Comments written in the beginning

NOTE: I came across these comments from the first year the website was first begun ... when we first began writing about Radium ... and then as it evolved into the Albany High Times, and felt I should have their own page ... they are special! They are arranged by date submitted ... beginning in April 2002!!!

B.B. Rhodes (1952): The Radium article was in the Albany Herald and was an interview with Morgan Murphy about the book Skywater that he and Lamar Clifton wrote. I have a copy of the book and ifs really good. You can get a copy from Albany Bank and Trust. (A new bank in town / home owned). Take care B.B.

Taylor Harrison (1954): The latest is that the casino is to be torn down. Seems FEMA paid Manley for it & the next step calls for tearing it down. Hopefully, still in the air, but doesn’t look good for the home team.

Beverly Smith (1955): When we first moved to Albany from Jacksonville, Florida in November of 1948, we lived in the Magnolia Apartments straight east from Radium. There was a flood that fall/winter that prohibited going into McIntosh Elementary School ... you couldn’t get across the Flint River into town; and though Radium was flooded too, I didn’t have a clue what that meant! But I certainly found out ... for Radium was the "ground of bonding" for me. In the summer it was Mother’s baby sitter ... and every summer I went nearly every day. My closest group of girlfriends ... Sydnor Peacock, Sara Cordell, Mary Jane Cook and Roxana Speight ... were there most days with me! And I have pictures ... black and white of course to prove it! We turned our little bodies brown as nuts with baby oil and iodine. And even though I had incredible naturally blonde hair at that time, in went the lemon juice to make it lighter! We wore bathing suits brand-named Jantzen’s, Catalina’s, and Rose Marie’s and we drank wonderful icy co-colas in little green bottles! We sun bathed in the little area just to the right of the grand stairway! And yes ... dancing in The Pavilion was dancing the best way ... mostly jitterbug and that wonderful "slow" dancing! I was afraid of heights, so the high dive and the big slide were not for me! And I really was not crazy about the cold water either, but one December 31^st at midnight some of us simply got crazy and jumped in the water from the concrete wall! I remember I forgot I was wearing a brand new watch! I rescued it with my hair dryer later that night!

A group of Juniors "sponsored" the Junior-Senior dances and I was dating Terry Coleman the year I was a sponsor ... unfortunately he played drums in Ray Ragsdale’s "Baron’s". Frankly I wasn’t impressed at all, especially with the fact that if he was my date that night, I would have no one to dance with!!! So ... we broke up (HOW SHALLOW OF ME) and John Huie was kind enough to escort me! But Terry did a beautiful thing ... Annie Jean Pridgen, who was also a sponsor, did not have a date. She asked Terry if he would be her date so she could be listed in the newspaper as having an escort. HE DID THE BIG TH1NG ... HE SAID YES!!!

I also remember the Junior-Senior picnic my Senior year ... especially the relays!!!! Somehow Suzy Whittaker and I ended up as the 2 girls on one relay team ... that was a huge mistake for all the rest of the teams! We just happened to be the 2 fastest runners in the school, and our team finished before the others even got started!!

Clementine Wiggins (1957): Great memories! The Junior-Senior you mentioned would have been when I was a freshman at the old Albany High. I got to attend one year at that school and am so glad that I did. Were you there the year Bubba Pippin turned the turtles loose? His father had drained a pond on their farm and Bubba broke in the school with the turtles and put them in lockers, teachers' desks and all over. Remember the black janitor that we all loved. He sang "Sixteen Tons" one day on the intercom for us in the new school. Anyway, he said he heard these scratching, scratching sounds and he looked down the hall and there were all these "terrapins" coming down the hall. Of course, Mr. Mc knew right away who had done it. Anyway, back to the Junior-Senior that year. Sam and I had just started going together. He had been going with Jean Hunter and had already asked her to the prom. She didn't let him out of his commitment which was understandable so I didn't get to go with him. We didn't manage to go to one Jr-Sr the whole time we were dating. We went together and broke up so many times, I guess we hold a record. I just remembered Radium was also the site for the Cotton Ball. I also remember the powder-puff football game. I have always regretted that I didn't play in it.

