Hawthorne Feedback

Name: Noreen Culley ~~~~~~~~~~ Fri-Jul 1, 2011, 7:20 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Crotty
Class: 1972
City & State: Westchester, CA

Message: This is so cool - check this out. This is Lexi St. George, daughter of alumni Louise St. George (77) and niece of Lynn (72) and Renee (74). Lexi has been featured on Good Morning America all week. She won a contest of the Next Teen Pop Star. Watch her video on you tube - you can also download on itunes.

Name: Betty Rodriguez ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 6:29 pm - HHS Time

Maiden: Kean
Class: 1969
City & State: Kingman, AZ

Message: Jimmy P.-Dang it, I would've ditched work for a visit! Haven't seen you since the first Cougartown Picnic! Oh well, maybe next time. I'm always up for a Sighting!

Name: Jim Villanueva ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 3:10 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1976
City & State: Rocklin, CA

Message: Fellow alum and Spirit (emphasis on SPIRIT) of 1976 classmates, On the eve of another fantastic Fourth of July weekend, which, poetically, for me begins with going to see the BeachBoys perform in concert five minutes from my front door, I come to you all with HHS Cougar cap in hand and a heartfelt plea. This I believe is the second or third time I've made use of this forum (thank you, John) to ask that we all spend a little to buy a lot of happiness for the kids who depend so heavily on the great work done by class of '75 Faelin Klein and her fantastic non-profit organization The Sunshine Connection (formerly The Sunshine Kids Club). The bottomline is, well, as always, the bottom line. And this time, the situation is the worst that it has ever been for Faelin, her beautiful daughter, Briana, and The Sunshine Connection, which is in serious danger of having to close its doors. State funding has completely dried up and, in these tough economic times for a lot of us, private donations have dwindled to a drop in the bucket level. Added to this crisis is the fact that Briana has been in recent poor health, adding to Faelin's personal financial burden. We can make a big dent in the funding Faelin desperately needs to keep The Sunshine Connection doors open by making a tiny dent in our personal finances. I urge you to please consider writing a $10 (the equivalent of two Starbucks beverages or 2 beers at just one Happy Hour in your life) check to The Sunshine Connection and mailing it to 702 Mangrove Ave. #142 Chico, CA 95926. If everyone on the list of alums of Faelin's class of '75 and my classmates of the class of '76 donated just $10 right now, we would collect almost $4000. Just imagine if EVERYONE who visits Cougartown wrote a $10 check...I'll let you all do the math! As always, I thank you in advance on behalf of Faelin, Briana, and all the kids who hope to continue to call The Sunshine Connection home!Happy Fourth of July! PS: "Be true to your school! "Peace, Jim Villanueva

Name: Sharon Leach ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 12:12 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1966
City & State: Long beach ca sk

Message: I see two class members of 1966 are celebrating birthdays today. Larry Boyce and Tom DeMary happy birthday.

Name: Howard Paco Duran ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 10:17 am - HHS Time

Class: 1961
City & State: Lake Forest

Message: To me, the 4th of July was a close 2nd with Christmas. My father had many patients who were Mexican-Americans and would either give or sell firecrackers to him, along with a leather purse for my mother. I would have "ropes and bricks" of them from June through the summer, my army backpack was always full. Sharon hates the 4th, mostly because of me almost burning down Lake Forest, my last days of drink in 1991, I had a bottle rocket fight with a neighbor across the lake from me and almost burned his house down..Since then "Safe, Sane and Sober". We'll all be in El Stinko with Barbara this 4th..Have Fun All!!

Name: Judy Degrazia ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 8:50 am - HHS Time

No E-mail
Message: OK, I've been on the fence about telling my story about the DeGrazia's July 4th stories.....but I'll take a chance.. Like all of you, in the 50's and 60's our block (Sundale Ave & 118th st) use to take their fireworks to the street and all would enjoy. However, my little brother, Tom, loved to make his own all year and display them at the end of the show. (sort of a special grand finale') So here he comes with his box of home made fireworks..and they were all really good. But one glitch.. he used anything he could pull out of a trash can (that seems to be the DeGrazia men's claim to fame ) to make the housings.. toilet paper rolls.. hand towel cardboard rolls, and the one he thought did the best were the... are you ready----tampax cartons. (can I say that Sid?) BTW--the tampax carton ones really were the best and he never could figure out what we were laughing about all night. The worst thing that could happen to you back then is that you'd step on a hot sparkler on the ground.. once you did that you wore shoes the rest of the night.

