Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

A Family Fourth

Celebrating Our Independence

byPatsy Hughes Oldroyd

Class of ‘65

The 4th of July is the greatest holiday. I love everything about it from my favorite colors - red, white, and blue – to the evening ending in a grand fireworks display behind the Athens High School football field. We always have a big gathering each year at one of our homes or at the river. These gatherings include all of our loves ones – both family and friends. Like many other things in my life, it is a constant that I have become very comfortable with knowing that all holidays would be celebrated with these big events. We take so much for granted.

Well, imagine my surprise when it dawned upon me that my husband and I would be practically alone this year on the 4th of July! It just sort of slipped up on us. My oldest son Todd, wife Julie and my grandchildren Ryan, Lauryn and Parker had actually told us a couple of months ago that they were going to be in Orlando during the week of the 4th. Was I listening? Obviously not. Then my other son, Cole and his almost fiancé, Natalie told me a couple of weeks ago that they were going to be in Charleston through the 4th. Not paying too much attention there either, I guess. The same story happened with close friends, Susan, Bill, and all their family who decided to go to a family reunion in Georgia, and good friends Judy, Andy and all theirs who were heading out for Orange Beach for the 4th.

It all started coming together on that Wednesday that EVERYBODY was going to be gone but us!!! No! Not on the 4th of July!

Too late to plan a little short trip for ourselves because we had already agreed to babysit the granddogs. I was positively whiney most all day Thursday, but by late afternoon, I decided to “get over it,” and get something, anything going for a July 4th celebration. I called my parents in Huntsville to see if they felt like coming over to our house in Athens on Friday. Some are good days and some are bad days for them at their age, so I never know. They said that they would really like to come over and spend the day with us.

Well, I flew into action, started getting food prepared, and prettied-up the back porch like a Southern Living photo shoot was about to take place. There were red and blue cloths on all the tables, and all the flowers never looked prettier. It all looked very festive with flags here and there, and my parents really appreciated my efforts

I got up early on Friday morning, put the big American flag out on the front porch ( that is my flag on my front porch in the picture ), and felt very thankful for many things. It was a wonderful day with lively conversation from my parents. Daddy recalled for us many events from his time in the military during WWII, while mother told funny stories of getting lost in New York city department stores when she would go up to meet my father when he would be home on leave. It was a lovely day with quiet conversation shared with just my parents and four little dogs running up and down the back porch. Not at all like the usual July 4th with loud talk, laughter, and lots of kids running around. It was really nice, and my parents told us how very much they enjoyed the day as well. They went back to Huntsville, and after I called later to make sure they had gotten back home with no problems ( boy, what a role reversal! ha ), we did the tiny bit of clean up, and headed out to see the yearly fireworks display.

As we sat there quietly by ourselves watching the spectacular fireworks, I thought about what a truly beautiful day it had been – just us, my mother and father, and the dogs listening to my father reminisce about WWII and what he and the others that are called the greatest generation contributed for our freedoms. What a happy July 4th it turned out to be.

Hope you all had a great one too! God bless.

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Mary (Ardrey) Aukerman, Class of '66 - Black Draught was a laxative (although my mother preferred Fletcher's Castoria) that seemed to be the cure for everything. If you had a fever, take a laxative, if you “just don’t feel good”, take a laxative. That was the thinking in those days and now we are finding that it wasn’t such a bad idea. With all the meat and processed food we eat, most of us would benefit from a bit of Black Draught. It’s so much fun getting older, NOT!

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Patsy Hughes Oldroyd, Class of '65 - That awful stuff called Black Draught Syrup, had an equally awful purpose. Its purpose was to cleanse the intestines. I can remember one year when I was very young, that my mother tried to make me take some of that stuff simply because I had a headache. In her opinion, a headache meant only one thing, that you really had stomach problems that needed to be dealt with and with some strong medicine. I gagged and spit most of it out, but not before some of it went down. It is probably a good thing that I didn’t swallow all of it or I might have suffered from dehydration because it delivered its intended purpose.

I think that I must have lost about five pounds over that little episode with a headache. No more headaches!

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Subject: Last Week's Dr. Kildare Bonus Question

Mary (Ardrey) Aukerman

Class of 1966

I must admit that I had to look this one up and wasn’t surprised to see that, with over 30 actors auditioning for the lead role, William Shatner was the first one selected, though he then declined it. (I think Mr. Shatner is a hoot as Denny Crane and love his show, Boston Legal.) The article said that James Franciscus was also offered the role but had committed himself to another (eventually unmade) series at the time, so the third runner up was Richard Chamberlain. He was very nice to look at and I know more than one of my friends and I had a crush on him. Too bad it would not have been reciprocated, even if we had met him. We would have been better off with Ben!! The illusion of TV.

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Subject:Lee's Traveller

Rodney White

Class of '66-'67

Tommy

This last Saturday I played golf with Gary Metzger class of 64’, I received an email with the Lee Traveller attached. Thank you for your work !!!

My address is:

Rodney White

4809 Longwater Way

Tampa, FL 33615

Cell #: 813-300-4176

I love to see or hear from any of our classmates.

Thank you again.

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Subject:Belated Apologies

George Lehman Williams

Class of ‘64

Friends, I have two apologies – first to Mr. Hamilton and his family for those phone calls at 3 a.m. on Sunday mornings from Gary Kinkle and Dwight Tuck asking if Lehman was there – and then a few minutes later – a call from Lehman (actually me ) asking if Lehman had any messages – after which we would almost throw-up from laughing because we were so drunk.

Second – to a girl named Ginger Willis ( not sure of the spelling – but like a Jeep Willys ) for my unnamed friend that called her as me and invited her to the junior prom as my date telling her not to tell anyone so it would be a surprise at the prom – of course I did not show up because I did not know about it - and on Monday walking around the halls, my unnamed friend said – Lehman, you better run, hear comes Willis and she is pissed. I’m not real sure that actually happened or if I dreamed it during an extremely intoxicated period of mental turbulence, but in my mind it seems to be real.

That’s about it – I pretty much was a fun loving, crazy, carefree kind of guy with a soft heart, just about the same as I am today. I hope I never grow up.

P.S. Linda Hughes said she is sorry – for what – I don’t know.

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Andrea Gray Roberson, Class of '66 - I knew I had seen the picture you had in the June 30th Traveller, so I looked in my husband's 1959 yearbook and there it was. It is Gale Thompson and J R Brooks and they are the 7th Grade Favorites. We had the best time (some sad) looking at The General because there are so many people that we both know in it. Terry (my husband) was in the 9th grade and Steve(my brother-in-law) was in the 7th plus lots of the l964 Lee High class. My sister, Sherry Gray, was in the 8th grade. Terry and Sherry went to Butler and finished there but Steve stayed at Lee to be in the fist graduating class. I will try to remember to bring the yearbook to the reunion in August so everyone can see it, but we will have to remember that it is almost 50 years old!!!??? Where has the time gone?

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Alice Gullion Preston, Class of '64 - Thanks for the great job you do with the newsletter. I can't believe you have such great recall!

Hard to believe that the young boy pictured in the "Remember When" picture was recently listed in Business Alabama as one of the Top 50 Attorneys in Alabama..

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