Chapter 24: A Warm Reception

Thursday, October 4, 1984

Today was the ticket draw for A&M’s first Southwest Conference game of the season. Our opponent was Texas Tech, and there was little love lost between the schools. There was, I thought, a healthy level of respect between UT and A&M, no matter how much some people claimed there wasn’t. There was much less respect between Tech and A&M.

Our seats were considerably worse than they’d been for the first three games. After all, A&M was 3-0 so far. Even if two of those wins had been uncomfortably close, and all three had been against ‘lesser opponents,’ there was optimism that things might go well.

I wasn’t about to rain on anyone’s parade, even if rain was in the forecast for the game. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this season would turn out to be a great one.

Friday, October 5, 1984

Bob Hope was better than I’d (pardon the pun) hoped. We all really enjoyed his show, which was a combination of song (his voice had held up pretty well) and comedy (surprisingly current, and well-tailored to the audience). You’d expect an old pro like Hope to tailor things to the audience, of course, but he (or his staff) had done his research. He even tossed in a North Zulch joke that had Paige saying, “See? I told you so!”

Saturday, October 6, 1984

The football game was a wet, dismal mess. It rained steadily through most of the game, but A&M’s poor performance on the field was only partly attributable to the rain. After all, Tech’s offense thrived despite the field conditions, putting up 30 points to A&M’s 12.

I had the bad feeling that this was going to be the way most of the rest of the year would go. Perhaps some of the games would be closer, but — if my somewhat shaky memories were any guide — A&M wouldn’t pull out of their funk until the UT game.

On the other hand, if you asked most students whether a winning season or a victory over t.u. was more important, the great majority would pick beating t.u. And, if history repeated itself, that game would mean a lot more than just beating t.u. It would reverse the fortunes of the two schools for at least the next three years.

Only time would tell. We’d already affected the odds by changing the paths of Cal and Andy. How much that would change things in the long term was a big unknown at this point, but it might really matter.

After the game, we trudged home through the rain and changed into nicer clothes. There was no way we were going to the President’s Endowed Scholar reception in ponchos and sweat-soaked t-shirts and shorts! I’m sure the scholarship donors would be dressed up, and all of us save Mel were used to dressing up regularly. For her part, Mel had plenty of nice things to wear — she just hadn’t been constantly dressing up for tournaments.

My suit still fit, which meant it was likely to keep on fitting for a while. The tux would’ve been too much for this event. When the topic came up, though, Jas joked that I should wear it and introduce myself as ‘Marshall. Steve Marshall.’ That got everyone laughing except for Mel. We needed to show her some Bond movies, clearly!

For my part, I complimented the ladies on ‘how nicely they cleaned up.’ That got me some glares (and a ‘Rude!’ from Paige) before Cammie pointed out that I’d just been yanking their chain by using a phrase commonly aimed at guys.

I apologized and said they really did look terrific — but that they always looked terrific. That, of course, got me accused of being a ‘flatterer,’ which was indeed true. Angie pointed out that they sometimes looked anything but ‘terrific’ and that I was the only guy they were willing to look that way around.

I think we all decided there was more there, but that this wasn’t the time for it, and that the time for it wasn’t likely to be anytime soon. That, and that we all needed to remember that we had each others’ backs all the time, every day, no matter what.

Since we were dressed up and it was still raining, none of us wanted to walk back to the MSC. Instead, I drove over, dropped the girls off at the MSC’s hotel entrance (which was covered), and then parked the car as close as I could. I got a bit wet even with the umbrella, but it was nothing compared to what we’d have been like had we walked.

They had light snacks at the reception and mostly people just mixed and mingled. Officials from the scholarship office were there to connect donors and recipients, but aside from meeting your donor or recipient (if you could), we were on our own. Predictably, that mostly turned into students talking with students and donors talking with donors. Few students would approach someone three or four times their age and just start making casual conversation.

I wound up doing just that a few times. I had plenty of time, because it turned out that ‘Red’ Bueller, Jr had taken ill after the game and couldn’t attend. I had no idea of Mr. Bueller’s health situation, but hours out in what was about 100% humidity and relatively high temperatures could do that all by itself.

