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Our Memories - Page 1
Photos of West End High Prior to 2009 Demolition
WEH School Tour
2001
WEHS School Tour
2005
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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.
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