Pet Sounds by Howard Louise Breaw: How To Bathe a Cat!

Hello CHS Class of ’66.  Most of you don’t know me.  My name is Howard Louise Breaw.  I am one of three dogs belonging to Al and Shirley Breaw.  I live with the Breaws in Tucson, AZ.  I am fortunate to live in a household where dogs are highly treasured and receive many of life’s amenities that can be attained by a dog.  In fact, I and my two canine housemates, Hunter Louise Breaw and Carmen Louise Breaw, are probably spoiled by our masters, especially Al, a real pussy cat, symbolically speaking.

I know that Al and Shirley recently attended their 50^th High School Class reunion, an event they really enjoyed.  I thought maybe the CHS Class of ’66 should include an option for their classmate's companion pets to share some life stories as well.  So, after discussing this with the Digital Demons, I am happy to announce a new opening in the CHS Class of '66 Blogger called Pet Sounds.  Through the Pet Sounds Blog, classmates can learn much about the trials and tribulations of their secondary families through this new linkage.  After all, "A Dog is a Man’s Best Friend."

I would like to start the ball rolling in Pet Sounds with a blog about one on my Pet Peeves, it’s about that feline species called the cat, a small domestic, typically furry, carnivorous mammal, that seem to be valued by humans for companionship and sometimes for their ability to hunt and eliminate vermin.  Personally, I am not impressed by this trait and I have little use for the common house cat.  If they need to be part of the human experience and live in the same house as other family pets, then they should be clean.  Accordingly, I am offering a simple approach to keeping them clean by using the following guidelines entitled:

HOW TO BATHE A CAT

1.  Thoroughly clean the toilet’s bowl.

2.  Lift both the seat lid and cover lid and add shampoo.

3.  Find and soothe cat as you carry him to bathroom.

4.  In one swift move, place cat in toilet, close both lids and stand on top, so cat cannot escape.

5.  The cat will self-agitate and produce ample suds. (Ignore ruckus from inside toilet, cat is actually enjoying this.)

6.  Flush toilet 3 or 4 times. This provides an effective power rinse for the cat.

7.  Have an assistant open all doors connecting bathroom to the house’s outside.

8.  Stand as far from toilet as possible and quickly lift the toilet bowl’s seat lid and cover lid.

9.  The thoroughly clean cat will abruptly leap from the toilet and enter the outdoors, where he will begin a self-induced drying process. 

Soothing the Cat (Pre-Wash)

Cat During Power Wash

               

Cat Leaping From Toilet (Post Wash)

Cat Running to Dry Out (Post Wash)

Pet Sounds will be happy to receive all stories from Class of ’66 animal friends, including dogs, cats, fish, birds, gerbils, snakes, goats, bovine, equine, lupine, vulpine, ursine, simian, etc.  Please contact or send your submissions to Howard Louise Breaw, Pet Sounds Director, CHS Class of ’66 Digital Demons.

Class of 66 Reunion and Digital Communications Make 'Blue and Gold' Alumni Newsletter

The Class reunion in June and the subsequent efforts on Facebook, Blogger and email newsletters rated separate articles and photos in the Fall 2016 Central Alumni newsletter, the Blue and Gold. The paper arrived in alumni mailboxes this week.

The reunion story included a photographer of the classmates who were still at the Ramkota on Sunday, the last day of the reunion, along with a photo of the Three Amigos.

The separate article about the class digital efforts was on a page with the alumni news. It included a photo of the September newsletter and an article written by Tim Schreiner, the class journalist. See the text of that article below.

If you'd like to subscribe to the Blue and Gold, contact the Aberdeen Public Schools Foundation at 605-725-7118 or email Gretchen.Sharp@k12.sd.us.


Here's the article on the class digital work:

When the Class of 1966 was trying to drum up enthusiasm for its 50-year reunion in Aberdeen this summer, it decided that social media and the Internet offered some help. The effort resulted not only in a reunion attended by more than 150 people, it started a lasting way to communicate that will live far beyond the class reunion.

Its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/CHS1966reunion) has 234 followers who regular read news of classmates as well as reminiscences of businesses and buildings in Aberdeen and memories of musical bands, former teachers and events in the lives of the class.

Its weblog (aberdeenchsclassof1966reunion.blogspot.com), an online journal of stories written by the class members has already been viewed more than 27,000 times since it was launched in mid-2016.

The weblog is an ongoing archive of old and new photos of the class, personal stories featuring businesses such as Liem’s Sporting Goods and Webb Shoe Store, class members encounters with famous musicians such as Bobby Vee and Bob Dylan, and remembrances of classmates who have died recently.

Each month, an email newsletter is sent to the class alerting them to stories they might have missed. The newsletter, weblog and Facebook page have not only attracted members of the class of 1966, but also their children and others who attended Central during the 1960s.

