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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

We did a lot of other things that high school boys do, and were good close friends, and remain so to this
day. As I write this part of this book, I am 83, and will be 84 in four more months, Lord willing, and
Glenn turned 84 four months ago this year.

Another life-long friend, and I find it unexplainable why we should be close, because he was raised in
town, with all the advantages thereto, and 1 was raised out in the sand hills between Lulu and Mason
City.

I am talking about Mike Kennon.

It so happens that Mike and 1 were bom on exactly the same day, that is to say September 10, 1928, and
of course we started school together and went to school each year with each other for 12 years. One
thing about this particular friendship that was a little different was that Mike never played in the band, as
he was more athletic and inclined toward football. Besides, I suspect he has no musical talent anyway.

Mike Kennon and Marie Rozelle apparently fell in love at a much earlier age than people should, but
they ended up being married after they graduated from high school, and have raised two children, both
daughters. I am not quite sure how many grandchildren they have but it is certainly more than one.

I suppose the reason that I always valued Mike Kennon as a friend was that he was just simply the kind
of guy everybody liked. I think he found his true calling when he was Administrative Aid for
Congressman Don Fuqua, which position he held for many years.

A third life-long buddy of mine was Bascom Norris. Bascom had a sort of unusual family situation, in
that he lost his mother when he was a small boy, and his real father was apparently not all that much of a
suitable parent.

Bascom was raised largely by his uncle and aunt, Frank Thomas and his wife, who mostly raised him
and taught him to work. Bascom was always involved in something trying to make a little money, and
was known as a hard worker.

He was a valued County employee for years and years, and totally ran the business of the Columbia
County Fair each year, which he did for no extra pay. I do not see how he managed to do it all, except to
notice that he was working 18 hour days a lot of the time. It could very well be said of Bascom Norris
that he simply worked himself to death.

Later he was the Supervisor of the Columbia County Land Fill, and headed up the County’s duties of
handling household garbage.

The By-Pass highway around Lake City is named Bascom Norris Drive, in his Honor

Bascom and I were in Mrs. Niblack’s room in the 5 grade, and it was the custom for children that age
th
to have the same teacher all day long, in the same room. We did not change classrooms during the day.
Every morning when the bell rang for us to go out for recess we would individually leap up and swing
out through the door by jumping up and wrapping our hands around a water pipe which ran along the
ceiling (Mrs. Niblack’s room was in the basement of what is now the Administration Building), and
whoever got there first got to swing out first, and sometimes it was me and sometimes it was Bascom.

One day, we managed to leap up and catch onto the water pipe to swing out the door at the same instant,
and we broke the joint on the water pipe. Water went everywhere, under considerable force, and the
broken pipe from which the water was gushing pointed straight at Jean DeVane, whose desk was

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