Est. March 31, 2000 42,124 Previous Hits July14, 2003 Editor:Tommy Towery http://www.leealumni.com Class of 1964 Page Hits This Issue e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly , Joy Rubins Morris, Cherri Polly Massey, Paula Spencer Kephart, Rainer Klauss, Bobby Cochran, Collins (CE) Wynn, Eddie Sykes Staff Photographers: Fred & Lynn Sanders Contributers: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 |
Two Bit, Four Bits, Six Bits, A Dollar - Everyone For The Lee Highwaymen Stand And Deliver By Collins (CE) Wynn and Tommy Towery Class of '64 In this week's mail was an item that demands more than just an inclusion in the "From Our Mailbox" spot. It was from Collins (CE) Wynn, Class of '64 who wrote: "I sure was surprised to read some months ago that our alma mater was named after a road (Lee Highway). In all the time I spent in and around our school I never heard that statement made before. Can it actually be true? Perhaps I just missed it - did anyone else know? If it is correct, then why did we spend all our energy developing a school spirit based on a false assumption (named for General Lee)? Should not someone have told us? We could have been the Lee Highwaymen (a sexist glorification of criminals, I suppose) and instead of the "Traveller" we could have had "Lee's Street Directory". Just think, our mascot could have been an asphalt laying machine - heck, all this other stuff would be a non-issue. Just goes to show you can't trust anyone over 30. I'm serious - is that really true?" And the answer is: "Yes, Collins, there really is a Lee Highway, and Lee High School was really named for it." When starting Lee's Traveller back in the Sixties, we were going to put Robert E. Lee High School on it, but were informed by Mr. Fain that we were not Robert E. Lee High School. There is a school in Montgomery named for the general, but we were not. It was then (10th Grade and 1961) that I first learned that we were named after Lee Highway, and not Robert E. Lee. Now mind you the Highway was named for General Lee, so in a round-about-way we were. Still Woody Beck came up with the name "Lee's Traveller" after General Lee's horse, for the name of the school paper and we put a picture of Lee sitting on Traveller on the front page of the first issue. Perhaps none of you ever gave a second thought to why we were just "Lee" and not "Robert E. Lee". But that is the reason, and way back then Jane Riddle Parks told us about it when we were creating the masthead for the paper. Of course, in today's "political correct" (PC) world, a Highwayman is a thief and a thief has gang connections, so I am sure that the mascot would still have had to be changed and the PC fight would still have happened. I don't know if an asphalt laying machine would be PC either, nor would a white line going down the middle of a highway. We would probably have to have changed it to a roadsign or something similiar which would have been PC. __________________________________ |
We Are Fami-LEE! |
Est. March 31, 2000 42,124 Previous Hits July14, 2003 Editor:Tommy Towery http://www.leealumni.com Class of 1964 Page Hits This Issue e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly , Joy Rubins Morris, Cherri Polly Massey, Paula Spencer Kephart, Rainer Klauss, Bobby Cochran, Collins (CE) Wynn, Eddie Sykes Staff Photographers: Fred & Lynn Sanders Contributers: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 |
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A friend is a person who will bail you out of jail...a true friend is a person will be sitting there beside you in jail saying "Damn, wasn't that fun!". I was driving to work earlier in the week when I heard the DJ on the local station talking about friends. He stated the quote above. For some reason I thought of George Lehman Williams when I heard that. Only in my case, the friend sitting beside me would have been Bob Walker. And what would the fun have been? Probably cruising late at night and throwing firecrackers or water balloons at fellow classmates in an unsuspected driveby attack. I still call Bob every year on his birthday and he calls me on mine. That is a minimum. With him in Florida and me in Tennessee, it is difficult to do more than stay in touch by phone, but we try. Take a moment and reflect on your high school days. Who would be the friend sitting beside you in jail back then, and what is your relationship with that person now? If that special friend is not still with us, then who would be the next most likely person to be sitting beside you? Take a moment and send that friend an e-mail or call him or her on the phone and say just one line. Tell them "Damn, didn't we have fun together." Just send them that one line...see what response it brings. If they responde, then you can send them the reason - the frind in jail story. I hope that maybe some of you will receive some as well. We could start a "Friend" movement! T. Tommy _____________________________________ |
