Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Five Miles to Stuckey's and

A Free Box of Candy

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

Last week's Mystery Photo of the Stuckey's Pecan Log Roll was an attempt to get some of you to remember some of the early "Road Trips" of your lives. For me, these type of family trips did not come very often but when they did, I was always fascinated by the offer of free candy advertised by Stuckey's. Do you think they targeted kids in their advertising? Not only were we offered free candy, we were reminded of that fact so that we could be sure and keep our parents informed by the placement of multiple signs reminding us that there was a Stuckey's 30 miles ahead, 20 miles ahead, 10 miles ahead, turn now...I said make your parents turn now or you won't get any free candy!

The candy was usually a box of Peanut Brittle, which probably sold for about 79 cents back then, but with gasoline at 39 cents a gallon (which meant that you had to spend $3.90 for 10 gallons of gas) that was a pretty good deal. It always upset me when we stopped too soon and could not get 10 gallons of gas into the tank. I remember how upset I got when the gas attendant had to quit pumping at eight gallons because that was all the car would hold. That was after he cleaned the windshield and checked the oil for us. Sometimes he even checked the tires for air.

Along with the free candy, you could also stock up on cedar trinket boxes, little plastic boxes of real live Mexican Jumping Beans, postcards, state pendants, stuffed aligators, bumper stickers and other such necessary travel/trip souvenirs - depending, of course, upon the location of the store and the season of the trip. Much like the Cracker Barrel chain of today, the places were filled with racks and shelves of things you just had to have at that moment, and which never seemed to last, even a year, after you got home from your vacation. Sometimes the postcards were tacky and the corn cob toilet paper plaques were rude, but that was the fun of shopping in these stores - especially in the South. If it was tacky enough and crude enough then the Yankees would buy it to show their friends up North how redneck the South really was. It was like the time we took cockle-burs to the Scout Jamboree and told the Scouts from up North that they were porcupine eggs. We laughed all the way to the bank.

My mind tells me that the car caravans headed to the University of Alabama for the Alabama High School Press Association meetings each year made a required stop at a Stuckey's. I remember one year we bought glass bottles of Cokes and that one car in the group did not have an opener aboard. This was before the days of twist tops or pop top cans, so if you did not have a "church key" you didn't drink your Coke. I also remember that on that particular day, Bob Walker drove his '52 Ford over into the passing lane and got close enough to the other car that I reached out the passenger-side window and passed our bottle opener to someone (maybe Sarajane or Carol Jean) sticking their arm out to receive it. Can you picture two cars, being driven by teenage drivers, traveling at about 60 miles an hour, each with a person leaning out toward the other car? I don't think that's a trick I'd try today.

I think the last Stuckey's I visited was about 10 years ago with my daughter Tiffany when she was headed to work at Disney World. It was somewhere in the south of Georgia, near the Florida state line if memory serves me well. I also think that Florida was, and still is, king of the tacky souvenir states, and Stuckey's was the palace of the king. I would have a hard time getting a free box of candy these days unless I coasted into the station on fumes since my Toyota only has a 10-gallon tank.

I found this item posted in a forum on the web by a guy who called himself Dying in Downey:

"During the 70's my parents would take cross country trips to Maine. During the drive it was hard not to see Stuckey's billboards on the side of the road announcing Stuckey's 30 miles, 25 miles, 15 miles,etc Next stop. Something about the buildings and their light blue roof tops. When you walked in seeing all the goodies,etc. Nothing like this place. Still have found memories of it and when I went across the country again with my kids and my pops a couple years ago we made it a point to stop at all of the remaining Stuckey's we could find on our travels."

If you care to read more about the history of Stuckey's, here's a link to their official web site which includes history information.

(STUCKEY'S)

I also found one other picture on the web that might bring back some memories for some of you. Here's a picture of the Stuckey's that was located at Panama City, Florida. Perhaps all of this will bring back some memories you wish to share with us.

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Subject:Class of '66

Linda Collinsworth Provost

Class of '66

Above is a picture of several of us from the Class of '66. We vacationed together in Lake Tahoe and Reno this month to celebrate this year in which we all turn (gasp!) 60!! (l-r) Kathy Harris Jones, Susie Wohschlaeger Schlette, Linda Collinsworth Provost, Lynn Bozeman Van Pelt, and Darla Gentry Steinberg.

We remain great friends and make spending time together a priority. Take care and keep up the good work....hope you enjoy your early retirement!

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Subject:High Flight

Linda Beal Walker

Class of '66

"Thanks for the memories." We get so caught up in the fast pace of today and we forget many of the things that were so much a part of our world when we were younger. I remember staying up late just to hear High Flight and I listened to it this morning with tears in my eyes.

(Editor's Note: (The "Rest of the Story" of High Flight collected from a web source) During the desperate days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered to fight the Nazis.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922 to an English mother and a Scotch-Irish-American father, Magee was 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire.

Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.

On 3 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem — "To touch the face of God."

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, 'High Flight.'

Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. The mid-air happened over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in the county of Lincolnshire at about 400 feet AGL at 11:30. John was descending in the clouds. At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however, was too close to the ground for his parachute to open. He died instantly. He was 19 years old.)

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Subject:Test Patterns and Snake Stories

Chip Smoak

Class of '66

Hi to all of the Fami-Lee,

I mostly grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana until the middle of the ninth grade, i.e., January of 1963 when we moved to Huntsville because like so many of us a parent went to work in the space industry. I remember that the channels that were in Shreveport also used the test pattern to sign on in the mornings.

