Class of 1959

Tom McElligott

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I will try to make this as simple as possible. I was not the best student in MHS and if Francis Carter (My English Teacher) had not taken pity on me I probably would not have graduated until 1960.

My original graduating class was 1958. This may be why a few of the 1959 class do not remember me very well. I went to school the last half of my sophomore year and the first half of my junior year in Flemington New Jersey. I went up to run a poultry farm and take care of my grandparents until a couple of my uncles could return and take over the farm.

I returned to Midland and MHS the last half of my junior year. I later found out my senior year that certain credits would not apply for me to graduate with my 1958 class, 5 credits short, no way to make up in summer school. I decided since I had several friends in the 1959 class to just graduate with the 59 class. This way I could coast and take Distributive Education and make up the credits and work. Besides I had a girlfriend in the 1960 class. Now down to the Nitty Gritty.

I got married in November of 1958 (yes before I graduated) and still managed to finish school and work. I married a classmate (Class 1960) Diane Bailey. We were married approximately 10 years before going our separate ways in 1968. There were several couples of us that got married before graduating. If memory serves me right there was Mike Morse & Jan Kimberlin, Lanny Smith & Judy Gay Briscoe, Tommy Brown & Jody Bussamus & Larry Howell & Dorothy Landamire, I hope I spelled all the last names right. Larry & Dorothy are still together and deserve to be congratulated. Diane and I had two children, both girls, together. I consider this my greatest accomplishment. Our oldest Jodi Lynn was born August 3, 1961 and Jill Bailey was – born November 28, 1963. (This was the year that Kennedy was assassinated and there were two Thanksgivings that year). Both girls are graduates of The University of Texas and both went on to get their Masters Degree

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Jodi received her Masters in Special Education from Texas A&M in Commerce, TX and now teaches in Midland at Abel Middle School Special Ed Classes. Jill received her Masters in Speech Communications from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO and now teaches at Newton Middle School in Littleton, CO. Jodi has a little boy Daniel (Syrs) in preschool at Saint Ann Catholic School. Jill has a boy Connor (15yrs) and a girl Carson (13yrs). Connor is on the golf team and a freshman in High School and Carson is on the Swimming Team in Junior High. Both attended the school where their mother teaches.

Before Diane and I divorced I attended Odessa Junior College, San Angelo Junior College and Baylor University. I did not finish my senior year at Baylor. The next years I refer to 19AD (after divorce) I left Waco and Baylor behind and moved to Dallas, TX where I broke out my sheet metal tools and went to work to support myself and pay my child support. Work was slow in the Sheet Metal Business and I found a job working for Merchants Motor Lines busting freight. This was a perfect job because in the summer I could bid for the midnight to 8 AM shift and I could sleep on my air mattress in the swimming pool and meet all the airline stewardesses during the day before my roommate and the other guys got home. We had a lot of Delta Stewardesses in our complex. After a few years of Drinking Beer and chasing the girls my brother called and offered me a partnership in a liquor store in El Paso. TX.

Moved to El Paso on July 26th 1972 (my birthday) to take my brother up on his offer. I didn’t particular like the Liquor Store Business, too confining and the hours were not to my liking. While at the liquor store, I met a Jockey and became friends with him. He asked me to be his agent. I didn’t know what the hell a Jockey agent did. Well he trained me and showed me the ropes so I left the liquor store to become a jockey agent and travel the race tracks and make my living for the next 7 years.

It was during this time I met my wife (Lora) on top of her roof in El Paso, TX. Her father was one of my Horse Trainer Clients and I volunteered to help him fix his daughter’s roof, using my experience from my sheet metal worker days in both Midland and Dallas. We dated 3 almost 4 years and married April 10, 1976. Sadly, she passed in 2019. Read here:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/ruidosonews/name/lora-mcelligott-obituary?id=8786633

I can probably count the number of arguments we had on one hand and give a few fingers back. Lora was a school teacher coach in the El Paso School District. Both of my girls thought the world of her and even my ex Diane and Lora were friends. Diane and I have made peace and enjoy our grandchildren together on several family outings that we all take together.

In 1980 I made another change in my working life. I became production manager for a Chile Pepper Dehydrating Company (Baltimore Spice Co.). The Parent Company was located in Maryland and was famous for their Old Bay Crab Seasoning. I was production manager until September 1984 when the National Sales Manager for the Chile Products wanted to leave his wife and run off with my secretary and recommended me as his replacement. The rest was a great ride. Being national sales manager, I traveled the US working with the individual sales representatives’ calling on the major food accounts that used Industrial Spices and Seasonings.

I built a good reputation with most of the purchasing agents at the major food companies (Kraft, Nabisco, Standard Meets, Tony’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box and Bush Brother Beans to name a few.). Two of my major successes were Jack in the Box — I helped develop their Taco Seasoning that is still in use today, and one of the Bush Brothers Bean Seasoning. I am one of the people besides the dog that knows the secret formula and I am not talking. In 1998 due to mergers and buyouts in my industry, I made the decision to form my own brokerage and do for myself what I was doing for others. This meant that I did not have to go to sales meetings, travel as much and not have to prepare sales reports. It became a piece of cake. I still had my customer base because they trusted me and I made money while I was asleep. To this day I still dabble in the Industrial Spice business.