Beverly Smith (1955): Cleme - So many goodies in your letter!!! I do remember the turtle story - although I don't remember seeing the sight of them! Bubba was about 2 or 3 years ahead of me. Poor Mr. Mac! We used to sneak over to the little eating place catty-cornered (now what does that actually mean? *according to Ted Cahill and Mr. Webster ~ cater-corner: on a diagonal line) from the old high school. I don't know exactly what it was - I think just a soda/burger place - they had a counter with stools. Anyway - they had the best hamburgers I have ever eaten - and a bunch of us were over there eating when the owners saw Mr. Mac coming and stuffed all of us into both the men's and the women's bathrooms - I remember standing on the toilet!!! Mr. Mac was sure he had us - but we were nowhere in sight!!! Scared us to death!

I do NOT remember the janitor - can't believe it if he sang "16 Tons"!!!

And speaking of Suzy ... she and I were on the Glamazon's the first year Albany High played powder puff football. She was right half back and I was left. We won the game 18 - 0 using the same play - "The Suzy Sweep"!!! With me running ahead of her and blocking her sweep - it was all over for the Pin Ups!!! So - here's a bit of trivia ... do you know who started Powder Puff Football at Albany High? ... 'twas moi!!! I read about it when I was in Florida the summer of ‘54 and thought it would be a great money raising project for the Tri Hi Y - Miss Plant thought I had lost my last brain - but she was a good sport and got in the swing of things. Back in 1954 we made over $500 with that project, which was quite a bit of money! So many WONDERFUL memories!!!

Clementine Wiggins (1957): I appreciated hearing from B.B. I remember your pretty sister, Sharon and Sonny Spies. Sonny and I went to St. Teresa's together when we were little 'uns. Our parents knew each other and I went boat riding with them several times out at Turtle Hill.

B.B. Rhodes (1952): I remember Cleme Wiggins and I bet she remembers B.B. as one of Motie’s older friends. As we get older we wonder what happened to people - where are they - what are they doing, etc. I also remember Radium Springs, being a life guard, diving in the boil, our Jr. Sr. picnic and winning the swimming race, dancing and skinny dipping in the springs when no one was looking. I also remember gigging ells in the creek and selling them to blacks in Harlem.

Tommy Pattison (1954): I think the name of the burger joint catty-corner from the school was called The Campus if my mind is working at all.

DAP Page and Harriet Ort taught Bobby Pitts and me how to jitterbug in the Pavilion at Radium. Of course Annie Jean Pridgen was there also. Those gals use to ride with me to school just about every day. It's hard to believe only one person that I just mentioned is still living, Harriet. That's sad.

I remember the year I was a senior (I think) a pep rally was held at the Pig 'n Whistle one Thursday night. All the cheerleaders were on the tops of cars leading the cheers. I just remember that that was a fun night.

I remember the turtle incident. Do you remember when Bill Sanders smeared the Limburger Cheese under the desks in Mrs. Juhan's room. Bill, Liebe Briggs, Bobby Pitts and I all worked at Gause's Super Market on Slappey. We all dared Bill to do it and when we got to school on Monday morning you could smell that foul smell at the south end second floor. I also remember someone putting a dead cat in a vacant locker upstairs and locking it. It took a few days for the janitors to find it. I also remember some guy throwing a cherry bomb in one of the toilets in the boys restroom and the blast broke the toilet at the base. The blast just lifted it up and sat it down hard.

Robert (Bob) Gotsch (1952): Remember The Drifters, The Platters, Work With Me Annie, Sixty Minute Man, Dig These Blues by the Four Clefs, Drinkin Wine Spootie Ootie by Sticks McGee (I had to add these to my collection for old time sake); Bill Bowick on the morning WALB radio show while you got ready for school and Walter Flint on WGPC in the afternoon with Recordially Yours with the theme song of "Sunny Side of the Street" by Tommy Dorsey? Mary Dale Vansant being afternoon DJ playing dedications for the AHS crowd; "Gooch" Harper and BB Rhodes as the first guy cheerleaders; Katy Sue as THE Majorette; AHS winning the South GA championship by beating Richmond High and the sensational Johnny Menger (he later played for Tech) by the penetration system, and then losing to Murphy High of Atlanta, home of the sensational Betsy Tant, who I met a few years later when I was at Tech: the girls basketball team starring Allison Christian playing half court offense/defense; How about "Hambone" Hamilton going to U of FL, Cleve Wester to Auburn, Tony Cushenberry, Goo Goo, Harold Dean, Cleve Clark to GA; Tommy Mansfield and Archie Cobb to Tech, and thinking AHS is a big time HS football factory; finally finding out that "Bubba" Pippen's REAL first name was "Mangum" and knowing why he wanted to be called "Bubba". The same about "Sula" Moore ... I never met anyone whose first name was "Ursula" other then Ursula Andress. And how many of you know that "Ducky" Jones real name was Helen. How about the girls known as the "Sexy Seven" ... gang boss Sandra kicked out Mary and changed the name to the "Sweet Six". Trivia, name the members of Sweet Six or Sexy Seven;

