Historic Queen Anne Photos

Grizzly students boarding Dennis the Menace bus, 1954

Recognize yourself of anyone else in this 1954 shot of Queen Anne High students boarding a Seattle Transit System bus? The bus is illustrated with a graphic of Dennis the Menace in order to emphasize a safety message. The famous cartoonist who created Dennis the Menace, was, as perhaps all QA alumni know, a Hilltop graduate. Henry "Hank" Ketcham graduated in 1937, his sister Joan in 1940. In 1953 or 1954, the present writer heard English teacher Helen Kretsinger tell her class about the teenage Hank Ketcham, a cartoon-drawing member of an earlier English class. Ketcham died within the last few years, but his comic strip survives him, as does a Web site called www.hankketcham.com. While the eternally youthful Dennis continues with his old tricks, the Web site has been transmogrified into something entirely commercial with nary a glimpse of Dennis until you link to various Dennis memorabilia on eBay. Was the Ketcham Web site ever solely concerned with Dennis or did some Internet entrepreneur simply grab the grab for the name before Ketcham even thought of making a Web site? Back to the photo: Does any viewer remember riding on this moving cartoon? And, again, recognize anyone?

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