Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Collins Wynn, Class of '64

(Son of Police Officer)

Headed to Jail in South Alabama

A Note for my Fami-LEE

I have been happily retired (several times) for several years now here in South Alabama with a nice little, no-stress retirement job at my local high school. All of that is soon coming to an end.

The newly elected Sheriff of Baldwin County (ironically born in 1964) is facing a very serious situation in that the jail here had two deaths in the recent past which the Grand Jury attributed to "a catastrophic failure of leadership". Some months ago I received a completely unexpected telephone call from him asking me to accept assignment as his Chief Corrections Officer and to repair this horrendous situation. After several lengthy discussions I accepted with a certain amount of trepidation. My professional experiences are not in Law Enforcement; they are in leadership, management, motivation and other activities in large and sometimes complex organizations. Evidently those are the skills the Sheriff needs.

In any case, it is a good feeling to be "put back in the game" at 60+ although it is a little odd to be considered the "old man" of the command staff. I intend to stay there for at least 2 years and perhaps a little more. One of my first chores is to find and start developing my replacement. Since the Corrections Center is in Bay Minette about 25 miles north of Silverhill I am referring to this as my last "foreign assignment".

My parents would be proud I think; especially my father who was a Police Officer there in Huntsville during our high school years. What an interesting world it is.

The following is a copy of the formal annoucement made to my professional friends and colleagues this past week.

Collins (CE) Wynn Class of '64

ANNOUNCEMENT

Friends and Colleagues,

I am proud to announce I have accepted appointment from Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack to his five member command staff as a law enforcement Major with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. I will serve as Commander of the Corrections Division where functionally I will be the Chief Corrections Officer (Warden) of the Baldwin County Corrections Center (Jail).

The Corrections Division has a professional staff of some 125 officers and support personnel with a daily Inmate population of 550-700 taking in, managing, and releasing about 15,000 Inmates per year.

My office will be in the Corrections Center in Bay Minette, Alabama adjacent to the Sheriff’s office and one block north of the Baldwin County Courthouse. My period of appointment is January 15th, 2007 through January 14th, 2011.

My contact information follows:

Address: 310 Hand Avenue, Bay Minette, Alabama 36507 Office telephone: 251.580.2518 Fax: 251.580.1687 Business email: cwynn@co.baldwin.al.us My personal email

(collinswynn@gulftel.com) and cell (251.213.0586) remain unchanged.

I invite each of you to visit my office in the Corrections Center whenever your schedules allow and I look forward to seeing you soon. You may find our BCSO website useful as well (www.co.baldwin.al.us) - please take a look and select the "Corrections" link.

Warmest Personal Regards,

Collins Wynn Major, BCSO Commander of Corrections

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Bruce Fowler, Class of MCMLXVI - NASA technology plus Origami + 2 generation of plant hybridization = self contained pop corn popper. Disadvantage, as indicated in the photograph, was that the kernels on bottom popped first and reduced the heat transport. Accordingly the contraption had to be shaken to continually percolate unpopped kernels downwards.

I believe the development of small hot air poppers rendered this obsolete by eliminating the need for shaking. Another triumph for sedentary man.

I do not recall its proper name, probably because my family were not consumers of popcorn.

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Linda Beale Walker, Class of '66 - This is Jiffy Pop popcorn. It was a favorite at our house because it would pop in a "jiffy" and you could throw away the pan.

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Carolyn Burgess Featheringill, Class of '65 - Happy New Year to you, Tommy, and to all! I think that the mystery item in the most recent Traveller is a pre-packaged, pre-microwave popcorn popper.

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Patsy Hughes Oldroyd Class of ‘65 - The mystery photo this week is that of stove-top pop corn in its own self-contained popping pan. As the corn popped up and got larger, the foil covering would expand to accommodate it. The foil was very thin, and you could just tear it open and eat the pop corn right from the pan. It was really great to use these, which were the first of the pop corn disposables, since you could just toss them into the garbage when you were finished with no big pot to clean up. I do not recall the exact product name of the popcorn. Pops-Rite comes to mind, but that could have been one of the others rather than this little disposable pan kind.

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Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - I expect that most of us will remember Jiffy Pop. As a kid it was a treat to watch the crinkled foil top expand with the popping corn. Looking back, there wasn't much practical about it. First, it was an expensive way to get a bowlful of so-so popcorn. Second, eating directly from the expanded foil pan wasn't as easy as it looked on TV. As a result, we didn't buy Jiffy Pop very often.

