"Bomber Memories"
September 21 & 22, 1998
September 21, 1998
Mary Kay Mitchell Coates (52)
I received one of the little cedar boxes, which I still have, when I graduated in 1952. It contains my special treasures - the key, however, is long gone. As to the murder of Mrs. Wight (spelling was not W-h-i-t-e), I too remember it well. My family came in 1945, so many of the things on Billye Conley Drew's check list were "yeses" for me. How about By's Burgers?? It was our favorite place to hang out until word got out that he was making his hamburgers from horse meat!! YUCK! Glad my favorite sandwich there was a ham and cheese!
Mary Kay Mitchell Coates
Barbara Kramer Krema (54)
The girls in '54 class were given jewelry boxes and I believe the class of '53 too.
Does anyone recall various celebs who came to Richland? Janice Paige, Chill Wills and I think Little Jimmy Dickens came for Frontier Days. Also Kirk Douglas for a Democracy Celebration and I know some came for war bond sales but I can't remember who. Anyone recall?
Barb Kramer Krema
Millie Finch Gregg (54)
We truly had a wonderful place to grow up and meet new friends. When you think about when we came in 43 or so, no one knew anybody. Just our dads knew they had a job to do (they didn't even know what they were doing!). How many of us would be so willing today, just to up and leave and take a job we knew nothing about...... .ahem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We literally watched the place become a town. Because without streets, sidewalks, houses, etc., it was hard to say we lived in a city. But soon it took on it's characteristics - and still remains so today with all the "alphabet" houses, etc.
Does anyone remember the little guy we called "Dupus Boomer?? I think my mom still has a book about him.
In remembering days at Carmichael, I haven't heard anyone mentioned the principal, Christian Anderson (Mary Ester's dad). He was so strict, but look at what upright citizens we are today, so guess it all paid off.
The woman PE teacher I had earlier asked about was Marion Mandell. Now, the next question, she married the boy's PE teacher - what was his name? She was very pretty.
Do you remember during football season......we would build a very big BONFIRE (where the parking lot is today) next to the field, and then we would have a serpentine dance through town!! Oh that was so much fun.
No one has mentioned "poor old Mr. Telfry"....... he had to be 100 years old. In his Eng. Lit,. class one day, I don't remember who, but they got a snow ball, and sneaked up on Mr. Telfy and dripped the snowball on his bald head!!
Also, I remember that our neighborhood (Zilar, Morris, Schmidt and whoever else I can't remember, we would have carnivals in the back yards, and the money we made, we made cookies and sent to the servicemen.
How about the song *The Halls of Ivy"??
Millie (Finch) Gregg
Tony Tellier (57)
RE: Mrs. White's murder.
Read that someone in a nursing home confessed to doing it, although I thought it was still unsolved.
I must have missed the remarks about the only (?) true crime that occurred in Richland back then. Other than us/we minors in possession .. Crime Stoppers On Patrol, for sure!
Anthony Tellier
Jim Russell (58)
Richland in the late forties and fifties was a little unreal then and extremely unreal today. We saw very few "old" people. Most adults were in the early or middle part of their working careers. Maybe 30% of the residents were children under 18. Every household had a job, and every family had a house. "Homeless" meant temporary quarters at the Desert Inn. The landlord was benevolent, and responded to tenant concerns. Every house was painted, every green space was maintained.
Most families had one working partner and one child raising partner. We children could come home to a parent (usually 'mom") and share our troubles and triumphs. I never needed to carry a key to an unlocked house. Life was simple, good, and safe.
The worst drug experience was sneaking a few beers and smoking tobacco.
Running behind the mosquito sprayers was real entertainment. We didn't occupy our time with graffiti, gangs, or drugs. Oh, I wish my grandchildren could experience what it was like to be a child who felt loved and wanted; excited to go to school because the teachers were able to teach and the children were able to learn.
Sure, we were blind to some of those problems behind closed doors: abusive parents, spousal conflicts. Not everything was peaches and cream. We learned in health class about alcoholism. But few of us knew anybody who had that problem. Or, so it seemed.
Yes, life was good. And our parents worked at the kind of jobs that insured that life would continue to be good. We grew up accepting the nuclear age as an age for peace and unlimited energy. We grew up expecting to go to college because our parents graduated from college and education was a high priority. We grew up with hope and expectations for an even better life.
And then, somehow, we moved on. And grew up. And woke up.
