12/08/05 - NNHS Newsletter - Blue Christmas

"Somehow, not only for Christmas
    But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
    Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing
    The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing
    Returns to you glad."

- John Greenleaf Whittier (17 Dec 1807 - 7 Sep 1892)

Today Pearl Harbor Day is    Tim Parsons' birthday.

   GASP!!!  I thought I was being so careful, and was horrified that I'd missed another one, so I checked the Happy Birthday page, and it wasn't listed there, so I checked Famous Marines, and it wasn't listed there either.  Well, now it's listed on both places:

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

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/famous-marines.html

   Happy Belated Birthday, Tim - and thanks for telling us, Dale!

Carol,

Thanks for the info about Hampton Shoney’s. That timeframe (’55 or ’56) would seem about right.  In response to your comments regarding the Big Boy statue, “Well, what else could you do, Sweetie?!?  Your resourcefulness and agility are very impressive, Sir!  And I'm certain that your efforts at avoiding trouble were substantial.  And after all, you weren't caught, were you?” Everyone enjoyed the statue. We presented it quite ceremoniously, bringing it into the reception like pallbearers in our dress whites, stood him up in the middle of the floor, formed up militarily in ranks, saluted the statue, performed an about face, and then saluted the new bride and groom. The bride’s father really enjoyed it, but later in the evening suggested that we return it…..which we did, as stealthfully as six inebriated Marines could. And never got caught, coming or going……no doubt, a credit to our excellent Marine Corps training.

   OHHHH, how delightful!!!  I hope someone captured those moments on film!

  Jimmy (Hines - '64 - of Northern VA),

I don’t live very far from the Temple and we go there every year at this time to at least one of the numerous performances. One of my favorites is the Bells.

   Oh, DO try to make it Thursday night!  The last time I made it there was December of 2001, and it was absolutely magical!  Hey, you could take your camera and have shots made of you and Jimmy together!!!   Wouldn't that be THE biggest hoot?!?  

      I don’t think I can make it to see Jimmy Thursday night. I already have plans for that evening.

         ARGHHH!!!  What a shame!

  Pam (Smith Arnold - '65 - of VA),

My dad’s name was Nowell, as is my brother’s (although he goes by Darden). I don’t know the origin of the name, but it’s not very common. Need I investigate previous emails for Professor Carol’s insight?

   Chandler Darlin', I've resisted the urge so far because I know that genealogists drive everyone else (and sometimes even each other) bonkers, but I've wondered about this all my life, and now you've tempted me beyond my ability to resist.

   First, the simple explanation you seek was in Monday's Newsletter in the history of the song lyrics, as given by http://www.carols.org.uk/the_first_noel.htm:

(The First Noel is unknown in origin but is generally thought to be English dating back
to the sixteenth century. There is a misconception that the First Noel was French and it is
believed that this is because of the French spelling of Noel as opposed to the olde English
Anglo-Saxon spelling of the word as in Nowell. After England was captured by the Normans
numerous words were adopted from the Norman French language and Noel was re-spelt as Nowell;
early printed versions of this carol use the Nowell spelling. The First Noel was first published
in 1833 when it appeared in "Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern," a collection of seasonal
carols gathered by William B. Sandys.)

   But here's my question:

   My 7th great grandmother's name was Mary Nowell.  This surname was passed down as a given name for generations, and I wondered if your father and mine might have unknowingly been distant cousins as well as close friends.

