Football season is here! That’s me with the bushy mustache sitting over by the band. Don’t forget that the Homecoming Game this year is Oct. 11. There will be plenty of activities for students, former students, parents and neighborhood residents throughout the weekend. And don’t forget about the Varsity Review production in the auditorium.
And, of course, there IS the game.
It’s always nice for a team to win the Homecoming Game when so many alumni are around.
What happens, though, when a returning alum happens to be associated with the opponent?
This year’s Wildcat victim is J.J. Pearce High School, and the new principal at J.J. Pearce is ’64 graduate Dr. Chuck Carona.
While a student at Lake Highlands, Chuck played on the football and basketball teams. He has been an assistant principal at Lake Highlands High School and Lake Highlands Junior High, and was most recently an assistant in the Highland Park I.S.D. Before returning to RISD.
One of Chuck’s sisters, Martha Carona Lammers, ’68, taught at Lake Highlands High School and was the cheerleader sponsor beginning in 1973. She is now teaching in Plano.
Another sister, Rosemary Carona Moore, ’73, works at Lake Highlands Junior High and is married to Terry Moore, himself an LH graduate who helped start up the Lake Highlands Alumni Association and also was the first writer to pen this column for the Lake Highlands Advocate.
Parents Walter and Rosemary Carona still reside in our neighborhood – 40 years! (After that amount of time, forgive your folks for rooting for the Wildcats, Chuck.)
Last month, I wrote a bit about a letter I received from Barbara Golden Stout, a 1970 graduate, but I ran out of space for a complete recounting. She sent me a page of some wonderful memories at Lake Highlands High School and the area.
Do you remember:
When Lake Highlands High School played in the U.I.L. 2A division? (We’re now 5A.)
When going to the football games in Plano was a long trip out of town?
When the airplane landed in the field by the high school during classes one day?
When cattle grazed around the stock tank at the Goforth’s property near the corner of Church and Audelia?
When Stout’s 7th-grade class was the first to use the new high school building. (The new building wasn’t yet ready for 10th – 12th graders, so construction workers kept working during that year.)
When the stadium was completed? (Fall 1969)
Thanks, Barbara. I hope others will send me some of their memories so I can share them in future columns.