How bout hanging out at lunch time on the steps of AHS checking out the gang smokin' and jokin' in the cars; remember Nine Fingers and Glen Chapman giving boogie woogie concerts on the stage of the auditorium at lunch to a great appreciative group of music lovers; how about the Glee Club Trip to ABAC in Tifton and Tommy Pattison singing "A hooya, hooya, hooya ya, swiftly running waters"; what about Kid's Day with Bob and James Mason as two kids rowing a boat and Bebbie Dobbins accusing us of acting drunk; can you ever forget Joe Wallis in the MacBeth play stating the classic lines "To horse". And Joe Wallis always seemed a head taller then the rest of us in high school. I was surprised at our 25th reunion when I was finally as tall as Joe and looked him in the eye and said " I think you must have shrunk some, because we're the same height now. What about the belt line we ran through as Frosh for initiation into being a real AHS'er, and seeing all of the broken belts on the ground afterwards. Remember the old gym and the fabulous Friday morning pep rallies with Barbara Lipsey leading the cheerleaders through their paces, and the sock hops in the gym after the basketball games. Coach Bernie Reed, Coach Pat, Jack O'Brien, Physics prof Jack Williams talking GA Tech during fall class, telling us of going to the Tech/Ole Miss Sugar Bowl, and how nasty the Ole Miss fans were. And then leaving AHS the next year after marrying Patsy Ray;

How can you ever forget the Confederate hat and shirt craze where we bought army fatigue hats and shirts from a surplus store and had Mom sew a Confederate flag on each; the craze disappeared as soon as it started when every one became "in" with the outfit, so it became "out" since everyone was "in". Date night at the Albany Theater on Friday and always lookin' around to see who was with whom; Alex Freeman playing his saxophone at the "C" Room in the New Albany hotel, hangin' out listening to the sounds with Adair, Charlie, and Buzzy Lamb, and thinking this was the epitome of sophistication. Otis Terry keeping us in endless laughter with his unique brand of humor; and good buddies Jack Griffin and Bobby Etheridge. Singing the fight song "Orange and green boys, we're gonna win" with a wiseguy always cracking "Why do we have orange and green boys"?

Robert (Bob) Gotsch (1953): I visited with Charlie Johnson and his bride in Chapel Hill, NC last January. Charlie is a chemistry prof at UNC. Charlie was an avid photographer in high school and he showed me many pictures I have never seen before. Among those were Jantzen shots of Sister Farkas, Georgia Neal Wolfe, and Mary Dale Vansant. They were classic. He also has pictures of Broad Street shot in 1953 from top of the C&S Bank building, and a shot of the Royal Ice Cream Shop on Pine and Jefferson across from the City Auditorium. Charlie is into digital and can email pix. YES, I remember Pizza Pie and Gargano's out at 5 points by the GA Drive-in. Who all was with us that night? Was it James Mason, Charlie & Adair? I'm still big on anchovy and sausage pizzas. I like the Tortinos which you can load up at home and heat up in the oven, and Um-Um Good.

This stuff is better e-traffic then e-jokes, of which I read, grin, and sometimes pass on, or zap.

Harriet Ort's reply was very nice. I haven't thought about Harriet since 1953, but I remember her and Sammy Mansfield, who also sent a reply and I haven't thought about him since1952. What is interesting, is I remember them as 16 years old. I probably wouldn't know them by sight now. Harriet mentioned Marlene (Kahn?). I believe Marlene went to Sophie Newcombe in New Orleans after AHS, but I never heard any more about her after that, which would be a cutoff of about 1959, if that is true.

