Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Mike Griffith, Class of '66

I don't know if I ever knew the "official" name for it, as the only thing that I ever heard anyone call it was a "Virgin Pin." I often wondered if there was a "test" required!!?!

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Lynn Bozeman Van Pelt, Class of '66

The mystery item this week was known as a circle pin to our parents And I remember it was supposedly symbolic of one's state of virginity. Worn on the left side indicated no longer a virgin, right side still, or vice versa. How in the world did that get started?.

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Jim Bannister, Class of '66

This week's LeeBay item is something that most high school girls today would not qualify to wear. It is a "Virgin Pin". If I remember right, the associated ritual was for us naughty boys to try and put our finger through it. Girls usually wore them on their collars so there was no chance of getting a cheap feel while practicing this ritual. It makes me wonder now if it was really worth all of those slaps in the face. I also liked the "Ripcord" ritual associated with the wrap-around skirts that were popular while we were in school. That one was always accompanied by a quick slap to the face. The girls had their own rituals. I had more that a few Gant shirts destroyed by girls collecting "Fruitloops".

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Skip Cook Class of '64

Formally referred to as a circle pin, it was always called a "virgin" pin by the male populace at Lee. There were numerous debates as we walked the halls before class about the wearing of the pin. Surely we thought, it had to mean something if worn on the left side of a sweater or blouse as opposed to the right side. What about those circle pins with the little pearls around the face of the pin?

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Barbara Seely Cooper, Class of '64

It is a Circle Pin and was given by a guy to a girl for going steady. Once class rings were available, those became the item of choice. As I recall, the girls would wrap the guy's ring in angora yarn (it was cool to match the yarn with your outfit) until the ring fit the girl. This never worked well for me, because I have such small fingers - I ended up with such a huge wad of ring and yarn, my hand was distorted. Fortunately an acceptable, but less fashionable, alternative was to wear the ring around your neck.

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D-Day - My Way

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

While stationed with the USAF in England, I worked with a fellow intelligence officer who was a World War II nut. They have WWII re-inactment groups over there just like we have Civil War groups here. One day he came to work and asked for the next day off. He told us that there was a movie being filmed near us in Cambridge and that the word was out that they needed 500 extras for the sequence they were filming the next day. The film was the follow-on to the “Winds of War” mini-series which was supposed to take up where that series ended. It was entitled “War and Remembrance” and the scene being films was the pre D-Day visit of Gen. Eisenhower to the airborne unit that was to be dropped behind enemy lines. My co-worker asked if any of us wanted to go along with him, and I said yes.

We drove over near Cambridge, UK and were directed to a local school where the costume shop was erected. After filling out a few papers we were told to go in and find a uniform and get it on. I found one my size and a helmet with a Lieutenant’s bar on it and grabbed a “burp gun” to carry. When we were being checked out by the technical consultant, I asked why I had the officer’s helmet and I said that was the one I found. He didn’t press the issue but told me that officers were not issued “burp guns” and I had mine removed and was given a 45 Colt automatic pistol instead. We were then all loaded into buses and driven to Duxford Air Museum where the cameras and crew were already set to start filming.

In our sequence, we were the paratroopers standing around the airfield in battle gear, and Eisenhower would drive up and we would all run over to his jeep and he would walk through the troops. We ran through four or five rehearsals, then around eight takes with film rolling. Each time we heard “cut” we’d go back to the starting points, the jeep would drive off set and then we’d hear “action” just like in the movies and we’d do it again.

We spent most of the afternoon filming, was fed bangers on buns (an English hot dog) and some more grub at a mess tent. When we started loosing the light, we all loaded back into the buses and driven back to the school. We got in line and each of us was paid with a new 50 pound note (about $75 US at the time.) We got in our cars and drove off leaving our movie careers behind us.

I did sneak my camera on the set inside an ammo pouch and got a friend to snap my picture with E.G. Marshall, who played Eisenhower. It was ironic to me that I had see the real Eisnehower at the 1960 Boy Scout Jamboree – the first president I had ever really seen.

The film was something like two years in the making and ran 23 hours on TV. I was back in the states and retired from the Air Force and living in Memphis when it was finally aired. For nights I watched, waiting for my scene, video tape running each night. Finally I saw the scenes leading up to the airfield visit and watched to see if I could pick myself out of the crowd.

The scene lasted 20 seconds…20 seconds at most. The camera went from a wide pan to a close up on Eisenhower and his secretary and then that was it. Even knowing where I was I never saw that group on the screen. I suppose I was left lying on the cutting room floor. I figured it up. There were 500 people at $75 each for a total of $37,500 for just the extras. Throw in the food, the film, the costumes, the rental of the airport, and all the transportation and I was unable to calculate how much money was spent on the 20 seconds of film that was shown.

