EXBB
On Two Wednesdays every month, 2nd and 4th are our goals, Texosport will headline news of interest to alumni of Refugio High School, our publisher's alma mater.
Why We Blab
by Andy "Putt" Pate '52
Fifteen to twenty years ago, I was eager to share with my Indiana sister interesting news from our hometown, so I called her.
“Don’t tell me,” she said.
“Why?" I asked.
“I blab,” she answered.
So it is. We exes from Refugio High School in South Texas, we do blab. And we do so thinking that if yu can’t handle the blab, don’t listen and don't blab to us. For we will share it with others of our like. It's a built in thing.
Astute readers, or non astute readers, should catch the humor here. News, or “Gossip” as some might call it, always carries with it a touch of the humorous. Refugio exes, by and large, we understand this.
I am today unable to recall the specific information I wanted to pass on to my sister, but my memory suggests that it must have had to do with my best friend, who only recently had “come out,” at the age of 60, after having fathered seven children.
Surely, my sister would blab about that. All of us RHS exes have blabbed aplenty about It since.
But there is humor in our response.
We didn’t know, we say. Yet the truth is we probably did know about the absence of "coming out" in our colleague, ” but we did not want to say so at the time. And that is peculiar, if not downright funny. For it highlights the humor in our admission that after all, we are not God. We do not know everything and never will. Yet, we’d like to think that we know most everything there is to know, especially about Refugio, Texas, and if there’s a hint of Refugio news being bad, we will find a way to camouflage it and expose it only after we think we have found a way to handle properly its content.
Fundamental to Refugians, past and present, is the Truth. Yes, we will blab, but in the end, we will loudly pronounce what we know to be true, live with it, and prayerfully, move on, wiser and stronger in our love of life.
Recent Deaths
Gene Bundren, January 28, 2020, RHS 1952
John Robert “Bob” Walker, January 19, 2022, RHS 1957
Nathan Laine Fagan, February 5, 2022, RHS 1948
Marcello Ramirez, February 11. 2022, RHS 1952
"M.C." Love, February 23, 2022, RHS 5948
Ada Marie Contreras Miramontes, April 26, 2022, RHS 1951
Mary Ann Pate Hormuth, June 21, 2022, RHS 1950
Newton England, jr., August 10, 2022, RHS 1948
Carol Walker Pate, Sept. 11, 2022 – RHS 1955
Virginia Jenkins Randle, November 25, 2022, RHS 1958?
Julie Marie Repka, November 28, 2022, RHS 1973
Betty Jean Blair Fagan, December 8, 2022, RHS 1952
Mark Anthony Martin, December 12, 2022, RHS 1979?
Freddie Nash, December 27, 2022, RHS 1952
Sports
As is well known, the RHS Bobcats of 2022 football (14-2) did quite well, making it all the way to the state final, where they lost to Hawley, 54-28.
Understandabley, the RHS Boys Basketbal team (0-3) is off to a slow start The girls are doing bettter (15-8), competing in a district with strong teams from Port Aransas and Skidmore-Tynan.
Woodsboro, Kenedy. Three Rivers and Yorktown are other district opponents fpr both the RHS boys and the RHS girls.
ButTrack and Field prospects for the boys in 2023 are excellent. Several membersof the 2022 State Champions return, including junior Ernest Campbell, the defender in both the 100 and 200 sprints
Our Heritage
In my observations about RHS I have come to believe that more importnat than what we have done, or failed to do, is what our children and their children have done, and are doing.
My son graduated from the US Naval Academy. He lived well until his too-soon passng at age 49. His sisters (twins) have led responsibe lives in Georgia and have followed up well in Florida, where they currently reside.
The childrn of my late wife, Carol Walker Pate, have also been able to live fully and maintain stable lives for themselve and their familes, after, of course, having to work through difficult situations.
Sadly, Carol’s son, John Larson, died in Kerrville, much too soon (60), but he left behind three children who are doing quite well; John’s youngest, Robert, is a senior in Harper HS. His daughter Avery, an LSU graduate, is studying to become an attorney in South Texas Law school.
DAN FIROVA Houston Astros quality assistant coach and Refugio County native, will be recognized on Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Omni Hotel in Corpus Christi as the 2023 South Texas Winter Baseball Banquet Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
Please, fellow RHS alums, tell us about your heritage. Send the basic information to me at: [email protected]. I look forward to pulishing much more of this kind of valuable and important information. RHS helped us; We need to know who, how and anything pertinent. After all, we do have to have something to blab about.
