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
MEMPHIS - Back from a quick trip to Huntsville to pay my respect to Ronnie McClure's family. I did have time for a quick hamburger at Mullin's and four chilidogs for carry out, which Sue and I had on Saturday for lunch.
Please include your class year with your e-mails.
T. Tommy
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From Our
Mailbox
Last Week's
Mystery Photo
This Week's
Mystery Photo
Back to an easy one this week. Very seldom used today, these were frowned on by our teacher, but still used by many of us. Please include class year with your answers.
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Jan Hunt, Class of '66 - I have carried firearms almost all my life. I traded for an old .22 revolver when I was 12 years old. My brother was a police officer so I had to keep it hid since it was illegal under 21 years old. I have hunted since I was 12. I carried an M16 in the army and took a US Army .45 pistol and an M79 grenade launcher of a dead NVA soldier(the enemy). I then carried a sidearm while working for the Huntsville Police Department and other agencies. I really enjoyed your article on shooting. And congratulations on your score. That is a NICE target. I know that it is especially hard to be accurate with a 2 inch barrel pistol. The bullets in your mystery photo are the .22 caliber short. the .22 caliber long. the .22 caliber long rifle and the .22 caliber magnum in left to right order. You always do a great job on the Traveller. Thanks for your service. I always look forward to the weekend and for the next Traveller.
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Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - I’m sure you will get a ton of correct answers on this one. The rounds in the picture, left to right, are the .22 Short, .22 Long, .22 Long Rifle, and the .22 Magnum. The .22 rifle was a pretty standard item for us. The ugly, but incredibly reliable Remington Nylon 66 was our weapon of choice. A tin can had no safe hiding place.
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Linda Beal Walker, Class of '66 - My first husband, Glenn Pike, was a deputy with Marshall County Sheriff's Dept. He had several, several guns and he eventually taught me shoot some of them, a .22 rifle, a .22 pistol, a .38 pistol and my .327 Magnum, blue barrel, Smith & Wesson. I became a fair shot. I can't remember where he took me for target practice, somewhere near Guntersville, but I loved target practice. I have to admit that the .357 had a bit of a kick. Of course, when we divorced, all that stopped. No more guns except for the .357 that I asked for as part of the MDA and received. I had that gun until the spring of 2004, Tommy, when I visited a behavioral clinic in Memphis and they took it away from me.
The .357 did not have a safety so Glenn only kept five bullets in the chamber. These bullets were something he loaded himself and used only for target shooting. Therefore, when I received the gun in the divorce settlement, I assumed that it was still loaded in the same way. However, later, when I decided to empty the gun and keep it in the night stand, I found that it was loaded with six hollow points. What was he thinking??? I wonder ---
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John Drummond, Class of '65 - From left to right, I think the .22 shells are: Short, Long, Long Rifle and Magnum.
When I was an intern in the Emergency Department (fondly called "The Pit" by all who toiled there) at Grady Memorial Hospital in 1973-74, the weekend night shifts were usually horror shows, up close and personal, due to shootings and stabbings. Members of "The Saturday Night Knife and Gun Club" starting arriving by ambulance about 9:00 P.M. with vital organs pierced by a blade or bullet of much larger caliber than our boyhood .22s. Then, as now, the assailant was usually known to the victim e.g. spouse, relative, neighbor or gambling buddy. Speed, not smarts, was often the critical factor that influenced survival versus exsanguination. At 3:00 in the morning, we never had bank presidents, or even bank tellers, rolling into Grady with several .38 slugs in the chest; you get Gladiators.
True Story: One Friday night in the Surgical part of the Grady ER, a nicely dressed (very unusual in this venue) thirtyish lady was noticed, quietly standing in a corner watching the bloody beehive of trauma care. When asked what she was about, the lady replied that she had served at a M.A.S.H. hospital in Vietnam, and the two best trauma surgeons had trained at Grady. She wanted to come see for herself whether their tall tales and war stories about the place were true. Shaking her head, wide-eyed, she said in wonderment: "Now I know why those guys were so quick and so good; you know, Vietnam was never like this!!!"
