Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, Joy Rubins Morris, Rainer Klauss, Bobby Cochran, Collins (CE) Wynn, Eddie Sykes, Don Wynn, Paula Spencer Kephart, Cherri Polly Massey
Contributors: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 and Others
It looks as if being a little later than expected last week didn't get any of you mad enough to send me hate mail. Thanks. I'll warn you now that next week's might also not be published until Sunday. It will be out by Monday so don't count me tardy.
I've got a special trip planned for next weekend and plan to speak at a Kiwanis Club meeting in Huntsville on Monday, October 17th. I'll do a story on that later on.
Some of you still forget to include your class year with your e-mail, so don't fault me if I don't get your's right when you e-mail something for the website.
Please include your name and class year with your e-mail to me.
T. Tommy
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Reunion Photo Caption Fun
From Our
Mailbox
Reunion Photo
Caption Fun
This Week's
Mystery Classmate
Last Week's Huntsville in 1962 Contest
This Week's Huntsville in 1970 Contest
We're looking for a caption of this photo taken at the reunion. Either identify the Classmates or submit a caption or both. We've had some great participation in the past...let's see if we can keep it going.
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This series of mysteries seems to be a Family Fued for the Wynn brothers, so we're going to kick it up a notch. We move ahead eight years later than 1962 this week. Yes, this was in Huntsville in 1970. What are we looking at? Send in your answers?
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Last Week's
Mystery Classmates
Another photo from the Friday night Reunion Social. Do you have a guess?
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The above photo was submitted by Carol Bailey Olson, Class of '65 for your enjoyment and comments. Carol wrote, 'Here is an old picture take many years ago by the late Dwight Kephart. I thought it might be a good one for people to identify. " There were no replies last week on this one, so it stays.
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School Days!
Linda Weldon, Class of '65 - The aerial photo from 1962 sure does look like the swimming pool that used to be at the Big Spring park. I was terribly disappointed when it was filled in. I remember it was spring water that was incredible cold. My brothers and I used to go swimming there regularly. Thanks for all your work on the web site.
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Woody Beck, Class of '65 - That's a picture of part of Big Spring park. The swimming pool was filled in with dirt to avoid integration. The building next to it was a rec center with basketball court, etc. Also the tennis courts are clearly visible.
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Andrea Gray Roberson, Class of '66 - This photo is the way The Big Spring Park looked when we were young. It was a beautiful park. It had the biggest swimming pool and the coldest water you could ever put your BIG TOE into. My friend, Shirley Jones, and I would go to the pool everyday. My dad came home for lunch everyday and he would take us on his way back to work or we would walk or ride the bus there. Shirley's mother worked at Sears on Washington Street and after we finished swimming we would walk there by walking by the canal and the water fall and go up the stairs behind the old Cotton Row Buildings. At that time, we thought it was about 100 steps!!! My mother would give me 25 cents and that would get me in ( 10 cents) buy me a coke and candy bar (10 cents) and 5 cents to ride the bus back. If we did not ride the bus, we would save our money and stop by the Krystal on the Square and get hamburgers and a coke. I think every family in Huntsville had their family reunion at the Big Spring Park. The park had tennis courts, the train that would ride around the park, fun rides and the ducks. This is like all of the beautiful places that we had in Huntsville when we were young, because today we still have the ducks but all we have are BUILDINGS and more BUILDINGS. All of the beautiful park has been taken away and like the song said They paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot!!!!!!
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Don Wynn, Class of '67 - I really enjoy these old aerial photos because they make me think of places that I haven't thought of for years. The photo this week is of the Big Spring Lagoon along with the tennis courts and municipal pool. The lagoon is still there, of course, and is the center of development in that area. The pool and tennis courts were roughly where the Art Museum sits now. While growing up in Huntsville, I spent a lot of time in that area. I swam in that pool listening to 'Itti Bitti, Teensy, Weensy, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' and other classic songs over the speakers. I played tennis on those courts and even camped on the area during overnight fishing rodeos for kids. Just to the east of this photo was a hill in the park that had giant pecan trees. In the fall, we would come to the park to harvest those pecans.
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Vern Lucas, Class '64 - I can get this one as I remember the location very well. It's the old Community Center at Big Springs Park. I would walk down from my House on Humes Ave. sometimes with Jerry Brewer, Gary Kinkle and others and play basketball and go swimming in the icy cold water of the pool feed directly from the Spring. In 1962 the pool closed early that summer as there was a drought and there wasn't enough water for the pool and the city's needs. Over the next winter the City installed a full filter system at the pool and, while it did save water and allowed it to remain open all summer, the aurora of 'blue bodies' emerging from the icy cold spring water was gone forever.
