Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Our Own

Lee High School "Cold Case"

UPDATE

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

Subject: Found Class Ring - Looking for Owner

Anna Raebel

Dear Tommy,

Thanks for trying to help me find the owner of the ring…I lost my wedding ring for three years once, and by a miracle I got it back – so I know firsthand the heartache of losing something that has special memories attached to it. As for how I came to by the class ring, here’s the story:

A friend and I had taken our kids up to Monte Sano to the Jazz fest the summer before last. Of course the little ones were more interested with playing on the playground than the music, so we let the older ones take them over to play. About halfway through the concert, one of the concertgoers collapsed in the front row of the amphitheatre. Doctors and nurses came out of the crowd to work on resuscitating this poor lady. While everyone waited for the ambulance, I went to check on the kids. The ambulance arrived, and my youngest and I followed its progress back around the playground to the amphitheatre, where I had left my friend. By now, the paramedics had joined the group gathered in the front row, who were performing CPR and rescue breathing.

To distract my son, I started picking around in the dirt on the backside of the theatre hill. As we were playing, something glittery caught my eye. When I picked it up, it was caked with mud. I could not tell what it was until a chunk of mud fell from the center. I looked around, but no one was nearby. As far as I could tell, the ring seemed to have been there for some time. As soon as we got home that afternoon, I started to search using the internet’s help. I never got too far, though. We’ve moved twice since then; each time, I made sure the ring made it to my desk, where it would remind me to keep trying. Whenever I had some spare time, I would surf the net, looking for information that might lead me to the ring’s owner. That’s how I eventually found your site…And here we are!

I’m not a native Huntsvillian – We moved here 10 years ago courtesy of the Army, but liked it enough to stay… Most of the folks we know are transplants like ourselves, or graduates of the other local High schools.

I am really happy that I found your website, and that you have been so helpful. I have faith that if the right people get networking, eventually someone will get word to the right person about the ring.

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Subject: Re: Found Lee High School ring

Janice Tittsworth Barnett

Class of '65

No '71 annual exists in the building, so I had to use the '70 annual to scan the list of rising seniors . I came up with 5 possibilities (first and last initials were an S), but middle names were not listed. Next I called Central Office to see if they had a graduation list from 1971 as all permanent records had been sent there last summer to be placed on microfilm. A wonderful lady scanned her list and reported the only close possibility might be a Suzanne Sanders whose record indicated her middle name was None.

No other Lee senior name from 1964-1973 indicated any female had the initials SNS. If the ring does not belong to this person, perhaps it may have belonged to a senior who left Lee before graduation (many space industries in Huntsville moved out and around in the early Seventies). The 1971 alumni class (do they have one?) might have a more current address than the one on the permanent record (which we are not allowed to see). So, that's where the mystery stands now here at Lee. Let me know if there might be anything else I may do to help.

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Subject: RE: LHS Class Ring

Ginger Canfield

Tommy, I will probably be of NO help, but I am trying. You see,I graduated from Huntsville High School in 1972.I checked classmates.com and came up with nothing. I emailed my cousin who was graduated in '77, but has a brother who was class of '68 and asked her to have him check. My sister Patti works with Buford Cagle, who is a brother of Phillip Cagle (we think) Class of 72, so I emailed her and asked Patti to ask Buford, to ask Phillip...LOL!

I have another cousin, Keith Finley (brother of Kenneth Finley class of '67/ '66) who is LHS class of 1971, but I have to find him first.I can't think of anyone else for now, but I will keep trying.Good Luck,

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Subject: Re: Found Lee High School Ring

Cindy Dove Barker

Class of 71'

Following are "SNS" senior names from the 71 Lee High YearBook

Suzanne Sanders

Sherry Fay Symour

Susan Singer

Susan Spradlin

Shirley Stone

Hope this helps find the owner.

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If anyone knows the whereabouts of any of the five listed above could you please help contact them and check on the lost ring. I have sent out several letters to the Class of '71 members listed on Classmates, including the person who organized the '91 reunion and hope to hear back from more of them soon.

I also found a website http://www.reunionsworld.com which has a section for Lost and Found Class Rings and listed it there.

We'll keep you abreast of the case.

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Chunkin’

by Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of ’64

Compulsive behavior is in us all. I’ve heard golfers describe their game as a compulsion. Some might describe their enjoyment of TV game shows as an addictive compulsion. My sky diving adventures were sort of that way. Well, at pre-‘64 Lee High School there was a common compulsive activity among the male population called “Chunkin”.

Chunkin’ was a game of skill (some might say chance) played by many of the young men at Lee High School.. It was a democratic game in that everyone from the best to the worst could become addicted to an equal degree. All that was needed to play was a hard surface of some description such as concrete or tile with at least one discernible line, a sharp cornered floor/wall joint, or a sink. The game pieces were readily available in that they were nickels, dimes, or quarters. Unlike marbles, which had two variants - either play for fun or play for keeps; Chunkin’ was all keepers from the start. I suppose buckets could have been used as well but I don’t see how there could have been any thrill with buckets since there would have been very little chance the coins would bounce out; plus, with buckets, you’d have to go find one (the logistics tail) whereas lines, walls, and sinks were everywhere and readily available. This game applied that age-old axiom – keep it simple, stupid.

Two players were required as a minimum. One person could always chunk alone but only for practice – it wasn’t possible to lose your lunch money to yourself. The number of players above two was infinite but anything above 5 or 6 was unmanageable and unnecessarily large crowds had a way of attracting the unwanted and disruptive attention of school administrators. It was highly desirable to have a non-player Judge available to settle disagreements without the players having to resort to violence as they clawed for the coins scattered on the floor or in the sink.

