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01/13/06 - NNHS Newsletter -
In the Midnight Hour

"O wild and wondrous midnight,
There is a might in thee
To make the charmed body
Almost like spirit be,
And give it some faint glimpses
Of immortality."

- James Russell Lowell
(22 Feb 1819 - 12 Aug 1891)

Dear Friends and Schoolmates,

   Today is Friday the 13th.  In general, such days have tended to be better than usual for me.  That could just be because I'm weird, I suppose.....

   I was aghast to realize that I had never created this page before:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/NNHS-Newsletters.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/12-22-05-NNHS-Mary-Elliott.html

   There must be some good excuse, but nothing really comes to mind........

   I have had the most exciting surprises in the mail lately!  As a result, I have a mountain-load of thank-you notes to write which remain undone.  I thought on those recent days when I didn't publish a Newsletter I could attend to that, but it didn't happen.  Ever the optimist, I remain hopeful and confident that I'll be able to do so quite soon.  Meanwhile, I want y'all to know how happy and grateful I was to hear from you - and some of you brought tears of joy to my eyes!  Thank you so much! 

 


  BIRTHDAYS:

 On Sunday, January 15, Skippy Weitz ('57) will be celebrating a birthday, and as we probably won't be issuing another Newsletter until Monday, we'll wish Skippy a Happy Birthday now!

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/Happy-Birthday.html

 


PAGE HITS:

  Page Hit # 42,500 was made on Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 12:18 PM by an unidentified person.

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/page-hits.html

 


  From Jean Poole Burton ('64) of RI - 01/11/06:

I should call you on the phone...hoping you are well...just taking a break. 

Love, Jeanb

   You are so sweet to be concerned, Jean!  I suppose it is a radical departure from the recent daily Newsletters!   I was simply trying to reestablish the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, while simultaneously trying to ready things for the return of my two sons -   Dale (American School - IL - '02) on Wednesday, the 18th, and   Joshua (Hillsboro HS - IL - '95) sometime later in the month.

   It won't work, of course.  It's already obvious to me that we'll be having special bonus Newsletters on Thursday, the 19th and Sunday, the 21st, but it is easier on me to have an extra day to actually think about the content.  (I know, thinking is basically against my principles, but still.....)

   Yesterday while we were out running errands, I asked my sister,    Eleanor (Buckley Nowitzky - '59 - of NC, if she was planning to go to the next two or three reunions ('64's 60th Birthday Party, '66's 40-Year, '62's 45-Year,  etc.) with me, and the first thing she said was, "Will Jean be there?" 

   I assured her you would!  Such fun we had in October!!! 

 


From Steve Silsby (Ferguson HS - '72) of NC - 01/11/06 - "Vic Zodda's and More":

Carol,

 

When I was home last month I took many pictures around Newport News and Hampton.  As I drove down Buxton Avenue, my mother [Dorothy (Harton) Silsby, HHS ‘42] pointed out an old building just off of 25th Street and said it was the site of the original Vic Zodda's Restaurant.  The address is 239 Buxton and it is now owned by a fraternal organization.  I asked    Tim Rogers (Hampton HS - '66 - of VA) about it and he replied with this email:

 

Steve, check with your mother on this.  The place she said was Vic Zodda's I remember as Johnny's Dine and Dance in (1956-9). Maybe it became Vic Zodda's later (I have a very dim remembrance of that being the case).  Anyway, this requires more research.
Tim/ N4XND

 

I asked mom about what time it was Vic Zodda's, but she didn’t remember.  Can anyone else shed some more light on this?
 

   Hmmm, how about it, Sweetie Pies?  Any answers here?

 

 
 
Dec 2005 Dec 2005 Dec 2005 Dec 2005  
Vic Zodda's Vic Zodda's Medical Arts Building Dr. Hogg's Office  

 

   WOWZERS!!!  Thanks so much for the images, Steve!  I've not posted them yet, but I'm working on it!

 

When I was a child, Dr. Hogg (sp.?) was my pediatrician.  His office was at 87 29th Street, two doors behind the Medical Arts Building.  I drove by and the building is still there, but empty.  He moved his practice to Main Street around 1960.  I wonder who else went to Dr. Hogg?

 

   (My dentist was Dr. Hogg - Jesse, I believe - but that, of course, is not the same man at all.)

 

   "Anyone?  Anyone?"

