A Bit of History - 1966

Looking through my scrapbook and box of memorabilia for a blog topic I came across a photo torn from an issue of the Silver Bay News.  What I found interesting, though, was not the picture. (It was a photo of my United Protestant youth group).  Because of all the attention on Medicare this year, what caught  my attention was the news article on the reverse side of the paper.

I folded the paper to include a scan of date but it's hard to read.  It's March 16, 1966.  Basically it's an article to inform people over 65 that they can sign up for the new Medicare program in Two Harbors, at the Iron Dock Hall.  The official beginning of Medicare: July 1, 1966.

The Class of 1969 was in 9th grade.  My classmates will remember that few people in Silver Bay at that time who were over 65.  My dad was older than many fathers in our class, 40 when I was born, and only 54 in 1966.

After a few minutes of historical research I can offer you a few other 1966 tidbits:

Oscar for Best Picture:  SOUND OF MUSIC

Grammy for Best Record:  A TASTE OF HONEY/Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

First Episode of STAR TREK: September 8
(This same year CBS decided to pull a broadcast of Hitchcock's film PSYCHO because of excessive violence)

Boston defeated the LA Lakers. (I rarely watch basketball but I do live in L.A. and it's NBA playoff time. The Lakers won last night.  I saw some of the second half of the fourth quarter.)

All for today.  Next time: articles from another newspaper, the SILVER SCROLL.

An Orphaned Owl in our Hollywood Hills Neighborhood

Last week we saw a baby owl - actually a truck driver from city sanitation pointed it out to us. He was delivering new garbage bins for a new neighbor who was moving in soon.  The worker was trying not to disturb the baby bird which looked like a ball of fluffy yarn with eyes.  After two days of seeing and then not seeing the little owl, hoping that the mother owl had found it, we saw it again, tight against the foundation of the neighbor's house and between garbage bins.  This is coyote country - last summer another neighbor's dog, a Chihuahua named Pedro, was attacked and nearly killed by a coyote in the same property's carport. So, Bill went home to get gloves and carried the owlet to our carport.  We put the bird inside a plastic container that held a cherry tomato plant on our deck last year - on the bottom some leaves and toweling for nest and for protection covered the bin with a dome of wire mesh that we used last year over the same planter to keep squirrels from eating fruit from the tomato bush.

Either a Screech Owl or a Great Horned Owl because of its yellow eyes, but I'm guessing Horned Owl after looking at photos of baby owls on the web.

I don't know the end of the story yet.  After a day and a half with us the bird is now in the hands of Valley Wildlife Care. I  hope to hear from the organization's director this week about the owlet's health.  If so I will write more about this adventure.

Something about the Silver Bay Laundromat

I realized yesterday that I had this photo saved in my cell phone memory.

Yes, it's an old vending machine.  I saw it at Famous Dave's in St. Paul, not far from the airport.  Bill and I were stopping by last summer for food to take to my mom's.   I am almost sure it's the same candy machine that was in the S.B. laundromat.  In seventh grade, when I lived on Banks Blvd., I was two doors away from Sue Elam. The two of us would walk together most days, up to Kelley and back. After school we often strolled into Malmo's Drug to buy penny candy (2 pieces of licorice for 1 cent).  For a nickel that spring of 1964 we could buy bubble gum that had a Beatles card inside the wrapper (still have those cards).

But, occasionally, Susie and Narta would go to the laundromat instead of Malmo's.  The candy vending machine there sometimes had Forever Yours as one of the selections - a candy bar only available at Malmo's or grocery stores in the 6-bar variety pack (with Snickers and Milky Way?).  But more exciting were those afternoon visits to the laundromat when, in one of the little windows of that vending machine, we saw a piece of paper with a hand-written note that said:  "TAKE A CHANCE."  Some days, willing to live with risk, one of us would drop a whole dime into the machine and take that chance.  And, with luck, we'd get a stack of Rollos!

Update:  Sue has reminded me of our other favorite "take a chance" candy bar, ZERO.  Read her comment below.

Fall 1968 - Kelley High School's Cross Country Champs

In previous blog I wrote that I have in my possession a scrapbook of senior year, 1968-1969.  Here's a scan from a Duluth newspaper article I saved dated Sunday, Sept. 22, 1968.

