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Very early in the morning, usually on a Friday and not always every month, but nearly so, a dozen or so guys from the Sheffield High School Class of 1956 gather in the back room of the Tourway Pancake House on Florence Boulevard.  There may be one or two from adjacent classes--like Hooty Crittenden, but the group is largely made up of Fifty-sixers.  They call themselves "The River Rats."  Heavens only knows why!

They do this for the fellowship and camaraderie.  Jim Holland is the driving force behind this group.  He issues the call, sends out the announcement/invitations, recruits the speaker and pays for breakfast.  Jim is a most gregarious, outgoing, friendly person who is an unabashed Christian in a secular world.  As a very successful insurance agent still active in his profession, he never lets an opportunity to witness his faith go by.  For example, go to Jim's "Remembrance" to see what he chose to share with us about his high school days.  The speakers he recruits for the Bulldog Breakfast are asked to prepare a devotional with a practical topic for today's times.  It's sort of the Tri-Cities version of the congressional prayer breakfasts that are held in Washington.  Jim says that these get-togethers are important because the only thing of value we can have is friendship, and since our time here on earth may be fleeting, it behooves us to exercise every opportunity to share our time and our feelings with friends.  It is a stirring thing to see classmates from so long ago showing such sensitivity and sincere good will.

They've gone on long enough now to be called a tradition.  The waitresses are friendly and helpful.  I guess there may be a menu, but the socializing usually precludes studying it, so you just let the waitress who's taking the orders bring you whatever is most popular on a morning.  Whatever she brings, it is always good.  The breakfast runs along like clockwork because Jim keeps us on schedule to break up in about an hour.  Some have to get to work.  It's not a lengthy event, but it's worth driving up from Tuscaloosa--or down from Boston as a couple have done.

Here's a vintage picture of a pack of River Rats at an earlier Bulldog Breakfast, kindly supplied by John Collins and sent to me by Buck Locke.  Coach Wright was a regular attendee back then.  What a great time they must have had!

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Legend for this photo:  Person X -- Eddie Frost, Aaron Newborn, Jimmy Todd, Johnny Neyman, Ralph Emmons, Buddy Thrasher, Jim Holland, Coach Wright, Stanley Brook, Ronald Gene Pace, Hooty Crittenden, Jimmy Brewer, Buddy Baker, Bobby Glover, Gary Menne, James White  

(Note:  Person X is another opportunity for one of you to win an RC Cola and a Moon Pie awarded at the Reunion in 2006!  Just send me his name.)  Bud Thrasher got this one, too!

Coffee's good!

Nobody reads the menu

Visitin'

and more visitin'!

Here's a photo of a recent Bulldog Breakfast--an impromptu gathering when Buck Locke was passing through town with his Mom, visiting the old homestead.

Charles Elton Douthit

8/12/1937 - 4/8/2007

On a rainy April 11, fifteen members of the SHS Class of 1956 Breakfast Club gathered at Parkview Baptist Church, Tuscumbia, to say farewell to Duck Douthit, a faithful member of the Bulldog Breakfast Club.  The family honored us by naming us as honorary pallbearers.  Jim Holland arranged for a purple and gold floral funeral spray, and Gary Menne gave a most touching beautiful prayer for the family as the casket and the family processed between our ranks on the way to the hearse after the service.  The minister, Chad Holder, gave the mourners a wonderful sermon based on the text: "Duck's Life as a Servant Leader."

In true "River Rat" fashion, we reassembled at The Southland Restaurant for lunch and reminiscing about Duck and events of the recent and remote past.  After lunch a bunch of us visited Duck's bed-bound brother, Robert, to extend to him our condolences.