Mary Nowell (b. c1660 of Charles City Co., VA - d. 1724, "Longfield, Henrico Co. VA)
Hutchins Burton (b. 9 Apr 1694, Henrico Co. VA - d. aft 9 May 1793, Henrico Co. VA)
Hutchins Burton (b. 23 Sep 1723, Henrico Co. VA - d. 1801/2, Mecklenburg Co., VA)
Hutchins Burton (b. 1746/9, Henrico Co. VA - d. 1828, Halifax Co., VA)
Frances Allen ("Fannie") Burton (b. 1804, Halifax Co., VA - d. 18__, "Hilly Creek", Omega, Halifax Co., VA)
Almaranda Jane Wilkinson (b. 1831, "Hilly Creek", Omega, Halifax Co., VA - d. May 1901, Danville, VA)
Virginia Susan ("Puss") Fitts (b. 12 June 1860, Virgilina, Hailfax, VA - d. 7 Nov 1909, "Buckshoal Farm", Virgilina, Halifax, VA)
Ursula Janie ("Sula") Tuck (b. 19 Sep 1885, "Buckshoal Farm", Virgilina, Halifax, VA - d. 31 Dec 1975, Richmond, VA)
Millard Robert Buckley, M.D. (b. 19 Oct 1907, Richmond, VA - d. 25 Apr 1960, Newport News, VA)
Carol Randolph Buckley (b. 30 Aug 1947, Richmond, VA)

   Wow! You’re just a wonderful wealth of knowledge. Thank you.

      You're quite welcome, Sir!

  David (Whitley - '67 - of VA),

You’re exactly right about the mindset of growing old. I have a motto – “I may be old, but I’m still immature”. And of course we ALL know that the older we get, the better we were. Where are you in VA? I’m sure that we could get into enormous amounts of trouble together.

   David, bless his heart, is still right there in Newport News.  He is the most delightful person! I can't imagine you two not instantly hitting it off.

   Thanks, Sweetie! Have fun!

Carol

  Jerry Blanchard ('62 - of VA) sure brought a flood of memories back with his statement about a flip I did in 61. I'll try not to get too winded on this but, I grew up in Newport News but moved to Hampton for my junior and senior years in high school. Needless to say that I still had lots and lots of friends in N.N.

Well it was turkey day game in '61 and I was playing for Hampton. What a blast it was. I knew everybody on the field. The guys from Hampton couldn't figure out how I knew every player on the Newport News team by their first name. Anyway I was having a great time. It was like playing sandlot football with all of your friends on both teams. Just with uniforms.

We were well into the second half and the Typhoons were giving Hampton a good thrashing. But I was having a good game. I couldn't lose - no matter who won. Well, N.N. had to punt. (probably one of the few for them that day). I was playing defense and broke through the line in a attempt to block the punt. Running full speed, I jumped high into the air to try to make the block. I went real high and    Bob Stalnaker ('64) gave me a good block about the shin level which caused me to do a complete flip. Johnny Weissmuller would have been impressed with the form and grace of me hitting the ground. Good times... Good times.

Normally our coach would have films taken of each game to review but didn't for turkey day for some reason. So I got in touch with Jerry and some of the guys and came over to Newport News to view the films with them. What a hoot... boy, did I take a ribbing. They played the flip over and over, But it was great fun.

I wonder what ever happened to all of the old Typhoon football films. Does anyone know?

Richard Dawes (Dicky)
dawes@jlab.org

   Thanks, Dicky!  I loved this story - it was even better than I was expecting!

   Amid all the searching for trophies and other memorabilia that was transpiring in the last couple of years, I don't really remember any mention of the football films.  What a treasure that one would be!  Albert?  Do you know?

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

Carol

Here is another.

  Jerry Blanchard ('62 - of VA) sure brought a flood of memories back.  I remember that Jerry lived just down the street from me when we were in the 8-10 grades. We both lived on Wickham Avenue, Jerry just across the street from the Huntington High football field. In the fall we would watch the young boys practice scaling the wall to get into the games. After
numerous tries they would somehow succeed in getting over, and the walls were as tall as the ones around NNHS field. On game nights sometime Jerry, myself, and whoever would climb up on top of his house to watch the games and especially the halftime shows.  The bands were not the best but boy, could they put on a show.

Richard Dawes (Dicky)
dawes@jlab.org  

   Thanks, Dicky.  I've been trying to remember where this happened, but too much of my memory is missing.  It's a band story about a parade that was somewhere out of town (but not Winchester), and possibly associated with a football game.  I do, however, have a fragmentary memory of standing with our Typhoon band by the Huntington High Band prior to a major parade as we were waiting our turn.  They were practicing their routines.  I, for one, was slack-jawed at the difference in our collective styles.  I can only imagine how different their halftime shows must have been.