Last Week's Mystery Building Subject: Mystery Building Rick Edmonds Class of '65 I think the mystery building is Johnson & Mahoney Men's Wear. If I remember correctly, it's where we rented our tuxedos or dinner jackets for the Prom. I think Bill's Mens Wear also occupied the same location at a later date. Good guess Rick, but wrong. Actually this turned out to be a trick question. I got the photo out of a book that identified the store as being on the corner of Jefferson Street and Washington Street in the Fifties. Thinking it over, there is no corner of Jefferson and washington Street. The building in the photo is Fowler's Clothing. I expected many of you to misidentify this store as Dunnavants. (By the way... look in the window above the "F" in Fowlers and you'll see a fan. Notice all the other windows are open. This justifies Barbara's article on Huntsville Heat.) ______________________________________ |
What We Have Here Is a Failure To Communicate: A Response (With Adorable Recently De-Classified Document Attached) by Rainer Klauss Class of '64 In a recent article on the mysteries of language acquisition, the difficulties of cross-cultural education, and the fascination of slang, Professor Thomas Towery of The University of Memphis wonders how I and the other Germans who attended Lee learned to speak Southern English. It weren't no big deal, actually. I mean, we're talking about the children of rocket scientists, right? Just kidding. Speaking for myself, the deep, dark secret of my success is that I learned English when I was a little kid in short pants (not Lederhosen; those came later).* As I mentioned in a Traveller article last December, my mother, older brother, and I joined my father in El Paso, Texas in May of 1947. I was about one and a half years old then. The Germans at Ft. Bliss lived in apartments that were converted wards and outbuildings of the Beaumont Army Hospital. This enclave soon came to be known as "Little Germany." The scientists and their families were still under the custody and protection of the United States Army and having everyone in one settlement was beneficial for all. For one thing, it was easy to provide services and maintain security that way. In addition, it gave the families a sense of solidarity as they began life in the new world. Although there were some restrictions to their movement in the beginning, families were soon free to travel as they wished into downtown El Paso, the surrounding areas ( Texas, New Mexico), and for the adventurous ones who owned cars, to Arizona and California. So, did I learn much English in those years in Texas? Not really. Dieter, my brother, was in grammar school and was learning the language, but he and I still conversed mainly in German. I attended kindergarten in 1949, but it was run by German women and all my fellow student were Germans. I recall one intense and remarkable exposure to the English-speaking world then: my family went to see the movie Dumbo at a theater in downtown El Paso when it was re-released in 1949. According to my parents, I got very excited, jabbering away in German with delight at the movie, even though my understanding of the characters and story-line was limited. Tommy has recently revealed how formative it was for him to see Flying Tigers. Perhaps my love for fantasy and science fiction was influenced by seeing an elephant fly at such an impressionable age. Besides that, if you'll take a close look at my alien registration card (more about that later), you'll see that Dumbo and I shared a remarkable physical trait. That's why, when Professor Woody Beck and I went flying earlier this year, I had absolutely no fear of an aerial mishap. Had that plane broken apart I could have taken care of a safe descent for both of us. Woody (after a few moments of disbelief and then relief) could have hung on to my back, and then we could have plunged down in free-fall (like Collins used to do) or just taken a sedate sight-seeing glide. No problemo, either way. Did I mention my love of fantasy (or silliness)? Meanwhile, back at the ranch the German settlers were packing up. Our mass migration from Texas to the verdant mountains of North Alabama and the new employment center of Redstone Arsenal started in the spring of 1950. One problem that arose immediately was the shortage of housing. In Huntsville the families were not to be sequestered on an Army base; they were on their own. The city's population had been stable at about 16,000 for awhile, and then all of sudden 350-400 people showed up looking for shelter (and escape from the heat and the damn humidity). Everyone found accommodations eventually, though some were rustic and sub-standard. There was still some clustering of German families, but that had more to do with the limited housing (apartments) that was available than any desire to band together. About the alien registration card: because the scientists and their families came to America under the aegis of the Army, nobody went through formal immigration procedures. We were all truly "wetbacks." (Except for those children born in El Paso, of course; they were full-fledged American citizens at birth.) When it became clear how valuable the rocket team was and that we were going to be permanent residents, some stratagem had to be devised to get us into the country officially. We had all been in Huntsville for a few months, but then everyone trooped back to El Paso, got on buses to