Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Subject: Latest "Traveller"

Bobby Cochran

Class of '64

I never knew about Mason Quillen's dad running the Whitesburg Drive-In Theater!! I tracked Mason down in New Jersey a few years ago, and he was supposed to come through St. Louis on his way (with his family) moving to Arizona. He'd become a golf nut, so I was really looking forward to spending some time on the links with him. But he never made it, and I've lost touch. I'll see if I can't track him down again, I know he has some great stories about our days at Lee.

Your story about how you "rode the shoeleather express" brought back many memories. I used to wear out the soles of my shoes when I lived on Harrision Avenue near the California Street playground. Each summer from 1956 to 1959 I walked downtown to the movie theatres with my neighborhood friends to the movies. Then we'd head over to the Grand News Stand and see if we could get a peek at the smutty magazines! Ha!

I also joined the Boys' Club out on 5th Avenue (anyone remember the old "airplane hangar?" I think it's still there.) I walked to the Boys' Club for a few weeks until I convinced my parents to let me ride my bike. I proved I could do it safely by having my Dad follow me out there - I took all the "back" streets and showed him that it would be no trouble.

I walked the class virtually every school day when I attended Huntsville Jr. High. We lived too far from Lee to walk, so I rode the bus most days.

The summer after my sophomore year, I wound up playing baseball for the Boys' Club. By that time the Boys' Club had relocated - the "NEW" Boys' Club had moved to the old Mill Superintendent's home on north Meridian Street. Jim Armstrong (Wade's older brother) and I were on the team. The Armstrongs lived in the house at the corner of Pulaski Pike and Grizzard Road. Jim didn't have access to wheels either, so on practice and game days we walked to the Boys' Club. We played our games out behind the Boys' Club, and a few times we hiked over to Optimist Park for a game. More than once we got caught in a rainstorm, and we'd stick out our thumbs. Huntsville folks ARE the nicest people I've ever known - we ALWAYS got a ride HOME - not just to some "place," but to our HOUSE! Musta been Jim's good looks!! ha

I can't remember if Jim actually ever attended Lee - I think he was going to Butler. I saw him on campus a few times at Auburn, but lost track of him.

__________________________________

Subject: The Good Ole' Days

Shirley Harville Steele

Class of '65

<shirley.m.steele@boeing.com>

Tommy,

I have been reading our website since Niles Prestage gave me the address last year. I do not have a computer at home (I know, who doesn't have one these days.) I work at Boeing in Huntsville along with several other classmates from Lee - Becky (Queen) Meeks, Kem Robertson, & retired Linda (Burwell) Bridwell.

I absolutely LOVE the website. I have been meaning to write for so long, but when I saw the Whitesburg I had to respond. So many personal memories for me. I worked at the Whitesburg Drive-In in high school. My father worked the gate for Mr. Robert Ross, the manager. My Dad caught many of my friends coming in the gate in the trunk of the car!!

I lived on Forrest Circle, about 4 houses from the school. Lots of activity on our street (Lee High Drive)

I could go on and on, but hope this note finds you well and keep up the good job!

I promise I will get a computer if for no other reason than to correspond with my classmates.

_____________________________

Subject: Fw: Blue Water Spring Park

Annette McCraney

Class of '64

<tipigal@earthlink.net>

Good memory, C.E., I do remember going to BWSP several times. It always seemed like such a long ride to get there, but I couldn't remember where it was until last week when one of the nurses I work with mentioned it. She said it was in Toney, on Opp-Reynolds Rd, which really didn't jog the few brain cells I have left, but apparently the community now runs it. She mentioned that the YMCA had owned it during the past few years. I have much stronger memories of what we always called Mastin Lake. It was in the woods between Blue Spring Rd and Lakewood. It was a short walk through the woods to get there, and usually there wasn't anybody there. A couple of times, my best friend Linda Ingram and I happened to go there when a bunch of Lee jocks were skinny dipping and when they saw us you never saw such a scrimmage to find discarded clothes. Linda and I often planned on taking a roundabout way to get there so we would come up on the "clothes site" and steal them, but that never happened. It was truly a wonderful swimming hole. The water was clear and always sooooo coooold, but we swam there a lot. I just heard the announcement on TV that Bobby Hatfield, one of the Righteous Brothers passed away. Another link to our "good ole days" has left us. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Tommy, the Homecoming Pics are great. I had to work that weekend. Keep the memories flowing!!!!! My brain needs the exercise and the laughs.

