Eugene (Hawkeye) Hawkins

Hi MD,

Here are a few of my recollections:

I would like to request an apology from Betty Timberlake for unrequited love in the fourth grade after I had presented her with a yard long box of chocolates. - - - [editor's comment: Gene, you got it. Here's text from Betty herself in 2005. "Gene, I have NEVER forgotten that yard box of chocolate candy that you gave me in the fourth grade. I dare say it has been one of my all time favorite presents EVER!!! Thank you again (assuming I thanked you in the first place) for a great gift!"

I want to get honest with Dr. Freeman and tell him how much I envied him when he reported he had kissed Betty at the Homewood theater while watching a re-run of “The Crimsom Ghost”.

I want to thank Beamon Cooley for being the only Alpha Male in our crowd who could stand up to Jimmy Drennen on the playing field.

I want to thank Bobby Smith for teaching me what type of pranks not to pull when he painted the bumper on Ms. Galloway’s Oldsmobile with red airplane dope.

I want to thank Allen Hill for teaching me a lesson in morality and insisting we return about 300 golf balls we stole from the woods behind Harry Weaver’s driving range.

I want to thank Mardis Howle for having the courage to remove and kill a water moccasin that got caught in a minnow trap we had placed in a stream in Lane Park.