Give A Book To Lee in 2003 Amount Is At $250 A few have aready sent in their checks totaling $250, but there is still plenty of time to join them and make this donation one that will make a difference. Remember readers, we are trying to collect money to present a check to the Lee library sometime during the homecoming event. (See story by clicking here) Please make out your check to Lee High School, in the memo section at the bottom write Lee Library Donation, and mail it to: Joy Morris Athens State University 300 North Beaty Street Athens, Alabama 35611 We'll total all the checks and make one presentation and thanks for your support in giving something back. _______________________________________ |
Est. March 31, 2000 44,337 Previous Hits September 1, 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, 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 |
From Our Mailbox Name Axel Hein Class Year 1966 Dear Staff Great job as usual.Please give my e-mail address to Annette McCraney or anyone else. thewidowsbooks@knology.net. It is great to see all the names and stories of all those wonderful people. Hope I can make it in october. ____________________________________ Jim Bannister Class of '66 The Traveller just keeps getting better and better. I really appreciate your efforts and the staff. Good to see Eddie Sykes there, I have some good Sykes stories that I will share sometime. Apparently this site is not only having an impact on the calsses of 64-65-66 but across a broad spectrum of other people. Thanks again for all your work. ______________________________________ Subject: Lakewood Greg Dixon Class of '65 As Escoe German Beatty wrote, the subdivisions called Lakewood surely had a boat load of Lee High students. Lakewood was built on both sides of the Memorial Parkway beginning about 1954 with the east side (closest to Lee) having been built first. The Dixon family was one of the early settlers and I thought we had the coolest house since it was right next to the railroad track. Tommy Faulkner's family was another pioneer and he was the first kid my age (4th grade) that I met. We would put pennies and nails on the tracks to make nifty trinkets for trading. Judy Scarbrough arrived early and quickly demonstrated considerable savvy at trading comic books. Her comic books were in much better shape than Tommy's or mine. She drove a hard bargain and had the unfair advantage of sweet perfume that confused our brains. We all went to Pulaski Pike Elementary School during grades 4-6. Our side of Lakewood also had Linda Collingsworth, Pam Wright, Linda Burrell, Debbie Hardison, Paul Metzger, Sharon Smith, and probably a few others from the Lee classes of 64-67. Few yards had fences in the early years and few people ever bothered to lock a door, even when leaving town. The west side of Lakewood was much larger and backed up to the actual lake after which the neighborhoods were named. The lake was deep in the woods and few parents knew about it. Fed by an underground spring, it was incredibly cold and deep. The male teens would risk our lives daily in summertime by swimming in the dark, snaky waters. Nancy and Analee Milburn were among the first lovely young damsels on the west side and the fetching Sara Jane Steigerwald moved in shortly afterward. Sara Jane's father built the first and only backyard tennis and basketball court that I ever saw while growing up. We visited as often as possible and for some of us, it was the first time we dribbled a ball on something other than dirt. Mr. Steigerwald would provide impromptu coaching and made it clear that his cheerful daughter was being carefully watched. Many of us went to school together for nine years (3 at Pulaski Pike and 6 at Lee). We were so much like siblings that none of us had any sorts or romance between us. (Though I was Nancy Milburn's for the asking and still get excited when I see her at a reunion) It was some years later that I realized that living next door to a railroad track did not add to one's social prestige. At least Tommy Faulkner was always impressed. _________________________________ Subject: Joining mailing list Lori Avant , now Brazeal Class of '81 Lori@Brazeal.us John William Fussell Class of '70 john.fussell@us.army.mil Amy M. Clark Class of '92 Kenneth James Aldrich kja@hiwaay.net Class of '85 ______________________________________ Subject: I felt the same as you last week for the same reason! Ed Paulette Class of '64 Ed.Paulette@teol.uu.se Organization: Uppsala universitet, Uppsala, Sweden Dear Tommy, Most of the time it's rather fun to be the "computer expert" at my institution, but believe me, I really have a lot of sympathy for how you spent last week. The only thing good about it was that I think it has helped to convinced my boss that we now HAVE to beg, borrow or steal (well maybe not steal, since it is the Dept of Theology!), a central patch management program. I expect the blister on my right index finger (from pressing the enter key and the left mouse button) will probably heal in a weak or so. I hope that you suffered no physical injuries to match the spiritual suffering. I had a horrible thought what if Hell really is an eternity of installing, uninstalling, configuring and patching Microsoft products? Maybe Bill really is the, you know two-toed one? It would explain so much! _________________________________ |
