From the Midland Reporter-Telegram
Tuesday, March 31, 1998
Home Page sweet Home Page
Jal High Reunion site attracts graduates
from San Diego to New Hampshire

By Jimmy Patterson
Staff Writer

Editor's Note: This is the last part of a three-part series on the Internet and how it has changed people's lives and the way they communicate.

JAL, N.M. -- Driving from one end of Jal, N.M., to the other is truly a brief experience. Jal is a typical no-red-light town, like hundreds of other small towns that sit way off the beaten track and, for whatever reason, have taken an economical beating of late. In Jal's case, it was natural gas. When El Paso Natural Gas left Jal, the town all but dried up and blew away.

But don't tell that to a Jal native. Panther Pride remains alive and well, especially on the Internet, just one of the things that make Jal unique.

Graduates of Jal High are a close-knit bunch, always have been. The Internet has made them even tighter. The Jal High School Reunion Home page (https://members.tripod.com/~jalpanthers/) has drawn more than 1,200 visits to date.

While not even close to the numbers pulled in by the most popular web sites today, it serves its purpose well. Just ask Sid Starnes, of Exeter, N.H.; Kate Null Asbill, of Carlsbad, N.M.; Peggy Segars Hill, of Chandler, Ariz.; Barry Rogers, of San Diego, or Jerry Phillips, of Broken Arrow, Okla.

Seventy-one Jal graduates from nine states have registered themselves in the Jal address book. And they all visit home via the Internet for the same reasons: the friendships and fellowship established years ago.

Phillips is the man behind the site and said he is very surprised at how popular the small-town site has become. The page has more than 30 links to Jal information, but Phillips said people seem particularly fond of the "Remember . . . ?" page, as well as columns and reminiscences written by Gina Brewer, now an employee of Mobil Oil in Midland, who writes a "Reflections from the Past" column, and Morris Whitworth, father of former LPGA golfer, Kathy Whitworth.

The "Remember" page asks visitors such questions as, remember ...

... the wooden football stadium

... the thick velvet curtains in the Rex theater

... the flash flooding that would strand moviegoers at the Panther Drive In

... Pender's Department Store

... driving to an out-of-town football game, you car decorated with blue and gold crepe paper ... and then it rained?

... sand hill parties

... the two basement classrooms at the old elementary school.

"It is truly amazing the kind of response we have had already, and the network is growing," said Gina Brewer, a 1964 graduate. "The really interesting thing is that people of all ages are attracted to our web site. We chat with some who are from the classes in the '30s and '40s as well as some from the '70s and '80s. It's interesting how we all feel connected."

Ms. Brewer said her "Reflections" column has generated much more interest than she expected. "I started writing the stories as an afterthought, not realizing that they would touch so many people."

Sid Starnes, a 1948 graduate now retired from the U.S. Air Force and a resident of Exeter, N.H., called his childhood, "vagabond, never living anywhere much longer than a couple of years.

"When I arrived at Jal from El Paso (where I attended Austin High School, which housed about 2,000 kids), I immediately sensed a feeling of belonging, much akin to being taken in by a family. Living in Jal proved to be the best years of my life prior to going into the Air Force."

Phillips said because Jal is a small town is probably the reason the site works so well; a web page for suburban or urban high school graduates may not elicit the same kind of fond memories that can be found at the Panther home page.

Dana McLaughlin Tasharski, who graduated in the 1960s and now lives in Plainfield, Ill., said it took leaving Jal to appreciate it, and the appreciation has only grown because of the web site.

"Jal was a very special, almost magical, place in which to grow up, although I didn't realize it completely until long after I left," Ms. Tasharski said. "Since Jerry created the Panther web site, so many people have received hours of enjoyment simply because he chose to do this. I have enjoyed being reunited with some wonderful people. Even with the passing of time and the geographical gaps, I'm certain we will not lose touch again."

Bill Dyer graduated in 1962 and is now in his 29th year of directing the Panther Band at JHS.

"We all have a yen to return to the 'good old days' and renew old acquaintances," Dyer said. "Although our class reunions have been wonderful events to attend over the years, they provide a momentary renewal. The Jal Panther web site provides this almost daily."

A handful of people meet every Sunday evening - 7 o'clock Jal time - in the All-Jal Chatroom, another part of the Panther Web site that is a popular attraction.

"One thing that has struck me about my current contacts through email and the chat room is how we have managed to bridge the 35-year gap since we last saw each other," Phillips said. In one respect, we're still kids to each other; we reminisce and laugh about the good old days. In another sense we're conversing on an adult level. There are discussions of kids, grandkids and an openness with one another that we didn't have 35 years ago.

"And even though we communicate on this adult level, most of us still retain mental images of the kids we were 35 years ago. Needless to say, we are probably all in for a shock when we finally do come face to face at the reunion in 2000."

The Jal pages started with a simple letter posted on the Web by Phillips. The same letter was sent via email to the contacts he had at the time. From that, the site grew to what it is today, a resource Mary Grayce Wright Weathers, Class of '63, finds irreplaceable.

"There's a bond between Jal people that seems to be unique to us," Ms. Weathers writes on the Jal Letters page. "A friend of mine here in Carlsbad (New Mexico) says that she wishes she was from Jal because, 'You Jal people are always so glad to see each other' And she's right. It gets more and more wonderful as time goes on, too. The old friendships become deeper, and the renewed ones become lasting."

Jal HS grduates, from left, New Mexico state Sen. Carroll Leavell (Class of 1954),
and his wife Bobby ('56), Jack Hedgpeth ('46), Sandra Tuten ('58), Bill Dyer ('62),
Jerry Dyer ('63) and Jeff Pittman ('78).

Photo by Tim Fishcer