Loboes Past, Present and Future Gather to Celebrate the Green
    By Shiela Boggess, Staff Writer ~~ The Monahans News, September 28, 2008

Is that you?  Really, you?  Oh my goodness!

Former Monahans High School alumni shouted those phrases again and again as the 2008 Monahans Lobo Homecoming brought them all together.

This year, four reunions officially welcomed classmates back home.  The classes of 1953, 1973, 1978, and 1983 gathered for a variety of activities.  None were more important than donning Lobo green and heading to the annual Homecoming football game Friday night.  Reunions are fun, but even more so when the home team wins as the Loboes did against the Lake View Chiefs 49-20.

The Class of 1953, gathering for a 55-year reunion, wore Class of '53 T-shirts to the event.  Led by Senior Class President Arthur Carpenter, a few class members gathered early Thursday to put last-minute details on a full slate of activities.

While Carpenter and others ran errands, several Class of '53 women held down the fort at the Ward County Community Center where they planned registration that evening.

Present were Peggy (Thornton) Watters, Cletha (Montgomery) Nichols, Shirley (Jean) Weaver of Lewisville, Shirley (Eaton) Hanson, who was senior class secretary; and Charlotte (Cunningham) White.  It didn't take long for the women to launch into one story after another about their time at Monahans High School.

Teenagers in the '50s liked to hang out at the sand dunes (not a state park then).  "It was like going to the beach," volunteers one, with a smile since water wasn't included.  On one such occasion, a truck full of teens front and back got stuck in the sand.  One of the young men volunteered to hike back to town for help, but they all got home past curfew.

Cletha (Montgomery) Nichols recalls the girls were supposed to stay all night with her, but when she got home past curfew, her mother made her go and apologize to the mothers of the girls, explaining why they would not be spending the night after all.  "Our mothers were like that."

The girls admitted, too, to telling their parents they were staying all night with one of the other girls in order to stay out all night.

Many students grew up in Wickett and the now-gone Gulf Camp between Wickett and Monahans.  On one such night, one of the girls borrowed the car of a friend's brother.  They stayed out all night and got dressed for school in the restroom at a gas station the next morning.  They were out of money, but a local restaurant owner fed them after they promised to bring the money by later.  They went to school and had a volleyball game that night.

"I fainted on the court," recalls Nichols.  "But I may have just fallen asleep!"  she recalls, laughing.  "My memories keep me going now."

"Peggy was the rodeo queen," volunteered one, looking at Peggy (Thorton) Watters.  They recalled Golda Mae Martin was their homecoming queen, although back then, she was called Football Sweetheart.

"Looking back, we all were so skinny," said Shirley (Eaton) Hanson.

Drive-in movies also were a popular pastime.  One of the women said one night, three of them only had enough money for one movie ticket.  They hid one of the girls in the trunk, and one hid in the back seat.  Then their car stalled.  Looking back, they figured they didn't fool anyone but it makes for a great memory.

Classmate Dennis Collins, who now lives in Kermit, isn't present but talks by phone about his own memories.  He remembers getting into some mischief himself.

"We had a new tower," said Collins.  "A group of us climbed the water tower and painted "Seniors '52 and '53.  We weren't too popular with the principal."  Collins said he owned up to it even back then, because the principal saw him leaving early from play practice with a paint bucket and brush in his hands. 

Harry Warner of Alvin represented their class at Friday's pep rally.  Addressing the 2008 Lobo football players, he said, "You don't know it now, but these will always be your brothers."

"We are Loboes," he continued, "and we will always be Loboes!"

Mike Lee, representing the Class of 1973, also spoke at the rally about tradition.  "Failure's not an option," he told the team.  "Lake View's coming to town and trying to ruin somebody's homecoming.  Look them eyeball to eyeball, and you knock them down!"  He then asked them to pass that same spirit down to all the little Loboes present at the rally.

Lee and Warner both played football for Monahans.  Lee played as a linebacker but remembers playing on the offensive line as well.  His main job was to come from the blind side, he said.

"I was one of the faster ones, so they shot me out of left field," he recalled, laughing.  He looked forward to his 35-year reunion.

"Thirty-five years went really fast," he said.  "After 35 years, the stories always get bigger and better."  He said a number of players who live nearby still remain close friends.  "Chuck Clayburn lives in Wickett; Steve Swarb lives here.  Then there's Steve Candler, and the list goes on," he said, later sending The Monahans News a 1973 Monahans football lineup.

The Class of '78 planned a number of activities, according to Leisa Phipps of Monahans.  Their 30-year reunion included a get-together at the home of classmates Kenny and Amy Dutcher in Monahans, golfing, the pep rally and, of course, the football game.

The Class of '83 also had a number of activities and established a place high in the Loboes bleachers to welcome back members during Friday night's game.

"We were a close class," said Mindy (Nesbitt) Hunt of Midland.  "We were great friends then, and stayed close."  Sitting next to Mindy was Matthew Carter of Goodwell, Texas.  Before the game was over, they also welcomed classmates Brett Heflin, Lisa (Rolfe) Ligon, both of Monahans; Bonnie (Davilia) Chavis of Lubbock, Melinda (Planco) Molinar of Odessa, Irene (Contraris) Dominguez of Monahans, Mike Starnes of Fort Worth, Sammy Hinijos of Fort Worth, Merv Scurlark, Tammy Keese of Odessa and Patricia Cooper of Austin.

The Ward County Golf Course closed to the public Saturday morning so members of all four reunions could play.  Sudderth Elementary school sponsored a tour of the newly remodeled school at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Assistant Principal Diana Scott led the tour with the help of sixth-graders Jace Rives, Britney Porras and Megan Dutton and science teacher, Mrs. Dutton.  They introduced former Sudderth students to today's technology in the classroom as well as the animals in the live science lab.