Pat Sommers Archives

June 21, 2014

Goldwater Signs and Ugly Negatives

These negatives were so gnarly I almost didn’t post them, but there are lots of familiar faces, so I’ll just have to ask you to overlook the spots and amoebas eating our classmates. This looks like some kind of debate function, but I don’t understand all the Goldwater signs.

Click on the photo to make it larger and see who you can spot. I see Laura Folsom, Margaret Randol, Skip Stiver, Linda Stone, Pat Sommers, Mike Seabaugh, Chuck Dockins, Georganne Penzel, Joni Tickel, Kathy Slinkard, Bill East and Joe Snell, among others. Based on the mix, I’m going to guess this was taken in the fall of 1964 and is made up of the classes of ’65 and ’66 and ’67.

Ueleke, Folsom and Randol

The only ones I’m going to venture a guess on are John Ueleke, Laura Folsom and Margaret Randol. I don’t know if the older women were teachers.

Goldwater and green file boxes

Lots of Goldwater buttons and bumper stickers. I was a Barry fan and got to shoot his campaign stop in Cairo. The girl in the center must have been a debater. I still have a dozen or more of those green metal 3×5 and 4×6 file boxes full of notes and arguments.

Amoeba revenge

This young lady’s legs are being eaten by film amoebas for the way she is disrespecting the photographer. The bemused blonde has held up quite well, but actually laughing, well, that’ll earn you the photographer’s revenge.

I KNOW I should know the boy in the left background, but I can’t pull his name out of the mist.

Mystery man

The man on the right is another one of those faces I recognize but can’t ID. Ideas?

February 19, 2014

20 Cases of Bean Dip

I don’t know if I’d call it the Class of 1965’s finest hour, but what happened during a Christmas food drive stuck out in some students’ memories 10 and 20 years later.

When it came to for people to come up with their memories of Central High School for the 10th reunion, Lee Dahringer listed “20 cases of bean dip.” Louie Ervin also listed the canned food drive (along with Twirp Week, baseball, football, student council and Tiger Den).

Treasure trove of 65 students

I’m assuming this is the infamous food drive because I don’t see anyone from the Class of 64, but there’s a smattering of the Class of ’66 lurking around.

I’m pretty sure that’s Joni Tickel in the dark sweater in the foregound (Wife Lila wasn’t quite as sure), with Carole Rapp behind her. I see Louie Ervin, Lonnie Blackwood, David Hahs, Betsy Ringland, Charlie Baldwin and Jackie Knehans among the group.

What was the story of the bean dip?

I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the whole story, but as I recall, there was a contest to see which class could bring in the most canned goods to distribute to the needy. Whoever set up the contest must have not thought about the devious devils in the Class of ’65 because the rules (if there were any) were extremely lax.

At the last minute, some folks showed up with 20 cases – 20 cases, not cans – of bean dip they had purchased cheaply. (Or knowing these guys, the cases may have fallen off a truck.)

That was more than enough to seal the deal for the Class of ’65. It wasn’t what I would consider a classy move since bean dip may not have been the highest priority for hungry families, but it won the contest.

I see Charlie Duncan, Jim Feldmier, Brad Wilson, Ron Marshall, Jim Lorberg, Walter Stafford and Tom Holt in the mix.

Halls were packed

The halls were packed. Faithful Reader Terry Hopkins, ’66, is more or less in the middle of the melee.

Ranked right up the with The Hearse

For the 20th reunion, Pat Sommers listed his CHS memories: “The Dances, Senior Skip Day, Wimpy’s, school plays, canned food drives, Debate trips, Mr. Chapman, Kennedy’s death, and the dress-up day when Randy, Mike, Paul David, Phil and I brought the Hearse to school!!”

I think I can pull Ken Trowbridge and Steven Crowe out of this crowd, along with Craig Brinkman.

Click on the photos to make them larger and add your own IDs, plus correct my errors.

October 10, 2013

Dog Ate My Homework

It was 12:49 a.m. I walked into the dining room and told Wife Lila, “OK, I finished the video I was working on and uploaded it, then I uploaded the photos that Curator Jessica needs to have printed in Athens; I’m going to pop a bowl of popcorn, then unwind with half an hour of TV.”

“I’ve been sitting here waiting for you to tell me you had blog content to proof.”

“Oh, Bleep! I KNEW there was something else. Do you think the readers would believe our dog ate my homework?”

“We don’t have a dog.”

“THEY don’t know that.

Who is that young woman?

So, now that the dog excuse is shot, the burden is on you. Who the heck is this young woman? I don’t have a clue, and neither did the four or five folks I showed the photo to. I’m sitting in the back seat, so it’s not my car. It looks like a small car, maybe even a VW, but I can’t think of a single person who drove a VW in Cape in the mid-1960s.

Pat Sommers and Jim Stone were about the only two guys I ran around with who had cars: Pat had a small Pinto or something; Jim drove cars that came from the dealership his dad worked at.

The gal has a certain cool air about her. She is neither concerned (nor impressed) that I am taking pictures of her.

Your homework assignment

You homework assignment is to name this young woman (with her REAL name. Points will be deducted if you are found to have made one up). Bonus points will be awarded for identifying the car and its owner.

“The dog ate my homework is NOT an acceptable excuse.”

Shooting to tear down my equipment and load the van for a Friday morning departure.

September 22, 2013

Mad Men of CHS

For better or worse, for once I can identify all of the people in a photo.

Steve Folsom, son of journalism teacher Betty Folsom, is reading Mad Magazine. He possessed the most unique set of eyebrows at Central High School.

I dated one of his twin sisters, Linda, briefly. (The briefly part was her choice, as I recall.) She and sister Laura weren’t THAT hard to tell apart once you got to know them, but they played the Twin Game the first night I went to pick up my date. Her grandfather, standing behind them, took pity on me and quietly pointed to the right one.

Al Spradling III is next. He was a Tiger business manager.

The next two characters were my debate partners at one time or another. John Mueller and I had an undefeated season my freshman year.You can see other photos of John here.

Pat Sommers, at far right, had a propensity to declare himself Number One in almost every photo I took of him. He is a little more dignified these days. Actually, now that I think of it, I DID shoot a picture of him wearing a tie at a basketball game.

You can click on the photo to make it larger, but that’ll just show up all the dust spots I didn’t bother to retouch out.