Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Pat Torzillo Stolz, Class of '66

The item is a princess phone. I had one when I was in high school. It was a plain white one, but it was awesome!!! I really thought I was hot stuff to have my own phone in my room. I had promised my mom I would babysit and do other things, and pay my share of the bill. You got charged then to have extra phones - she is probably still waiting.

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Linda Beal Walker, Class of '66

First is the blue, rotary dial, princess telephone with a spring cord, made by Western Electric and sold by South Central Bell. It was purchased mostly by women because it was smaller, easier to handle and took up less room on the dress or nightstand. ( I never thought it was that easy to handle but it was one of the selling points. I worked for South Central Bell & AT&T for 25 years.)

Second it is sitting on a crochete doily. My aunt taught me (and my cousin) to crochet, but I have not tried to make one of these. My aunt made them and gave them away as gifts. When she passed away, all the female relative searched and searched her belongings for her crocheted items, but we found very few. Evidently, she gave most of them away.

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Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter, Class of '65

Hope you're having a wonderful time on vacation. You know that we all envy your wonderful trips and weekend excursions. I had to smile when I saw the princess phone on this week's issue. On my 16th birthday I was given a lovely blue princess phone (to match my bedroom) and my own line. This ended up being one of the ways my dad tried to discipline me; taking away phone privileges. My parents really gave it to me so the arguments about the phone use were lessoned since I was one of four children and they needed to use the phone too. Many nights Billy Byrom and I did our Algebra homework together over the phone. Then I'd call Judy Scarborough and we'd check our answers with her. How silly and what fun. Thanks for the memories!

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Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, Class of '64

What memories these bring back!! The phone is a "princess" telephone. Mine was pink, and my dad sprang for the extra money (I think it was $.75/month) to make it chime instead of ringing, which was really cool at the time. The one in the picture is sitting on a "doily," as was mine. My grandmother made sooooo many of them, and I still have a couple in use today. She would crochet doilies while she listened to her "stories" (among them "Just Plain Bill" stands out in my mind) on the radio. My great aunts crocheted doilies that were made to protect your furniture and look nice. We had them all over the house on our "good" furniture. I had one under my blue princess phone although it was only protecting a desk my dad made for my room. I still have one or two in my linen closet. Thanks for the memories!

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Terry Davis, Class of '64

That is a princess telephone. Well since I retired in 1997 with 33 years with Bellsouth..I installed very many of these before the popular trimline phones came out. Those phones were in every color you could imagine..white , pink, and biege were most popular. They were installed close to a power outlet so you could have a light on it. A transformer was used for this..all were hardwired but would soon change to trimlines with the modular cords as we have now. Thanks.

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Ginger Cagle Moore, Class of '66

The phone is a "Princess" phone and sitting on a "Doiley". I still have lots of them that my my grandmother made and they are all over my house. The princess phone is "just like" the one I had in my room that I used to talk to Tommy on for hours and hours at a time.

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Escoe German Beatty, Class of ''65

The dream of every teenage girl was to have a phone of her own and the cadillac of the line was the "Princes" phone. Memories... now let's see...maybe being threatened within inches of our lives if we didn't get off the phone, spending hours upon hours talking about "BOYS", and waiting hours upon hours for the thing to ring and be the special guy of your dreams on the other end. That contraption made many dreams come true and in turn ended just as many. Alas, "breaking up is hard to do".

The other item is a crocheted doiley. I'm sure just about every body we know had a grandmother or aunt or mother that crocheted these. I even had doll dresses and pot holders as well. These are now kept with special care and loving memories. I recently used about eight or ten of the larger ones for placemats when I had some of my best friends up for lunch. I know you get tired of hearing it but please keep up the good work you are fabulous!!! Happy New Year to All!!!!

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Dianne Ralston Lashbrook, Class of '65

If I remember correctly it is a Princess phone. Mom and Dad gave me one for my birthday and it sure looked better than the old black phone we had in our kitchen. What fond memories I have of talking on that phone to friends. The thing the phone is sitting on is a doilie probably made by someone's grandmother. I believe the process of making it was called tatting. A very thin white thread was used and talented ladies could make numerous designs. It is almost a lost art now.

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Skip Cook, Class of '64

I believe the photo is of a princess phone with a rotary dial. During my son's Cub Scout days in about 1990, we took a trip to Mobile and spent the night on the battleship U.S.S. Alabama. Since my father had been on battleships during the first part of WWII, it was very interesting to walk around the ship and just look. Casey and I were on the bridge of the ship when he pointed and said "What's wrong with that telephone? It doesn't have any buttons? How does it work?" He was looking at a phone with a rotary dial and he had grown up in a push button world. I explained how one used the telephone in the old days - the old days being my youth.

