"Bomber Memories"
September 1, 2 & 3, 1998
September 1, 1998
Joan Eckert Sullens (51)
Couldn't believe the Spudnut Shop picture on the web page! Sportlets [next door] was my very first job. I was a junior and just loved that place. Then, when they folded, I migrated next door to the Spudnut Shop. Jerry Bell and Barlow Ghirardo were great bosses. Jerry married one of my classmates, Laurel Merkely. Pop Ghirardo was still alive then and it was a great "family" place, as it still seems to be.
Steve Carson (58)
Really enjoy the memories.
Richland was a pretty special place and the high school years are some of my best memories; Championship Basketball, the annual trip to Seattle for the tournament, working through the pea harvest in Milton Freewater, then the wheat and finishing up the summer loading boxcars with potato sacks just before football started. The Sandmen Quartet, our first rock band the Phaetons, study hall in the auditorium. CAP Cadets, Teen Time on the new Kennewick TV station.
Steve Carson
Don Panther (62)
omeone asked about "Tiger" Gentle? Assuming you're referring to Calvin Gentle the algebra and trig teacher... When I moved back to Richland in '81 and went to work at Hanford, Calvin was working at N-Reactor as a tech editor. I had an opportunity to talk to him and asked why he quit teaching. He related some of the awful pranks (some were kind o' vicious) kids played on him - and his family - and he couldn't take it anymore. His name is an apt description of his personality - a quiet, gentle, man. He also taught calculus at CBC night school, with the same results many of us experienced in algebra and trig in high school. If you got it.. GREAT! If you didn't, you were lost-lost-lost! His famous quote to my brother, Steve Panther, when he was having trouble doing a "board" problem; "You should be able to recognize a polynomial by now."
I see Morely Paul (English teacher) around town periodically, usually at the post office, engaging the clerks behind the counter in conversations that they can't get out of!
Remember...
The soap box derby races down Carmichael hill?
Fishing in Juvenile Pond below Carmichael?
Learning to swim at Howard Chitty's pool? (He now has a marina up at Chehalis);
The monkey that "Muscles" folks kept at their house (prefab off of Duportail)?
Art Dawald's Government class, his whistling like a bird and pointing at the board behind him with the pointer as he went through his lesson? ("all right kiddies. We're going to have a little quizzy now.")
Mr. Anderson in study hall? (Planting his feet firmly in a wide stance, clipboard clutched in his left hand against his belt buckle, he'd make this daily pronouncement: "I'll take the hall passes now.");
Many fond memories! Richland was a great place to grow up.
Gregor Hanson (65)
Subject: Bomber Basketball Days of Glory
Several people have posted their memories of the construction tunnel to gain entry to the current "upper" gym (boy's gym at that time) for Bomber basketball games while the new "lower" Dawald gym was being built. You actually got in line right after school and queued up for 2 to 3 hours in this narrow ply board walled hallway that led to the student entrance. This older gym was indeed the site of the winning free throws Dave Simpson made to defeat Kennewick that Rod Brewer mentioned from an earlier post, and the money Simpson received from his dad on the floor in the aftermath was a true story!!
Here's an item on Bomber basketball in the season of 63-64. This came from our senior class day assembly and was written in 1965. Where else but in Richland would Bomber basketball fans, parents, businesses, boosters, etc. buy $25 to $100 Booster Bonds to finance the construction of a bigger gymnasium and bleachers to seat 5,000 people for basketball!
ODE TO BOMBER BASKETBALL AND DAWALD GYM
On the twentieth of April in '62
Construction began, man they're still not through.
As an entrance to the gym they created a tunnel
But so narrow and tight that it seemed like a funnel.
When basketball started it caused quite a mess,
But more fans kept coming and not any less.
Kids started arriving at a quarter to four,
But were pushed to the rear when they heard the loud roar.
"Seniors, then juniors, and sophomores last"
But little Steve Upson managed to sneak past.
With cow bells and air horns and all the confetti,
This was Bomber basketball and you had to be ready!
The time rolled on and at ten minutes to five,
It seemed as if we were barely alive.
When checking the mass of the bodies ahead,
There were three chubby juniors who were practically dead.
And soon into the tunnel came Mr. James Nash,
Getting rid of those seniors who were already smashed.
But with those fellows leaving there still seemed no fewer,
As kids jammed even tighter to see the play of Bones Brewer.
The clock had moved up to a quarter of six,
When we pulled out our snack of those fruit flavored Trix.
Six hours since lunch and no dinner either,
Every kid in the tunnel was runnin' a fever.