_____________________________________

Subject: Veteran's Issue

PatTorzillo Stolz

Class of '66

Tommy,

Thank you so much for all you do for our group every week, but thank you especially for the Veterans Day issue.Thanks to you and all the Veterans who have served and continue to serve our Country. My Mom and Dad were both in the Army during World War II, and I lost an uncle in a mission, whose remains were never brought home, all we have is a monument to remember him by.

Thanks Harold, for listing the young men from '67 that we lost, I only knew Jimmy and Sam, but when I heard of their losses, it was real to me, what precious lives we were losing. Until then, it was an abstract thing in the paper and on the news. The link to the tribute was so moving, I am sitting here with tears streaming down my cheeks.So, thank you all again for everything you have given, and continue to give to your Country. God Bless.

________________________________

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

by Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

Some months ago Tommy wrote an article about his job as a Soda Jerk and asked for responses from classmates about their grade school jobs. Many responded and we had a series of interesting articles. I submitted a piece about Terry’s Pizza and intended to follow it up with an article about some other less memorable boyhood work experiences. Somehow I let myself get diverted and lost focus on the subject but I’m back now. I think most of you can relate to these stories because we were all bouncing around most of the time trying to pick up a little loose change for pocket money.

Like most of my male friends I started my working career pushing a lawnmower either at home or around in the neighborhood usually picking up $.50 or $1 and slowly graduated to fixed pay jobs. Because my Dad was a Police Officer he moved around all over Huntsville and knew a lot of people. Consequently he was always coming home with a new job for me. He got me started on my first 3 jobs and I found the ones at Gibson’s Bar-B-Q and Terry’s Pizza on my own. The worst jobs I ever had were my first two and I learned from them right away that I wanted nothing to do with the restaurant/kitchen business no matter how much money was involved.

The restaurant was at the corner of Governor’s Drive and the Parkway and was a Huntsville staple although, for the life of me I cannot recall the name even through I can still see the sign in my mind’s eye. It was on the order of an old style Shoney’s and lasted, I think, until the Parkway was widened some years ago. I don’t recall the salary but you can bet it wasn’t much – didn’t matter anyway because I lasted one day. Washing dishes for 9 hours straight in the hot and grimy rear room of a restaurant kitchen was no fun whatever. I did not return after that first day and moved on to the next adventure. I was about 14 at the time. I seem to remember that a kid had to be 14 to hold a real job.

Not yet completely disenchanted with the restaurant kitchen business I moved on to general flunky employment at George’s Restaurant on Wellman Avenue between Russell Street and Jackson Way in Five Points and the Rebel Inn in West Huntsville at the corner of Triana Boulevard and 9th Avenue. Most of the time I was in Five Points but from time to time I was "loaned labor" to the Rebel Inn. My salary was $.33 hour and I was assigned various duties including washing dishes but at least I didn’t wash dishes all the time. Which leads me to the story of how some unknown soul unwittingly ate my finger in the summer of 1961. It had been a long day and my last chore was to peel a bag of potatoes for the evening shift after which I was free to go. I was sitting on a crate in the back of the kitchen with the bag of potatoes on the floor by my left leg with a big steel bowl between my knees where the cleaned potatoes were placed. I’m sure ya’ll have all seen the double-edged potato peeler gadget that has a single handle on it. To use it I held the potato in my left hand and swept the peeler swiftly back and forth slowly rotating the potato as the peel was sliced off. Well, in my haste to be gone, I managed to slice off a sizable portion of my left index finger and watched as it fell smack into the almost full bowl of freshly peeled potatoes. Now my dilemma became what to do – if I told the owner he would throw it all out and I would have to start over and be another hour or more getting out of there. Or, I could say nothing, bandage up my finger, and high tail it home leaving a piece of me to be served up for dinner that night. Of course I chose to say nothing and have chuckled about it for 45 years. I can’t forget the incident because I have a prominent scar I see every time I look at my left hand.

