Yeah we made it !!!! The parade and dinner came off with out a problem.
Elinor and George picked up the chairs the day before the parade. The signs were attached to the float(trailer) and every thing was ready to go Friday. Saturday Elinor and George had the float lined up on Front street ready to roll. George drove and Shirley Carver (broken shoulder and all) acted as co-pilot with a walkie-talkie and away we went. We all threw mini-frisbees, bubble makers, and candy to the kids.
The dinner Betty had arranged was great. The River Press took our picture before dinner. Denny Nottingham acted as master of ceremonies and kept every thing on track.
Those no longer with us
Nellie May Curtis Charles Lenington
Shirley Frieling George Collins
Sam Ragland Maxine Shiver
James Renville Gerald Myers
Shirley Clark Benita Burchak
Jean Ann Hampton Bill Allen
Jerry Swett LeRoy Briese
Ken Willson Lones Wigger
Dennis Vermillion Dennis Nottingham
Thanks To Barbara and Lyle Shaw for the Cannon Reports.
Click on the documents below to see a larger readable version
Several years ago Johanna Sorkness our 4th grade teacher, sent me some pictures of us in the fourth grade.
At our reunion dinner someone mentioned that on our senior class outing we got stranded on an island when our tour boat would not start. Years ago a short description of how the boat was started was submitted to a magazine column on problem solving. It was not published but I found the article on a word processor and will post it her if anyone is interested.
In 1955 our senior high school class decided to visit a lake and take a tour on a large open boat for our end of the year class picnic. All went well with the boat ride until we stopped at an island to stretch our legs. The boat engine would not restart. The boat operator said the tour operators would notice that we had not returned on time and would send out another boat in a few hours. Our picnic lunch was still in the school bus back at the dock and like most high school kids everyone including me thought we were starving to death. We watched the boat operator try to start the engine without success. I ask the boat operator if I could take a look and to my surprise he let a kid take a look. The engine had an odd electrical system, but after much tracing I figured it out. The starting system used two 6 volt automotive batteries in series to operate a 12 volt starter motor. A 6 volt coil ignition system was connected across one battery. The engine also had a magneto to provide a redundant ignition system. After much messing around, we determined that one battery was dead and one had a good charge. We tried to crank the engine with the charged battery but 6 volts was not enough to pull the big 4 cylinder marine engine through the compression stroke. Most 6 volt car batteries back then had cell interconnects exposed on top of the battery, they were large lead bars connecting the 3 cells in series. I knew that a 6 volt battery would not charge another 6 volt battery so I connected the charged 6 volt battery across two cells of the dead battery using the exposed cell interconnects. This essentially used a 6 volt battery to charge a 4 volt battery. The fill caps were removed from the two cells being charged in hopes the hydrogen being generated would not light off from sparking during disconnection from charging. Connection between the batteries was made by standing on two large open end wrenches between the battery terminals. After about 10 minutes the electrolyte in the two cells seemed to be boiling so the wrenches were removed luckily without a hydrogen explosion. The two recharged cells were recapped and the two batteries reconnected with the coil ignition system again connected across the charged battery. The starter cable was not reconnected to the formerly dead battery + terminal but was held to the cell interconnect of the second recharged cell. This placed the charged 6 volt battery in series with the two recharged cells of the recharged battery giving 10 volts. This was enough voltage to start the engine. I am not sure if it started on the coil ignition or the magneto but it started. We all got back to the dock and ate our lunch before we starved to death.
Fort Benton Picture
The following aerial picture was taken by Christopher Boyer of Kestrel Aerial Services.
Long Rope Ranch 