Alumni Sandstorm ~ 10/04/16
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2 Bombers sent stuff:
Shirley COLLINGS ('66)
"JP" PANESKO ('83 and '84)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: loria DAVIS ('61)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Teri CAWDREY ('64)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Jim HUNTER ('66)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Marlene STRAND ('76)
BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Shirley COLLINGS Haskins ('66)
Re: Emily Pieracci ('98-HHS) ~ Tri-City Herald 10/3/16
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article105537751.html
"Former Richland woman makes difference through
CDC"
"When Emily Pieracci was growing up in the Tri-
Cities, she loved animals and gravitated toward
science.
As an adult, she has taken those early interests
and turned them into an extraordinary career -
one that's sent her around the world and made an
unquestionable difference.
Pieracci works for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and she's done
everything from helping on the front lines of
the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone to combating
rabies in Ethiopia and investigating monkey pox
among chimpanzees in Cameroon.
Pieracci is based in Atlanta, where the CDC has
its headquarters.
She grew up in Richland and graduated from
Hanford High School in 1998.
She attended Columbia Basin College in Pasco
through Running Start, and went on to Western
Washington University, where she studied history
and psychology.
After graduation, Pieracci spent time working at
the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute
at Central Washington University.
Eventually, veterinary medicine called, and she
earned her doctor of veterinary medicine degree
from Washington State University in 2009."
-Shirley COLLINGS Haskins ('66) ~ Richland
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>>From: "JP" PANESKO ('83 and '84)
As one of the younger alumni, I have to say that many of the
Richland experiences that have been shared here extended into
the 1970s and early 1980s as well. Here are a few of my
childhood memories:
Walking barefoot (over scorching hot pavement on the way home
- we walked on the white lines at crosswalks to keep from
burning our feet) to the "Big Pool" (George Prout Memorial)
on summertime mornings for swim lessons from Mrs. Roy (with
her dark sunglasses and zinc-coated nose). Running through
the cold shower bent over trying to keep our towel from
getting wet, once we got there. Using the hard, crumbly red
"float boards" which were great for splashing people or
bonking them on the head. Getting nosebleeds from the
chlorine in the water and having to lay down in the office
with a cold cloth (I had massive nosebleeds as a child, some
of which lasted hours, so I was used to it, but I was amused
at how much concern it raised in others).
Walking (yes, we also walked everywhere in the 1970s, until
we got bicycles, and then we biked everywhere) to the
Thriftway grocery store at Williams & Thayer, returning the
large glass 7-Up bottles from the previous night's grownups-
only card-playing party. While there, buying a bag of flour
or whatever else my mom needed for some baking project. Then
stopping at Pennywise for candy cigarettes, or those paper
straws full of powdered sugar, plus getting the Bazooka Joe
bubble gum just to read the comic, even though I couldn't
blow bubbles.
At that same shopping complex, getting my hair cut, followed
by getting my neck and ears vacuumed off with an Airway
Sanitizer cannister vacuum (I collected old vacuums when I
was a kid and I had a couple of the same model at home). I
can still feel the dusting attachment bristles on my neck and
behind my ears!
At the grocery store, begging my mom to buy me Mexican
Jumping Beans (in those 1" square plastic boxes with a
colored base and clear cover) which were on a cardboard
display at the checkout. Special store treat: getting the
small package of crackers and cheeze, which I think sold for
around 15 cents when I was a kid.
Visiting the Hanford Science Center in the Federal Building,
and getting to use the radiation detectors to check the
radiation levels of various objects, including that ceramic
red Fiesta Ware which really sent the needle off the scale.
Playing with the glove box manipulators to pick up and stack
wooden letter blocks. Getting to take home an irradiated
glass marble that had been turned dark brown.
Walking down to the library for the kids' summer reading
sessions, and trying to see how many books we could read over
the summer. Then biking down there during high school, for
homework and preparation for Mr. Blankenship's weekly
"current events" oral presentations that we had to give in
his government or social studies class (can't remember
exactly what that class was called now).
Going down to the Payless Drug Store and shopping for 1960s
rock records (The Byrds, The Who, The Moody Blues, Cream,
etc.) in the 99 cent bin - I still have all of those records
too. I was too young to remember much of that music when it
first came out, so it was really my first experience with it
in the mid-1970s. Heck, I didn't even know that The Beatles
had broken up (and that Walt Disney was dead) until the mid-
1970s!!! How did we survive pre-internet?
Taking driver's education during the school year from Mr.
