Bruce Wilson

Here's the Youth Center where I not only worked but graduated from the Patrol Boys. After game dances were held here and Jan Ronis and I got arrested there once because Jan had obtained a straight jacket and was leading me around in it and apparently someone was in fear for his/her life.

Has anyone seen photos, or better yet have photos of, the inside of the building. I've never been able to find any.

.

Facsimile only (not meant as a verifiied depiction of either Ronis, Esq. nor Wilson, Ph.D.)

Bruce Wilson

What's a Youth Center without a pool and gym?  (1955)

Barbara Sindelar (Seagren)

The pool provided lots of opportunities. It's where I learned to sail! We outfitted canoes with sideboards to learn the basics, making our way from end to end of that huge pool. Graduation was a day sail from Chula Vista to Coronado including eating lunch tied to the seaplane buoys. Kelly King and I were part of the synchronized swimming team performing an Aquacade for the public every summer. Clown divers and we water ballet-types also traveled to pools at Camp Pendleton, hotels and backyards to entertain anyone who asked. Kelly's specialty was "Yellow Bird." Many of us became swim teachers, helping zillions of kids learn safety and skills. The pool here in Poway has an awesome water exercise class so I haven't lost touch with swimming. Thanks for the photos, Bruce.

Gypsy Baumgartner (Wayne)

The Youth Center was where I spent many hours as a teen in ballroom dance classes learning to tango, waltz, and foxtrot. Was even part of a dance club called the Swinging Sophistocats.  We had a lovely young teacher named Molly.  Ahh...the swimming pool.  Lost my first pair of contact lenses there when I opened my eyes under water at a night swim party.  Fortunately the lenses were insured.  Think I was 12 or 13.  

Want to wish everyone a safe and delightful holiday and a fantastic new year.  

Bruce Wilson

I'm pretty sure that instuctor was Molly McCleod a good friend of my sister. Very cute, pony tail, ended up marrying Harold Winterbottom, who installed my mom's garage door opener. 

I haven't found a photo of the diving board (yet), but that  was  where I experienced my first "high" dive. I used to  play "bumper" pool and a lot of ping pong in the Youth Center.

One can still buy a table if so inclined. This one is new and the asking price is $850.  One can be had for as low as $110 (close to 1950's prices?) for a good used one..

Bruce Wilson

Board, but no high board.

Gail Eileen Dillon (Boone)

Bruce Wilson

I check in on IZ every now and then after Corinne's daughter brought him to my attention some time ago.

This video is now up to 239 million views on Youtube (only part of them are mine). To be fair there are probably another 100 million views of alternate takes.

Dare I say, IZ is the man.

Bruce Wilson

Gail:

Tory/Tori  (short for Toricellas (sp?)) was my boss. I guess in today's world we'd say LGBT. I liked her. She was always fair with me and I believe she had the  kids at heart.

She set up a bus trip to Mt. Laguna for a bunch of the hangers on around the Youth Center. The Boal sisters and I were among the participants.

.

Bruce Wilson

I cannot remember where this came from. Could that be Dennis Morinaka in position 6 row 1?

Help. 

Bruce Wilson

Lalo, aka Orley. Keep on surfin' in the free world. 

George Bracey Gillow

BOB DALE'S CHRISTMAS BOOZE BALLS

I am sure some of you remember Bob Dale talking about the guy who sent him booze balls. Here is a video of him telling the story.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and Peace on Earth good will to ALL. 

Bruce Wilson

And who can forget Bob's brother Dick (the only person I've ever collected an autograph from and I had to buy his CD to get it).

Maybe I'll get Lyle to autograph my copy of Island Magic.

Jim Hawes

Bruce,

Dick Dale! On stage tonight Friday 12/23/16. JOE'S GREAT AMERICAN in Burbank! If we leave right now..................

He won't be back in So. Cali until May 27th 2017 (The Coach House in Capistrano!).

Bruce Wilson

Thanks Jim. I  was almost in L.A. last night, but plans changed. However, I didn't know Dick's schedule.

I'm going to pencil in that Coarch House show.

Have a pleasant Christmas and enjoy the cold, rain, and almost snow.

Treasa Struble (Skiles)

Merry Christmas to all Lancers. Health and good will in 2017.

Bruce Wilson

Thanks Treasa.

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The "Fabulous" Forum . It is said that every picture tells a story. Maybe this will remind me to tell the one I thought of.  

Showtime.. Stay tuned, or don't.

Bruce Wilson

Our house on Minot (1950 & 2007). This isn't "the" story, but it is one. The tree in the right hand part of  the frame grew tall and strong enough for me to climb it and then fall out and knock myself unconscious.

Subsequent owners apparently removed the tree (out of fear for their lives?).

There's still a big one down in front of Corinne's place if anyone feels the urge to climb.

Next door was Jim Edmunds' house, another attorney. Now what are the odds of that?

