BECKY EMRICH'S SISTER PASSES AWAY

If you don't follow Facebook you might not know that Becky's sister Joann Walker passed away last night in Little Rock. Becky has been posting daily as she visited Joann in the hospital, and I think I missed the very beginning post. Joann and husband Dennis were on vacation in Arkansas when she became sick. Her lungs were involved and it's now been a two week battle which Joann fought valiantly, but lost last night. Please keep Becky and her family in your prayers. When I learn more, I will post. Our classmate Gary Schmidt is now at home resting and progressing a bit each day after two heart attacks and surgery this past weekend. He too needs all our prayers and positive vibes.

MORE FROM THE USS IOWA

My brother Kert, KHS69, spent two weeks in March aboard the USS IOWA as she was undergoing major restoration prior to her new role as tourist and educational attraction at San Pedro, CA. He's made a good video of the work, and he's back this coming week for more. Here is his explanation:

The ship is undergoing major restoration now (4/12)- she has been completely scaffolded and paint crews are sand/waterblasting, priming and painting. We opened to the public in December up in Richmond to generate $$ to stay afloat. It's the $3M from the Iowas state legislature that has allowed the new round of work to begin. We will tow to LA on the 21st of May. The plan is to have the ship open to the public at her permanent berth in San Pedro for the last week of June. To that end we are just starting a round of video/museum installation projects to tell her story. Waiting now for funding for that. We seem always to be waiting for $$ which usually comes, but not as much as we would like- always... So standing by to do a lot of work in a really short time! I was aboard for two weeks in March and am heading back this morning for another week to film the painting.

Check out his video to see the latest on the progress - he'll be making another video to show the rest of the work and the unveiling of her in her new glory! Way to go Kert and to all our Veterans who served aboard her we say THANKS!

Nostalgic night ramblings

After spending a couple hours in Crestwood this evening with a KHS65 alum who shall remain nameless, I drove home about 11:30pm on this beautiful clear, cool night. Downtown Kirkwood was pretty much deserted and the lights were nearly all green all the way from Watson Road to Manchester. Couldn't help but notice how much has changed but my mind seemed to see it all with old eyes. Spencers is still the same, Nipher has an addition closer to the road. Manor Grove Nursing Home, the old Kirkwood Old Folks' Home, where my former mother in law lived and died, has had an addition; passed by the corner where the Clark station was, where Sue Hoch & I used to grab a quick smoke before school, then the site of the old Pfitzinger's, the show, the block that used to be brick houses where Ronnie Reed's sister lived & held his b'day party; the Magic House is now HUGE, and as I passed by the site where the Kirkwood Hotel was I couldn't help but notice the fact that the new modern building taking up most of that block sits close to the sidewalk and road, just like the old hotel did. Remember those old geezers who used to stand around outside? So much has changed, yet if you use the right night vision goggles you will still see Katz Drug, the bank where I had my first savings account, Kirkwood Pres where we had Girl Scout Sunday services. Then the house where Cyril Clemens lived - remember his walking down the sidewalk with his white beard? Of course turning left to come west right at Parkmoor is always a memory-trigger - boyz and their carz. Claychester Cleaners where we took our dry cleaning, and never could figure out why it was named for our street? Then the corner where Bopp intersects Manchester, nothing like it used to be. Remember the Gulf Station? For awhile they had a special offer, stainless cutlery for a reduced price with purchase. I had that cutlery for many years! I passed by so many places - streets where our classmates lived, streets where I lived. North Kirkwood Jr. High, the Chemistry teacher Mr. Adams' street where Jane Via and I teepeed and thought we weren't caught, until a few days later when Mr. A played a home movie for us in class....a movie of me and Jane tossing the rolls!!! We were mortified! Then north on Ballas Road past Squire Korum's house, and the home of relatives of close family friends, then the street on which lived the true love of my life, then the recently-shuttered Shell gas station at Ballas and Clayton Roads where my friend took me when I was about 19 to pick up a credit card application, my first, then west on Clayton past more streets of friends. That brought to mind how much of my life has been spent on or near Clayton Road, even more so as I passed the nursing home where several of my friends have lived and died. Spent some time thinking about Route 66 because Manchester Road is part of the old 66 Byway. Past the old Flaming Pit restaurant on Manchester where we ate dinner after graduation and before THE party, which was before the swim party, much of which I don't remember due to the bottle of champagne that my date and love of the time opened for me as we drove in his convertible MG to Cool Dell.