Steve Carson (58)
TO:Betty Johnson Bennett (46)
Betty, I enjoy your warm memories. We were certainly lucky to have had the Richland experience. My family moved to North Richland in 1952 and we spent 2 years in a twenty seven foot trailer in the 600 block of G street before moving into a Ranch at 1210 Cedar. While we lived in the trailer I grew nine inches and since I slept on the couch in the "front room", my feet would kick the door open in the night and hang out until the cold would awaken me.
When we finally got into the spacious ranch house, the first evening we all (My Dad, Ray Carson; Mom, Shirley; and Sister, Carolyn) came into the living room and automatically sat down on the couch together.
My first job was at Thrifty Drug washing dishes. I came very close to getting fired when I came through the front of the store with a load of pies from the bakery next door. Seems the manager believed his "Home Made" boast on the menu.
Larry Smith (61)
We moved to Richland in fall of '44. Pop came first, alone, and lived in one of the dorms for a short time, 'till we moved into a B house at 607 Comstock. I remember that early-on, everyone didn't get phones. We had one but the Haags, in the other half of our house, didn't so my dad installed a buzzer and sound powered intercom between house halves so we could buzz them when they got a call. I just conferred with my older sister, Irene, and we agree on our phone number being 1176J. Remember the irrigation spigots in the yards? They would tell us not to drink out of it 'cause it is not clean water. It looked clean to me, and when you are hot and thirsty --- Also, diagonal across the intersection was a Campbell's food store. There were two or three in town eventually, and one in Pasco. My dad did all of the grocery shopping and I 'got' to go with him. He brought his own canvas bags to put the food in. No paper or plastic bags yet! The streets were not paved at first. When they paved them they also put in pavement sidewalks. I went to K, 1, and 2 at Lewis and Clark. In second grade I was bike riding with Judy Willox. I turned around to see how far behind she was. When I turned back around to see where I was, I hit a moving car!!! Remember when doctors made house calls? Dr Corrado was a GP at that time and our family doctor.
In the summer of '51, we moved into the 'new' part of town (like any of it was old?) at 1520 Butternut. When school started, Jason Lee was not ready so they bussed my 3rd grade class down to Lewis & Clark. I think that was the year that a bunch of us got caught throwing rocks at the second story windows in the old and boarded up (first floor) high school building. It was just target practice to us, but we had to pay some amount to replace the windows in a building which soon was torn down.
The lot on the north of Van Giesen was a great place for huge tumble weed forts. When they dredged the ditch behind our house, it was great for dirt clod wars. Remember parking your bike on its kick-stand at the swimming pool and coming out later and the kick-stand was buried in the pavement? And the 25 mile barefoot walk to Chief Joe in the -30 degree winters? Could my memory be off a little?
About tax tokens -- they were aluminum with a hole. When they became obsolete, my dad collected them because they made good washers and were cheaper than you could buy washers.
It seems to me that the Cinnamon Bear was featured on the Uncle Ben show. At other times of the year there were other continued stories like the one about Molly Woppy and the 'Bridge of the SingleHair". I think that is where I first heard the Dr. Seuse story about Horton the Elephant.
I don't think I've seen anyone mention the long hair station KPKQ, and for a while there was KWIE.
Patsy Noble Eichner (61)
I remember the 12:00 whistle. The smoke (?) stack downtown. Wearing identification necklaces or bracelets in grade school.
Keith Hunter (63)
I WOULD GIVE ANYTHING for the smell of ddt and uranium running through my veins again.. Or mAYBE ITS STILL THERE.
KEITH HUNTER 63
Connie Boehning Nicholson (64)
Looking through some pictures my father gave me I found the flood of 1948. My father said our family was at the Highland drive-in and in order to get home to Richland they had to go to Sunnyside. I was only two so I don't remember.
I also remember the skating being a slab of concrete with benches on the side lines and located where it is today.
I attended Lewis & Clark and still see Mrs. Phillips (my first grad teacher), Mrs. Lamb (who taught 4th grade), and Mrs. Lester Thompson.
Nola Alderman Lobdell (69)
To that ill-informed reference to Mrs. Whites murder the police knew what they were doing because years ago her neighbor confessed to doing it but it didnt stop ignorant people from ruining an innocent mans life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Susy Rathjen Whitney (71)
Just read Billye Conley Drew's memories. I must have had that SAME horse at the Riding Academy! I use to ride there, until one time, I was on a horse that just would not leave the barn. The man who had gotten me the horse, picked up a 2x4 and hit the horse across the jaw! I couldn't believe he did that, but I was only 13 or 14 and didn't know how to handle the situation. The horse DID leave the barn and once it got out into the big riding area it took off running as fast as it could. I couldn't get it to stop! Finally, it stopped at the fence, over by the highway. I just about went flying off! I don't recall ever going back after that.
