Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

The Term Paper

by Eddie Sykes

Class of '66

During our high school years the battle of the sexes was rarely fought outside of the class room. There were many professions that were strictly all male or female. Secretaries, waitresses, nurses were all female as firemen, policemen, and the regular military were male only There were a few crossover fields like teachers. However, men were usually the coaches or administration and the idea of real equality had not taken root, yet. Women's jobs were still mostly thought of as supplemental incomes. Therefore boys did not usually take homemaking or typing in their career development. As hard as it might seem today, most men could not type back then.

Even computer programmers, my choose profession, hand wrote their programs and keypunch operators (females) typed/punched them. Many men from our generation never learned to type. That brings me to my story -- "the typing of my senior term paper." Seems like the going rate was for a typed term-paper was between five to ten dollars. Reasonable enough, especially since our parents were the one who paid. The only trouble was that you had to have your paper completed earlier enough to have it typed. As fate would have it, the night before it was due I only had about half of mine paper written. And "half done" only meant that half of the minimum number of required pages (words) due for the assignment had been produced. There were many of us suffering from the same affliction. Bucky Hoffmeyer and I talked Bruce Tragger into typing our term-papers. He was a good student, cared about his GPA and all that stuff. He could also type and had completed his paper early..

Bucky and I arrived at his house about 10 PM with hand written pages, notes, and encyclopedias in hand. As late as it was, neither of us were finished but Bruce needed to get started if he was going to type both of our term papers by morning. Typing a term-paper on the old manual typewriter was no simple task. It took both patient and planning because you had to leave room for footnotes at the bottom and still make room for the correct margin space. I have typed several on my computer and that was hard enough for me. The computer is forgiving. The best I can remember we were only allowed so many corrections per page and I think Bruce had to retype several pages. Everything got funnier and funnier as the night wore on up until daylight. Things got dead serious at first light when the fear of missing the deadline and failing senior English set in. I think we ended up ! skipping our morning classes and made it to school just in time for our afternoon English class. A lot of people were late for school on that day.

Bucky and I were writing pages as Bruce typed. The term paper counted as a six-week grade. We both have Bruce to thank for helping us pull an undeserved C- on our papers. Several times, years later, I found myself in a similar role in the middle of the night typing my children's paper. (Who said life isn't fair) So you might say the lesson I learned paid off later in life. I learned that no matter how tired and sleepy you get -- sometimes you just have to stay up all night if you want to pass English. I also learned that women are usually smarter and better suited for detail work (like typing) than men. In fact women are not only equal but better in almost anything that does not require physical strength. But, this one time in high school, the guys pulled it off without you ! Thanks again Bruce ! If anyone knows were Bruce is, please let me know.

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Memories of Meadow Hills

(Lakewood’s Fifth Addition)

by Joy Rubins Morris

Class of 1964

My parents had always rented either an apartment or a house when my sister and I were growing up. We lived in a number of places as our dad’s job required being transferred from one job site to another. When Dad was transferred to Huntsville from Pacoima, California (he worked for Rocketdyne) in 1958, he rented a small duplex on Triana Boulevard from Mr. Harry Miller. It was a small two bedroom, one small bath, a small living room and a small kitchen/eating area combination. The duplex was behind old Butler High School and the Rebel Café was just down from where we lived. There were four duplex apartments and we all got to know one another in the short time we lived there.

In 1960, Mom and Dad bought a house in Meadow Hills. They felt in love with this area and did not want to return to California. Dad quit his job at Rocketdyne and went to work for Chrysler at the old HIC building. We moved into our new home the summer of 1960. This was the first time my sister and I had our own bedrooms. We were so excited to be able to decorate our rooms the way we wanted to. During that time someone was publishing a weekly newspaper (or newsletter) in the Meadow Hills area and I put an ad in the paper that I babysat. It was not long before I had a number of babysitting jobs and built up my client base. I loved children and got paid to play with them. At that time I was earning fifty cents an hour and the parents loaded down their refrigerators with goodies. What a way to earn some spending money. As my client base grew, I was babysitting in Lakewood as well as Meadow Hills. I loved the area. You could either walk or bicycle all over the neighborhood and never worried about your safety. The houses were well cared for and everyone was friendly.

I remember living about five houses down from us was Richard (Dick) Nagle. I also remember T. Tommy stopping by one afternoon to chat for a few minutes. If memory serves me, I think he had been to visit Dick or was going to see him and saw us outside.

Because of our move to Meadow Hills, I started to Lee the fall of 1960, and my sister started there two years later. Since we had moved quite a bit, we did not have the experience of growing up with our peers at Lee. I now see what we missed when I read the stories of summers spent sharing adventures and making memories.