An elbow in the kidney, and a fist in the nose,
We went through alot to get those bottom two rows.
Just to get a seat, really where it didn't matter,
Even beside the band, or next to the Pep Club's chatter.
And inside awaited all of the action and thrills,
Of Flyin' Brian Johnson warmin' up in the lay in drills!
It was now six o'clock and they opened the door,
Here was a time when we shoved even more.
There were Anderson and Unruh ready with their punches,
Checking sacks of confetti we said were our lunches.
With the seniors and juniors packed safely inside,
We poor little sophomores got our eyes opened wide.
We were now at the door at just six twenty one,
Just to get our cards punched and then in for the fun.
But alas with our bruises and badly skinned knees,
We dumb little punks forgot our ASB's!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another good memory of school at RHS is Study Hall in the old auditorium. At the beginning of the hour, as soon as Mr. Anderson announced "I'll take the Hall passes", a tennis ball would come flying out of nowhere, pennies could be heard clanging the floors, and bottle caps would come zipping by your ear!! Not as much excitement when Study Hall was moved to the more confined quarters of the cafeteria the next year!!
Regards -
Gregor Hanson
Linda Belliston Boehning (63)
Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but does anyone remember being quarantined? The Public Nurse would come to your house, and if you had the measles, mumps, or chicken pox, etc. she would post a "Quarantined" sign on your door or window?
Remember the Library's "Summer Reading Program" where they had a different theme each summer, and you had to read 10 books, about different categories, and then write a book report on it. The last book you had to read was about a handicraft, and you had to make something to display at the end of the "Program" party? I still have some of my booklets and reports; from the Safari, and Treasure Themes.
Anyone remember Tomy, The "Atomic Clown" and his sidekick "Floppy" at the Atomic Frontier Days parades, Uncle Jimmy, & Mr. Music Man, from "Uncle Jimmy's Birthday Club", or Bert Wells from the "Buckaroo's."
Hughes Apparels clothing store in the Uptown where Shields now is. Not sure when it closed down.
Remember how frightening it was to be sitting in grade school when a lady would come to the class, and read off a bunch of names, and it was the "dreaded list" of those who had to go to the nurse's office for a shot. Some kids would start crying before they even got in line. Lamont DeJong (63) said he used to run up to be first in line, so he could get his over with. He was the brave one, a little smarter than I, as I would get in the back of the line, putting it off as long as I could, and then I would have to watch other classmates, crying, fainting, etc. It was pure torture.
Mike Swallow (69)
Anybody remember the little drive-in at the bottom of the hill from Sacajawea grade school, just past the graveyard? Dog-N-Suds. I still have one of their root beer mugs as part of my office decor.
Mike Swallow
Gary Behymer (64)
Help! I thought the Dog and Suds was in pasco after coming across the old bridge from Kennewick?
Gary B
MLou (Mary Lou) Williams (60)
By the way, I think I remember Barbara Stanfield coming up with the motto for the class of 1960 - "forward ever, backward never -- the future lies within ourselves." I still love it!
These are totally based on recall only, but I'll try to dig our my annuals and see how badly I've distorted them.
I was one of the "special fast learner" nerds and we were pretty much isolated in our classes together throughout grades 9-12. But I kept the yearbooks anyway, because thanks to Francis Coelho, the art director, the books were literally works of art. He was too far ahead of his time, and was fired from teaching art at CBC because he compared art to birth in one of his classes and some older "lady" students objected to us sheltered young students hearing about such a tainted subject as birth!
Little did they know we sneaked into the Highland Drive Inn in the trunk of a buick in high school, to see a live, black and white version of an actual birth! We could get out of the trunk by removing the back seat, so no one but the cars next to us would even know. It just looked like a rocking car in the drive in, and there were plenty of those anyway!
MLou (Mary Lou) Williams
Patricia "Patty" de la
Bretonne (65)
This as a kick!
Does every Col Hi graduate or attendee feel that somehow she/he is special? We were part of an experiment and those of us who still have our thyroids are the lucky ones. I guess. Enough of that.
Remember digging and building fires at the old bus lot when the end of Wilson and McPherson was the edge of town at that spot -- with neighborhood kids as a grade schooler. I remember walking to the Spudnut in junior hi.