During the Summer of '62 and again in '63 I was a lifeguard at the pool which was a great job! I remember the pay was $.50 per hour and at the end of the second summer I had enough money to buy my first car, a '38 Plymouth coupe. Only problem was I didn't have any extra money correct the many problems and the car spent a lot of time sitting. When I did get it to run I go over the Joan's house in Lakewood and park it on the hill above her house so I could guarantee I could get it started and get home. For some reason she would never ride in that classic auto? Early in '64, I sold the Plymouth to Don Stroud and his Dad and they did a lot to the old clunker and got it running much better. Don and I reminisced about that car at the reunion and we both wish we had it back. I suppose many of us have those thoughts when it come to our first car.
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Jimmy Troupe, Class of '6 - No one should miss this one. It is the old Big Spring pool complex with the lagoon just to the north. The Tom Thumb (or what ever) children's train ride is just to the west of the pool.
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Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - It only took a glance to recognize Big Spring Community Center and pool.
If the water in that pool had been one degree colder, you would have needed a pair of skates. Brrr!
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Tony Wynn, Class of '72 - Could this weeks picture be the Big Spring Park swimming pool and community center. Most of my memories of this place have to do with my bicycle being stolen. Three times, that I can remember,my bike was stolen while I was swimming. Boy was I a slow learner. After the first or surely the second instance most people would buy a lock,not me. I would walk across the street,to the police station,and report my stolen bike then I would walk all the way home. Boy that was a long walk to Oakwood Avenue. Somehow the Police would find my bike everytime. It would always have a creative new paint job. Some of my friends accused me of letting it be stolen just so that I would get a new paint job.
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Steve Cook, Class of '66 - There is no doubt that this weeks mystery picture is the world famous Big Spring Park complete with the swimming pool and the train that operated in the park. Had many good memories there at the park. We would ride the bus down to the pool and stay all day. Thanks for the memories.
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Carolyn Burgess Featheringill, Class of ' 65 - The mystery classmate is no mystery. It's Patsy Hughes Oldroyd '65. Let's hope that that's Mr. Oldroyd with her or she may have some explaning to do.
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Other Questions
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?
If at first you don't succeed, shouldn't you try doing it like your wife told you to do it?
And obviously if at first you don't succeed, then don't take up sky diving!
The reunion photo to be captioned incldes reunion committee members Linda Taylor '64(foreground), Judy Scarborough Milner '65 (center) and Sarajane Seigerwald Tarter '65 (on the right). Sarajane appears to be saying, "Make it a double, Linda. 'Reunion's a success!" - Carolyn Burgess Featheringill, Class of '65
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1. Next time, make mine a double!
2. I didn't say "Bring me a pitcher", damnit. I said, "Do I need to draw you a picture?"
3. "Water, Water everywhere....", what was the rest of that silly poem?
- Woody Beck, Class of '65
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Sarajane is saying, "Linda, when you promised me you would only have one drink, since you're the designated driver, I thought you'd use a regular sized glass!" - Tommy Towery, Class of '64
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"You would think by now that we are old enough to drink something other than water. Refill anyone?" - Chip Smoak, Class of '66
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A Big
Big Springs Memory
Rainer Klauss
Class of '64
This week’s satellite-image puzzler is an easy one: we’re looking down on the Big Spring Park, a block west of the spring itself: there’s the big lagoon, graced with weeping willows and full of ravenous fish and ducks; the icy Big Spring pool ; the tennis courts; the Community Center; and the adjacent picnic and playground areas.
With all those attractions, the park was the site of much fun for many Huntsvillians, young and old. I did a lot of swimming, diving, and tennis playing in that area over the years, but my most vivid memory of the place has to do with another kind of playing. Starting in 1956, I took five years of accordion lessons from William Sloan, the Huntsville High band director, and his wife, Harriet. A common feature of most kinds of musical instruction is the recital, where the students get to show what they’ve learned. Mrs. Sloan booked the Community Center for the last recital I played in. That evening I was so nervous about performing my flashy number (“The Jolly Cabellero,” with the bellows-shake technique—akin to triple-tongueing on brass instruments) that I unwittingly jumped ahead of the person who was supposed to play before me. Announcing itself as a show-piece for the advanced student, the composition starts off with fast and tricky chord-work for the right hand. I leaped into it, lost in the music and dedicated to clearing all the hurdles the piece presented.