You Know You're Working In 2003 When: 1. You have 5 passwords, but can only remember 1. 2. You haven't played Solitaire with real cards in years. 3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3. 4. You e-mail your buddy, who works in the cubicle next to you. 5. You do not stay in touch with friends if they do not have e-mail addresses. 6. When you go home, you still answer the phone in a business manner. 7. When you make phone calls from home, you dial "9" to get an outside line. 8. You've sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for 3 different companies. (Or you've moved cubes 20 times in 2 years and still work for the same company)! 9. Your building's corporate logo is attached with Velcro. 10. Your resume is on a diskette in your pocket... or it should be. 11. You can only write on 'sticky notes'. 12. Your biggest loss from a computer crash was when you lost all of your best jokes. 13. Your supervisor doesn't have the ability to do your job. 14. Contractors outnumber permanent staff and are more likely to get long-time service awards. 15. Board members' salaries are higher than all the Third World countries' annual budgets combined. 16. Job candidates, despite not having relevant knowledge or experience, terminate the interview when told of the starting salary. 17. Free food, left over from meetings, is your staple diet. 18. Your supervisor gets a brand-new, state-of-the-art laptop, while you have enough time to go to lunch while your's is booting up. |
We Are Fami-LEE! |
Est. March 31, 2000 44,337 Previous Hits September 1, 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, 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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This issue came out a little early due to a trip the editor (and publisher) made to Lexington, KY to visit my step-daughter. The Homecoming 2003 committee is still working hard to plan some never-to-be-matched Homecoming plans. Next week we'll include a new form for song requests at the Homecoming 2003 dance, so you need to start thinking about what you want to hear. T. Tommy _____________________________________ |
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Weekend Activities Planned For October 3-4-5, 2003 Sunday Morning Breakfast Now Scheduled for Mullins Friday night, October 3, 5:00pm - Tailgate party at Milton Frank Stadium. We're thinking hot dogs, chips, and drinks (more details later) Friday afternoon, October 3, at the Lee High School Pep Rally we hope to present the check for the library. Please send your check to Joy Rubins Morris at the address below. Friday night, October 3, 7:00pm - Lee High School's homecoming football game. Lee HIgh takes on J.O. Johnson at Milton Frank Stadium. Buy your ticket at the gate. Friday night after the game - get-together at Zesto's at Five Points. There is a bar and grill located there now, and we have reserved a party room. Saturday morning, October 4, - Breakfast at Lee High School cafeteria. Catered - prices and times to follow. Saturday day sometime, October 4 - Golf match Team/Best Ball/Scramble (details later). We are also looking into a get together at one of the local bowling alleys if weather is bad or for those who don't care to join in the golf tournament. Saturday evening, October 4, 6:30pm until when- ever - The First Lee Alumni Homecoming Dance will be held at Niles' place with a full program of food, music, fun and games. Music will be 50's and 60's and we will have fun. This is a limited seating event and tickets will go on sale next week, with special package deals. Sunday morning October 5, 9:30am - Breakfast at Mullins. This event is not just going to a football game. We are speading out the activites to give everyone an opportunity to enjoy something. There will be plenty of time for visitation and photo ops and memories. Details will be given as they become more defined. Please e-mail us if you are willing to work on a Homecoming Committee for the readers of Lee's Traveller. _______________________________________ |
Last Week's Mystery Photo Jim Bannister, Class of '66 writes: "Attached is an old photo that I ran across. it was taken at the Lee Senior Carnival held on the upper practice field in 1966. As you can tell I was really enjoying my turn in the dunking tank." Escoe German Beatty, Class of '65 The photo this week is from one of the end of the year Class Carnivals or whatever we called them. It is somebody ?? being dunked in the Dunking Booth. We had the event up on the old softball field behind the gym. Think I still have a tiny trophy fron one of the tug-of-war games. Bet they don't still do this!! ___________________________________________________ |
My Dad, Joe Betterton, had grown up in Madison County before World War II. Three other brothers of Dad and himself went off to the war and he returned severely wounded. He had several operations and recuperated in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado in the mid 1940s. He met my Mom, Eloise Vavra Betterton, and they were married. I was firstborn in 1946 and had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. In early 1958 we moved from Boulder, Colorado, to northern Madison county, about 7 or 8 miles west of Hazel Green. I attended 7th grade at Madison Cross Roads. Dad and his older brother, Bill, had decided to go into business together. Bill had become a master cabinet maker in Cincinnati after the war. Huntsville was booming at that time, so it seemed logical for them to return to where they grew up. They started Betterton Cabinet Company on north Meridian street, just a short distance north from Blevins' Grocery store. I started at Lee Junior High School in 1959 and was in the first graduating class of Lee High School in 1964. Those were some gooooood years for me. In 1959, Dad and Mom purchased a house on Monte Sano. My brothers and sisters attended the Elementary school on the mountain but I rode the bus up and down the mountain to LJHS. That was in the years one could drive through the State Park (where it is barracaded now). I grew up climbing the bluffs, swinging from vines, and going to the "Natural Well". It was a time of growing up with folks like Bob Crump, Richard O'Bryant, Pete Beier, Hartmut "Hartman" Hirschler, Russell Sanders, Caro Taylor, Kathy Henritze, and others who lived on Monte Sano. Following graduation I attended UAH in 1965 and early 1966. However, the Vietnam war was to call my name and I went into the U.S. Air Force in April, 1966. I went off to San Antonio and San Angelo, Texas for my training and found myself in the communications field in a top secret job for the next eight years. I had the privilege to travel to places such as Germany, England, Italy, Greece, Hawaii, and Southeast Asia. During the late 1970s I became a Christian and received 2 years of training in Lubbock, Texas. While a student there, I met a family from India. My wife and I became interested in starting a mission team to a place called Hyderabad, India. We moved with our families and began a school of Biblical studies. In the 1980s we returned to Huntsville, where I returned to school and worked on Redstone Arsenal. I worked with Facilities Engineers from 1984 through 1989. During the late 1980s I went through a divorce after 20 years of marriage (1967-1987). By that time I had 4 children, Kim, Laura, Lydia, and Joey. As I continued to work with a Civil Service position I met my present wife, Vicki Baker Betterton, and we married in 1989. That brings me to Russellville, Arkansas. Vicki and I have our home on a ridge near the Arkansas River. We are enjoying all of our grandchildren (9). I currently work with the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Education Office. I return to Huntsville several times a year to visit with Mom and my brothers and sisters. They all live in the vicinity. Mom still lives in the house on Monte Sano. Huntsville is a special place of memories and of the present. I am proud to have grown up here! Things I miss most about Huntsville are: 1. All the good folks I knew way back then... 2. Chopping Cotton... 3. Installing cabinets for my dad's business... 4. Wintertime on Monte Sano... 5. Artwork (which I did more often than now)... 6. The special time of Huntsville in the news (because of what our fathers and mothers worked at)... 7. A good nickel coke... 8. A good dipped dog from Five Points... 9. Picking Cotton... 10. Attending the 40 year reunion in 2004 (Editor's Note: Jim...sounds like you were assigned to ESC in the USAF. I was a Raven on the Burning Wind RC-135. E-mail me. Tommy) _________________________________________ |
Paper Footballs, Table Saws and Hits To The Jaws by Walt Thomas Should have been Class of '64 While I didn't graduate from Lee in '64, due to moving out of state after the 10th grade, I recall many incidents in which I and many of you that read this site were involved. The following is a series of incidents that took place during our 9th grade year and the setting was the infamous "shop" class of Coach Glen Nunley. That class period was a lengthy one, in which our lunch time split the class time right down the middle. A good many of the guys who participated in athletics happened to be in that class, under the control (?) of Coach Nunley. I'm not too sure if Nunley knew any more about the equipment in that shop than we did. I think the majority of the time was spent playing paper football with the little triangular footballs, which we used on the shop tables as our field. There were tournaments and much glory went with having the "touch" for the game. On good days, we played softball out on the tennis courts, and when Nunley was in a playful mood, he'd line us up against the wall and play "dodgeball" with a volleyball as his weapon of choice. Of course, if you "dodged", he had his famous paddle, which looked like a long slice of swiss cheese with all the holes, at the ready. One particular incident with the paddle involved Harold Tuck, who had "borrowed" a pair of pinkish tights from some lucky girl. He had put them on and was proudly showing off his bird-legs. Well, Nunley came back from outside the classroom and the rest of us were entertained by Harold being chased around one of the shop tables by Nunley brandishing the paddle. I don't remember if he got caught, but I'll never forget the sight of Harold running and pleading for his behind. There wasn't much meat for Nunley to hit. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the class period was interrupted by a pretty lengthy lunch period. As others were playing paper football or playing tennis court softball, there were several of us, and I won't mention too many names, as I don't remember them all, who thought this would be a great time to sneak off and cross the railroad tracks and go up to the grocery on Meridian Street just north of the 72 overpass. I can't remember the name, but it was on the west side of Meridian just past the overpass. We would get a sandwich or can of "vieners" and crackers and use the time to grab a smoke before coming back. As luck would have it, one day we were trapped on the wrong side of the tracks by a train and couldn't get back in time to be marched off to lunch. Here's where I will mention one name, as he was a partner in crime; Jim "Goose" Shelton and I knew our "Goose" was cooked and we would be in real trouble when Nunley came back from lunch. So, we figured the only thing to do would be to destroy Nunley's weapon of destruction. We figured out how to turn on one of the saws, and proceeded to cut the paddle up into small bits. Needless to say, Coach was not happy. Our next shop assignment was to make him a new paddle. Kind of like building your own gallows. And he did test it! I'll mention one more incident, in which somehow a couple of pair of boxing gloves found their way into the shop class. So naturally everyone, including Nunley, thought it would be a great idea to use them. I remember that Dale Thompson was involved in the first bout, against someone I cannot remember. Now Dale had a sensitive nose at the time, and a blow managed to find it, and there was a copious amount of blood. That only stirred up the bloodthirsty crowd. A couple of my best friends, Jim Shelton and Harold Tuck, thought it would be a great idea for me to box Nunley. