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MEMPHIS, TN. - Okay, I am very happy to know that so many of you took the time to send me your thoughts on growing up in Huntsville that I feel like I can make my announcement now. I did not want to do it earlier because I did not want to taint your responses.During some recent emails between many of you readers I got the idea to try my best to document some of "our" Huntsville before it is too late. When talking about the bands and the dances and the things we did for fun, it becomes quite clear that the Huntsville that we knew back then no longer exists, except in our collective memories.When Bob Walker died two years ago, his kids contacted me and asked if it might be possible some day to meet them in Huntsville and show them the Huntsville that their father knew. They had read my book "A Million Tomorrows - Memories of the Class of '64" and hoped that someday they might see that town.I might have enough to write the book myself, but I don't feel that I do. That is why I have been asking you all the leading questions the last couple of weeks. I plan to do so for a while more - not only to give you something fun to read about, but to see if you might have your own memory jogged and submit or correct some things that other submit. In the last week I wrote 18 pages and have about a four page outline of topics to cover. I know there is enough for a book.The ultimate goal is to take all the inputs and collective memories and to write a book with a tentative title of "The Baby Boomer's Guide to the Rocket City - Where the Action Was!"This is going to be a big undertaking and a time consuming affair, and I cannot do it without some help. Those that send things that I can use will be quoted by name in the book (with their permission) and I hope to include some photos to illustrate some of the places and events covered.I plan to have the book written and printed by the 2010 Reunion and will have it available for the first time at that event. I will self-publish the book at my own expense and will work on distribution issues later. This is the same that I have done with five successful B-52 books and I hope that I can do the same with this one. The book should be in the $10 range when finished.I hope that it is so good that each of you will want to buy one for each of your kids - to let them know about how you grew up. Of course I can't cover every year, place or event, but I have a definate idea of a great stopping place. I also don't know about every part of town so I hope that some of you non-Lee readers will help me with some things from your part of town. The content will not be a secret, but subjects will be revealed each week, since I hope to give each of you an opportunity to contribute. I will select a subject for the week and ask each of you to help me cover that subject. I started last week with the Five and Dime stores and want to carry that on one more week now that you know what I am looking for.I hope that this becomes a fun and entertaining journey and that all of you will feel comfortable in helping me. If you don't want your name used, make a note of it when you send your email.Please include your class year with your e-mails.
I dont know about what happened to the stores for Halloween but I do have other memories of the stores. I do remember the window painting contest that the downtown stores would have. Prizes would be awarded for the best paintings. I remember that Grant's had a toy department downstairs and the stairs seemed very wide to me. I do not know if they really were or if I was just little so they seemed big. I remember the candy counter because it was so much fun picking out candy from all of the different kinds in the case and a dime ould buy some good choices. I remember going to Grant's with my aunt and she bought me a dark grey teddy bear which I still have.I remember Christmas shopping downtown and going in and out of the cold as we went to different stores. Santa was upstairs at Penney's if I remember right. I believe all of the stores downtown closed at noon on Wednesday as did the court house and most other businesses in Huntsville. I would walk from my house on Grove Street when I was very young (maybe 10 or so) and go shopping with my friends downtown and then ride home with my sister when she got off work at the courthouse. Sometimes I'd catch the bus home. I never felt afraid ofr unsafe back then because things did not happen then like they do now. I also remember being sent to buy candles for my birthday cake at Woolworth's and having a surprise party when I got home when I was about 9 or 10.I spent many quarters in the picture booths at the dime stores and spent a lot of time "just looking." With as many five-and-dimes as we had in Huntsville, I’m surprised that I don’t have a storehouse of memories associated with shopping there, by myself or with my parents. Part of that may be because by the time I finally had a decent allowance—say a buck a week—the items I was interesting in buying were found in other stores: Grand News Stand, the Book Store next to the Russel Erskine, Catha’s Hobby Shop, or out at Parkway City. The McClellan’s I remember chiefly because it lay across Randolph Street from where I got off the bus at the corner with Washington Street. I rarely ventured to the establishments on the east side of the square. W.T. Grant, almost next to the Lyric, was mainly attractive for its convenient lunch counter. The memory that stands out for me has to do with Woolworth’s or Kress - just past the Lyric in the early 50s. In the toy section one day I fell in love with a Hubley double-hammered cap pistol that was modeled on a flintlock pistol of the 1700s -not your ordinary Western cap pistol, you understand. These were the days way before mass merchandising was tied in to movies, but I’m wondering if the pistol was manufactured to take advantage of the recent appearance of Treasure Island (1950).Anyway, I wanted that pistol. I think it cost one or two dollars. Since I was only earning about a nickel or a dime a week in allowance then, it was going to be a long savings campaign. I stopped in at the store as often as I could, to make sure the prize was still there. I’m not sure how it happened (maybe I did extra chores or got an “advance” for good behavior), but finally I had the cash. As soon as I could beg one of my parents into taking me to town, I made the purchase. Fashioning cutlasses and knives out of scrap pieces of wood and tying bandanas on our heads, I, my brother, and the neighbor kids were a cutthroat pirate crew for the next couple of weeks, battling with each other and burying treasure in the jungles of Darwin Downs. Recently I’ve seen the pistol for sale on ebay for $65.00. That would entail another long savings campaign.Trying to recall memorable experiences at the dimestores inspired me to do research via Google. The information on the Wikipedia site about the S.H. Kress corporation mentioned that they were “known for the fine architecture of their stores.” How many of us ever considered what those stores looked like from across the street or glancing up from the sidewalk when we were young? Mostly we just walked inside and did our shopping or browsing. As I was pursuing further information on Kress, I encountered this picture of the present-day appearance of the Huntsville Kress building, which is now occupied by SirsiDynix, a company that develops library automation software. They’ve naturally re-designed the street-level look and maybe spruced-up the upper levels, but I would think the original design is largely intact. This is classy architecture. It makes me sorry I didn’t appreciate this and other Huntsville landmark buildings sooner.Here's my own for an example "I remember the Kress and Woolworth stores both having very dark floors and very poor lighting. I remember that one or both of them sold live colored chickens for Easter, keeping them in a cardboad box unde a counter with a bare light bulb and them scratching and peeping. I remember that they both had "White" and "Colored" drinking fountains and rest roooms, and they had aisles that paralled the street and were cooled with hugh ceiling fans.)" Dianne's memory of the photo booths is great!Please keep your comments to the dime stores this week and I'll give you a different subject next week. This is going to be fun.