Thanks. Patty
Susy Rathjen Whitney (71)
I have so many memories of growing up in this town. Our family has been in this area for a long time. Our grandma graduated from Pasco High in 1923. Our grandpa Richardson's family homesteaded in Kennewick in the early 1900's. I was actually born in D.C., but our Dad was sent out here 1953, with A.E.C. He was a courier and was away much of the time we were growing up. His job was very hush-hush and we were never allowed to know when he was leaving, where he was, or when he'd be back. Or what he was doing, for that matter. Sometimes he'd be gone a couple of days, sometimes a week or two. It wasn't until later in life I found out he had been delivering plutonium to other sites in the United States. For that, he always rode on a "special train" dubbed "The Black Widow". Other times, he would deliver top secret papers, for that he'd fly. He'd have an attache' case handcuffed to his wrist and was not allowed to sleep until they were delivered. He always carried a gun in a shoulder holster while on the road, and was an expert shot. All I knew, growing up, was that my dad was very important and very special. I remember in Mrs. Brinkmans 5th grade class at Lewis and Clark, the first day of school, we all had to stand up one by one and tell who our fathers worked for. I remember being so proud, because everyone else's dad worked for G.E. and mine was the only one who worked for AEC. Since everyone worked for the government I used to wonder "who ran the gas stations, who ran the grocery stores?" The last names of other men who were couriers with my dad were: House, Simmons, Tubbs, Freeman, Votendahl, Delsing, Misch, Stoner, Hodges, Dean, Hess, Drake and Comerford. You may recognize some of those names, from kids we went to school with. (Frank Misch was Mike Manor's (class of '68) Stepdad. They worked out of the Richland airport, in little quonset huts (I think one is still there) and later, out of the Federal Building.
Some memories I have of Richland and school days are:
Mrs. Brinkman teaching us to dance to Glowworm on rainy days in the gym and her stories about Kippy. Once in awhile she'd throw in a story about Sandy or George, but mostly it was Kippy.
Did anyone else use to get Happy Birthday calls from the birthday lady?
Like everyone else we used to play outside on those endless summer nights. Team Tag was fun, with the Allen and Gary Clarkson (Allen died several years ago in a car accident) and Cindy and Carol Hanneman.
The ferry from North Richland to Pasco.
School hot lunches, which I rarely got. Chili and cinnamon rolls, turkey or hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes, those little paper straws for your milk, that collapsed after a few sips.
How about the shots we used to have to get in grade school. And the smallpox vaccinations. We all still have the scars!! I remember going to the Community House to get our polio vaccine... you could get it in a sugar cube, or liquid.
I remember the crab feeds they used to have at the Community House, too.
Mr. Davis, the p.e. teacher at Lewis and Clark.
How about the p.e. uniforms in jr. high? I remember getting in trouble along with Linda Meeks and Connie Pattison in 7th grade in Mrs. Roy's class and we got sent to the office in our "monkey suits". We were laughing so hard!
The drive-ins were a big thing for me, the Highland Drive-in, Skyline, Rivervue, Island View, Starlight (wasn't that one in West Richland?) I know there was one or two more.
Gallenkamp Shoes in the Uptown
Shakey's Pizza in Pasco
The Hertz Motel...I think everyone had a Hertz in their class....
The summer the Army invaded Richland, with their "War Games". They camped in Columbia Park. Now, as I recall people were asked to let them into their homes, to hide them during the games, but my mother wouldn't allow it, "because I have 4 daughters in this house"! I can still hear those words ringing in my ears. We were SO disappointed!
The dances.... CYO, Roller Rink, Richland Teen Action etc...
My favorite DJ, J.Paul Damon
The water towers, they were wooden and were painted like big bumble bees.
The coal being dumped into the coal bins. We'd run outside after they were done and pick up the little pieces of coal that had dropped on the ground.
Of course I have many other memories, but this has gotten long.
Susy Rathjen Whitney
Doris Van Reenen Dollarhide (61)
Sharon Tate was crowned Miss Richland August 6, 1959 when she was 16. She was also named Autorama Queen earlier that year. I still have the newspaper clipping and pictures my dad took that night. Sharon had borrowed a gown from me that my aunt had sent and she wore it that night and of course looked great. I remember a bunch of us girls went down early to visit with her and see her crowned. She was a really a nice gal and had a great sense of humor, a practical joker at slumber parties.
September 2, 1998
Patty Crawley (74)
This is great. Did not realize I could miss dust storms, chasing mosquito trucks and Mr. Clayton's health class... I'm sure a cruise through the annual will bring back stories, more later.
It's brought a smile to my face reliving events such as whole body counters and Zip's cherry cokes.
Thanks
Erin Owens Hyder (66)
So many memories of playing dolls in the morning and Davey Crocket in the afternoon. Will be in touch.
