ANIMALS VISIT ONE OF OUR OWN

C. DENSON HILL
"DENNY"

I can always count on DENNY (C. Denson Hill) to share something interesting with me. Recently he told me this.."I expect to make a trip to Rome for a week, Oct 20-27. My long-time collaborator and friend Mauro Nacinovich there is retiring, and they insist I must be there for the small conference they are holding in his honor. It comes in the middle of my teaching, so I will have to find someone to take my classes for a week."

This morning I had this little story in my inbox from DENNY:

"I have a bird bath, a ceramic dish the size of a very large skillet, and about three inches deep. It sits on the ground, by the corner of my garage, and collects rainwater falling off the roof of the garage. When it has not rained for a while, I fill it up with water from the tap, thinking it will be for the birds and squirrels. But lately I have noticed that if I fill it up at night, it is virtually empty by the morning. Why? Birds do not bathe at night, and squirrels do not drink water in the middle of the night.

"So a few days ago, in the middle of the afternoon, I noticed a big buck deer, and three other deer, one adult female and two younger ones, in my back yard. The buck had rather large horns, and he and others were quietly drinking water from my birdbath.

(Public Domain Photo)

"Then the neighbor's dog, who is let out now and then and patrols my neighbor's property and mine, came running along, just a few feet from the deer. I was expecting a scene, with the dog barking, and the deer running away. No! The dog went right on past the deer as if they were trees, and the deer kept on drinking, as if the dog were not there. Eventually the four deer decided they had had enough, and went across the street to munch on some apples that had fallen from the apple tree in my neighbor's yard.

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

"A few days later, I saw five rather large birds slowly walking across the street, into my yard, to drink at the birdbath. They were wild turkeys, who seemed rather nonchalant about meandering around the neighborhood. (Editor: I frequently saw these in Ballinger neighborhood yards.)

"These animals have adapted to village life. Just today in the local newspaper I read that the village of Port Jefferson, where I live, is thinking about hiring professional hunters to cull the deer herd after 'tourist season'. For example, there are 200-300 deer that hang out at the village golf course and country club. People's shrubs are trimmed clean of any leaves up to the reach of a deer...so shrubs have leaves only at their tops. And driving at night is dangerous because deer are out running across the roads."

I told DENNY that this problem exists all over Texas. The suburb of Lakeway, near me, has been attempting to solve it by many means. This past August the City Council hired a wildlife biologist who "reviewed herd management methods including TTP, (trapping, transporting, and processing) sharp shooting/hunting deer and surgical or chemical sterilization. It considered ways residents can 'coexist' with deer, including adding street reflectors to deter deer from crossing roadways, offering deer awareness signage, promoting deer resistant landscaping and educating the community."..(Leslee Bassman, Austin American Statesman) I don't think they have resolved their problem yet, but shooting them seems to be out of the question. Thank goodness.

When I was living in Ballinger from 2005-2009, I worked part-time for the Sheriff's Office. The deputies used to tease me when I got visibly moved at their stories of deer (and other animals) they and others hit with their cars on the San Angelo highway. I remember seeing deer frequently on that highway. I also saw many dead animals beside the road having been hit by cars. I had a habit then of "blessing their spirits" as I saw the dead animals. One day I could see something rather large in the median up ahead. Assuming it was a deer, I started blessing as I approached it. When I reached it, to my utter dismay -- and feeling very foolish -- I discovered it was a large section of wall insulation that must have blown off a truck! I am very cautious now about for whom and what I offer blessings.

DENNY's comment to me about animals adapting to urban life seems to ignore the part that we are the ones who have tamed and adapted their wilderness homes for our own use. 

 There are still a large number of trees around the property I live on. At night some say they hear coyotes howling. I've seen foxes cross the road I live on, but other than that, the most "wildlife" I've seen here consists of pesky squirrels, a hawk or two, a vulture chowing down on a dead squirrel, a few lizards that have taken up residence on my porch and deck, and some very destructive leaf-cutter ants that can strip a tree of its leaves much farther up than any deer can reach unless they are noticed quickly. A good spread of diamataceous earth takes care of them. And of course, there are plenty of snakes - although I have been fortunate not to see any. Our property handyman Juan takes care of those!

When I was in Ballinger, I spoke with Jane Wade Clayton. She had moved from their Talpa ranch because she could no longer take any daily walks on their property due to the feral hogs! Things could certainly be worse for most of us. The one in the photo below was a 400-lb hog killed recently on a Texas golf course in Bexar County. (After searching, I discovered that it was the Gateway Hills Golf Course in San Antonio. Sure hope that's not one you play on, TRUMAN.) There are an estimated five million feral hogs in the U.S., and an estimated 1.2 million are living here in Texas.

(by Texas Hill Country)

I'll bet there are many stories to be told of the local "wildlife" where you live. Let me hear them. (Now, I don't want to know about the wildlife occurring in your local nightclubs!)

NANCY THOMPSON BAKER has been trying to get some information for me. I kept looking for a complete obituary for JEEP JACKSON with no success. NANCY discovered that he had donated his body to science, and there was to be no funeral service. I also asked her to see if she could find out why LOYE SHARP was in the nursing home. If anyone knows, please let me or NANCY know. JANICE AMARINE is a good source of news around Ballinger.

Until next time,
Marilyn

Ask and you shall receive...

I was happy to get the following information from Bettye Irby Hudgens after I published the last post. Seems one of our former classmates has racked up quite a few honors. The most recent one is for the SWC Hall of Fame. I know that HAROLD would never brag or let me know this himself, so I owe Bettye a world of thanks. He has quite a legacy in the world of college sports. Congratulations, HAROLD! 

