Alumni Sandstorm ~ 05/31/05
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11 Bombers sent stuff:
Betty Hiser ('49), Tom Tracy ('55)
Bill Berlin ('56), Terri Royce ('56)
Derrith Persons ('60WB), Mike Sams ('65)
Lynn Dodson ('66), Betti Avant ('69)
Bruce Strand ('69), Darlene Napora ('69)
Mike Davis ('74)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Jean Bruntlett ('62)
BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Betty Hiser Gulley ('49)
Betty Lou Conner Sansom ('52): DO I REMEMBER MRS. REQUA??? She and
her husband stepped down from jr. college level to teach at the high
school so they could both write their thesis to get their Masters
Degrees and they taught us like we were jr. high students. She taught
commercial classes and I can not remember what he taught.
She was the only teacher who humiliated me so bad that I went into the
principal's office in hysterics. I was going back to school ('49/'50)
in order to wait to have my teeth pulled. I had already graduated from
high school - did not need the credits - wanted to be a secretary and
took all commercial classes. I had her for bookkeeping and Business
English. In April of 1950 I had half of my teeth pulled, could not
hear, cleft palate speech, etc., and she had me get up in front of the
class and read a paragraph out of the English book. The first time she
said, "I did not understand a word you said, read it again." Being the
docile child that I was I read it again. She said for the second time,
"I still did not understand a word you said, read it again." I was so
furious that I grabbed my books and ran into the principal's office.
I was so angry that the poor principal (Robert Chisholm) could not
understand me. I wrote him a note and told him that my lipreading
teacher (Mrs. Olson) was in school, could he call her to the office.
She came down and I told her everything that had happened (she was also
teaching me remedial speech). Mrs. Olson told Mr. Chisholm what had
happened and he asked the secretary and a teacher to go to Mrs.
Requa's class and bring her to the office. I guess in anger he forgot
I could read lips. I saw him tell her that he had NEVER in all his
years in the school system heard of anyone being so cruel to a student
and if he ever heard to her doing that again he would personally see
to it that she would not teach in the State of Washington again. He
told her that I had already graduated from high school, did not need
credits, was deaf, had half of my teeth pulled, etc. She never so much
as looked my direction for the remainder of that school year and if I
remember right they did not teach at Col-Hi the next year. I know one
should be forgiving but there was not a thing to be forgiving about -
especially to a teenager who had all the problems that I did. I told
him that Mrs. Requa had a 25 percent hearing loss because she had
taken a hearing test the same time I did (I had 95 percent hearing
loss in the right hear and 90 in the left). He was upset about that.
He told her to come to his office when school was out. Wouldn't I have
liked to have been a fly so I could have heard that conversation.
Today I still have problems with bookkeeping - mental block!
Mr. Kelly - what can I say - I took US history and physicolgy (sp?)
from him. Miss Mecum had just gotten out of the Army when she taught
us bugology in my sophomore year.
Chiggers - ugh. If you sat in your lawn and you had shorts on you
would have a big red welt all the way around your leg where your
shorts ended. Those blackberries tasted good regardless of the
punishment you took picking them.
When I worked in Power in B Area my phone number was one number away
from the Midway Substation. Their phone system went through the
Hanford telephone system and I was always getting calls for people who
lived at Midway. At first I didn't realize what was going on so I
called the Hanford operator and she told me she was sorry. Used up a
lot of my time.
Kids: My grandmother always told me that God looked after children and
fools. Otherwise our population would be zilch.
-Betty Hiser Gulley '45er - south/government Richland - cooling down -
its only supposed to be in the high 80's or low 90's today. UGH!
