Pickle Rocks Military; Military Pickle Rocks?

For anyone who remembers Miss Briscoe's Latin I class, you may recall that word order in Latin does not have the same importance as word order does in English.  The endings on Latin nouns determined whether a noun or pronoun was a subject, direct object, indirect, object of a preposition, or possessive, while the endings of Latin verbs determined the tense, person, and number.  For example, if my memory has not failed me,  the word habeo is I have; habes is you (singular) have; habet is he, she, or it has; habemus is we have; habetis is you (plural) have; and habent is they have.  In other words, word order is not important, but the word endings are.  The headline above conveys two different thoughts or ideas, but one of those phrases was part of the leading headline for today's (Feb. 29, 2016) edition of the Brookings Register.

A few years ago, the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association (commonly referred to the Hall of Fame--http://www.southdakotarockandrollmusicassociation.com/) was formed.  The first induction took place in 2009.  A number of groups with ties to the Brookings area have found their way into this prestigious organization.  In 2010, Marlys Roe and the Talismen were inducted.  In 2011, Don Robar and the Monarchs were voted in.  They were a group of SDSC students from the early 60s.  In 2013, Horatio's was chosen in the dance hall/ballroom category.   In 2014, Cheryl Ladd (she graduated from Huron in 1969) and The Ride were selected.  One of the bands chosen for this year's induction is the Military Pickle.  Today's Register proclaims "Military Pickle rocks on to hall of fame" (http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=27924&page=76).  The ceremonies are scheduled for April 15 and 16 in Sioux Falls.


According to the paper, the band "began in 1967 when some Brookings High School boys-plus one South Dakota State University freshman-combined members of their two bands"  Does anyone recall who these boys were?  The drummer was Jim Wright, the keyboardist was John Behrend, the rhythm guitarist was Rob Dimit, and the lead vocalist was Dave Adamson.  The SDSU student was lead guitarist Rick Lagerstrom.

The picture in the paper shows the band playing in the Central Elementary gymnasium.  Drummer Jim Wright does not appear to be in the picture, so who is the third guitar player?  Dave Adamson is easily identifiable as the one with the tambourine, as is John Behrend on the keyboards.  Rob Dimit appears to be the guitar player in the white t-shirt.

The band's rather peculiar name is derived from an ad on the side of a London double-decker bus.  "Military pickle" was, as the name implies, a pickle-based condiment.  Jim Wright explains that, although they did not know the actual meaning of the phrase, "At that time, we were thinking with the Vietnam War going on we were already in a military pickle.  But we didn't know it was a condiment.  We found that out later.  After we said it, everybody decided that's it.  You have to remember, this is at the time where there were bands like Strawberry Alarm clock, a popular band at the time, so it didn't seem as strange of a name as it does now."

In June of 1967, they were hired as the house band at Horatio's.  They then began playing across the region.  Jim recalls a "Battle of the Bands" competition in Minneapolis, when their amp started smoking in the middle of a song.  "We had to go get our bass amp out our bus and bring it in and continue on in our set.  The band that was the headliner at the time, a regional band from Minneapolis called Crow, is also here at the induction ceremony in April.  They're the headliner for this thing that we're in," Jim recalls.

The band disbanded early in 1970.  Jim had a low draft number, so he enlisted in the Army in May of that year.  Dave Adamson moved with his family to Denver, so "...we folded the band," recalled Jim.

A week before the official ceremonies, the members will regroup at Jim's house in Sioux Falls for
a week to rehearse and practice.  They will perform some of their songs at their induction, so they want to be as well-prepared as possible.  As mentioned above, the band Crow is also being honored.  How many members of that band recall the blown-out amp in Minneapolis many years ago?  Should make for some good conversation  among the band members. 

This will be Jim's second trip in the spotlight.  He was also inducted two years with the Ride.  He anticipates that other members of Military Pickle will experience the same feelings he had had two years ago. Jim recalls "The week went by so fast and the rehearsal time and talking over old stories and coming up with old remembrances was a lot more fun actually than getting up and performing....The week of rehearsal is just fun getting back together and telling old stories.  Just the camaraderie of it."

