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Joseph D. McCarthy

Some info for you Mike, regarding the Valley Dale.

If I remember correctly the Valley Dale was, for a while, owned by Bob (Robert) Marvin, a Big Band Leader, a famous (Central Ohio) TV star, kid beloved Flippo the Clown and the driver of a BMW Isetta (the car with a single door as the front of the vehicle.

Michael McLeod

On a more serious vein:

I am just now fully retired from writing for newspapers and magazines and teaching writing and lit classes at ucf (university of central florida), also rollins college in winter park, and a couple of junior colleges. And retirement has brought something into my life that has taken me by surprise: depression. I don't want to overstate the case. I loved what I did and it brought purpose and a sense of worth to me -- and having recently decided to quit writing and teaching part time I found myself dealing with a sense of, well, worthlessness. Just a scared and lonely feeling, so vivid it shocked the hell out of me I'm fine, don't want to overstate, have a son living near me here in orlando and a daughter in ohio and a lovely woman, a retired elementary school teacher, in my life But the feelings hit me hard, took me down fast and by surprise, so I got help from a therapist and he gave me a few things to read and I discovered that many have gone through the same emotions upon retirement. 

This is probably the most personal thing I have ever shared here but I thought it was a good, safe place to do so, particularly given that some of you may relate. You might have some observations you want to share. Or not. I blabbed for a living so it's easy to me.  Easier, anyway.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike McL.,

You are a creative person as you have shown us through the writings that you done throughout your career. That trait can be applied to another media that allows you to create stories without words and find some joy in doing something that is close to your home and stimulates your brain.

I assume you have a cellphone and that phone has a camera and that camera allows some degree of photo editing. You also live in a photogenic area. Start making use of your talents of observation of your surroundings and share them through a visual media with others - like us. Practice using the camera's editing which is quite easy and create the image you saw so that others can see what your mind saw.

Example:

What the camera saw is above.

What I saw is below.

That's the creative part!

Jim

Michael McLeod

Jim: I have long appreciated the eye you have for nature.

And thank you. 

Michael McLeod

I posed this question to google:

"Does infinity mean we'll all get reruns?

Google came back with a blabberrmouth answer. Still wading through it.

Thomas Swain

FYI  on Valley Dale

I worked with Landa on different projects. great lady.

 

Landa Masdea Brunetto remembers a time when seemingly everyone’s parents had their first date at the Valley Dale Ballroom on Columbus’ northeast side, including her own. Her father, Bruno Masdea, went on to play with the house band in the 1970s, and her husband, drummer Rick Brunetto, took up residence there in the 1990s.

Masdea Brunetto leaned on her family history and archival footage for her book “The Valley Dale Ballroom,” which came out in December. “I wanted a beautiful story to be told about the city of Columbus and one of the very last living ballrooms in the country,” she says.

Originally opened as a stagecoach stop in the 1880s, a dance hall was added to “the Dale” in the early 1920s. In Masdea Brunetto’s telling, the ballroom has had two heydays: in the 1940s, when seemingly every big name of the swing era played there (Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Dean Martin), and another in the 1980s as a rock venue.

Throughout most of its illustrious run, the Peppe family has owned or been involved with the Dale. Mike Peppe bought it from his father, Lou, in 1980 and continues to own it with his wife, Kathy. After an abrupt closure in early 2015 and more than $1 million in renovations, Valley Dale reopened with a focus on weddings under the new management of catering company Made From Scratch Inc.

If Masdea Brunetto has her way, the past will be a prologue for Valley Dale. She hopes to work closely with the Peppes to bring popular local and national acts to “Columbus’ jewel” once again.

David Mitchell

I hope I'm not repeating this one.

Such foolish nonsense  -  and we LOVED IT  ! ! !

Michael McLeod

headlines today about michigan football being "no longer relevant" per finebaum. i'll be grinning all day.

Michael Boulware

Tom Swain, Thanks for the background info on Valley Dale which I did not know. You also had a great jump shot for our basketball team.

Michael McLeod

Ask me what I learned in high school and I will direct you to this, the last stanza in a Robert Frost poem I ran across back then.

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future’s sake.

I got my share of grunt work in the army and vowed never again.

