Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

the games being played at the Alamodome,I remembered how excited I was the first time I actually saw the real Alamo. Now I know that may seem silly in today’s world, but I didn’t think it was silly at the time.

I can tell you the exact date that I saw it, and almost the exact time of day. It was September 23, 1968 and I was heading to my first Air Force duty station – Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas. It was near midnight and we were driving from Memphis to Del Rio and having never driven much on an Interstate, I got on the East loop around San Antonio instead of the West loop. Rather than just staying on and doing the complete circle, I elected to get off and cut straight through town and hit the road I needed on the other side of the city. That was not a good move, especially at midnight. Well, besides some bad parts of towns and never-ending red lights, it took a long time to make the detour.

I was right in the middle of town looking for highway signs when I saw a lot of people walking around a well lit building. I though it was strange that so many people would be walking around downtown at midnight when I looked up and saw where they were. They were standing in front of the “Real” Alamo. It was right in the middle of downtown.

Now I don’t know why but I never expected it to be smack in the middle of the business district. I think I expected it to be out on the outskirts of town, in a big field like it was in the movies. It was movies that first caught my interest in the legend. It was especially the movie “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” with Fess Parker that really interested me. I was inspired by the heroism of the defenders of the mission and the against-all-odds stand that they made there. That movie came out in 1955 and I was nine years old. I read every thing I could and saw every movie made about the defenders of the Alamo after that. I would have to wait until I turned 22 before I actually saw the building.

It was such a strange feeling. I was dead tired from my first ever solo long distance drive, scared to death about the future awaiting me in the Air Force, and it was so surreal seeing it standing there in the night air with the spotlight shining on it. It was a building that I had wanted to see since I was nine and I was actually seeing it, but it seemed so unreal. I drove past it that night and continued the trip, but the next month I had a chance to go back and really walk inside it and touch the walls and feel the mystique.

That was not the first time I felt that feeling, and thank goodness it was not the last time. But, as silly as it may seem, it was a childhood dream fulfilled. It had been a long way and a long time from the nights I sat watching Davy Crockett on the television set as a child in Huntsville, but it allowed me to know that dreams do come true for those who wait long enough - even silly little dreams.

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Bruce W. Fowler, Class of '66 - Most Illustrious Editor, I know the beast is a notebook for loose leaf paper punched with two holes at the top and I recall that this was a novelty introduced back when we were kids, but I don't recall the name, nor can I find any link.

I believe the claim was that the absence of the rings in conventional side punched paper notebooks made writing easier, especially for those who wrote left handed. Also, the mechanism for holding the top closed was magnetic, an early school application of the AlNiCo magnets you referred to previously. Because of this and their molded plastic construction, they were a bit noisy to open and close, not that ring notebooks were not as well but as I recall louder and different in spectrum. There is also a slot at the top for a pencil to be stashed.

The biggest difficulty with these notebooks was that you could not just turn to a page in a stable abiding way like you can with a ring notebook. You also could not read the backside of a page without turning the notebook upside down. In this regard these notebooks suffered the same limitation as a clipboard which may explain why they have become extinct.

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Polly Gurley Redd, Class of '66 - Tommy, I don’t remember what the thing was called but I still can almost hear the click of the magnet as the little lid closed to hold the top-punched paper and a pencil in the long space above the magnet. It was some kind of portfolio that held paper and pencil and let you write on your lap. The top folded over and became “one with” the back piece. It must have been our version of the trapper keeper that every elementary child has to own today. What a great find.

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Jim Myrick, Class of '66 - Tommy, the piece on Sweet Home Alabama was fantastic. You blow me away with some of the stuff you come up with.

Keep up with the good work. I don't know the official name of the mystery photo. I always called it a top hole notebook. Used to have one, but it dissapeared years ago during a move.

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Cherri Polly Massey, Class of '66 - I found a reference to the Nifty notebook on eBay. A teacher was looking for one. As she said, it was a notebook that held notebook paper with two holes at the top with a magnet. The front of the notebook folded over the top around to the back. I had one in elementary school and felt very stylish.