I frequently come home from Kirkwood at night up Kirkwood Road to Manchester then Ballas then Clayton but for some reason tonight the nostalgia bits seemed foremost in my mind. Hardly another car on the road all the way home until, closer to home, I passed the high school from where my kids graduated, past the road to my home in Manchester of 12+ years, and into my driveway where the light was on, and the first moth of the season was fiercely clinging to the white garage door. It must be spring, the trees are abloom, forsythia gorgeous and the tulips under our mailbox stand are in full color...and then there's a solitary moth! Some things never change. And thinking of Clayton Road and Lindbergh, the way I sometimes come home rather than the detour over Ballas, reminds me that I recently had a BIG BEVO at Schneithorst's...I only recently realized they STILL serve them. The sauce is as good, but not enuf of it - I plan to speak to the chef on my next visit, he's probably young so needs a refresher course in Big Bevo-making.

OLD FRIENDS COME BACK IN SPADES

When we were in grade school my family went for a visit, Thanksgiving I believe, to my paternal grandparents' home in Westfield, NJ. While there I went to school with the girl who lived across the street. She and I had become pals during our visits. I had a great time and was surprised how well I was welcomed. Anyway, in more recent times I was looking to reconnect with Carolyn, that friend, while I was working on my grandfather's diary transcription because her family is mentioned therein often. In the process I googled around and found Nancy who is the reunion/alumni guru of their 1965 graduating class (and found Carolyn) and now Nancy and I correspond on reunion topics. Today she sent me the following message which I'd like to share to illustrate what a great thing can happen when we just start looking for someone! We never know what influence we might have on someone else's efforts. Thanks Nancy for sharing. I've learned from Nancy too! And of course, I appreciate her kind words. I am guilty of getting busy and NOT updating often enough, I'm behind right now back to OCTOBER news! But I do try to keep it current. I promise to try to be better - one of my favorite KHS65 members mentioned just last night that I'm not posting very often, MY bad!

Hi Leslie,     It's Nancy here from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in Scotch Plains, NJ wishing to THANK YOU for printing these 'Oldies AND Goodies' memories!  Made me laugh to see my name on your website!   Funsie!!!    Well, I'm finally 'catching up' to your way of thinking by eliminating individually e-mailing 420 Classmates (in 8 groups) every time there's "New News" to share with a SPFHS '65 WEBSITE!!!  When I got my FIRST computer 4 years ago (Love that Apple) and knew NOTHING, it only occurred to me to "bring the news to the classmates" as I didn't think they would go to a website to see or read it, and, now I see, the time has come...to "bring the classmates to the website"!    Any ideas on website creation that allow lots of flexibility - free or otherwise?  Who designed yours?   It's MAGNIFICENT the way you constantly update everything and post the dates and times and slideshows! Quite organized and impressive!!!   A GREAT memento for future generations! I'm now up for the challenge!!!   Bring it on!!!    THANKS soooo much for your 'everything', Leslie! Luv, Nancy

Words of Wisdom at this time in our lives

In cleaning up my office I found this and just had to share it, it's soooo US!

In Memoriam

I have just learned today of the death of Mike Trueblood's mom, and learned that Cathy Modray Guirl's husband died suddenly earlier this month. Just yesterday I also learned that Linda Stevens' dad, about whom you will read if you go to the older posts, has also recently passed away. These wonderful folks will all be missed I know and we send our condolences to these great families. You can go here to see the obit for Mike's mom.

If anyone has information about these that they'd like to share, please either email me or comment here. May they rest in peace and love.

KIRKWOOD MUSINGS

Well folks, I'm always saying I'm behind, and so nothing changes. I have posts on visiting Jake's old store, in its new life as a great restaurant, the story of Craig and Lee Conway's wedding in October, Ken McBride's dinner party in November, the adventure on which Bob O'Neill's bride has just embarked, and probably more if I look around my desk and the floorspace all around my office! For this minute, I wanted to share the link where we can go vote for our favorite St. Louis restaurants, bars, and other manner of eateries. There are a good number of Kirkwood and closeby restaurants on the first round. PJs is in the running, they treat us sooo well, we should all go vote for them for sure! Besides, their food is killer good. Some of us indulge in their yummy fries a bit too often. Stay tuned, more coming soon.

