MEMORIES! - THE MEANING CHANGES WITH EACH YEAR OF OUR LIVES ~ Back in 1955 Dean Martin sang "Memories Are Made of This" - but for us in those days, those memories only went back a day or two. And then we were off making new memories to forget. Little did we realize then that those memories, like aging wine, become precious gems with each passing year.
The mother of my high school friend and classmate, Buck Locke, had the foresight to buy him a Sheffield High School yearbook for each of the four years he was in high school. Wow, what a treasure now. I have my Class of 1955 yearbook - but nothing to show those classmates who graduated before me. Effectively, in the yearbook memory world - they are lost forever.
In hindsight today, I wish I had a Sheffield High yearbook starting from when I was in the first grade. Why? Well, as we get older, all those people seem to get closer and closer to us in age. How many of your current friends today - graduated years before you, or years after you? But now they are just close friends who do not seem older or younger than you. Get the picture? With age, time differences shrink.
About 1990, my mom was in Helen Keller Hospital and I went home to be with her for a week. I spent each day with her, eating lunch in the hospital cafeteria. And I was amazed. The Shoals area of Alabama is not a large metropolitan area (praise God) and I could not understand why, in the cafeteria, I was not seeing at least a few people I knew. I searched the faces, but recognized no one. Where were all my friends and classmates? This went on for several days - eating in the cafeteria, searching all the faces of the white-hair people - and, nada, nothing, no one! What happened to all my classmates and friends?
Then, on the third day, it dawned on me: I was looking at the wrong generation. These white-hair faces I was searching - were the children of my classmates! When I finally had the proper perspective, voila!, there was Patsy Brocato, my classmate. And, as we were enjoying lunch together, Ralph Milam, another classmate joined us. Amazing what you can find - when you know where to look.
All that is to explain why I am sharing my 2016 Facebook dialogue below. Billy Bell graduated from Sheffield High several years before me - Molly (McCullough) Kelley was my Class of 1955 classmate (and girl friend) before her dad was transferred to Oak Ridge, Tennessee - and twins Carroll and Clay White were SHS-57 graduates. David Johnson was an SHS-68 graduate. Yet we all have one common feeling - we all see and love Sheffield, Alabama, as our hometown, a treasure which gets more beautiful and more valuable with each passing year.
So, now back to my Facebook dialogue from 2016:
Bill Gray - August 25, 2016: ~ MANY THANKS TO DAVID JOHNSON for posting this photo of my hometown, Sheffield, Alabama, today on Facebook. He has reminded me that I am so blessed by God to be a product of this wonderful city - and of the Shoals area of north Alabama.
As the old saying goes, "You can take the boy out of the South - but, you can't take the South out of the boy!" A really big "AMEN!" to that. Thank you, David. God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carroll White - August 25, 2016 at 5:47pm: Bill, What do you see missing is this 2016 photo? The Colbert Theater!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bill Gray - August 25, 2016 at 6:26pm: Hi Carroll, There are a number of things missing from our time. True, the Colbert Theater is gone. Also, on the right side of the 2016 photo, near this corner, was my favorite hang-out, the Pool Hall. Jimmy, who had a hunch back, ran the pool hall and was a great player. My biggest thrill was the evening I beat him shooting bank pool.
And, at my mom's promotion to glory and viewing in 1994, I found out that the lady who made the delicious hamburgers in the front cafe of the pool hall - was a good friend of my mom - and used to file reports on what her son, me, was doing. Can you believe it - a spy in our own pool room?
Also, not seen in the 2016 photo - the Liberty Super Market where I worked is gone. And, the Sheffield Hotel, later Sheffield Hospital, is now something else.
But, all in all, it is still home and I have to say it really looks nice. One thing which really stood out for me is how clean it looks. Someone is doing a great job, right Mayor Ian Sanford? God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carroll White - August 26, 2016 at 5:51am: Bill, The lady who made those good burgers was Nancy, don't remember her last name. Gene Lewis was the man's name that ran the Pool Room. Jimmy Gist I think was the owner. He also ran the projector at Park View Drive In Theater. Anyway I saw him come out of the projector room one night. On 4th and Main they had a heck of a watermelon battle one summer night. A man parked his melon truck in front of the Pharmacy, crossed the street, and went to the movie. The boys on the corner gave him about 15 minutes to make sure he didn't come out. I guess you know the rest of the story.