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>>From: Tom Tracy ('55)
Boston's best cherries came from Yakima Valley
To: Dick McCoy ('45)
While teaching and coaching at a small college in South Boston, we
loved to visit The Boston Public Market. It touted and prized the
cherries from Washington State. If you slipped into the market on
Saturday at 3 PM you could make a deal on a crate of Bing cherries and
other fresh fruit because the market had no refrigeration. Iced Bing
cherries on Nantasket, Duxbury or Cape Cod beaches with concert band
music at most public beaches became a family addiction... a Boston
Globe (to liberalize or numb the mind, a submarine sandwich and ahhh
chilled Bing's from Sunnyside, WA's finest orchards made the day
complete... but none were ever better than Carmichael's cherries in
'48 across the street from our place at 1408 Iry St. If you made it
through the tall weeds and sandburs and the cherries were ripe... you
were rewarded with a delicacy straight from the orchards of Eden.
Merchants in Boston were proud to shout out about George's state...
after all they recounted that "George Washington sends his best Bing
Cherries right "HEAH" where he drove the British ships outta dis
Hahbuh" with his winter cannons dragged down from Canada. It was Get
'em while ya can. A little history, a bit of promotion and a lotta
luscious Bings. I Remember telling a merchant that I picked cherries
in the same Sunnyside orchard as a lad... "Sure ya did, now scoot
along, give a guy a break... I got a lot of fruit to move before
5pm."...
To: Julie Smyth Moss ('69WB)
If rounded up, all of us Bing Cherry addicts would make a large group
for Advanced Orchard Rehab. Loved your "orchard relay / lookout
technique".
To: John Browne ('61)
The Blue light (UV) is a wonderful thing for my company's aircraft
water purification system. The generosity of the US Patent office gave
me two patents - one for the process and one for the system. One for
using the same blue light component after special activated carbon
filtration and a sensor to ensure that no water passes through without
trapping or zapping all pathogens bacteria or viruses and a completely
separate but similar system for cleaning the excess wastewater before
permitting it to be discharged overboard during flight. The economic
gift is that one system removes 2500 pounds of takeoff weight (the
weight equal to 10 passengers) from a B-747-400 and permits smaller
planes to land through more daily hops without lavatory servicing as
well as reducing the 'Fuel Weight Penalty'-using fuel to carry extra
fuel that will not be used before landing. The FDA's US Public Health
Dept. approved through its letter of acceptance after we passed
challenge tests of cleaning sewage plus a polio virus of ten to the
8th power at a virology lab in Benicia CA. The systems ensure that
there will be zero (<1) cfu's or colony forming units of bacteria or
virus after any type of water is delivered to an aircraft's holding
tanks and before any purified wastewater is discharged into the
atmosphere. Every drop meets NSF Chapter 55 purity standards.
The system for drinking water ensures that the "often undrinkable or
sometimes unthinkable water" from airports will be safer than bottled
water when used by passengers onboard. Imagine not having to purchase,
deliver, warehouse, re-deliver, dispose of all those bottles of water.
Everyone has a right to expect that the aircraft's sink water, is
good enough to use for hand washing, drinking, medical use or tooth
brushing. Our first B-747-400 Special mission system takes flight this
summer.
The air up there and the water up there ...should be better up there.
-Tom Tracy ('55)
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>>From: Bill Berlin ('56)
Re: Jim Hamilton ('63) Cigars, Smoking and other vices
Yes Jim, the official name was the Marsh Wheeling Conestoga Cigar
Company and it all boiled down to Wheeling Stogies. The Conestoga
Wagon and Buggy Company was also located there but they didn't call
those very important wagons "stogies," just the cigars. They were
long, dark and hard wrapped cigars, thus no cellophane wrapper, thus
all you had to do was to bite off the tip before lighting up. Between
our two Dads with cigars and pipes pumping out all those emissions in
their respective backyards (or in the government sponsored "compound")
it was no wonder that our neighborhood had no mosquito problem.
I too remember going out to the Fred Meyer's on Sandy Boulevard in
Portland and there was a WW II aircraft on a building roof next door.