Juarez, Mexico (just across the Rio Grande from El Paso), filled out immigration papers, and then re-boarded the buses to drive back across the bridge and officially "enter" the United States. You'll see that I got my papers on July 12, 1950. In case you're wondering about the strange deformations on my skull , it's true that I was a registered alien at the time, but those aren't Klingon markings; the card is de-laminating after all these years. My family first lived at Longwood Court, an apartment complex on Longwood Drive, close to Whitesburg Drive and Fifth Avenue Elementary. Roper's (the florist) lay a short distance away and just beyond that toward the center of town sat the Huntsville Hospital. My main playmate was still a German boy (Rolf Bergeler, if anyone is interested), but we also branched out and made friends with other kids in the complex. I don't remember learning English then, but, of course, that's when it must have begun: as a completely natural learning experience in the midst of play and getting to know people. As many of you realize, there's absolutely no anxiety involved in picking up a foreign language in those tender years; it just happens, no sweat or effort involved. Contrast that with the trials we went through trying to learn Spanish or French in junior high. After a short stay at Longwood Court, we moved to a rental house on Overton Road in Mayfair. That's where my Americanization accelerated. I had a whole neighborhood of American playmates: John Butler Saint, Betty Lou Hughes, Eddie Beresford, and a bunch of Miller kids right next door. I bravely ate my first pimento cheese sandwich in that neighborhood and drank my first glass of Kool-aid. Good stuff. My ongoing love affair with cheeseburgers started then. I learned how to play doctor, an important step in any boy's education, and an indication, perhaps, of just how smooth my English had become. By the time I entered school at Fifth Avenue, I was ready to learn everything a first-grader should know. Nobody needed to translate the words of the hokey-pokey for me. I knew what it was all about. Finally, though, I experienced both a triumph and a failure in communication. As I mastered the language of my new homeland, I gradually lost my fluency in German. *As to the other Germans at Lee, I can offer only a few comments or guesses about how they learned English. I think I remember most of them, if not all. Gunter Klauss, my Texas-born younger brother, had a strange tendency to combine the languages in his early years: "Wo ist die Key to die Train?" (Where is the key to the train?) We finally got him talking on one track in elementary school. If you remember my Valentine's Day article in this paper, you'll know that Gudrun Wagner Klauss couldn't have learned any English from me. She picked up English during her summer vacation in 1954 and then got lucky and landed in Mrs. Ward's class at Rison. Pete Beier is one of my old German buddies and learned the language as I did, on the streets. I could be mistaken, but I think Chris Kroeger, Hans Hoelzer, and Christian Hoberg were born in Texas, too. I don't know anything about the personal histories of Axel Hein, and the Wuenscher's, Bernd and Heidi. ________________________________________________ |
Mystery Photo of the Week This is a hard one, because it happened before most of us paid any attention to what was going on in the real world. Hints: It happened in Huntsville, and it was of direct concern to some of you. _______________________________________________ |
A Rerun Of The Movie Idea by Escoe German Beatty Class of '65 Tommy...Fearless Leader for the memory joggers... Alas, you have struck a nerve! I remember so many of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies and "Where the Boys Are" was a classic. "Summer Place" is an all time favorite along with all the others like it... "Susan Slade", "Rome Adventure" etc. (fading memory can't recall other titles). I loved many of these but the one that I first loved was "Cinderella". I bought the fairy tale and was quite sure that there would be a Prince Charming someday in my life and if I was real lucky maybe someday I could be bell of the ball! HAHA! I have often said that we lived through the last days of the "Age of Innocence". The world changed very rapidly after the mid-Sixtes. We were fortunate to have been so protected in our world...we had fun by pushing on the limits. Without limits everything is wide open and one never knows where to start or stop! All those old movies in our world today seem corny or boring to those who do not know better. They serve as very fond memories to me of a time that was very real, very exciting, and very innocent. By the way, I did find my Prince Charming (had to kiss a few frogs but did find him and still have him), it hasn't always been the fairy tale sometimes it's been more like "The Good The Bad And The Ugly" but we have survived so far! Thanks for all your hard work and your dillegence. ______________________________________ |
