Established March 31, 2000    95,438 Previous Hits             Monday - June 19, 2006

Editor:Tommy Towery                                                     http://www.leestraveller.com
Class of 1964                           Page Hits This Issue     e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu
Staff :
        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 had a great visit with Bob Cochran, Class of '64, the last couple of days. Bob was in Memphis for an annual Paper Money show he attends and it has turned out to be one of our "Same Time Next Year" visits. We had a great time sitting around talking old stories, even if we did embellish them a tad. Saturday I took him to a local eatery and we sat for a couple of hours emerged in conversation and good times. I would consider it an honor if anyone else who visits Memphis to let me know and perhaps we could also get together.

I lost another friend from the University this week. He was one of the first friends I made when I came back here after the Air Force, and even though he was retired Navy, we shared some good times together. It only makes me appreciate all of you that much more.

Please include your class year with your e-mails.
T. Tommy
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      From Our
      Mailbox

Last Week's
Mystery Photo
Graduation Present
by Charlie Hancock
Class of '66

My only graduation gift I can recall was the watch my parents gave me. I think it was an Elgin. A nice watch at any rate. I recall it had the luminescence on the numbers and hands. Later, as a Navy Corpsman serving with infantry Marines in Vietnam, we passed the watch around as the official time piece for standing two hour watches at night. It was near total blackness. the watch served us well. Now it lives in a dresser drawer, replaced by the cheap digital watch with a light switch and bells and whistles we never expected on a watch in the mid 60s. 
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Current Open Topics

Do you have any memories of a special something that you were given, but may not still have? Send in any graduation present memories you would like to share with your classmates.

Do you have a story about the first big thing you bought with money earned from your first real job, either during or after Lee?

What did you do or do you have planned for your 60th Birthday?
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Linda Beal Walker, Class of '66 - Yes, Tommy, this one is easy to recognize.  It's a salon hair dryer that, at the time, I had to sit under for a longer period of time because my hair was long and thick and it took longer to dry.  I had naturally curly hair and used the large plastic rollers so I could get my hair to be straighter and I held the rollers in place with clips.  This particular tale took place during my short first marriage.  It was a dark and stormy night ... no wait, that's Snoopy's line.  Night time and as usual my husband was "working".  I had the hair dryer on, all poofed up on my head, over all those plastic rollers, blowing hot hair to dry my hair, and watching "Nightstalker" on TV.  Suddenly, I heard a slight scraping sound.  I sat very still to listen.   The dog had not moved.  I turned back to Nightstalker and I believe Darren McGavin was chasing a vampire.  I heard the scraping noise again, listened a bit more inten! tly this time, nothing.  Back to the movie.  Heard the noise again, heart beating faster and louder, listened again, still nothing.  This went on for what seemed an eternity, but I am sure was only minutes.  Then I discovered the source of the noise.  Everytime I moved my head inside the dryer, the metal clips scraped the side of the hood on the dryer.  Phew!!! I took a deep breath and laughed hysterically for severally minutes.   Of course, the Nightstalker didn't help matters, but I didn't stop watching it.  I was just more careful about what I was doing during the hour it was on. That was when I started to get braver about staying home alone while my husband was "working" late to catch the bad guys.  He was a deputy.

And that's all I have to say on the subject. By the way,  congratulations Niles from someone you never knew.
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Cecilia ( Sis) Watson, Class of '68 - I remember this item. It’s a hair dryer. You would put your hair up in huge curlers and put his hood over them. Turn on the power and you looked like something from another planet. Thanks you the good memories!
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Rodney Vandiver, Class of '65 - Back in the early 60's I used to use my Mom's hairdryer.  Sometimes I would disconnect the head thing and just blow it dry.  It was still seen as a "girlie thing" then so I didn't talk about it. Can't say how many hairdryers I have been through since, that is until I decided to just whack it all off. 
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Carol Jean Williams Carroll, Class of '65 -Thank goodness I chose this week to visit our web-site, although it has taken me three hours to go to back issues.  Some of the other mystery photos I had no clue!