I loved literature and writers and vowed to become one myself. Uncle Sam helped me get a masters degree in journalism when I finished my two years in uniform. I landed a series of jobs at newspapers in ohio and florida, worked my way up into magazine writing and columns. Robert frost laid it out for me. I dug in and took his advice. Apart from being a great poet he was the best guidance counsellor I ever had.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Joseph D. McCarthy

Tom thank you for the Valley Dale info.  I knew the Peppe family was long involved with the Dale but information that was passed to me led me to my mistake.  Mea Culpa.

While I am making mistakes, was the Coach of The Ohio State swimming team (while we were in High School) a member of the Peppe family?

Michael McLeod

GOOD LORD.

I AM EMBARRASSED TO LIVE DOWN HERE IN THIS CHEAP-ASS STATE! HOW HUMILIATING FOR THESE KIDS. WE'RE TREATING THEM LIKE - WELL, LIKE TRASH.

FROM TODAY'S NEWS WIRE:

Thomas Swain

Joe,

Found thus on Peppe

https://swimmingcoach.org/page/HOFmikepeppe

David Mitchell

Not sure how we got on this Mike Peppe subject but anyway,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Although there is scant info about this on the web, but my mother used to tell me that Mike Peppe was the swim and diving coach at Crestview Junior High before Ohio State - I beleive while she was a student there in the late '20's or early '30s. 

David Mitchell

This is one of my favorite short clips to commemorate our 4th of July celebration.

(from Saving Private Ryan - a great film)

Michael McLeod

God Bless Willis Haviland Carrier.

Inventor of air conditioning.

David Mitchell

I 'm not sure about my dates when Mike Peppe coached at Crestview Jr. High, but I am just going on what my mothher told me.

Michael McLeod

Thanks for the advice, Jim.

I did have a really nice camera many years ago and hmmm it might be fun to shop around for another and capture the florida that I've come to take for granted.

Always loved it when, as a features writer, I'd often be teamed up with photographers who took the pictures to illustrate the stories I wrote. And I just loved watching how they operated and found the great shots and knew how to use a camera but mostly I liked the sense of teamwork. It made it a lot more fun to have a partner who told the story in images, while I was stitching it together with words. They would often see and notice things that I missed and take me aside to clue me in. Writing is a lonely pursuit so that made it all the more engaging when I had a storytelling partner - one who stiched the tale together with images rather than words.

David Mitchell

If you haven't seen this yet, it is really interesting.

David Muir climbing to the very top of the Lady Liberty statue.

Sorry if you saw my first post. That video stops short of the best part. But watch this whole video and see the dramatic ending.

David Mitchell

Ahhhh, now that thee wedding is over, you are now free to move about the cabin.

David Mitchell

I've saved one last story before our reunion - it will take up some space.

"DAMAGE FIVE-NINE ALPHA” - My Longest Day in the Cockpit     

            After settling in to a regular rotation (every third day)  as a new AMC (Air Mission Commander),  one of my missions we we’re headed East one morning down the Mekong to Dong Tam, a short flight of maybe 20 minutes (where I had seen Bob Hope’s show a year earlier). We thought we had one assignment, but the moment we arrived it was changed to something else. There was an emergency in a different location than where we were first assigned. I was given the call sign and radio frequency of a small squad of guys who were “in deep”, whatever that meant. They were in deep elephant grass and even deeper trouble.

            We topped off our fuel tanks and got our instructions as quick as possible. Then I led the first group of Guns and Scouts to an approximate location, switched one of my radios to their frequency and began calling him. “Damage-Five-Nine Alpha, Damage-Five-Nine Alpha, this is Comanche Two. Can you hear me?”

( As full time AMC, I am now assigned a new call sign and number - thus "Comanche two")

            He responded immediately with a voice of desperation. He was actually crying over the radio.“Comanche, Comanche please help us. Please can you help us?” I was sort of caught off guard by the tone of his voice - it really rattled me. These guys were in a bad spot. I knew we were in the approximate location, but I called for some more detailed information to pinpoint his exact position. He asked me if I could see the two perpendicular straight canals with tree lines and the creek that connected them both to form a rough triangle. “Roger (yes), I’ve got you now buddy. Tell me what’s going on?

            “Comanche, I’ve got twelve guys down here and we are caught in an ambush. We are on our faces and cannot move forward or backward.” They had only the cover of the tall elephant grass. “We were headed into that larger north-south tree line, but they let us get really close and then opened up on us. We can’t move. We are in too close. It must be a whole company (200+) and they are in both tree lines - the one in front of us and the one running along our left.”

