Alumni Sandstorm ~ 10/14/17
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3 Bombers sent stuff: 
Larry MATTINGLY ('60)
Dennis HAMMER ('64)
Lee BUSH ('68)
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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.
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>>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)
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>>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) ~ 
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>>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)
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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