A Sorrowful Passing That Went Unnoticed

In our correspondence concerning our upcoming class reunion/birthday party, we have received updated information concerning  addresses and phone numbers.  Unfortunately, we have also received some sad information.  Someone noted that one of our classmates, Charlene Tramp, for whom we had no information at all, had passed away about five years ago.  An internet search found this obituary from the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan: (http://www.yankton.net/obituaries/article_d35d2cdd-5945-55c8-a6c2-0de39a63a756.html).  According to the annuals, Charlene attended BHS for only her junior and senior years.  When we gather this summer, perhaps those of you who knew her best can give the rest of us a glimpse as to the type of person she was.  Her obituary indicates that she was loved and respected by all who knew her.  Our belated condolences go out to her family and her friends.

Today's (Feb. 22, 2016) Brookings Register contained the obituary for Linda Nelson-DeMent, who was born in Brookings on July 18, 1950.  There was a Linda Nelson in the class just ahead of us.  Does anyone know if this would be the same individual?  Her obituary can be found at http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=27843&page=80
Linda had a brother named Darrell, who was about the same age as some of my older brothers. He was a tremendous softball pitcher.  In some of the old Registers that Bob Adams and I have perused these past few months, his name appeared in the sports pages quite often during the softball season.  Darrell also had a couple of sons who were members of some talented basketball teams at BHS in the early 80s.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Nelson family at this difficult time.

Reunion Plans Progressing

Our committee had another meeting to discuss plans for our upcoming reunion this July 16.  Robyn and Jim Kortan, along with Paula (Hoffman) Platz, Mark Kratochvil, and yours truly tossed around a number of ideas.  Robyn and Jim brought up some good points, and had many fresh ideas.  We decided that our main priorities were to locate missing class members and to get a response from those planning to attend.   If any of you out there can be of assistance, please let one of us know.  We have emailed those for whom we have emails, and attached a list of all of our classmates with the latest information for each of them.  If you feel more comfortable contacting one of them than contacting me, all the better.  In many cases, the information we have is incorrect.  I was even unaware that I had listed a classmate as deceased, when that individual is very much alive.  Please accept my apologies for that grievous error --mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa   (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mea_culpahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mea_culpa).

Paula will also be communicating with those of you on Facebook with her facebook page Brookings High School Class of 1969 Rockin' Reunion 2016.  

Our group will likely not meet for another month or so, as some of us will be out of town.  We will keep you posted as developments occur.   

Then There Were Three

In view of our upcoming class reunion/birthday party scheduled for this July 16, 2016, it was somewhat ironic that a recent article in the Brookings Register highlighted the friendships that began 83 years ago in "the old Brookings Elementary School."  (Would that have been what we knew as the Primary Building?) These friendships began when 10 first-grade girls became life-long friends who kept in touch for all these years.  Three of those young girls still survive. They are Alice Otterness Hoaglund if suburban Washington, DC;  Carla Brown Warfield of Modesto, CA; and Carolyn Johnston Wheelock of Albuquerque, NM.

These three women, along with the other seven who have passed away, all went through 12 grades together in the Brookings school system.  Alice and Carla then attended SDSC, as SDSU was then known.  According the article, they have "lived and worked in Germany, Switzerland and Japan among other places, but they've always returned to Brookings for visits and reunions.  2009 was their hurrah at a high school class reunion, when 18 of the 88 graduates gathered in the city."

These wonderful ladies were graduates of the BHS class of 1944.  About a year and a half ago, we started posting highlights of annuals of years gone by. The first one we found was from 1918.  Those articles can be found at http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2014/09/more-on-1918-bomb.html and
http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2014/09/more-on-1918-bomb.html.  We then began summarizing annuals that were listed on this site: http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Brookings-High-School/4182801706?page=0.  The first annual listed from this site is the 1931 Bobcat:  http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-1931-bobcat-yearbook.html.  It appears that other annuals have been added in the past year, because we did not post any information about the 1944 annual, but we do have an article on the 1941 annual,  http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2015/01/1941-yearbook.html and also on the 1945 annual, http://classof69bhs.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-few-familiar-faces.html

