4/12/02
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PHS Alumni On-Line
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Apr 12, 2002
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4 Bulldog notes and a contest update today:
Michael Meek (59)
Ginger Mitchell Wedin (64)
Essie Pudwill Williamson (67)
Steve Layton (74)
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** Contest Update
We've gained 136 new subscribers since the contest began on March 29, up to 338 total. Things have slowed to a trickle, though. I thought there might be some class database keepers lingering out there who would send in their entire class list, but I've only received two such submissions. There are still about two months until June 16, so keep sending in names and e-mail addresses! One thousand subscribers looks pretty far away right now - are Pasco Bulldogs alumni up to the challenge?! - Paul
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From: Michael Meek (59)
Hello!
It's a great pleasure to be reading the thoughts and feelings of so many people of good will, who just happen to have had a turn through Pasco Hi. It's funny but I disliked high school, didn't attend many functions, didn't participate in school activities, and certainly wasn't a popular kid, and yet looking back I feel this great affection for my fellow students, my teachers, and the little burg of Pasco itself. My family was a mess and I was a troubled kid, but living in the Navy Homes I found good friends to wrestle with, to play football and baseball and basketball with, and to have all the adventures and misadventures a kid could want as he gets beyond personal tragedies and into living in the present. Pasco was home, it felt like a home, and the people living there were forgiving, kind, and patient. I somehow doubt that kids today could feel so free as we did then to roam around and explore their home towns without being hassled by cops and grouchy, armed citizens. Perhaps the trouble we got into then was not quite so dire as today where it seems that assault and battery has replaced ringing a doorbell and lighting on fire a paper bag of dog poop on someone's stoop. Our intentions then were to rebel, of course, but to have fun doing it. Why else would you sail metal garbage can lids onto the roofs of houses and have the inhabitants rushing outside to see what was the calamity they were hearing. Note: Jon Rice initiated everything and I just followed along, being helpful when I could.
Do you know that Jon is an archer? I once got a bow and arrow for Christmas and I was over to the gravel pile practicing my shots into a target I had set up there. Jon comes along and tells me that he used to have a bow and allows that he was an excellent shot. Knowing as I did that even a two foot wide target was hard to hit with my little cheap bow, I confidently offered him a chance to show his prowess. An arrow already was stuck in the target and Jon says with typical hubris that he is going to aim for it! Not the target, you understand, but the arrow! He pulls back and lets fly and his arrow split the arrow in target. I could not believe my eyes. I got madder than hell because arrows cost money that I didn't have and I blamed him for hitting that arrow on purpose for which feat he was grinning and dancing about with happy feet. He wasn't sorry at all and I banished him from the range.
From the age of 15 to 25 I worked at West Side Market (which later became Thriftway) except for a year or so in between when my brother and I went crazier than usual and I ended up in the Walla Walla County Jail for six months and him back within the walls of the joint on the hill. Gene & Jules, those were the guys who owned that grocery store, by far the busiest in town. They were great to me. Gene Wright really was like a surrogate father. He gave me discipline and made me tow the line, and he also gave me his time, his interest, and his estimable, 350lb. Presence in my life. I only got the box boy job in the first place because my mother was a meat wrapper there. For the first year I'm sure I was not worth the 85 cents an hour I was paid, but Gene kept me around. I think he liked helping boys to get along, and I can tell you his influence has been felt all the days of my life. Over the years I got to know a great many Pasco people, having so frequently bagged their groceries and walked with them to their cars. Often they would just toss me their trunk keys and tell me in which section of the lot they were parked. I knew their names, their cars, and what they ate for breakfast. Pasco people are the greatest, and Gene & Jules above all else insisted that we appreciate our customers. That lesson was burned into my head to the point that sometimes when I was paying for something in some other store or another I would upon leaving automatically say to my embarrassment, "Thank you and come again."
Well, enough for today! Thanks Paul for starting this up! You probably don't know it, but I dated your sister Linda every chance I got, which I think was about twice. She and I were in a geometry class together taught by the senior-hating Mr. Sundell. What an ass, but he was funny. Linda broke up constantly in class as she really got his humor. She also got that Sundell hated me and I him, so she enjoyed the battles. I heard from one of Linda's boyfriends that I was the freshest boy she had ever gone out with. That must have been the reason she couldn't be talked into more dates with me. She never said that to me, she just said she was too busy sleeping and topping carrots or whatever it was she did in the summers when she had to get up at dawn. What a fox, and smart like one, too!
All best,
Michael Meek (59)
Princeville, HI
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From: Ginger Mitchell Wedin (64)
Hi LeAnn,
I was at some dance things at Mrs. Voorhees (sp) house also. Remember her unusual staircase that was circular, I think it was in the middle of the room, and it was so steep that it was very hard to climb.
I wonder if the house is still there with that staircase in it....
Ginger Mitchell Wedin (64)
Highlands Ranch, CO
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From: Essie Pudwill Williamson (67)
This is my maiden voyage on this PHS.net site, so it will be short and sweet, kind of like Le'Ann McAllister; which is why I write now. I read her entry about her beloved male teacher Mr. Chapman at Captain Gray School. Prompted me to recall my first male teacher and if I remember correctly it was Mr. Kennedy for home room at Longfellow. I will never forget him. I'm bringing with me all my grade school group pictures to the reunion, all of us classmates look something like ragamuffin kids. We moved so many times within Pasco, I think I went to every school there was.
Essie Pudwill Williamson (67)
San Angelo, TX
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From: Steve Layton (74)
Re: the old Livingston "haunted" house,
I, too remember it well. After 1964, my family lived out on Wernett Rd. between Rds 48 and 52 (before that, I grew up at 1020 W. Margaret St.); we often passed up that way on our bikes. At a friend's birthday party in the mid/late-60's, one of the guys dared us all to go up to the "haunted house." I remember us heading up the old sandy driveway, through the dead brush and trees, scary as anything, even on a bright warm day. At the first sign of a shadowy movement behind the front screen door, we were running and screaming "the witch, the witch!" like crazy back down the drive. And then following after us came the nicest little old lady you'd want to meet; more than anything, I remember that she was wearing jeans that had bottle caps (!) sewn over the small wear holes. She gave us a nice talk about her life, and welcomed us back anytime. We felt like idiots... Years later in the 70's, after she was gone and the house abandoned, I drove up again and explored the old buildings. From the crumbling barn I took two large (ca. 16") and beautiful wooden screws that were part of some antique vise grips. I still have them...
Steve Layton (74)
Seattle, WA
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