Alumni Sandstorm ~ 11/07/15
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8 Bombers sent stuff and 1 2013 Bomber Memorial today:
Dick WIGHT ('52), Mike CLOWES ('54)
Floyd MELTON ('57), David DOUGLAS ('62)
Donna BOWERS ('63), David RIVERS ('65)
Lesley WOOD ('66), "JP" PANESKO ('83 and '84),
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Marilyn "Em" DeVINE ('52)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Dan HAGGARD ('57)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Ed WOOD ('62)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Jim WEAVER ('64)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Jack CLARK ('66)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Julie SMYTH ('69)
BOMBER LUNCH: Class of '60, 11:30, 3 Margaritas (1st Sat)
COLLEGE FOOTBALL Today:
11:00am (CDT) ND#8 @ Pitt - ABC
2:30pm (CDT) WSU - AZ St. - FS1
6:30pm (CDT) UW - UT#13 - FOX
7:00pm (CDT) LSU#4 @ AL#7 - CBS
BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Dick WIGHT ('52)
Someone, a few days ago, lamented the more Bombers weren't
"tripping down Memory Lane" with submissions to Alumni
Sandstorm. I was contemplating my "wild youth" days, and
remembered an episode from early summer 1951....
I hung around with mostly the '51 crowd rather than my own
class ('52) for reasons I've never figured out. Among them were
Josephine "Jo" GIBSON, Lou Ann LEE (whom I dated for over a
year), and Richard L. "Dick" MEYER. All 4 of us were in the
local CAP cadet program, 3 of us having learned to fly. Jo's
folks had purchased a nice new '51 Mercury 2 door, one of the
"dream cars" of the time. Both of Jo's folks worked, and one
summer day Jo, Dick MEYER and I decided to take the car
(unbeknownst to her folks) to the apple orchard country west of
Yakima, where Lou Ann and her family had relocated right after
she graduated. So we disconnected the speedometer (and
odometer) so no miles were "racked up", and headed off on our
way. I was driving through Union Gap when we were pulled over
for speeding (though I had no idea what our speed was!).
Luckily, the young police officer gave me a warning and sent us
on our way. After picking Lou Ann up, we drove on to Ellensburg
up the Yakima River canyon. Oops! Time kinda got away from us,
and we realized we needed to HURRY to get the car back to Jo's
house before her folks got home from work. So we drove like
crazy - dropped Lou Ann off, roared on into Richland, parked
the car carefully in front of Jo's house on Wilson Street, and
reconnected the speedometer cable. Much to our dismay, the
front of the shiny new car was covered with bugs, so we hastily
washed the insects off. Meanwhile, the radiator kept making
those "popping" noises common to cars of the day as they cooled
down. But our luck held... Jo's folks apparently didn't
discover our escapade. All I can think now is how lucky we were
- no ticket, no accident, nothing else to "tip our hand". I
have no idea where Jo GIBSON is, if she's still alive. She
married a fellow whose last name was Woods, lived in Seattle
for awhile. Lou Ann ended up in California somewhere. Dick
MEYER and I have kept in touch over the years, and renewed our
friendship after we both retired from the military - he was a
brigadier general (O-7), I was a captain (O6). Sadly, Dick is
losing his battle with brain cancer and is in a care facility
in Austin, TX. Ah, for the good ole days!!!!!
-Dick WIGHT ('52) ~ now living in Richland again in my
declining years.....
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>>From: Bob Carlson, aka Mike CLOWES ('54)
Re: Paddle
First, to clarify things, it is wrong to refer to the object in
question as a paddle. It should more properly be referred to as
the board education, which, when firmly applied to the seat of
learning, raises the grade curve. Besides it hurts the teacher
more than the student. I may also have a bridge for sale.
Second, what with his penchant for "crashing", I am surprised
not to see the Junior Gyrene's name on the board.
-Bob Carlson, aka Mike CLOWES ('54) ~ Mount Angel, OR where
weather guessers are calling for a wet weekend with
possible snow in the mountains (maybe as low as pass
levels).
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>>From: Floyd MELTON ('57)
Re: Swamp coolers
All this talk about the old swamp coolers but no one mentioned
how bad they affected people like me with hay fever. They
brought in the air that was full of pollen and really increased
the suffering for folks like me with hay fever problem. The
real blessing came when the new air conditioners were developed
they really decreased the suffering.
-Floyd MELTON ('57)
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>>From: David DOUGLAS ('62)
Re: Swamp Coolers
My parents' ranch house on Birch near Duportail had a swamp
cooler. It worked quite well, and the humidity was a plus. I've
always assumed my dad bought it, rather than coming with the
house. When I left home my dad installed an A/C unit. And they
bought an electric dishwasher. Don't know why they waited until
I went off to college to get the dishwasher. Maybe because my
two younger brothers were too young (Jim DOUGLAS ('72) was 11
years younger and Marc DOUGLAS ('76) was 15 years younger). I
not only knew how to wash dishes, but wash and dry clothes as
well, since I had no sisters. Once when my parents went on
vacation without me (I refused to go back to Arkansas after
an argument with an aunt and uncle over segregation), I even
repaired the dryer when it quit drying.
I seldom have anything to write about, but I read the Alumni
Sandstorm every day. Thank you, Maren. Sorry I don't know my
brothers' graduation years.
[It's OK, David... I know their graduation years and
added them for you in your entry.. -Maren]
-David DOUGLAS ('62) ~ Mesa, AZ where we had a couple of
policeman standing on the sidewalk right in front of our
house holding rifles yesterday. I called the police
department and was told they were looking for a road
rage suspect and suggested we stay inside the house.
