Re: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

2019-05-13 Thread John Brooks
Perhaps someone should start an “OPT OUT” list for Locklearian obituary reviews 
.

There could be ONE opt out list for caver obituary reviews 

AND a opt out list for those who prefer to pass in peace WITHOUT being reviewed.

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 12, 2019, at 10:57 AM, Don Cooper  wrote:
> 
> Katie - 
> 
> From our discussions about David's posts - I'm reminded that there are FANS 
> also, of very very poorly performed music
> His evaluation of Bill Mixon absolutely TEARS IT!  His output is no longer 
> welcome -  in my computer's input.
> Happy that I didn't see him blab about William!
> Hope all is well.  I think of you almost daily.
> 
> -Don C.
> From: Texascavers  on behalf of 
> Katherine Arens 
> Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2019 7:38 PM
> To: texascavers@texascavers.com
> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon
>  
> Nice remembrance,  — but the dogs were Salukis, not greyhounds (short-haired 
> afghan hounds).  With memorable names like Silly and Sally.  Sally could open 
> tight-shut coolers to steal cheese . . . 
> 
>> On May 9, 2019, at 6:25 PM, David  wrote:
>> 
>> I can only give Bill Mixon an 8.1 out of 10 stars.
>> 
>> Bill was a male, slightly bald, about 5'-9", light complected, almost skinny.
>> 
>> Bill was somewhat of a curmudgeon - but only when he was not with his 
>> beloved greyhounds.   He was especially saddened after he had to start 
>> living without his last dog.
>> 
>> He presented himself around me, as a passive person, content to sit in one 
>> spot at camp for a good part of the weekend and talk to anyone willing to 
>> start an interesting conversation.
>> 
>> I deducted the first star, because he did not like Rock and Roll, nor maybe 
>> not any noisy music at all.
>> 
>> And the second deduction, goes to his frugalness or thriftyness.   Did he 
>> ever upgrade from DOS to Windows ?   Or get a 64-bit computer ?  I would be 
>> tempted to put an AMD Threadripper in has ashes, just so he can tell Oztotl 
>> that he got one as a going away present, as a warm token of admiration.
>> 
>> Anyways, I hope there are greyhounds and a giant dog-park in the afterlife, 
>> so that he can enjoy eternity on his terms.
>> 
>> 
>> Below is a story that I have told many times:
>> 
>> I first met Bill Mixon in October of 1984 while on a weekend excursion as a 
>> sophomore student at Texas A University ( College Station campus ).
>> 
>> 
>> Bill was standing at the bottom of a large sinkhole in a remote ranch in 
>> west Texas.  I had no idea why.
>> 
>> 
>> Myself, ( an Aggie ), and another new young newbie caver from Univ. of Texas 
>> at Austin, Ed Sevcik, were staring down at him.   The two of us had missed 
>> the group going into the cave, and we both were standing at the edge of the 
>> sinkhole peering down into it.
>> 
>> 
>> ( UT cavers had hauled out tons of rusted rubble the day before or trip 
>> before, so we had a clean safe view of the sinkhole )
>> 
>> 
>> We both were unsure what to do.  There was no ladder or rope, and a fall 
>> would be potentially bad.   There was nothing to see, but Bill, and an ugly 
>> hackberry tree, which oddly, was the only tree for 50 miles.
>> 
>> 
>> We had no idea who Bill was, or where everybody had disappeared to.
>> 
>> 
>> Bill yelled up to us on how to use the tree limbs and tree trunk in the 
>> sinkhole to descend the sharp drop-off and climb down using the tree as a 
>> hand-hold.
>> 
>> 
>> To our surprise, the actual cave entrance at the bottom of the sinkhole was 
>> just a tiny intimidating belly crawl.
>> 
>> 
>> That was my introduction to a first real Texas cave.
>> 
>> 
>> We learned the cave was known as "Big Tree Cave," but its official name was 
>> "Langtry Lead Cave."   Cavers were deep inside, allegedly pushing a lead and 
>> maybe re-surveying.
>> 
>> 
>> I chose to sit there in the sinkhole, as did my new found friend, Ed. 
>> 
>> 
>> Ed was much bigger than me, so he might have even been more intimdated by 
>> the tiny entrance.
>> 
>> 
>> Bill was almost a generation older than us, and we assumed he was an 
>> experienced caver.  My first impression of Bill was that he seemed like a 
>> pleasant spoken guy.
>> 
>> 
>> Eventually, Bill convinced us to give the entrance a go.
>> 
>> 
>> We three crawled into the tiny entrance, and started some very fun climbs - 
>> going dow

