Memories of Da Frenzy

It all started in the late 70’s when David Brickell invited some of us working Auto Theft
to stay at his cabin and raft the un-damned Stanislaus River. David, Jim Silvers, Joe
Suske, David Harrison and Ken Kocina jumped on the opportunity. The river was scary
and hard to navigate but thank goodness we had a professional guide in the raft to get us
down. Afterwards Jim wanted to raft again right away. That didn’t happen so he talked
Harrison and Kocina into joining him to rent a raft and go down the river by themselves.
Dave Brickell, Joe Suske and I said they were crazy and were going to kill themselves.
No matter, off they went, lost most of the air in their raft and barely made it back. Jim
said, “Damn, we almost died!” No kidding, so this started the whole thing.
We rafted river after river enjoying the heck out of it until I talked Patti into recruiting
some of her lady friends to joining us. She agreed but NOT to raft. Just do something
else. So off to the Klamath River we went and Patti had Joyce Suske and Mary Ann
Brickell in tow. The girls went on a narrow gauge railroad trip to a small town called
Montague where shop owners awaited their arrival, invited them into their stores then
all stood outside and waved to the girls after they left. They had a great time so the die
was set for the girls to join us on all future trips. Eventually in the 90’s we changed our
name to Da Frenzy and it stuck. Below are some of the highlights, we’ll start with our
most recent trip to Old Town Folsom.
Folsom was great, super lodging at a terrific price, good food, a $450 an evening
hospitality room comped to us. A bus ride to the Sacramento River and a cruise on a
small boat that included a full lunch and a full open bar. Another dinner at Sutter Street
Steak House, shopping Old Town, appetizers at Crawdad’s by the Lake and more it was
all great. Over 30 of our BFF’s attended. We can’t talk about every Frenzy but we’ll do
some highlights and see how many you remember.
Everybody’s all time favorite: Gold Beach, Oregon. Oh my this was great.
LeeWilson joined us to do all our BBQing and we had a great jet boat ride on the Lower
part of the Rogue River but the real winner was “Sheriff John’s Classic Cars and Malt
Shop.” John had set up a large warehouse filled with at least s dozen show condition
50’s and 60’s cars propped with drive-in speakers by the driver’s window; a drive in
restaurant tray hooked on a window and more. This took up about half of the
warehouse. The other half was set up as a malt shop from the 50’s, a large black and
white linoleum floors, a full counter with stools, a jute box and a small theater in the
back to show movies from the 50’s We had all dressed in our 50’s clothes, poodle skirts
for the ladies, letterman sweaters for the guys and then we danced to the music of our
teen years. Dennis and Tom Zenhalik acted as D.J.s and introduced all the tunes. Mike
and Karen Thompson won 1 st price for the best dressed attire from the era. Watching all
f this were full sized, cardboard color posters of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Then
we had a fabulous sit down meal. This evening was absolutely magical

Scariest River to raft: The Salmon River of No. Cal was violent and dangerous but the
scariest was the Tuolumne. Over 17 miles of non-stop Class 4 and 5 rapids. No chance
to relax just paddle like egg beaters. The Tuolumne also had the most frightening rapid:
Clavey Falls. Two rafts out of our 4 capsized going down the falls and into the rapids.
We had to fish out friends like the Suske’s; Rich Beard and others. All together 12 of
our friends plus guides. The survivors had eyeballs that bulged out like “banana slugs!”
Other heart throbbing incidents: “Freight Train Rapids” on the Salmon. The river
roared as it was about to plunge head long into a rock wall then make a hard left turn.
The guide said, “Whatever you do…do NOT fall out of this boat now, you will be
crushed by the rock wall!” Well damn, Dave Thawley fell out. Pres Winters and I fished
him out just before we crashed into the rock. He was scared witless! Later he said he
had nightmares all year but wanted to do the Salmon again to get the “scares” out of
him. He did…and he did.
Chamberland Falls, No Fork American River. Whenever a rapid is named after a
“Falls” you’re in for it. Rich and Jan Christiansen and son capsized and came up on
different sides of the raft. All were in panic cause they couldn’t see one another and
thought the others were trapped in the rapids or had drowned. Fortunately, all was well
but the scare caused them to skip the next Frenzy so their heartbeats could return to
normal.
