Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Subject:Eddie's DBD Article

Mary Ardrey Aukerman

Class of '66

Note to Eddie Sykes: Please don't tell me that's your offspring, but I have a step-son with a similar look and a son that keeps the tattoo business flourishing. I just don't get it!! Your description of the DBD characteristics are so on target. Must have been all the nuclear fallout from the testing in our youth, but of course, they told us it would have no negative effect on anything. I beg to differ with that. Well, that could be just one explanation and not the whole picture. Words to live by: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Thank you Dr. Spock.

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Subject:Henry's Hamburgers

Eddie Burton

Class of '66

I too worked at Henry's Hamburgers. The manager who hired me was a former math teacher at Lee who only lasted one year. His name was Donald Timberlake. Mr. Timberlake called me when he got the job as manager and offered me a job because he said I was one of a very few kids who were nice to him. He was very timid and shy and he would let forceful students bully him. I saw his plight and responded in a respectful way. The next year I was rewarded with my first job. I only worked there for about 6 months then the band I was in,

The IN, started getting gigs so I left to concentrate on that. It wasn't a bad place to work and I know there were several other Lee classmates who worked there also.

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Subject:Henry's Hamburgers

Sonny Turner

Class YearOther

Seeing the ad for Henry’s Hamburgers (looks like it came out of the Yellow pages) brought back a lot of old memories. First being when they tore down the old Joe Poor home, which had set there at the corner of Oakwood Ave and Dallas Street for all of my life. It had been the kindergarten for years for Rison school and the Dallas Mill village.I remember thinking “ Wow a fast food place in walking distant“.

If one looks at the location it was a great place to build it. You had two schools very near and the old Lincoln Mill was in its hay days as the new H. I. C. building.

The main thing that comes to mind, there was a teacher at Lee who could not maintain control in his classroom. I don’t remember what he taught, maybe the reason for that was that he didn’t. In the period that I had him, there also was Lacy (best not use her last name) a young wild girl who loved to flirt with every boy. It got so bad in this class that C. O. Jones (Vice Principle) would show up and stand in the door. Every one knew that you didn’t mess around him.

This teacher had a big paddle but only used it to pound his desk, his desk took a beating for sure and then shout out “You have been warned”.

If my memory is right, he only lasted one semester and his next job was manager at the Henry’s Hamburger down on Oakwood Ave.

So here is the question. Who can recall his name? __________________________

Subject:Slaw Dogs

Fred Byrom

I found an article on your site about slaw dogs. I was born and lived in Huntsville till I was 11. I remember getting slaw dogs somewhere near the hospital. One thing was different than all the recipes I find on the internet, the slaw was red. Do you know of this and can you find out what the ingredients were?

(Editor's Note: Fred. When I worked at 72 Drive-In we made slaw with Catsup instead of mayonaise and that made it red. I think that is the answer, but I am sure that Ann Franklin will read this and send me a recipe for the red slaw for slaw dogs. She's still collecting recipes for her Rison Cookbook. Check out the website at http://www.rison-dallas.com . Maybe someone else can come up with the name of the cafe by the hospital that served them.)

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Mary Ardrey Aukerman, Class of '66 (Class motto: Sin, sex, booze, kicks, we're the Class of '66 - Knew it but didn't live up to it, well, not all of it) - My husband, Scott, an early amplifier builder and sound system designer (starting when he was 12) immediately identified this as the brush that went on the arm of our phonographs when we were playing our wonderful vinyls. Those were the days of innocence.

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Tom Gilbert, Class of '67 - This item was on the needle head for playing records, it would dust the record bfore the needle so the record would not jump.

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Patsy Hughes Oldroyd, Class of '65 - Hey Tommy and all, I recognize the item in the mystery photo as being a dust brush for the old record players we used to play. It hooked on to the arm of the player, and the little brush kept dust from collecting on the needle. This kept our “high fidelity” sound as good as we could get it for those great 33 1/3 and 45rpm’s that we played endlessly. I miss the simplicity of the old record players. You could just snap it shut, include a handful of your favorites, and take it with you. As I get older, I miss the simplicity of just about everything!!!

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Darryl Glassco, Class of '65 - If I told my kids this was a “disk” cleaning brush they would ask “how in the world do you get that thing inside the small slot on the disk drive”.

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Pat Torzillo Stolz, Class of '66 - Is this weeks mystery item a record player needle, which had a little "brush" attached to sweep the dust? That's the only thing it reminds me of. I know I spent many happy hours listening to my records. In fact I still have some, but not my old 45's but just albums from years later. And I bought a record player when I worked at Western Auto just so I would have something to play them on. Thanks for all the memories the site brings back.

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Rick Simmons, Class of ’64 - The e-Bay photo in this week’s Traveller is a vinyl record cleaner. It attached to the needle arm to remove dust from the grooves of the vinyl record as it was being played.

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Jennifer White Bannecke, Class of ' 66 - I believe the mystery item this week is an eraser brush. I think you put it on your pencil and when you used the eraser you used the brush to brush off the eraser dust.

(Nope, but that is a memorable item as well, Jennifer!)

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Bob Walker, Class of '64 - Is it a record cleaner?

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Steve Cook, Class of '66 - Wild guess, but it looks like a clip on brush that you would attach to the tone arm of the record player. As the record played the tone arm would place the brush on the surface of the record ahead of the needle (stylus). This would sweep the record clean and keep any dust from getting to your needle. Saved your needle and suppose to keep the "snap, crackle and pop"noise down. A must have for the serious record collector! Thanks for all you do.

