Why women live longer than men Early Racing Events Back in the day before seat belts and high banked oval race tracks. Brutal! Compliments - Dick Neuses Thanks for your contribution Dick! I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of you in this section! Harv! Many of you have asked for details regarding our summer "Back to the 50's" Reunion event. Here are some specifics Dates - June 18th and 19th Those who are coming for the car show and reunion only, we suggest arrival sometime Friday June 17th and departure Monday June 20th Ajenda - Saturday - June 18th - Car Show - 11:00AM to 3:00PM Followed by dinner at the Mall of America . . . Restaurant to be determined. Sunday - June 19th - Gathering at My house in Burnsville - 4:00PM till ??? We will host a light dinner including wine, beer, soft drinks etc. My address is listed on the map below. We have "suggested additional activities" for those who would rather not attend the Car Show. These are suggestions and will not happen if we find that there is no interest. We look to the Club for alternative suggestions if you have some activity you might rather do. Below you will find a map of the general Minneapolis area showing the relationship between the hotel and areas of interest. For example the MOA is very close to the Airport and is approx 9 miles north of my house. SUGGESTED AGENDA: SATURDAY: 11:00am to 3:00pm - The Auto show at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. We could eat lunch on the fly while pursuing "Oldie Autos" For those who are "not interested" in old cars 11:00am to 3:00pm The Chanhassen Dinner Theater "lunch followed by a play". It's a great place to chat and have a glass of wine while watching an interesting "live" play. 5:00pm to ? - Meet at the MOA for dinner. SUNDAY: 11:00am to 3:00pm - Tour one of the following . . . "The Walker Art Center", St. Paul Science Museum or some other attraction that you might wish to propose. We may not all visit the same attraction. It's totally up to the group. 4:00pm to ? Joan and I will host a pool party. We'll have brats, hamburgers, beer and wine . . . and, of course, music. PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS USING "COMMENTS" ON THIS PAGE. I had a bit of a problem trying to pick a song that might go with a "Car Show" so I picked one that just went well with cars! See You on the Turntable
Harv Thank you Dick for sharing this "Classic" song from Ronnie Milsap. It keeps coming up over the years as "The song" that takes us back in time. Well, I think it's time we give it permanent residence in the Clubhouse! Pay close attention as you watch the video. How much can you remember??? Ronnie Lee Milsap (born January 16, 1943) is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He became country music's first successful blind singer, and one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. Lost in the Fifties Tonight was the seventeenth studio album of Country music artist Ronnie Milsap. It was released in 1986 under the RCA Records label. The album produced four singles, all of which claimed the top spot on the Billboard country singles chart, including the title track, which was previously featured on Milsap's Second Greatest Hits Volume. The others included "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby", "In Love" and "How Do I Turn You On." The album reached #1 on Country charts and peaked at #121 on the Billboard 200. It was ultimately certified as gold. The album went out of print in 2005, but is scheduled to be re-released as a double album with 1987s Heart & Soul on May 8, 2012. Thanks again Dick!
See you on the Turntable Harv Help Us Identify the following TeensPic 1 Who could this lovely young lady possibly be??? Looks to be either our Graduation, Homecoming or Prom??? Help us out! Pic 2 Who is this guy and is he playing with someone's buttons in the auditorium? Can you identify anyone else?? Pic 3 Oh My! Who is she looking at?? Where is she?? And more importantly . . . WHO IS SHE??? Pic 4 Would this be happening on a Homecoming Float?? Who are they and is that guy driving??? Thanks for sharing Skip! These pictures are really Jewels. Random shots are the best. I bet none of these teens even knew the pictures were taken!
