"Bomber Memories"
December 9, 10, 11 & 12, 1998
December 9, 1998
Paula Beardsley (62)
To Jack Grouell-(61) Great idea. I bet if we all got up in our parents attics and crawled around basements, we could furnish a house from their treasures.
Re: Carmichael Hill- I don't ever remember sledding down the hill- after all I was a Chief Jo girl and Carmichael sucked- until about 12 years ago when I took my son and since he was only 5 at the time, Mom had to go with him- That hill is really tall when you look at it from the bottom with a sled and a kid to haul back up. We had a good time though- I think we need to have a Bomber reunion on the first snowfall of the season at the top of the hill. Bring your sleds, thermos of coffee, cocoa, hot buttered whatever. We can keep each other warm with memories. You'll recognize many of us by the gray hair peeking out under the stocking caps.
Don Winston (63)
If you check out the picture of Ray Stein from 1964 State:
http://members.wbs.net/homepages/r/i/c/richlandbombers/AirRay-64State.jpg
What's your guess as to the general location of Raymond's left foot? What a classic picture! "Take that 24 -- here's one in your gut -- and while I'm at it, here's two in your face."
Raymond -- thanks for the great memories. Did you make the shot?
Don Winston
John Allen (66)
Comparing the "Best Ever" athletes is almost always an "apples and oranges" argument because, particularly where team sports are concerned, the different positions require such widely different skills. I sympathize with all those who would point to Ray Stein as the best ever. He was certainly a personal hero of mine; not only for his physical talents and his will to win, but because he was and is a fine human being. But if you measure the best ever by how far the player managed to go in the game after Col-Hi, the nod would have to go to Gene Conley (Class of '48) who played center for the Bombers. While not as flashy a player as Stein, Gene did make it as far as backing up Bill Russell for a number of those Boston Celtic teams who won so many consecutive NBA titles (more even, than the Bulls). Gene also pitched for the 1957 World Series Champion Milwaukee Braves (that's right, they were in Milwaukee AND Boston before Atlanta) along with Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. Some fellow by the name of Henry Aaron also played on that team. And by the way, Gene is a pretty nice guy, too.
John M. Allen
Patty Eckert Weyers
(68)
Good old riding academy. Even loved the smell of horses and sage brush as their both unique scents. Now it seems to be a hardship to find a trail out into the dunes to ride and enjoy without running into connected properties that are fenced. Someone asked about a riding instructor's name, back in the late 60-and into the 70's, a Mrs. Jackson taught and had a thriving business using the huge property of Bexler's property over by the river. Her property was beside it. She used many of the academy's horses for her many students. We had our own by then so we did our own thing with other friends with horses. We had wonderful swimming parties and horse tail races across the river on that Bixler land with great beaches and that good ol' filthy Yakima river to enjoy! Yee-iiks!
Mari Eckert (65), good to hear some of your memories also, love those shows in the uptown theater for only a receipt from usually the drug store next door, had forgot about that. get a firestick for 5 cents! and a receipt and you're set for a few hours fun. Sunday's and our long Canasta or Hearts card games also, really got fun. Or the Oh Hell! Now there was a game.
Paula Vinther Case (69)
To Holly Chamberlain (76): I loved your hysterical story about Mrs. Fischer and the petition. I can just see her ranting and raving in front of the class!! I also had her in fifth grade - so did Marjo. My most vivid and irritating memory of being in her class was when she forced me to memorize and recite the poem, "The Raggedy Man," at the Marcus Whitman Talent Show. I remember spending valuable recess time in her room practicing it in front of her. I believe I was a hit at the show but it always bothered me that it was her idea and not mine. I always kind of wondered about her..
Paula
Marjo Vinther Burt (77)
To Holly Chamberlain (76) - your hilarious story reminded me of an incident I had with Mrs. Fischer in which I, too, felt she had overreacted. Although Mr. Morrow was my teacher (5th grade Marcus Whitman), he, Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Sagerser would rotate through the three classrooms each day to teach a particular subject. One morning after Mr. Morrow had left and while we were awaiting Mrs. Fischer's arrival, several of the boys started "farting on their arms" (blowing on their bare arms) - an activity this tomboy enjoyed immensely! Not wanting to be left out, I proceeded to produce a truly thunderous blast of my own..... just as Mrs. Fischer entered the room! Uh oh! I can still see her shocked reaction: she stopped dead in her tracks, jerked her head around (in that kind of off- balanced way of hers) and screamed, "WHO DID THAT??!!!" I couldn't believe how quickly my classmates betrayed me as they pointed at me and said, "she did it!" When Mrs. Fischer finally focused in on me she said, "Miss Vinther!'
