Saturday, January 17, 2015

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 1/181965 to 1/24/1965

Rome began the week in the deep freeze, with temperatures in the single digits early Monday morning, climbing to a high in the low 30s Monday night and a low in the low teens. This meant that the weekend's ice and snow was slow to let go of its hold on secondary roads, although all main roads were passable. Surprisingly, Rome City Schools were open for school nevertheless--much to the chagrin of many students who were certain they were going to get a snow day, I'm sure! (And you can rest assured that I was one of them!)

West Rome's boys basketball team defeated LaFayette 60-34 on Friday, January 22nd, while the girls lost in an ultra-low-scoring 17-12 game. Stan Dawson was the number one scorer for the Chiefs with 16 points.

The Rome City School system was still evaluating their response to a federal integration edict. The state board of education was urging local systems to comply with the order, which said that unless schools integrated their systems they would not receive federal aid for lunches and other programs.

Sinclair Oil's advertising campaign in the 1960s was built around that quaint notion that our oil reserves were the result of dead dinosaurs decomposing, so it seemed logical that one of the tchotchkes that Sinclair would offer as a bonus item was  a free dinosaur bank. This bronto bank could be had with the purchase of a tankful of new Sinclair gasoline with nickel. As much as I loved dinosaurs, I somehow got through my childhood without this bank... my guess is the cost of this new gasoline with added nickel was sufficiently high that Dad decided I could keep using the ceramic owl piggy bank that my mother had made for me a couple of years earlier...

And speaking of ceramics, apparently West Rome had its own ceramics studio that I never knew about: Marian's Ceramics at 130 Williamson Street in West Rome held an open house on Saturday and Sunday. They also held classes offering tips on staining and painting ceramics. Even though I didn't live that far away from Williamson Street--maybe a half-mile at the most--I never heard of Marian's Ceramics, and I don't think my mother knew about it, either. That was odd, because she was heavily involved in ceramics at this time (I still have the Blue Boy and Pink Girl ceramics sculptures she finished in 1964 or 1965, in fact).

Kroger had pork roast for 37¢ a pound, Ballard biscuits for 6¢ a can, and Maxwell House coffee for 59¢ a pound. Piggly Wiggly had baking hens for 39¢ a pound, Libby's chili for 29¢ a can, and a quart of JFG mayonnaise for 31¢. A&P had sirloin steak for 89¢ a pound, Sealtest ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon, and grapefruit for 8¢ each. Big Apple had pork steak for 39¢ a pound, lettuce for a dime a head, and Del Monte tuna for 29¢ a can. Couch's had a Oscar Mayer sliced bacon for 59¢ a pound, picnic hams for 33¢ a pound, and a 12-ounce jar of Blue Plate peach preserves for 19¢/

The cinematic week began with Father Goose (with Cary Grant & Leslie Caron) at the DeSoto and Joy House (with Jane Fonda & Alain Delon) at the First Avenue. The midweek switch up brought Invitation to a Gunfighter (with Yul Brynner) to the First Avenue, while Father Goose hung around for a bit longer at the DeSoto. The West Rome Drive-in had a B-movie extravaganza over the weekend, with Yellowstone Kelly and The Bad Seed (the latter of which was recommended "for adults only," which always seemed like an odd cinematic choice for a drive-in whose screen was clearly visible from Shorter Avenue).

While they weren't a hit in my house, someone obviously enjoyed The King Family. Their August 1964 special was so successful that they earned their own series, The King Family Show, which debuted on ABC on January 23rd, 1965.

Petula Clark took over the number one slot this week in 1965 with "Downtown." Other top ten hits included "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers (#2); "The Name Game" by Shirley Ellis (#3); "Love Potion Number Nine" by the Searchers (#4); "Hold What You've Got" by Joe Tex (#5) "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" by Marvin Gaye (#6); "This Diamond Ring" by Gary Lewis & the Playboys (#7); "Come See About Me" by the Supremes (#8); "Keep Searchin'" by Del Shannon (#9); and "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks (#10).

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