Dear Carol,

I have spent all evening reading newsletters that I hadn’t opened before. I followed some of the links and read all the material on North End. This website is incredible! I read on the home page that $4.00 from each subscriber would pay the cost of the web space. That’s an incredible bargain! On Sunday I addressed an envelope to you and left it on the kitchen table until I got around to writing the check. When I read about the $4.00 I felt so guilty that I am immediately going to write the check and post the envelope! How else can I show my appreciation?!

   You know, I ought to amend that.  With over 385 subscribers now, it's probably closer to $2.00 a year per subscriber.  The cost of the space itself is $150.00 a year, which will be due again on 01/24/06, and the cost of my monthly high-speed access is $45.00.  So that's what, $690.00?  It would be a very simple matter to ask for subscription fees because it would be so inexpensive for everyone, but that's totally against my principles, and I'll try whatever I can to keep that from happening.  It seems somehow obscene.  Meanwhile, it's usually feast or famine with the contributions, but I've blessedly never been forced to shut it down for lack of funding.  Even when it was unavailable for updating those three horrible months, the site itself remained running.  I've always kept the names of the contributors confidential, but I'm always delighted to receive whatever they send.

   Okay, I changed the wording:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com
 

I’m interested in ordering one of the Class of ’64 “CD Mix.” Do I send my request to the same place as the donation - to the Norfolk PO Box listed in the Typhoon Mart?

   Yes, that's true.  There are actually three products, as it were, with three separate people and three separate funds, and these monies never change hands between us.

   Dave Spriggs ('64 - of VA) offers his CDs for free, with a suggested donation of $10.00:

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

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/CD-MIX.html

NNHS CLASS OF 1964

P.O. BOX 6387

NORFOLK VA 23508-0387

   Tom Flax ('64 - of VA) has wonderful items for sale at various prices:

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

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/GOODIES-1964.html

TOM FLAX
2413 ADAIR COURT
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA 23456

   And I handle the costs of the free website, underwritten by contributions:

CAROL BUCKLEY HARTY
219 FOUR PLY LANE
FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28311-9305

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

   I hope that clears the confusion, because I know it has arisen in the past.

 

I read through all of the North End page tonight and enjoyed it. Seems like there was a big group of Typhooners who lived there.  I lived and grew up in downtown on thirty-second street between West Avenue and the James River. I don’t know if there was as big a group of us downtown as there was in North End. I remember that when I was a student at John Daniel School there were row houses on Huntington Avenue and some of the kids I went to Daniel with lived there. I think Franklyn Anderson lived there. I don’t remember if the row houses were still there when we went to NNHS or if they were torn down by then. Remember when Sears moved from Washington Avenue to the big new store on Huntington Avenue? I think the row houses may have been torn down then to make way for Sears. There were row houses on some of the side streets, too, I think, but can’t remember for sure. I seem to remember visiting a friend after school in one of them.

Some of the kids who lived downtown were    Pieter ('67) and    Katie ('64) Haan, Gloria Tart, Wayne Codding, Barbara Murphy, Alpha Harrison. Gloria, Wayne, Barbara. and Alpha all graduated with the Class of 1959.

   Katie Haan Spaulding has lived in Sacramento, CA for many years.  She attended the Friday night portion of the 2002 Reunion of the Class of 1962, which was heavily raided by members of the Class of '65 as part of our 50th Birthday celebration.  Her brother, Pietie (or Bill, as most of his classmates knew him), was killed in a motorcycle accident on 12/28/64.  I visited in their home often, but being totally directionless, I could not begin to tell you where it was located, except somewhere downtown in the Daniel School district.

   Kelly Loose Bustamante ('58) of VA attended Daniel School, as did    Ronnie Miller ('59) of NC, and Ernie Murphy ('65) of VA.

We have often talked about the Typhoon spirit. Remember the assemblies we used to have? We had lots of them during football and basketball season. Didn’t we have one for every home football game? We had assemblies to mark special occasions, too. At Thanksgiving time it seems to me I remember gathering the entire student body in the auditorium and we sang the traditional Thanksgiving songs. The entire student body assembled in the auditorium with the seniors seated in the front rows.

   I thought the pep assemblies were held before every football game and every basketball game, both home and away, but maybe that's just my faulty memory at play.  There are some images of them posted on the various Cheerleader pages:

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

Perhaps the assembly that most endures in my mind was the first one held in the new auditorium that replaced the one destroyed by fire. Miss Sherman led the student body in singing “Bless This House.” I’ll never forget the words. I still hear the voices rising in unison to sing:

“Bless this house, O Lord. Make it safe by night and day;
Bless these walls so firm and stout, Keeping want and trouble out;
Bless the roof and chimneys tall, Let thy peace lie over all;
Bless this door that it may prove ever open to joy and love.

Bless these windows shining bright, letting in God’s heavenly light;
Bless the hearth a blazing there, with smoke ascending like a prayer;
Bless the folk who dwell within, keep them pure and free from sin;
Bless us all that we may be Fit O Lord to dwell with thee;
Bless us all that one day we May dwell O Lord with thee.

   Ohhh, that song!  How I love it!  It's available to hear in two different versions within the site:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/teach-Sherman.html - piano

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/trinity-methodist.html - organ

   (Okay, Lady, you got me crying again, just listening to those two!  It's amazing how readily they evoke certain memories.)
 

In years after I left NNHS and worked in other schools, I did not see assemblies like the ones we had at NNHS. We had lots of them, yet they did not interfere with the academic program, although I do remember watching the hands on the clock in Mrs. Graves’ English class, hoping the clock would get to time for the assembly before she got around to giving the promised quiz on the homework that I did not finish the night before! Remember the pep rallies, yelling at the top of our lungs to support our teams? Remember the chorus and the band performing for the student body? Remember the skits and plays our classmates performed at assemblies that marked holidays? Remember the Mouse Assembly and the Senior Assembly?  I wonder if those assemblies had something to do with building the Spirit that was NNHS? Did they somehow enter into the chemistry that created the phenomenon we know as the NNHS Typhoon Spirit?

   I believe you're right, Aretie.  Perhaps those bonds were forged at all those wonderful assemblies, no matter what their purpose.  There was a wonderful sense of unity which prevailed at all of them.
 

I’m sending along two images which may be of interest. One shows the two sides of a CRT bus token. You already have a nice picture of a token that Dave Spriggs ('64 - of VA) sent previously. This image caught our eye because it shows both sides.

The other picture shows John W. Daniel School behind Coleman’s Florist, which was being demolished. Until I saw the picture, I had forgotten all about Coleman’s Florist.

   COLEMAN'S!  Of course!!!

Take care.