That wasn't very lady-like! I want you to come to my classroom at the end of the day and stay after school!" I was mortified, as this was the very first time I had ever been told to stay after school! A while later someone advised me that Mrs. Fischer had a very bad memory, and that I could probably just go home after school and she'd never remember what happened. So I did, and she forgot! Whew! Even so, I felt guilty about not complying and began to rationalize my actions. I decided that she had overreacted and that any punishment was unjustified... and besides, she'd really hurt my feelings by yelling at me! Much later it occurred to me that the reason Mrs. Fischer reacted as she had was because she probably thought what she'd heard was me actually breaking wind! Although hardly what I would consider a punishable offense, I could definitely understand why it shocked her so - such a tremendous blast would have been an incredible feat for even the heftiest man, let alone an 11 year-old girl! It was a long time before I finally confessed this to my mother! The shame!
December 10, 1998
Kay Mitchell Coates
(52)
To Jay Wheat (67) I certainly do remember the Richland Flying Service! You must be the son of that great guy "Buck" Wheat! Bill Wheat and family were our corner neighbors on Cedar Street.
Several of us "old" bombers - Willis Weichel (49), Bill Hightower (49), Vera Rodda Simonton (52) Rich Coates (52) and I spent one very hot summer afternoon in 1997 at the old Richland Flying Service air field, waiting for Bomber Ed Mickulecky (50) and his wife to fly in from California in their private plane.
He was coming to join us for a Civil Air Patrol Reunion. We were all so disappointed in what has happened to that airfield. It is like a ghost town. No one was around, the restaurant was gone, it was almost totally deserted. The big hanger had a few planes stored in it. There was one building that was open - had a rest room and a coke machine. We were just grateful there was a picnic table with benches outside in the shade of one of the buildings. We sat there, scanning the blue sky, waiting for Mick to arrive. It seems there is very little activity out there these days.
I remember the big air shows we attended there. It was always great fun to be able to get close to the really BIG planes. Seems to me like Buck and Bill offered plane rides over the Tri-Cities during those air shows.
Kay Mitchell Coates
Ray Wells (54)
Speaking of Carmichael Hill. I sledded down it even before Carmichael JHS existed. Except the sledding was on sand, and the sled was a cardboard box. My mother could never understand why I came home with all the real estate in my clothes, hair and ears.
Mary Lee Coates
Batterton (59)
Since the topic came up about decorating a Richland home with "GI" (Government Issue) furniture, I dug out my parents', Frank & Florence Coates, receipt for the furniture they bought from the government. Our family was flooded out of VanPort, Oregon on Memorial Day, 1948. We were left with nothing. No clothes, -Thank you Red Cross! - no furniture, etc. We lived at the Desert Inn until we got a 3 bedroom prefab at 1316 Totten. We bought the following furniture from G.E.
How ironic, I notice this receipt is dated Dec.10, 1948. The code descriptions and unit prices read as follows.
Dining Room Table--------4.39
Folding Chair-----------------2.01
KDX Rocker-------------------6.75
KLA Daveno------------------15.00
MB Lamp-floor-----------------2.34
MA Lamp-table---------------1.34
7x9 Rug & Pad---------------10.10
OB Rug--------------------------1.30
Bookcase-----------------------2.47
Double Unit Cabinet---------3.03
Single Unit Cabinet----------2.46
Clothes Hamper---------------2.84
KIX Chair-------------------------1.54
MD Lamp-boudoir------------- .67
Dressing Table & Stool-----3.70
JAX Mirror------------------------1.39
Single Chest of Drawers----5.72
Double Chest of Drawers---7.52
Double Bed & Mattress-----8.16
Single Bed & Mattress------8.03
DA Pillow--------------------------.42
Since they bought more than one of each item their grand total was $132.61, including 3% Washington State sales tax.
Where else?
Mary Lee (Coates) Batterton
Patty de la Bretonne (
)
Yes, all those Eckerts are related. Several of them spent time with my older brother and sister(Bobby Eckert--he could drink vinegar, Rita--whose childhood name was Bunny) Spent one summer hanging out with Donnie, with Linda Montgomery--he was crazy about her. I wonder now why I never was really friends with the Eckert girls who were close to me in age--Mari Leona and Patty.
