200323 March 23, 2020

Jimmy Rigsby

LHS '66

? - March 27, 2018

     Jimmy Rigsby age 70, passed away March 27, 2018  at Huntsville Hospital.

    Jimmy grew up in Huntsville. He went to Lee High School. He started his life with his wife right out of high school. They had one son at the end of their first year of marriage. He went to work for Foremost milk company in 1966 and worked with them for 17 years moving to supervisor then to management positions of the Huntsville Branch till they closed in 1984. He spent the next several years helping his parents and his family in whatever they needed. He took complete care of both of his parents until they both passed in 2001 & 2002. He loved doing a variety of building and making things and working on all types of cars and trucks. He was a jack of all trades and could fix anything. He loved spending time with his family, grandkids, and great grandkids. Jimmy and His wife Connie loved to spend time in nature including the Smoky Mountains and boating at the lake.

    He was preceded in death by his parents James and Ruth Rigsby.

    He is survived by his wife of 53 years, his son and his wife. Three grandchildren. Two Great Grandchildren. One Brother. Three sisters and several nieces and nephews.

    Burial was at Locust Grove Cemetery.

 

  

 

       I AM STILL UNABLE TO SEND OUT A NOTICE TO ALL CLASSMATES WITH ONE EMAIL

     Memphis, TN - The Traveller might look a little different this week thanks to the crazy things going on at this time. We can plan for some emergencies, but there are times when life gets in the way of our plans. This past week has been one of those times for us. In a time when we are asked to be respecting “social distancing” Sue and I have had eight new bodies in our house. One is an ICU nurse, one a teacher, one a traveling businessman and five grandkids from five different school systems.

    Our family showed up because Sue’s ex-husband died last Sunday and both of her daughters and their families came into town for the funeral. Up until then Sue and I had made all the preparations we felt we needed to make to ride out the approaching storm. But, there are things we cannot always plan for and this was one of those things.

    The funeral service was small and he is going to be buried at the Veteran’s Cemetery next Tuesday and now we have been informed only 10 people will be allowed to attend the burial. But, because of all the family being in town our house has been turned into a dormitory and one of the casualties of the crowded house was having a trundle bed blocking access to my primary computer used to create each week’s Traveller. So, my access to many of my main files used each week. This includes my Name That Tune trivia I have done each week.

    Once this short distraction is over, Sue and I plan to hunker down and ride out the rest of the storm and hope all of you will do the same.

    We are Fami-Lee. Let’s pray for each other’s health. 

Fighting Battles

Tommy Towery

LHS'64

    My name is Tommy, and I am a gamer. My addiction to war games began when I was in the Air Force and pulling nuclear alert every third week. The crews showed up on Thursday morning and relieved the previous crew and for the next seven days we were not allowed to leave the base and were required to spend most of our time inside one cinder block building near our aircraft. This was 24 hours a day for the seven days we were there awaiting the next crew to show up to relieve us.

        As a kid growing up on East Clinton Street I often played soldiers with my neighbors. When I was not playing with toy soldiers inside, I was playing with toy guns and make up weapons with the other boys. Pears and pine cones made great hand grenades.

This was back before computer games, but many of us passed the time playing board games, primarily the Avalon-Hill war games. This was a process of moving small armies, in the form of small square cardboard pieces across a hex grid on a board with the movement and conflicts decided by the roll of the dice.

Later in life, when computer games became available I was drawn to the computerized versions of the same type of games, normally played on my first Apple II computer. As computers became more powerful and graphics became more lifelike I moved to the one person shooter games that have evolved today. Unlike the days of man verses computer, games now offer man verses man (or woman) and no longer are they one-on-one experiences but now a collection of teams of usually unknown team members from around the world.

My personal fun game today is the Apple version of “Call of Duty” which I play on my iPad and consists of two teams of five fighting each other in a shooting war. It is a free game (app) and has some great graphics and combat opportunities. 

Here is the funny thing. Based on previous experiences, most of the players are young; some as young as my eight-year old grandson who plays even though he is younger than the recommended  age of 17+. And no one knows anything about their team members except their names and game rankings which are earned by continued play. I do not know if it is my previous experience, my military training, or just my age and maturity, but most of the time I play a game I am the leading scorer (Most Valuable Player) on my team – normally ranking 1st. 

