Remembering Junior High School Days

John Scales

LHS '66

I have written an autobiography for my hopefully-to-be grandchildren, and I thought some of my reminisces might be of use to you in reminding our classmates of their own stories. I did omit a couple of names (of both the innocent and the guilty!)  Here is the second part of John's story.

In the ninth grade I switched over to PE from art and of course I was still a total klutz. I had to do calisthenics, which I had never done before. Because of my height I got picked first for basketball the first time we had open play, but as I had never played that was the last time I was picked. However, I studied the rules and gradually became better, playing with the other guys who sucked also. By the end of the year, I was somewhat effective, and our loser’s team actually won sometimes. We wore gym shorts and Lee tee shirts (which stunk by the end of the week, so we had to take them home to wash). The gym was split by a big moveable wall and the girls were on the other side. Occasionally when outside, we would see them. The girls had the ugliest gym uniforms imaginable.

In October 1962, when I was a 9th Grader, the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. In elementary school we had all done the “duck and cover” routine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMnKNHNfznE (very annoying commercial). But now it looked serious. I remember the evacuation site from our home was to be Honeycomb Cave (off 431 above the lake and across from the first boat ramp). I also remember looking up at a jet high overhead, obviously a bomber, and my father reminding me never to look up at them. I found out later that Huntsville resembled a target city in the Soviet Union, at least on radar, and SAC aircraft would practice against us while their flight path and release point was evaluated. Of course, they never released anything, just a navigation call, but at the time they really were carrying nuclear weapons.

Huntsville was growing so fast that it was decided Lee needed to become a high school. The way they did it was to move up one grade a year, so when I started there, it was 7 – 8 – 9, the next year it was 8 – 9 – 10, and the next year 9 – 10 – 11. For three straight years I was a member of the lowliest scum at school, but that’s why when we have high school reunions now, we fit ’64, ’65, and ’66 all together. The class behind me which had Pam and Hans Hoelzer in it ended up on our bus as I remember, but we dropped them off at Rison, which was now a Huntsville City School and a junior high school. I should probably also mention Huntsville schools were still segregated and would remain so until our junior year. Lee had the mill village in its district, so we had quite a mixture of very poor to well off. There were no minorities of any sort until 11th grade except for a few Jewish kids, who as far as I know were treated just like anyone else. One, Wayne Cooper, became a good friend of mine in high school. 

Another bad thing happened: I picked up a new bully. I was something of a smartass so I may have deserved a little of this, but a kid who lived on Panorama between Wildwood and the Hoelzer’s, took it upon himself to become a real tormenter. He was over a year older, a grade ahead (although he flunked a grade later in high school, so he ended up in my class) and much more mature. He got off at my bus stop, as did Pam and her good friend Mary Jane Haywood. It was perhaps the most humiliating thing I ever endured, to be beat on by an older, stronger kid who was trying to show out in front of two girls, one of whom I really wanted to impress – and virtually in my own front yard! I found out many years later he had just recently lost his father and his grades had plummeted, so I guess he was trying to make up for that, but I still grit my teeth when I remember it.

In many ways high school was just a straight-line continuation of junior high with few changes. We got a new principal, Fulton Hamilton, who was my fourth-grade teacher’s husband. We all called him “Chrome Dome” for obvious reasons. I had several excellent teachers during this period: Ms. Capell for Algebra II and Geometry (very hard but good), Mrs. Wikle for American History, Ms. Coon for economics and government, Mr. Fox for Chemistry, and Mr. Blackburn for Trigonometry and Calculus. Mrs. McIlveen, who lived on Panorama near our old house, taught me French with a strong Southern accent. I also had one witch in 11th grade, Mrs. Jones, who hated me and I hated her. Typically, as a math and science geek who also read a lot, I had no patience for the esoterica of symbolism, etc. that English teachers loved. Worse grades I got in high school.

In PE, we had a new coach, Keith Wilson, who was short and strong, a good guy. He coached football and wrestling. Sometimes we did tumbling, circuit training (difficult), wrestling (very difficult), and basketball, the most fun. Coach Wilson would play with us in basketball and I always frustrated him because he would drive the lane, but I would block his shots. Interestingly, he later became a member of the 20th Special Forces Group and I was his boss before he retired. He is a great guy, still alive and living in the New Market area.

