Alice is constantly telling me: “Worry is wasted time.” I can’t help it. I worry about things. I wring my hands over the most trivial events.
My son is in the rifle line, a part of the marching band color guard. Just thinking about it, my heart sinks. Seeing him standing on the 50 yard line, spinning and flinging that rifle as the band plays. I pray for no bobbles or miscues, and please, God, don’t let that rifle hit the turf.
Speaking of football, the team did us proud this year. And the kicker for the Wildcats, Seth Hanson, did a spectacular job. I never spotted his mom in the stands, though I did sit near some defensive backs’ moms during the Marshall game.
The defensive backs did admirably, and Lake Highlands won.
I hope Seth’s mom doesn’t have to go through the same scenario as Margot Tschantz did during the bi-district game against the same Tyler team at Texas Stadium in 1981.
Her son, Todd, was the kicker for the Wildcats that year. There were 30 seconds left in the game, and while Todd stood preparing to attempt the kick that would win the game, Margot was so tied up with her own nervousness, she failed to notice that husband Gale had left his seat for a spot where he could have more room to pace and worry. Todd made the 47-yarder and, of course, Lake Highlands went on to win the state championship that year.
Judy Dawson’s son, Phil, kicker for the University of Texas Longhorns, gets to experience nervousness on the collegiate level. When Phil was kicking for the Wildcats, he (and Judy) were faced with numerous situations where the game was on the line.
Judy claims, however, not to get particularly nervous with her son’s performance, instead becoming more concerned about how the team as a whole is doing. The only place I could survive the parental pressure of a situation like that would be comatose in my car in the parking lot.
Danny Burgess, also a member of the 1981 State Championship Team, was in attendance at the Waco playoff game with his wife and daughter. (Bill and Janet Burgess’ first grandchild!) Danny is living in the Houston area.
Elizabeth Simons Varhaug, 1973 graduate, recently sang the role of Rose Maybud from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, “Ruddigore,” during the Texas Gilbert and Sullivan Company’s fund-raising gala. She has sung with the Houston Grand Opera, Theatre Under the Stars, and many other musical productions.
Elizabeth and her husband, Mark, live in Lake Highlands with their two daughters, Kimberly, who is an eighth-grader at Lake Highlands Junior High, and Elise, who attends Lake Highlands High School. Elizabeth’s parents, Ed and Doris Simons still live in Lake Highlands.
