From Historic Wadesboro...

...comes a sports report from our own Neil Jones:

"It would be unnatural for anyone to note and/or care about the oncoming N.C. Western AAA Football Championship Game between Belmont's South Point's powerhouse football machine and the weakley, Church-going, NASCAR-loving country lads of Anson County High School this Friday.


The only possible justification for noteworthy observation is that the poor Bobcats of poor Anson are coached by poor Matt Jones (son of Neil).


If Anson wins, it would roughly compare to Gardner Webb beating Notre Dame. But, just the same, prayers would be welcome."

Neil, I hope you've told Matt about George Sparger's secret weapon for upsetting stronger teams;
his famous "no man line" defense.  -Ed

 #23 UNC wingback Jim Camp; #86 UNC center George Sparger; #40 UNC fullback Walt Pupa; #22 UNC tailback Charlie Justice, at Kenan Stadium.


(Photo of UNC Championship team during the Choo Choo Justice era.  From the Hugh Morton collection at UNC)

INTRODUCING...

Here's a bulletin from Mike Andrews:

"My chance to brag a little.  Anna Jude (A J) Aldrich was born last week to our daughter Rachael and her husband in Orlando.  This is our first grandchild.  I just wanted to let Buck Anderson know he wasn't the last to have a first grandchild.  Fortunately this beautiful child looks more like her mother than her father and even her grandfather.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Mike Andrews"

And Mike has good reason to brag!  Just take a look at this BRAND NEW BEAUTY! ...with the musical name; Anna Aldrich. 

 -Ed

One of the 12 Best

.........in the WORLD!

Brooke Hemsley, who just happens to be our own Maxcyne Motte Yaworsky's granddaughter, was one of the the top 12 winners in her age group in the World ChampionshipTumbling Meets in St. Petersburg, Russia last week. Coaches and fans alike agreed that Brooke gave the best performance of her young career!

Her next goal is to compete for the chance to go to the World Championships in Paris next year!

Maxcyne wrote that she would send some pictures of the event soon, and added,

"...please extend my thanks to all the wonderful classmates who wrote letters of encouragement for Brooke before she left for Russia. She was very surprised and hanjkful when I passed them along to her."

Thanksgiving 2009

My very best wishes to you all for a very happy Thanksgiving.

                                                                                       Norman Rockwell

One of the many things I'm thankful for is being born in this country and in the city of  Charlotte, NC in 1936. (Give or take a few years.)


Perhaps there were better times and places to be put on this earth, but I can't imagine what, and where they were.

There are many other items on my "thankful" list, but I always begin with that one.

Personally, I get out that mental list often....not just on Thanksgiving.

Try it.  It's one heck of a tranquilizer!

(Not a sermon, just a thought.       Naw...........it's a sermon.  -Ed)

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Remember, the LDL 14 Video is Now Showing!

Be sure to scroll down to the LDL 14 story and watch the 7 minute video that Jerry Gaudet took of the event!

Eat Your Heart Out, Ansel Adams

Last week Don Nance sent this website that beautiful picture he took in Alaska, and today Warren Sparrow contributed a couple of snapshots fresh from his attic.

I'm hoping this is the beginning of a trend!

That's your next assignment, class: send us a few snapshots that mean something to you, and share them with us.
I'll bet there are enough old photographs out there to keep this site lit up for a long time. (It's logging about 75 "hits" a week now. That's pretty good.)


 Warren writes.......

"After looking at the website tonight I thought I should say hello and say thank you for keeping us together. If you are looking for art, here are some pictures from our archives.

The first attachment is a photo of a destroyer coming up for refueling. I am not sure of the year it was taken. It was probably 1958.








The second one I know was taken in 1958. It is one of the Intrepid, now a museum in New York. I was on the USS Canberra at the time. It was a summer cruise when I met Juan Carlos who is now King of Spain. At the time he was a midshipman in the Spanish Naval Academy. I was a midshipman in Duke NROTC, having completed my junior year.






The third one is from inside the Soviet pavillion at the 1958 Worlds Fair. Look closely and you might see Sputnik.

By the way, I watched Duke beat the Charlotte College Owls last night. As far as I am concerned, they will always be the CC Owls. How dare them. Why would you change your name from Owls to Forty-Niners just because you moved to a campus off NC Highway 49? They need to remember their roots. Hoot. Hoot".
 -Warren

(Don't forget to CLICK on each picture to ENLARGE.  -Ed)

Picture Postcard

 

Don Nance was kind enough to send us this beautiful picture he took during his trip to the Canadian Rockies.


He and Letty met up with another couple on the trip, Pat and George Dillard. You might remember Pat from the CHS class of '53.......when she was Pat Campbell
.
 

In my opinion you couldn't find a better looking photograph on any postcard promoting the Canadian Rockies.

It's the kind of picture we used to call "pretty as a postcard." 

  

But that's just one of the many expressions that are not in use anymore. It's amazing how fast we're losing words and expressions that were once very common.  Some of them "good words," like SUPPER.

DINNER has replaced it; which in my way of thinking is pretty dumb. Dinner is the meal you have at 12 noon, not at 6 o'clock at night.