I think that he was trying to land on the Fred Meyer upstairs parking
lot, or maybe Troutdale Airport (if you know the history of PDX being
down range from Troutdale), but it was quite a sight. I think the
original Fred Meyer was out on Barbour Boulevard and it was a
compulsory stop for school supplies on the way to Linfield and for
pancakes at Ye Olde Pancake Restaurant. My Dad talked to the guy who
owned that place, which was the first cash cow I had ever been exposed
to, to see if he/they could open one in Richland. Franchising in
those days were just on the horizon with Mickey D's coming up from
California but "Pancake Man" did not have the foresight to expand
beyond PDX. Now they have joints in Eugene, Salem, Ballard, Burbank
(?) and all kinds of places. A little advice... go for the sourdough.
-Bill Berlin ('56) ~ on Memorial Day thinking of my Dad (WW II) and
all kinds of GIs who have fought our battles then and now to
keep our freedom... and don't you forget it!!!
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>>From: Terri Royce ('56)
To: Wally Erickson ('53)
Your drag racing memory made me think fondly again of my '48 Chevy
convertible. If that car could talk! Once, I skipped a youth church
meeting and went with Margaret Lyneis and Arlene Wallace to a place
(name escapes me) where kids had been jumping off a cliff into rubber
shavings. We parked the car at the top, and got out to look far down
into the pit, only to glance at my car as it charged down the hill and
hit a ridge that kept it from plunging over.
We hiked down another hill, and across some railroad tracks (I think
this was Kennewick?) and knocked on the door of a man with no thumbs
(no trouble remembering that!). He called the tow truck, and it pulled
my car up -- barely. The driver sent the bill to my parents and the
car was grounded for a month!
Another time, I raced it too long in 2nd gear on the road to Kennewick
and threw a rod through the block. My dad, Bill Royce, normally not
showing much emotion, tried his darndest not to grin at the thought of
getting a new block from Sears and building it up. After I went to
WSC, he drove the car into the plant one day and, later, realized I'd
left a camera in the glove compartment. He came close to fainting,
just think of the consequences.
No mention of my car (The Black Charger) is complete without its
cruises around the drive-in. One of the Kennewick guys I met, who was
at WSC at the time, was later disappointed that I didn't invite him
to our prom. I was afraid everyone would think he was a soldier! For
years, I thought of him, following his Air Force career, as my 1st
husband was an AF officer, too. Imagine the feeling of closure when,
after 50 years, we re-connected with many great e-mail conversations.
It's really good to see how different our lives have been from each
other's (but how similar, too), and how I can finally put his memory
where it belongs.
My '48 Chevy was eventually replaced in my heart with the '74-1/2 MGB
that I owned when I was raising my kids in Florida. That car has its
own set of adventures -- but not, I'm afraid, for this format.
-Terri Royce ('56) ~ In refreshingly cool Seattle, where I'm doing a
year's worth of house cleaning so I can have a spinal fusion
on Thursday.
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>>From: Derrith Persons Dean ('60WB)
To: Class of '60
It's that time again!!
What? - Lunch - what else??
Who? - Class of '60
When? - Saturday, June 4th
Time? - 11:30 am
Where? - 3 Margaritas, 627 Jadwin, Richland
Come on. . . . lets talk!
classmate,
-Derrith Persons Dean ('60WB)
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>>From: Mike Sams ('65)
To: Jim Hamilton ('63)
Re: Tony Blazine
Tony was never without his cigar and you're right, he rarely lit it. I
lived on Roberdeau and shared the alley with Paul Blazine ('65). We
had a trail from one yard to the other and spent a lot of time through
our "formative" years trying to stay out of harms way. Paul and I were
involved in sports all year and that came in real handy when Tony
needed help at the store for one reason or the other. Paul and I would
pick out the bats for the Tri-City Braves. We'd spend way too much
time swinging bats in the back room trying to determine which ones had
the most hits in them so our heroes could win more ball games. We'd
follow Tony to all sorts of sporting venues, carrying bats or other
sports paraphernalia as out "ticket" to each event. I remember getting
autographs of single "A" players as though they were another Mickey
Mantle.
