201221 December 21, 2020

When Life Was More Simple

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

        This week I take you back to simpler times and non-pandemic days when we just had fun. The following is first my entry into my journal back in 1963 and the comments I made about those entries 25 years later when I wrote "A Million Tomorrows...Memories of the Class of '64." I hope you enjoy this trip back in time with me.

December 21, 1963

    Dec 21, 1963 - Slept until 1:00 P.M. today.  Got up and got the car pushed off and took Mama Towery's presents over to her.  She got me a pair of pants.  Came back and took Grandmother to work.

    Came to the house and watched T.V.  Saw the South beat the North down at the Orange Bowl Stadium, 24-14.  Miss State beat North Carolina S. in another BOWL game.

    Went and bought Grandmother's present then I went to a dance down at the Navy Reserve.  It was a Post dance.  Fifteen people were present.  We danced, ate, and sang folk songs until 11:00 P.M.

    After that I met Dag and we went riding around in his '63 Impala SS hunting a party.  Couldn't find one so I came home and now I'm going to bed.  Night-Night.

    Despite the car troubles, the day still continued.  Mama Towery is my grandmother on my father's side.  Actually she is not my true grandmother but I was brought up thinking she was.  My real grandmother died when my father was five months old.  She was 27.  My grandfather did not feel that he could raise a small child, so Mama Towery took my father to raise.  She was actually my father's aunt, but she never had any children of her own, so she raised him.

    The dance that evening was small in comparison to the ones I normally attended on a Saturday night.  My transition from Boy Scouts to the older Explorers' group was never really a complete move.  I never really felt at home in the Explorers even though socially their activities were geared toward an older crowd than the Boy Scouts.  That dance was held by the Post, and I went and left without a date.  There were girls there and I never questioned where they came from.  They were probably sisters or tag-alongs or something like that.  The music for the dance was provided by a record player, and the records were brought by the guests.  It was nothing fancy.

    The highlight of the evening was the folk songs.  This was the period of folk music.  It was the time of The Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul, and Mary; the Smothers Brothers; The Chad Mitchell Trio and the other singers whose names have long been forgotten.  Of all the groups that were popular during that period, the Kingston Trio was my personal favorite.  I spent many hours learning the words to "Tom Dooley" and "The M.T.A." songs.  I bought a cheap guitar from somebody and tried my best to learn how to play it.  Using a group of cords I affectionately called "the dirty dozen" I could strum through most of the popular folk songs if other people sang along.  If they did sing, they had to sing loud.  It had to be loud enough to cover up the music, for I was not a very good guitar player.

    I tried.  I tried hard.  I practiced day after day but never got any good at it.  Years passed before I found my perfect musical instrument for the folk era.  It was one that I could handle without being embarrassed.  I tried to learn the banjo, the twelve string guitar, the piano and organ and passed over all of them.  The tambourine emerged as the instrument for my contribution to the folk scene.  My destiny was to be the tambourine man.  Besides the kazoo, it was the only instrument I ever found that I could play.  I didn't want to be the kazoo man, so stuck with the tambourine.

    That night I didn't have the tambourine.  That night the guitar was the instrument of choice, and songs like "Tom Dooley" were sung over and over, despite the cords that were missed or could not be found.  My short fingers did not wrap completely around the guitar neck to finger the right notes properly, but it didn't matter.  We were still having fun and the others did not mind.  There were gentile people in the folk music era.

    Folk music was a social event and everyone could join in.  It was especially at home on hayrides or around campfires.  It could be mellow or explosive, depending on the crowd and the mood.  It could be gospel or backroom ballads.  Some songs were heavenly while others were raunchy sea chanteys.  Whatever the mood, whatever the tune, the group could join in.

    Some of the best songs we sang came as spur of the moment verses like "Hey loddy, loddy, loddy. Hey loddy, loddy, low."  This song was the place to add the sometimes off color verses like "I know a girl who lives on a hill, she won't do it but her sister will."  It was naughty, but not really dirty.  It was a lot like "Louie, Louie," the song that the Class of '64 claims as its class song.  That was the dirtiest song of our era.  The words were so slurred that no one ever really knew for sure what they were but right after the song first came out pieces of paper circulated in the classes of Lee with the alleged lyrics on it.  "Every night at ten, I lay her again," etc.  It did not meet today's criteria for dirty, that's for sure.  Even if it was dirty everyone sang along just the same.

    Today, Christmas time and Christmas parties are about the only times where a group can stand around and share the songs as we did during the folk period.  I even tried to write my own music, as most folk singers did.  My songs were never heard in public but it didn't really matter to me.  It was the beginning of the inner self period.  You could sing what you wanted to, how you wanted to sing it.

From Our Mailbox 

Subject:    Math

 Kay Hillis

    I substitute in the schools around my area. I can get a book and understand any subject except math. It makes no sense to me so I find the smartest kid in the class to explain. Half the classes do not have books. Almost everything is on chrome book. The kids do not learn to tell time on a regular clock and they have not been taught Cursive writing . I found this out when I wrote something on the board in cursive. I think we got a better education for dealing with every day life. Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Subject:    Lost Contact

Diann Fox Muller

LHS '64

    Hi, not sure the reason but I no longer receive the email notification when you publish a new issue of the Traveller.  It does seem to happen now and again when there is a computer update.   When the next issue comes out would you add me to the list and I'll see what happens!  Oh, this is Diann Muller, should say Diann Fox, class of 1964.  Hoping all is happy and healthy with your family.  Everyone here in Rochester, New York is just fine. The last time I came to Huntsville I finally saw the "new" Lee High School.  I haven't been back since 2017. We lost Mom in August, 2014, Daddy-o in September, 2015 (they had been divorced since 1969 I believe it was) and our brother Danny was murdered in 2016 in Atmore, Escambia County, Alabama.   Well, no more of the sadness talk.  

    Hey, as long as I'm writing I'll test your eyes a bit more.  Been married since 1966, moved to Rochester, NY in 1967.  We have twin sons born in 1972. Husband worked at Eastman Kodak for 35/36 years and took early retirement.  I worked for York Borg Warner until they closed the district office here. Last job was 26 years for the Rochester City School District, retired in 2009. I worked in the district offices for two years but wanted to work in a school. Didn't want to continue as a secretary so I worked as a teaching assistant which led to working with administration dealing with gang members and those in and out of county jail.  We lost some, some have gone to prison for life and some just don't know where they are.  They were rough but once they trusted you, no one would mess with you!   Nicer subject, we have three grandchildren. Grandson is 25 and does coding and programming, his employer was just acquired by Price Waterhouse so he will be working for them beginning in January. Next is our 21 year old granddaughter who is a senior at University of Rochester studying cognitive neuroscience and our youngest granddaughter is 20 years old and in the nursing program at Brockport University hoping to go into pediatric NICU nursing.  One of my brothers (retired military)  and his wife are in Laurel Hill, Florida, the other brother remains in Huntsville. One sister and her husband moved from Huntsville to living on the river in Athens. My other sister and her husband (both retired) now live in Toney, Alabama. Well, now I've basically run my mouth long enough (bet you were just captivated by all this information weren't you? 😉) hahaha  Again, hoping all is well there. Fingers crossed that you email about the Traveller comes through.  Thanks, Diann

Subject:    Math

Dennis Tribble

Thanks Tommy. I'm with you; I'll stick with math.