Various Momentos

The piece below is from the print shop at Birmingham High School. I don't recall how I came to have it because I don't recall taking print shop

Below is a milk bottle cap. I used to keep my paintbrushes in the bottle which is now long gone

My badge from Butler Bros Department Store, circa 1973

Yes its blurry and I should redo it

August 1969

I just saw online that today, August 8th is the 40th anniversary of the Beatles photo shoot for cover of their Abbey Road Album. Surely some of you remember albums. The record was released in September 1969 about the same time I started Birmingham High School. I have distinct memories of hearing Come Together and other songs being played at the schools cafeteria.

Last night I was watching part of a Fox news special about the Manson family and their murder rampage. Curiously the murders at the Sharon Tate house took place on August 9, 1969, only a relative few hours after the Beatles photo shoot. Another curious connection between Manson and the Beatles.

My family was in Las Vegas at the time of the crime but after we got back I remember the fear that hung over the city until the murderers were found. I read later that the Manson family drove on the 405 to get to Benedict Canyon. Our apartment on Haskell was just across the street from the freeway.

Memory is a funny thing sometimes. Those memories Of Birmingham and the Beatle songs seem like only yesterday, but the Manson family, the murders and the things surrounding them actually feel like 40 year ago.

SF Valley School Yearbooks & Pictures

Follow the link below to the Photobucket page of our friend Bob Walance who has scanned yearbooks from the following schools: Van Nuys High School 1972, 1973, 1975 as well as Birmingham High School from 1973. He also scanned the complete yearbook from Taft high School from 1973 as well as quite a few class pictures from Hazeltine Ave. Elementary School. If anyone out there has any additional scanned yearbooks or Hazeltine Class pictures, or any San Fernando Valley School pictures please let us know.

http://s403.photobucket.com/albums/pp118/BobW_2000/


I just had a request for a Grant High School yearbook from 1972 - 1973. If anyone has one or has a scan of one please contact us, a fellow classmate from Hazeltine is looking for one.

As well Bob is looking for Hazeltine school pictures from 1965/4th grade, 1966/5th grade and 1967/6th grade.

I personally have my yearbook for 1969 from Fulton Jr. High School to scan and I hope to get to that soon.

1973 Van Nuys High School Yearbook Wanted

Google Street view has yielded a few more photos. The house is my current home here in Ohio. My truck is in our driveway. I was on the porch when they drove by but the Awning makes me hard to see which is a good thing. I never liked cameras. The other photo is North Hollywood Masonic Temple.

I also want to thank my friend Bob Walance who bought a copy of the 1973 Birmingham High School yearbook, The Tomahawk. I never had a copy of it, even though my senior picture was in it. Bob scanned the entire senior class and e-mailed it to me. Bob collects yearbooks and is still looking for a copy of the 1973 Van Nuys High yearbook. He would love to buy, borrow, rent or scan the book for his collection. If anyone knows of a copy please let me know. Thanks again Bob.

Bill Cosby and Demolay

Phone Rat and I have taken on a special project over the past few days of delving through the archives of the "Valley News and Greensheet" for old articles concerning Demolay, Job's Daughters and Rainbow. One of my first finds was an article from August 12, 1971 about a special celebrity basketball contest against the Valley Demolay League All-Stars. Here is the text of the article:

Television star Bill Cosby will bring his celebrity basketball team to Birmingham High School tomorrow evening to battle a team of Valley DeMolay All-Stars in a special benefit contest.
The event is being sponsored by the Reseda Chapter, Order of DeMolay, with all proceeds going to the Shrine Hospital for Crippled Childien in Los Angeles. Included on the celebrity team will be such notables as Cosby, former Ram star Bernie Casey, former Angel first baseman Don Mincher and television actor Mike Connors ("Manmx'). The Valley DeMolay All-Stars -will consist of Buss Damn, 6 ft. 5 in. center from the Granada Hills chapter; Jim Fox, 6-1 guard from Van Nuys chapter, Kurt Krueger, 6-1 guard from Canoga Park; Pete Giammaria, 6-3 forward from Burbank; Bob Allen, 6-3 guard from North Hollywood; Craig Fletcher, 6-2 guard from Reseda; Mike Fennelly, 6-2 forward from Reseda; and Ken Inger, 6-£ forward from Reseda. There also will be two surprise guests on the program. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m. tomorrow at Birmingham. Tickets are priced at $175 for students and $250 for adults. Tickets will be on sale at the Birmingham Gym prior to the game tomorrow For further ticket information or reservations, contact Mike Fennelly at 342-9588 or 478-4051.