And what ever happened to words like "sitting on the VERANDA....with my feet up on the OTTOMAN.

Or waiting in the VESTIBULE...or sitting on the STOOP...or playing STICKBALL or listening to 45's on the VICTROLA.

Or wearing GALOSHES?

And young people don't have any idea what an "ICEBOX" is.

Come to think of it, a lot of us would be healthier if we spent more time away from that icebox.

-Ed

(Editorial Assistance (stolen from) The Cave a great website by Perry Peterson)

"Neither Snow Nor Rain...."

..can keep twenty-seven hearty Wildcats from showing up for the class' monthly lunch.

Our "on the scene correspondant," Jerry Gaudet reports that it was a very dark and rainy day that greeted the LDL bunch last Tuesday. But, once inside, the mood became as bright as a sunny day in June. Of course, the sparks flying from the knives and forks of our hungry group helped.

Jerry went on to report that

"... there were four first-time attendees, Don Nance and his wife Letty, Mary Rand Norton Kratt, and Richard Stowe. Shirley McClanahan Maynor presided over the sunny atmosphere as we enjoyed good food and fellowship.


If technical difficulties can again be overcome, we'll try to get a brief video of the gathering to Ed Myers in hopes of getting it on the class web site... www.chs54.com . Be sure to look for it and all the other interesting items Ed posts for us.


The next "LDL" will be Tuesday, December 8. Same time, same place, as they say. We invite you to plan on joining us."


(Click on pictures to enlarge.)

FYI......The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto. Often falsely cited as such, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is an inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City, derived from a quote from Herodotus' Histories (8.98), referring to the ancient courier service of the Persian Empire:

Please take note of this. There will be a pop quiz tomorrow.  -Ed


Now, See the VIDEO!  



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y399RozUrn0

"Take two asprin......and call me in the morning."

Just because a girl is president of her high school Honor Society and undoubtedly one of the best brains to ever walk the halls of that very distinguished learning institution doesn't necessarily mean that her children will also be brilliant.

Right?

Wrong.

At least in Diana Carpenter (White)'s case.

Her son, Dr. Reid Blackwelder, among other things, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The AAFP represents more than 94,600 physicians and medical students nationwide.

And that's just the beginning of this fine Doctor's accomplishments! They can't all be listed in this website's limited space, but you can see them for yourself by clicking on this link. CLICK HERE

But there is at least one common condition that Diana shares with those of us who were mere "C" students (and worse). The medical term for this disease is CBS.

CHRONIC BRAGGING SYNDROME



It's incurable. Just ask any of us with children and/or grandchildren!


-Ed

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"HOUGH HIGH?"

In spite of an inspired campaign by the CHS class of 55, led by David McKinnon, Joan King Hargett, Martha Gheesling Broadwell and Bob Burroughs, the Charlotte/Mecklenburg School Board voted not to name either of two new high schools after our friend and former athletic director and later principal Ed Saunders.

Their main objection was that he is still alive…..and their “rule” for naming schools states that they must be named after a dead person or some other inanimate object.
The names chosen were Hough and Rocky River.

Not many people know this but when the name for the old Central High was being contemplated, the first choice of the school board was “Sugar Creek High.” In the end, the board couldn’t agree on a name, so at the last minute they decided, “to heck with it. Let’s just call it Central.”

It’s too bad this school board didn’t decide to do something similar in the case of “Hough High,” , such as naming it Highway 15 High School….or something like that instead of a name that no one is sure how to pronounce (is it like “HOW”…..”WHO”…..”HUGH”…..or what?)
I understand that the correct pronounciation is “HUFF”….like in “tough.”

But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that it will forever be known as “HO HIGH”

But, I believe the girls who attend the school will just ignore, or laugh off the dumb jokes and simply chalk it up to "unintended consequences."

Like our girls once did!

-Ed

Harry Neely and Studio 590

Two highly acclaimed and award winning artists (one of which is CHS54”s own Harry Neely ) have joined forces and opened a working studio and gallery in Pinehurst South. Neely's partner, Betty DiBartolomeo is also a nationally recognized artist.

The studio, named 590, is located in the historic 1815 Dowd Cabin.

Neely and DiBartolomeo are both members of the prestigious national organization of professional artists, the “Oil Painters of America.”
DiBartolomeo also paints under the pseudonym “BC Dream Catcher” to honor her native American heritage.

Neely specializes in “modern/classical still life paintings.The studio, with artists working and teaching most days of the week,  is expected to bring new life to the old Dowd Cabin.

Both Betty and Harry teach at the Artists League of the Sandhills.

(Paintings: "Heirloom Tomatos"      -Neely
"The Shawl Dancer "          -DiBartolomeo)

Time Flies...

...like a Bat out of Heck!

Would you believe it, it's already been nearly a month since our last LDL lunch at Jimmies of Mint Hill!

Jerry's invitation went out today:

CHS'54's "LDL" (Let's do lunch)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 11:30 AM
at "Jimmies" in Mint Hill.


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

YOU, come!