Neidhold, especially using the simulator trailer outside the
back of the high school on the west side, with the 1960s
Plymouth dashboards. When I took the class in 1982, we just
watched the movie and steered - none of the feedback
recording system even worked (where it would record what each
driver did on punch tape or something similar), and only one
or two of the simulator positions still had working engine
sound effects (and of course everybody wanted to sit at
those!).
Then driving over to the Kennewick Highlands to take the
driver's ed test. I probably could still take you on that
route today - I bet a lot of you could too! Backing around a
corner? Parallel parking on that steep hill? Which way to
turn the front wheels again? That had to be one of the most
stress-inducing events of my teenage years.
Going with my parents up to visit our (undeveloped) lots in
West Richland to the south of Flattop along Bombing Range
Road (that are now covered in houses - my parents sold them
too early in the late 1970s for no gain). Seeing a mummified
horse head out in the middle of the field grass there. There
were still concrete bomb targets you could see in the 1970s.
There was also a big gully that was filled with junk cars and
old appliances, which was super fun for us kids to climb
around and also used for target practice (and a trash dump)
by others.
Driving up to west of Columbia Center to get bales of straw
from farmer John Gage (who they named Gage Blvd. after) in
1972, on the same day as President Nixon was visiting the
300 area (we were listening to it on KONA 710AM in the car).
Having our wood utility trailer (with 1938 Ford front end
chassis and wheels) come apart on the way home, with my dad
rebuilding it with new plywood in the year following.
Building a straw bale fort in the back yard and finding a
real, live scorpion in the bales!
With my dad, going to the old Richland Dump (with same
utility trailer) just to the southwest of where the Knights
of Columbus building is on the bypass highway, and running
out into the garbage piles to retrieve treasures without
attracting the attention of the resident junkman who didn't
like people taking his stuff. Then, buying lawn mowers at the
"new" Richland Dump (present location out on Highway 240) for
$5 from the junk man and bringing them home and getting them
running. I would pay for the mower with one lawn job, and
after that, it was pure profit! I still dabble with lawn
mowers and won't tell you how many of them I have ;)
Delivering the Tri-City Herald after school every day,
wearing my double-sided red and blue paperboy delivery bag
(which drove local dogs crazy), walking around my two-block
route. Getting up Sunday morning at 5am to stuff the comics
(which were delivered in a separate bundle from the
newspapers) into the newspapers on the front room floor,
trying not to sneeze from my allergy to the colored ink).
Having blackened fingers afterwards from touching the
freshly-printed papers.
Watching the 1950's-era lung extraction video in Mr. Piippo's
health class at Chief Jo, with Mr. Piippo standing outside
in the hallway because he apparently couldn't stand seeing
that movie one more time. Taking combination wood/metal shop
and crafts class at Chief Jo with Mr. Richards and Mr.
(Steve) PIIPPO ('70).
Driving out to the Island View Drive-In at the Richland Wye
to see Star Trek II; the Wrath of Khan. Also seeing the x-
rated circle theater drive-in (where the current Wal*Mart is
off of Queensgate) as we left town for weekend trips over the
mountains to visit the grandparents.
That's probably long enough for now. I just wanted to point
out that the good ol' days really didn't end with a bang,
they faded out gradually. So even though I am a lot younger
than some of you, I can relate with your experiences very
well as I experienced many of them in the 1970s and even into
the 1980s.
I usually come back to Richland for the annual Sausagefest at
Christ the King school, and I was there a few weeks ago. It
is sad how run-down my old neighborhood is, now that it is
primarily rentals and all of the original homeowners have
passed away. My dad still owns one house on "doctor's row" up
on Harris just south of the water treatment plant that he
stays in for a week or two every month, and that's where we
stay when we come to town. Those homes seemed like palatial
mansions where the "rich people" lived when we were kids, and
now they are just 50-year-old houses (many of which I prefer,
architecturally-speaking, to the McMansions of today).
Oh, if you want to see some of my wood shop class work from
1977 that is still on public display in Richland, look at
the house numbers on the 'B' duplex at 1512 - 1514 Stevens
(Google street view works as well, for you out-of-towners).
Those numbers will turn 40 next year! It seems like yesterday
when I cut them out of 1" thick pine on the band saw and
painted them white. That used to be one of my dad's rental
units (I was chief drain-unclogger, toilet-fixer, and outlet
replacer), and I believe that those numbers replaced the
original painted steel address number signs that were
originally installed on the house during the 1940s (I'm not
sure if any homes in Richland still have those original signs
on them or not).
It's been 21 years since I left Richland for the wet side of
the state where all of my siblings also live, but I would
like to move back some day. It is so quite and peaceful when
compared to the Seattle area (excluding Columbia Center and
Road 68 traffic!).
-John Paul "JP" PANESKO ('83 and '84)
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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