1/14/02
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PHS Bulldogs On-Line
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Jan 14, 2002
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7 Bulldog alumni notes today:
Jeff Jumper (62)
Loren Larson (62)
Brad Mason (63)
Arlan Dabling (63)
Bob Berger (64)
Tim Gray (66)
Josh Case (00)
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From: Jeff Jumper (62)
We've been focused lately on winter extreme sports in the Pasco of our youth. I for one am getting cold just remembering. How about some of those wonderful summertime sports?
In addition to the world famous Flume Ride, there was Canal Water Skiing. In this event, you combined an irrigation canal, a vehicle (pickups were the favorite), a rope, water skis and several immortal teen-age boys. Instructions: 1. Tie one end of rope to vehicle bumper. 2. Give other end to current idiot who is waiting in canal wearing water skis. 3. Instantly accelerate vehicle to 35 mph on roadway beside canal. 4. Tow idiot kid until he falls. 5. Repeat with next skier. Sometimes ride ends when skier fails to release rope before encountering bridge that crosses canal. Sometimes ride ends when vehicle driver fails to turn when roadway turns. Kinda like summertime hickey bobbin', but required more equipment.
When it was really hot, there was always bridge diving. It had to be REALLY hot cuz that Columbia River is always cold. The girders under each end of the Blue Bridge could be negotiated so that one could dive from there into the river to cool off. In addition, there was often a Tarzan rope swing attached that provided a thrill or two. The only drawback was the current. If you weren't careful, you'd float down stream to the trout pond before you could swim to shore and climb the levy to walk back for another swing.
Bill Warren introduced me to another spring/summer sport - baby pigeon collecting. All you need for this game is rubber-soled shoes, total stupidity and a railroad bridge. Bill was a real expert at this sport of capturing baby pigeons from their high up nests and he played often. One game was enough for me.
Do any of you guys remember the springtime bicycle cruises? About 50 high school guys riding bikes all over Pasco on the first two or three warm Friday nights. Of course the bikes did not belong to us. We were way too cool by that time to still have a bicycle, so we'd steal/borrow one from younger brothers, neighbor kids, or whoever. We'd meet at Volunteer Park and then ride all over down town, stopping from time to time to see and be seen. Mostly to be seen. :>) Anything to be different, therefore way cool.
Who else remembers being 10-12 years old and spending an entire Saturday afternoon in the dark confines of the Pasco Theater? For the 10 cent admission fee we were treated to 14 cartoons, the current episode of whatever serial was running, perhaps a news reel AND an action-packed double feature. Popcorn was 15 cents, but at the corner drug store you could get a really BIG bag of popcorn for a dime, which you had to smuggle into the theater. When the popcorn was gone, you could pop the bag to scare the hell outta the girls sitting in front of you.
To Stacy Wise: Your memory is right on. If there was any kind of weird, dangerous, silly or "cool" activity happening AND Bob Coffee was nearby, he was involved. However, it occurs to me that those of us who've been reporting Bob's participation in these activities were participating as well, which means . . .hmmmmmm . . . ;>)
A hui hou a me malama pono (See ya later and take care),
Jeff Jumper (62)
Molokai, HI
[Unfortunately, Bob Coffey asked me to remove him from this mailing list in mid-December because he was leaving for the Middle East. I hope he gets e-mail back soon so he can read about some of his escapades - just in case he doesn't remember them himself! - Paul]
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From: Loren Larson (62)
It's funny what impact the Internet has had on all of us. Because of this site and the discussion of Hooky Bobbing I have found the answer to why I have little to no memory. You've heard the stories about the amnesia patients regaining their memory by sticking there finger in a light socket, are pile driven by Lex Luggar, miscalculated the length of a bungee rope, well . . . Hooky Bobbing . . . I have always had an odd taste whenever I would rub my tongue over my teeth. Kind of a chrome flavor (21 Flavors on Court tried unsuccessfully to duplicate). Do you remember the impact of the invention of Penicillin and Rocky Road ice cream? Actually my Dad had a brilliant idea one day. Rather than having me go out and jumping aboard unsuspecting chuffers he decided, in the name of safety, to provide this service. It was safer. We would go on less busy streets and he would avoid the sewer lids and graveled areas. With such a successful and thrilling experience in mind, we had to take it a step further. We had another brilliant idea. Why not attach a 50 foot rope to the bumper and attach it to my sled? I would get up to what felt like mock 5 when he would turn the corner. Always turn left!!!!!!!!! We were inexperienced. No one had written a procedures manual. Right turns? Just like left turns? We have all watched water skiers almost pass the boat when they fling themselves across the wake. Well that was my position when the two headlights of the oncoming meeting with God himself terminated my Hooky Bobbing career. I survived. I got in the car. My dad and I never mentioned that experience until at least 30 years later. That reminds me of the monthly trips to Spokane to visit relatives and riding between mom and dad in the front seat sitting in my chair (or you could call it a catapult (into the windshield) if you could stop fast enough). Seat belts? Car seats? Looking forward to the reunion.