Bill Gray - August 26, 2016 at 6:20am: Hi Carroll, In 1994 when I saw Nancy at my mom's viewing I was surprised - for I had no idea she knew mom. Then when she told me how, back in the 1950s she had kept an eye on me for my mom - when I was at my second home, the pool hall. I was totally taken by surprise. All that time when I ate hamburgers at the pool hall - she never once mention knowing mom.
And, I mentioned beating Jimmy at bank pool. What actually happened was that, because he was such a good player he goofed off early in the game - and that gave me a chance. But, whatever - to beat Jimmy, even if he was not being serious - was a gold medal for me.
So many memorable people in Sheffield from our time. The couple who took over the pharmacy, I believe their names were Worley, or something similar - and on Friday nights they would push back the booths and let us dance to the jukebox. They were beautiful people.
And, the city let us have the basement of City Hall as a Youth Center in the evenings for gathering and dancing - very special.
Also, working at Liberty Super Market was special - in hindsight.
Then, there was my first job at 14, working as a car-hop at Mr. Lansdell's Drive-in Restaurant at the Montgomery Avenue fork between Sheffield and Tuscumbia - and the Friday night of that horrible semi-trailer truck and car crash which took five young lives. One was an SHS classmate a year or so older than me named Jerry. He and his younger brother lived on 26th Street just a block north of Bill "Snooky" Collins and his brother John (later learned the Collins boys are my cousins).
I was working at the Drive-in Restaurant that evening when many police cars and ambulances went flying south through the Y-intersection toward Tuscumbia (the accident happened on a narrow bridge south of Tuscumbia). We had no idea what was happening. Later someone came and told us of the accident - that the car Jerry was in was going too fast and had scraped the concrete siding on a narrow bridge, which turned it broadside into the path of the oncoming truck.
Another special memory was delivering the Birmingham News papers for Mrs. Savage. We folded our papers in the back room of the Trailways Bus Station - while listening to blues and R&B music from Baptist Bottom on the little radio as we folded.
So many wonderful memories of growing up in Sheffield and the Shoals - and I have only mentioned my high school years. My younger years were just as memorable.
Carroll, God truly blessed us when He made Sheffield our home town. God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carroll White - August 26, 2016 at 10:05am: Bill, Stanley Whorton and his wife took over the Sheffield Pharmacy. I remember Jerry in the accident. His brother, Neil, was my friend. Billy Blythe was in that wreck. Also a girl from Tuscumbia, her name was Barbara. She later married a guy that worked at Blankenship's Market with me. Her mouth was wired together for a long time. Billy's dad had Marvin's Hamburgers on Nashville across from the bus station. The Rexall Drug store across the street closed because the owner didn't want the teenagers dancing there. So everyone went across the street to the Sheffield Pharmacy. All his help later went to work for Mr. Whorton.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bill Gray - August 26, 2016 at 12:54pm: Hi Carroll, As I recall, the guy (an older guy) who was driving during the accident had such bad eyesight that he could not get a driver's license. And he was the only one to come out of the accident with no injuries.
They had gone to a girl's home south of Tuscumbia to pick her up - but her mom would not let her go with them that night. On the way back toward Tuscumbia, they had the accident. Don't you know that girl's mom was thankful she kept her daughter home that night?
The Whortons were exceptional people. They seemed to love young people. My classmate and friend, Gene Endfinger, worked there at the soda fountain. God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Clay White - August 26, 2016 at 1:13pm: Bill, about this same time Buster Smith, Johnny Williams, and Barbara George worked there.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Molly Kelley - August 26, 2016 at 5:06pm: Hasn't really changed that much -- such was my happy place.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Billy Bell - August 28, 2016 at 10:55am: I feel that same about my connection to Sheffield. Thanks for the reminder. Memories are firmly entrenched about that time in my life!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My question to you: Are YOU building your Treasure Chest of Memory? Are you preserving them? Are you doing the same thing for your children and grandchildren - giving them a Treasure Book of your life, and one for their lives, to cherish down through the years? Believe me, it is so worth the effort.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
The mother of my high school friend and classmate, Buck Locke, had the foresight to buy him a Sheffield High School yearbook for each of the four years he was in high school. Wow, what a treasure now. I have my Class of 1955 yearbook - but nothing to show those classmates who graduated before me. Effectively, in the yearbook memory world - they are lost forever.