            Then I asked“Damage-Five-Nine Alpha, can’t you crawl back away from the tree line?” “Negative, negative. We are too close. We can’t even get up on our elbows to craw backward.”

He went on to explain that he had a bullet scratch down the front of his shirt that landed between his chest and the ground he laid on. 

Yikes!   I got the picture!

tbc

David Mitchell

 “DAMAGE FIVE-NINE ALPHA” - My Longest Day in the Cockpit

cont. (Part 2)

            Meanwhile I had my first teams of Guns circling above me and a team of Scouts down close over the tops of those trees as usual, and they were taking heavy fire from the get-go. We all circled for a while. I tried to figure out what we were going to do. God’s truth - I had no idea what to do in this mess. But I was experienced enough to realize very quickly that this was unlike anything I had ever seen in my prior fifteen months, either as a Scout or an AMC. I wasn’t panicking, but I damn sure was lost in thought for a moment. Within a few minutes I made the decision to order our two Scout ships back to Dong Tam until I called them back out. We had already achieved their part of the mission. We had found enemy troops, and they had already fired on our Loaches. Why risk getting them shot down or even killed because of some sort of protocol.  As it turns out, I never let the scouts return to the scene for the rest of the day.

            And it quickly became apparent to us that there were two of those NVA’s .51 caliber machine guns in those tree lines - something I would only experience this one time. So, I ordered my two Cobras to climb from their normal 1,500 feet to 2,500 just for a bit of safety cushion. And I myself climbed from our normal 500 feet to 3,000 feet, because I was just that scared.      

            My next thought was to call for our “Slicks” to bring troops out. This was normal procedure. We could land ARVN troops far enough out of danger and let them walk and shoot their way into the tree lines at their own pace. That would be a long and nasty ground attack, but it’s what we did in this type of situation. However, on this day there were no troops available back at Dong Tam. They were already committed elsewhere. Damn, I thought. What do we do now?

            We were able to lay down cover fire into the two tree lines and hold the NVA in place. Our “Guns” were still able to make rocket “runs”, from a slightly higher altitude, but that’s about all we could do - frustrating! So, we continued to make repeated runs with our gunships as our last resort. But it was really nothing more than treading water. We went through numerous rotations of each pair of our four Cobras at a time, with them using all their rockets and returning to Dong Tam to be replaced by the other pair of re-armed Cobras. Meanwhile you are watching those orange tracer rounds from their .51 caliber heavy machine guns coming at you, burning out well above you. It’s highly unnerving for a few minutes - but hours of it really wears on you.

tbc

Mark Schweickart

Jumping Jehosaphat, Dave, this event you are recounting is giving me the heebie jeebies. But pay that no mind. Please continue. 

David Mitchell

 “DAMAGE FIVE-NINE ALPHA” - My Longest Day in the Cockpit

cont. (part 3)

I had radioed my home headquarters a few times asking if they had any other resources that could join us, but to no avail. But sometime in the afternoon, they called me back to say they had gone through channels and contacted the Air Force, and that we would be getting two F-4 Phantoms (jet fighters) on station “after while”. Not too long after that I get a call on one of my radios from a pair of F-4s out of Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base in Saigon (not that far away from our location). I cannot remember his call sign, so I’ll make one up for the sake of the story.

(NOTE: Tan Son Nhut was at the time, one of the busiest airports in the world. It was on the outskirts of Saigon and was both a commercial air terminal for several large international airlines, as well as American Air Force, some American Naval aviation, and some Vietnamese Air Force assets .

            Understand, it’s now mid-afternoon. I’m stressed, discouraged, and frustrated. I had already made a return to Dong Tam to refuel two or three times. The last time was so busy on my radios that I could not disconnect my microphone cord for a just moment to get down out of the cockpit and take a leak. I had to wet myself right there in my cockpit seat – humiliating - but I could not hold on any longer in the circumstances. One of the other crew members walked over while we refueled and handed me half a sandwich through my door window to eat in my seat while we refueled. I was so grateful. It eased the churning in my stomach for a while. Then we headed back out to the "AO" (Area of Operations)

            Suddenly, I get this radio call, “Comanche-Two, Comanche-Two, this is Cowboy Four-Six. A flight of two F4s out of Tan So Nhut  (Taun suh noot - said very fast). I understand you boys could use some help.” 

           I was so excited I wanted to jump out of my seat! 

“Cowboy-Four-Six this is Comanche-Two. You got that right buddy!

TBC

g'night Mark