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SHARE YOUR MEMORIES You are sure to enjoy these fun memories shared by your West End High classsmates. We invite you to email us your memories of good times, funny situations, about friends or teachers, things that happened in and around West End, grade school, places you remember or whatever comes to mind. Some of the memories below were pulled from the Classmate Bio section. Be sure to visit Memory Lane for a photo tour of places we all remember from those good ol' days gone by! Memories are sorted by year, then alphabetically by classmate. Recent posts will be featured on at the top of the first page in green, then later sorted by year. ____________________________________________________________________________ BILL CANTRELL '59 This memory has stayed me with many years and will be appreciated by anyone who ever sat in Mrs. Baughan’s history class. She, like her husband, G.C., the chemistry teacher, was extremely demanding of her students. A friend of mine, who shall remain un-named, habitually came to class on Thursdays, ill-prepared. Mrs. Baughan, having noticed his Thursday morning shortcomings, asked him before the class, "R___, why are you seemingly not well-prepared on Thursdays? He replied that he had to attend prayer meetings at his church on Wednesday evenings and did not have enough time to both prepare the lengthy assignments and serve the Lord. Her reply was classic Baughan. She said, "R____, I’m sure you will make it to Heaven, but you are going to flunk history!” Also, I have never forgotten my first day in Mr. Baughan’s chemistry class. He introduced us to his class with these words. “You will make a 100 on every exam in this class, or you will get an F. However, you may take the exam as many times as you need.” And he meant it. He stayed after regular school-hours many times, re-testing and coaching and teaching us until we got it perfect. I learned about such things as midnight oil for the first time. I, like many others, did not appreciate what he did for us until taking chemistry in college. We literally did not have to study chemistry in college. We just attended class, kept up with the current topic, and took the exams, completing them in 30-45 minutes for an A, while others were still sitting there struggling 2 hours later. When I bumped into Mr. Baughan at the courthouse several years later, I thanked him for what he had done for us and he replied, “Bill … or John, whichever one you are … this is part of the great joy of teaching, to know that you are making an positive contribution to your students’ lives.” SONNY DEATON '59 I have fond memories of visits to Mr. Wood's (Uncle John) office and his saying," I know you boys did it, but I just can't prove it!" ART HARTLEY '59 Like many others, I remember Ms. Whaley and her peanut circus, Mr. Evans and his 'board of education', Ms. Draper and Ms. Walls from Speech and Ms Sophie Davis from Music. I remember Ms. Davis came to my home room and informed me that she had enrolled me in the choir (without me knowing) and that I would attend. She had me sing my first public solo. Today, along with pastoring a church, I do quite a bit of singing. I have written gospel songs that have been recorded by the Dixie Echoes and the Florida WMU. I suppose my most painful memory is when I heard that Scotty Harris, WEHS grad, had been shot down over Vietnam. Nothing more was heard about Scotty until nearly 20 years later when his bones were returned to the U.S. DOYAL AKERS '60 I remember that about 3 weeks before Chemistry 2 class was to start, Mr. Baughan advised our class that many of us were not prepared to advance to Chem 2. I think the cut was a strong B, but regardless it certainly cut the C I was proud of. His suggestion to us unprepared ones, was to simply repeat Chem 1 and that all we would need to do was attend class, participate and not take weekly tests; we would then be prepared to advance. He suggested that if we decided otherwise, we would probably fail Chem 2. Not much of a choice, so about half of our class repeated Chem 1, but during this time we came up with a plan ... we would simply take Chem 2 at Phillips summer school and be done with Mr. Baughan's Chem. I was glad that Nancy Spurrier was part of our gang because with Mrs. Spurrier's school influence, what could happen to us? Well, it all turned out very successful, but there were rumors that Mr. Baughan didn't want WEHS to honor the credit from Phillips because he had a firm agreement, a contract with us, to return to his Chem 2 