Alumni Sandstorm ~ 04/06/05
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11 Bombers sent stuff: 
Dick McCoy ('45), Betty Ely ('47)
Betty Hiser ('49), Ann Pearson ('50)
Dave Rhodes ('52WB), Bill Berlin ('56)
Hal Smith ('56), Larry Mattingly ('60)
Marilyn Baird ('60), Mike Brady ('61)
Linda Reining ('64)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Randy Dykeman ('69)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Cindy Raekes ('82)

BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
    Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Dick McCoy ('45)

Re: Daylight savings
    The return of DST brings many memories. Way back when, the country
was a checker board of times. Minnesota was a SST and New York was DST,
which meant that our radio schedule were an hour later in the summer.
In WWII I spent my frosh and soph years ('41 to '43) in a hi school in
St. Paul. They instituted DST for the duration, and I remember hiking
to school in the dark, in the dead of a very cold winter. Later, after
the war, we went back to checkerboard times. The reservation and
Richland were on DST. Pasco was on SST. In those days, all bars and
taverns closed at 12:00 midnite on Saturdays. Guess where we spent 
Saturday nite.

To: poor Burt Pierard ('59)
Re: the POW thing
     Hey Leslie Groves could do and say anything he wished. Also 
you hadda be there. Also, I wish Orv Marcum ('48-RIP) and Sunshine 
Allen ('47-RIP) were still alive. Ya know, this thing is like the 
grassy slope, it will never go away. Har!

-Dick McCoy the milkman of the Tin Can Class of 1945
     Bomber Salute!!
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>>From: Betty Ely King ('47)

Re: United Protestant Churches
    The United Protestant Churches used to hand out a folder which read
"Where the Atom is split, the Churches unite". Central U. P. Church 
was backed by the Methodist, Northwest by the Disciples of Christ,
Christian, Westside by Presbyterian, & Southside by American Baptist.
We had each group in each Church. We would send what the per cent was
in each Church to the mission field.
    I served as President of the Church United Church Women in 1960. We 
had ten Churches active that year in Richland. Now we do not even have
Church Women United in Richland.

-Betty Ely King ('47)
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>>From: Betty Hiser Gulley ('49)

I always heard that the POWs were brought in to pick the fruit that
the people had to leave when they started the Project. There were 
lots of fruit trees in the "Village" of Richland (especially where
Carmichael School is located) - along with prisoners from Walla Walla.
None of these people were allowed out in the area.

When Camp Hanford was here, in the '50s, there were many soldiers 
that were men from foreign countries that elected to serve in the 
Army rather than go back to their homeland: Japan, Canada, Germany, 
etc. These men were not allowed to go to the forward area (out in the 
area) as they could not get clearances.

Larry Mattingly ('60): The old building that was on the corner of 
Gillespie and Geothals (Jadwin) looked like an old church building or
grange - never did know what the building used to be. It was a dark
color similar to the old grange building on Stevens.

The old Post Office - wow - that brings back lots of memories. I went
to school from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. My job, as soon as I got home from
school, was to run up to the post office and STAND IN LINE. If you had
mail you stood in line A-G, H- (don't remember the remainder of the
letters. Since my last name was Hiser I stood in like for the H-?). If
you had newspapers or magazines you had to get in another line. By the
time I waited in those two lines I would run home and supper (dinner)
would be ready. Oh - those ever loving lines!!

I know AEC was high handed when it came to the types of stores that
were granted space. When we first came out to Richland there were no
gas stations. You had to go to Kennewick to buy gas. That was because
they told my dad to sell his car - they were not going to allow cars in
the Village of Richland. Free bus services was to be provided. That's
why some of the streets: McPherson, Mahan, etc.. were so narrow. My
dad didn't sell his car - Uncle Sam paid to ship it to Richland.

My cousin, who works for the FBI in Wash. DC, sent me an article out 
of the paper there and it had about six pages of the ghost town of
Richland, WA. I wrote and told here we were just trucking along like
we had good sense. I believe the pictures they had (sagebrush and all)
were after Hanford had been closed.

-Betty Hiser Gulley '49er - south/government Richland - we rain 
    Saturday and Sunday - sun is shining and is still coolish at night.
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>>From: Ann Pearson Burrows ('50)

To THE Bombers

    On this, my birthday, I again want to thank all of you Bombers for
helping me remember and re-enjoy my days in Richland. What a time we
all had... what a glorious, nurturing, unencumbered, span of life... I
have no bad memories, not even sad ones. Your entries have helped me in
writing my autobiography (not to be published, just to help my children
and grandchildren to understand what "it used to be all about"). So
many of your entries tug at the corners of my memories and start all
the euphoria again. And I have NO opinion on the Prisoners...

Ann, here in fantastic San Diego area.

-Ann Pearson Burrows ('50)
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>>From: Dave Rhodes ('52WB)

Re: United Protestant Churches
    My family attended the United Protestant Church in North Richland
June of '48 until we moved away in June of '50. This church met in the
school in North Richland. It was my job to set up all of the chairs
before the morning service, take them down when church ended and I also
had to sweep the floors. I received no pay for this, but I felt it was 
a worthwhile task to perform.

-Dave Rhodes ('52WB)
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>>From: Bill Berlin ('56)

Re: Southside United Protestant Church
    Yes, that was my understanding that when Richland was "set up",
there was the Southside and Central United Protestant Churches were
"staffed" by the Baptist and Methodist Churches. I went to SSUP and our
ministers and youth programs were Baptist, as well as our summer camps,
and I know that CUP was Methodist. I recall there was the Catholic
Church and not much more. Later the LDS set up an temple in the Uptown
area and then there was a proliferation of other denominations cropping
up around Bomberville in the early 1950s. That is one man's view.

