As April rolls into May, teachers and students alike experience a little foretaste of purgatory. The school year is nearly over, but finals haven’t started yet. Classes are covering their last topics of the school year, and the students glaze out the windows daydreaming about the vacation that is only weeks away. As a little tide- you- over till summer getaway, I took my eight graders on a daytrip to a couple of local stops. Both have been well covered here but I thought I’d offer fresh insights. The class is a group from a private school in a neighboring town, and as such, represents a new audience for the establishments in question. Our first stop was the Brook Hill, American Freedom Museum. As always, the exhibits are so much more than one expects to find at a local private school. It chronicles the history of the American military through all the nation’s conflicts. There are rare weapons, flags, even vehicles on display throughout the facility. The hall of presidents contains documents and signatures of every American executive. Anyone planning a visit to our area, hosting out of town guests, or compiling a list of summer activities should definitely keep the museum in mind.
Our second event for the day was a place old and dear to my heart, the Historical Aviation Memorial Museum. But first we sat down for lunch at the Skyline Café adjacent to the museum. We had planned this lunch ahead of time and the young men in particular were eagerly awaiting the huge ten inch hamburgers the restaurant serves. With as much food as our crew ordered, all that cooking took a little while, but it proved well worth the wait.
The Aviation Museum is filled with all manner of artifacts, charts, maps, flags, models and uniforms from all periods and nationalities of aviation history. Outside the building are a number of aircraft on display spanning the period from the Korean War through the skirmishes of the nineteen eighties. I love visiting this place and so does my young son and I have every intention of returning. The one caution I would offer to the group that visits is to be sure that your younger more active members lower their voices and restrain their energy, as some of the older docents (much like my grandfather actually), can be a touch prickly. Hey their vets so I’ll extend that deference. Otherwise this is always a fun stop and I will continue to bring my students until they bar the door.
I came across this very cool East Texas business this morning. It’s an air charter service called East Texas Helicopters (ETH). As a kid I was watching television in the eighties when shows like Air Wolf, Blue Thunder and most especially Magnum PI ruled the ratings market. Back then, the idea of having one’s own helicopter charter business seemed like the coolest job in the world to me. Much cooler and more attractive than teaching! And as much as I admired “Thomas Magnum,” it was his friend “T.C.” whose job I most wanted. Remember T.C. was the one who owned his own Chopper and flew patrons around the Hawaiian Islands on special tours. I’m fairly sure the day to day ins and outs of the job are not really as glamorous as they were portrayed on television however.
Anyway, come to find out, there is a Helicopter charter business here I East Texas. It seems they service the Tyler, Longview, Kilgore, Jacksonville region. As far as I can tell they’re largely a one ship operation (again much like T.C.), the primary chopper being an R44 Raven II. On their Facebook page however, they do have a couple of other choppers pictured, so I’m not sure how many they actually run. In terms of advertising and public relations, the only web page they operate is linked through KLTV, which is not a terrible strategy in guess, since that’s how I found them. (As I mentioned earlier, they also have a Facebook page). On the site, ETH lists the services they offer. They’re available for tours, aerial photo shoots and surveys, patrolling power lines, or just public rides. The cost comes to almost a hundred dollars for every half hour, which given the cost of fuel these days seems pretty reasonable to me. If I read their pages correctly, it seems they also frequent Canton Trade Days where they offer rides to the fair going public. For more information on this fascinating business, visit their webpage at http://www.kltv.com/category/174993/east-texas-helicopter . Readers can also go to their Facebook page by clicking on the following link: http://www.facebook.com/EastTexasHelicopters?sk=wall . To contact the business directly simply call their office at (903)570-2840; or e-mail them at easttexashelicopters@gmail.com .
Pac Sun started in 1980 as a privately owned surf shop on Newport Beach but by 1987 had expanded to 20 stores. Pac Sun soon became a staple of suburban mid American malls, supplying resentful teenagers with an oscillating choice in pant width since the eighties. Pac Sun presents itself in the over worn style of beach fashion but can still supply clothing generic enough for your average skate park kid.
Although, Tyler skaters will have to look somewhere else for shoes since Pac Sun recently stopped selling most skate brand shoes due to declining revenue. But, Pac Sun has started carrying Nike again, I presume it is thanks to the cost effective results of sweatshop labor. Pac Sun has evolved from the simple surf shop it was into a combination of popular styles. Evidently unable to forge an original style for the mall going public, Pac Sun will simply infuse the latest growing trends with the painfully bright day glow color scheme of the modern extreme sports movement.
This emulation can be easily misunderstood as a legitimate comprehension of the desires of their customer, and many of those looking for the fabric embodiment of MTV2 will have found their destination. If Pac Sun can be relied on for anything it is the faithful adaptation to youth culture. Pac Sun surfs, if you will, the fickle waves of youthful desire, camouflaging itself in the trend of the most ideal demographic and capitalizing on the fact that suburban kids a thousand miles inland of any beach will pay to look like a surfer.