One of my favorite teachers I haven't seen mentioned was Mrs. Helen Burns. She was my PE teacher. I took every PE class I could. I ended up majoring in PE at WSU. I always wanted to grow up and be just like her. When I realized that wasn't how it worked, I gave up PE.
I remember living on the "edge" of town and attending Jason Lee. They found baby rattlers on the play ground one day and showed them around school so we would know what to look out for. In junior hi, my folks had a house built across from Jason Lee in the fields where I used to love the play. Such is progress.
Thanks again for this fun time.
Barbara Seslar Brackenbush (60)
Does anyone remember The Lagoon at Columbia Park? I nearly drowned there as a young teenager swimming with friends. Several talked me into swimming out to the rope that floated across the lagoon. I made it that far and tried to grab hold to rest and of course the rope could not support me; it went down. Very tired, I just gave up, but a friend, Everett Zepp (who passed away from cancer many years ago) would give me a shove, swim to catch up, then gave me another shove toward shore. We made it back. This summer they drained the lagoon to do some work and as I drove by I was amazed to see that it looked only 5 or 6 feet deep all the way across! If I had known that I may not have panicked. It looked like I might have "bounced" my way to shore!
Ann McCue Hewett (63)
The grocery story at GWW and McMurray was Kaisers, I believe.
Have a great day....and THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!
Ann McCue Hewett
September 3, 1998
Mike Figg (70)
Someone, Anne Hewett I think, mentioned that of course the market at George Washington and McMurray was Kaisers. And does anyone remember Juanita working there? I remembering her catching me one day sticking a Big Hunk in my pocket. I wanted to see if it would fit in the pocket so I could sneek it past my mother. Never had any thought of swiping it, honest.
It was I who mentioned that store being Mayfair and Campbell's. Does anybody remember clearly? Of course it was Kaiser's, as Anne mentioned, and I remember it being Mayfair, which might have been a chain. But Campbell's rings a bell too.
Mike Figg
Veronica Yates Jones (64)
The grocery at the corner of GWW and McMurray was Kaiser's Market -- about 2 blocks from my house. It was connected to the drug store next door -- Johnson's. The drug store would close before the market, and they would block off the doorway with shopping carts. That was supposed to keep the shoppers out of the drug store...and it did! Before the trees in the neighborhood, we could see the sign.
Could get Twinkies for 10 cents, candy bars for 5 cents. The drug store sold frozen Milky Way candy bars and had a neat soda fountain.
Talked my mom into buying me some paper dolls one day with the promise that I would play with them. I thought the bride doll outfit was so pretty that I never did play with them much.
Oh yes -- Bert Wells! I have his autograph! He sang a song about a "rabbit ears" TV antenna--still know the words to the refrain.
Doris Day Coffee (71)
This sure brings back a lot of memories as to when I was a kid growing up in Richland. I lived at 103 Cullum St most of my school years, not to far from Lewis and Clark Elem. All the kids in the Day family went to L&C and later to Carmichael and Col-High. I can remember walking the halls in Lewis and Clark and thinking how big the school was. My first grade teacher was Mr. Manor. I can't remember who my second grade teacher was but I remember Mrs. Lester my sixth grade teacher and Mr. Knight. I was reading what Susi Rathjen Whitney had to say about our days at Carmichael and the dreaded monkey suits. Boy weren't they a piece of art. I hated them too. I remember you had to go to BB&M's to get them. I hung out with Susie along with Linda Meeks and Sandi Leonard. I remember that they were the tallest girls in the school and me being only 5'2" we were quite a sight. I remember the parties on the weekends, tooling Zips drive-in, beer busts, drag racing and among other things. Spent a lot of time out in Benton City with another dear friend of mine, Kalleen Cook. She also attended L&C for a while before transferring.
Maureen Sullivan Fleischman (76)
Does anyone remember when they threatened to close the N reactor in about 1965? I was in first or second grade, and I remember our Christ the King class had to write letters to the president begging him not to close the reactor. I didn't know what the heck I was writing for, except that the nuns told us that life as we knew it would end if all our dads lost their jobs.
The basketball memories (especially the poem about the tunnel and the "new" Dawald gym) were great. I remember our parents camping out all night in front of that gym to get Regional and State tickets, and caravaning up to Spokane and Seattle for the big tourneys. I loved the bleacher bums and looked forward to their cheers every friday night. Our class of 76 didn't fare too well in basketball, but our football team went undefeated and got 2nd in state.