Re: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

2019-05-12 Thread Don Cooper
Katie -

>From our discussions about David's posts - I'm reminded that there are FANS 
>also, of very very poorly performed music
His evaluation of Bill Mixon absolutely TEARS IT!  His output is no longer 
welcome -  in my computer's input.
Happy that I didn't see him blab about William!
Hope all is well.  I think of you almost daily.

-Don C.

From: Texascavers  on behalf of Katherine 
Arens 
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2019 7:38 PM
To: texascavers@texascavers.com
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

Nice remembrance,  — but the dogs were Salukis, not greyhounds (short-haired 
afghan hounds).  With memorable names like Silly and Sally.  Sally could open 
tight-shut coolers to steal cheese . . .

On May 9, 2019, at 6:25 PM, David 
mailto:dlocklea...@gmail.com>> wrote:

I can only give Bill Mixon an 8.1 out of 10 stars.

Bill was a male, slightly bald, about 5'-9", light complected, almost skinny.

Bill was somewhat of a curmudgeon - but only when he was not with his beloved 
greyhounds.   He was especially saddened after he had to start living without 
his last dog.

He presented himself around me, as a passive person, content to sit in one spot 
at camp for a good part of the weekend and talk to anyone willing to start an 
interesting conversation.

I deducted the first star, because he did not like Rock and Roll, nor maybe not 
any noisy music at all.

And the second deduction, goes to his frugalness or thriftyness.   Did he ever 
upgrade from DOS to Windows ?   Or get a 64-bit computer ?  I would be tempted 
to put an AMD Threadripper in has ashes, just so he can tell Oztotl that he got 
one as a going away present, as a warm token of admiration.

Anyways, I hope there are greyhounds and a giant dog-park in the afterlife, so 
that he can enjoy eternity on his terms.


Below is a story that I have told many times:


I first met Bill Mixon in October of 1984 while on a weekend excursion as a 
sophomore student at Texas A University ( College Station campus ).


Bill was standing at the bottom of a large sinkhole in a remote ranch in west 
Texas.  I had no idea why.


Myself, ( an Aggie ), and another new young newbie caver from Univ. of Texas at 
Austin, Ed Sevcik, were staring down at him.   The two of us had missed the 
group going into the cave, and we both were standing at the edge of the 
sinkhole peering down into it.


( UT cavers had hauled out tons of rusted rubble the day before or trip before, 
so we had a clean safe view of the sinkhole )


We both were unsure what to do.  There was no ladder or rope, and a fall would 
be potentially bad.   There was nothing to see, but Bill, and an ugly hackberry 
tree, which oddly, was the only tree for 50 miles.


We had no idea who Bill was, or where everybody had disappeared to.


Bill yelled up to us on how to use the tree limbs and tree trunk in the 
sinkhole to descend the sharp drop-off and climb down using the tree as a 
hand-hold.


To our surprise, the actual cave entrance at the bottom of the sinkhole was 
just a tiny intimidating belly crawl.


That was my introduction to a first real Texas cave.


We learned the cave was known as "Big Tree Cave," but its official name was 
"Langtry Lead Cave."   Cavers were deep inside, allegedly pushing a lead and 
maybe re-surveying.