 

Having mentioned the Medical Arts building I should add that it changed hands in 2001.  It was renovated for use as apartments.  It’s assessed value jumped from $77,000 before the sale to about half a million now.  So I guess there are some good things happening downtown.  The building looks absolutely gorgeous now, with it's striking architectural details preserved.   Give it a look next time you’re in the area.  It’s at 2901 West Avenue, next door to the library.
 

   It is pretty, Steve!  It was on our Magical Mystery Tour last October, and I took special note of it (yes, even amidst all the ruckus I was causing with    Eleanor and    Jean!), because I used to go to White Optical Company on the first floor to buy my eyeglasses there from the time we moved to town in January of 1954.  I was even fitted for my first pair of contact lenses there.

 

   My optometrist - EEEK!!! I can't recall if he was an ophthalmologist or not - was Dr. Phillips.  He had been my daddy's roommate when they were attending MCV.  Now I can't even recall his first name.  I must be losing it or something........

 

Finally, you asked about the “(sort of)” I place behind the FHS ’72 in my signature.  I was amongst the many seniors in the Newport News school system’s classes of ’72 who were displaced due to the newly court-ordered bussing.  In my case, I was bussed to Ferguson’s arch rival for my senior year.  Yep, four years at FHS, and then my Ferguson class ring and I are uprooted and sent for our final year to Warwick HS.  It’s all water under the bridge now.  Indeed, we Mariners have handled it with aplomb -- we’ve held reunions for the FHS Junior class of ’71.  To sum up, even though my diploma says WHS, I consider myself an FHS graduate.  Thus the tongue-in-cheek, “FHS ’72 (sort of)”.

 

Best Mariner regards,

Steve Silsby, FHS ’72 (sort of)

   AHHHH, of course - I should have surmised all that.  Thanks for telling me, though!  And thanks again for all the goodies!

 


  From Glenn Dye ('60) of TX - 01/11/06:

Carol,

My remembrance of  Peterson's Yacht Basin was when I was living on 24th Street off Parrish Avenue. A. D. Strickland, Steve Gillis, Ricky Phelps, and I were riding our bicycles to the beach over behind Stuart Gardens. Well, as we went by Peterson's Yacht Basin we were pushing our bikes up the side of the hill by the basin to cross the street. My foot slipped, and there was a pipe sticking up out of the ground. My knee went right down on the end of that pipe. Needless to say, I was bleeding from the gash in my knee. There were two men getting ready to go fishing. They saw me and what had happened,  so they rushed up there and got me and took me to Riverside Hospital to get my knee sewn up. I messed up their fishing trip. I was just thankful that they were close by.

Glenn Dye  60 

   YOWZERONI, Glenn!  I suppose you were!  I added your comments to the Peterson's page:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/old-stomping.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/OOSG-N-R.html

          http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/petersons-yacht-basin.html

   Thanks for sharing that with us!

 


  From Brenda Amos Williams ('62) of VA - 01/11/06:

Hey, Carol,

Hope you had a great Christmas and are having a good New Year. 2006, can you believe it?

   We had a very quiet but nice Christmas, thanks.  Actually, we're still having Christmas.  Normally, I'm quite rabid about making certain that all my decorations are down by January 6th, but with    Dale returning home on January 18th  - that's this Wednesday night!!! - we decided to leave everything decorated (albeit not lit) until his return.  We'll relight it all just before we go to pick him up at the Fayetteville Airport, and then as we turn the corner, we'll all say, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" and he'll be so surprised.

   As we're not sure yet when    Joshua will be arriving, I don't know how much longer it will all stay decorated.  He already celebrated Christmas in Illinois with his four other brothers, anyway.

   Besides, I still have to decorate for Valentine's Day!

I was walking the beach today, Buckroe Beach to be exact. What a nice place. And to think that they want to give it to developers and then we will not have any beach to walk on. My dog loves the beach and loves to run on it so we try to go whenever the weather is good.

   "Developers"?!?  That is just so obscene that I had forgotten all about it, as I tend to do when I receive unpleasant news.

Our reunion committee is having a dinner meeting on Jan. 16th to discuss the next reunion, I already told you that, but wanted you to put this on your website to help me to get the message to our folks. It is posted on our website 1962, but we need all the help we can get, you understand that, right?

   Absolutely!  I'll be delighted to add it!  How's this?
 

 
 

The Class of 1962 is starting their 'dinner' meetings! 
The first meeting will be on January 16, 2006 at 6:30 PM at Mike's Place, 458 Warwick Village Shopping Center, Newport News (757-599-5500).  They would love to have as many of their classmates as possible to attend, because they are planning to discuss the details of their upcoming 45-Year Reunion!!
Please put this date on your calendar and come join them.
 
