Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Memphis, Tennessee - You will see below that I am seeking photos of you and Santa Clause to use in Lee's Traveller during the Christmas holidays. Please dig out you old photos and scan one for me and send it in. If you don't have a photo of you and Santa, how about one of you in some other Christmas activity?

I am publishing this issue before the results of the Florida/Alabama game is known, but I know how big a game it is to many of you. Good luck.

Thanks to Collins for sending me an article this week. For those that do not know, I will consider any article by any of you who want to send one in, regardless of school or class year.

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

T. Tommy

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A Boy and His Dog

by Collins Wynn

Class of '64

As most couples do when first developing a relationship, Judy and I often talked of our childhood experiences - as a way of bonding, I suppose. One of the stories I told her (this one was true) had to do with a puppy Tony, Don, and I had when we were still small children. This puppy's name was Wiggles (a statement of the obvious) and he was a solid black Cocker Spaniel. My memories of him now are rather vague but warm and comforting nonetheless. Apparently, Judy paid attention.

About five years later, while working in Los Angeles, I came home for a weekend visit near the end of February of 1995. Judy stopped me at the door and rather than welcoming me home in the manner to which I had grown accustomed, she simply said, "Stop! I have something to show you!".

As she stepped aside, this little white, squealing fluff ball came sliding around the corner which is how I met my lifelong little buddy "Jake". Judy had spent months interviewing puppies to bring home and, according to her, had agonized long and hard over exactly which one to choose but the fout-month-old Buff and Tan Cocker Spaniel stole her heart.

His AKC registered name was Major Jake Juju but I delighted in creating new names for him from time to time - Jake, Jake Man, Little Bud, Jake Dog, My Dog Jake, You Bastard, and my very favorite - "Wormy" (one of my great nieces actually thought that was his name).

Judy would chastise me from time to time for all the names; she said I confused him which I denied. To prove my point, sometimes I would shout out "come here you little wormy son of a bitch" to which Jake gleefully responded by jumping in my lap and licking me all over. Unlike most other beings, Jake didn't care what I called him.

We had a wonderful 12-year relationship. Judy and I both claim he was short on brains and long on love - what more could you want in a dog. He was loyal, playful, and a wonderful companion. I have attached a photograph from some years ago. When I was home we were seldom apart.

Late in life Jake had a run in with a car and lost; just by his sheer will to live he survived and spent a month in the doggie hospital, followed by two months of incapacitation at home. His hindquarters were crushed and surgical correction was not possible - he was on his own. After about three months he was up and walking although this time it was on three legs instead of four and his spine was crooked. He would just hop along to where he wanted to go and eventually even ran some (in a manner of speaking). Regardless of that I still had my dog and he still came running every time I called. I suppose that was selfish of me in a way because I am sure he was in immense pain most of the time and probably would have been better off had he died in the accident.

Jake died a few years later in January 2007 at age 13 and I told Judy then that I did not want another dog. I would just get too close to them and losing another was a pain I did not want.

Good friends are hard to find and harder to keep.

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Above are the backs of three US Lincoln Pennies. The one on the left is one of four designs released in 2009 in celebration of the biencentennial of Lincoln's birth. We were still in school when the one in the middle replaced the one on the right. What year was the one in the middle first minted and what is the common name today for the one on the right?

Myra Mullins Jackson, Class of '66 - The penny on the right is called the "wheat" penny. It was replaced in 1959 by the "memorial" penny pictured in the middle

(Editor's Note:.The Lincoln Penny was introduced in 1909 - the 100th Anniversary of Lincoln's birth. In 1959 (while I in the 8th grade at Huntsville Junior High) the Lincoln Memorial replaced the wheat stalks on the back of the coin. That was the 150th Anniversary of Lincoln's birth. This year, the 200th Anniversary, brough about the new backs to the coins, of which there are four.) Remember these books?

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Subject:Ms. Webster and other things

John Turrentine

Class of '65

Tommy, count me in on those who really respected Ms. Webster. She always had, or made time, to answer questions and made you feel as though you were the only person she had to deal with that day.

If not too late, include me in the Veterans Roll. I attended Auburn University and got my commission on 8/23/1969 as an "insane" Ensign. I served on active duty until July 1972 and was in the Reserves until 1979 when I accepted my appointment as a Special Agent with the FBI.

Some thoughts on Veterans Day and being a Veteran. It is a unique catagory of people and not just on that day. It dosen't matter if you were a mess cook at Fort Nowhere or a Medal of Honor recipient, when one ask the question " Are you a Vet?" you can answer YES! ___________________________________

Subject:Veteran

Johnny Sharp

Class of '64

Add to your veterans list:

Johnny Sharp, PN3

U.S. Navy

USS HOPEWELL (DD-681)

VIETNAM 1966

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Subject:Lee's Traveller

Wayne Price

Huntsville High School, Class of '64

Email: otid1bird@aol.com

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy!!! I have got to get some sleep. My cousin Dillard Broadway turned me onto the Lee's Traveller today and I have spent hours looking back thru the old issues. I went to East Clinton, then drifted over to H'ville Jr. then on to HHS and '64. So many names of people I have lost track of are on your Web site, such as Carolyn Taylor, Patsy Hughes, Leamon Williams, Bill Rasnick, yourself and so many more. Keep up the good work.

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