04

A Newport News landmark is marking its anniversary with a party and plans for a
revitalized future.

A Newport News landmark is marking its anniversary with a party and plans for a revitalized future.

A Newport News landmark is marking its anniversary with a party and plans for a
revitalized future.

I've been plagued by some weird computer difficulties lately. The "lesser" computer arbitrarily decided that it could no longer
access the internet, although the "greater" computer (i.e. "MY" computer) had no such problem, and they are both joined via a
LAN card. While we were pulling our hair over that, the super computer developed blatantly silly problems of its own. ARGHHH!!!

So if my responses to you have been slow or not at all, I apologize. We hope to be able to resolve these issues shortly.

Combine all that with some concentration problems I've been having lately, and you have - EEEK!! - no Newsletter for several
days! I'm sorry about that. As a result of all that, this one is not really of record length, but it ranks right up there.

Tom Norris (Hampton HS - '73) made page hit # 33,000 Tuesday morning at 9:03. Congratulations, Tom!

If you should see Monty Phillips ('62) of VA, please wish him a belated Happy Birthday for me! His birthday was Monday.

Terry Seay ('67 - of VA) told me to sign up for the newsletter – so here I am.

My wife Patty and I have been living on the Chesapeake Bay in Buckroe for the last 18 years and loving it. We hang out
with Dale Mueller ('64 - of VA) and his wife Lois as well as Terry and his wife Wanda.

Well, THERE you are, Bill! I wondered what was keeping you! GIGGLES! Welcome aboard. Tell everybody Hi for me.

Terry already tried that trick about telling me he lived on Buckroe Beach just me make me drool, so .... oh, dear, it's still working
just fine. As Napoleon Dynamite said, "LUCK-KEEE!"

Welcome, Ilene and Bill! I've added y'all to the hidden mailing list and to the Alumni Page, and we look forward to hearing more
from you.

Thanks, Ron! Just to reiterate how memorable these performances are, I have to relate another story in connection with them.
My sister, Eleanor Buckley Nowitzky ('59) of NC was on the phone with me when I discovered your original letter. Now Eleanor's
memory of people, places, and events is laughingly abysmal. But with the mention of those phenomenal young trumpeters, she
hesitated not a moment. She said they were so excellent, and that Bugler's Holiday in particular was so spectacular, that they
presented it several times in several places.

It was Eleanor who remembered the image of the trumpet/cornet section in her 1958 yearbook (which I borrowed several months
ago), and suggested I keep looking until I found it.

If you're not picking up on the impact that these three incredible musicians had 47 years ago, then I haven't found the correct words
to express myself. Thanks again for reminding us, Ronnie - and Craig - and Eleanor!

And of course, a special everlasting thanks to Julius Benton ('58), Johnny Nickey ('59) and Chuck Anspach ('60) for sharing
their tremendous talent with us all and leaving us to forever recall something that astoundingly beautiful and magical.

Thanks, Gloria! How I loved that Fun House - and the Roller Coaster was my absolute favorite!

Now that you mention it, I loved "Peggy Sue Got Married". How often have I longed for a time machine. The Buckroe
Amusement Park would be one of the first places I'd visit, too!

I'm sorry I didn't pick up on Dr. Neisser. My own physician was Nowell D. Nelms, M.D. in Southampton Shopping Center.
He had been an Army buddy of my father's during the war, where he earned the nickname of "Stinky" Nelms for his ability to spot
slackers.

By the way, my #1 daughter-in-law was a "miracle" baby just like you, Gloria, born after her mama's tubes had been tied. She
just really, really wanted to be born - and I suppose you did, too!

