Thanks for the "Flowers"

Thanks to all of you who bothered to drop me nice notes about Jerry's LDL 13 video. And, as several of you pointed out, there are a couple of things the producers could have improved upon.
Such as........putting the names of husbands and wives next to each other in the credits.

These names should have been listed together:

Harold Cullingford and wife Carolyn

Marlene Ritch Beaty and husband Thomas

Karol Broadwell Welch and husband Bob (Jerry tells me that Bob, interestingly enough, is Nancy Gibson Tomlinson's cousin)

and I failed to list Stephanie Litaker the nice lady who is the waitress who takes really good care of our group.

And, last but not least, there was ONE glaring mistake.
I've been informed that Jimmies is located on HWY 51. Not HWY 50, as the video indicates.


Now I realize why everytime I go to one of these lunches, nobody else shows up!


-Ed

Catching Up

Your award winning and most modest webmaster was having so much fun playing with Jerry's LDL video that I forgot to mention a couple of news items:

At the October "LDL", Martin Hill told us the bad news that his wife, Pat, had fallen at home severely breaking her hip and pelvic bones. She spent three weeks in the hospital and he went on to say:

"...Pat is doing well and is in a rehab facility in Harrisburg fairly near our home. She is now able, with help, to get around in a wheel chair and she will be in physical therapy for several more weeks. If all the broken bones heal as expected she could possibly be on a walker or crutches in about 3 to 4 weeks. After that, she should be able to begin walking again. Everything depends on her healing normally. Her attitude is good, but she was a very active person and I fear she will try to do too much too soon...
Regards,

Martin"

We send our best wishes to Pat for a speedy recovery!!

Finally, tying up some loose ends, Jerry tells me that the  CHS'54 "LDL" on Tuesday October was the 13th such happening that Shirley Maynor initiated over a year ago. She wasn't able to attend this one and was sorely missed.


"Another of our regulars, Gayle Barrier Austin' who had attended all twelve previous "LDL"s, wasn't able to attend either, breaking her perfect attendance record.


Three classmates had missed only one of the past gatherings, Vic Brawley, Martin Hill and Charlie Willis. Only Martin was present to be "honored".   -Jerry"


Some might say that there must be some truth to that old superstition having to do with the number 13.

Of course, none of us believes any of that nonsense anymore.

However, a little "salt over the shoulder" once in a while can't hurt anything.

-Ed

Live! From Mint Hill

Not quite, but the very next thing to it.

Our roving remote team of dedicated photographers, audio experts, writers, producers, gaffers,(that's an old Hollywood term for "grunts," and is NOT to be confused with the term "geezers." I'm quite sensitive about that.

Perhaps I exagerate, but my enthusiasm is hard to contain. Our all purpose photographer, videographer, producer, director, and all round "good guy." Jerry Gaudet turned his camera to the "movie" setting...and captured these scenes of our latest "Let's Do Lunch" extravaganzas.

Come join the party..........!



Thanks Jerry!

-Ed

Powertumbling ?

Jerry Gaudet informs us that we now have a chance to root for another champion! This time, it's our own's Maxcyne Motte Yaworsky's granddaughter!

"The young lady in the photo below is our granddaughter, Brooke Hemsley. The past year has been a very busy one for this seventeen year old high school junior. She competed and won in State, Regional, and Western Division Powertumbling championships.. In September, she competed at meets in Las Vegas for a place on the U.S. National Team. She won a place on the team and in November goes to St. Petersburg, Russia to compete in the World Powertumbling Championships.

I hope everyone will join me in cheering for Brooke and her teammates as they represent our country at these events.
Way to go,Brooke!!"      -Maxcyne


WOW!

Powertumbling just became my favorite sport!    -Ed

Touchdown!

Report from the Annual Storytelling Festival

 by Betsy Villas White
 
   Dateline October 2, 2009.....Jonesborough, Tennessee........."She was terrific!"   That's the word on the appearance of Ellouise Diggle Schoettler at the annual Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough Tennessee.

Three minutes into her fifteen minute story, the audience was eating out of her hand. She was warm and funny and polished and something indeed to write home about. Therefore, that’s what I’m doing.

All you folks at home and away should note that we now have a full fledged, honest-to-goodness, nationally recognized storyteller in our midst. She held her own in the kingdom of storyland and then some. I was proud, her family was proud, my traveling companions were proud, Don and Letty Nance were proud, and the crowd surrounding her after the performance was riding high.

I just kept remembering that I knew her when her stories were beginning. Wonder if she’ll ever tell a story about making button gardens in Girl Scouts at Hawthorne Lane Methodist Church?

-BVW


As you just read, reports that our own Ellouise Diggle Schoteller's appearence at the Jonesborough, Tennesee annual Storytelling Festival....the SUPER BOWL of storytelling, was  a BOFFO performance, have been confirmed CHS54's ace reporter Betsy V. White.



