Carmi Odegaard and Jim Marking Pass Away

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Steve Odegaard and his family.  Recently, Carmi Odegaard, Steve's father, passed away.    http://osheimschmidt.com/sitemaker/sites/OSHEIM1/obit.cgi?page=profile&section=info&user_id=875635  Steve attended Hillcrest, so I did not become acquainted with him until we were in the same classes in 7th grade.  We also had the same classes in 8th grade, and most of our others years in the school system.  We became rather good friends during our Jr.-Sr. High days.  We were on the same basketball teams from 8th through junior varsity.  JV. especially,  was  a fun time. 

In 9th grade, we were placed into homerooms according to the alphabet.  Each HR selected one person to run for Jr. Hi student body president.  For some unknown reason, I was selected in our HR.  Steve was my "campaign manager".  After the election, Lefty Johnson went around to our classes, pulled those of us who ran out of class for a few minutes, and told us who won and how many votes we each received.  Kevin (O'Connell) won, Tom (Bozied) was second.  I think I had all of two votes.  I don't recall who the others were.  If anyone has that information handy, please make a comment and I will update this post.

Steve's dad had a number of jokes that were truly hilarious and clean.  Many of them poked fun at his Norwegian heritage.  HIs dad also had a big Chrysler, a 1958 model if memory serves me correctly.  We spent many hours driving around in that.  I seem to recall riding around around in a green and white Dodge Coronet (?), perhaps 1956 vintage, that Steve had in high school.  There was also an early 1960's Pontiac Tempest, and later a Ford Falcon.  I think we took the Falcon to Minneapolis to watch the Twins play baseball when we were in college. 

A memorable period in high school was the time Steve and Tom owned the driving range, just south of the drive-in.  Many of us spent numerous hours out there, particularly during the summer of 1968.
We would hang out there, and hit a bunch of golf balls, but we had to go out and pick them up afterwards.  Today, there are a number of apartments on that parcel of land. 

Steve's younger brother Les played football at SDSU, and later coached in Rapid City.  I sometimes ran into him at coaching clinics and at track meets.  Joe, Steve's youngest brother, was 10 years younger than we were.  He was a student and athlete of ours during his school days.  Lee Colburn also had a younger brother, Jon, in that same class, while Susan Redmond (Zimmerman)  had a younger sister, Teresa, in that class.  They were some of my first students when I started teaching in 1973. 

Also passing away was Jim Marking (http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Eidsne1/obit.cgi?user=875907Marking).  I believe his wife, who passed away ten months ago, was Rodney Koehn's aunt.  Coach Marking was the men's basketball coach at SDSU when we were in high school and college.  His teams were known for their intensity.  They were much fun to watch, as they like to fast-break at every opportunity, and were capable of scoring quickly and in bunches.  Lee was a great fit for Coach Marking's style of play.  In high school, Coach Thury said that if we were a little winded, that we could take it easy on offense and rest a little bit if we needed to, but that we should never rest on defense.  Otherwise, the opponents would likely score.  Lee, though, had a different approach.  He said something like "I might be too tired to play defense, but I'm never too tired to play offense."  That attitude was why he was so fun to watch.  I was fortunate enough to get to know him somewhat; he was a tremendous influence on me and many others that were in his basketball coaching class at SDSU. His eldest child Nancy was a little younger than we were.  She married Marty Johnson, Lefty's son (a fine tennis player).  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Marking family.

The Mother of Jim Antonides Passes Away

Our thoughts, prayers, and condolences go out to Jim Antonides on the passing of his mother, Marion Antonides, on January 7, 2013. The complete obituary can be found at http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=862440Antonides.  Jim was in our catechism class at St. Thomas More from kindergarten through high school.  He attended Hillcrest, so I never really got to know him very well.  Even in junior high and high school, our paths, unfortunately, seldom crossed.  Up until a few years ago, I would see Mrs. Antonides quite often at church.  She really was a very special individual. 

It's been quite a while since I checked in on this blog. Recent efforts to connect with people from the area brought me back, it seems.
I see that some folks have noticed the '67 Bobcat online. There are some pages missing from that one, including what were, in the original, pages 96 and 97, though I think they would have been between 93 and 94 of the online version. These are the first two pages of pictures of the junior class, and include both my brother Rob Dimit and Dave Adamson, both of whom became relevant in my communications.

Both of them were members of a band called the Military Pickle, along with Georgia Wright's older brother Jim, David Bugg, and John Behrend. Eric Lagerstrom, who moved to town in '66 or so, was also in that band. He came around to the high school and gave a performance or two of flamenco guitar and, as I recall, my brother corrupted him and got him to play rock and roll. Eric taught most of the good guitar players to come out of Brookings during the next few years and, I recently learned, had also been teaching drums and some keyboards. I've heard that Stan Lorenz was one of his drum students.

