Ronnie was a friend of mine back in the third grade. The Egly girls were very close and their parents were close friends of my aunt and uncle. I saw them at a funeral in an Episcopal church somewhere on the East side of Portland. I attended Christ Episcopal church and was a Boy Scout under Peter Blythe (sp?), the local attorney. I went to school with Carol Halvorsen. You lived on the same side of sixth as me and the Eglys and the kid next door that used to practice on the drums so much that he drove me nuts. He became the fire chief out in either Hillsboro or Washington County. Now, I'm trying to remember his name. Wow, it just popped into my head, Jerry Rillette (again sp?). Our house had a willow tree in the back yard. I knew Ronnie but I never knew Joan who must have been a few years younger than Ronnie. We used to know everybody in town. If we didn't know them by name we knew them by face. When we first moved here from Atlanta, we didn't have pot to pee in. Old man Wizer reached in his wallet and took out a $50 dollar bill and gave it to my mom and said to pay it back whenever she can. At that time he was the produce manager at the Food Center, a grocery store across 'A' avenue from where Wizer's first got built. Old man Wizer used to scare me with his deep and dark eyes. I had no idea he was such a nice guy until my mother told me that story about, I dunno, 10 maybe 20 years ago. We were living on second street right behind the Bacons when we moved to Portland. Jerry Bacon was my closest friend at that time. Jerry became the boxing champion in his weight class for his fleet in the Navy. He always was a good fighter. Chuck Needham was always bigger than me as a kid but I ran into him at Ft. Monmouth, NJ in the Army and at that time I was bigger than him. Now, the reason that was so amazing was that I was the smallest boy my age in my school and he was the largest. While you're significantly younger than me we seem to know a lot of the same people. Even my younger brother who was separated from me by four years would be about four years older than you if he weren't deceased. I'll bet you had some of the same teachers such as Mrs. Gardner in kindergarden, Mr. Nichols in the 4rth grade and Mrs. Hardwick in the sixth grade. There was a Mrs. Smith in the 5th grade but I'm a little bit foggy on the grade she taught.
Ron lives in the Florida panhandle where he owns a marble factory, lots of timber and farm land, and also raises cattle. I was also in Troop 12 and Pete was my parents' attorney and my Dad's poker buddy. His son Brad is my attorney and a great guitar player in the band Sixfinger from the old neighborhood. I knew Kallie Halvorsen fairly well. She passed away from breast cancer some years ago. The Rillettes were friends of my parents. Had Mrs Smith in 5th grade but don't know the other teachers. I had Eisenbeis, Mitchell, Carr, Stafford, Smith (different one), Smith, and Swannack. Mr Wizer got a kick out of my epicureal curiosity, as I was always shopping his exotic foods shelf for chocolate-covered ants and the like. My sister Karen is 4 years older than me and probably knew your brother.
My brother and one of my cousins were that age. My brother's name was Jeffrey and my cousin's name is Devana. Devana lived on 4rth and C whee the park currently is before moving to Goodall Rd. in about 1957. By the way, the Browns and the Taylors were friends of ours on Goodall Rd. Sammy Taylor was a DJ at KWJJ and Mr. Brown was the manager of the men's department at Lipman-Wolfe. The Taylors had a daughter who dated my cousin who was my age and I dated the younger Browns' daughter (a model). Yes, I dated a model. My claim to fame.
My brother-in-law played baseball at U of O. He might have been around your age. His last name is Ruggles. I can't even remember his first name. He was the brother of my first wife who I divorced over 45 years ago.
Lanny, I lived in Milwaukie and me and my buds would walk across the train tresel on week end nights (if we didn't have a ball game) to pick up them Oswego chicks!
Yeah, they were pretty cool as they also had several concerts sponsored by Ranier out at Delta Park as well as Washington Park. Last several years Portland Parks have been sponsoring concerts throughout many of the city parks with various bands. Couple years ago Quarterflash was to play at Sellwood Park, but it was during the time when we were experiencing triple digit temperatures and they postponed it. It's fun to be able to see some free concerts in a very relaxed atmosphere.
Most Oswego chicks that I knew, at least the ones you didn't need to put a paper bag over their heads, were pretty damned stuck up. A close friend of mine grew up in Milwaukee. His last name is Klinker. Kind of an electronics and programming genius. He worked on the mother board for Intel among other projects. Oh, as long as we're at it, my roommate was once one of the four leading memory chip designers in the world He also worked at Intel. Me? While these and some other friends were busy designing the 386, 486, Pentium and beyond, I was filling sandbags, burning shit and manning a machine gun. Those guys were about five years younger and lucked out. But hey, I've got free medical care. Of course my medical needs are now vast but at least it's all free.
Washington Park had the coolest amphitheater and some really cool concerts including a great one by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
This one thing the me and the wife enjoy is concerts in the park. We live near Happy Valley park and often go and meet kids and grandkids too.
My friend and I did the reverse trip with our bikes to see girls out on Johnson rd in junior high days. Train came once and we were hanging onto the side with our bikes while the train blew past us blowing it’s whistle. Last time we did that.
The Lloyd Jones Struggle looks to be playing a concert in the park this summer at Sellwood Park. Definitely making plans to check this one out.