Our news team was there and got this reaction from Ellouise herself:


"Is it really two weeks ago that I stepped on the stage at Exchange Place at the National Storytelling Festival with these five other wonderful storytellers, Baba the Storyteller (CA), Tyris Jones (NC) Slash Coleman(VA) Bob Reiser (NY) and Bernadetter Nason (TX). It was really a great experience - facing 1200 folks under a Ringling Brother Brothers type big top tent - all smiling, laughing and loving the stories. 

Personally I was very happy to see Jim and our family and Don and Letty Nance and Betsy Villas White smiling up at me! For a storyteller getting to tell in Jonesborough is a mountaintop -


Lately I have been working on telling "memoirs." You know - tell the story yourself. The festival was over Sunday afternoon so Monday morning Jim and I drove over to Asheville to UNC-A where I told Pushing Boundaries, my new story about my journey to becoming an ERA activist during the 1970s and 80s- for the Women Studies Department. It was cool. Like a real "Jack" tale - coming home (sort-of) to tell my story.


Telling personal history that is not in the history books. A few members of the League of Women Voters joined the audience - including Kathleen Balogh, the new State President. I loved having them there because I was ERA Campaign Director for the League's national Staff - 1979-82 and those days are part of the story. Anybody remeber those days? They were lively and exciting for me - although the loss of the ERA in 1982 was very painful for those of us who though equal rights for women should be part of the US Consttution and worked for the amendment."


But, enough of this rabble rousing. I am grateful to be a storyteller - to see friends, to come "home" and to tell stories."

Thanks Ellouise, and congratulations from all of us old Wildcats.

-ED
 

...and to view Ellouise's website, go to:


http://ellouisestory.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunday-finale.html

Sparrow on the Rocks

Warren and Becky Sparrow just returned from a 2,000 mile journey to Olathe, Kansas. I've never heard of Olathe before, but my guess was that the man who named it had a lisp.

Nope, I was wrong. It seems that the town was named by an indian who was asked by the founder, what the Indian word for beautiful was and his reply was "olathe."  The founder took his word for it, and the rest is history. (Word Deny-ers point out that onlookers at the scene spotted several empty bottles of firewater in the bushes.)

There's an old legend about that town that "anyone who visits that magical place will be speaking the Indian language by the time he returns to his own teepee."

Isn't that silly. Anyway, that's all I could discover about that fascinating part of the great state of Kansas, but as this reporter mentioned, the Sparrows were there and enjoyed every minute of it!

Here's the email I received from Warren:

Ed:


"It has been many moons since our last smoke signals. I note there has been an explosion of stuff on chs54. Thank you for doing it. Becky and I are alive and well, sitting up and taking nourishment. We have completed a journey to Olathe, KS, for a visit with our oldest daughter Cathy S. Peele, her husband Alex and their three daughters, Lydia, Melanie and Charlotte. A good time was had by all. It was a remarkable trip. From Winston-Salem to Olathe and back was 2,200 miles, including some side trips to "points of interest." Like the Three Wise Men, we did it in One Accord.


Attached are some representative samples of what we did. The first photo is a view of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers near Alton, IL.


The second is a shot of the courthouse where the Dred Scott decision was rendered. I took this picture from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

The third picture is one of Becky at the Wild Turkey Distillery near Lexington, KY. If you
look carefully you will see a tanker truck in the background. It is full of bourbon headed for Arkansas for bottling. The name of the carrier? Oakley. What a hoot.


Hope all is well."


Warren

Easy Ed High School

I'm not sure exactly why we called him that; it certainly wasn't because his history class was easy. It wasn't. I think it was because of his informal, relaxed, and often humorous way of teaching that made it seem easy. I think of him as the "Perry Como" of our teachers at Central.


Joan King Hargett (class of 55) is spearheading an effort by her class to name Charlotte's newest high school after Ed Sanders! Now that's a great idea if I ever heard one.


Joan says it will help immensely if we all write to the school board members and show our support and appreciation for Ed Sanders.


She lists many of his major accomplishments which are enormous, but too many to name in a letter to a school board member.....so just mention a couple that you think are the best ones.




Ed Sanders:


He served in the Army Air Corps for four year during World War II. After military duty, he became a history teacher at Central High School, Charlotte, NC.




From 1946 - 1951 he taught high school during the day, veteran classes in the evening, carried a paper route and worked to obtain his masters degree.




1951 - Ed became the athletic director at CHS. Two years later he was promoted to Assistant Principal. In 1955 he was promoted to Principal at age 33.




1954 - Brown v. Board of Education ruled segregatiion in schools to be unconstitutional.




