Alumni Sandstorm ~ 05/05/05 ~ CINCO DE MAYO
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8 Bombers and Bert Wells sent stuff: 
Marilyn DeVine ('52), Stan McDonald ('53)
Tom McKeown ('53), Derrith Persons ('60WB)
Patti Mathis ('60),  John Browne, Jr. ('61)
Deedee Willox ('64), Claudia Stoffel ('68WB)
Bert Wells (Star of Buckaroo Time), 
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Patti Cole ('52)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Janice Wise ('71)

BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
    Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Marilyn "Em" DeVine Dow ('52)

Happy Birthday to long-time friend, Patti Cole Pierce, (’52)

Greetings to all;
    I'm home and finally on line and have gotten my e-mailbox 
unloaded.
    Once we got the motor home fixed, (after breaking down 4 times in 
3 days!) my friend, Shirley, and I had a wonderful trip... the most 
awesome vacation EVER!! Okay, okay, I'll qualify that statement by 
adding, "for me". From Ontario, OR, we scurried down to Yuma as fast 
as we could in order to see my brother, Terry ('52) before he headed
back up here. Fellow Bomber and tour guide extraordinaire, Gus Keeney ('57)
took Shirley and me on a shopping trip to Los Algadones, a tour of 
the American Girl Gold mine road in CA, and to a few choice Mexican
Restaurants in Mexico as well as in Yuma. He was great. Thanks Gus!
    We were surprised to have snow, hail, rain and wind in Northern
Arizona and New Mexico. I bought a pair of shorts in Yuma on our first
stop there, and didn't wear them until I got there again, 4 weeks
later! Silly me, I hadn't realized much of the area is very high
elevation.
    I will attempt to attach some photos that may be of interest 
to some of you.
  http://richlandbombers.com/Xtra05/050505-DeVine/00.html [Attachments
worked, Em... BUT... next time, PLEASE send pictures to the address
listed at the end of every Sandstorm: pix@richlandbombers.com -Maren]

    This trip included a lot of "firsts" for me. For instance, a 
Tram up a mountain at Albuquerque, a cave (no, not Carlsbad, but
impressive, none the less) the Alamo, the Crystal Forest and Petrified
Forest in northern Arizona, Scottsdale (wow, what a beautiful and
interesting little town sort of in the middle of Phoenix!) The
Chiricahua National Monument was awesome. Lots of history, there,
besides the incredible rock formations. Lots of history throughout 
the Southwest!
    My friend Shirley had to go back to work March 30th so I
reluctantly left her in Austin and turned back toward Albuquerque
where I was to rendezvous with middle daughter Sandra (who flew down
from Pasco) and see an old Alaskan friend and family, before going to
Santa Fe and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. There were thousands and
thousands of acres of wild flowers in bloom, frequently reaching as 
far as the eye could see. The desert is a beautiful place with its
interesting geological formations and its plethora of cacti, many of
which were in bloom and I never got bored while driving long hours at
a stretch.
    All in all, we covered 7,029 miles in the motor home. That is not 
including hundreds of miles in the vehicles of family and friends! The
2 dogs were great little travelers!
    Had surprise visits with eldest daughter, Keri, who had come from
Alaska to see her daughter and grandson in Las Vegas, then, 10 days
later, my eldest granddaughter came to Las Vegas from Wisconsin! Saw
old Alaskan friends who now live in Yuma, AZ and Winnemucca, NV, and
my Marine grandson stationed at Camp Pendleton. We really enjoyed a
trip to the San Diego Zoo, which I had not seen in 49 years!! (It has
changed a lot! They're doing a wonderful job with it.)
    I guess I'm glad to be home. Yeah, I'm glad... seeing friends and
working on my little yard. Oh, yeah, and FAMILY. (Oops…) But there
will be another grand trip in my future! (You know the old saying,
"God willing and the creek don't rise.")

My best to each and all,
-Marilyn "Em" DeVine Dow ('52) ~ in beautiful Richland, where we are
                             getting more of the much needed rain.
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>>From: Stan McDonald ('53)

Re: Hunting
To: Wally Erickson ('53)
    Your note concerning the shooting of jack rabbits brought back
memories for me. I used to go out into the hills around Richland with
Dale Jacobsen ('53-'54) with a .410 and .22s and shoot the jack
rabbits and though I now rue the fact that we also blasted pheasants
out there like it was just target practice. There were so many of them
in those days. Like a speeding ticket I received on the road from
Prescott to Yuma in Arizona (a deserted road) about 4 years ago for
"wasting finite resources," that is exactly what Dale and I were doing
by shooting those animals. I stopped hunting deer years ago because I
determined that that was not a good thing to do... along with the fact 
that there were too many hunters for too few deer in the places where 
we went to hunt.