I think my sister Irene used to listen to the Cinnamon Bear at the Eckert's house.
Anyway it is fun reading stuff from various Eckerts. A vivid part of my childhood. Since we were only 3 siblings, their large family was something strange and wondrous. And I'll never forget the worms.
Patty de la Bretonne
Barb Fecht (67)
I don't believe I have seen anyone mention piling kids into the ol' station wagon and heading for the Buck Private at the Richland-Y to select a Christmas tree. Seems that I remember them being 99 cents back in the early 1950s. In later years our family headed for the Cascades to cut our own and we have continued that tradition.
To Jamie Worley Hills (64): I can still remember in the early 50s being "traumatized" as a youngster when Mr. Tampien would require us to perform some talent prior to receiving our treats on Halloween. Think I sang jingle bells one year 'cause I couldn't remember any other songs. Mrs. Tampien would always have hot cider, donuts and some special treat for each of us though. And, I'll bet a lot of Bombers will remember touring the Tampien farm as a nursery school or kindergarten class field trip. They were wonderful neighbors.
Barb
Mike Franco (70)
Best Bomber EVER... OK, I'll bite... No question about it, the best Bomber basketball player ever was Mike Neill (75). Yes Ray was fantastic, and so were a lot of others. But no player Bird's size ever came in and made such an immediate impact (first game as a soph, on the road in Spokane he scored 35-G. Hanson will correct me if mistaken). Mike played on some pretty average teams, yet finished 2nd, 2nd and 3rd at state. He still holds career tourney scoring record. Mike contributed more and carried his teams more than any other single player.....ok, there it is !!! Comments ?
thought what she'd heard was me actually breaking wind! Although hardly what I would consider a punishable offense, I could definitely understand why it shocked her so - such a tremendous blast would have been an incredible feat for even the heftiest man, let alone an 11 year-old girl! It was a long time before I finally confessed this to my mother! The shame!
December 11, 1998
Joan Eckert Sullens
(51)
Someone mentioned our large Eckert family and the worm business. As a teenager I was "mortified" when Dad went into this "business". But it provided the family with some extra funds to do some fun things. And believe me, at that time, extra funds were hard to
come by. I married shortly after the start of this business so missed out on the "thrill" of nightcrawler picking in the park over in Walla Walla. My sibs remember it well!
Dick Pierard (52)
Re: the item about project furniture. I found in my late mother's papers the mimeographed form letter sent out from the Realty Division, dated March 25, 1948 and signed by M.T. Binns of the division, that provided the terms of sale for all the furnishings (even linens). I noticed that my dad (Jack P. Pierard) spent $145.59 for the things we bought. (We lived in a "B" house on Thayer across the street from Pennywise Drug.) If someone is interested in seeing a copy of this, you can contact me off-line at my e-mail address and I will xerox mine and send it to you.
Dick Pierard (52)
Pam Ehinger Nassen (67)
Oh yes I remember the "foil" tinsel!!!! My dad would stand for hours hanging it one strand at a time!! He'd have it lined on his hand all in a neat row and place each strand on the limb. You started from the back of the limb and worked forward. It made for a very impressive tree!! But try as I might I can't "Throw" the tinsel, it seems almost sacrilegious! Dad gave up on the one at a time when the "Plastic" stuff came out, it's almost impossible to get Just one strand!
Pam Ehinger Nassen 67
[Pam -- Our neighbors, the Williamsons (Coralie-60, Jay-63, and Christi-65) put the tinsel on their tree the way your Dad did. Their tree was always BEAUTIFUL! Ours, on the other hand, was NOT. My Mother TRIED so hard to get us to apply that tinsel one piece at a time, but when she wasn't looking we always had more fun throwing handfuls of the stuff at the tree and our tree LOOKED like it! At least it kept us in practice for testing the doneness of the spaghetti noodles when Mom wasn't looking! -Maren]
Patty Eckert Weyers
(68)
Joe Choate (60), your horse kicking my brother you think was Bobby, but I remember very vividly a day we all rushed down to Wilson Street, (the last street then of our town before the bus lot and onto into North Richland and the FFA Farm.) Running down to the home of the Dixon's where my brother Donny had been kicked by a horse and broken his arm.... never knew Bob to have done that! Bob was and is an avid hunter and always was out in North Richland and West Richland hunting his beloved pheasants, etc. But I really believe the horse kicked Donny (64). I'll never forget that.
