Est. March 31, 2000 42,584 Previous Hits July 28, 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 |
Last Week's Mystery Photo Subject: Mystery picture Annette McCraney Class of '64 Rainer, Was it an American Citizenship Swearing- in?. My dad was a Civil Defense policeman, fully sworn in and gun-packing and uniformed on certain weekends. He became friends with a "real" policeman, whose name I unfortunately can't recall. His wife was a concentration camp survivor and became an American Citizen at that ceremony. (If, indeed that is what it is.) She and I would meet on Saturday morning and go shopping in beautiful downtown Huntsville and have ice cream sodas at the drugstore. I believe my Dad went to that swearing in, but don't remember why I didn't. I really can't tell the date of the picture, which might be earlier than the event I remember which was in the early sixtiesl, but I'll let my first guess stand. _______________________________________________ Subject: Photo!! Axel Hein Class of ' Citizenship swearing-in ceremony of the 1st group of Operation Paperclip (Operation Paperclip end of WW II till 1964.It was the transfer of Nazi technology and personnel form post -war Germany. The 1st group were POW's i.e. von Braun, Holl.etc.135 families. Group 2- 57-58,about 15 families and the last group 63-64 8 families.Ok No more rambling!! ______________________________________ Subject: Mystery Photo J.R. Brooks Class of '64 I believe the mystery photo shows naturalized citizens taking their oaths to support the Constitution. It probably includes the parents of many of our classmates. I think the judge in the upper part of the picture is U.S. District Judge Seybourn Lynne who normally held court in Birmingham, but came to Huntsville for the big event. The place may be the stage at Huntsville High School. ______________________________________________ Subject: Mystery Picture Bob Alverson Class of '65 I believe the mystery picture is of the swearing in as new citizens of the Von Braun team at Huntsville High School. ___________________________________________ Subject: Mystery Photo Collins Wynn Class of '64 Tommy, do I get two guesses on the mystery photo? I'll assume so and beg forgiveness if I'm allowed only one. a. A naturalization ceremony; or, b. (far less likely) A mass military induction ceremony. ___________________________________________ |
From Our Mailbox Subject: Hello from Gary Kinkle Gary Kinkle Class of '64 CE, how have you been? Fine, I hope. I've been quite amused with your stories you've submitted to the Lee web site. I thought maybe you could write a story about how Milton Shelton turned into "Spiderman", when he got real"relaxed". I remember Milton had an obsession with climbing on top of the bowling alley on the Parkway (I don't remember the bowling alley's Name). Keep the stories flowing! _____________________________________ Subject: True Friends & Jail Jim Bannister Class of '66 The question posed in last week's Traveller really stirred the old gray matter and brought back many memories. Who would be sitting in jail with me? On one side would be Danny Johnson and on the other side Randy Goodpasture. No, check that, Randy was always the voice of reason and kept the rest of us out of serious trouble. He would be the one to bail us out but still the truest of friends. I lost contact with Danny and haven't seen him in 20+ years. I see Randy every five years at the reunions. I had considered submitting some of our capers, much like Fuzzy did, but some things should remain untold. With the wisdom of age, I look back in wonder that we survived our high school days. "Damn that was fun" __________________________________________ Subject: Lee Highway? Eddie Burton Class of 66 I attended Lee from 8th grade through 12th grade and this year is the first time I ever heard that Lee was named for a highway. Wonder why nobody told us? My cousin went to Robert E. Lee in Montgomery and the sports guys who announced the state football scores would say Lee High Huntsville or Lee High Montgomery. It's kind of like finding out you were adopted when you're 56 years old. Also, I remember Axel Hein very well. He was trained in martial arts and was an excellent wrestler. He put me on the mat at least a half dozen times. ________________________________________________ Subject: Friends keeping in touch with friends Linda Beal Walker Class of '66 Tommy, your article about keeping in touch with friends sparked -- exploded memories. Thanks to email I have been able to stay in touch with friends that would not write or call, but email regularly. One being my long time friend, Carol Barker Kinkle, who now lives in Miami, and my friend, Barbara Gates McAllister, married to Jerrell. But the friend that jumped into my mind was Claudia Duke. In the first years of Lee, seventh grade and up, my father and I would stop each morning