Alumni Sandstorm ~ 03/02/05
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10 Bombers sent stuff and 1 Teacher funeral notice today:
Dick McCoy ('45), Susan Anderson ('49)
Bill Berlin ('56), Mary Jones ('56)
Lora Homme ('60), Jay Siegel ('61)
Dennis Hammer ('64), Gary Behymer ('64)
Anna Durbin ('69), Alyssa Harting ('93)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: John Adkins ('62)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Yesterday (3/1): Anna Durbin ('69)
BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Dick McCoy ('45)
Re: Club 40
There are several messages flitting about regard Club 40 re our
association with reunions of various classes. As a founder, and President
for the first 10 years, I can speak for those years. With just a couple
of exceptions, we have always hosted such reunions (40th, 50th, etc.)
without "running" them. All the Forties Classes have had reunions which
usually resulted in recognition without separation of any kind.
In 1991 we broke that tradition for the Class of '51, who did not
choose to celebrate with us, but rented half of the hall at the Shilo.
We had the other half. They had their own menu and program. However we
negotiated for the band and bandstand, which we controlled. At the finish
of their program, the curtain was rolled back and we had a great party...
one of the best ever. Since then they have been one of the best classes
of all, even tho they have slowed a little, as we all have.
-Dick McCoy, Bomber from the Tin Can Class of 1945
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>>From: Susan Anderson Shattuck ('49)
To: Dean Enderle ('57)
After OCS school in Texas, my hubby was stationed in Biloxi, MS at
Keesler AFB. He left here in July and in September I met him in Biloxi.
We lived on base in a converted barracks, 2 apartments up and two down.
We lived up. The other three tenants were from the deep South. Two of
the wives came to introduce themselves to me and the first question was,
of course, "Where are you from?" I said "Washington state". Then they
said it was okay because I wasn't one of those D___ Yankees. And we got
along fine for the 9 months we spent there.
To: Gilbert Blankenship ('81)
It certainly is a small world!! I was born in Carthage but we moved
a lot between Joplin and Carthage and even lived in Neosho, MO for a few
months. Don't know if you know who Robert Cummings was. He was a popular
movie star born in Joplin.
-Susan Anderson Shattuck ('49) ~ Puget Sound where we finally got some
rain Saturday. It rained all night and all the day. But our
governor is still talking drought. Are you getting rain in
Richland?
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>>From: Bill Berlin ('56)
Re: Report from Beijing
Not sure there are any Bombers in Beijing (kind of has a ring to
it..."Bombers in Beijing") but it is cold (33F high) and overcast. I am
staying just across the street from the Beijing West Railway Station
where 150,000 people a day board some 4,000 trains. Had a great Peking
Duck dinner tonight complete with a bottle of Great Wall Red for US$18.00
for a party of four. Getting the Sandstorm every day is great and keeps
me in touch with what is going on in Bomberland, thousands of miles away.
-Bill Berlin ('56) ~ in Beijing, China home to the 2008 Olympics and
are they coming along nicely.
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>>From: Mary Jones Metcalf ('56)
Re: Stomped again!
Dag nab it, Dean Enderle ('57), I forgot what it felt like to be
chided for my language but you got me on using the term "limeys." In
my defense, the people I described in conversation used the "limeys"
or "Brits" about themselves while calling us (me!) "Yank" or "exiled
colonist" and it was all in good fun. There were times when England felt
every bit as foreign as Italy or Switzerland had and I wondered if I
needed an interpreter. My brain had to work with the spare tire being
carried in the "boot" of the automobile until I learned that the engine
was under the "bonnet." It seemed like they needed to call the automobile
the "clothes closet!"
I'd heard the word "pram" before but when a friend told her husband
to put the baby in the "perambulator," I was ready to call the cops.
However, that wouldn't work because it wasn't cops they had but
"bobbies" which sometimes (depending on what region of the Isles they
came from) sounded like "boobies." What kind of police presence is that?