I, too, remember having to play the sticks in music, instead of the triangle, or any of the other "good" instruments. I was in Lewis and Clark. Guess every kid in every school in Richland must have had the same experience! Does anyone remember playing the bells in music?
Re: the dirt in the basement of our houses! It was scary! I remember "exploring" with a friend, once, not knowing "who or what" was buried in the dirt.
Re: to Lois Clayton, I remember "fizzies". But we were tough in our neighborhood! We put them directly on our tongue! Boy, did that burn! Only did that a couple of times, though. Guess we weren't THAT tough! (I remember Funny Face, too). I also remember the old high school. Our 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Thompson took the class outside to watch the wrecking ball knock it down. I also remember your dad. I had him as my 7th grade science/health teacher. I remember him teaching us about the "reproductive system". What little I knew, going into the class, I came out more confused than ever!! What WAS that "one line drawing on the board?" He said it was a drawing of the male genitals. Now, I had babysat baby boys and changed their diapers and they didn't look like THAT! Back then, they taught you about those things, but they didn't REALLY teach you about those things. And it was bad enough hearing about that kind of stuff, but in a room with boys AND girls? I was dying! Then came the dreaded question at the end of that session. "ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS? I sat there in my seat praying "please don't let there be any questions, please don't let there be any questions." I don't remember if anyone asked one. I also remember his story about his ship being hit during WWII and something about saving the ice cream. What was the story?
Re: Campbells store, I also use to walk there. We didn't wear shoes, very often, in the summer time and the blacktop would be so hot on my feet, but that didn't stop me from walking there. I remember a woman named "Bee" who worked there. I also remember, for a time, the clerks wore little white aprons, with pockets and after you paid for your groceries, they would pull an envelope out of their pocket and give it to you. When you opened it, there would be play money..half of a one or five or ten... you saved them and when you matched up the other half, you could redeem them for real money. I also remember S&H green stamps.
Re: May baskets, it was a nice tradition, in those days. Kids don't do it much anymore. It's our own fault for not keeping up the tradition with our kids.
Re: Mosquito fogger. We called him the "Mosquito Man" I'm sure a vision was conjured up, when my mom would yell " Quick! Kids, get in the house! The Mosquito Man is coming"!! And then, all we could see was this white fog coming towards the house. What does a "Mosquito Man" look like, anyway? (I know someone wrote in and said, "that was my dad". I don't mean to offend, it's just the way I remember it.)
I've been reading about favorite teachers. My favorite teacher was Mr. Clarkson, our principal at L&C. When I was little, I would run up to him and hug him, yelling "Grandpa, Grandpa" and I would hold his hand on the playground... he made himself very visible to the children. How many principals are like that now? I can still hear him walking down the hall, jingling his change in his pockets. I wrote him love notes, when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. One day, after he had retired and I was married and had moved away, he showed up at my mom and dad's door and handed them the love notes I had written him. He had kept them all those years! What a sweet man.
Patty Deal was our babysitter. I don't know what year she graduated. She lived on G.W.Way. I think her parents still do. I remember Sandy Freeman babysitting us, too. She used to dance and after she'd put us little ones in bed, she'd dance for us.
My first job was at McVickers Jewelers. I stunk at that job, but Mrs. McVicker was very kind to me and let me work there until I quit. I'm sure she must have said a prayer of thanks, the day I quit.
Our phone number? WH-77835.
Susy Rathjen Whitney
September 22 & 23, 1998
September 22, 1998
Marilyn Peddicord Whitley (53)
I still have my cedar box and key also an autograph book with many of the celebrities others mentioned inscribed.
Art "Tom" Hughes
Someone mentioned some of the famous people that came to town. These are some I remember:
The Grand Ole Opry came to play in the Boys Gym. There was Red Foley, Tex Ritter, Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones and a lot more. Mr Stell held a party for them all in the Music room after the show and I guess it got a little bit loud because the police were called at about 1:00 in the morning and the party was shut down. I had helped with the sound equipment setup and I had to help clean up the mess the next morning.
The US Navy Band came and played in the Bomber Bowl. My Mom's cousin was a musical arranger with the band and we had about 10 of them out to dinner in our Pre-cut on Willard.
Ray Whitley was a regular for many years at the Atomic Frontier Days.