Not too exciting of a life but I have enjoyed it and I am still enjoying. If anybody wants to come by and visit and have a drink or enjoy a steak please do.

Tom McElligott

Class 1959

MAX BERRY, MHS CLASS OF 1959

What's in the Water2 Comments

Written by Max Berry

ibmberry@yahoo.com

Jefferson, Texas 75657

I really enjoy reading the ‘feel-good’ stories on this blog; of people growing up in Midland back in the 50’s and 60’s, and I am envious.  Unfortunately, I did not get to grow up there.  My parents divorced when my biological father returned from the war.   I was 5 years old.  My mother re-married a year or so later.  My step-father was an oil field roughneck, and when the rig moved, we moved.  I had attended 7 different schools in 7 different towns before landing at San Jacinto Junior High in 1955.  I never really got involved in extracurricular activities in high school, because I worked in the afternoons after school to support my real bad habit of putting gasoline in my junked out old Chevrolet.  After high school, I went into the service, and when I got out, I met this cute little school teacher from East Texas.  (Why a sweet Christian girl like her would take a second look at a heathen like me, I’ll never know, but I am sure glad she did. Poor thing – has had to put up with me for 55 years, and counting.)  We got married in 1965, and had one daughter.  (I made sure she went K-12 in the same school district so that she could nurture life-long friends like many of you; and she did.)  I went on to get a mechanical engineering degree, and spent most of the rest of my career in project management and construction in the refineries around Port Arthur and Corpus Christi.

Dubious Claims to High School Fame:

  1. One of several kids in the Class of ’59 that had his Polaroid photo thumb tacked to the office wall of the MISD Truant Officer.
  2. One of several kids in the Class of ’59 that assisted in hauling a commode up onto the roof of the school building, and setting it on the ledge above the main entrance.  (It set there for several days before the school authorities noticed it.)
  3. Only kid in the Class of ’59 that had his driver’s license revoked during his senior year for being handed 13 traffic tickets in twelve months.  (Having to let your sister drive you to school, in your own car, makes you have suicidal thoughts.)

Make sure to visit Part 2 of the story here:

https://whatsinthewaterinmidlandtexas.com/2019/12/01/part-2-max-berry-mhs-class-of-1959/

Dwayne Lieske

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My parents and I moved to Midland in early 1946. We were on our way to see my grandparents and great grandparents in Cisco, TX, and stopped in Midland to spend the night. It was the first time in years that I did not have an asthma attack, and Mom and Dad got to sleep all night . Dad liked that so much he went out the next morning, got a job, and we moved to Midland.

I attended South Elem. and then Cowden. There I found I was too small for football, too short for basketball, but just right for the band. I also learned that dancing with girls wasn’t too yucky.

At MRS, I discovered cars and a multitude of new ways to get into trouble. I took up racing early on. I held a Land Speed Record for almost 9 years. Unfortunately, I set it on Illinois St.

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Part 2- MAX BERRY, MHS CLASS OF 1959

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Read Part 1 here:

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/whatsinthewaterinmidlandtexas.com/2254

POST NOTE

A friend recently (July, 2020) asked me to elaborate on the three items listed above under DUBIOUS CLAIMS TO HIGH SCHOOL FAME (should be SHAME).  I have done so, and if you want to waste the next five minutes of your life, read on.

PHOTO ON THE TRUANT OFFICER’S WALL

In spite of what people may think, I was not a ‘truant.’  I really liked going to school.  I was not any good at it, because I pranked around too much, but I liked the camaraderie, and I liked watching the girls.  But I had a co-worker who was a truant of sorts, and who, by the way, was supposed to graduate with the Class of ’57, but didn’t.  Through no fault of his own (yeah, right!), he ended up on the Truant Officer’s ship list.  One day, after my last class, I was on my way to work.  I saw my friend walking down the hallway, and I asked him where he was going.  He said the Truant Officer (TO) sent a note to his class saying he wanted to see him.  I had nothing better to do for the next thirty minutes, so I went with him.  Come to find out, my friend had missed the previous day of school, and the TO wanted to know why!  My friend said that he had bought a barbecued chicken at a quick-stop store, ate the whole thing, and it had given him a severe case of food poisoning.  So the TO called my friend’s mother to verify his excuse.  She said he had been running at both ends the previous night and most of the next day, but got over it by evening time.  Kind of made the TO mad, that he couldn’t stick it to my friend.  So he looked at me, and asked what I was doing there?  I said, “I don’t know, and I’m leaving.”  He said not until I get your picture and name!  So my photo ended up on the TO’s office wall, and I WAS INNOCENT, TOO!

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