I chose to sit there in the sinkhole, as did my new found friend, Ed.


Ed was much bigger than me, so he might have even been more intimdated by the 
tiny entrance.


Bill was almost a generation older than us, and we assumed he was an 
experienced caver.  My first impression of Bill was that he seemed like a 
pleasant spoken guy.


Eventually, Bill convinced us to give the entrance a go.


We three crawled into the tiny entrance, and started some very fun climbs - 
going downward into the belly of the cave.


About the 5th climb down, we chickened-out.Ed and I could not believe there 
was no rope or hand-line. It looked like a bottomless pit, but was actually 
only 23 feet at the deepest part, which was more of an illusion, as if you 
fell, it would have only been 12 feet.  Our cheezy headlamps were not bright 
enough to see that the climb was the easiest of all the climbs.  [ I doubt I 
had anything more than a cheap flashlight. ]


We three set there, in the dark and Bill talked to us about caves and caving 
for probably an hour.


Then Bill showed us how to climb back out of the cave.  That was so much fun, 
that we went back and forth several times.


Eventually we did the 5th climb down and it was so much fun, that we also did 
that several times.


We eventually met up with the cavers.  Bill felt his job was done ( helping 
newbies ), so he headed back out to camp to enjoy the desert sunset.


That group ( in sort of a small junction room ) which were two Aggie cavers: 
John Ragsdale, and Freddie Platt, and also several Austin cavers, James Reddell 
and maybe Bi

Re: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

2019-05-12 Thread Don Cooper
DON'T SAY A FUCKING *WORD* ABOUT ME IF I DIE BEFORE YOU DO, ASSHOLE!


From: Texascavers  on behalf of David 

Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2019 6:25 PM
To: CaveTex
Subject: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

I can only give Bill Mixon an 8.1 out of 10 stars.

Bill was a male, slightly bald, about 5'-9", light complected, almost skinny.

Bill was somewhat of a curmudgeon - but only when he was not with his beloved 
greyhounds.   He was especially saddened after he had to start living without 
his last dog.

He presented himself around me, as a passive person, content to sit in one spot 
at camp for a good part of the weekend and talk to anyone willing to start an 
interesting conversation.

I deducted the first star, because he did not like Rock and Roll, nor maybe not 
any noisy music at all.

And the second deduction, goes to his frugalness or thriftyness.   Did he ever 
upgrade from DOS to Windows ?   Or get a 64-bit computer ?  I would be tempted 
to put an AMD Threadripper in has ashes, just so he can tell Oztotl that he got 
one as a going away present, as a warm token of admiration.

Anyways, I hope there are greyhounds and a giant dog-park in the afterlife, so 
that he can enjoy eternity on his terms.


Below is a story that I have told many times:


I first met Bill Mixon in October of 1984 while on a weekend excursion as a 
sophomore student at Texas A University ( College Station campus ).

Bill was standing at the bottom of a large sinkhole in a remote ranch in west 
Texas.  I had no idea why.

Myself, ( an Aggie ), and another new young newbie caver from Univ. of Texas at 
Austin, Ed Sevcik, were staring down at him.   The two of us had missed the 
group going into the cave, and we both were standing at the edge of the 
sinkhole peering down into it.

( UT cavers had hauled out tons of rusted rubble the day before or trip before, 
so we had a clean safe view of the sinkhole )

We both were unsure what to do.  There was no ladder or rope, and a fall would 
be potentially bad.   There was nothing to see, but Bill, and an ugly hackberry 
tree, which oddly, was the only tree for 50 miles.

We had no idea who Bill was, or where everybody had disappeared to.

Bill yelled up to us on how to use the tree limbs and tree trunk in the 
sinkhole to descend the sharp drop-off and climb down using the tree as a 
hand-hold.

To our surprise, the actual cave entrance at the bottom of the sinkhole was 
just a tiny intimidating belly crawl.

