Happy birthday to Texas City school district

In Texas, you know you have made it big when folks put your name on the water tower or name a school after you.

Levi Fry is one of those rarest of residents to have a school building bear his name. Drive down 14th Street in Texas City, and there it is.

I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to have been taught by Levi Fry. I’ve read many an old yearbook and noted that students in the first half of the 1900s liked Fry. They liked him a lot.

Guess that’s why there’s a school named after him.

This year, the Texas City Independent School District is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Folks in the administration building had hoped to throw a lavish shindig to mark the occasion, but a hurricane named Rita pretty much washed those plans out.

No matter, we don’t need a party to celebrate. There are plenty of grads around these parts that who be more than glad to swap old school stories with anyone who may ask.

I am a bit proud on this subject, because I am a product of the Texas City school system. And, I am sure to the shock and dismay to many of my teachers and school administrators, I came out in pretty good shape.

It’s fun to talk about old school days.

Al Garza, father of former Texas City Mayor Carlos Garza, remembers the days when schools were so crowded, students went to classes in shifts. One set of students attended class in the morning; the next shift would come in the afternoon.

When Garza wasn’t in class, he and his pals would venture out into the woods. In those days of the 1930s and 1940s, the woods were actually found where Stingaree Stadium now stands.

Garza didn’t venture too far out past the woods. He married, raised a family and has been one of the more active members of our community.

His kids turned out pretty good, too.

The Doyle boys, Matt, Patrick and Chris, all are products of TCISD. Matt’s the mayor. Patrick is a county commissioner, and younger brother, Chris, has stuck with banking full time.

Dad Chuck said recently he is most proud of Chris. Tongue in cheek, of course.

Jay Arrington was the stud of the class of 1955. One has to admit his blond hair and movie star looks could have convinced him to make a run for Hollywood.

But there was this cute girl he saw through the classroom window one day and figured nothing could beat spending the rest of his life with her. So he stayed put.

Swede Sandberg, a man credited with coming up with the Stingaree mascot for the high school, was also one of the biggest heroes of the 1947 disaster in Texas City.

He could have fled town, but he stayed.

Richard Etteredge led the 1960s Texas City High golf team to plenty of trophies. He stuck around, too, and now sits in the seat Levi Fry once occupied.

Flipping through the pages of the Texas City Stingaree yearbooks, I noticed a remarkable trend. Many of the names found in those yearbooks are still listed in the local phone book.

If there is anything worth celebrating on TCISD’s 100th birthday, it may be that so many of those who have been educated here have stuck around.

Happy birthday to Texas City school district. Glad many of those who have been part of the party all these years are still around to blow out the candles.