Dave/Carol,

Wonderful tribute. Thanks.

Boy, you and    Dave Spriggs ('64 - of VA) really created an outstanding Newsletter in recalling Pearl Harbor through your collaboration of ideas, images and sounds. The images of the "Mighty Mo" being towed into position near the USS Arizona memorial were so fitting. The music of Richard Rodgers swells over the listener and moves the emotions as much as the sea moves a ship underway. We were victorious because we worked together.

My family purchased coal in bags to be used to heat the house on 30th Street, as well as kerosene for space heaters positioned about to keep the family warm during the winters in Newport News. I remember very well being the one who was sent to Reese Oil to make these necessary purchases, and on occasion I would see a TYPHOON and classmate,    Frances Reese ('57) of VA [deceased] helping out in the family business. She was a gentle soul, soft spoken and kind and very studious.

   Thanks for that memory, Adonis!  Would you like me to create a page for Reese Oil Company?  So far I've been unable to find advertisements for it in the Anchors, but I suppose they are not really necessary.  I tend to get stuck in a rut sometimes.....

I just toured your hilarious website, and have adopted the “Good Example / Horrible Warning “ motto as my own.

   You looked at my website???  EEEK!!  I haven't updated it in almost a year. 

I wanted to add a response to    Commander of the High Seas Fleet Spriggs' ('64 - of VA) comment about “Victory at Sea” from my own past.  When I was a wee small tot, we lived in an apartment at 4906 Huntington Avenue, next to the Esso station my grandfather ran.  My dad and I would watch the show on TV, and in one episode, the one that mentioned shipboard bands, and showed men dancing together on deck of a troopship, there was a shot of the band, and I swear to God my father was standing in the group!  The instant I recognized him, I turned around, and he was fast asleep on the beige vinyl couch in the living room.  There were strict orders not to wake him when he fell asleep like that..

   WOWZERONI-RINI!!!   How cool!

Just a few years ago, when I inherited the family scrapbooks after my mother passed away, I found his “Summons to the Court of King Neptune” ( that rite-of-passage when sailors cross the Equator for the first time ), and in the summons he was said to be the “only man on ship who doesn’t stand a watch, he sings it.”  And I distinctly remember he was a big fan of Frank Sinatra, and now I have what’s left ( thanks to my immaturity ) of his record collection.

Also, there’s a picture of his petite sister Virginia, called “Punk” by everyone but me, taken in the mid forties, taken in uniform, with the notation on back: “I weigh 98 pounds”  Apparently, Aunt Ginny barely made the minimum requirements.  She retired after a hundred years as a recruiter, and at last

  How interesting!  I spent the first six months of my life in Westover Hills myself, in the home my daddy designed and built.

Go NAVY, beat Army!
   ABSOLUTELY!!!  

Bill Black, Class of ‘66

   Thanks, Bill!

 

 Carol ('65 - of NC)  for the Victory at Sea track. I have never tired of performing this work, and wish I'd had the chance to conduct it at some point in my life - not that I could ever have done it any better than Mr. Wilson, but would have used his interpretation as my guide to preparing it correctly. That still is the definitive performance in my mind after all these years. I still get goosebumps when the chorale starts toward the end, and I've heard no one play the trumpet solo better than    Van (Rowell - '65 - of NC) - ever. It is always a privilege and a pleasure to perform music that has meaning for so many.

Thanks again, Jimmy

   Thank you, Jimmy!   I started with the goosebumps, but soon dissolved into total sobbing for ten or fifteen minutes once again as I was beta testing the finished Newsletter for release.  That symphony simply evokes so many emotions from so many times and places for me, it was all I could do.

   I may be wrong, but I think    Chuck Anspach ('60) of VA played this quite beautifully as well for Mr. Wilson a few years before we did.  We've discussed Chuck's legendary trumpeting here a few times previously.

