Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Going Shootin'

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

Well, on Saturday I went out to my local gun range and qualified to finish up the requirements for a carry permit for the State of Tennessee. I’m not saying that to open a discussion about the pros and cons of gun ownership, but I am sure that some of you will have to respond as to why I shouldn't be allowed a permit and the morality of guns. I’m saying it because the idea of going to a state controlled facility to fire a handgun is quite a contrast to the way I used to go shootin’ when I was a student at Lee. By the way, the grouping above was done with three pistols, a 4” .357 Dan Wesson, a 2” Charter Arms .38 special, and a 2” Smith and Wesson .38 Airweight. I’d never fired the Airweight before. We didn’t use pistols back in my Lee days, we used single shot .22s. So can you remember where we went to shoot? While I let you think about that, I’ll tell you some of my memories.

Let me start by saying that I did not own a gun when I was in high school. To be honest, I can’t really tell you when I fired my first gun, but it was long before I was a teenager. That’s the way it was in the old South, even for us city boys. It was no big deal to learn how to shoot a gun. We certainly seldom went to firearm safety classes. I was probably eight or so my first time. Since my parents were divorced when I was eight, it was not my dad that took me. I think it was my cousin on one of the weeks when we used to go up to the “country” in Fayetteville and stayed with an aunt. My parents did not own a gun, nor would they every have considered it. That is despite all the hints I left with dog-eared pages in the Sears’ Christmas wish book. Hey…all I wanted was a .22. They would not even let me have a B-B gun, and I would have settled for that. Both were advertised in Boy's Life.

I really learned to shoot and gun safety at Camp Westmoreland in the Boy Scouts and got my Marksmanship merit badge the same summer, firing a .22. We practiced for most of the week and then fired for record at the end of camp, and those of us who qualified got our badges at the Court of Honor at the end of the camp week.

I didn’t shoot again after that for a while, again because I had no gun or friends who had guns. That changed when I got to Lee and became friends with Bob Walker, Class of ’64. Bob and his cousin, Larry Bryant, did have some .22 rifles and often we would go out and go “shooting”. We shot bottles, tin cans, and objects like that. We did not shoot many paper targets like I did today and like I did at Camp Westmoreland. Times, up! Anyone remember the favorite place to go shooting back then? For us, it was the old quarry north of town, off of the Parkway if I remember correctly. It was not posted, and not locked up, and I know that we were not the only ones who went there, because the ground was littered with spent shells.

I can’t remember for sure, but I think David France and Lewis Brewer went with us on at least one occasion. My most vivid memory of those expeditions was that one day we were there and the single shot .22 rifle that Bob owned was acting up. It was old and it had been used a lot. As a result of that, it misfired quite often. On that day, it really upset Bob and he kept opening the chamber and taking the shell out and putting it back in. Well, after about the third try and the third misfire, he had one of us hold out his English Literature book at arm’s length. He put the barrel of the gun about a foot from the book and BAM! That time it did not misfire and the noise and the impact knocked the book out of the holder’s hand. I can’t remember if it was me or not, but I seem to think it was Larry Bryant, since he was one of those guys you could talk into anything. You know the type! The slug went in about as far as the Mark Twain section in the literature book I think. It was probably a .22 short, since those were the cheapest bullets you could buy. It did adversely affect the resale value of the book.

I also remember that for a very short time a shooting gallery opened up in one of the buildings across the street from the old post office in downtown Huntsville. I always thought it was odd for a shooting gallery to be placed in a downtown location. It didn’t last long either because of the noise or because no one wanted to pay to go shooting. Hey! We're rednecks.

The summer after I graduated from Lee I got my first gun. I finally got the .22 single shot that I had wanted. I got it from the YMCA camp where I worked because it was damaged and did not extract the empty shell cases when you opened the bolt, and they were going to throw it away. I had to use a “church key” to pry the empty cases out. I still have that rifle, along with a few others and a few handguns. While I was in AFROTC I went to summer camp in 1967 and fired a .38 pistol for the first time and got myself a pretty ribbon for doing so good. I fired expert every year I was in the Air Force, the last time being in 1988. I wore a loaded gun many times during that period, and never had to fire a shot. Today was the first time I have fired a handgun since I retired from the Air Force almost 20 years ago. I am bragging when I say I fired expert today as well. I guess it is like skating or riding a bicycle. You don’t forget things like that.

