Adivsory Board: Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, George Lehman Williams, Patsy Hughes Oldroyd
Contributors: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 and Others
This has been a sad week for our classmates and our thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost loves ones.
Some of my lost e-mail was retstored, but I did not get all of it back. I've gone back and printed some of the comments from a couple of weeks ago for all of you to share.
Please help me out by trying to avoid using all caps or all lower case in the e-mails. Please write like you were taught in English class and include your class year.
Please include your class year with your e-mails.
T. Tommy
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From Our
Mailbox
Last Week's
Mystery Photo
We had some good responses to the quote from "The Day The Earth Stood Still" so this week's photo is from another science fiction movie of that era. If this one didn't have you saying "Gee Whiz!" then nothing did.
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Annette McCraney, Class of '64 - I loved it! Four handsome men in one issue!!!
On the left are Butch Adcock and Bobby Cochran. It brought a smile to my face even during the sorrowful news of the loss of Bobby's lovely and loved Sandy. Smiles and tears at the same time.....
The other pix of you and Bob Walker made me homesick for the east coast of Fla. I lived in Brevard County, in Titusville, only 30 or so miles from Ormond Beach...I might even have rubbed elbows with him at the biker bars and outdoor patio bars...
I'm sitting here waiting on UPS to deliver my new tipi!!!!! If anyone wants to play Indian, just let me know!!! If I'm not here, I'll be up on the mtn (Grant Mtn/Cathedral Caverns-Kirby's property) living in the extreme slow lane. Would welcome the company!!
Tommy, you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for your work on this web site. I can't thank you enough.
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Tim Kephart, Guest - Those two gentlemen would be Butch Adcock on the left and Bob Cochran on the right. Fashion statement, indeed!!!
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Skip Cook, Class of '64 - For once my old eyes can readily identify the 2 young gents in the photo. They are Leonard Earl Adcock, Jr. (a.k.a. Butch) and Robert Emmett Cochran. Seeing those guys at the 2005 reunion was one of the highlights of the trip to Huntsville. Thanks again Tommy for your efforts keeping us all in touch.
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J.R. Brooks, Class of '64 - One of those in the mystery picture is Butch Adcock. The other, I am not sure.
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Two Members of Class of '64
Lose Spouses Last Week
We got notice of two of our Fami-LEE who lost their spouses last week. Bobby Cochran, Class of '64 reported the passing of his wife Sandy. Bobby lives in the St. Louis area. The write-up in the paper was short:
Sandra V. Cochran, 63
Wentzville, Feb. 26, 2007. Visitation Tues. 4-8 p.m. Pitman Funeral Home. Service Wed. 10 a.m. St. Paul Lutheran Church.
Bobby sent the following e-mail.
Just a quick note to let you know that my dear wife, Sandy, passed away last night.
She was surrounded by friends and family, and didn't suffer, as best we could tell. She had been heavily sedated and the doctors indicated that she would not be in pain.
Please pass along to all my Lee High friends my SINCERE thanks and appreciation for their kind words and messages.
He followed up with another quick note:
Thank you all very much for your kind words and thoughts for my wife Sandy. She truly enjoyed attending the Lee High School alumni reunions, and became acquainted with many of my classmates.
Sandy was a very special person. I never met anyone who knew her that did not become her friend. She would do anything she could to help or comfort a friend or relative, and everyone enjoyed her company.
And I've lost my very best friend. I will miss her for the rest of my life.
Please accept a suggestion from me: Hug all the people you hold dear - we have no way of knowing when one or more of them will no longer be around.
Again, thank you for your kind thoughts.
Bob
Linda Isbell Creek, Class of '64, notified us of the death of Shirley Arnold Keel's husband Tom. Shirley is also from the Class of '64 and lives in Woodville, Alabama.
