Fifty Years Ago This Week in West Rome - 1/10/1966 to 1/16/1966

Another very uneventful week this week in 1966. Most of the news attention was devoted to the Floyd County School System; Floyd was hoping to pass a bond issue to enable them to update their aging schools to offer the same amenities and educational opportunities as the Rome City Schools.

The list of Rome/Floyd County students who qualified to take the state Governor’s Honors eligibility test included three Chieftains: Sherry Canada & Baxter Joy (English) and Anita Smith (social studies).

The Rome City School System discovered that the new school standards adopted by the Georgia Accrediting Commission were going to cost an additional $32,000 for the remainder of the 1965-1966 school year. The new requirements specified a higher number of secretaries and librarians than had previously been required, and they also required that each school library have at least ten books per pupil, up from the prior requirement of 8 books per pupil.

The Rome City School Board also took steps to implement a plan to prevent parents from entering classrooms during the school day. Superintend McDonald reported that they had had incidents in which “irate parents burst into classrooms during school hours to berate teachers because of alleged problems.”  While we often remember the 1960s as a time when parents always took the teacher’s side, apparently that wasn’t really the case!

The Rome City School System was also considering a policy requiring married students to take one year off from school before returning to the classroom; the only exception allowed in the proposed regulation would allow high school seniors who married in or after January of their senior year to remain in school until the end of the school year.

West Rome faced off against Calhoun on Friday, January 14th, and the Chiefs were hoping for revenge after their disappointing loss to Calhoun during the Holiday Festival basketball tournament. Alas, victory remained elusive: Calhoun once again defeated West Rome, this time winning 72-61.

C&M Motors held the grand opening for their new facility at 844 Turner McCall Boulevard. C&M was Rome’s Cadillac-Oldsmobile dealer back in the time when Cadillacs were considered the Cadillacs of cars. (Yes, I stole that joke…)

Johnny Reb Food Stores opened their new location on Calhoun Road, but the West Rome location joined in the celebration, offering a dozen Eskimo pies for 59¢, free bags of Fritos to the first 150 customers at each store each day, and a free six pack of Coke or Pepsi to the first 150 customer at each store each day.

Kentucky Fried Chicken celebrated the end of turkey and ham season with a Family Bucket Special—a bucket of chicken, a quart of mashed potatoes, a pint of gravy, a pint of cole slaw, and six biscuits—for $3.75. McDonald’s countered with their All-American Meal (a hamburger, french fries, and a shake) for 52¢.  Not to be outdone, Redford's offered their fried chicken dinner (two pieces of chicken, rolls, a vegetable, and iced tea) for 69¢.

Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for 89¢ a pound, medium eggs for 45¢ a dozen, and Swift’s Premium chili for 49¢ a can. Kroger had round steak for 79¢ a pound, Kroger biscuits for a nickel a can, and red grapes for a dime a pound. Big Apple had whole fryers for 27¢ a pound, Irvindale ice milk for 39¢ a half-gallon, and a quart of Mrs. Bell’s mayonnaise for 49¢. A&P had Swiss steak for 69¢ a pound, bananas for a dime a pound, and Eight O’Clock coffee for 65¢ a pound. Couch’s had pork steak for 59¢ a pound, Bama apple jelly for 19¢ per jar (and you could use the jar as a drinking glass once you finished the jelly!), and a 24-ounce bottle of Stokely’s catsup for  29¢.

The cinematic week began with That Darn Cat (with Dean Jones & Haylee Mills) at the DeSoto and That Funny Feeling (with Sandra Dee & Bobby Darin) at the First Avenue. That Darn Cat hung around through the weekend at the DeSoto, but the midweek switchout brought Dr. Goldfoot & the Bikini Machine (with Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, & Dwayne Hickman) to the First Avenue. Apparently the theaters had high hopes for Dr. Goldfoot: the film was also showing  at the West Rome Drive-In over the weekend!

After being replaced by the Beatles in the number one slot last week, Simon & Garfunkel regained #1 with “Sounds of Silence,” while the Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” fell to #2. Other top ten hits included “She’s Just My Style” by Gary Lewis & the Playboys (#3); “Five O’Clock World” by the Vogues (#4); “Day Tripper” by the Beatles (#5); “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)” by the T-Bones (#6); “The Men in My Little Girl’s Life” by Mike Douglas (#7); “A Must to Avoid” by Herman’s Hermits (#8); “As Tears Go By” by the Rolling Stones (#9); and “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” by the Lovin’ Spoonful (#10).

Young singer David Jones changed his last name to Bowie this week in 1966, so that he wouldn’t be confused with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

This was also the week that Darrin and Samantha’s witch-baby Tabitha was born on the Bewitched episode “And Then There Were Three.”

Amos & Andy was removed from syndication in most markets beginning this week in 1966 in response to concerns from various civil rights organizations.

That famous dolphin Flipper got his very own comic book this week in 1966.  And this was no accident on Gold Key Comics’ part: they did it on porpoise!