IKE rapids Klamath River. We had all finished rafting the Salmon River and it
empted into the large, fast moving Klamath which had Colorado River sized monster,
rolling rapids. Then we were done and the river was smooth. The guide told us to jump
out of our rafts and enjoy a drift for a mile or so. It was a hot day so we did. Slightly
ahead of us on the drift was Sharon Young in the middle of the river. Norm Punneo and
I were on the right side of the river. Norm and I noticed a rather large churning
whirlpool directly ahead of Sharon, she tried to avoid it but it sucked her down. We
passed and she was still down and we were able to get to a river bank around a turn and
couldn’t see the whirlpool anymore. We waited, and waited and waited and still no
Sharon. We thought she may have drowned. Finally out came our raft with the guide
and Sharon in it. It scared the BeJesus out of Sharon and she never rafted again.
Most fun event: The Grass Valley Boys. We had started having talent contests at the
McKenzie River and it was howl. Patti, Mary Mazzone and others did the “Chicken
Dance” and then we all did the “YMCA.” Paul and Charmaine Gardner acted as
“American Idol” type judges along with Dick Tietgens. It was so much fun our M/C
followed us to Blue Lakes, Ca for our next talent show. Enter the Grass Valley Boys.
No one knew what to expect but David White, Sorab Molana and Joseph Lima showed
up with full sized porn dolls pumped up with helium, they tried to cover their privatehad joined the Garner’s as a judge as dressed as Adolph’s younger brother, Dick even
wore a Nazi hat. The critiques on everyone were sensationally funny and we all howled
ourselves silly.
Other notable outings:
The buffalo ranch by Blue Lakes. We were carted by tractor and wagon to the top of a
mountain where “the buffalo roamed.” Sitting under a redwood grove next to a beautiful
home and a huge swimming pond filled with catfish, we ate Tenderloin Buffalo Steak.
This was great.
Middle Fork of the American River where a friend of Jim Silvers, Jim Johnson set a
record for being tossed out of his raft (3) times. He was exhausted at the end of the day
and never rafted again.
Our jet boat trips at Grants Pass; Humvee death defying rides on monster dunes at
Pismo Beach; bus trip to Solvang; Lake Tahoe cruises; wildlife safari at Santa Rosa;
tours of Empire Mine and Malakoff Diggins in Grass Valley, Nevada City; great times
in Cambria with an ocean barge ship cruising Moro Bay and serving us dinner; a tour of
Hearst Castle. Monterey and the great bus movie cruise where we went to the scenes of
famous movies and saw them on a movie screen while looking at the movie site itself
and there was Sandra Dee kissing Troy Donohue all over again. Romantic, wonderful.
Then lunch at the Pebble Beach Lodge Tap Room restaurant/bar, where we were served
like celebrities by dressed to the nines waiters. Zip lining on the towering redwoods in
Sonoma Co.; zip lining the vineyards of Santa Margarita; Napa Valley train wine tour;
shop downtown Sonoma; bus wine tour from Mendocino to Anderson Valley; visiting
the Clydesdale Ranch in Cambria, some road the gentle giants then we played some
outdoor games and went inside the stables where we were provided with a steak BBQ
and all the trimmings, the owner of the family ranch Tara, turned 21 on this day and
celebrated by dancing with David White. David and Lois Harrison joined them on a
slow 50’s tune and we sadly watched knowing it was their last dance as he entered
dementia.
Our absolute worst outing: Clear Lake and Rodman Slough. We were sold a bill of
goods that this slough off Clear Lake was a wildlife preserve full of fish and birds of all
kind. So off we went from our lodge at Blue Lakes and kayaked in over 100 degree
weather and with forest fire smoke making it hard to breathe into the slough. The
wildlife consisted of dead birds and fish bobbing on the water. We paddled onto a small
beach where our guides set up our lunch while the ladies tried to relief themselves in the
bushes only to be attacked by swarms of mosquitoes biting their behinds. All we could
hear were slapping noises and curse words you usually could only hear in “The Hood!”
parts with duct tape but it didn’t want to stick. So there they were fast and slow dancing
with these porn dolls, bobbing high in the air and bouncing everywhere. Dick Tietgens