Hi Carol, a NN friend of mine, Fred W Field ('45 - of CA) emailed me the Daily Press article about "Rays", and
since I had lots of old memory remarks about it that I sent back to Fred, he said, "Why don't you submit this
to Carol" - which I am doing. I visited your website, http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/NNHS-Newsletters.html.
Thanks for all of the labor you are contributing to make it viable. Though the Daily Press article calls it Rays,
my recollection of the Hilton Country Club was that a mere 55 years ago it had a black and white sign over it
saying, "Adams Place". I grew up in Hilton Village, so it was not too far away. Anyhoo, here is a bit of my nostalgic
wash on it.
Tom Lawford, Reston VA

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

Wow, what intense memories "Rays" brings back to me. It was on Warwick Boulevard east about 6 blocks
from the main street stoplight on the north side of Warwick Boulevard. Next to the Amoco station where I
bought all of my gas once I turned 18 and got my 57 t bird 3 years later in '61. My teenage memories of this
place are that it truly had the ambience of what Cheers had. Long narrow bar with blue cigarette smoke in the
air, patrons who were 20 years regulars across the social spectrum. The bar was half full Sunday at 10 AM
with old friends, some buzzed, some not, but just socializing and enjoying each others company and yattering
away. There was no TV to stare at in silence at this juncture, you socialized with those up and down the barstools.
Once I got my learners permit, my parents cautiously allowed me to drive to Rays on Sunday morning to quickly
grab a Sunday paper and scoot. It was not a bar that was laden with potential hostility. It had the atmosphere
of a family gathering of folks who had long been friends for 20 years plus - I could sense that at age 17 and felt
very comfortable in my dash in to get the Sunday paper. So I had no trepidations about walking into Rays
Sunday am to grab the Sunday Daily Press. I sort of looked forward to it, since I felt I was just amongst a 'family'
of longtime acquaintances. Blows me away that is still exists. 75 years, wow. I'm glad it endures. If I had more
energy I would plan a visit to NN just to get a look.

I realized from conversations I heard 50 years ago that its quite possible that a few design details of aircraft
carriers were finalized between barstools at Rays over a few beers. That's the way things worked in my hometown.

It was ostensibly honky tonk, old, dilapidated, oiled wooden floors, tucked into a long narrow no one wants this
space. Unpretentious dull small grey front. It was recognized among the Hiltonians not with a snickering sense
of denigration, but with a muted sense of approbation. They somehow sensed that this was our pub, and if by God
we were going to have one, then by damn Rays (Adams) was it. . Viva Rays, may it continue on serving a vital social
function. Wish I was close enough to drop in there for a beer tonight, and chat up the folks on adjoining bar stools.

Tom Lawford, Hilton Village born and raised, now Reston VA

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

BY TONY GABRIELE
247-4786

April 16 2005

NEWPORT NEWS -- For many motorists heading up Warwick Boulevard, the sign on the nondescript little white-siding building
on the edge of Hilton Village must be puzzling:

"Ray's Hilton Country Club"?

The name's a joke, obviously. But what the modest neighborhood tavern lacks in swank, it makes up for in history.

Ray's Hilton Country Club is 75 years old. The local landmark's new management is throwing an anniversary party today and has
big plans for its future.

Walk through the door right now, and you step back several decades. The wooden paneling is burnished and darkened by time. A
few of the original furnishings are still there: a wind-up wall clock, an old-style phone booth, a penny weight machine. Tucked behind
the bar is the original marble soda-fountain counter from the building's early days.

A tarnished bell hanging near the bar bears a handwritten (and deliberately misspelled) warning in which the penalty is having to buy
everybody a round of drinks: "Inney one dares to ring this bell will set the house up also - The Waytres."

Add a couple of pool tables and dartboards, and a jukebox with plenty of country tunes, and you've got it.

And there's the clientele - mainly regulars from the neighborhood and shipyard folk with an after-work thirst - a few of whom have
been around for decades, too. On a visit to Ray's on Thursday night, some of them shared a few stories of the old days and told why
they find it a friendly haven.

"This is like 'Cheers,' " regular patron Jim Freed of Hilton said as he puffed on a small cigar at his table. "Everybody knows
everybody's name."

And everybody there knows that the "Ray" in its name is Ray Adams, who ran the tavern from the 1950s until his death in 1988,
followed by his son Ray Jr.

Ray Adams' father, William Mansfield Adams, acquired the property in 1930 - hence the 75th anniversary date - and first operated
it as a confectionery, according to Ray Jr. Another Adams family member ran the now-closed Amoco service station next door,
likewise a neighborhood fixture for many decades. Part of the building also once housed a barbershop.