This is a portable hair dryer.  If the guys only knew what it took to make us girls look presentable. Of course at the time we thought it was wonderful.  Before, we rolled our hair every night on rollers that had brushes in them and would stick into your scalp all night or on empty cans of frozen juice (washed out first, of course).  I first learned to tease my hair at a pajama party at Charlotte Massey's (more on pajama party's at another time), but one of my favorite memories regarding hair involves Sherry Adcock. I spent the night with her, and the two of us used something very unique on our heads instead of hairnets. ( Surely we weren't the only ones that did this--any other ladies willing to confess?)  Anyway, we were fast asleep the next morning when Sherry's mom, Agnes, let my boyfriend into the room to wake us up.  Somewhere there is a picture of us jumping up and grabbing our heads at the same time!  It ranks right up there with some of my other embarassing moments.  I'm sure the guys' won't have a clue what I'm talking about, but hopefully the ladies will.

Thanks TT for all that you do to keep us in touch.  I may not visit every week, but you ALL are in my heart everyday.
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Ann Wilson Redford, Class of '65 - I am sure all of us females know that the mystery photo is of a hair dryer.  It took my thick hair an hour to dry under one of those hot things!  I did, however, get lots of studying done during that hour.
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Patsy Hughes Oldroyd  Class of ‘65 - Hey Tommy and all. Well I certainly know what this week’s mystery photo is because I still have mine! It is a portable, table-top hairdryer. In your picture, the bonnet is tucked into the top part of the case, and the tube and motor for the warm air are in the bottom part. The tube connected to the bonnet and blew it up like a big balloon head. It could be closed up and put away until needed to dry your wet hair that was rolled up tight on those great big curlers. In between beauty shop visits, it was a major necessity to produce those big fluffy hair-dos. I still have mine up in the attic along with a bunch of other stuff that is collecting dust, but that I cannot seem to let go of for sentimental reasons. My attic is an Ebay customer’s dream!
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Subject:Phone Number
Patsy Hughes Oldroyd
Class of ‘65

I was busy last week and did not send in an answer to the mystery photo, but I do remember our telephone number. It was JE 40240 which later became 534-0240.

     It became 533-0542 when mother and daddy moved to Giles Drive where they still live. Those are the only telephone numbers we ever had so it wasn’t too hard to remember those few.
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This Week's
Mystery Photo
High Flying Sixty
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64

Well, Barbara…you asked so here’s the plan. On Wednesday of this coming week I celebrate my 60th birthday. I say celebrate and mean just that. I refuse to put up with any of this “Over the hill” crap and dare to challenge those who want to take that approach. I have been awaiting turning 60 for a long time; needless to say. Perhaps I have been waiting longer than many of you for this birthday, because I have been looking forward to it for a very special reason.

Believe it or not, when I was 18, I made myself a promise that I intend to keep. Forty-two years ago, I said that on the day I turned 60, I would show the world that I was not an old fart, and I prove that by doing something that old folks did not do. I was unaware of what else needed to be done to prove to society that I still had it, so I made myself a promise that I would go out on some deserted strip of road and “peel out.” I would take whatever car I had, line it up, stomp the gas and pop the clutch and squeal the tires and leave rubber. Now at that time, I had just given up my ’53 Ford, and with all its faults, it could still leave rubber with the best of them. I didn’t think about what kind of car I’d have when I made that promise back then, and never expected it to be an automatic six-cylinder and certainly not a Toyota. We did not have Toyotas back then. But still, that’s what I have now and that is what I intend to do.

I have a backup plan, just in case the Toyota lets me down. My daughter has a stick shift Eclipse coupe and I have already told her that I might need to borrow it on my birthday. I even told her why, and I don’t think she cares if I burn a quarter of an inch of rubber off her tires. I hope she does the same when she turns 60.

