Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Memphis, Tennessee - You know how Congress has gone back and passed legislation to apologize to the American Indians for the injustices done to them, and also to the African-American Slaves as well as the Japanese for their treatment during World War II?

Well, after our house (which normally is only inhabited by two adults) has just concluded a Thanksgiving holiday with five adults and four children under seven, I am thinking of writing my Congressman and getting him to support a bill that would apologize to all our parents for the years we invaded their houses with our familites during all the holidays in the past. I think their needs to be some monetary restitution as well, now that I have seen first hand what they had to put up with all those years.

Please include your school and class year with your e-mails.

T. Tommy

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Here are the questions about last week's Mystery Photo:

1. What was the nickname for Davy's long rifle?

2. What was the character name of his sidekick?

3. Who played his sidekick?

4. Did you ever own a coonskin cap?

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Chip Smoak, Class of '66 - "Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier..." I saw it at the movies and then on TV and enjoyed it both times.

1. The nickname of Davy's long rifle was Betsy.

2. The character name of Davy's sidekick was Georgie.

3. Georgie was played by Buddy Ebsen who was originally cast to play Davy Crockett but stepped aside to let Fess Parker play the role.

4. I was not fortunate enough to ever own a coonskin cap.

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Steve Boyer, Class of '66 - Your Davy Crockett questions bring back big-time memories, especially since I lived in San Antonio, of course the home of the Alamo, a year after the movie came out. So here goes:

1 - His rifle was Old Betsy.

2 - His sidekick was Georgie Russell ...

3 - ... played by Buddy Ebsen

4 - Yes to the coonskin cap. In fact, I shot a raccoon with my .22 out of one of the trees on our property outside Seattle before we moved to San Antonio, and my dad and I made a cap out of it. But it was too rank to wear (we were better shooters than skinners and tanners) and we tossed it.

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I Decided To Dance

by Mike Boggs

Class of '64

Last week's article "We Might As Well Dance" hit close to home. At age 55 I had a heart attack...out of the blue and with no medical flags to signal its coming.

Like the person in your story, I decided that life was for living and no one gets out alive.

I had always wanted to do a long hike, so as part of my recovery from the heart problems, I started hiking and trying to get onto shape to do a long one. So far I've done only 70 miles at once, but I still plan on doing the Appalachian Trail one of these years.

Early this year I bought a 28-foot sail boat down in Shell Point Florida and started one of the other things I had always wanted to do. On my own I brought it across to Mobile Bay, up the Mobile River to the Tennessee/Tombigbee Waterway to the Teenessee River and across the state to Guntersville, where I live. 900 plus miles....it was a blast.

Two summers ago, I went back to England and then on to Paris. I had lived in England for a while, when I was in the Air Force. Oh yeah, I was in the service from July '67 to July '71. I was a Staff Sgt. while in England.

Like I say whenever anyone asks how it's going, "Man, I'm just glad to be here. Dancing as fast as I can!"

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Scout Uniforms -

Another View

Bob MacIlveen

Class of '65

Tommy, Someone has to play the Devil's Advocate on this one. Your point is very well taken but there were other scout troops that might have not had such high standards as the Methodist troop.

When I went on my first camp-out in Anchorage,Alaska on spring break, I did not even have a uniform. As it turned out there was an unexpected cold snap that week and the average temperature was -20 degrees with three feet of snow. This was the mother of all camping trips and no scout uniform was designed to accommodate it. It left an indelible impression. If any of these scouts wore uniforms they were hidden under their parkas and boots. The theme of this week was survival as four to six of us crowded into two man mountain tents shivering in unison.

If you look to the military for an example of uniforms, history shows many examples of exemptions to the standard. From General Custer to General Patton multiple examples of a disregard to the standard exist. The U.S. Army did not issue ivory handles on 1911 M1 45 automatic pistols, chrome helmets, or horse riding breeches to its officers. The union army wore whatever uniform that their individual sponsors provided for them and the generals and colonels embellished them as they desired. Considering the variety of uniforms it is surprising that more Yankee soldiers did not shoot each other.

During Vietnam our uniforms morphed from month to month. In the beginning, spit shined paratrooper boots were a rage and soon only brush polish was allowed. The navy felt that polish could burn and in no time polish and black boots were out. Remember the dress blues,class A's, and class B's. They don't even exist anymore. The 'times they are a changin'.

At no time even during Vietnam did civilians sent weapons and uniforms to soldiers now it is common practice. During Vietnam, when I wore a uniform, I never displayed any rank because in military intelligence you do not wear rank. To complicate matters further my field uniform was civilian clothes of my choice. One of my patients just sent a $1,200.00 scope to a sniper in Iraq. Many of my friends send armor to the soldier children.

When we returned home from Lee, the Monte Sano kids had an informal telephone tree which once initiated mustered up 10 or 12 to the sand lot football field. Now kids blog or twitter one another in a microsecond to meet at the mall for a Starbucks.

Remember when your third grade teacher freaked out when Elvis sang 'You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog'? America not only survived this upsetting form of music it created something that we could actually sing and dance to. Eric Hoffer, a West Coast longshoreman and philosopher, wrote that among the outcasts and dregs of society are the seeds of the future. I believe this to be true as it was with our hippy generation that broke the shackles of middle class America and paved the way to for the present environmentally sensitive generation which continues to transform society. Change is not comfortable but it is necessary in any evolutionary model.

You know I never got my 'citizenship merit badge but I hope that serving in two wars will serve as a substitute. Hey but then I think I was the only one who didn't get the Good Conduct Award either.