Since we are missing the recap of the 1944 annual, it seems appropriate to include that on this post. The annual is dedicated to "Doc," the principal Mr. Horrigan.  He must have been well-respected by the students, especially the seniors, as he has previously merited this award a number of times.  Some of the school board members that may be known to us are Herb Cheever, D.B. Doner, and Carl Kjellsen.  Mr. Kjellsen had the Chevrolet dealership, while Mr. Doner was an administrator st the college.  Was this Herb Cheever the father of Herb Cheever, who was a political science professor on campus when we were in college?  He later became a dean.  After retirement, he moved to Minnesota to be near one his sons.  Sadly, he passed away about a month ago:
http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=27414&page=80
 Some of the faculty we may have been known were Geraldine Crabbs (freshman advisor), Wilmer Davis (freshman advisor), Ruth Helland (sophomore advisor), Arne B. Larson, and Frances Malmstrom Freshman advisor).
 
There is a picture of  Bobcat Day dance that was held in "The Pit."   The caption accompanying the pictures also indicates that after-game dances were inaugurated this school year.  It would seem, then, that our "sock-hops" had a rather strong tradition.  Bob Bartling and Dorothy Willey were lord and lady, attended by Robert Smith, James Moriarty, Lois Linn, and Josephine Trygstad.

The ladies named above also excelled in the classroom.  Alice Otterness was class valedictorian, and a senior representative.  She must have been a talented tennis player, as she is shown holding a tennis racque, and appears to be ready for some fierce competition.  Carla Brown, too, excelled in the classroom as she was also an honor student.  Interestingly, of the eleven honor students pictured, nine of them were girls.  Marilyn Crothers was one of them.  Would her father have been in the engineering department on campus, and for whom Crothers Engineering Hall was named?  Another was Lois Linn; would she be any relation to our Stew Linn?  One of the two boys was a Boyd Miller.  He resembles a Bruce Miller, who had graduated three years earlier, and is the father of Steve in our class.  Would Boyd be Bruce's brother, and thus Steve's uncle?

Some of the seniors that year have names that may be familiar to hose of us who grew up in Brookings:  Bob Bartling, Caroline Biggar, Lola Broadbent, Barbara DeWitt, Ruth Duff, Ed Fuller, Harvey Mills, James Moriarty, Arlen and Elaine Norris (an Ezra Norris was a custodian at Central for a number of years), Harold Ruedebusch, Dean Sanderson, Howard Schlobohm Clayton Sloat, Ivan Sundal, Jospehine Trygstad, and David Workman.

Would anyone want to guess what the largest organization in the school was that year?  GAA was.  If girls had been allowed to compete interscholastically then, how would they have done?  Judging by the pictures in the annual, they would have been fierce competitors.

The Senior class play was The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Shepherd_of_Kingdom_Come), while the Junior class performed The Sixth Key.

The clubs were the typical ones that BHS has had over the years.  FFA has a picture in which they are building some kind of wooden animal shelter.  Perhaps it is a chicken coop.  In the background is the east side of the old primary building with the tubular steel fire escape (http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Brookings-High-School/4182801706?page=50). 

The Central Elementary Gym was the location for many pictures.  All of the band and music pictures were taken there.  It was also the home for the class plays and basketball games.  Temporary bleachers were even set up on the stage for the Pep band. 

For a few days last summer, I met with Mr. Bartling and showed him this site.  He filled me in on the history of his class, and even remembered the addresses of the students who lived in town.  Those days were very memorable.  We hope our reunion this summer will achieve the same effect.

Thank You

Many thanks to those of you who responded so promptly to our recent email requests to notify the reunion committee of 1) any additions and/or corrections to our class list, and 2) any desires for room reservations during our gathering on July 15 and 16.  The messages were so numerous that it was difficult keeping a good record.  We will likely send out another email with the corrections/additions.  

It sounds as if many of you will be here on Friday the 15th, with some even staying around an extra day or two.  Paula (Hoffman) Platz's facebook page    Brookings High School Class of 1969 Rockin' Reunion 2016, seems to have attracted a great deal of interest and attention, also.  Be sure to follow her postings if you are on facebook. 