Class of '53 had a 40th, but could never get it together for a 45th. Otis Terry, who lives in Martinez, GA, had intentions of organizing it. Jema Davis and Martha Daniels were some of the organizers of the 40th. Maybe it's time for a Golden Oldies Reunion with '53, '54, and '55. Annette Young, who married Archie Cobb, left Archie home since he was sick, and brought her adult daughter with her. Her daughter resembles Darryl Hannah, the girl who played the mermaid in the Tom Hanks movie a few years ago. I have pictures of '53 - 40th event and we'll put that on our list for show and tell at a later time.

Bob Gotsch (1953): Notice the keen crew cut with the greasy kid stuff to make it stand straight up. When I got to Tech I became a practitioner of the "natural look". Maybe that's why I am almost bald now. Greasy kid stuff made the hair follicles grow.

I am particularly proud of the tweed sport coat purchased at Johnson's (as in Proctor) Men’s Shop on Pine Avenue. Of course, Albany temperature never got less than 50 degrees, so the only opportunity to wear my tweed sport coat was for the senior picture.

It looks like Charles Johnson (1953) will put his AHS group and Albany 50's pix on his Internet page in the near future. He has digital camera shots from Europe and NC which are neat. These pictures are award winners in UNC faculty camera club competition taken on digital cameras. The Beta shots are some scenes from around his fraternity. ADAIR is prominent in one. These pix are great showing dress styles and the way we looked in the 50's. The pictures although 45 years old have not "aged" on the digital presentation and visually look fresh.

Joye Thomas Hadarits (1954): I remember the turtle caper and it was hilarious and everybody thought my twin Jack Thomas had something to do with it as he always seemed to be in the spot where trouble was. I am so thankful for all the wonderful memories and were we not the most blessed people to live at that time?

Beverly Smith Zacharias (1955): On Saturday morning (6/8/02), after the 1952 50th Friday night function, I stopped by for a wonderful visit with Marlene Kahn Land. What a great gal … then and now! Then I drove to the newest) AHS site to take a snapshot of the building, since I needed a good one for our webpage. Last time I drove past the school it looked alarmingly seedy ... this time, I felt a lump in my throat ... it looked beautiful!

An attractive new sign at the front entrance and really lovely landscaping … special thanks to the current keepers of our school!!!

After taking a couple of shots, I decided to drive by Hugh Mills Stadium. I took a shot from the front … still nothing but an old gray stone edifice just sitting there like a lump. Then I wondered if there would be any way to get a shot of the football field where we watched Phillip, Cleve, Jerry and Jackie (the Clark brothers;, Don Braswell (our first All American); Billy Baumgartel, Cleve Wester, and Archie Cobb; my tackle boyfriends, Edgar Campbell, Hintz Barineau, and Alan McDowell; and that cutest of all fullbacks, #32 Godfrey Culbreath, who dated my sister Sharon Smith: and majorettes like Katie Sue Jordan, Pam Tyler, Ann Earl Mull, JoAnn Ford and the Albany Marching Band (who sometimes marched in the dark while the majorettes twirled batons of fire - I did LOVE that opportunity (smile)!!!).

Goodness knows, I wanted so much to be a cheerleader, but Wayne Kennedy beat me out. Other cheerleaders were Gooch Harper and the girls, Carol Houston, Jo Wright, DAP, Lynn Ventulette and others … the girls in green corduroy circular skirts practically to the ground, with prissy little white blouses, vests and saddle oxfords. And then there we were … the students in the bleachers, with crazy Bill Rorer standing and yelling, "charge" in response to the trumpet blare … and we actually dressed up to watch our football games. Not one pair of dungarees, Levis or blue jeans could be seen on the nights our boys played ... but we did wear them with our Daddy's white shirts to the bon-fire pep rallies on Thursday nights.

And of course, this field held the first game of PowderPuff Football in Georgia, sponsored by Thelma Plant and Tri-Hi-Y, (Suzie Whitaker and I were Co-Captains of the winning Pin-Up's)! For this game, we DID don a pair of blue jeans, topped with the jerseys and shoulder pads of our favorite AHS football player (I wore Edgar Campbell's). Some of the "prissy lady" players were concerned about their feminine properties being crushed by the shoulder pads … I suggested strategically placed falsies … and so we played "tag" football ... that is, until the Glamazon's became increasingly frustrated at the thought of the game ending at 18 - Zip! … and suddenly it was free-for-all "tackle" football! What a night!

As these many visions twirled in my head, I could find no entrance onto this "field of memories" to take my picture.

