Some Bearcats Scan Their Yearbooks

Alfred Lopez '60 sent some scans from the1960 Ray High yearbook for everyone's enjoyment. That seemed like such a good idea that there's now a project underway to scan more (all?) of the old Ray High yearbooks and put them online. Here are links to the books that are at least partway done:

• 1960
• 1966
• 1970
  

You Can Help!

If you have a scanner and an old yearbook or two, you can help with this project by doing some of the scanning. First, check with Russ at rrrmac@gmail.com for brief instructions and to make sure somebody else isn't already working on the same yearbook that you want to scan. Then just go for it! Send the resulting files to the same email address and we'll do the rest.

Daryl Mallett Wants Your Photos

Hello all,

I am a freelance writer in Arizona and, with co-author Lyn Scott, am working on a book entitled The Copper Corridor, which is a photographic history of the towns along AZ-177 and AZ-77 from Superior to Winkelman.

During my research, I found your website announcing the reunion and would very much like to hear from all of you about your experiences living in the area, your family histories and seeing your photos and possibly including them in our book.

I can be reached at 480/275-0232 or darylmallett (at) aol.com. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Daryl F. Mallett

Kearny Gets History on Day One

There's a pretty interesting article online describing how its founders worked to give Kearny its own historical identity from the very beginning. The article also contains lots of other good stuff about Ray and Sonora and the changes that came when they were displaced by the mine. Check it out here.

Steve Kuykendall Tells Another Moving VW Story

Roy Woods drove a Volkwagen beetle (If my memory serves me it was Roy's - although it seems that Mrs. Kelso also drove a VW, so not sure.) and always parked it right in front of the office. The locker room, which was covered by a roof but open on the sides, had a raised concrete section in the center with no lockers. One morning a bunch of us football players (we were the state champs that year by the way - 1966) had a great idea. We went out and picked up the VW and carried it through the wide doorway into the locker room and high centered it on the concrete platform. We then went back to class. I was in Mr. Crowell's trig class and could see the locker room through the windows. Pretty soon one of the girls walked by and stopped with her mouth open, and then ran to the office to notify Mr. Woods. Soon they were all out of the office and staring at the car, scratching their heads.

A few minutes later Mrs. Endsley announced over the intercom that the football team needed to come to the office. Some witness had squealed. We headed to the office and Mr. Woods walked us out to the car and asked us to move it back out to the parking lot. He took it with reasonable humor and didn't place anyone on detention. We carried the car back to its original location and nothing more was said.

Decades-Old Mystery Remains Unsolved

One fine day in the late '60s, Ray High's first-hour band class arrived ready to toot their horns, only to find themselves unsupervised because the band director, Mr. Davidson, was missing in action. They all tried to keep occupied by warming up their instruments, ending their endless conversations, or trying to catch a few extra zzzzz’s ... all while, in the background, Lance Giroux’s fingers were burning up a storm as he warmed up to Rimsky Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee.

Apparently, a band (cough, cough ... get it? b-a-n-d?) of our peers had gone, under cover of darkness, to Mr. Davidson’s house and managed to corner his little bug--his Volkswagen, that is--in the carport. One can only imagine Mr. Davidson’s expression when he exited his home to find that he couldn't drive to school because his VW had somehow levitated and lighted itself such that there was no way he could drive it out. Heh, heh.

The mystery surrounding this incident remains to this day. However, the statute of limitations on such pranks has surely expired, and we now call upon the masterminds who conceived and executed this brilliant plan to step forward, admit responsibility, and claim the glory that is rightfully theirs.

Whose idea was this? When did it happen? Where did the planning occur (e.g., at the park by the swimming pool, Bob’s Drive-in, or by the swinging bridge)? “Sing it sister … or brother!!” Who do we thank for starting what could have been a rather mundane day with some sweet excitement?

If you were involved, you owe it to your comrades to click on the "comments" link below and fess up. If you weren't involved, but you know who was, you can click on the "comments" link below and rat on your friends. If you have no clue, click on the "comments" link anyway to see what the others are saying.

Some Old Timers Had Cameras

Here are a few old pictures from Gilbert Alvidrez '69 of Ray and Sonora back in the day:


The Sonora, Arizona baseball team, circa 1915.


The school at Sonora, Arizona. Date unknown.


Recess at the school in Sonora, Arizona. Date unknown.


Teapot mountain, from somewhere downstream along Mineral Creek. Date unknown (although the mountain still looks about the same).

And one in living color (woo, woo!) from Roy Turman '68:


Downtown Ray, Arizona. The first car is either a 1949 or 1950 Mercury Sport Sedan, so this picture was probably taken sometime in the early '50s.