HOMEWORK (shamelessly repeated from last year):

http://www.paulmccartney.com/

http://www.macca-central.com/default.php

http://www.memoryalmostfull.com/

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/paulmccartney 

http://www.bopped.com/the_beatles.html

   Many Happy Returns, One and All!

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/Happy-Birthday.html

---

GUEST BOOK SIGNERS:

1. Mark Waggoner (NNHS Jr. Class of '71) of VA - 06/17/09:

Wednesday 06/17/2009 5:19:33pm Name: Mark Waggoner E-Mail: markwag@juno.com Marital Status Married City/Country: Hampton Favorite Teachers All of them! Hobbies Still working full-time Comments NNHS Jr. Class of '71

   Thanks, Mark - good to hear from you again!

  From Jay Styles ('68) of VA - 06/15/09- "The Finger GI Style":

AWESOME!!!  Read below pic before making judgment on 'The Finger' gesture and you'll understand...

Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as 'Iron Mike' or just 'Gunny'. He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour.

Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. 'You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision,' he explains. So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term 'the longest walk', stepping gingerly into a 5 foot deep and 8 foot wide crater.

The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it.  He cut the wire and used his 7 inch knife to probe the ground.

'I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs,' he says. 'That's when I knew I was screwed.'

Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant's feet. 

'A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded,' he recalls. 'As I was in the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me.' I was just ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down'.

His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still there.

		'My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down,' says Sgt. Burghardt. 'I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that. They started to cut away my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.'  As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in. 'I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher.' He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute. 'I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be back next week'.' Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col. John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt. Burghardt's injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks - kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home.  But, like his father - who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam - he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

Are you proud enough to send this on ?

YOU BETCHA I AM!

   WOWZERONI! Thank you, Jay Sweetie!

  From Joyce Lawrence Cahoon ('65) of VA - 06/16/09 - "Bar code: SEE WHERE IT'S MADE!":

Want to buy US made products?  BUY USA by watching for "0" at the beginning of the number.  We need every boost we can get!

This may be useful to know when grocery shopping, if it's a concern to you.

The whole world is afraid of China-made "black hearted goods". Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China ?

If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA.

471 is Made in Taiwan. 

This is our right to know, but the government and related departments never educate the public, therefore we have to RESCUE ourselves. Nowadays,  Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products "MADE IN CHINA ", so they don't show from which country it is made.   

However, you may now refer to the barcode, remember if the first 3 digits are:

690-692 … then it is MADE IN CHINA .
00 - 09 … USA & CANADA
30 - 37 … FRANCE
40 - 44 … GERMANY
47 ... Taiwan
49 … JAPAN
50 … UK

BUY USA by watching for "0" at the beginning of the number.  We need every boost we can get!

   Thanks, Joyce, for this very useful information! Bar codes have always intrigued me!

    From Eric Huffstutler (Bethel HS - '75) of VA - 06/17/09 - "Pep Boys":

Carol,

		This isn't a picture of Manny, Moe and Jack (The Pep Boys) in Newport News, but does give you an idea how the buildings looked and the figures on top of the building from this 1965 catalog.  Don't think our store was as elaborate with signage, but the figures were definitely there towering over you going into the doors and visible far away.  Buildings were distinct back then, but are considered "driver hazards" now days.  I hated it when Virginia passed the no animated (or distracting) signs along roads laws back in the 1970s.  People creeping along to see where they are going are causing more of a danger, I think, than if they would have left things as they were so you could see a business far in advance by their own unique signs. Eric
1965 Pep Boys Catalog

   Thanks, Eric! I remember our local Pep Boys and their colorful sign quite well. Of course, this IS me, so I have no idea where it was located, but if someone will let me know, I'll create a Pep Boys page for Our Old Stomping Grounds.

   I moved away from The Sacred Soil in May of 1971, so I didn't realize those large signs had been outlawed; I thought they had simply gone out of style, or businesses had grown less creative - or something.....

   From Fred Field (June '45) of CA - 06/17/09 - Re NN   Armory"":

Hello Carol,        Wed. June 17, 09

Here is a reply from Ralph Wicke of PA, NNHS '50.

Fred,

        ==========================

Thanks for the Armory picture. I was active in Troop 17 BSA which met on Thursday nights at Ivy Memorial Baptist Church on Maple Avenue.

Basically you made a piece of 2 x 4 with a small hole cut in the flat side. Also required was a piece of broom handle, the glass top to a coffee peculator pot (originally designed so that you could see the coffee perking on your stove), and a small bow made up of a curved limb and a long leather boot string.

Peace, Ralph

   Sadly, the Armory building was demolished along with much of the rest of what we knew as downtown Newport News sometime in the last 40 years or so, so we'll not be able to check that floor, but I've posted your memory on that page:

http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/SITE-MAP.html

     http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/old-stomping.html

          http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/OOSG-A-B.html

               http://www.nnhs65.00freehost.com/armory.html

   As for updated BSA fire making skills, I have a request in to my six sons, all of whom were Eagle Scouts.

       From My Husband, Paul Harty (Bardolph HS, IL - '61) of IL - 06/16/09 - "A wonderful, funny poem!":

THE CLASS REUNION

   Thanks, Paul, that's a hoot!

   Hmmm, we're "gonna hafta" take a new picture of you. You've lost so much weight lately, this one doesn't even look like you anymore.

      From My Niece, Shari, of VA - 06/15/09 - "Stress":

Stress

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water?'

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.'

He continued, ''And that's the way it is with stress management.

''If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, As the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.''

So, my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
   
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
    
* Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
    
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again,  it was probably worth it. 

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
   
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
   
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

   Thanks for the reminders, Shari!

FINALLY:

  From Joyce Lawrence Cahoon ('65) of VA - 06/16/09 - "The Importance of Walking":

   GIGGLES!!! Thanks again, Joyce!