I could write a book chapter on my involvement with guns, especially about the “black powder” years and how much fun that is, but that has nothing to do with the memories of going out to the rock quarry and shooting as a teenager with my classmate buddies.

I know that many of you went into the military or into professions that required that you carry a weapon, and I know the responsibility that such a task carried.

I have learned from past experiences to not apologize for writing an article that probably only applies to my male friends. Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly has more than once corrected me when I made the assumption that some skill or activity was slanted toward or restricted to my male classmates. I know at least one of our female classmates who carried a gun on one of our dates. This was after high school and during my single period as an adult. I was on my best behavior then.

So, does anyone else remember going shootin’ at the rock quarry and what kind of gun they had or used back then?

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Patsy Hughes Oldroyd, Class of ‘65 - The dress in the picture is a sack dress or more formally called a chemise. It was popular at a time when I was young, had a Scarlett O’Hara waistline, and did not need to wear that style. Now that I am 60 years old and have more of a Petunia Pig waistline, this style cannot be found in any stores or catalogues. Everything is too short, too tight, and too spandex to suit me.

Watching some of my female students everyday with their navel studs, colorful thongs, and butt-top tattoos showing, I think back very fondly of how very decent but still feminine the girls all looked when we were teenagers…even in those tacky, shapeless, sack dresses.

I cheated on the song for this mystery picture and Googled the answer. I had no idea there was a song called “The Sack,” and it even has some suggestive (for that era) lyrics about …”in the sack.” Have a great week!

(Editor's Note: "The Sack" song was not the one I was trying to get you to remember. I was thinking more along the lines of "No Chemise Please" by Gerry Granahan.)

Click on this link to listen to the entire song if you can.

"No Chemise Please"

The link below is a 30 second sample from the record.

http://www.amazon.ca/Golden-Age-Amererican-Rock-Roll/dp/B0000009IH

Anyone remember this now?

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Subject:Short shorts

Linda Beal Walker

Class of '66

I never wore SHORT shorts because I was too skinny, and now I don't wear shorts because J.C Tent, Inc. doesn't make shorts in my size.

I did have a pair of shorts, however, that were my very most favorite. They were made of dark blue stretch denim and they were made to be rolled up to the length you wanted. I wore them with approximately a two inch cuff which brought them to mid-skinny thigh. My father hated them. He said they were too short and too tight. He finally told me that the next time he caught me not wearing them, he would burn them. He must have meant it, because the last time I saw those wonderful tight fitting, soft stretch denim shorts was when I put them in the clothes hamper to be washed. Mother denied all knowledge, and Daddy, well, Daddy never said a word when asked. He just smiled. I looked and looked and looked and never found those shorts.

Sometimes my parents' words come out of my mouth before I realize it, but the short shorts worn in our high school years were not as short as the short shorts I see today. At least, I don't remember too many butt checks hanging out.

Tommy, several of Jackson schools do have dress codes. Other, however, do not and I sure wish there was something that could be done about the young men that wear their jeans and shorts so low at the waist that the crotch is below the knees. How do they walk in those things, Maybe that is way they swagger when they walk. It must keep them falling flat on their faces. Now I really sound like an old fuddy.

Thank you also for the video and song from YouTube. Lyrics like those are no more. (Loud Sigh!)

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Subject:Short Shorts

Alice A. Brigman

Class of '64

Tommy, your statement: "I had to remember the song in the video below when thinking how the more the things change the more they stay the same".

Not really! If you will take a look at the shorts in the video they are short, but they come to the waist. A lot of difference!

The shorts you pictured above the video and the ones some of the girls are wearing today are just about the pubic hair - a lot of difference as far as I am concerned and probably a lot of others too. Today the girls are wearing not only their shorts, but jean down that far. Too obscene for my taste. The men and boys might like looking at the hip bones, if there are any, and belly button, but to be dressed in a decent way no belly showing. If you will ask around most people of sick of that look.

Of course we are the older crowd now that feel that way. I am shocked that schools/universities/colleges have been allowing this kind of dress. A far cry from when I attended Auburn, not even slacks could be worn on campus.

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Subject:2008 Reunion?

Phil Stewart

Class of '66

Hi Tommy: Was just wondering if we'll see another re-union in 2008? Hope all is well.

(Editor's Note: I know of no plans for a reunion next year, unless someone wants to try to organize a 60th Birthday Party for the Class of '66 like we had for the Class of '64. It's time for another Mini-Reunion!)

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