Flashing ahead on the subject of basketball, each year I got a little better, and my senior year I had access to a car and thought I could play for Lee. I went out for the team but got cut as we had a new coach who wanted to concentrate on developing underclassmen. I went to many of the games anyway, and we did not do well, losing to rival Butler 101-25 for an extreme example. Of course, they had two players who went to college on scholarship to play. I did have a feel-good at the end of the year, though, as we had a seniors versus the next year’s varsity game and because we didn’t have that many seniors I joined their team. We won 51-47 even though the new varsity had practiced diligently together. I scored several times (and dunked during warmups). I was told later that the new coach verbally expressed his regret that he had cut me. 

The summer I was 16 I learned how to drive. My mother took me in her big red Chrysler Imperial, and we went to the state park. That’s where I learned. Occasionally I also drove my father’s off-white 1957 DeSoto. My father claimed he lacked the patience to teach me. I took my driver’s test and passed the first time, although the parallel park was pretty iffy – the state trooper and I just went over to Maple Hill Cemetery and back, then parked at the courthouse. I really didn’t have free access to the cars until I was a senior though. My senior year, Chris with his little Mercury Comet and me with my father’s DeSoto alternated weeks carpooling to school. We carried two sophomore girls, too, Anne Cherry who lived on Wildwood and someone else I don’t remember. My father carpooled to work out on the arsenal with another person, so we alternated weeks. 

Hans ended up getting a Karmen Ghia and we often did stuff riding in that. We probably went bowling a couple of times a month and Chris would always buy a Swisher Sweet cigar to smoke. I usually occupied the entire back of the Karmen Ghia, but I remember on time riding shotgun while it was raining and the windshield wiper quit. So, I navigated, and Hans drove!

I got into a lot of the school newspaper pictures during my senior year because Hans was the newspaper photographer. I was easy for him to get a picture of doing some sort of “senior” stuff. He was also king of the science fair and the year after I graduated, he finished second in the international competition. I also achieved some rather ambiguous notoriety: my senior “prediction” was that I would replace the IBM computer at Oak Ridge!

The only thing noteworthy I remember about classes was during my junior year Mrs. Wikle asked me to teach a class on World War II after some questions came up in American History. I did and enjoyed it, and the rest of the kids seemed interested – lots of questions. Frank and I got banished from physics class one day (we were guilty of a prank on Barbara Hood), but because I had access to the tutoring room, we just hung out there, dodging Mr. Williams, the assistant principal. 

During my high school years, I had hoped to attend West Point. Because of my vision being so bad I found out I could not pass the physical, so I fixed on Alabama where my father went to school. I got invited for a visit to a certain other state school and I went for grins, but no way. Bruce, Frank, Chris, and I all ended up at Alabama.

I did pretty well in high school and, on the whole, enjoyed it. I certainly regret that for many kids high school is a much more difficult environment now.

The Wayback Machine

"Charlie Brown" is a popular Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song that was a top-ten hit for the Coasters[2] in the spring of 1959. It went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and is best known for the phrase, "Why's everybody always pickin' on me?"

Thanks again to John Scales for providing us another look back into our early school days. This issue completes the story he submitted. It is always fun to look back on those days. I was pondering which song I could find that fit the period, and "Charlie Brown" came to mind.

My early way of collecting email addresses for notification each week did not always collect names that go with the emails. Though I can venture to guess the names associated with the following, it would be more correct to have someone who knows the true identities to let me know so I can take measures to correct my database.

bevstill@comcast

echols80@mchsi.com

puma1965@tampabay.rr.com

Last Week's Questions, Answers, 

And Comments

Curt Lewis, LHS ‘66, "Thanks to John Scales for his recollections of our early years at Lee.  I remember "Mish Davish", the algebra teacher, well.  I remember her as a competent teacher whose speech impediment must have been a difficult burden to bear since every "s" was rendered as an "sh".  She would begin every class by saying "Take your sheatsh" (Take your seats), since the normal "sit down" would have cracked the class up.  In hindsight, I have to admire her tenacity in teaching a difficult subject to a difficult audience, all the while dodging potential malapropisms.

Bryan Towery, LHS ‘66, "I'd like to thank John very much for sharing those wonderful memories of the very early days we experience at Lee.  And special thanks to Tommy for being in a position for those memories to be shared.  John mentioned several of our early mentors of that day.  The memory that sticks with me today is that of Miss Elizabeth Monroe.  When I first encountered her, I really wasn't sure what I was experiencing but by the time that first school year had ended I had come to admire her intelligence, sincerity  and obvious devotion to Literature. I never had much contact with her past that first year but would love to be able to sit and discourse with her today."