Name: Lillian Parra ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 7:58 am - HHS Time

Maiden: McDonald
Class: 1963
City & State: Havasu Lake, CA

Message: 4th of July at the McDonald's house was always a big celebration, it was my youngest brother Gary's birthday so it was special food, ice cream and cake and lots of fireworks - let the party begin little brother:-)

Name: Esther Ostermann ~~~~~~~~~~ Thu-Jun 30, 2011, 4:33 am - HHS Time

Maiden: quintanilla
Class: 1970
City & State: escondido ca

Message: Explanation needed for my story… no I did not grow up in a home of gangsters….My Father and Uncle were both policeman…and for some reason my mother and aunt always thought it had been my fathers gun that went off…my father always kept his gun out of sight, we kids never knew where he kept his gun....just thought I had to explain that in my fathers defense.

Name: Jim Pasternak ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 7:16 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1968
City & State: Calimaui, OK.
No E-mail
Message: ....make that BETTY! Hey, 21 hours of straight driving...a little punchy.

Name: Jim Pasternak ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 7:03 pm - HHS Time
No E-mail
Message: ...oops. As I was saying, had Dennis on the cell but lost him in the mountains. So he says! Later.

Name: Jim Pasternak ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 7:00 pm - HHS Time
Class: 1968
City & State: Whichmonth?

Message: Okay, Mary. Just fueled up in Kingman...didn't see so kept on. Beautiful Country 'round your town. Nice drive as sun is setting. Found a BB cd & play Darlin' once. Well, thrice. Uh, loud, too. Spent time in Oklahoma & couldn't find a Greasby so I split. Got Campbell on

Name: Jerry Miles ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 6:42 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1966
City & State: Fair Oaks, CA
No E-mail
Message: Here is one I shared a few years back but as we are talking about July Fourth stories I'll give you all a repeat. I didn't mention it was just before Independence Day in my original post but it was. Another Stupid Kid story. One time I had procured several M-80’s and decided to pull a trick on a friend. I put the M-80 inside an empty toilet paper roll and stuffed it full of toilet paper so only the fuse would show. I then wentover to my friend, Fred Kaiman’s house and told him I manufactured it by taking apart a dozen lady fingers and rerolling them into one big one. We proceeded to the alley in the back of his house to audition my handiwork. Fred was going to light it and I, knowing what it really was, advanced to a safe twelve feet away. As he lit it, Fred gave me the look of ‘you know this isn’t going to work don’t you’ and stayed about six inches from the burning fuse. I quickly ran back and started to physically drag him away. We had only made it three or four feet when it went off with like a thunder clap. I’ll never forget the look on his face or what he said, “You did pretty good”. I don’t think I ever did tell him what it really was.

Name: Esther Ostermann ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 5:54 pm - HHS Time

Maiden: quintanilla
Class: 1970
City & State: escondido ca

Message: Fireworks! My aunt would visit and have a cup of coffee in the mornings with my mother and they were both smokers –well she decided to help my mother make her bed that morning. They were talking and visiting with each other and they put their cigarettes on the ashtray and turned around and proceeded to make the bed when all of a sudden the firecracker that was left on the ashtray (which they did not notice) exploded very loudly and they both fell into the bed thinking my fathers’ gun had gone off….they thought they had been shot….until one of them decided to move and realized that the smell of the firecracker was too strong to be a gun… they laughed so hard and talked about it for years. Well someone left it on the ashtray one of us kids…. And no it was not me honest…..I have always been an angel-----

Name: Denny Unfried ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 2:57 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1955
City & State: Del Aire

Message: A few times on the 4th of July I rode the 5-car (streetcar) which stopped at Exposition Park next to the Coliseum. Didn't have enough coin to get inside but just laid on the grass outside, watched the fireworks and listened to the cannons which was deafening. The streetcar tracks went down Santa Barbara Blvd. which was later renamed MLK Jr. Don't remember what the car fare was but by today's standards it wouldn't buy a cup of coffee.

