Bobby Pigeon:
Memories from Brenda Hoffman (68): Greenville, SC
Dear Gary,
Following recent posts, Paulette LaCroix (Chisholm) and I reminisced about our fourth grade interactions with the “much older” Bobby Pigeon. With his duck tail haircut and The Fonze stride, he made Paulette and I “swoon” at the sight of him walking to or from lunch in the basement of the white school house. Could anyone be more handsome?
Once in a great while, he might smile at us or even SAY SOMETHING. We discussed him for hours comparing him to Cookie on the television series Seventy-seven Sunset Strip and the songs “Cookie, Cookie Lend Me Your Comb” and “Runnin’ Bear….Loved Little White Dove with a Love That Wouldn’t Die.”
Amazingly, I interacted frequently with the song writer and singer of Runnin Bear at Dave’s Brainerd, MN satellite office. He is now in his 80s and continues to be invited to Europe frequently where his Rock a Billy sound remains extremely popular. He’s a very nice man.
Brenda Hoffman Class of 1968
1955 Football Team Picture:
Reply from Larry Shirk (58): Naperville, IL
Gary:
Some are wondering about which class the 1955 football team picture
represents. If you note, the football in the picture has 55 on it. It was
the fall of 55, the start of the 55/56 year The seniors in the picture
would graduate in the spring of 56. So in reality, the picture doesn’t
represent the class of 55 which graduated 3 months earlier, but the 1955
football season. (and the class of 56) Hope this makes sense.
Larry Shirk
Reply/Picture from Marshall Awalt (51): Newport, NC
Gary
I am sorry but I do not know the girl standing next to me in the picture.I sent you another photo shot in front of the same tree with the commercial hotel in the back ground.It is of Dave Eurich and myself.
Marshall
Marshall, I have reposted that picture below. Hopefully someone can identify the girl in the picture with you and Eleanor?
This is a wonderful picture of you and Dave Eurich. Dave never changed over the years. He was such a young man too, when he left this world. He was a wonderful man. I remember him well.
Dave Eurich & Marshall Awalt
Eleanor & Marshall Awalt and ??? Schwabe
Buildings on the north end of the Commercial Hotel:
Larry Hackman, Dick Johnson, Bill & Gwen Grimme are looking for the rest of the story from some folks probably a little senior to them.
Please read from the bottom up.
Gary
I’m just trying to find out the rest of the story?
Larry
Bill, Gwen, & Dick:
I’m thinking we went as far as our youth permits us to go on this story. Don’t you also think we should have Gary put this out there to see if we can find out the rest of the story. I’m sure there are some around that know what the out buildings on the north end of the Commercial Hotel were used for?
I didn’t mean to insinuate that Dick was older then us ( Bill and I), just that he might know more then us. “God, I hated to say that!” I hope that sentence makes him feel better.
Larry
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 11:28 PM
Subject: Re: Rabbits?
Larry,
I can remember the building just north of the Commercial hotel. It was a storage building when I first became aware of it. My aunt Joy Nordquist rented the north ground floor apartment in about 1957. This was before she married my uncle Cliff Johnson, but I was over there often. She worked with Mom at the bank and had to raise her younger brother and sister. She was only twenty in ’57. Tough job. Back to your question–the rabbit deal. Maybe the people who ran the Hotel before Bill’s folks, had rabbits. I think this was the building where Greg had stored his old bike. I mentioned to Greg that I really liked old bikes, as we were driving home from UND, and Greg said he would give me one. We went over to that old building and he dug out his old bike with the mud flaps with reflectors and he gave it to me. It was maroon and white with big balloon tires and had a couple chrome springs on the front fork much like an old motorcycle. Like an absolute FOOL, I traded it to a guy who collects bikes and have regretted it ever since! To this day, I am trying to get it back but he just won’t let go of it yet. He still has it in the same condition as it was in 1970. Oh, yeah—rabbits–I don’t have an answer as to who would have had rabbits in the white building north of the hotel. I don’t think there were rabbits there in ’57. I caught the old joke that Larry was hinting at about smart pills. The old Indian got the Indian kid to taste a smart pill. The kid said it tasted like rabbit crap. The old Indian says, “See your smarter already.”
Dick
larry hackman wrote:
Dick
Maybe you know more then the rest us? You have to read this from bottom to top to make sense out of this
Maybe not?
Larry
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 8:37 PM
Subject: Re: Rabbits?
Bill
I don’t believe this. Most older people respond by saying they don’t remember droppings. But You do?
Bill, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist making a joke out of the memory. I remember how it was with rabbits. They did produce a lot and droppings too. We always called the droppings smart pills and tried to convince others that they would get smarter if they ate them. I don’t think I ever got anyone to bite on that one. Pardon the pun.
We are going to have to ask someone with a few more years behind them and see if they remember what the buildings were used for and if they remember who kept rabbits in them.
Bill I’m not a psychiatrist but your folks ditching you like that, could be the cause of you being the way you are. Which is not a bad thing?
If nothing else, it gives you an excuse. I don’t know what else I can say to make the hurt go away. Except maybe that Jack Daniels might help. Thats right you said you tried that. Maybe they were right, You just weren’t listening. You know how kids are? If you don’t have an excuse, make one up.
Have a good day and hope the Saints win.
Remember; Laugh and the whole world laughs with you.
Larry
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: Rabbits?
That’s what was rattling around in my head – the rabbit droppings. They must have been there before we moved in. Speaking of moving in, Larry, every time a comedian tells that old joke about “my parents moved and never told me”, I think about Dunseith. You see, that’s what happened to me when the folks moved to the Commercial Hotel. I was in the fourth grade and I came home from school to a dark, locked house. I sat on the front porch until dark and the woman that lived across the street from us (can’t remember her name, now) came over and took me to her house and told me my folks had moved to the hotel. I eventually got over to the Commercial Hotel and found it to be true. The folks swear they told me and I wasn’t listening – again, but, I’m sticking to my story that they were trying to ditch me!
Bill
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: Rabbits?
Bill and Larry,
I remember the rabbit droppings, too–you’re right…the building was full of them–but I have no idea why rabbits had been housed there either. The droppings were there when we moved into the Commercial Hotel in the fall of 1955 ( I was in 1st grade), so I don’t know who would have been raising rabbits. The building was divided into about four parts; two parts on the north end were outdoor biffies. I sometimes wonder why the south wall had an opening with a small wooden swing-out door that looked like a drive-up window.
—– “Bill Grimme” <wgrimme@charter.net> wrote:
>
Larry,
I remember the buildings, but, I don’t remember the rabbits, exactly. There is some memory of something in there, but, I don’t recall any details. Maybe one of our boarders kept some rabbits. Ole Melhouse comes to mind as a possibility, but, I’m not sure. Gwen probably has a much better memory – she didn’t soak it in quite as much DAMN ALCOHOL as I did.
Bill
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