I Am a Huntsvillian

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

In 2004 I proceeded to write a group of short stories about growing up in Huntsville. Although I had alread written my first book "A Million Tomorrows...Memories of the Class of '64", this collection, entitled "While Our Hearts Were Young Vol. I"  was originally used as a test-bed for a local book publisher I wanted to try out. In an effort to appeal to a varied group of readers, one of the stories included in the book is the one that follows. At the time, it was just a collection of memories of growing up in Huntsville.

I Am a Huntsvillian

Now just because I was born in Huntsville doesn’t automatically make me a true “Huntsvillian.” It’s a good start I must admit, but there are many people who walk the streets of this quaint Southern town today that were not born in Huntsville, Alabama, but still consider themselves Huntsvillians.

Well then, just what the Sam Hill is a Huntsvillian you may ask? To approach this complicated subject, you have to accept the idea that for many people over the years there has been several things that define that status.  I am sure that many of the old mill workers would argue that I cannot make that claim, because I did not pay the dues they did to aid this city’s history. However, I am but one of many who was born and grew up in the small town that has boomed over the last half-century.  My generation remembers paying a dime to ride the green and white city buses that the city always seemed to buy used from Atlanta, or walking to town on Saturdays to go to the Lyric or Grand Theatres. We remember the ole’ Southern looking granite courthouse and its proud Confederate soldier standing atop a monument on its lawn, long before the grand building was replaced by the glass and metal new one, and the world of political correctness made being proud of our ancestors a cause of concern. 

We remember the sound and vibrations of the rocket engines being tested at Redstone Arsenal. I remember how the dishes in the cupboard would rattle as the mighty rocket engines roared on the test stands miles away, and knowing that the shaking was not being caused by an earthquake only because we did not live in California. 

I remember when we had a telephone with no dial but had an operator instead who talked to us, and how my family shared a party line with an unknown family somewhere in our neighborhood. When we first started the new telephone system, our number was “Jefferson 4-2656” and then later it was shortened to “JE 4-2656” which finally settled as just “534-2656”, I guess when Jefferson was put out to pasture.  I grew up knowing that “47” on a car’s license stood for “Madison County” because it was the 47th county in Alabama in alphabetical order, after the “1”, “2”, and “3” were reserved for the cities with the largest populations. I even remember watching Benny Carl when we could only receive TV stations from Nashville or Birmingham, and only then with poor reception.

But those are not unique things and many of the older crowd remembers them. There are other items just as memorable and that are just as deep-rooted to today’s generation of Huntsvillians. I believe that in this wonderful city nestled in the loving arms of Monte Sano Mountain, there remains many universal truths for all generations to share. Even many of the rocket scientists and their families who came here from Germany with Von Braun arrived early enough in their lives to feel like they belong to Huntsville more than anywhere else in the world.

There are a lot of simple things that help define that status. These are things that just make us feel at home and at peace with the world when we are there. It can be simple things like knowing that no matter how crazy life gets, calmness and serenity can be found by a slow drive up Bankhead Parkway, and by enjoying the peaceful sway of the road’s bends and curves and the flashing of light and darkness on the hood of the car as it dances in and out of the shadows of the trees that line the road. A true Huntsvillian even knows who Bankhead Parkway was named for.

Unlike people who live in other places in this country, a Huntsvillian knows there is only one mountain people speak of and that if someone says they are going up on the mountain you know they mean Monte Sano. He or she is a person who at one time or another has sat at one of the lookouts on the mountain, and followed the streets below, trying to navigate them to a friend’s or relative’s house with their finger. Most Huntsvillians have kissed someone at one of those lookouts.

A Huntsvillian is a person that has at one time in life slowed down their self-imposed hectic schedule enough to take off the shoes and socks and sit on the edge of the Big Spring canal and let the cold waters of the spring flow through bare toes, while watching the water plants calmly sway with the clear currents as the fish swim through them.

A Huntsvillian is a person that enjoys going to high school and rooting for the local teams as they continue the fierce tradition of contests with the rival schools across town, and knowing that no matter how good or bad a team is, there is always next year.

A Huntsvillian is someone who at one time or another has sat at the bottom of Upside-Down Hill, turned off the car’s engine, and marveled at the mystery of how the car slowing began its roll – up the hill. Old timers have become the keepers of the secret of this Holy Grail of places and take pilgrims to view this miracle occur, since the signs that proclaim it have long ago been removed.

A Huntsvillian is a person who, even after all these years, still has pride in the Space Race and in the fact that it was our city, our friends, relatives, and neighbors that gave this country some of our proudest moments.

A Huntsvillian is a person who still loves living in the South - no matter how hot it gets, no matter how many tornado warnings sound, and no matter how big or how many mosquitoes attack on a summer’s eve.