AL LAWRENCE tells a funny story

I'm always stealing a few moments here & there to clean out emails from my mailboxes. Tonight I scrolled up in my KHS65 IN BOX and saw, much to my amazement, a message from Al Lawrence sent in 2003!! I couldn't believe it, so of course I opened it & am sharing it now, better late than never they say, and I have two more that are LATE but I'll get them on here soon! FYI there are over 4800 incoming msgs in my KHS mailbox! And I have 6 email accounts! I talk too much!

Herewith from me to Al, we must have had a correspondence going on, then below his response & story:

"do you remember his (Mark Twain's) cousin Cyril Clemens walking up and down Kirkwood Road in our youth? He was still there for many, many years, having died I'd say only within the past 5 years. He was a fixture on North Kirkwood Road where he lived.... " me to Al.

"Hi, Leslie-- Share this if you wish.

Once my pal and fellow '65 grad John Andreas got a speeding ticket. My mother was the court clerk. It seems hard to believe now, but my mom spoke to the judge and worked out a plan in which John wouldn't even have to show up with his parents and would receive only a lecture.

I was sitting in the back of the crowded night court and couldn't take my eyes off Cyril, who was twitching on the polished-wood bench, looking scruffy and clutching a lurid-cover paperback. I remember the title of the book to this day--"Hollywood Lawyer." He had a place marked with this thumb and kept opening the book to study the passage. Cyril was agitated, and couldn't wait for his turn. He jumped up in the middle of another minor case and yelled:

'Your honor, I insist on a change of ven-OO!'
He meant "venue," of course, but he pronounced it "ven-OO," with no "y" sound and the accent on the second syllable. The judge was outraged. He banged his gavel and opened his mouth wide, only to have his top dental plate fall with a clack onto his lower. (I later found out from mom that he had just had new dentures made. A little ironic, since John later became a well known dentist.)

The evening continued with a few more interruptions and reactions, but the judge, despite our anxieties, remembered his agreement and gave John only a stern talking-to.

That's my memory of Cyril. I hope he enjoys his new 'ven-OO'.

Regards, Al Lawrence, '65"

What's in a Name?

I love knowing the origin of various words and phrases in our funny language. I recently learned a couple of new ones, so think I will start this post and add to it when I come across others. I hope you will add to it too, by commenting! We'll build a nice collection maybe.

Soda Jerk - the person behind the soda fountain had to jerk the handles of the dispensers back and forth to get them to spew their contents, thus the "soda jerk" was born.

If you put all the Coke sold to date into 8oz bottles and string them end to end they would reach to the moon and back 1300 times. These kinds of statistics just blow me away!

Why donuts have holes - Sea Captain Hansen Gregory was eating a cake (an oily cake, the original name for doughnuts) in a huge ocean storm and finally had to use both hands on the wheel. Not wanting to pitch his cake, he stuck it onto the spoke of the wheel and voila, the donut was born. There is more to this story on Wikipedia but I got this version elsewhere.

Have you ever used the phrase "he had a lot of Moxie"? I have and never wondered where it came from! Seems like Moxie was the name of the first bottled soda and it was very fizzy. If you could drink two of them you had a lot of Moxie. It morphed into meaning you are pretty determined & have a lot of know-how.

1965, THE SAME NO MATTER THE GEOGRAPHY!

Hi all, I'm having a great nostalgia morning as I read my emails. Please check out the Remembering Jake post below, but here is another fun nostalgia bit. This is that quiz that has been round and round the internet, you know, if you only remember a few of these things you're still a kid and if, like me, you remember every single one you're older than dirt. I loved this one because it came to me from a gal who keeps her 1965 high school class memories alive, from Scotch Plains/Fanwood High School in Westfield, NJ. I found her when doing some research for my grandfather's diary transcription project. She is a classmate of the gal who lived across the street from my grandparents in Westfield for many years. The neighbor, Carolyn, and I being the same age visited together when my family was in NJ with my grandparents. One time, a Thanksgiving trip I think, she took me to school with her. Her classmates were all amazed to have someone in their class all the way from MISSOURI, and I was so impressed at how nice to me they were and what a 'big deal' it seemed to be! A fun memory. I did reconnect a couple years ago with Carolyn, through the SPFHS65 alumni activities and internet postings. You just never know who you'll find!! Hope you enjoy this list of reminders as much as I did. And thanks Nancy Chomicz for keeping me on your mailing list and for sharing!