1955 - Mr. Sanders oversaw the merger of rival high schools Tech High and Central High, successfully bringing the two together as one student body.




1957 - Three years after Brown v. Board of Education ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional, Mr. Sanders became a "hero during racial unrest of the 1950's" as he successfully and peacefully enrolled Charlotte's first black student, Gus Roberts, at CHS. He walked through an "arm-linked human barricade" at CHS to protect Gus Roberts and to physically show students that he meant to make it work. Gus went on to graduate from CHS. In preparation for that day, Mr. Sanders had met with the Roberts family during the summer. He also called in the trouble makers at CHS and made sure they knew he would not tolerate unfair treatment. He spoke to the football team and asked their support letting them know that football games could easily be called off----for the season----if necessary.




1959 - Mr. Sanders became Principal at the new Garinger High School after CHS closed.




1965 - Charlotte still had 88 single-race schools. After the landmark case Swann vs. the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education ruled that Charlotte was still largely segregated, the school board was given a deadline by Federal Judge James B. McMillan to effectively desegregate by Fall of 1970.




1970 - Ed was promoted to Associate Superintendent of the Charlotte School System. His assignment was to work with a Citizens Advisory Group and the school board to achieve a fair and stable pupil reassignment plan to fully integrate the school system. In 1974, the pupil reassignment plan, which revolved around race-baced busing of 83,000 students across 102 schools, was adopted and put into motion.




1978 - Mr. Sanders resigned from his post as East Mecklenburg Area Superintendent to become Superintendent of the Darlington, SC school system.




Mr. Sanders currently resides in the Alzheimer's Unit at Southminister's Retirement Community here in Charlotte.




Joan goes on to write,




The CHS class of 1955 meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Jimmie's Restaurant in Mint Hill. Mr. Sanders is at most of our luncheons. He has a lovely caregiver that brings him or sometimes our classmate, Don Blackmon, sees that he gets there. We have all fallen in love with Mr. Sanders and have so much respect for him.




CHS'55 classmate, David McKinnon, has been in contact with Mr. Sanders' son, Doug. They are the ones that are responsible for the above information. David McKinnon has been our leader in this effort to get a school named after our deserving former Principal, Ed Sanders. Bob Burroughs and others have also been involved.




Mr. Sanders has received many honors. You can Google "Ed Sanders Charlotte Education" and get more facts.




I realize this is a great deal of information and it is mostly just to bring you up to date on Mr. Sanders' life. It does not necessary need to be included in your email to the school board. If you have a personal memory of Mr. Sanders, that would be great to include. I feel that the emails should not be too long---probably a brief email might be better.




Please note: David McKinnon would appreciate it if you send him a copy of the email you send so that we can keep a count on the number sent. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to email him at davidmckinnon@windstream.net or call him at 704-684-5003.




Your email should be sent to the following school board members as soon as possible. We will most likely be asking you to send another email to the same people at a later date.

Molly Griffin, Chairperson     molly.griffin@cms.k12.nc.us   

Kaye Bernard McGarry,Vice Chairperson  kaye.mcgarry@cms.k12.nc.us

Larry Gauvreau     larry.gauvreau@cms.k12.nc.us

Kimberly Mitchell-Walker    kimberlym.walker@cms.k12.nc.us

James L. Ross II      jamesl.ross@cms.k12.nc.us

Tom Tate      tom.tate@cms.k12.nc.us

Ken Gjertsen      Ken.gjertsen@cms.k12.nc.us

Trent Merchant    Trent.Merchant@cms.k12.nc.us

"Coach" Joe I. White, Jr.   coachjoew@cms.k12.nc.us

Dr. Peter Gorman, Superintendent    superintendent@cms.k12.nc.us

Again, thanks so much.




Joan King Hargett

The Stork Takes his Time, but finally delivers!

Talk about being "worth the wait!"

Great news concerning Buck and Peggy Anderson.

His name is Andrew John Allison!


 Here's the official email from Peggy:

"Buck and I want to share with Buck's classmates the news of our grandson, Andrew John Allison, born to John and Tonya (our daughter) Allison on October 9 at 11:38 PM. He is a small baby, 5 lbs. 7 ounces 20 inches long, and black hair. Tonya's sister, Trena, who is a nurse, was privileged to be in the delivery room with John and Tonya to witness Andrew's birth. It humbles our hearts that God has blessed our family with this special little guy. As I had shared with you, John and Tonya have been married for 22 years. Tonya has held on to a promise that God gave her years ago, that he would give her a child. The Lord is so good."
Peggy Anderson

CONGRATULATIONS from all of us!
-Ed

Presenting....the newest Wildcat!

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Asher!
The proud Grandfather, of course, is our own
Don Nance.