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Jennifer White Bannecke, Class of '66

The telephone is a Princess phone. I got one installed in my bedroom as a surprise for my (I think) 16th birthday. It was the best gift I had ever gotton. It is sitting on a doily. My grandmother use to have them sitting under her lamps. I still have quite a few of them packed away. They were made by hand.

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Alice Brigman

It is a princess phone and a crocheted doilie. I was given a princess phone by a boyfriend for my birthday.

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Andrea Roberson

This is a Princess phone setting on a Doily. Both my grandmothers had doilies setting everywhere in their homes. They use to starch them and make them stand up!!!!! I am thankful that some of them were kept and I have a few in my home today (without the starch) Ha! I did not like them very much when I was young but now that I am old??? I love them, plus I love having something that was in my grandmohter's house so many years ago.

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Nancy Taylor Sherrod, Class of '64

That would be a princess phone with a doily under it. Had a phone the exact color. Spent many hours on it. I still have doilies in my house.

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Jim Pierce, Class of '64

What a memory...least I think I can guess that we have a "Princess" phone resting on a "doily"... (had to confirm the spelling of doily with my wife).

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Chip Smoak, Class of '66

The mystery item was known as a princess phone. Not be able to discern the item on which it is sitting from the picture, I presume thatthere is a phone table under the lace doily. Phone tables, if I remember correctly were round in most cases and stood on one leg that had three "feet".

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Joy Rubins Morris, Class of '64

The items you picture are a Princess Telephone and a doily. It took Mom and Dad quite a while before we got our Princess phone. I felt sure we were the last two teenagers on the planet who did not have one. If my memory serves me correctly, I think our phone was blue just like your picture.

My mother crocheted many sizes and styles of doilies. She would starch them until them stood rigid on any surface she placed them on (top of the television, coffee table, etc.). We had them all over the living room. Some of the designs were beautiful and intricate. I remember her buying "how to" books on different styles, types of needles to use, and the stitches/ loops involved. The end result could be anything from a small flat doily to a large intricate design that served as a testament to her skill and patience.

Thanks for the memories.

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Barb Biggs Knott, Class of '66

The item shown in the current issue is a Princess phone and I think it's sitting on a telephone stand with a cute doiley.

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It Was More Than Just

The Real Thing

By Tommy Towery

Class of '64

Today there is a popular saying going around that you only need two things to get by in life – Duck Tape and WD-40. The reason given is that if something moves and it is not supposed to, then you put Duck Tape on it. Alternately, if it doesn’t move and it is supposed to, then you spray it with WD-40. While that may be true in modern times, in the 1950’s and into the 1960’s you needed one more thing to conquer the challenges the world presented. You needed a Coca-Cola bottle. Although there were many types of soft drinks sold in the South, any carbonated cola product was usually called a Coke. In this article, I refer to Coke bottles but much of it applies to other types of soft drink bottles, no matter what brand of cola product was inside of it.

I remember the Coke bottle as one of the essential tools around the house during that period. Although it was first designed to get that favorite drink from a soda fountain into our homes with ease, it was used for a plethora of things once that task was accomplished. I recently came upon this revelation while I was working on an article about the places that we used to go to visit for elementary school class trips. While a student at East Clinton School, I remember going to the Madison County Health Department and a bakery where bread was made. I also remember that there were two wonderful and favorite, places on West Clinton Street – Meadow Gold Dairy and the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant. Both gave free samples at the end of the tours.

I vividly remember going to the bottling plant and watching how the bottles were herded down an assembly line conveyor belt to be filled and capped. It was the process that happened before the liquid was poured into them that sticks most in my memory. I remember that the empty bottles were run in front of a panel of white lights and that there was an inspector dressed in white sitting in an inspection station with the duty of staring at each bottle as it rapidly rolled past to insure that it was in fact clean and unbroken and ready to be filled properly. We all remember the stories of the things that were found in the bottles before we went from the refillable ones to the throw-a-ways. While I am positive today that many of those tales were Urban Legends, when I was young at least everyone knew someone who had a friend or relative who had found something in their bottle beside soda water.