In hindsight today, I wish I had a Sheffield High yearbook starting from when I was in the first grade. Why? Well, as we get older, all those people seem to get closer and closer to us in age. How many of your current friends today - graduated years before you, or years after you? But now they are just close friends who do not seem older or younger than you. Get the picture? With age, time differences shrink.
About 1990, my mom was in Helen Keller Hospital and I went home to be with her for a week. I spent each day with her, eating lunch in the hospital cafeteria. And I was amazed. The Shoals area of Alabama is not a large metropolitan area (praise God) and I could not understand why, in the cafeteria, I was not seeing at least a few people I knew. I searched the faces, but recognized no one. Where were all my friends and classmates? This went on for several days - eating in the cafeteria, searching all the faces of the white-hair people - and, nada, nothing, no one! What happened to all my classmates and friends?
Then, on the third day, it dawned on me: I was looking at the wrong generation. These white-hair faces I was searching - were the children of my classmates! When I finally had the proper perspective, voila!, there was Patsy Brocato, my classmate. And, as we were enjoying lunch together, Ralph Milam, another classmate joined us. Amazing what you can find - when you know where to look.
All that is to explain why I am sharing my 2016 Facebook dialogue below. Billy Bell graduated from Sheffield High several years before me - Molly (McCullough) Kelley was my Class of 1955 classmate (and girl friend) before her dad was transferred to Oak Ridge, Tennessee - and twins Carroll and Clay White were SHS-57 graduates. David Johnson was an SHS-68 graduate. Yet we all have one common feeling - we all see and love Sheffield, Alabama, as our hometown, a treasure which gets more beautiful and more valuable with each passing year.
So, now back to my Facebook dialogue from 2016:
Bill Gray - August 25, 2016: ~ MANY THANKS TO DAVID JOHNSON for posting this photo of my hometown, Sheffield, Alabama, today on Facebook. He has reminded me that I am so blessed by God to be a product of this wonderful city - and of the Shoals area of north Alabama.
As the old saying goes, "You can take the boy out of the South - but, you can't take the South out of the boy!" A really big "AMEN!" to that. Thank you, David. God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carroll White - August 25, 2016 at 5:47pm: Bill, What do you see missing is this 2016 photo? The Colbert Theater!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bill Gray - August 25, 2016 at 6:26pm: Hi Carroll, There are a number of things missing from our time. True, the Colbert Theater is gone. Also, on the right side of the 2016 photo, near this corner, was my favorite hang-out, the Pool Hall. Jimmy, who had a hunch back, ran the pool hall and was a great player. My biggest thrill was the evening I beat him shooting bank pool.
And, at my mom's promotion to glory and viewing in 1994, I found out that the lady who made the delicious hamburgers in the front cafe of the pool hall - was a good friend of my mom - and used to file reports on what her son, me, was doing. Can you believe it - a spy in our own pool room?
Also, not seen in the 2016 photo - the Liberty Super Market where I worked is gone. And, the Sheffield Hotel, later Sheffield Hospital, is now something else.
Note added later: I believe it may have been called the Shoals Hotel, not sure. But I just discovered a great web site with photos: "Explore Sheffield, Alabama, and more!" https://www.pinterest.com/pin/31877109840564933/
But, all in all, it is still home and I have to say it really looks nice. One thing which really stood out for me is how clean it looks. Someone is doing a great job, right Mayor Ian Sanford? God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carroll White - August 26, 2016 at 5:51am: Bill, The lady who made those good burgers was Nancy, don't remember her last name. Gene Lewis was the man's name that ran the Pool Room. Jimmy Gist I think was the owner. He also ran the projector at Park View Drive In Theater. Anyway I saw him come out of the projector room one night. On 4th and Main they had a heck of a watermelon battle one summer night. A man parked his melon truck in front of the Pharmacy, crossed the street, and went to the movie. The boys on the corner gave him about 15 minutes to make sure he didn't come out. I guess you know the rest of the story.
