Gary Woodard:  

Life It was a wet and stormy night... I was born and raised in Hueytown, went to Hueytown Elementary School and then to Pittman Junior High School. Not the newest one, the old one by the foot ball stadium, the one with the oiled floors and stairs. The one with the cafeteria in the basement. Also on the first floor, south hallway was a hump in the floor, never did figure that one out. This was a great time for me, first motorcycle, girls with boobs, first date, first real kiss and whatever goes along with that, Pittman was the generator of many first. President Kennedy was killed while I was at Pittman and the civil rights movement began while I was there. My religious training got me 50 pushups in a social studies class when I stuck to my idea that Ham was cursed for laughing at his naked, drunk father, Noah. Ham was the beginning of the black race, cursed to be a servant to his other brothers. After Pittman I moved into the big league, Hueytown High School. Man, was I cool now, a high schooler. Like the seventh grade, the tenth grade at Hueytown had nothing to do with cool. Cool happened in the eleventh and twelth grades. I did have a couple of first though, first car and a parking spot, first social disobedience, a sitin to stop the first black students to Hueytown High School. And probably the closest I came to getting killed. It was Christmas break 1968 and several (7) of us were moving from a party in Fairfield Highlands to a party in Pleasant Grove (Fish). Coming down the hill to Warrior River Road was a challenge but add snow and it becomes a thrill ride, my little Fairlane hit the bottom found some ice and across Warrior River Road we went. If you remember, there was a fairly deep canal on the west side of Warrior River Road? my little Fairlane rolled over on it's side, just before going over and flopped back on all fours. When my dad and grandad went with me the next day to pick up my Fairlane, the passenger side wheels and tires had to be replaced, my new P-Coat had been used as an 'air sick bag' and the number of beer cans next to the Fairlane was hard to explain. But we did live through it and I graduated in 1970. Yeah, yeah I was suppose to graduate in 1969 but those pesky credits were just too elusive and besides my draft number in 1969 was 52!, I had just turned 18 and the Tet Offensive happened that year. So someone was watching out for me, in 1970 when I graduated my draft number was 316 and I played that number in the military draft. During high school I had found my true love and we were married in June of 1970. Pat was from Jones Valley and we have been together the whole time. I knew that I was going to need some training to get out of Southern Slag, so I started Bessemer Tech for a Electronics certificate. Went there for two years and worked at Brown's Service Funeral Home in Bessemer. While there I saw three high school friends come through, Jack Jones was the worst. While working at the funeral home and attending Bessemer Tech, we saw a news report about the three cities with the best economies in the nation, Houston, Baton Rouge and Orlando. Tommy Morrow and I advised our new wives that we were going to one of them and stopped at the Pitt Grill in Bessemer to decide which one. Through scientific methodolgy we decided on Orlando, have you ever tried to chose something based on a coin toss, it isn't as easy as it sounds! So with about $20 between us and a Standard Oil Card to our credit off we went in my 1968 Camaro with no ac. Our first stop was in Ocala and we discussd staying there but destiny prevailed and we drove in to Orlando. Once there/h...Expand for more