The game was played one of three basic ways: Chunkin’ the Line; Chunkin’ the Wall; or, Chunkin’ the Sink and all were variations on a central theme – coins tossed at a target with the closest being the winner – and it was definitely winner-take-all. The skill involved was mostly hand-eye coordination with “the touch” (a little hip english with a soft, arching flat toss of the coin) playing a big part. Athletic ability and stamina were not required which explains why my friend and colleague Mike Smith was so good at it.

The players stood behind a mutually agreeable line some distance from the target – generally 6 to 8 feet. Stepping across the line was a foul and the player forfeited his coin. The order of play was normally right to left and each player in order would toss (chunk) his coin to the target with the object being to get as close at possible. In the case of the line the goal was to get as close as possible without going over; wall play was simply the closest except that “leaners” trumped everything; sink play required that the coin not bounce out but remain in the bowl. In case of a tie, the tying players (ever how many) continued play with new coins each time until each either went broke and quit, lost out or won it all.

Each of the coins had their advantages and disadvantages depending a great deal on the style and abilities of the individual players. To me, quarters were by far the preferred game pieces. Since they were larger and heavier than the other coins, quarters had more heft to them and were easier to control. Using dimes was like playing with horseshoes made of foam rubber – not nearly enough weight to be manageable. I suppose the nickels were somewhere in-between. An additional advantage of quarters was that you could be a big winner far faster than with dimes – of course one could be sent home crying to his girlfriend far faster that way as well. Besides that, for me dimes tended to be “rollers” which were completely unpredictable and uncontrollable.

An unplanned positive attribute of the game was the availability of the defense plea - “Plausible Deniability”. If a player were not caught during the 2 second act of actually chunkin’ he could claim he had only paused long enough to see what the others were doing while he was on his way to give volunteer service in the library. While not probable, the excuse was at least plausible; some was better than none at all.

Over a period of 5 or 6 years I generally broke even; some days up a little (even Fat City on occasion) and some days down. The only reason I didn’t lose a lot was that I didn’t have a lot. Of course when a kid lost everything he had, it was quite a shock regardless of the amount. Flat busted was not a good state to be in especially when one had a girlfriend to support. I think the big winner over the entire 5-6 year run of the game was Mike Smith – which proves everyone could be good at something even if it was meaningless and trivial.

Some months after graduating I learned a valuable lesson about gambling that has stuck with me over all these years. While in Army basic training during the summer of ’64 I let myself get sucked into a poker game one night and lost the last $40 I had. Since it was still 3 weeks ‘til payday I had to do without any amenities and depend on the mercy of my buddies for smokes and a 3.2 beer or two on Saturday. (I’ve since quit smoking and graduated from weak beer to cheap wine.) I have never forgotten the humiliation and have never had the urge to gamble since. I’ve been to Las Vegas and Biloxi many times over the years and still go often but only for the food, fun, shows, and entertainment. I once spent 3 days in Las Vegas and did not put so much as a quarter in a slot. I prefer to spend most of my money on whiskey and women and waste the rest on household expenses.

Subject: Backyard Memories

Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter

Class of '65

It was nice to see that Terry Davis and Skip Cook remembered playing

basketball in my back yard. My family moved to Lakewood in '58 and

Daddy asphalted the back yard in 1960. We weren't sure if he did that

so we'd have a place to play or if he hated mowing the yard that much!

Whatever the reason he did put a 10' high fence and flood lights around

the asphalt amd painted the necessary markings on it so we could play

regulation basketball day or night. He also put two poles midway so

that we could hang a net for volleyball or tennis. Often on Saturday

nights many of the neighborhood kids and adults were in our backyard

playing volleyball. Almost every other day of the week, day or night,

you could look out the window and see someone shooting baskets or a

group playing a game. Matter of fact the weekend before my dad died I

beat him in 'Around the World' for the first time.

My dad loved sports and I often think how he would enjoy seeing all his

grandkids participating in their various sports of choice. My nephew,

Johnny, had his picture made under the "Johnny Steigerwald" sign that

is now hanging at one of the baseball fields in Lakewood. My family was

so proud when they dedicated that field to daddy after his death in

1972 for his contribution to developing so many sports programs for the

kids in the area. Thanks Terry for sparking such fond memories of my youth and my dad. ; )

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Subject:Resignation Article

Bruce W. Fowler

Class of '66

Cherri,

Read and greatly enjoyed your article. Regret that there are things I am addicted to as an adult that keep me from going back. These are the things that make my life more fun today than when I was eight or ten or even eighteen:

1. Math: Calculus, Differential Equations, Complex Variables, Functional Theory, Vector Calculus.

2. Physics: Classical Mechanics, especially Hamilton Jacobi Theory, Action Angle variables, and non-holonomic mechanics; Statistical mechanics; Quantum Mechanics; Complexity.

3. Computers: being able to write computer programs, although WINDOWS is a major accute rectal pain in doing this compared to DOS, that give me numbers easily; and graphing progtams that give me near- Instant Graphification.

4. Adult Books: reading things kids can't get to because their parents don't understand them like Dick Feynman's The Joy of Finding Things Out or Per Bak's How Nature Works

and finally

5. Being properly disrespectful to arrogant or innane individuals in positions of false authority.

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Name Roy Neill Cox

Class Year 1964

Comments Just wanted to let someone know that I am still in Huntsville and doing well. Just trying to see what happened to the people of the Class of 64.

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Subject: Candy

Chip Smoak

An addition to your list although I can not remember the name is the coconut flavored candy made out of a jelly like substance similar to gumdrops that came in three colors. One other addition is divinity.

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