Christian Heritage School was founded in the early eighties by a group of missionaries from California. Originally the school was intended as a ministry to the children of the mission, but it soon grew into a ministry to the local community. For thirty years now C.H.S. has been educating East Texas young people. James Kilkenny has been the headmaster throughout that period. He and his staff are dedicated to Christian education.
C.H.S. follows the “Principle Approach” methodology, which places the Scriptures at the center of every subject. The curriculum borrows from the methods of early Americans. Students write in notebooks which in most cases, serve as their primary textbooks. The classroom teacher drives the student’s learning. He or she is considered a “living textbook.” Obviously this necessitates that the teacher’s role is a lifetime pursuit of learning.
Reasoning is also central to the schools approach. No multiple choice easy answer work here. The students are encouraged to reason logically rather than memorize. The school places a heavy emphasis on English and Writing. Those who complete the program, demonstrate great proficiency in writing and communication. History and government also take a central role. The school prides itself on its examination of original documents and founding principles. The students study not only the writings and beliefs of historical figures but their lives and character as well.
The student’s experience at C.H.S. is a positive one. The Tyler Texas school offers a fairly familiar class list with the addition of classes like Latin and Logic. With a student body that fluctuates between 150 and 200+ the student teacher ratio allows a lot of individual attention. The student teacher relationship is very important since the teachers are expected to model their faith and inspire a love of learning.
The athletic program provided an outlet for the competitive pursuits; and provides a sense of community to the families who attend the school. Soccer, Volleyball, basketball, track and tennis are among the sports offered.
Christian Heritage is located at the old Dixie School, some buildings of which were erected in the twenties and thirties. The campus has expanded over the years into the wonderful facility that can be seen today. A beautiful gymnasium, soccer field and playground make the school a great place to play.
Summer is not too early to be considering the 2009- 2010 school year. For the family concerned with strong academics, deep faith, and a rich traditional school experience, this institution is worth considering.
As a conservative East Texan I’ve been a fan of talk radio since I started listening in the late nineteen eighties and early nineteen nineties. Over the last few years I’ve been a dedicated listener of KTBB AM 600, and now more recently 99.3 FM. In fact even as I type this I do so while listening to the news and information delivered by talk radio. My addiction has annoyed my more liberal acquaintances who refuse to ride in my car knowing that I prefer politics to music.
Overall, my love of talk radio has been a staple of my life that has endured a lot. I have been derided from time to time as a right winger. I have traveled across country surfing the radio dial looking for the conservative station in whatever city I happen to be passing through. I have also endured the cancellation of my local favs from time to time. But none of these has dampened my enthusiasm for my favorite medium. I must confess however, that there is one issue above all others which has robbed me of some enjoyment of my local stations. That issue has a name… she is known simply as Judy!
Regular listeners, who read this, know immediately of whom I type. Of course, I’m referring to Judy of “Jim’s Jewelers.” I’m rarely ever in the market for jewelry, but my beef is really more with Judy herself and not Jewelry Stores. Evidently she see’s her ads as a vehicle to achieving status as a local Tyler celeb. I’ve actually seen her face on television promoting community projects. If I was responsible for the kind of advertising that she is, I wouldn’t be showing my face at the local Valero let alone on TV.
Her ads are often particularly insulting to the masculine audience, insisting that they buy diamond jewelry for the women in their lives in order to make up for their love of football or some other boorish behavior inherent to being male. She constantly assumes that the men in the audience can actually afford her wares but deny them to the women they allegedly love, simply out of thoughtlessness. The most insulting approach I’ve heard Judy take was when she encouraged women to wait until their husbands were engrossed in a ball game, and then go buy Jim’s tacky jewelry on their own. Can she also recommend a good divorce attorney?
The fact is what rankles me most about Judy’s work is the condescending seesaw delivery of her lines. When put against the background of that unmistakable music, it’s enough to make me want to turn into oncoming traffic. I’m pretty sure she’s contributed to numerous road rage episodes in East Texas. All told I hope the local radio station is charging her through the nose. If they’re going to put their audience at risk (and they do) they should at least be compensated for their boldness. As for me, I will continue to turn the channel during the Jim’s ads. Hopefully for KTBB, I and others like me will remember to turn it back. For more information on KTBB, go to the Tyler Blog section of the site and look for the title “National Politics and Local Coverage.” Also, see their website at www.ktbb.com.
As April rolls into May, teachers and students alike experience a little foretaste of purgatory. The school year is nearly over, but finals haven’t started yet. Classes are covering their last topics of the school year, and the students glaze out the windows daydreaming about the vacation that is only weeks away. As a little tide- you- over till summer getaway, I took my eight graders on a daytrip to a couple of local stops. Both have been well covered here but I thought I’d offer fresh insights. The class is a group from a private school in a neighboring town, and as such, represents a new audience for the establishments in question. Our first stop was the Brook Hill, American Freedom Museum. As always, the exhibits are so much more than one expects to find at a local private school. It chronicles the history of the American military through all the nation’s conflicts. There are rare weapons, flags, even vehicles on display throughout the facility. The hall of presidents contains documents and signatures of every American executive. Anyone planning a visit to our area, hosting out of town guests, or compiling a list of summer activities should definitely keep the museum in mind.