class. I often recall this West End High experience. PATRICIA ALLEN '60 Does anyone remember when Tommy Scarbrough put pig eyeballs in Ms. Redfern’s aquarium (he really didn’t know that formaldehyde would kill fish)? I thought Ms. Redfern was going to have apoplexy, but those eyeballs entertained everyone for the whole day! How about Ms. Whaley and her peanuts lined up on the desk and named for students, then eating them when she called on you? What about Ms. Baughan's wart, which she (as a good Christian Scientist believing in mind over matter) adamantly refused to acknowledge as being on the side of her nose? And, of course, we, being teenagers of the '50’s, believed those stories about their marital arrangements and why Mr. Baughan rode a bicycle to work. LINDA BARNES '60 Some of you may remember stopping at the drugstore at Berney Points on the way home from school with the gang for a cherry coke or an iced bottle of Coke. Brenda Mitchell and I used to ride downtown on the streetcar to the Alabama theater to the Saturday morning movies or walk to the West End Theater. Pat Swindle and I enjoyed riding around in her VW convertible. I remember those Della Phi Delta dances, car washes and selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to raise money. There were the band trips, singing in the choir, football and basketball games, and United Nations Tour. Nancy Whitlow, do you remember us lugging around those extra suitcases we just had to pack for the UN Tour? STEVE BEASON '60 I recall that Ms. Baughan used to make you do a ballet if you were late to her class. With that in mind, on our last day in class, we all decided to wait in the hall and go in late. Well, we all got to do the ballet. She took the whole class down to the auditorium and we spent the entire class period balleting or whatever. Another was the time that someone put pig embryo eyes in the fish tank on Ms. Redferns' desk. And who can forget "zippy" Zander? CHARLIE MAYS '60 I remember that once in Mr. Evan’s electricity class, the door handle was wired to a Model T ignition coil to shock the office girls as they delivered the morning report. And the dime glued to the floor to see who would try to pick it up. In Physics, I once stood on 2 milk bottles with my hand on the top of the Van de Graf generator and my hair stood on end and the fluorescent lamp I held glowed. If my memory serves me correctly, Judy Crowe walked by and I shocked her on the butt. Based on what I learned in Chemistry, I once built a rocket (little did I know I had built a stick of dynamite with a short fuse). The “Creosote Plant” sawdust piles was our launch pad. We set-up the rocket and lit the fuse, but it went out. I climbed back over the sawdust pile and re-lit the fuse, causing a big explosion that blew me over. We found pieces of the “rocket” a half mile away. I have fond memories of Ms Davis and the chorus. BRENDA MITCHELL '60 I remember that there were teachers who made life long impressions. Some of the older teachers had "bat wings" on their arms that would flap back and forth when they wrote on the board. I said, "I'll never have arms like that." Never say Never. There was Miss Praytor, who had a rubber tree plant in her classroom. Some people said she thought it was her mother reincarnated. Really? One semester I had one of the Coaches, Short or Mitchell, for English (Shakespeare), but I love Shakespeare anyway. Go figure! And finally, I can't forget the enthusiasm and dedication that Ms. Sophia Davis always had for her music programs and students. I loved her! And by the way, speaking of love, Sue Mann said that she was so in love with Bailey Dickinson in high school. Well, I had first dibs on him in 2nd grade and I have a mushy letter to prove it! BARBARA ROBBINS '60 I remember the Delta Phi Delta sorority "galloping breakfasts", the band bus rides to football games and the sock-hops at Boutwell Auditorium after the games. I remember walking the railroad tracks to play softball at Woodward Park and Blessed Sacrament with Sara Jo Landman and Donna Tompkins and playing on the boxcars. I remember watching Dianne and Carlton Cook practice for hours with their dad on the tennis courts. My cousin, Linda Barnes, lived next door to me and we were always into something. She was prim and proper and I was the tomboy playing sports. I remember Bobby Stewart, my first "boyfriend" at Lee, who moved to TX and became one of the first astronauts to take an untethered walk in space. I have many fond memories of school days at WEHS. Continue to Our Memories Page 2, click here |