A Huntsvillian loves the State of Alabama as well, and probably knows one of the two possible translations of the Indian words that gave this state its name.

A Huntsvillian is someone who welcomes the first cool evening of fall just as much as the first warm spring starlit night, and someone who can not only put up with the heat of the summer but still has eternal hope that this year might be the year that winter brings a White Christmas.

A Huntsvillian is one who thought the Memorial Parkway traffic moved too fast, and now cannot understand why anyone needs an Interstate that bypasses the city even more and has higher speed limits.

A Huntsvillian is someone who knows what it is like to do without, and how much hard work it takes to get ahead in an honest profession. Most Huntsvillians have at least one ancestor who worked in the mills and have heard their stories of how hard life was back in those days.

A Huntsvillian knows the best cafe in town to find a greasy hamburger or the best barbeque and where you can go to get the best cup of coffee and best piece of coconut pie or bowl of banana pudding.

A Huntsvillian has at least one ancestor buried in Maple Hill Cemetery, and understands what Decoration Day is all about, and why you still stop your car on the side of the road when you see a funeral procession coming from the other way.

And maybe it's true that a Huntsvillian has at one time or another called it "Huntspatch," but that same person grew up knowing that one of the dirtiest names you could call someone was "a Yankee!"

He or she may not have been around when the mills were running and the city was known as “The Watercress Capital of the World,” or when that title was replaced by “Rocket City,” but still has as much pride in this sleepy, little town in Northern Alabama as any of those New York, New York, citizens and would not trade residences with any of them.

Yes, I’m a Huntsvillian and do you know what else?  I’m darn proud to say it.

The Wayback Machine

Our classmate, Jim McBride, LHS '65, also remembered some things from growing up in Huntsville and wrote a song about those times.

Using Wikipedia to look up Jim McBride today, they state: "Jim McBride is an American country music songwriter. He has written six number one songs, ten top 10 singles, and eighteen top 40 singles. In 2017, McBride was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. McBride was born Jimmy Ray McBride in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 28, 1947. His parents were James Alvin and Helen Hillis McBride. His grandfather was a sharecropper in Alabama. McBride grew up listening to country music on WBHP with his mother. On Saturday nights, his entire family listened to the Grand Ole Opry. He attended Rison Elementary, and Lee Junior High, before graduating from Lee High School in 1965 " He has added more to that story since then I am sure.

In March 1983, the country band Alabama released Jim McBride's song, "Dixie Boy", on their album "The Closer You Get..." Although McBride's song was not a hit, the album stayed on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart for 206 weeks. It was also the Country Music Association's Album of the Year.

I was watching a repeat of the "Everwood" series on Prime Video and an episode came on that made me smile and also validated some of my past memories. Dr. Andy Brown, played by Treat Williams, walked into a room where his 11 year old daughter Delia was hosting a party and was shocked to find her and a boy kissing in a closet as part of a game they were playing called "Seven Minutes in Heaven." I thought it was ironic we just covered that a couple of issues back. I had no idea it was a well known game. I thought it was just one we played in Huntsville.

Rather than spending a lot of time working on the subject of First Dates, I will ask a simple question to see if any of you might be willing to participate in the idea. No names are required. 

LEE LUNCH BUNCH

Classes of ’64, ’65, ‘66

Thursday, April 24, 2025 11:00 a.m.

Carrabbas’s Italian Grill

(Upper parking deck at Parkway Place Mall)

Classmates from ‘64, ’65, and ’66, please mark your calendars for the next Lee Lunch Bunch. This begins the 15th year of our lunches together. This is also the 60th year from graduation for the Class of 1965. Hopefully, many of this group will be able to come on this date, share all of the latest from our daily lives, and have a good meal together.

Please do let me know if you are planning to come. I will need to let the manager know how many no later than a couple of days before. Thanks and hope to see you in April.

Patsy Hughes Oldroyd ‘65

304 Wellington Rd.

Athens, AL 35613

H (256) 232-7583

C (256) 432-3396

keithandpatsy@att.net

Last Week's Questions, Answers, And Comments

Joel Weinbaum, LHS ‘64, "Thank you for the historical connection of the Simon and Garfunkel song. I usually listen to music for the melody, and words, but rarely pursue the historical origin. I can remind that the song was used in the movie, "The Graduate," and tell that it relates back to ole merry North Yorkshire, English ancestral ground looking at my DNA. But music talent skipped me. As to the arrangement, credit is due where its earned."

Cecilia LeVan Watson, LHS ‘68, "I remember trying to read Canterbury Tales in high School.  My mom would drive me to The Mall to buy a little yellow book that simply explained the book.  My Southern brain could not wrap my mind around those (Old) English words."

Editor's Note: I believe Cecilia is talking about buying the Cliff Notes book. Do any of you remember buying or using these? There was another set of "Cheat" books that were also very popular. Do you remember them as well?