Alumni Sandstorm ~ 10/14/17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 Bombers sent stuff: Larry MATTINGLY ('60) Dennis HAMMER ('64) Lee BUSH ('68) ************************************************************* ************************************************************* BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: 10/14 Eileen HASKINS ('72) BOMBER LUNCH: All Bombers 11:30, Queensgate Sterlings (2nd Sat) COLLEGE FOOTBALL - WEEK 7 10/13 6-0 Clemson falls to Syracuse 24-27 10/13 6-0 WSU-3 @ Cal-43 =========================== 10/14 2:30 (CT) 4-2 LSU v 5-1 Auburn(#10) ~ CBS 10/14 6:30 (CT) 5-1 OSU(#9) @ 3-3 Nebraska ~ FS1 10/14 9:45 (CT) 6-0 UW(#5) @ 2-3 AZ St ~ ESPN BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar Click the event you want to know more about. ************************************************************* ************************************************************* >>From: Larry MATTINGLY ('60) Re: Radio in our youth Just got some time to read the last couple of 'Storms. The memories of radios the '40s and early '50 came close to emotional for me. At around 7-8 I came into possession of a white plastic radio. It had a handle on top that was spring loaded to go down into a slot when you let go of it. I got a real surprise a few years ago at the Museum of History and Industry in WA DC. There was one exactly like it. Anyway I installed a earphone jack so I could listen late at night and I cobbled up an antenna on the roof and late night reception was great. WWL New Orleans, WLW Cincinatti, KGO San Francisco and a couple of the other 50K watts of "Clear Chanel Power" stations were favorites mostly because of the distance. The long distance truckers listen to them for weather reports and the very clear reception. About 25 years back I was hauling 2 40 foot containers of commercial explosives on Interstate 10 (the southern route) with a big noisy diesel Kenworth. I loved driving at night as the traffic was light. The clear channel stations were a real comfort to pass the time. But I digress... As a teenager I would listen to that old white plastic radio and fall asleep getting up in the morning with the imprint of the earphone on my face. Mr.(Al?) Wells helped me keep it alive for several years by selling me parts for it and then I had to replace it myself with his soldering iron. He did offer me a job at one point when I was near 17 years old. But by then I was completely taken with fireworks. At about 16 I got a big Hallicrafters S-85 multi-band receiver. I used that receiver for many years listening to civilian, military and "Ham" operators from all over the world. String an antenna wire around in the attic and turn it on. Radio Moscow could always be heard along with stations in Israel, So Africa, Japan, several countries in So America. There were numerous weather broadcasts for various points around the world. I remembering promising myself to go to those places and see them. Several months ago I dug out the old S-85 and dusted it off and gave it to my business partner who is an avid ham radio operator. The dials need to be restrung and it is a tube instrument and it needed a couple of them replaced. The Ham club pitched in with tubes and one of the guys replaced the string that moves the dials and the frequency tuner. Ken put up a good antenna and his wife says he spends hours tuning across the bands. He gets teary eyed telling me how well it works at over 50 years old. Fireworks turned out to be a good excuse and provided the means for many of my trips to those far away places. I did not make them all, but at this point I have been in 46 countries. Jackie and I have standing invitations to visit fireworks friends in Guatemala, New Zealand, Australia and So Africa. Just today I was telling her I am near to 76 and if she wants to hit the 50 states in a zig zag trip we need to get at it. -J. Larry MATTINGLY ('60) ************************************************************* ************************************************************* >>From: Dennis HAMMER ('64) To: Bob Carlson, aka Mike CLOWES ('54) My wife's birthday is October 13th, and so is her twin sister's; they were just having cake today and talked about how often it seems their birthdays fall on Friday the 13th. They had an older sister who's birthday was also in October. She has passed, but one of her daughter's birthday is on Halloween. Family usually has a party sometime in October because so many of their birthdays are in October. Re: AM radio I don't know, but it seems to me that those old time vacuum tube radios got better reception than the new transistor radios, at least in cars. Driving around in evenings quite often got KSL in Salt Lake which I liked to listen to because they often played the old radio programs like "The Shadow" etc. Don't remember what other distant radio stations I got, but I do remember one time, (years and years ago I mentioned this in a Sandstorm Post) I delayed parking the car and going into a store because the lady DJ said when they came back they would tell us about a snowstorm coming "way out West," well I live out West so I wanted to hear about it. When she came back from the commercial break the storm "way out West" was in someplace like maybe Ohio. FM sounds better, but doesn't reach as far. Best sounding radio I ever had, by far, was in a 1975 Olds Toronado. I later had a 1977 ElDorado which is a Cadillac version of the same car. One would think it would have an even better radio, but it was not a good radio at all. About 1990 we had a big windstorm in the Tri-Cities when the winds reached 100 miles per hour. It hit with a loud bang and woke us up in the middle of the night, then the power went off about two seconds later. I had a little transistor radio about like the ones we had in the early '60s when we walked around holding them to our ear. I tried to find a local station to see what they had to say about it. Well I did find a station talking about the wind storm they were having, then I found out the station was in Wyoming. That little radio had a hard time picking up local stations even though you could see the broadcast towers from Richland, and here it was picking up a station from the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Turned out the wind had knocked all the local stations off the air. Remember in the '50s my dad had an outside radio antenna. I always wanted to put one up but never have. -Dennis HAMMER ('64) ~ ************************************************************* ************************************************************* >>From: Lee BUSH ('68) Re: Request Photo of 'RHS Bomb' casing Greetings Fellow Bombers! I have a request. In preparation for our class of '68 50 year reunion, (August 3-5, 2018), does anyone have or know who I can contact to get a color photo of the 'RHS bomb' casing that was placed mid-court at basketball games before & during half- time preferably during '65-'68; but, any other year(s) would be great? I need to use the photo as a graphic for a project I'm working on. If no one has a color photo, a good black & white might work. Just send via attachment and I'll download from there; or, give me contact info for yourself or whomever. Note: I posted this request in the Facebook Group: Richland High Club 40. Bomber Cheers! -Lee BUSH ('68) ************************************************************* ************************************************************* That's it for today. Please send more. *************************************************************