Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Marc Bentley, Class of '66 - They look like the old "curb feelers" that were attached to a car's rear fenders to aid in parallel parking.

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Rick Simmons, Class of '64 - They are curb feelers. Installed at the bottom on the trailing edge of the front wheel wells of your car you could hear them drag the street curb when you are too close. Helps save side-walls when properly used...especially important for white wall tires.

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Pat Torzillo Stolz, Class of '66 - I believe the items are curb feelers, used to let you know if you were too close to the curb. Boy could I use a pair! As I never had a car as a teen, I never had any, but we sold them at Western Auto when I worked there.

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Glenn James, Class of '65 - The Ebay mystery items are what we called Curb Feelers, though the ones I had only had one spring on each of them. They clamped behind your cars front fender. When you got to close to the curb they would rub and make a sound like you were tearing your car to pieces.

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Ron Blaise, Class of '64 - Those are "Curb-Feelers." I remember my Dad had some on our '53 Olds. Best I can recall they let you know if you got too close to

the curb when you were parking. Of course a lot of the cars had them back then, along with steering wheel knobs cause most people didn't have power steering back then.

Ron in Clanton, Alabama

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Chip Smoak, Class of '66 - The items pictured are curb guards used to keep one from scratching one's fenders on curbs when parallel parking. I never had any but they were quite plentiful at the time.

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Bob Walker, Class of '64 - This month's items are curb finders and/or whitewall savers. They were installed on the wheel wells of cars to keep from grinding one's tires on the curbs when parallel parking, which tended to really mess up a good set of white walls (if one could afford them...personally, I had black walls on my '52 Fairlane).

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Subject: Lynn Teague

Marc Bentley

Class of '66

I just found out that Lynn Teague, Lee High School class of 1967 lost her battle last week in Huntsville with brain cancer.

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Subject: fotos

Tony Campbell

Visitor

Tommy, I was raised in Dallas Village on Halsey and Oakwood. I am trying to locate photos of the old Dallas Y when it was used by the VFW. I remember playing on two cannons and a tank they has there.

I need photos of those items and so far every where I

have look....BLANK. Collins Wynn suggested I contact you. Thanks for any help, Tony M. Campbell and brother Mickey Campbell.

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Subject:Web Site

George T. Vail

Class of '66

vailgeorge@hotmail.com

From: Giles Co Tennessee

What a great site Tommy.... Kudos! I was the drummer in the"IN"! Fred Sanders (Bass, Vocals), Bill Peck (Guitar, vocals), Eddie Burton (lead guitar,vocals), Bobby Land (keyboard, lead vocals).

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Subject: Lost Celebrities and 2005

Chip Smoak

Class of '66

Regardless of the so-called celebrities that passed away over the past year, none shone brighter than the classmates that we lost. They still live in our memories so hold them dear.

We have a year full of opportunity ahead of us. I wish all of you the best. For those with ailments I wish healing and cures or at least relief at a minimum. For all of us I wish the opportunity to fellowship through Tommy's hard work if not in person. I hope that everyone can make the reunion. I am looking forward to it with great anticipation.

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My First Car Date

by Joy Rubins Morris

Class of '64

Good Grief! Who can remember that far back. Well for starters my parents were of the old school – strict. Therefore, we were not allowed to single date until we were sixteen. However, we could double date at fifteen. Don’t know the reasoning to their decision on this but they stuck to it. After all what could you do at sixteen that you could not do at fifteen. Anyway I guess they figured there was safety in numbers.

My first single car date was with a boy I had met at Carter’s Skateland. We would meet at Carter’s and skate together. Sometimes we would leave Carter’s and walk over to the bowling alley, order french fries and seven ups and sit in one of the booths and talk. Finally, I suppose he felt confident enough to ask me out knowing that I would accept which I did. Of course Mom and Dad had to meet him as they did everyone we dated. We went to the drive-in (which one I do not remember) and snuggled while watching the movie (couldn’t tell you what was playing). At some point we shared our first kiss and over time started going together. I remember the thrill of the anticipated kiss (would he or wouldn’t he) and whether he/I was a good kisser. I guess he/I was because we did a lot of kissing (practice makes perfect). During that summer, he gave me a ring for my birthday (which I returned when we broke up). I saw him again after I graduated from high school. He had broken up with his girlfriend and I was getting over a broken heart. We dated a couple of times but it was not the same. We both had changed (actually grown up) and did not want the same things anymore.

I will always remember, though, how nervous we both were when I introduced him to my parents for the first time. I don’t know from where this rite of passage began, but I am sure it was started by some protective father who felt that if he put the fear of God into the young man through some covert intimidation then his daughter’s well being was assured.

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A Car Date With a 12-Year Old

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

My first car date was also my first real date. It was on Valentine's Day in 1961. It was through one of those twisted webs of relationships that I was invited to go to a dance at Huntsville High School on Valentine's Day night. The web was a long and complicated one. Joyce Ann was the daughter of the lady from whom my grandmother rented an apartment. Joyce Ann was 17 and was going steady with a boy who was taking her to a dance at Huntsville High School. She invited her younger cousin, Ginger, to go along. Why she wanted to do that is unknown, but Ginger didn't have anyone to go with. Through some scheme, known only to Venus or Cupid, I was the one that was invited to go to the dance with her.

