Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

View of East Clinton today.

East Clinton Elementary School -

Memories II

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

I’m not sure why, but the first feature that comes to mind when I think about the East Clinton Elementary School building are the water fountains behind the school. They were outdoors, and my memory of them tells me that they were round, but that may not be true. The fountains were on the outside, behind the school, and did not have a cooler in them, so you just got water at whatever temperature it came from the pipes. They were located in the back between the school proper and the big building that served as auditorium, gym, and lunchroom all together. I do know they were outside and seemed to have multiple places to drink from, and I think there were two of them. Perhaps I can remember them so well because one of my early encounters with them was during the summer program, when I was very hot from playing in the schoolyard. I took a big, long drink from the fountain and my nose started bleeding. It scared me to death! I took that long drink, wiped my mouth, and like David Copperfield had done his magic, my palm was bright red with blood. That was my first bloody nose at the school, but not my last one I am sure.

The school had the main entrance on the East Clinton side of the building and then there were wings on both ends and a center structure down the middle. From the air it looked like a big “E” on it’s side. The back entrances seemed to be on some type of porchs and there was a kind of flyway or open courtyard between the main building and the big add-on building in back. The hallways were wooden, and dark, and I seem to remember the lighting was dark as well. The walls showed the results of years of artwork being put up and taken down from the cream colored structures.

Of course each class had its own room and own teacher who stayed with the same group of students the entire day. We all did the same courses at the same time, and went to the lunchroom at the same time each day. We’d go through a line, give them a quarter for our lunch, and sit as a class if I best remember. I wrote earlier but must mention it again, one of my favorite treats was to go back and get a slice of white bread that was smeared with honey-butter – available only if you cleaned your plate. Of course we had fish every Friday.

If you acted up in class, you were sat in the hall. If you were unlucky enough to be sitting there when the principal came along it was rumored that you would get a spanking. The desks were all one piece and did not connect to each other. That made it easy to arrange them in a circle when the occasion called for it.

Each room had an American Flag behind the teacher’s desk on the wall, and each morning we would start off with the Pledge of Allegiance, “under God” and all. In May we celebrated with a Maypole. We took trips to the bakery, the Coca-Cola plant, and the Meadow Gold Ice Cream plant. I think every class did those field trips. We also went to the Health Department at least once a year I think.

Each year we had school pictures made, and we would swap them with our friends and write little ditties in their books like “Roses are red, violets are blue…” Each Valentine’s Day we’d decorate little paper bags that were taped to our desks and we’d walk around the room and pass out cards to all our friends. The cards were usually bought in lots of 25 to 30 and were thin cardstock and may or may not have included envelopes. We’d try to have a special one for a special person, but many were too shy to ever let on. On Halloween we had a carnival and each room would have an activity. I remember the cake walks, the scary house, and the fishing game with the sheet held up and the fishing poles with strings and clothes pins for hooks. Throw your line over the sheet and reel in a prize. There was bingo too, and pick-up-ducks and cookie sales. Each month homerooms with the best attendance or some other honor would be rewarded with an ice cream party in the room – Dixie Cups with pull off lids and little wooden spoons wrapped in paper and strung together like tickets on a roll. I remember art shows where the best drawings got red, blue, and yellow ribbons. For Christmas we’d usually draw names and buy small trinkets. The most fun was trying to find out who had your name.

I remember having to try to make music with a little black flute type thing, and learning to square dance, right in the classroom after all the desks had been pulled from the center of the room. Older people got white flutes with red ends that had more holes. All I think I ever got out was “Twinkle, twinkle, little star...” That tune will probably haunt that hollowed ground for eternity. There were also the percussion instruments that we’d bang together in beat to the music. It seemed that almost the whole world revolved around the same room during those days. I do remember being in a play that was put on in the lunchroom/gym, and I remember that the seats and tables were rolled out of a garage type area under the stage floor. There was a library of course, and perhaps it was located in the center wing. We’d check out books and take them back to the room and read them. The next week we’d go back again, as a class, and then get new books. Most of our current affairs knowledge came from a publication called “The Weekly Reader.”

