Hoofin' It!

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Our granddaughter graduated from high school this weekend. She lives in White House, Tennessee, a small-but-rapidly-growing town about 20 miles north of Nashville. I got to thinking about her and in many ways feel sorry for her situation because she lives in a house on one of the main highways running through town, but it is in an area that is mostly commercial and she does not have a single friend within walking distance from her house. She has many friends from school and church, but none close enough to just pop over and see. It made me think back about the areas in which I grew up in Huntsville.

I think back to the time I entered the first grade at Farley and all the kids I played with when I lived in Redstone Park. I don’t recall any of them by name, but I know there was a group I spent my afternoons playing with. Our move later in my first grade year took me to Halsey Avenue and my transfer to Rison. Again, I think back about a gang of kids I played with, but again, being six years old I do not recall any names, but probably some of them I became classmates with when I joined the ninth-grade class at Lee Junior High.

My earliest age for remembering friends' names came about when I entered the second grade at East Clinton Elementary School. Within walking distance and routes often traveled were Buddy Crabtree, Bob Davis, Mickey Drake, Dillard and Bill Broadway, and David Sutton who later ended up attending Huntsville High School. Mickey lived right next door on East Clinton and Buddy another house over. The Broadways were across the street and just a little down from my house. Bob was just a block west, but on Lincoln Street, right next to the Jewish Temple B'nai Shalom. Bob’s father was the Davis who co-owned the Larkin-Davis Firestone Store near town. 

Mike Thompson lived one block up and one block over next to the East Clinton School. He and I frequently walked from my house to Carter’s Skateland on Traylor Island on Friday and Saturday nights, a distance of about a mile and a half each way. 

David lived up on Wales Avenue near Maple Hill Cemetery and I would walk to his house many weekend nights to watch Shock Theater. There's nothing like watching a horror movie in a house right next to a graveyard and walking back home alone around midnight.

As I said, all of these friends were an easy walk away from my house, and we all took turns visiting one place or the other. As it was sometimes, all were my friends, but not all of them were similar friends with each other.

My next move took me away from my Huntsville Junior High group and planted me in the Lee School district. When I moved to McCullough Avenue I lived right next door to Ray Walker, but we never really became real close friends. I owe this to the fact that I considered myself still within walking distance or a short bus ride back to my old East Clinton gang.

Right before I entered the 10th grade at the newly emerging Lee High School I made my final move into the last house in which I would live in Huntsville. When we moved to Webster Drive in Lincoln Village I was starting to drive, but the unreliable transportation of The Bomb, my 1953 red Ford, meant I still walked to a lot of my destinations. Though it seemed longer back then, it was only a mile and a half walk from my house to Lee High School – a trip that became a regular occurrence.

But, the good thing about living there was I once again found myself within walking distance of a few of my friends. The path most traveled during those three years of high school was to the home of Dianne Hughey who lived on Grove Avenue. As one of the best girl-friends (not girlfriend) one could ever have I made many a trip over to her house just to sit on the porch and talk or listen to music. Sometimes it would be after midnight before I walked home from one of my visits with her.

Between my house and Dianne's was the home of Tommy Thompson who also became a good friend. A few blocks the other way was Lewis Brewer’s home. We didn’t visit very much in each other’s houses, but we were easily within walking distance. Later in my school days, I would often get rides with one of those three to get to school.

Finally, there was my friend Bob Walker. Bob lived over on Stevens, about a block away from where Mullin’s Café used to be. It is hard to measure today since the interstate has changed all the roads between where I lived and his house, but I estimate it was only about a mile and a half. Again, to a teenager who was used to walking (I earned my Hiking merit badge as a Boy Scout) it was not too far a distance. (Sidebar here: To earn the Hiking merit badge back then, a scout had to accomplish one 5-mile hike, three 10-mile hikes, and one 15-mile hike. Finally, I had to take a hike of 20 continuous miles in one day.)

Again, I repeat myself when I remind you my walking changed a lot once I started driving, but did not go away – not by a long shot.

My longest walk to a friend’s house that I can remember (this time it really was a girlfriend) was a three-mile walk to the home of the girl I was dating at the time. I think it was a Saturday morning and I grabbed up a stack of 33 1/3 RPM vinyl records and took them over to her house and we listened to them on her portable record player. A three-mile walk back home racked me up with a lot of steps (six miles) that day. It was more fun than the Scout hike I assure you.

Though I don’t walk to any of my friends’ houses these days, I do walk a mile and a half around the track at my church every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Sue and I normally walk about the same distance in one of the parks here in town at least once a week. I never smoked so I can’t say “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” but I sure would walk a mile to see some of my old friends again.