   Thanks again, Sweetie!

   That's a good question!  His name certainly sounds familiar to me, but in and of itself, that proves absolutely nothing.  Perhaps we should ask him.

   Oh, Bill!

   WOWZERONI, Herbie!  Such fun this is!  Thanks so much!

 David Whitley's ('67 - of VA) account of the UFO sightings was hilarious.......is his nickname Witty Whitley?  I thought I was the only one who drank Bali Hai......didn't it come in huge bottles? 

   Thanks, Gloria!  As I've often said, David is the funniest man I know!

   And I love your story, soooooo:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/UFO-Sightings.html - brand new page

   Thanks, Eric (Huffstutler - Bethel HS - '75 - of VA) - great idea!

   http://198.30.217.62/

   Oh, WOWZERONI, Al - this is gorgeous!  Thank you!

Hi Carol,
The pic of NNHS sent by   

   So is Chip!

It is the background of one of my pc's. After staring for awhile I focused on the auditorium behind the school. It was one of the finest auditoriums around. It had great lighting and a then state of the art sound system. It also took a fulltime stage crew to run it.  After a painful paddle initiation to the stage crew I was introduced to a trap door under the auditorium that led to a tunnel that went inside the walls of the school. We could climb a wall to go two stories up that took us to the prop room for the drama department. You could actually go behind the lockers. Getting out of class was easy if you worked on the stage crew and we would explore the wonders under the school and inside the walls. We would play ball tag in the auditorium by wrapping cloths up into a taped up ball. Someone would work the light controls and then cut the lights on and off and whoever was it would throw the ball at the other person but the lights could go out at any time to add to the thrill. We would also climb the pin rail on the stage almost two stories up and swing on the rope across the stage and back to the pin rail. It was always fun to go to the grid almost 4 stories up and up the spiral stairs to the roof of the auditorium to grab a smoke and watch the action downtown and what was visible of the river. It is sad to note that the old auditorium was torn down. It had acoustics in it that would rival Willet Hall in Portsmouth. I am sure other people knew of the tunnels but they were a well kept secret by stage crew members.

   GASP!!!  Tunnels?!?  Inside the walls???  This secret was certainly well guarded from moi!  Thanks, Tim!

   As we hear from more and more of y'all, I think it's becoming obvious that we'll need to make a stage crew page.  Stay tuned - and keep bugging me lest I forget.
 

   Thanks so much, Tim!

   By the way, you never really told me what radio station you were with (yes, yes, I know - I just ended a sentence with a preposition!  Sorry!).  I'm probably the only person who doesn't know this, but I can't seem to pick up Virginia stations down here on my puny radio.  If you tell me, I can add that information to your slot on Famous Marines:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/famous-marines.html

Chandler Nelms

      WILD GIGGLES!!!  Thank you, Chandler Darlin'! 
I can always use a good laugh!

What treasures these are!  Thanks, Tim!
 

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

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

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

   Some of you car experts may be able to take one look at those brand new Buicks in the Burford Buick lot and give us an exact date for that image:

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

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/burford-buick.html

   Tysinger Dodge is where    my daddy bought both of his last two cars, but that was at its earlier location in Hampton, of course:

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

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

   Is it just me, or does anyone else think that "Sidney Lust" is a most interesting name for a drive-in movie?!

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

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/drive-ins.html

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/sidney-lusts.html - brand new page

   I'm sorry it took me so long to show these images.  They were in a ".ART" format, which I never even heard of, let alone could convince my computer into opening.  At last I enlisted the help of my #5 son,    Nathaniel, who told me I should have asked him long ago.  DUH!

   AHHH - thanks, Nathaniel!  You are my hero! 

Tell your classmates that AOL is evil.

   Oh, Faniel, that's like a mantra with me!  I say it so often I'm surprised that representatives from AOL haven't contacted me!

Love ya, and I will talk to ya later.

   Love you too!