Of course I had another reason to do it than just for the money. As I have written most years since doing Lee’s Traveller, my dad was a veteran of D-Day and I did it to have my own connection with that event. My involvement was fun…his was horror.

Here's the description of the film:

War And Remembrance

This TV mini-series was an action drama of World War II events and is the continuation of the "Winds of War (1983)" mini-series which was about the build-up to the war. The fictional characters' lives are intertwined with real historical figures including Eisenhower, Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and Mussolini. This 23 hours of entertainment leave the viewer wanting even more. This turbulent time in history comes alive as you follow the effects that World War II has on the "Henry" families' personal lives. Perhaps the most exciting part of the mini-series is that which follows Natalie Henry, her son and her Uncle Aaron Jastrow as they struggle to survive (and hopefully escape) as Jews under Nazi occupation.

I know that I can't be the only General who has been in a movie? I am looking for some of you to send me a story about when you were in the spotlight. Send us the details.

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Things You Don't Want To Hear

During Your Surgery

submitted by Bobby Cochran

Class of '64

* "Better save that. We'll need it for the autopsy."

* "Someone call the janitor - we're going to need a mop."

* "Wait a minute, if this is his spleen, then what's that?"

* "Hand me that...uh...that uh.....thingie."

* "Ya know, there's big money in kidneys. Heck, this guy's got two of 'em."

* "Everybody stand back! I lost my contact lens!"

* "Could you stop that thing from beating? It's throwing my concentration off!"

* "What's THIS doing here?"

* "That's COOL! Now, can you make his leg twitch?"

* "I wish I hadn't forgotten my glasses."

* "Well, folks, this will be an experiment for all of us."

* "Sterile, shcmeril. The floor's clean, right?"

* "Anyone see where I left that scalpel?"

* "OK, now take a picture from this angle. This is truly a freak of nature."

* "Nurse, did this patient sign the organ donation card?"

* "Rats! Page 47 of the manual is missing!"

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Subject:Yesterday's Food

Bruce Fowler

Class of '66

Tommy, as usual, excellent writing. I didn't do much food preparation when I was in HS, mostly because

my Mother didn't permit it. In college, undergrad and grad, I recall: Tuna (in oil) and Pork and Beans mixed together, maybe served as open faced sandwich; a mixture of a Macaroni and Cheese mix, two hot dogs (sliced), and a can of Cream of Mushroom soup; and finally, taosted cheese sandwiches made using a clothes iron to toast them. That's in addition to things like potted meat, Vienna sausages, etc. that you have already mentioned. And once in grad school and making princely stipend, I could afford deviled ham a couple of times a month.

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Subject:Working Man's Lunch

Jim Bannister

Class of '66

I loved your article on the various canned meats. Randy Goodpasture and I worked construction the summer after graduation. Many days we had the working man's lunch of "Viennie Wiennies" or potted meat , a box of crackers and RC Colas. Like you, just the thought of those items now is enough to clog my arteries. But they sure were GOOD then.

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Subject:Your Article on Foods

Barbara Seely Cooper

Class of '64

Your article on what you can no longer eat made me laugh, since it covered many of the things on my adult list of "no-no's" as well. Two items I just had to add are sugar sandwiches (butter and white sugar on white bread, three no-no's in one) and king-sized Cokes in bottles. I could consume 3 to 5 big Cokes a day, and gave no thought at all to all the calories and caffeine therein. Nowadays it's Diet Coke only, and one a day, period.

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Subject:Catch Up

Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

My brother Don and I were talking a few days ago and we agreed that all of us collectively are creating quite a nice piece of written history from a kid's viewpoint for 1950-1970 Huntsville. It is turning out to be a heck of a cultural reference work.

My brothers and I spent considerable time (seems like years) exploring the cane break at the end of Oakwood and Buzzard's Roost but I have not been back in that area in at least 20 years. For a time around 10 years ago (maybe 15 by now) Don had a home in "Saddletree" on Chapman Mountain. He has since moved on to Hampton Cove - then to Florida so I have no reason to visit Huntsville much any more. I did seize an opportunity and rode around 5 Points and the old neighborhood for a few minutes several years ago when I was in town visiting the hospitalized wife of a friend of mine. I wrote a little piece about the experience and it appeared in our newsletter some time ago. The entire northeast quandrant of Huntsville was pretty much as I remembered it - even the Dallas neighborhood - I was immediately comfortable wherever I went.

I surely would like to see more articles from the female side of our classes. With six or seven of us guys writing more or less regularly we've got the male side of things pretty well covered. Since I was one of three brothers and have two sons, one grandson and three nephews with only one niece, I still don't have a clue what girls do (until they turn 20 or so, that is - after that I've got it pretty well figured out). What in the world were they doing all the while we were out roaming the countryside? Perhaps we can get some of our more talkative colleagues (Annette McCraney for example) to share some of their childhood adventures with us. I really am curious.

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