Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Subject: Hodgepodge of info

Sarajane Tarter

Class of '65

I've been trying to find the time to write but it seems I've let my schedule get way too hectic.

Lamar Taylor was the first VietNam veteran that I knew. When he was released from the Army I remember him telling us about his tour of duty with a sense of humor that only Lamar has. We were all sitting in my mom's little kitchen while Judy and I laughed so hard at his stories that tears came running down our faces. These stories included receiving a goody box from us that ended up being cookie crumbs and taffy rolled in aluminum foil. For some reason we thought the taffy

would act as insulation and protect our fragile cookies!

I also knew that Terry Davis was the mystery photo because I wondered if the baby he was holding was Jerimiah who is also Carol Jean Williams Carrol's grandson who she calls Germ. I asked her and it is. Carol Jean's son married Terry's daughter.

The mystery photo of George Moore wasn't a mystery to me since we just saw him and his wife at Niles' homecoming dance.

I use to help my brothers put together their model airplanes and I think mom got them at Montgomery Wards or at a 5 & 10 downtown.

_______________________________________

Subject: Christmas Memory

Linda B. Walker

Class of '66

My first Christmas in Huntsville, my friend and neighbor, Helen Gates, told me that there was no Santa Claus, that it was my parents, and then she talked me into looking for gifts. I found a Scrabble game in the closet and I stopped looking. I did not tell my folks what we had done.

They wanted to go home to Tennessee that year to be with family for Christmas. I told Mother that I didn't want to go. She said, "Why? What is there to do here?" And I said, "Well, we could play Scrabble." Ooooops!! Open mouth, insert foot.

_____________________________________

Subject: Plastic models

Glenn James

I bought my models at Mac's Hobby Shop. It was located on Governors Drive close to the railroad tracks. The building is still there. I built model cars. Mac had a model show once and I won first place for a dragster that I scratchbuilt. At that time there was not a model of a dragster.

__________________________________

Subject: Mr. Thompson

Andrea Roberson

Class of 1966

I was reading about Mr. Aubrey Thompson and I just had to send this e-mail. My husband, Terry, went to the funeral and he said it was so beautiful and so sweet. I know he was a great man and I know he will be missed very much but what a way to honor him by having such a sweet funeral to tell everyone how happy haven is to have him there. I will miss seeing him at Hillwood Baptist Church with that great smile and always a good thing to say to you.

_____________________________________

Subject: Landmark closing

Scott "Toby" Neal

Hi...sad to report the closing of ZESTO'S in 5 Points this past Wednesday. The days of dip dogs and ice cream and after school meeting place is now gone forever. The owners.Jim and Brenda Rigsby own the name Zesto and have closed the doors.They have

opened a neighborhood tavern called Zestos Copper Top Inn near the intersection of Oakwood and Meridianville. Thought it would be nice for all to send in their favorite memories of a fun landmark of our days.

________________________________

Subject: 313

Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

Tommy, I was fooling around reading some past issues this morning when I noticed the counter at 312. After checking your note at the bottom of the page I cheated, logged off, then back on for 313. Let the celebration begin!!!!

_________________________________

Coach Keith Wilson

Birmingham, AL

keithwilson@knology.net

Year of Graduation: Ain't graduated yet!

This is a great website. Thanks for taking the time to do it. The students and faculty at Lee made the years I spent as a "General" were the most enjoyable of my teaching and coaching career. Thanks, Keith Wilson

______________________________________

Subject: Joining list

Jane E. Brewer

Class of '66..

Jebrewer48@aol.com

The memory page was sad.