It seemed there was finally an official of the law present when I was
told one day to pull my auto up next to the "sleeping policeman." I was
dutifully looked for some tired individual in uniform only to be told in
a tone of total condescension to pull over by the raised strip of asphalt
in the parking lot!
In a land of "bangers and mash" and feeling "chuffed" when pleased
or excited, I was often strongly reminded that theirs was the parent
language and we were simply the youngsters who mangled the language much
like teenagers often do.
And to Betty Hiser Gulley ('49), I didn't even know what okra was
until I was an adult! And you have an absolutely phenomenal memory that I
enjoy immensely. Your ability to list the home States of your block of
27 families is amazing. Maybe staying in Richland preserved your memory
while my jaunts around the planet drained mine? You remind me of Karol
Brimhall Smith ('56) who tried to remind me of something or someplace one
day by saying, "You remember...." to which I answered "no" and she said
"Well, you remember..." and I had to say "no" again until I finally had
to accept that her memory was sharp as a tack and mine was a rusty, much
bent and dulled old nail.
Maybe there is a strange cultural shift in the memory workings of the
(can we borrow the term?) homeys and the wanderers. Look at Vicki Owens
('72), a pleasing product of a Cajun and a Montana mountain man, raised
in Richland and now in Uganda! All I can say is that it doesn't matter
whether you wandered far from the banks of the Columbia River or have
stayed near and experienced the changes of this once isolated community;
growing up here was an unparalleled experience. Whatever pioneer spirit
or wanderlust propelled our parents to drag us into the bleak landscape
of sand storms and tumbling tumble weeds certainly resulted in developing
progeny of exceptional proclivities. And, with that collective pat on the
backs of all of us "wunderkind," I'll retreat again into reading over
your shoulders as I enjoy each issue of the Sandstorm!
-Mary Jones Metcalf ('56)
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>>From: Lora Homme Page ('60)
Re: Hanford Melting Pot
When we came here from Montana in 1944, my dad, who will be 98 in
June and can't remember their first names, went to work with a guy, last
name Humphrey, from Tennessee or Kentucky. Another guy who worked with
them, last name Clay, was always ribbing Humphrey. One day Humphrey had
had enough and said, in a slow deliberate drawl, "Clay, y'all air a
fixin' to have a spell a cryin'."
That became a family saying and to this day, when one of us has had
enough, we repeat it.
-Lora Homme Page ('60) ~ in the "Home Town" where the sun is shining,
the trees are budding out, and it's a beautiful day!
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>>From: Jay Siegel ('61)
Re: The South
After spending over 1/3 of my life in "Down East North Carolina", I'm
not really sure that the North did win the war (Civil War, that is). The
life style is reflected in the "drawl" - slowed down to be comfortable.
When things are getting stressful, I often call friends back there just
to hear them talk. A particular phrase that should be made a part of
everyone's vocabulary is "y'ol". Not "you all" or "y'all", but "y'ol". It
takes in one or thirty, and is friendly no matter how it is used. I once
had an irate farmer, upon whose property I had inadvertently trespassed,
instruct me in a very unfriendly manner "Y'ol better git outa now!" He
was menacing but after I turned and took a step, he said "Go on git!" I
turned around and walked back to him and stuck out my hand and said "Sir,
my name is Jay Siegel and I had no idea that I was trespassing." After I
told him that I was sorry he looked at me dumbfounded. "I knew that you
was a Marine from "The Base" cuz of that silly hair, but you sure don't
act like one. They don't unerstand friendly ner nuthen." Maybe not exact
words but pretty close. We remained friends as long as I was out there,
often hunting quail together. His life was like his speech - unencumbered
and to the point.
After returning to Washington with the hustle and bustle, locked
doors and a distinct aversion to looking someone in the eyes, I am not
entirely sure that the North won!
Even in the "Research Triangle" area of North Carolina, often
referred to as "San Jose, East" people tend to be more open, more caring,
more willing to become friendly. Yes and even in an environment that
discourages it the "Souther Drawl" is still prevalent and there to enjoy!
