(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: TAMU RPTS Stories - Pictures from My Friends

The following pictures are NOT from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club.  Instead, they are ones from 1975 to 1977 that some of my other club friends posted on Facebook, and gave me permission to share in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department.  

Above:  (Mostly) R&P students on their way to Wurstfest in New Braunfels in November 1975.  From the left:  Jack Scaife '76, Tomye Folts ('05, Master of Natural Resources Development '08), Jim Eley '77, Betsy Paez '76, Joaquin Cervantes '76,  Hap Weaver '76,  Lynn Timken '79, and Johnny Cervantes (not RP).  Photo courtesy Joaquin Cervantes.

Below:  Members of a RP 209 (which back then was Park Maintenance and Operations) class, probably in Spring 1977.  Those who I (think I) recognize in the picture are, standing from left to right, Glenn Highfill '79, Art Pena '78, Lynn Timken '79,  Debbie Bishop '79, Jim Pack '78, and Corbin Rinehart '78.  I don't recognize the two people standing at the right, nor the two on the crossbeam.  The class had just finished building a playground at an elementary school in Bryan.  Photo courtesy Debbie Bishop Janysek.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Happy Easter, 1964

Easter 1964 (which was March 29), probably at the Incarnate Word Convent on Crawford Street in downtown Houston, Texas.  In the back are my maternal grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997) and my mother Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, who is pregnant with my youngest sister Mary.  In the front are me (age 7),  Karen (age 6), Mark (almost 4), and Brian (almost 2).

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sibling Saturday: Easter 1964

Karen (age 6), Brian (almost 2), and me (age 7), Easter 1964 (which was March 29 that year).  I believe this was taken in the backyard of our maternal grandmother (Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald)'s home, 1118 Bay Oaks in Houston, Texas.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: TAMU RPTS Stories - R&P Club Spring 1977 Speakers

This is the last page I have to share from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club, being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department. There will be more posts related to the anniversary, but not from the scrapbook.  This page summarizes the programs and guest speakers at meetings of the club during the Spring 1977 semester.

Above:  Visiting professor Lon Garrison spoke to the R&P Club on January 25, 1977, about his experiences at Big Bend National Park, and related some of his bear stories.

Below:  Grad student Alan Graefe (MS '77, PhD '80)  spoke to the R&P Club on February 22, 1977, about his research with Dr. Robert Ditton at Big Bend National Park.

Above:  Dave Turello from the newly established National Park Service Field Station at A&M showed a film on Gateway National Park to the R&P Club on March 8, 1977, and discussed the urban issue in national parks and public involvement in their planning.

Below:  Graduate student Dennis Beardsley (MAg '77) spoke to the R&P Club at the March 22, 1977 meeting.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: TAMU RPTS Stories - "The Odd Job Mob"

Many of the pages in the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club (being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department) just had copies of documents.  For instance, the club's constitution and by-laws, and copies of every issue of the "Park It Here" club newsletter were included in the scrapbook.

One document was a listing of the "Odd Job Mob," pictured at the end of this post.  This was a phone number directory for club members interested in working for pay for faculty, staff, and others.  Since I was the person that typed up the list, naturally I'm at the top of it, offering babysitting.  Not too surprisingly, I got some regular clients - Dr. Louis Hodges (PhD '71) and his wife Lucia Juenger Hodges (MAg '78).

I often babysat their three daughters - Rachelle (on the left), Danielle (on the right), and, later on, Gabrielle (the little one on my lap in the photo below, taken November 23, 1981).

Rachelle graduated from the Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences Department in 1996, and earned a PhD in Agricultural Education from Texas A&M in 2000.  She is now an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Parks, & Leisure Services at Minnesota State University.  Gabrielle also graduated from the RPTS Department in 2002.  She and her mother have both worked at Camp Ondessonk near Ozark, Illinois.  Danielle is now the principal of Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Below:  The "Odd Job Mob" phone list for Spring 1977.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: TAMU RPTS Stories - Brown Bag Seminars, Spring 1977

This is another page from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club, being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department.  This page covers three Brown Bag (lunchtime) seminars held in the basement of Goodwin Hall (built in 1908, home of the department from 1973 to 1983, demolished in 1989) in the Spring 1977 semester.


Below:  R&P Club Spring 1977 vice-president John Melton '77, graduate student Kay Evans '76, and Cody Jetton '79 get to know Dave Turello of the new National Park Service Field Station at Texas A&M on March 2, 1977.

Above:  Dr. Richard Bury talks about his travels in the Rocky Mountains with Chris Andrews '80, Jim Eley '77, and R&P Club secretary Roxane Westphal '77 on February 23, 1977.

Below:  R&P Club advisors Dr. Dennis Howard and Dr. Jim Stribling (MS '69, PhD '76) put their feet up and have lunch with students on March 9, 1977.

Above:  Drawing of Goodwin Hall, home of the R&P Department from 1973 to 1983, done by Dr. Clare Gunn for the department's capital campaign in 1993.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sports Center Saturday: TAMU RPTS Stories - R&P Club Intramurals, 1976-77

Here are two more pages with photographs from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club, being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department.

These pages talk about the club's intramural teams in coed flag football, girls swimming (which WON the university championship), and coed softball, with photographs from flag football.


Below:  Quarterback Russ Tillman '78 (at left) looks for a receiver, while Chris Andrews '80 and Denise Abendschein '76 try to block a member of the opposing team (on the far right).

Above:  Denise Abendschein '76 picks up a first down.  Watching her (also in dark shirts) are (from left) Sherry Camp '77, Wilfred Korth '79, and (on the right) Max Reed '79.

