George Johnson

We have two boys. Ben is 26 and is in his fifth year of a PhD program in English at Rutgers. Nick is 21 and a senior at Truman State, majoring in music and having entirely too much fun. He is a member of a very good funk band called Hazard to Ya Booty which plays some in Columbia, as well as Kirksville, St. Louis, KC and sometimes Springfield so that we get to hear them. Fortunately, both kids got BS ability from me and intelligence and diligence from Marcia, so they have pretty much gone to school for free. Ben did his undergrad work at Washington U. in St. Louis. Nick is looking at Musicology programs at various places, including Indiana. (Put in a good word, Dennis.)

My law practice is in a firm that represents Rural Electric Cooperatives, which is a very enjoyable practice that will never make me rich, but does keep us supplied in baseball caps with company logos. I started with the Highway Commission and still do a good deal of condemnation work. Marcia will probably retire in about three years. As of now, I don’t see myself being tired of it for a while longer, so I plan to hang in for several more years. I have a partner who is 80 and still putting in very close to full time, so that sort of thing is possible in a practice like ours, but I expect to be out of here long before that.

In our spare time, Marcia tries to fit about 30 acres of flower gardens into a half acre lot, and expects me to be the spade man. This is not something that was disclosed to me during courtship. I do a little hunting, fishing, and floating and spend a lot of time with the Boy Scouts. My scoutmaster days are over, but I am now our District’s Advancement Chair, which means that I sit on Eagle Boards of Review for kids who make it that far. It is a great job. I get to meet the best of the young men in our area, so I have some faith in the future.

On a sadder note, my brother, Clayton, from the class of ’62, died about two years ago of a brain cancer. He left three daughters, now 20 through 29, who had also lost their mother to cancer a year and a half before that. They are wonderful young ladies and have helped me get through it at least as much as I have helped them. Clayton was a dentist in California, MO and, judging from the turnouts at his and his wife’s funerals, was a very valued member of the community. I miss him every day.

May 3, 2023 - Update - All Questions Answered

Charley, let me run through your questions.

1) I was born in Greenwich, Conn. but was moved to Co;umibia when I was still very portable. Probably a couple of months old. We came here for Dad to start his teaching career at Mizzou"s geology dept.

2) I stayed in Columbial for school, which was probably a mistake, since I was really bad as a college student.. Lots of bridge playing in the Commons, very litte time in class.

3) I have a 4 pt. average at Maryland, where I took one course while in the army. I have a three point at Drury here in Springfield, where I took one semester when I found out I still had GI bill money I could get. Everything else is from MIzzou, including Law School which did give me my profession, I started practicing here in Springfield with the Highway Commission, doing condemnation work to acquire land for highways. I finally benefitted from all the bridge playing in college when we were invited to a bridge group which included the Manager of Sho-Me Power, a part of the rural electric system in Missouri. He had me do all their condemnation work for the rest of his career and also played matchmaker to get me in with the firm I had stolen the business from when they opened an office in Springfield. After that I was able to work almost exclusively for various coops. It has been a good life.

4) nope

5) I have been retired for about 7 years and all I miss about practicing is some really good friends in the Coop world.

6) I have been married for 52 years to Marcia Sublett, a '64 Kewpie. no others, no divorces. She says we met in a math class as Hickman, we did hang in the same group but I was not interested until I got back from the Army and Reuben Merideth asid "You need to check out the Sublett girl, she"s gained five pounds and she"s voluptuous."

7) I have two sons, both PhDs. The older one teaches English at Univ of Central MO in Warrensburg, although he lives in KC, having figured out after a time in Warrensburg that the pickings there are pretty slim. He is married to a lawyer with the social security admin. She unfortunately has messed up plumbing, so no grandkids there. Ben was born in Feb of 1976. The second son was born five years later. He is now a musicalogy professor at Butler in Indianapolis. He has been married a couple of years now to a girl who plans to be an opera singer, so not much immediate hope for grandkids there.

8) I was a year and a half in Germany in the Army, which I did not consider to be business. Marcia and I have traveled quite a bit and have been to most all of Europe, Canada, a fair amount of South America, and Mexico.

9) We are planning a river cruise in Portugal, where we have not been yet. I would also like to go to Australia and New Zealand,, Might get there.

10) Yes. I was drafted and have always maintained that they sent me to Germany because I flunked German twice at Mizzou. I figure if I had flunked home ec they would have made me a cook..I was in Germany from SEpt 66 to Feb 68. I was there for two Octoberfests.

11) My best Memory of Hickman is friends I made there. I guess the worst is that, being me, I did not get the list of things I had dome turned in on time for the '63 Cressent. Somebody stuck in that I was in Band, which hardly tells the tale.

12) No place really stands out that much. I did like to attend Kewpie sports.

13) Probably a tie between Mrs. McTurnan and Mr. Stawski. Picking from people who are alive, I would probably like to see Mr. Judy and Mr. Sloan.

14) from our class, Martha Shrout. From the year behind us, Hiram Watson. From two years back, Reuben Meredith.

15) I recently reconnected with Jim Wiswall, whom I had known from my Sacred Heart Days. I don't know that I have his particulars, but we are now facebook friends. I plan to send him your mailing so he will know to get his ass to the reunion.

16) I have told my kids about deciding to go out for football at Hickman. Since it was the first year after Douglas closed, they gave uniforms to the kids who had played at Jeff Jr. the year before, to people who had been on the Hickman team, to people who had been on the Douglas jr high and high school teams, and maybe to a couple of new kids in town who had played at other schools. They then told the 6 or 8 of us who were left they were out of uniforms. I walked out very unhappily on knees that would go undamaged for years to come.

17) I remember my Dad's office in Swallow Hall, Sacred Heart church and school and climbing trees on the white campus to steal apples while walking home to the faculty housing we lived in at the time. After we got in trouble, Mom talked to the people and explained that if they would have us come in and get apples that had already been picked, we wouldn't be damaging their trees. It was a brilliant solution.

18) I don't remember any big accomplishments at Hickman. Since then I have been particularly proud of my part in getting a system put together at Sho-Me Power to use fiber optic cable to make broadband service far more accessible in outstate Missouri.

19) Hopefully with coming up with the "Charley Blackmore's class of "63 scholarship" which might get them to contribute.

20) Mrs. McTurnan had me thinking I wanted to teach English at some private college somewhere with a Master's degree. By the time I was getting my academic shit together, I realized that Master degree jobs were going to PhDs and the Bachelor degree jobs were going to Master's and Bachelor degrees were writing cards for Hallmark, or applying to law school..