New Page 0

Here's some photos I retrieved from an old guy in Big Rapids who hung around the pool halls back in the Jurassic & Pre-LXA days of 1961. He had this old chest with things from the old days of Top Taggart and Woodbridge Ferris. He gave these photos to me on his death bed and told me to never lose them or I would have an Egyptian Mummy cast a curse on me. Soooo, here they are:

This is the guys on the Beaver Island boat that we slept on during the day.... it was hauled up on shore and was a beached and derelict boat. At night we went to the Shamrock bar to do slow-motion fights for the locals & drink huge quantities of beer. It was a job that somebody had to do. Can you imagine the shape of our livers after a weekend like that? I'm quite sure the people are: (on top of boat) Jim Preston, John Studt, Don Palmiter, Denny Smircina & Punches. On the ground is Bernie Chappel. About 1960 or so

Some of the guys in someplace at Ferris about 1962. Pledge class? I recognize Chuck Sarlund, Andy Marko, Bub Dewald, Dave Seebers, Jerry Radloff..... any others? Bruce Anderson with cigar. Ron Fix with arm around Radloff. Lower left is Bill Miller.

This is true story...... Jim Preston and I (along with spouses) went to Beaver Island about 5 years after the piracy(on the high seas no less) caper in about 1968. We flew over and stopped in the Shamrock bar, scene of many a slow-motion fight. We asked the bar owner what happened to that old boat that used to be there..... he replied "There used to be a bunch of crazy young guys that came up every summer. The townsfolk of the island decided after the last time they came to burn down the boat so they wouldn't come back". I asked him if it worked and he said they haven't been back since! I have visions of a bunch of townspeople with torches and pitchforks with blood in their eyes......

Old boat ---- these were used by commercial fisherman to bring in catches with nets. Since that time, the Indian treaties have given them the rights to fish on the Great Lakes commercially. There are virtually NO commercial non-Indian fisheries on the Great Lakes anymore. We slept on the boat. I think Pete Elcombe stayed in the King Strang Hotel.... it looked like the Bates Motel from "Pyscho" fame.

DTE intramural softball team..... most of the guys we all know. Dan Dobershinski (sp?) in front row left was great varsity basketball player from Hamtramck. He married Chris Poplinski, a pharmacy classmate of mine.

Chuck Sarlund sipping on a beer. This is the only color photo from those days. My kids think that the whole world was black and white in the old days. Maybe it was.

I got an email from Chuck the other day and he reminisced that those were perhaps the "best of times".

A shot of Jim Snyder, charter member of DTE. I don't think I ever saw Jim Snyder without a Barracuda jacket. We know he slept in it and wore it everyplace. I don't think there are any pictures anyplace of Jim without his Barracuda Jacket. When he became a pharmacist in about 1964, he threw the jacket away and has worn nothing since except a white prescription jacket. Jim is a cool guy with a limited wardrobe.

Woody Wendling, Don Lightfoot, John Schoff, and finally “The Polish Bandino”, Jerry Pachla.

Some old dudes after running track back in about 1962? This was also the Greek track meet that I ran a great 200 yard race in the 220 . and fell down.

In the track picture you can see the Top Taggart stadium in the background. If you've not been there lately, it's an Astro Turf field in a first class Stadium. A few years back they wanted to move it to the west of Big Rapids, but think the town and school agreed it wouldn't be feasibly. When you visit the school now, the new Library is right where you used to drive into the school from the west and 131 expressway. I went through it several times and it's a beauty. It's all completely wired for computers and it is the ONLY college in US that has direct communication to the US government Patent office.... great resource for engineers and patent attorneys. A tour of the library might be something to do on Saturday morning or afternoon. Sorry no beer in the library.

The second picture is a bunch of guys in somebody's apartment. It must have been a study group as I can see the guys really studying some anatomy chart. Preston, Studt, Chappel, Punches, Smircina and Tom Dennis I believe. Tom has a hat on that says "Jesus Saves".

I don't think it was one of Don Palmiter's "Friday afternoon Elvis parties" that he used to have. You'd play Don's Elvis records and drink beer...... then about 6pm call some girls and ask for dates and not understand why they didn't want to go out with us. Huh? It seemed to me we were pretty witty and appealing by that time, but you never know. We'd end up going to J & E's, playing pool, singing DTE songs and going home at 2:30 and eating whatever was in cupboard.

punches