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but before I knew it, the gloves were on and I was being pushed toward Nunley. Now being 15 and eat up with the dumb ass, I figured the best defense was a good offense. I started whaling at Nunley and managed to get a few blows to his face before he decided enough was enough. Next thing I knew, my buddy Goose, who just happened to be the referee, was kneeling down beside me counting "..3, 4 ,5.... If what little sense I had before hadn't stayed on the boxing gloves wrapped around Nunley's fists, I'd have crawled under one of the tables. But, no......Goose was announcing the end of round 1 as I looked at him like he had lost his mind. Then I was being pushed back at Nunley... I started whaling again, and this time he was merciful and stopped it with a gut shot. I'm not certain of the chronological order of all the above, but somewhere along the line I think the Vice-Principal, "Evil-Eye" Jones had a talk with Nunley and there was a flurry of activity where we all were assigned projects. I've never seen so many contraptions called "birdhouses" in my life! I think we all managed to escape with all our fingers intact, but it was a miracle. If any readers remember these and other incidents, I'd like to hear them. And again, even tho I didn't graduate from Lee, some of my closest friends and fondest memories were from those years. Coach Nunley was called up during the Cuban Missle Crisis not long after that, and did not return to Lee the next year. _______________________________________ |
A Letter From LHS From: Dr. H. Smith Sent: Monday, August 18, 2003 7:07 AM To: 'Linda Johnson' Subject: RE: Lee High School Alumni offer of donations Mrs. Johnson, I cannot put into words my feelings as I sat and read your message. I am both thrilled and humbled. I can only wish that I had been more assertive in my first year (last year) as our school's principal in working to involve the alumni of our school. I eagerly await a meeting with you and others to discuss the possibilities of your involvement in the promotion of this great school. Please call me so that I may set up a time with you for a conference. I am sure that we can work the details out about the homecoming activities that you mention. I would be more than glad to share with you and other alumni the details of the "vision" of our faculty and staff in leading our students into the 21st Century. I am proud to be here and I am pleased with the response from the faculty, staff, parents, and students. I am also pleased with the conscientious efforts that you are making to involve the alumni in the promotion of your alma mater. I look forward to hearing from you to set up an appointment with you. Thank you again for your kind words and dedication to LeeHigh School. Sincerely, Dr. Harry D. Smith, Principal __________________________________________ |
We received the following e-mail this week about a classmate that walked the halls with us, even though she didn't graduate until 1967. She still shared our memories, and it is another loss to our past. Her sister Lisa wrote: "Hi, Love the pages. But.... sadly have someone to add to the Memories Page. My sister, Jacquelyn "Jaki" Pass... Class of ' 67 passed away February 18, 1997 from lung cancer and I would like her added. As many of you might remember she loved animals.. Which led her to own and operate her own pet store, Noah's Ark here in Huntsville in the "Old" Mall for 26 years. I don't have her class picture here with me to use but I can get one if I need to ...Let me know. I would like to include this picture of her taken 4 months before her death. Maybe you can use it as a mouse over I don't know but feel free to use it if you want to." Lisa Pass Hyde _________________________________________________ |
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This Week's Mystery Building Many of you had this building in your neighborhood. What is the building and what landmark do you most often think about being there? _______________________________________________ |
How I Ended Up in Russellville, Arkansas by Jim Betterton Class of '64 |
From the '66 yearbook above, and four months before her death in 1997, right. Jacquelyn "Jaki" Pass Class of ' 67 |
Give A Book To Lee in 2003 Amount Is At $250 A few have aready sent in their checks totaling $250, but there is still plenty of time to join them and make this donation one that will make a difference. Remember readers, we are trying to collect money to present a check to the Lee library sometime during the homecoming event. (See story by clicking here) Please make out your check to Lee High School, in the memo section at the bottom write Lee Library Donation, and mail it to: Joy Morris Athens State University 300 North Beaty Street Athens, Alabama 35611 We'll total all the checks and make one presentation and thanks for your support in giving something back. _______________________________________ |
Click On The Ship Above For Information About Lee High School's 4-Day Cruise Leaves February 19, 2004 From New Orleans ____________________________________________ |