If you decide you need a room, please let us know how many nights you will staying, and if anyone else will be accompanying you.  We are going to visit the hotels to decide which one best suits our needs.  We will let you know which establishment that is, and who is on the reserved list,so we can make any corrections before it may be too late.  

Just a reminder that we are planning an informal sessions on the evening of July 15 at our designated hotel, while the official reunion/birthday party will be July 16. We especially want to recognize those classmates who are no longer with us. Any suggestions as to how we should do this?  If you have any memorabilia that you think would be appropriate, and don't mind lugging it along, please bring it.  We have a number of items from previous reunions, be we could always use additional material.  We also plan to invite those teachers who are still in the area.  Any objections?  We can also arrange tours of the "old" high and "new" high school if there is sufficient interest.  Do not hesitate to let us know what your preferences may be, or if you have some other suggestions that may be beneficial.  Lastly, if you have been in contact with any students who left before graduation, please invite them.    A few of them have already been found, and have indicated that they are anxious to come back to see everyone. Thanks to those of you who have informed us as to the whereabouts of these former classmates. 

It was mentioned at our last meeting that the #1 song for all of 1969 was Sugar, Sugar by the Archies
(http://www.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_number_one_song_in_1969).  Some sources list 16 different songs that ranked #1 during that year.  Anyone know what the last #1 song of 1969 was?

We will keep everyone posted on the progress of our collaborations.  

  

Class Reunion

Our reunion committee has just met.  An email has been sent out to those for whom we have email addresses.  It appears that we will have an informal gathering Friday, July 15, at one of the local hotels.  We would like to reserve a block of rooms, so please let me or Paula (Hoffman) Platz know if you need a room (Paula's facebook page is listed below).  The summer arts festival will have been held a week previously, so we should have little difficulty finding rooms.

We thought the format we used a few years ago worked exceedingly well.  The informal gathering will be at the hotel, as mentioned above.  We did have a bike ride on Saturday morning last time, so we could arrange for that.  Those who want to ride would probably have to bring their own bike, although Sioux River Cyclery usually has some available for rent.  We also had a tour of the high school.  Those who were in attendance at our last reunion know that there have been numerous additions and changes since we graduated.  We could also probably arrange for a tour of the "old" high school.  The annex has been torn down, so all that remains is the original 1921 building.  In fact, that is what it is called, as it has been remodeled into apartments and offices.  The building is easily accessible during the day, usually opening around 8:00 AM and closing around 5:00 PM. 

There is an excellent nature park on the south edge of town.  There are some ponds, bike trails, and an outdoor center with canoe and kayak rental.  If you are able to find time, it is a great place for walking, biking, or just plain sightseeing. 

The "official" reunion and birthday party will take place on Saturday, July 16, 2016, at one of the local establishments.  We can reserve the entire facility so that there will be no distractions.  The menu will consist of hors d'oeuvres,  with various beverages also available.  There will be no formal program, and we will try to put together a display of some of the more memorable moments of our high school days.  We especially want to remember those classmates who are no longer with us.  If you have any items, such as pictures, record albums, books, newspaper clippings, etc.,  that you think might contribute to this display, and don't mind bringing it along, and aren't embarrassed to bring it along, feel free to show it off.  We also expect that any teachers still living in the area will be in attendance.  Don't let their presence, though, prevent you from coming.  Now that we are older, they are quite enjoyable people to know.  

We would like to touch base with every one of our classmates, but we are missing a number of addresses.  If you know any of those missing addresses, please let us know.  Paula (Hoffman) Platz has a facebook page: Brookings High School Class of 1969 Rockin' Reunion 2016   If you can help us out with locating those missing classmates, do not hesitate to pass that information along.  Our goal is to contact everyone in the class, and invite them for a chance to meet up with old classmates.  For some reason, many people shy away from an event such as this.  Perhaps you can be the one to convince them that a reunion can be a truly enjoyable and memorable occasion.  Additionally, if you know anyone who attended school with us but moved before graduation, please forward that information to us so that we can invite them.  We kindly thank those of you who have already done this charitable and generous deed.  



We want this reunion to be simple, modest, and enjoyable for all.  If you have any suggestions that will contribute to this goal, do not hesitate to make them known to us.