If you did not receive an announcement, then they do not have your address.
 
Please email Pat Floyd Pride at
patnnhs@cox.net or Brenda Amos Williams at typhoonmom@juno.com so that you can stay in touch.

 
     
     

 
 This is now posted at the top of the main page (which had a bit of a redesign in the process), and within the Reunion Pages:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/reunion-page.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/reunion-62-planning-mtgs.html

I am so looking forward to our first meeting. It gets me excited to think about our next reunion,

   That is an exciting thought!  I wish I could be there with y'all!  I had so much fun raiding those meetings back in 2002! 

http://www.angelfire.com/va3/65nnhs/03-04-02-rpm-62.html

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/07-01-02.html

Thanks for all that you do, I have a website but don't have time to keep it going like you do yours, so I appreciate all that you do for the classes of NNHS.

   Honey, nobody in their right mind has that much time!!!  WILD GIGGLES!!!

Go Typhoons,


Brenda Williams

Friends are Angels who lift us to our feet when
our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world". -Ghandi

   Thanks, Brenda!

 


  From Jimmy Hines ('64) of Northern VA - 01/12/06:

Carol,

Regarding difficulty opening the newsletters: with pop-up blockers in place and a whole host of other restrictive stuff, it seems, I have to hold the control key down when I click the alumni site. That's necessary for a bunch of other things on my computer too, and is a minor annoyance, but well worth it to read what everyone sends in! Hope you and yours are well, and that your day was OK...

Jimmy

   Now that sounds like an easy solution, Jimmy!  Thanks!!!  It didn't work on my other puny computer.  I don't know what it's silly problem is, but Dale will soon figure that out for us.  It has another goofy habit, too.  If a thunderstorm (or careless construction workers or a blown circuit) should shut the power down, even for an instant, it goes on hiatus for two days, and refuses to reboot.  Then after the approximately 48 hours are up, it will suddenly restart when asked as though nothing ever happened.  I think I'm going to rename it, "Who? ME???" and paint an innocent looking face on it somewhere......

 


  From Alice Fowler Edwards ('64) of VA - 01/12/06:

A spot check of 2006 newsletters brings them ALL up. But thanks for posting instructions on "cleanup!"

   Well, that's a relief!!!  Thanks for letting me know!
 

Alice
 
P.S. I remember putting $0.50 in my sister's Renault Dauphine and driving for hours! Not to mention using it to take the driver's license on the road test ... I would never have passed the driver's test if I had to parallel my dad's '59 Plymouth which was about 25 feet long!!

   Ahhh - the Good Old Days!   GIGGLES!  Thanks, Alice!

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/old-stomping.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/OOSG-N-R.html

          http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/pop-arnolds-esso-station.html

 


  From Richard Marshall ('66) of VA - 01/12/06 - "01/05/06 - NNHS Newsletter - Larry Marshall":

Carol,

The posting about my dad is greatly appreciated and I thank you for taking the time to do not only this, but all the hard work you put into the site. Because my mom doesn't have and refuses to get a computer, I hardcopied it for her.
 

Thanks & God bless,
Richard Marshall ' 66

   That was my privilege, Richard, thanks.  My thoughts and prayers remain with you and your mama.

 


  From Richard Dawes (NNHS/HHS - '62) of VA to   Dave Arnold ('65) of VA - 01/12/06:

Dave, not only do I remember your dad’s ESSO station but I remember you, as a youngster. I mentioned you to my mother (Estelle) and she remembered you also. She is 86 (what a mind). You see, I lived just down the block at 1330 25th Street. The house has since been destroyed. We lived just across the street from Doug and Wayne Johnson. We moved in the
year the station was renovated. I believe that I was in the third grade.

When we first moved in, I didn’t like going down to the station, I was so young and the only time I was allowed to go there was to get a two gallon can full on Kerosene. At that time, I remember, it was 14 cents a gallon. The can was so heavy for me that I had to stop every few feet to set it down and rest. But we had to have it for heat.

What great times I had there as I got older - going out back of the station and draining a bunch of old oil cans into an empty, to get oil that I could use on my bicycle and lawn mower. I spent my time between Pops ESSO and Bun's Texaco on the corner of 25th and Parish Avenue. There were some horse shoe pits behind Bun's and some of us boys spent
many, many hours there pitching. All of the bad guys hung around Bun's with their fast hot rods, while your dad's station catered to a different clientele.