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>>From: Donna BOWERS Rice (Gold Medal Class of '63)
To: Helen CROSS Kirk ('62),
My great Uncle was Walker "Meriweather Lewis" Smith, he was a
decendant of Meriweather Lewis' sister, as M. Lewis never
married and he carried the name forward. The family was proud
of their Virginia heritage. When I was a little girl, I was
fascinated with his name because of the history, so I asked him
about it. He. Said that M. Lewis was not well treated by
history and that the family did not agree with what was said.
When living in St. Louis, I wanted to find out more, so I read
a couple of books on him. The 1st one was Thomas Danisi's 1st
book that drew into question prior stories about M. Lewis
death, and probably the basis for the recent TV program you
saw. It was about the intrigue between the Spanish Catholics
and the French Catholics and Thomas Jefferson (over who owned
the parts of the Louisiana Purchase and whether an uprising
could still change things w/various Southern Senators backing
the factions). He was purported to be on his way to Jefferson
with proof when he was waylaid and killed by a spy of one of
the Senators (The proof is dumped and is in such disarray, no
one can decipher it). This same man (Danisi) almost immediately
writes another book on M. Lewis which is a complete retraction
of that book, and calls it "Uncovering the Truth of M. Lewis."
He debunks the first book entirely.
In this book, Danisi uses much research to show that in the
intrigue of the times, M. Lewis becomes sick, the doctors could
not treat him and he goes to a traveler's home on his way back
to Virginia and commits suicide. Knowing that M. Lewis was a
personal family friend of Thomas Jefferson (and also his Sec.
and greatly relied upon by Jefferson) and also knowing that
my Uncle represented a fine, upstanding family, some of the
writing that is negative about M. Lewis does not ring true to
me. Just does not compute. Having lived in St. Louis for over
30 yrs, I think there is more that is missing to this story.
Clark is treated with great respect here, but M. Lewis is more
obscured/less revered, but, of course, he was an outsider,
brought in to govern over St. Louis at a very unsettled time.
Danisi has done much research to write the second book, so it
is supposed to be the definitive truth. My Uncle was a fine,
upstanding man, very truthful. An Apple does not fall far from
the tree. You would probably need to read both books and more
to make up you own mind, but History is always in the eye of
the beholder, isn't it? And sometimes history is used for other
purposes, as in entertainment.
-Donna BOWERS Rice (Gold Medal Class of '63) ~ having a
beautiful fall in St. Louis, MO
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>>From: David RIVERS ('65)
Re: I remember it well
it was a Tuesday and I wuz wearin' my best shirt... not sure
what that has ta do with anything... I remember Tony HARRAH
('65) used to say something like that when he was talkin' about
something inna past... when talking about some of our "best
ideas" he'd say "we wuz all likered up... "... funny what we
remember... well the curtain goes up inna few minutes and Terry
DAVIS ('65) will be back on a Richland stage... just like the
ol' Tom Sawyer dayz... when you read this those who went
opening nite will have your reviews... he was one excited kid
when we taalked off and on today (yesterday)... As I mentioned
on Face Book... Terry's best friend from St. Elsewhere, Eric
Laneuville, is flying in today (today) from L.A. just to see
Terry in the play... now that's friendship... not to belabor
the point but speaking of friendship, Chuck LOLLIS ('64) and I
met and became fast friends on this little rag several years
ago... without making a big deal of it... I just want to say
THANK YOU CHUCK right here right now for your friendship... you
da man! Now today we honor a Bomber-birthday-babe I met some
while ago when introduced in Las Vegas, by Gus KEENEY ('57)...
we had lunch together and I ain't fergot what a great babe she
is... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Marilyn "Em" DeVINE ('52) on your
special day, November 7, 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-David RIVERS ('65)
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>>From: Lesley WOOD Nelson ('66)
Re: Birthday boy, Ed WOOD ('62)
Happy Birthday to my brother Ed, whom I actually call Edward,
having been dissuaded long ago from calling him Eddie anymore.
What great memories though, those Eddie years of our childhood
together. Seventy one years young!
-Lesley WOOD Nelson ('66)
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>>From: "JP" PANESKO ('83 and '84)
Re: Housing & swamp coolers
To: Larry MATTINGLY ('60)
Thanks for the correction on which house you lived in, and I
never knew that I called a hammer a "nanu" either! My parents
bought the Marshall Ave. house in 1967 when I was two years
old. Do you remember what year you moved out? I know that my
grandparents showed up in 1970s to help us really get going on
the remodeling, but I can't remember how long before that you
moved out.
Fun trivia (probably boring for everybody else): do you
remember the starburst linoleum in the large bedroom? That was
my room, and we never got around to remodeling that room for
the entire time we owned the house. That same flooring was
still there when my parents sold the house back in the mid-
2000s (my memory is so bad now that I can't even remember dates
from ten years ago now, but I blame that on having kids now, ha
ha).
I'll pass your hellos onto my dad (good memory on their names
BTW) - my mom passed away in 2010 from Parkinson's +some
unspecified dementia disease, at the too-young age of 68. I'm
only 18 years away from that - time will tell if I got those
genes and/or the cancer ones from my dad's side of the family.
Regarding the swamp coolers and the excelsior pads - we were
really, er, "thrifty" with our swamp coolers as well and would
reuse those pads for several years. My dad did buy an entire
roll of replacement material from Trustworthy Hardware which we
kept in our back yard shed. I remember replacing pads only once
or twice in about ten years. I think we still had the rest of
that roll of material when we cleaned out the shed about ten
years ago.
I remember that there were several different types of media -
some were made from several layers of perforated paper, some
were straw-like with natural media, and later they developed a
similar-looking material made from plastic or the like.
-John Paul "JP" PANESKO ('83 and '84)
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2013 Bomber Memorial
>>Ted FAUBERT ~ Class of 1964 ~ 1946 - 2013
Bomber Memorials
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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