Summer came to an end this week in 1964 as school registration took place on Wednesday, August 26th, with students returning to school on Thursday, August 27th.
Coach Kennedy told the Rome News-Tribune that he was "anxiously awaiting to see what this year's football team can do against the competition" after a week of intensive training at Berry College. The season began on Saturday night at Barron Stadium with the Chieftains facing off against the Coosa Eagles; West Rome won the game 14-0, with Dickie Sapp being selected as the Rome News-Tribune's lineman of the week for a 73-yard run that set up the first West Rome touchdown, followed later in the game by a 3-yard sweep to score the second touchdown.
Rome's McDonald's, less than a year old, experienced its first armed robbery on August 24th, 1964, when a gunman entered the store after closing, held up the staff at gunpoint, and made off with $875 in cash. By the end of the week, a Rome man and a Marietta man were arrested for the holdup.
The Rome/Floyd County economy continued to generate more good news: area banks reported that area economic activity increased by 7% over the same months in 1963, showing that both businesses and people were spending more money... and that they had more money to spend!
With Georgia law requiring that all cars pass a safety inspection before new tags could be issued beginning in 1965, Rome entrepreneurs were actively setting up inspection stations, with almost four dozen sites in Rome begin licensed to perform the inspections. All inspections had be performed between January 1st and March 31st, 1965; there was a maximum $5 fee per vehicle for the inspection.
Piggly Wiggly had Maxwell House Instant Coffee for $1.19 a jar (the 1960s and the 1970s were a boom period for instant coffee sales), shank portion ham for 35¢ a pound, and Coca-Cola or Tab for 99¢ plus deposit for a 24-bottle case. Kroger had pork chops for 69¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and Kroger's ice milk for 29¢ a half-gallon. A&P had sirloin steak for 89¢ a pound, Campbell's tomato soup for a dime a can, and ten pounds of potatoes for 49¢. Big Apple had snapper filets for 59¢ a pound, Big Apple bread for 19¢ a loaf, and Banquet frozen cream pies for 27¢ each. Couch's had baking hens for 29¢ each, five pounds of Dixie Crystals sugar for 39¢, and yellow corn for 6¢ an ear.
In the first half of the week, moviegoers could choose from What a Way to Go at the DeSoto, 633 Squadron at the First Avenue, and Who's Minding the Store? at the West Rome Drive-In. The last half of the week brought The Night of the Iguana to the DeSoto, The Killers to the First Avenue (perhaps the best film adaptation of any Ernest Hemingway novel!), and Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed? (with the unusual pairing of Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery) to the West Rome Drive-In.
The Animals took number one this week in 1964 with "House of the Rising Sun." Other top ten hits included "Where Did Our Love Go?" by the Supremes (#2); "Everybody Loves Somebody" by Dean Martin (#3); "Because" by the Dave Clark Five (#4); "C'Mon and Swim" by Bobby Freeman (#5); "Bread and Butter" by the Newbeats (#6); "Under the Boardwalk" by the Drifters (#7); "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles (#8); "How Do You Do It?" by Gerry & the Pacemakers (#9--and a song that the Beatles previously recorded but chose not to release); and "GTO" by Ronny & the Daytonas (#10).
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