Quite an event, its too bad I have no memory of it. I went to Birmingham and was in Demolay at the time, though not active. So this gives you a taste of some of the stuff we are finding. Most of what we have found is normal installation and fund raising news, but that is a also a kick, and some of them have pictures. Phone Rat is working on a special project within this project for which he still needs some additional information. I will leave that cat in the bag so not to give him a stroke from the pressure.

I wanted to change the background color of this blog to green in honor of the old paper but this template does not allow that change, so instead I have changed the text color from the original article to green. It would have been great to be there and watch Chet Kincaid drive the lane against our team.

Mom & Hollywood

When you're a young child it is great to have a young good looking mom. When you become a teenager it becomes a bit more, involved. The picture to the left was taken at Universal Studios in Universal City CA in July 1969. Back in those days it was common for stars to hang around at various times for publicity shots with the visitors. I'm sure you will recognize Bob Hastings from the popular T.V. show McHale's Navy in this photo.

A few months after this picture was taken I started my first year at Birmingham High School. During that first semester I had a health education class. At one point parents were invited to the class to learn about the sex education aspects of the class. If the class wasn't wasn't shock enough to a 14 year old in 1969 it got even worse when your mom was invited to come to school to hear about sex. I had already read all the articles and interviews in my dad's Playboy magazines so I knew all about sex...right. But my newly liberated mind could not wrap itself around the concept of school, sex and mom. Well the day came and mom showed up in a nice blouse and what I considered to be way too tight slacks. It went downhill from there. I now look back and smile with a sense of pride at my classmates spending an inordinate amount of time talking to my mom. I made it through the experience and the rest of the week with the constant remarks about mom's marital status without prematurely ending the career of a letch in training.

Over the years mom had other brief encounters with Hollywood. During another visit to Universal Studios she had her picture take with the actor Clu Gulagar. In Las Vegas Bob Cummings made a pass at her during an elevator ride while my dad stood next to her smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat. However her closest encounter with Hollywood was at our doctors office when Chad Everett the actor asked her out on a date. By this time mom was in her 60's and my dad had passed away years earlier. Mom still being the faithful loving wife turned him down. When I asked why she said no she told me, "because I didn't want to". Still a mid-western girl at heart in love with a guy from Springfield Illinois.

Marlon Brando, Jack Webb & Birmingham High School

The other day I wrote about Balboa Park and it's Hollywood connection. If you continue north on Balboa Blvd. from Burbank Blvd. you will come to the corner of Balboa and Victory Blvd. On the Northwest corner is Birmingham High School. Drive a little further north to the next light which is Haynes Street. Haynes cuts through the middle of Birmingham High School. The section from Victory to Haynes is the newer part of the school. The part north of Haynes is the old section.

This old section used to be the Birmingham General Hospital during and after World War 2. In 1950 this site was used for the filming of a movie called, "The Men", staring Marlon Brando and Jack Webb. In the picture above you can partially see a window behind Brando that looks out on another one of the buildings.

When I attended Birmingham I had heard that the hospital morgue was located beneath the cafeteria. Many people told me they had ventured below and seen the morgue. I never did, nor can I verify their claims. True or not it was a curious bit of lore that stayed with you whenever you ate in the cafeteria chowing down on a grilled cheese sandwich.

I had quite a few classes in this old section. If they are still in use I hope they have finally air conditioned them. One of my few fond memories is having lunch in the old section with a tall brunette with long wavy hair and deep brown eyes. We were both writers and we shared what we wrote. I don't recall how we came to have lunch together. She was a nice, insightful girl. As I recall she was a member of the drama team at Birmingham. I went on to avoid school as much as possible and as such avoided sharing more lunches with my friend. I have gotten smarter since I left school.