Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Pre-Engineering Program

Seeks Assistance

by Sharon Wells Johnson

Class of '73

I'd like to appeal to the Alumni of the classes of 1964-65-66 to help support the Pre-Engineering Magnet Program at Lee High School. My son started the 9th grade at Lee this week. He applied for and was selected into the engineering magnet program. I went to a parents meeting last night and realized it is going to be a big responsibility for the parents.

This is a small group. We are searching out resources and I remembered your Lee Library campaign a while back (I sent money!) and thought, why wouldn't Lee Alumni be willing to contribute to help these bright young future engineers? I have never talked to anyone from Lee that wasn't proud of it!

The Lee Pre-Engineering Magnet Program is the only one of its kind in the Huntsville City School System. They participate in Robotics competitions, rocket competitions, among others. To participate in the robotics competition they need to raise $6000. They perform miracles considering their resources are so limited. In addition to monetary donations (small ones add up!) they need company sponsors for their competitions, mentors, class speakers, computer and equipment donations, etc. etc.

Betsy Banks is the teacher and she is fantastic. One of the goals of the magnet engineering parents is to help promote this program. We want to get the word out about how great the Lee Pre-Engineering Magnet Program is. Could you spare a space in the on-line Traveller for this worthy plea for help?

I can be the POC for anyone with resources or ideas that would like to contact me. I plan to email other classes from the Lee website also. Remember that even small donations add up. All money will be given to Mrs. Banks for this program.

Regards,

Sharon Wells Johnson (Sherri Cummings, Class of '73)

256-955-4213 work

256-534-4961 home

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Should Old Acquaintances...?

by Collins (CE) Wynn

Class of '64

Well, it appears it is time to add my thanks to everyone else’s who have been using the “Traveller” to renew old acquaintances. A year of so ago I received an email out of the blue from Walt Thomas from his office in Taiwan. We started a running commentary and have kept steady at it since then. A month or so ago, after returning to the States, Walt called me to say he would be down on the gulf coast for a few days with his two grandsons (about 10 and 12) and we made arrangements to visit a couple of times.

Late one afternoon a few days later this big hulking kind of guy gets out of a SUV in my driveway and I immediately knew it was Walt. To be perfectly honest, except for a little less hair he did not appear to me to have changed a bit. His expressions and mannerisms were exactly as I remembered them. We threw his two boys into the pool and sat there awhile watching them swim, holler, and horseplay as we talked getting caught up on events after 30 years or so.

The next morning we had breakfast together still talking about our high school days. I’m sure his grandsons were wondering what in the world these two old guys (that’d be Walt and I) were talking about. A couple of days later, after they tired of the beach, I invited them up to our place in the Mobile Delta and we spent the day together cruising the backwaters of the Tensaw River (near Fort Mims from your Alabama History class) looking for snakes and alligators. They even fished a little using some frozen bacon and a cane pole and caught a foot long catfish off the back of our house. We finished up the day gently tubing them behind a pontoon boat (it was their first time out). Walt and I agreed that although we were barely moving through the water, the first day of school they would both be telling stories about jumping six foot waves on a tube during their vacation.

It was a pleasant day which would not have happened had Walt not run into Randall Stinnett on the street in Huntsville 2 years or so ago while home on leave from Taiwan. Randall told him about the site; Walt checked it out and got in touch after he saw my email address.

So Tommy, two old, wore out, used up, lonely GIs would like to say thanks one more time for all you do, it means a lot!

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A Personal Update

by Greg Dixon

Class of '65

About my alleged retirement - the truth is I just got fed up with this Republican administration and the direction it is taking our nation. So I resigned because of some particular policy directions being proposed by the current druz czar. As you may or may not know, I was employed in a White House office (technically the Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy). Since 1999, I was the administrator of the Drug-Free Communities program, a national grant program that awards about $60 million per year (of your tax dollars) to

community coalitions working to prevent drug use among youth. Indeed, such coalitions in Huntsville, Decatur, Prattville, Birmingham, and Ft. Payne were all recipients of these federal grants. There are about 2500 or so people in the Executive Office of the President and probably about 1800 of these are civil servants rather than political appointees. I was hired by the former drug czar in the Clinton administration, Barry McCaffrey, a guy I really admired. The Bush administration appears to deeply distrust any federal employees hired during the Clinton years so there has been a general tendency throughout the government to make life unpleasant for such employees. It is not particularly personal but many who live in Washington have stories to tell like mine. The tactic used has been to generally ignore Clinton era bureaucrats, regardless of their knowledge base, and to engage in petty torments like moving offices, reducing travel and speaking opportunities, and even offering bonuses to simply retire. (I didn't take one, thinking it hypocritical). In my case, the most unpleasant policy direction that got my dander up was the promotion of random student drug testing for school aged youth. The current drug czar, John Walters, thought that was a nifty little policy and promoted it to President Bush. Since I ran a grant program, Walters thought that I could require or at least encourage some of the 600 or so local grantees to promote student drug testing. By this we mean taking urine, blood, or hair samples from random groups of youth and testing them for drug use, much like Olympic Athletes. Such tests don't tell you anything about alcohol use (the biggest drug problem) but they do pick up big-time on marijuana, which stays in one's system for several weeks. I registered my dismay at yet another infringement on liberty and found myself at odds with my boss and, indeed, the President himself. I could have just stayed and been passive-agressive about the whole thing since I did have civil service protection but I decided to get off drugs and start dabbling in real estate instead.