SO …. I PUNTED!!! I found stairs that elevated me over the entrance, and through steel beams I took pictures of … "where we were" … when we made forever memories of "the way we were." I'd say we were incredibly virginic and incredibly fortunate!!! Wouldn't you???

Pam Tyler Johnston (1955): Please add me to your address book. I really enjoyed reading the memories. I am not really a computer person, but Proc & I hack around a little bit

Tommy Herrington (1956): The post that held that sign was of special interest to me. It was where I had to park.

I was blessed with the fact that my parents had "inherited" an old 1941 Dodge with "fluid drive." It had running boards and a radio.

It was a manual shift (steering column), but because of the fluid drive, you could just leave it in third gear and it would slowly get up to speed when starting out - a good thing for one-armed drivers, but not too good when you parked it on a slope - the parking brake was burned out, and the thing would roll when parked because the fluid drive did not hold the car still as normal manual transmissions would do...

So, due to the slight slope of the "Bear's" parking lot, I had to pull up close to the sign and turn my wheels so that when I turned the engine off, the car would gently roll into the sign, allowing the running board to make contact with the post. As such, I was anchored in place. BUT, there was one thing that had to be remembered - ALWAYS pull forward AWAY from the sign when you were leaving!

One fine night, my date (June Webb) and myself were enjoying ourselves with some shakes at the Bear. We saw George Harmon and Betty Black make a turn off of Oglethorpe onto Slappey, heading south.

We were expecting them to show up, and I had parked facing Slappey (anchored to the sign) so that we could look for them. But, since they did not turn into the Bear, It seemed prudent that we go follow them to see what they were up to. (Billy B. would have a blast with that last sentence.)

I cranked up, shifted to low (reserved for those times when you needed to go faster than "fluid third"), hit the gas, and pulled forward towards Slappey.

It was amazing how the sound of the rear fender's crumpling against the sign post sounded..... It seemed that the post was a bit stronger than the material which made up the fender, and the post won the contest - probably a blessing, because if the fender had won, the whole sign might have become an instant hood ornament .... (Just imagine, a revolving bear decorating the hood.)

Needless to say, I forgot all about following George.

My father was very calm when I reported in that night. I, of course, readily agreed to pay for the repair and repainting, etc. He just said that we would worry about it in the morning and to get on to bed.

The car had been blue, with matching blue wheels. The fender was pounded out. Even got the parking brake replaced. The whole car was repainted light green.

But, the guy who did the work forgot to paint the wheels. It goes without saying that I was the only hip person in Albany driving a light green car with dark blue wheels.

My father never said anything further about my mishap. He was a very understanding person. But, I knew that every time he looked at that car in the driveway that he must have gritted his teeth a bit. I know I did....

Adair Mellichamp (1954): Must tell you that I have enjoyed the web page and the sharing of memories from what must seem to all of us a unique and somewhat distant past. Maybe only Bob Gotsch has it all captured in total recall, although you do quite well.

Charles Johnson and I have kept in touch over the years, both of us are still active in higher education, and we have remained good friends. Through him, and his family in Albany, I have enjoyed links to others in the AHS group from time to time. But we are pretty isolated here in Santa Barbara, our home for the nearly 36 years that I have been on the faculty of the Univ. of California.

Charles has relayed some of the recent correspondence, and that prompted me to set up a special e-mail address just for the big anniversary. [My wife, family, and friends of long-standing (isn't that better than "old" friends) still call me Adair, but I switched to my first name (Duncan) in graduate school and people might not make the connection to either of my addresses that leave out even an initial as link to a former identity.]

Buster Wasden (1955): I had the occasion last night to visit with Lawson Vann, Fred Sumpter, and Henry Duggan (the one on your website) and I told them about the AHS website. They were excited. I gave them your e mail address and the address of the website. Probably, you will hear from them....

Charles Johnson (1954): I have enjoyed the emails and your web site. The only people I have kept up with from AHS days are Robert Gotsch and Adair Mellichamp, and all the names you mention really stretch my memories. I do still visit my parents in Albany, and my sister is there.

You may remember that I was a serious photographer in high school, and I have hundreds of negatives and slides from 1950-1954. (A few of them appear in the 1954 annual) The better ones have been scanned, and I intend to put a number of them up on my recently initiated web page. Probably, I will separate them into the following galleries:

Albany and Radium
AHS-general (campus scenes, classrooms, teachers)
AHS-girls
AHS-sports
AHS-Prom pictures (added later)

I also have a large number of photographs that I took (of people I don't remember) for the Diversified Education Program and photographs of couples at the Junior-Senior Prom (53 - 54). I do not plan to exhibit these. [Editor's note: but he did!] I am still working fulltime, and so this project is going slowly. But, I will probably start constructing the galleries in the next few weeks.