and pick up Claudia to ride to school with us. She always carried her lunch, an egg salad sandwich, and I have to say that to this day, when I catch the aroma of egg salad, I think of her. AND THEN --- Claudia, and her mother, were responsible for my first kiss, at a party at Claudia's house, while playing a game of Pleased or Displeased, in which Mrs. Duke was displeased and the only way to please her was to have a young man kiss me ( and I still remember who it was). Being shy, as I was then, it was not the most pleasant thing that ever happened to me, it took five people to hold me in my chair while this boy, who really didn't want to kiss me either, did. However, my friendship with Claudia continued for many years. I lost touch with her after graduation and I was sad when I learned, per this website, that she had passed away. As always, Tommy, thanks for the memories. _______________________________________ Subject: Friend in Jail Roger Pentecost Class of '6 For me that would be Wayne Gentles Class of '65 and he and I are still friends even after all the trouble he got me into. The next would be Sonny Turner and Bobby Terrell who got me into additonal trouble. Glad I don't hang around with such lawbreakers. Became a Madison County Deputy later in life and had to explain all of this then to. ___________________________________________ Subject: 10&U Girls FastPitch Softball Roger Pentecost Class of '6 Tommy, Cannot help but brag, my daughter was 11 on July 14yth and during that week she and her team North Alabama Rockets won the NSA "A" State Championship and then on to the USFA WORLD SERIES which they won also. Their record for this season was 52-4-1. Maybe Lee is recruiting. ______________________________________ Subject: Home to Stay, I Hope Don Blaise Just wanted you to know that Judy and I are back home in Huntsville. The rest of the Blaise boys are coming back home to Bama too. Ron is already in Clanton with a new job and Doug, Lee-67', will probably be in Birmingham in a year or so. Its so nice to hear people speak with Southern accents and say "yall". Most Coloradoans don't wave at you when you pass them on a country road and they don't stop out of respect when a funeral is passing. Not saying that the people aren't nice there, because they really are. Stuff like that may sound corny but I missed it. Being Southern is more than a state of mind, its a way of life. A life I really missed. God bless the USA and God bless Alabama. __________________________________________ The Guest Book was signed by: Cindy "Dove" Barker Class of '71 ________________________________ Ginger Dickerson Canfield Huntsville High Class of '72 I am NOT a LHS graduate due to a "rezone plan" , but "Jack", John Dickerson Jr.,"Jill",Joyce Dickerson Moon, and "Patti",Patricia Birchfield Hester are my half brother and half sisters,respectively.When I stumbled onto this site accidentally,I noticed that Jill is a missing classmate.My last address on her was Jill (Mrs. Rick) Moon 2900 Johnson St. Hopewell, Va.23860.If this is incorrect, you can contact Jack Dickerson in Arnold, Md or at the pentagon, but I believe you have his information though.By the way, your site is WONDERFUL and I loved reliving the memories, even though I was a baby sister (Class of '72) from HHS!!! _______________________________________________ |
The Social Evils of Air-Conditioning, Television, and Telephones by Eddie Sykes Class of '66 As we reflect back on the era of our "Lee High School Days", it might be categorized the end of the "Good old days". We were on the edge of a decade of change that the world had never seen the like of before. Most of us lived out the "American Dream" in the age of innocence just before the technological, sexual, and social revolution that swept our country. We didn't worry about drugs, gang violence, or our sexual orientation. Most of us had no sexual orientation at all. We thought condoms were really sold to prevent babies not diseases. I don't think Herpes or AIDs had been invented yet. However, I would like to reflect some of the advancements that contributed to that change and influenced how we got from here from there. Most of us grew up before air-conditioning, television, or telephones (as we know them today). As kids we were driven outside, to the pool, or to the movie theaters by the heat. Afternoons were made for neighborhood games as we vacated our homes in search for a breeze and some shade. We were the first family on our block to get a TV and the floor was wall to wall kids before the heat drove us outside. I was in high school before we got our first window air conditioner and life was never the same after that. We only had a couple of local TV channels. With air-conditioning you could now stand to stay inside to watch TV day and night - - that is if you liked Perry Como and Lawerence Welk. Most of us only had one