-Stan McDonald ('53)
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>>From: Tom McKeown ('53)

Re: Darlene Card McKeown ('54)
    I'm visiting Jim ('53) in Sacramento, and he read to me the
Sandstorm this AM... I don't have a computer so it was great to see
what the Bomber network is doing.
    Just an update on Darlene ('54)... to begin with we received many
notes and cards from so many classmates that it was unbelievable. We
both really appreciated the response. Darlene is doing very well and
going without oxygen most of the time except at night. The damage
seems to be minimal, which is a big relief, since early on we weren't
even sure she would make it. She is walking on her own now, and not
using the walker at all. A big incentive was tickets to the "Lion
King" tonight, which we are excited about. Again, thanks to everyone
for their concern... it was most appreciated by both of us.

-Tom McKeown ('53)
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>>From: Derrith Persons Dean ('60WB)
mailto:DerrithD@msn.com

Re: Class of '60 luncheon!!
 
DATE: Saturday, May 7th
TIME: 11:30 am
WHERE: Three Margaritas, 627 Jadwin Ave.
 
Come on lets have some fun!!

Happiness is sharing memories!
-Derrith Persons Dean ('60WB)
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>>From: Patti Mathis Wheeler ('60)

Re: mumbly peg
To: Wally Erickson ('53)
    Yes Wally, I remember mumbly peg all to well. As a child of about
5 or 6, that was the BIG KIDS' game and I always wanted to play. One
night I got the chance (after repeated warnings from my parents not 
to PLAY THAT GAME!). We huddled in the grass of my front yard and
everything went quite well for awhile. Then on my turn I placed the
knife at the tips of my fingers and cradled the handle in my palm and
base of my thumb and let her fly. Well, instead of sticking it in the
ground it went into my arm, right below my wrist. Needless to say,
after that there were no more knives in my future (maybe that is why 
I buy lettuce in a bag).

-Patti Mathis Wheeler ('60)
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>>From: John Browne, Jr. ('61)

Re: Grapes
    When my family moved to Richland, one of my parents' first friends
were the Strattons, who lived near Hunt Point. (I think Monty Stratton
had a ham radio station in his basement.) Their son, Frankie ('64), 
was my brother's, Mark ('64-RIP) age, I believe. He invited us to go
fishing with him, right below the levee. It was September. There was 
a huge circle of grapes, probably Tokay, growing there, that we were
told (by one of the Stratton's neighbors) had been part of a farm
there, in the days before modern Richland was built. Those grapes were
enormous- and fabulously sweet! There were no supports- the vines just
sprawled out in a big circle on the ground. It was a pleasure that I
looked forward to, for a number of years, there. (The fishing could be
pretty good, too... remember chiselmouth?)   ^..^

-John Browne, Jr. ('61) ~ Vashon Island, WA
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>>From: Deedee Willox Loiseau ('64)

Re: May Day
    The origin of this celebration is Russian. Read about it at
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1390824&lastnode_id=67107

-Deedee Willox Loiseau ('64)
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>>From: Claudia Stoffel ('68WB)

Re: May Day link
    Here is a very interesting link to the earlier May Day traditions.
http://www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/history.htm

-Claudia Stoffel ('68WB)
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>>From: Bert Wells (Star of Buckaroo Time)

    My name is Bert Wells... in the mid '50s I did a kiddy cowboy 
program daily on KEPR TV called Buckaroo Time. Apparently it has been 
discussed again in recent times [in the Alumni Sandstorm], and I have 
had a number of inquiries from the old timers in the Tri-Cities area 
and elsewhere. 
    Can you help me locate something on the site... For whatever 
reason, I can't seem to pull it up.   
    http://richlandbombers.com/ASpics04/041125-Clark-BertWells.jpg
[You had everything in lower case. I fixed that (above).     -Maren]

-Bert Wells (Star of Buckaroo Time)
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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