If you were to follow the life of one of those refillable Coke bottles from the time it left the bottling plant to the point where it was placed on the conveyor belt once more to be filled, I am sure that you would have a story to tell. Now I was born in 1946 so I can only start my memories there, but it still gives me enough time and memories to fill this article. The coldest Cokes came from the bottom of ice filled open top containers that were still used in many stores. The first Coke machines I remember took a nickel. You could slide them down a little canal in a top opening box, or you could put in your nickel and press down on a fat handle and the bottle would drop out of the slot at the bottom of a tall standing one. One more type that I remember during that time was a machine that had a glass door on the left and you could pull the Coke out by grabbing the top of the capped bottle and another one would roll down and fill the empty space. Of course we had to open them ourselves back then with the built-in opener on the dispenser since the twist top was about as far in the future as the disposable bottle. I also remember when the price went up from five cents to six cents, and how I had to put a nickel and a penny in the machine at the Grand News Stand to get a Coke. Later of course prices continued to rise, but so did my income.

The cap on top of the Coke bottle back then was steel, and there was a cork liner to it. Some of you might remember that you could carefully prize the cork liner out of the bottom of the cap and then you could put the cap on your shirt or blouse and press the cork back in and make yourself a Coke pin to wear. Coke caps also became checkers, washers, decorations on hats, and hobby items. We learned how to recycle back then, long before it was in style.

How to drink the Coke was the next decision to be made. While chug-a-lugging was popular for the kids, it gave most people headaches. Many liked to shake them up and using their thumb over the lip of the bottle, spray the Coke into their mouths, or onto someone standing close by, whichever was easier. I don’t know about the Yankees, but people in the South loved to put things into the bottle to augment the taste. BC Powders and salted peanuts were favorites. My younger friends loved to put M&M candies in theirs. There was also an Urban Legend that an aspirin tablet in a Coke made a love potion, but none of my friends could attest to that magical power. Of course Rum and Coca-Cola was not only a song, but also a favorite drink for many adults.

Once the bottle was empty its true value was found. Many of those bottles saw a lot of use before they were returned to the plant on West Clinton to once again be filled with Coke. The young and old, both males and females alike, used them. I still find it amazing and a tribute to the professionalism of the Coca-Cola bottling plants across this great nation of ours that half the population of the country was not eliminated by the reuse of contaminated bottles. While most of us took it for granted, I am sure that the bottling companies took the sterilization of used bottles very, very seriously.

But what happened to the bottles after the last slug was taken from the bottle? I open my memories with one of the nicer things a Coke bottle became – a matchmaker. I am sure that the first non-drinking use for a Coke bottle for many females was as a tool for a game. How many of you readers got your first kiss as the result of a game of spin-the-bottle? I must admit that I did, and am proud to claim that honor. In little parties throughout the neighborhood small groups of pre-teens and teenagers sat in circles and tried to develop the skill needed to make a wobbly rotating bottle stop in a particular place while avoiding the creep sitting next to the target. Ah, youth!

While the young females used bottles to get boyfriends, males of the same age group used them for income. Many a young boy’s first earned money came from collecting Coke bottles and returning them to a store for their deposit. Over the years the deposit value changed and grew from one cent to three cents to a nickel. I personally made many trips to the Kroger’s on East Clinton to claim that reward. But it was honest money (most of the time) and it kept the countryside clean. I did think it was a little dishonest when my brother’s crowd used to steal the bottles from behind the stores and then resell them to the same store. I remember digging bottles out of the red Alabama clay dirt and having to wash them enough to even see what kind they were so that I could put them all in a six-pack carton to carry them to the store. That was one reason why I was amazed to see that the bottling company could get them clean and sterile enough to reuse, but they did.

In a more domestic setting, the Coke bottle became a sprinkler for doing laundry. Long before I ever saw a steam iron I remember that my grandmother had a cork bottomed sprinkler head stuck into a Coke bottle that she sat on the ironing board when she ironed the clothes. She’d sprinkle the clothes with water, and I’d listed to the hiss made as the hot iron hit the damp clothes. The smell of that process is still just as memorable. They were also used by females as vases for rooting plants, and I remember vividly the almost stained-glass look of our kitchen window filled with bottles full of green leafy things.

But to really appreciate the value and flexibility of the Coke bottle, you had to put one in the hands of a male. They became ashtray, spittoons, and paintbrush cleansers. I swear that I never saw any of my brother Don’s friends work on a car that they did not have at least one Coke bottle full of gasoline sitting on the ground beside them somewhere. Not only did males drain oil from their Mopeds into them, but on some occasions or road trips they also drained their bladders as well.(A web poll on this site concluded that 75% of the males and a smaller number of females had peed in a Coke bottle on at least one occastion.) Chemicals of every sort, from lye to rat poison, found their way into the durable, sturdy, glass bottles. For the rougher crowd they were hand weapons and missiles alike. And although they did have a cash deposit value, their value as targets made many a Coke bottle met its destiny on a lonely country road at the opposite end of a 22 caliber single-shot rifle.