The younger classes would get to play in the playground at recess, and the other ones were allowed to play behind the school and on the west side. We’d do dodge ball and red rover and tag and ring-around-the-rosy. In the sixth grade I remember the recesses when we would catch and hold girls while Bob Davis (Huntsville High) would kiss them. We’d be suspended today for something like that I am sure.

We’ve talked about the patrol boys before, and how they had the white belts and would march with their flags to each of the four corners of the block where the school sat. There was a bell that rang to signal each of the class periods. And we did “Duck and Cover” drills under our desks to prepare for the nuclear attack that was always imminent in the 50’s. We didn’t have a fallout shelter in the school, but many brochures were available for our dads to read on how to build one in our homes. Ever so often we’d have fire drills that disrupted classes and we got to get into lines and march outside. Fire drills were fun! If you had to go to the bathroom, you had to ask permission, and were almost always granted your request. Of course we also had shy classmates who somehow never got up the nerve or waited to late to ask permission, and just wet the floor under their desks instead.

I remember big maps that rolled down from walls like movie screens, and big capital and lower case letters over the blackboard to remind us how to write. The bulletin board decorations were changed regularly to reflect either the country we were studying or the holiday that was approaching. I remember some of the books, especially the one that is the subject of our Lee-Bay Mystery below. I still have a couple of report cards that used the E, G, S, and U scale instead of A, B, C, D, and F which we later were exposed to.

There were no air conditioners in East Clinton, but there were long poles with hooks that allowed windows to be opened in from the top and pushed out from the bottom. The poles always looked like lances to me, and I am surprised that some kid never got speared with one of them. Did we have radiators? I can’t remember for sure, but believe we did. We carried our books to school in old army packs (kind of like today’s college students backpacks) and we were careful to put book covers on the books. We wrote in Blue Horse notebooks and collected the Blue Horse coupons for things we never seemed to order. Once a year I remember a book drive where we ordered paperback books and waited months for them to show up.

I remember the first days of school, with the new school clothes, and the last day of school and the freedom it represented. I remember it when there was a playground where the photo above shows a track. I also remember how much in a hurry we were to get out of there and grow up and go to Junior High. If only we had known…tag, you’re it!

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The Level Playing Field

of Days Gone By

by Eddie Sykes

Class of '66

Most of the mail and articles published on the web site focus on how much things have changed since we walked the halls at Lee. The most striking difference to me is that we were allowed to just be kids and enjoy life. Today's young people face so many more pressures. Everything is so competitive today and no one is content to be number two. Just being in the top 20% is no longer good enough.

During my Lee days, I was happy to just make the team. I was happy to just graduate from high school and to get into college. Our athletes were not considered losers because they lost more games than they won. Our fathers did not hire personal trainers so we could make the school team. Our mothers did not hire hit men so that their daughters could make the cheerleading squad. We did not take steroids or attend sport camps to give us the competitive edge. In fact I don't think we bought study guides to help us improve our ACT/SAT scores.

We all started on a level playing field. Please allow me to digress a bit and sidetrack on that cliche. The sidelines on the football field were build lower than ground level on the visitors side giving the coaches of the home team a slight advantage because they had a better view of the game. The field also drained toward the visitor bench leaving it wet and muddy when it rained. Thus, a level playing field was fair to all. Sorry, but my point was that it was okay for us to just show up and do our best because we all started out even. In fact it was okay to graduate from high school and go to work for A&P or Sears. It was okay to get married and be a full time Mom. It was okay to just live modestly and pay the bills

But not today! We have become so materialistic that your not considered successful unless you live like the rich and famous. So we have gone in debt to have the houses, cars, and lifestyle to maintain that pretense. Yet, most of us claim to have had happy lives even with our modest lifestyle from bygone years. I long for the simpler life of the good old days. I remember going to Mullins and ordering a hamburger and hanging out with friends while they cooked it. The wait was usually the best part of the experience. But we have all moved on at the speed of light and fast food is the lunch of choice.