Bill Gray - August 26, 2016 at 6:20am: Hi Carroll, In 1994 when I saw Nancy at my mom's viewing I was surprised - for I had no idea she knew mom. Then when she told me how, back in the 1950s she had kept an eye on me for my mom - when I was at my second home, the pool hall. I was totally taken by surprise. All that time when I ate hamburgers at the pool hall - she never once mention knowing mom.
And, I mentioned beating Jimmy at bank pool. What actually happened was that, because he was such a good player he goofed off early in the game - and that gave me a chance. But, whatever - to beat Jimmy, even if he was not being serious - was a gold medal for me.
So many memorable people in Sheffield from our time. The couple who took over the pharmacy, I believe their names were Worley, or something similar - and on Friday nights they would push back the booths and let us dance to the jukebox. They were beautiful people.
Note added later: Stan & Jan Whorton were the folks who purchased the Sheffield Pharmacy during my SHS tenure - and they made it into a haven for we teens.
And, the city let us have the basement of City Hall as a Youth Center in the evenings for gathering and dancing - very special.
Also, working at Liberty Super Market was special - in hindsight.
Then, there was my first job at 14, working as a car-hop at Mr. Lansdell's Drive-in Restaurant at the Montgomery Avenue fork between Sheffield and Tuscumbia - and the Friday night of that horrible semi-trailer truck and car crash which took five young lives. One was an SHS classmate a year or so older than me named Jerry. He and his younger brother lived on 26th Street just a block north of Bill "Snooky" Collins and his brother John (later learned the Collins boys are my cousins).
Note added later: The restaurant was located where the Rite Aid Pharmacy sits today.
I was working at the Drive-in Restaurant that evening when many police cars and ambulances went flying south through the Y-intersection toward Tuscumbia (the accident happened on a narrow bridge south of Tuscumbia). We had no idea what was happening. Later someone came and told us of the accident - that the car Jerry was in was going too fast and had scraped the concrete siding on a narrow bridge, which turned it broadside into the path of the oncoming truck.
Another special memory was delivering the Birmingham News papers for Mrs. Savage. We folded our papers in the back room of the Trailways Bus Station - while listening to blues and R&B music from Baptist Bottom on the little radio as we folded.
So many wonderful memories of growing up in Sheffield and the Shoals - and I have only mentioned my high school years. My younger years were just as memorable.
Carroll, God truly blessed us when He made Sheffield our home town. God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Carroll White - August 26, 2016 at 10:05am: Bill, Stanley Whorton and his wife took over the Sheffield Pharmacy. I remember Jerry in the accident. His brother, Neil, was my friend. Billy Blythe was in that wreck. Also a girl from Tuscumbia, her name was Barbara. She later married a guy that worked at Blankenship's Market with me. Her mouth was wired together for a long time. Billy's dad had Marvin's Hamburgers on Nashville across from the bus station. The Rexall Drug store across the street closed because the owner didn't want the teenagers dancing there. So everyone went across the street to the Sheffield Pharmacy. All his help later went to work for Mr. Whorton.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bill Gray - August 26, 2016 at 12:54pm: Hi Carroll, As I recall, the guy (an older guy) who was driving during the accident had such bad eyesight that he could not get a driver's license. And he was the only one to come out of the accident with no injuries.
They had gone to a girl's home south of Tuscumbia to pick her up - but her mom would not let her go with them that night. On the way back toward Tuscumbia, they had the accident. Don't you know that girl's mom was thankful she kept her daughter home that night?
The Whortons were exceptional people. They seemed to love young people. My classmate and friend, Gene Endfinger, worked there at the soda fountain. God bless, Bill
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Clay White - August 26, 2016 at 1:13pm: Bill, about this same time Buster Smith, Johnny Williams, and Barbara George worked there.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Molly Kelley - August 26, 2016 at 5:06pm: Hasn't really changed that much -- such was my happy place.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Billy Bell - August 28, 2016 at 10:55am: I feel that same about my connection to Sheffield. Thanks for the reminder. Memories are firmly entrenched about that time in my life!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My question to you: Are YOU building your Treasure Chest of Memory? Are you preserving them? Are you doing the same thing for your children and grandchildren - giving them a Treasure Book of your life, and one for their lives, to cherish down through the years? Believe me, it is so worth the effort.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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