Saturday, September 19, 2015

Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 9/20/1965 to 9/26/1965

Five games into the season, the Chieftains finally got a victory—and what a victory it was! West Rome trampled the Lafayette Ramblers 35-0 in a Friday night home game. "It was a real fine team effort, and I can't say enough about my boys after that performance," Coach Paul Kennedy said. "We fumbled a couple of times, but other than that the boys played a near perfect ball game. We knew that it was going to happen sooner or later... we'd been expecting it." The Chiefs scored four touchdowns in the first quarter, then scored their fifth TD in the fourth quarter. Richard Camp scored three of the touchdowns and kicked all five extra points, accounting for 23 of West Rome's 35 points.

The Coosa Valley Fair kicked off on Monday, September 20th, offering a mix of amusement park rides, arcade activities, contests, displays, and much more. In the 1960s, the fair was such a Big Thing that the school system dismissed students early on Tuesday of Fair Week so that they could enjoy Kids Day at the fair, taking advantage of the reduced prices. The West Rome Band performed at the fair in the special events arena on Tuesday afternoon at 6:30. By the time the fair was over, attendance had topped 100,000! In the days before Six Flags and other regional amusement parks, the fair was a major event.

Apparently the fair filled everyone's schedule, because there was nothing else going on in Rome this week. No school events (other than the football game), no big sales... apparently everyone was too busy on the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Ferris Wheel to do anything else!

Piggly Wiggly had Swift's Premium bacon for 59¢ a pound, Tokay grapes for 15¢ a pound, and Coke or Sprite or Tab for 99¢ a case (plus deposit). Big Apple had round steak for 69¢ a pound, Irvindale ice cream for 49¢ a half-gallon, and five pounds of Gold Medal flour for 49¢. Kroger and sirloin steak for 99¢ a pound, Kroger mayonnaise for 39¢ a quart, and a four-pound bag of red delicious apples for 33¢. A&P had fryer breasts for 49¢ a pound, Eight O'Clock Coffee for 69¢ a pound, and bananas for 15¢ a pound. Couch's had cabbage for a nickel a pound, JFG coffee for 69¢ a pound, and eggs for 33¢ a dozen.

The cinematic week began with I Saw What You Did (with Joan Crawford) at the DeSoto Theater and Walt Disney's Cinderella at the First Avenue. The midweek switch out brought The Great Spy Mission (with Sophia Loren & George Peppard) to the DeSoto, the Beatles' Help! to the First Avenue, and a weekend double feature of The Seventh Dawn (with William Holden & Susannah York) and Walt Disney's The Monkey's Uncle at the West Rome Drive-In.

The McCoys took number one this week in 1965 with "Hang on Sloopy." Other top ten hits included "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire (#2); "Yesterday" by the Beatles (#3); "Catch Us If You Can" by the Dave Clark Five (#4); "You Were On My Mind" by We Five (#6); "The 'In' Crowd" by the Ramsey Lewis Trio (#6); "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head (#7); "You've Got Your Troubles" by the Fortunes (#8); "Baby Don't Go" by Sonny & Cher (#9); and "Laugh at Me" by Sonny (#10). And would you ever have thought that Sonny Bono would have two songs in the top ten the same week... and one of them would be a solo hit?

War comics weren't generally as popular as super-hero comics, but DC tried to bring a little action-hero attitude to their war line with the introduction of Lt. Steve Savage, the Balloon Buster, in All-American Men of War #112, on sale this week in 1965. Robert Kanigher & Russ Heath presented the story of a young United States Air Corpsman whose specialty was taking out German attack balloons in WWI. 

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