Fast food during our high school days was a sandwich and chips. Then came Henrys, Hardes, and McDonalds and the rest is history. Then our kids started school and it was run, run, run. No time for old friends and family. Rush, Rush, Rush, Push, Push, Push! I am proud to say my kids were the best of the best in everything thing we pushed them into. However, they are now in their mid-twenties and are dysfunctional and emotional wrecks because they can' t handle being average. They expected to come out of college and be where it took us years to get. We were just trying to give them a edge, but somehow forgot to teach them to enjoy life along the way. My point is.. it is time for us to wake-up, slow-down, and spend more time with the people that are important to us. I have !

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The Spirit Of Lee

by Bob MacIlveen

Class of '65

Your efforts have kept more Lee High students in touch with their memories than you will ever know. Folks like Mike Luteman who came to Lee their senior year and then went off to the service feel as much a part of Lee as do the Rison kids. It’s a part of their soul. They want to be counted. They cried, bled, laughed, drank, studied, and loved just like the rest. Somehow Lee is an anchor. It ties our childhood, teenage, and adult years to the soil. Lee was a school where no social boundaries existed. Each of us made our own boundaries. Some made them close in and some made them greater than an Alabama cotton field. Our combined experiences were far more than a commencement. We found a door leading us out of the cotton field to the vast universe of the space age. The thrill of seeing our classmates on the stage for the first time; performing in the band, singing in a talent show, acting in a play…this was Lee.

Top students struggling to get a passing grade in typing were as much a part of student life as athletes sweating on the gym floor or on football and baseball fields. The pride that budding artists took in painting the gym mural matched the quiet study of our young math and science students. We were heading for air conditioning and refrigeration companies, state and private colleges. Some joined army, navy, air force, or marines. Some settled down to Mom and Pop businesses while others drifted along.

Lessons continue to be learned. Success was found in life, marriage, and religion. Disappointment, rejection, addiction, and heart break were not unknown. Desire still breathes but self-acceptance is catching up. We were right and wrong about so many things. We were willing to learn and to work for a better world. Innocence, naiveté were blown away in Viet Nam. Healing and recovery allowed hope and optimism to bloom again.

What was once seen as failure is perceived as part of the course of history. We can simultaneously be happy for others success and ashamed of our early prejudices.

Facing the strange, new world together created a cement that permanently holds us together. The world presented to us by our parents was as tantalizing as it was abhorrent. Most of us had avoided world history and were promptly presented with the great diplomatic failure known as Nam. Some of our homes were a happy episode of “Father Knows Best” others had a sordid chapter of Peyton Place. We had Lee friends to turn to, not counselors or psychiatrists. Just being there for us somehow helped. And we moved on.

Drifting away was easy for those who needed time and space to heal, to become comfortable in their own skins, and maybe hide from pain that couldn’t be faced. And yet those years at Lee are remembered as something that was good and true, not spoiled by preceding generations. Innocence formed a shield which protected and nourished us. All too soon the world would break down our shield. Our bodies, minds, and souls partially matured before leaving Lee’s cocoon. Like a genetic code it will always be there.

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Subject:Class Stuff

J.R. Brooks

Class of '64

I don't get it when people raise issues about receiving the newsletter. I enjoy it and want to receive it and those who don't can simply ask to be taken off. One beef, however, in response to your list of things that bug you. I was not class president. Bob Ramsey was class president. Blame him. I was student council president. On the other hand, I probably participated in the decisions regarding the place for the prom(lunchroom) and the band, although I don't really remember one way or the other. I do remember the prom. Regardless of the band and the place, it was a good night.

Thanks for the memories. I was not in the Rison or East Clinton crowd because I attended elementary school in the county where my father was a principal. But, I was in the Darwin Downs crowd, along with Dwight Kephart, Jed Stephens, Neal Neumann, Miles Ramsey, Mike Cortright, Escoe Beatty, Butch Adcock, the Pierce brothers and others too numerous to mention. Your newsletter helps bring back good memories of those days and people.

(Editor's Note: We apologize to J.R. and to Bob Ramsey both for saying that J.R. was the class president for the Class of '64, but J.R. does admit that he may have supported the selection of the lunchroom as the site for the Homecoming Dance.)

