191125 November 25, 2019
Fall Semester of the LHS Class of ‘65
Tommy Towery
LHS '64
I was a little disappointed, but not surprised, at the failure of someone from the Class of ’65 to step up to the plate and send me an email about some of the events they remember from their senior year at Lee. I accept the fact many of you do not actively participate in sending things in for The Traveller, but I still hold out hope that someday you might.
The TV shows in the Youtube video above did not all start in 1964, but were the evening's lineup for that year. I am not sure why they were listed in the order in which they appear. How many of you ever tried to outdraw Marshall Dillon when "Gunsmoke" came on?
In the fall of 1964 I was living in Memphis and started my first semester at Memphis State University. Memphis was a great town to live in back then. It was still the hub of a lot of very good bands and college life was filled with social events such as ballgames and social dances. It was still a little strange to be living in a town where a lot of the music we listened to got its start. I remember going to a dance at a roller rink one Friday night and paying $1.00 for my admission. The band playing was none other than Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. I did not know anyone else there but at the end of the night there was a dance contest and I asked a girl who I never had met and never saw again after that night to dance. We won the dance contest and our prize was a stuffed “Wooly Bully.”
I also earned my first paycheck from a newspaper when I was hired to help cover the election results for the Johnson-Goldwater Presidential Election. I only worked that one night but it was the first real money I ever earned as a journalist. Believe or not the pay for working on Lee's Traveller at Lee was absolutely zero - much like the pay I get for doing this version today.
So, anyway, to prod your memories a little bit I looked up online what happened during the fall semester period of the senior class of 1966 and here are some of the events which caught my attention.
Sep 22, "Man from U.N.C.L.E," premiered on NBC-TV.
Sep 24, The TV situation comedy "Munsters" premiered on CBS.
Sep 25, The TV show “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." debuted with Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle. The show continued to run to 1969.
Sep 26, "Gilligan’s Island," a TV tale of 7 castaways, began its 98-show run on CBS.
Sep 27, The Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, announced that according to its findings Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone as did Jack Ruby in the assassination.
Oct 2, Scientists announced findings that smoking can cause cancer.
Oct 14, Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating a policy of non-violence.
Oct 14, Philips began experimenting with color TV.
Oct 15, St. Louis Cardinals in their home park beat the New York Yankees in game 7 of Baseball’s World Series (7-5)
Oct 15, It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary by Leonid I. Brezhnev.
Oct 21, The movie musical "My Fair Lady," starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, had its world premiere.
Nov 3, President Johnson soundly defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White House term as the 36th president.
Nov 14, The U.S. First Cavalry Division battled with the North Vietnamese Army in the Ia Drang Valley, the first ground combat for American troops.
Nov 28, "Leader of the Pack" by The Shangri-Las peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart.
Dec 3, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" 1st aired on TV.
That is what happened in the world in the fall semester after I graduated in the spring. I don't know still what special things happened in the halls of Lee. Next week we'll look at the Class of '65's Spring semester. Feel free to send me anything you found memorable.
Memphis, TN - With last week's episode of Bluff City Law and the airing of Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays on Saturday night, my acting days are over for a while. My big scenes in both of those shows were not used, and only my bald head as seen from the church balcony was identifiable by me because I knew where to look.
This week is Thanksgiving week and I hope you all have some great family get togethers. Of course many of us are looking forward to The Iron Bowl next weekend. It should be interesting.
Last Week's Name That Tune
Taylor Wright, LHS '66
Blue Hawaii
I'm Mr. Blue
Blue Velvet
Blue Moon
Venus in Blue Jeans
Max Kull, LHS '67, included the artists with his submission:
Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley
Mr. Blue - The Fleetwoods
Blue Velvet - Bobby Vinton
Blue Moon - The Marcels
Venus In Blue Jeans - Jimmy Clanton
Belinda German Talley, HHS'69 (Escoe's sister) also named them all correctly.
Jeffrey Fussell, LHS '66, "I had to reach back a bit on this list. The titles were all recognized, but I blanked on a couple of the artists:
Blue Hawaii – Elvis Presley
Mr. Blue – The Fleetwoods
Blue Velvet – Bobby Vinton
Blue Moon - ?
Venus in Blue Jeans - ?
The reference to “Blue Jeans” in song #5 got me thinking a bit. As long as I can recall, my father never owned a single pair of blue jeans. In his later years, I asked about that. He viewed denim as a symbol of abject poverty and associated with the bib overalls of his childhood worn daily until outgrown – an unpleasant reminder of the rural life he left behind. Most of my career has required business wear. When I retired in this past February, I only wanted blue jeans. Going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week trimmed 6 inches from my waist. Now, my dress pants no longer fit. They’ve been donated and all I have in my closet are jeans. The child is father to the man."
Linda Collinsworth Provost, LHS '66, Got them all also, and wrote "Would you issue a plea for someone - anyone - to join me in this battle against Max Kull? I cannot begin to compete with his vast musical knowledge. but it sure is fun trying and thanks again for the time you spend putting this together.
This Week's Name That Tune
(I added an extra song at the beginning as a clue to this week's theme!)
From Our Mailbox
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