I often laugh at the idea of what the other players would think if they knew they had been bettered by a 73-year of retiree and not some teenage super-star player. It reminds me of the time I participated in a paintball battle on a hilly rough terrain with a bunch of computer nerds who were used to sitting behind a computer screen most of their lives and could not compete with someone like me who was used to hiking and surviving in the real world. 

But anyway, as you might see in the photo, I go by the moniker of “Tango-Tango” or sometimes just “Tango” based upon my Air Force call sign nickname. So, if you happen to be a similar gamer and we happen to end up as friends of foes on the computer battlefield, you will know who I am.

I will probably spend a lot of my social distancing time fighting on the computer and I hope all of you find something to help you pass your time safely.

Save the Date!

September 25 & 26, 2020

LHS Reunion

The Westin at Bridge Street

Huntsville, AL

More Information to Come Later

Reunion Contacts

Ann Wilson Redford (redforda@uah.edu)

Niles Prestage (napjr@me.com)

Sarajane Steigerwald Tarter (starter@hiwaay.net

Last Week's Name That Tune Group

Max Kull, LHS '67

 

Little Devil - Neil Sedaka

Devil or Angel - Bobby Vee (recycled from last week?)

Devil With A Blue Dress On - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

Devil in Disguise - Elvis

The Devil Went Down To Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band

Jeffrey Fussell, LHS '66, got them all right as well and wrote, "Since hearing his first big hit of “Jenny Take a Ride”, I’ve been a huge fan of Mitch Ryder. In my opinion, "Devil With a Blue Dress” ( which was paired as a medley with “Good Golly Miss Molly” was (and remains) his best. Our band still plays it today.  

Linda Collinsworth Provost, LHS '66, named all the tunes and wrote, 'I usually feel lucky to recognize some of the songs but I have noticed that Jeff and Max always give you the artist.  I see that as a challenge and will try to do the same thing. But it is not my strong suit by any means. Stay safe."

No Name That Tune Group This Week

No Movie Trivia This Week Either

Last Week's Movie Trivia

Answered by

Max Kull

LHS '67

What is the name of this movie?

Generally referred to as 'Dr. Strangelove' but more correctly  'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'

My "homebrew copy" recorded from TCM.

What actor played the role of the scientist?

Peter Sellers was Dr. Strangelove.  He also played President Merkin Muffley and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.  Originally, he was also supposed to play Major Kong, a role that ultimately went to Slim Pickens.  I had not known that until seeing the Geoffrey Rush biopic 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers'.

Name 3 actors who appeared in this movie.

Beside Sellers, the main actors were: George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden,  Slim Pickens, Keenan Wynn, and Peter Bull. All were pitch-perfect in their parts.  Interestingly, James Earl Jones, appearing in his first movie, had a small part as bomber crew member Lothar Zogg.  Seems like an unlikely choice of names but when you consider the names of other characters (Jack D. Ripper, Colonel Bat Guano, Major Kong, Buck Turgidson, Merkin Muffley, etc.) it doesn't seem so odd.  This was several years before Jones' break-out role in 'The Great White Hope'.

Where did you first see this movie/With whom did you see this movie?

I did not see it in the theater.  I believe that I probably saw it first on television when I was in college.  I say that because the movie served as a "quotefest" for me and my roommates at Auburn.  The favorite, used whenever there was a disagreement was Sellers', "Gentleman, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."  That one belongs right up there with Strother Martin's, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." and Tom Hanks', "There's no crying in baseball!".

Some other  favorites from  'Dr. Strangelove':

Do you have anything special to share about seeing this movie?

This one would be on my shortlist of  "stranded on a deserted island" movie essentials - assuming such a scenario makes the least bit of sense.  I've seen this movie many times over the years. If you look at online rankings for Stanley Kubrick's movies, you'll generally usually see '2001' at the top...unless you're Cory Booker in which case, I suppose  it would be 'Spartacus'. I'd put it number one on my list. '2001', 'Clockwork Orange', 'Paths of Glory', 'Barry Lyndon', and most of the rest were impressive but Strangelove is the one that I'm most likely to go back and rewatch.

I have read (not sure if it is true) that the dialog in the phone call between Sellers' President and the Russian Premier (https://youtu.be/6T2uBeiNXAo) was improvised.  Improvised or not, it's brilliant and hysterical.

 

 

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