From Our Mailbox Subject: Films of Lee events Eddie Sykes Class of '66 I remember the coaches filmed the Lee football games. We would come back to school on Sunday and watch them over and over in the fieldhouse. I heard that they (the coaches) gave some of those old films to some of the players years later. I was wondering if anyone still had a copy and was hoping maybe it had/could be converted to VHS. That would hold true for films of any old school activites that may have been captured. Please write and let us know if you have or know of someone that has anything like this. _______________________________________ Subject: Info on Cecil Taylor Escoe German Beatty Class of '65 Barbara Seely Cooper asked for info on Cecil Taylors family in her article. Cecil died earlier this year...his daughter Kathy (Mrs. Harvey) Cutter lives on Chandler Rd. ______________________________________________ Patricia "Patsy" Cloud Scharninghausen scharninghausen@hotmail.com Class of '70 From: Landstuhl, Germany What a wonderful website. I was Patricia "Patsy" Cloud way back when. I loved the "then and now" pictures. I think I am more like then and GONE! ha ha. I have wonderful memories of Lee High school. I will be flying back to Huntsville this weekend to visit family. Hope to stop by the school for a look. I'll take lots of tissues for a big cry! ______________________________________________ Subject: Lee's Traveller Collins (CE) Wynn Class of '64 Tommy, I know you've heard it many times before but I'll say it at least once more and provide some evidence to support my statement. You are providing a most valued personal service to your friends and colleagues and have assumed the role of catalyst to help us all remain true to each other. My evidence is the following email I received recently from Walt Thomas - I have not talked to him for at least 20-25 years. Without your efforts with the "Traveller" we almost surely would never have crossed paths again. His comments about "dads" are particularly poignant. Please invite everyone to drop him a note and renew old acquaintances. I have deleted a couple of personal comments. The email follows......send replies to wst65@hotmail.com. Hey Collins! OK......that's the first time and probably the last time I've ever called you by that name. I recently ran into Harold Shepard and he told me about the Lee site, and man, I've been spending hours looking thru all the past issues. I was rolling at some of the tales in your "Capers"! The " Chiz Whiz" was a classic. I was thinking the night I got close-lined we were actually lifting candy from, I believe, Randall Stinnet's grandfather's delivery truck there on McKinley; Or maybe that was another night. Some of the nighttime prowlings run together. We'd all tell our parents we were spending the night with one another and then stay out all night. The night we got the candy it stormed and we stayed in a house nobody was living in over behind Lee. And then there was the night we stole Ted Penhall's Dad's pickup over on Maysville Road. Were you with us that night? I remember Jimmy and Bobby Durham, but not sure who else. It sure triggered a lot of memories of the "good ol' days", and now I really believe they were good days. I'm sure it was a different perspective from our parents view, but then we didn't have the responsibilities then. That's what made them so good. I've been traveling a lot the past eight years, working as an install/project manager for a company out of Massachusetts. I'm in Taiwan right now, and have been for the past almost two years. I get home about every two months for a couple of weeks. Worked all over the past eight years, Taiwan, China, Singapore and Korea in Asia. Sicily, Netherlands, France in Europe and several places in the U.S. Planning {hoping) for a stateside project by mid-summer when I finish here. Maybe either Manassas or Richmond, Virginia. . Ran into Goose a couple of months back. I see Mike Smith once in a while when I'm home, but so little time to look up and visit folks and take care of family matters too. It reminds me of being home on leave, which it about what it amounts too. Reading all the stories makes me really reflect and wonder how my life would have changed had I stayed in Huntsville and finished at Lee. I got to reading and saw the article about the Goose Gang" and remembered a lot. I think one of the biggest things in the whole deal was even tho I didn't have a dad around, I'll never forget that all four of my best friend's dads always treated me almost like one of their own. I include Billy Layne, who was Mike's stepfather, because he was a father to Mike. I'll never forget the morning I was leaving for basic, your Dad came into the bedroom at 6 in the morning at Pat and Roger's house over on Birch and gave me ten dollars. Those are the things a person doesn't forget. Goose's dad is turning 90 and lives with Goose now. Hope this finds you.....it was the most recent address I saw. Drop me a line, Fuzz.....it's been a while. Droop _________________________________________ |