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A Trip To See (And Hear)

Jim McBride

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

A couple of weekends ago Sue and I were sitting reading the local Memphis paper while we enjoyed our Sunday morning coffee. I get to read the local paper with my coffee, since I’ve already read Lee’s Traveller before Sunday morning. I was looking at the section listing all the coming events when a paragraph with a familiar name caught my attention. It was just a small announcement, buried in the middle of many other ones.

Jackson: "Songwriter's Depot." Thursday, features three of Nashville's finest singers and songwriters - Jim McBride, Casey Kelly, Danny Green.... Old Country Store in Casey Jones’ Village.

Sue was in Iowa that night, and Jackson is only a little over an hour's drive from Memphis, so I decided that I would surprise Jim and go see his show. Those of you who know Jim more than casually know that despite his great songwriting talents, he is actually a laid back person in a crowd. He himself admits that he is scared to death to get up in front of a group of people and perform. For that reason, very few of us have ever experienced seeing or hearing him perform some of the many songs he has had recorded by major country music stars.

The drive to Jackson is not very bad, only a little over an hour from Memphis. I got there early enough to feast on a country buffet. While I was digging into the turnip greens, Jim walked up to say hello. I think he was shocked to see a familiar face in this small room doubling as a theater for the night. I walked with him over to his table and visited with him and his friend Lynn for a while, and he introduced me to one of the other performers, Casey Kelly.

We talked a while about Huntsville and Lee, and of course no conversation could ever be had with Jim without memories of his best friend Terry Preston surfacing. It is still painful talking about Terry’s passing and knowing how he loved to live his life to the fullest. We could all learn a lesson from Terry’s attitude on life. Jim asked me what I was doing there and seemed shocked when I told him I had driven over from Memphis to hear him sing. I don’t think he believed me at first.

In a short while it was time for Jim and the others to take the stage, and for me to go back and finish my hoe cakes and black-eyed peas. I had two desserts, banana pudding and peach cobbler while they tuned their guitars.

I remember that when I first moved to Sacramento, California, back in 1969, I furthered my Alabama culture by attending a play-in-the-round. It was Man of La Mancha and the lead role was played by Robert Horton. It was an experience that changed my life and gave me a love for live musicals that I still possess today. The in-the-round concept was unique and puts the audience right in the middle of the story. It was so different from sitting back in the back of a theater and watching people up on the stage. So why are I bringing this up now? Read on.

The venue for the evening’s show with Jim, Casey, and Danny was also a new experience for me. After attending dozens of concerts where I sat in the audience and sometimes had to use binoculars to see the performers, I was thrust into a new experience with the songwriters. It was a musical evening that was as unique and refreshing as any I have ever enjoyed. Instead of thousands of people in the audience there were maybe 150. We sat at our tables, me less than ten feet from the stage, and listened to the music and, even better, the stories behind the music created by these gifted songwriters. The three of them took turns with songs, Jim going first, and each played his own acoustical guitar. There was no back up band, no back up singers, no fancy lighting, smoke or mirrors, lazers or fireworks. Even though they had amps on their acoustical guitars, it was what I would call "unplugged."

Now I’ll have to admit that I do not normally listen to country music, but that night I did, and I loved it. The songs spoke messages and told stories that anyone in the audience could relate to. I was a little embarrassed and very humbled when Jim got to his turn for his second song. Here was a guy, Jim, who had been talking about working with Allen Jackson, and Waylon Jennings, and other famous starts who took a break from his Nashville connections. He paused and made a special point to introduce me as a friend from Lee High School and proceeded to give the audience, who could have cared less, my background with him at Lee, the story about Lee’s Traveller, my Air Force B-52 career, and even told them I was President of Memphis State University! You know country songwriters have to make up a lot of stuff. He laughed at that, and then said, “Naw, he’s just a professor there.” Then he dedicated “Dixie Boy” to me, and explained that it was one of his first hits with the group Alabama. If you ever listen to the words, you’ll know it is written about growing up in Huntsville, and I am sure that he was talking about Terry Preston when he came up with the “Say-Hey Wille” lines. It was an honor to even share that memory with Terry.

While I went to see Jim, it was a joy to listen to the other, especially Casey Kelly. Although Casey spent most of his time trying to tune his guitar, some of his songs and most of his stories were great. I especially was touched by one he sang called “That Road Not Taken” which was a hit for a singer named Joe Diffie. It’s tells the tale of someone who wonders what his life would be now if he had made some different choices in his earlier life. Its one of those songs that I know a few of you would cry to when you listened to it. Click the link at the end of the story to listen to a sample of it. You can go to his website (www.caseykelly.net) and order a CD called Himownself on which he sings the demos of ten of his songs that became hits. Casey and Jim had the audience laughing all night with their digs at each other.

Danny Green sang a lot of what I would call “redneck protest songs” highlighted by a song call “We Don’t Want Another Wal-Mart Here” or something like that. He said we could buy a copy at Target! I can’t imagine a country songwriter wanting to alienate himself with Wal-Mart.

Jim finished with a combination of his signature songs, “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow” and Song of the Year for 1994 "Chattahoochee", which he wrote with Allen Jackson. The evening ended way too soon for me. I could have set there and listened to Jim and the boys the rest of the night. I would have happily driven back at midnight or even got a room in a local hotel if they had elected to play on. I said a few more words to Jim and Lynn as he packed up his guitar, and he said let’s get together sometime when I come to Nashville.

Jim thanked me again for coming, then he and Lynn headed back to Nashville. I drove back to Memphis that night, happy that I had taken the time and effort to attend the show, rather than sit around and watch TV by myself. I thought that I would do it to support Jim, but quickly realized that a person with his talent doesn’t need too much support. But I wanted to be there because after all, we’re part of the same Fami-LEE.

In a time when we are all thinking about celebrating birthdays, my gift to you is a sample of Casey's song :

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