Tex again Uniacke is our very first Mermaid to leave a comment* on our revised, updated and modernized “Men of Mermaid” website. Many thanks to Tex for the fabulous suggestion that we arrange a 50 year reunion. I will assume that organizational task with great enthusiasm, and begin to reach out to all known Mermaids, friends and significant others :-).
Attendance to our (Reunion) celebration and festival of life is of course subject to the availability and mobility of all the Mermaids who may be in their 60’s/70’s/80’s. I will be in touch shortly, that’s the news as of Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
* Just a thought – Is it time to begin consideration of a 50 year reunion in the next year or two? I live out in Borough of Railroad, York County, PA (Still just North of the Mason-Dixon line!) and would be there in a heart Beat!
Hey Lou- Chris Bowen Johnson here. I have heard about your reunions and would really love to be at the next one.I actually spent quite a bit of time with you lovely gentlemen at the farm ,often with Jeff Bow,and have some very fond memories,at least the ones I can access.Anyway, please let me know if you do another reunion. I would love to see everyone and maybe I could get Clem to come as well.Thanks- Chris J
This is the “Prom Project” not to be confused with the Alan Parsons Project or the Blair Witch project…..
Spring has sprung and old man winter has finally been replaced by a warm sun and a cool breeze, flowers are popping and hormones are raging. It is this time of the year when high school students participate in that wonderful experiment called the “Prom”
If you wish to participate in the prom project, please submit a picture of your prom when you were young and please submit a picture of one or more of your children of their Prom. I look forward to posting many many images of our innocent youth and those of our children.
To start the ball rolling, attached is a picture of one of our close friends and I will challenge everyone to identify the odd looking male on the left side of the picture… 🙂 he always was a bit left of center anyway and who the heck is that guy on the right side?
PS here are some recent notes I have received regarding Martha Lynn & a link to Sin City Band.
From Paula – There was an article in today’s www.delawareonline.com in the Music section about this guy Jeff Bove who is a Wilmington lawyer and was in the band Martha Lidd back in the 70s. I remember going to see them at the coffee house and also in Rockford Park and elsewhere. Jeff Bove is now terminally ill and has released a bunch of tapes from his bands (he was in a couple of bands with Sin City folks). Thought you might want to link up to his site
yes, he’s the guy in 208 and 220 (that would be george ruch. he needs to be memorialized too…). 202 is maryann zygmonski and isn’t 219 also steve hague?
ahh, Pete’s gems and junk. i put some time in there the summer of 104. sold all my friends discounted, bootleg records. there’s nothing like a job you can wear your bikini to! that was after a short stint at the sunview hotel on the boardwalk where a group of us also worked. i hated that job so much, i never went back for my last paycheck! then george and harry swept me up and i advanced to the likes of Pete’s! i loved the walk from 104 to the boardwalk, seeing all the blue hydrangeas blooming along the side streets… it was always sunny at the beach, wasn’t it?!?
These new photos are great – interestingly they are a mix of the summer of 1973 at 104 Rehobeth Avenue and summer of 1974 at the apartments around the courtyard behind Muffie’s Bag boutique on First Street, between Wilmington and Delware Avenues.
Image 195 is Steve Hague from Carlysle, PA in the tree at Muffie’s Bag
(He is now a Professor of Theology in Baltimore)
Image 196 is Cricket (Joanne Glanden) in the kitchen of one of the apartments at Muffie’s Bag
Image 198 is Cricket in bed with 2 unknown guys (you can get the rest of the story from her!)
Images 200 and 201 is Pete’s Gems and Junk, where a lot of people worked both summers (on the Boardwalk 2 blocks south of Rehobeth Ave.)
Image 207 is Betsy Wariner in pink shirt – don’t remember the other person’s name
Image 210 is George Fisher (deceased) on chair – can’t identify other person on bed
Image 211 is Digger Dave Burke on floor and Luke (Jimmy Lucatamo – deceased) on footstool
Image 212 is Kim Brown and Chris Bowen on deck at back apartment of Muffie’s Bag
Image 213 is Richard Sterling – same deck
Image 216 is Chris Bowen – same deck
Image 218 is Kim and Richard walking between Muffie’s Bag and the fence with the Grape Vine (a dude named Connie from Annapolis, who played the guitar and knew the whole Bob Dylan catalogue of songs, whose father owned a Greek restaurant) used to make stuffed grape leave dolmates that were awesome with these and some rice!)
Image 219 is Steve Hague again at Muffie’s Bag That’s all I can remember other than the great shots of the radical Louis Zettler and Harry Manley, who are already legends in our own minds!
Thanks; got it, sent it on to Willard Glenn, too. Funny how small Wilmington really is. And funny how a lot of the players haven’t really changed a whole lot since high school. In one of Lou’s pictures I can see myself standing in the background next to you, near Peggy Burke. Still picking the safe corners after all these years!! Whatever happened to John Manley? And Debbie Mullen? Has anyone seen Leslie Noyes? I coincidentally ended up on the phone with her former sister-in-law (she’d separated from Leslie’s brother prior to his death) in a work related call and she was very reticent about putting me in touch with Leslie, despite my appeal. Leslie was my first friend in DE when we moved here. Having both lost our siblings, I thought it might be good to reach out to her. Hoping if someone sees her they’ll send her my love.