Real Coke bottles in particular became gambling devices in my crowd. Chug-a-lug contests were favorite activities for youngsters, usually with the only prize awarded was to be recognized as the winner. However, the phrase “Go You For Distance” was a monetary challenge not to be accepted lightly. Remember that on the bottom of each Coke bottle was the name of a city and state molded into the glass. It was that property of the bottle that made it a gambling device. When a wager challenge was accepted, each person would hold their Coke bottle up and read the name aloud. The one who had the bottle with the name of a city from the greatest distance would win. Most of us have never been there and would never even know there was a Thibodaux, Louisiana, if we had not first seen it on the bottom of a Coke bottle? The Coke bottle also made its way into the Madison County Fair as a gaming device, when wooden cases of the empty bottle were sat on a table and small wooden rings were tossed to try to ring the neck of one of them. Many dimes were lost on those endeavors.

But the Coke bottles themselves were survivors. They seemed to be made of indestructible glass. They could be dropped onto a wooden floor, thrown out of a moving car, or roll around in the trunk or back a pickup for months, with only the lip being susceptible to chipping. More than one lip was left bleeding after a person took a sip from a bottle without performing the required check of the top of the bottle for chips. But eventually, after all the dirt and contaminates and trials and tribulations they went through, the bottles somehow seemed to make their way back to the bottling plants in one piece. They would once again begin the process of rolling down the conveyor belts, past the inspectors, to be filled one more time. Perhaps it was good that back then we never questioned where they had been or what they had held inside of them prior to that trip. If we had, we probably never would have drank from a refillable bottle again.

Alas, despite their indestructibility, they finally fell prey to progress and the throw away society that engulfed America. The tops that had to be opened with a “church key” became twist off. Corks and steel gave way to plastic. The glass bottles gave way to steel and then aluminum pop-top cans; and then those lost popularity to two and three liter bottles or the smaller plastic half-liter bottles or any of a dozen or so other ways the advertising market executives came up with to sell Coke. Even those have now become recyclable items that may someday be written about.

After an exhaustive study of all the uses we had for the old glass Coke bottles, I think spin-the-bottle tops my list as the one I miss the most.

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In My Personal Mailbox

by Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

Everyone - it was sure good to hear from many of you concerning my last several articles. I was pleased to hear from each and every one. Jim Stephenson's ('68) and J.R . Brooks' ('64) comments were made directly to Tommy and have already been published. Some others are attached hereto. To be truthful I read my article, "The Unforgiven", many times before finally deciding to submit it as written. Actually I viewed the article as a positive one - I had several major points in mind. (1) times don't change, only the names; (2) most of us were very, very lucky; (3) we sometimes have selective memory; (4) not everything that happened to us was good; (5) some things are just not explainable; etc.

Oddly enough, I received several emails discussing some aspect of of the "The Unforgiven" article. I am including them below with personal comments unrelated to the subject edited out of each. I have also sanitized the documents and removed names. Two are Rainer's with his email about xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and one from Walt Thomas who named the kid I was speaking of. In fact, Walt told me about an incident with this kid again involving ladies purses in the cloak room of the Jackson Way Baptist Church. Walt was not nearly as kind and gentle in his description of the kid as I. And, my brother Don nailed it as well - he knew exactly who the culprit was. I hope you all saw the email from J.R. - I was not surprised to hear that thievery still offends him greatly.

I really wasn't trying to slam anyone - it's all just conversation between old friends. I recall that one of the sisters of the family on Halsey was a nice girl (in the 4th-5th-6th grade) who I liked very much although I don't know what became of her. She was one of those I had in mind when I talked about people turning out well even under difficult circumstances - I have often wondered how a young girl could turn into a young woman with any dignity while being forced to live like that. I certainly hope that fate was kind to her.

Ranier's article on the band trip was absolutely grand. My brothers and I especially appreciate the comments about our Dad. In an email that appears below, Ranier asked if Dad talked about the trip; perhaps a better question might have been was it important to him?. Like most men of his time, our Dad was not one for frivolous or flowery conversation. Yes, he said he enjoyed himself but my brothers and I know more of the story. As a blue collar, working class kind of guy (even a police officer) it was often a little difficult for Dad to develop a sense of self worth and respectability. (For frame of reference - today in some places in South Alabama police officer starting salaries are around $8-$9 an hour and the candidates have to provide their own guns - just imagine what it was in the early '60s there in Huntsville). His work with the Lee High School Band and the Huntsville Youth Band provided that recognition and respectability for him and it was very important to our family. He was far prouder of being selected to escort that trip than he would ever say. Don, Tony and I are convinced he was asked for by name. A year or so later he was honored for his volunteer work with the Huntsville Youth Band through a half time mid field ceremony during a football game of the old Huntsville Hawks semi-pro football team. He was presented with a large (2'x3') portrait of himself which still hangs in my home even today. I have several 8x10 photos of the events and his pride and pleasure are evident in his smile. So, yes his participation on that trip was significant to him and all our family.