Anna S. Hall, 90, of Huntsville passed away Wednesday.Mrs. Hall was a native of Westminster, S.C. She lived in Huntsville for the past 51 years. She was a loving and dedicated wife and mother, loved by many and will forever be remembered by all who knew her. She was a teacher for over 50 years, 22 years in the Huntsville school system at Lee High School. Mrs. Hall was a passionate gardener who deeply enjoyed the bountiful fruits of her floral efforts and she was a member of the Huntsville First United Methodist Church.Mrs. Hall is survived by a brother, John Singleton of Aiken, S.C.; sons, Bailey B. Hall, J. Fred Hall, J. Winston Hall of Huntsville, Eddie Hall of Kelso, Tenn., and Charles E. Hall of Hartselle; and daughter, Anna E. Hall of Jasper.Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday with the Rev. Coy Hallmark officiating. Interment will be at Maple Hill Cemetery.In lieu of flowers, friends may donate to the First United Methodist Church, 120 Greene St., Huntsville.
Thanks for the MemoriesThanks for the memories, Tommy! I'd forgotten all about that lakefront property. Every issue you remind me of places I'd been and people I knew. That's good for those of us that have been gone 40+ yrs. I've not visited since August of 2000 for the reunion.Ossa-win-tha RevisitedThe story by Rainer Klauss about Ossa-win-tha really brought back some wonderful memories for me. The Bannecke family moved to Decatur from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1957. We lived there for several months as my Dad commuted daily to Redstone Arsenal. Available housing in Huntsville was scarce in those days. We later moved to Huntsville in the fall of 1957 to our new house in Lakewood and began attending St. Marks Lutheran Church. My exposure to Ossa-win-tha came through our attending St. Marks and it's annual congregational picnic. There were many of us Lee High alumni that attended St. Marks such as the Schiff twins, Rainer Klauss, Gudrin Wagner Klauss, Jim Harris, Bobby Dornbos and a number of others as previously mentioned by Sarajane in her story.The St. Marks Church picnics stand out in my mind because that was where I first learned to water ski and to let go of the ski rope before drinking half the lake water if you didn't get up ! Which the first year I never did get up but took home a lot of lake water. Probably my most vivid memory is the German food that was served at the picnic and the fact that the German families often had beer with their meals. To this day it is the only Church picnic I've ever attended where beer was consumed. At least knowingly.I attended a Lutheran Church while living in Elizabethtown, Kentucky in the 80's where the men would often bring beer to the work days. But that was something that was usually done on the side and not in the presence of the full congregation, though the Pastor was aware. I guess he knew you didn't separate a good German Lutheran from his beer.Thanks, Rainer, for prompting those pleasant memories.Teacher Paula OsborneWhen I attended the University of British Columbia (Canada) in 1961-1962, my roommate was a graduate student, Paula Osborne, from Huntsville AB. I was working on my BEd. and she, on her MA. After we left UBC, we lost touch after a few letters, but I have never forgotten her and have often tried to think of ways to locate her.Then today, thinking of her again, I googled her name and city and up came your Lee High School page. Some of the writers were identifying a mechanical drawing set from a picture and Paula's name was mentioned twice as the MD teacher of the time. Since this was after she left UBC, she obviously went back to her teaching job in Lee High School.Yes, indeed, I know she taught mechanical drawing and I also know her mother taught English (I think), as Paula often mentioned the hours her mom spent each evening grading papers. (Not sure if it was at the same high school, however.) Again, I'm not sure, but I think she also had a sister.Paula was four or five years older than I, so I guess that would put her in the Class of '55 or '56. I don't know if she married or not.I was so thrilled to find this information, and I wonder if any of your readers could put me in touch with Paula again. (I pray she is still with us!) I would be so grateful. If anyone can contact her, they can give her my email and other details below so she can contact me or they can give me her contact info and I will take it from there.Job Opening