Name: Richard Of ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 2:52 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1969
City & State: LongBeach
No E-mail
Message: Memorable 4th of July’s: The Hawthorne Area Youth Band was comprised of musicians from the high schools and intermediate schools in/around Hawthorne, directed by HHS’s own Frederick T. Morgan. During the summers of 1963 and 1965 HAYB represented the United States at the Calgary Stampede. On July 4th, 1963 we were performing for the town of Walla Walla, WA annual fourth celebration, at the town’s Little League park. As the guy went to light the first fireworks, he dropped his lighting flare onto all the lighting fuses, and the entire 20 minute display went up in 20 seconds, including setting the bleachers on fire. Was the best (but shortest) fireworks display ever! Stay Safe

Name: Bob Jensen ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 12:19 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1971
City & State: LA-64
No E-mail
Message: Innocent fathers of 124th street filling trash cans with water, dropping in cherry bombs with waterproof fuses into the can and then putting the lid on. Results, the lid flying across the street and water raining down.

Name: Jan Blomsterberg ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 12:15 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1963
City & State: Torrance, CA

Message: Just another reminder to all the local CT family...if you plan on purchasing fireworks be sure to buy the 'safe and sane' types...which the Hawthorne VFW sells exclusively! We are now open and selling TNT fireworks and we are located at Hawthorne and El Segundo Blvds in the Albertsons shopping center. Come in, buy what you need and mention John Baker and Cougartown and you will receive the ten percent discount I promised you. VFW members from any Post will receive a twenty percent discount, along with active military in uniform. Police and Fire personnel receive ten percent. Our stand is open from noon to 8-9-10 during the week and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Please support the VFW so we can continue to support our veterans. If you live out of the area, find a local VFW and buy from them. Our veterans are living everywhere and other VFW Posts can use your support, too. Semper Fi and have a safe and great holiday weekend. Sgt. Janny
p.s....I'm still working at packaging a Picolo Pete to make it as loud as a 155 howitzer. I have some logistics issues to deal with but maybe by the fourth I'll tame her. I wonder if any of those issues are causing my hearing loss? Good news is I still have seven good fingers to work with! Marine motto: improvise, adapt, overcome. I will make it happen...one way or the other. Thank you, Judy, for letting me make a 'little' mess in the living room.

Name: Steve Eide ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 12:02 pm - HHS Time

Class: 1966
City & State: Alexandria, VA

Message: Our family used to go to Centinela Park in Inglewood every July 4th. My mom would fry up some chicken, make some potato salad and strawberry shortcake. She'd also bring along a giant jug of lemonade or Kool-Aid. We would go early in the day to get a spot up front for the fireworks that night which were both aerial and ground displays. Us kids would roam that huge park and slide down the hill that ran along Florence. There also was a great pool. Oh and the snow cones were great.

Name: Sue Walsh ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 11:44 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Jolly
Class: 1961
City & State: Hesperia Ca

Message: This is to all of the St. Joseph's guys and gals out there. Do any of you remember, or know the whereabouts of Vickie {Victoria} Volante? She lived next door to me on Freeman Ave. in the early 50's. Her father was a doctor in Inglewood. I lost touch with her after she moved away. Thanks for your help. You can email me.

Name: Sharon Macdonald ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 10:59 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Badger
Class: 1963
City & State: Bruceville, TX

Message: As the 4th of july approaches, perhaps some stories of Independance Days past is in order. I'll start with this one. My family was celebrating at home in the back yard. There was a wading pool out and my mother was sitting in a lawn chair. An innocent scene you'd think - until, my sister and I arrived on the scene with one of those screamer type fire works. We lit it and placed it behind the lawn chair. Results - fire cracker started screaming, mother jumping up and screaming, mother barely missing the wading pool, children laughing so hard they were crying! Happy Fourth!

Name: Bob Jensen ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 10:17 am - HHS Time

Class: 1971
City & State: Los Angeles
No E-mail
Message: Hey John, Pioneer is still in Norwalk. I just remembered two other names of walkways. One went past the shop building and the other ran a diagonal from Southwest campus to Northeast campus and if you continued walking in that direction you would come to the Hawthorne Street of the same name.

Name: Maureen Trott ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 9:19 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Trott
Class: 1964
City & State: Hawthorne, CA

Message: A very happy birthday today to Sharon Duran. Have a fun day!

Name: Laura Anderson ~~~~~~~~~~ Wed-Jun 29, 2011, 8:29 am - HHS Time

Maiden: Twitchell
Class: 1979
City & State: Hemet, CA

Message: Hi John....as noted on a previous facebook post, I went out to March Air Museum in Perris to hear Pat Macha speak about locating aircraft wreckage sites in So. California. Much of his work includes sharing info and, in some cases, bringing the families to the sites. Can you imagine the sense of closure this provides! His passion for his work is inspiring. You can read more on his website: aircraftwrecks.com