscoe, and they needed a chemistry teacher. Mary Edna was asked to teach for 6 weeks, long enough for them to find a teacher. She agreed and began teaching Chemistry and English. It was an entirely different atmosphere from her previous jobs. “I liked school and all the kids. So I just stayed at it for 17 years.”
Her love for the students was obvious as she smiled and said, “The kids were fun-loving, mischievous and cut up a lot. Still, deep down underneath, they were serious about their studies. Practically every family had somebody involved in the war somewhere. I know every Monday morning the first thing the students did was to set aside a little time and money to buy savings stamps. When they got $18.50, they could cash them in for a war bond. Some of them would only have a quarter, but I don't think there was a kid in school who didn't buy war stamps. They took it seriously. They were very knowledgeable about the war.”
“Of course, teachers got mail urging us to encourage boys in high school to enlist just as soon as they were old enough. I never will forget the first time I got a letter to 'please advise all the 17-year-old men in your classes...' A lot of the kids were anxious to get into the service. I know when I first started teaching here, about half of the senior boys turned 18 and left during school to go to the war. Strange thing, so many kids growing up here in dry west Texas went to the Navy. Most hadn't seen a body of water bigger than Sweetwater Lake."
They distributed ration books through the school. Before she returned from Sierra Blanca, tires and sugar were being rationed. A friend of Mary Edna who lived in Reeves County wrote that their allotment was 2 new tires a year. Coffee and sugar were separate ration books. Mary Edna described the situation, "You had separate books for gasoline, they called them cards. There were A, B, and C books. If you had a job that was necessary to the war effort then you got a little more gasoline. Doctors were given more gasoline, and so were farmers. It was for their farm machinery. They weren't supposed to use it in their family car or anything but their tractors. Some did and some didn't. The few who did were looked upon with great scorn by most people."
Mary Edna related that one man, Dutch Saunders, rode his horse to work from Roscoe to Avenger Field to drive a gas truck. He reported that the government regulations forced him to dump some fuel when they had a surplus. He hated it and it would have been a good time to get extra gas, but his patriotism kept him from stealing the unused gas. This despite the only reason he rode his horse to work was because he didn't have enough gas.
"There was a sense of community that we had never known before." Said Mary Edna, describing her actions, "Since gasoline was rationed, if you were going to Sweetwater, you called around to ask your friends or anybody if they needed to go, too. It was considered very unpatriotic to make a trip like that without asking if others needed to go. Many people in Roscoe went to the same eye doctor in Snyder. A lot of folks, who didn't know each other very well until the war, made acquaintances with each other through this doctor. If you had an appointment. he would tell you who else in Roscoe had an appointment and ask you to ride together."
On to food rations. "I remember when coffee first went on ration here in Roscoe. There was one fellow in town who was a preacher of some sort. Children under 12 couldn't get rations for coffee. This man and his wife came to the school for new ration books and he had changed the age of his little girl from 12 to 13 so they could get more coffee."
There were red and blue ration books. The blue ones were for canned goods and the red were for meat. Mary Edna said that gland meat wasn't rationed, you could buy all of that you wanted. You raised your own hogs and had your own chickens. There was a locker plant in Roscoe where the community center is now. Cheese and butter and pasteurized milk were all hard to get. "My family hoarded sugar," admitted Mary Edna. "We would save our coupons and get sugar when we could, then we'd hoard it until Christmas so we would have plenty."
Kleenex was rationed as well as cosmetics and nylon hose. Mary Edna shopped at Grissom's in Abilene for shoes. (Mary Edna admits shoes are her downfall.) Once when she was in there, one of the salesmen, a friend, hinted that leather goods might be rationed. He suggested she buy extra pairs of shoes. She followed his advice and it was only a few days before leather goods did go on ration. One man tried to buy shoes without a ticket but the clerk would not sell them to him. He offered the clerk $100, but the patriotic clerk said no.
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WEATHER REPORT: MORE RAIN
The area
got another nice rain, this one early Sunday morning. It wasn’t a gully
washer—the city’s official total was .81”, but it did fall in some
areas, such as Pyron, that had missed the previous rain. It was heavier
west of town with some farmers around Loraine reporting as much as three
inches and more. More rain would certainly be welcome, but most places
have received enough recently that the situation is not desperate as we
move into the cotton planting season.The hottest days of the past week were on Thursday and Friday when the highs were 95°F and 94° respectively. On Saturday the wind shifted to the north and the high dropped to 84°. Since then, temperatures have been milder with Sunday’s high of 78°, Monday’s 86°, and yesterday’s 87° with lows of around 60°. Today and tomorrow will continue the trend with partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid to upper eighties. On Friday, however, the weather will return to summerlike heat for the next couple of weeks. Skies will be clear with temperatures rising into the upper nineties with lows in the seventies and winds from the southeast.
During this time, there will be little chance for rain
unless something happens that the forecasters can’t currently see.
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A MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE TO S/SGT. WILLIE PIETZSCH
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| S/Sgt. Willie Pietzsch |
He entered the Army in 1942 and trained in California and Washington state in the 185th Infantry Regiment, Eighth Army, before shipping out in October 1942 to help defend the Hawaiian Islands. The regiment stayed there for a year and received jungle training before moving to New Britain Island in 1944, taking part in the campaign there until January 1945. They then joined in the invasion of the Philippines, which the Japanese had controlled since 1942. The Battle of Luzon, the island where Manila is located, followed, and Sgt. Pietzsch was killed in action there on February 15, 1945. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and a medal for the Liberation of the Philippines. He was buried in the Roscoe Cemetery on November 3, 1948.
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I loved Mary Edna Worthy’s account of Roscoe during WWII. I think Ira Griffith was one of those 17 (or 16) year old men they were talking about.
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