LEE LUNCH BUNCH

CLASSES OF ’64, ’65, ‘66

Thursday, May 26, 2022

11:00 AM

Logan’s Roadhouse

Balmoral Dr.  Huntsville, AL

We’re back!!!

Hello friends!

Well, it has been a long couple of years since we were last together for one of our fun lunches. Bad old Covid just messed up lots of plans for all of us these last couple of years, but now it is time for us to get out and get together. I know that this is a month later than our usual spring lunch and also very short notice, but it is the best that I could do for this time. I really do hope that many of you will be free to come and join us in a couple of weeks so we can catch up on what has been happening in your lives these last couple of years while we were in confinement eating junk food, watching Netflix, eating junk food, getting to know those in our immediate household REALLY well, eating junk food, etc.

Please do let us know if you plan to come as I will need to let Logan’s know by the day before. As usual, we will meet in the fireplace room/garage room. See you!

Patsy Hughes Oldroyd ’65   C (256)431-3396 call, text, or FB

Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid ’66  C (256)656-3667 call, text, or FB

I have yet to hear from anyone from the Class of '66 about their senior prom, but I am sure they must have had one. I hope I do not have to repeat myself when I tell you that anyone is welcome to send me some of their own memories about their early years in Huntsville or something interesting they are doing today.

This Week's Questions, Answers, Comments

Craig Bannecke, LHS ‘65, "I did not marry my Prom date. However, I did marry my 35th LHS Reunion acquaintance. Jennifer White Baughman, was attending her first reunion, which would have actually been her 34th-year reunion as she was a 1966 graduate.  I was attending for the first time as a single individual having gone through a divorce in 1998. We had some fellow LHS classmates that knew we were both coming to the reunion alone and decided to play cupid.  They arranged for us to be re-introduced to one another Friday night at the social get-together and that was when we found out that we were both living in Augusta, Ga., about three miles apart.  We met again at the Dance Saturday night and danced a few dances and talked about what we were both doing in Augusta. Later I told Jennifer I would call her when we got back to Augusta.  Well I did, we did, and a year later in September of 2001 we were married. This September we will celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary.  Funny how things work out. We had to drive 325 miles from where we lived, to meet and find we only lived a few miles apart. The Lord has really blessed us these past almost 21 years."

Chris Grant McMahon, LHS ‘66,  "I married my prom date, Jack Grant, in 1968 and divorced in 1985."

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.

Woolly Bully - Sam The Sham & Pharaohs

Several years ago I heard that the Lee High School Class of '65 considered this song as their class song.

"Wooly Bully" is a song originally recorded by novelty rock and roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1964. It was written by the band's frontman, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a single on the small Memphis-based XL label (#906) in 1964 and was picked up in 1965 by MGM. The song was recorded at Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, the successor to Phillips' original Sun Studio. It proved to be the only recording made at the studio to achieve national success.

"Wooly Bully" was the band's first and biggest hit. It became a worldwide success, selling three million copies and reaching No. 2 on the American Hot 100 chart on June 5–12, 1965, kept off the top by The Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda" and The Supremes' "Back in My Arms Again". "Wooly Bully" also went to No. 31 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. The song was the first American record to sell a million copies during the British Invasion and was influenced by the British rock sound which was mixed with traditional Mexican-American conjunto rhythms. It stayed in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the longest time for any song in 1965, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. It was named Billboard's number-one song of the year despite never reaching No. 1 on a weekly Hot 100.

The lyrics of "Wooly Bully" were hard to understand, and some radio stations banned the song. Sam the Sham underscores the Tex-Mex nature of the song by counting out the rhythm in Spanish and English ("Uno! Dos! One, two, tres, cuatro!"), and the characteristic simple organ riffing, with a tenor saxophone solo in the middle. According to Sam: "The count down part of the song was also not planned. I was just goofing around and counted off in Tex-Mex. It just blew everybody away, and actually, I wanted it taken off the record. We did three takes, all of them different, and they took the first take and released it."

(Editor's Note: After I moved to Memphis I would often go to dances on Saturday nights at the local skating rink. One night I went and paid my $1.00 at the door to hear the featured band of the night, "Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs." They played for about a three-hour set, and at the end of the dance they held a dance contest. I asked a girl I had never met and never danced with if she wanted to dance. She accepted and we ended up winning the dance contest. I went home with a prize, a red and white "Woolly Bully" stuffed animal, presented to me by non-other than Sam the Sham himself.")

Does anyone know what "L-7" in the lyrics "Let's not be L-7, come and learn to dance" means?