1. Wrigley’s Chewing Gum. Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun. Blackjack Chewing
Gum. Bazooka Bubble Gum. Juicy Fruit Gum.
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water. NIK-L-NIPS.
3. Candy cigarettes with pink tips in their own box as you faked ‘taking a drag’!
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.
5. Coffee shops or diners with tabletop jukeboxes. 5 cents each or 6 songs for 25!!!
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers with pull-off tab.
The milkman left the bottles by one of your doors.
7. Party-lines on the telephone….Oops, sorry! Rarely did people ‘Listen In.’
8. Newsreels before the movies. Up to date world news.
9. P.F. Flyers. U.S. Keds.
10. Butch Wax. For that slicked back greasy look.
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows
started again in the morning (there were only 3 channels....if you were fortunate).
12. Peashooters. Ouch!
13. It's Howdy Doody Time...It's Time to Laugh and Play! His freckles!
14. 33 1/3, 45 and 78 RPM Records.
15. Licking S & H Green Stamps and pasting ‘em in the books! Plaid Stamps. [And Eagle Stamps at Famous Barr here in St. Louis]
16. Hi-Fi record players.
17. Metal ice trays with release lever.
18. Mimeograph machines. [And the fabulous smell of mimeo ink]
19. Blue Sylvania flashbulbs.
20. Packards, Studebakers, DeSoto ‘fins’ and VW Beetles.
21. Roller skate keys that you hung around your neck.
22. Cork popguns.
23. Drive-in restaurants with trays that hooked over the driver’s window.
24. Drive-in movies.
25. Wash tubs with wringers. Outdoors clothes lines with wooden clothes pins.
26. Pez dispensers with different flavored brick shaped candies.
27. Hop Scotch, Bingo, Old Maid, Go Fish, Dominoes, Scrabble and Hula Hoops.
28. Wax lips, teeth, mustache and red tongue candies that tasted waxy and awful.
29. Sherry Lewis and Lambchop..and Kookla, Fran & Ollie.
30. Winding film in camera and taking photo by looking DOWN into viewer. Hold real still!
31. Saddle shoes and penny loafers. [I'm still wearing penny loafers!]
32. Good Humor trucks with bells. Double-stick popsicles. Fudgesicles. Creamsicles.
33. Pesticide trucks spraying DDT up and down the streets at the Jersey shore for pesky
mosquitoes while kids ran behind breathing in the fumes for a ‘high.’
34. Three Musketeer Bars that had 2 grooves on each side so you could share them
with your other 2 Musketeer friends.
35. Matching ‘Sticky Pins’ made to look like swords for you and your buddy & worn on collar.
36. Praying mantis, lightning bugs, Japanese beetles, blue mud daubbers and lady bugs.
37. Candied dots on paper strips in 5 colors. Try not to eat the paper attached to them.
38. Malt balls, Sprinkles, Jimmies, Red Hots & Pixie Stix. Straws with chocolate & strawberry
flavoring in them. Fruit flavored Fizzies you’d drop in water to drink.
39. Hi Ho Silver, Away! The Lone Ranger. Kemosabie! Who was that masked man?
I didn’t even have the chance to thank him.
40. The Honeymooners Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and Alice (Audrey Meadows).
Friends Ed Norton (Art Carney) and Trixie (Joyce Randolph)
Someday, you’re going to the moon, Alice. Pow, right in the kisser!
Bonus Points
High beam head light and dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Bicycle ‘pant leg clips’ so pants wouldn't get caught in the chain. (Before guards)
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals in cars when turning.
_______
Man, am I old.
Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?
Having some “Senor or Senorita Momentos”?
Mmmm...We really ARE “Official Members” of the J.O.Y. GROUP!
J-O-Y = Just Old Youth!!!
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