Re: POWs at Horn Rapids Dam Camp
    I recall my Dad telling me that the Horn Rapids Dam Camp was a POW
facility for Italian (I think) prisoners. I can't confirm that but I 
do remember Boy Scout camps out there and going over the diversion dam
(Horn Rapids) in inner tubes. Keep in mind I was like eight or nine
years old and could not tell Italians from Irish so just about anything
could have been out there. I do know that when the Boy Scouts were out
there it was a zoo.
    What I do know was that during WW II we were posted at Camp
Roberts, CA and they had a big POW camp there for both German and
Italian prisoners. That was the first soccer game I ever saw, Germany
vs. Italy. I also had a German tailor make me an "Ike" jacket, which I
still have but it does not fit. I also vividly remember the days the
POWs were sent home with a kit of cigarettes, nylon stocking for the
ladies and a bit of cash. It was a really cool experience and with a
name like Berlin, I was a hit with the Germans. I would change it to
Berlini when I went over to the Italian camp for lunch, thus my first
lesson of making the best of things, more or less making things work.
That is one man's view.

-Bill Berlin ('56) ~ Anacortes, WA where the dafs, tulips and Snow 
             Geese are out in full bloom and create quite a colour mix.  
             Get out there Bombers.
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>>From: Hal Smith ('56)

Re: Columbia Camp
    While our family was waiting for our house to be finished in
Richland we lived in a Quonset hut across the street from the prison. 
I was 5 years old and the prisoners must not have been deemed too
dangerous because I remember taking my toy cars over there and they
would play with me through the fence. They would build little roads
and we would move the cars around them. I guess they were pretty bored.
I vaguely remember they did not speak very good English, but have no
idea what nationality they were.

-Hal Smith ('56)
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>>From: Larry Mattingly ('60)

Re: Tacoma Baseball tickets
    Again this year I will make available a few tickets to the opening
night of the Tacoma Rainiers baseball team. It is Friday, April 15.
And, there will be a full pyro-musical fireworks display after the
game. As usual I will allot tickets in the order requested until they
run out. Rather then try to get them mailed in time, I will have them
at the fireworks site with your name on them. We are in the parking lot
behind left field, come by and say hi and I will give them to you then.
Game time is about 7 PM. These are general admission, bring a warm coat
just in case. Parking is scarce on fireworks nights, come early. This
year all 11 Friday night home games will have fireworks. And of course
the pyro musical on the 3rd of July. The stadium is nice and the prices
nicer for some good baseball.

For you Seattle boaters, (and fireworks fans) this just in:
    After months of planning and working with countless different
agencies... It's a GO! We will do a barge based, large format, 
fireworks display at 9:30 PM Friday May 6th, the opening night of 
Boating Season for Seattle. The site is the bay just East of the UW 
Football Stadium. You should also be able to see it from the large 
open grass fields to the north of the UW athletic complex. It will 
be a grand pyro-musical with the music simulcast over a Seattle
radio station. Details will be released as soon as arrangements are
finalized.

"Happiness is the sky in bloom"
-J Larry Mattingly ('60)
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>>From: Marilyn Baird Singletary ('60)

    I, too, would like to wish our own Jazz Musician, Larry Coryell ('61)
a belated 62nd Happy Birthday. Sorry I missed you in San Francisco. 
Can you let us know where you will be in advance?
 
Ode To Spring..Welcome, Welcome.
-Marilyn Baird Singletary ('60) ~ Vallejo, CA
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>>From: Mike Brady ('61)

Re: Flat Top
    I was playing golf a couple of years ago at the West Richland golf
course. What a mess... but that's another story. Anyway, as I pointed 
to a flat topped "mountain," I asked this women if that, in fact, was 
Flat Top. She said she didn't know. Now, this lady lived in Richland! 
How could she NOT know if it was Flat Top? I had an excuse. I hadn't 
been in that area for 35 years. Flat Top was probably an important part 
in every Richland kid's life in the '40s and '50s... and probably for 
many more years.

-Mike Brady ('61)
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>>From: Linda Reining ('64)

All this talk about Flat Top brought back memories of my cousins and 
I walking out to West Richland from my home on Elm Street... we would
take a sack lunch, walk Elm to Cottonwood, then to Van Giesen and out
to Diettrich's Market, buy a cold soda to eat with our sack lunch, then
walk down to the river and look for pollywogs (actually, my brother,
Tim ('71WB) and cousins, (Gene Norberg and Mike DeMers), looked for the
pollywogs. We girls (Cheri and Joni DeMers, Mary Norberg, and me) stood
around hoping they wouldn't decide to throw them at us... we cooled our
feet in the water and then walked all the way back to my house. What a
wonderful experience we had, in that we could walk all over the town
and not have to worry one bit about anyone trying to "mess" with us! 
I wouldn't let my kids OR grandkids do that in this day and age for
anything... too many weirdos out there, now!!!!

Some have mentioned the Lutheran Church on Stevens and Van Giesen... 
I attended that church from grade school all through high school and I
absolutely HATED the new design... looked too "sci-fi" for my liking...
liked the old church much better... I remember the basement, too...
would have "Fellowship" (pot luck dinners) down there on Sunday
evenings... even helped serve some dinners. 
 
-Linda Reining ('64) ~ Bakersfield, CA - Spring has arrived and 
          so have the warmer temps... going to be in the low 80s 
          for the rest of the week.
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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