Art LeCoq had tried to get a golf tournament going but not enough brothers were
interested, and so the tournament was cancelled. Art brought his terrific wife to the
reunion with him and of those of you who know Art, you know why I called Tommie a
saint!! Ha!! Art, along with several other brothers, apparently made it big in the
business world and now have the chance to play golf every day. According to Art, he
carries a 6 handicap and you know Art never embellished any story.
Because of the cancellation of the tournament I received an email from my little
brother, Gene Cravey, asking if I wanted to join him for a round on Saturday morning.
I might not have agreed had known that Gene really is a very good golfer. We teed it
up at Babe Zaharias in Pt. Arthur and Gene proceeded to shoot a 1 over on the front
nine, and should have had better. Meanwhile, the hacker, lost about 3 or 4 balls in
the water and played my usual military golf game…you know…..LEFT….RIGHT….
LEFT….RIGHT. After 4 + hours of misery for me and I’m sure for Gene having to
bare watching my venture, Gene finally finished with a 79 and I, with….well forget
that!!! Anyway, Gene and I had a good visit and returned to the hotel and met back
downstairs after showering, getting ready to go to Monroe’s. During our
conversations, I learned that Gene had worked all during his time at Lamar and had
not pledged until his senior year. I had forgotten that he and Steve (Ally Oop)
Thompson were both from Bay Town and were roommates while at Lamar. Steve was
unable to be with us this time, but I had spoken with him on the phone and he lives in
Sugarland, near Houston.
Bob Morgan, Jim Burnett, and Butch Hurley were about to leave when Gene and I got
back down stairs. Bob said we could all ride in his pickup if we wanted to, if we didn’t
mind going first to where is his boat was stored. We all piled into Bob’s pickup and off
we went, destination Munroe’s. During the trip I had asked Bob if he remembered the
walk that the actives took us on. They dropped us off somewhere north of Beaumont
in the middle of nowhere and left us with a dime (yea, pay phones took that then). It
turned out that one of the pledges, Phil Hall, recognized where we were. We were
near his Uncle’s farm!! Being in walking distance, we soon were on the road, beating
the actives back to the shacks!! Jim Burnett then remembered that he was kidnapped
by some later pledges. He was blindfolded and dumped off at the beach. (It turned
out that Butch had also been taken on the same trip.) The rest of the story was
interesting. Along came a school bus and they were picked up by a girl’s athletic
team returning (I think) to Lamar. Jim or Butch neither knew who kidnapped them. All
of these years and it had been a mystery… until;