Did You Ever Walk or Be Walked Home By Someone?

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

         In the past I have written many stories on many topics about things we did when we were growing up in Huntsville. This week I will be straying away from my own past and will instead focus on an area in which I had no previous experience. When I was doing my normal exercise walk this week I was listening to Oldie Goldies as normal and a song came on which made me think back to my early days. I do not know if it was the makeup of Huntsville or just the environment in which I grew up, but I cannot recall ever “walking” a girl home in the manner in which Fats Domino relates in his hit song. I attribute my lack of knowledge to several things.

         First of all, I do not remember having any girls my age living anywhere near me that I could walk home. As you probably are tired of hearing about, I grew up on East Clinton Street, only a couple of blocks from downtown. I only remember boys my age living close to me. A couple of my early friends attended East Clinton and Huntsville Junior High with me, but did not follow me to Lee. Bob Davis lived near the corner of East Clinton and Lincoln Street, in a house located next to Temple B'nai Sholom. Two doors closer to town than me was the home of Buddy Crabtree. Mickey Drake’s family lived in the house between Buddy and me, and John Bogart lived in the other side of the duplex in which I lived. Somewhere near was the home of Dillard and Bill Broadway. Another good friend was Mike Thompson who lived in a house beside East Clinton Elementary School. The last friend I remember in the neighborhood was David Sutton, who lived up next to Maple Hill Cemetery. As stated, I do not remember any girls my age living anywhere close. At least there were none I ever dated.

         I lived there until the summer of 1960, when I moved to McCullough Avenue and started the ninth grade at Lee Junior High. Besides not knowing any girls, most of the time I was not really interested in girls. I do not remember having a boy-girl date anytime I lived there. The only girls in my age group which I do remember were the girls who went to Central Presbyterian Church with me and were in my Sunday School class, but they did not live anywhere near. I really started noticing the Sunday School girls later when I went to summer church camp at Camp Ovoca. It should be no surprise to you to admit I really started noticing girls when I started going to Carter’s Skateland with my friend Mike Thompson. There was where I was lured into puberty by the cute girls in their short skate skirts and sweet smiles.

         With that intro, it should be clear I never really walked a girl home during that pre-Lee time in my life. The only girl who might be an exception was my first cousin, Brenda, who I accompanied to a local theater when she was living in Decatur and we walked to and from the theater one day. In reality, I did not date anyone, nor actually remember having a girl friend then. I did not have my first date until I was 14. My first real date was on Valentine's Day 1961 and it was a car date.  It was through one of those twisted webs of relationships that I was invited to go to a dance on Valentine's Day.  The web was a long and complicated one.  My grandmother rented an apartment across the street from where I moved. The family’s daughter was 17 and was going steady with a boy who was taking her to a dance at Huntsville High School.  She invited her younger cousin to go along.  Why she wanted to do that is unknown, but the younger cousin didn't have anyone to go with.  Through some scheme, known only to Venus or Cupid, I was the one invited to go to the dance with her. Since we left and returned to her house by car I didn’t walk her home but instead walked home alone when it was over, sice I only lived right across the street.

         So, by the time I really started dating I was the proud owner of my 1953 Customline Ford, “The Red Bomb.” By then I have moved to Lincoln Park, and though I walked to school many times when the Bomb would not start, I never walked a girl home, either from school or from a date. Once I started dating I would drive. I always walked my dates to their front door, but that did not seem like I was walking them home. I drove them home and walked them to the front door.

         "I Want to Walk You Home" is a July 1959 R&B/pop single by Fats Domino. It was the last of Domino's releases to hit number one on the R&B chart. "I Want to Walk You Home" stayed at the top spot for a single week and also peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a good idea, but I now wonder about the locale for which it was written. Hence, I pose the question to my readers. Did you ever walk someone of the opposite sex home from school or a date? If so, what were the circumstances of doing so? Please share.

An odd topic this week for some of you. As I noted, I lived in an area where I could have walked someone home - if there had been a someone in my life at the time and she had lived close to me.

Please continue to use the form below to make comments, answers, or suggestions of topics you would like to share.

Comments on Last Week's Issue

Collins (CE) Wynn, LHS ‘64, "Hey Skip, would you send me that photo of Mike Chisum. He was a good HS friend of mine and went on to become an outstanding military officer and combat veteran. I have not seen Mike since 1967 or so."

(Editor's Note: I don't know if this is the photo Skip was refering to, but here is the photo of the two of them and a few others which appeared in the 1960 "The General.")

Slow Song Selections

You Picked in the Past

Save the Last Dance For Me – The Drifters

"Save the Last Dance for Me" is a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, first recorded in 1960 by the Drifters, with Ben E. King on lead vocals.  The song was originally designated as the B-side of the record. Dick Clark is credited with turning the record over and realizing "Save The Last Dance" was the stronger song. The Drifters' version of the song, released a few months after Ben E. King left the group, would go on to spend three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart, in addition to logging one week atop the U.S. R&B chart.

In the song, the narrator tells his lover she is free to mingle and socialize throughout the evening, but to make sure to save him the dance at the end of the night. The song was written on the day of Pomus' wedding while the wheelchair-bound groom watched his bride dancing with their guests. His wife, Willi Burke was a Broadway actress and dancer. The song gives his perspective of telling his wife to have fun dancing, but reminds her who will be taking her home and "in whose arms you're gonna be."