Don's short email said only,

"ASHER CLAY NANCE. He was born 9-9-09. He is visiting with me and his big brother Sam. Grand Children are great."

Don promised to send more details soon.

.

It's that time again

I want to invite all of you to come over to my house on Tuesday October 13th 2009 at 11:30 AM for lunch. I'll have the hot dogs all ready for you when you get here.

However, my feelings won't be hurt if you decide instead to dine with a whole room full of 54 Wildcats at Jimmies of Mint Hill for our monthly LDL extravaganza!

CHS'54's "LDL" (Let's do lunch)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 11:30 AM

 at "Jimmies" in Mint Hill.

Spread the word.  Bring someone with you.  Invite other classmates to come.

YOU, come!

Web Digest

In order to keep this site "fresh," the staff here at CHS54 is adding a new feature. We call it the Web Digest......kinda like the old Readers Digest. (Which incidentally is reported to be going out of business. I'm not sure if it's because people don't read anymore.....or that the content is too deep for modern Americans to digest.)

But we'll watch our email box....and hopefully publish some of the sights that you may have missed on Al Gore's amazing internet.

For example this unique mobile home:

and this car.....

that's right....car...singular. It's only one ....with a fantastic paint job.

Look for the new feature on the right hand side of the first page.

And feel free to email me your favorites.

-Ed

Graphology

As mentioned on this website earlier, cursive hand writing is a rapidly disappearing skill in this country. Very few Americans born after 1980 can read, much less write cursive. And this goes for school teachers as well.

However, that doesn’t mean that graphology (the study of handwriting and what it reveals about a person) is a dead science. Not at all, because people still “sign” their names! And that very often reveals more about them than they would like for you to know.

For example, the CHS54 staff and I have become quite good at being able to know a lot about a person simply by studying his or her signature!

Here are two sheets of signatures…..picked totally at random… and we can predict with uncanny accuracy exactly which page was signed by the most wise and successful people, and which was signed by....uh.....lesser mortals.

Look closely at Page One.(the first one on your left)

You can see that the curvature of the letters and the closeness and neatness of the signatures are dead giveaways. Very few bold pen strokes. Almost no imaginative flourishes of the pen….it’s an unmistakable indication that this page is full of uncreative and, sorry to say, undoubtedly unsuccessful people.

On the other hand, Page Two (shown below) shows boldness and creativity. Notice the large, prominent letters….indicating dynamic and obviously successful personalities. People you just naturally want to be friends with. The thoughtful forming of the letters reek of confidence and boldness. An unmistakable sign of maturity and wisdom!

So there you have it. Page One=LOSERS.  Page Two=WiNNERS/MOVERS and SHAKERS
Graphology works!

-Ed                                                                                                                                                                 Page TWO                                                 


To reap the full impact of this article..click on each autograph page to see it enlarged. Click the "back arrow" on the top left of your screen to return to this page.    -Ed

Three's Company

Whoops.....Sorry we're a little late with this story, but the usually almost competent staff here at the CHS54 Media Center really blew it this time. As a result, we nearly missed one of the best stories of the year.

In less than 3 months our own Bob Ellis became a "great, great,great grandfather."  No, that's not right. He became a "grandfather three times over." No, that's not it either.Maybe it's called a "greater great grandfather."

Well, whatever the official name for it is he's happy as heck about it!  And he's got two beautiful brand new grandchildren and one great grandchild to show for it! Perhaps his picture will be in the next edition of the Guinness book of World Records. He certainly qualifies for the CHS54 website Great Grandfather of the Year!"

His first grandchild is Danielle Nichole Hines, born to Bob's youngest daughter Kelli Ellis Hines and then grandchild Tyler Turnbaugh, son of James and Alison Wade arrived on September 8th weighing in at 7lbs 4 ounces. Shown here with his two beautiful sisters.

Alison and husband James Turnbaugh live in Ohio where Alison teaches English Lit at a Junior High School. James is with the family concrete business.

And then, on Sept. 23rd another bundle from Heaven (this time Bob's first Great Grandchild named Clara Fern Swanson (measurements: 19 and a half) showed up at the home of Stephen and Anna Dwanson in Penniscola, Fla!  Anna is one of Bob's grandaughters and she and Stephen named their beautiful baby after grandmothers.  Stephen is the youth minister at their local church in Penniscola.

Stay tuned for pictures!

Great grandfather Bob is doing his best to cope with all the excitement and joy in his life (our reporters on the scene confirm that he's mumbling, talking to himself, smiling and laughing a lot) so if any of the facts in this report are slightly incorrect, it's not the fault of our staff reporters.

For once.

Bob added in his note to me something about...."Christmas is going to be Heaven at his house this year....."   No, no,.....that's wasn't it, I just re-read  his email. What he actually said was "Heaven help us this Christmas at our house."

-Ed