I really liked your dad’s station because it was a little higher class station, especially after the remodeling. I hung around there to the point that whoever was in charge would sometimes run me off. I became quite knowledgeable in auto mechanics by getting such a good base of knowledge from watching and listing to the "Experts". There was a garage behind your station that I just loved to hang around. If you remember they built "Stock Cars" there. One that I remember and watched being built and painted was a number 23D. I watched in amazement as this guy (who would now be call a graphic artist) painted the numbers on it in such a way that it represented "3D" which was just coming out in the movies at that time. Also, there was a family at, I think, 1324 25th Street, who also had a garage behind their house where they were always working on a race car. This is where I learned how to weld as a youngster. For the life of me I can’t remember their name, but the father also was a CRT bus driver until the "Strike". During the strike they would have movies at their house (with popcorn) and charge 10 to 15 cents a person just to help pay the bills.

Don’t know if you were old enough to remember that there was a "Race Track" on Chestnut Avenue on the north edge of
Copeland Park. It was a short dirt track, which went out of business when Langley Speedway opened. This is where most of the back yard stock cars ran. The old track had lots of holes in it.

I’ll stop here. I could go on for hours about the neighborhood: Roger's, Dick's Bar, the grocery store on the corner, and even the old yellow house where this old lady would come out a yell at any kid who just walked by on the side walk in front of her house. Man, she was frightening.

God bless.

- Richard Dawes

   WOWZERS!!!  Thanks, Dicky!  I added your remarks:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/old-stomping.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/OOSG-N-R.html

          http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/pop-arnolds-esso-station.html

 


  From Lydia Powell Mugler ('58) of VA to    Dave Arnold ('65) of VA - 01/12/06:

Thanks for the step back to Stuart Gardens...my dad worked full time at NASA (f/k/a NACA) and part time for your dad.  I remember going to the station and getting the classic Moon Pie!  What a treat.

   Thanks, Dicky!  I added your remarks, too:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/old-stomping.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/OOSG-N-R.html

          http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/pop-arnolds-esso-station.html

 


  From Frank Blechman ('65) of Northern VA - 01/12/06 - "Monty's":

When Monty's left Virginia Avenue (in the late '50s), it moved to Warwick Boulevard where it evolved slowly into the "Penguin" specializing in soft-freeze ice-cream (w/dipped hard shell chocolate cones).

Frank Blechman, Campaign Manager
LONGMYER FOR CONGRESS 2006

   Thanks, Frank!  I see it every time I'm in town.  One of these first trips, I'll have to stop there!

   I posted your remarks on the Monty's page - which I redesigned in the process:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/old-stomping.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/OOSG-H-M.html

          http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/montys.html

   "Campaign Manager"???  I'm glad to see you're staying busy!  WOWZERONI!!!  That certainly ought to do it!

 


   Y'all take extra good care of each other!  TYPHOONS FOREVER!

                          Love to all, Carol

==============================================

NNHS CLASS OF '65 WEB SITE: http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com

PERSONAL WEB SITE: http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/cluckmeat

"I only have two kinds of days: happy and hysterically happy."

==============================================


In the Midnight Hour

- Steve Cropper, Wilson Pickett, 196


I’m gonna wait till the midnight hour
That’s when my love comes tumbling down
I’m gonna wait till the midnight hour
When there is no one else around
I’m gonna take and I’m gonna hold
Do all the things I’ve told
In the midnight hour, in the midnight hour

I’m gonna wait till the stars come out
To see the twinkle in your eyes
I’m gonna wait till the midnight hour
That’s when my love begins to shine
You’re the only one I know
That really loves me so
In the midnight hour, in the midnight hour

Midnight midnight midnight tonight


"In the Midnight Hour" midi courtesy of http://www.garyrog.50megs.com/midi2.html
at the suggestion of Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 01/01/06
Thanks, Dave!

"In the Midnight Hour" lyrics courtesy of http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/tina-turner/137627.html
also at the suggestion of Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 01/01/06
Thanks again, Dave!

Midnight Hour on Clock Image courtesy of http://www.mrque.web66.com/cinderella_page_3.htm - 01/12/06

Animated Blue and Lavender Divider Line clip art courtesy of http://www.wtv-zone.com/nevr2l82/bars31.html - 01/12/06

Animated Tiny Birthday Cake clip art courtesy of Sarah Puckett Kressaty ('65) of VA - 08/31/05
Thanks, Sarah Sugah!

Anchor clip art courtesy of Steve Silsby (FHS - '72) of NC - 12/14/05
Thanks, Steve!

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