That was my first real date, and I didn't even initiate it. I was the one who was asked for the date, and even then I wasn't asked by the girl. It was through an arrangement made by the cousins, and parents, and aunts and uncles, and grandmothers and who knows who else. Maybe the milkman was in on it for all I knew. If I hadn't known better I would have thought that it was an old-world arrangement. How such a date was settled is beyond belief, but it was and I was invited to go to the Valentine's Dance with Ginger.

I was 15 at the time; she was 12, almost 13. I bought flowers and everything and even wore a suit and tie. I lived across the street from the cousin, so when the time came, I took the flowers out of the refrigerator, tried to get the butterflies out of my stomach, and walked across the street to meet my date. It looked like the Academy Awards show when I arrived at the door. There were people and cameras and flowers and me. There, behind the crowd, was Ginger in her nice party dress. When I gave her the flowers she opened them and handed the corsage back for me to pin on her.

That posed the first problem of the night. Just how do you go about pinning a flower on a girl's shoulder, or lower, without touching something you were not supposed to touch? The older cousin, her date, the aunt and uncle and her parents got quite a giggle out of watching me struggle with embarrassment. The obvious way to do it was to scoop your hand down inside the front of the dress to hold it steady while you pinned it on her. Obviously what was practical was not the proper way to do it. After a few seconds, which seemed like hours, of fidgeting and trying to pin it on without touching anything, and after the adults had all the giggles they could get out of watching me, I was rescued by the cousin who completed the task. A smart fellow would have taken that as a hint and left and waited until he could date a girl without an audience. That was not to be on that night. I was committed to the date.

We rode in the cousin's date's car (make and model unknown) to the dance, hardly speaking on the way. I just barely knew the girl sitting beside me in the back seat of the car. We had met once before when she was eight and it never entered my mind that someday I would be sitting in the back of a car on the way to a dance with her. We sat in silence, glancing ever so often at one another and then out of the windows to watch the street lights go by. The dance went rather well, except that at the time, neither I nor Ginger knew how to dance, and we spent most of the time sitting and making busy talk or not talking at all. When we did try to dance, all that I knew how to do was the two‑step, and I spent most of the time on the floor saying "one-two-one, one-two-one" to myself as I counted the steps needed for the dance. When the dance was over we all went to Jerry's. It was my first time to visit that establishment with a girl. We had Cokes and then went riding in the country.

The older cousin and her escort knew what you were supposed to do on a date when you go riding around on dark country roads. I didn't. If Ginger did (which I felt), she didn't tell me. For almost an hour, we rode around in the dark countryside, with me sitting straight-backed, with my arm and her's just barely touching. I couldn't have gotten any closer to the door if they had added me to the plans at Detroit. About 10 minutes before we got back to the house, my or her hand moved enough that they touched, and we held hands for the rest of the trip. That was the whole extent of affection for the evening.

Thus ended my first car date. Scared to death of the girl and not knowing what to do, I decided that I needed to understand the male-female relationship a lot more before I ever went on another one. Later, Ginger and I would discover what dating was all about, but it would take time, and it would be another year or so before I ever went out with her again.

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Who Are They?

Celebrities Who Died in 2004

Your Answers

Pat Torzillo Stolz, Class of '66

I can identify a few of the people on the list.

1. Bob Keeshan was Captain Kangaroo

2. Sam Edwards was an actor who appeared on Gunsmoke

3. Jackson Beck did the voice on Superman that said, "Look in the sky, is it a bird....?

4. Jan Barry was one half of the singing group, Jan and Dean

7. Skeeter Davis was a country singer

9. June Taylor was the lead of the June Taylor Dancers who performed on The Jackie Gleason Show

10. Fay Wray starred in the old King Kong movie.

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Collins (CE) Wynn, Class of '64

Let me throw out a few guesses on your list of lesser know celebrities.

1. Bob Keeshan – everybody’s favorite grandfather figure – Captain Kangaroo.

4. Vaughn Meader – a stand up comic who made a living doing John Kennedy impressions and bits.

5. Jan Berry – of Jan and Dean fame?

6. Timi Yuro – female singer and a one-hit wonder? with “I’m So Hurt”? appeared once upon a time at the Diplomat Inn on North Parkway - maybe ’69.

8. Jerry Scoggins – wrote theme song for “Beverly Hillbillys”.

9. June Taylor – famous for June Taylor Dancers – a precision dance troupe appearing regularly on The Jackie Gleason Show.

10. Fay Wray – female lead for the movie “King Kong”

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The Real Answers

1. Bob Keeshan – Captain Kangaroo

2. Sam Edwards – Voice of Thumper in “Bambi”

3. Jackson Beck – Voice of “Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane…”

4. Vaughn Meader – John F. Kennedy impressionist of “The First Family”

5. Jan Berry – Jan of “Jan and Dean” and “Deadman’s Curve” fame

6. Timi Yuro – Singer of the song “Hurt”

7. Skeeter Davis – Country singer

8. Jerry Scoggins – Singer of “Well come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed”

9. June Taylor – Choreographer of “June Taylor Dancers” on “The Jackie Gleason Show”

10. Fay Wray – The Beauty love of the Beast “King Kong”

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