"There was always a lot of sports talk in here," said shipyard retiree Jim Jones, who's been coming here since the 1950s and recalls
the senior Ray as a sportsman and referee who liked to sponsor youth sports teams, and who also put on a popular annual crab feast.

"A lot of people came in here from all walks of life," Jones said, describing a cast that ranges from painters and brick masons to city
councilmen and shipyard executives. "Many a ship was built in those booths."

"I never thought of this as a true bar," he added. "It was always nicer to be here than in other places."

Jones also recalled a prank Adams played on one shipyard president who liked to stop by for a quick beer: When the president went
to the restroom, Adams emptied half his glass and refilled it with water.

Some claim the mischievous former owner continues to stop by - as a ghost, opening and closing doors and, before it was replaced,
opening the old cash register. Ella Albert, who's been a "beertender" there for 27 years, said his spirit "comes in to see me once a
month."

"Once I was alone in here with one customer. The back door opened and closed, and Ray walked up behind me and patted me on the
shoulder. I reached up my hand and patted him back. Then the door opened and closed again when he went out.

"The customer asked me, Did you see him? I said yes, and he said, I didn't see him, and I'm gone."

Ray's recent owners - first Mike Kennedy, who bought the business about two years ago, then his brother-in-law Chad Kilburn, who
took over from Kennedy half a year ago - have worked to bring in more business by having karaoke nights and occasional live bands.
Ray's now has a regular food menu featuring shrimp, clams, wings, franks and nachos.

Kilburn also has ambitious ideas about taking Ray's into the future - and back to its past. He plans to spruce up the place and create
a turn-of-the-previous-century ambience that harks back to Hilton Village's origins, with a redone ceiling, wood floors in place of carpet
and an old-fashioned wood-burning stove like it originally had. He's already got an old player piano (no piano rolls, though).

He also hopes for bigger kitchen facilities, someday serving wine in addition to beer, and maybe adding an upper-level indoor deck.

One other big thing is going to change at Ray's: the name.

Kilburn said it'll be known henceforward as the Hilton Tavern, "as soon as I get the new sign."

The "Country Club" name was Ray Adams' jokey reference to the high-toned James River Country Club. "We were the working
people's country club," said his son.

The problem, Kilburn said, is some people take it literally. "We get calls asking us for the tee times, or asking if the tennis pro is in."
Also, he believes the place has lost business from potential customers who see the name and think it's a private club.

Said patron Jim Freed, "I've seen young women come in here in evening gowns, because their boyfriends told them to meet them
at the Hilton Country Club."

But the regulars predict that physical alterations and a new sign won't change the place's friendliness or bother the current clientele.

"You have second- and third-generation customers here," said tavern manager Debra Bradbury.

Said Kilburn, "To some people, it'll always be Ray's."

WOWZERS! Thanks for sharing this with us, Tom - and thanks for the referral, Fred!

This was a bit off my beaten path for me to add anything. How 'bout the rest of y'all?

I've mentioned several times in the past my belief that there are no such thing as "coincidences".

Most of y'all are no doubt blissfully unaware of a weird idiosyncrasy of mine. I'm camera happy. I take many more photos than
the average. My problem is, with rare exception, I develop them quite infrequently. I obsessively put beginning and ending dates
on the rolls of film and keep then sealed in containers and wait for some happy day when I think I can afford to splurge on developing
them, and just have the greatest time opening my "treasures".

Last week we popped for four rolls of film, which arrived back on Saturday. One of these dated from last September when Ilene
came to visit me. I had not heard from her since then.

Hey! Guess what else was in those photos I developed?? Remember last summer when I told you one of my students had
actually invited me to his 15th Birthday Party - and it was ice skating - and I (Miz Totally UN-Coordinated Biggus-Wimpus
Wienius-Maximus Fraidy-Cat Super-Brat) actually WENT?!? Well, here's the proof:

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any shots proving that I went out into the middle of the rink (once or maybe twice), and that
I didn't fall down, but I did - really!