(Editor's Note: Bob, thanks for the observations and comments. In rebuttal I have to tell you that I know of at least two B-52 aircrew members during the Vietnam War who had their wives get someone to disassemble a Smith and Wesson 14-shot automatic pistol and send it to them in multiple packages and they carried those in lieu of the issued S&W six-shot revolvers issued to crewmembers for combat. Also there were probably hundreds of KBar knives sent to Guam and Thailand. Although these were issued to Marine units, they were not authorized for aircrew members, but everyone wanted one if they went down in the jungle. Oh, and about the unforms...in 2014 the green class-A uniform now worn by the US Army must be replaced with the blue uniform class-A with the gold stripes down the pants legs like Union and Calvery officers wore.)

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Subject:Ms. Webster

J. R. Brooks

Class of 1964

Thank you for printing the obituary for Ms. Webster. If it was in the Huntsville Times, I missed it. A teacher may never know the full impact she had on the entire life of a particular student. If Ms. Webster were alive, I doubt she would remember this encounter. But, I do.

When I was in the ninth grade(I think), she called me to her office. She asked if I had thought about going to college. I was the youngest of 5 and none of my older siblings had college degrees, although my father did. I truly had thought little about it. But, I told her I supposed I would go to college. She asked if I had considered a career choice. I said no. She told me she thought I should go to law school and she told me why in very complimentary terms. I had never even thought of it before. There were no lawyers anywhere in my family. But, it seemed like a good idea.

Thereafter, when anyone asked what I was going to do, I would say I was going to law school. So, I did. Now, I am almost 64 years old and have been practicing law since 1971. Who knows? I may have gone anyway. But, I may not have if Ms. Webster had not given me the idea. I owe her and others like her(for example, Sue Faulkner) for contributing to the direction of my life for almost 40 years.

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Subject:Mac Yates Dad

Tim Lull

Class of '67

Thanks for all you do to keep all of us LHS grads connected.

I was interested to find in last week's edition that Mack Yates father had served in the Aleutians during WWII.

My wife's (Gay) father also served there with the Alabama Guard. I am writing you to see if you would put Mack in touch with Gay. She has been researching his service there for several years and has reached a sticking point. I am hoping that Mack might have some information that would help her in her search.

Gay's email address is glull@windstream.net

Thanks for your help.

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Subject:Lawrence Marx

Bob MacIlveen

Class of '65

Tommy, I was watching The Oregon Ducks beat Arizona in the second over-time when I received your last Traveller. One of our best and brightest, Lawrence Marx, also served in the U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam. I believe he attended Reed College here in Portland, Oregon. Lawrence was undoubtedly the finest mind in our class. As I recall he graduated a year early. He also went out for the Lee football team and was an fine friend and a great intellect.

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Other Veterans Add to List

Mike Lutman, Class of '65, USMC

Jimmy D. Troupe: Class of ‘66

U. S. Army: 1968 - 1970

Service in Pleiku, Viet Nam 1969

Alabama National Guard 1980 – 1995 (SFC Ret)

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Class of '64's

Sally D. Stroud's Wedding

Reprinted from "The Yakker"

On November 22nd, 2009 two of our own, Sally and Michael, were united together as one. Well, not really united together as one, but the phrase does invoke a warm and traditional tone for the event. I’m pretty sure both will be as independent as they always were, but will now have legal grounds to share the other’s toys. These festivities were officiated by another of our own, the always creative Jill Barnes. Even though I’ve paddled with Jill for several years I’ve found that it’s impossible to know her well. Jill has too many hidden facets for anyone to ever discover them all. But I digress, as I’m inclined to do. In attendance were a large number of family members, friends and co-workers. We had all hoped that our paddling brother Dennis might be able to swing a furlough from where he is currently institutionalized in order to join us, but apparently he wasn’t able to arrange it. We didn’t get Dennis but we did receive an abundance of rain. An outstanding omen which signifies the washing away of the old and the greeting of the new - refreshed and renewed. Anyway, that sounds a lot better than it unfortunately rained on their parade.

I had toyed with including the facts, which have recently come to light, regarding Michael’s (the scoundrel of Mt Pleasant) courting of (the innocent) Miss Sally in this report, however threats of bodily harm have caused me to reconsider. This report will be based solely on the events of November 22nd, and not address any of the more seamy revelations from Michael’s past. I also ask that you keep in mind that I’m not well versed in the ins and outs of fashion reporting or weddings, so I’m obliged to keep descriptions simple. I don’t know the difference between taffeta and tanqueray, so that sort of detailed reporting will be left to others.

At 3:00 PM on the aforementioned date the pageantry began. A glowing Sally appeared wearing a lovely white dress and thankfully, Michael did not. It’s not that I’m casting dispersions on any of Michael’s more flamboyant wardrobe selections, it’s just that…well, we were all pleased with his choice of more conservative attire for this auspicious occasion.

In all seriousness, the ceremony was as heartfelt as it was moving. Sally and Michael pledged their love for and to one another, Michael’s son and daughter (Mark and Nicki) joined them to close the family circle and Jill orchestrated it all with warmth and professionalism.

After much hand shaking, back slapping and hugs all around a toast was raised between and to the newly wedded couple. We wish them much happiness and for a long, rewarding and prosperous life together. Your paddling friends salute you. Although we may be on the periphery of your lives, your friendship and happiness means much to all of us. Life is in fact good, especially when you have someone this special to share your life with. Enjoy your lives together, now and forever onwards my friends.

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