Buster Wasden (1955): Its really a small world isn't it. I was walking today with Janice Hayes McLendon and she told me that you had a website for Albany High......I accidentally found it. It's really good to see your smiling face....Don't you miss the good old days at AHS when all we had to worry about was who we would be dating next? Take care ....

Sammy Mansfield (1955): In the sixth grade, I lived with cousin Wilson Joiner on the corner of sixth and Slappey, right next door to Jackie and Jerry Clark. Toby Ivey lived behind us. You walked across the vacant lot across the street where we played baseball to get to where Buddy Helms lived. Dickey Freeman lived two blocks yonder way. Frank and David Orgel lived a little ways down Slappey Drive.

Wallace Hawks was right over there on Slappey. We were the first to attend Palmyra, having spent the summer climbing all over the site as it was being constructed. Stuff like that fascinates young boys.

I dearly loved Willie Powell. She was a friend of Wilson's father, Uncle Red, and from time to time Uncle Red would call Miss Powell and ask that Wilson and I be excused so we could go fishing. You gotta love a lady like that. And an uncle like that.

About school itself I only remember that Dickey Freeman broke a boy's leg while playing.

The father of a friend of mine, Jimmy Poppell, came to get him from class and Jimmy told me "Oh boy! We're going to see Mommy", who was hospitalized. The tearful teacher told us later that she had died. I never saw Jimmy again but I remember.

And that was also where I first met a dear female friend, not a girl friend, a dear female friend. Even better. Lasts longer and is irreplaceable. Sydnor Peacock, I'm glad I don't have to try to explain to Bev. She knows better than I do.

Beverly Smith Zacharias (1955): I did not attend Palmyra Elementary, but my sisters Sharon and Tina did - I went to McIntosh from December 1948 when we first moved to Albany to the end of that school year - we first lived at Magnolia Apartments down that road that dead-ends into Radium to the east. Then we built our home on Orchard Drive and moved there in 1950 - by that time I was attending the old Albany Jr. High! So I have no memories of that school except through my sisters! And I DO have a memory!!!

When I was a Junior, my mother went to "work" outside our home, and my task to help out was to cook dinner every night - which I loved doing and still do to this day! We had a black 50 Ford, and Mother and Daddy, who were extremely strict as to when I could wear lipstick or high heels or for goodness sake DATE Taylor Harrison, ... let me start driving by myself at 14 TO RUN ERRANDS FOR THEM!!! They always taught us to drive when we were 11 for some reason. Of course I not only ran their errands, I bopped around all over the place! But back to the memory ... one night when I was cooking dinner, I needed to go pick up sister Tina from Palmyra Elementary - she was somehow incapacitated and couldn't walk home. Sharon was 13 at the time and was at home with me ... and available! I was in the middle of preparing dinner when it came time to go pick up Tina - so I told Sharon to drive over to Palmyra and get her!!! Sharon was so tiny its a wonder she could see over the steering wheel!!! AND GREAT GOOGAMOOGA - guess who came home before Sharon got back???? My parents were furious! But heck - they are the ones that started it!

Tom Herrington (1956): When we were growing up, it was a much simpler time.

Until about the sixth grade.

I can still vaguely remember that at that point in our lives we were subjected to lectures with the appropriate slides and 16 mm black and white movies being shown of various functions of the body, including the "facts of life." These lectures took place in the dining room.

The school would split us up into boys and girls groups as we were presented these lectures, and the girls always went first....

While the girls were in the cafeteria having their knowledge "expanded," the boys had to wait with dread, knowing that the girls would now be smarter than them for a while.

One of the sessions made me give up eating for weeks.

It was on the importance of chewing one's food properly. Of course, it was appropriately pointed out that that if one did not chew one's food properly, the required steps of digestion could not take place, and one would not obtain all the necessary vitamins and nutrients that one required for proper growth, etc.

As I remember, that presentation was given shortly before lunch.