Tom Mix came to the village theater once. We watched him shoot balloons and do tricks with his horse. I was disappointed many years later when I learned that he used shot shells in his pistols that made about a 10 foot pattern. He could not have missed if he had tried.
There were probably many more.
As to the story about Mr Clayton and the ice cream. He was the advisor for our radio club and he told the story many times. He was aboard an Aircraft Carrier, I think the old Lexington, when it was torpedoed during the battle of the Coral Sea. When they had to abandon ship they were told to grab what they could for floatation. For some reason he was in the kitchen so he grabbed a 5 gallon container of ice cream and jumped overboard. He never did figure out why he grabbed the ice cream.
Does anyone remember John Reid and his Caterpillar club stories about bailing out of a B-17 during the war?
Art(Tom) Hughes
Robert M. "Bob" Frederick
(59) c/o Sandi Cherrington (66)
I'm writing this email for a friend of mine. His name is Robert M. Frederick (Class of '59). He would like to add his memories, but does not have a computer.
I called and told him that a couple of people had asked about him and his brother, John Frederick.
The email address he gave me for John is not a good one, but as soon as I get one, I will send it in for him. I also have Bob's address and phone number, if anyone would like to contact him, just email me and I'll send it to you.
Bob says he has lots of memories of school, and growing up in the Tri-Cities. Some of them are: swimming in the flumes at the Richland Y, Atomic Frontier Days, High-Spot Dances, and the Homecoming BonFires.
Bob will be sending me more memories and messages, and I will forward them on to you.
Sandi Cherrington
Floyd A. Morse (60)
It has really been great reading all of your memories and brought quite a few to me.
My best friend Jack Russell (60) [Jim Russell's (58) brother], were a part f the notorious "Boy's Pep Club". We used too get to the basketball games early so we could sit on the to row of seats in the lower student section.
Jack had tape record and 20watt amp and speaker set and provided the music for the Richland DeMolay Chapter dancers, where he got the nickname "Jake's One Man Band".
I am sorry to report that Jack passed away last summer.
Floyd A. Morse
Bill Craddock (61)
A few memories of mine that may break into the memory banks of others: Garmo's Grocery, Wild Bill's Grocery, Johnny's 76 station, Jim and Jakes Sporting Goods Store, Cafeteria at the Mart, Fishing (Carmichael P.E.) at Wellsian Pond, Sledding on Carmichael hill (both day and night), feeling like I had finally made the "big time" when I got to park in the Senior Parking Lot, Froggy the Gremlin - "hiya kids, hiya, hiya pfbeebbbbbb!", when pink and black combinations were the big fashion statement for guys in jr. high, with VERY skinny belts, when many parents wouldn't let their boys have a leather jacket cause the "hoods" wore them, when there were more cops in Richland than there were in Spokane, Officer Whitehead, NearBeer, Cutting the belt loops off my jeans so the teachers couldn't enforce the "have to wear a belt" rule, English Brogues, "parking", inverted conical containers full of A&W root beer, the Penny Candy rack at Densow's, Ed Borasky in his Zorro suit and on his bicycle at a pep assembly, Walking to Korten's to buy 45's - Elvis usually (I still have a bunch of those), the "cool" way to get onto the dance floor for slow dances, the shoulder pads in Mr. Bouchard's suit coats, calling a rap on the butt with a teacher's paddle a "spat", teachers who would stop classes and turn the radio on for World Series games, wooden baseball bats repaired with tape, nails, screws, etc. when they would crack, winning the all-city dance contest with Doris Van Reenan during the Richland-becomes-a-city festivities, Mr. Hislop had a Corvette, calling VW's Slugbugs, rabbit hunting where Columbia Center is now, more some other time. Rick Donnell's (61) dad was the author and artist responsible for Dupus Boomer.
Pat Bezzio (63)
Does anyone remember . . .
- Lik-M-Aid - no one made drinks out of it, we just ate it from the package.
- When grade-school age, making blanket houses on the clothesline
- (Girls) Starching those slips so they would be even stiffer - I dried mine on an umbrella outside
- Finger painting - we got to do this in the boiler room at Marcus Whitman.
- Conversation hearts at Valentine's Day
- Folk dance lessons - ours at Marcus included international dance - it was years before I learned that Korobushka had other words besides "One, here we go, hop; two, here we go, hop; together, apart, and underneath!"
- Mrs. Davis making us write essays in sophomore English in high school. Boy, was that hard! But much of my good training in English I attribute directly to her.
