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V/R, Co-site Administrators Joan Lucchesi ('60) and Gary Wegener ('66)

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Vern Larson (1960)

Bill - Great post! You certainly have a way with words. I'm not accustomed  to having a double reverse pulled on me quite as eloquently as you have. But yes, your authority on my behavior in high school was correct...I left a lot to be desired. I started out fine, but it quickly went downhill. For 4 years, I would start 1 hour before high school and go to seminary at the Mormon Church. I would usually walk in the front door, make an appearence, and then out the back door. For the rest of the day, whatever happened was fair game.

Jean - Sorry to hear about Fred's passing. My condolences to you and your family. When the time is right, we would still like to hear about some of your traveling experiences.

Eldon - You were the best little brother a big brother could have. I've got a story you have never heard. You were about 3 and I was about 7, we were on the couch and you were getting tired. I put your head on my lap and began singing you a lullaby while I stroked your hair. Mom walked in and I can just imagine the pride that mom was feeling. She began to say something as I put my finger to my lips and said, "Shhhhh, he is asleep."  So as you can see, I did have a soft side. Miracles will never cease!

Rene Humphrey (Marker) (1964)

Frannie I lived in those veteran housing projects when I was about five or six years old.  Always have a picture of them sitting out on the corner.  My grandmother and grandfather Ira and Nellie Hannagan lived across the street.  In the past my grandmother had horses behind the Beamer street house.  My grandfather owned several bars in town at one time.  

Walter J. "Wally" Summ (1967)

Joan Lucchesi, 

Regarding post 5345, I finally found infomation on the racetrack.  It was simply called "Woodland Racetrack"---go figure.  I've purloined this write-up from Shipley Walters book-- "WOODLAND-City of Trees"

Bill Means (1961)

RE: Racetrack.

Having lived 2 houses down from Race Track Road for 12 years I always assumed it was an auto race track. I did see a VERY old map of Woodland about 12 years ago and it showed a horse race track straight north of Palm Avenue and the race track was parallel to the rail road tracks just above the present boat/motorhome storage yard.

My brother Tom '59 and I both had Daily Demo delivery routes. He had Beamer to Race Track, College to the SP tracks. He quit for 8th grade and I took over part of his route which was a smaller route from Beamer to Race Track and College to Palm Ave. The monthly collection was $1.30/month and we were required to put every paper on the front porch. Monday to Friday the papers were string tied and in bundles ready for us, but on Saturday we watched the papers come off the press and we rolled them and put them in the string tying machine to make our own bundle. Yes, the rain was not fun.

I enjoyed watching the Linotype machines to try to figure out how the die pieces got back to the proper slots up above. At San Jose State I took a photolithography class and they had a linotype and I got it running and showed the class how it worked to the happiness of the instructor who assumed it was broken, but wanted to see it run. The keyboard had all the keys alphabetically from the left side - not the qwerty machines we are used to now.

Bill

Joan Richter (Lucchesi) (1960)

Thanks Wally for the information and photo. The caption opened more questions for me. If it was built for the first District Yolo County Fair, was the fairgrounds on Kentucky Avenue first?   Since  I grew up on the ranch right next door to the Y.C. fairgrounds I just assumed it had always been there.   

Walter J. "Wally" Summ (1967)

That's a good question Joan.  I had actually thought the same thing.  We might have to go back and ask the WHS 50's decade classes for the answer to that one...ha ha!  It does seem odd that the YC fairgrounds and the Kentucky rack track are so far apart.  We need to find a historian.

Doyle Phillips (1961)

Joan and Wally, that is interesting. The first Yolo County Fair was 1893 with Horse Racing being the main event. The Yolo County Fair was incorporated in 1935. It was expanded to include Horse Show in 1936 and Industrial Show in 1937. The present 55 acre land, the Blowers Ranch, was purchased in 1940.   Where was the Fair from 1893 to 1940?  There was no Fair from 1942 to 1948 because of War.

Robert Cowing (1965)

Marilyn Millsap (Thompson) (1961)

Woodland's first racetrack was at Brown's Corner.  The next one was on Kentucky Avenue.  It was used for horse racing and was the site of the county fair starting in 1893 until WWII.  It then moved to the present location and car racing took over.  You can get all this information at the Yolo County Archives, 226 Buckeye St., Woodland.

