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
I got to thinking today about how many of us still remember the answer to the "Are you a turtle?" question. In my memories, I also came up today with another statement I learned at Central Presbyterian Church in Sunday School that even today I still know the proper response. That is the response to when someone makes the statement, "He is risen."
Happy Easter to all of you.
Please include your name and class year with your e-mail to me.
T. Tommy
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Last Week's
Mystery Photo
The Big Six-Oh!
Barbara Seely Cooper, Class of '64 - I read Linda Taylor's note in the last issue, and I definitely agree we need to find a place and a way to celebrate #60 together. It is depressing to think 10 years have flown by since we did that 50th party. For reasons relating to my husband's work, we are celebrating our July birthdays in June this year - plus June is our anniversary. We plan to go to Amelia Island and to St. Augustine, FL. Every year we say we will go somewhere besides Florida - we live here, after all - but somehow what we ultimately want to do ends up being in Florida. Linda, I am game for a July getaway, or else you are welcome to come here and enjoy Naples. We can have that bottle of champagne out by the pool!
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Charlie Hancock, Class of '66 - If you were to hold the turning 60 party in Washington state, I could bring the beer. Sorry, I can't travel to The Heart of Dixie in the summer. It's too extreme to a rusty (It rains ALL the time) guy like me. I'll turn 58 this year. I'm just a F.N.G. compared to old guys like you. Ha! Sorry I can't bring the beer.
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Lehman Williams, Class of '64 - A 60th Birthday bash, great idea. My House the weekend of August 11. Everyone can stay @ my house, all food and beverages of your choice at no charge. Friday, my B-day, a BBQ with live band, spa and party favors. Saturday will include golf and or a trip to the Beach or Mountains, followed by dinner and an evening of dancing and fun at a local club, "Rude Dawg". Sunday concludes the festivities with a trip to Disneyland. We will need advance confirmations so that we can plan the menu, order beverages and arrange for rental cars. You must be a valid AAA member with Bail Bond coverage and have proof of insurance to attend. No children or pets. Airfare not included.
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(Editor's Note: While I was wishing for someone in the Huntsville area to come up with a place and time for a group 60th birthday party, we did get two other offers. But, the year is young (younger than us) so maybe there will be other offers. How about meeting up at Monte Sano State Park? It worked for the Y2K2 get together.)
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(Please send your own 60th birthday plans or memories. We only have one left to share with you.)
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The Night of December 6, 1963
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
Above you have the complete photo of the Pajama Party that we have been using for our Mystery Photos. While the below story about the night of December 6, 1963 is not about this group, at least one of them was present when the events recorded below took place. The rest of this column contains the journal entries I made about the Pajama Party in which I was a male participant. The names were changed to protect the innocent.
December 6, 1963
That was a strange evening for me and my newspaper friends at the Campus Motel in Tuscaloosa. It was the only date in my journal that received two entries for the same day. It was one of those strange nights where there was no end of one day and beginning of the next. For the teenagers in the little motel near the University of Alabama campus, the night literally did not end but just merged with the next day the way watercolors blend together. Their activities carried on even after they all thought they had ended and the night had come to a close.
Some of the girls had made a few flirtatious advances toward some college boys and were facing the consequences of their flirting. It is unknown whether the girls invited the college boys or whether they invited themselves into the room. Whatever the case, the boys from Leecame riding in on their white horses to save the fair virgins from the dragons. That act might not have been possible if the group had only been comprised of newspaper writers. The inclusion of the star football player added a little authority to the scenario.
Not only were the girls rescued but so was the partying. The event succeeded in revitalizing the group and restarted the embers of the party that had seemed over. It was not really a party, but it walked like a party and talked like a party and to an outsider it would have looked as such. The high school students found themselves in a motel room without the benefit of a chaperon. The event of running off the boys was accomplished so quietly that none of the adults in the group had any idea that it happened.
The unchaperoned boys and girls sat around on the two twin beds talking. The girls had already changed into their pajamas, and we didn't mind that at all. It was kind of exciting to all of us to be sitting on the beds with girls in their sleeping attire. It was all so wickedly innocent and contained all the elements required to make great locker room stories.
Despite the great potential for interaction, in truth it all remained innocent. It would make a great scene for a director of a movie to exaggerate when the story was finally put on the silver screen, but that was up to the director. In the real story, nothing happened. There was no orgy, no strip poker, nothing at all.
Finally as the bodies failed to outlast the minds, members of the crowd either fell asleep or dispersed to their own rooms and the number of conscious people diminished. If anything else ever went on that night, I never heard about it. No boy ever bragged about anything and no girl ever confessed her sins. If anything did happen, it was recorded in someone else's journal or diary and not mine. I was happy just to record somewhere the fact that I stayed most of the night in a motel room with a bunch of girls in their pajamas. It didn't matter if the most exciting thing I did was rub the back of Mary Jean through her smooth, silky pajamas. I could live with that. She had a beautiful, soft back.
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Eddie Burton, Class of '66 - Tommy, I can't identify any of the babes in the mystery photo but I sure wish I had been at that pajama party. How 'bout you?
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Jennifer White Bannecke, Class of '66 - The two girls in front are Jennifer Brown on the left and Vicki Campbell on the right. I can't tell you the names for the two in back.
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Woody Beck, Class of '65 - The earlier photo included diminutive Candy Custer. She once shared a brilliant philosophy for dealing with the ordeals of life: "Don't sweat the petty stuff, just pet the sweaty stuff." It's odd the things we remember, isn't it?
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Escoe German Beattly, Class of ''65 - OK here goes my best guess.. Sandy Moneymaker in the left back with Jennifer Brown in front of her and then next to her is Vicky Campbell but behind her I should know but can't remember...Gee that happens ever so often these days!!
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Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter, Class of '65 - I do know three of the four Sandra Dees but I was hoping the fourth girl's name would pop into my head sometime during the week. Of course it never did! Anyway the other three are: front left. Jennifer Brown Stevens Demarcus, front right, Vicki Campbell _______, back left, Sandy Moneymaker. I hope someone else will provide the name of the girl at the back right so it will quit gnawing away at me.
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"Wisdom"
submitted by Bob Walker
Class of '64
The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.
It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.
Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back! Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.
Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.
Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