Three years ago, my wife Susan and I built a vacation home in Sandestin, Florida down in the "red-neck Riviera" (now called the Emerald Coast by the local Chamber of Commerce). We just sold that house and have started building another more permanent retirement home within the same community. Our old classmate Cecil Tipton, an attorney in Opelika, has a house down the road in Blue Mountain Beach. I have reconnected with him as we both like beer, books, and oysters on the half-shell. Also, I just heard from John Wayne Turrentine and know that he has retired from the FBI and now lives over near Mobile about a 100 miles away. I do wonder if other Lee High Classmates have places in the Florida panhandle or whether they like to vacation down there. Susan and I will be spending several months a year there but will probably keep our place here in the Washington area for the next several years at least. Our only daugher, Amanda,graduated from Southern Methodist University last year and is living in downtown Manhatten and working for McCann Erickson Advertising, one of the world's largest agencies. We are, alas, subsidizing her rent since it would pretty much take her whole paycheck to pay for her studio apartment near Central Park.

I am interested in how our classmates hope to spend their autumn years and know that a few have been able to retire. Until my recent resignation, I had never had more than three weeks off since college and can't tell you how much I enjoy not wearing a suit. Hell, I'm not even wearing socks.

Feel free to print any of this you care to and edit it to make me sound more literate. Not sure what the Travellers policy is about political speech. Best regards to all and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you at next years reunion, if not sooner. Does anyone know any news of Randy Roman?

(Editor's Comment: While we have elected to avoid politics and religion for the most part, when such topics are part of a personal story such as it is here, we think it is acceptable. We do not plan to publish political views on either presidential candidate or party that has no direct connection with a Classmate.)

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My Room

Joy Rubins Morris

Class 1964

Like Tommy,I had always shared a room with my sibling (my best friend) my sister. As far back as I can remember, we either slept in one bed or twin beds. Our dad worked for several companies and we traveled across the U.S. living in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, California, Virginia, West Virginia, and finally Alabama.

Through the years we lived in several states and in several houses. We usually were within walking distance to our schools and at one house even had cowboy curtains in our bedroom. I loved looking at those curtains at night. For some reason I always felt safe and would drift off to sleep knowing everything was okay.

Of course, as Judy and I got older, sharing a room meant one person would evidently end up being the “Oscar” type and the other was the “Felix” type. My sister and I were no different. I liked things neat and straightened while Judy had a more relaxed slant on how the room should look. You can imagine the “discussions” we had in our room. Of course, we also used our room to play school, house, grocery store, etc. Back yards were made to play ball and make mud pies.

When we moved to Huntsville in 1958, we lived in a duplex on Triana Boulevard. It was small with two tiny bedrooms, a small kitchen/breakfast area, a very small bathroom, and a small living room. The duplex was two blocks behind old Butler High School. Our dad was working for Rocketdyne at the time and we lived in that duplex for two years. When it was time to transfer back to California with Rocketdyne, Mom and Dad decided they liked Huntsville so much that Dad changed jobs and began work at Chrysler Corporation at the old H.I.C. Building. They also decided to buy a house (our first house). We moved into our new home the summer of 1960, on Norwood Drive in the Meadows Hill Subdivision. The house seemed very large to us and Judy and I had our own bedrooms. We were allowed to pick out the paint colors for our rooms, and Mom and Dad traveled to Decatur and bought new furniture for all three bedrooms. I changed the color scheme in my room through the years, going from pink to a red/gold combo while Judy chose a lavender/purple color scheme. Judy’s bedroom was next to our parents’ bedroom and faced Norwood Drive. My bedroom was across the hall from Judy’s and my windows faced the Seaver house behind us. Judy’s room had a large closet while my closet was small. Later, my parents bought me a wardrobe that added additional closet space for me. On another note, our parents’ bedroom was next to the front door. Therefore, anything said while saying good night to your date was tempered with the knowledge they could hear everything. Therefore, you did not linger for fear that Mom would turn on the porch light. The same thing went for parking in our driveway and lingering too long in the car. Again the fear of “the porch light” would damper any romantic notions of extended good byes.

