May 1, 2020

Happy May Day!!  Did we ever frolic around the May Pole like the college students below at the the old Normal School on Park Blvd where Alice Birney is today?  Actually, I guess it was on Normal Street, which -- unlike the Normal School -- is still there.  Yes, I DID know that the Normal School moved east and became San Diego State College.

This reminds me of Betty Alexander, my typing teacher at either Horace Mann or Crawford or possibly Summer School at Hoover.  She was also the Girls' Vice Principal at Hale Junior High my first year as a teacher.  I restarted the student newspaper there and, after a lot of work with the kids, got out the first issue and put one in every faculty member's mailbox.  The next day Betty had returned HER copy, with each and every error marked in red.  Sadly, I've been doing the same thing to others these many years.  You can take the teacher out of the classroom . . .

Ken Kramer is back with new episodes of About San Diego.  Last night's show had a nice visit with Gary Mitrovich '76 in the neighborhood where his grandfather Hamlet ran a turkey farm.  It was located at 53rd and Meade, long before Horace Mann or Crawford would have been downwind.  Ginny Sanderson Dahlen '60 shared a nice photo of the tie her father picked up at the 1935 Exposition in Balboa Park.  Jeannie Berger Passenheim '60 was one of the folks whose sunset photo was shared.

The show repeats on Sunday at 4 PM and Monday -- on KPBS2 -- at 8 PM

An interesting article in the New York Times about the challenges facing those who interpret for the deaf during the daily television updates on the COVID-19 pandemic.  Click HERE to check it out.

It's been awhile, but a stunning old photo recently popped up on Facebook.  It's a gorgeous shot of Mission Valley taken by the great Lee Passmore, and submitted by his great-grandson,  I believe it was taken from where the Presidio now stands, probably during the great flood of 1916.  Click HERE to see an enlargement.

What were YOU doing on February 6, 1983?  Channel 8 was at the Campus Drive-In on the theater's last night.  Click HERE to watch the video.

Remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the packet of Colt Memorabilia I received in the mail from Jo Burchill Skibby '59?  It included the first three copies of the Pacer, two of which I already had.  Click HERE to read Volume I, No. 3, from November 26, 1957.

Roy Boughton ’59 was born in San Diego on June 7, 1941.  He married his high school sweetheart Holly Wensinger on June 25, 1960, the day after she graduated from Crawford.  He died of heart failure on March 31, 2020 in Mesa, Arizona where they moved in 1993.  His love of Arizona grew out of a visit to Jerome in the early ‘60s and blossomed when he moved to Mesa.  Roy retired as the Executive Director of the Page Chamber of Commerce and the John Wesley Powell Museum to travel across America, exploring every back street and dirt road along to way. Roy never met a stranger and was loved by everyone who knew him for his quick wit and generous heart.

Jerome Zottolo ’62 was born and lived in San Diego, the second child of Vito and Virginia Zottolo. He passed away April 15, 2020.  He learned the value of hard work as a teen during the summer months by accompanying his father on his tuna boat at a time when San Diego was named the fishing capital of the world.  Pleasant memories are of him taking his younger siblings to weekly family beach picnics and other city events.  After graduating from Crawford and serving in the National Guard, he settled into the occupation of a truck driver with GI Trucking for about 45 years.   He is survived by, among others, his siblings Marco, Maryann, and Frank.