In reading the May 19 Marcellus paper, I saw where the Air Zoo Museum at Kalamazoo on May 21 opened an exhibit, “The Test: The Tuskegee Airmen Project,” which was about the first black combat aviators in the U.S. military during World War II.

In 1943, the first squadron was deployed to North Africa.

Do you know Dowagiac had three of our local boys who were Tuskegee airmen?

They were brothers Joe an Jack Bryant and Richard Harrison

I think it was a year or so ago that Jack Bryant went to Washington to receive a medal that was given to all living members of the Tuskegee fliers.

Joe Bryant and Richard Harrison, both deceased, got the medals awarded posthumously.

When I took flying lessons in 1959, one of my instructors was Richard Harrison.

He was also the pilot for the Rudy Furnace factory plane.

Recently my friend Chauncey Harrison sent me a few pictures of his brother, Richard.

One was a small group of the first class of the Tuskegee fliers.

Another was a colored picture of a larger group of the boys.

Here are some more articles from old Dowagiac Daily News papers.

1948: Randy Behnke, son of Hook and Janice Smith Behnke, is a great, great, great grandson of Baldwin Jenkins, the second white settlers in Cass County, who arrived six days after Uzziel Putman.

Also, Andy Moses is the great, great grandson of Uzziel Putman.

1948: The Dinner Bell eating place was in back of the Springsteen’s gas station on N. Front Street (now Sav-a-Lot store).

Remember July 13, 1968, when the Mill Pond dam burst?

On Aug. 24, 1954, Miss Minnie Steele, the first colored graduate of Dowagiac High School, was in town visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Steele.

1996: Herb Phillipson went up to Linden in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to visit his old ninth grade Latin teacher, 96-year-old Frances Mishica (a lot of us old DHSers remember Miss Mishica).

How many remember the “Catskills” we used for winter sports?

It was somewhere behind where Rotary Park is if I’m not mistaken.

Tuthill Street was named after Cyruss Tuthill.

McOmber Street after Daniel McOmber.

Dewey Street after Burgett Dewey, an old Front Street store owner.

Does anyone know when Little League started?

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.