The story my brother Don tells in the email below is new to me as well. Evidently our younger brother Tony withheld this story from both of us for all these years. It is a nice counterpoint to the thrust of my article.

Hey, keep those cards and letters coming. And a great big thank you to Tommy for his article on what it means to be a Huntsvillian - he's absolutely right, only a real one would have had those experiences or even know what he was talking about.

Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

An email from Rainer Klaus, Class of '64

Happy New Year, Collins - I hope it's a successful and happy one for you and your family. I've really enjoyed your two recent articles for the Traveller--the one about your encounter with the compassionate policeman and how that encounter influences your life to this day, and last week's "The Unforgiven." Fine and effective pieces of writing. In regards to the second piece, the one really bad hombre I recall from those days was xxxxxxxxx. I don't think he ever went to school with us, but he would show up in the building from time-to-time (Rison and Lee) and strike terror into my heart every time. Remember him?

I'm attaching my latest piece for the Traveller. Your father makes a small guest appearance in it. You might let me know sometime if he ever talked about the experience I write about this time.

An email from my brother Don Wynn, Class of '67.

CE - I enjoy your articles too! Have you ever heard the story where Tony (Wynn) and George Lide (both Class of '71) found a woman's wallet with $100 in it just before Christmas one year. They were either juniors or seniors. They got her address from the contents and returned her purse to her with everything intact. She was clearly poor and invited them in for a glass of tea. They talked for a while and she learned that they were students at Lee. Tony told me how good it felt to salvage Christmas for this lady. I think she offered to give them a reward but they declined because it was clear that the $100 was all she had. They were kind and respectful toward her and apparently talked with her for quite a while. After the Christmas Holiday was over, this lady called Mr Hamilton at Lee to praise the school because they never gave her their names. She just wanted to thank somebody again! Mr. Hamilton listened to her story then made a PA announcement to the entire school about two anonymous boys who had done an especially good deed without concern for recognition or for a reward. It was the right thing to do and they did it instinctively without sitting around and weighing all the options. Tony and George never identified themselves as the boys in the story and did not discuss this with anyone. I can see them both now, in class with their heads down, fighting the tendancy to blush as Mr. Hamilton spoke. A few years ago, Tony told me about this. I am so proud of Tony anyway and this story just adds to that.

An email from Walt Thomas (should have been Class of '64)

Hey Fuzz - I guess you had to have spent many hours on the streets in that area as we did to name the family....jumped right off the page at me, and Don, too. It was just several months ago when I was home I read where the other family members were taken in for their illegal activities. xxxx, xxxxxx and xxxxxx, are the ones I remember. Concerning xxxxxxxxxx, I happened to remember another incident when several of us were downtown and xxxxxxxxxx went into some store and later showed up with a handful of switch-blade knives he had swiped. I don't know how he did it....I guess just no feelings or conscience at all. Do you remember the time your Dad was driving us to you house on Oakwood and somewhere on Halsey or Rison a car ran a stop sign and your dad pulled him over and it was xxxxx xxxxxxxxx and some other thug. I was scared #$%^less because he asked us if we saw it and we sided with your Dad. The next Friday night I saw him in the bathroom at Goldsmith-Schifman and thought I was probably gonna get cut, but he just said "hey" and went on. In a way I'm glad to have been able to say we roamed the streets and managed to dodge being corrupted or somehow maimed. I truly believe we were learning survival skills without being aware. I don't know if we'd be so lucky today.-------------------- By the way, I saw Doris, Mike Smith's mom at CVS the other night. She asked about you. She's looking like she's doing well. (Author's note: that's a really nice comment about Mike's mom. It's heartwarming to know she thought enough to ask about me even though I have not seen her in near 40 years).

An email from Don Blaise (class of '64)

C. E. - Your "Unforgiven" article in the last issue of the Traveller was a really good one, and it made me think a lot about growing up when we did. I think I know who you were talking about in the first family...It doesn't really matter who any of them were, we all knew somebody like them growing up. I can only thank God that we had parents who cared enough and loved my brothers and I enough to make us toe the line when we needed it. The Traveller WEB site is a link to the past and wonderful memories that I will always treasure. Just wanted to say hello and hope that you and your family had a good Christmas holiday. Take Care.

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