Loren Larson (62)
Edmonds, WA
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[Brad's message below is shared from Sandra's PHS 63 mailing list. - Paul]
From: Brad Mason (63)
To Sandra Green Reuther:
I was talking with an old Bulldog recently (N. Leibold, 63) about a teacher that we both had: Ms. Ogata - we both agreed how she had fashioned our lives in a positive sense through her introduction of the Romantic poets into our squalid, hormonally bezerk minds; I remember Bill Hudspeth and I conjuring up the idyllic: with Ms. Ogata reading stories to us as we lay before an open hearth - no doubt with a glass of cheap ambrosia. Anyway, I would very much like to contact her; to give her some aesthetic items I know she would appreciate - and to just tell her what a fine influence she was on me. Does anyone know her whereabouts? Perhaps, an e-mail address? Would REALLY appreciate whatever info I could get on giving something back to a dear lady.
Thanks,
Brad Mason (63)
Mentor, OH
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From: Arlan Dabling (63)
To Brad Mason:
Bill Gillum has seen Ms Ogata (Daniels) during his visits in the Tri-cities and I gather that she is doing well. I have talked to her on the phone a couple of times during the past year and she sounds exactly the same as I remember. She does not have e-mail and indicated a distinct lack of interest in same when I asked her about that.
As with you, she had only the most positive influences on my somewhat wayward character and behaviors. She was generally so good natured, but I do have this one particularly vivid recollection on getting on her bad side.
We were on a short deadline for submittal of yearbook materials to the publisher. I expect that this was during our senior year. The photography advisor was Mr. Bill Bode -- the band leader -- but much of our supervision really came from Ms. Ogata. The photo lab was directly across from her room and we were extended some considerable amount of latitude as long as things remained on schedule. For example, one of the benefits that we enjoyed was a hotdog cooker that we had constructed from a couple of nails and length of electrical cord with a plug on the end. And the print-washing tub also doubled nicely as a soda pop cooler. As I recall, Joe Boyd (64) and I were in the lab preparing prints for some of the page layouts. Now this was during 6th hour and we decided to heat up a couple of hotdogs to stave off starvation while we were working. I guess I was not thinking very clearly when I walked into her room with pictures in one hand and a hotdog in the other. As you probably remember, her desk was on a fairly tall and substantial pedestal. When she saw that hotdog, and combined with the stress of our impending deadlines, she was really bent -- and fairly flew down from behind her desk and off of that pedestal. In the face of that I just turned tail, retreated VERY quickly across the hall, and locked myself in the photo lab. Wow -- I was frankly amazed that she could get so upset. I'm not sure what she had in mind if she had actually laid hands on me, but I was treated to a loud and heated discourse -- through the locked photo lab door -- on responsible behavior and acting one's age. Yes -- so true -- and I think perhaps all that well-intentioned advice may finally be having an effect -- though way too many years later.
There were a number of great teachers, but no doubt about it -- Ms. Ogata was the very best.
Best Regards,
Arlan Dabling (63)
Mesa, AZ
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From: Bob Berger (64)
My turn to stop lurking and contribute to the 3-cities growing up experience. Many of the stories have some match for my time there. But since I lived a year in Kennewick before moving to Pasco, and having lived on a farm north of Spokane before that I had an outsider view to a lot of what went on through High School.
