Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

(The above clip is from a You Tube posted by bamadanni who states, "From the 2009 Rock-n-Roll Reunion 8/29/2009 .. Huntsville, AL My Dad's on Sax (red shirt) They're performing Otis Redding's Try A Little Tenderness.. the version from his Live In Europe album.")

Rock and Roll Reunion

Was Like a Bradley’s Cafeteria Reunion

By Tommy Towery

Class of ‘64

We’ve all been to our class reunions and had fun visiting with our classmates from the past. The reunion on Saturday was like that, only on steroids – because we had a chance to visit with folks from Lee, Huntsville, and Butler High Schools all in one setting. And we got the opportunity to hear and dance to the sounds of our youth played the way we remember them, by the same groups.

I want to get the differences and distractions out of the way in a hurry – smoking and drinking. These were not memories I have of Bradley’s in the Sixties. I really can’t remember if smoking was allowed or not, but I know that drinking (at least open drinking) was not during those days. Does anyone remember if smoking was allowed?

Sue and I showed up before the event started, driven by the desire to insure that we got tickets since we had driven all the way from Memphis to attend the thing. Our classmate and drummer extraordinaire Jerry Brewer was selling the $10 per person tickets at the door, and as soon as we got ours we hopped back into the car and went to Mullins for dinner before the bands began. They were selling BBQ at the dance, but having driven from the BBQ capitol of the civilized world, Mullin’s chilidogs and hamburgers sounded better to us.

We returned as a band which I believe was the Deltones was finishing up their set. I didn’t recognize any of them. The setting of the Elk’s Club was more like that of Bradley’s Cafeteria on the North Square than any of the other places where I have attended these reunions in the past. I wore a T-shirt I got from one in 1994 that was out in Madison. I really couldn’t believe it had been 15 years earlier when I bought that T-shirt until I took off my shoes and socks and finished my count. I remember another reunion that was held out in some barn (not Niles’) a year or so before or after that one, but I couldn’t find a T-shirt from it, if I bought one. The hotel and the barn did not remind me of Bradley’s, but the Elk’s Club did. It was a square room with acoustic tile and a low ceiling. It was dark, and there were many tables to navigate around, and that was different, but the dance floor looked more like I remember Bradley’s – just a square sqace in front of where the band was set up. There was smoke and noise and chatter and nostalgic music filling the air during the entire evening.

There were people (older I admit) that I thought I knew but may not have. I did run into my Lee friends, and just like my Bradley’s days, spent most of the evening hanging around with them. I know I will leave some out but here’s the Lee group that comes to the top of my head – Mike and Terri Smith, Dwight and Pat Jones, Elbert and Opie Balch, Glenn and Rose Marie James, Niles Prestage, Beckye Fricke Garrison, Pam Parsley Holt, Jerry Brewer, Carl Sheer, Kevin Rice, and others I am sure I have omitted. I came up with one recommendation. If you ever go to a reunion and need to know who someone is, go with Elbert. Having attended eight different schools in his 12 years of education, I think he knew or was known by everyone there.

The first full set of songs I head came from Ivy Joe of Ivy Joe and the Snowballs. I think he was the leader of a band that came around after 1964 when I left Huntsville, but could be wrong. In all my dance night journal entries of those days I did not list them as a group that played at any of the dances I attended. I found a photo of him on the web taken at the Epic Club back in 1967, so that’s a date to start with.

The next group was no stranger to most of us, since they played at our last reunion (maybe last two). They were the Time Machine, featuring Jerry Brewer on the drums. They played many of the same songs as the other groups would play, but with the size of this group, their versions had added musical depth.

The Tiks came to be a band after I left Huntsville, but I have heard them at the other reunions, and of course also relate them to The Continentals – their origin. Even though several people played in several of the bands (Jerry for example played in three) each group had its own style of music. It was a pleasure to hear some of the older songs that we enjoyed played with basic garage band instruments, and that we enjoyed differently before the brass sections were added to groups. I know the brass adds necessary impact to many of the songs, but I remember that the early Beatles didn’t have a brass section in their group either.