Anyway, John Behrend is looking for pictures of the Pickle and/or its various members. To put all our begs in one ask-it, we would also appreciate any pictures of:

The Outsiders (John, Jim Wright, Dave Adamson, and a pair of Bortnem twins--a band later re-named Specter when a nationally known band used the other name):

The Last Rites (Rob Dimit, Dave Bugg, John Richards, Jim May, and Steve Miller--the one from our class);

The Strangers (don't remember all members there, but Doug Lund, Gordon Johnson, Curt Lee and I were among them);

Touch (Hal Marken, Gordon Johnson, Stan Lorenz, Susie Whipple, Dave somebody from SDSU playing sax, and I);

Fresh Grass (Bob Kenny, Gordon Johnson, Rick Lundquist, Mark Denton, and I--later exchanging Mark for Doug Lund);

The (early) Ride (Fresh Grass simply changed our name a bit after Doug joined, and several months later Bill Williams replaced me);

The (later) Ride (many different configurations existed, and pictures from the time when Jim Wright was doing his "Singing Light Man" routine or after he took up drumming duties would be most appreciated)

Cocoon (some configuration of Lyle Behrend, Tom Burchill, Mike Barnes, Tom Barnes, Jay Flora, and Eric Adams--all Brookings folk several years younger than we. There was another band with many of the same members, but the name eludes me as I type.);

The Harvey Wallbanger Big Time Show Band (a house band at the Last Step ~1971 comprising at one point John Behrend, Stan Lorenz, "Jake" Jacobsen, David Law, Larry Gruseth and I but also including Hal Marken at some time);

Little Henry (Al Leiffort, Steve Ahles, Al Remund, Tom Villa, Bruce Kelly and I for a time, later including John Behrend and, briefly, Brian Gallagher who played trumpet for a time before his appendix burst and killed him--there were other members later as well, but these are the configurations we would be most interested in).

We would, of course, be pleasantly astonished if anyone has recordings of these groups and is willing to share.

If anyone has pictures of Eric Lagerstrom's teaching time/place, that might be nice as well. I never took lessons from him so don't really have any idea of what his setup might have been.

If you aren't in direct communication with John, you can contact me at bedlamm@hotmail.com if you have relevant stuff. Actually, you probably can whether you do have or not, but I don't know why you would want to.

Beatty (Ed) Dimt

End of the Year News

It's been a while since we have posted.  In that time, some noteworthy events have transpired  A number of people close to us have passed away (sorry to be the bearer of such bad news).  Tom Osterberg's aunt passed away on Nov. 10, 2012 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=818272Melcher).

 James Dornbush passed away on Nov. 23.  He was a professor in the civil engineering department at SDSU.  Those of us who were civil engineering students after high school may have had him as a tprofessor(http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Eidsne1/obit.cgi?user=827889Dornbush). 

Passing away on Dec. 9 was Marion Finn (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=840578Finn).  Her oldest boys Jim and John were a little older that we were.  Her youngest daughter Patti was an outstanding athlete in the early days of girls' athletics in South Dakota.  She is still part of many track and field records at BHS, and is a member of the BHS Hall of Fame.  Those of us who attended St. Thomas More probably had her as a catechism teacher.  8th grade seems to stick in my mind. 

Steve Kron passed away on Dec. 14 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=844669Kron).  He was two years behind us in school, and was an outstanding bowler and good friend of Stew Linn during those heyday years when they were burning up the alleys at the Prairie Lanes.  I became somewhat close to him because he lived across the street at first the Revell Apartments, then the Hendricks Apartments, and finally, the Burkhardt Apartments.  That building has since been moved to second street south a couple of blocks west of Southside Park because there is a new government building occupying most of the block where the apartments were located.  He also was a custodian in the school system for many years. 

The mother of Harry Rossow passed away on Dec. 22 (http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Eidsne1/obit.cgi?user=854632Rossow).  Harry and his family moved here our sophomore year.  Harry was our tough and dependable catcher on our slo-pitch softball team, Aurora Body Shop.  If memory serves me right, he was also a fine lineman on our Bobcat football team.  In my first year of teaching, Harry's younger brother Kurt was a student in one of my 8th gradae science classes. 

Wilma Herold passed away on Dec. 23 (http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Eidsne1/obit.cgi?user=855205Herold).  Her oldest son Bill was a year ahead of us in school (a member of the first class to graduate from the new high school), while twins Dan and Doug were a year or so behind us.  Those three were on some of my little league baseball teams.  Two of the younger girls, Jodie and Lori, were also our students in their middle school years. Some of her grandchildren were also our students. 

 Dr. Robert Wahlstrom passed away on Dec. 25 (http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Eidsne1/obit.cgi?user=855686Walstrom).  He had a couple of sons, Robert and Jim, that were a little older than we were.  He later married Erma Vandall.  I believe she was the mother of classmate Scotty Vandall. 

Darlene Hofer passed away on Dec. 28 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=857305Hofer).  Her oldest son was Steve Niklason, a couple of years older than we were.  He was the catcher on my first little league baseball team.  Her other son was Allen Hofer, a year behind us in school.  He was one of the few juniors on our basketball team when we finished second to Rapid City Central in 1969, and was also quite a fine baseball player. 

Our condolences and prayers go out these wonderful people and also to all of those who have lost loved ones during this past year.