My then-wife and I were living in the small town of Charles Town, West Virginia in the '90s. One summer evening I was working in the garden in the back yard that my then-wife started every spring and then dropped, leaving me to tend to it, when she came back to there in a hurry to tell me about a snake that was crawling along under the eaves of the house on the second floor. The snake was trying to get to some bird eggs in a nest under the A/C window unit on the second floor. That was when I learned that snakes can go up sheer walls and hang from ceilings.

My then-wife asked me to get it down to keep it from getting the bird eggs. I had nothing that would reach that high except squirting water from the garden hose's squirt nozzle. I started hitting the snake with water and told her to go down to our neighbors who lived three doors down and ask them for their help. Both of them worked for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Department.

As they came into the yard the wife said, "Don't hurt it."

I replied, "Hurt it? I can't reach it except with water from the hose." None of us could think of a way to get it down. I finally observed that all squirting water at it was doing was making it mad. As we all turned away I happened to see it drop to the ground. It scooted along the base of the house and into a hole that ventilated a crawl space under the house. My then-wife worried that it might get into the house but it never did.

I have more snake stories but I imagine that all of us do.

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Subject:Snake Story

Carolyn Burgess Featheringill

Class of '65

Tommy--I always enjoy the Traveller; but, just when I thought it was safe, Rainer scares me out of going to the attic. It's his snake story, don't you know! Tell us that it's just Halloween; otherwise, how will I face getting our Christmas decorations down!!!

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Subject:Lost Friend

Aaron Potts

Beaumont, Texas

I need some help locating a fellow classmate that was once a fellow Lee student. As you know when Lee was first opened to us, Rison and Lincoln were combined together to form the first class of Lee. There was a classmate whose father was responsible for verifying my dad's residence prior to being killed in the Normandy invasion. This was necessary for me to qualify to get my tuition and my financial assistance in order to go to college under the "WAR ORPHANS ACT".

I would like to contact her if anyone knows how she can be contacted please give them my e-mail address. Her name is Judy Bragg, daughter of Tom Bragg that lived on Levert Street that runs perpendicular to Oakwood Avenue near the old Lincoln Mill, one street west of Stoffer's Store.

I am so thankful you have this WEB site. Thank you for all you do.

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Craig "Sweet Tooth" Bannecke, Class of '65 - The Stuckey's Pecan Log Roll sure brought back allot of memories for me. It was used at Lee for a variety of fund raisers. Do not recall for what purpose as I was more focused then on getting my hands on the Log Role. However I do recall using my lunch money and bumming an additional 15 cents to be able to pay the exorbitant price of 50 cents to purchase one of those great confections. I usually made my purchase in the morning and would have eaten the whole thing within a few minutes. Much to my regret as I would then be queasy from having eaten such a rich candy. And as always by lunch time I was regretting having given into my sweet tooth as I would really be hungry for lunch and starved by the end of the school day.

Seems I never learned my lesson. Sadly I had become a log-a-holic. The whole process would repeat itself again in a few weeks as some one else would be selling the Log Roll and my Sweet Tooth would betray me again.

To this day I can't look at a Pecan Log Roll without recalling my days at Lee and that repeated experience. Even now when ever Jennifer and I might be at at a Cracker Barrel I avoid the candy counter so as not to be tempted. The experience from so long ago is permanently stuck(ey) in my memory.

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New Lee High is 'Beautiful'

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

By STEVE CAMPBELL

Times Staff Writer

steve.campbell@htimes.com

Architect unveils renderings for $42.5M project

After years of talks, the Huntsville school board finally got its first glance Tuesday at its new Lee High School.

Frank Nola of SKT Architects in Huntsville unveiled several renderings of the $42.5 million project, which will boast a 1,000-seat auditorium, ample green space, and several amenities for its magnet program.

"I'm really impressed," said Paul Parvin, principal at the current Lee. He said teachers are excited, too.

"Beautiful building," said board member Alta Morrison. The 250,000-square-foot school is designed for 1,200 students. The school will have more than 50 classrooms, a 500-seat cafeteria, and separate halls for core subjects, such as science and math.

The school is divided into three wings for core subjects, athletics and magnet classes.

The magnet wing will have classrooms and labs for Lee's pre-engineering and robotics courses. Space is designed for creative writing, music, dance, drama, and includes studios and labs for the visual arts program.

Board member Jennie Robinson praised the magnet program's design, saying the auditorium could be "a great asset to the community."

For at least the next two years, Lee students and faculty will watch workers build the school across the railroad tracks along Meridian Street and Quietdale Drive. School officials hope to open the school by fall 2011. In previous meetings they hoped to open the school a year earlier.

The current Lee, built in 1958, will be torn down when students move into the new school. The relatively new practice gym will be saved. Ball fields will remain on the east side of the tracks.

The board set aside money for the new Lee in March 2007 but didn't buy all the land needed to build the school until May. The project has been delayed by land deal negotiations and deciding the school's location.

"This has been a long time coming," said board president Doug Martinson, whose district includes Lee.

Robinson raised concerns about the railroad tracks, which will separate the classrooms and ball fields.

Nola said a raised pedestrian bridge will be the only way to access the fields from the school. He said a fence will help keep people away from the tracks.

In May 2007, a spokeswoman for Norfolk Southern said about 25 trains pass along the tracks each day.

Double-pane glass windows and "more substantial" construction will block some noise from the passing trains, Nola said. The classrooms and magnet areas are farther from the tracks.

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