Bill Means (1961)

Craig,

Well, now I have another one for you.

There is only ONE F-100 Super Sabre FAA certified to fly in the USA and in the third week of June 2018 I am number 9 on the list to fly it. It is located in Ft. Wayne Indiana owned by a Subdivision Contractor and there are 12 old F-100 AF crew chiefs to maintain the plane when it flies. I have all my original flight suit, boots, form fitting helmet, dog tags, LABS screwdriver and I'm currently certified by my FAA Flight Surgeon to fly - with glasses!

Light the fire, hit the afterburner, rotate at 170 knots, 10 degrees nose high, gear up, flaps up and out of burner at 300 knots. ( For you pilots, yes there is a do not exceed 250 knot restriction below 10,000 feet, but the local airport ignores it for us ) .

Loops, aileron rolls, immelmans, cuban eights, barrel rolls - anything but straight and level flight! No one can go supersonic in the continental USA unless it is in restricted airspace and they don't have any in Indiana. They won't let us go to the local gunnery range for 50 foot level skip bombing, 20 MM gun targets or 45 degree bombing. The flight lasts about 50 minutes and burns a lot of fuel in afterburner, but not in mil power.

Now to get a GoPro type camera and attach it to the side of my helmet as I'm too tall to put it on top. Anyone use one or a similar one? I need to get one that can do a one hour movie and I'd like any input you have to help me.

On the car vein, my 1969 Jaguar XK-E had an electrical fire behind the dash board on a trip around Tahoe this year and I'm getting the wiring looms rearranged and new switches installed. Glad I was able to get the dash open and pour water and ice tea on the looms to kill the fire. Drove it home to Hermosa the next day with the dash open and the bare wires staring at me the whole trip. My car has a differential which only allows a max speed of 130 MPH, but I've only gotten up to 128 on back country roads where no one was around. With the fast differential the top speed is suppose to be 150. Still not fast enough to rotate the F-100 for takeoff.

Bill

Donald Urain (1964)

Sorry about Mike passing,he was a friend through high school snd I used to see hom in Chester while on vacation. prayers for his family. Rest easy old friend.

Betty Ciemny (Gastineau) (1964)

Don Urain! Hello from Betty and Howard!

Tony Moddesette (1963)

Don Urain!  Hello from Tony and Barb!

Bill Means (1961)

The poem was written by a American, who joined the Canadian AF at the begining of WWII, John Gilispie McGee who flew Spitfires and later lost his life at the age of 19 in the war.

It was quoted during the tribute to the Challenger Crew with only the first and last lines:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

The TV flying signoffs were great at what 10:00PM? Channel 3 was the first TV channel in the valley begining in July 1955 and most of the day was dedicated to test patterns. It was only 14 years later that we landed a man on the moon - July 1969. Electronice really changed and FAST. But then they continue to change even faster today. OH, gotta sign off now, I hear my cell phone ringing, now where did I last see it?? I can't find it. OK, it stopped ringing.  Humm. Voice mail? I can't hear it either.

Don Ree (1966)

Hello Dan, long time no see.  How are things going?  We have been hearing that you were on this site from different classmates.  Thought we would get in touch.  Has it been as hot there, as here?  What a hot summer we have had.  Don is still working on cars.  Its in his blood, always tinkering.  If you want we can send you pics.  Give us your email, if you have one.  Hope all is going well.

                                                                              Shirley

Donald Urain (1964)

Betty and Howard, great to hear from you, please drop me a line letting me know where you are living now. Tony and Barb I was coming to Woodland last month dut I only made it to Reno. Iwill try again soon. I will keep in touch.   don323@gmail.com

Marilyn Millsap (Thompson) (1961)

Jim Crandall - Your posting got me to thinking about my MG so I watched the movie "Two For the Road" again..  In my memory, the whole movie is about Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney driving all over Europe in their MG.  I was shocked to see that in the middle of the movie the MG catches fire and burns up.  Hard to watch!  There is a scene where they try to drive up a hill but the MG can't make it so they back all the way up.  Hard to do on a highway!   Guess I'll stick with my minivan.  Thanks for the memories.

Gary Wegener (Wegener) (1966)

yo,,,   a moment of silence in memory of September 11, 2001.   The American Legion has lined Main Street with American flags, from West to Sixth.  A poignant reminder of a tragic day in our history.