telephone that came with a short cord and usually placed in the kitchen or family room within earshot of mom. So most of our conversations were on where and when we would meet our friends. We developed lasting friendships because we spent a lot of time with each other. Everybody knew everybody, back before air-conditioning, because people came outside of their homes and socialized with their neighbors in the afternoons. We all went to neighborhood schools and our parents were involved in school activities because they knew the kids. There was really not much difference between the haves and the have-nots. At Lee I don't ever recall any social outcasts or have-nots. Life was simple, because things were simple - not that much to do but interact and have fun with each other. Life changed quickly for all of us. Color and cable TV came along as well as central air-conditioning. Not only did we get long telephone cords but we got extensions in every room. Most of us still remember sitting in the house and watching TV the whole weekend of Kennedy's assassination. That was really the beginning to national news broadcasting. The TV began to tell us how the rest of the country lived. Soon we learned of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. There was suddenly so much stuff to do and try How about free love ? I did not realize that it could be bought. And with the social revolution also came busing. Neighborhood schools became a thing of the past in many areas. The technology revolution made TV's cheap and we had one in every room. Cable brought us stations and programming from coast to coast. The information age had begun and if you missed something so what? The VCR was invented to replay it. Telephones went to wireless and then cell phones and beepers were invented. I won't pick on computers - that's a whole topic all of its own. And with electric garage door openers there was no need to go outside at all - ecept to cut the grass... then lawn service came along. My point is that our life changed drastically because the opportunity to experience things without having to actually experience them became a reality. As we withdrew into our own little world, the real world changed before us on the TV. These advances in technology were good but the social impact of them definitely ended our era. "Ah yes, the good old days." _____________________________________ |
We Are Fami-LEE! |
Est. March 31, 2000 42,584 Previous Hits July 28, 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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Thanks again for all of you who have sent things in to support our weekly newspaper. Of course everything can't be published at the same time, so some things may take a week or so to get into print. It takes all of you to make The Traveller. Memphis was hit with a major gale-force windstorm and knocked out power for two-thirds of the city and while the editor has power, he does not have cable modem and hense the high-speed connection it takes to easily publish Lee's Traveller. An alternate process of publishing this week will be tried to make it easier, so things will look just a little different. We have officially launched the Get-Together event for 2003, Lee's Homecoming. More information will follow. Please try to put it on your calendar and let's have a good turnout. T. Tommy _____________________________________ |
Big Wheels Keep On Turnin'... Rollin' On The River by Don, Mary, John, Craig and Jennifer Classes of 65 and 66 Thought I would share with you classmates a gathering over the Fourth of July weekend a few of us General(s) had in Guntersville, Alabama. Don and Mary Stroud hosted and entertained Jennifer and I as well as John Drummond and his friend Donna on their houseboat and future retirement home. We had an extra special co-host in Don's mother Mrs. Stroud, who spent the weekend with all of us as we cruised the lake and watched the Guntersville City fireworks from the top deck of the USS Stroud. Around 9:00pm on the evening of the 4th, the city brought out a barge and anchored it amongst several hundred boats in the middle of the lake just west of the Highway 431 bridge. It looked like a small city floating on the lake with all the running lights aglow from the boats on the water and the thousands of cars lined along the cause way and roads around the lake. It was an absolutely beautiful evening. One of the local radio stations pre-empted the Braves game and played Patriotic Music while the barge launched a 23 minute array of colorful fireworks into the late night sky.It was a great evening spent with wonderful friends and family. (By the way the Braves won) I know John and I particularly enjoyed the time we had with Don's mother, as we relived some of the great times and experience we had from our high school and college days up at the Stroud cabin at Guntersville