Clear blue skies and warm, gentle breezes
-Jay Siegel (the Classic Class of 1961)
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>>From: Dennis Hammer ('64)
Re: Southern speak
I had only been in the Navy about three months when I was sent down
to Radio I to get some "glue and towells." So I whent down there and
asked for some glue and towells. I was told, "We don't have any
towells,... we have glue." Then after a pause, "We got tiles." I said,
"Well that must be it then, I don't know how to speak southern."
Re: Sayings
One saying I always liked I learned from watching the "Beverly
Hillbillies." Jed Clambett once said, "Lower than a snake's belly in a
wagon rut." I have used that one many times over these 40 some odd years.
To: Betty Hiser Gulley ('49)
Re: Food and Language
Found out about three years ago that my mother likes okra, never
had it when I was growing up (OK, some people think I haven't grown
up yet). My parents are from Southeast Missouri, or "Missoura" as my
relatives living there call it. My dad also said "pert near" and called
pajamas "jaw-mers." I had never seen or heard of okra until the Navy. I
think that okra was one of the two worst things they fed us, the other
was that reconstituted canned sterilized milk we had after being at sea
long enough to run out of the fresh stuff. Most people complained about
it, but still drank it. Me, I not only wouldn't drink it, and although I
used to drink a lot of milk, it stopped me from drinking milk entirely.
I haven't drank milk since April 1969. One day four of us sat down at a
table on the mess deck and one of them looked down at the hominy on his
tray and said,"That is the worst looking corn I ever saw."
To: Dean Enderle ('57)
Re: "limeys" and "yanks"
Reminds me of a good story from someone I worked with in the "Area,"
(now there is a term that is definitely Hanford speak, anywhere else
it would be called the "site". During "WW 2" (that looks funny but it
ought to stop confusion) Bob Noland (Bomber dad-RIP) was on board a ship
tied up next to a British ship. He yelled over to a sailor, "How's the
second biggest Navy in the world this morning?" To which British sailor
replied, "Just great. How is the second best?"
And how does a southerner feel when a "limey" calls him/her a "Yankee?"
I hadn't planned to talk so much about the Navy, but I guess that in
the Military, you often travel a lot, and even if you are stationed in
one place, you still meet people from all over the country.
-Dennis Hammer ('64) ~ from Kennewick, the tiny suburb of the mighty Bomberville
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>>From: Gary Behymer ('64)
Here are your interests (;-) These items are listed on eBay. The
number behind each item represents the number of 'hits' on each site!
Richland Washington A Key City of the Atomic Age - 171
Termination Winds - Pasco Washington 1908 - 123
The Ray Stein and Lenny Allen Fan Club Card - 110
"Dupus Boomer" Cartoons by Dick Donnell (Original) - 59
Plutonium Reactors (In Color) Richland Washington - 27
Steamer Inland Empire near City Park Richland, WA - 17
Richland Washington City Hall 1945? - 15
Souvenir Program Richland Day Sept 2, 1946 - 13
Atomic Bomb Plant Postcards by Robley Johnson - 13
-Gary Behymer ('64)... in the Palouse... requesting prayers for timely
rains to 'make a crop'!
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>>From: Anna Durbin ('69)
Hey, it's my birthday too [3/1]. I have decided it is time to become
younger and beautiful. (If I said more beautiful, my siblings would have
some sarcastic comments.) Funny how it doesn't feel like high school is
that far away when I read mail on the Sandstorm.
-Anna Durbin ('69)
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From the new ALL Bomber Alumni GuestBook.
>>From: Alyssa Harting Schultz ('93)
GUESTBOOK COMMENTS: None
-Alyssa Harting Schultz ('93)
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Funeral Notice scanned from the TCHerald
by Shirley Collings Haskins ('66)
>>Laura Spargur ~ Retired Teacher ~ 1/19/39 - 2/25/05
http://richlandbombers.com/Obits05/RIPLauraSpargurRetTea05.jpg
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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