Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Memphis, TN - Sue and I are back in Memphis, when we should have been in Hawaii. We got a last minute desire to drive to New Orleans and catch a military flight to Hawaii this weekend, but after we got down there the flights we were trying to catch were both cancelled.

So, we spent the weekend on the Gulf Coast instead of Hawaii, but had a great time in New Orleans eating our favorite foods and then went to Biloxi to help out the economy and play on the beach there.

On the way home we were three seconds (less than 100 yards) doing 70 miles-per-hour behind an 18-wheeler that hit a bridge guard rail and swerved in front of us, ran off the road, and into an eight foot ditch. The driver survived only because God wasn't ready for him yet I believe. We passed one of the tires bouncing down the interstate and then it passed us as we slowed down to pull over to help the driver.

Please include your class year and school (if it is not Lee) when you email me.

T. Tommy

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First Kiss Responses

Last week I asked for some stories about you first kiss. Below are two which I received from classmates.

Glenn Swaim, Class of '66 - That first kiss. Linda Jones, Lee High class of 1967. I was 15 years old and thought the world revolved around fast cars and motorcycles. After evening worship at Jackson Way Baptist Church a group of youth met at one of our homes and made Chef-Boy-Ardee (Chef Boyardee ) pizza. Whoever had a driver's license drove each of us home. I had cozied up to Linda Jones all evening and walked her up to her door and told her good night. When we reached her porch she turned around rocked my world, that first kiss. That moment in time is etched in my brain forever. I floated on a cloud for at least a week. I think of Linda from time to time and often wonder what became of her. I lost track of her when I joined the Navy in January of 1966.

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Jeanne Ivey Carter, Class of '66 - This stands out in my memory - not because of the "wow" factor but because my Mother embarrassed me in front of my peers! We were celebrating Claudia Duke's birthday at the Big Spring Park recreation center and one of the games was to line up and kiss the only boy at the party. He was much older than we were (pre-teens) and we lined up to each give him a kiss on the lips. Hey, I jumped in line with all of the other girls for my '"first kiss" only to be scolded by my mother (who was helping Mrs. Duke chaperon the young ladies)! Needless to say I didn't have the chance for a second or third kiss like the other girls! I don't remember the boys name that was the recipient of all the attention but I am sure that he felt like the luckiest guy on earth at that party!

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I would like to hear some more stories, if any of you are brave enough (or have enough grey cells remaining to remember).

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Subject:Your Reunion

George Kraft

On behalf of the members of The Time Machine Band, I would like to thank all those who attended the reunion. You guys really know how to throw a party, and the enthusiasm y'all showed was incredible. We think you should do this every year, and we hope you will invite us back to perform for you. We had a ball!

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Subject:Hello

Gary Broadway

Class of '64

I was looking over the Lee High School website and you guy's are doing a fantastic job. If it hadn't been for Jimmy Durham getting in touch with me I would have never known about the site. I have often thought about the old neighborhood and those I went to school with, but over time you loose contact. I am hopeful I'll hear from a bunch of folks that I went to school with and judging from what I've read so far, some of them cleaned up quite well. I know they always had things in the year book like, most likely to succeed, but I'll bet there were some that believed some of us should have been in the most likely to go to jail section.

As I stated before, I enlisted in the army in 1964, and retired on Memorial Day weekend in 1990. I served with units such as 82nd airborne division, 20th airborne brigade, and many other engineer units to numerous to mentioned. I served two tours in southeast Asia, one in the far east, and two long tours in Europe, and countless temporary assignments around the world. I retired at Fort Leonard Wood, and remained in Missouri where I went to work for the Department of Veteran Affairs. I have been with the VA for the last sixteen years and I'm getting ready to retire again.

I was in the class of 1964, but my parents moved to Martin, Tenn in 1964 and I graduated from Martin High. I have been married for the past forty-five years, have three grown daughters and seven grandchildren. Again thanks for the work you all are doing keep up the good work.

From: Rolla, Missouri

Email: crimson@fidnet.com

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Subject:Thanks

Paula Spencer Kephart

Class of '65

My special and most sincere thanks to Carolyn and Bill for providing the wonderful decorations. They were professional looking and so perfectly fit our times. You really outdid yourselves and I want to sincerely thank you again.

I would also like to thank the committee who worked for months putting together this wonderful reunion. Thanks for all your hard work and attempts to please everyone. You did a wonderful job and I hope you feel as proud as you should. It was most enjoyable and I am looking forward to the 50th and beyond (wishful thinking, I know).Thanks again for all your hard work. It really showed.

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Subject:Owens Cross Roads Fire Department

Wanda Sine

We won the truck! Thanks to both of you for your help!

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Subject:Firetruck

Cherri Polly Massey

Class of '66

I want to thank all of my FamiLee who voted in the contest to help the Owens Cross Roads Volunteer Fire Department win the new fire truck. They won! I'm sure that all of your votes went a long way toward their having the most online votes. And I want to thank Tommy Towery for printing the info and Dwight Jones for suggesting that I ask Tommy to do it. My friend, Wanda Sine, was very pleased that you cared enough to help.

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Subject:Veterans

Anthony Trupiano

Class of '68

Ive read you're looking for Veterans who went to Lee High School.I graduated LHS in 1968.I served in the UNITED STATES AIR FORCE four years and 'Im very proud to have served our great country.I make a point of flying our flag every military holiday.It would be an HONOR to march in the parade as a Lee High Veteran.We live in the greatest country on earth and we should be proud of it!God keep our military people now serving safe until they come home to their families.GOD BLESS AMERICA !

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Subject:Group Photos from Reunion

Dwight Jones

Class of '64

I was wondering if I had understood correct that we would be able to find out where to pick up the group picture from the reunion by checking out the weekly Traveler. If that's not correct, would you please e-mail me back as to where or who we need to contact in order to get the picture. Thanks.

(Does anyone know the answer to Dwight's question?)

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Growing Up Without a Cell Phone

submitted (not created) by Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid

Class of '66

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car.. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And no helmets for bikes…if you fell off, get up and ride home to get a band aid. You chewed on lead paint from the crib and lived. Driven to school??? Think again! Got a car for your 16th birthday??….no way, you worked and bought your own! And you damn well better call when you got to where you were going as well as home when street lights came on.

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shotgun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,

The Over 30 Crowd

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