Several years ago, Saturday Night Live had a hilarious bit about the "Jiffy Pop Airbag". I found the transcript on the net:

EMT: [ rushes to smashed car ] Are you okay?

Driver: [ calmly eating her popcorn ] Mmm-hmm. How the other driver?

EMT: Not too good. How's the Jiffy Pop?

Driver: Great!

[ pan to Spokesman in foreground ]

Spokesman: The Jiffy Pop Air Bag. Because we don't want you to walk away from your next accident on an empty stomach.

Announcer: The Jiffy Pop Air Bag. Now in Cheddar Cheese.

[ SUPER: "Warning: During collision, some kernels may remain unpopped" ]

Too funny.

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Subject:Advisory Board

Patsy Hughes Oldroyd

Class of ‘65

Hi Tommy,

I have enjoyed reading the web site so very much. If I can be of any help or contribute anything, I will be more than happy to do that. If you still need any help with the advisory board, I will be glad to assist. If I need help, I can just call on Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly who is my cousin. We stay in contact, so hopefully she can tell me what I need to do to help you with this. I live in Athens and still teach school here, but I am in Huntsville quite often too where I do see former classmates on a fairly regular basis. Anyway, let me know if you still need help with this, and I will be happy to help.

p.s. I have meant to tell you many times, especially when I have just read one of your little memoirs, that I too, have pleasant memories of Grove St. when I was young. Your good friend, and mine too at that time, Diane Hughey, had a brother who married my cousin. They had a couple of children, and I have some good pictures of Diane and me in our Easter finery in front of her house with those little children. Diane and I were probably about twelve/thirteen. I can remember going over there to her house several times and having lots of fun. I also remember your cousin (?) Rose Sharon Towery as being a very sweet girl. Also, I don’t know just how much or even if you remember just how many times we all went skating at Rocket City on the Parkway and Carter’s Skateland on Traylor Island???? Those were the most fun days of my life.

I credit you with helping me to remember what a great and privileged life I had growing up in Huntsville. We felt safe, could pray in school, and had two (of the opposite sex) parent homes. My parents are still living on Giles Drive and have been married for 65 years. Your articles on the website bring back lots of memories that I had just not thought about for years. I remember starting school at Lee in the 7th grade, and to the best of my knowledge, it was only a junior high school for a very brief time. Do you know how many years? So…I got to be with our group from 7th through 12th at Lee.

It is unthinkable that I should have let any of this slip from my memory while going about the business of daily living.

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Subject:RE: Steve Craig

Kevin Rice

Class of '71

Stevie, Stevie, Stevie................if you weren't so OLD and forgetful you would remember that we were classmates. LOL

Watched alot of Sat. morning educational shows back then, before headin to the Lyric for the matinee.

..............Jiffy Pop

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Subject:Darwin Downs

Sam Darwin

Visitor

I ran across your web article on Darwin Downs back in Hunstville, AL. Interesting what you can find surfing the web for odd things. I grew up on Bide-A-Wee Dr. myself and my grandfather was the Jeff Darwin, once owner and resident of Oak Place, that you mention. I enjoyed reading your history of the area - about a decade and a half before my time there. His sons Donald and Jack still live in or near Hunstville. In fact you mention finding some dead ends in your research of Darwin Downs. I can tell you that Donald Darwin is a wealth of history, not to mention quite a story teller, if you are still interested. He can be tracked down on www.anywho.com as he still lives in Hunstville - not too far from DD.

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Subject:Lee High School

Gary LeVan

Class of '70

Have many fond memories of Lee. My sister graduated in 1965. I left Lee in 1970 and joined the Air Force and retired in 1991. Now live and work in Huntsville.

Email: gary.levan@us.army.mil

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The Purina Diet

I was in Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Purina for Lola and was in line to check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog........

Duh! I was feeling a bit crabby so on impulse, I told her no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care unit with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IV's in both arms.

Her eyes about bugged out of her head. I went on and on with the bogus diet story and she was totally buying it. I told her that it was an easy, inexpensive diet and that the way it works is to load your pockets or purse with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry.

The package said the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.

I have to mention here that practically everyone in the ine was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her.

Horrified, she asked if something in the dog food had poisoled me and was that why I ended up in the hospital. I said no.....I'd been sitting in the street licking my butt when a car hit me.

I thought the tall guy was going to have to be carried out the door.

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IDLE THOUGHTS

of One Who Grows Older

I planted some birdseed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.

I had amnesia once -- or twice.

I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?

Protons have mass?? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

If the world were a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.

What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?

They told me I was gullible and I believed them.

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