I heard about half of Angie’s conversation with Ms. ‘Lovie’ Beauford. She seemed to be a very nice lady. I’d guess that she was at least 70 and quite possibly older. Lovie had been one of the rare pre-1960s female graduates of A&M. Her father had been an English professor, which allowed her to enroll, and she had met her late husband while studying at A&M. He’d done well in the oil business, leading them to both endow scholarships.

Lovie answered the mystery of whether she knew about Angie when she said, eyes twinkling, “So, is that girlfriend of yours here?”

Angie blushed just a bit, then nodded.

“Yes. Paige is just over there.”

“Call her over!”

Angie did, and introduced Paige to Lovie.

Lovie said, “When the scholarship office asked if I might sponsor your scholarship, Angie, I’d just seen the picture of the two of you in the Chronicle. Well, I said ‘yes,’ of course! You’d both done such a brave thing. It would have been completely unheard of in my day! How could I turn that down? That, and they said you were looking at becoming a mathematician, too!”

Paige and Angie were both blushing a bit more by then, but both of them thanked Lovie before Angie said, “Yes, I am. That and plenty of business courses. I fell in love with a branch of applied math and finance called quantitative analysis last year. Pure math is very interesting, but I’m definitely on the practical side.”

Lovie nodded, and said, “My degree is in mathematics. I learned a lot more math than I ever used, let me tell you! I only got my Bachelor’s degree, and all I did with it was teach high school for a decade, but I still love it. It was such a natural fit! Back in my day, being a girl at A&M was pretty unheard of. A girl in a field like mathematics? I took a lot of ribbing about how I should be at the teachers’ college, but I stuck it out and wound up the second-highest-ranking graduate in mathematics. The boy ahead of me was quite the gentleman, too! I couldn’t begrudge him the victory. But I didn’t wind up marrying him. My heart went to someone else, and it worked out pretty well!”

As she said that, her eyes were twinkling again.

“That’s pretty amazing!” Paige said.

“What was it like here, back then?” Angie asked.

I wound up leaving them shortly after that because Jas wanted to introduce me to Karl Kleinfelder. He was one of the younger donors, probably in his early 50s, and he was a real estate developer. He seemed a nice enough guy, and obviously liked Jas (in a fatherly way), giving her plenty of decent advice. It was possible that he might be a good contact later, depending on how much MNMS involved itself in real estate. With what I knew of Texas real estate over the next decade, it was pretty likely that we’d invest there. There was some real money to be made!

Cammie and Mel joined us for quite a bit of the conversation with Karl. They seemed to really enjoy it, and I was glad they weren’t just sticking with talking to people our age.

I couldn’t remember whether UT had simply not had a reception like this or whether I’d just never gone, but this one turned out to be well worth attending. Not just because of Lovie (though that was a big plus!) or Karl, but because it was nice to see, and somewhat meet, the donors, and see how they interacted with the students. Our intended path would put us in their company over time, after all. We were likely unique (as always). Many freshmen might believe they were destined for big things, but few were as far along the path as we were.

After Karl, I managed to circulate a bit and talk to at least some of the donors. ‘Wow, the Aggies did poorly today!’ was a common — and safe! — topic of conversations. I won some points with a few of them when it came out that I knew some freshmen who were redshirting and might make a difference next year.

Yes, after just one loss, the donors were already starting to hint at the ever-popular ‘Wait until next year!’ In this case, I was pretty sure they were right, though I also thought they would get a nice surprise late this year.

We talked about it on the way home, of course. Angie (and Paige) really liked Lovie Beauford. No surprise there. She seemed to be both nice and quite sharp. I hoped that, when (or if) I met my donor that I would like him as much.

Jas was happy, too. Karl Kleinfelder seemed like an interesting guy, and he clearly liked Jasmine and was happy with where his money was going.

For that matter, both Cammie and Mel were reasonably happy. Cammie was safe from worrying about a donor she might not like, and Mel could write a nice note to hers and feel like she’d met her obligations. They’d gotten to meet a bunch of other PES recipients (particularly some of the other girls), plus Karl and some other donors, and those contacts might matter down the road.

We’d be doing the same thing next year, most likely. Hopefully, both the weather and the game would be better then!