July 28, 2017

Bob Richardson writes, Members of the class of '61 will be happy to know that our AFS student from Turkey, Nur Karhnan, wasn't harmed by last Friday's earthquake.  She lives in Bodrum, only a few miles from the  epicenter.   

Says Nur, Thanks so much for your concern.  We did have a serious  earthquake 6.3 and many aftershocks.  I took place between Turkey and the Greek island Kos. No one died here but two males -- one Turkish and one Swedish tourist -- lost their lives.  The area has a serous fault line.  Such things happen all the time but this was really serious.  A thousand years ago both Bodrum and Troy sank seven times.

Bob also includes a clipping from the April 30, 1957 San Diego Union and wonders what became of Judy Hottenstein, who got sent home from Horace Mann for showing up with Pink Hair.

I just came across two photos that Howard Rozelle took of Esquire Motors, on the northeast corner of Euclid and El Cajon.  I'd like to add them to the one already posted on the web, but I don't think that's gonna happen in the near future.  Learning Dreamweaver to build your own web site is turning out to be like learning Greek in order to read The Iliad in its original form.  Thank you to the person who suggested the Lynda.com tutorials.  It's helping, but it's gonna take a while.  Click HERE if you want to see the other Esquire Motors photo.

Adele Spirz Delgado '71 invites you to visit the Julian Candy Basket if you're looking for old time favorites.  She stocks over 20 brands of Root Beer and, according to the advertisement above, gives out samples of "the best fudge in town".  You can also order on-line.

Mike McKittrick '60 has written Grandad's Bike Ride, "a beautifully written short story for children, complete with illustrations, about a grandfather's quest to catch-up to his grandchildren as he pedals his way through the local villages and countryside".   It's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

July 21, 2017

Nancy and I finally got out to Horace Mann this past Monday.  Janice Ricca Hom had emailed me that she drove by "and they were tearing it down!"  I don't think they're tearing it down, but it would appear there is a major addition going in.  The photo above looks north toward the administration building.  The photo below looks east with Trojan Avenue at the right.  Click HERE to look at a 1959 aerial that may help you get oriented.

Ernie Cowan's birdwatching column in last Saturday's U-T features the Common Yellowthroat.  Click HERE to check it out.

The Westgate Hotel, at 2nd and Broadway, sparkles in this photo circa 1965, from Greg May's Vintage San Diego Facebook Page.   

Guess what?  You can order Abba Zaba candy bars -- and all manner of other vintage candy -- on line from OldTimeCandy.com  Make sure you've got your dentist on speed-dial.

Dana Carr '64 went looking for his childhood neighbor Betty McCoy on the internet.  "We moved to Michael Street the summer  I started Horace Mann. She lived on 55th Street" he wrote.  Sadly, Dana found a Facebook page that said Betty McCoy Cook passed away on September 22, 2016.  Her sister, Linda McCoy Petersen, confirms her passing.  "She passed peacefully, in her sleep, from cancer," said Linda.

July 14, 2017

47 years ago on this date I was in Paris with my pals Tom and Steve for the Bastille Day Parade.  It's a good lead-in to the fact that, a week earlier, we were in Pamplona, Spain for the "Running of the Bulls".  In both instances all I saw was peoples' backs and -- in Pamplona -- a cloud of dust.

Speaking of the "Running of the Bulls", have you seen the Geico commercial for "The Running of the Bulldogs"?  Click HERE to take a look.  Be prepared to fall on the floor laughing.

I thought I'd fallen asleep in the Barcalounger again and was dreaming.  The television commercial said something along the lines of "tired of having to push buttons to change channels on your remote?"  Apparently Cox voice remote lets you bypass those pesky buttons and just shout at the TV. Could be a 2 for 1 -- since I shout at the TV on a regular basis.   Remember when YOU were the remote?  When your folks made you get up and change the channel -- and sometimes stay there if you were improving the picture by grounding the set.  And there weren't any buttons either.  It could take two little hands to chunk-chunk-chunk to the desired channel.  Luckily there weren't very many choices.

Will Ernie Dronenburg EVER retire?  The County Assessor -- and '61 Colt -- was quoted in Tuesday's U-T article on who had the highest property tax bill in San Diego.  The answer:  Qualcomm.  Click HERE to get the details.

Bill Davis and his wife had a lovely time at the Herb Alpert Summer Pops concert last week on the Embarcadero, especially after keyboardist Bill Cantos gave a shout-out to his Crawford classmates from 1980.  Click HERE to check out Bill's web site.

I LOVE this color aerial of Belmont Park circa 1960.  It popped up again on Facebook and I'm sharing it again.  Click HERE to see it enlarged on Facebook.

It's been awhile since Bliss tickled my funny bone, but this cartoon from yesterday got me to smile.

July 7, 2017

I love this photo of lower Broadway posted on Facebook and thought maybe I'd used it before.  It appears to be circa 1960.  There's an Edsel going east and a VW headed west.  I blew up the marquee on the Tower Theater thinking the name of the movie would help determine the year.  It didn't, but I'm still thinking about what it said -- "You Won't Believe Your Eyes.  June Wilkinson. 43-20-36."

I'm not sure if Danielle Remer went to Crawford, but she DID attend Euclid Elementary and took this picture at the 100th Birthday Party this past Wednesday.  I believe she posted on Facebook that this was a portion of what remained of the older part of the school.

Ernie Cowan '62, "The Bird Man of Escondido", wrote a nice article in this week's U-T entitled "Sit Back and Enjoy the Show".  He's encouraging you to take an hour out of each day and soak up your surroundings.  Click HERE to read the article.

Details are still sketchy but Jeff Lee '66 died while mountain biking in Rancho Penasquitos on Tuesday.  As a member of the band "Oh Ridge", he put smiles on the faces of thousands of fans.  He entertained at a couple of the First Thursday meetings at The Amigo Spot and managed to reword one stanza of Margaritaville that caught my attention.

Wasted away again in Margaritaville,

Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt.

Some people claim that there's a woman to blame,

Now I think it’s all John Fry’s fault.