That was my introduction to a first real Texas cave.

We learned the cave was known as "Big Tree Cave," but its official name was 
"Langtry Lead Cave."   Cavers were deep inside, allegedly pushing a lead and 
maybe re-surveying.

I chose to sit there in the sinkhole, as did my new found friend, Ed.

Ed was much bigger than me, so he might have even been more intimdated by the 
tiny entrance.

Bill was almost a generation older than us, and we assumed he was an 
experienced caver.  My first impression of Bill was that he seemed like a 
pleasant spoken guy.

Eventually, Bill convinced us to give the entrance a go.

We three crawled into the tiny entrance, and started some very fun climbs - 
going downward into the belly of the cave.

About the 5th climb down, we chickened-out.Ed and I could not believe there 
was no rope or hand-line. It looked like a bottomless pit, but was actually 
only 23 feet at the deepest part, which was more of an illusion, as if you 
fell, it would have only been 12 feet.  Our cheezy headlamps were not bright 
enough to see that the climb was the easiest of all the climbs.  [ I doubt I 
had anything more than a cheap flashlight. ]

We three set there, in the dark and Bill talked to us about caves and caving 
for probably an hour.

Then Bill showed us how to climb back out of the cave.  That was so much fun, 
that we went back and forth several times.

Eventually we did the 5th climb down and it was so much fun, that we also did 
that several times.

We eventually met up with the cavers.  Bill felt his job was done ( helping 
newbies ), so he headed back out to camp to enjoy the desert sunset.

That group ( in sort of a small junction room ) which were two Aggie cavers: 
John Ragsdale, and Freddie Platt, and also several Austin cavers, James Reddell 
and maybe Bill Elliot and about 10 others.  They pointed us in the direction of 
a long crawl to the "Hall of Unicorns."Once reaching that point, I knew 
then that my secret passion that I had had since 1968 as a 4 year old - to go 
cave exploring - was now something etched permanently into my D.N.A.. ( from 
watching the tv kid's episode - "Davey and Goliath - Lost in the Cave" )

[ Sidenote:

Over the years, I returned there many times and went to what may be the bottom 
of the cave at least twice.  The rancher there was nice to us Aggies from 1985 
to about 1990, but then he sold the ranch to a rancher tha

Re: [Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

2019-05-09 Thread Katherine Arens
Nice remembrance,  — but the dogs were Salukis, not greyhounds (short-haired 
afghan hounds).  With memorable names like Silly and Sally.  Sally could open 
tight-shut coolers to steal cheese . . .

On May 9, 2019, at 6:25 PM, David 
mailto:dlocklea...@gmail.com>> wrote:

I can only give Bill Mixon an 8.1 out of 10 stars.

Bill was a male, slightly bald, about 5'-9", light complected, almost skinny.

Bill was somewhat of a curmudgeon - but only when he was not with his beloved 
greyhounds.   He was especially saddened after he had to start living without 
his last dog.

He presented himself around me, as a passive person, content to sit in one spot 
at camp for a good part of the weekend and talk to anyone willing to start an 
interesting conversation.

I deducted the first star, because he did not like Rock and Roll, nor maybe not 
any noisy music at all.

And the second deduction, goes to his frugalness or thriftyness.   Did he ever 
upgrade from DOS to Windows ?   Or get a 64-bit computer ?  I would be tempted 
to put an AMD Threadripper in has ashes, just so he can tell Oztotl that he got 
one as a going away present, as a warm token of admiration.

Anyways, I hope there are greyhounds and a giant dog-park in the afterlife, so 
that he can enjoy eternity on his terms.


Below is a story that I have told many times:


I first met Bill Mixon in October of 1984 while on a weekend excursion as a 
sophomore student at Texas A University ( College Station campus ).


Bill was standing at the bottom of a large sinkhole in a remote ranch in west 
Texas.  I had no idea why.


