Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Lee's Traveller Editor

Takes Much Needed Vacation

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

The cruise ship Fantasy will be my abode for the next five days as Sue and I take a much needed fall vacation. All I can say is that never in my wildest dreams during my Lee High School days did I ever think I would be on a cruise ship. I do have a LHS cruise ship story though, that just came to my mind.

When I was in the 9th grade, in Mr. Blackburn's class, we were allowed to order a movie for the class to watch from some movie service. I do not know why we were allowed to do this, but I do know that the movie which we selected was "A Night To Remember." That of course was a movie about the sinking of The Titanic. Funny that I should come up with that memory just before I go on a cruise.

But, we got the movie and sat in class and watched it. We didn't have popcorn or cokes and there was no balcony to make out in, but it was a fun time in the school setting - something really different from our daily activities. We used a projector of course, since this was pre-video tape or DVD players, and it was a 16mm film with sound. That was neat back then. Do any of you remember watching this? Please email me.

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Chip Smoak, Class of '66 - This week's mystery item is the wringer of a wringer washer, the cutting edge of washing machines at one time. My grandmother had one when I was a child. I do not remember the circumstances but she or my older sister was using it one time and somehow managed to get a hand and arm caught in the wringer. I understand that it was a rather unpleasant experience.

There was a release button but the victim was unable to reach it properly to effect release.

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Walt Thomas, Class of '64 - Older washing machines didn't have spin cycles. You took the clothes out of the washer and fed them thru the rollers to squeeze the water out before hanging them out to dry.

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Cecilia (Sis) Watson - The item is a wringer washer. My Mom did her wash on the back porch of our house on McKinley Avenue. On wash day I loved the smell of bleach and the soap. I hated when she made me hold the end of the sheets and towels so that they would not touch the ground as they were going through the wringer .

How spoiled we are today. I am sure this machine would be on the recall list. It was probably painted with lead paint and who knows how many fingers, hair and loose clothes got caught in the wringer my mistake. Thanks for the memories.

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Eddie Jones - I know what this is because when I was 3, I got my arm stuck in it. Of, course I thought it was eating me and wouldn’t enter the wash room for awhile afterward. It is an old wringer for a washing machine. As the old saying goes,”Don’t get your T**ts caught in the wringer”.

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Barb Biggs Knott, Class of '66 - Boy does that bring back memories… some as old as my childhood! My grandma and grandpa had a farm in Loysville, Pa. which of course, included a washhouse. The wringer was attached to a big wash tub which she filled with hot water from a huge iron kettle hung over an open fireplace. There was no actual washing machine attached to it, just the wringer. When I married in 1969 my husband’s mother had a Maytag wringer washer which she used and was quite sturdy.

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John Turrentine - Tommy, my Mom had one of these when we were growing up. It is the wringer on an old open tub washing machine. Ours was a Maytag. The thing I remember most was Mom saying how you could get hurt if you got your hand caught between the rollers during operation. I believe the lever on the right would seperate the rollers if necessary. Sure broke a lot of buttons too!....

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Jerry Dorriety, Class of '70 - Boy do I remember that old "wringer washing machine". My grandmother had one on the back porch and I remember watching her take clothes out of the washing machine and running them through the ringer to squeeze out all the water. She had to be careful because, as the old saying goes, you must be careful not to get your "titty caught in the wringer". It was pretty scary looking and she wouldn't let any of us grandkids operate it. Anyway, thanks for the memories!

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Linda Walker, Class of '66 - This is a picture of an old wringer washing machine. Ours was a double tub, one for washing and one for rinsing. I had fun helping Mother with the washing because I could play in the warm, soapy water in one tub and the cold water in the other tub. We had only been in Huntsville a few years when I got my hand stuck in the wringers. I was holding a crinoline slip so the wringers would catch it and wring the soap out of it and it would drop in the rinse side. I was not paying very close attention, evidently, because my right hand did not slide off but went with the slip as it went through the wringers. I screamed bloody murder. My four fingers were going through the wringers and my thumb was being bent backwards. Mother knocked Daddy out of the way and crashed through the screen door and hit the wringer release so hard that the wringers came off, which scared me too. I didn't know which was worse -- my hand being ! crushed by the wringers or the danger of being hit in the head by flying wringers. Anyway, Mother saved my hand from any permanent damage. However, I had screamed so loud that people from at least two blocks away, maybe more, were coming into our year to see who was killing the kid.

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Gary Hatcher, Class of ''66 - I don't remember any saying associated with the picture, but I sure do remember a fighting match I had with one when I was about five years old. My mother had one of those wringer washing machines years ago, many years ago. I decided to see what would happen if I tried to stop the rollers. I found out the hard way. As my hand started to enter the rollers I must have tried to stop, but couldn't my fingers parted and one of the bent way back, so far that I still have a scar between two of the fingers on my left hand from the stiches that it took to put my hand back together. I had to try it again some years later.

This time I tried my brother's hand (Donald Class of '71). He has worse success than I did. His arm went through the wringer, but it broke. Not the wringer, his arm. Guess I didn't learn from the first try.

Thanks again for the great work you do on the weekly letter.

Subject:Von Braun

Aaron Potts

LH Jr. High Class of 1958

First class of Lee:

Hey Tommy,

Seeing the Saturn V on the Lees Traveller brings back memories of when I worked at N.A.S.A. with three of America’s Astronauts in the Neutral Buoyancy Test Simulations Operations. Dr. Von Braun was an avid SCUBA diver and we had astronauts that would test equipment underwater rather than send them to outer space for testing. Each test subject was assigned two safety divers to assist him to make sure he was safe while they were underwater. Since my background was design engineering, I had a tablet that I could use to write on and make sketches with to take back to the drawing board and make any changes in the equipment that was being tested. One of our test subjects was one of the men that has already been to the moon. He was Alan Beam. If anyone remembers, he was the Astronaut that used a golf club to almost put a golf ball in orbit around the moon. I worked with him for a week testing doors for the command module after Grissom, Chaffee, and White died in the fire of the command module, while they were still sitting on the launch pad. The test subject would be wearing a complete high altitude astronaut suit that was pressurized, so they had to put a large amount of lead weights to make him neutrally buoyant. The equipment being tested was sprayed with foam that would float 11 times its own weight so that it would float. We would then shave off enough to make the equipment be in a neutrally buoyant state and this is how we simulated outer space. The astronaut would be neutral and the test equipment would be neutral so consequently both would weigh nothing. This was probably one of my most enjoyable and interesting jobs that I have ever had. I loved doing design engineering for the aerospace program. I still do engineering work however; my background now is the power and chemical industry.

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