Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Wanted: Halloween Stories

This is October and before long Halloween will be come and gone. This year I am going to try to get a jump on the holiday by asking you early for some stories to print in the Halloween issue. You can send me a story about a favorite Halloween party, or Halloween costume, or Trick-or-Treat, whatever.

I got one this last week and am looking for more.

I'll be collecting them for the next couple of weeks and sharing the best with all of you.

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Veteran's Day Parade

Update

I have submitted the application for a group to march in the 2010 Huntsville Veteran's Day Parade, but have not received a confirmation yet. As of this time I only have 24 people signed up on Facebook as Lee High Veterans. I know many of you don't use Facebook, so if you are interested in making the two mile parade (either in a car or marching) then please let me know so that I can reserve an appropriate slot.

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Chinese Food?

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

Sue and I usually go out for "date night" on Friday nights and our favorite place to go eat is a Chinese buffet in our neighborhood. This week as we were driving there the conversation turned to when we first started eating Chinese food.

My first recollection of having Chinese food was when I went to Thailand in 1972 - but I guess that was really Thai food and not Chinese. It was probably in the officer's club at Guam where I really started eating fried rice. I do not ever remember eating Chinese food before I graduated from Lee and moved to Memphis in 1964. I got to thinking and cannot recall if there was a Chinese restaurant in Huntsville when I lived there. I am sure there was, but I don't remember it and I know I never ate there.

For me, eating out was hamburgers, chili dogs, and dip dogs always with an order of French Fries on the side if I could afford it. Variations of that diet were grilled cheese sandwiches from Walgreens and once I remember having beans and franks from the lunch counter in the basement of W.T. Grants on Washington Street.

If I ever went out for something really special it was for barbeque and the ultimate treat was a hamburger steak - if I ever got the chance to order steak. My grandmother made great fried chicken and wonderful hot tamales and of course we had turkey or chicken and dressing for holidays.

But, I never remember eating Chinese food! We had fish sticks at school every Friday and that was the only time I ever ate fish. I had a very select menu except at lunchtimes at school and on camping trips. Even then, the food was very blah and plain. For camping trips the ultimate meal was a minute steak sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil with thin slices of carrots and potatoes all stacked together and cooked about 10 minutes on each side on the coals of a wood fire. Most folks put onions in that combination, but I hated and still hate onions.

So, help me out here folks. Was there a Chinese restaurant in Huntsville prior to 1964 and if so, what are you memories of it? School and class year with answers please.

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Mike Boggs, Class of '64 - The film spools you have are for 120 or 220 size roll film....might be 620...I had a Yashica-Mat TLR back in those days that used 120. But I also had a Sears Tower lll that used 35mm....it was far and away a much better camera. It was a copy of the Leica lllF I believe. I still have the Yashica but the Tower went missing years ago.

On the band uniforms.....the panel on the front was reversible...with the general on one side and LEE on the other. Not sure.

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Dianne McClure, Class of '64 - I think these were what you fed film onto in a camera a long time ago. The numbers would be when you advanced the film as pictures were taken.

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Jennifer Bannecke, Class of '66 - Finally, I know what the mystery item is. Those are spools for film that we use to have to open the roll of film and thread the film through the middle slot and then roll the film, just so far. Once you had the film in the camera and closed up the back you then had to fast forward the roll just enough so you could see the number 1. Once you shot a picture the number would change to 2 and so on until you were at the end of the roll. We had rolls of 12, 24 and even 36. The sad part was sometimes the rolls of film never got to the drugstore to be developed and you never got to see the pictures.

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Michael Griffith, Class of ‘66 - This week’s Mystery Photo looks to be part of the analog predecessor to the SD Card that you now put into your digital Nikon Coolpix. The items look like the take-up reels for the film used in the cameras back when the “Brownie” camera popular. Had to get the film started by stretching it from the new roll, across where the aperture would open to imprint the light image on the film, to one of these take-up reels. 12 exposures were the norm, but 36 was for the really special situations. Now, 400+ pictures on a single SD Card is nothing!

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Subject:Craig Kimbrel

J.R. Brooks

Class of '64

Atlanta’s closer is retiring. It is likely that Craig Kimbrel of LHS will be Atlanta’s closer next year. This, of course, will put him in a crucial spot for Atlanta’s success.

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Subject:Craig Kimbrel

Tom Winstead

Austin, TX

A former Johnson High classmate of mine (Donna Seely Ulloa) pointed me to your article on Craig in the Lee High Alumni Website.

I thought you'd be interested to know that Craig is the nephew of Lee High '72 Grad Linda Winstead Jones (my sister). Craig's mother is our little sister Sandy Kimbrel, who graduated from Johnson after I did.

As you might imagine, this has been a really amazing time for all of us, and we are incredibly proud of what he has accomplished this year...and excited for the future.

A couple of notes on Craig's baseball career and background.

I took Craig to his first Braves game when he was 5, and I lived in Atlanta. In the 4th grade he wrote one of those 'What I'm going to be when I grow up essays.' He wrote that he was going to play for the Braves. His teacher gave it back and told him to re-write it, with something that was 'possible'. He refused.

Craig is an absolutely great kid, he has always been the best player on the field throughout his little-league through High School career, and played every position. When he was 12 I saw him tag two guys out in one game between 2nd and 3rd, unassisted. He was playing Catcher that game!

He was topping 90 as a Sophomore at Lee, and was being heavily scouted by the following year. At Wallace State, his velocity evolved to the mid-nineties, and it was torturous for him not to sign with the Braves the first time he was drafted...but we convinced him that he needed to wait until they (or someone else) had to really invest in him.

Hope this is of interest to you...thanks for the nice article on Craig!

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Subject:Veteran's Day Parade

Anthony F. Trupiano

Class of '68

I'm a 1968 graduate of LEE and a Air Force veteran.Id be honored to march in the Veteran's Day Parade in Huntsville, AL.If you can let me know what I have to do to be a part of Lee veterans' parade.Tthanks and Go Generals!

Email Address

a.trupiano@yahoo.com

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Help Wanted!

Tommy Towery

Hey friends, I need some help. I have boxes of my latest book in the garage and am looking for another chance to visit Huntsville and sell some of them. If any of you go to a church or work with any civic organization that has a Christmas Arts and Crafts fair that will be held sometime before Christmas will you please let me know who I might contact to see about renting a table to sell the books? I know there is one big one at the Von Braun center, but they want over $200 for a space to sell there. I'm looking for something much cheaper than that. Please email me if you can help tommytowery@gmail.com

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