Patty de la Bretonne (65), funny how we never did connect and get to know each other very well living so closely. Your older brother Ernie was like one of our family. Bob and Rita (Bunny) over at your house. Irene was a loved person also, as I remember Rita and Jinnie singing "Irene GoodNight" (and I associated that to your sister Irene!) before falling to sleep some nights, and it became a big memory in my childhood. Only thing I can surmise is Mari (Leona) and I went to C of K school instead of the public until 9th grade instead of the close elementary school of Jason Lee.
We sold the worms in town for years and years at 1108 Van Giesen, but don't laugh, we also were able to buy a boat and motor and ski and fish some of our youth for those funds and a tote goat (motorcycle) and in '61 a brand new black and silver Ford Galaxy 500 two door with red interior we all thought was the best!, and the folks bought and paid for an 80 acre parcel of forest land out of Spokane, to die for now, and built a little cabin where we all have loved and enjoyed for 35 years now on worm funds and selling rabbits and flower seeds. I hated it all then, but now I see the wisdom of all of us working together.... and it was a lot of work! Still can rattle that one off: (when answering our door at all hours of the late night and very early mornings with excited fishermen); "the night crawlers are 35 cents a doz. and 3 doz. for a $1.00, or our angle worms are 25 cents a doz. and 5 dozen for $1.00!" In today's age, we'd be crazy to open up our doors and house to strangers like then... Often our little bunny rabbits that we tried to always have available around spring and Easter time were sold for only $1.00 each and the big buck's or doe's for $5.00 each. What a deal.... where have those prices gone!
Patty Eckert Weyers
Holly Chamberlain (76)
To Marjo Vinther Burt, '77: Your note about one of your Marcus Whitman fifth grade experiences reminded me that you were in the Library Club there at the same time I was. I don't know how long the Library Club, a.k.a. free child labor, existed, but I think it was there at least as long as during our MUCH OLDER sisters' years at MW. (I'll get it for that one!) I remember being in it also with Louise Kirz, Kristen Lindberg, Carol Houston, Geri Monson -- who else? I'm surprised that we all didn't end up on Broadway, given the stellar performances we put in on those library plays. Gosh, where WERE those talent scouts when we needed them?
Donna Fisher (80)
Tinsel throwing reminds us (kids) on doing the same thing with our trees. No wonder our parents hated us when we did that. But it was fun.
The best memory I have around Xmas was going around looking at lights and the best spot was up on Cottonwood Street. That whole section would be shining with all kinds of lights and decorations.
My most scary memory was going to see Santa in the old Thrifty store uptown. My mom had to get me real excited about seeing Santa and as soon as I saw him, I would start crying. So back to the drawing board next year with me.
Donna (Class of 80)
Heather Carstens Pedlar
(88)
Does anyone remember going out to eat at restaurants along the river and watching the boat light show for Christmas? Do they still do that? My family used to go on my birthday (12/12) and watch it I loved it . . . fond memories:)
Heather
December 12, 1998
Mike Bradley (56)
Had the opportunity to go through a lot of my folks pictures recently. Found a whole bunch of pictures from the old Richland Players back in the 50's. My father forced my brother and I to participate in that organization for a lot of years. When we were selected as an actor from time to time we got a can of Almond Roca as a reward. I still love that candy. If any of you had any ties to the Richland Players during the 50's I would be delighted send you any photos that I may have. I have shots from Little Women, he Philadelphia Story, Life with Father and so on.
In talking about sports, particularly, Baseball there was another guy from the class of 1954 who went on to the semi-professional team in Walla Walla and then to the majors who was quite good. His name was Bill Griffin. I remember one time he and I were returning to Walla Walla in his 1940 or 1941 Chevrolet. One of his favorite tricks was to pull the hand throttle all the way out, stick his feet out the window and let her rip. I can recall trying to play catcher for him while he was practicing his pitching. I think my hand still smarts. I believe he played for Chicago but now I am not sure.
I can recall going to the Tri City Braves games in Kennewick on numerous occasions. One time the game got rained out and my brothers and I were on the way home to Richland in my recently overhauled 1934 Chevrolet. A Car came out of the night and hit us. It was a new Henry J which ended up being totaled. I remember calling my father from Zeb's Radiator shop up in the highlands and relating the events of the accident. He showed up at the same time as the Washington State Patrol. A sergeant of the WSP who was the guy on the old program "Could this be you" which aired over the radio made a statement to my Dad that old cars such as mine shouldn't be on the highway as they were unsafe with Mechanical brakes. Since my Dad and I had just completed a complete overhaul of the old car including the brakes, my father blew a gasket and be-rated the Sargeant and I got off with no punishment. Luckily, no one was hurt but my driving days were over for a short period of time. How many of you remember the radio program? After my father got through with the Sargeant I remember listening to the radio to see if our interview ever made it to the airwaves. Needless to say it never did.