Semi-True Story: The toughest bars in town were located in South Atlanta. One place was such a dangerous place to drink, patrons were checked for weapons upon entering. If you didn't have a gun, they gave you one.
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Also sending in correct identifications were:
Eddie Jones, Class of ‘66
Marty Phillips, Class of '66
Another Fami-LEE Loss
Ronnie McClure, Husband of
Dianne Hughey McClure,
Class of '64
Ronald Whit McClure
March 8, 1945 - Sept. 26, 2007
Ronald Whit McClure of Huntsville passed away Wednesday. He was 62. Mr. McClure was a U.S. Navy veteran and served in the Ceremonial Guard in Washington. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Rebecca Michelle McClure. He is survived by his wife, Diane McClure; three daughters and sons-in-law, Kristy and Erin Jones, Kelli and Ralph Taylor Jr. and Stella and Edwin Driskill; two sisters, Linda Livingston and Janice Bryan; one brother, Wayne McClure; three grandchildren, Grace Taylor, Cheyenne Taylor and Caden Driskill; and two grandsons, Kevin and Rayan Driskill. The funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. today at Berryhill Funeral Home with the Rev. Sherill Clontz officiating. Interment will follow at Huntsville Memory Gardens.
Published in The Huntsville Times from 9/28/2007 - 9/29/2007.
I got the call last Thursday informing me of the death of Ronnie McClure, the husband of Dianne Hughey McClure, Class of ’64. Ronnie passed away on Wednesday in Huntsville following a long illness. Dianne and Ronnie had been married over 43 years. They were married on June 28th of 1964, following our graduation in May of that year. Ronnie had just returned from a stint in the Navy. They have three daughters, Stella, Kristy, and Kelli, and several grandchildren.
Dianne has been a great friend for all these years, so I drove down for the visitation on Friday night and saw many people that Dianne and I know in common. Joyce (don’t know which LHS class year for her), the sister of Carolyn McCutcheon Hanks, Class of ’64 was there, along with Carolyn’s daughter Joey. Milton Shelton, Class of ’64, showed up, as did Ann Franklin of the Dallas-Rison Association. I hadn’t seen Dianne’s niece MaeRuth since 1964 when she was about two. Ronnie’s sister Linda was also there and I have not seen her since New Year’s Eve of 1964 when Bob Walker and I had a double date with her and her cousin Gwen. The photo memorial that his family had on display was filled with faces I recognized from the past. One of my favorite photos was taken by Kristy when she was taking photography from Tommy Esslinger. I also met Ronnie’s brother Wayne, who is a regular reader of the Traveller he says, but did not go to Lee. I had to drive back to Memphis that night so I missed the service the next day.
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Subject:Fami-LEE
Kay Dilday Johnson
Class of '79
My name is Kay Dilday Johnson, class of 1979. My husband is Larry Johnson, class of 1977. My sister, Lee Dilday Wiles, was class of 1964. My sister, Laura Ellen Dilday Washington, was class of 1966. My brother, Ernie Dilday (Ernest, Jr.), was almost class of 1969,1970,1971. (You knew there had to be a connection, right?) My daughter, LeAnn Johnson Nordstrom, was almost class of 2000. My son, Lucas Johnson was class of 2002. My youngest daughter was almost class of 2005. We feel we are truly a Fami-Lee!
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The Poodle and the Leopard
A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa , taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles along for the company.
One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.
The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat.
Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"
Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.
"Whew!", says the leopard. "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!"
Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes ...
... but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up.
The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.
The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!
Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?" but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says.
"Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!
Moral of this story....
Don't mess with old farts... Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill!
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Think About It
The population of this country is 300 million.
160 million are retired.
That leaves 140 million to do the work.
There are 85 million in school.
Which leaves 55 million to do the work.
Of the 55 million, there are 35 million employed by the federal government.
Leaving 15 million to do the work.
Of the 15 million, 2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with chasing Osama Bin-Laden.
Which leaves 12.2 million to do the work.
Deduct from that total the 10.8 million people who work for state and city governments. That leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.