BB&M had a dock at the south end of Howard Amon park. The store used
to sell boats and the dock became a summer hangout. Tony, Paul and I
were trying shove flotation barrels under the dock one summer and in
the process Tony fell in on top of us. It was a hectic moment as we
all tried to recover from Tony's tidal wave. (I can only guess at
Tony's weight but as a 12 year old he appeared to be a few hundred
pounds over his football playing weight). Well, Tony disappeared for
a while and resurfaced on the downstream side of the dock. He swam to
shore to get out of the river and when Paul and I met up with him his
cigar was still in his mouth. I don't remember him NOT having the
cigar.
Thanks for the reminder, Jim.
-Mike Sams ('65)
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>>From: Lynn Dodson Stedman ('66)
For those of you who wonder if you could (or should) ever consider
moving back here to the Tri-Cities, I am writing to give it my vote. I
have been working for the past 9 months at CBC on a contract. I have
been able to keep my condo in Issaquah and "bunk" in with my 80 year
old + parents while working at CBC. For the first 2 months I didn't
think I could make the transition, but now that I have been here a
while (and especially since those hot summer nights are right around
the corner), I have definitely changed my mind. Unfortunately, I am
heading back to the Seattle area to my next work adventure, but if I
could have stayed permanently, I would have.
CBC had a lot to do with the experience I had here. I, of course,
hated it when I had to be here for my freshman year of college and
all my friends left for UW and WSU, but it is a great place to work
and I ran into Mike Grinnell from my class (who works in the
business office) and Mike Brightman (who gave all the Dental Hygiene
Instructors a chance to swoon!) who is one of the chief architects for
the remodel of our department and the campus.
So if you want blue skies, no traffic, nice people everywhere, peace
and quiet and a place to float down the river on a hot afternoon, then
come on back.
-Lynn Dodson Stedman ('66)
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>>From: Betti Avant ('69)
I'd like to wish my cousin, Jean Bruntlett ('62) a very happy
birthday today. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, OK??
-Betti Avant ('69) ~ Eugene, OR, where today (30 May) was the 30th
anniversary of Steve Prefontaine's passing (I guess there is a
memorial at the sight where he died and the paper had a 3-page
article on him plus a picture on the front page)
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>>From: Bruce Strand ('69)
To: Rick Valentine ('68)
The other thing to watch for with West Richland irrigation ditch water
skiing, was the local Deputy Sheriff. Several of us from the Class
of '69; Craig Smith, Steve Porter, Kris Kilgor and somebody else (I
think); got stopped by a County Sheriff Deputy. We were threatened
with an arrest for all kinds of crimes from reckless driving to
destruction of private property. We skated by with a warning, but
that stopped our fun for the day.
-Bruce Strand ('69) ~ Tempe, AZ - where we're experiencing a cooling
trend, 99° at the moment.
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>>From: Darlene Napora Shuley ('69)
Re: Our Troops
Yesterday, being Memorial Day, besides reminding me of those who have
died, also brought to mind those who are currently serving their
country…
My friend, Linda, was absolutely glowing when I saw her last month.
Her husband, Nick, had just returned home from Iraq. Although, he is
in the Naval Reserve, being a medic, he was serving with the Marines
(it was news to me that the Marines don't have their own medical
units, but use the Navy medical teams instead?). Linda had wanted
to put a deck on the back of their home as a surprise for Nick's
homecoming. She had gotten several estimates, but they were way too
much for her budget. Anyway, Linda was talking to a clerk at Home
Depot about her lawn and got to talking to him about the deck. This
guy said that he wanted to support our troops but felt helpless to do
something, so if she would buy the materials, he would be over on his
next two days off and build the deck for free. When Linda called me to
tell me about her beautiful new deck, she broke down crying. She said
that after so many people had been so nasty to her about the war in
Iraq (like she had anything to do with it), that this man's kindness
had just bowled her over.
As it is so easy to get bogged down in negative events, I thought it
important to share this uplifting story with everyone as a reminder of
all the small acts of kindness that we often forget to acknowledge.
-Darlene Napora Shuley ('69)
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>>From: Mike Davis ('74)
To all the Vets.................Thank you!
-Mike Davis ('74)
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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