I was not at Frogtown, Paul D’Amico and Joanne were – I didn’t really know those guys. Paul D’amico came to Summit Farm after Frogtown. I think he is correct about the names but I don’t know if I ever even went to the Muffies bag apts. Were they in Rehoboth? That was before 104, yes? My parents had a tight rein on me. Paula and I rented 104 I think in the summer of 1973. I had just graduated. And I knew that there had been a summer I never saw before that and I wanted very much to get away from the “rents” and start getting a life. I barely knew Paula then really. So that would be the summer of 1972 when she and others rented a place in Reho. I only went there (where ever that was) for one weekend that summer in 1972. Maybe that was Muffies bag? Joanne (Cricket) knows those times better than I, she was the wild woman. I can ask her. I do know one person at 104 that hasn’t been ID’d. The carrot top guy’s name was George – Peggy might know his last name. He died from Leukemia a couple years after 104. Wow those pics are amazing! From the looks of the Muffiies bag photos, everyone looks younger than 104. What a difference one year makes at that time of life. They all look about 16 -17. Makes me miss them and those times.
Have a good New Year Lou Lou! Sounds like you’re on to something good…
Looks like a great turnout for the reunion! Lot’s of people crawled out of the wood work – like Neil Uniacke, Bill Boucher, Jeff Valentine and Marlene too! Yeah, we’ve all changed over the years, but I could feel the love.
I had a really fun trip to the Grand Canyon. Thought I’d send a little snapshot of me since I couldn’t be there with you guys. Was thinking of you!
(I’m getting too old to carry a 40lb pack around anymore. Next time I’ll be there!)
Jane
BTW – the “Harry, Scott, Gary, Lou photo also has a pic of Billy U. (He’s the one sitting). Didn’t he go to the Vineyard with Marlene? (you call her “Marla” in the reunion shots).
Please ask around. Does anyone know where Jeff Bow is? I’ve got something from AI that belongs to him.
This is very cool. I remember we used to think that Stoney Batter was called that because it was a gravel road. Susan LaPenta and I raced our Mavericks down there once. What is really funny is all of the cross connections. The Sin City Party in 1976 was my 20th Birthday; I got off of work at the Farmer in the Dell on Kirkwood Highway, changed in the bathroom and went there with my boyfriend at the time, Bob Perry, who just passed away this year. John Headley had told him about the party earlier that day. I still see Scott and the guys in the band periodically (they played for my husband’s surprise 40th and 50th birthdays and for my 40th as well!). Scott’s new wife Lisa was an old friend of mine from college and has always reminded me of Leslie Noyes’ big sister Avaril who still holds the record for butterfly at Westminster Swim Club. Kevin McBride used to give me a ride to school every day I didn’t ride my ten-speed. Zack Greer, who lives in Canada now, is the big brother of my friend, Nita (bridesmaid in my first wedding with you) and she and I worked together at Klondike Kate’s when it opened. I just saw Zack last month when he was East and came to our house for dinner with his sister. Nita’s first husband Phil’s good friend Jimmy Hoffman ended up living at the house on the turn on Stoney Batter. Phil dated Avaril in high school. Billy Coon’s daughters and ours went to Upland together, and we became and remain great friends (went to his surprise 30th birthday party!) and he worked for years with Bill Speakman who was one of my husband’s best friends. Richard Sterling and Steve Mendala ended up being Sailors of the Shallow Seas with my brother, Rick and Scott Milar so, when Rick died suddenly last year, I was greatly comforted by them and all of the really kind words they shared with me about him. Life goes on, we make new friends but few things are as comforting as those friends who knew us “when”.
I missed a lot of the wild and crazy activity shared by many of the players back then because I had those strict parents (God love ’em – – – – wasn’t it poor Jon Mason being greeted at the door with my dad in boxers holding a shotgun?), but I remember hearing all the stories! I never would have been allowed to do half the things everyone did, but somehow managed to squeeze in a few good times nonetheless! And, I’m always touched by the stories people (like Maryann) tell me about how my mom helped them out during the rough patches. She was tough on you and me, but she seemed to have a haven for anyone who’d lost their way. Mark Marine lost his way every night just before dinner time . . . .
Loved seeing you the other night,
xoxo
Cathie (and for Lou’s benefit, maiden name was Davis)
The third reunion has been planned, the third reunion has occurred, and now we make plans for the next reunion. The third reunion was an opportunity to renew and revitalize old friendships, as we travel down our individual paths of life, few things provide greater comfort than a fond memory and the warmth of our friendships from so many years ago.
“The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.”
-Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British lexiographer.
“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
-George Washington
“One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.”
-Euripides, Greek playwright
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
-Mother Teresa
“… no man is useless while he has a friend.”
-Robert Louis Stevenson
“The best mirror is an old friend.”
-George Herbert
“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“Never shall I forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.”