My sister and I drove through the Meadow Hills area to revisit our old house back in 1992, and the houses that had been so well cared for when we lived there were now in disrepair. Drive-by shootings and drug problems made driving through there at night unsafe. We drove through on a Sunday morning but did not linger. Gone were the safe streets and going to bed with your windows open and your doors unlocked. I suppose all neighborhoods change with the passing of time. But, in my mind’s eye I still see the flowers and Dogwood trees that my parents planted, the Morning Glories on the trellis outside the back door, and the smell of fresh laundry that had been hung out to dry on the clothes line in the back yard. I only lived there a short nine years never realizing that when I moved out on my own I was leaving behind a host of wonderful sights and sounds. I miss those days.

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More Losses In

Our Fami-Lee

Edith M. Scarborough

April 10, 1909 - Nov. 24, 2003

Edith Moorefield Scarborough lived 94 joyful years. She died Monday at her residence. Edith was born in Montgomery. She has been a resident of Huntsville since 1955. She was preceded in death by her husband, Emmett (Penn) Scarborough. She is survived by her daughter, Judy Milner (Class of '65) of Huntsville; 2 grandsons, Michael Milner of Huntsville, and Todd Milner of Atlanta; 2 nieces, Betty Manning of New Jersey and Carol Reddoch of Florida; and several great nieces and nephews. Known for her wonderful sense of humor and keen wit, she will be sorely missed by her family and friends. There will be a graveside service at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Maple Hill Cemetery with Pastor Hal Oakley officiating. There will be no visitation. In lieu of flowers the family requests contributions be made to the Arthritis Foundation or SouthernCare Hospice of Huntsville.

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Tommy;

I thought that you might like to place Ric Rowan's name on the "Memory List". He passed away on Nov 19, 2003, in Jacksonville, FL; where he was a very outstanding business man in this area. I believe that he was in the Class of 67'. I remember him playing football at Lee. You might check this out. The newspaper stated he graduated from Lee High of Huntsville, Al.

Respectfully Yours,

Jimmy Durham

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Ric Rowan

Class of '67

Prominent businessman Ric Rowan of Amelia Island, Florida passed away on November 19, 2003, surrounded by his wife and children. Ric was born October 8, 1948, in Gadsden, Alabama. He moved to Amelia Island in 1989 and was an outstanding citizen in the community. He and his wife own Amelia Island Building and Land Development Company. He retired from the building business in 1999. He leaves to mourn his wife and business partner of twenty-four years, Sharon; his daughter Kristin Elizabeth “ the light of his life” ; sons, Jon Deric, Eric Joseph, Terry Jon and Ricky. He held a very special place in his heart for each of his children. He also leaves his parents Richard and June; his brother John, and his wife Millie, all of Atlanta, GA. He graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama and attended various schools pertaining to his building and development company, his favorite being the University of Georgia. He served in the United States Air Force 1976-1978 and was recognized as honor graduate of Flight 0627. He was a member of the AIP Ocean Club and was vice-president of the Pelican Club. Mr. Rowan was an avid football fan and supporter of our Jaguars, knowing they would bring quality growth to our community. He also loved skeet shooting, boating and fishing. A memorial service will be held at the Amelia Island Plantation Chapel on Saturday, November 22, 2003 at 4:00 pm, with Pastor Ted Schroder officiating. He will be put to rest in the memorial garden, The Columbarian at Amelia Island Chapel. Contributions may be made to the Amelia Island Chapel Building Fund in Rics memory. Please sign the Guestbook at Jacksonville.com

Published in the Florida Times-Union on 11/21/2003.

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Subject:The Airport

Joy Robins Morris

Class of 1964

In response to airport stories, does anyone remember the time that a local radio station (possibly WAAY) announced that Ricky Nelson was flying in to Huntsville. It was on a Saturday (I think) and my sister and I begged our father to take us to the airport so that we could see him. My dad, bless his heart, could not deny two screaming teenage girls and drove us to the airport. Ricky was supposed to be there around noon and there was already a crowd when we got there. We waited and waited but no Ricky Nelson. It turned out that he did fly in to Huntsville--but Huntsville, Texas! Talk about a disappointed crowd--not to mention two very disappointed teenage girls who watched him every week and bought all his records.

I also remember when my aunt and uncle flew in from Long Beach, California, to spend two weeks with us. We waited at the chain linked fence and watched them get off the plane. They were amazed at how green and lush everything was and really loved the mountains nearby. We spend one week traveling through North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia by car so they could see how beautiful our southern states were. They had a wonderful time and often talked about their trip to the South. When they boarded their plane for the return trip home, we watched them enter the plane and saw them wave to us as the plane took off. I miss the personal touch of walking out to the gate and watching the planes land and take off. Our children and grandchildren will never know the feeling of heat from the engines or the gust of wind the engines made as the planes made their turn to taxi down the runway.

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