My Mystery Building Photo by Collins (CE) Wynn Class of '64 I have been enjoying the "mystery building" contest and have to admit that I have yet to guess correctly. Of course, after the answer is revealed I slap myself on the forehead and utter "Damn, I knew that'. It's always easier when you know the answer. Some weeks ago my brother, Don (LHS '67) sent me 2 disks containing a treasure trove of our family photographs, many of which I have not seen before. One of the photos caught my eye as a possible "mystery place" entry for our site. I predict this one will be tough because there are so few visual clues and it was taken so many years ago (around 1950). For that reason I feel compelled to provide more clues than normal. a. The two boys in the water are myself and Don; the standing child is unknown. b. The year is about 1950. c. The view is looking east across Triana Boulevard; the buildings are on the other side of the street. d. The buildings are of light colored stone construction and were, I believe, the West Huntsville Church of Christ. I could say more but that's enough for for the moment. Because of his comments about the Center Theater and the Rebel Inn, my guess is Tommy may be our only classmate who will recognize it. Anyway, give it your best shot. ___________________________________ |
Our family left Oak Ridge Tn. and moved to Huntsville in 1959. The population was just over 29,000. Like most newcomers, my father was drawn there to work on the space program. The space race was on and Huntsville had been selected to play a key role in that program. The city grew quickly to 100,000 creating a demand for new schools. Our Lee was converted from a junior to senior high school to help meet that need. I loved Hunstville, Lee, and the Sixties. It was a great place to grow up. However, I lost two of my heroes in 1961, Kennedy was assinated and my father died of a heart attack. My mother worked at Sears and we stayed in Hunstville until I graduated in 1966. We had no family in Huntsville and when my mother got an opportunity to transfer to a new Sears store in Memphis, she took it. I had planned on going to UAH, but that changed to MSU when we moved to Memphis. In Memphis we also cruised Shoney's. One night in '67 I followed a Volkswagen full of girls with 47 Alabama tags to the Mid South Coliseum. It turned out to be Lee students going to see the Beatles in Memphis. I wanted to go, but all the tickets were sold out. I knew most of girls then, but I can't remember who they were now. I followed them up to the doors and waived goodbye as they entered. I hung around for a little while waiting for the traffic to die down and someone arriving late with an extra ticket sold it to me for $6 (all the money I had). What a night, but I never saw my friends again. I left Memphis State University to attend a Technical College in '68 because of my interest in computer programming. After graduation I worked for several companies in computer related jobs. I was married to Susan, the best thing in my life since Lee, in '73. She pushed me along in my carrier to advance to a manager of MIS. I was really happy to just be a programmer. In 1988 I achieved another goal (and the goal of nearly every Memphian) by going to work for FedEx. We had two girls along the way. After both of them graduated from High School and entered college, I accepted a transfer to the FedEx development center in Orlando Fl in 2000. That was another life time dreamI realized - to move to Florida. Every since my first trip to PC with my girlfriend's family (Sandra Parks daughter of Jean and Grady Reaves), I have wanted to live their. FedEx offered me incentives, relocation expenses, and a bonus to move there. Of course, I told them that they would have to twist my arm to make me go ! We now live in Lake Mary Fl, only 34 miles from Daytona. My wife has retired from IRS and we spend a lot of time at the beach. I am eligible for early retirement but holding out for some early out incentives. (Twist my arm ) I'll let you know when it happens so you can come visit me and we'll go to the beach. That's how I ended up in Orlando (Lake Mary) from Huntsville. I just recently achieved another goal. After 40 years of preparation, I finally got to write for my High School Newspaper. Who said you can never go back ! Never stop following that dream ! _____________________________________________ (Editor's Note: Who were the Lee girls that drove to Memphis to attend The Beatles concert? It would be fun to know. If any of you have an idea or if you were one of them, then e-mail us.) |
How I Ended Up In Lake Mary, FL by Eddie Sykes Class of '66 |
A Mild-Mannered Man Submitted by Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly Class of '64 A mild-mannered man was tired of being bossed around by his wife, so he went to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist said he needed to build his self-esteem, and so gave him a book on assertiveness, which he read on the way home. He had finished the book by the time he reached his house. The man stormed into the house and walked up to his wife. Pointing a finger in her face, he said, "From now on, I want you to know that I am the man of this house, and my word is law! I want you to prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my meal, I expect a sumptuous dessert afterward. Then, after dinner, you're going to draw me my bath so I can relax. And when I'm finished with my bath, guess who's going to dress me and comb my hair " "The funeral director," said his wife. _________________________________ |
