Certain aspects of our latest Mystery Picture are not so mysterious. This, obviously, is a Durfee High School baseball team.
So what we are looking for is the year, the individual identifications, and any tidbit of information about the team. Facebook has been a popular response area, and this Herald News archives photograph will be posted on my FB page and at HNNow. It was also be tweeted. And you may also share any pertinent info (or any cool recipes) via email – gsullivan@heraldnews.com.
• We just lost one of my (and many others’) favorite people in John Kiley, son of the late Jack Kiley, who was a vice principal at Durfee during my high school years. John, who had Down Syndrome, certainly enjoyed being around and about. He was no stranger to Durfee while his dad worked there. I ran across him at Holiday Lanes in Somerset and, many years back, at the dentist's.
My favorite meeting with John occurred, I'm guessing, fairly early this decade, at a Durfee basketball game. In the midst of a pre-game conversation with The Standard Times outstanding conversationalist, Laurie Los, I spotted John about 50 feet away. He had not yet spotted me.
After politely excusing myself from the Los conversation, I headed over toward John. He spotted me coming and, with a smile on his face, hustled over to meet me. I was treated to John’s trademark greeting “Hi, buddy” accompanied by the most sincere hug.
I hadn’t seen John Kiley in, perhaps, 30 years.
He wanted me to know about his dad’s death. “He passed,” John said softly.
I was blessed to see John a few more times over the next few years, once or twice at the bowling alley with, I believe, the People Incorporated League. It was an honor to have my special needs son Conor meet John Kiley one day at Holiday Lanes.
John was 59.
• One of the perks of getting old? A reduced grocery bill. One hot dog, with mustard and sauerkraut, does the trick at lunch.
• Gosh, tennis looks so easy on TV.
• Two nice-guy cyclists I know (cousin George Banville, retired Somerset High teacher Bob"Big Guy" Taylor) agree that there are hardcore cyclist nit-wits out there who have no interest in returning a hello or a wave to other riders, especially if you’re not decked out like Lance Armstrong. My camouflage shorts just don’t cut it with these cycle Bozos. (Wow, a double insult: nit-wit and Bozo. … the late Fred Rhines, a former Herald News reporter, loved the term nit-wit.)
• Aldi has an aisle where you can legit get your Christmas shopping done.
• Miles Finch.
If bored, email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. In Twitter Village, he hangs @GregSullivanHN.