Mike Bradley
David Rivers (65)
Santa ar Thrifty!
One of my favorite Christmas memories was probably my Junior year or so. Butch Manthei (65), Eric Pederson (65), Johnnie Crowder (65), Rick Warford (65), Brian Johnson (65) and I were kind of cruising Thrifty, probably up to no good, and we walked by what appeared to be a dead or stuffed Santa. Butch couldn't stand it and had to see if he could get Santa to react.. all of a sudden Santa opened his eyes... Butch jumped a mile and Santa said... "It never rains but it pours Rivers"! We couldn't figure this guy out but knew we'd all been made by Santa! Butch, being Butch put his face in Santa's face and let out: "Santa's a cop!" I think it was "officer Stout" (don't know if I ever knew him by any other name... didn't he used to come to the schools and give a talk or something?) Anyway, we all decided to leave about that point.
Didn't Santa used to be Downtown before he was at Thrifty? I remember going to see him at Anderson's or the Bon Marche (or was the Bon Marche in the old Anderson's building??????????????). We really did have it good growing up in Richland and I wouldn't trade it or my childhood (now grown... kind of) friends for anything. There is just no way of explaining to others what it was to grow up in Richland, Washington in the 40's thru the early sixties!... I can't speak to it after I left in early '66... but before that it was better'n American Graffitiville!
David Rivers
Erin Owens Hyer (66)
Had to laugh reading comments about Santa. My Mom always told me that shopping with me when I was little was easiest at Christmas. With the first glimpse of a Santa in a store I was stuck like glue to my Mom. I was scared to death of the jolly fat man. Certainly no pictures of me sitting on Santa's lap when I was little. The rest of the year I was a pain in her fanny when we went shopping. Once, after frantically searching everywhere for me at CC Anderson, she found me in the window display with the mannequins. Another time she met me coming off the freight elevator. Oh, the trials of motherhood.
Patty Eckert Weyers
(68)
Re: Tinsel, the old fashion foil type, Yes, this was a great memory on adding that product at the end of our mass production in the Eckert Clan 'F' House, but, no matter how much time we spent on it, and we're talking hours, as Mom usually ended up finishing this chore but it always looked just perfect, UNTIL the furnace kicked on through the register vents and let me tell you, it all changed and flew being that light in weight. We too tried to recycle year to year and really managed it, again Mom being the main person to accomplish this feat. A tree however without that tinsel was just not finished. One year we got to have a "flocked white" one and still the tinsel had to go on. Mom and Bob one year, I'll never forget, built their own plastic covered area outdoors to flock the tree themselves using our old vacuum cleaner, it actually worked well, except Mom tented the flocking with blue coloring so our tree was Bluish/White that year, different to say the least But instead of the tinsel she had silver sprinkles thrown on while the flocking was wet! What is with the new tinsel being 3 foot long? or more!
Patty Eckert Weyers (68)
Rick Polk (70)
Steve Piippo (70) mentioned the Niell's as being Chief Jo products brought up memories of the great cross town rivalry during the late 60s between Carmichael and Chief Jo. I can remember everyone getting so excited when it was time to play Chief Jo. We Carmichael Cougars could have lost every game of the year, but if we beat the Chief Jo Warriors, it made the whole season a success. Having played basketball for Carmichael, I can remember the big game of the year was with Chief Jo, especially since we got to play the game in the "big" gym at Richland High.
Rick Polk
Dustin Rector (88)
I do have one really distinct memory. Last day of class before X-mas '86 was supposed to be a short day. It snowed, and we all came in an hour or two late, so we had an extra short day. Then we had an assembly, and our AP Algebra teacher (what's-his-name that always left during the tests so the jocks could cheat) had threatened the day before to still give us the test no matter what.
As it turned out, I believe we went to the Christmas Assembly after 2nd period and as always went way over (by 45 minutes or so) and since the snow day had reduced class times to 20 minutes, nobody knew if we were supposed to go to 3rd period, lunch, 4th period or what. We took the test when we got back from Christmas Break. I don't think they should have called that a school day -- we had just enough time to get to our classes say hi, and then off to the next class. What fun!
Dustin Rector