My room – I could keep the door closed when I wanted to be alone. I could play the radio and listen to records. I loved the closeness in my room. I dreamed, cried, planned, and mended my broken heart many times in that room. My room was my sanctuary. When I had a fight with my parents, I could find solace in my room. When Judy and I got “into” it, we had our rooms to cool off. I got ready for dates in that room,

dressed for my senior prom in that room, dressed for graduation in that room, and packed for my honeymoon in that room. If those walls could talk, they would tell a lifetime of stories in those short years that I lived there before I married. I started ninth grade at Lee the fall of 1960, and my room was my haven all through high school and into my early twenties. I miss the house that we called home and I miss the room that held so many dreams that I had lo those many years ago. I would love to go through that house again. But then again, like Lee High School, I think I prefer to remember it the way it was and the girls who grew up there and became the women we are today.

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The Ring and The Sting...

by Eddie Sykes

Class of '66

One thing that has not changed over the years is the obsession for the telephone by teens. I can still remember how happy I was when our family finally got a private line. No more waiting for the right ring or having someone picking up every minute or two during your semi-private conversation. Everything about the phone has changed but the obsession has continued to grow. Of course we had only one phone and we would stretch the cord as far as humanly possible away from "ear shot" of the rest of the family.

However, our generation was very innovative and we developed "teenage code" so that our parents wouldn't know what we were up to. The code utilized a lot of "yes", "no", and "oks." Most of the time I don't think our parents were listening, but just when your let your guard down they would pop in and say "no your not spending the night out with anyone." A couple of my favorite code words was "me too" or "ditto." (It usually meant " I love you, too!" or "I would like some beer, also") Of course we acted like we were talking to one of the guys instead of girls when our parents were around. The quest for privacy and a private conversation lead the way to great technological advances over the years-- the dropping of prefix tele-, long phone cords, phone extensions, touch-tone phones, portable phones, digital phones, cell phones, and so on.

Now the phone presented an extra problem for us that were in love. We were expected to be able to talk to our beau for hours even though we had absolutely nothing to say. "If you loved me, you would not want to hang up." My girlfriend would read me her French homework... like I would know if it right or wrong. Sorry, "Sandra". for the most part I ate it up. Now when one of us was home sick and the other one was at school we had to call several times a day to check on the sick one and prove our love. We would have to walk very fast (run) to be the 1st one to get to the pay phone located in the front of the school auditorium during breaks. "How are you filling ?" "Fine." "What are you doing ?" "Nothing." Now that's love ! However, it got expensive at a dime a pop. Now the solution was for the one at home to call the pay phone. But, that was not an easy thing to do because that phone was usually very busy and in such great demand. We came up with a "cool" method of working the system. Of course it was selfish, mean spirited, dishonest, but also profitable. But, before I spill the beans let me refresh your memory on how the phone system worked back then.

Back then, which ever telephone initiated the call controlled the connection. Remember, you could leave the phone off the hook and it would ring busy all day long. Now, I bet most of you remember dialing your own number to get the busy signal and talking to everyone elsethat was doing the same. I don't remember what we called that, but it was a fad that lasted several years until the telephone company changed the disconnect logic. So, we learned by accident that if we would call the pay phone early in the morning and never break the connection from the calling end that we could stay connected all day. So, then during breaks at a prearranged time we could just stroll to the phone, remove the out of order paper that was usually taped on the phone by then, and continue our private line conversation. It was also fun to listen to the people all day cursing the phone for being out of order and taking their dime. Actually the phone did not take their dime it just collected it into our get well soon fund, At the end of the day when we finally hang-up, it was like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine. All that money came jingling out. Not bad for a sick day at home.

However, one day at the appointed time I picked up the phone to find myself talking with the telephone repairman. He said, "I know what you are doing" and I hung-up ended my three years of "telephone sting". I am truly sorry to all that I ripped off or dis-connivenced, but I must admit that thought it was cool back then. I am now confessing my sin and willing to make restoration. If you lost money in that pay phone between 1964-66 send me an email with your address and I will return your dime(s). My email address is eosykes@fedex.com. Please forgive me and don't blame Sandra (Parks). Does anybody else have a confession ?

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Lynn Bozeman Van Pelt, Class of '66

The Lee-Bay Item is the plastic thingie you put in a 45 record so it would fit the spindle on the record player?

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Cecilia

The mystery items are the little things that you put inside your 45s so you could play them on your record player.

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Carolyn Taylor , Class of '64

Those are for 45 RPM records. You needed those in the middle of the record so they would play on the record player. I don't think I have any left because they started making a thing to fit on the stereo to where you no longer needed the disc.

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Gilda Davis, Class of '64

The item on Lee-Bay are disc that fit into our 45 records so we could play them on the record player, I believe before the adapter was made to fit over the spindle that would play 78 records. I have gone through many of these little disc.

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Chip Smoak

The Lee-Bay items are adapters for 45 records that made it possible to play them on stereos, most of which had slender spindles whether only one record at a time could be played or the stereo had an automatic record changer. I had my share of them but don't

have any today. I had one or two until about eight years ago because I had some 45 rpm square dance records, even though I was never and am not a square dance caller.

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