lake. Mrs. Stroud, or as we all affectionately called her "Mama Stroud" pointed out to John and I both that we were probably the only two that ever got injured from all the times and kids that came up and water skied at their place. I brought along an old photograph that I found of all of us taken by Don back in the late 60's as we stood together in a group at the cabin. I'll have to say we were a lot thinner, a lot less gray and with a great deal more hair in those days. However Mrs. Stroud is still every bit as beautiful now as she was then....the kind of beauty that glows because of what's within more so then what is without. What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate not only our country's heritage but our own heritage at this special 4th of July gathering. Once again Tommy your efforts on putting this Web page to press every week has allowed many of us to re-connect, re-new and reacquaint ourselves with people who've meant so much to us as friends growing up and as extended family and parents that influenced our lives. Only thing I can figure is the guy that said "you can never go home again" must not have had a good web page !! __________________________________________ |
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Walt Thomas Class Year Other Might the "Mystery Building" sent in by Collins be the McCormick YMCA? Yes it is. ________________________________ |
I Was A Reddy Kilowatt by Mike Acree Class of '64 Rainer's ammonia-soaked memoir inspires me to recall my own first two summer jobs. The morning after graduation, I reported at 8 a.m. to the Aerophysics Branch of the Physical Sciences Laboratory of the U.S. Army Missile Command. (Can't believe I still remember all of that.) I was one of five Lee students awarded a summer job by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, of which I had never heard. That first morning, my boss, Dr. Oscar M. Essenwanger, called me into his office and treated me to a 2-hour lecture in which he derived the least-squares equations for linear regression of logarithmically transformed data. I was feeling pleased that I could even follow the gist; I knew what logarithms were, and had been exposed to summation notation, and the partial derivatives were partially intuitive. But at the end he handed me a large sheaf of papers and told me to go to work. I stared at them for perhaps half a day, until I could screw up my courage to go in and tell him I didn't have the slightest idea what to do. He was naturally appalled and disgusted to find that he had wasted the entire morning on that beautiful lecture for my benefit, but recovered well and steeled himself to the task of explaining concretely what I was to do. The data were measurements of vector wind shears (which Dr. Essenwanger called "wector vind shears"), of interest because they exert a toppling effect on a missile. At the time, I was only dimly aware that my assignment was purely make-work; the computations could have been accomplished much more efficiently and accurately even on the IBM 1620 available in the Lab. I was working with one of those Friden desktop calculators that weighed about 50 pounds and took 20 seconds to grind out a long division (I think Lawrence Marx was faster, and just as accurate), and no one spoiled the illusion that I was doing something significant. The small Aerophysics Branch was notable incidentally for the names of its personnel. The desk to my left was occupied by Hubert D. Bagley, who was the local TV weatherman. On my right was Helmut P. Dudel, for whom it always seemed fitting, as it were, that his pants legs were two inches above his ankles. Between me and Dr. Essenwanger was Novella S. Billions. All very nice, friendly, forgiving people. The next four summers, until I entered graduate school, I benefited from the nepotism program at IBM, where my father worked. In terms of humiliation, my first placement there, in the summer of 1965, threw my experience with Dr. Essenwanger completely into the shade. IBM was constructing a new building, and my assignment for the summer was to design the layout for a large laboratory called the Aerospace Simulation Test and Evaluation Complex (everything has to have a catchy acronym). It was a task of daunting responsibility, but I was far too meek to raise any questions. At the time, I had not even had a college physics course (for which a year of calculus was a prerequisite), let alone any engineering courses (which were not even offered at Oberlin). But here I was, poring over wiring diagrams, trying to figure out which pieces of equipment were connected to which, and how long the cables could be, leaving space for access doors, and in general trying to determine how best to fit a huge amount of equipment into the limited space. Naturally my ignorant questions elicited a lot of unpleasant reactions. One day I overheard