__________________________

Three In One

Was The One For Me

by Rainer Klauss

Class of '64

I’ll happily take up Tommy’s challenge from last week’s issue about where in Huntsville young boys satisfied their model-buying desires. The places I dropped most of my allowance were the Grand News Stand and Catha’s Hobby Shop. In addition to offering hundreds of magazines, comics, and paperback books—which siphoned off part of my money-- the Grand New Stand also had a room with other merchandise. I only had eyes for the plane and ship models (as well as some of the adult “modeling” magazines one could to pass on the way back there), so I can’t remember accurately what else was on display. Vases? Ceramic knick-knacks? Brass do-dads? Postcards? Bob Cochran has mentioned buying coins there, I think, but I was blind to that endeavor, too. Anyway, the place was run by a brother and sister, as I recall. Was his name Darryl? As I remember him, he looked sort of like Oscar Levant or a seedy Don Knotts (apologies to any Lee grads who may have been related).

Catha’s was a full-blown hobby emporium at the northern end of Washington Street. If you were into flying model planes or building model train lay-outs, that was the place to go. When Parkway City opened, Catha’s expanded its operations to a hobby shop/toy store combo near the south end of the strip. I remember buying a really neat toy gun based on the Colt Peacemaker there shortly after they opened, but don’t recall any specific model purchases. In terms of appearances, the Parkway City store was the total opposite of the Washington St. location: bright, modern, and airy vs. dark and dingy. Maybe the new welcoming atmosphere didn’t help them, though. I seem to remember that the store didn’t thrive at the new location. Anybody else recall that place and what happened to it? The Montgomery Wards at Parkway City had a lot of models, too. Maybe the Murphy’s out there also?

During the ‘50s I built many planes, ships, rockets, and military vehicles—often suffering the same frustrations with self-inflicted wounds and poor technique and planning that Tommy wrote about-- but the real pleasure in model-building for me came in the early ‘60s when AMT introduced their 3-in-1 model car kits. One day just as I was about to walk into the Grand News Stand, I glanced at their display window. It featured three ’32 Ford Roadsters—the same car model but put together three different ways: stock, customized, and for drag-race competition. Cool!

Other model companies of the day, Revell in particular, had car models, but they were contemporary models assembled only in stock configurations, not the vintage cars from the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s that AMT began to offer in this intriguing way. You could put racing slicks on these babies, leave the fenders off, come up with crazy paint jobs, apply flame and pin-striping decals, and even detail part of the tiny engines by using black thread as wiring. And that was just the beginning. Once this hobby really got going and AMT and Revell became more innovative (and competitive), car modelers had many options for their creativity.

This fast-growing hobby was a junior off-shoot and expression of our country’s love affair with cars. Remember some of the bold and fine-looking wheels that issued from the design studios of the Big Three in the mid to late ‘50s: the ’57 & ’58 Fords, the ’57 & ’58 Chevys, the Thunderbird, the Corvette, the ’59 Plymouth Fury, and the big-finned ’59 Caddy? My favorite of all was the beautiful ’59 Chevy Impala. Give it a rake (drop the front end a bit), get rid of some of the door hardware, put a candy apple red paint job on it, and you had a dream car.

Car customizing became a flourishing business, and some of the big names in the field, George Barris, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, and Gene Winfield, went to work for AMT and Revell, making their ideas and visions available to teenage enthusiasts.

Drag racing became a popular, fascinating, and lucrative activity in those days, too, and before long models of famous dragsters showed up on the hobby shop shelves.

As a result of the interplay between the hobby and the real world, I started buying and reading other magazines besides Boys Life, Life, Colliers, Look, Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. In order to keep up with the world of custom cars and rods, I bought Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Rod & Custom. Darryl happily rang up that cash register for me just about every time I came in.

The real artist with car models was my younger brother, Gunter (Lee ’68). He had a real eye for design and was adept at fabrication. He once won trophies for his cars at a contest the hobby shop (another source) at the Heart of Huntsville Mall held. He ended up getting a degree in Industrial Design atAuburn. Another enthusiastic modeler from our neighborhood was Ben Still.

The simple pleasure found so long ago has not died. I still have some plane and car models, ready to assemble, but I’m saving them for my retirement. Let’s hope my fingers are still nimble enough when those days arrive.

_____________________________________________