190311 March 11, 2019

Lakewood/Meadow Hills Memories

Max Kull

LHS '67

    Thanks to Glenn James for his Lakewood submission last week.  It jogged a lot of memories for me.  We moved to Huntsville from Chattanooga in 1959.  My dad worked selling furniture at Montgomery Wards in the old Parkway City strip shopping center.  Before we moved, my parents had decided they could possibly afford a house in Meadow Hills - if they could get in.  I don't know all the details and my parents are no longer around to ask but when they first started looking you had to have special permission to buy there.  You had to get some kind of government certificate based on family size, income, living situation, etc.  Someone locally advised them that "inspectors" would frequently show up at rooming houses around town and if they found suitable families, they would grant them the certificates.  So, taking their shot, my parents rented rooms in a house on Pratt Avenue and we spent a week there hoping the elusive inspector would show up.  He never did and we returned to Chattanooga disappointed.  Thankfully, some time later word came to us that the certificates were no longer required.  We packed up and moved (5 of us) to our ~1000 square foot palace on Bluestone Circle.  My dad was thrilled to have the largest lot in the area (about a half acre) and I was too until mowing it became by job and my folks planted what seemed like 10,000 trees which had to be carefully mowed around.  I went by there in 2012 and the back yard looks like a forest.

    On the plus side, the back corner of our lot bordered the west branch of Pinhook Creek  The developers had installed a fence along the creek to keep the local urchins safe.  However, given the price ranges of the houses there, they made only meager attempts at landscaping.  Other than two small maple trees in the front yard and some arborvitae bushes, you had to put in your own - including grass.  By the time we had a full lawn of grass, the runoff from rainstorms had provided a convenient (for us kids) trench across the back yard to the creek.  There was a nice kid-sized gap under the fence and that was our gateway to hours and days of splashing around, chasing crawdads, and avoiding adults - a veritable aquatic Valhalla.  As we got older, we started having daily summer excursions to "The Lake" that Glenn also mentions.  I'm not a good swimmer but what little ability I do have in that area can be attributed to my confidence building afternoons in that relatively shallow pond.

    The old Pulaski Pike school Glenn mentions was also a significant spot for me.  When we first moved to town, we started attending Lakewood Methodist Church which met in that building until they completed their permanent home at the corner of Blue Spring and Masten Lake Roads.  That was also the site of my first job.  I worked for Christmas Charities there one summer sorting toys and moving boxes.  Unfortunately, they decided after just a few weeks that they didn't have the funds to continue paying the small group of high school kids they had hired.  How many of us can boast of having been "downsized' as a teenager?

    I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Glenn's dad, Mr. Solon James.  He was one of the adult leaders of our Boy Scout troop (#305, as I recall) that met at the Presbyterian Church on Medaris Road just off Memorial Parkway.  He was talking to a group of us one time and mentioned his use of the "official navy repair kit".  When we asked him for more details at to what that was, he explained that it consisted of a hammer and a piece of chalk.  To complete almost any repair one only had to mark an "x" on the troublesome equipment and then strike the "x" with a solid blow from the hammer.  Our parents' generation possessed much wisdom.

LEE LUNCH BUNCH

Thursday, April 25, 2019

11:00 AM

Galen’s Restaurant

Andrew Jackson Way

Huntsville, Alabama

    Hello to all of you fellow Lee Generals from the classes of ’64, ’65, and’66. It’s that time again! Be sure to save the date for our upcoming spring luncheon. As always, we meet on the last Thursday of April and October of each year. No excuses for not putting those dates on your calendars in advance. This year begins our ninth year for the Lee Lunch Bunch, so I hope to see as many of you as possible this time. Please do, if possible, let us know if you plan to come by phone, text, email, or Facebook. Hope to see you there!

Patsy Hughes Oldroyd ‘65

H (256) 232-7583

C (256) 431-3396

keithandpatsy@att.net

Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid

C (256) 656-3667

njkincaid@hotmail.com