the plant engineer saying sarcastically to someone, after a brief conversation with me, "Well, he's a real Reddy Kilowatt." One of the engineers in the department, Heinz Rister, had a lathe at home, and helped by constructing small wooden blocks to scale, all painted gray and labeled and assembled on a large board proportional to the dimensions of the lab. Somehow we ended up with an extra block, which we could never account for; Heinz whimsically labeled it the Central Coffee Facility. The last day of the summer it was my job to carry this scale model of the lab into the office of the General Manager, where all the top honchos were assembled to approve the plans. As I set the board down on the conference table, I realized to my horror that the Central Coffee Facility was still there, front and center. I quickly snatched it off and put it in my pocket, but one man still saw me and remarked dryly, "Well, that's an interesting way to meet budgets." I ran out of the room without a word. The next day, in my exit interview, I found out, to our mutual astonishment, that my boss had thought all summer long that I had an electrical engineering degree. That suddenly explained a whole lot to both of us, since I had completed only one year at a liberal arts college. I never did know how that awesome mix-up occurred (or whether, for that matter, the lab, as I designed it, blew up). Neither did I know at the time that these two jobs would start a trend which has continued to this day, of working in jobs for which I lacked the proper qualifications. I should add that both of these organizations, the Army Missile Command and IBM, were memorable for their cafeterias. Both were predictably bad, but the government cafeteria had the added distinction of being pretentious. I recall one day when the featured entrée was "Roast Beef au Fromage." I was looking forward to trying it only because it sounded exotic; but of course it turned out to be perfectly ordinary roast beef, with no hint of fromage; the chef had obviously just thought that phrase, meaningless to him, added class. My favorite memory from the IBM cafeteria was a day when my boss, ahead of me in line, was excited to see raisin pie, exclaiming that he hadn't had raisin pie in years. His first disappointment came when he discovered that the little paper cup of Parmesan cheese he had sprinkled over his spaghetti wasn't Parmesan cheese but crushed nuts for ice cream. He got through his crunchy spaghetti without any enjoyment, looking forward the whole time to his raisin pie. But when he dug into the pie, he was astonished and chagrined to find that it wasn't raisin but cherry. The cherries were simply so old and dried up and black that they looked like raisins. Naturally I laughed till I hurt, but, as usual, I found that my sense of humor inexplicably wasn't shared. _____________________________________ |
This Week's Mystery Building Who can name this place, even though it wasn't in Lee turf? ______________________________________________ |
Eddie and the Cruisers... Last Week's Cruise Poll In last week's poll, 14 of you said you would be interested and 10 said you may be interested in taking a cruise with your Lee classmates. Eddie Sykes, Class of '66 is spear-heading this idea, and next week we'll have an article by Eddie on the concept of cruising. For those who express interest, here are two more questions. |
Homecoming Dates Announced Plan for October 3rd Event We received an e-mail response from Coach James D. Terrell informing us that the Lee High School Homecoming Game will be played on October 3, 2003 against J.O. Johnson High School. The Traveller Staff would love for as many of you as can to go in-mass to see the game. We need some volunteers from the Huntsville area to help come up with some activities for after the Friday night game and Saturday and Saturday night to round out the weekend. The editor thinks another Golf Tournament on Saturday would be fun and perhaps we can find a place with music (is Jerry Brewer playing anywhere?) for a Saturday night get together, unless some brave soul wants to host a get together at his or her house or barn. More information will be passed along as this event developes. Readers from all classes are invited to participate in all the activities. Go Generals. ______________________________________ |
HELP! I need someone to scan or take a good photo of the cover of the Lee High School Band record album that was produced in 1963 to raise funds for the Orange Bowl Trip. I also need someone to send me a copy of the titles of the songs on the album. I have a CD of the songs, but do not have the cover art or the names of the songs. If you want to do something to help out Lee's Traveller, this is it. Also, Barbara needs Mary Ann Bond to contact her or for someone to send her Mary Ann's current e-mail address. Tommy ttowery@memphis.edu |
