Yes, we did have color photographs, way in 1975. And this is wonderful group of outstanding individuals, any one of whom were more tightly wrapped than I was, that year.

Can you spot the future Governor of South Carolina, or a talented columnist for the U.S. News & World Report? How about a future vice-chancellor of USC-San Diego, or the federal prosecutors, and another who somehow managed to satisfy his lifelong love of trains by eventually rising high in the AmTrak hierarchy, and then barely survived a horrific train wreck.

--- Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River anthologies were required reading in English classes at CPS.

 

Outside the Courtroom, Smithfield, North Carolina, April 2002. L to R, lead Plaintiff in what became known as the Stephenson legislative redistricting decisions by the NC Supreme Court, Ashley Stephenson of Washington, NC; Joel Raupe; NC state Representatives Leo Daughtry and

Art Pope and Senate Republican Leader Patrick Ballantine.

I was wearing a shirt borrowed from Senator Hugh Webster, for good luck, and for that reason should not be mistaken for a victim of some wasting disease.

 

Humbling endorsement, Greenville, North Carolina; April 2006: Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham-Guilford) traveled directly from a contentious evening session to attend a sparsely-attended back porch fundraiser, during my candidacy for the state House that year.



Granbury, Texas, October 2007: My only brother and sibling, Carl Raupe (1951-2009) during a Raupe Family Reunion, the last at the house of our uncle Hugh M. Raupe (1922-1992). The bid on my Uncle Hugh's house was finalized that very day. Granbury has changed a lot since it was more or less fossilized around 1910. Now, it's a tourist attraction with more than 100,000 people living in the surrounding county.

We had to say good-bye to my big brother in July 2009.



Fort Worth, October 2007: What a time my daughter Valerie and I had, visiting with friends and family in Texas. The whole trip could not have been better arranged, and for that I owe thanks to her and my brother. A million years ago, the gentleman situated between Valerie and myself was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Before that, I worked in his office and before that, I enjoyed his patronage as a House page.