Myself, ( an Aggie ), and another new young newbie caver from Univ. of Texas at 
Austin, Ed Sevcik, were staring down at him.   The two of us had missed the 
group going into the cave, and we both were standing at the edge of the 
sinkhole peering down into it.


( UT cavers had hauled out tons of rusted rubble the day before or trip before, 
so we had a clean safe view of the sinkhole )


We both were unsure what to do.  There was no ladder or rope, and a fall would 
be potentially bad.   There was nothing to see, but Bill, and an ugly hackberry 
tree, which oddly, was the only tree for 50 miles.


We had no idea who Bill was, or where everybody had disappeared to.


Bill yelled up to us on how to use the tree limbs and tree trunk in the 
sinkhole to descend the sharp drop-off and climb down using the tree as a 
hand-hold.


To our surprise, the actual cave entrance at the bottom of the sinkhole was 
just a tiny intimidating belly crawl.


That was my introduction to a first real Texas cave.


We learned the cave was known as "Big Tree Cave," but its official name was 
"Langtry Lead Cave."   Cavers were deep inside, allegedly pushing a lead and 
maybe re-surveying.


I chose to sit there in the sinkhole, as did my new found friend, Ed.


Ed was much bigger than me, so he might have even been more intimdated by the 
tiny entrance.


Bill was almost a generation older than us, and we assumed he was an 
experienced caver.  My first impression of Bill was that he seemed like a 
pleasant spoken guy.


Eventually, Bill convinced us to give the entrance a go.


We three crawled into the tiny entrance, and started some very fun climbs - 
going downward into the belly of the cave.


About the 5th climb down, we chickened-out.Ed and I could not believe there 
was no rope or hand-line. It looked like a bottomless pit, but was actually 
only 23 feet at the deepest part, which was more of an illusion, as if you 
fell, it would have only been 12 feet.  Our cheezy headlamps were not bright 
enough to see that the climb was the easiest of all the climbs.  [ I doubt I 
had anything more than a cheap flashlight. ]


We three set there, in the dark and Bill talked to us about caves and caving 
for probably an hour.


Then Bill showed us how to climb back out of the cave.  That was so much fun, 
that we went back and forth several times.


Eventually we did the 5th climb down and it was so much fun, that we also did 
that several times.


We eventually met up with the cavers.  Bill felt his job was done ( helping 
newbies ), so he headed back out to camp to enjoy the desert sunset.


That group ( in sort of a small junction room ) which were two Aggie cavers: 
John Ragsdale, and Freddie Platt, and also several Austin cavers, James Reddell 
and maybe Bill Elliot and about 10 others.  They pointed us in the direction of 
a long crawl to the "Hall of Unicorns."Once reaching that point, I knew 
then that my secret passion that I had had since 1968 as a 4 year old - to go 
cave exploring - was now something etched permanently into my D.N.A.. ( from 
watching the tv kid's episode - "Davey and Goliath - Lost in the Cave" )


[ Sidenote:


Over the years, I returned there many times and went to what may be the bottom 
of the cave at least twice.  The rancher there was nice to us Aggies from 1985 
to about 1990, but then he sold the ranch to a rancher that 

[Texascavers] My "Review" of Bill Mixon

2019-05-09 Thread David
I can only give Bill Mixon an 8.1 out of 10 stars.

Bill was a male, slightly bald, about 5'-9", light complected, almost
skinny.

Bill was somewhat of a curmudgeon - but only when he was not with his
beloved greyhounds.   He was especially saddened after he had to start
living without his last dog.

He presented himself around me, as a passive person, content to sit in one
spot at camp for a good part of the weekend and talk to anyone willing to
start an interesting conversation.

I deducted the first star, because he did not like Rock and Roll, nor maybe
not any noisy music at all.