From that I tried to find something a little less structured and got myself a paper route. Although I always had just enough money to pay for my papers I never did have much of a profit but I always had fun. It truly was a good experience. My route was all of Halsey Avenue in Dallas and it ran west on Halsey from Windham Street to Dallas Street then south for two blocks to Stephens Avenue. Tommy might have to help me with some of this since he lived on Halsey for a while. During the year or so I kept the route I met some interesting people. On the southeast corner of Halsey and England Street lived two elderly spinsters who, I think, were retired sister schoolteachers. Their wooden house was covered with fake brick asphalt shingles and tarpaper. They were both very kind to me and I was always careful to make sure their paper was up on the porch where it would stay dry. When I would go by to collect on Saturday morning they would often make me come in and sit with them before I could get paid. Their house was clean but musty and always seemed to have a fire blazing in the pot bellied coal stove in the living room regardless of the time of the year. They each wore massive type ladies shoes with their

hose rolled down to below their knees. Across the street lived the "Tattooed Man" – I don’t mean one or two – since he often wore no shirt you could see he was covered with them from the neck down. Years later Rod Steiger’s character in the Ray Bradbury movie "Something Wicked This Way Comes" reminded me of him. And, to top it all, I was in love with a red headed girl that lived at the start of my route on Windham Street. Although I never met her nor ever knew her name I was convinced I was in love with her.

After my entrepreneurial career as a newspaperman floundered I went back to the security of a fixed income as a Bag Boy at a grocery in Parkway City (similar to my later-in-life experience in the construction business) and lasted there for a few weeks. Actually the job was good – bagging groceries and carrying them out to cars for eople. It suited my personality because I was able to move around and meet people. I think this is one of the places I learned that I enjoyed being helpful and useful. I didn’t stay there too long because the store was just too far from home and getting rides proved too difficult (pre-driving days). I believe the store was a Kroger’s but I’m not absolutely certain.

Shortly thereafter I worked at Albert Hall’s 66 Service Station on the corner of Oakwood and Jackson Way off and on for a while to pick up a few bucks. The job was pumping gas with a few general clean up chores. Although I didn’t work there long or much, I learned one of life’s really hard lessons standing next to a gas pump late one afternoon. I had just filled up a car with gas and told the lady driving "that’ll be $3.48" or some such. She smiled sweetly at me and said "put it on Buck’s ticket", then cranked the car and drove off. I went enthusiastically bouncing into the office and announced to all present "somebody needs to put $3.48 on Bucks ticket" to which Albert loudly replied "Hell, boy, I don’t hold tickets. You’ve just been had and you owe me $3.48". In that instant I learned to regard smiling faces with considerable suspicion.

After getting my driver’s license I expanded my horizons by going to work as a Carhop at Gibson’s Bar-B-Q, on the west side of North Parkway between University Drive and Oakwood Avenue. This was another one of those good experiences mostly because everyone there treated me as a part of the team rather than just some kid working part time. I really liked it. My first paycheck was $21.00 (a $.50 hour job): it was the most money I had ever had at one time. I asked the cashier to pay me in $1 bills so it would seem like more. The job consisted of taking orders from people sitting in cars, then putting the orders together and bringing it back to them. Gibson’s used a system where the Carhops (all male, by the way) carried the outgoing orders by the cashier where they paid for the orders then delivered the food to the cars and collected their money back plus whatever tip they could wheedle out of the customer. This procedure meant that if a customer drove off without paying, the loss went to the Carhop not to the restaurant. Consequently all of us paid close attention to our business and "drive-off’s" were rare. Also, this is the first time I ever saw a microwave oven; Gibson’s had one and they used it to heat up slices of pie. The menu was pretty standard Bar-B-Q fare – beef and pork sandwiches and plates, etc. However, they had a specialty byproduct called "Skins". "Skins" were big brown greasy paper bags filled to overflowing with the fat and skin left when chopping up the meat. "Skins" were sold only out the back door and never in the dining room or the curb service area. Customers drove up to the back door and called out how many bags they wanted. Gibson’s wasted nothing. If there were no customers the Carhops were pretty much on our own and spent considerable time sitting around on crates out on the curb telling old lies and inventing new ones. One cold, cold winter night in late 1962 around 8 or 9 PM (an hour or so before closing) Goose (Jim) Shelton pulled up to the curb in the Blue Goose with Mike Smith riding shotgun. They had come by to rag me about having to work while they were out riding around goofing off. Also they needed a spoon. Why a spoon, you ask? It seems Mike had obtained a six-pack of beer and stashed it outdoors in some bushes where it had frozen solid. After I got them a couple of spoons they sat there in the car and ate a six-pack of frozen beer.

Simple times, weren’t they?

