Est. March 31, 2000 24.641 Previous Hits June 10, 2002 Editor:Tommy Towery http://www.leealumni.com Class of 1964 Page Hits This Issue e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu Staff Writers : Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly , Joy Rubins Morris ,Terry "Moses" Preston Collins Wynn Staff Photographers: Fred & Lynn Sanders Contributers: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 |
Est. March 31, 2000 24.641 Previous Hits June 10, 2002 Editor:Tommy Towery http://www.leealumni.com Class of 1964 Page Hits This Issue e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu Staff Writers : Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly , Joy Rubins Morris ,Terry "Moses" Preston Collins Wynn Staff Photographers: Fred & Lynn Sanders Contributers: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 |
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Looking Back At Post-Graduation Stress Syndrom by Tommy Towery Class of '64 Since we've been on the subject of graduation for the last couple of week's, I thought I'd see what the rest of you remember about how you felt back then. I will tell you up front that I did not adjust very good to not being in school with all of you, or even worse, not even being in the same town. Maybe you were different. I wrote the following paragraphs in "A Million Tomorrows..." about the way I felt after graduating from Lee High School. "A person's life doesn't end just because he graduates from high school and moves out of his hometown. It may seem like it will, and it might hurt like it will, but it won't. It took me a long time to discover that. I had a few bad days following the move. I suffered from homesickness in the worst way. I sat in a new room of a new home in a new town. Beside me sat a telephone that didn't know the number of a single friendly voice that was not long distance. Even the news reporters on the television spoke about people and places that I did not know or care about. The time that I needed for adjustment hadn't been allowed. Even though I knew it was coming, the transition from the high of graduation to the low of the move out of town was an emotional trip which I sometimes thought I might not survive." Since I left town the day after graduation, I was never around all of you to know if anyone else felt the way I did after I left Lee. It's odd, but I had the same feelings after I left the 1990 Reunion. The experience of being with all of you again and the good times I had made it almost impossible to want to go back to reality. I think this website has helped ease those lost feelings, don't you? So, think back to the week after you graduated...and try to remember how you felt. I would like to hear your own stories about how you made the transition from high school student to the real world. Did you sit around and do nothing, or rush out to take on the world? I'd love to print your own memories about how you felt, so e-mail me with your comments. ______________________________________________________ Your Classmates' Summer Camp Memories Ed (die) Paulette, Class of '64 was the first to respond with the right answers. He had a very intersting observation about the process of Summer Camp. Dear Tommy and friends! Hi from Sweden. When I started your lead in, "Do you remember summer camp?" My first response was, "Of course not! I never did that!" Shows what a few years will do to one's memory. As I read your piece, some things began to come back --- I HAD been at summer camp. Why didn't I want to remember it at first. As a quasi-clinical psychologist, I asked myself, "Is it repression of a bad experience?" Did I get my feeling hurt in some way. "Or was it repression?" Did I hurt someone else's feelings? As a quasi-cognitive psychologist, I wondered if my distance-biased random neural network of associations had developed too much distance between the "here and now" and "then and there". With my computer scientist hat on, I just figure that the technology has changed and I no longer have a the cardreader (IBM part number 1402), disk drive (IBM 1311 - 4.25 mbytes), and 7 track magnetic tape drive (IBM 729) that I need to read the old memorys back. The punched cards (a.k.a IBM cards) from 45 years ago are warped anyway! (An then - why do I still remember the part numbers!?) Anyway, finally you have a trivial contest on which I can answer some of the questions: 1. Come by here 2. A duck might be somebody's mother. 3. Maggalina-Haggalina-Ookataka-Wakataka-Okomokopoko-(but her eyes were worse!) - p.s. I cheated don't give me credit for this answer! 4. Ears 5. 500 6. I wanna go home! 7. "Clap your hands!" (In another version "Say your name" (everybody had three syllable names back then! (I've been programming for too much of my life so now I'm nesting parentheses like as Lisp-er! (That's a programming language I don't know! - Break!))) and then there several versions that would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap!) 8. Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (but I cheated again!! Bad Eddie, Bad Bad Eddie!) 9. Ants (I remembered, but then I spoiled it by checking -- your call! Darn that web - it's so tempting?) 