So that’s the Wednesday Birthday Plan. On Saturday, Sue and I have rented a meeting room and will host a birthday party for my Memphis friends and family. If any of you plan to be in town let me know soon, so we can make sure you have a seat. Right now we have 42 people who have accepted the invitations. We’re having it catered by a local Bar-B-Que place and have a big cake ordered from Sam’s Club. I’m taking my laptop with my 2,600 Oldie Goldie songs on it and we’re going to dance for a while. I have to attempt to do the splits one more time, to say that I was able to do them at 60. I’ll let you know next week how that turns out.

I have created a 15 minute slide show which I have decided to call “My First 60 Years” and have it filled with select music and photographic highlights of my first 60 years. I’ll show that as people eat cake and ice cream. Afterwards, I have developed a game which I will probably also share with my classmates if the opportunity ever presents itself. I’ve got sound-bites from about 230 songs which will follow the theme of “Who Are You” and will allow teams to listen to the 15-second sound-bites and guess who the song is about. Some are TV themes, some are songs with people’s names, and others are organizations, groups, or families.

Then, on Sunday, the day after the party, I will drive up the highway a bit to a little country airport and cash in my Christmas present from Sue. I’ll put on my old Air Force flight suit and climb aboard an open cockpit Stearman biplane and “slip the surly bonds of earth and dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings.” For those of you who watched JAG, that’s the kind of plane Harm owned. Even though it was a Christmas present, I knew better than to go up in an open cockpit in the winter, so it seemed only fitting to use it as my celebration of turning 60. I hope to get at least one barrel roll out of the flight. It even seems a little more daring than squealing tires on a deserted road.

With those plans already made, you will have to wait until Sunday evening or Monday morning to read your weekly Traveller, but perhaps you can find some time to think about why it will not be awaiting you on Sunday morning and perhaps lift a coffee cup with a Birthday wish for your classmate. If God is my co-pilot, you’ll have the story by Monday.

I hope these plans meet with your approval Barbara! Cheers!
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First Big Purchase
by Dennis Hollingsworth
Class of '65

I recall my first major purchase with money I earned at Kwik Chek (Winn Dixie) at Parkway and Highway 72.  My first car was a '57 Chevy that had been the family car.  The outside looked good but the inside looked as if we had lived in it for six or seven years.  My dad thought it was a good idea to put "new seat covers" in the car but my thoughts were more aggressive.  I ended up with a complete Rolled and Pleated interior in three colors to included door panels, seats and rear deck.

My dad was thinking in terms of $19.00 covers from Sears and when pressed to tell him the actual cost was $150.00, he was not happy saying the car was not worth much more than what I had spent on seat covers.

Wish I could find it today.  I may be able to mortgage the house and buy it back.
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I might be the only one who knows what this is and where it came from, but someone has one for sale on e-Bay and they want a starting bid of $14.95. If only we had known. So...what is it and where did it come from and who had one or more of them like I did?
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Ann Franklin of the Rison Dallas Association,  (risondallas.com) sent us the picture above. Although this is not a Lee High School item, it was located close to Lee and many of us have family ties to the Dallas Mill. All says "I'm grateful to our councilman, Mark Russell, who made it happen." We thank Ann for sharing this with us.
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Bad E-Mail Addresses

Last week's e-mail had the following returned for bad addresses. If you are one of these, then please send me an updated address. Thanks,

ellennoe@aol.com
mamad4165@aol.com
durhbj@aol.com
jfgordy@yahoo.com
morrisjoyann@hotmail.com
wriley@mem.cclcustom.com
donaldblaise@peoplepc.com
carolyn.taylor@rdec.redstone.army.mil
jkilpatrick@dfwairport.com
jbsmoak@ev1.net
rbishop@fwb.org
rsherrill@knology.net
gbayres@morgank12.org
merisusan@veizon.net
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