Thomas Keel
Nov. 27, 1943 - Feb. 25, 2007
Thomas "Tom" Delbert Keel, 63, of Woodville died Sunday. Our beloved Tom was a devoted husband, father, and friend to all. Tom was a U.S. Army veteran, an electrician by trade, and a member of IBEW Local #1925, but a farmer at heart. He was preceded in death by his father, Robert Keel; two sisters, Faye Carolyn Keel and Janice Keel; and one brother, Jerry "Curley" Keel. He is survived by his wife, Shirley Arnold Keel; daughters, Susan Morrow Keel, Tracy Jones and husband Ruben, and Christy Dean and husband Casey; mother, Viola Keel, all of Woodville; sisters, Dianne Keel Helms and husband Randy of Woodville, and Debra Keel Saint of Huntsville; brother, Rickey John Keel and wife Tammy of Woodville; brother-in-law, Paul Arnold and wife Carolyn of Huntsville; mother-in-law, Eloise Knight Sanders of Huntsville; six grandchildren, James Robert Finchum, Monique Skelton, Christopher Jones, J'aime Morrow, J.T. Morris, and Chyann Morris; one great-grandchild, Michaela Jones; and several nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Berryhill Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home with Carl Seigenthaler officiating. Burial will be in Union Cemetery in Woodville.
Published in The Huntsville Times on 2/27/2007.
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"Klaatu barada nikto"
Mary Ardrey Aukerman, Class of '66 - I knew the name of the sci-fi film, but here is what I found on the internet in reference to the famous phrase: "The phrase "Klaatu barada nikto" originates from the 1951 Cold-War-era science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still. The phrase "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!" was used to stop Gort, the robot in the film, from destroying the world. There is no known translation for the phrase, although "Klaatu" is the name of the humanoid alien protagonist in the film."
It's funny how those primitive movies were so scary to us at our tender ages. Another one that brought me nightmares was Invaders from Mars. I was convinced that really could happen, and often looked for the little boxes on the back of adult's necks; funny how much smarter the kid was than the adults in that movie. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was just as scary because we lived in a small community outside of St. Louis and we all knew that bad things happened in small towns. There was a burn victim in our neighborhood and we were convinced he was an alien. Poor guy! What he must have endured.
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Chip Smoak, Class of '66- The phrase "Klaatu barada nikto" is what Michael Rennie's character told Patricia Neal's character to say to the robot if anything happened to him in the Sci-Fi movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
It was one of my favorite movies for a long time and Michael Rennie was one of my favorite actors.
I still watch it whenever it is shown on TV.
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Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - "Klaatu barada nikto" (Spell check translation: Klamath abrade nekton, as if that's any improvement) is another matter. Cheeseball sci-fi movies were always a favorite with me. That's what you would say to call off Gort -- the robot of few words in "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
Does anyone remember the band "Klaatu"? Rumor was they were secretly the Beatles. It was tied into the mythos about the "death" of Paul McCartney. Actually, a couple of their songs did have an uncanny similarity in the vocals and musical style.
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Jim Bannister, Class of '66 - "The Day the Earth Stood Still",one of my favorite sci-fi flix.
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If you want to watch the whole movie, you can do it free via the internet at:
This is not a great article, Tommy, but it's perfectly timed with your article about dreams in the Traveller. For my own part, I have only lately stopped having a recurring dream about facing a college chemistry exam without having done enough studying.
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Subject:MARS and WATS
Jim Bannister
Class of '66
Mike Griffith's email last week reminded me of a WATS story. While stationed in Japan I worked at microwave communication site. We handled all the military telephones & data. We also were linked by tropo-scatter links to Viet Nam & the Philipines. A lot of the WATS traffic went through us.
Frequently we would get a visit from a civilian team, NSA, DCA, CIA, or some other kind of "Spooks" (never knew who they really were), that would monitor & record telephone traffic. We had to assist these guys and they seemed to be especially concerned with WATS calls (" Loose lips sinks ships " and all that stuff). WATS worked on availability and the higher priority official business calls were put through even if it meant prempting a low priority call already in progress. Most senior officers had a priority for official business. This brings me back to the "Spooks". They took great joy in terminating a personal call made by a senior officer using his priority. It wasn't a security thing it was because they had knocked a poor enlisted soldier or sailor off of his call home. With WATS you didn't have to say "OVER" like with MARS but there were still plenty of people listening to your conversation.