Frances Handley (Jones) (1964)

I am glad the American Legion did that. As I live in Arlington , Virginia and worked for Arlington county it is not something we will ever forget here or any place else in the United States either. 

Elvis Kelley (1962)

Thank you Gary. 

Betty Ciemny (Gastineau) (1964)

Thanks, Gary.

Hi, Frances

Paul Schattauer (1961)

I wanted to tell the story of my 9/11 experience on 9/11 but Irma decided I did not need electricty.  Power is back now and other then lots of leaves and stricks and a blown over butterfly bush, the 70 mph winds did no damage.  My day on 9/11 began in Paris at our hotel as my crew gathered at pickup time to take our bus to Charles DeGaule airport.  Everything was normal, pretty day, full airplane, destination Atlanta.  My cockpit and cabin crew consisted of two copilots and 11 flight attendants.  I conducted the standard security briefing on the bus, password, cockpit acess, acountability (mine) problem solving, general stuff, see something say something.  Flight time, weather, to be announced on the airplane before boarding.  Take off climb and cruise uneventful til we were about 100 miles West of Ireland and things started to go sideways. A United Airlines flight called ATC (airtraffic control) and said they needed to return to Dublin because their company had requested that they do so.  That is unheard of.  I sent a satellite message to Delta flight control asking for information and got no response, again, unheard of.   A few minutes later ATC broadcast "all flights are required to return to point of origin due to terrorist activity in the United States".  I was stunned.   Every morning about 600 flights leave Europe (and that part of the world) for the US  and that part of the world just as every evening in the West 600 flights go back.  You don't just break out of the pack and turn around.  I called ATC and said we need a clearance as to direction of turn and and coast (back in) fix.  They began issuing clearances and fixes.  We turned and began evaluating what was happening.  We tried contacting Delta and got no response, I found out later that was deliberate.  We had a SAT phone, one of only 5 airplanes in the fleet that had one, so we tried calling our wives.  The circuits were busy (really?) but one of my copilots got his wife and she said "the towers are down and Washington is smoking" and he lost the connection.  I made an announcement to the passengers giving them all the information I had at that time (without the towers and the smoking stuff).  I then told the senior flight attendant to reassign the male flight attendants to work the area closest to the cockpit and briefed them to protect the cockpit and advise me of any threat.  I ordered a drink cart to be placed in the cockpit and shoved up against the cockpit door.  My second copilot was now in the cockpit.  I told him to get the crash axe (a very nasty weapon) and disable anyone who breached the cockpit over the drink cart.  The flight back to Paris was uneventful, no flight plan but we were handed off from one radar facility to the next.  The station manager had tears in his eyes when we arrived at the gate, he had no idea we were safe until we showed up.  Getting back to our hotel and watching those airplanes hitting the buildings again and again was a truly awful day.  There are worse places than Paris to spend three days in limbo.  The flight home went over New York and was eerie. Normally the radio goes constantly, that day we were the only flight in the air.....and you could still see the smoke.

Jean Wright (Johnson) (1960)

Paul that was a sad but great story.  I am so glad all of you landed safely.  I have never even wondered what the other planes where doing.  Thank you again   Jeanne

Theresa Eve (1964)

September 11th:  Thank you Paul, what a day that was for our Country!  I was working for the State in Sacramento and they told us to all go home, not knowing what would happen next.  All those lives lost!  All our great brave Firemen and Women; and Police, along with dogs; all did a great job.  My flag went out on this date, prayers to all.  May we never forget, and may we remain strong, United State of America.  

Marian Flores (Walker) (1962)

My husband's uncle had passed away several days before and his funeral was on 9/11.  We were in Wheeling, W Va, and my son living in Virginia, drove to Wheeling, also to attend the funeral.  We were in a motel room, just got up and getting ready for the funeral, TV on GMA, and saw the first plane crash into the Twin Tower, then the second plane.  We attended the funeral and family gathering that day, watching what we could on TV.  That evening people were lining up at the gas stations with rumors of gas going up to $5 a gallon.  We knew that there would be no flights out of W Va, so we rode back to Charlottesville, VA, with our son.  It was very strange to not see one plane in the sky.  It was a week before we could get a plane out of Richmond, VA, to Cali. A very scary time in our history.