Saturday, August 08, 2015

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 8/9/1965 to 8/15/1965

Mid-August is usually a lazy time (or at least it was in the bygone days when school didn't actually start until the last week of the month), and August 1965 was no exception. Kids were enjoying their last couple of weeks of freedom from class, and there was very little happening in the local news.

Coach Kennedy talked with the Rome News-Tribune about the upcoming football season, saying "I don't want to be a pessimist, but I certainly can't see how I can be an optimist... We have a lot of work to do in a short time."  The Chieftains lost twenty lettermen off the 1964-1965 team, leaving only nine returning players with any significant experience. Kennedy planned to take the team to the Lookout Mountain Camp For Boys near Mentone, Alabama, for pre-season practice to get them ready for their August 28th season opener against Coosa.

In hopes of getting desegregation plans approved before the 1965-1966 school year began, Rome and Floyd County officials met with representatives of the Health, Education, and Welfare Department on Wednesday, August 11th. The meeting went well, and both school systems worked out an agreement for HEW to approve the plans as submitted with only minor changes for the upcoming school year. However, HEW asked for additional changes for the 1966-1967 school year to speed up desegregation in all schools and all grades.

Rome photographers had a new shopping choice as Camera & Craft held its Broad Street grand opening on August 13th and 14th. The store offered photography classes, one-on-one photo instruction, and a huge selection of cameras, projectors, and accessories, all of which came with a one-year unconditional written guarantee. The shop also carried a selection of tape recorders and other small electronics.

Piggly Wiggly had Lady Alice ice milk for 33¢ a half-gallon, medium eggs for 33¢ a dozen, and chuck roast for 49¢ a pound. Big Apple had Swift Premium bacon for 79¢ a pound, Irvindale sherbet for 49¢ a half-gallon, and Bailey's Supreme coffee for 59¢ a pound. Kroger had sirloin steak for 99¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and Wesson oil for 49¢ a quart. A&P had hen turkeys for 39¢ a pound, seedless grapes for 19¢ a pound, and home-grown tomatoes for 13¢ a pound. Couch's had five pounds of Dixie Crystals sugar for 29¢, pork chops for 59¢ a pound, and Showboat pork & beans for a dime a can.

Rome commemorated the upcoming return to school with its annual Rome Days sales on Friday and Saturday. Almost every retailer in Rome offered specials for those two days, with a special emphasis on back-to-school supplies and clothing.

The cinematic week began with The Sandpiper (with Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton) at the DeSoto; How To Stuff a Wild Bikini (with Annette Funicello & Dwayne Hickman) at the First Avenue; and a double feature of Good Neighbor Sam (with Jack Lemmon) and The Family Jewels (with Jerry Lewis) at the West Rome Drive-In. The midweek switch out brought Shenandoah (with James Stewart) to the DeSoto; The Glory Guys (with James Caan & Tom Tryon) at the First Avenue; and a double feature of The Chapman Report (with Jane Fonda) and Sex & the Single Girl (with Tony Curtis & Natalie Wood) at the West Rome Drive-In.

Sonny & Cher held on to the number one spot for a second week with "I Got You Babe." Other top ten hits included "Save Your Heart for Me" by Gary Lewis & the Playboys (#2); "Help" by the Beatles (#3); "California Girls" by the Beach Boys (#4); "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers (#5); "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones (#6); "It's the Same Old Song" by the Four Tops (#7); "Don't Just Stand There" by Patty Duke (#8); "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" by Herman's Hermits (#9); and "Down in the Boondocks" by Billy Joe Royal (#10).

The big album release this week in 1965 as Elvis For Everyone, an album consisting mostly of unused tracks recorded between the late 1950s and the mid-1960s. While it did make it into the Top Ten albums chart, it was the first Elvis Presley 1960s album to sell fewer than 300,000 copies.

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