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Jeff Fussell, Class of '66 - You weren’t kidding about this being a rare bird. I found exactly one internet reference for the once commonplace Nifty Top-Punch Notebook. Ironically, it was a “Want it Now” posting on eBay that received no response:

I carried a Nifty back in the day and I recall how I got myself in a bit of trouble with it. I used to keep the cover of the notebook secured with a big fat red rubber band. You know the kind -- just a tad smaller than a fan belt. One day I had taken my seat in Mr. Blackburn’s class and was peeling that big red rubber band off my Nifty Notebook. Just as he was closing the door at the bell, that bad boy slipped from my fingers (honest) and became a projectile. Yeah, you guessed it -- ZAP! – right on the numbers. It took a moment for him to realize what happened, but there was no mistaking the source of the attack.

And there was no point in saying anything, the truth wasn’t even close to plausible.

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Escoe German Beatty, Class of '65 - I think that the photo is a notebook that held the paper vertically with two holes in the top. They were very popular for a while but faded away to the same place that bobby socks and poodle skirts went.

By the way, does anyone remember "slam books"? I doubt that any survived the teachers but it would be interesting to find out!!

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Phil Rutledge, Class of '67 - I took my 6th grade son to Huntsville to see Lee and other significant places of my early years. He thinks the slopes at interstate overpasses would make a great sledding hill. I had to take him to Oak Park to show him a real hill a lot of people from Lee will remember.

I didn't read your site until tonight, so I may be late with my guess. In the deep recesses of my mind, I think I remember these as notebook binders. The magnet held the paper instead of the usual rings. The nice thing about these was they provided a place to hold your pencil.

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Linda Beal Walker, Class of '66 - This is a magnetic clip board for two-hole punch paper.

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Ruth L. Cox

(Mother of Cathy Cox Tribble, Class of '66)

Passes Away

COX, RUTH L. Dec. 21, 1927 ~ March 27, 2008 Ruth L. Cox, formerly of Huntsville and Birmingham, died Thursday in Chesapeake, Virginia at age 80. She was active in church and civic arenas for over thirty years in Huntsville and fifteen years in Birmingham. She is survived by one daughter, Catherine Cox Tribble of Virginia Beach, Virginia, two grandchildren, Josh Tribble of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Joi Tribble of Hoover, Alabama and three great-grandchildren, Bakhita, Martin, and Xiao Lin Tribble of Chesapeake, Virginia. She is also survived by one brother, Rev. William T. Ligon of Brunswick, Georgia. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville. The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Central Presbyterian Church with Dr. Randy Jenkins and the Rev. William Ligon officiating. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery. Laughlin Service Funeral Home directing.

Published in The Birmingham News on 3/30/2008.

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Subject:Lee Web Site

Jeanne Ivey Carter

Class of '66

Tommy, I have been on the mailing list for the reunion updates but I have never been in town to attend. My daughter and grandchildren have lived in Europe for the past seven years so needless to say I have traveled quite a lot over the past couple of years! After being a lurker on your site for some time now I felt like I had to come out of hiding just to pay you a compliment...you are doing a wonderful job keeping us informed, amused and "in the past'. I have enjoyed having my memory jolted by names from the past and I get such a kick out of all of your trivia.

I would have been in the graduation class of '66 but transferred to Tennessee in '65. I started 1st grade at Lincoln until the 5th grade where I went to Rison. I was in the first dropped 7th grade class when they added the10th and so on until it became a high school instead of a junior high.

Thanks again Tommy for all of the time and effort that goes into giving so many of us pleasure! I hope to attend the next reunion and catch up with so many of my old ( not in age ) friends.

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Things Our Mothers Taught Us

HOW TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE: "If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning!"

RELIGION: "You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

TIME TRAVEL: "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

LOGIC: "Because I said so, that's why!"

FORESIGHT: "Be sure you wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident."

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