They were rather explicit in showing the ways that food should, or should not, be chewed. After the person on the screen was shown chewing in one of several different ways for several different lengths of time, the food was then regurgitated on a lab dish for examination so as to show how well (or how poorly) the substance had been processed by the teeth and saliva.

Needless to say, nobody asked for seconds that day at lunch.

My mother began to really worry about me. I stopped eating, and lost about twenty pounds before I could start again on some ice cream and cookies....

One of the other sessions was on the reasons why little boys and girls should never touch each other....

During the lecture, they never came out and said exactly how the transference of the various forms of maladies took place, leaving one's imagination to run wild for a while. They focused on the results thereof. The verbalizations were enough to make one lose sleep for months. The pictures caused instant fear, and made one wonder why they were born into such a horrible world. I won't get into the specifics, but they were about the various types of "social diseases" and what the results of each was.

A lengthy series of pictures of sores, swollen glands, disfigured limbs and people who had lost their minds sealed the deal for me. I decided (as did many of others - and ALL of the girls who went first) that I would go home and hide from all of man kind the rest of my life.

At the end of this session, our Principal, Willie Powell, the stern members of the teaching staff, and the rather smug guest speaker admonished us that the only way to keep ourselves from being destroyed by these terrible happenings was to be ABSTINENT for the rest of our natural lives....

Our social lives were ruined, and learning how to interact with each other was destroyed.

Naturally the girls had gone first, and as they came back to class, they all huddled together in the back of the room with looks of fear on their faces. I felt the chill of death run up my spinal cord.

The boys had their lecture shortly before lunch. Needless to say, nobody asked for seconds, and I lost another twenty pounds.

I thought a lot about that "abstinent" thing. It did not seem to be much of a big deal at the time. So, I decided to do something about it. It caused me to have a rather retarded social life, and I did not start dating until well into my junior year of high school.

In reality, I guess the real reason I did not date much was because I had lost so much weight from lack of eating, none of the girls would have anything to do with such a spindly bag of bones....

But, I was true to my course, and except for the few times when I was caught off guard, I have been obstinate ever since .....

Jon Crawford (1954): Keep up the good work with the web site! For me it’s not only good to see the pictures and read comments from everyone, but also it’s especially great to see that you’ve been the catalyst for surfacing buddies who’ve been ‘out of pocket’ for awhile – right Adair, Charles, Ernie?

How many of us do you suppose are in the Atlanta area? We should try to have a little mini get together, huh?

Susan Riffe O'Neal (not quite Class of 1954): Tommy Pattison just gave me the address for your site which has taken me back 52 years. I moved from Albany during my freshman year at AHS, but went through grades one through eight with the class of 1954. How interesting to hear of classmates like Adair and Charles whom I last saw when we were in college in Atlanta. We have retired in Norfolk, Virginia, but lived close to Adair when my husband was Head of Flight Test at the Navy's Pacific Missile Test Center in Point Mugu, CA, and a colleague at Point Mugu of their Georgia Tech fraternity brother, Jim Hickerson. I don't think Jim knew that Adair was in Santa Barbara then either.

I grew up down the street from Charles on Slappey Drive which I remember mainly as a clay road kept smooth by the county road scraper. (We were one block outside the city limits.) Pecan trees on either side arched over the road and made it a leafy tunnel spring, summer, and fall.

We spent one night in Albany last summer. Driving down Slappey Drive was a terrible shock. I wasn't even sure where our house had been or what fast food establishment had displaced it. I was happy to find Broad Street School still standing, although no longer a school, and then locate the railroad station (now a museum but not open the day we were there), the old Carnegie Library, MacIntosh School, Albany Junior High, and Albany High in present day manifestations. Would have done more exploring, but, like Robert Frost, I had promises to keep and miles to go ... I have promised myself a longer return visit in the future. It was a good town to grow up in. I once described it, only half jokingly, as Norman Rockwell South. There is something to be said for that.

Tommy Greenstone (1954): I saw Taylor Harrison a few years ago, the last time I was in Albany. Actually, it was quite a few years ago. My daughter was in a swim meet, there and was quite young. Now, she is graduating from college in August. Time flies, when you're having fun.

Parmelee Ward is living in Blairsville. He and I have been best friends since kindergarten. I'm one of those people who make friends for life. Unfortunately, the same holds true for enemies.

I don't have any pictures, from that era, but am a reasonably good photographer, now a days. I'm enclosing one of my latest images. Hope you like it!