(HAROLD HUDGENS - 50TH CLASS REUNION)

2019 SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE HALL OF FAME CLASS

LUBBOCK, Texas – The Southwest Conference Hall of Fame will add eight Texas Tech greats to its wall this fall as part of the 2019 induction class that was announced Wednesday afternoon.

Seven former student-athletes in Ecomet Burley (football), Denton Fox (football), Harold Hudgens (men's basketball), Noel Johnson (women's basketball), Richard Little (men's basketball), Phil Tucker (football) and Ted Watts (football) will all be part of the induction class along with former head football coach and athletics director JT King.

The SWC Hall of Fame is one of four separate hall of fames housed within the Texas Sports Hall of Fame located in Waco. Members of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame are automatically included in the SWC Hall of Fame and each member of this year's class is already a member of the Texas Tech Hall of Fame.

Harold Hudgens (Men's Basketball, 1959-62)

Texas Tech produced quite a few excellent basketball players in the late 1950s and early 1960s and one of the very best was Harold Hudgens. The center averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds per game over his junior and senior seasons en route to leading the Red Raiders to its first two Southwest Conference titles during the 1960-61, 1961-62 campaigns. Hudgens scored in double figures in 31-consecutive games as a sophomore and reached the 20-point mark in 11-straight games that same year, which remains the longest such streak in school history. He was a unanimous All-SWC selection as a junior and earned All-SWC honors again a year later before leaving Tech as the school record holder for single-game points and points in a conference season. He was chosen with the No. 22 selection of the 1962 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, which at the time, marked the highest all-time for a Red Raider. Hudgens was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame in 2006.

I also found the following article on Inside the Red Raiders:

Salty Sixty: No. 27 Harold Hudgens

No. 27 Harold Hudgens

Texas Tech produced quite a few excellent basketball players in the late-50s and early-60s, and one of the very best was certainly Harold Hudgens who put the “ball” in his hometown of Ballinger, Texas, where he still lives.

Hudgens was a 6-foot-10, 220 center who played for Tech in the 1959, 1961 and 1962 seasons. He redshirted in 1960. Hudgens was a key figure for Southwest Conference champion teams as a junior and a senior. 

Over the course of his career Hudgens averaged 15 points and nine rebounds per contest, while shooting 45 percent from the floor and 61 percent from the free throw line. However, those numbers are distorted somewhat by his sophomore season in which he played only 14 games and was not a factor at all. The suspicion is that Hudgens was plagued by injuries that season, and that health problems forced him to miss half of that season and redshirt the next.

When Hudgens returned from that redshirt year, however, he was a brand new man, averaging 22 points and 11 boards per game while shooting 47 percent from the field and 67 percent from the stripe. In terms of playing consistently at a very high level, Hudgens has had few peers among Red Raiders. He scored in double figures 31 straight games, beginning on December 1, 1960 versus Hamline and concluding on January 13, 1961 against Baylor. Even more impressive, Hudgens scored 20 points or more in 11 straight games commencing on February 7, 1961 against Arkansas, and finishing on March 18, 1961 against Houston in the NCAA tournament. That second streak is the best in Texas Tech history. His high-point game was 38 against Rice on January 7, 1961.

Hudgens was named to numerous All America, All Southwest Conference and All District teams, and concluded his Tech career by being selected No. 22 in the 1962 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. Until Tony Battie’s selection in 1997 draft, Hudgens was Tech’s highest drafted player. 

In 1963 Hudgens, along with his Texas Tech teammate Del Ray Mounts, played for the Phillips 66ers. 

Bettye told me that even though HAROLD was drafted by the Detroit Pistons, he did not want to go professional.

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I have had such a good response from the last post that I hope everyone continues to fill us in on any recent news! I know several of you are still working. At least I think you are. Isn't it great that in today's world people continue to keep working after the "old" retirement age of 65? In the news lately, there are tales of women in their 90s winning swimming meets - even breaking records. And how about the 77-year-old woman sailing solo around the world? 

Let me know of any awards you (or your spouse) have won or records you have broken. We want to applaud you!

Peace and love,

Marilyn

Until We Meet Again

As much as I hate to post these - for those of you who do not live in Ballinger anymore - we have lost another former classmate. JEEP has been ill and in a Ballinger nursing home since 2016.

Milford "Jeep" Jackson

DECEMBER 27, 1938 – SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

Milford Jackson was born on December 27, 1938 and passed away on September 13, 2019. 

No funeral services are planned at this time, but you can check with Johnson's Funeral Home in San Angelo. There may also be a complete obituary soon.

NANCY THOMPSON BAKER called me Sunday to tell me of JEEP'S passing. She also shared a cute story about him. 

NANCY visits the nursing home often when she has friends or relatives there. She said in recent years every time she went there JEEP was sitting in the lobby. She always said "hello" to him. "Do I know you?" he would ask. She told him, "Yes, I'm NANCY from our high school class." Suffering from a form of dementia or Alzheimer's, he never seemed to recognize her. Then, on one visit, she spoke to him as usual. JEEP surprised her when he said, "Hi, NANCY." She said, "Hey, you remembered my name!" JEEP answered, "I did??"

I'll try to post a few more upbeat items soon. It would help a lot if you would let me in on some of your news. One of my favorite happenings this summer was my (and BOB BURTON'S) oldest granddaughter Audrey got married in a beautiful outdoor wedding at our daughter Carajean's Lake Travis home. 

Mr and Mrs Erick Bohorquez 

A sad ending at the start of this post, but a beautiful new beginning for another generation at the finish.

Love and Peace,

Marilyn