10. Micheal O.k. so I cheated a little bit! But it wasn't as bad as when second semester of our senior year the new physics teacher (I've forgotten his name - the retired Army guy), gave us the open-book tests using copies of the standard tests the textbook publisher sent with the teacher's guide -- and I already had my own set of copies at home to "help me study"! I had worked at the textbook exchange as school was starting that year. I didn't miss too much on that test! At least he was better than the teacher we had before him that tried to tell us that the mechanical advantage of a screwdriver depended on the length of its shaft. (She must have been thinking about opening paint cans or changing bicycle tires!) Well greetings from Sweden anyway! Just now the sun goes down at about 11 PM and is up by 2 A.M. it's never really dark. But then I'm in the southern part of Sweden where the days are pretty short. I just took my term final, but I have some papers left to finish and a lab project. Now I remember whý I was so glad to get out of college the first time around. I meant to say that I had gone to camp, but that at first I didn't remember that I had. I think that I even learned one or two of the songs already on Okinawa when I was five years old sitting on the bus on Saturdays on the way from dependent housing in Tin Gann (or whatever) to the movies . I especially remember learning "Don't you laugh when a coffin goes by....", but you didn't mention that one. I was at MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) summer camp a couple of time. Maybe bandcamp one or two summers, but I dropped out of band the last few years of high school. Mostly, I spent the summers at "Home" (note the capital H) in Mississippi. Twelve miles from asphalt with nothing to do but hunt, read, and watch TV. They didn't expect any real work out of me. Got to ride my uncle's palamino gelding sometimes when I was staying with him. (Always had a "boy" behind me to keep me out of trouble.) And to keep the country store when I was at another uncle's place. (All the Royal Crown Cola I could drink (burp!) to wash down the Moonpies.) Then later there was Civil Air Patrol summer camp for several years at Montgomery Air Force Base. I don't remember much campfire singing in C.A.P. Cadance calls was more like it. Serious business, huff and tough -- "Stretch that blanket tighter, Cadet!!", "I wanna SEE myself in those shoetips! Cadet!!". Pseudo Air Force Academy! Still watch my "gig-line", even if I don't wear a web belt anymore. That sort of thing marks a person. Loved leading close order drill. I still shout too loud when I'm calling the dogs. Shame I had flat feet -- really flat feet. Got a 1-Y from the Selective Service and missed all the "fun" you guys had in the late sixties and early seventies. Montgomery Air Force Base was definitely a different sort of summer camp! Bet you didn't get to fly in T33 at your summer camps though? You probably got your fill of it, but I still have dreams of flying. I am getting to go up for an hour in a Cessna or such for my 55th birthday. Gotta get back to my database course now. Lab assignment to finish. Databases I know, but Java I'm having to learn. My best language is still probably Fortran. Fortran IV - not 77. Keeps the cells working to have to learn something new! Took an unpaid sabbatical and have studied fulltime this term. Linguistics, Extreme Programming and Database. Next week it's back to work fulltime as the all-in-one IT specialist at a department at Uppsala University. Sincerely, Ed (die) Paulette (Editor's Note: No Eddie, I didn't fly T-33s at my summer camp, but I got to fly in one later in life, flown by a member of the Canadian percision team, the Snow Birds. Talk about close formation! And, in my senior year in Air Force ROTC, we went to camp at Little Rock AFB, AR and I got to fly in a tanker and watch a B-58 get refuelled. I went to three different survival schools in the Air Force, and none of those were like church camp, believe me.) ______________________________________________________ Cherri Polly Massey, Class of '66 added these insights: 4. Your ears (I have heard Barney singing this more often than anyone should have to endure!) 5. 500 miles (if your at the beginning of the song) 6. Gee, Mom, I wanna go home (I remember it as a song about the army) I only went to camp once. The summer that I turned 13, I went to a chuch camp outside of Birmingham. One of the boys' counselors was 19 and in college. I looked older than 13, so he seemed to take an interest in me. He would always find me and sit with me at group activities. Before the 2 weeks was over, he found out how old I was. On the last evening there, he gave me a dime and told me to call him when I turned 18. I didn't, but spent the dime elsewhere! ______________________________________________________ Skip Cook, Class of '64 got most of the answers correct and reflected that: 5. You can hear the whistle blow five hundred miles. The song was 500 miles with the chorus 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, Lord you can hear the whistle blow 500 miles. 7. Clap your hands! I owe this answer to be an "older parent" listening to my young son sing this during a program at lower school. He just graduated from high school Friday night. 10. Michael row the boat ashore. Halelujah. I can vividly remember digging a foxhole during basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri and singing " Michael row the boat ashore" as I pounded on some brick hard clay with my entrenching tool. The drill sergeant thought I was a fruit cake. ______________________________________________________ Chip Smoak writes: I only got to go to a church camp one summer and they did not sing the normal campfire songs sung at most summer camps. I did not get to go to regular summer camp and did not really have the opportunity sing the regular campfire songs. (I obviously was a deprived child, but I did not know it at the time.) The swimming sessions at the church summer camp that I attended on a one-time basis operated on a buddy system and strictly no mingling of the sexes and no two pieces, much less bikinis. I swam pretty well, having been on an intracity swim team. You guessed it, my luck as usual was bad. I was paired with someone who