I also had a letter from my #6 son, Elder Dale Harty, serving in the California Carlsbad Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. He's teaching the Spanish-speaking people there, and is now living in Oceanside. He enclosed these pictures
of himself. As he did so much to help teach me how to do that which I do, and spent so much time to create that jukebox as a gift
for you on the front page of the web site shortly before he left on 01/14/04, I thought y'all might enjoy seeing him:

Of course, you have given me a new mystery in the process. When we first moved to Newport News in January of 1954, I
remember my father (who was at least as fanatical about proper English and its spelling, pronunciation, and grammar as I am)
took particular pains to point out to me that the one and only correct pronunciation was "Warrick". He knew that I sounded out
words and was confused by irregularities, so he would always take time to show them to me. (A sure and certain way to watch
my daddy hit the ceiling in outrage was to arrange for someone - preferably on TV - to pronounce the silent "h" in "vehicle". He
was far too elegant and polite to do it in their presence, but when they were gone - BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA!)

I was only six-and-a-half, so I'm not sure I'm remembering this conversation about Warwick verbatim, but I rather thought he
included a history lesson about the Earl of Warwick in his story.

By the way, our reading methods were not always successful. As a child, Daddy was embarrassed to find out the man's name
was NOT "Na-po-LE-on", and I was distraught and disappointed to learn the state was not pronounced "CO-lor-a-do" - which
sounded like a very pretty, magical place to me - full of crayons and other delights.

Just wondering...did anyone hear how many cards Mr. McIntosh received for his birthday?

It’s funny – as I was preparing that Newsletter and thinking how ironic it was that Mr. Etheridge should pass
away first when he was so much younger than Mr. McIntosh and in such obvious good health only six months ago,
I was wondering the same thing. But no, I never heard. Perhaps Thelma did.

What is not so funny is that I realized that I had never made Mr. Mac's page - so I shall do that this afternoon.
Look for it to appear here:

I don’t know how many cards there were – but they were considerable. Our class got a
wonderful note from him and he was quite touched. Also, I understand Mr. McIntosh is
in tenuous health right now – so don’t be surprised if you hear something about him also.
A week ago we were told that he was fading. I understand there will be a memorial service
at McIntosh School when he does pass away. Not pleasant things to be predicting – but it
will happen to all of us in our own time.

Sigh. I'm so sorry to hear about Mr. Mac's health, Thelma - but thanks so much for letting us know.

From Lydia Powell Mugler ('58) of VA to Thelma Spade Roberts ('67) of VA - 04/21/05:

Thanks, Linda! It's good to hear from you! And congratulations on your escape from AOL. I've posted your address
(as before) on the 1965 Contact page:

Thanks, Raoul! There ya go, Gloria! And in case anyone else misplaces your address later, I posted it on the Alumni
Page as well:

I hope your turnout for that is as incredible as the adventure itself will be, Raoul!

Run Around Sue

Dion and the Belmonts - 1961 - #1 Hit

Here's my story, sad but true
It's about a girl that I once knew
She took my love then ran around
With every single guy in town
Ah, I should have known it from the very start
This girl will leave me with a broken heart
Now listen people what I'm telling you
A-keep away from-a Runaround Sue

I miss her lips and the smile on her face
The touch of her hair and this girl's warm embrace
So if you don't wanna cry like I do
A-keep away from-a Runaround Sue

Ah, she likes to travel around
She'll love you but she'll put you down
Now people let me put you wise
Sue goes out with other guys
Here's the moral and the story from the guy who knows
I fell in love and my love still grows
Ask any fool that she ever knew, they'll say
Keep away from-a Runaround Sue

She likes to travel around
She'll love you but she'll put you down
Now people let me put you wise
Sue goes out with other guys
Here's the moral and the story from the guy who knows
I fell in love and my love still grows
Ask any fool that she ever knew, they'll say
Keep away from-a Runaround Sue


Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - Fayetteville, NC
Carol Buckley Harty and Ilene Wasserman Dillard


Friday, August 6, 2004 - Ft. Bragg, NC
Carol and Nick's mama, Debra	Carol and Nick and three of his friends

Late March 2005 - Oceanside, CA

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 -
Carlsbad, CA

Elder Dale Harty

Elder Gurney, Elder Bruderer, Elder Harty, and Elder Porter
with the "Cleanest Apartment
in the Mission" Trophy