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PLEASE SEE REUNION PAGE OR INDIVIDUAL CLASS PAGES FOR REUNION INFO AND UPDATES!!!
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A HUGE THANK YOU TO
The owners of Charles A. Templeton Machine, Inc. Odessa, Texas-
Rusty Knight,
Charles A. Templeton II, and
William A. Knight, Ronnie's son
Their support and contribution made it possible for us to migrate to a new server platform which gives the site more space for future pages, updated publishing tools, and easier navigation and editing capabilities! It is a huge and appreciated change in maintaining the site! Thank you to these devoted and generous Panther Pals!
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An article written by Melvin McCallum about our site founder, Mike King, and submitted on 1/25/2020
Don’t know where to begin
I’ll begin at Permian High School in 1959, when it first opened as a new school in Odessa, Texas.
We had attended Odessa High School for our sophomore year and or junior year for the now
seniors and the first graduating class of 1960. I was supposed to be in the class of 1961, but I
had friends in a lot of different classes. By it being a brand new school and all of us being what
we were, wild and crazy kids, mostly, we didn’t always abide by the rules. I’ve written about the
first school bonfire and you know how that turned out!
Sure, they had printed a new student handbook with all the rules and regulations in it but most
of us just wanted to continue having fun and get out of school as soon as we could. There were
several outstanding students with knowledge and proper etiquette running out of their ears, so
to speak, but I was not one of those performers. I worked after school and was helping my
parents put me through school as best as I could. I had an old car, and it took a lot of time and
money to keep it in shape. Several people became friends over the course of the next several
years and one in particular, Mike King.
Mike was class of 1962 but he paled around with us some because he was interested in cars and
anyone interested in cars were called “Gearheads”. All of us gearheads were mostly poor and
just had what we could afford or either ran around with someone who had a car or pickup.
Mike’s father was a roughneck working in the oil patch and driving a 1958 Chevy four door
hardtop Belaire with the new air suspension and that brings me to my first low rider of sorts.
Every once in a while, Mike would get to drive his father’s crew car and he would let all the air
out of the suspension, consequently making it a low rider. Of course, it didn’t jump up and down
like a true low rider but in 1961, we didn’t know about low riders, except that crew car riding on
the axles with no suspension whatsoever!
When Mike was able to have the crew car, and he let all the air out of the suspension, the car
rode like a wagon and about four inches off the ground! He avoided any low places otherwise it
would drag bottom. It was definitely fun to ride in because it was so unique, even though it rode
like a wagon with no springs!
Mike’s school car was an old white 1955 Ford two door, probably the cheapest model produced
that year. One day at lunch hour at Permian, Mike pulled into the parking lot in front of the
school with a mannequins leg covered with a nylon stocking sticking out of the back of the trunk.
As you can well imagine, two motorcycle cops were right behind him with their flashing lights
and motioning for him to pull over. He pulled into a parking space and got out and by that time, a
bunch of us had run down there to see what was going on. Mike was grinning at us but as he
turned to confront the cops, his demeanor changed to complete surprise as he asked, “What are
y’all pulling me over for?”
One of the cops was a well known young officer, named Leroy Brown and he was very simpatico
to most of us poor kids. He laughed and asked Mike to please open the trunk, to which Mike
replied stoically, “Why would I want to open my trunk, Officers?” By that time, Leroy had
walked up to the car and was standing by the trunk, looking at the mannequin’s leg and shaking
his head. You can imagine what they first thought when they saw that leg sticking out of the
trunk but upon closer examination saw exactly what it was. The other office was motioning for
us to stay back as we had been edging closer and closer to the car.
Mike walked around a nd saw the leg sticking out of his trunk and with great surprise said, “Now
how in the world did that get in there?” Well, we all knew how it had gotten in there but we
just allowed him to go on with his fun and no one said a word. Mike opened the trunk by untying
a short piece of rope he had tied the trunk lid down and the lid sprang up revealing the rest of
the mannequin! Leroy, reached in and pushed the mannequin leg so it wasn’t sticking out and told
Mike to shut the trunk lid and go on to class. Mike told Leroy, “I don’t know how that got into
my trunk. You reckon someone’s playing a trick on me?” Leroy just smiled and got back on his
motorcycle and he and the other office rode away.
Mike told us, “I swear I don’t how that mannequin got into my trunk.” Smiling all the time!
After Mike got out of high school and was working in Odessa, he was riding a motorcycle one
bright summer day, following too close behind a fast moving car, when the car slammed on the
brakes and Mike hit it with such force that he was thrown off the motorcycle and his body was
propelled through the back window of the car! It cut him up pretty bad and he was taken to the
hospital and had some surgery and was back on the motorcycle before too long.
I lost tract of Mike until about 1995. He started a website www.permian.net initially listing all
the graduating classes and a few personal websites for his good friends. He also had a memorial
page for each year. He worked on that a lot during his life in California. He had spent some time
in the slammer but even that didn’t slow him down. When I asked for a picture of him, he sent
me a picture in an email and the picture image started out with his high school picture then
gradually progressed until it was showing him currently. He was a genius with a computer! We
corresponded until about two days before he died. He told me he was dying and there wasn’t
anything he could do about it. We said our goodbyes and that was the last I heard from him.
Mike was a great guy in my opinion and a lot of fun as a kid growing up in Odessa.
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Our site is growing!!! Please bear with us as we make these updates. We have moved to a new server platform as of August 2018. In the interest of making space for future classes, some changes to class pages and format are being made. PLEASE be patient as changing all class pages to this new format is a manual effort and takes some time. Also, if you receive an email notice from Harris Connect regarding Class directories, please know they are a private company, not affiliated with Permian High School, ECISD, or permian.net.
Permian.net is solely owned and maintained by Elizabeth MacLean Huston, Class of 1979, in loving memory
of Mike King, Class of 1962 who established and tirelessly ran this site until his death. Mike will forever be
remembered and we will always be grateful for his work and dedication to Permian High School and its Alumni. A special thank you to Vickie Kay Maddox, class of 1969 for her devotion, support, and assistance in gathering and sharing information for alumni updates. Her efforts are truly appreciated and keep the information on this site current. Thank you to Vickie, we couldn't do this without her help!
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If you have a question, please call 623-570-7702 or send an e-mail to Elizabeth@permian.net.
This site is owned and operated privately. No support or assistance is received from ECISD towards it's maintenance. As such, many have asked if they can assist financially towards the monthly fees and long term update and growth costs of this site. If you wish to make a donation, I do have a PayPal account under the email address emmhuston@cox.net. Thanks! EMMH
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