From the desk of ...

DEBBIE WACHTER MORRIS

Recent publicity surrounding a planned movie about the Green Man has spurred communications from people who had encountered him.

A response to a black-and-white picture in last week’s New Castle News deserves mention because a few local men in the photograph were improperly identified, and we now think we know who they really are.

The picture, of former East Side teens with Ray Robinson, drew a lot of attention and stirred memories for a 70-year-old Moon Township man, formerly of New Castle, who is in the snapshot.

Walter Bixler and his friends frequently would visit Robinson and they befriended him, which is how he came to be in the picture.

He became aware of it when he received an e-mail from Don Dover, a family member in Bradenton, Fla., who subscribes to the New Castle News. Dover wrote to tell Bixler he had seen his picture in the paper. Then Bixler heard from other family members, too.

When he saw the picture, he picked himself out and realized he had been misidentified, he said, as were a couple of the others.

The information with the photo also incorrectly noted only one of the men is still living, when actually, three are, he said. The other two — Robinson and Duane “Tubby” Conners — have died, Bixler added.

To set the record straight, Bixler identified the rest of the men pictured as Jimmy Perrotta of New Castle, himself, Robinson, Conners and Richard Mann, who lives in West Pittsburg.

“I was excited to see that picture in the New Castle News,” Bixler said. “That was nice.”

The picture had been provided by Perrotta’s nephew, Domenick Russo, who also had made the incorrect identifications. But when Russo submitted the photo, he said he did not know all the names.

To Bixler, the picture was a valuable find nevertheless.

It took him back to his teen days when the guys in the picture, who lived on Dushane Street, hung out together. He likened their friendship to the movie, “The Sandlot.”