My Dad's "Health Studies" Book in High School

I was in Huntsville recently visiting mom and went through family memorabilia that included some old school and college textbooks belonging to my father, Amos J. Wright, Jr. I found this one published in 1932 among them and decided to take a closer look. Why? Who knows...one of my major interests is medical history, so there's that and a family connection....

First I did a bit of research on the authors. Interesting people turn up everywhere, don't they? F.M. Gregg wrote a number of books on health, hygiene, alcohol, tobacco and other topics, including "Practical Facts about Marihuana" published in 1939. In 1929 he published a study with two co-authors that attempted to determine if dogs, cats and raccoons are color blind. I have been unable so far to find anything else about him. 

Hugh Grant Rowell [1892-1963] also published books and articles on various health topics. In addition, Rowell collected circus ephemera and his collection was donated to the Somers Historical Society in New York State. He and his wife also collected antique clocks; those were donated to Dartmouth College from which he graduated in 1915. He received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1917. He was on the faculty at Columbia from 1923 until his retirement in 1943.

The book is more than 560 pages of text and an index. Topics range from bone and joint function, the skin, digestion, respiration and blood circulation to human behavior. One interesting chapter is "What Are the Effects of Narcotics and Drugs?" which probably reflects Gregg's influence.  Chapters also cover community waste disposal and the purity of water, ice and air. 

World Book Company was founded in Manila in 1905 and published English materials for schools in the Philippines. The firm eventually moved to New York City and in addition to book publishing became a vendor for such tests as the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT).  For ten years, from 1960 until 1970, the company was part of Harcourt, Brace and World educational publishers. In 1970 that business became known as Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich and the World name disappeared. The company is not related to World Book, Inc., which publishes a famous encyclopedia.

The final image here is the inside of the front cover. Dad's signature is there, along with a stamp of a business that offered such products as Zenith Radios and Westinghouse Refrigerators. I assume Ray Radio and Appliance Company, Inc., was located in Gadsden, although I've found nothing about it so far. Did they provide these texts to students?

Now that I've looked closer at this book, I'm not sure if dad used it at Etowah High School or in junior high. Perhaps further research in family memorabilia will turn up a report card to answer that question!

A revised edition of the book was issued in 1940. The WorldCat description labels it "juvenile literature."

Birmingham Photo of the Day (62): Enslen Building

Eugene F. Enslen, Jr. [1858-1941] was a Birmingham banker, real estate developer and elected official. This three story office building on 21st Street North had some other uses as well before being demolished in 1913. The Ridgely Apartments were constructed on the site; today that building is the Tutwiler Hotel.

In 1890 the Birmingham High School began operating in the building; previously classes had been held since 1883 in rented quarters nearby. In 1906 a high school building was finally constructed on 7th Avenue South. The reorganized Birmingham Public Library also operated in the building from 1891 until moving into the new city hall in 1903.  

A hotel operated in the Enslen building in its final years.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

A Brief History of Pelham High School Football

SEE updates at the end of this post.

            Supporters of football at Pelham High School were no doubt disappointed by the team’s 3-7 finish in the 2014 season. Yet that record has an historical connection; the school’s very first team also finished 3-7.

           Pelham High School opened in September 1974 and fielded its first football team two years later. The first game was played at Shelby County on Saturday, August 28. The schedule that year included several teams each from divisions 3A, 2A and 1A. Pelham’s three wins all came against 1A opponents: Maplesville, Thorsby and Verbena. The losses included a 35-6 one to a 1A team, Isabella. Pelham’s other lopsided losses that season were all to 3A teams: Shelby County, Childersburg and B.B. Comer.

            David Bailey was the head coach of that first team, and he coached three more seasons. His 1979 team finished 5-5, thus becoming Pelham High’s first team with a non-losing season. In his one year in 1980, head coach Steve Rivers’ team also went 5-5. Pelham did not have a winning season until a 6-4 campaign in 1986 in Billy Tohill’s fourth season as head coach.

            The school’s most successful coach has been Rick Rhoades from the 1996 through the 2000 seasons. He posted a 41-19 record and playoff appearances each year.

                Details of all Pelham High School football teams and many others around the state can be found on the Alabama High School Football Historical Society web site . A history of Pelham football through the 2022 season by David Parker is available on Amazon. 

UPDATE December 12, 2017: Pelham High School football team finished the 2017 regular season 5-5 and lost 49-14 to Spanish Fort in the first round of the AHSAA Class 6A playoff. Nevertheless, the team improved greatly in coach Tim Causey's third year. In 2015 the team went 1-9 and 2-8 in 2016. Pelham football's all-time record through 2017 is 203-239-0.

UPDATE December 4, 2018: Improvement continued this season as the team finished the regular season 7-3. The Panthers did lose to Hartselle 35-7 in the first round of the playoffs. The season was the first winning one since 2013 and their first seven win season since 2013. 

UPDATE August 30, 2019: At a game against Bibb County Pelham honored 1988 graduate and head football coach at Clemson Dabo Swinney. 

UPDATE November 1, 2019: Pelham finished the season at 3-7, but managed to win three of its last four games. 

UPDATE November 12, 2020: Pelham finished the season with a final record of 8-3. The season ended with the team at 8-2 with losses to Oak Mountain by seven points and Homewood by two points. The team was 6-0 in region play and won the region title for the first time since 2006 and only the third in school history. In the first round of the state playoffs Pelham lost 23-21 to Lee-Montgomery. In the final regular season standings Pelham was ranked #11, just six points behind Eufaula. 

UPDATE November 8, 2021:  Pelham finished the regular season with a 7-3 record, which included a final game win over Homewood 10-7. Pelham won it's last four games,  and that last win on October 28 was the first one over Homewood in eight years. Pelham lost in the first round of the state playoffs, 20-6 to McGill-Toolen.

UPDATE February 20, 2022: On February 11 Head Coach Tom Causey, who had coached the Panthers for seven seasons and was a head coach in Alabama since 2000, announced his retirement. Details are here. 

UPDATE February 20, 2023: Pelham made the 6A playoffs in the 2022 season and won its first round game over Northridge 44-14. That was Pelham's first playoff win since 2006. The team lost in the second round to St. Pauls, 38-7. Pelham had finished the regular season with a 5-5 record under first year coach Mike Vickery. 

UPDATE 2 November 2024: Pelham finished the season with a 1-9 record. 

Junior High School Way Back When

The past can be a scary place, no scarrier than when you are looking at yourself.

Exhibits A and B: these two photos from my days at Davis Hills Junior High School [now Middle School] on Mastin Lake Road in Huntsville, Alabama, as documented in one of the yearbooks:

There I am, "Jay Wright," hiding behind those cool glasses and apparently closed eyes in the Student Council picture. I was probably thinking about how my photo was going to look in 40+ years.

I would have finished at Davis in 1966 I think and moved on to Lee High School, graduating there in May 1970. Funny, I don't remember what office I held that entitled me to be in the Student Council portrait. Thank goodness I didn't ride that success into a political career. [I did run for city council while living in Auburn in the 1970s, but that's a story for another day.] I'll have to dig out that yearbook and do some research. I started writing poetry and stuff early on, so that led me to the Creative Writing Club. Later I would spend some of my high school sentence--er, years--on the yearbook and literary magazine staffs.

I hope none of these people sue me for this post.