And the second deduction, goes to his frugalness or thriftyness.   Did he
ever upgrade from DOS to Windows ?   Or get a 64-bit computer ?  I would be
tempted to put an AMD Threadripper in has ashes, just so he can tell Oztotl
that he got one as a going away present, as a warm token of admiration.

Anyways, I hope there are greyhounds and a giant dog-park in the afterlife,
so that he can enjoy eternity on his terms.


Below is a story that I have told many times:

I first met Bill Mixon in October of 1984 while on a weekend excursion as a
sophomore student at Texas A University ( College Station campus ).

Bill was standing at the bottom of a large sinkhole in a remote ranch in
west Texas.  I had no idea why.

Myself, ( an Aggie ), and another new young newbie caver from Univ. of
Texas at Austin, Ed Sevcik, were staring down at him.   The two of us had
missed the group going into the cave, and we both were standing at the edge
of the sinkhole peering down into it.

( UT cavers had hauled out tons of rusted rubble the day before or trip
before, so we had a clean safe view of the sinkhole )

We both were unsure what to do.  There was no ladder or rope, and a fall
would be potentially bad.   There was nothing to see, but Bill, and an ugly
hackberry tree, which oddly, was the only tree for 50 miles.

We had no idea who Bill was, or where everybody had disappeared to.

Bill yelled up to us on how to use the tree limbs and tree trunk in the
sinkhole to descend the sharp drop-off and climb down using the tree as a
hand-hold.

To our surprise, the actual cave entrance at the bottom of the sinkhole was
just a tiny intimidating belly crawl.

That was my introduction to a first real Texas cave.

We learned the cave was known as "Big Tree Cave," but its official name was
"Langtry Lead Cave."   Cavers were deep inside, allegedly pushing a lead
and maybe re-surveying.

I chose to sit there in the sinkhole, as did my new found friend, Ed.

Ed was much bigger than me, so he might have even been more intimdated by
the tiny entrance.

Bill was almost a generation older than us, and we assumed he was an
experienced caver.  My first impression of Bill was that he seemed like a
pleasant spoken guy.

Eventually, Bill convinced us to give the entrance a go.

We three crawled into the tiny entrance, and started some very fun climbs -
going downward into the belly of the cave.

About the 5th climb down, we chickened-out.Ed and I could not believe
there was no rope or hand-line. It looked like a bottomless pit, but was
actually only 23 feet at the deepest part, which was more of an illusion,
as if you fell, it would have only been 12 feet.  Our cheezy headlamps were
not bright enough to see that the climb was the easiest of all the climbs.
[ I doubt I had anything more than a cheap flashlight. ]

We three set there, in the dark and Bill talked to us about caves and
caving for probably an hour.

Then Bill showed us how to climb back out of the cave.  That was so much
fun, that we went back and forth several times.

Eventually we did the 5th climb down and it was so much fun, that we also
did that several times.

We eventually met up with the cavers.  Bill felt his job was done ( helping
newbies ), so he headed back out to camp to enjoy the desert sunset.

That group ( in sort of a small junction room ) which were two Aggie
cavers: John Ragsdale, and Freddie Platt, and also several Austin cavers,
James Reddell and maybe Bill Elliot and about 10 others.  They pointed us
in the direction of a long crawl to the "Hall of Unicorns."Once
reaching that point, I knew then that my secret passion that I had had
since 1968 as a 4 year old - to go cave exploring - was now something
etched permanently into my D.N.A.. ( from watching the tv kid's episode -
"Davey and Goliath - Lost in the Cave" )

[ Sidenote:

Over the years, I returned there many times and went to what may be the
bottom of the cave at least twice.  The rancher there was nice to us Aggies
from 1985 to about 1990, but then he sold the ranch to a rancher that was
more worried about liability.  We returned a few more times.   The last
time was over 20 years ago. ]

This post or recollections of memories is all about Bill:

At all the caving events that I attended over the last 34 years ( 30
something events ), Bill Mixon was there selling very interesting caving
books, mostly about explorations