That's 30 Leyendecker / Harv FLASH: Thong Birds? Just for the record, Harvey, there is no such animal as ‘the common thong-bird’. No, but if you have a really strong lisp in your toungue, you might be able to thay it without inthident, given friendths who would thertainly underthand you, but to create a new category of bird based upon that is not possible. So, we have ‘thong-birds’ but not ‘common’ thong-birds, right? Just for the record, okay? Now, Skip Wallen is also one of my heroes and so I can’t complain about your cavalier judgment about my entry in your contest, therefore, I will concede. But I am almost certain that he would agree, since he is an extraordinary artist, probably the best ever produced by Manitowoc, aside from me, of course. Now that the dust has pretty well settled concerning the reunion of the Coachmen and the Class of 1960 and related parties and celebrations, I would like to comment a little about that: these were pretty good affairs, as these things go. Sorry that I missed a couple of them. Sorry not to attend the Friday night gathering. But it was a failure of planning on my part. I was up at 4 a.m. on Friday so as to be at the airport at 5 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Atlanta scheduled to arrive there at 9:30 a.m. so as to rendezvous with my daughter (Brennan) who was coming from Denver, Colorado to Milwaukee at about 11 a.m. Her flight was delayed so that we actually got on the road after 12 p.m. And so we arrived in Francis Creek, at my sister’s place, around 3 p.m. I needed a little nap but for sundry reasons I was not able to get one. Since I am an old guy, I just couldn’t manage a 5 o’clock appointment at the bar and hope to be rested enough to enjoy it properly. Mea Culpa! But by noon on Saturday I was rested enough to get to the Court House Pub with the assistance of my two daughters. And, that was a really great affair. After Pete fortified me with a nice ‘Bloody Mary’, I was in a mood appropriate for the event. I especially enjoyed meeting Dick Neuses for the first time, Ken Chermak and his wife, and ‘Westy’, and his feisty Democrat wife ‘Ginny’ (I am partial to Democrats, in case you didn’t know), but mostly it was a treat to see you and Joan again, and of course, to see my dear Lady Sharon and to meet her wonderful husband John. Good to see Torr and his wife Del, too, and an all too brief time with ‘Skip’ Wallen and his wife. Pete and Donna I have kept in contact with over the years, but it was good to embrace them again too. It was a very nice party and you, Harv, are to be complimented on that, in spite of your miscellaneous other failings! And ‘Westy’s’ banner was the crowning achievement, not without your assistance, I am sure! Later that night at the LHS Class Reunion celebration I was pleased to see our fellow Coachman Wojta deliver a commanding performance, supervising and actually speaking to those of us gathered there in language that we could appreciate and approve. He did a marvelous job, which turned out to be a real surprise to me! The venue was perfect, the food and service quite good, and I could find no fault with it at all! Later, I got to meet up with a couple of my childhood sweethearts, whom I hadn’t embraced since kindergarten, and met up with Vic Schiegg, whom I hadn’t seen since 1960, and was very pleased to hear of his success in business and life. But the most enjoyable time I had was with Lady Sharon. She promised me a dance months ago, and so we did. We ‘boogied’ fast and slow and had a great time together. I know that you are all probably jealous of my privilege, but all I can say is ‘that’s the breaks guys’. I really enjoyed the tour of ‘Skip’ Wallen’s studio on Sunday morning, where I actually had a chance to converse with him about his project and art in general. He is one of the great sculptors of our time, make no mistake. And the fact that he is our friend, grown up in the same environment of Manitowoc, only makes that more precious. Sorry to miss the ‘picnic’ in the afternoon, but I was previously committed to spend some precious time with one of my favorite nephews, who made the trip to Francis Creek from Dekalb, Illinois, to attend the ‘family reunion’ with my sister and my daughters and me that weekend, and it was the only time that I had to spend with him. But you had a good time and I am sure did not miss my absence. On Monday, I took my daughters to make a little pilgrimage to Langlade County (Antigo) to visit the gravesite of my great, grandfather, Ludwig Strasser, at Neva, St. Wenceslas church and grave yard. Ludwig came to the US from Bavaria in 1890, met my great grandmother, Viktoria Herman, in about 1893 at Oshkosh, and commenced to start a farm in Langlade County in 1895. I met him when I was 11 years old, six months before he died in Antigo (1953). Little did I know at the time that I would retrace his footsteps from Bavaria to Oshkosh in 1966, 13 years later. All in all I had a very good experience, thanks to you, brother Harvey. Your call to me in 2013 proceeded to wake me up to memories and experiences long ago forgotten. I’ve spent the last two years retrieving them from the closets of my brain, and for that, in spite of your other failings, Harv, I am sincerely grateful for. Moreover, I want to express my gratitude to you for keeping the ‘spirit’ of the Coachmen Club alive through your generous and selfless contributions to us all, for after all, the club is about friendship, ancient friendships which transcend time and place. I can’t say it better than the way my ol’ Buddy Pete said it once: ‘friends are great, but old friends are da best!’ Best regards to all. JL That’s 30 ResponseFrom Pete Christensen: I finally listened Wynton Marsalis. What a great performance. We saw Marsalis and His Big Band in Milwaukee at the Marcus Center for The Performing Arts several years ago. His piano player is from Wisconsin. His name is Dan Nimmer and he attended Greenfield High School. I think he also has a jazz trio. JL - please check him out. I'd like to see him on your Daily Planet. (Pete) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hi Peter! Good to know that you finally checked out my selections for Harvey's 'Flip Side' and found them acceptable. You are right, Dan Nimmer is a great jazz pianist from 'Cheesehead Landia'. And he does play with his own trio in fine style. The fact that he is Wynton's preferred piano player is a great attestation to his talent. He along with Walter Blanding, tenor saxophone, Carlos Enriques, bass, and Ali Jackson, drums, make up the Lincoln Jazz Center's jazz quintet with Wynton Marsalis, its director and speaks volumes for his talent and acceptance as an equal in this environment. We can in this instance be very proud of this son of Wisconsin's musical accomplishment in American jazz form! Below is a recording of a session at Ronnie Scott's club in London in 2013 featuring Wynton, Blanding and Nimmer. Nimmer is a really fine jazz pianist and quite able to keep up with Marsalis and the others. Thanks for giving him the tribute he deserves! That's 30 JL
Flash: Heroism then and now This July 2015 issue of SuckNews was inspired by a conversation I had with my Lincoln High school buddy and ‘hero’ John Harvey. I have told this story about how ‘Harv’ got to be my ‘hero’ a few times but many of you have not yet heard it, so I’m going to retell it for the record: Harv and I shared an early morning junior year history class with ‘Bucky’ Beaver, the history teacher. It was informative but otherwise quite boring, as you can imagine. We sat across from each other in about the third row and Harvey always slept through the whole thing. Every once in a while he would look up as if to see where he was, but since his eyes were so bloodshot he couldn’t really make out anything, it seemed to comfort him to know he was still in the class he was attending and he’d put his head back down on the desk and continue his nap. I thought this was unusually funny but didn’t make any mention of it, and, since ‘Bucky’ didn’t seem to notice Harv or whack him, call him out, or do anything about it, it seemed to be okay with everybody, which I thought was kind of funny too. So, I just enjoyed the experience as one of the benefits of my high school education. Later, as I got to know Harv outside of the school environment, I discovered his amazing beer drinking talent. I was not much of a beer drinker at the time, but I was working on it regularly. Harv, however, was well experienced in the art and form of it. To demonstrate his advanced level of expertise, he would take a fresh quart bottle of beer, pop off the cap with his teeth, and proceed the drink its contents down in a matter of less than 20 seconds without taking a breath! It was a phenomenal feat in my estimation at the time, and still is, since I could not then, or even now, imitate it. And, I have never known of any other human being who could perform that deed. Maybe my standards were too low at the time, but since they haven’t changed much in nearly sixty years, Harv is still ‘hero’ class in my estimation. The Flip Side My ‘Hero’ Harv asked me to consider doing something for the Coachmen web site similar to the ‘Turntable’ only with styles of music other than the 1950s rock ‘n’ roll and related stuff he serves up every Monday, just for a little variety. I told him no because I didn’t think anyone but me would like the stuff that I am into. And I am pretty certain that would be the case because even his music doesn’t seem to interest many in the club, given the meager responses his efforts draw. But to humor him, I told him I would give it a try so as to demonstrate to him the proof of my prediction. So, using your feedback as the test of the proposition, I am putting up the following to links to some of the best musicians alive today, playing the best music I like to listen to and study. The subject is jazz, the featured artist is Wynton Marsalis, the absolute best trumpet player alive today. He is a master of classical and jazz trumpet. The first selection is introduced by none other than John Denver at the 1983 Grammy Awards ceremony when Marsalis won back-to-back awards for classical and jazz trumpet performance… he was 22 at the time. The second selection is a 2015 performance of Marsalis leading the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He is now in his fifties. Note: if you have stereo headphones, put them on to listen to this stuff, if you don’t, you’ll miss the low end of the sound spectrum and therefore half of the performances. And That's
"The Flip Side" JL |
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