- Mrs. Luckey reciting "The Tree Frog" and croaking out the words, "Rain, rain, rain!" while wearing her white eyelet dress with the red slip underneath. I don't mean to sound disrespectful here, but she was somewhat eccentric, and I think my decision never to try grade or high school teaching was based on how carefully we scrutinized our teachers and how critical we were!
- I swear this is true: In some Jr. hi (Carmichael) or high school english class we broke up into groups and had to recite poems. I was in a group with Susan Konecny and a couple of other girls. We had The Ship of State by Wordsworth(?) and we turned it into rap . . . years ahead of our time! It was sorta like this: Thou, TOO, sail on, oh (pause) ship of state, sail ON, oh U-nion, (pause) strong and great, hu-MAN-i-ty with (pause) all its fears, and (pause) all its hopes through all the years, is (pause) hanging BREATH-less (pause) on thy fate!
Carolyn Riese Maciejewski (64)
I was a member of the Junior Achievement and not much else, am always sorry that I wasn't encouraged to play tennis or something ! ! ! I probably could have handled some sports,
God Bless us All,
Carolyn
Ellen Spitaleri (65)
I was wondering if anyone else remembers being told that Richland was the number one (or number two) spot that the Russians would bomb when the time came to nuke us. I recall also being told that actually the dreaded Ruskies would bomb Grand Coulee dam and the resulting flood would cover Richland before we could evacuate. Someone even showed me a "high water" mark and told me that is how high the water would be in town. I credit this experience with my fear of water.
But then there were my less than pleasant experiences at the Richland pool: having to wear a hideous bathing cap, having first period PE and being freezing cold and returning to school with wet hair and stinking of chlorine, and one time when I was the victim of a mass splashing by some unruly boys. Oh, and then there was being dared to jump off the high dive, which I foolishly did. I survived, but received a classic belly flop injury. I never learned to swim. Is there a connection here?
Ellen Spitaleri
Richard St. John (65) or
TO: John Bixler (64):
I remember the foot long hot dogs at the Stop 'n Go in the Y. Actually, it was in the highlands, on a corner. I don't remember the street names, and don't get back there very often. I remember my Dad used to take the family up there on Saturday after payday. That was about the only "fast food" place in the Tri-Cities at that time.
Cheryl Moran Fleming (66)
Thanks, Mary Kay Mitchell Coates, for your pursuit of truth behind the real "Wight" murder.
David Rivers mentioned the "pretend bomb blast" that was put on for the entertainment (?) of the residents. I remember that this happened during a Christmas Tree bonfire down by the library. Did this happen more than once?
Also, enjoyed Jim Russell's essay on the pureness and simplicity of our childhoods.
Cheryl Moran (66)
Rick Maddy (67)
I thought that little green and gold bomb was still the mascot. One time it was stolen by a Yakima school (Davis?), sometime between 64-67 - I know someone knows the correct year out there - and a roadblock by students was needed to get that bomb back.
WIAA - who runs this agency anyway? It just has to be somebody not from around these parts I suspect. This genius thinks it is perfectly OK to say a bomb, particularly of the atomic class, and it’s haunting biomorphic shape is considered antiquated, repugnant, politically incorrect, or whatever lame excuse they bring to the front, and therefore cannot be a mascot anymore, after fifty or so years. And in the same run-on sentence says the instrument that took this nightmare to Japan is okay as a mascot.
Class of 99 -- Where is our bomb now? Make sure WIAA leaves the little monster alone and give him/her a fresh paint job. And sew the mushroom back on your uniform. Our parents produced the inert to that bomb. Maybe I should speak for myself here and not use we, but that bomb is more than just a mascot to many grads of RHS.
I always thought we were the bomb. Not the Richland Bombs, but the Bombers, yes. But definitely not the bomber airplane! Am I wrong? Someone please educate me. The Richland Beavers doesn't cut it either. Never saw one beaver in that town. Come to think of it, I never saw a B17, B24, or a B29 either, but I remember that bomb.
Lois Clayton Colton (72)
TO: Susy Rathjen Whitney (71)
Yes, Aubrey Clayton was on the USS Lexington during WW11 when it was hit. He and some others did go down to the kitchen and eat the ice cream. Then they had to abandon ship. He was in the water for about 6 hours and finally was rescued by the USS Phelps. Then they torpedoed the Lex and sank her so the Japanese couldn't get to her. A few years ago he found the man who had pulled him onto the Phelps. He was having his hair cut across the street from where my father lived. Small world, huh?
Lois Clayton Colton