A group that was formed in 1971, called Big Ben, and who (according to Elbert) was a regular feature at the Cotton Club played next. To me they had the biggest mix of old styles, including Johnny B. Goode which filled the small dance floor with fast moving bodies.

Many of the Tiks group reassembled and joined others to once again form up as the Continentals and play the beach music that most of us loved, even though we didn’t even know it was called beach music.

I missed the group called The Chasers if they played, and I can’t report on their performance. The Precious Few rounded out the bill, and like it or not are probably most famous for a former member, Larry Byrom, who left the group to join Steppenwolf. Even without Larry, this group is a supreme nostalgic band.

It was often hard to keep up with the players and bands came and went off the stage and with the way so many people played with different groups. The tentative schedule they had was not followed, but who really expected it to be? This was always billed as almost a jam session, and it was a great one.

I had to smile once more as one band played Louie, Louie, followed by Woolly Bully, and finally Double-Shot of my Baby’s Love in succession. We took a web vote on this website long ago and voted that, at least for Lee High School, those three songs were the class songs of 1964, 1965, and 1966. My nostalgic musical needs were met and I was able to leave fulfilled when the Continentals filled these aging ears once again to the sound of Jimmy Gentry singing “Talk to Me” and the whole group blasting away once again to the beat of “Charlina.”

You’ve got to be there next year when they do this again.

Subject:The Reflections

Eddie Burton

Class of '66

Thanks for the comeback from Mike Griffith. He is selling himself way too short. Mike was our lead singer and a good one at that. Thanks for the memories.

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Subject:Shakey's Pizza

Michael Griffith

Class of ‘66

Tommy, there was at least one Shakey’s Pizza in Huntsville. It was located on south Memorial Parkway, on the northbound side, near what was called Haysland Square. My best memory of that Shakey’s was shortly after I turned sixteen and got my driver’s license, I was trying to date a Huntsville High girl that had moved to Huntsville from Mobile. On one of our early few dates, we went to Shakey’s for a pizza. Being the nice guy that I am, I suggested that she pick out the toppings, to which she requested anchovies. At that point in my life I had no idea what an anchovy was, but she said that in Mobile everyone ate them on their pizza. When the pizza came, each slice had what looked like a large earthworm laying from the point of the slice to the outer crust. I figured that I was in a little trouble at that point, but I decided to try it anyway … how bad could it be, if everyone in Mobile ate them? With the first big bite, I thought that I had bitten into a piece of salty fishing bait. I’m sure that I looked like Tom Hanks, in the movie “Big” when he first tasted caviar. Next I tried to take the anchovy off of the slice, but it’s juice had permeated the entire pizza. I now like sushi, and I’ve eaten fish-type things of various unknown origins while in Saigon, Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong … but I have never been back to a Shakey’s nor purposely known to touch another anchovy. Also, shortly after this date, the girl in question and I decided that we were not necessarily compatible. Some years later I was attracted to another Huntsville High girl, and we have now been compatible for over 38 years (she doesn’t like anchovies either).

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Subject:Shakey's

Taylor Wright

Class of '66

I do remember Shakey's in Huntsville. If my memory serves me there was one on Jordan Lane across from the old Cotton Club. I went there with my family in the mid 70's.and they had a varied menu which included boiled shrimp. I don't remember another location. They probably closed in the late 70's or early 80's.

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Subject:Shakey's

Lance George

Here's a 1971 ad for Shakey's.

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Subject:Shakey's

Carolyn Taylor

Class of '64

I remember Shakey's Pizza. It was on South Parkway. I took my Girl Scout Troup there on a field trip. That would have been in the 70s. They had birthday specials for kids too.

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Subject:Shakey's

Glenn James

Class of '65

Huntsville did have a "Shakey's Pizza Parlor" around the 1966 time frame. It was on South Parkway south of the present day Gibson's Bar-B-Oue. As I remember it, they had a player piano that played ragtime when a group was not playing and singing. I do remember the pizza was definitely not as good as "Big Ed's Pizza" or "Terry's Pizza". It tasted kinda like it was made out of card board. I do remember sitting around listening to the singers and drinking beer which was very interesting.

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