Bruce Wilson

Dick Dale (pictured here on his 1941 WLD 45 Flathead Harley is in severely bad health. By the fins on the car ,this appears to be a 1950's photo. Maybe on Minot/Alpine Circle.

Relevance to the high school forum? Didn't everybody go (or want to go) surfin'?

Dick was good friends with Leo Fender and Shayne maybe will pick up the story from here.

Just in case Shayne's busy, here's one from the man himself.

Tell me a Leo Fender story.

He was like a second father to me. I had blown up over 50 of his amplifiers and he said, 'Why do you have to play so loud?' No one was requiring a heavy sound in 1955 because they didn't have output transformers which make the power of the sound. So we brought him into the Rendezvous Ballroom, where we started with 17 surfers in a ballroom that held 4,000 people and in a month's time it had, to the walls, 4,000 people just by word of mouth. They were calling me "The King of the Surf Guitar" when they learned that I created the upper transformers with Leo going from a 15-watt transformer to 85 watts, peaking at 100 watts. That was like going from a VW to a Testarossa, and that's when Dick Dale made everybody's ears bleed, and they called me "The Father of Heavy Metal." In Spain, I was on the cover of their heavy metal magazine and all over the world they started calling me a guitar legend because I created what no one else did. People like Jimi Hendrix — I taught him all his slides — they never would've had the volume for Woodstock or anything else without Leo Fender and myself creating the first output transformers that made it sound that loud.

Bruce Wilson

On another sad note, Mr. Thomas Jones, my Latin teacher, passed away recently.

A very likeable man.

Somehow he got the nickname "Dr. Jigger". How and when, I do not know, because he was a scholarly type and I never once encountered him on the basketball court either in high school or at Pauley Pavillion when I was in grad school.

http://www.cvbugle.com/news/2016/oct/29/obituary-thomas-g-jones-1930-2016/

Bruce Wilson

Speaking of the Youth Center, between there and Bill Burger's house, I put in a lot of hours on this game.

I can't remember what the record was but it was more than several consecutive traversals (round trip). I still have one around here someshere.

Jim Hawes

Bruce,

I know Dick played a full set earlier this year (yeah, it's still 2016!) in Vegas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUyZHl0Yp6I

This explains his medical problems. I knew he had cancer 15 or so years ago!

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6663777/surf-guitar-legend-dick-dale-touring-illness

The first link of the Rockabilly car show in Vegas is pretty cool for a guy who is only 79! Too young to have these problems. Remember the Voo! Not sure how many others here are "DickHeads"

Bruce Wilson

San Diego Library ( a couple of us have a library work tie in) 10 Most Checked out books of 2016:

"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins was the most popular adult book checked out in the San Diego County Library system for the second year in a row, the county reported Thursday.

• "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

• "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee

• "Rogue Lawyer" by John Grisham

• "The Crossing" by Michael Connelly

• "Memory Man" by David Baldacci

• "The Guilty" by David Baldacci

• "Make Me: A Jack Reacher Novel" by Lee Child

• "Tricky Twenty-Two: A Stephanie Plum Novel" by Janet Evanovich

• "X" by Sue Grafton.

Jim:

Dick is a very sick man.  He's doing what he's doing against medical advice, like ol' Frankie Sinatra.  He's refusing kidney dialysis.

Labyrinth:

I found my maze game and it's going to need some repair, like so many things these days. I guess that why I'm 0 for 10 on the reading list. In researching the buy vs. make issue I discovered that the original Brio model can still be purchased and is recommended for ages 6+ (which includes me in).

This isn't it.

There is a computer simulatin available and I'http://www.mperfect.net/cameraFlow/ll just put this here as a reminder to myself.

Bruce Wilson

More interesting than the college football games, we've been watching The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) marathon. YMMV. More than a few too many commercials.  

Viewed a bunch we'd never seen before. A fun exercise trying to remember the guest stars

Goes something like ...  he was in Star Trek, then 10 minutes later ... Gerge Takei.

Jack Klugman was an immediate ID, but it took a few secnds to get Jonathan Winters (nod to Ronnie Schuller, Shayne's mom) as Fats Brown the pool player (well befre Jackie Gleason).

It's still on today.

Oh yeah. Happy New year. 

Had to look this one up - 1960.

Actress hint:

Bruce Wilson

Note to Terry Maple and those concerned. It seems that you are right. Steroids were more available than I ever thought back when we were in high school.

1963 Chargers. Lance Alworth 'health' clubs?

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=3866837

By the early '60s, the pills were coming to football no matter what. Already, at least two high school football programs had given Dianabol to players, says historian Matt Chaney, the author of "Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football." And the late Bob Waters of the San Francisco 49ers said he and a few unnamed teammates experimented with Dianabol in 1962.

Interesting side note that  LSD and steroids hit the streets at roughly the same time.