Below:  Speedy Chris Andrews '80 (far right) scores the first touchdown of the season.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces from the Past: TAMU RPTS Stories - AIN, April 6-9, 1977

Here are more pages from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club, being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department.

These images are of and from the pages about the 1977 National Workshop of the Association of Interpretive Naturalists, or AIN (now the National Association for Interpretation).   Unlike the Recreation Management Institute (RMI) held just a few weeks earlier, the Recreation and Parks Club was not responsible for keeping AIN running, but many students helped out anyway in the "Nerve Center,", and participated in social events and sessions, some of which were interactive.

Above:  Paul Martin (M.Ag. '80) and Cody Jetton '79 participate in an OBIS (Outdoor Biology Instructional Activities) session on Friday morning, April 8, 1977.

Left:  brochure for the AIN Workshop.

Below:  Department head Dr. Les Reid welcomes AIN participants to A&M's Recreation and Parks Department.

Above: AIN Nerve Center head Karen Herrington '78 on the last day.












Right:  Pam Murdock '79 tries to sell an AIN participant an "Are You InAIN?" t-shirt.











Below:  Karen Herrington '78 watches Chris Andrews '80 and David Bierschwale arm-wrestle in the Nerve Center.

Left:  T-shirt design.



















© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday to My Sister (tomorrow)

My sister Karen, age 3, and me, age 4, in 1961, at our maternal grandmother Sara Wolfe Guokas Archibald's home at 1118 Bay Oaks in Houston, Texas.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: TAMU RPTS Stories - RMI, March 28-31, 1977 (part 4 of 4)

Here are more pages from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club, being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department.

These pages are the last in a set of four from the 9th Recreation Management Institute, fondly known as RMI.  The Recreation and Parks Club was heavily involved in this annual event, handling transportation and entertainment at the banquet, introducing and recording the speakers, providing food for the opening icebreaker and a barbecue luncheon, hosting a somewhat spur-of-the-moment beer bust, and staffing the "Nerve Center," which handled registration, message-taking, and errand-running, and coordinating all the other committees. Part one of the story is here, part two is here, and part three is here.

The final event of the Institute was a banquet, held on the night of Thursday, March 31, 1977, at the MSC (Memorial Student Center). This was followed by another impromptu event, dancing at the Lakeview Club on Tabor Road.  The first two pictures below are from the banquet, followed by some post-RMI memorabilia.

Above:  Debbie Bishop '79, Lynn Timken '79, and Jim Pack '78 help themselves to food at the banquet.

Below:  At an RMI banquet table, clockwise from left: Lynn Timken '79, Sherry Camp '77 (mostly hidden), Cody Jetton '79, Debbie Bishop '79 (across the table), John Debo (RMI participant from the National Park Service), Trish Jared '78 (hidden), Chris Andrews '80 (transportation committee head), KC Abrahamson, and KC's date.

Above is the page from the scrapbook with the RMI banquet photos, plus the envelope containing a letter from RMI participant John Debo, Community Planner with Acadia National Park in Maine.



















At left is the April 8, 1977 letter from John Debo, and an enlargement of the text praising the Recreation and Parks Club is below.

Above:  Thank-yous to the various students involved in putting on a successful RMI.

Below:  Another promotional piece for RMI.

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Sibling Saturday: Brian and Mark, 1966

My brothers Brian (age 4) and Mark (age 6), sometime during or before October 1966, on the driveway at our house at 8015 Sharpview in Houston, Texas.  The honeysuckle vine is just starting to grow on the fence to the right of Mark.  In the background is the back porch of our neighbors the Campbells - before the Brown family moved in around 1971and built an in-ground swimming pool a couple years later.


© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: TAMU RPTS Stories - RMI, March 28-31, 1977 (part 3 of 4)

Here are more pages from the scrapbook I kept in 1976-1977 as the Reporter-Historian of the Texas A&M University Recreation and Parks Club, being posted here in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences Department.

These pages are the third in a set of four from the 9th Recreation Management Institute, fondly known as RMI.  The Recreation and Parks Club was heavily involved in this annual event, handling transportation and entertainment at the banquet, introducing and recording the speakers, providing food for the opening icebreaker and a barbecue luncheon, hosting a somewhat spur-of-the-moment beer bust, and staffing the "Nerve Center," which handled registration, message-taking, and errand-running, and coordinating all the other committees.  Part one of the story is here, and part two is here.

The following is a sequence of images (pictured in the contact sheet print below) from the Class of 1978's Trish Jared's demonstration at the RMI Beer Bust on Wednesday, March 30, 1977, of legal and illegal tackling in rugby.  This was (possibly a) part of the talent show, planned entertainment for that evening.  John Blackburn (Ph.D. '81) and Dan Sturmon (Ph.D. '80), doctoral students who served as RMI student committee coordinators, were Trish's less-than-willing volunteers.

Above:  An unsuspecting John Blackburn (at left) gathers with others, including Inger Garrison at far right, for the demonstration.






Right:  Dan Sturmon is coerced into "volunteering."









Below:  Peggy Cook '80, Sherry Camp '77, and Cody Jetton '79 "persuade" John Blackburn into being a "dummy" too.

Above:  John prays for help as Trish prepares to tackle him.









Right:  She does so.....











Below:  ....and helps him up.

Above:  Trish takes Dan down next.

Below:  Dan seems to know what's coming!

Above:  According to Trish, hair-pulling is an illegal "tackle you can get away with."

Below:  At her invitation. John tackles Trish - she couldn't avoid it.

Above:  Department Head Dr. Les Reid demonstrates HIS tackle on Trish!

© Amanda Pape - 2016 - click here to e-mail me.