For me, as well as for many other baby bombers, the memories from the classes of the 60's are fun to read, since our older brothers and sisters were teens then. I grew up thinking that Ray Stein, Kippy Brinkman and others were as famous the world over as they were in Richland! I loved that the whole town turned out for sporting events, the the "Tricycle Herald" put local news ahead of national events, and that we had a real sense of community. After all, words like, "lagoon," "third island", "A-city" and "spudnuts" were recognized only by us locals.
Speaking of teachers, I had Mr. Gentle too. He was so nice, but the only kid who seemed to understand him sat in the front row of my trig class -- his son, Walter, also a really nice guy. My brother Ned saw Cal at his 30th reunion. I had Mrs. Davis for English -- she was the best. I had Mr. Labreque for French, and I think he still lives in Richland. He would throw things at my feet to wake me up during class. Our choir director was Ted Baer. He was like Mr. Holland in the movie, "Mr. Holland's Opus". A wonderful man who succumbed to cancer last year.
John Campbell (63)
All this reminiscing brings back many fond memories.
My family moved to Washington from Nebraska in 1947, and we moved into a ranch house on Birch about a year later. It's fun to look at old pictures with no trees or lawns back then. It was a nice place to grow up in - - almost no crime, you could ride your bikes anywhere (wish we had some of those baseball cards we put in the spokes), could go the movie for a quarter or less (remember pushing all the buttons when someone got a pop at the Village Theater - it came out like Dr. Pepper), played outside in the summer evenings (hide and go seek, Annie Annie Over), go to the swimming pool on a hot day (trying to act like a belly flop didn't hurt), take your BB gun to the green belt, trying to walk in thongs, dropping by the Tastee Freeze and trying to eat it before it dripped all over you in hose were the days!
I went to Marcus Whitman (remember the little school store out back where you could get the fake cigarettes), Carmichael, and RHS class of 63 - enjoyed our reunion - CBC, EWU, and Seattle U. In grade school, I remember how smart Kenny Carlson was and how his teacher had him visit all of our classes (2nd grade?) to recite Jaberwokey (sp?) In 6th grade, Mr. Skyler would let us bop to records if we were good all week. I remember going over to George Sharp’s house and seeing his dad's ’57 chev. I had to have one, and eventually I got one in high school. It was an automatic, and while I worked at Densow’s, the guys next door at the Richfield station (Jim Stahl) talked me into putting the auto shifter on the floor for laughs (dumb idea). Later, I bought Jim McGruder’s ’57 Chev – guess what? I still have one. Cars where important to guys back then, and still are to some of us. Remember when I guy from Kennewick challenged everyone at Zip's one night, and finally Rose walked out and put him down with one punch?
John Campbell
Terry Christensen (61)
Still see classmates trying to figure out the name of the grocery store on the corner of McMurray and GWW. The store was called Kaiser's Market. It changed names later, but eventually was tore down. The parking lot was vacant for a long time, only used for seasonal Christmas tree sales. Today a Pizza Hut sits there.
Terry Christensen
Cheryl Moran Fleming (66)
No one's mentioned the yellow mums all the florists sold for Homecoming games. They were beautiful. Also, what about dinner at the Tahitian Room in Uptown on Prom Night???? If you were lucky you got to sit in one of the cabana booths....Was the food really that good or were we just deprived, (living in a town with no good fancy restaurants)? Some people were adventurous and drove all the way to the Yakima Airport for dinner.
Carole Sledge Jones (63)
What memories come flooding back. Linda [Belliston] Boehning [63]: I do remember being quarantined. I think my brothers (Ron 65) and Dave (69) and I spread the diseases out far enough apart that my mom was the one suffering with us closed up for so long.
On Sharon Tate. I inherited her cheer leading outfit my 8th grade year at Chief Jo. (Wish I could say it still fit). The skirt was made by her mother and had the zipper on the wrong side. She always told me it was because her mom was pregnant when she made it. Still haven't figured that one out. Still have the emblems and her name patch as keepsakes. Gave the sweater to my brother, Ron, to wear skiing.... Think he wore that and a pair of pantyhose to keep warm..... Sorry, Ron if you read this.
What was the name of the spillway we use to slide down in Pasco? I showed my grandsons as we boated by and they couldn't believe we would jump/fall off that. My mom just figured out why we had green socks in the wash after hearing the story.
Also remember taking our bikes on the ferry at north Richland and crossing to the Pasco side and riding our bikes near white bluffs.
Thanks again for all the memories.
