When we were young…Pickens County High, Reform,Al
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 26-06-2012
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It just seems like yesterday…..Joe DiMaggio marries Marilyn Monroe, President Eisenhower warns against US intervention in Vietnam, US explodes 15 megaton hydrogen bomb, From Here to Eternity wins Academy Awards and Pickens County High turned some of it’s students loose to face the world. We look ready, don’t we?…….Yes, your’s truly is in there..(Some of Alabama’s finest, if you ask me.) Photo from Jo Rogers Lawly via Don Spruill and Erroll Bonner to yours truly. As Marrying Sam I sported a bow tie…fancy, huh? Oh yeah, that’s me behind the wheel driving that thing…..
What a ragged bunch? I must be getting old because I don’t recognize half of them. If I should see them today, I probably would recognize even fewer of them. I wonder if I really want to go to another reunion of this bunch on August 3rd. My mind may be stretched to the point of no return as the reunion involves the classes of ’58, ’59, ’60, and ’61. I didn’t know those people very well when I was roped into sitting through eight hours of classes with them. I sure wouldn’t know many of them now. I’ll know Don Spruill and Bubba Wade, though. They look almost like their Dad’s. Pete looks about the same (without the bowtie) as he did except for growing a little wider. It’s okay! Football is our national past time. It’s okay to be shaped like one. The credit goes to all that delicious Hispanic food in New Mexico, I’m sure.
This is an interesting picture. I don’t recognize half the people in it, but it does bring back memories. The man in the white jacket in the background by the car certainly looks like Mr. Batchelor to me.
I do remember when the trunks of all the trees in that park were white washed (painted), but I really don’t know why. I was told that it was to prevent insect infestation, but that really didn’t make to much sense to me. Oh well! This is Reform. Did everything really have to make sense?
It’s and excellent memory-rousing picture of a bunch of hicks from the hick town of Reform. These are the sons of the “greatest generation”. The country reached a peak at the “greatest generation”, and it has been going downhill ever since.
Bobby Moss is sitting on the left front fender. Is that Gene McCool, forefront with hands in his pockets, looking on? I think it is, but am not sure.
That is Bobby Moss with the corn cob pipe. The boy on the ground in front does look like Gene McCool, but I believe that Don Spruill had identified him as someone else. I’ll check with him to find out. The boy standing on the ground to Bobby Moss’ left is Don Spruill. I believe the boy standing beside Don is Bobby Howard (with the hat). I am not sure about the blond haired boy in front of him (behind “Gene”). That is Bo Simpson on the right fender, isn’t it? I know the guy to Pete’s right, but I can’t remember his name.Don had the guy whose head is circled in the picture identified, but I can’t remember who he is at the moment.
I think Billy Crowder is on the right fender sitting. Jimmy Bogart is standing behind him and to my right. J. O. Puckett is the top most guy with the pipe. Lookin over my right shoulder is Owen Young. Behind him is Harold Reynolds and then Otis Vaughn. Bubba Wade is just behind Bobby Moss. The others, while I am sure I know them, slip my mind. Maybe some one else can help us with the rest of the guys.
It looks like you have pegged most of the guys who are riding. I had Bo simpson confused with Billy Crowder. I certainly thought that the guy to your right is Henry Helmers, but I didn’t know either Henry or Jimmy Bogart very well. You probably know best. I thought the guy to your right rear was Owen Young, but I wondered how Owen made it on the vehicle and a part of the elite. I always looked at Owen as a part of the younger crowd. I guess that is because he had to repeat so many grades (classes). Owen was somewhat on the dumb side.
The boy in the far right with his hands in his pockets, who looks like Gene McCool, is most likely Ray McCrary according to Don. If this was a color picture, I bet Ray’s red hair would make it obvious. I am not absolutely certain that the boy to Don’s left is Bobby Howard but I remember that Bobby Howard often wore military-type (bus driver type) hats alot. The blond-haired boy still has me buffaloed. It may be me, but I don’t remember the occasion. The picture was taken in 1954. I don’t remember being shorter than Don Spruill. It seems like we were about the same height. The blond-haired boy appears shorter in this picture. This must have been the year after Boyd Batchelor left his coaching job in Carrollton and began teaching (and assistent coaching) at PCHS with either H. C. Elmore or J. T. Elmore. I am thinking that the second guy behind Bubba Wade (with the black hair) to J. O. Puckett’s left might be my brother Cecil. Cecil may remember. I will ask him when I get the opportunity.
I disagree. I think Gene McCool is standing with hands in his pockets. That may be Ray behind him, but I would bet my last pay check, let me see, that was in 2009, and if there was any left, that it is Gene. Owen Lee Young was also a cousin,(his Mom was dad’s sister) sir, so watch out….You know that kin is wide spread in the south….Now, that’s a joke son, so don’t get touchy….Update…Well, now I don’t think that is Owen and Henry or James Strickland might be the one. James was very dark headed so you may be right is saying Henry Helmers. I don’t know.
There is another problem with the “hand in the pockets” boy being Gene McCool. This picture was taken in 1954. Don Spruill, Bobby Howard, and I were in the eighth grade. Gene McCool was two years behind us. That means that he was still in elementary school that year. You know! He was one of those “little bitty kids”. The powers that be didn’t usually turn the grammar school kids loose long enough for them to wonder away as far as the football field and the city park. They wouldn’t let them wander across the creek. They may not come back. For that reason, I don’t believe it is Gene. If you will notice, the “hand in the pockets” boy is the smallest and youngest looking character in the picture. Everyone in the picture is of junior high age and above. Boyd Batchelor is the only adult. The “hand in the pockets” boy may be Gene; but, if he is, then Gene went AWOL from school and got lost that day. I don’t believe that happened as much in the early Fifties as it did in the Sixties after integration and drugs came to town. After all, all pictured are the immediate sons of the Greatest Generation. Each and every one still had a glimmer of that greatness in their eyes. Each had too much ambition to go AWOL from school. We lost that “glimmer of greatness” in later years; but, then, we had it; and it was a great feeling. By the way, don’t worry about your last paycheck. I won’t claim it.
My mistake! The little boy just in front of Boyd Batchelor is either Warren Lee Batchelor or Otto Batchelor, probably Warren Lee since Ott would not have been that old in 1954. The kid to Don Spruill’s right (Bubba Wade’s left), who appears to be very interested in the old jalopy, is probably Sonny Batchelor. He is already looking it over to see if he can sale a State Farm Insurance policy on it. It is no wonder that Sonny has been so successful with State Farm. He started young.
The blond-haired kid behind the “hands-in-the-pocket” boy is Hitler Pate or Milton Pate. I don’t know if he had the nickname of “Hitler” at that time. I don’t believe I was there since I don’t remember the occasion.
I don’t recognize any of them. I am way to young!
:-)!
How ’bout your old Uncle? Does he look familiar? Probably not as I was already bald before you came into our lives….Thanks for the comments..