__________________________________________________

More Mail

Subject: Veteran's Day Issue

Eddie Sykes

Class of '66

Although I am not a Veteran, I enjoyed it very much. It was great to read of those who severed our country during those war years. I was drafted after my student deferment ran out, but failed the hearing exam and did not serve. The personal impact of Vietnam to our generation was profound. Young people had to put their live plans on hold until their military obligations were behind them. It was also the longest span of time that the draft has ever been in effect. Visions, plans, and goals are stabilizing forces that were disrupted and contributed to the crazy social changes that the seventies brought to our culture. The war was the hammer used to shape partisan politics into a sword that divided our nation. Since that time, political parties have often lined up on the opposite side of issues or positions that the opposing party takes rather than o! n what's best for our country. We all need to support our military regardless of our politics. Thank You Veterans !

____________________________________

Subject: Veterans Day

Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

Tommy,

Excellent, excellent edition. It is an honor to be in the company of such men.

____________________________

Subject: Veteran's Day Issue

Bobby Cochran

Class of '64

Hi Tommy! I thought the Veteran's Issue was just WONDERFUL!!!! I was really touched AGAIN to read about a buddy, Dennis Faber. I think you and I talked about him a bit when we first got together in Memphis. Dennis and I played ball together one summer, and "bummed around" quite a bit. I lost him totally after I graduated, and I TRULY regret that I didn't try to find him while he was still alive. I gather one of our fellow alums was married to him and has since remarried, but I haven't tried to talk about him with her.

I also knew Eddie Huff, Merle's kid brother. What a GREAT kid he was!!! I heard that he had died in Viet Nam some years ago, and I damn near cried.

I was very impressed with a bunch of my friends, like yourself, who had the honor of serving our country in wartime. I wish I could have been one of you, but the doctors at the draft board at Maxwell AFB had "plenty more to choose from" (an exact quote!) when they saw the X-Ray of my left ankle.

I got a kick out of Rainer's story. Jeez, he's really a sleazebag when you get right down to it, isn't he? Ha just kidding!!!

David Bess doesn't participate in the Lee activities and website (as far as I know) but he was a Captain in the U.S. Army when we had our 10th anniversary gathering. He and Barbara came, and David was in uniform, if I remember correctly.

_______________________________________

Subject: Veterans Day

Jim Bannister

Class of '66

Tommy,

Thanks to you and your staff for the Veterans Day issue of the Traveller. I know that Veterans Day is for remembance of those who have served but I am sure that some of us have sons and daughters serving now. We tend to get down on our young people as our parents did with us and their parents wth them. But every generation of American young answers the call of their country and gets the job done. Let's give our support to our young Americans that are currently in harm's way.

________________________________

Subject: Thanksgiving get-together

Carol Jean Williams Carroll

Class of '65

jdcaroljosh@comcast.net

Hey TT,

I thought it might be time to let you know that Dub and I are still planning on having the get-together the Friday night after Thanksgiving. I waited so long to see if I was going to be feeling well enough. I'm still not 100%, but I do feel much better.

Anyway, I hope you have space to put it on the web-site. Just remind everyone who is interested that it will be the Friday night after Thanksgiving. Everyone can bring some sort of snack. Nothing fancy, just enjoying old friends' company.

There was a really nice article about Jim McBride in the paper on Sunday, Nov. 2, section G, page 1 that you might want to take a look at. I ran into him on Halloween and reminded him about Thanksgiving. He said he would try to come.

I really enjoyed your Veteran's Day edition. I had no idea there were so many who have served our country. You do such a wonderful job of keeping us all together.

______________________________

Subject:Veteran Info

Ron Brand

Class of 66

Tommy,

I am on an island in the middle of the Pacific called Kwajalein Missile Range working for the Army. I cannot communicate through the Lee website like normal people because I am behind a size large firewall. This is

what I have been told by others, anyway; I am not a computer guru in any sense of the word. Am sending you military info. because I would like to have my

name put up on the board at Lee with all the others.

Ron Brand Class of '66

Army 1969-71

I Corps Viet Nam, south of Chu Lai

Received 2 Purple Hearts and Bronze Star

_________________________________

Subject: Our Parents

Jim Bannister

Class of '66

The letter from Gary Metzger in last weeks issue really touched me. Our parents won World War II, fought the Cold War, and put a man on the Moon. They also created an America where we could enjoy our childhood and laid the foundation for our later success. Watching them grow old and frail and pass on without the recognition that they really deserve is heartbreaking.

___________________________________