The class also established a YouTube channel (CHS Class of 1966 Reunion), which has posted videos memorializing deceased classmates as well as honoring those who served in the armed forces. It also features creative videos that poke a little fun at the people behind the digital effort: Terry Rawstern, Robert Couser, Carole Tonigan, Rory King and Tim Schreiner.

Sherman Hotel once “largest hotel west of Minneapolis”

The Sherman House was one of Aberdeen’s first and longest running hotels, opening in 1881 just one month after the town’s founding, and serving the

Sherman House

traveling public for nearly one hundred years. Sherman House opened in grand style with approximately 160 people in attendance.

Guests danced in the spacious dining room; refreshments were served about midnight. Following that, several speakers addressed the crowd. The dancing continued until the

Sherman House Lobby

“wee small hours.” Everyone in attendance declared the opening to be “the most enjoyable event of the season” and congratulated owner James Ringrose on opening one of the finest hotels in the area. The hotel was large enough for 100 guests and boasted a well-stocked bar, a large billiard room, and a livery stable. The Sherman House quickly became the center of many of Aberdeen’s social events. Mr. Ringrose expanded his hotel in 1887 with a brick addition, which increased his capacity by 43 rooms.

Nearly 20 years later on the night of November 22, 1906, fire destroyed the Sherman House. Oddly enough, the brick section was totally destroyed, but the original frame building was relatively untouched. Newspapers claimed, “Practically every resident of Aberdeen not sick in bed or too aged to appear was on Main Street and the adjoining avenues watching the fire.” The hotel was quickly rebuilt on the same site as the original, the corner of 3rd Ave and S. Main St. A grand opening and ball was held in November of 1908. A huge crowd numbering nearly 1,000 was

Sherman Hotel

in attendance, and three orchestras provided dance music throughout the evening. The new Sherman House was a four-story building with 120 guest rooms and 50 baths, most placed between two guest rooms. In addition, each hall had a public toilet. Room rates were $1 and up per night.

Sherman Hotel Matches

Another fire occurred on the night of June 26, 1926, destroying the entire north wing. Again the owners rebuilt the Sherman Hotel, reopening it for business later that same year. In 1966 the upper three floors of the Sherman Hotel were removed, and its new roof would serve as the parking deck for a new downtown parking ramp. The hotel’s first floor became a connecting point to the ramp. The original frame structure, still located on Lincoln Street, was demolished as part of the parking ramp construction.  

In 1977 what was left of the hotel was demolished along with the ramp to make room for a planned low-income rental complex. Finally, in 1980 the Sherman Apartments, a 51-unit housing facility for the elderly, was built on the site.

Pictured are two building photos, one from 1920s and one from 1950s. Interior lobby photo from 1950.

How To Talk Like a South Dakotian By Alice Laird Rapport

The next time you head across the crick to yer old stompin' grounds, lookin' for a hot dish and some pop fer supper, stop spittin' seeds, go to the biffy, warsh yer hands, say yer grace, fill yer white plate with white bread (slathered with salad dressing, never mayo), white potatoes, white cauliflower, and a white chicken breast — and don't call it dinner if yer at the neighbors who live kitty corner cuz they're feathers are pertnear ruffled already. 

If you go hog wild and bust up the place, leave a hunnert on the couch on yer way back to yer neck o' the woods. Ya sher, you betcha, that's the god's honest truth.

By Alice Laird Rapport

Not long after I started working in Washington, D.C., I announced to my coworkers that I was going to the snack bar for a "pop." 

Well, that got me several questioning looks. So, that was the start of my learning to speak in East coast terms, albeit begrudgingly. I found that sometimes it's the words themselves and sometimes it's the pronunciation. And, sometimes it's a phrase or expression.

Carole Tonigan and I have been having fun compiling the following examples of some of the very local-Aberdeen words and expressions that we all grew up saying.

Please add to our list in the comments section and please keep talking the South Dakota way, wherever you may be.

Our Words

Pop, not soda

Filling station, not gas station

Hot dish, not casserole

Kitty corner, not catty corner

Supper, not dinner? When is supper, anyway?

You betcha, just because we say it — and sometimes after, Yah, shur.
Okey-dokey, not just okay

Drouth, not drought

Pertnear, not pretty near

Couch, not sofa

Biffy (where did this come from?), rather than restroom

Yeah and/or ya--another just because we say it

Our Pronunciations

Creek, pronounced "crick"

Roof and root, we say them with a "short u," not a "long u"

For, sounds like fer, as in, We bought that bike fer about a hunnert bucks.
Hundred, pronounced hunnert

Wash, usually has an "r", as in warsh

Coyote, any USD person knows the e on the end is silent

Our Expressions
My old stomping grounds

Our neck of the woods

In a jiffy

If I had my druthers

Slow as molasses in January

Knee high to a grasshopper

Ruffle your feathers

Come with

Hog wild

Spittin' seeds, as in sunflower seeds