Couple Seeks Help In Finding Their Old Friend
Patty Burns, where are you?
You are the great mystery of Gene and Alice Sergi’s lives. Remember the Sergis? You hung out with them in Alaska in the 1950s, dancing at the Red Dog Saloon until curfew, then eating at 2 a.m. on the little island where everything stayed open all night.
Maybe “Gene” doesn’t mean much to you. Folks called him Tony back then. He told the U.S. Coast Guard recruiter his name was Italian and the guy called him Tony. It stuck.
You made quite an impression on Gene.
“I’ve really got to say she was a knockout, a real doll,” he says.
Is it coming back to you at all?
You met Gene, his buddy Bill Claiche, and Alice at the 17th Coast Guard District Headquarters in Juneau, Alaska. Your uncle wooed you away from your home in Coeur d’Alene with a job in the building’s engineering department on the third floor.
Bill snagged your heart just as Gene snagged Alice’s. You four were so close you finished each other’s sentences.
“We could tell them our thoughts,” Gene says.
The foursome split up in 1957 when Gene and Bill finished their stint in the Coast Guard. Gene and Alice married, raised a son and daughter and eventually landed in San Diego.
Bill followed you back to Coeur d’Alene, but soon after you two decided to part ways. He joined the merchant marine, married and settled in Australia. The Sergis lost touch with both of you, but found Bill six months ago.
They last heard from you in 1958. You wrote from Coeur d’Alene. Gene thought Alice replied to your letter. Alice thought Gene did. It was years before they figured out why you stopped writing.
Gene assumes you married and changed your name. He’s checked with Coeur d’Alene High and the public library, the Bureau of Records in Boise and Social Security. No one can find Patty Burns, but Gene won’t quit looking.
“Patty was like a sister to me in Juneau,” he says. “We all agreed way back in yesteryear that we would always be in contact.”
If you can help Gene find Patricia Burns, who’s 61 or 62, call Cynthia Taggart at 765-7128.
Marlboro Man
Smoking may be yesterday’s habit of choice, but Mike Dunton doesn’t care. The 1985 Coeur d’Alene High grad is plastered all over the front cover of Marlboro’s newest Unlimited catalog.
He’s kayaking through whitewater, complete with life vest, helmet, brawny arms and chiseled chin. The catalog’s full of outdoor gear smokers can buy with proofs of Marlboro purchases.
Mike’s also on Marlboro promotional signs and cigarette cartons. You’re bound to see him in most convenience stores.
Speak up
The Panhandle Health District gets little notice until some epidemic breaks out. Then everyone flocks to its doors for tests, shots and tender loving care. Until they need something, people tend to forget that it’s the health district that protects their drinking water, checks up on restaurants and fights sexually transmitted diseases.
Needs change with time and the health district wants to know what programs it should keep or drop. This is your chance to endorse immunizations or pregnancy testing or whatever is important to you. Don’t sit this one out.
Speak your mind to the district at Post Falls City Hall tonight at 7 or at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Kootenai County Extension Office, 106 E. Dalton Ave., in Coeur d’Alene.
Going down
What signs tell you your neighborhood is going downhill? A growing number of car alarms? Be tactful for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; FAX to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
, DataTimes