could not swim well and was restricted to the shallow end of the pool, a real drag. However, that was offset by a pillow fight between the counselor and all the boys that ended with feathers all over our cabin. That was the best part of the whole week. ______________________________________________________ Jennifer Bannecke, Class of '66 got all the answers correct. She adds: What about On Top of Spaghetti? That was my favorite. I went to Girl Scout Camp and broke my toe the first day on a stump in the water. They wanted to take me into town for an x-ray but I wouldn't let them because I was afraid it would hurt!!! DUH! We also covered each other with QT and came home looking like a rusted corpse!!!!!!! (Editor's Note: I remember that at the YMCA camp we were given dozens of bottles of QT (Quick Tan) because Plough Inc., was in the Memphis area. Our favorite thing to do to the campers was to wait until they were asleep and then write something on their foreheads with the QT lotion, which would make the words stand out in BOLD and UN-WASHABLE fashion for several days.) ______________________________________________________ Jim Bannister, Class of '66 writes: I never got to enjoy the summer camp experience when growing up. I do remember the Scout Camps from when my son was in the Scouts and I helped out....Don't remember many of the songs but I do remember that you can tell a Dogwood Tree by it's bark. Trivia Answers: 3. Linda Collinsworth #3 Should get some kind of response from the Provosts....... ______________________________________________________ A Mouth Full submitted by Dwight Jones Class of '64 While waiting for my first appointment in the reception room of a new dentist,I noticed his certificate, which bore his full name. Suddenly, I remembered that a tall, handsome boy with the same name had been in my high school class some 50 years ago. Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was too old to have been my classmate. After he had examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended the local high school. "Yes," he replied. "When did you graduate?" I asked. He answered, "In 1951." "Why, you were in my class!" I exclaimed. He looked at me closely and then asked, "What did you teach?" _______________________________________________ A Woman's Random Thoughts 1) If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it will always be yours. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with. But, if it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your telephone, takes your money, and doesn't appear to realize that you had set it free....... You either married it or gave birth to it. 2) Reason to smile: Every 7 minutes of every day, someone in an aerobics class pulls a hamstring. 3) My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely. 4) The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight shoes. 5) The nice part about living in a small town: When you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does. 6) Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today. 7) Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness. 8) Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes! ! 9) They keep telling us to get in touch with our bodies. Mine isn't all that communicative but I heard from it the other day after I said, "Body, how'd you like to go to the six o'clock class in vigorous toning?" Clear as a bell my body said, "Listen fatty .... do it and die." 10) I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day. 11) If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a noose around your neck? |
_________________________________________ Mini-YaYa Reunion Held by Lynn Bozeman VanPelt Class of '66 Just wanted to drop a note with news of a mini reunion that occurred last night. Eight members from the classes of '65 and '66 met for dinner and a movie ....the occasion was opening day of "Divine Secrets of the YAYA Sisterhood". If you've read it you understand the need to see it with old and dear friends, it you haven't read it....you need to read it and "Litle Altars Everywhere", Rebecca Wells is the author. The following group (with their YAYA names, bestowed by computer at the movie's web site) planned the outing for two weeks:Jennifer Brown DeMarcus (Empress Sassy Mouth), Kathy Harris Jones (Duchess Lost in the Clouds), Judy Scarborough Milner (Viscountess Chocolate Lover), Carol Jean Williams Carroll (Princess Smiling Coyote), Escoe German Beatty (Countess Plays in the Rain); Sara Jane Steigerwald Tartar (Duchess Shakes her Bootie), Nancy Milburn Kalish (Duchess Serious as a Heart Attack), Lynn Bozeman VanPelt (Queeen Raspberry Zinger). The group met at 3pm for a pre-movie cocktail (Sara Jane never made.it...her name should be Princess Chronically Late Arrival), the proceeded to the theatre (Sara Jane WAS the first one THERE), laughed and cried through the movie. Carol Jean and Escoe had to part ways after the movie and the remaining six went out to eat and laugh and visit on into the night. It was a wonderful evening and we've already planned our party for when the video comes out. YaYas who could not make it and were sorely missed were Darla Gentry Steinberg (Queen Curses like a Sailor), Susie Wohschlaeger Schlette (Countess Running River) and Becky Fricke Garrison (Queen Talks my Arm off). Susie did go to the movie at the same time with her daughter (petite yaya) and called us on our cell phone afterwards to compare notes. Nancy was visiting from Atlanta and declared that it was so much fun she'd like to come over quarterly to YAYA with us....great plan. "Make new friends but keep the old, new friends are silver, old ones are gold" ____________________________________ From Our Mailbox Name: Dwight Clark E-mail: Dwight.Clark@msfc.nasa.gov Comments: I work for NASA as a Senior Computer Scientist. I also teach computer couses at night for Faulkner University. My passion is still riding motorcycles. Join me and the Redstone Riders for breakfast and a ride at Mullins every Sat. at 9:00 AM. ______________________________________ Subject: George Williams Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 14:06:29 -0400 From: "Cook, Charles" CookCE@cdm.com Craig Bannecke's vivid description of riding from Florence to Huntsville with Lehman Williams, coupled with the description of George Williams past problems with keeping his vehicle rubber side down, caused some old brain cells to fire and recall a long lost memory. If that memory is correct, at one time Lehman Williams rode a blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle to LHS. It is alleged that Lehman took great sport in riding that motorcycle the evening after the garbage had been picked up and kicking the empty garbage cans with his foot - an early type of soccer. Apparently one of those garbage cans had been placed by the curb after the trash had been collected for the day. Expecting the typical empty can, he found a full one. I don't know if this is a true story however, Lehman Williams did limp around the halls of Lee for several days. Skip Cook Class of '64 __________________________________ Subject: July Get-Together Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 15:57:18 EDT From: NJKINCAID@aol.com Which weekend in July? This could be our topic of discussion at the next breakfast get-together at Mullins. (June 29th - 9:00 a.m.) For anyone interested in joining us, we're planning to meet in the room located at the upper right-hand corner of the restaurant. We'll also have a balloon or sign to help you locate us. Hope to see some new faces there!!! Judy "Fedrowisch" Kincaid Class of '66 njkincaid@hotmail.com (Editor's Note: Judy, Moses informed me that he is looking at the 20th of July for the get-together. If there is somewhere where we could rent a room for the afternoon and evening, I am sure that we could each chip in part to cover it.) ______________________________________ Remember When? submitted by Spence Thompson Class of '64 Were you a kid in the Fifties or earlier? Everybody makes fun of our childhood! Comedians joke. Grandkids snicker. Twenty-somethings shudder and say "Eeeew!" But was our childhood really all that bad? Judge for yourself: In 1953: The US population was less than 150 million -- yet you knew more people then, and knew them better. And that was good. The average annual salary was under $3,000 -- yet our parents could put some of it away for a rainy day and still live a decent life. And that was good. A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents -- but it was safe for a five-year-old to skate to the store and buy one. And that was good. Prime time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriett, and Lassie - so nobody'd ever heard of ratings or filters. And that was good. We didn't have air-conditioning -- so the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when you fell off your bike. And that was good. Your teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan or Mr. Adkins - but not Ms. Becky or Mr. Dan. And that was good. The only hazardous material you knew about -- was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner. And that was good. Most families needed only one job -- meaning Mom was home when school let out. And that was good. You loved to climb into a fresh bed -- because sheets were dried on the clothesline. And that was good. People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives -- so "child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles. And that was good. TV was in black-and-white -- but all outdoors was in glorious color. And that was certainly good. Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor -- and the Dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs. And that was very good. Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard -- and chickens behind the garage. And that was definitely good. And just when you were about to do something really bad -- chances were you'd run into your Dad's high school coach, or the nosy old lady from up the street, or your little sister's piano teacher, or somebody from church - ALL of whom knew your parents' phone number And YOUR first name. And even THAT was good! ______________________________ THIS DOES SAY IT ALL!!! After hearing that the state of Florida changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her drivers license with her face covered, I believe this is even more appropriate. Read on, please! This is an Editorial written by an American citizen, published in a Tampa Newspaper. He did quite a job; didn't he? IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is almost entirely comprised of descendants of immigrants. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language! "In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture. If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so. But, once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great American freedoms, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE. _________________________________ |
Still Crazy After All These Years |
Web Poll Results Favor Cream The results of the latest web poll indicate that a simple majority of you prefer the Cream colored page background to the Blue one. The Doesn't Matter group could have influenced the vote if it really made a difference to them. For the time, we will stay with the Cream colored background, and perhaps later in the year we'll see if the feeling is still the same. ________________________________ |