From left toe right:  Ron Rude, Mike Hanson, Randy Rolando, Larry Sornberger, Jim Koehler, Bob Fedderly and Steve Whittaker.

More about Movies at Kelley

I wish I could include a visual aid here.  In my senior scrapbook (yes, I kept and still have a senior scrapbook) I possess a piece of paper that advertises the showing of "Forbidden Planet" on Saturday, April 19, 8PM in the Kelley auditorium.  The ad was printed by hand except for a paragraph at the bottom which was photocopied from the film catalog.  The single sheet was then copied on a ditto machine. Ah, the fresh ditto paper.  I can almost smell it.  Anyway, the print is so light purple now I can't do a readable scan.  The film's stars are Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen.

The question is why would I keep such an item?  On the top I have handwritten a message to myself:  "Have this... WHY?"  No idea when I might have penciled this note. I would guess at least 3 decades ago. Haven't looked at this scrapbook in at least that long.

I have a dim memory of seeing "Forbidden Planet" at Kelley. Here are some other films I remember seeing there:

THE TIME MACHINE (Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimeux. Must have been popular.  Seems like I saw it at least 3 times at Kelley.)

WHERE THE BOYS ARE (A favorite. Also with Ms. Mimeux, I think. It's still not available on Netflix and I don't think copies are available.  I wonder why. Summer break in Florida.  Some funny stuff and also very serious.  Paulette Prentiss is in it.  I loved her.  The lead actress later gave up Hollywood and became a nun.)

BUTTERFIELD 8 (with Elizabeth Taylor. Mentioned that in previous post)

FLUFFY (Comedy with Tony Randall before the Odd Couple.  He has a pet lion that scares everybody.)


OPERATION PETTICOAT (I still like this Cary Grant movie.  All those bras being stuffed into torpedoes, remember?)

To my fellow S.B. graduates:  if you remember seeing any other movies, please leave a comment!  I do realize we weren't always there to watch the movies. When you're a teenager there's nothing like a dark theater... even if it is the school auditorium.

Silver Bay and Movies

I think it's funny that I ended up living close to the Hollywood sign in the movie capital of the world when we didn't have a movie theatre in Silver Bay. Someone told me once that Silver Bay planners considering building a cinema but eventually decided it might corrupt the youth of the town.  I wonder if that's true.

We saw a couple of films in the auditorium during school hours and many on weekends so that students organizations could earn money.

I remember seeing A TALE OF TWO CITIES during junior or senior year and being totally confused. Eventually I realized that the film canisters had been projected out of order - seems to me we saw Reel 1, then 3, then 2, then 4.  Now that's an unintentional flashback narrative style for sure.  Bill remembers it, too.  We've laughed about it many times, thinking it strange that no English teachers realized that the story was out of sequence.  Maybe they were all in the faculty room smoking??!

Remembering Elizabeth Taylor... one weekend we saw BUTTERFIELD 8 on Kelley's movie night.  I wonder who didn't realize what that was about.  Speaking of confused... this naive teen was not at all sure how Taylor's character earned that fur coat... 

First Day and Last Day of School - Silver Bay - 1956 and 1969

September 1956:

Place:  Our cabin in Silver Bay Trailer Court.
Event:  Ready for my first day of kindergarten, Campton.  Mom made my dress.  The white "thing" she called a pinafore.  It had pockets. The dog is Boots.  I've written about him in other blogs.

And this is Bill - first day of school. Edison Blvd. Silver Bay.   My future mother-in-law, Ruby, kept a very organized album with many of his childhood pics.  The date on the photo is Nov. '56, but she wrote in the album that the first day of kindergarten was September 4.  His teacher was Mrs. Backlund.

June 1969:
Must have taken a camera to school the last day at Kelley High.  Bill took this photo.  "Narta at her empty locker."  Sigh.  I cried many tears at graduation. I recall only a few days when I did not want to go to school. 

And I wonder who took this photo with both of us in the Kelley cafeteria.

Cafeteria food: Remember tomato soup?  Grilled cheese sandwiches? Bean burgers?  And mashed potatoes with huge dollops of butter and a rectangle of "meat something" that pretended to be Spam?

I decided to abandon my Campton experiences for a bit and write about Kelley - in honor of my friends who went to Mary Mac and/or Kelley for first grade through sixth.