The flume deal I missed totally, but my little brother Jim (now Jimb with his "Hollywood" name for Equity), class of 69, has told me about times his friends carried on there. For us we usually went to Beer Falls south of where the mall is now. Once another friend and I took a couple of girls out there, along with my brother, who dove off the top of the culvert pipe through the railroad ballast, and split his head open. We had to take him home and not hang with the girls! Another time someone and I were there and a cute Kennewick blonde rode up on a horse. We're trying to make time with her, when all of a sudden she blurts out: "Tell me about Stan Cupp?" We left again.
To Stacy Wise: about that film of Pasco. Dave Mingus and I found it while exploring the old Pasco dump east of town. It was our Jr. year and I was in AV and took it in to show Mr. Kirby. He confiscated it from me! He claimed it belonged to someone. I told him we found it in the dump, but he did not care. Then a couple of weeks later he gave it back, saying it was a promo but no one cared. I had it many years, then when my little brother (see above) was in college in Everett, back in the mid 70's, he made a movie...and borrowed the reel the film was on. They added their superman film to mine - we thought - and it seems to now be lost forever. I did look for it, I thought I knew it was in this one specific paper bag with some others, but no luck finding it. I wanted to donate it to the Pasco museum. One of my favorite shots was in the beginning of the film that I had, the first part was missing and it had no sound, but was in color, and the film opened with the "new" '53 Chev fire chief car driving down the street. It had school shots, including PHS and as students a married couple who were teachers when I was there in the early/mid 60's. I forgot their names & I never had them for class. They were young and nice. There were shots of Sylvester and Court Streets and some of the houses past mine - around Rd 52? Was it the Becks who lived there? It was a very tidy white with green trim place I think. If I find it I'll share at a reunion sometime. The last time I actually looked for it was for 64's 30th.
And speaking of Doyle Clapper - as someone did this week. I remember when I was a sophomore, and got one of those "spilled can-o-paint" joke deals. I put it on the front seat of Doyle's jade green Chev (was it a 51 or 52?). Dave Whitmire and Jim Hoke were there when we all walked up and Doyle saw it. He was really upset and opened the door. It was the only time I EVER saw Whitmire have compassion for another hue-mon, as Quark would say! He told Doyle how sorry he was and how terrible it was and so on. Doyle reached for the can and the whole mess came up at once! I grabbed it away from him before he could damage it, and ran while they were all still stunned and before they could damage me!
And speaking of Whitmire, one of my fondest memories of us lowly sophomores always being harassed by some of the big stud seniors, was the day every PE assistant was drug off to the wet field and dumped in a mud puddle for a day of revenge. Whittier stood with his back to the closed wall between the girls and boys sides, and in the middle where he had space between himself and us "little kids" all lined up along the bleachers. He told us there was no way he was going. Period. Then came the blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr of motion and speed. It was Tom Eagan - from the shower room, in a sneak attack that released a bellow from all of us as we enemas mobbed him and drug him off and dunked him. Revenge of the nerds! And Tom, thank you again!
And those who said Hookey-bobbin we always figured had a speech impediment! In spite of the cute story about parking...it was Hicky-bobbin.
Bob Berger (64)
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From: Tim Gray (66)
As a '66 boy I can't believe the class of '63 is so on-line, except that I'm married to one and know they are special. Their good website preceded yours Paul, so I guess they have a head start.
I too remember "hicky bobbin." Living at the corner of Sacajawea and Astor Way, our group had cars going different ways. If they were going South, we usually bailed out at Court. I also remember the bus trips with the Columbians and Jeff Jumper's twist during concert. Us kids from the "later" 60's looked up to the early 60's guys in drum corps; Jeff, Vic Mahan, Bob Riemath, Jimmy Dean, et al. We learned to turn up our collar jackets and smoke cigarettes in addition to various card games. It was a great time!
Tim Gray (66)
Lexington, OR
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From: Josh Case (00)
I never knew just how crazy the '60s were, but after reading about hooky-bobbing and the Flume, I'm getting a better idea about it. I tried to think of crazy stuff we did in high school (being the late '90s, I figured we'd beat you guys, easy), but nothing too exciting came to me. But I must say I am impressed with the daring extreme sports all of you crazy alumni seemed to partake in. The only semi-crazy thing similar to that that I heard about was going sledding with a sled attached to a four-wheeler by a rope. Never did that, but I heard it was fun.
Anybody have Mr. Brown for English at Pasco?? If so, I'd love to hear some stories because he was a great, funny guy.
Josh Case (00)
Spokane, WA
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