Today, we have up-to-the-minute coverage of menacing storms and deadly tornadoes, and weathermen — pardon me, I meant meteorologists — have Storm Track and Vipir Radar and all sorts of computers and high-tech gadgets at their disposal. When dangerous weather threatens, we are grateful for it, especially those of us living in such leaky, rattletrap homes as the Lauderdale Mansion.
But as this photo from a Whitehaven High School yearbook shows, back in 1961, things were decidedly simpler.
The weatherman (and yes, it was usually a man) simply stood in front of a very basic map of the United States, and with a black marker — remember, not many families owned color TVs in those days — he or she would indicate the high and low pressure areas, and we would study those "H" and "L" signs and look at ziz-zags and curving lines, and try to decide: Is it going to rain tomorrow or not?
Though it certainly wasn't near the school, Whitehaven used this location at the Channel 5 studios on Union Avenue to show off the two students voted "Best Citizens" in 1961: Carolyn Smith and Joe Eoff. Both of them are nice-looking kids and pretty snappy dressers, if you ask me, and Joe is helpfully showing "viewers" where Whitehaven High School would be located.
PHOTO COURTESY WHITEHAVEN HIGH SCHOOL
