May 2008
Dear Shipmates,
From Sue........ My sister Pat Cornelius and I would like to thank all of you for your cards, calls, emails, thoughts, love and prayers since the passing of our mom. It's been a sad and tough time and we are working our way through this .... its not easy to lose your mom. Anyhow you have all been terrific to us and we sure appreciate it. Great to have "family".
REUNION REVIEW .....to recap.....this reunion will be our 16th annual shipmate reunion. It will be held Sept. 15-Sept. 22 (please remember our banquet dinner is on SUNDAY night Sept: 21). This reunion will be in Portland, Maine and its gearing up to be a really big, fun reunion. We have "blocked" 75 room and right now 55 of them are reserved. We need everyone that can to please make your reservations as soon as possible so we have a head count for rooms, activities, busses etc. The hotel is the Merry Manor Inn and the phone # is 207-774-6151 and be sure to tell them you are with the Floyd B. Parks reunion to get the $79 a night room rate.
ROOM BLOCK EXPIRES ON AUGUST 15!!!
Also we have a "deal" worked out with Budget car rental at the airport for a really good rate on cars....:ca11207-775-6508 and be sure to ask for the manager "FRED" as he is the only one who knows of this "deal". Fred comes to work at noon each day and be sure to mention the code "U.S.S. FLOYD".
REUNION ACTIVITIES ....activities will start on Friday, Sept. 19th......
Friday, Sept. 19...starting in the morning your Parks assn. will provide a van and driver to shuttle you back and forth between the hotel and the town of Portland. The hotel is about 5 miles outside of Portland. This is a quaint little town. The van will drop you off at Old Port, a location that you can take your choice of many tours from. Here are some of the tours available to you.....
TROLLEY TOURS .:.90 min. narrated tour from city streets to rocky coast.
LUCKY CATCH LOBSTER CRUISE:....daily routines of a Maine lobsterman.
EAGLE ISLAND TOURS ...90 min. cruise through harbor & innermost islands .... lighthouses, forts, Lobster boats, seals, & seabirds.
PORTLAND SCHOONER .... 2 hour sail through the harbor
CASCO BAY LINES.....public ferry to explore Peaks Island or lunch on Great Diamond Island. VICTORIA MANSION .... New Englands finest historic house museum of the Victorian era.
DOWNEAST DUCKS, ...Amphibious Bus.... narrated tour through town & "splash" into Casco Bay LIGHTHOUSE LOVERS CRUISE ...see all lighthouses etc.
WHALE WATCHING
Also within a 2-3 block area are all shopping, pubs, restaurants etc.
So you see we couldn't possibly pick one tour out of all these for you to enjoy .... our option is to get you to the place where you can take any of these tours that you would like. That way everyone gets the tour of their choice.
The last shuttle run will be at 4:30 p.m. as we need you back at the hotel for the evening entertainment.
Friday, Sept. 19 5:15 P.M. doors will open to the hospitality room .... you will be served a sit down dinner. During dinner you will enjoy a murder mystery titled "Politics Can Be Murder". Pay close attention as we will all be asked to solve the murder at the end. This promises to be a ton of fun. As this is about politics we will go with the patriotic theme and ask each of you to wear a red, white and blue shirt (or solid red, blue etc.) and these will be plentiful with Memorial Day and 4`h of July coming up.
Saturday, Sept 20, 9 A.M. Mens Business Meeting
Saturday, Sept. 20, 11:30 A.M. Board busses for trip ...first stop is Len Libby candy shop full of great candies and souvenirs. Then on to "Walkers Loop" where we will go past the elder Bush's estate but wont be able to stop or security will shoot us!!
Then we will go to the town of Kennebunkport where we will stop and have lunch, shopping etc. for about 1 '/2 hours. Re-board busses and on to the town of York. This is where you will all have that great LOBSTERFEST you have been asking us for. We hope to arrive here early enough to shop in the gift shop. Seating for dinner and entertainment will begin at 5 p.m. We will be back at the hotel at approximately 8 p.m. For those of you who don't like fish (ME!) or are allergic to shellfish there are 2 options.....either barbecue chicken or eggplant parmesan. IMPORTANT ...please let us know what you will want to eat this night..... lobster, chicken, or eggplant. Just found out that "Fosters Restaurant" will want this information. Please include that with your activities form:
Sunday, Sept. 21, 10 a.m. ......Worship service with our Chaplain Harry Brantley.
