Nicest Bunch of Kids Ever?

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Staying on the Orange Bowl Band Trip a little longer, Phyllis (Miller) Rodgers sent me the above newspaper clipping wondering if anyone might like to see it. One quote seemed to catch my attention more than the others. As I read it I wondered if the trip was as calm and tamed as the newspaper clipping makes it sound. Perhaps back in the time when this took place, it was normal for our classmates to be so respectful, but I still have to wonder how many side-stories might have taken place which were never disclosed. 

I look back at my own experiences during a trip with the school newspaper staff to the University of Alabama for the Alabama High School Press Association convention. I still smile because I know there were several (yet still innocent in today's light) things that happened which were never disclosed. We had a few secret get-togethers in some of the rooms which, although were still innocent, would probably alert the disapproval of some of the chaperones had they known. To put the story straight, I knew of no times when any visitations were made by just two people. It was always a group getting together. And I know there was no drinking which went on either (or smoking).

Later in my life I served as a chaperone on two of my daughter's choir trips and sometimes had my hands full keeping up with them, especially in the hotel. Most of my intervention was noise related but that was the way kids were, even 25 years after we were that age.

I know the statue of limitations probably never run out on some of the things we did way back then and I am not accusing anyone of doing anything improper, but perhaps many of you who were part of "the nicest bunch of kids ever" might smile a little at some of the untold truths of some tame incidents of the trip. After all, we were teenagers.

I am away from my desktop computer this week and so some of the things I had on reserved for an issue of Lee's Traveller were not accessible. I am lucky that someone always seems to bail me when I seem stuck.

I hope my comments in the story above does not seem like I am accusing anyone of anything, but I just wish I had been on the trip myself so I would know more about it than I do (or ever will know).

If you want to anonymously send in some comments, your privacy will be honored.

Comments on Last Week's Issue

Tom Gilbert, LHS ‘67, "I remember the green stamps and top value but not plaid. We food shopped at Winn DIxie."

Craig Bannecke, LHS ‘65, "My Mother was a collector of trading stamps and in particular S&H Green Stamps.  My first experience at actually using trading stamps came the summer after I graduated Lee.  Tommy Bush and I began to take an interest in playing tennis as a way to keep active and I needed a tennis racket.  My Mother gave me a couple of Books as I had mentioned to her I had seen a tennis racket in the Green Stamp store. If I recall correctly it was there in the Winn-Dixie Shopping Center off North Memorial Pkwy.  The racket was a Poncho Gonzales Model; a player I had never heard of.  Back in those days all the rackets were made of wood and had a much smaller striking surface than the newer models that later came out. That racket served me well as Tommy and I took tennis in college. When John Drummond and others were home from school during the Holidays we would all often meet on the tennis courts their at Lee and play tennis.  Thanks to those Green Stamps I played tennis well up into my late 40's ..... But thankfully not with the same racket !"

Cleve Smith, LHS ‘66, "I got my first golf bag with green stamps."

Polly Gurley Redd, LHS ‘66, "Loved the Top Value Stamps story. I think we got all the various things we needed in our first kitchen when we married in 1970 from the stamps Mom had gotten at Krogers. Good memories."

Skip Cook, LHS '64  "Another great edition of the Traveller.  Especially enjoyed the article on S & H Green Stamps. I was shopping in a small, locally owned, running shoe  store in November.  Shoes were for my wife not me!  I was the only customer in the store.  At the cash register I presented a credit card to the young woman who appeared to be 18-20 years old.  She said she was soon to get her first credit card and asked why I was using this particular brand.  I replied that "my wife gets travel points for the purchases on this card".  I then stupidly said something like "in the old days we used to get trading stamps for purchases".  The young woman had a totally blank look on her face as if I had replied in a foreign language.  I then did my best to describe what your article stated...make a purchase, 1 stamp  for each $0.10, paste in book, cash full books in for merchandise in a catalogue.  She looked at me, smiled and said "you're joking aren't you?" I seem to recall from my days as a "bag boy" at Kwik Chek on the Parkway, that the S & H Green Stamps were kept under lock and key in the manager's little office up  front.  Perhaps Craig Bannecke, John Drummond or any of the other Kwik Chek alumni can remember and add detail....which seem to slip this old mind.

Photographic Memories - Who Are They?

Each week I plan to share a group of photos from the 1960 "The General" yearbook without disclosing the names of the individuals. You may stop and try to identify them here, and when you are through you may scroll to the bottom of this page to see the identities of your classmates in the photos.

The Identites of the Classmates in the Pictures Above