Jack Canson

I have thus far had a life I have enjoyed, with more than a few unexpected twists and turns. Of interest to my old classmates, though, I would say that about 14 years ago my wife and I moved back to Marshall. The town has changed in many ways, but there are some essential values about this town and this part of the world that are still, I think, wonderful. We raised a son here and are glad we did. Nothing is perfect and nowhere is ideal, but this is a good place, filled with good people. I have had the perhaps unique experience of being in opposition from time to time with various folks over this issue or that, and unlike the way it sometimes is in the rest of the world I have lived in, you can still be friends even though you have had your differences. That is worth more than gold to me.
Living in Marshall, my wife and I continued to write for film and television at first, although we haven't done much of that lately. Nancy wrote several TV movies of note, and her original play "Mrs. Cage" was adapted by her for PBS "American Playhouse" and starred the great Anne Bancroft and Hector Elizondo. For a number of years Nancy was the principal writer for a really good animated series for children called "Little Bear," which your grand children have probably seen and loved. I worked in advertising and political campaign consulting in Austin & Los Angeles, where I created the "You Could Learn A Lot From A Dummy" seat belt campaign. I wrote a few movies under the name "Jackson Barr." Since returning to Marshall, my interests have primarily been related to Caddo Lake. For the last 7 years I've been a consultant to the Caddo Lake Institute and I hope to complete a TV documentary called "Mysteries of Caddo Lake" this summer. For the past four years I also have filmed performances at the annual T Bone Walker Blues Festival at Music City Texas in Linden and we also hope to finish that production this summer after filming Johnny Winter and a few others who will be performing this year.
I am also collaborating with Dr. John Tennison of San Antonio on establishing the historical claim that Marshall is the birthplace of Boogie Woogie Music. This is a fascinating story and you can learn more about it by going to our Face Book Fan Page. You can just search "Marshall Texas Birthplace of Boogie Woogie" on Face Book if this cutting and pasting the link below doesn't work.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Marshall-Texas-The-Birthplace-of-Boogie-Woogie/259359408579?ref=ts
My memories of growing up here and going to school with all of you are very good ones. Wish I could have been better, but hell I was just a goofy teenager. Hope to see you all at the reunion.

Oh, God, there are too many. I collected stories. Solomon's brief account of John L. Roark asking me to hit the carpet in prayer to rid me of his influence is TRUE. Loved John L. Roark. Loved them all. We had a great bunch of teachers and administrators. Only anguish I can report is that I had very terrible crushes on two young women the whole time I was there, and never let it show. One's name is Harriett and the other's name is Helen. I once married a woman named Helen and I am convinced it is because of that teen crush I had. Aint met another one named Harriett but if I do I am accident prone.