Sunday, Sept. 21, 4:30 p.m. .....start taking pictures for the memory book.
At 5 pm......... doors open to start seating for our banquet dinner.
Please fill out the activities form in this newsletter and be sure to include your name. Send the filled out form with your check made out to FLOYD B. PARKS ASSN. to Bill Birdsong 17139 Owl Tree Rd. Riverside, Ca. 92504.
Be sure to pack your name labels like we all get in the mail to put on your raffle tickets that you plan to buy plenty of. The raffle is the biggest fund raiser for the Parks assn. and we sure appreciate all who bring raffle donations and those who buy the tickets.
The San Diego mini reunion was a blast!!! The FRA in Imperial Beach is working out very nicely for us and providing us with a great luncheon. They have room for us to spread out a bit and really enjoy our mini reunion. Be sure to check out the pictures on the website. We want to thank Sam Villa, our webmaster, for taking such great pictures.
If you have changed your address, email address, phone # or any other personal data...would you please be sure to let us know. Email address change rapidly and its really hard to keep that list current. Also we are finding that area codes are changing and- shipmates are not letting us know their new numbers. Keep us informed.
Sadly, we just moved about 20 shipmates from the "active" list to the "inactive" list. The shipmates we moved we had not heard from in 4 or more years. No contact, no dues. With the price of postage we can't afford to keep sending newsletters to shipmates who probably are not interested. The next move will be for shipmates that we have not heard from for 3 or more years but wanted to send them this last newsletter and once again time to get in touch with us. Please check your records and if you are behind in your dues get in touch with us. Thank you very much.
GOLF OUTING ...we have had questions about a golf game for all you golfers .... we are trying to put that together and it will have to be on Thursday, Sept. 18'h. Tom Wyatt has agreed to take charge of setting up this golf date so if you want to be a part of this please contact him. His home phone # is 352-465-1477 and his email address is mustangtom@bellsouth.net. Thanks Tom!!!
SHIPS STORE ......the new blue windbreaker jacket that we previewed (and sold out of) at the San Diego reunion is now on the website. It's an awesome jacket and we want to thank Solomon Honeycutt for sewing on the patches for us. Funny story .... one of our regular shipmates was at our home for the mini reunion, saw the Parks tapestry on a guest bed and said "where did that come from"? Like we were holding back from him. Told him it has been around for a couple of years now. Soooooo lets all take a look at the ships store items and keep them in mind for birthdays, Fathers Day, Xmas and just to give our shipmates something special. P.S. Joe now has a tapestry of his own!!
To email Bill & Sue Birdsong use either of the following addresses: soonbil@gmail.com or sbirdsong@roadrunner.com ...either will get here.
From The Chaplain's Corner .......
As we look forward to Portland, Lois and I reflect on the past. It was a Saturday afternoon May 16, 1948 when we met on the grounds of our great nation's capitol. I was a S2Y in BuPers. Lois was a 15-year-old freshman in the Shinnston, WV high school marching band, in Washington for the cherry blossom parade. What were the odds of our meeting?
Those were patriotic times. Some graduated from High School and set forth to seek fame and fortune. Others joined the Navy to make history. PARKS had been in commission three years. We were still two years away from the start of the Korean War.
PARKS come under fire the first time at Wonsan on 30 April 1951. PARKS fired 12,307 rounds, performed blockade duties, and coordinated the rescue of eight pilots during Korean operations.
As we reflect on the past, we also look to the future. Where will the next reunion be? What are the odds of our meeting there? Are your dues paid? Email address up-to-date? Let's stay "connected".
TAPS: We have lost three more PARKS family members: Eugene "Skip" Myers ('65-'68), and beloved wives Virginia Messick and Jane Breidenbach. May God rest their souls!
We'll see you in Portland.
For God and Country!
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"The
Fightin' Floyd B"