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Subject:Urban Legend

Mike Griffith

Class of '66

I went to elementary school at Lincoln, so I personally know nothing

about this. My wife, Sue (maiden name, Savas), not only went to school

and participated in the summer programs at East Clinton, but she grew up

in the house on that 4-way stop corner facing the school, on East

Clinton. I ran Dianne's inquiry regarding the "urban legend" past my

wife and she claims that the base facts are at least true. Sue's house

was on the corner of East Clinton and White, diagonally across from the

yard of the house where the car hit a tree. She said that she heard

nothing about any initiation nor a finger in the sandbox, but she did

see the aftermath of the accident. She tells me that the girl was in a

convertible, ran the stop sign and hit a large tree. She was thrown out

of the car and somehow decapitated by, and in, the tree. Also, she tells

me that accidents at that corner were relatively common ... ahh, the

great memories from our younger days!

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Subject:Classmate

Pat Torzillo Stolz

Class of '66

It saddens me everytime I hear of a classmate passing. I read in June 18th. Huntsville Times of the passing of Dianne Massey, Class of '68. I wonder if I missed it in the Traveller?

I would like to thank you and your staff for the great job you do. Each issue brings back a memory, some good, some not, but I always enjoy them. I pass our site on to anyone I happen to run into from Lee.

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Subject:Temperament

Eddie Burton

Class of '66

Tommy, I've never heard you so testy. I really don't believe someone tried

to stuff the ballot box on your poll question. That's totally lame. You and

your 'staff' do a remarkable job with the Traveller and we all love it very

much. For those of us who no longer live in Huntsville it's a connection to

home, to our long gone past and to the wonderful memories of our youth.

You know - back when the world was a little less complicated, when we didn't have extremist trying to kill us by flying airliners into buildings? The

Traveller is a weekly escape for me and it is very important to me. Please

don't stop publishing it. I think we all need it. You have created a service

and an entertainment for a bunch of ageing Alabamians. Thank you so much for all your hard work. I know it's been a labor of love for you.

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Subject:Gettin' on board with the Traveller

Bob MacIlveen

Class of '65

Last week I was in Huntsville and had an opportunity to visit with Niles Prestage. He is a wonderful soul who has appeared in my life from time over the last forty years. He introduced me to the Lee High web page and I really look forward to getting reacquainted with our classmates through this. We had the first unofficial meeting for the next high school reunion at Copelands. I forecast a fabulous reunion. The number alone is awesome. I don’t know if you recall but I purchased two of your books and truly enjoyed it. I think I lost them in my divorce along with the house. Well, I rarely read anything twice.

How does one submit articles for the newspaper? Is it possible to go to back issues? I look forward to hearing from you. Do you think an article about the Monte Sano folk would be of interest?

(Editor's Note: Welcome Home Bob. For you and all other readers - there is a link at the top left of this page that says PAST ISSUES. If you click on that link it will take you to the archives of all the past issues and you can read yourself silly with almost four years of stuff. Also each week there is a link at the bottom of the page that says LAST WEEK'S ISSUE that will allow you to go backwards one week at a time.

As far as stories go, everyone is not only invited, but encouraged to send in any story they wish. Don't feel bad if you are not a good writer - I am a good editor! We want to hear about anything that led up to or became a part of your life because of your Lee experience.)

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Subject:Senior Trip 1964

Gilda Wilburn Davis

Just finished reading your article on "Okay, All Things Were Not Really Perfect!" On the senior trip, if you had taken Psychology with Mr. Stewart you would have gotten to go to Bryson Institute, that was what we considered our senior class trip.

The reason we didn't get a senior trip to New York or Chicago like Butler and Huntsville, was because they caused so much trouble the school decided that we shouldn't have one. So we paid for their fun and never got a chance to have ours. And I agree with you we should have had the right to take a class trip, would have been loads of fun.

I'm so glad that Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, finally got in touch with me and that she told me about the website, have enjoyed it so much. Keep up the good work.

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