As I remember it, I only tripped once, mis-fingering some chords as I raced along. After I finished and as the audience of parents applauded, someone—maybe even the agitated and shaken student whose place I had usurped-- must have pointed out to me that I had played out of turn. I don’t recall being very embarrassed—I just remember being relieved that it was all over.
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Subject:Last Minute Thoughts
Chip Smoak
Class of '66
Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, you're not going to let that putdown go unchallenged are you?
Retirement:
I know that others in the Fami-Lee work, or have worked, for the government (local, state, or federal). After almost 30 years with SBA I finally let them talk me into retiring. Does anyone have a job for an old, slightly used credit man? I plan to embark on another career as soon as possible. I'm too young to completely retire. As I tell my children, I'm not getting any older but they sure are. They are in danger of passing me age-wise.
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Subject:In Response to Last Week's Bubbles Comment
Bruce Fowler,
Class of '66
In the best tradition of the fine education I have received in my life springboarding from LHS, I have to comment on the note that bubbles are white regardless of the color of the bubble bath: the individual bubbles are not white, they are transparent; if you look at an individual bubble it has one or more "distinct" colors depending on the color of light falling on and being scattered by the bubble; a collection of bubbles, which has the technical name of "foam", appears to be white if the bubbles are of a diversity of sizes and thus scatter all colors of light differently; in this sense, a foam made up of only one size of bubble will not be white unless light enters the foam from all directions.. Bottom line: if you want the foam to be a particular color, paint your bathroom that color and only use lightbuls of that color in it.
If you are using a "regular" light bulb, it puts out a lot of "white" - i.e., multispectral, light. All that hits the walls is absorbed except what's the color of the walls. Even so, light going directly from the lightbulb to the foam is "white".
(Editor's note: I wrote Bruce back and said he was so smart he must be a rocket scientist.)
And thanks for the compliment. I actually put Rocket Scientist on my income tax form several years ago. During an audit I got asked if that was correct. I asked the auditor to examine my W-2 and that took the wind out of his sails. I was out of that audit in ten minutes after that.
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Once again we are asking you to identify the classmate and give us a proper caption for this photo taken at the reunion.
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Coat Hangers?
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
Ann Franklin of the Rison-Dallas Association keeps e-mailing me wondering how I can remember so much about days gone by. I think the fact that since I worked on the newspaper I wrote a lot of stuff down back then and that helps more than anything else. Often I sit back and let others come up with things that tip off my own memory.
I’ve sat on an idea for the last couple of years, waiting for either me to run out of other ideas or for someone else to mention it first. Well, neither of those things has happened so here goes.
You probably wondered why in the world I put a photo of coat hangers on this page. If you didn’t, why not? That’s a strange thing to feature isn’t it?
Several times we’ve talked about how we earned money in our youthful days. We talked about paper routes and cutting yards and baby sitting. We also have discussed several times that money was to be made from collecting and returning Coke bottles for their deposits.
Now here comes the question. Am I the only one who remembers going door-to-door and collecting coat hangers and selling them back to dry cleaners and laundries? I vividly recall doing that, especially going up and down East Clinton and Randolph and the other streets in the area now called “Old Twickenham” and asking residents if they had any old coat hangers.
Now perhaps some of you can fill in a few of the details, like whether we did that for ourselves or for organizations or groups. I don’t remember if we did it for school, church, or Scouts, or if a bunch of us just got together every once in a while and went out and collected wire coat hangers.
I do know that the primary reason we did it was to earn money. I think we got a penny each for them. I am sure that this was an early form of recycling since I am sure that the dry cleaners took the coat hangers and reused them. It must have been cheaper to get kids to collect good used ones than to purchase new ones.
So I am going to call on you, my fellow Classmates, to reassure me that I did not make all this up and perhaps to fill in the blanks on who and why we did spend our time working on collecting and selling back the coat hangers.
While we’re on the subject of making money, I remember that I also would earn some extra money periodically by taking circulars (handbills) and placing them door-to-door on people’s screen doors for the Firestone store on Clinton. The question for you is what was the name of that store, and who was the son of the owner that was our age? Hint: he went to Huntsville High and not Lee.
